Whoever leads them, the British Conservative party is diametrically opposed to the good of the British public and deliberately acts against their interests. Their motives driven by authoriarianism designed to disenfranchise all, unless you are not a millionaire, the Conservative Party is not your friend, they are enemies of the people. Inhabited by people with no feeling at all. How on earth are they governing this land, they have no credible mandate to do so, and remain for me a thoroughly nasty bunch of people, with policies designed to wreck our lives, destroying Britain as they carve it into pieces. Aided and abetted by their friends in the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and the Scum newspapers. Rags that keep on pumping out the same disingeous and divisive rubbish. Plus the BBC misleading people with their parroting of Tory narratives and soundbites. We should not forget the Tory's ruthless , toxic and unjust policies. Their constant assaults on the NHS, people on welfare, the disadvantged, the poor, which include poorly paid workers. As a direct result of their policies we have got the growth of foodbanks, rising homelessness, dodgy benefit assessmentsts, the trebling of uniersity tuition fees, a boom in xero hours contracts, while anti-democratically forcing fracking on people who have clearly stated they don't want it, while at the same time passng new laws to ensure the wealthy stay wealthy, taking the side of big business while eradicating workers rights and continuing their attacks on young people, single parents, maintaining a hostile environment to refugees, slashing education and social security budgets, perescuting the poor for beng poor while at same time they give their friends the millionaires tax breaks and award themselves pay rises. The list goes on and on, they are toxic and out of control. The Conservatives with their feelings of self entitlement believe they are born to rule. Unconcerned by any principles except their maintenance of power, they U-turn on positions at a drop of a hat, betray promises and even sacrifice their own in order to maintain control.The interests they serve are not yours or mine, but those of the bankers, financiers, fossil fuel magnates and the elite. As they continue to inflict hardship on the vulnerable with their ideological cruelty and want to transfer wealth upwards towards the rich, they continue to fuck up the country, presiding over economic incompetance and unrelenting social catastrophe, leading Britain to international isolation and the United Kingdom itself to breaking apart. They simply do not care about this country's direction or the plight of the people, only with staying in charge. Just because they are now in power, this does not mean that they should be given a green light to do as they wish. They are a real threat and a constant danger to our well being, and we all deserve so much better. We have to get rid of them by any means necessary, becauuse the devil comes in many shapes and sizes, and I believe it is truly at home in the Conservative party, a demonic party that should not be given an inch and must be opposed with every opportunity, and until people wake up and start opening their eyes to their policies of division, things will only get worse under their rule. A General election is needed now, time to give them the boot, for some much needed fairness and human decency. For the many not the few.
Greetings from Aberteifi, West Wales I've just realised that this blog has been going now for over ten years, having started it on the 14th of June 2009 with this post https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2009/06/iolo-morgannwgthat-will-do-trick-bit-of.html
When I first created teifidancer, it was just a creative experiment,an act of therapy, never did I actually believe it would last this long. It's been a journey, and become part of who I am, where I've been able to release my passions, politically, poetically and philosophically that reflect my myriad of interests. Trying to challenge mainstream narrative and consensus opinion, in the hope that by sharing my perspective and outlook with my words, can at least enable some to think differently about the world that we live in, with critque at times, that can act as a catalyst to effect change, both in attitude and in action.
It has not come without it's challenges, many highs and lows, the loss of loved ones, storms a plenty. it's certainly never been plain sailing, but hope a long the way I have somehow managed to inspire, and that some people have enjoyed at least some of the content I have shared.
The last ten years have seen a quick rise of populist political narratives and parties throughout the world, the worrying rise of the far right, whose ideas I hope will continue to challenge, and share posts about the Palestinians, the Kurds and other oppressed peoples struggles, who I will try to keep advocating for, as well as ongoing human rights abuses worldwide, the cause of international solidarity and issues closer to home, the challenges we face with the current rotten Tory Government, radical change in the political landscape still much needed, will still put forward my independent personal perspective alongside cultural and historical thoughts on art, music and culture, biographical sketches of people that have influenced and inspired my own thought, whilst from time to time offering to the world some of my own poetical endeavours and impulses.
I know I should keep some of my secrets private, but I hate capitalism, war and bereavement, there are some horrific times ahead, forces of hate, intolerance on bigotry on the rise, god knows what will happen next with the Torys still on their high horses, I feel it's going to get a lot worse before anything gets better, I will at least keep following the deep caves of love and paths laden with hope. I wish to thank all those who have offered encouragement a long the way, it has meant a lot,cheers,alas some no longer here, especially dear Jane ( who I met ten years ago today)and Ken who are still fondly remembered, and to Cheryl, Terence and other friends, the Cellar Bards https://en-gb.facebook.com/groups/333544513348067/and https://iamnotasilentpoet.wordpress.com/ my humble gratitude also goes out to those that have actually chosen to actually follow this blog.
This post is my 2357th, so to end, here are some links to 50 of my most popular posts according to my statistics, all of which have been visited well over a thousand times, hope their still of interest and that this blog will survive for a while to come. Thanks, heddwch / peace, happy solstice, no borders are necessary. another world is possible, I will try and keep dancing.
Albert Einstein (14/3/1879 18/4/1955 A human being is part of a whole, called by us'the Universe' - a part limited in time and space
Today I remember of one of the 20th Century's most
brutal attacks by the state on its own citizens.The Battle of Orgreave,
which took place during the1984 Miners strike,which resulted in an all out military
operation by Margeret Thatcher's Conservative cabinet. The miners' strike of 1984-85 was the longest lasting and most
bitter industrial dispute of the second half of the 20th century in
Britain. It had a huge impact on virtually every subsequent industrial
and political development.
On June 18th 1984, 6 to 7,000 striking miners and their supporters
gathered to picket Orgreave cokeworks near Rotheram in South
Yorkshire. The
miners wanted to stop lorry loads of coke leaving for the steelworks.
They thought that would help them win their strike, and help protect
their pits and their jobs. The police were determined to hold them back.
The number of officers was unprecedented. The use of dogs, horses and
riot gear in an industrial dispute was almost unheard of. Some of the
tactics were learned from the police in Northern Ireland and Hong Kong
who had experience dealing with violent disorder.
During the subsequent court case a police manual was uncovered which
set out the latest plans to deal with pickets and protests. Police vans
and Range Rovers were fitted with armour so they could
withstand the stones being thrown by some in the crowd. The miners
suspected the whole operation was being run under government control.
Many believe Orgreave was the first example of what became known as
“kettling” – the deliberate containment of protesters by large numbers
of police officers. It marked a turning point in policing and in the
strike. Police directed pickets to an area of land which left them hemmed in
on three sides.Before this event the miners had been stoically out on
strike for about 12 weeks, during which they had been assaulted on
picket lines, with individuals being handcuffed and beaten without any
cause or provocation.
At Orgreave the miners after being herded together. were
savagely attacked by Police cavalry in full riot gear under the
jurisdiction of Thatcher's Government attacking fleeing miners with
long swaying batons as Miners ran for safety. It saw the police going
berserk under state orders, repeatedly attacking individuals wherever
they sought refuge, as they fled into a nearby Wheatfield and into the
community of Orgreave, where the police carried on their pursuit
through the streets. It resulted in scenes of ugliness, fear and menace, as all
concepts of Law and order that the constabulary were supposed to
withhold were abandoned. The police frenzy at Orgreave was consciously designed to batter the NUM into submission.
Far
from the liberal ideal of a politically neutral body serving the public
the police were used at Orgreave to further the anti-socialist rampage
which dominated Thatcher's 1980's. As Michael Mansfield QC wrote :"They
wanted to teach the miners a lesson, a big lesson, such as they wouldn't
come out in force again."
At the end the day 95people were arrested, for no crime
whatever, with over 39 strikers being injured, many severely. Following Orgreave, the police conducted a deliberate
and co-ordinated attempt to frame arrested miners for one of the most
serious events on the statute book - the offence of Riot. No police
officer has ever been prosecuted or even disciplined for their role in
the terrible events that occurred.
The miners strike lasted
until March 1985, during which it politicised a generation of people,
sadly however at the end hundreds of mines closed afterwards and many
miners faced redundancy. And dizzy with her own success, Thatcher began a policy of
deindustrialisation of British industry and further impoverishment of
working class and middle-class people.
The miners strike of 1984 was one of the longest and most brutal in British
labour history. A heroic community fighting for jobs and survival was wholly
denigrated and depicted as violent by the majority of the British media, at the time. Orgreave marked a turning point in the policing of public protest. It
sent a message to the police that they could employ violence and lies
with impunity. It was only a year after Orgreave that the so-called
“Battle of the Beanfield” took place, with violent and unprovoked
attacks by the police on New Age travellers, followed by large-scale
wrongful arrests. And more recently there have been examples of police
“kettling” demonstrators in London for several hours – a kind of
pre-emptive imprisonment. With the Government’s Trade Union Act aiming
to further restrict picketing, the right to protest in public is in
serious danger.
In 2012, the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC), was
formed to campaign for a public inquiry into the policing of events at
Orgreave following the success of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign and
revelations about corruption in South Yorkshire Police. But in October
2016 the Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced that there would be no
statutory inquiry or independent review.
In 1991, South Yorkshire police paid £425,000 in compensation to 39
miners who had sued for assault, false arrest and malicious prosecution,
but the force still publicly denied any wrongdoing by any officer.In March the Right Rev Dr Peter Wilcox, the bishop of Sheffield, revealed that the Home Office had also declined to support his proposal for an independent panel to consider the Orgreave events.
In advance of the 35 year anniversary , he said: “Questions
remain unanswered which are not going away. In the fullness of time,
these questions must be addressed thoroughly and openly, so that wrongs
can be put right and so that individuals and communities can move on
from a deeply unhappy piece of history. I gladly repeat today my call
for a formal, public and independent process of inquiry.”
Up to a thousand workers from both Yorkshire and across the country marched to the 35th Battle of Orgreave memorial rally on Saturday.They marched from Orgreave Lane in Sheffield across the bridge and
past the farmland in which the state-orchestrated police attack on striking miners took place on on June 18th 1984.
Other victims of injustice marched with them: workers blacklisted in
the construction industry, victims of the Grenfell fire disaster
represented by the Fire Brigades Union and Shrewsbury 24 campaigners
seeking justice over the imprisonment of striking building site workers
in the 1970s were there.
Speaker after speaker at the rally expressed determination to
continue the Orgreave campaign until truth and justice are achieved.
Prior to speeches the Women’s Socialist Choir gave a rendition of
their Orgreave song ‘Time for Truth, Time for Justice, Time for Peace,’
to warm applause.
A spokesperson for the Orgreave Justice Campaign then said: ‘Take note,
we are not going away! We have been more active than ever in the last
year and we had the biggest reception we have ever had at this year’s
annual Durham Miners Gala.
‘We also had a guarantee from Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn that a
Labour government would hold a workers inquiry into what happened at
Orgreave in 1984.
‘So the international solidarity that was built up throughout that
strike still prevails today. We’ve spoken at over 100 events and
meetings – so don’t forget to keep asking us.
‘And now we know we’ll get an inquiry when we get a Labour government.
Jeremy Corbyn told us: “The next Labour government will launch an
independent inquiry – because there are so many questions that need to
be answered”.
Today I pay tribute to the miners who led the fight
against the Thatcher government to defend jobs and trade unionism. After
35 years it is more important than ever to establish the truth
about who was responsible for organising the police rampage on this day.
Sadly for
the 95 miners who were arrested, their families, comrades and others,
injustice at Orgreave remains unresolved. Now is the time to keep demand an independent inquiry into the police brutality that happened on that day from home secretary Sajid Javid. Addressing the past is also a way of confronting the continuing abuses of the present.
Refugee Week takes place every year across the world in the week around World Refugee Day on the 20 June.
In the UK, Refugee Week is a nationwide programme of arts, cultural and
educational events that celebrate the contribution of refugees to the
UK, and encourages a better understanding between communities.
The main focus of World Refugee Week is to educate people about refugees, what brought them here and the
challenges they’ve faced. By hearing their stories, we can appreciate
who they are and think about how we can work together to make our
communities safer and more welcoming for them.
Refugee Week started in 1998 as a direct reaction to hostility in the
media and society in general towards refugees and asylum seekers, to try
and look beyond the stereotypical ‘refugee’ label and work to counter
this negative climate, defending the importance of sanctuary and the
benefits it can bring to both refugees and host communities. An
established part of the UK’s cultural calendar, Refugee Week is now one
of the leading national initiatives working to counter this negative
climate, defending the importance of sanctuary and the benefits it can
bring to both refugees and host communities.
People escaping war and persecution have been welcomed by communities in
the UK for hundreds of years, and their stories and contributions are
all around us. From the Jewish refugees of the 1930s to people
fleeing Vietnam in the 1970s, Kosovans in the 1990s to those arriving
today; they are part of who we all are.
The theme of Refugee Week 2019, is ' You, me and those who came before' an invitation to explore the lives of refugees who exhibit
such adaptability, resilience and determination in rebuilding their
lives in the UK, and who play (and will go on to play) an important role
in shaping our future society, and those who have welcomed them, throughout the generations and to celebrate the positive contributions refugees make to our society and show support for families forced to flee.
The aims of Refugee Week are: 1. To encourage a diverse range of events to be held
throughout the UK, which facilitate positive encounters between refugees
and the general public in order to encourage greater understanding and
overcome hostility. 2.To showcase the talent and expertise that refugees bring with them to the UK.
To explore new and creative ways of addressing the relevant issues and reach beyond the refugee sector. 3.To provide information which educates and raises awareness of the reality of refugee experiences
The ultimate aim is to create better understanding between different
communities and to encourage successful integration, enabling refugees
to live in safety and continue making a valuable contribution.
Many refugees and asylum seekers face severe difficulties once they
arrive in the UK. Unable to work or support themselves, many struggle
for basics such as food and shelter. Some of the key issues they
encounter are the possibility of detention, living in destitution and
contending with negative stereotypes.Most of those who are granted
asylum are given leave to remain for only five years, making it
difficult for them to make decisions about their future, including
finding work and making definite plans for their life in the UK while it
remains unsafe for them to return to the country they escaped from. As
fellow humans we have a responsibility to respond to their specific
needs in times of crisis. Many of these asylum seekers come to us as a
last resort, having exhausted all alternatives, with nowhere else to
turn. We should also remember all those suffering abuse in detention
centres and those facing repatriation despite the dangers that they
face.
Refugee Week is an umbrella festival, with events held by a wide range
of arts, voluntary, faith and refugee community organisations, schools,
student groups and more. Past events have included arts festivals,
exhibitions, film screenings, theatre and dance performances, concerts,
football tournaments and public talks, as well as creative and
educational activities in schools.
Through Refugee Week the aim is to provide an important opportunity
for asylum seekers and refugees to be seen, listened to and valued. We
must continue to offer our love , solidarity, tolerance, warm welcome
and friendship to refugees who daily have to struggle, many of whom
left feeling traumatised and marginalised. Refugees are ordinary people
to whom extraordinary and often very horrible things have happened.
Refugee Week is an opportunity to celebrate that.
Today, June 15, groups in more than 20 countries have been joining the
#BoycottPuma International Day of Action. Palestinian sports teams called for a boycott of the German athletic wear manufacturer Puma, over its support for Israel’s illegal land
grabs and its decision to become the main sponsor of the Israel Football Association (IFA) which includes six teams in settlements built on
stolen Palestinian land in the West Bank also allowng IFA to provide equipment, including the kits, for all of
Israel’s national football teams. In doing so they replaced Adidas,
which had been the sponsor for the preceding 10 years until it ended its
relationship with the IFA amid a similar campaign.
After a petition that has been signed by over 16,000
human rights supporters from across the world who said that the German
brand’s deal with the IFA made in complicit in the oppression of the
Palestinian people, the company responded with the astonishing claim of their “devotion to universal equality.” whilst at same time profiting from oppression.
This month marks 52 years of Israel’s brutal military occupation of
Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Puma is helping to
whitewash Israel’s apartheid walls, military checkpoints, segregated
Israeli-only roads and ever expanding illegal Israeli
settlements that force Palestinian families off their land and prevent
Palestinian athletes from practicing sports.
The IAF has 6 teams playing in illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land. Israeli bombing in Gaza makes sport a dangerous pastime for Palestinians. This bombing has killed Palestinian national footballers and destroyed Palestinian football stadiums in Gaza. Palestinian footballers have seen ther carees destroyed by Israeli oppression, such as Mahmoud Sarsak. Other footballers have been deliberately shot in the legs at Israeli checkpoints, ending their careers.Palestinians have as much right as the Israeli’s to play sport without fear of serious injury and death. Activists from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) have today helped to organize protests at 30 locations across the UK with
slogans such as “Give Puma the boot” and “#BoycottPuma”.
Palestinians like many peoples and communities across the world, are
struggling to attain the fundamental right of equality. Puma should
make a sincere effort to support that right rather than exploit it to
deflect criticism as it profits from Israel’s
apartheid regime. Let's to keep up the pressure as it continues to be involved in violations of international law and human rights.Please sign the pledge to boycott Puma. Companies like Puma cannot claim to support universal equality whilst
being the main sponsor of the IFA, which operates on stolen Palestinian
land with total impunity," said James Tuite, campaigns officer at
Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
I trust the depths of the nights
more than any single politician
even when tangled up in darkness
heart battered like the surface of the moon
among searching scattering conditions
one can often find much clearer ways
running the gauntlet of stars and stones
towards days of respite, certainty and care
from out of the black holes, the universe rings
in the morning we can run through woods
and the plum crammed orchards
our tears and our love making prisms of hope
under sunflowers meta morphing
rhythms of the pulse awakening
busy like the blow flies
waiting for sunbeams
to warm flutterring wings
moments to sap the bleakness.
Boris
Johnson is the frontrunner in the Conservative Party leadership contest at the moment, but a trail of
controversies have followed him. He has a very spotty
record and in the past he has been called a "bigot" and "ignorant" by his critics. The former foreign secretary refuses to apologise however for writing that a
Muslim woman wearing the veil resembles “a bank robber” and that it is
“absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking
like letter boxes”. He is now under investigation by his own party,
which has received dozens of complaints.
He has also criticised the police for spending money on historic cases of child sex
abuse in comments deemed “disgusting, ignorant” He’s historically used racist language too. In 2002, Johnson wrote in the Telegraph: “It is said that the Queen has
come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with
regular cheering crowds of flag-wearing picaninnies.” The word “picaninnies” is a racist term used to describe black children.
In the same column he also talked about then prime minister Tony Blair,
and wrote: "They say he is shortly off to the Congo. No doubt the AK47s
will fall silent, and the pangas will stop their hacking of human
flesh, and their tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles
to see the big white chief touch down his big white British
taxpayer-funded bird." Johnson later apologised for these comments.
While he was editor of The Spectator he was criticised for allowing a number of articles deemed racist
by some, to make it on to the website, including one article about
racial eugenics that said “orientals” had “larger brains and higher IQ
scores” while “blacks are at the other pole.”Andrew Cooper, a Conservative peer and former No 10 director of
strategy, tweeted recently that “the rottenness of Boris Johnson goes deeper even
than his casual racism & his equally casual courting of fascism”.
Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, has demanded an apology for his
“gratuitously offensive” remarks. Dominic Grieve, the former attorney
general, has said he will leave the Conservative party if Johnson
becomes its leader.
In less than two minutes on 9 June, Owen Jones did more than the entire media has done in months to expose Boris Johnson. Speaking to Sky News, Jones left no stone unturned when combating the Conservative leadership front-runner:
Jones said:
"One of the… big faults at the moment, in this
whole debate, is the lack of scrutiny of Boris Johnson… Why aren’t we
asking – does he still think that gay people should be called ‘bum
boys’? Does he still think that equal marriage should be compared to…
three men marrying a dog? Does he still believe that black people should be called piccaninnies
with watermelon smiles? Does he still think that it’s acceptable to
compare Muslim women to bank robbers and to letterboxes?
Why should we trust somebody who was sacked twice for dishonesty,
once by his newspaper and once by a Conservative leader? Is somebody who
once conspired with a criminal friend to beat up a journalist fit for
high office? Is somebody who wrote one column supporting Remain and
another column supporting Leave, is that somebody who is driven by
anything else other than his own career?"
The commentator continued, criticising the corporate media’s failings:
"But we are not having this discussion because all too
often… and I speak as somebody who has worked in the British media now
for the best part of a decade, Boris Johnson is treated as a bit of a
circus… a bit of a laugh, but he is somebody who has peddled racism,
he’s serially dishonest, he’s a charlatan. But we’re not having that
conversation because again – and it’s worth emphasising this – if you
are from a posh background you can more or less get away with anything
in this country."
Jones pulled no punches in his critique of Johnson. The corporate
media, meanwhile, appears to be treating the man vying to be prime
minister as a bit of a joke. This is a rank dereliction of duty.
Johnson's manifesto is to cut taxes for the higher paid
and leave the EU without a deal.Two of the most divisive ideas in our
society at moment and would simply hit the poorest and most vulnerable
amongst us.
Few British politicians evoke such dismay in Europe as Mr Johnson, a man whom many see as the mastermind of Brexit. He told two infamous lies while campaigning for Brexit, the first of which was so braen, he had it emblaoned acrss the side of a bus Johnson toured up and down the nation on this bus covered in lies and claimed that the NHS would be £350 million better off if voters chose Brexit.https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/23/boris-johnson-will-find-fate-next-week-brexit-bus-lies-9666621/ Now he faces a private prosecution to hold him to account for his criminal lying.https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1130972/brexit-news-court-case-battle-bus-NHS-boris-johnson. As if lying about the NHS was ot heinious enough, Johnson perpetuated the racist myth that the Turkish people were foaming at the mouth to comee to the UK by their tens of millions, scaremongering and stoking up fears about "shared boders".
What we are witnessing is a man who until very recently held one of the
great offices of state claiming a jester’s privilege. When he writes or
speaks, he does so as an MP and privy counsellor well known for his
ambition to become prime minister in the near future. He borrows the
language of King Lear, to play the Fool but for many he is not a bumbling, affable,
ruffle haired clown, but a calculating, ruthless, reckless, intolerant, utterly contemptible
opportunist, and serial liar.
A product of Eton and Oxford and a member of the notoriously elitist and thuggish Bullingdon Club to boot and furthermore a very greedy individual who seems more interested in
feathering his own nest than furthering the national interest. While
Mayor of London he continued to draw a retainer for writing a column for
the Daily Telegraph worth £250,000 a year. He compared this amount
to chicken feed and justified it on the grounds that his Mayoral
salary was too little even though in reality it was way above the
national average. In reaction to the backlash at such a flagrant act of
brazen greed his media team persuaded him to donate a portion of his
Telegraph earnings to charity. Johnson pledged to do this and then never
did. Also, towards the end of his tenure as Mayor of London when he was
re-elected to the House of Commons he continued to claim both his
Mayoral salary/expenses and an MPs salary and expenses too.
After the Grenfell Tower tragedy, footage emerged of him as Mayor telling a politician who challenged the wisdom of his fire serice cuts to "get stuffed"
Johnson also supported the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen and
refused to block UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia, saying there is no clear
evidence of breaches of international humanitarian law by Saudi Arabia
in the war in Yemen. In September 2016, he was accused of blocking the
UN inquiry into Saudi war crimes in Yemen.
He made a joke about "dead bodies" in Libya, insulted people in Myanmar by reciting an "inappropriate" colonialist poem, and wrongly called imprisoned Brtish-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari- Ratcliffe, a journalist, leading to her jail sentence being prolonged.
Do we really want a dangerous individual like this as our future Prime Minister. Heaven' forbid it, it would be catastrophic.Johnson or otherwise, the Conservatives have no mandate to simply impose
another prime minister on the country. Quite simply I personally think all the current contenders are as bad as one another but none as rotten as Johnson.We need a general election now.
George Orwell's classic dystopian novel 1984 was published on 8 June
by the socialist publisher Victor Gollanz. The book arrived at
the birth of the cold war between the Soviet and American blocs, soon
after Winston Churchill fixed the phrase ‘the Iron Curtain’ in the
language and as a ‘Red Scare’ gripped American society. Orwell’s novel
remained one of the most significant and contested cultural products of
that era of ideological struggle between capitalism and communism, its
influence surviving long beyond the actual year 1984. Translations and
many different radio, film and television adaptations across the
post-war decades testify to its continuing significance. The novel has since inspired movies, television shows, plays, a ballet, an opera, a David Bowie album, imitations, parodies, sequels.
This
month as it turns 70 years old, this seminal work with its themes of
totalitarianism, repressive regimentation of the
population, perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance and
propaganda are now more relevant than ever in the age we currently
live. Orwell's predictions were so spot on that is almost acts an
instruction manual for would be tyrants and many of the themes
contained in this amazing book are compelling and
contemporary, foreshadowing the state of our world today, containing
remarkable foresight and vision given that it was first published in
1949. Orwell began writing the novel in 1944, and wrote the bulk of it
while
residing on the Scottish island Jura in the Inner Hebrides while
battling tuberculosis during
1947-1948. Orwell was recently widowed, his wife having died during a
surgical procedure. He was left with his young son, and he was seriously
ill with tuberculosis. There was not a known cure for TB in 1947, and
physicians typically prescribed fresh air and rest. Orwell was given
streptomycin, which was an experimental drug in the US, and after
treatment, his TB symptoms disappeared. He raced to finish his novel,
and upon publication it became an instant success. Orwell died shortly
after of a brain haemorrhage in 1950 at age 46. 1984 has been in publication ever since, and has
been translated into multiple languages, and is often heralded as one of
the best novels of the 20th century. Still resonating in the times we
live today, still worryingly reliable. Commenting on 1984, Orwell wrote, “I do not believe that the kind of society I describe necessarily will arrive, but I believe that something resembling it could arrive.”
In the week of Donald Trump’s inauguration, after the president’s adviser
Kellyanne Conway used the phrase 'alternative facts,'
the novel returned to the best-seller lists. A theatrical adaptation
was rushed to Broadway. The vocabulary of Newspeak went viral. An
authoritarian president who stood the term fake news on its head, who once said, “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,” has given 1984 a whole new life.
Censorship
sadly is still the norm in this
world, and is so extreme that individuals can become "unnpersons" and
removed from society because their ideas are considered too
dangerous by the establishment. Take for example the likes of Julian
Assange and other activists and independent journalists who are punished
for continuing to speak out about government corruption. All over the world where tyrannies rule 1984 is banned.
The
novel is set in 1984 in Great Britain, known as Airstrip One.The world
has suffered through a global atomic war, and there are 3 superpowers
called Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. The standard of living is
relatively low.The media is run by the government, which is known as Big
Brother and the written word is perpetually changed to suit what the
government requires. People are controlled into what to think, how to
act and how to live .It uses telescreens, fearmongering, media control
and corruption to control the masses.
One of the Party pillars in 1984 is endless war on a global scale. The war, however, is a fabrication accepted and treated as fact. For, unreal as it is, it is not meaningless. World powers become enemies
and allies interchangeably simply to keep the masses in perpetual fear,
perpetual industry, and perpetual order. War provides outlet for
unwanted emotions such as hate, patriotism, and discontent, keeping the
structure of society intact and productive without raising the standard
of living. The state of perpetual war described by Orwell is also
reflected in the wars that have raged since 1945, across the globe from
Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen etc etc.
Winston Smith the main protagonist is an editor employed by the
government and is one of many citizens responsible for rewriting
history. In 1984, government surveillance is
constant and at the forefront. The state knows every move its citizens
make, including their habits, whom they talk to, and what they are doing
at any given time. Big Brother is watching and running the show. The
people are sheep who are herded and controlled. Winston Smith embarks on
a clandestine love affair with Julia, a party member, and joins The
Brotherhood, an illegal organisation dedicated to the overthrow of Big
Brother. He is caught,and taken to Room 101, alongside everyone else who
offended had been taken and subjected to torture and brainwashed . He
along with everyone ends up loving Big Brother.
It’s almost impossible to talk about propaganda,
surveillance, authoritarian politics, or perversions of truth without
dropping a reference to 1984. Today across the world there are a lock-up concentration camp style
jails where unconvicted, ostensibly innocent individuals are held and
openly abused. Electronic surveillance in 2019 is a common and accepted
government practice: cell phone listening, cameras on corners and
traffic lights, and electronic toll payment system tracking are all
everyday occurrences. By using our credit cards, shopping rewards cards,
and even our driver's licenses, data are collected on all of us and
sold and used daily, each of us daily profiled. Orwell’s book was
supposed to be a warning, not a guidebook on how to create a
surveillance state. It really is remarkable how the many tools that were
used to suppress in 1984 are now part of our everyday lives. Newspeak is the fictional language spoken in 1984.
It is a controlled and abbreviated version of English. Also known as
“doublespeak!”. As George himself said " Political language... is
designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give
an appearance of solidity to pure wind.. " Politicians continue to
use language to deceive and manipulate, through concealment or
misrepresentation of the truth, desperately and deliberately using
euphemistic or ambiguous language as they have been doing ad infinitum.
One of the objectives of Newspeak is also to decrease self-expression.
With the popularity of texting, it would be fair to say that there are
similarities. And today we are so busy Facebooking, tweeting, etc, the
following line from one of the characters that works for Big Brother.
“The people will not revolt. They will not look up from their screens
long enough to notice what’s happening.” is still amazingly
uncanny. Orwell may not have had a crystal ball, but he did have was an
understanding of the human condition and its weakness. And today it’s almost impossible to talk about propaganda,
surveillance, authoritarian politics, or perversions of truth without
dropping a reference to 1984.
Orwell began writing the novel in 1944, and wrote the bulk of it while
residing on the Scottish island Jura while battling tuberculosis during
1947-1948. Orwell was recently widowed, his wife having died during a
surgical procedure. He was left with his young son, and he was seriously
ill with tuberculosis. There was not a known cure for TB in 1947, and
physicians typically prescribed fresh air and rest. Orwell was given
streptomycin, which was an experimental drug in the US, and after
treatment, his TB symptoms disappeared. He raced to finish his novel,
and upon publication it became an instant success. Orwell died shortly
after of a brain haemorrhage in 1950 at age 46. 1984 has been in publication ever since, has
been translated into multiple languages, and is often heralded as one of
the best novels of the 20th century. Still resonating in the times we
live today, still worryingly reliable. Commenting on 1984, Orwell wrote, “I do not believe that the kind of society I describe necessarily will arrive, but I believe that something resembling it could arrive.”
In the week of Donald Trump’s inauguration, after the president’s adviser
Kellyanne Conway used the phrase 'alternative facts,'
the novel returned to the best-seller lists. A theatrical adaptation
was rushed to Broadway. The vocabulary of Newspeak went viral. An
authoritarian president who stood the term fake news on its head, who once said, “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,” has given 1984 a whole new life.
In some cases, what is happening in the world today is more draconian
and invasive than anything Orwell conceived. The corruption of language
described in 1984 is widespread in the media today, with
"Newspeak" terms such as democratic, socialist, fascist, war criminal,
freedom fighter, racist and many other expressions being used in a
deliberately deceptive, propagandistic way to whip up mass hysteria or
simply to ensure that people can never achieve even an approximation of
the truth.
We are today all living in a massive prison and George Orwell predicted
it. The ability of Big Brother government to observe our every activity
is increasing week by week and soon each and every car journey we make,
every financial transaction we undertake, everywhere we go will be fed
into a computer and if there is a slight variance from what they decide
is the norm then we will be taken in and questioned. Give the wrong
answers and you could well end up in room like 101, or Belmarsh Jail,
Guantanamo Bay etc. We should continue to be on guard, raise alarms, be
objective, keep questioning and hold our individual Governments to
account.
As free speech today is still under attack and the Trump administration
preparess new charges against Julian Assange for exposing US war crimes
and the French government is prosecuting journalists for reporting on
France’s support for the Saudi war in Yemen, and Chelsea Manning remains
locked-up for refusing to inform on Assange, 1984 can still serve as a handbook for our difficult times. Citizens today should support bona fide civil liberties groups and
actively oppose government measures restricting basic freedoms. Freedom
of speech is a basic civil liberty and people should fight to retain it.
They should defy group pressure, think for themselves and speak out.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.We should continue to be on
guard, raise alarms, be objective, keep questioning and hold our
individual Governments to account.In 2003 a docudrama was released by the BBC, detailing the life and
works of George Orwell. The documentary contains footage from his
deathbed, and his final words are certainly chilling. You can here them
in the following video. We can't say that we were never warned.
“We are the dead. Our only true life is in the future. We shall take
part in it as handfuls of dust and splinters of bone. But how far away
that future may be, there is no knowing. It might be a thousand years.
At present nothing is possible except to extend the area of sanity
little by little. We cannot act collectively. We can only spread our
knowledge outwards from individual to individual, generation after
generation. In the face of the Thought Police there is no other way.”
Happy 76th birthday to Nikki Giovanni . Poet. writer, activist. Queer icon, Civil
rights activist, Educator, Promoter of the Black Power movement.. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee.
In all of her work, she challenges the racial and status quo,providing a poetry guided by a political aesthetic, still dreaming radical dreams of a society more equal for all.
As an African American woman, Nikki Giovanni has written many revolutionary poems reflecting on the culture and heritage of her race. Spending much of her youth growing up in Knoxville, Tennessee, Giovanni’s childhood has greatly influenced her writing. Nikki Giovanni, (Yolande Cornelia Giovanni is her given name) was born June 7, 1943 in Knoxville Tennessee. As a child, she attended an Episcopal school, and when it came time for her to start college, she enrolled at Fisk University. As a freshman, Giovanni was a very rebellious student, ignoring many of the school’s social rules. This attitude led her to suspension from the university before her first year was even completed. However, in 1964 she returned to Fisk, and her writing career began.
Attitude and reality and honesty are all encompassed into the work of this fine artist. Speaking for all those that struggle, and who love fiercely, who places an emphasis on the power of the individual to effect change in his or herself, as well as in others. She reminds me that words are our weapons, that we should not be afraid to use.
Nikki Giovanni doesn't think of writing as a profession. "I barely think of it as a career," she once said . "I think of it as who you are.”To
Giovanni, writing comes as naturally as breathing. It has certainly
defined her and given her a strong voice. A survivor of cancer, she battles on, sharing her light with the world. Happy birthday to her, blessed be.
Choices
If i can't do
what i want to do
then my job is to not
do what i don't want
to do
It's not the same thing
but it's the best i can
do
If i can't have
what i want . . . then
my job is to want
what i've got
and be satisfied
that at least there
is something more to want
Since i can't go
where i need
to go . . . then i must . . . go
where the signs point
through always understanding
parallel movement
isn't lateral
When i can't express
what i really feel
i practice feeling
what i can express
and none of it is equal
I know
but that's why mankind
alone among the animals
learns to cry .
A Library (for Kelli Martin)
a Library Is:
a place to be free
to be in space
to be in cave times
to be a cook
to be a crook
to be in love
to be unhappy
to be quick and smart
to be contained and cautious
to surf the rainbow
to sail the dreams
to be blue
to be jazz
to be wonderful
to be you
a place to be
yeah… to be
Love is
Some people forget that love is
tucking you in and kissing you
“Good night”
no matter how young or old you are
Some people don’t remember that
love is
listening and laughing and asking
questions
no matter what your age
Few recognize that love is
commitment, responsibility
no fun at all
unless
Love is
You and me
Revolutionary Dreams
I used to dream militant dreams
of taking over america to show
these white folks
how it should be done
I used to dream radical dreams
of blowing everyone away
with my perceptive powers
of correct analysis
I even used to think I’d be the one
to stop the riot and
negotiate the peace
then I awoke and dug
that if I dreamed natural
dreams of being a natural
woman doing what a woman
does when she’s natural
I would have a revolution.
This week marks the 30th anniversary of the massacre of hundreds if not
thousands of unarmed peaceful pro-democracy protesters in Beijing and
the arrest of tens of thousands of demonstrators in cities across China.
The Tiananmen Massacre was precipitated by the peaceful gatherings of
students, workers, and others in Beijing's Tiananmen Square and other
Chinese cities in April 1989, driven by the hope for a better future, they were
simply calling for freedom of the press and for some government
accountability, and the imminent problems of corruption, and began the largest political protest in the history
of Communist China. The government responded to
the intensifying protests in late May 1989 by declaring martial law.Overnight on 3 to 4 June, the government sent tens of thousands of
armed troops and hundreds of armoured military vehicles into the city
centre to enforce martial law and forcibly clear the streets of
demonstrators. The government wanted to 'restore order' in the capital.
As
they approached the demonstrations, troops opened fire on crowds of
protesters and onlookers. They gave no warning before they started
shooting.A
night of bloodshed on
June 3rd resulted with over 2,000 of protestors being
killed.As the troops kept firing into the crowds, some of those running away
were shot in the back. Others were crushed to death by military vehicles. Brave, innocent, the Chinese government has never accepted
responsibility for the massacre or held
any officials legally accountable for the killings. despite individual
souls, shotdown and massacred triggering shock and outrage across the
world.
Tank Man
The Tiananmen protests were immortalised in Western media on 5 June
through the image of a lone man in a white shirt carrying shopping bags,
facing an imposing column of military tanks sent by the government to
disperse protesters. The man is known simply as Tank Man: his identity
has never been confirmed.
Tank Man would not let the military
vehicles pass. He succeeded. Eventually, he was pulled out of the way of
danger by onlookers. But the image of unarmed man versus tank quickly
came to symbolise the struggle of the Tiananmen protesters - peaceful
protest met with military might.
'It demonstrates one man's extraordinary courage,
standing up in front of a row of tanks, being prepared to sacrifice his
own life for the sake of social justice' Stuart Franklin, Tank Man photographer
Stuart
Franklin took the Tank Man photograph. In the short film below he talks
about how he came to capture what would become one of the most iconic
images of the twentieth century.
In the aftermath long prison sentences were given out, one of which was
for 17 years for simply throwing paint at a portrait of Mao Zedong. We should take a minute and think about those
sacrifices and all those who died, so that their actions have not been
in vain. Sadly brutal suppression and censorship has continued to this
day, that condemns the Chinese nation and its people to a future
without freedom.
Today many activists are still being ruthlessly persecuted by the
Chinese Authorities, and the climate of free expression remains
stifling, with scores of writers still being silenced, also many social
media sites are still banned, and three decades later, China, under President Xi Jinping, is undergoing
the worst crackdown on human rights since the Tiananmen massacre. Hopes
that China would gradually liberalize politically as it opened up
economically have been dashed.
The Chinese regime to this day continues to bury the truth of
what happened in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. Tiananmen remains one of the most censored issues in an internet and social media environment that has become increasingly restrictive since Xi Jinping became president in 2012.Young Chinese
below the age of 35 today either know nothing about it or believe that
it was the protesters who were the criminals. A regime that sent tanks and guns to slaughter its people now seeks to
hide the evidence, threaten its critics, eliminate alternative ideas and
impose absolute control. Seeking to suppress every form of freedom, with Pro-democracy activists being jailed, and in every corner of
China's territory, from Xinjiang to Hong Kong, that has also seen critics abroad being intimidated, threatened and, in the worst cases, kidnapped.The Chinese government has never accepted responsibility for the massacre or
held any officials legally accountable for the killings. It has been
unwilling to conduct an investigation into the events or release data on
those who were killed, injured, forcibly disappeared, or imprisoned.
For
those who participated or observed the events of 1989, however, the
search for truth goes on. Memories have not faded. Indeed, as the
Tiananmen Mothers — a group set up by the mothers of some of the student
leaders — said in a statement
translated by Human Rights in China: "The hard facts of the massacre
are etched into history. No one can erase it; no power, however mighty,
can alter it; and no words or tongues, however clever, can deny it."
The Chinese
government should acknowledge and take responsibility for the massacre
of pro-democracy protesters in June 1989, Human Rights Watch said recently.
Authorities should immediately release activists held for commemorating
the occasion, and cease censoring discussions of the bloody crackdown.
"Twenty-nine years after the Tiananmen Massacre, President Xi
Jinping's 'China dream' means getting the world to forget about it. But
suppressing the truth has only fueled demands for justice and
accountability," said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. "The only way to remove this stain on China is to own up to it."
The Chinese government continues to this day to
deny wrongdoing in the brutal suppression of the protests. Authorities
covered up the killings, failed to bring to justice the perpetrators,
and persecuted victims and survivors' family members. Under President Xi
Jinping, the government has further retreated
from the democratic ideals the protesters advocated and is aggressively
tightening ideological control, attacking civil society groups, and
imprisoning rights activists. In March 2018, Xi eliminated term limits
for the presidency, spelling an ominous future for the direction of the
country.
As in the past, Chinese authorities are quashing efforts to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown:
Since late May, Beijing police have put a group of activists, including He Depu, Zha Jianguo and Xu Yonghai, under house arrest. Activist Hu Jia said police informed him that between June 1-5 he would be taken to Qinhuangdao, 300 kilometers away from his home in Beijing.
In Shandong province in mid-May, authorities detained activists Li Hongwei and Yu Xinyong,
accusing them of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." Li and Yu
were detained for two days last year for commemorating the massacre.
In June 2017, Beijing police detained activist Li Xiaoling
after she posted photos online of her standing at Tiananmen Square and
holding a sign that read "June 4th Marching to the Light." Li was later
charged with "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." Li's lawyers
alleged that Li has been tortured in custody and denied adequate medical
treatment for glaucoma.
Activists Chen Bing, Fu Hailu, Luo Fuyu, and Zhang Junyong, detained
since May 2016 for producing and selling a liquor named "Eight Liquor
Six Four" – a homophone for "89.6.4," the numerical date of the massacre
– are still awaiting trial. The four have been charged with "inciting subversion of state power."
Sichuan-based activist Chen Yunfei,
convicted of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" in March 2017, is
serving a four-year sentence for organizing a memorial service for
victims of the massacre.
While the last individual known to have been imprisoned for his
involvement in the 1989 pro-democracy protests was released in 2016,
many other participants have been re-incarcerated for their continuing
pro-democracy work. Activists Liu Xianbin and Chen Wei are serving 10-year and nine-year sentences respectively on inciting subversion charges, while Guo Feixiong is serving a six-year sentence for protesting press censorship. Huang Qi,
detained since November 2015 for "illegally leaking state secrets
abroad," is awaiting trial. Huang suffers from several health conditions
for which he has not been given adequate treatment.
Other prominent participants in the Tiananmen protests have passed
away in the past year. In July 2017, public intellectual and Nobel Peace
Prize Laurate Liu Xiaobo,
a leader in the protests who was jailed for 21 months for his role
supporting the students, died from complications of liver cancer in a
hospital in Liaoning province while being guarded by state security. His
wife Liu Xia remains under house arrest. Dissident writer Yang Tianshui,
who participated in democracy protests in Nanjing at the time, died in
November 2017, three months after being released on medical parole for a
brain tumor. Prior to his release, Yang was serving a 12-year sentence
for "inciting subversion of state power."Today sadly the persecution of the Uyghurs, Falun Gong and Tibetan
Buddhists combined with the repression of Christianity contnues with an
estimated one million
or more incarcerated in prison camps.
"Chinese leaders travel the world touting their ideas for 'win-win'
human rights diplomacy and a 'community of common destiny,'" Richardson
said. "But until they account for past and present human rights abuses,
those pledges are just empty propaganda promoting impunity for grave
crimes."
The nongovernmental organization Tiananmen Mothers, consisting mostly of family members of those killed, has established the details of 202 people
who were killed during the suppression of the movement in Beijing and
other cities. Last year, more members of the Tiananmen Mothers have passed away without seeing justice,
including geologist Xu Jue and music professor Wang Fandi. Xu's
20-year-old son Wu Xiaongdong and Wang's 19-year-old son Wang Nan were
killed by troops.
Human Rights Watch urges the Chinese government to mark the 30th
anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, by addressing the human rights violations
pertaining to the event. Specifically, the government should:
Respect the rights to freedom of expression, association, and
peaceful assembly, and cease the harassment and arbitrary detention of
individuals who challenge the official account of June 4;
Meet with and apologize to members of the Tiananmen Mothers, publish
the names of all who died, and appropriately compensate the families of
the victims;
Permit an independent public inquiry into June 4, and promptly release its findings and conclusions to the public;
Allow the unimpeded return of Chinese citizens, exiled due to their connections to the events of 1989; and investigate all government and military officials who planned or
ordered the unlawful use of lethal force against peaceful demonstrators,
and appropriately prosecute them.
The spirit of the Tiananmen movement continues to burn in the
hearts of veterans of 1989 and younger generations of activists who
fight for a more just China. President Xi Jinping should
acknowledge, even in the face of extraordinary persecution, that demands
for accountability and human rights remain strong.We must continue to support all those that fight against state
oppression and censorship and never forget the tragic legacy of
Tinanamen Square that continues to haunt us.
