A.J.Cook - Militant Miner and Trade Union Leader ( 22/11/1884 - 2/11/31)

                                                                                                             

Arthur James Cook better known as A.J.Cook, was General Secretary of the Miners Federation of Great Britain - the forerunner of the NUM -  from 1924 until 1931, a period that included the General Strike of 1926.

Born  at Wookey, Somerset, 22 November 1884, son of Thomas Cook, a serving soldier. After leaving elementary school he worked as a farm labourer. At 17 he was preaching with the Baptists; at 19 he went to work to the Lewis Merthyr Colliery, Trehafod, and developed radical socialist views which led to his severing his relations with his religious denomination. 

Cook moved to Porth in South Wales, and later to Merthyr Tydfil, to find work in the mines.

Cook joined  the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1905. He played a prominent part in the Unofficial Reform Committee which led the struggles in the Cambrian combine in 1911https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2015/11/remembering-1910-cambrian-combine.html and 1912 against the coal owners  and the right wing leaders of the South Wales Miners Federation. This grouping around Ablett, Hay and Mainwaring producing  the famous syndicalist  pamphlet  “The Miners’ Next Step” in 1912. Cook was involved in the initial discussions around the document.The pamphlet- written  by rank-and-file miners in South Wales - exposed  the treacherous role in which some of the union leaders had played in their dealings with the coal-owners. It argued that the left needed to organise from below to gain control of the leadership of the union.Over the next ten years that is exactly what Cook did.

Even at this stage  he was described as being a brilliant and dynamic speaker. By 1919 he was miners’ agent (a paid union official) in the Rhondda.

It was on the initiative of the Unofficial Reform Committee that in 1911 Cook was sent to the Central Labour College which had been established by the Plebs League as a challenge to anti-Marxist indoctrination courses taught at Ruskin College. As well as being a working miner and union activist, Cook gave regular CLC classes in Marxism on his return to the Rhondda.  The militant activists in South Wales – Cook included – were heavily influenced by syndicalism. As against the weak-kneed reformism of the early Labour Party which had become a mere appendage of Lloyd George’s Liberals in the House of Commons and against the conservative trade union leaders seeking only to strike deals with the bosses on behalf of the skilled workers, the Syndicalists had a bolder class perspective. Their view was of continuous militant union struggle which would step by step drive the bosses to the wall. Whilst Cook himself became a union leader and a member of different political parties, he never outgrew this non-political militant unionism. While working as a collier, he was elected chairman of the Lewis Merthyr colliery lodge of the South Wales Miners' Federation and a member of the executive committee of the union; he was also elected a member of the Rhondda Urban District Council.

 His militancy  however led to his conviction and imprisonment for three months in April 1918 under the Defence of the Realm Act; he was also sentenced to two months' imprisonment in 1921 for inciting to unlawful assembly. 

In many ways it was the organisation and early success of the Miners’ Minority Movement (MMM) that inspired the NMM. The growth of a militant current among miners can be seen against the background of The Miners’ Next Step, the First World War and the Russian Revolution.

When Frank Hodges, the secretary of the Miners’ Federation, became lord of the admirality in the first Labour government of 1924, the Minority Movement was able to force him to resign his union office.The South Wales Miners’ Federation nominated AJ Cook to replace him, and he beat a Yorkshire miner for the post by 217,664 votes to 202,297. Cook was then 39 years old.

On learning of his election, TUC general secretary Fred Bramley exploded that Cook was a “raving Communist”. We can understand Bramley’s reaction by reference to a speech that Cook made to Holborn Labour Party in June 1924. He declared, “I believe in strikes. They are the only weapon.”

Although a member of the ILP  Cook worked closely with the Communist Party after its formation in 1920 and the National Minority Movement from 1924 to 1929. Arthur Horner, a leading South Wales Communist and mining militant described Cook's tenure as General Secretary as “a time for new ideas — an agitator, a man with a sense of adventure”. Cook remained a member of the ILP throughout this period, with the exception of a brief period after the foundation of the Communist Party (CP). He left the CP in a dispute over tactics in the miners’ lockout of 1921.

He played a leading part in the great general strike of 1926 and the prolonged miners' strike which followed. During the miners’ struggle of 1926 no figure came to represent the anger and determination of the miners more than A.J. Cook. He was adored by the militants in every coalfield as a tireless and selfless fighter for the cause of the miners. His slogan 'Not a penny off the pay, not a second on the day' became the cry of the miners throughout the country. He was hated by the right wing trade unions leaders. He was pilloried in the bosses’ press.

The fact that Cook could read and write saw him help his fellow miners to fill in the complicated forms necessary to claim their compensation and other entitlements. He worked tirelessly and his front room was converted into a miners' consultation office. He was hated and despised by the stuck-up parliamentarians who saw the miners’ struggle as futile and doomed,but despite this he sacrificed his all for the miners’ cause and derived no personal gain from the tenure of office

He endured great physical pain during his last years from an injury received whilst a miner and aggravated by an attack on him during the 1926 strike. His leg had to be amputated, complications set in, and he died at the Manor House Hospital, London, on this day 2 November 1931 at only 46 years of age. 

Thank you to my friend and comrade Mel Hepworth former striking Yorkshire miner, 1984- 1985 for bringing A.J, Cook to my attention and for providing me with much of the information contained within this post. And here are two links, the first  of which  you can read an account of this great man's life in his own words. followed by an appraisal of his life by the late Paul Foot.

http://www.whatnextjournal.org.uk/Pages/History/Cook.html

https://www.marxists.org/archive/foot-paul/1986/01/ajcook.htm

Balfour Declaration’s 103rd Anniversary prompts calls on Britain to apologise and recognize Palestinian rights

 

 Lord Arthur Balfour

 

The Balfour Declaration was issued 103 years ago  today; It.was the one of key developments in the early stages of the twentieth Century  that influenced the Jewish communities of the world to believe that Great Britain would support the creation of a jewish state in the Middle East. The ramifications would be seen up until the present day and is regarded as one of the most controversial and contested documents in modern history.

 It was named after Lord Arthur James Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary during the Word War 1, who  on an order by United Kingdom’s Prime Minister at that time, David Lloyd George,sent an official letter  to Baron Walter Rothschild (the 2nd Baron Rothschild), a leader of the British Zionist community, who accepted it on behalf of Great Britain and Ireland.

The document was quite short, consisting of only 67 words in three paragraphs. However, the impact was enormous: the declaration was the beginning of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which has not ended.The immortal words of the letter said the following:

" His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by jews in any other country."

The Original Letter of the Balfour Declaration

 

 

With the Balfour Declaration, London was seeking Jewish support for its war efforts, and the Zionist push for a homeland for Jews was an emerging political force. In 1917, Jews constituted 10% of the population, the rest were  Arabs. Yet Britain recognised the national rights of a tiny minority and denied it to the majority This was a classic colonial document which totally disregarded the rights and aspirations of the indigenous population. In the words of Jewish writer Arthur Koestler: “One nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third.”

It was a shock to the Arab world, which had not been consulted and had received promises of independence of its own in the post-war break up of the defeated Ottoman Empire. The Palestinians have always condemned the declaration, which they refer to as the "Balfour promise" saying Britain was giving away land it did not own.

The Balfour Declaration constituted a  dangerous historical precedent and a blatant breach of all international laws and norms, and this  act of the British Empire to “give” the land of another people  for colonial settlement created the conditions for countless atrocities against the Palestinian people. Balfour, in a 1919 confidential memo, wrote: 

 “Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age old traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far greater import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land”  

The discriminatory language used by Sir Arthur Balfour and seen in the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate reveal the prejudiced rational behind British foreign policy in Palestine. A month after the Balfour Declaration on 2 December 1917, the British army occupied Jerusalem. In 1923, the British Mandate for Palestine came into effect, and included the entire text of the Balfour Declaration. Through the Mandate, Britain would go on to rule Palestine for three decades.

The Mandate for Palestine constituted the entire legal framework for how Britain should operate during its occupation of Palestine. Despite this, the Mandate made no mention of the Palestinians by name, nor did it specify the right of Palestinians to nationhood. Instead, it was during its rule in Palestine that Britain sought to lay the foundations for the creation of a ‘national home for the Jewish people’. 

By the end of the 1920s, it became clear that this ambition would have violent repercussions.Between 1936 and 1939, thousands of Palestinians were killed and imprisoned as they revolted in protest against British policy.

The British response took a heavy toll on the livelihoods of Palestinian villagers, who were subjected to punitive measures that included the confiscation of livestock, the destruction of properties, detention and collective fines. During this time, British forces’ are said to have carried out beatings, extrajudicial killings and torture as they attempted to quell the uprising. To this day, there are still the ‘Tegart Forts’ in Palestine built and named by Sir Charles Tegart who had been stationed in India to punish those fighting against the British Raj and then later stationed in Palestine to control any Arab dissent.

For Palestinians, Britain’s three decades of occupation in Palestine was a turning point in the country’s history, laying the foundations for what would become decades of occupation, displacement and insecurity.

When the UK eventually decided to withdraw from Mandatory Palestine in 1947, it left decisions regarding the future of Palestine to the United Nations. In May 1948 the Israeli state was established.  This time is known by Palestinians as the Nakba or ‘catastrophe’, during which 750,000 and 900,000 Palestinian men, women and children were driven out of their homeland by Jewish militias, and an estimated 500 villages and towns were depopulated and demolished.

To this day, there are more than 5 million Palestinian refugees registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Jordan as a result of the Nakba in 1948 and the displacement that followed the Israeli occupation of Palestine in 1967.

Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem have now been under occupation for over 50 years, devastating the lives of millions of Palestinians.

The catastrophe of the Arab Palestinian people in 1948 continues today at the hands of Israel, using the same old policies and laws established by the British such as land confiscation laws, home demolitions, ‘administrative’ detention, deportations, violent repression, and the continuation of the expulsion of about 7.9 million Palestinians who are denied their basic national and human rights, especially their right to return and live normally in their homeland. This catastrophe of the Palestinian people could not continue without the support of Israel by the United States and Britain.

 In the June 1967 war, Israel completed the conquest of Palestine by occupying the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. By signing the Oslo Accord with Israel in 1993, the Palestine Liberation Organisation gave up its claim to 78% of Palestine. In return they hoped to achieve an independent Palestinian state on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with a capital city in East Jerusalem. It was not to be.

The repercussions of the Balfour Declaration are still coming in and they are represented today by the 

Proclamation by US President ,Donald Trump, which announced that Occupied Jerusalem is the capital of the Israeli entity ,in addition to moving US Embassy to it in the middle of 2018 in parallel with the 70th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba .All of these were also included within the so called Deal of the Century that was announced at the beginning of this year. 

 Having just formed a new coalition government following a third inconclusive election in one year, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud leader,  announced his plan to formally annex about 30% of the West Bank ,including the settlement blocs and the Jordan Valley. There is a majority in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, for annexation. If annexation takes place, it would leave the Palestinians with roughly 15% of historic Palestine. It would also hammer the last nail in the coffin of the two-state solution to which the international community still clings.

However, the Palestinians stress their continuing steadfastness in the face of continued Israeli violations ,resisting  the occupation schemes  insisting on the Palestinian Right of Return home and establishing their sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital. And until  measures are made by Israel to improve the standard of living, and bring economic prosperity to the Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Bringing some chord of social justice, and recognition of the Palestinians identity, and stolen land given back to them,and an end to their continuing use of apartheid practices., their will be no peace. That is Balfours tragic legacy.

Yet at the same time, Britain has a unique responsibility to make amends for its past, by ensuring the basic human rights of Palestinians are met, to help stop Israel’s violations of international law in the occupied Palestinian territories, and recognising  a state of Palestine, make the declaration "right" by assuring Palestinian's rights at last, and to ensure that future generations of Palestinians can live in dignity.

 The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) has called on Britain to apologise to the Palestinians for the 1917 Balfour Declaration , which led to the displacement of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland. 

In a statement issued on the occasion of the 103rd anniversary of the pledge, PRC said that it is time for Britain to act with responsibility and extend an apology over the notorious Balfour Declaration. The PRC also called on Britain to acknowledge the political rights of the Palestinian people, which have been denied for more than a century. 

https://prc.org.uk/en/news/3081/despite-its-acknowledgement-of-violation-of-palestinian-rights-prc-continues-to-urge-britain-to-apologize-over-notorious-balfour-declaration

Samhain Reflections

 

 

As we in the northern hemisphere cross the threshold of autumn into winter, I am reminded what a powerful time of year it is. As the ancient Celts referred to it, Samhain.The word is Irish Gaelic for "summer's end".It is usually pronounced "sow-in" with the "ow" following the same sound as "cow".There are some regional dialects of it though which include "sow-een", "sowin" (with the "ow" similar to "glow").Now called Halloween, it was a time of honouring the dead. Not just the ancestors who've crossed over, but the parts of our lives that are readying to die. Samhain was both a community and a spiritual event, when bonfires were lit and food offered to the spirits who had crossed over from the Otherworld for the night. 

This year’s Samhain has a few unusual characteristics. For one, this year’s Samhain features a full moon that is visible in all time zones on Earth, something that hasn’t happened since 1944 and won’t happen again until 2039. (The moon is also a Blue Moon this weekend, following on the Harvest Moon earlier in October.) With NASA’s recent announcement that it has found water molecules in the sunlit surface of the moon, this has proven to be an exciting week for lunar news.

And in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic, where people are suffering and dying because of the deadly virus, as of October 29, nearly 1.2 million have died of the coronavirus, and nearly 45.5 million cases have been reported worldwide, https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html  and despite of  social distancing and other measures as part of coronavirus prevention strategies,  Samhain  still has much relevance, and  it's precisely because of the current situation that it's essential to hold on to customs like this, that can bring us all together, despite our isolation from one another.

Under the guise of Halloween, Samhain  has since morphed into a nonsensical circus of skeletons, witches in pointy hats, masks, trick or treat, gouged turnips and the like, frivolous and commercialised aspects that are the products of American secular capitalism, but let's not let this take away from its original importance.The appreciation of each other, and, above all, a layer of spiritual awareness that keeps us connected to our dearly departed, and despite many celebrations being cancelled this year, the spirit of Samhein must certainly live on. 

The Celts, who lived around 2000 years ago, celebrated their new year on November 1^st. They believed this day marked the beginning of the dark, cold winter, and Samhein was understood as a liminal time, when spirits and ancestors from the Otherworld could more easily enter this one. The ancients would hold great gatherings to mark the end of the harvest season, and the entrance into the darker, leaner half of the year. The souls of the dead were said to seek hospitality in their old homes, so the living would set places at the feasting table for them with offerings of their dead kin's favourite meals and drinks.Huge sacred bonfires would then be lit for releasing and cleansing rituals. People would gather to burn crops and animal sacrifices.They would also wear costumes, often consisting of animal heads and skins. The Samhain bonfires were also symbolic of the transmutation process of nature's seasons. Traditionally certain kind of wood were burned in a sympathetic magic with the season, symbolising the necessary sacrifice of those things in our lives that inhibit the power of growth

In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III made November 1 a day to honour saints and martyrs.To keep the peace with the pagans, he made sure All Saints’ Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The name Halloween is a contraction of All Hallows’ Evening which is also referred to as Allhalloween or All Hallows’ Eve or All Saints’ Eve – the eve of the Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day, which is better known as All Saints’ Day.Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day, which is better known as All Saints’ Day.

For those of us who follow the wheel of life and as the spirits awaken, beyond the destructiveness of Capitalism, there is also a profound connection between honouring our ancestors and following the call for change. If you think of your life as the fruit of a long surviving tree, you are an expression of a dream once seeded by your ancestors. The privilege and responsibility now falls to keep that expression alive, even if it means releasing inherited fears. Despite the limitations and difficulties now placed upon us all we can still enjoy safe celebrations at home. Let's remember the spirits of nature, of land, of place and our departed watching over us, keep sowing seeds of change and transformation. Remember the dead, keep on fighting for the living and may the new year be brighter than the one that has come before. There is still much magic all around us.

 

 Bright Blessings (A Poem for Samhain )

 

Though darkness treads this day of ours
today is one of celebrating light,
time to remember the paths of ancestors
forever casting their eternal beams,
goddesses returning, resurrecting feeling
whispering enchantment, releasing power,
as the veil of  life gets thinner and dimmer
time to welcome old spirits that walk among us,
that enable us to dance and sing again
beyond this realm allows us to be blessed,
as leaves turn golden, and fall to nourish the land
under trees branches we can all nobly stand,
mother earth reaching out offering protection
absorbing our longings, accepting our wrongs,
in the vortex of time, keeps on shining bright
guiding us as we follow ancient paths of wisdom,
slipping through time, surrounded by love
allowing truth and justice to be the natural law.

( when the barrier between the worlds is whisper-thin and when magic, old magic, sings its heady and sweet song to anyone who cares to hear it.
~Carolyn MacCullough, Once a Witch)

Diane di Prima, Pioneering Feminist Beat poet and activist, dies at 86

I am saddened to write that Diane di Prima, lifelong  feminist poet, activist and teacher who was one of the last surviving members of the Beats and one of the few women writers in the Beat movement, has died at age 86.

Di Prima's longtime partner Sheppard Powell told The Associated Press that di Prima had been in failing health and died Sunday in San Francisco General Hospital. She had Parkinson;s disease and the autoimmune disorder Sjogren's disorder.She had been writing poems almost to the end of her life, even as her arthritic hands forced her to dictate some to Powell.

 Di Prima was known for her epic 1978 multi-part poem “Loba,” referred to at times as a feminist counterpart to Allen Ginsberg's “Howl!” which was,dedicated to a wolf goddess – spending over 100 pages exploring what it’s like to be female, moving chronologically through the phases of womanhood, from youth through childbirth and motherhood.

  

“How was woman broken?

Falling out of attention.

Wiping gnarled fingers on a faded housedress.

Lying down in the puddle beside the broken jug.

Where was the slack, the loss

of early fierceness?

How did we come to be contained

in rooms?”

 She is also remembered  for the anthology “Pieces of a Song";  and for her controversial,  fictionalized and explicit “Memoirs of a Beatnik” inspired by her experiences with the Beats  and for the autobiography “Recollections of My Life as a Woman.” During the Band's farewell concert in 1976 at the Fillmore in San Francisco, the basis for Martin Scorsese's documentary “The Last Waltz,” she got on stage  and read a one line poem, "Get Yer Cut Throat Off My Knife," before going into "Revolutionary Letter #4":

Left to themselves people

grow their hair.

Left to themselves they

take off their shoes.

Left to themselves they make love

sleep easily

share blankets, dope & children

they are not lazy or afraid

they plant seeds, they smile, they

speak to one another. The word

coming into its own: touch of love;

on the brain, the ear.

 

Di Prima was  born August 6, 1934, in Brooklyn, New York, the only daughter and eldest child of Francis and Emma di Prima. Her maternal grandfather, Domenico Mallozzi, was an active anarchist, and associate of Carlo Tresca and Emma Goldman. She began writing at the age of seven, and committed herself to a life as a poet at the age of fourteen,  with enough literary talent and precocity to be corresponding with Ezra Pound in her late teens,and thereafter visited him regularly in a psychiatric hospital in Washington. . 

Di Prima attended Hunter College High School in New York City, where she began writing. In 1951, she went to Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, but dropped out two years later to join the bohemian community in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village,  then alive with jazz musicians, writers and counterculture artists. where she became a member of the Beat movement and developed friendships with John Ashberry, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Denise Levertov, and Frank O'Hara, among others.

She was set on learning from writers she respected – most of whom were men in an age when women were prevented from achieving true artistic freedom.

 

 “However great your visioning and your inspiration, you need the techniques of the craft,” she reflected in an interview in the 1980s. “They are passed on person to person, and back then the male naturally passed them on to the male. I think I was one of the first women to break through that.”

 

In the 1950s and ‘60s, she divided her time between New York and California, and became lovers with Amira Baraka, https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2014/01/amiri-bakara-leroi-jones-b71034.html who was calling himself LeRoi Jones at the time. In a 2017 interview with The Washington Post, she recalled that some of her fellow Beats were interested in her for reasons other than poetry.

 

"Jack (Kerouac) wanted me to hang out because everyone was gay and I was straight," she said. “He was probably hoping to get laid later.”

 

She and Jones helped found the New York Poets Theatre, a leading avant-garde venue in the early ’60s, and co-edited the literary newsletter The Floating Bear,  (1961-1969). In 1966 she moved to upstate New York where she participated in Timothy Leary’s psychedelic community at Millbrook.In 1964, di Prima, along with her first husband Alan Marlowe, founded the Poets Press, which published books by David Henderson, Clive Matson, Herbert Huncke, and Audre Lourde, who had gone to high school with di Prima, and for years taught at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, in Boulder, Colorado. She also co-founded the New York Poets Theatre and founded Eidolon Editions and the Poets Institute. A follower of Buddhism, she also co-founded the San Francisco Institute of Magical and Healing Arts.

Di Prima’s poetry mixed stream-of-consciousness with attention to form and joined politics to spiritual practice. In an interview with Jacket magazine, di Prima spoke about her life as a writer, a mother, and an activist.

 

 “I wanted everything—very earnestly and totally—I wanted to have every experience I could have, I wanted everything that was possible to a person in a female body, and that meant that I wanted to be mother.… So my feeling was, ‘Well’—as I had many times had the feeling—‘Well, nobody’s done it quite this way before but fuck it, that’s what I’m doing, I’m going to risk it.’” 

 

 In San Francisco, she became a member of the Diggers, a  group of anti-capitalist activists and actors who collected food for the lost souls who wandered Haight-Ashbury.  Like many of her male peers, di Prima was a free thinker, a political activist and a target for government censorship. The FBI arrested her in 1961 on obscenity charges (They were later dismissed) and she would allege that was frequently harassed by law enforcement officers. She opposed the Vietnam War in the 1960s.When pressed on her political leanings, she allowed she was likely an anarchist, much like her grandmother.

Ginsberg openly praised this same radical bent in di Prima’s work: 

 

 “Diane di Prima, revolutionary activist of the 1960s Beat literary renaissance, heroic in life and poetics: a learned humorous bohemian, classically educated and twentieth-century radical, her writing, informed by Buddhist equanimity, is exemplary in imagist, political and mystical modes. … She broke barriers of race-class identity, delivered a major body of verse brilliant in its particularity.”

 

She was together with Powell for more than 40 years and had learned enough before him to decide they were better off never marrying. She had been married twice, divorced twice and had five children with four different men, including Jones. She was a nonconformist down to her last name, spelling it "di Prima," in honor of her Italian ancestors, even as other family members capitalized the “D.” 

Di Prima's legacy is impressive, even though little known to thee general public, including many Beat devotees. She authored more than thirty collections of poetry, as well as plays, short stories, novels, nonfiction, and more. She received two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and her work has been translated into more than twenty languages. In 2009, she was named the poet laureate of San Francisco, and in 2006 received the  Fred Cody Award for Lifetime Achieivement and community service.At the press conference where she was named Poet Laureate of San Francisco, she told thee crowd about a dream she'd had that showed her how all the work was ever witten was part of the same big piece that "cuts through time and cuts through space, and we have no idea what it is - it is wonderful and large." Her deepest service, she added, was to poetry and to humans. 

 

Her final collection of poems, “The Poetry Deal,” was published in 2014. As often was the case, City Lights was her publisher. Di Prima continued to write until weeks before her death, though her arthritis forced her to use a stylus on a cellphone to write. Sometimes, Powell said, she’d dictate her verse, often to him. She is survived by Powell, two brothers, five children, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

A truly remarkable poet and activist and pioneer who broke through boundaries of class and gender to publish her writing, Di Prima's messages about non-conformity and the importance of imagination are more important than ever, says her daughter. And her poetry has gained a new resonance as new resonance as a new generation of activists takes to the streets to protest racism, fascism and police brutality. Her  life and works should be explored and celebrated alongside those of her peers, and coveted for their unapologetic examination of what it was like to be a female in a frequently hostile and stifling environment. Forever a free spirit,  a life lived with revolutionary passion. Rest in Power Diane di Prima.

Sean Taylor - Herd Immunity (part 2)

 

In the UK more people have died from coronavirus than any other country in Europe. The delayed lockdown cost lives and was combined with both unclear and contradictory messaging. The release of untested patients into care homes led to thousands of deaths. It has taken over six months and between 40,000-60,000 deaths to bring in some airport testing and compulsory facemasks in most public spaces. 

Deregulation, outsourcing and corruption has been the Conservative hallmark. The Tories have given contracts to unaccountable private companies (their friends and donors) who have failed to provide adequate PPE or a testing system that works. 

In the last few years both America and the UK have become breeding grounds for far-right extremism. Conspiracy anti-lockdown fascists have been empowered by the racism of Trump and Johnson.

As an artist  Sean Taylor uses his work to challenge a criminally negligent ruling class and the growth of fascism. 

'Herd Immunity (part 2)'

 written by Sean Taylor 

Produced by Mark Hallman 

Film by Reel News 

Sean Taylor - vocals, piano and guitars 

Mark Hallman - bass, drums & hammond organ 

Joe Morales - saxophone

Homepage https://www.seantaylorsongs.com/home

Herd Immunity (Part 1)

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2020/06/sean-taylor-herd-immunity.html

It Comes In Waves

John Coltrane was right

let's not pretend,

love is supreme

in the corner of the night

with a bottle half empty

a candle burns bright

as the wind blows fiercely

Now an essence fills me with light

as I wait among the shadows

want to serve  all night long

been waiting for my hands

to bring home with me

give some love and attention.

I see a glorious diamond smile

want to release her dancing feet

who have never stopped loving 

as angels fly far above

and the gardens offer their flowers

it's this witch on earth, this song is for.

Sailing sea and sky

restless in the mind

try to listen to my heart

as I fall head over heels

in surrealist love and surrender

and my consciousness awakens.

Waking with dreams

to fill all my senses 

inner longing releases the topor

a rose ignites the passion within

wave after wave, crescendo hits

while prisms of light, deliver peace.

Despite the virus, still on the loose

I keep on running, moving forwards

cant find yet, an escape route

where absence obliterates like a plague

all of us stranded, in search of hope

the pipes of pan keep on calling

British MP's Appeal

 

The British government has come under heavy scrutiny and criticism recently  after more than 300 Tory MPs voted against free meals for school children over the holidays.

Earlier this year, Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford led a successful campaign that allowed hungry children to have access to free meals during the summer holidays, drawing upon the own troubles that his mother went through when he was a child.

A motion had been brought back to the Commons to have the same initiative extended for the upcoming October half-term break and the Christmas holidays in order to help families that have been hit hardest by the pandemic and were already struggling in the battle against poverty.

However, the motion was defeated by the government's majority with prime minister Boris Johnson, chancellor Rishi Sunak, health secretary Matt Hancock and former PM Theresa May amongst the 320 Tories who voted it down. The Tories were joined by Dr Julian Lewis, the independent MP for New Forest East.

Tensions proved to be high in the Commons during the debate with Tory backbencher Christopher Clarkson accusing Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner of calling him 'scum'  She later apologised.

The uproar about this decision, which will affect millions of families across the country has been sizeable. Even Nigel Farage, possibly one of the most disliked politicians in Britain, called the government "mean" and asked why they were able to subsidise money for the Eat Out to Help Out scheme but can't help hungry children.

But let's  put  all this aside for a moment and forget the hungry school children because of course more important people are in need. Remember that this isn't a comfortable time for so many in parliament at the present moment.

https://www.ko-fi.com/larryandpaul

 

Whilst considering these hard dome by souls for the record here are all the Tory MPs that voted against the school children having access to free school meals. Bless each and every one of them, even though their Tory scum.

Nigel Adams (Conservative – Selby and Ainsty)

Bim Afolami (Conservative – Hitchin and Harpenden)

Adam Afriyie (Conservative – Windsor)

Imran Ahmad Khan (Conservative – Wakefield)

Nickie Aiken (Conservative – Cities of London and Westminster) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Peter Aldous (Conservative – Waveney)

Lucy Allan (Conservative – Telford)

David Amess (Conservative – Southend West)

Lee Anderson (Conservative – Ashfield)

Stuart Anderson (Conservative – Wolverhampton South West)

Stuart Andrew (Conservative – Pudsey)

Edward Argar (Conservative – Charnwood)

Sarah Atherton (Conservative – Wrexham)

Victoria Atkins (Conservative – Louth and Horncastle)

Gareth Bacon (Conservative – Orpington)

Richard Bacon (Conservative – South Norfolk) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Kemi Badenoch (Conservative – Saffron Walden)

Shaun Bailey (Conservative – West Bromwich West)

Duncan Baker (Conservative – North Norfolk)

Steve Baker (Conservative – Wycombe)

Harriett Baldwin (Conservative – West Worcestershire)

Steve Barclay (Conservative – North East Cambridgeshire)

Simon Baynes (Conservative – Clwyd South)

Aaron Bell (Conservative – Newcastle-under-Lyme)

Scott Benton (Conservative – Blackpool South)

Paul Beresford (Conservative – Mole Valley) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Jake Berry (Conservative – Rossendale and Darwen) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Saqib Bhatti (Conservative – Meriden)

Bob Blackman (Conservative – Harrow East) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Crispin Blunt (Conservative – Reigate) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Peter Bone (Conservative – Wellingborough) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Peter Bottomley (Conservative – Worthing West)

Andrew Bowie (Conservative – West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)

Ben Bradley (Conservative – Mansfield) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Karen Bradley (Conservative – Staffordshire Moorlands)

Graham Brady (Conservative – Altrincham and Sale West)

Suella Braverman (Conservative – Fareham)

Jack Brereton (Conservative – Stoke-on-Trent South)

Andrew Bridgen (Conservative – North West Leicestershire) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Steve Brine (Conservative – Winchester)

Paul Bristow (Conservative – Peterborough)

Sara Britcliffe (Conservative – Hyndburn)

James Brokenshire (Conservative – Old Bexley and Sidcup)

Anthony Browne (Conservative – South Cambridgeshire)

Fiona Bruce (Conservative – Congleton)

Felicity Buchan (Conservative – Kensington)

Robert Buckland (Conservative – South Swindon)

Alex Burghart (Conservative – Brentwood and Ongar)

Conor Burns (Conservative – Bournemouth West) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Rob Butler (Conservative – Aylesbury)

Alun Cairns (Conservative – Vale of Glamorgan)

Andy Carter (Conservative – Warrington South)

James Cartlidge (Conservative – South Suffolk)

William Cash (Conservative – Stone) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Miriam Cates (Conservative – Penistone and Stocksbridge)

Maria Caulfield (Conservative – Lewes)

Alex Chalk (Conservative – Cheltenham)

Rehman Chishti (Conservative – Gillingham and Rainham)

Jo Churchill (Conservative – Bury St Edmunds)

Greg Clark (Conservative – Tunbridge Wells)

Simon Clarke (Conservative – Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Theo Clarke (Conservative – Stafford)

Brendan Clarke-Smith (Conservative – Bassetlaw)

Chris Clarkson (Conservative – Heywood and Middleton)

James Cleverly (Conservative – Braintree)

Thérèse Coffey (Conservative – Suffolk Coastal)

Damian Collins (Conservative – Folkestone and Hythe) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Alberto Costa (Conservative – South Leicestershire) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Robert Courts (Conservative – Witney)

Claire Coutinho (Conservative – East Surrey)

Geoffrey Cox (Conservative – Torridge and West Devon) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Virginia Crosbie (Conservative – Ynys Môn)

James Daly (Conservative – Bury North)

David T C Davies (Conservative – Monmouth)

James Davies (Conservative – Vale of Clwyd)

Gareth Davies (Conservative – Grantham and Stamford)

Mims Davies (Conservative – Mid Sussex) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Philip Davies (Conservative – Shipley)

David Davis (Conservative – Haltemprice and Howden) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Dehenna Davison (Conservative – Bishop Auckland)

Caroline Dinenage (Conservative – Gosport) (Proxy vote cast by Caroline Nokes)

Sarah Dines (Conservative – Derbyshire Dales)

Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative – Huntingdon)

Michelle Donelan (Conservative – Chippenham)

Nadine Dorries (Conservative – Mid Bedfordshire) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Steve Double (Conservative – St Austell and Newquay) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Oliver Dowden (Conservative – Hertsmere)

Jackie Doyle-Price (Conservative – Thurrock)

Richard Drax (Conservative – South Dorset)

Flick Drummond (Conservative – Meon Valley)

David Duguid (Conservative – Banff and Buchan)

Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative – Chingford and Woodford Green)

Philips Dunne (Conservative - Ludlow)

Mark Eastwood (Conservative – Dewsbury)

Ruth Edwards (Conservative – Rushcliffe) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Michael Ellis (Conservative – Northampton North)

Tobias Ellwood (Conservative – Bournemouth East)

Natalie Elphicke (Conservative – Dover) (Proxy vote cast by Maria Caulfield)

George Eustice (Conservative – Camborne and Redruth)

Luke Evans (Conservative – Bosworth) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

David Evennett (Conservative – Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Ben Everitt (Conservative – Milton Keynes North)

Michael Fabricant (Conservative – Lichfield) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Laura Farris (Conservative – Newbury)

Simon Fell (Conservative – Barrow and Furness)

Katherine Fletcher (Conservative – South Ribble)

Mark Fletcher (Conservative – Bolsover)

Nick Fletcher (Conservative – Don Valley)

Vicky Ford (Conservative – Chelmsford)

Kevin Foster (Conservative – Torbay)

Mark Francois (Conservative – Rayleigh and Wickford) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Lucy Frazer (Conservative – South East Cambridgeshire)

George Freeman (Conservative – Mid Norfolk) (Proxy vote cast by Bim Afolami)

Mike Freer (Conservative – Finchley and Golders Green)

Richard Fuller (Conservative – North East Bedfordshire)

Marcus Fysh (Conservative – Yeovil) (Proxy vote cast by Craig Mackinlay)

Mark Garnier (Conservative – Wyre Forest)

Nusrat Ghani (Conservative – Wealden) (Proxy vote cast by Steve Baker)

Nick Gibb (Conservative – Bognor Regis and Littlehampton)

Peter Gibson (Conservative – Darlington)

Jo Gideon (Conservative – Stoke-on-Trent Central)

Cheryl Gillan (Conservative – Chesham and Amersham) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

John Glen (Conservative – Salisbury)

Robert Goodwill (Conservative – Scarborough and Whitby)

Michael Gove (Conservative – Surrey Heath)

Richard Graham (Conservative – Gloucester)

Helen Grant (Conservative – Maidstone and The Weald) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

James Gray (Conservative – North Wiltshire)

Chris Grayling (Conservative – Epsom and Ewell)

Chris Green (Conservative – Bolton West)

Damian Green (Conservative – Ashford)

Andrew Griffith (Conservative – Arundel and South Downs)

Kate Griffiths (Conservative – Burton)

James Grundy (Conservative – Leigh)

Jonathan Gullis (Conservative – Stoke-on-Trent North)

Luke Hall (Conservative – Thornbury and Yate)

Stephen Hammond (Conservative – Wimbledon)

Matt Hancock (Conservative – West Suffolk)

Greg Hands (Conservative – Chelsea and Fulham)

Mark Harper (Conservative – Forest of Dean)

Rebecca Harris (Conservative – Castle Point)

Trudy Harrison (Conservative – Copeland)

Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative – Hastings and Rye)

Simon Hart (Conservative – Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire)

John Hayes (Conservative – South Holland and The Deepings)

Oliver Heald (Conservative – North East Hertfordshire) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Chris Heaton-Harris (Conservative – Daventry)

Gordon Henderson (Conservative – Sittingbourne and Sheppey)

Darren Henry (Conservative – Broxtowe)

Antony Higginbotham (Conservative – Burnley)

Damian Hinds (Conservative – East Hampshire)

Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative – Thirsk and Malton)

Philip Hollobone (Conservative – Kettering)

Adam Holloway (Conservative – Gravesham) (Proxy vote cast by Maria Caulfield)

Paul Holmes (Conservative – Eastleigh)

John Howell (Conservative – Henley)

Paul Howell (Conservative – Sedgefield)

Nigel Huddleston (Conservative – Mid Worcestershire)

Eddie Hughes (Conservative – Walsall North)

Jane Hunt (Conservative – Loughborough)

Jeremy Hunt (Conservative – South West Surrey)

Tom Hunt (Conservative – Ipswich)

Alister Jack (Conservative – Dumfries and Galloway)

Sajid Javid (Conservative – Bromsgrove)

Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative – North East Hampshire) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Mark Jenkinson (Conservative – Workington)

Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative – Morley and Outwood)

Robert Jenrick (Conservative – Newark)

Boris Johnson (Conservative – Uxbridge and South Ruislip)

Caroline Johnson (Conservative – Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Gareth Johnson (Conservative – Dartford)

David Johnston (Conservative – Wantage)

Andrew Jones (Conservative – Harrogate and Knaresborough)

Fay Jones (Conservative – Brecon and Radnorshire)

David Jones (Conservative – Clwyd West)

Marcus Jones (Conservative – Nuneaton)

Simon Jupp (Conservative – East Devon) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative – Shrewsbury and Atcham)

Alicia Kearns (Conservative – Rutland and Melton) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Gillian Keegan (Conservative – Chichester)

Julian Knight (Conservative – Solihull) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Greg Knight (Conservative – East Yorkshire) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Danny Kruger (Conservative – Devizes)

Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative – Spelthorne)

John Lamont (Conservative – Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Robert Largan (Conservative – High Peak)

Andrea Leadsom (Conservative – South Northamptonshire)

Edward Leigh (Conservative – Gainsborough)

Ian Levy (Conservative – Blyth Valley) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Andrew Lewer (Conservative – Northampton South)

Brandon Lewis (Conservative – Great Yarmouth)

Ian Liddell-Grainger (Conservative – Bridgwater and West Somerset) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Chris Loder (Conservative – West Dorset)

Mark Logan (Conservative – Bolton North East)

Marco Longhi (Conservative – Dudley North) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Julia Lopez (Conservative – Hornchurch and Upminster)

Jack Lopresti (Conservative – Filton and Bradley Stoke)

Jonathan Lord (Conservative – Woking) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Craig Mackinlay (Conservative – South Thanet)

Cherilyn Mackrory (Conservative – Truro and Falmouth)

Rachel Maclean (Conservative – Redditch)

Alan Mak (Conservative – Havant)

Kit Malthouse (Conservative – North West Hampshire)

Anthony Mangnall (Conservative – Totnes)

Scott Mann (Conservative – North Cornwall)

Julie Marson (Conservative – Hertford and Stortford)

Theresa May (Conservative – Maidenhead)

Jerome Mayhew (Conservative – Broadland)

Karl McCartney (Conservative – Lincoln) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Mark Menzies (Conservative – Fylde) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Johnny Mercer (Conservative – Plymouth, Moor View)

Huw Merriman (Conservative – Bexhill and Battle)

Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative – South Basildon and East Thurrock) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Robin Millar (Conservative – Aberconwy)

Maria Miller (Conservative – Basingstoke)

Amanda Milling (Conservative – Cannock Chase)

Nigel Mills (Conservative – Amber Valley) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Andrew Mitchell (Conservative – Sutton Coldfield)

Gagan Mohindra (Conservative – South West Hertfordshire)

Robbie Moore (Conservative – Keighley)

Penny Mordaunt (Conservative – Portsmouth North)

David Morris (Conservative – Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

James Morris (Conservative – Halesowen and Rowley Regis)

Wendy Morton (Conservative – Aldridge-Brownhills)

Kieran Mullan (Conservative – Crewe and Nantwich)

David Mundell (Conservative – Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)

Sheryll Murray (Conservative – South East Cornwall)

Andrew Murrison (Conservative – South West Wiltshire)

Robert Neill (Conservative – Bromley and Chislehurst)

Caroline Nokes (Conservative – Romsey and Southampton North)

Jesse Norman (Conservative – Hereford and South Herefordshire)

Neil O’Brien (Conservative – Harborough)

Guy Opperman (Conservative – Hexham) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Owen Paterson (Conservative – North Shropshire) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Mark Pawsey (Conservative – Rugby)

Mike Penning (Conservative – Hemel Hempstead) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

John Penrose (Conservative – Weston-super-Mare)

Chris Philp (Conservative – Croydon South)

Christopher Pincher (Conservative – Tamworth)

Rebecca Pow (Conservative – Taunton Deane)

Victoria Prentis (Conservative – Banbury)

Mark Pritchard (Conservative – The Wrekin)

Jeremy Quin (Conservative – Horsham)

Will Quince (Conservative – Colchester)

Tom Randall (Conservative – Gedling)

John Redwood (Conservative – Wokingham)

Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative – North East Somerset)

Nicola Richards (Conservative – West Bromwich East)

Angela Richardson (Conservative – Guildford)

Rob Roberts (Conservative – Delyn)

Laurence Robertson (Conservative – Tewkesbury)

Mary Robinson (Conservative – Cheadle)

Andrew Rosindell (Conservative – Romford)

Lee Rowley (Conservative – North East Derbyshire)

Dean Russell (Conservative – Watford)

David Rutley (Conservative – Macclesfield)

Gary Sambrook (Conservative – Birmingham, Northfield)

Selaine Saxby (Conservative – North Devon) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Paul Scully (Conservative – Sutton and Cheam)

Bob Seely (Conservative – Isle of Wight)

Andrew Selous (Conservative – South West Bedfordshire)

Grant Shapps (Conservative – Welwyn Hatfield)

Alok Sharma (Conservative – Reading West)

Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative – Elmet and Rothwell)

David Simmonds (Conservative – Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)

Chris Skidmore (Conservative – Kingswood)

Chloe Smith (Conservative – Norwich North) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Greg Smith (Conservative – Buckingham)

Henry Smith (Conservative – Crawley) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Julian Smith (Conservative – Skipton and Ripon)

Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)

Amanda Solloway (Conservative – Derby North)

Ben Spencer (Conservative – Runnymede and Weybridge)

Mark Spencer (Conservative – Sherwood)

Alexander Stafford (Conservative – Rother Valley)

Andrew Stephenson (Conservative – Pendle)

Jane Stevenson (Conservative – Wolverhampton North East)

John Stevenson (Conservative – Carlisle)

Bob Stewart (Conservative – Beckenham)

Iain Stewart (Conservative – Milton Keynes South)

Gary Streeter (Conservative – South West Devon) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Mel Stride (Conservative – Central Devon) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Rishi Sunak (Conservative – Richmond (Yorks))

James Sunderland (Conservative – Bracknell)

Desmond Swayne (Conservative – New Forest West)

Robert Syms (Conservative – Poole)

Derek Thomas (Conservative – St Ives)

Maggie Throup (Conservative – Erewash)

Edward Timpson (Conservative – Eddisbury) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Kelly Tolhurst (Conservative – Rochester and Strood)

Justin Tomlinson (Conservative – North Swindon)

Michael Tomlinson (Conservative – Mid Dorset and North Poole)

Craig Tracey (Conservative – North Warwickshire)

Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative – Berwick-upon-Tweed)

Laura Trott (Conservative – Sevenoaks)

Tom Tugendhat (Conservative – Tonbridge and Malling)

Martin Vickers (Conservative – Cleethorpes)

Matt Vickers (Conservative – Stockton South)

Theresa Villiers (Conservative – Chipping Barnet)

Robin Walker (Conservative – Worcester)

Charles Walker (Conservative – Broxbourne)

Jamie Wallis (Conservative – Bridgend) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

David Warburton (Conservative – Somerton and Frome) (Proxy vote cast by Stuart Andrew)

Matt Warman (Conservative – Boston and Skegness)

Giles Watling (Conservative – Clacton)

Suzanne Webb (Conservative – Stourbridge)

Helen Whately (Conservative – Faversham and Mid Kent)

Heather Wheeler (Conservative – South Derbyshire)

Craig Whittaker (Conservative – Calder Valley)

John Whittingdale (Conservative – Maldon)

Bill Wiggin (Conservative – North Herefordshire)

James Wild (Conservative – North West Norfolk)

Craig Williams (Conservative – Montgomeryshire)

Gavin Williamson (Conservative – South Staffordshire)

Mike Wood (Conservative – Dudley South)

William Wragg (Conservative – Hazel Grove)

Jeremy Wright (Conservative – Kenilworth and Southam)

Jacob Young (Conservative – Redcar)

Nadhim Zahawi (Conservative – Stratford-on-Avon)

Five Tory MPs voted against the government: Caroline Ansell (Eastbourne), Robert Halfon (Harlow), Jason McCartney (Colne Valley), Anne Marie Morris (Newton Abbot), Holly Mumby-Croft (Scunthorpe). Ansell has since reportedly quit her post.

All votes can be seen via the parliament voting website.