Tuesday 22 November 2016

Phone Pest



(Increasingly I am being bombarded at home on telephone by cold callers, asking me to respond to lifestyle surveys, despite being ex directory, and not being subscribed to any of their services. This is a poetical response.)
 
I lose my head often in the midst of thought
I feel no sudden loss or unexplained pain
The telephone rings, disconnects the silence
Are they tapping into my attitude
As I lose my resolve in the middle of day
Answer a cold caller going by the name
                                                   of pest.

Good day sir, he says
I'm with opinion research
I would like to ask you a few questions
It will only take a few minutes
And then we will be done
Promise wont ring again
But its never really that simple
Because once bitten, they return again
Usually at a time of most inconvenience.


I simply have no urge to participate
Or time to lose my patience
Its just another boring distraction
They want to know what I consume
What  flipping things I like the most
As the world continues to burn.


But there's nothing new to be said
I tell them not to worry or fret
Try not to lose too much sleep
Every day is full of surprises
Consumer lifestyle choices
Really are not my bag.


In the face of social decay and vast corporations
Eating away at the future of humanity
There's enough pesky problems in the world
From birth to death, bitter pills to taste
So please can you stop pestering me
as the phone line goes dead, peace is restored.

This poem can also be  found at I am not a silent poet

https://iamnotasilentpoet.wordpress.com/2016/11/22/phone-pest-by-dave-rendle/ 

Monday 21 November 2016

Indian Givers - Neil Young ( Live Soundtrack Native American Oil Pipeline Protest)



Answering the call by Neil Young to "Share the News" - this video was compiled to do just that - fill in the void left by the media's lack of comprehensive coverage of this most troubling and dangerous situation.As he has done for more than a half century, Neil Young has answered the calls for help from the Sioux Tribe. "Indian Givers" was written and recorded within hours in reply to the encroachment on sacred native lands by oil companies planning to lay a pipeline.
(The music used here is from a live performance in Pomona, California by Neil Young and Promise of the Real.)
This would cross sacred burial grounds and the largest water aquifer in the United States. This also is in direct opposition to a treaty that the Sioux received from the U.S. government.People now standing up, resisting corporations , protecting turtle island  and mother earth, peacefully and unarmed water protectors facing daily police brutality.Water is life, we stand together, we share the news.
Meanwhile when  the whole wide world was watching - Hundreds of water protectors were injured at the Standing Rock encampments when law enforcement blasted them with water cannons in freezing temperatures Sunday evening. The attack came as water protestors used a semi-truck to remove burnt military vehicles that police had chained to concrete barriers weeks ago, blocking traffic on Highway 1806. Water protectors' efforts to clear the road and improve access to the camp for emergency services were met with tear gas, an LRAD ( Long Range Acoustic Device), stinger grenades, rubber bullets; and indiscriminate use of a water cannon with an air temperature of 26 degrees Faranheit. Some flares shot by law enforcement started grass fires which were ignored by the water cannons and had to be extinguished by water protectors. Law enforcement also shot down three media drones and targeted journalists with less lethal rounds.
Read More here :-

http://sacredstonecamp.org/blog/2016/11/21/water-cannons-fired-at-water-protectors-in-freezing-temperatures-injure-hundreds


"Indian Givers" - Neil Young

There's a battle raging on the sacred land
Our brothers and sisters had to take a stand
Against us now for what we all been doin'
On the sacred land there's a battle brewin'

I wish somebody would share the news
I wish somebody would share the news
I wish somebody would share the news

Now it's been about 500 years
We keep taking what we gave away
Just like what we call Indian givers
It makes you sick and gives you shivers

I wish somebody would share the news
I wish somebody would share the news
I wish somebody would share the news
I wish somebody would share the news

Big money going backwards and ripping the soil
Where graves are scattered and blood was boiled
When all who look can see the truth
But they just move on and keep their groove

I wish somebody would share the news
I wish somebody would share the news
I wish somebody would share the news

Saw Happy locked to the big machine
They had to cut him loose and you know what that means
That's when Happy went to jail
Behind big money justice always fails

I wish somebody would share the news
I wish somebody would share the news
I wish somebody would share the news
I wish somebody would share the news

Bring back the days when good was good
Lose these imposters in our neighborhood
Across our farms and through our waters
All at the cost of our sons and squaw daughters
Yeah our brave sons and daughters
We're all here together fighting poison waters
Standing against the evil way
That's what we have at the end of day

I wish somebody would share the news
I wish somebody would share the news
I wish somebody would share the news
I wish somebody would share the news

Global BDS Week of Action Against Hewlett Packard HP November 25 - December 3



The BDS movement, in partnership with other organisations including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign are calling for an international week of action against Hewlett Packard over its role in Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land. The week of action will take place November 25-December 3, which includes the UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on November 29.
Hewlett Packard split into two companies, HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), last year, and two more spin-offs are projected. The various HP companies share certain logistical infrastructure, governance, supply chains, and technologies with one another, and they all draw on the HP brand’s long history of close connections with the Israeli military and occupation.They may be best-known for their laptops and printers, but they also profit from Israel's illegal occupation and oppression of Palestinians.Hewlett Packard is the second largest investor in Israeli Information Technology (IT). Their biometric system is used for control and surveillance of the Palestinian population both inside Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories. HP provides services and technology for Modi'in Illit and Ariel, two of the largest illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. HP's Basel system is installed at Israeli military checkpoints in the occupied West Bank. HP supplies computer systems for the Israeli Ministry of Defense and provides IT infrastructure for the Israeli Navy, thereby helping enforce the illegal blockade of Gaza, they also provide  for Israel's discriminatory checkpoint  and ID card systems; and  continue to profit from Israeli prisons where7,000 Palestinian political prisoners are held where use of torture is systematic.
While claiming to uphold values of social responsibility, HP companies are notorious for involvement in oppressive practices worldwide,HP also contracts with US prisons and Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement (ICE), enabling deportation, mass incarceration, and solitary confinement in America. It is is high time HP withdrew from their contracts with Israel – and stopped profiting from discrimination, occupation and human rights abuses, so from the United Kingdom to Malaysia, from the United States to Italy, from Germany to Palestine, organizations in cities worldwide are organizing campaigns and actions to hold HP accountable, and so can you. The Palestinian BDS National Committee and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights have launched an international pledge. I personally will not be buying anything from HP for the forseeable future unless they clean up their act and stop profiteering daily from Palestinian humiliation.

Please Click here to sign the pledge.

We call on Hewlett Packard companies -- including HP Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and all spin-offs -- to end all participation in the brutal oppression of the Palestinian people and other targeted communities worldwide. We pledge not to purchase products -- including printers, computers, and ink -- from complicit HP companies, and we call on retailers, universities, schools, faith communities, investment funds, municipalities, governments, trade unions, and other institutions to boycott and divest from HP companies until they cancel all contracts that supply Israel with technology, equipment, and information used in its ongoing violations of Palestinian rights and international law.

Join the Global BDS Week of Action :
Protest HP Nov 25 - Dec 3, 2016

 https://www.palestinecampaign.org/events/international-week-action-hp/



Sunday 20 November 2016

Jose Buenaventura Durruti ( 14/7/1896 - 20/10/36) - A New World in our Hearts



"  We  have always  loved in slums and holes in the wall. We will  know how to accommodate ourselves for  time. For you must not forget we can also build. It is we who built the palaces and cities here in Spain and America and everywhere. We the workers, can build others to take their place. And better ones. We are not in the  least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth. There is  not the slightest  doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world, here in our hearts. That world is growing every minute."

Spain, Aragon , 1936

With forty years of  fighting, of exile, of jailings, of living underground, of strikes, and of insurrection, Beunaventura Durutti, the  legendary Spanish revolutionary and Anarchist lived many lives. Uncompromising, intransigent revolutionary, he travelled a long road from rebellious young worker to the man who refused all bureacratic positions, honours, awards, and who at death was mourned by millions of women and men. Durutti believed and lived his belief that revolution and freedom were inseperable. 
He was born the son of a railway worker on July 14th 1896 in Leon, a city in central Spain. Aged 14 he leaves school to become a trainee mechanic in the railway yard. Like his father, he joins the socialist UGT union. He takes an active part in the strike of August 1917 when the government overturned an agreement between the union and the employers. This soon became a general strike throughout the area. The government brought in the army and within three days the strikers had been crushed. The troops behaved with extreme brutality, killing 70 and wounding 500 workers. 2,000 strikers were jailed. 
Durruti managed to escape to France, where he came into contact with exiled anarchists, whose influence led to him joining the anarchist CNT union upon his return in January 1919. He joins the fight against dictatorial employers in the Asturian mines and is arrested for the first time in March 1919; he escapes and over the next decade and a half he throws himself into activity for the CNT and for the anarchist movement. 
These years see him involved in several strikes and being forced into exile. Unwittingly the Spanish government ‘exported’ rebellion, as Durruti and his close friend Francisco Ascaso happily joined the struggle for freedom wherever they ended up, in both Europe and Latin America. 
The Spanish monarchy fell in 1931 and Durruti moved to Barcelona; accompanied by his French companion Emilienne, pregnant with their daughter Colette. He joined the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI), a specifically anarchist organization, and together with other militants they form the ‘Nosotros’ group. These were members within the CNT of a radical tendency that harboured no illusions with respect to the recently proclaimed Republic, maintaining that the moment was ripe for continued progress towards a social revolution. 
With the electoral victory by the liberal/reformist Popular Front in February 1936, Left and Right were on a collision course, initiated very rapidly by Franco’s military rebellion on July 19th 1936. The CNT and the FAI confronted the army with courage, organization and mass mobilizations. 
They triumphed in much of Spain despite the fascist superiority in weapons and resources. The anarchist contribution was decisive in resisting the fascists throughout the country and in Catalonia defeated the rebels singlehandedly, Durruti being one of the boldest fighters in this battle.
 Jose Buenaventura Durruti, always fought for the poor and downtrodden, and against the State, whether of the social democratic, fascist or marxist varieties When Spanish fascists attempted to overthrow  the  Republican government on July 19th 1936, Durruti and other comrades helped put down the uprising in Barclenoa. He became a member of  the Anti fascist Militia Committee and led the "Durruti" Column an almost  mythical  group of CNT militants to the  Zaragoza front. The Durruti column was able to liberate  much of Aragon. He  was an inspiration to many as a partisan of the Spanish people with an internationalist vision, who for him personally revolutionary thought and action went hand in hand. 
In 1936, after the liberation of Aragon from Franco's forces, Durruti was interviewed by Pierre van Paasen of the Toronto Star. In this interview he gives his views on Fascism, government and social revolution despite the fact that his remarks have only been reported in English - and were never actually written down by him in his native Spanish, well worth reading and can be found here https://libcom.org/history/buenaventura-durruti-interview-pierre-van-paasen 
 On 14th November Durutti arrived in Madrid at the height of the  civil war from Aragon,by air with 5,000 men( numbers vary according to different accounts). The column had to go by train as all the railway tracks had been bombed. He went  to the frontline on the 16th.
Tragically Durruti on the 19th November  1936, he was shot  by a sniper, receiving a bullet to his chest, as he rallied his militia  to continue their resistance after days of fighting without respite. he died the following day, at the age of 40.  His death was a tragedy for all free thinkers, in the fight against fascist tyranny. His death was also a turning point in the Spanish Revolution and one of the events that lead to the defeat of the revolution. 
When his body was returned to Barcelona  over 500,000  people took to the streets on November 22 1936  to follow his funeral procession, the  biggest funeral in Spanish history, a tribute to the place he played in peoples hearts, his coffin draped with the familiar diagonal red and black flag. A hero to the Spanish working class ,and today  Durruti remains a lasting icon of anarchism, both in Spain and around the world, a man who.was determined to leave this world a better place than when he entered it. With the rise again of the far right, no better  time than to remember this inspirational man who died fighting against fascism in the Spanish Civil War.Many years later "we carry a new world, here in our hearts."


                        
Durruti's grave at Montjuïc Cemetery, Barcelona

Further reading:-

Daniel Guerin - No Gods, no masters; 2006

Durruti - The people Armed - Abel Paz

Durruti in the Spanish Revolution - Abel Paz 

Spanish Civil War  (1936-37) (Buenaventura Durruti)




The film above shows the period of revolution that gave in Spain in the years of civil war, and  highlights the hero killed by the bourgeoisie (Buenaventura Durruti).

Living Utopia - The Anarchists and the Spanish  Revolution


 
 Living Utopia is a unique documentary that blends the historical account of the origins and development of the Spanish anarchist movement, focussing on the 1936 war. A reflection on the philosophical underpinnings of such a movement and their practical application. As both an informative and inspiring piece of research it is considered a jewel amongst historians and rebel hearts.
This documentary-film by Juan Gamero consists of 30 interviews with survivors of the 1936-1939 Spanish Revolution, and is one of the best documentaries dealing with the theme. The testimony of the anarchist militants are very moving indeed, and are showing the constructive work of the social revolution in Spain. This "Anarchy in Action" meant: on the land around 7 million peasants form collectives, in the city 3000 workplaces collectivised, 150 000 join the anarchist militias to fight fascism, as well as cultural activities and the movement of the Mujeres Libres to free the women from patriarchy.

Spanish with english subtitles


Saturday 19 November 2016

Joel Hill ( 7/10/1879 - 19/11/15) - Gone but not forgotten.



On 19 November 1915: Swedish songwriter, cartoonist and itinerent worker, Joel Emanuel Hagglund, aka Joe Hill, was executed by firing squad in Salt Lake City, Utah, for a crime he didn't commit. Joe was an organiser and songsmith for the anarcho-synicalist Industrial Workers of the World. The Wobblies as IWW members were called, were unrepentant revolutionaries, calling for ' one big union' and for the overthrow of capitalism.
Swedish born, he emigrated  to New York aged 23, with his brother Paul, after the death of his parents, spending his time as a wandering itinerant and musical troubadour, engaging in the struggles of his time, hopping from one freight train to the next, working as a labourer, washer of dishes, sweeper of floors, moving cargo on docks, picking crops and working in construction. He was later to adopt the name Joe Hill after being blacklisted after trying to start  a union in Chicago.
Joe Hill active in the Labour movement  throughout his live,he would go to Mexico at the time of the revolution in 1911, fighting with his comrades under a red flag like the true rebel that he was, tryng to overthrow the dictator Porfirio Diaz. Next stop onto San Diego in 1912vto support fellow workers protesting against police banning of street meetings. Then onto British Columbia helping organise a national construction strike, then on to San Pedro to help dockworkers. Joe saw his music as a weapon in the class war, composing songs to be sung on soapboxes, picket lines or in jail.Hill had taken popular songs of the day and inserted his own lyrics,satirical, irreverent, often humorous,commenting on the plight of the working class in America. 
He would inspire many, his fellow workers and comrades, but to the bosses he was someone to be feared, someone they considered dangerous, he was in their eyes a marked man. 
In January 1914, he was arrested in Salt Lake City on trumped up charges and accused of murder. On the evening of 10th January 1914 in Utah  he sought medical treatment for gunshot wounds, he claimed they had been inflicted upon him after quarrel with a man over a woman, and refused to elaborate anymore, earlier that evening in another part of town, a grocer and his son had been shot and killed. One of the assailants was wounded, so Hill's injury  implicated  him in the incident. Yet despite the uncertainty of witnesses, no one coming forward to identify him as one of the assailants at the scene of the crime no blood of Hills found at the scene a local jury was convinced of his guilt. No physical  evidence linking him to the murder he was accused of.
He was scheduled to be shot by firing squad,  this  caused outrage across the world.  an international campaign to exonerate him was launched, from Britain to other European countries and even President Woodrow Wilson calling for a retrial.  Those looking at the case eventually declared its willingness to hear testimony from the woman's husband, but Hill loyally  refused to identify his alleged assailant in case it damaged the reputation of the lady involved.
Sadly the eventual day came and he was executed and shot down by firing squad on this day 19th November 1915. 
Whilst waiting his execution he wrote the following words which were later turned into song :-

My will is easy to decide
for I have nothing to divide
My kin don't need to weep and moan
Moss does not cling to a rolling stone
My body?  oh, If I could choose
I would to ashes it reduce
And let the merry breeze blow
My dust to where some flowers grow
Perhaps some fading flower then
Would soon grow up and grow green again
This is my last and final will
Good luck to all of you, Joe Hill

In his final letter to IWW leader Bill Haywood he wrote: "Goodbye Bill. I die like a true blue rebel. Don't waste any time in mourning. Organize."
He died proclaiming  his innocence and just before he was assassinated  in reply  to a question if he had anything further to say he answered "Fire" unfortunately they did.
Up to 30,000 people would attend his funeral, he was subsequently cremated and his ashes divided into 600 envelopes, that were sent to IWW branches across the globe. From his conviction  to his death he became an icon for workers everywhere,  and his subsequent  execution sent echoes around the world. For many his spirit and his legacy lives on.


The Ballad of Joe Hill - Phil Ochs

Make Royals Pay for Palace Renovation.


Yesterday it was announced that the royal residence of Buckingham Palace is to undergo a major  refurbishment to the whopping estimated cost of £389 million,at a time when there is a national housing crisis, the NHS is in crisis, austerity is forcing cuts in many front line services.
In these hard times  how many hungry mouths could be fed, instead of wasting it on these parasites.Currently Liz and her family are currently extremely wealthy individuals living rent-free, whilst many of the Queen's subjects are increasingly finding it hard to get by. Britain is going through a time of national economic and social stress due to Brexit, austerity and so on.The Conservative Government currently imposing a draconian, financially-crippling sanction system on jobseekers because they don’t want to pay any money to people who are out of work and simply don’t care if those people come to harm as a result.I'm sure the oldest and most vulnerable in our society are happy Liz is having her house refurbished at tax payers expense, when they cant afford to heat their homes or put enough nutritional meals on the table.Over a million Brits were forced into using foodbanks last year, the NHS is in ".5bn of debt, with hospital chiefs warning us its capacity is stretched to breaking point.And if the public wasn't angry enough already, despite their being no money in the pot for a collapsing NHS, the government have managed to find an extra £389 million down the back of sofa for repairs to flipping Liz's 775 extravagant pad.
The royals think Buckingham Palace is theirs to use and ours to pay for,but its time they were told to look after the buildings themselves, raise their own revenue to fund maintenance or time for them to give the palace back to the people. It would probably be far less expensive to actually  knock the run down building down, it is not fit for purpose anyway , a relic of another age, Liz does not even spend much time there anyway, over at her other modest pads, windsor or balmoral. We could alternatively replace it  and build much needed affordable social houses on the site and simply abolish the monarchy at huge savings to the whole country and the public purse. It's not even the most beautiful building to look at , just an extravagant untidy mess.
In terms of public  perception. the timing of this announcement could not have been worse,thousands of  people seem to think,that it is the royals themselves who should foot the bill for Her Maj’s luxury pad.A petition suggesting The Crown and its estates should pay for the renovations has received just shy of 15,000 backers. I would urge you sign it , the British monarchy have sponged of us long  enough. While they keep  receiving more free money from tax payers while there are cuts to NHS, cuts to ESA and other disability benefits, homelessness and poverty are rife and we are told this is austerity. This  latest announcement is immoral and obscene.It is vile that we are even considering this at all. Public money should not be wasted away for this purpose when there are so many more pressing needs of much more deserving urgency. Whatever your beliefs about the monarchy, it is a slap in the face to know that due to financial mismanagement within the Royal Household that  their buildings have fallen into such states of disrepair. It is time to stop using public money to prop up them up,the decision to give away our money wasn’t actually  made by the royals ,it was made by Theresa May and her Conservative Government, their handing the royals £396m for a makeover of Buckingham palace is simply scandulous and outrageous.
The Queen using some of her vast wealth to pay for the upkeep of the Palace - would be an act that I could support and one that would create greater national unity.I just don't want the funds to come out of benefits for pensioners struggling to pay heating bills, single-parent families, funds for the NHS etc at this difficult time.

Friday 18 November 2016

Today We Sing (Project Zouqaq)


Today We Sing (Project Zouqaq)

Inspiring music video from the Gaza strip which allows us to see this place from a different perspective. In this place where electricity flows for just eight hours each day, in this open prison where 1.8 million Palestinians are  now contained. Many young Gazan musicians and singers  are starved of permanent performance spaces,but despite bombardment, explosions, rockets, violence, struggle, terror, borders, all these restrictions, increasingly many are now using the internet ,when  that is they can access it ,to display their talents and share their messages of hope, peace and freedom to the world. Awesome. May they keep on singing.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arSHRKBXOxU&app=desktop

Director
Yousef Nateel
Art Supervisor
Abd Alrahman Alsabbah
Director of photography
Hussien Jaber
Camera Cast
Hussien Jaber
Khalid Tuaima
Youssif Almashharawi
Camera Assistant
Marwan Alsawaf
Mohammed Nateel
Khalil Nateel
Drone
Rushdi Alsarraj
Editing
Yousef Nateel
Color Correction & Grading
Mahmoud Abu Zayda
Music arrangement
Mohammed Salem
Music Supervision
Alaa Shublaq
Mohammed Albaz
Mixing and Mastering
Ali Aljojo
Recorded at
Mashael Studio
Oud Player
Mussa Abu ZanounaReem AnbarGuitaristMohammed AlbazAya Mghamis
Cajon DrumSaid Fadel
Performers by order
Khaled Abu Ramadan
Ameer Abu Mualiq - CAMP’S SON
Mahmoud Salman - INTIFADA
Iyad Zorob - RIOTS
Mohammed Lafi - RIOTS
Zina Abu Al Ouf
Abd El Monem Awad AKA FAWDA
Mahmoud Almughrabi – Almughrabi
Mohammed Alaidi – Handala
Sari Ibrahim
Ayman Mghamis – Abu Joury
Hadeel Fawzi
Mohammed Albaz
General Supervisor & Coordinator
Ayman Mghamis aka Abu Joury
Special Thanks
Montaser Alsabe
Hazem Alabyad
Hussein Owda
Anas Alnajjar
Mohammed Almadhoun
Fares Anbar
Special Thanks To Marna House Hotel
Produced by
Riksteatern logo
Funded by
Postkodlotteriet logo

Executive Producer
SKILLS MEDIA PRODUCTION
HARDY SKILLS Group
© 2016