Happy Easter: Remembering a Revolutionary Jesus

What would Jesus be up to nowadays, though many claim he is still with us, this unemployed son of two asylum seekers. Maybe he would be born in todays world as a refugee, or in an occupied nation, or in a slum or in a war zone , a life on benefits,  due to sickness or disability.
I like to think that if  he did wander on this earth he would show solidarity with the poor and oppressed, the most vulnerable, being the righteous man that he was said to be.
I am not personally of the christan faith  but respect some historical facts, the evidence that points to Jesus as one of the self proclaimed messiahs fighting to end Roman occupation and for an egalitarian society in which division between rich and poor had been erased. His revolutionary message. This is what made him a marked man and  led to his crucifiction and his followers subsequently being persecuted. I think  his ideas seem to be the complete opposite of some of his followers today, who use his name, certain right wing politicians.
Did not many of the earlier christians practice a form of communism. As Acts of Apostles says " The believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need."  And this from the gospels " he had filled the hungry with good things and sent the richaway with empty hands." Did  he not preach fairness, his revolutionary ideas stirring some  to follow him  and others to hate him. Does not the Bible reveal too, a focus on social justice and the poor and point to a way that economic life should be organised around the needs of societies weakest and most vulnerable members. He challenged  the attitudes of a society  that  looked down on the marginalised - the sick, the poor, the needy, social outcasts and challenged the structures that kept them  in their marginalised place. He did not simply ignore those who suffer on the margins of our societies. He talked about a God of compassion - one that would open up his kingdom to those locked out.
In this present time many of his followers are urging Stephen Crabb the current secretary of state for work and pensions, and current Conservative MP, for Preseli Pembrokeshire here in Wales to scrap  brutal cuts. In a letter which suggests they are incompatible with  his Christian faith.
Catholic  think tank Ekklesia have written  to him saying  his departments cuts have gone to far.  Urging him to reverse the  policies of his predecessor and to work to the principles of Christian justice . 
You can read the full contents of the letter here , well worth a read :-

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/sites/ekklesia.co.uk/files/stephen_crabb_open_letter.pdf


happy eostore, heddwch/peace.

William Morris (24/3/1854 -3/10/1896) - No Master / All for the Cause

William Morris was an English textile designer, artist, writer and revolutionary socialist and political agitator associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts movement born on this day in 1854.
His aim was not only to create beautiful things but also a beautiful  society. He became an important figure in the emergence of socialism in Britain, founding the Socialist League in 1884, active in promoting its cause  through  his writing and lecturing on street corners. Throughout  his life  he continued  to identify  with the revolutionary left. He was heartened  by the Labour  movements break with liberalism,  but he warned, perhaps more clearly than anyone else at the time  of the dangers of reformism. Right up to his death in  1896 he was agitating and arguing  for a socialist movement that  would change the world  by open revolt. He also embraced radical ideas  of sexual freedom and libertarianism. There is a strong libertarian temper in his writings and being a close friend of Peter Kropotkin ( eminent anarchist at the time) was well aware of the anarchist case against government and political authority. 
 In 1885 he bought out his Chants for Socialism which the following two  poems are drawn from. In his novel News from Nowhere (1890) he recorded his own idiosyncratic vision after the abolition of classes. In it he envisages a society of equality and freedom. Such a vision - a rational grounded utopia , apparently so distant to us - is precisely what is needed for us today. 
An interesting  passionate and varied life, he hated the age he lived, its commerce, its poverty, its industry, but most of all he hated its individualistic, selfish system of values. At the end of his life  he explained.

"The study of history and the love and practice of art forced me into a hatred of  the civilisation which, if things were to stop as they are  would turn history into inconsequent nonsense, and make art a collection  of the curiosities of the past."  

His words still have powerful resonance in our own turbulent times.

No Master  

Saith man to man, We've heard and known
  That we no master need
To live upon this earth, our own,
  In fair and  mainly deed,
The grief of slaves long passed away
  For us hath forged the chain,
Till now  each worker's patient day
  Builds up the House of Pain.

And we, shall we too, crouch and quall.
  Ashamed, afraid of strife,
And lest our lives untimely fail
  Embrace the Death in Life?
Nay, cry aloud, and have no fear,
  We few against the world;
Awake, arise! the hope we bear
  Against the curse is hurled.

It grows and grows - are we the same,
  The feeble hand,  the few?
Or, what are these with  eyes aflame,
  and hands to deal and do?
This is the lost  that bears the word,
  NO MASTER HIGH OR LOW-
A lightning flame, a shearing sword,
  A storm to overthrow.

All For The Cause

Hear a word, a word in season, for the day is drawing
      nigh,
When  the Cause shall call upon us, some to live, and some
       to die!

He that dies shall not die lonely, many an one hath gone
      before;
He that lives shall bear no burden  heavier than the life they
      bore.

Nothing ancient in their story, w'en but yesterday they bled,
Youngest they of earth's beloved, last of the valiant dead.

E'en the tidings we are telling was the tale they had to tell,
E'en the hope that our hearts cherish, was the hope for
      which they fell.

In the grave where tyrants thrust them, lies their labour
     and  their pain,
But undying from their sorrow springeth up the hope again.

Mourn not  therefore, nor lament it, that the world outlives
        their life;
Voice and vision yet they give us, making among our hands
        for strife.

Some had name, and fame, and humour,  learn'd they were,
       and wise and strong;
Some were nameless, poor, unletterred, weak in all but grief
        and wrong.

Named and nameless, all live in us; ne and all they had
      us yet
Every pain to count for nothing every sorrow to forget.

Hearken how they cry, "O happy, happy ye were
      born
In the sad slow night's departing, is the rising of the morn.

"Fair the crown the Cause hath for you, well to die or well
      to live
Through the battle, through the tangle, peace to gain or
      peace to give."

Ah, it may be! Oft mescemeth, in the days that yet shall be,
When no slave of gold abideth 'twist the breadth of sea to
       sea,

Oft, when men and maids are merry, ere the sunlight leaves
        the earth,
And they bless the day, beloved, all too short for all their
       mirth,

Some pause awhile and ponder on the bitter days of
       old,
Ere the toil of strife and battle overththrew the curse of gold;

Then 'twist lips  of loved and lover solemn thoughts of us
      shall rise;
We who were once fools and dreamers, then shall  be the leave and wise.

There amidst the world new-builded shall our earthly deeds
       abide.
Through our names be all forgotten, and the tale of how we
      died.

Life or death then, who shall heed it, what we gain or what
        we lose?
Fair flies life amid the struggle, and the Cause for each shall
        choose.

Hear a word, a word in season, for the day is drawing nigh,
When the Cause hall call upon  us, some to live, and some
        to die!

Solidarity with disability protesters being silenced now.

Solidarity with disability cut protesters  at the House of Commons earlier.  The BBC and ITV were been told to stop filming  because it might encourage campaigners to stage similar stunts. So above here's a photo. Not that we are used to viewing anything contentious on our mainstream  news media. Business as usual. Strange that the BBC saw fit to try and report it though  because when an anti-austerity protest was attended by over 50,000 people recently, they decided not to report it and bury the news.
Following yesterdays post, it is worth noting that welfare cuts have already killed more people by their own government in the UK  than terrorists have killed in Europe. The deaths will continue. Sad to report of anyone under attack, these facts  might not prove popular, but I believe that the sickest and most vulnerable deserve to have headlines of their own as well. 
Yes terrorists are evil , but we should forget that out own Governments in order to govern, has been allowed to get away with murder, punishment and spite, directed against the most vulnerable. 
My heart goes out to all victims. May they all get the justice they deserve. 
Campaigners voices continually must be heard.

Brussels blast.

Sad to hear  that at least  26 have died and many injured after blasts erupted in Brussels airport this morning. This comes  after last weeks arrest of main suspect in the deadly Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam.
This attack part of a nihilistic movement that many are calling fascist in nature. Carried out by those with a warped negative view of humanity. Seeking not justice, but apocalypse and destruction.  Seeking it seems  to spread ethnic hatred against one another,  trying to create deeper divisions over an ever fractured continent.
We must truly stand in solidarity, literally, side  by side, with the victims, in unity with all  forces who  fight the ideology of ISIS on whatever front. We must repel  this death cult, keep searching for answers,  these  forces of fascism can not be allowed to win. Condemn this indiscriminate use of violence as a way of achieving their ends. Acknowledge that many of the victims  of these atrocities are ordinary working class people, from  diverse backgrounds, and that this is indefensible. We must also extend our full solidarity to any who face possible racist attack, as a result of some sort of backlash. We must not allow civil liberties to  be lost in exchange for a false sense of security and justice.
 This  latest incident is horrible and very sad, so  lets hope that we can break the cycle rather than allow this to become the new normal.  Sadly though  the enemy is to be found within every country. We must not  forget that bombs do not discriminate,  daily bombs fall in Ankara, Turkey, in many other places too, too numerable to mention, all  human lives lost, matter too. The flag filters of tragedy does not just come to European countries.  Somehow we are France, and Belgium, but sometimes forget to be  Nigeria, Palestine, Lebanon, Ivory Coast, Burkino Faso, etc etc. All life is equal, all life matters.
We must not turn the blame, and the hatred  and use it on  refugees , fleeing the same evil, plus our own bombs, (in their own country's) this is their suffering too and is not just happening today, but everyday. 
My heart goes out to the family and friends of the dead and wounded. Let us pray for all humanity, the world is in chaos. 

Remember both  of those below want to eliminate  the grey zone

Golden oldie :- Glenda Jackson's speech about Iain Duncan Smith and the DWP

Glenda Jackson's superb  speech about Ian Duncan Smith and the DWP, 2014. Where she cut through the crap, so perfectly. We do not forget  that IDS , as Glenda said " plunged thousands and thousands of our citizens into the most abject penury." A woman of honor among the swine. Lets not forget  that their is no such thing as compassionate conservatism they are all just a set of ideological vandalizers hell bent on the destruction of our welfare state. Intent on carrying out their unfair policies. People are finnally joing the dots, it does not add up, this long economic plan of pain is not what the people ordered.
Their austerity medicine is simply not working, and in IDS's resignation all they have done is replace one man who hounded the sick, the disabled and vulnerable with another, who will do more the less exactly the same.
Anyway currently the conservatives are divided over whether to be bastards or utter bastards.
Currently tearing themselves apart, which is  good to see, because at the end of the day it could be just what this country needs.
I guess too, that it is time to forget about IDS, move on,  and go out and get Stephen Crabb

who now takes on the mantle of chief benefit cutter. Who  is an unashamed  fan of Margaret Thatcher, who owes everything to David Cameron and will now be expected to do his masters bidding. Because he was bought up in poverty on a council estate, he now acts like he has a divine right to batter those that he left behind.
He has said there will be no more welfare savings in THIS Parliament saying " We will not be going ahead with changes to PIP that had been put forward. I am absolutely clear  that a compassionate and fair welfare system should not be just about numbers. Behind every statistic is a human being and perhaps sometimes in government we forget that."
Call me cynical but I am not a great believer in compassionate conservatism, not a bit. The people of Pembrokeshire  have been fed up with him for a while, and if he has decided not to resign his post as Pembrokeshire patron for MENCAP by April 2nd will be holding a demonstration outside his office in Haverfordwest and gather and demand that he resigns his post. Many believe that as an M.P  that he has also failed to represent his constituents and has just instead consistently voted for his party, such a Tory loyalist he is.
The Tory's are no friends of democracy though, more than any government in history they have attempted to use their power to weaken opposition, see their moves on Trade Union funding, voter registration, boundary changes, and political party funding. Time and time again they have demonstrated that their are no tricks so low that they will not consider.
Call me cynical, but I do not believe in the versions of compassionate conservatism that have been sprouting forth in the last few days, not a bit of it.
Now is the time to keep undermining the heart of the Tory party and keep pushing the message that there is an alternative to austerity. Who knows the Tory's game  might be up,  lets keep  pushing and fighting back. We have not got a moment to lose.

5 Reasons Why Ian Duncan Smith's Resignation Could End Austerity

When the news headlines are the ' crisis ' in the tory party  you know it's a good day already,  a time  that I for one release a mighty smile. As for compassionate Conservatism. Their is no such thing. Their all grubby pocket-lining  trough snouters.
Here's 5 reasons  why Ian Duncan Smith's resignation letter could end austerity.

1. Ian Duncan Smiths resignation letter attacked Osborne's claim that 'we are all in it together.' Osbornes budget  cut £3000 a year from disabled people to pay for tax cuts from the rich.


2. His letter also revealed that  Tory cuts were ' distinctly political rather  than in the national economic interest.'  Finally killing the myth that austerity  is about helping the economy.

3. Osbornes  austerity has been  shown to be failing  on its own terms. He has missed his own targets  on investment, debt and balancing the books.

4. Tory M.Ps and the general public have joined IDS in attacking these cuts. A poll  showed that fewer British people than ever believe Government cuts are necessary.

5. Support  for an alternative anti-austerity  message is now much stronger than the Tories message. It seems that the British public is finally waking up to the fact that ideological austerity is one big con. A socially and destructive one designed to transfer wealth form the majority of people to the super rich minority. We must continue to oppose the Tories damaging toxic policies, and make the case  for an economy  in which prosperity is shared by all. 

Share to expose the truth about austerity.

The Paris Commune of 1871

On  this day March 18th, 1871, artisans and communists, labourers and anarchists took over the city of Paris and established the Paris Commune.
This radical experiment in socialist self government lasted 72 days before being violently  being crushed in a brutal massacre that established France's Third republic. This rebellion  would shake the foundations of European society to the core, the people rising up against a despised and detested government and its  its capitalist rulers  proclaiming  the city an  independent municipality, belonging to itself .  a commune where they would directly and collectively manage their society through new institutions and voluntary associations of their own creation. It would mark the first major experience of the proletariat seizing  political power. Taking charge of their own destiny.
The Paris Commune  was  the high point  in the surge  of the workers movement also expressed in the First International  founded in 1867. Ideologically charged, with lots of division, the backlash following the defeat of the Commune, also broke up the International in 1872, which would see it splitting into  two factions; Marxist and Anarchist. The leading  figures  on the two sides were Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin.
Both Marx and Bakunin supported and hailed the Commune - unlike some English trade unionists in the International, who recoiled in horror. Bakunin and his followers would use the word 'commune' a  lot saying  that the state could  be immediately abolished by transforming society into a federation of free communes. The Paris  Commune  reflected anarchist ideas of community control, workers associations and confedorations, and suprisingly at the time Karl Marx strongly embraced the Commune, writing at the time he said " Working men's Paris, with  its commune,  will be forever celebrated as the glorious harbinger of a new society. It's martyr's are enshrined in the great heart of  the working class."
Since then the Paris Commune has been thus variously described as either Anarchist or Socialist  depending on the ideology of the commentator.  It still fills me with much cause for celebration and inspiration as the Commune had put forward a  radical social agenda that included seperation of Church and State, womens suffrage, abolition of  interest on debts and worker self-management.
From March 18 to 28 May the two million  residents of Paris ran their city as an autonomous commune, establishing 43 worker co-operatives,  and advocated for a federation  of revolutionary communes across France, establishing an 8 hour day,and began to regulate workers wages and contracts, abolishing fines for workers, giving them compensation, this was truly a government who put the interest of workers first . It also aimed to make education free, opening up culture for the people, formerly the sole property of the wealthy, opening reading rooms in hospitals to make life pleasant for those sick. Paris was filled with life, ideas and enthusiasm , though their city was  under siege, attempts made to starve  and break the will of the people surrounded by a hostile army.
Peter Kropotkin later enthused "Under  the name of the Paris Commune,  a new idea was born, to become a starting point for future revolutions.' But many others thoughts that the Paris Commune did not go far enough .
Anyway the French government was not going to tolerate this radicalism in its capital, and finally the French army  marched from Versailles, but retaking the city would prove to be difficult, the communards would hold out for several weeks. The revolutionaries had built 600 barricades around the city which had to be cleared one by one. The French army finally entered Paris on May 21 and crushed the movement by May 28. Paris burned and was drowned in blood , the  estimate of Parisian civilians killed usually tally's to be around 20,000, many died on the barricades. The leaders of the Commune might have had faults  but for all their mistakes , they chose to fight to the end alongside  the other workers.  At the Pere Lachaise Cemetery the French army lined up and executed 147 Commune members. Around 6000 communards  fled as the fighting doomed their experiment, fleeing to surrounding  nations.
Since then  both Communists, left wing societies,  socialists, anarchists and others have see the Commune as a model for a  prefiguration of a liberated society, with a political system based on participatory democracy from the grass roots up. It is a story of possibility not failure, evidence that points to the seeds of building an alternative society. The people of Paris began the fight for a new world, I guess it's up to us to finish the task.

further reading :- The Paris Commune: Revolution and counter revolution in Paris 1870 -1871

https://libcom.org/history/paris-commune-revolution-counterrevolution-paris-1870-1871

                                Communards at the barricades.

                     
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George Osborne's budget.

Budget 2016: Income Tax cuts will see the richest benefit by benefit,  but the poor again  left with less.
George Osborne delivered  a bitter sweet budget as he announced a surprise tax on fizzy drinks but slash public spending while  handing the rich a massive tax cut. This budget no different to his other seven,  simply allowing his business  pals to enjoy tax breaks that allow them to dodge billions in corporation tax, and the super rich  again enjoying lower rates of income tax.
His budget he maintained also was ' a budget that puts the next generation first.' but what the next generation will inherit will be the shadow of a welfare state that once enabled people from disadvantaged backgrounds to survive. 
Furthermore a third of his budget cuts will come from disability benefits, as the Chancellor revoltingly informed us that he had made a conscious decision to save £ 4.4 by cruelly cutting Personal Independence Payments  (PIP) to 640,000 by 2020. 
The sight of Osborne being mauled and petted by his chums  was pretty nauseating too. But in one of his strongest  performances at  the disbatch box,  the labor leader Jeremy Corbyn responded well  ( not that their are not faults in his policies) in recognising  that the  buget had 'unfairness to it's core''
He said " The budget the chancellor has delivered is actually the culmination of six years of his failures. It is a recovery  built on sand on  and a budget of failure. He's failed  on the budget deficit, failed  on debt, failed on investment,  failed on productivity, failed on trade deficit, failed on the welfare cap, failed to tackle inequality in this country.
Going on to say :-
' This budget has unfairness  at its very core, paid for those who can least afford  it. He could not have made  his priorities clearer - while 500,000  people with disabilities  are losing  over £1bn in PIP, corporation tax is being cut and billions handed out in tax cuts to the very wealthy."

Yes, at the end of the day this budget is a total disaster for the most vulnerable  people in the UK, but 100 billion left for trident  which could have cut the NHS hole  and help end austerity and help the poor and needy and pay poor tax payers back , the money stolen by the Tory's to bail the banksters out. 
Oh and a little less cleavage on the Tory front bench would have been much appreciated too,  vent over, think I'll go and have a wee drink, the stronger the better. 

Jeremy Corbyn's   response to budget here:-

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Remembering Rachel Corrie ( 10/4/79 - 16/3/03 )

It has become customary to mark the passing of  Rachel Aliene Corrie a 23 year old American Peace activist  from Olympia, Washington who was crushed to death by an Israeli military, caterpiller D 912 bulldozer in 2003, while undertaking non-violent direct action trying to protect the home of a Palestinian family from demolition in Rafah in the Gaza strip.
Justice has never been served for her, along with others killed under the Israeli occupation.
Today I reflect upon Rachel's brave stand in Gaza 13 years ago today and her courage to resist and all  those who continue to live and struggle there. And all those passionate changemakers across the globe who each day act with conscience and work tirelessly to try and make a difference.
Currently in the city of Cardiff one of the UK's biggest arms fairs has come,to visit  I applaud all those now trying to shut this awful event down. People saying no to business people  profiteering from mass murder, displacement and torture. Exhibitors include BAE systems, the worlds 3rd largest arms  producer  whose weapons are currently being used in the Saudi attacks on Yemen.
When the rich make war it is the poor that die.
Remember that what is happening in Palestine is no inexplicable cycle of violence where each side is as bad as one another,. It is no more than an equal  cycle of violence as seen in apartheid South Africa. 
Being against it is not anti-Jewish  anymore than being against a British governments military aggression marks you as as anti-British. Rachel Corrie understood these links and connections and would have known about an active Israeli peace movement, and of the hundreds  of Israeli soldiers who refuse to serve in the occupied territories, many of whom have been jailed for their stance. Israel has invaded Palestinian land in breach of international law. Rachel died while attempting to prevent a demolition of a home, a common practice of the Israeli army's collective punishment that has left more than 12,000 Palestinians homeless since the beginning of the second uprising in September 2000. A practice that violates International Law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention.
So here's to the memory and bravery of Rachel Corrie  a true American hero.

http://www.rachelcorrie.org

https://www.stopthearmsfair.org.uk

...

Opposing Child Detainees in Occupied Palestine Territories

I have for a number  of years now, sadly heard of random, and night time arrests of young children in Occupied Palestinian Territories that have resulted in unethical trial procedures and poor conditions in military detentions and aftercare. It has concerned me greatly.
Figures for the number of Palestinian children detained in Israeli jails varies greatly, but by October 2015 there have been reports,  that 171 children were being detained. A month later, nearly 800 Palestinian children ( and minors under the age of 18 ) had been arrested and the number of children in Israeli gaols had risen to nearly 340. Most of the detained children were from occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as arrests made in Gaza.
In  June 20012,  a delegation of nine UK lawyers published a Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCU) funded, independent report ( " Children in Military Custody" )  on the plight of  Palestinian children arrested and detained in Israel. The report found that Israel's treatment of Palestinian child prisoners was in breach pf Article 76 of the Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War ( concerning occupied territories and several articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The  report made 43 recommendations and the UK Government, at the time promised to take up the issues  with the Israeli Government:-
http://www.childreninmilitarycustody.org.uk/report/
Back in 2013, Israel submitted a periodic report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which set out to monitor the implementation of the Convention. The Committee responded in June 2013 saying that  it regretted Israel's :-

" persistent refusal to provide information and data and to respond to the Committees's written questions of children living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory."

Many children   detained are denied access  to a lawyer and are not entitled to family visits,  furthermore hardly any education is provided, which is in contravention   of the Geneva Convention  and multiple human rights treaties. For adults detention can be stressful and dangerous, but for children can be even more so. Many  sentenced or incarcenated because of suspicion of throwing stones, or releasing frustration in defiance of the Israeli armies illegal occupation. Detained children exhibiting symptoms of trauma, injustice, mistrust of others, combined with feelings of helplessness and worthlessness., OCD, disorder, hostility and aggression, withdrawal and lack of motivation.
I have written to my own M.P expressing my concerns, it is good to report that  he is in agreement at the the injustice of this situation, I would urge you to keep  pressuring your own individual representatives to do more to rectify this situation and  move more in pursuit of peace and justice.
Lets not forget that Israel remains a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child , which among other provisions requires; " that a child not be compelled to give testimony or to confess or acknowledge guilt." and clearly states that detention or arrest should be used as a lat resort.
The use of interrogation techniques of mental and physical abuse that include threats of intimidation  and physical violence must end, this continual violation of children's rights, that the international community must continue to speak out against in order to demand justice and accountability. Seeking to challenge Israels prolonged military occupation of Palestinians , demanding immediate protections for Palestinian children currently held in Israeli military detention where ill-treatment and torture is widespread and systematic.
Until the day that Israel stops its stubborn continual violation of international law with regards to Palestinian child prisoners and detainees.
Detainment and imprisonment will only serve to keep the cycle of violence and fear in this region ongoing that in the end securitises children, we must continue to speak for them, as conscious , right bearing subjects, that have the seeds of the future in their pockets.
As long as Israel avoids international accountability that human rights groups are urging , children will  unfortunately continue to bear the brunt of the escalating violence that Israel uses to maintain its occupation, that offers no everlasting hope.