Sad about Big Ben?

Politicians were said to have shed tears earlier this week when  Big Ben was silenced. Where were the crying politicians for the working class dead of Grenfell Tower? Where was the outrage at ordinary people's reliance on food banks, child poverty, the NHS crisis or the increasing number of homeless people on streets.
MPs gathered to bow their heads as the world-famous clock tower rang out for the last time, last Monday because the 157-year old clock tower is undergoing vital repairs and the bell will be taken out of service – apart from Remembrance Sunday and New Year’s Eve – until 2021 to protect the hearing of workers. Theresa May was one who joined in this shallow chorus of dismay, declaring ' it can't be right ' that Big Ben be kept silent for so long. 
As Members of Parliament  get  upset about a  big clock stopping chiming for a few years, I would like to have reminded them that in the real world, we are facing .times of uncertainty, inequality, division and suffering.  But certain politicians are so clearly out of touch and isolated from the  reality of other people's lives. Hope it's not only me but the sight of politicians mourning for a clock while so many lives are being destroyed , looked not only stupid but trivial too. It's not even as if the clock is going to be torn down, it's chimes of freedom will eventually  return, just think that there are  much bigger issues politicians should be concerning themselves with such as food banks, the GP crisis, a referendum imposed by morons and harsh cuts, all these issues of far greater importance.
I am shocked, but not really that surprised that MPs demonstrably give more of a fuck about an old clock than they do about actual human beings.

Manifestations

There are times
When the world is unwilling
The fuel we seek
Remains diminished
We fall and rise
Hatch a plan or two
It begins to rain
We find excuses
Wait until after dark
For quiet moments
That let go of yesterday.
Seek out new songs
Old rhetoric tossed aside
Create laws out of dust
Staying alert, beyond command
Release acts of disobedience
Strategies of renewal
Fruits of endless toil
Storing ideas, to work their hidden will
Beyond conditioned chains of time
Weather the storms,
With clouds made of tomorrow

The Great Meeting on Mynydd Sylen / Y Cyfarfod Mawr ar Fynydd Sylen :25/08/1843

In 1843 the whole of west Wales was gripped in the civil disturbances known as the ‘Rebecca Riots’. Aimed mainly at the unfair tolls that were charged for the use of the turnpike roads, the rioters disguised with blackened faces and attired in women’s clothes would attack and destroy the offending tollgates and their attached gatehouses. This uprising of an oppressed peasantry against the burden of the tollgates has become part of the folk tradition of West Wales.
Farmers were  the hardest hit  as they used the roads to transport lime to their farms to improve the soil. In 1839, a new gate was erected at Efailwen to catch farmers who were evading the tolls. It was the last straw. Already there were too many toll gates; the market town of Carmarthen was like a fortress with twelve gates around it. The Efailwen gate was destroyed by a large crowd and when it was re-erected, a public meeting was announced 'for the purpose of considering the necessity of a toll-gate at Efailwen.' It concluded that there was no need and the gate was destroyed again.
The name 'Rebecca' was that of the mythical leader. 'She' had helpers like 'Charlotte', Nelly and 'Miss Cromwell' and followers (daughters). The name came from the Bible which Welsh chapels goers had learned to read in the previous couple of generations: 'And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, by thou the mother of thousands of millions and let thy seed possess the gate of those that hate them' (Genesis 24 Verse 60). The toll gates were seen as the property of the gentry ('those that hate them') as they were often the trustees of the turnpikes. The gates became a symbol of many different discontents about the land and the church (which was also seen as the church of the gentry). The rioters wore women's clothes and blackened their faces, for disguise, but also perhaps to suggest the idea that women were entitled to act to defend their families. Normally respectable people may have felt that in disguise they were symbolising their community rather then breaking the law as an individual.
Pat Molloy, an author of a book on the riots, said that Rebecca was a champion waiting to be called upon. To the country people there was a higher law than man's  but when man's law intruded into their world it was obeyed, provided that it accorded with their notion o natural justice. When it jailed or oppressed them they looked for justice, and when man's law refused them justice, or set too high a price on it, they knew instinctively where to turn. Then they looked to their Bibles for a sign, without which, right would not be on their side nor  success attend their endeavours. They found it, and they blessed Rebecca.
By the end of the summer 'The Rebecca Riots', which had ravaged these parts, was drawing to an end. The violent and clandestine attacks on the tollgates were being replaced by peaceful and open air meetings calling for political action. Perhaps 'the greatest of all these meetings' was held on the slopes of Mynydd Sylen near Llanelli, where it is claimed  that no less than three thousand people were in attendance. Farmers came from all over the south east of the area and colliers sacrificed  day's pay to attend.
On the 25th of August 1843 some of the most important and influential people addressed the meeting including the 'Rebecca' leader, Hugh Williams and the Llanelli landowner and magistrate William Chambers Junior JP. The Times reporter, Thomas Campbell Foster and the lithographer, William James Linton of the London Illustrated news reported on the event.The meeting was one of many organised to peacefully address the tollgates.  As a result of the meeting a lengthy petition to Queen Victoria was drawn up calling for an end to the injustices.Here is a complete copy of resolutions passed at the meeting:  http://ow.ly/jblu30kLbCv
Subsequently, attacks by Rebecca continued, but  with far less frequency. The main reasons being that the authorities had started to take notice and had begun to address some of the rioters grievances by looking into the problems here in West Wales. As a result they now moved away from violent tactics to holding mass meetings, like this one mentioned.  Other factors included the metering out of harsh punishments,as  rioters were caught and sentenced to transportation,  what with  the  arrival of troops,  and the increasing use of informants with the offer of financial rewards or the capture of the rioters leaders, to crush the rebellion,helped play a part too in the change of direction to a more moderate approach.
One of the  last of Rebecca’s attacks in Llanelli came on Saturday 30^th September 1843, when she removed the Tyrfran Tollgate on the road to Felinfoel and dropped it down the shaft of a nearby coal pit. Social conditions  began to  change over the decade. Improvements in the laws controlling turnpikes came to pass in 1844, and the coming of the railway eased many of the transport problems in west Wales. People could move more easily to find work and this helped reduce pressure in rural areas for jobs. The ending of the Corn Laws in 1846, and attempts in 1847 to make the Poor Law less cruel, also helped.
The name 'Rebecca' though lived on. Over the years the Rebecca Riots have become part of the cultural identity of the Welsh, fuelling the idea of the werin/folk fighting for their rights, standing against tyranny and oppression.
In the 1860s and 70s local people protesting against the sale of fishing rights to outside interests in mid-Wales used the name again in their protests, as did farmers in the past fifteen years or so protesting about policies in agriculture. When the local community bought to right to levy tolls at a surviving toll in Porthmadog in the 1990s, they named it Rebecca and gave the money raised to local charities
Sadly though, the summit of  Mynydd Sylen is an unloved one, with ugly  masts, tatty barbed wire fences and rubbish at the nearest parking spot, rather disheartening considering its  historical significance


Notes:

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/tony-conran-7431-14713-becca-at-gate.html

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/hail-rebecca.html


'And They Blessed Rebecca' by Pat Molloy

'The Rebecca Riots' by David Williams

Tories should legalise drugs to win millennial votes, says right wing think tank

In a  report published today, the Adam Smith Institute (ASI)  a notoriously right wing pro-Tory thinktank  and lobbying group based in the United Kingdom, named after Adam Smith, a Scottish moral philosopher and classical economist, proved  how little conservatives truly understand about the real-world problems faced by young people in Britain today.
In it's report, dubbed the ‘Millennial Manifesto‘, they suggest that in order to win back votes from young people who voted for Jeremy Corbyn in June, the Tories should make flights to Ibiza cheaper by scrapping Air Passenger Duty for under 30s, and that they should also legalise drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine. You really couldn't make it up, opportunist to say the least.
In the Manifesto, it states: “If these recreational drugs were legalised, young people would be brought back into the framework of society, instead of feeling it is out to oppress them and spoil their pleasures.
“It would enable quality controls to be established so that young people could be assured that what they were taking was what they expected it to be, instead of being adulterated, perhaps with toxins, or supplied in unregulated massive overdoses.”
Other perceived policy wins for those trying to engage with young people and take on Jeremy Corbyn include cutting National Insurance for the under 25s from 12% to 8%, replacing student loans with a graduate tax and a 50% council tax discount for young people.
Sam Bowman, Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute, said: “It isn’t easy being young in Britain.Reading through certain sections of the report, it’s easy to see why young people feel a huge disconnect between themselves and those in the media and political establishment.
Especially when they write about young people like they are a different species from another planet:
"Many young people take recreational drugs. Occasionally some of them smoke a cannabis spliff with friends. Many of them pop an ecstasy tablet to help them enjoy late night dancing at a club. Some of them try amphetamines or snort a line of cocaine. Consumption of any of these drugs is currently against the law. Indeed, two of them, ecstasy and cocaine, are class A drugs with severe penalties attached to their use."
 "Young people seem to want to do the things that for decades have been part of young people’s way of life, with the added possibilities and opportunities that modern technology and new developments make possible. Most of them want to socialize with friends, both in person and on social media, to enjoy music and travel, perhaps to work abroad for a spell. Some want to engage with friends in recreational pursuits such as sporting activities. Many enjoy attending concerts, or simply hanging out with their peers over a few drinks."
The report then goes on to slam the Tories for ignoring ‘the concerns of young voters’, as well as both: "neglecting their wellbeing directly and taking positions that are badly out of touch in areas like animal welfare and openness to immigration."
If the Tories are actually looking to produce policies that will really resonate with young people, rather than listening to organisations like the Adam Smith Institute, why don’t they actually try listening to the views of actual young people.
The document  provides very few truly beneficial solutions to many of the huge problems faced by youngsters today, such as lack of affordable housing, low wages, lack of job security, and a huge rise in the cost of education.
And for many young people, the impact of austerity means that “partying in Ibiza” is not a top priority. A report by The Prince’s Trust found that 'young people’s happiness and wellbeing are at their lowest levels since the study was first commissioned in 2009.' It is safe to say that the “Millenial Manifesto” has taken a bit of a battering on social media.
Scores of people have tweeted about the suggestions for winning over young people ,labelling the ideas as “clueless” - with a series of hilarious memes mocking the ideas involved.
Emma Burnell wrote: “Wow the Adam Smith Institute are clueless. How addled do you have to be to think the key problem young people face is taxes on airfares?”
Allan Faulds‏ tweeted: “Gotta love the Adam Smith Institute. How old and/or posh do you have to be to think “cut the Ibiza Tax!” is going to win over youth vote?”Labour MP told Huffington Post UK  http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/adam-smith-institute-tory-youth-vote-ibiza-tax-on-flights_uk_599deb9ae4b0821444c08cc8 that the plan was a "laughable failure to understand what young people actually care about." Smith said: "Having spoken to hundreds of young people over this summer I can say that of all their demands from government, from the crisis in mental services to huge personal debts from study, no one has raised Air Passenger Duty with me."

Brian Eno: Why We Need to Stop the War

16 years on from the beginning of the War on Terror. British taxpayers' money is continuing to fund bombing and killing in the Middle East. Over a million have died in Iraq alone. Many thousands have died or have been maimed in other countries that Britain has intervened in, War is still raging in Asghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Millions have had to flee their homes. Meanwhile, while spending our money on foreign wars, the British establishment is continuing with its programme of crippling cuts to public services.

The British government has also admitted that it is providing technical and other assistance to the Saudi government in its hideous bombing campaign in Yemen, which has killed thousands of people including thousands of civilians. Moreover it has sold more than £3 billion worth of arms to the Saudi dictatorship , in contravention of international law since the bombardment began.
But the tide is now beginning to turn, as anti-war politics are gaining increasing power and influence in British political life .Jeremy Corbyn  is right to warn Theresa May's government not to 'obediently applaud ' Washington's planned escalation of the war in Afghanistan. A war that has failed  with such devastating human cost, that hs only served to increase the terrorist threat.
Let's reject the idea that war is either admirable or good. Let's reverse the militarization of so many dimensions of our society. Arms Fairs are crucial to the smooth-running of the arms trade. They promote weapons sales by giving arms dealers the chance to meet and greet military delegations, government officials, other arms companies and a host of individual visitors.
Unsurprisingly, the guest lists for arms fairs frequently include regimes who abuse human rights, and countries actively involved in armed conflicts. Say no to companies that profit from human misery.
Join the week of action to Stop the Arms Fair at London’s Docklands, 4th-11th September, 2017.
https://www.stopthearmsfair.org.uk/join-in/
Here are some words from the musician and activist Brian Eno :-

'Fear is a great paralyser. A frightened population is easy to govern. In a climate of fear, people are willing to allow their rights and freedoms to be limited. They’re willing to follow orders and penalise resisters. They’re willing to fall for easy, quick and ill-conceived military ‘solutions’. They’re willing to serve as defenders of the state without asking why that state needs defending, or from what.
So it’s fear that keeps the hamster-wheel turning; but it’s hope that... will get us out of the cage.

Stopping war means building a society based not on relentless consumption and profiteering but instead on sustainability and conservation and sharing. It means making a world that is worth saving for everybody, so that the idea of war - of destroying all that - becomes unthinkable, ridiculous.' -

Brian Eno, 2017
Stop the war's new President.

Read Brian Eno's essay on the importance of the anti-war movement.and strengthen the movement  join Stop the War Coalition today: http://www.stopwar.org.uk/in…/get-involved/join-stop-the-war

After I'm Gone

( Some philosophical play, Rossetti never taught me punctuation. )

After I'm dead

I might be remembered,

A distant echo of memory

A soul phased for eternity,

Ashes scattered to the winds

Under a satin sky,

Sleeping peacefully

Please don't disturb me,

Look after my records and books

Keep on building another world,

Rid of poverty, inequality, destruction

With so much comfort, grace and appeal,

Deep in the valley, a bell shall toll

In a place where rests the soul,

On slate and stone poetry reimbursing

Beyond life's awakening curses,

This elusive dreamer will dream away

Flying on high in distant space,
In shards of broken time 

As birds  forever burst into song.

Max Romeo (b,22/11/44) - Socialism is Love

Have decided to start posting a little more music related posts here from time to time.
Max Romeo is a roots reggae legend. Max Romeo was born  Max Smith in 1944, the eldest of nine children. He acquired the nickname "Romeo" from the father of a would-be girlfriend.
Born in St. D'Acre, Jamaica, he  left home at the age of 14 and worked on a sugar plantation outside Clarendon,, before winning a local talent competition when he was 18. This prompted a move to the capital, Kingston, in order to embark on a musical career.
Max’s storied career took off when he signed a contract with Bunny Lee, one of the biggest producers of his time in Jamaica in the 60s. 
In the early 1970s he began carving out an identity as a "militant singer"-- singing about "what's happening for the people to hear... the prices too high, things are too hard and what have you."
His second album, Let the Power Fall, from 1971 included a number of politically charged songs, most advocating the democratic socialist People's Nationalist Party (PNP), which chose his song "Let the Power Fall" as their theme song for the 1972 Jamaican n General election. 
Romeo's connection with the PNP became less direct over the course of the 1970s, but his music remained politically militant, if increasingly voiced in a Rastafarian idiom: in songs like anti-clerical "The Reverend" and on "concept albums like "Revelation Time," from 1975 recorded at Lee"Scratch"Perry's legendary Black Ark Studio. Romeo noted that "Revelation Time" was "really a revolutionary album. It came from 1972, when we had a revolutionary movement, with Mr Michael Manley trying to change society from capitalism to socialism. At the time I was socialist-minded - because it’s the only form of poor people government, socialism."
In 1976, Romeo released War ina Babyon an album perceived as his best work. The politically and religiously themed album included the popular single " I chased the Devil" , which would become one of his most known songs, which was later sampled by those great dance  terrorists the Prodigy and by countless others..
Throughout his long career Max Romeo has proved that he is one of Jamaica’s most enduring stars.To this day he still delivers spectacular  live performances, I was most fortunate to catch him in Brixton a few years back.
Here he sings some  words of wisdom. His voice is  really mesmerising do yourself a favour and listen, listen, listen.

Max Romeo - Socialism is Love

You're asking, "What is Socialism, and what it really means?"
It's equal rights for every man, regardless of his strength
So don't let no one fool you, (Joshua said)
Listen as I tell you, (Joshua said)
No man are better than none,
Socialism is love between man and man

Socialism is
love for your brothers
Socialism is
linking hearts and heads,
Would you believe me?
Poverty and hunger what we are fighting

Socialism is
Sharing with your sisters
Socialism is
People pulling together,
Would you believe me?
Love and togetherness, that's what it means

Mr Big trembling in his shoes saying he's got a lot to lose,
Don't want to hear about suffering at all
(Joshua said)
One man have too many,
While too many have too little,
Socialism don't stand for that, don't stand for that at all

Socialism is
love for your brothers,
Socialism is
linking hearts and head,
Poverty and hunger is what we are fighting

Socialism is
Sharing with your sisters
Socialism is
people pulling together
Won't you believe me?
Love and togetherness, that's what it means

Socialism is
love for your brothers
Socialism is
linking hearts and hands
Poverty and hunger is what we are fighting

Socialism is sharing with your sisters
Do you believe me?
People pulling together
Ooooh
Love and togetherness, that's what it means

Socialism is
love for your brothers
Socialism is
linking hearts and hands
Poverty and hunger is what we are fighting

Socialism is
Sharing with your sisters
Socialism is people pulling together
Ooooh

Solidarity brothers and sisters