Britain Is Broken - We can't Afford The Tories - Mass Rally.

When Theresa May was gifted the role of Prime Minister from a disgraced and departing David Cameron, she stood outside Downing Street and delivered the following message:
“I would like to pay tribute to David Cameron for the leadership he has shown our part and our country… We need to unite our country and we need a strong new positive vision for the future of our country.  A vision of a country that works not for the privileged few but that works for every one of us. And that’s how together we will build a better Britain.”
What we’ve seen, however, is quite the opposite. Rising rents and prices. Falling wages in real terms. Unprecedented levels of homelessness and child poverty. The return of Victorian illnesses caused by malnutrition. Crippling household and personal debt directly attributable to austerity policies.
Despite Theresa May's announcement  that austerity is over, the realities for millions of people is quite the opposite. The Government shows no sign of stopping austerity. Every section of society is at breaking point  from our underfunded NHS, schools without supplies, councils unable to provide even basic services, and millions on poverty wages unable to provide for their families.
The government has repeatedly stated that they are committed to building a country that works for everyone, but the truth of the matter is they simply could not give a damn, as they continue to show their complete and utter contempt for the poor, the disabled and the vulnerable. At the same time the gap between the very rich  and the rest is wider  in Britain than in any other large country in Europe, and  society is the most unequal it has been since shortly after the First World War.
We cannot let this go on. As the Tories actions continue to be marked by incompetance and farce, it is time for all of them to go as soon as possible for the greater good of all. Theresa May and co should not be left to cause even more irreplaceable harm to our country.
As a result of all of this on 2 March, the People’s Assembly Against Austerity has organised a mass rally in Haverfordwest called: Britain Is Broken – We can’t Afford The Tories. This is the latest in a UK-wide ‘tour’ to highlight the devastating effects of Tory austerity.which they say is now cutting deep into every layer of society.
Goodwick based Jim Scott, of Pembrokeshire People’s Assembly, one of the main organisers of the rally, says :"Tory austerity has been an utter disaster. It has always been an ideological and economically illiterate policy. After nearly a decade of savage cuts to every layer of society, working-class people are suffering under the heavy weight of austerity while the wealth of a privileged few has tripled."
Because, as Scott continued: " The Tories are engaged in a shameless and cynical agenda; transferring wealth from the public purse into the pockets of the super rich. The Tories are literally picking the bones of our society and it is time for them to go. We need a general election now! Here in Pembrokeshire there is no way that Crabb will not survive at the ballot box, it's time for him and Hart to go too"
Ahead of the rally, the People’s Assembly has been touring around Pembrokeshire, Wales, with ‘Sanctioned Steve’. Steve is “the Tory’s skeleton in the closet”.

So far, Sanctioned Steve has visited the Job Centre to ask them why they were fulfilling sanctioning targets over people's welfare and causing soo many people to suffer. The Tories brutal sanctioning regime has forced thousands to go without any form of income for 100 days or longer in some cases. Creating homelessness, poverty and destitution. Universal Credit roll out is making this problem even worse.
The local PATCH  charity food bank to show his solidarity with the victims of Tory austerity in Pembrokeshire who have been forced to collect a total of 3,500 'five-day' food parcels in the last year alone.
Steve also wonders how his Tory MP Stephen Crabb has the audacity to pose for photos at the foodbank but keeps voting for austerity every chance he gets.
He’ll also visit Welsh Citizens Advice Bureaux, to question them about £51m the DWP “gave them to run a benefits support service and ask them if they can really run an impartial service while taking backhanders from the Tories! Steve isn't so sure! Also a  trip to Crabb's Office (to ask him why he always votes for cuts) 
You can follow Sanctioned Steve’s tour on Facebook.
Preseli Pembrokeshire has been Conservative since MP Stephen Crabb was first elected to parliament in 2005. In 2015, he held the seat with a majority of almost 5,000. By 2017, that majority had crashed to just 314. As a crowdfunder to raise money for the rally says, the former DWP secretary “is universally disliked”.
Pembrokeshire People’s Assembly has “campaigned tirelessly” for six years “to highlight” the impact of austerity “and cuts” which Crabb has voted for. In 2017 huge crowds gathered for a similar event to #UnSeatCrabb. Just "one last push" is needed to remove him from his seat in any future General Election.

Scott concludes: "Tory austerity has failed… [It] has been a shameless transference of wealth from the public purse into the pockets of the super rich. It’s as simple as that. The Tories are picking the bones of our society and it is time for them to go." 

The rally is due to assemble at 2pm on 2 March in Castle Square, Haverfordwest. Speakers will include former Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood , Mark Serwotka, President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) Nicola Field , one of the original LGSM activists as featured in the film Pride. There will also be speeches from Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) and Wales Green Party leader Anthony Slaughter, Stand.Up to Racism and others.The lineup is subject to change deending on circumstances.
The main theme of the day will be the damaging effects of Universal Credit and poverty in Britain. Organisers also believe that the Conservatives have used racism and division as a smokescreen for cutting services and cutting back the state. Nimisha Trivedi from Stand Up to Racism Wales who will be speaking at the rally said; "Racism was invented to justify slavery. Today it is used to take our attention away from the people who have given us austerity. To fight austerity we need to fight racism and to fight racism we need to fight austerity. Let’s turn out in big numbers. Unite and fight."
 Philippa Thomson; Labour Party Candidate for Preseli Pembrokeshire will be speaking on the platform and said; " I hope people from across Pembrokeshire will come and support the rally. It's unbelievable in this day and age that so many people in our country are living in poverty, including people in work. Here in Pembrokeshire our local charities are doing an amazing job to help struggling families, but what would really help would be for the Tory Government to stop their failed Universal Credit roll-out "
Ellen Clifford from Disabled People Against Cuts, has sent the following statement : "
"Austerity and so-called welfare reform have disproportionately impacted on the most disadvantaged members of society including disabled people. In 2016 the United Nations concluded that the threshold of evidence for grave and systematic violations of disabled people's rights due to welfare reform had been met. This is not an accident but the product of a deliberate ideological agenda to reshape the welfare state, and to punish and demonise those who are reliant on out of work and disability benefits. There is overwhelming evidence of the direct harm caused by removing essential support through benefit assessments that are not fit for purpose and the cruel and perverse conditionality and sanctions regime. The roll out of Universal Credit threatens yet more misery and destitution of an as yet unseen scale. We need to end this now which is why DPAC supports the Britain is Broken initiative and we encourage all those that can to get involved."
 UNISON Pembrokeshire County Branch will also be officially supporting the rally and encouraging their members to turn out in large numbers, other local union branches are expected to follow. Pembrokeshire Green Party; also supporting have donated £200 towards the costs of the day.
 A comedy gig, Stand Up Against Racism and Austerity, will take place in the evening in the Merlin Theatre at 6pm. Mark Serwotka will host the evening which will feature stand up comedy from the brilliant and hilarious Wil Hodgson & local comedian poet Clare Ferguson-Walker as well as Trevor J Williams and Liam Schewitz from South Wales. There will also be music from Pat Bollard the well known busking band who gained fame with their song 'Millionaires'. Union of Love - Street Performance group - will also be bringing street performance to the theatre with a moving performance on poverty in Britain.Tickets for the gig may be purchased here

As Tory austerity continues to destroy people's lives I stand  with the Britain is broken rally and I hope to see you there. The Tories are causing suffering on an unimaginable scale. Please will you support this important event, help us take down the Tories in Pembrokeshire and make West Wales a Tory free zone! Together in unity we can be a powerful movement against austerity, for the many not the few.

Yves Rocher Act beautiful, stop union-busting

French cosmetic and skin care giant Yves Rocher who makes a whopping 2 billion Euros a year  has come under fire after132 workers at its Turkish subsidiary Kozan Kosmetik  in the Turkish industrial district of Gebze, near İstanbul, mostly women ,got so sick and tired of the appalling conditions -- they joined a union.The management then fired them.Yves Rocher’s built its brand on women’s empowerment. But it’s walking all over one of the most fundamental rights of its female workforce,   despite the Fact that the Right to unionise is recognised both by the Turkish Constitution and the Internationally Recognised Conventions of the International Labour Organisation. .
The sacked employees  mainly female workers have  been picketing the factory for almost 300 days since May 15  with  bosses erecting barbed wire fencing to prevent them from speaking to other workers.
Yves Rocher bought a 51 per cent stake in Flormar in 2012, in a deal worth estimated at $150 million (£116m). Flormar is the number one make-up brand in Turkey with a 21 per cent market share. Its goods are exported to around 60 countries, with global sales worth around $100m (£77m) per year.
However, the workers at the Flormar factory complain of low pay and poor safety conditions, with bosses demanding that they work extra hours for no more than the minimum wage.
The company went to court to challenge a union certificate issued by the Ministry of Labour, exploiting loopholes in the law to block union recognition.
Flormar bosses started targeting workers for their trade union activities in April, when they sacked 14 members of Petrol-Is.
By mid-May, a total of 132 union members had been dismissed. Many have been campaigning under the slogan “Act beautiful, stop union-busting,” subverting the motto of Yves Rocher, which has tried to distance itself from responsibility for the dispute.
  soL HD has shot  the following  documentary video, “Beauty is resisting”, with English and French subtitles, dedicated to the struggle of the resisting workers.

As the video shows, the Flormar workers, were fired one by one, including many of them who had worked for the company day and night for 14 years, simply for seeking  their labour rights.
Social media users from Turkey and around the globe have since started to share soL News’ video to show their solidarity with the resisting workers.The video sharing has turned into a mass social media campaign with those supporting  them popularizing the video with hashtags such as #ActBeautiful (in Flormar-in Turkey) and #STOPUnionBusting. Social media users criticizing French Yves Rocher and its Turkish trademark Flormar for their anti-labour and anti-trade union practices  that they have imposed upon the workers
.One worker employed as a subcontractor, who did not wish to be named, explained: “They asked about my partner’s job and if I had taken part in May Day protests or was a member of a political party.
“They said being in a union was a big problem for them and told us that, if we spoke to those resisting, we would be sacked.”
Pinar Koca, who was sacked the day after she joined the union, said: “We are defending not only our own rights but also the rights of our friends in the factory.”
She called on women to “boycott cosmetic products by Flormar and Yves Rocher and support our action.”
Sacked Flomrar worker Elif Ulsu remains confident of victory, saying: “We will not give up. I believe women are going to win at Flormar.”
If one company gets away with firing workers in Turkey for joining a union, what’s to stop other big employers doing the same thing?
If people can't join  a union, they have no way to stand up for themselves  and demand wages that will feed their families, safe workplaces, time off when they’re sick and freedom from management bullying.
Yves Rocher’s makeup and skincare products target women. They even sponsor awards for women leaders around the world. Well, the many women who worked at this factory aren’t asking for an award -- they just want their jobs back, and a guarantee they can stand up for themselves by working together in a union.
Now SumOfUs, the large international campaigning group, has taken up the Yves Rocher case as a priority campaign. Thousands of supporters daily are signing the online SumOfUs petition calling for Yves Rocher to stop the union busting in Turkey.
Support the workers and join the campaign.

 TO: Yves Rocher 

Demand that your Turkish subsidiary reinstates union members illegally fired and respects its workers rights.

https://actions.sumofus.org/a/yves-rocher-stop-union-busting-in-turkey 

Woken

 

Awoken again with mind ablaze
Tangential thoughts flooding my brain
Lost in times deep seated memories
Scrapped Poetry snippets strewn across the floor
Proscrastination fuels my aversion to tidying up
Time now to walk through sunshine
Reflections of wonder, surfacing embrace
Within the minds eye
Opportunities present themselves
Lessons to be taught again
Time to go for papers, rizlas
Follow some straight lines
Allow the darkness to recede
Find some glimmer to share
Reflections of inner hunger
In the garden look for serenity
Beyond the fractures, the deep blue hue
States of karmic energy
Awakening again
Fractal dreams igniting
Passions thirst liberating
Springs eternal kiss releasing
Guiding obsessions emanating
Forever lost in fierce permanence.

People who betray those who gave them power.

"I'll be blunt with you Roy, you talk about cancer - I feel very strongly about people whose entire life depends on the working class movement, your father was a miner, he was in jail during the General Strike, you got into parliament as a Labour member, every office you held was because of The Labour Party, Cabinet Minister appointed by a Labour Prime Minister, and then you left the party
.
Now THAT'S a cancerous growth. People who betray those who gave them power are the real threat, and I must say that bluntly those who stay true to those that put them in power - these are the ones I admire."

Tony Benn speaking to the traitor Roy Jenkins, who, along with Shirley Williams, Bill Rogers & David Owen formed the so called 'gang of 4' who cemented Margaret Thatcher's rule in the 80s.

As Tory Austerity continues to tear our lives apart, the new so called called Independent Group betrays all who voted for them, if they were really committed to helping the lives of millions in Britain  they would not be fuelling the Torys fragile grip of power.

If they actually had the guts and did the decent  thing they should all face by-elections immediately, I truly believe they would be absolutely crushed. At the moment they are just a bunch of elite opportunists, who have absolutely  no mandate.The SDP though actually had some policies, but like yesterday the Independent Groups are the same sneering traitors who are never forgiven by history.

Luis Bunuel ( 22/2 1900 - 29/7/83) - A Statement

Spanish Surrealist Luis Bunuel was widely regarded as an innovator of avant-garde filmmaking. In his  pioneering efforts date from the late 1920s, he cited Marxism as the political motivation behind his respective works.
He is  considered to be the father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in the history of the film medium.In 1928 after returning from shadowing and working for the renowned French director Jean Epstein in Paris, Buñuel used his newly acquired filmmaking techniques to collaborate with Salvador Dali on Un Chien Andalou  A “surrealist weapon,” the movie was made to shock the Spanish bourgeois and criticize the avant-garde.

Surrealism rose out of Dada, an artistic movement which believed, in part, that an excess of cold rationality brought about the carnage of The Great War, later known as World War I. This conflagration destroyed a generation of Europe and threw the old world into the new in a blood-drenched tide. The stated aim of Surrealism was to undermine the scientific, rational precision which was taking over every facet of life, using the Freudian conceptions of the mind and specifically the unconscious to, "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality."
Up until this point, in the early 20th century, the common view was that civilization was on an unstoppable onward and upward curve towards perfection, perfection aided by science. The Surrealists, led by André Breton, rejected traditional meaning in favor of an art dominated by the unconscious, the new and little understood part of consciousness which operated underneath daily consciousness, working via symbols and apparent randomness.
Andre Breton defined surrealism as: "Pure psychic automatism through which it is intended to express, either orally or in writing, or in any other way, the actual way thought works." And Un Chien Andalou, which means An Andalusian Dog, the name of a breed of dog from the Andalusian region of Spain, certainly follows a dream logic. Decades later, the film would also inspire "Debaser," a very sad song by American alternative rock band The Pixies.
 Connecting himself to the Surrealist movement, Buñuel later said of  "It was an aggressive morality based on rejection of all existing values. We had other criteria: we exalted passion, mystification, black humour, the insult and the call of the abyss."
Of their famous first film, Buñuel later recalled: "Our [Dali and Buñuel] one and only rule was very simple: no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted. We had to open all doors to the irrational and keep only those images that surprised us, without trying to explain why." As filmmaking is a labor intensive, industrial process, this was, to say the least, a risky proposition. Interestingly, the film was a huge hit with the French bourgeoisie, playing for eight months in Paris and making stars out of the two. Naturally, this led to Buñuel's disgust:

What can I do about the people who adore all that is new, even when it goes against their deepest convictions, or about the insincere, corrupt press, and the inane herd that saw beauty or poetry in something which was basically no more than a desperate impassioned call for murder?

The images are startling and manage to haunt long after the few 'scenes' of the film are done, and this is a low-budget, silent, short film more than 3/4 of a century old (so there's no excuse for you not to get out there and put your vision on the screen!). In fact, one could argue that Un Chien is the first low-budget indie film, since by 1928/9 there was most definitely a production and distribution system in place, and Buñuel and Dalí were working completely outside of said system, self-financed, and so low-budget that Buñuel had to edit the film in his kitchen without the benefit of any equipment save his (unsliced) eyeball and, ironically enough,  razor blades and tape. It has also been argued that the film was an inspiration for the symbolic, associative editing and imagery in music videos -- many commercial directors saw the film in school, which for years was one of the few places that had a print to screen.
The turbulent years of the 1930s were of profound importance in his life. He joined the Surrealist movement in 1929 but by 1932 had renounced it and embraced Communism.He continued to develop his surreal movie-making style, travelling between Hollywood and Spain until Civil war broke out in 1936. During the war he worked for the Republican government and created a war documentary titled, España Leal en Armas (1937).

In 1946 Buñuel moved to Mexico, where many other intellectuals had fled with the outbreak of war in Spain. He would stay there for the rest of his life, becoming a citizen and directing over 20 films by 1964. All of his films were very critical of the systems and powers that be, and one of his  favourite targets was the Catholic Church. But he always mitigated his fierce critique with great talent, a very peculiar sense of humor, and with the the heavy influence of one of the mot releant artistic movements of the Twentieth century;surrealism.  His films  1961's Viridiana and 1962’s The Exterminating Angel Buñuel developed a new style that was surrealist in both form and content. Employing the language of classical Hollywood cinema, both films skewer the status quo with taboo imagery and disturbing scenarios involving sexual mania, religious hypocrisy, and social savagery.
 Buñuel continued to attack church and state through film, and by the 1980s he created his autobiography, My Last Sigh. Buñuel died in Mexico City on July 29, 1983, a decorated and celebrated filmmaker.

Luis Bunuel  - A Statement

1.In none of the traditional arts is there such a wide gap between possibilities and facts as in the cinema.Motion pictures act directly upon the spectator; they offer him concrete persons and things;they isolate him, through silence and darkness, from the usual psychological atmosphere. Because of all this , the cinema is capable of stirring the spectator as perhaps no other art. But as no other art, it is also capable of stupefying him. Unfortunately, the great majority of todays films seem to have exactly that purpose; they glory in an intellectual and moral vacuum, movies seem to prosper.                                                                           

2. Mystery is a basic element of all works of art. It is generally lacking on the screen. Writers, directors, and producers take good care in avoiding anything that may upset us. They keep the marvellous window on the liberating world of poetry shut.They prefer stories which seem to continue our ordinary lives, which repeat for the umpteenth time the same drama, which help us forget the hard hours of our daily work. And all this, of course, carefully watched over by traditional morals , government and international censorship, religion, good taste, white humour and other flat dicteria of reality.
                                                                                     
3. The screen is a dangerous and wonderful instrument, if a free spirit uses it. It is the superior way of expressing the world of dreams, emotions and instinct. The cinema seems to have been invented for the expression of the subconscious, so profoundly is it rooted in poetry. Nevertheless, it almost never pursues these ends.

4. We rarely see good cinema in the mammoth productions, or in the works that have recieved the praise of critics and audience. The particular story, the private drama of an individual cannot interest -I believe - anyone worthy of living in our time. If a man in the audience shares the joys and sorrows of a character on the screen, it should be because the character reflects the joys and sorrows of al l society and so the personal feelings of that man in the audience. Unemployment, insecurity, the fear of war, social injustice, etc., affect all men of our time , and thus, they also affect the individual spectator. But when the screen tells me that Mr X is not happy at home and finds amusement with a girlfriend whom he finally abandons to reunite himself with his faithful wife, I Find it all very moral and edifying, but it leaves me completetly indifferent.

5. Octavia Paz has said :" But that a man in chains should shut his eyes, the world would explode." And I coould say : But that the white eyelid of the screen reflect its proper light, the Universe would go up in flames. But for the moment we can sleep in peace : the light of the cinema is conveniently dosified and shackled.


The above originally puplished in "FILM CULTURE ", no 21, Summer 1960, pp. 41-2. Still relevant methinks

Malcolm X - No Sell Out ( 19/5/25 - 21/2/65)

 

Malcolm X  originally Malcolm Little (and later also known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz) was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on 19 May 1925 who went on to become one of the most influential advocates of self-defence for Black people as well as one of the harshest critics of America's institutional racism.  The fourth of eight children of  outspoken Baptist ministe the Reverend Earl Little and his wife, Louise. Soon after Malcolm's birth the Littles moved to the outskirts of East Lansing, Michigan.

When Malcolm was six, his father died, presumably murdered by the Black Legion, a violent racist group similar to the Ku Klux Klan, and the Little home life became more and more difficult. Louise was eventually placed in the state mental hospital, and her children were declared wards of the state. In 1941 Malcolm moved to Boston to live with his half sister, Ella. He became caught up in the nightlife of Boston and, later, New York. After a few years in the underworld of Harlem, selling drugs and working for call-girl services, Malcolm began a burglary ring in Boston. In 1946, at the age of twenty-one, he was arrested for armed robbery and sent to prison.

During his six years in Charlestown Prison, Concord Reformatory, and Norfolk Prison, Malcolm underwent a spiritual and intellectual transformation.It was  during this period that Malcolm’s brother alerted him to the teachings of the Nation of Islam (NOI) and encouraged Malcolm to convert to the Muslim faith. Intrigued by the NOI, Malcolm began studying the work of Elijah Muhammad who preached about systemic oppression and fought for a world separate from one inhabited by White people.

By the time Malcolm X was released from prison he was a devout follower and soon after meeting Muhammad and agreeing to work for NOL,changed his name to Malcolm X, the X representing the unknown name of his African ancestors and their culture that had been lost during slavery. As well as the “x” that many slaves received as a brand on their upper arm .

Malcolm X was soon appointed as a minister and national spokesperson for Nation of Islam.  He was also charged with establishing new mosques around the country. He returned to Boston and became the Minister of the NOI’s Temple # 11. He was also selected to lead the NOI’s mosque #7 on Lennox Avenue in Harlem and is credited with other establishments in Detroit, Michigan and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His public speaking and media appearances also contributed to increased awareness and interest in the Nation of Islam. His commanding stage presence, quick wit, and erudition, combined with the authenticity of his experience as a street hustler, made Malcolm a remarkable orator and a dynamic leader. In fact, Malcolm X is largely credited with building the Nation of Islam from a tiny sect to a significant force in urban black America, increasing  the NOI membership from 500 in 1952 to 30,000 in 1963.
The public nature of his work, however, led the FBI and national government to pay very close attention to Malcolm X. At certain points the NOI organizations Malcolm X was involved in were infiltrated by the FBI and the group’s communications and activities were heavily monitored.
In 1963 there was increasing jealousy in the Nation of Islam over Malcolm's increasing celebrity, and Malcolm's discovery of violations of the Muslim's strict moral code by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm had learned that  his mentor, was indulging in secret relationships with as many as six women  within the NOL, some of which  produced children. The teachings of NOL specified celibacy until marriage. Elijah was not married to any of them. He asked Malcom to help cover up the affairs  and the evidence of children, he obeyed and kept quiet.
Nevertheless, Malcolm cold not look  past Elijahs deception and in March 1964 terminated his relationship with the NOL. Once out from the strict teachings of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm drifted from the primarily spiritual philosophy of the Nation to a more political black nationalism.On April 12, 1964, one month after splitting with the NOI, Malcolm X gave his "Ballot or the Bullet" speech at King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit (he'd given the address nine days earlier in Cleveland, but the Detroit version is regarded by some scholars as definitive). It was the fullest declaration of his black nationalist philosophy. Mainstream black ministers in Detroit tried to block Malcolm X from using the church, saying "separatist ideas can do nothing but set back the colored man's cause." But the church hall had already been rented out for the event.
"The Ballot or the Bullet" became one of Malcolm X's most recognizable phrases, and the speech was one of his greatest orations. Two thousand people – including some of his opponents -- turned out to hear him speak in Detroit.. President Lyndon Johnson was running for reelection in 1964, and Malcolm X declared it "the year of the ballot or the bullet." He outlined a new, global sensibility in the fight for racial justice: "We intend to expand [the freedom struggle] from the level of civil rights to the level of human rights."
 In the spring of 1964, when Malcolm X gave his "Ballot or the Bullet" speech, he was regarded by a majority of white Americans as a menacing character. Malcolm X never directly called for violent revolution, but he warned that African Americans would use "any means necessary" – especially armed self defense – once they realized just how pervasive and hopelessly entrenched white racism had become.
Malcolm was now free of the NOI's ban on members participating in the mainstream civil rights movement. He encouraged black militants to get involved in voter registration drives and other forms of community organizing to redefine and expand the movement.

The day after his Detroit speech, Malcolm X embarked on an overseas tour that included a life-changing pilgrimage to the Muslim holy city of Mecca. Known as the Hajj, the pilgrimage must be carried out at least once in a lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so. The racial diversity he experienced in the Middle East, especially among Muslims, led him to discard his strict notions of black separatism for a wider, more inclusive movement against white supremacy and colonialism  and, tentatively, to a more internationalist philosophy--Pan-Africanism.He founded his own religious organization, the Muslim Mosque, Inc. converted to Sunni Islam, and  was a devout Muslim until the day he died. 

Malcolm X returned to the United States with a new energy and vision for his work. He began to not only direct his work towards African Americans but to people of all races and ethnicities. He preached about human rights, freedom, action, and community building. If was also at this time that Malcolm and Martin Luther King,Jr began to move closer to each other, Their unity if given the opportunity to fully develop, could have led to a deeper unity of the African American community and the strengening  of the all-sided fight for peace freedom and justice.

While re-establishing himself, however, the old tensions with the Nation of Islam were still festering and rumors began that Malcolm X had been targeted for assassination. Attempts were made on his life and threats were made against his wife, Betty, and four daughters. In February of 1965 his family home was firebombed, and while everyone made it out alive, no one was ever charged with the crime. 

It was only one week later, on February 21, 1965, in Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom when three men rushed Malcolm X on stage during a speaking engagement and shot him 15 times at close range. He was pronounced dead upon arrival at New York’s Columbia aged only 39.
 In death, he became a seminal figure to an increasingly militant generation of young African Americans, a beacon for activists in the 1960s Black Power and Black Arts movements, inspiring and informing many others in their fight for social justice and equality.His legacy lives on because Malcolm X was one of the most dynamic, dramatic and influential figures of the civil rights era. He was an apostle of black nationalism, self respect, pride, empowerment and uncompromising resistance to white oppression. A polarizing figure who both energized and divided African Americans, while frightening and alienating many whites. He was an unrelenting truth-teller who declared that the mainstream civil rights movement was naïve in hoping to secure freedom through integration and nonviolence. The blazing heat of Malcolm X's rhetoric sometimes overshadowed the complexity of his message, especially for those who found him threatening in the first place.
His major literary achievement, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), composed during the last two years of his life with the writer Alex Haley, contains a montage of Malcolm's perspectives and only invites speculation as to which direction Malcolm's philosophy would have taken. The Autobiography, published posthumously, stands as a major twentieth-century African American literary work. Its orality, its political intentions and ramifications, and its promise of unspoken truths about the African American experience all place it firmly in African American autobiographical traditions. n 1998 Time named The Autobiography of Malcolm X one of the ten most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century
Malcolm X today carries tremendous weight as a cultural icon, most notably in the films of Spike Lee. He has been used to symbolize an alternative, more militant vision of social protest than Martin Luther King, Jr.'s nonviolence, and his name appears in rap and other African American poetry as a symbol of black pride and for many people he remains an icon. An individual who was not afraid to challenge oppression, who was courageous enough to change his mind .and admit his mistakes, but foe  may Malcolm X was no sell out, and for that reason his legacy lives on and on. 

Malcolm X - Advocates Self Defense Units (1964)

No Fear - Malcom X

Malcolm X - The Last Speech

No Sell Out Malcolm X

International Mother Language Day.2019

 

Happy International Mother Language Day.
The day was proclaimed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1999. International Mother Language Day aims to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used around the world.The day is also observed to promote linguistic and cultural diversity, multilingualism  and bring awareness to languages on the path to extinction.
The date represents the day in 1952 when students demonstrating for recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the two national languages of the then Pakistan, were shot and killed by police.
International Mother Language Day provides a grand exposure for the recognition, protection, and spread of lesser-used and threatened languages to reassert themselves in their struggle for language rights, to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.
This year’s theme is “Indigenous languages matter for development, peace building and reconciliation”.Languages, with their complex implications for identity, communication, social integration, education and development are of strategic importance for people.Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. All moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue.
But linguistic diversity is increasingly threatened as more and more languages  disappear. One language disappears on average every two weeks, taking with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage.According to the United Nations, 43 percent of the estimated 6,000 world languages are  “endangered.” Thousands of local languages used as the daily means of expression are absent from education systems, the media, publishing and the public domain in general because of state policies.
 We learn better in our mother tongue when it is taught in school  But this is not the case of all minority languages. 476 million of world’s illiterate people speak minority languages and live in countries where children are mostly not taught in their mother language
Tashi Wangchuck's Tibetan Language advocacy was peaceful, non-political and conducted  through official channels. He was  neverthcless arrested by the Chineses authorities and sentenced to five years in prison.
https://freetibet.org/news-media/na/china-bars-lawyer-jailed-tibetan-activist-visiting
In Turkey, because of repressive assimilationist policies, many Kurds have suffered language loss. The so-called democratization process has proven to be elusive, cosmetic, inconsequential and peripheral. It is not surprising that despite all the misleading rhetoric on language reform in Turkey, Kurdish has not been given its denied status, and the demand for the basic right to education in the mother tongue is still controversial and rejected.
In Iran, draconian restrictions are being used against using the language in official institutional and educational settings. Government directives issued periodically reinforce a repressive policy that has turned schoolyards into a battlefield where administrative personnel and teachers have been requisitioned to watch over and eavesdrop on Kurdish students to ensure that no one speaks “the local dialect.”
Similarly, Kurdish ethnic and linguistic identity in Syria has been denied and brutally repressed. To this day, Kurds are treated as outsiders and foreigners. These entrenched state language ideologies, in short, have made a stateless nation subjected to harsh measures of linguicide and ethnocide.  
These exclusionary and discriminatory practices have detrimental social and educational implications for Kurdish children who find it more difficult to thrive endemically.
When a language disappears, it takes with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage so does the world’s rich tapestry of cultural diversity..As we celebrate the 70 th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights remember it enshrines the right to freedom of opinion and expression and promotes the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world. Not only does the recognition of the value of one’s mother tongue help develop a sense of pride in it, it can help promote an attitude of mind towards other cultures and tongues, as being due a reciprocal respect.
 International Mother Language Day is also a good opportunity to remind ourselves that children of migrants and Indigenous people have an international right to speak, grow up with, and celebrate their own heritage languages, wherever they reside. Languages enriches society, economic mobility and at end of the day is what makes us human.
 On #MotherLanguageDay, let’s stand together to make sure that #IndigenousLanguages are preserved! https://on.unesco.org/2Brk2wU

Kurt Cobain ( 20/2/67 - 5/4/94) - "I'm so happy, because today I found my friends, they're in my head."

 

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain would have marked his birthday today, In the brief, less-than-three-year window between Nevermind’s release in the fall of 1991 and the Nirvana frontman’s suicide on April 5, 1994, at the age of 27 there was no one more influential in rock music than Kurt Cobain, whose impact on the world is still being felt.

Kurt Donald  Cobain  was born  on February 20, 1967, in the small logging town of Aberdeen, Washington. His parents divorced when he was seven years old. He later said that the divorce had a profound effect on his life, while his mother noted that his personality changed dramatically with Cobain becoming defiant and withdrawn, but as a child was artistic and had an ear for music. During his sophomore year in High school, Cobain began living with is mother in Aberdeen..

He began playing in bands in Olympia, Washington after dropping out of high school in 1985. Cobain was very influential in creating what became known as grunge music, Grunge musicians pushed back against music they saw as commercial and shallow. 

Kurt created  the Seattle band Nirvana, with his friend Kris Novoselic in 1987, At the height of the bands immense fame, Kurt's intense lyrics, unique  voice and incredible stage charisma cemented his place as the voice of a generation.His hits as the band's lead singer and writer include Smells Like Teen Spirit, Lithium and Come As You Are, still sound as fresh to me as to when I first heard them, lyrics of raw intensity and feeling  that focused on themes of existentialism, loneliness, and  yes depression that led to him becoming one of the most influential musicians in the history of alternative rock. He changed music in a big way in a very short period of time, leaving an astonishing legacy and music that has inspired many.He was also an activist , who used his voice to speak out against racism, misogyny, sexism and supporting many social justices causes..

Unfortunately he battled substance abuse problems all his life and  the way that US drug laws worked, the stigma attachd failed him, pushing him  into treatment that simply did not work , the same forces that fsil other todayd , this  combined with his difficulty to deal with his fame, and his deep depression i fuelled his self detonation.

On April 8, 1994 Kurt was  found dead in his home in Seattle , with fresh injection marks in both arms and a fatal wound to his head from the 20-gauge shotgun found between his knees'.He was only 27 and left behind a suicide note , his wife Courtney Love and his daughter Francis Bean Cobain.

His death shocked the music world and left countless fans devastated. Despite the tragic circumstances of his life  his songs have actually helped me get me through many times of darkness  and managed at same time to actually lift me up, so am grateful for that at least, and he remains a very talented and beautiful human..

But lets be clear there is nothing glamorous about depression or mental illness, it can effect anyone, rich or poor, like Kurt you just have to be human, the important thing is to keep talking, battling, surviving,  try and be defiant and keep raging against the world, but remember too that the road to Nirvana is often very hard to find... 

"If  any of you in anyway hate homosexuals, people of color, or women, please do this one favor for us don't come to our shows and don't buy our records." - Kurt Cobain  

Happy Birthday Kurt

Lithium

I'm so happy because today
I've found my friends
They're in my head
I'm so ugly, but that's okay, 'cause so are you
We've broken our mirrors
Sunday morning is everyday for all I care
And I'm not scared
Light my candles in a daze
'Cause I've found god
Hey, hey, hey

I'm so lonely but that's okay I shaved my head
And I'm not sad
And just maybe I'm to blame for all I've heard
But I'm not sure
I'm so excited, I can't wait to meet you there
But I don't care
I'm so horny but that's okay
My will is good
Hey, hey, hey

I like it, I'm not gonna crack
I miss you, I'm not gonna crack
I love you, I'm not gonna crack

I killed you, I'm not gonna crack

I like it, I'm not gonna crack
I miss you, I'm not gonna crack
I love you, I'm not gonna crack
I killed you, I'm not gonna crack

Sir Richard Branson's Venezualan PR Stunt

 

On February 15th British billionaire entrepreneur and fat cat owner of the Virgin media Group Sir Richard Branson  announced plans for a “Venezuela Aid Live” concert to be held on February 22 in the Colombian border city of Cucuta and also to be live-streamed on the Internet, to  ostensibly raise money for “humanitarian aid” for Venezuelans. But far from being apolitical, in Branson’s own words, the concert is taking aim at what he calls the “Maduro regime” and was apparently organised at the suggestion of the self-appointed “president” Juan Guaidó himself  and opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, coinciding  with them calling for a so-called “humanitarian corridor” to open across the border on February 23, one month after their failed coup attempt.

 
What Branson has effectively annonced is a  cynical propaganda spectacle on the Colombia-Venezuela border this Friday in the form of a concert for regime change. The vulgarity  of the entire event should be highly disturbing to anyone who supports international law. The goal of Guaidó is to overthrow a legally recognised government and as such, staging a concert such as this is nothing short of a geopolitical provocation disguised as a joyous charity event.
Major relief organizations – the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Catholic aid group Caritas – have so far been reluctant to cooperate with the so-called “humanitarian” food and supply efforts of both US AID and the Lima Group, warning against using food as a political pawn.The politicisation of aid is among the most disingenuous things that one could do. UN spokesman Stephen Dujarric told reporters last week, referring to the crisis in Venezuela, that humanitarian action must be independent of political or military objectives.
Sir Branson’s concert is just his own egoistic PR campaign, many  have mocked the call to donate from a man who is worth billions, saying  that if he really cared at all about the plight of the Venezuelan people  he  could easily pony-up the $100 million himself from petty cash, and  pointing out that he could  help the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela by using his power and influence to get the USA to lift sanctions, which have inflicted so much pain on the country making people suffer  while they continue to plan interventions.
 Even Venezuelan economists who oppose Maduro acknowledge it is SANCTIONS that ruin the Venezuelan economy. freely admitting that it’s the sanctions that have crippled their economy. Trump's Economic Sanctions have cost Venezuela about $6bn since August 2017. https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14073:  For these – and  so many other reasons, any coordination with the US government in respect of ‘humanitarian aid’ to Venezuela is at bestdeeply misguided.
Thinking about it where's the Live Aid style event for the people of Gaza or Yemen. There is  a growing movement to ignore the live-streamed event on the Internet, refusing to participate in Sir Richard Branson’s (and Juan Guaido’s and Leopoldo Lopez’s ) PR stunt.
Barely missing  a beat  on Monday the government of Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro has responded by  announcing  that it will hold its own huge concert to rival one being organised by Branson's on Saturday and Sunday on Venezuela’s side of the border, Rodriguez did not announce the artists who are expected to perform, saying only that the concert would be massive.“People from all over the world want to take part in this message of love, solidarity and denunciation against the aggression that they’re trying against the Venezuelan people,” Rodriguez said.

The government of Venezauela routinely complains of US interference.Maduro has opposed aid being sent in saying its a trick , blasting it as a ploy to topple the government, instead demanding that Washington lift the economic sanctions imposed on Caracas that could .leading to a military invasion that will be used to enslave the people of Venezuela.

Stepping up the standoff, Rodriguez also promised to deliver 20,000 boxes of government-subsidized food to the poor in the Colombian border city of Cucuta, where tons of aid from the United States is now sitting earmarked for struggling Venezuelans.

Maduro is vowing not to let the U.S. aid enter Venezuela, and he announced on state television Monday evening that his government would import 300 tons of aid from Russia that he said will arrive soon. He said Venezuela paid for the Russian goods and isn’t a country of beggars, lashing out at President Donald Trump for thinking he can force in unwanted assistance.

“They want to enslave us,” Maduro said. “That’s the truth.”

Demonstrations have been planned around the world on February 23 to couter this war propoganda blitz against  Venezuela.
U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton has already admitted what U.S. intervention is really about: “It will make a big difference to the United States economically if we could have American oil companies invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela.” Just like Iraq, this is another U.S, intervention for oil.
Over 200 organizations and thousands of individuals from across the world have endorsed the call for actions on February 23. Read the call and add your name or organization as an endorser at NoWarOnVenezuela.org

Long-standing Labour MP Paul Flynn dies aged 84

The long-standing Labour MP Paul Flynn has  died aged 84,his local association has announced The association said on Twitter: “It’s with great sadness that we let you know that our MP, Paul Flynn, has died today.the party has announced. “Paul is a hero to many of us in the Newport Labour family and we mourn for his family’s loss. We would ask that the privacy of Paul’s family is respected at this difficult time.”
Mr Flynn was born in Cardiff and educated at St Illtyd's College and University College, Cardiff, becoming a chemist in the steel industry until 1983. A fluent Welsh speaker, he was a member of the Newport Borough Council (1972–81) and Gwent County Council (1974–82). He was elected to the House of Commons for Newport West at the 1987 general election, and remained its MP ever since, being re-elected at the 2015 general election.
Paul Flynn joined the front bench under Neil Kinnock in 1988 when he became a spokesman on health and social security and for social security in 1989. He resigned from the front bench in 1990. He has been a member of the Transport Select Committee (1990-97), the Welsh Affairs Select Committee (1997-98), the Environmental Audit Select Committee (2003-05), and the Public Administration Select Committee since 2005. He had been Chairman of the Broadcasting Council for Wales, and member of the South Wales Docks Board and the Council of University College, Cardiff.
He had long  been considered an  outspoken maverick and fearless campaigner on a wide-range of issues,Mr Flynn's was not a career of high office but instead of long-fought causes including benefits, animal  welfare, devolution, and  was a long-standing opponent of nuclear power in the United Kingdom  and in particular the new  Hinckley Point C nuclear power station across the Bristol Channel from his constituency. He was on the left of the party, he was also a fierce critic of the so-called "war on terror"  and a consistent opponent of the Iraq war and Western military interventionism, one  of his interventions in recent years was to reeatedly read in parliament as an anti-war intervention the names of each new soldier who had falen in Afghanistan to focus MPs minds that their lies meant people died. He was  also a principled republican who in 1996 tabled a bill to abolish the monarchy via a referendum. The MP, who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, was also noted as a strong and loud advocate of legalising cannabis and drug reform, once saying "Cannabis is the oldest medicine in the world. It has been trialled and tested by tens of millions of people over 5,000 years. If there were any problems with natural cannabis that would have been apparent a long time ago. " In  2017 he called for users to come to Parliament to break the law.
He also defended labour leader Jeremy Corbyn during the 2016 coup attempt and in spite of health issues, served in two shadow ministerial posts – Shadow Welsh Secretary and Shadow Leader of the House – to fill gaps left by those resigning to try to force Jeremy Corbyn’s resignation.
The Labour leader, said Flynn would be “greatly missed”. He tweeted: “I’m very sad at the passing of my good friend Paul Flynn. He had such love for Newport, knowledge of radical South Wales history and a dry wit..“He was an independent thinker who was a credit to the Labour Party. He will be greatly missed."
 First Minister of Wales and Welsh Labour leader Mark Drakeford described Mr Flynn as a “giant of the Welsh Labour movement”.He added: “Today’s news will be a source of great sadness to all those who knew him.“He was one of the most effective communicators of his generation – inside the House of Commons and outside. But it was Paul’s willingness to speak up for causes beyond the political mainstream which marked him out as a politician of real courage and integrity.”
 The Welsh secretary, Alun Cairns, tweeted: “Very sorry to hear of Paul Flynn’s passing. My thoughts & prayers are with his family. “He was an exceptional constituency MP & it was a privilege to work with him taking the Wales Bill through Parliament when he was Shadow SoS for Wales. We always had a warm & friendly relationship”.
Mr Flynn  announced in October that he intended to stand down as an MP due to health reasons, telling the Press Association he would “wait for a convenient time to go” and had “loved every minute” of his time in Westminster.He said at the time: “It’s been a great, wonderful, rich experience. I lasted 31 years.”
On all accounts  a kind principled man, who stood by his principles, who did not betray them like the new self indulgent Blair appreciation party, he was worth a million of them. He fought for the soul of the Labour Party against the Blairites as documented in his book 'Dragons led by Poodles '.He was  well respected across the political divide with his wonderful turn of phrase, witty comments and incisive mind, an example rarely seen  who will be missed. Whatever you think of his politics, his passing is sad news. He is survived by his wife Samantha and his two children.