The rapper Kayne West dominated the news last Thursday due to his odd meeting with President Donald Trump.But a few hours before the rapper arrived at the White House in a “Make
America Great Again” cap and spouted off a 10-minute rant in which he explained why he supported Trump. a poem, composed in March 2015 titled “Kanye West Is Not
Picasso," emerged by Leonard Cohen, the revered singer, songwriter, poet who died last year at the age of 82, in which he scathingly disses West from beyond the grave.
It comes from The Flame a posthumous collection of poetry written in the months before his death, it showcases Cohen's full range of lyricism, combining poetry, illustrations and writings. Written in March 2015 in the poem mentioned he takes issue with the Hip Hop stars boastful nature who once declared on stage in 2013, of being the famed Cubist painter from Spain.
“I am Picasso!” adding for good
measure: “I am Michelangelo! I am Basquiat! I am Walt Disney! I am Steve Jobs.
After Amanda Shires tweeted the Canadian songsmith’s 21-line poem it went viral receiving over 3,000 likes. “Kanye West is not Picasso/ I am Picasso,” the poem starts. “Kanye West is not Edison/ I am Edison.” It continued: “I am the Kanye West of Kanye West/ The Kanye West/ of the great bogus shift of bull— culture.” “I am the Kanye West Kanye West thinks he is/ When he shoves your ass off the stage/ I am the real Kanye West,” it reads.
He also seems to throw some shade at Jay-Z, writing, "Jay-Z is not the Dylan of anything / I am the Dylan of anything." Cohen's poem later switches focus back to West, alluding to his habit of crashing other people's stages — be it Taylor Swift's or Beck's when he writes, "I am the Kanye West Kanye West thinks he is / When he shoves your ass off the stage."
According to the foreword for The Flame, penned
by Cohen's son Adam, it "contains my father's final efforts as a poet.
It was what he was staying alive to do, his sole breathing purpose at
the end."
As well as this new collection of lyrics and poetry, a posthumous Cohen album is also in the works.
The news was confirmed by his son Adam last month, who said: “To make a
long story short, I believe that there are some really beautiful new
songs of Leonard Cohen that no one’s heard that are at some point going
to come out.”
Read Cohens full ode to to "bullshit culture" below.
KAYNE WEST IS NOT PICASSO
Kanye West is not Picasso
I am Picasso
Kanye West is not Edison
I am Edison
I am Tesla
Jay-Z is not the Dylan of anything
I am the Dylan of anything
I am the Kanye West of Kanye West
The Kanye West
Of the great bogus shift of bullshit culture
From one boutique to another
I am Tesla
I am his coil
The coil that made electricity soft as a bed
I am the Kanye West Kanye West thinks he is
When he shoves your ass off the stage
I am the real Kanye West
I don’t get around much anymore
I never have
I only come alive after a war
And we have not had it yet
Bebob legend and leader of the post war jazz revolution Thelonious Sphere Monk was born on the 10th of October 1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of Thelonious and Barbara Monk, two
years after his sister Marian. A brother, Thomas, was born a couple of
years later. In his sixth year he was taken north from the racially oppressive Land of
Cotton to relative freedom within the urban racism of the Big Apple settling on West 63rd Street in the San Juan Hill” neighborhood of Manhattan, near the Hudson River. His
father, Thelonious, Sr., joined the family three years later, but health
considerations forced him to return to North Carolina. During his stay,
however, he often played the harmonica, ‘Jew’s harp,” and piano, all of
which probably influenced his son’s unyielding musical interests. Young
Monk turned out to be a musical prodigy in addition to a good student
and a fine athlete. He studied the trumpet briefly but began exploring
the piano at age nine. Although he
had some formal training and eavesdropped on his sister's piano
lessons, he was essentially self-taught. By his early teens, he was playing rent
parties, sitting in on organ and piano at a local Baptist church, and
was reputed to have won several “amateur hour” competitions at the
Apollo Theater. Monk attended Stuyvesant High
School, but dropped out at the end of his sophomore year to pursue music and around
1935 took a job as a pianist for a traveling evangelist and faith
healer.
Returning after two years, he formed his own quartet and played
local bars and small clubs, until the spring of 1941, when drummer Kenny Clarke hired him as the house pianist at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem. Minton’s, legend has it, was where the “bebop revolution” began. The
after-hours jam sessions at Minton’s, along with similar musical
gatherings at Monroe’s Uptown House, Dan Wall’s Chili Shack, among
others, attracted a new generation of musicians brimming with fresh
ideas about harmony and rhythm, bringing Monk into close contact and collaboration
with other leading exponents of bebop, including Dizzy Gillespie,
Charlie Christian, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Parker and later, Miles Davis, and Monk’s close friend and fellow pianist, Bud Powell.
Monk's style at the time was described
as "hard-swinging," with the addition of runs in the style of Art
Tatum. Monk's stated influences include Duke Ellington, James P.
Johnson, and other early stride pianists.His
compositions “Round Midnight,” “Well, You Needn’t,” Straight, No
Chaser,” and “Blue Monk” (among others) are considered classics in modern jazz. "Round Midnight" incidentally is the most recorded jazz standard
written by a jazz musician, appearing on more than 1,000 albums.
Eccentric, enigmatic, extraordinary, no one in jazz has really played like Monk. His
idiosyncratic style utilized unexpected melodic twists, dissonant
harmonies (which are pleasing to jazz players), erratic percussive
phrases punctuated by unexpected hesitations and silences. Despite these
unorthodox qualities, Duke Ellington is the only jazz composer who has
been recorded more often than Monk, which is particularly remarkable as Ellington composed over 1,000 songs while Monk wrote about 70. Monk is one of only five jazz
musicians to have been on the cover of Time (along with Louis Armstrong,
Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck and Wynton Marsalis).
In 1944 Monk made his first studio recordings with the Coleman Hawkins
Quartet. Hawkins was among the first prominent jazz musicians to
promote Monk, and Monk later returned the favor by inviting Hawkins to
join him on the 1957 session with John Coltrane. Monk made his first
recordings as leader for Blue Note in 1947 (later anthologised on Genius
of Modern Music, Vol. 1) which showcased his talents as a composer of
original melodies for improvisation. Monk married Nellie Smith the same
year, and in 1949 the couple had a son, T.S. Monk, who later became a
jazz drummer. A daughter, Barbara (affectionately known as Boo-Boo), was
born in 1953.
Harsh, ill-informed criticism limited Monk’s opportunities to
work, opportunities he desperately needed especially after his marriage, and the birth of his son, Thelonious, Jr., in
1949. Monk found work where he could, but he never compromised his
musical vision. His already precarious financial situation took a turn
for the worse in August of 1951, when he was falsely arrested for
narcotics possession, essentially taking the rap for his friend Bud
Powell. Monk refused
to testify against his friend, so the police confiscated his New York
City Cabaret Card. Without the all-important cabaret card he was unable
to play in any New York venue where liquor was served, and this severely
restricted his ability to perform for several crucial years. Monk spent
most of the early and mid-1950s composing, recording, and performing at
theaters and out-of-town gigs, composed new music,
and made several trio and ensemble records under the Prestige Label
(1952-1954), cutting
several under-recognized, but highly significant albums, including
collaborations with saxophonist Sonny Rollins and drummer Art Blakey. In
1954, Monk participated in the famed Christmas Eve sessions which
produced the albums Bags' Groove and Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz
Giants by Miles Davis. Davis found Monk's idiosyncratic accompaniment
style difficult to improvise over and asked him to lay out (not
accompany), which almost brought them to blows. However, in Miles Davis'
autobiography Miles, Davis claims that the anger and tension between
Monk and himself never took place and that the claims of blows being
exchanged were "rumors" and a "misunderstanding."
In 1954, Monk
paid his first visit to Europe, performing and recording in Paris. It
was here that he first met Baroness Pannonica "Nica" de Koenigswarter, a
member of the Rothschild banking family of England and a patroness of
several New York City jazz musicians. She would be a close friend for
the rest of Monk's life.
In 1958, Monk and de Koenigswarter were detained by police in
Wilmington, Delaware. When Monk refused to answer the policemen's
questions or cooperate with them, they beat him with a blackjack. Though
the police were authorized to search the vehicle and found narcotics in
suitcases held in the trunk of the Baroness's car, Judge Christie of
the Delaware Superior Court ruled that the unlawful detention of the
pair, and the beating of Monk, rendered the consent to the search void
as given under duress. State v. De Koenigswarter, 177 A.2d 344 (Del.
Super. 1962). Monk was represented by Theophilus Nix, the second
African-American member of the Delaware Bar Association.
In 1955, Monk signed with a new label, Riverside, and recorded several
outstanding LP’s which garnered critical attention, notably Thelonious
Monk Plays Duke Ellington, The Unique Thelonious Monk, Brilliant
Corners, Monk’s Music and his second solo album, Thelonious Monk Alone.
Monk turned a page with his 1956 album, Brilliant Corners,
which is usually considered to be his first true masterpiece. The
album's title track made a splash with its innovative, technically
demanding, and extremely complex sound, which had to be edited together
from many separate takes. With the release of two more Riverside
masterworks, Thelonious Himself and Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane,
Monk finally received the acclaim he deserved, and his career began to soar.
In 1957, the
Thelonious Monk Quartet, which included John Coltrane, began performing
regularly at the Five Spot in New York. Enjoying huge success, they went
on to tour the United States and even make some appearances in Europe.
By 1962, Monk was so popular that he was given a contract with Columbia
Records, a decidedly more mainstream label than Riverside. During the 1960s, Monk scored notable successes with albums such as
Criss- Cross, Monk’s Dream, It’s Monk Time, Straight No Chaser, and
Underground. But as Columbia/CBS records pursued a younger,
rock-oriented audience, Monk and other jazz musicians ceased to be a
priority for the label. Monk’s final recording with Columbia was a big
band session with Oliver Nelson’s Orchestra in November of 1968, which
turned out to be both an artistic and commercial failure. Columbia’s
disinterest and Monk’s deteriorating health kept the pianist out of the
studio.The years that followed included several overseas tours, but by the early 1970s, Monk was ready to retire from the limelight.
His style was not universally appreciated poet with the poet and jazz critic
Philip Larkin dismissing Monk as 'the elephant on the keyboard'. Monk's
manner was idiosyncratic and eccentric. Visually, he was renowned for his distinctive
style in suits, hats and sunglasses, plus his goatee beard. He was also noted for the fact that
at times, while the other musicians in the band continued playing, he
would stop, stand up from the keyboard and dance for a few moments
before returning to the piano. Monk's style was so different that he didn't have many imitators; but he
had many musicians that were influenced by him, and were interpreters
of his music.
The documentary film Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (1988)
attributes Monk's quirky behaviour to mental illness. In the film,
Monk's son, T.S. Monk, says that his father sometimes did not recognize
him, and he reports that Monk was hospitalized on several occasions due
to an unspecified mental illness that worsened in the late 1960s. No
reports or diagnoses were ever publicized, but Monk would often become
excited for two or three days, pace for days after that, after which he
would withdraw and stop speaking. Physicians recommended
electro convulsive therapy as a treatment option for Monk's illness, but
his family would not allow it; antipsychotics and lithium were
prescribed instead. Other theories abound: Leslie Gourse, author of the
book Straight, No Chaser: The Life and Genius of Thelonious Monk (1997),
reports that at least one of Monk's psychiatrists failed to find
evidence of manic depression or schizophrenia. Others blamed Monk's
behavior on intentional and inadvertent drug use: Monk was also unknowingly
administered LSD, and may have taken peyote with Timothy Leary. Another
physician maintains that Monk was misdiagnosed and given drugs during
his hospital stay that may have caused brain damage.Jazz musicians have always been vulnerable, depending, as so many of
them do, on drink and drugs to make their ordeals temporarily bearable.
Monk was mo exception. However, it is often the case with creative people
that along with some level of madness comes genius and wisdom.
Like his
music, Monk’s views on religion were also unorthodox. As a teenager, as mentioned earlier he
played the organ for a traveling evangelist, but it appears he was an
agnostic who held no religious beliefs of his own. Biographer Robin D.
G. Kelly writes that “Monk clearly was not a true believer,” and that
“most people who knew Monk remember that he rarely attended church and
did not speak about religion in the most flattering terms.” His niece
Charlotte said “he was never into religion. Religion was not his thing. .
. . He never went to church or any of that. And his kids, he never took
them to church. He said they had to have their own mind about things.”
When the journalist Valerie Wilmer asked him, “Do you believe in God?”,
Monk replied, “I don’t know nothing. Do you?” But Monk was tolerant of
religion, and although ambivalent himself, he sometimes accompanied his
mother on the piano as she sang her beloved hymns while dying of cancer.
Monk also had long periods of not talking to anybody. He spent the final seven years of his life, until his death in 1982 in near total silence, not speaking or playing a note to anyone in Baroness de Koenigswarter's
apartment in Weehawken. On February 5, 1982, he suffered a stroke and never regained consciousness; twelve days later, on February 17th, he died. He is buried in Ferncliff
Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. Since his death, his music has been
rediscovered by a wider audience and he is now counted alongside the
likes of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and others as a major
figure in the history of jazz. Whatever Thelonious was to the media, it's clear what his legacy will be
to jazz music: that of a true originator.Today Thelonious Monk is widely accepted as a genuine master of American
music. His compositions constitute the core of jazz repertory and are
performed by artists from many different genres. His recordings both live and in the studio continue to inspire jazz musicians, and many of his albums, remain essential listening, that have bought me great comfort over the years, transcendental and beautiful. He has since been the subject of
award winning documentaries, biographies and scholarly studies, prime
time television tributes, and he even has an Institute created in his
name.A true original there's only one Monk, he probably said it best
when he insisted that a "genius is one who is most like himself." In 1993, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement
Award, and in 2006, Monk was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize
Special Citation. His place in the jazz pantheon is secure. A link to this wonderful artist can be found here:- https://monkinstitute.org/
And below are some personal favourites from him.
Thelonius Monk - This is my story , This is my song
Today marks World Mental Health Day, a day that provides campaigners with the opportunity to
raise awareness and advocacy against social stigma that people with mental health issues daily
experience.
Mental illness is now recognised as one of the biggest causes of
individual distress and misery in our society, comparable
to poverty and unemployment. One in four adults in the UK today has been
diagnosed with a mental illness, that can have a profound impact on the lives
of tens of millions of people in the UK, and thus affect their ability
to sustain relationships, work, or just get through the day. What
greater indictment of a system could there be.
The issues of mental health and mental illness are complicated. Yes there is persuasive evidence that human biology plays an important role in determining each person’s likelihood of contending with particular mental health conditions, but experiences of social isolation, inequality, feelings of alienation and
dissociation, and even the basic assumptions and ideology of materialism
and neoliberalism itself are seen today to be significant drivers too.
Sadly despite the efforts of many, the subject of mental illness remains
a taboo subject, the fact is that many in our communities suffer from a
wide of different problems like clinical depression,
obsessive-compulsive disorder, ADHD, schizophrenia, anxiety, mania and drug and alcohol problems. Many of us are
left to face our problems in silence and isolation, while experiencing daily life as a battle, having to choose between
societies consensus ways of dealing with things, medication,
psychotherapy, counselling etc etc, or simply learning to forget.
Emotionally,
our heads are only just above water. I personally have a black dog
that calls regularly, that I unfortunately have no control over, it
just happens. Combined with anxiety, can suddenly feel fear, and all those
turbulent unexplained feelings that drives one to self destruction,.In extreme circumstance can also get so angst ridden that I cannot leave my house, let
alone phone a GP to seek help, because I fear I will be judged and
blamed somehow, embarrassed and ashamed for something I have no control over. With a tendency to affix blame and leave me feeling even more
unworthy. I'm getting there
but still have a long way to go. I have learnt techniques
to help, but realize using liquid courage, certainly does not help, though that does not stop me ,especially when out and about in public.
Enough about me, among the most menacing barriers to the social progress we need around
mental health. are the profound levels of guilt, shame and stigma that
surround these issues.Those who suffer are often, like me, ashamed to
speak of it. Those who are lucky enough to be free of mental illness
are terrified of it. When it comes to mental illness, we still don't
quite get how it all works. Our treatments, while sometimes effective,
often are not. And the symptoms, involving a fundamental breakdown of
our perceived reality, are existentially terrifying. There is something
almost random about physical illness, in how it comes upon us, a
physical illness can strike anyone. But
mental illness that could also strike any of us, without warning should be equally recognised. Combined with simple fear, mental illness brings out a judgmental
streak that would be unthinkably grotesque when applied to physical
illness. Imagine telling someone with a broken leg to "snap out of it."
Imagine that a death by cancer was accompanied by the same smug
head shaking. Mental illness is so
qualitatively different that we feel it permissible to be judgmental. We
might even go so far as to blame the sufferer. Because of the stigma
involved it often leaves people much sicker.
We live under a system of blame that somehow makes the emotional and psychological difficulties we encounter seem to be our own fault.People left feeling ashamed that they need medication, seeing this as revealing some constitutional weakness. Afraid about needing therapy, thinking that they should be able to solve their problems on their own. Individuals actually fail to seek any treatment, because mental health care is
seen as something that only the most dramatically unstable person would
turn to. It is estimated that only about a quarter of people with a mental health
problem in the UK receive ongoing treatment, leaving the majority of
people grappling with mental health issues on their own, seeking help or
information, and dependent on the informal support of family, friends
or colleagues.
Those who live
with mental illness are among the most stigmatised groups in society. We
are challenged doubly. On one hand with the struggle of our symptoms
that result from our illnesses and then by the stereotypes and prejudice
that results from peoples misconceptions about mental illness. Many are robbed of opportunities that help define a quality life,
jobs, safe housing, health care and affiliation with a diverse group of
people, and are left feeling almost invisible and on our own. Prejudice leads to discrimination and so on.
It should not be the case that some of us have to suffer in silence from anxiety and depression, we should be ok to say we don't feel ok. When some of us actually seek some assistance, we get doubted and pushed away. All this plays a part in making us feeling worse and keep us down. There is growing concern that our Governments
policies are actually fuelling the current mental health crisis. Budget
cuts to mental health services combined with no genuine support are
driving many people to the edge. As a result many people are currently left isolated, facing long waiting lists for mental health
therapies and diagnostic assessments
Prime Minister Maggie May herself once described the shortfalls in mental health services on her first day in Downing Street "as one of the burning injustices in
our country" Despite these gestures she and the Tories have not delivered on their promise to
give mental health the same priority as physical health. They have offered no extra funding whilst systematically raiding mental health
budgets over the last eight years. There are now over 6,000 fewer mental
health nurses than in 2010. The number of psychiatrists employed by the
NHS has fallen by four percent since 2014 , with a 10 percent drop in
those who specialise in children's mental health and a similar drop in
those working with older adults. Eight years of Tory Government have
left those with mental health problems without the support they
need.
Currently people with mental health problems are becoming “tangled up” in the
bureaucracy and flaws of the government’s new universal credit benefit
system,claimants facing considerable hardship and considerable
deterioration in their mental health because of universal credit. Sophie Corlett, director of external relations for the mental health
charity Mind, has said “They struggle with the process, but they end
up tangled in the process and unable to dig their way out of it."“They struggle with the online application, they struggle with the
conditionality that comes while you wait for your work capability
assessment (WCA), they struggle with waiting for their first payment and
if they are able to get an advance payment they struggle to pay that
back.”A key concern, she has also said , was the period between the start of a
universal credit claim and the WCA, during which claimants can be forced
to carry out the usual 30-plus hours of jobsearch activity while
waiting to be assessed for their “fitness for work”
Carrying out this jobsearch activity is a huge barrier for many
people with mental health problems, who are often not even well enough
to visit their own jobcentre. Under the sanctions system, benefit recipients have part of their
payments temporarily stopped if they fail to meet strict work-related
conditions, such as failing to attend a work placement, or being a few
minutes late for a jobcentre appointment. People with complex needs are thus forced into a process which is long, complicated and cruel, which does not recognise their personal abilities, vulnerabilities and difficult circumstances.
With the upcoming roll out of Universal Credit, this will only make matters worse. especially for those of us living with mental health issues. Universal Credit is not fit for purpose, it needs to be stopped and scrapped now, We simply can't trust May and co on mental
health.Their toxic policies helping to exasperate the mental health crisis in our country. If this does not actually make you angry then you have become conditioned and devoid of feeling, and they simply have you under control.
We need to break the silence around mental health.Too often mental health is swept under the carpet and ignored , because of the stigma and taboo surrounding it, so we have to keep
battling to destroy the negative attitudes and stereotypes that is
directed towards people with mental health issues, and to keep challenging policies that heed individuals recovery.
On World Mental Health Day I think its important to stress that the proportion of the population that will experience episodes of acute emotional distress is extremely high. It should not be shameful to say that one is
suffering from mental illness, no less than to announce that one is asthmatic
or has breast cancer.Talking about these issues, breaking the silence, can also be a source of liberation, so we
should keep fighting for the best mental health care to be the natural
right of all, because engaging in the
struggle toward such a society can be a source of hope for many. In the meantime I will personally try to keep surviving, and hope that one day mental health becomes a genuine
Government priority that really helps reduce peoples pain and
suffering.
I will end this post by saying, that I believe today should act like a catalyst for Work and Pensions secretary Esther McVey to scrap the controversial Universal Credit Welfare system and replace it with something that takes into account peoples needs and strengths.
Meanwhile If you need to talk to someone, the NHS mental health helpline page includes organisations you can call for help, such as Anxiety UK and Bipolar UK. or call The Samaritans on 116 123.And if you need help with your application for Universal Credit contact your local CAB https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/
Joel Emmanuel Hagglund (Joe Hill) born October 7, 1879 Gavle, Sweden,he emigrated to the United States in 1902, where he changed his name to Joseph Hillstrom. After several years as an itinerant worker - a 'hobo' he joined the IWW (the Industrial Workers of the World).A wobbly organiser, balladeer, he was also a man of pride, the flag that he proudly followed was one of international solidarity.
Union organiser, songwriter and member of the Industrial Workers of the World. He was murdered at the age of 36 by a US Government firing squad framed for a murder that may believed he did not commit. An innocent man condemned to death for his passion. Many historians have come to recognise it as one of the worst travesties of justice in American history. After a trial riddled with biased rulings and suppression of important defense evidence and other violations of judicial procedure, which was characteristic of many cases involving labour radicals.
Just prior to his execution. Hill had written to fellow International Worker of the World Bill Haywood saying. "Goodbye Bill. I die like a true rebel.Don't waste any time in mourning. Organise.
An estimated 30,000 people attended his funeral in an impressive singing demonstration under the banner ' In Memorium-Joe Hill - Murdered by the Capitalist Class. A rebel to the core, his voice still rings out loud, rightfully venerated and celebrated as a hero and martyr.He started the struggle that many continue to fight today.
Music and the IWW: the creation of working class counterculture
Detail from Cable Street Mural
I have made a point of annually remembering that on 4th October, 1936,
the people of the East End inflicted a massive defeat on Sir Oswald
Mosley’s British Union of Fascists. During this time Britain was facing very serious economic problems. Throughout
the mid 1930s, the BUF moved closer towards Hitler’s form of fascism
with Mosley himself saying that “fascism can and will win in Britain”.
The British fascists took on a more vehemently anti-Semitic stance,
describing Jews as “rats and vermin from whitechapel” and tried to blame
Jews
for the cause of the country's problems. Mosley’s blackshirts had been harassing the sizeable Jewish population
in the East End all through the 1930s. By 1936 anti-semitic assaults by
fascists were growing and windows of Jewish-owned businesses were
routinely smashed.Hurrah for the Blackshirts!’ The notorious Daily Mail
headline is just one chilling indication of the very real threat Oswald
Mosley’s British Union of Fascists posed in the mid 1930s. On Sunday Oct. 4, 1936, Mosley planned to lead his Blackshirt supporters on a march
through the East End, following months of BUF meetings and leafleting in
the area designed to intimidate Jewish people and break up the East
End’s community solidarity. Despite a petition signed by 100,000 people,
the British government permitted the march to go ahead and designated
7,000 members of the police force to accompany it. They were not to be welcomed, instead they were
met by over 250,000 protestors, waving banners with slogans such as
'They shall not Pass'( no pasaron, famous republican slogan from the
Spanish Civil War) , 'No Nazis here' and 'East End Unite.' A mighty force had assembled prepared to defend their streets and neighbourhoods and their right to live in them. As the fascists assembled in Royal Mint Street, near the Tower, they
were attacked by large groups of workers. When the Metropolitan Police
tried to clear a path through Gardiner’s Corner, a blockade of tens of
thousands of people stood firm. Anti-fascists
blocked the route by barricading the street with rows of domestic
furniture and the fascists and the police who were defending them were
attacked with eggs, rotten fruit and the contents of chamber pots. Local
kids rolled marbles under police horses hooves. A mighty battle ensued,
leaving many injured and others arrested. Many years later it is remembered because it saw thousands of people,
from many walks of life, women, children, local jews, Irish groups,
communists, socialists, anarchists standing firm as one in an incredible
display of unity who worked together to prevent Mosley's fascists from
marching through a Jewish area in London.Together, they won a famous victory and put the skids under Britain’s first fascist mass movement.The fascists did not get to march and they did not
pass, and were left in humiliation so today we look back on this living
history in celebration and pride. Significantly, for some people
that were involved in the protest, Cable Street was the
road to Spain, and many would go on to volunteer as soldiers for the
Republicans there.The legend that was Cable Street became the
lasting inspiration for the continuing British fight against
the fascism that was spreading all across Europe and would eventually
engulf the planet in a terrible world war. We might like to think those days are
behind us, but
anti-semitism, racism and intolerance is on the rise. The far right is growing throughout Europe, on 13th October
the far-right racist Democratic Football Lads Alliance have organised a demonstration for bigots and Islamaphobes in London.In July 2018, 10,000 of them took to the streets, uniting racists from
UKIP to Generation Identity, where nazi salutes were casually raised . No longer a fringe group, the far right are
given airtime by the mainstream media, well funded and supported by
many in the political establishment. Across
Europe racist and fascist organisations are receiving growing support
at a level not seen since the 1930s. Tommy Robinson, ex EDL leader and
notorious fascist, who is being courted by UKIP, is a firm favourite of
the DFLA. Thugs linked to the group attacked RMT union members and
others, after a recent anti fascist march, in London. The far right, at
street level and electorally, use Islamophobia as a way of rebuilding
in Britain. The DFLA and their supporters want to come to London to
spread their racism and Islamophobia. Stand Up To Racism, supported by Unite
Against Fascism and Love Music Hate Racism will be resisting their race
hate. We are at a crucial moment in our time and cannot simply allow such forces to grow. We must continue to regenerate a broad based mass resistance to division and hate, to turn the tide on the rise of hate, oppose racism, Islamophobic scapegoating and Antisemitism. A national demonstration against these forces has been called for Noveber 1th , details for event can be found here.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1887445111550804/ The winds that blew across Cable Street still exist today , we must remain vigilant to this. We
should never forget the Battle of Cable Street. Teach your childrem
about it. Today and tomorrow we must still rally around the cry of No
Pasaran- They shall not pass. Everyone, who cares about the future of
our society, should come together, for the politics of unity not
division
The Tory's gathering again, leaving desperate voices forgotten with empty gestures, waving their promises and lies, clanking their chains, bringing their daily curses soundbites of shame, in these mad days of Brexit, continuing to misgovern, no sign of being strong and stable people sad for this country, as they manage to wreck it, homeless people dying on our streets, poor people starving food banks growing, benefit claimants living in fear, May robotically dances on stage, malfunctioning once again no dancing queen, just a self depreciating clown, after the laughter has died down, their creepy and scary Theresa, and chums, it's time for them to be gone.
There's so much conditioning, making us hate
that we become our own enemies at the gate,
beams of reason disappearing before us
colors of hope melting in the earth,
politicians burying consciousness
join in the revel, play with the devil,
bitter and biting, silently gloating
releasing fathomless depths of despair,
punishing people for simply being ill
with policies of cruelty that actually kill,
the ghosts of Grenfell still haunting the land
yet they continue building walls to divide,
louder and louder, the wind is raging
the air not yet full of resignation,
strong, courageous and resilient
we can overcome the monsters,
gentler aspects of humanity will reveal
to not allow ourselves to be draped in pain,
hopelessness will only hang around, if we feed it
blazing embers of defiance burn brightly too,
we can be saved, greet tomorrow's epiphany
the future unwritten, can cancel negativity.
The Tory conference has started today in Birmingham , running till
Wednesday 3 October,as they continue to sprout their message of a stronger, fairer United Kingdom, and their leader refuses to apologise for her hostile policies,displaying a clear lack of care for anyone, lets not forget that all Tory's are the same. Whatever period in time, they always leave us
with a diabolical legacy, while at the same time trying to
convince people that they have been doing a decent job.
Aided and abetted by their friends in the Daily Mail, the Telegraph,
the Express,the Times, the BBC and the Scum etc all misleading and parroting
the Tory's narratives and soundbites. Should we simply forget their ruthless, toxic and unjust policies.
Their constant assaults on the N.H.S, people on
welfare, the disadvantaged, the poor, people forced to use food banks, rising homelessness, benefit cuts, universal credit, combined with low pay, zero hour contracts, benefit cuts, the lack of affordable housing, not forgetting the windrush scandal and our public services cut to the bone and the ongoing mess that is Brexit, the list is endless, their cruel conscious ideological policies that have caused so many unnecessary deaths should not be simply forgotten.
We have to get rid of them by any means necessary, because the devil
comes in many shapes and sizes, and I believe it is truly at home in the
Conservative Party, a demonic party, if there ever was one As Theresa May continues to blister on in her usual fashion of delusion , laughing at us all, we simply cannot afford to tolerate her or her Government anymore , we would all be better served with a government that actually supports peoples
needs, based on ideas of social justice and fairness, mutual aid and
sustainability. Theresa May and co are so divided and out of control they are no longer fit to govern, we need a general election now, their time is up , they have to go as soon as possible.
Autumn is waking as a friend drifts to sleep and trees shed their tears in the distance the sound of a harmonica soaring in the sky by the side of a silvery moon another star is born all flames become light blazing, burning bright.
Alan Moore is famous for his groundbreaking work in comics: Watchmen (1986–’87) which fundamentally transformed mainstream comic literature in the 1980s, and many of Moore’s other titles — V for Vendetta (1988–’89), Batman: The Killing Joke (1988), From Hell (1989–’96), and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
(1999–) — have become cultural landmarks. Moore detests the corporate
franchising of his work, however, and after finishing his occult series Promethea in 2005, he largely moved away from illustrated storytelling, spending the subsequent decade crafting Jerusalem,
a massive prose narrative (“longer than the Bible,” Moore quips)
divided into three volumes, which was released in 2016 by Liverlight
Publishing.
Out
now comes a beautiful paperback edition of Alan Moore's Jerusalem, in which he pens a grandiose tome about his
hometown of Northampton, employing an extremely wide variety of styles,
including a poem and a play, channeling both the
ecstatic visions of William Blake and the theoretical physics of Albert
Einstein .
Combining elements of historical and
suprnatural fiction and drawing on a range of writing styles, the author
describes it as a work of "genetic mythology". Fierce in its imagining and stupefying in
its scope, Jerusalem is the tale of everything, told from a vanished
gutter. In these pages lurk
demons from the second-century Book of Tobit and angels with golden
blood who reduce fate to a snooker tournament. Vagrants, prostitutes,
and ghosts rub shoulders with Oliver Cromwell, Samuel Beckett, James
Joyce’s tragic daughter Lucia, and Buffalo Bill, among many others.
There is a conversation in the thunderstruck dome of St. Paul’s
Cathedral, childbirth on the cobblestones of Lambeth Walk, an estranged
couple sitting all night on the cold steps of a Gothic church front, and
an infant choking on a cough drop for eleven chapters. An art
exhibition is in preparation, and above the world a naked old man and a
beautiful dead baby race along the Attics of the Breath toward the heat
death of the universe. An opulent working class mythology for those without a
pot to piss in, through the labyrinthine streets and pages of Jerusalem
tread ghosts that sing of wealth, poverty, and our threadbare millennium. in these pages spin a metatextual ritual that aspires to overturn the fundamental economic mythology built into the social fabric of late capitalism. In an era when the working classes are portrayed as hopeless victims or
demonised as thugs and idiots, while all the while being urged on to
greater extremes of racism and xenophobia by the popular media, Jerusalem rejects the portrayal of limited horizons and the glamorisation of poverty that Moore sees in TV shows like Shameless in favour of a work that grants dignity and profundity to life at the bottom of the economic shitheap,
Yet another masterpiece from my favourite visionary, who continues to plant seeds in us, so we may grow and understand. beyond the dark satanic mills of our ordinary oppressed existences, we are all already living in the shining, eternal city of Jerusalem. Alan Moore is one
of the few Writers capable of illuminating the exterior/interior of our Lives, for that I am truly grateful, this book by the way. is much easier than Ulysses and funnier too, though must add when I originally read got lost a bit, but that is often the way with me. Seek this tome out nevertheless, I strongly recommend.
"A master storyteller taking the voices of the dead as his own'" - Neil Gaiman
"He
saw, as through a fog, the grave mistake he'd made. He'd been so anxious
for success and validation that he'd come to think you weren't really a
writer unless you were a succesful one. He knew, in this unprecedeted
patch of clarity, that the idea was nonsense. Look at William Blake,
ignored and without recognition until years after his death, regarded as a
lunatic or fool by his conpeporaries. Yet Benedict felt sure that
Blake, in his three-score-and-ten, had never a moments doubt that he was a
true artist. Ben's own problem, looked at in this new and brutal light, was a simple failure of nerve."-Alan Moore, Jerusalem
