National Day of Mourning/ Unthanksgiving Day

The National Day of Mourning is observed on the fourth Thursday of November, which fell today on November 24 this year, which also happens to be Thanksgiving in the United States. a day focused on spending time with family and indulging in delicious treats, gratitude and good times.

A national holiday that marks the harvest feast going back to the so-called ‘First Thanksgiving’ in 1621, when the Pilgrims ( the colonists who came over on the Mayflower and  arrived in Plymouth and established the first colony.) shared a meal with the Wampanoag people.

Without the help of the Native Americans living in the region however, the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony would not have likely survived their first years in the New World. For many Americans, therefore, Thanksgiving symbolises a bond and peace between the two peoples as they sat together at the same table, and perhaps hope of a lasting reconciliation after centuries of division.

For many other Americans, however, this is not a cause for celebration. It is a reminder of the brutal acts perpetrated on the Native Americans by European settlers and then the US government: massacres, land stealing and relentless attacks on their cultures and livelihoods. 

So today also marked the National Day of Mourning and Unthanksgiving Day, a day of protest that illuminates the Native American perspectives surrounding the very first Thanksgiving, that acts as a reminder of the inequitable treatment of them since the 1620 Plymouth landing. The National Day of Mourning also serves as a reminder to everyone that Thanksgiving is only one part of the story.

The official  National Day of Mourning was established by the United American Indians of New England back in 1970 when Wamsutta, an elder of the Aquinnah Wampanoag, was invited to a Thanksgiving state dinner in Plymouth, Massachusetts – the site of the Pilgrims’ colony – and asked to give a speech to mark the 350th anniversary of the Mayflower’s arrival. He was politely requested to show a copy of what he intended to say first, though. Wamsutta, also known as Frank James, had written an impassioned and forceful indictment of the white conquest of native lands, starting immediately with the Pilgrims.

"This is a time of celebration for you – celebrating an anniversary of a beginning for the white man in America. A time for looking back, of reflection. It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my people,” he said early in his 1,400-word speech. “We, the Wampanoag, welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end; that before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people.”

He went on to say: “Although time has drained our culture, and our language is almost extinct, we the Wampanoags still walk the land of Massachusetts. We may be fragmented, we may be confused. Many years have passed since we have been a people together. Our lands were invaded. We fought as hard to keep our lands as you the whites did to take our land away from us.”

 In his speech, Wamsutta not only named atrocities committed by the Pilgrims, but also reflected upon the fate of the Wampanoag at the hands of settlers. The speech contained a powerful message of Native American pride. “Our spirit refuses to die,” wrote Wamsutta. “Yesterday we walked the woodland paths and sandy trails. Today we must walk the macadam highways and roads. We are uniting. … We stand tall and proud; and before too many moons pass, we’ll right the wrongs we have allowed to happen to us.”

The speech contained a revolutionary spirit, clearly inspired by the fledgling “Red Power Movement,” which demanded equal rights and self-determination for Native Americans. This without a doubt frightened the state officials, whose minds were likely drawn to the 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz, a 19-month-long protest involving Native Americans and supporters taking over the abandoned federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in California. The Occupation of Alcatraz was the first intertribal protest that garnered national attention, and it had struck fear into the hearts of the ruling class, because it was becoming clear that Native Americans, like African Americans and other oppressed peoples, were saying “no more!”

A representative of the Department of Commerce and Development perhaps unsurprisingly told Wamsutta that he would not be able to give that speech, saying “the theme of the anniversary celebration is brotherhood and anything inflammatory would have been out of place”. Wamsutta was given a different speech to read, Wamsutta  rejected the invitation to speak, declining the offer to “speak false words” in thanks of the pilgrims who claimed native land and caused pain and suffering to native people. 

Instead, he led a group of protestors to Cole’s Hill in Plymouth and, standing next to a statue of the great Wampanoag leader Massasoit, declared the first National Day of Mourning. Native American leaders made speeches about the deplorable conditions Native Americans faced, the genocidal actions of the United States government and the devastation caused by the Pilgrims.

The group went down to the waterfront, where they buried Plymouth Rock in sand and painted it red. A small group of protesters made their way to the Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower, and boarded the ship. They climbed the rigging and tore down the flag of Saint George, the patron saint of England. They tossed a wax statue of the captain of the Mayflower, Christopher Jones, overboard, along with the flag of Saint George.

The protesters then made their way to a “re-creation” of the first Thanksgiving dinner, where they flipped over tables saying that they “would not eat the white man’s food.”

One AIM leader would later say of the first National Day of Mourning that it “is a day American Indians won’t forget. We went to Plymouth for a purpose: to mourn since the landing of the Pilgrims the repression of the American Indian; and to indict the hypocrisy of a system which glorifies that repression. We fulfilled that purpose and gained a spirit of unity that spread across the land.” (“Russell Means Recounts NDOM, 1971”)

Since that say in 1970, Native Americans have gathered at noon on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts, to observe a National Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving Day.

To them, Thanksgiving is a cruel reminder of “the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands, and the relentless assault on Native culture.”

They participate to honor Native ancestors and the current struggles of Native peoples to survive. “It is a day of remembering and spiritual connection, as well as a protest against the racism and oppression that Native Americans continue to face.”

This event is sponsored by the United American Indians of New England (UAINE). They argue that when the Pilgrims arrived in North America, they claimed tribal land for themselves rather than establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with the locals. The settlers, according to UAINE members, “introduced sexism, racism, anti-homosexual bigotry, jails, and the class system.”

Since then, the organization along with its supporters continues to amplify Native American perspectives relative to the Thanksgiving holiday and other current struggles native people face today.The National Day of Mourning is celebrated by the Wampanoag people, who are local to the New England area, as well as tribes across the United States, and other Americans who show their support and recognize Native American perspectives.

At the 1972 National Day of Mourning, a young woman was attacked by the police for wearing an upside-down American flag draped over her shoulders. At the 1974 National Day of Mourning, Wamsutta and protesters liberated the bones of a 16-year-old Wampanoag girl from the Pilgrim Hall Museum.

In 1997, National Day of Mourning organizers and protesters were attacked and brutalized by the Plymouth police, who arrested 25 protesters. The resulting court case and settlement led to the installation of two plaques, one that marked the origin and purpose of the National Day of Mourning, the other commemorating Metacomet (King Philip), who led resistance against English settlers in 1675. The settlement also ensured that charges were dropped against all 25 protesters and protected the right to march without a permit each National Day of Mourning.

While the initial National Day of Mourning still takes place in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and will continue to do so into the future. Similar to the National Day of Mourning, Unthanksgiving Day is a demonstration held on the fourth Thursday of November in remembrance of the Native American lives lost following the European settlement of the United States. The Unthanksgiving Day protest is held on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay.

Both the National Day of Mourning and Unthanksgiving Day protests provide a platform for Native American peoples to share their experiences, honor loved ones lost, and advocate for progressive measures to improve the lives of native people and their relations with their past, present, and future and speak truth to power. 

National Day of Mourning does not only focus on the past. Speakers talk about many contemporary issues,Key issues that were addressed today included the potential overturn of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA); Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People (MMIWG2S); and clemency for longtime Native American political prisoner Leonard Peltier.

 As Moonanum James, son of Wamsutta Frank James and the late co-leader of UAINE, said to the crowd at the 2019 National Day of Mourning, “We will continue to gather on this hill until corporations and the U.S. military stop polluting the Earth. Until we dismantle the brutal apparatus of mass incarceration. We will not stop until the oppression of our Two-Spirit siblings is a thing of the past. When the homeless have homes. When children are no longer taken from their parents and locked in cages. When the Palestinians reclaim the homeland and the autonomy Israel has denied them for the past 70 years. When no person goes hungry or is left to die because they have little or no access to quality health care. When insulin is free. When union-busting is a thing of the past. Until then, the struggle will continue.”

 Kisha James—who is an enrolled member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and is also Oglala Lakota—told BBC. "What we do object to is the Thanksgiving mythology."

In a powerfuil Thursday speech, James—whose grandfather dounded the National Day of Mourning in 1970—challenged the lies of "mythmakers" and history books, instead highlighting "genocide, the theft of our lands, the destruction of our traditional ways of life, slavery, starvation, and never-ending oppression."

"When people celebrate the myth of Thanksgiving, they are not only erasing our genocide but also celebrating it. We did not simply fade into the background as the Thanksgiving myth says. We have survived and flourished. We have persevered," she declared.

 "That first Day of Mourning in 1970 was a powerful demonstration of Native unity," she said, "and it has continued for all these years as a powerful demonstration of Indigenous unity and of the unity of all people who speak truth to power."

James noted that "many of the conditions that prevailed in Indian Country in 1970 still prevail today," pointing to life expectancy, suicide, and infant mortality rates—along with the rising death rate for Native women—and taking aim at racism and "the oppression of a capitalist system which forces people to make a bitter choice between heating and eating."

 And we will continue to gather on this hill until we are free from the oppressive system; until corporations and the U.S. military stop polluting the Earth; until we dismantle the brutal apparatus of mass incarceration," James vowed.

In all of its work, whether organizing National Day of Mourning or leading Indigenous Peoples Day efforts, UAINE seeks to unite Indigenous Peoples, center Indigenous Peoples’ voices, learn from each other, and educate non-Native people as well. Now more than ever, non-Native people need to learn the truth about the impact of colonialism and listen to what Indigenous Peoples have to say about many issues, especially frontline Indigenous perspectives and wisdom on how to properly and immediately address the climate crisis.

Remembering the life of Cecil Sharp founding father of the folklore revival in England in the early 20th century (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924)

 

Cecil James Sharp (1859-1924), musician and folk-music collector, was born on St Cecilia's Day, 22 November 1859 at Camberwell, London, eldest son of James Sharp, slate merchant, and his wife Jane, née Bloyd, both music lovers. Cecil attended Uppingham School, University College School, London, and from 1879 Clare College, University of Cambridge (B.A., 1883).

After Cambridge his father suggested he go to Australia to seek his fortune. He arrived in Adelaide, where his first job was washing hansom-cabs, then as a bank clerk. He also taught violin, and continued with his amateur musical interests, for which he became well known in Adelaide. From the bank he moved to a legal firm. However he resigned this job, and started on a full-time musical career, as an organist, pianist, conductor and then as a teacher at Adelaide College of Music.

Sharp was well liked; he was a debonair young man. He was musical director in 1883-84 of the Adelaide String Quartet Club , assistant organist to Arthur Boult at St Peter's Anglican Cathedral and conducted its choral society, for which he arranged Nursery Ditties (Adelaide, c.1890), and also the Government House choral society which performed his settings of Guy Bppthby's Dimple's Lovers in September 1890. Later he conducted the Adelaide Philharmonic Choir.

In 1889 Sharp, who had many pupils, became co-director with Immanuel Reimann of the Adelaide College of Music. Sharp's students adored him but he resigned after two years. He had written an operetta to a text by Boothby: Sylvia, produced at the Theatre Royal in December 1890.

He returned to England in 1892, taking various musical jobs as a conductor and teacher. He was appointed music-master at Ludgrove, a prepartory school for Eton. Sharp married Constance Dorothea Birch. also a music lover at Clevedon on August 22nd 1893. They had four children, Dorothea, Charles, Joan  and Susannah By 1900 he had written some forty works; few were published. He taught at several schools and at the Metropolitan College, Holloway, and was principal of the Hampstead Conservatoire of Music in 1896-1905.

Early attempts at becoming a composer largely resulted in failure and frustration, but two chance meetings led to significant changes in his life purpose.

The first of these was on Boxing Day, 1899. Staying for Christmas at Sandfield Cottage, the home of his mother-in-law in Headington, Oxfordshire, Sharp overheard a style of music he had never encountered before. Watching from his window, he saw the Headington Quarry Morris Men dancing to the traditional tunes, ‘Laundnum Bunches’ and ‘Rigs O’Marlow’, which he quickly noted down. 

Morris dancers performed in unusually exotic costumes, and their repertoire involved a form of martial dancing whose origins are somewhat mysterious. The term is though to be a derivative of “Moorish” or “Moroccan,” and dates back to the 1490s, when dances known as the moresca were performed in Spain in celebration of King Ferdinand (1452-1516) and Queen Isabella (1451-1504)'s move to eject the Moors from the Iberian peninsula. In fifteenth-century England, Morris dancers would blacken their faces in what was apparently an imitation of the darker North African Moors, but by Sharp's era they had retained only the bells attached to their boots and their somewhat fanciful North African-inspired garb. By the time that Sharp saw the dancers on the street, the Morris groups were a dying breed, with just a handful of active groups in England left.

Stepping outside, he met with William Kimber, the side’s musician, who agreed to return the following day and play more tunes. This he did, and Sharp took down two further tunes, ‘Beansetting’ and ‘Constant Billy’. 

His second significant meeting came in September 1903, Cecil Sharp visited his friend Reverend Charles Marson in Hambridge (Somerset).  During his stay, he heard Marson's gardener, the appropriately named John England, singing  the traditional song The Seeds of Love as he mowed the lawn.  Sharp was gripped by some strange enthusiasm.  He grabbed a pencil and notebook, then wrote down the melody and words.  Over the next few hours, Sharp worked on his notes, and devised a piano accompaniment for the song.  That evening, The Seeds of Love was sung by his protégé, Mattie Kay, to the other visitors in the house.  Someone present remarked of Sharp's new arrangement that it was the first time that folk-song had been presented in evening dress. As Sharp’s confidante and biographer, Maud Karpeles, wrote in 1967:

“Sharp was sitting in the vicarage garden talking to Charles Marson and to Mattie Kay, who was likewise staying at Hambridge, when he heard John England quietly singing to himself as he mowed the vicarage lawn. Sharp whipped out his notebook and took down the tune; and then persuaded John to give him the words. He immediately harmonised the song; and that same evening it was sung at a choir supper by Mattie Kay, Sharp accompanying. The audience was delighted; as one said, it was the first time that the song had been put into evening dress.“

That was 1903. Sharp was 44 years old. Perhaps tired of struggling as a never-quite-there composer, he threw himself into his new passion with a zeal that altered the fate of English traditional music.These events led Sharp to realize that there was a wealth of traditional dance and folksong material that needed to be preserved. He would devote the remainder of his life doing just that.

Sharp became the most enthusiastic of the Morris collectors, travelling the length and breadth of England in search of the dances and their associated tunes. Particularly before the Great War, Sharp cycled and walked many miles, collecting folk songs and morris, sword and country dances.

His notebooks contain over 1700 variants. The first collections he published were part I of Folk Songs from Somerset (with Charles Marson) in 1904, and The Morris Book (with Herbert Macilwaine and George Butterworth) in 1907; a list of his published collections is in Maud Karpeles's biography. In 1918 Percy Grainger arranged Country Gardens, a Morris dance which Sharp collected; Grainger could never persuade Sharp to accept half the royalties. They differed too on folk-music collection methods, Sharp preferring the pad and pen to the phonogram. Other parts of The Morris Book were published, with Part 5 in 1914, in association with George Butterworth. As a result of these labours he also published The Sword Dances of Northern England (1913), 3 parts, and The Country Dance Book, (1909), 6 parts. A number of morris and sword teams started up, notably Thaxted Morris Men in 1911.. In the same year Sharp founded, and in 1912-24 directed, the English Folk Dance Society(cdss.org)

Traveling with his associate Maud Karpeles, Sharp visited North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Kentucky, collecting over 1600 tunes that resulted in the publication of two volumes of this music.  The travel was arduous and his health was not good at the time.
The two formed lifelong connections with many of the mountain residents.  His work was also documented with a series of photographs.  Maud Karpeles carried on this work after his death and became Sharp’s biographer.  In 1950 she returned to the area to record this music and located a number of people from their previous encounters.After 1918, Sharp never did return to America but his influence continued.

In 1919 he became an occasional inspector, in folk-song and dancing, of training colleges, to spread his enthusiasm among teachers and in 1923 his old university made him an honorary master of music; in the House of Commons he was described as one 'to whose work in this field British education owes an almost irredeemable debt'.Next year he completed The Dance, a historical survey of dancing in Europe, with Adolf Paul Oppé.

While at Cambridge, Sharp heard the lectures of  William Morris and became a Fabian Socialist and lifelong vegetarian. He was cautious in his public statements, however, feeling that he had much to lose, since, unlike Morris, he was not independently wealthy but dependent on outside funding for his researches. Respectability was important to him, increasingly so as he got older. According to his biographer, Maud Karpeles: "Any display of singularity was displeasing to him; and he followed the convention in behaviour as well as in appearance unless there was a very good reason for departing from them. 'It saves so much trouble,' he would say." During the post World War II "second" British folk revival of the 1950s and 60s, Sharp was occasionally chided for this by leftist critics such as Bert LLoyd. C. J. Bearman writes that "Lloyd was effectively the first to offer public criticism of Sharp and of the first revival generally. This critique was from a Marxist perspective: Lloyd (1908–82) had associated himself with the Communist Party since the 1930s. ... However, he was always more pragmatic than doctrinaire, and he combined criticism of Sharp's philosophy and methods with high and unreserved praise for his motivation and the epic scale of his achievement."

 His own description of his political beliefs - 'Conservative Socialist' - coupled with his regular support for Liberal Party candidates, only serves to deepen the confusion concerning his political values.

Sharp has also often been criticized for the way in which he ran roughshod over some of his fellow-collectors and their work, not least by Lucy Broadwood. Recalling his mannerisms in a letter dated July 22, 1924, she wrote:

“[Cecil Sharp] unfortunately took up old songs and old dance collecting as a profession, and, not being a gentleman, he puffed and boomed and shoved and ousted and used the press to advertise himself; so that, although we pioneers were the people from whom he originally learnt all that he knew of the subjects, he came to believe himself to be King of the whole movement.”

As Lucy Broadwood noted, Sharp was a driven man who “puffed and boomed and shoved and ousted” until he got what he wanted, which, ultimately, seems to have been wider recognition of the traditional folk songs and dances that he so loved. It is very tempting to simply describe him as a man of his time and leave it at that, but few of his contemporaries managed to create quite such a difficult reputation for themselves.

In 1993, Georgina Boyes published The Imagined Village – Culture, ideology and the English Folk Revival, which argued (amongst many other things) that Sharp was deeply sexist and sought to undermine the female leaders of the first folk revivalist movement. He was known to be anti-suffrage, despite his sister, Helen Sharp, being a prominent member of the Suffragettes.

Sharp’s views on race are also the subject of frequent debate. Both his Appalachian Diaries and the writings of his assistant, Maud Karpeles, make use of derogatory terms for people of colour, and contain an oft-cited instance in which the pair arrived at a cove called Sylva, only to leave without collecting songs because the population was largely black. However, it has also been argued that Sharp was one of the only collectors to collect (on different occasions) from people of colour, and that the instance in Sylva may have been the result of ill-health and feeling out of place. His use of derogatory terminology might also be attributed to his being “a man of his time”. However, neither of these explanations account for an outburst on page 247 of his diary  in which he complains of the town smelling of, “tobacco, molasses and n****r”.

Then there's the question of theft.  Defenders of Sharp grow furious when they hear such terms. Sharp can be presented in almost Biblical terms as a suffering, ageing man, working almost alone, dedicating himself with a selfless, single-minded intensity to the preservation of a folk heritage.  How could anyone call this secular saint a thief?  It must be remembered that for much of his life folk song wasn't simply a passion for Sharp, it was also a career.  He earnt his bread and butter by talking about and teaching folk song.  Inevitably, he had to present himself as an authority on the topic, and this led him to downplay or deny the influence of other collectors.

But more seriously than this, Sharp actually copyrighted much of the material he collected: if not the original tune or dance, then his arrangement of the tune or dance.  Legal experts Richard Jones and Euan Cameron note: 'The "folk" were seen to have passed on the folk song, but had no conception of this process and, in consequence, made no creative contribution to the song." On at least one occasion, a dance troupe realized the implications of his actions, and denied Sharp permission to use their material. Sharp's collecting was not a two-way street: he gave nothing back to the people from whom he took material. 

Clearly, collecting folk-songs wasn't simply a means for him make money: the dedication he showed to this cause went far above and beyond that. On the other hand, one can assume that throughout his collecting, Sharp was thinking about his career: he wanted to generate an income from folk song and, less creditably, he wanted to prevent rivals from blocking his rise.

Long plagued by asthma, he died on  Midsummers day 23 June 1924 at Hampstead. Survived by his wife, three daughters and a son, he was buried in Golders Green cemetery.

In 1930, six years after his death, the Cecil Sharp House was founded in London, dedicated to the preservation of folksong and dance. The English Folk Dance Society amalgamated in 1932 with the Folk Song Society; in 1930 their headquarters had become Cecil Sharp House.

A world-class dedicated folk arts centre, Cecil Sharp House is at the heart of English folk. With a unique history.the venue is a memorial to Cecil Sharp.Vibrant and diverse, Cecil Sharp House exists to serve its wide and diverse audiences - engaging with art lovers (oft times folk art lovers) through unique and inspiring artistic events, and creative learning. The iconic Grade II listed building is home to the English Folk Dance and Song Society and the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, England's national collection of folk music and dance.

Cecil Sharp remains a complicated and controversial figure, and a troublesome one for many interested in traditional music who may find it difficult to reconcile his reported views with the fact that he did so much to save the songs and dances they love from extinction.Sharp's achievements are indisputable.  Sharp's legacy as a collector and promoter of folksongs and dances would echo throughout the music community in a number of ways. His labor laid the groundwork for a revival of Morris dancing and he would influence English art composers Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst and George Butterworth.

The EFDS's dance courses alone must have encouraged thousands of people to take an interest in folk dance.and Sharp's collection of folk songs is still consulted by folk singers today.Folk music as a result is certainly not dead, it is living and breathing and keeps developing and that’s what makes it so vibrant. I conclude with this wonderful short documentary that further explores what has been written about above.

Sweet Was Those Notes , The Songs of Somerset - The Singers

Lovebirds

 

Love's dream

Caresses my skin

Igniting the torch

That shines from within.

Delicate whispers

Softly spoken words

Pull on the heartstrings

Of two paradise birds.

We take to the air

Fluttering our wings

Over wheatsheaves and barley

And streams with hot springs.

Sweetness becomes us

Singing our tune

Blissfully flying

In full feathered plume.

Goodbye to The Mighty Thunder Rider Nik Turner ( 26 August 1940 – 10 November 2022 )

 

 

It was with immense sadness that I heard on Friday that legendary English multi-instrumentalist space  best known as a member of space-rock pioneers Hawkwind, Nik Turner  had passed, I was literally in tears at the time. Alas have not has time to write about until today,  apart from on social media that is.

Nik's Facebook page announced the news : “We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of Nik Turner – The Mighty Thunder Rider, who passed away peacefully at home on Thursday evening. He has moved onto the next phase of his Cosmic Journey, guided by the love of his family, friends and fans. Watch this space for his arrangements.” Nik was 82

The Might Thunder Rider, space gypsy, was a true  musical inspiration, who I've been a huge admirer of since my teenage years, to the present, who I've had the pleasure of dancing with on stage,who I've been fortunate over the years to see perform over the years more than any other musician,With Nik I have also had the pleasure of deep conversations about jazz, all sort of things, who I would consider a friend of such warmth and kindness . a free spirited angel in fact, with a heart full of love. Once when rather out of it at a wake for another friend he handed me a tambourine and asked me to play along with him even though I'm musically inept. Whenever I encountered him over the years with a twinkle in his eye would give  me a wry wink and a smile. He will be truly missed,

Born Nicholas Robert Turner in Oxford on August 26 1940, Nik moved to the seaside town of Margate as a teenager. Nik a former Chatham House student, trained in engineering at the University of Kent, and left Margate for one voyage with the  Merchant Navy. He then travelled around Europe picking up menial jobs, and while with a travelling music circus in 1967, he became friends with Dave Brock.

In Berlin, he developed an interest in free jazz, which inspired him to pick back up the clarinet and saxophone in the hopes of applying the genre’s ethos to rock ‘n’ roll.In 1969 when he began working as a roadie for a new band comprising Dave Brock, Mick Slattery and John Harrison. Turner and fellow roadie Michael "Dik Mik" Davies were soon promoted to band members, and the quintet adopted the name Group X, and ultimately Hawkwind. Nik became an integral part of the lineup,  pulling in friends such as ,poet Robert Calvert and graphic design genius Barney Bubbles, and involved the band in community and charity projects, sometimes to the chagrin of the others,

Taking copious amounts of different mind altering drugs, Hawkwinds lyrics combined high fantasy, psychedelica and occult wierdness,live or studio , to listen attentively to Hawkwind is to enter a trancelike state, Brock has spoken about wanting to create the aural equivalent of an acid  trip,you definitely hear that. Combined with mind blowing visuals . their gigs  were certainly far out,  tinged with darkness, and anarchistic sensibilities, they animated the provincial underground  and  became a rallying point for  freaks and heads everywhere.,

Nik would co-write songs such as “Brainstorm” and “Master Of The Universe,” appearing on Hawkwind’s first seven albums, including “Hawkwind” (1970), “Doremi Fasol Latido” (1972) and “In Search of Space” (1971) before getting kicked out in 1976 for routinely playing over his bandmates. He briefly rejoined Hawkwind from 1982-1984.Personally the band were never quite the same without his mercurial presence, his outlandish costumes, his improvised sax and flute playing and general wild man persona. became iconic representations of the band. He was the “wind” in Hawkwind for the course-setting part of their existence – without him even the ensemble’s greatest album ' Warrior on the edge of time. would have sounded much less adventurous and had much duller character.

As one of the earliest psychedelic space-rock groups, Hawkwind was also Lemmy'’s band for four years, before winding up in Motörhead. When recalling auditioning for Hawkwind at an open-air concert in 1971 at Powis Square in Notting Hill Gatein, Kilmister remembered hoping to land a slot as Hawkwind’s second guitarist. Instead, the band’s bassist didn’t show up and Kilmister was thrown on stage with Turner. Never having played bass in his life, the sax player told him, “Make some noises in E. This is called ‘You Shouldn’t Do That.' 

Nik was name checked by Jimi Hendrix at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival who dedicated Foxy Lady to “the cat right there with the silver face”

 

Nik was also a friend and collaborator with UK Sci-Fi Legend Michael Moorcock. who would write  Hawkwinds rather terryfying Sonic Attack.

Nik's tenure with Hawkwind was just the beginning of his journey to the outer reaches of the rock music universe though as he would go on to release an astoundingly adventurous and diverse catalog of solo albums as well.

Between his two Hawkwind stints. Nik, founded the brilliant  psychedelic-punk hybrid band Inner City Unit, which released four albums between 1980 and 1985, followed by the great  Nik Turner's Fabulous All Stars a saxophone and Hammond organ driven jazz and rhythm and blues band.His collaborations with everyone from UK Subs  guitarist Nicky Garratt to The Doors guitarist Robby Krieger to Todd Rundgren along with Steve Hillage of Gong, Amon Dull founder John Weinzierl, Die Krupps leader Jürgen Engler , Sham 39 frontman Jimmy Pursey, Psychic TV's Genesis P Orridge, rhe Astronauts, the Blue Horses,Paradise 9,  Sendelica, Youth and so many more along with his expanding creative energy brought new generations of music fans into his audience

Between his two Hawkwind stints, Nik also vacationed in Egypt in 1977 and recorded himself playing flute in the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid of Giza. These recordings were later incorporated into a full album, recorded with a plethora of musicians under the moniker Sphynx. The resulting album, Xitintoday, was released in 1978 and featured lyrics Turner had adapted from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Many of the Sphynx musicians also appeared on the 1978 protest single "Nuclear Waste," featuring lead vocals from Sting.

Nik's death marks the end of an era for one of the most innovative , versatile and influential musicians in rock history. Nik Turner will be remembered as a true pioneer whose contributions helped to shape the sound of Hawkwind and countless other artists who followed in their wake.A man who never sold out, a counter cultural legend.

Nik a true man of the people in 1985 relocated to West Wales, to a fairly rural, isolated area near Whitland.where he  lived and breathed music and immersed himself in nature, A sweet free spirited individual with a myriad of interests he was one of the key architects of psychedelia and a key presence on the music community.and a regular visitor to my hometown of Cardigan . A pivotal member of the UK Counter Culture through the ’60s to the present day.Nik also played at the first ever Glastonbury Festival in 1970 – erecting a pyramid stage that became the inspiration for the current main stage . He was also instrumental in moulding and cultivating the modern free party and festival scene, including Stonehenge and Glastonbury Festival, where he onboarded Joe Rush and the Mutoud Waste Company art collective. Nik was recognised for his contribution along side Andrew Kerr  marking t the ‘Spirit of ‘71” at Glastonbury. 

Nik played many Glastofests, both inside and outside at the alternative 'fringe' festivals with his own bands and friends' bands on as many stages as possible, all-night with everyone welcome on stage, really wild. And circus shows with all his kids and members of the Tibetan Ukrainian Mountain Troupe.As well as putting up his stage at the Stonehenge Alternative Festival and playing on that with loads of bands, every year, when that was happening.

In 2001, Nik formed Hawkestra for a gig in London, and then toured as xhawkwind.com. Other musicians using the Hawkwind name at the time took legal action to prohibit Turner from trading under the name Hawkwind, a case which Turner lost.

As well as contributing to the profound influence that his band Hawjwind has had on rock and punk with its focus on community and grassroots movements—including its many benefit shows and long-standing support of England's free festivals, Turner may also be the first saxophonist to effectively bring free jazz to rock music.

Arguably, no one embodied intrepid spirit of space rock more perfectly than Nik Turner,his influence spanned decades and he continued to play live up until the last few years guesting with many bands, including Dark Sun and Space Mirrors, and with his own band Space Ritual.The veteran clearly didn’t want to stop, it was never on his agenda, and Turner’s latter-day slew of records – including the brilliant "Space Gypsy"" from 2013,"Space Fusion Odyssey" from 2015, 2017’s  "Life in Space" and "The Final Frontier"" from 2019 and 2021's wonderful collaboration with my local psychedelic musical heroes Sendelica "I Do What I like" is a proof of that.

I last encountered Nik only a few weeks ago at Japanese, psychedelic band Acid Mother;s Temple gig at the wonderful Cellar bar here in Cardigan,sitting next to the loudspeakers his face beaming with joy and light. Nik's  death marks the end of an era.The world already feels a little darker without him here, my thoughts go out to all his family and friends.Safe travelling Nik what an incredible trip you had, keep soaring high, blessed be RIP.

 

A Poem for Nik Turner

 

The Mighty Thunder Rider, space gypsy

Soaring into the vast sky

Floating freely where space is deep

His cosmic saxophone blowing notes

Releasing celestial tunes from the universe 

Of peace, love and anarchy

Amplifying with magic and devotion

/From planet earth we catch the light.

A selection of  Nik's musical greatness

 

Brainstorm - Hawkwind

 

 

Masters of the Universe - Hawkwind

 

 

Born to Go- Hawkwind

 

 

Watching the Grass Grow - Hawkwind

 

Ghost Dance- Hawkwind

Blood and Bone - Inner City Unit

Space Invaders - Inner City Unit

 

 Epitaph for the Hippies featuring Captain Sensible - Inner City Unit 

 

 

Nik Turner and the Fabulous All Stars p So What

Nik Turner - Fallen Angel

Nik Turner- Walking in the Sky

Passion Fruit

The moonlight died

On a warm summer's eve

As darkness unfolds

Flooding the terrain.

Lovers walk

A dim enchanted path

Feeling each other

In blind rapture.

Sweet sounds of the night

As ears become eyes

Listening intently

To natures music.

Midnight wishes

And dreams of desire

Collide with the elements

In a universal consciousness.

In the black velvet forest

Passions awaken

Unceasing in syntonic bliss

Surrendering to times healing kiss.

9th November 1938 : The Night of Broken Glass

 

On October 28, 1938, 17,000 Jews of Polish citizenship, many of whom had been living in Germany for decades, were arrested and interned in "relocation camps." When 17-year-old Herschel Grynszpan, then a student in Paris, distraught on receiving the news of his family's expulsion, he went to the German embassy and shot Third Secretary Ernst vom Rath, a member of the Nazi party. who died two days later. When arrested by the French police, Grynszpan, hoping his actions would alert the world to the plight of the Jews in Europe, said, "Being a Jew is not a crime. I am not a dog. I have a right to live and the Jewish people have a right to exist on earth."

The assassination provided Adolf Hitler with the excuse he needed to launch a pogrom against German Jews. It would become known as Kristallnacht, "the night of broken glass."referring to the broken glass produced by the smashing of shop windows .The following day Hitlers propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels orchestrated the violence across Germany..Goebbels wrote in his diary: "As was to be expected, the entire nation is in uproar. This is one dead man who is costing the Jews dear. Our darling Jews will think twice in future before simply gunning down German diplomats."  

German Jews had been subjected to repressive policies since 1933, when Nazi leader  Hitler  became chancellor of Germany. However, prior to Kristallnacht, these Nazi policies had been primarily nonviolent. Kristallnacht,  marked the beginning of  violent evil  oppression.

On the night of November 9, 1938, rampaging mobs spurred on by Nazi officials attacked Jews and Jewish communities of Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland region of Czechoskovakia in the street, in their homes, and at their places of work and worship. Nazi paramilitary troops, the Sturmabteilung (SA) allowed the destruction and arrested as many Jews as the jails could hold. Broken glass littered the streets in front of burning synagogues.Firefighters were ordered not to intervene.

Over the coming weeks hundreds of  Jews were dead, more than 900 synagogues were burned, nearly 7,000 Jewish businesses were destroyed, and schools were vandalized and 30,000 Jewish people were arrested. with many taken to Nazi .death camps such as Dachau or Buchenwald..Even the deceased did not escape the pogrom. Many Jewish cemeteries were desecrated. 

Three days later, on November 12, the top Nazi leadership met to enact a wide-ranging set of anti-Semitic laws that segregated Jews into ghettos, placed a curfew on their activities, banned their ownership of guns, suspended their driver's licenses, and confiscated their radios. In addition, the Nazis fined German Jews one billion marks for vom Rath's assassination and for "broken windows." At the end of the meeting, Hermann Göring announced, "I have received a letter written on the Führer's orders requesting that the Jewish question be now, once and for all, coordinated and solved one way or another."

The Nazis’ hatred was well known, but by 1938 they had not come up with the Final Solution — the systematic attempt to murder all the Jews of Europe. There is well-documented evidence that the Nazis tested the waters with the progressive implementation of increased anti-Semitic propaganda and hate.

In April 1933, the Nazis organised a boycott pf Jewish owned businesses. Jews were excluded from civil service jobs, and in October of that year, non-Aryans were  banned from working in Journalism.

This was codified in the racist 1935 Nuremburg Laws, and actions behind them like Kristallnacht. They watched the world’s tepid response and concluded that they could deal with the Jews as they wished.

There were muted protests and news reports of the violence. Yet the world was largely silent to the plight of German Jews and did little to help.

On November 15th, President Roosevelt said. "The news of the past few days from Germany has deeply shocked public opinion in the United States.... I  myself could scarcely believe that such things could occur in a 20th-century civilization."

But when asked  if he would recommend relaxing the country;s strict immigration laws to allow more Jewish refugees into the United States ne replied." That is not in contemplation, we have the quota system."

This passivity emboldened the Nazis to continue their plotting against European Jewry, seeing how easy it was to persecute Jews with no substantive outcry. Kristallnacht became a turning point in German policy, setting into motion the Nazis' systematic extermination of Jews, the Romani people, Communists,, Christians, homosexuals, the mentally ill, and other Nazi enemies:all targeted for destruction and decimation, based on the fascists twisted 'Aryan' concept of a master race that led to what  became known as the Holocaust.

We must never forget these shameful moments in history, that were such a slap on the face of humanity and must accept the fact that history can be repeated.Human beings are capable of doing such wicked things, so that is why we should continue to confront the dangers of intolerance, hate, racism, anti-semitism, prejudice and fascism, and defeat the ideas that continue to create so much pain .

We must never forget the journeys of all persecuted. support those that face hostility today, and when we say never again, we must mean never again. Lets not fail to notice there are disturbing parallels between events that occurred during the holocaust and events that are happening today.

The Holocaust did not start with camps, ghettos and deportations. it started with words of hate.

Governed by a government with an increasing disturbingly authoritarian mindset. Lets not allow divisive language, prejudice. bigotry and hostility be allowed  to roam unchallenged. 

Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps, despite his ardent nationalism. Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the following  quotation:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
 
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
 
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
 
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

So continue to remember, defend, speak out  and remain vigilant against anti-semitism smd, fascism; .

 

 The Night of Broken Glass ; Kristallnacht, 1938

Beyond Perimeters of Evil

Some with outrage

Talk about invasion

Contemptuous bastards

Void of compassion or reason

Do not raise voices in sorrow

When innocent people die

They are my reasons why I cry

Believe in a world of no borders

Embrace the gift of other cultures

Where all given warm welcome

With congenial conditions

No hostility only respect and grace

It's time for walls of division to fall

Different parameters of reality

Time to dispel all the pain

Close the centre for cruelty at Manston

Inhumane, immoral and unjustified

Where treatment is beyond contempt

Keep on fighting uncruel darkness

The dog whistling racist xenophobia

Challenge hateful rhetoric demonising

Those seeking safety, belonging and home

Celebrate the benefits they bring to us

Lets talk about diversity, equity and inclusion

No person born in this world is illegal

Escaping war and poverty is no crime

Give your love allow faces to smile

Allow hope to blossom, no more desolation.

Eugene Victor Debs ( 5/ 11/1855 - 20/10 /26 ) The American Socialist Who Once Campaigned for President From Prison

 

Outspoken  Socialist firebrand, political activist  and labour organiser Eugene Victor Debs  was born on November 5, 1855, in Terre Haute, Indiana, to Marguerite Bettrich and Jean Daniel Debs, two immigrants from Alsace, France. They came to the U.S. in 1849 and worked in the grocery business.

At the age of14. Eugene dropped out of High school and took a job as a paint scraper at Vandalia Railroad, where he earned just $.50 a day. He soon moved up to become a railroad fireman, shoveling piles of coal into the locomotive’s firebox for more than $1 each night . This was at a time when workers toiled for 16 hours a day, six days a week. 

In the waning years of the 20th century Debs emerged as a working class leader, a hero of the railroad workers of the U.S and Canada. After working for the railroad, Debs went on to  lead the Fireman's union, and assist in the organising of other rail unions and ultimately organise the nations first industrial union - the American Railway Union ( ART).

By the turn of the 20th century, Debs became the leader of the Socialist party, and from there went on to assist in the founding of the Industrial Workers  of the World  (IWW) aka the Wobblies, helping to pioneer a fighting union politics that organized all workers, regardless of skill, craft, or occupation, with Debs becoming the beloved figurehead of American radicalism. Debs story is the story of labor battles in industrialising America, of a working class politics grown directly of the Midwestern heartland, and of a distinct American vision of Socialism.

 The wobbly motto is ' An injury to all  is an injury to all.' They were noted for their use of poetry and song to promote their radical ideas, publicise strikes and other protests and generally present the case that still  holds up today, that there can be no solution to industrial warfare, no end to injustice and want, until the profit system itself is abolished.In striving to unite labor as a class in one big union. The IWW also seeks to build the structure of a new and better social order within the shell of the old system which fails to provide for the needs of all.Combined with a commitment to workers solidarity which they have a rich history off, along with their militant tactics. 

 The wobblies  are still going strong , still organising, still resisting.In these divided times,of economic despair,  they continue to be a strong radical voice that stands defiantly, on behalf of the people, following an old tradition of solidarity that does not seperate along lines of nationality, race or gender, speaking too to the unemployed, the sick, and  the marginalised  spreading messages of hope among the carnage that is  currently being unveiled.

In 1875 Debs was elected secretary of the Terre Haute lodge of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. His intelligence and commitment, coupled with his conservative outlook (he argued against participation in the nationwide railroad strikes of 1877), attracted the attention of the brotherhood’s leaders. By 1881, he was national secretary of the brotherhood, increasingly its spokesman on labor issues, and its most tireless organizer. Simultaneously, Debs entered politics as a Democratic candidate for city clerk in 1879 when only 23. First elected over Republican and Greenback-Labor party candidates, Debs was overwhelmingly reelected in 1881. Four years later, he was elected to the Indiana State Assembly with broad support from the wards of Terre Haute’s workers and businessmen.  Debs organized the American Railway Union, which waged a strike against the Pullman Company of Chicago in 1894

During the 1880s Debs’s ideas began to change. At first a firm proponent of organization of workers by their separate crafts, he resisted the industrial organization implicit in the efforts of the Knights of Labor and ordered his members to report to work during the Knights’ 1885 strike against the southwestern railroads. But his year-long involvement (1888-1889) in the strike against the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad altered these views. He now thought craft organization divisive, a hindrance to working people’s efforts to secure fair wages and working conditions. And concentrated corporate power, he argued, had a debilitating effect on the political rights and economic opportunity of the majority of Americans. By 1893 he had resigned his position as secretary of the brotherhood and begun organizing an industrial union of railroad workers, the American Railway Union (aru).

The  1894 strike against the Pullman Company of Chicago marked a second turning point in Debs’s thinking. Pullman Palace Car Company, was  the largest railway car company in the United States at the time, George Pullman the owner had a business plan that was, if nothing else, creative. He built a company town around his factory in Illinois, named it after himself and made it a requirement that the workers live there (and pay rent to their employer, guess who?). Some historians have said of the town of Pullman (now a suburb of Chicago), that it was "a version of the Indian reservation system.

 The ARU, even before its first convention, was besieged with reports from Pullman as to the unfairnesses of the company towards its employees including a unilateral; 25% cut in wages in 1893, while all of the world reeled from a great economic depression. This, in spite of a discreet increase in the annual dividend payment Pullman sent to his stockholders. 

The workers at Pullman contacted the ARU and Debs paid the town a visit. With Debs in command, the ARU agreed with the suggestion made by Pullman workers, and called for a boycott of all trains in America pulling Pullman cars. It was a risky move but the ARU fell behind its new members from Pullman. Train traffic in and out of Chicago collapsed almost immediately. The press, owned by smaller tycoons, came out in Pullman's side calling Debs a "dictator" and "King Debs". The New York Times called Debs "an enemy of the human race". The cover of the popular magazine, Harper's Weekly had an image of Debs sitting on an idle Chicago railway yard, wearing a crown. 

Railroad owners hired security firms to break the strike and violence broke out. US President Grover Cleveland sent in the federal militia, railway cars were set on fire and inevitably, gun fire broke out. The courts helped out in issuing an injunction on this basis:

 

"… (that) the interstate transportation of persons and property, as well as the carriage of the mails, is forcibly obstructed, and that a combination and conspiracy exists to subject the control of such transportation to the will of the conspirators."

 

This led to Debs being arrested with other boycott leaders on July 17, 1894, and jailed. This broke the union as Debs later described:

 

"Once we were taken from the scene of action, and restrained from sending telegrams or issuing orders or answering questions, then the minions of the corporations would be put to work..

"Our headquarters were temporarily demoralized and abandoned, and we could not answer any messages. The men went back to work, and the ranks were broken, and the strike was broken up, … not by the army, and not by any other power, but simply and solely by the action of the United States courts in restraining us from discharging our duties as officers and representatives of our employees."

 

Clarence Darrow signed up as Debs' lawyer and argued the case before the Supreme Court of the United States in March of 1895, to release Debs and his union brethren from their prison cells. The decision went against the union, with Justice David Josiah Brewer writing:

 

"A most earnest and eloquent appeal was made to us in eulogy of the heroic spirit of those who threw up their employment, and gave up their means of earning a livelihood, not in defence of their own rights, but in sympathy for and to assist others whom they believed to be wronged. We yield to none in our admiration of any act of heroism or self-sacrifice, but we may be permitted to add that it is a lesson which cannot be learned too soon or too thoroughly that under this government of and by the people the means of redress of all wrongs are through the courts and at the ballot-box, and that no wrong, real or fancied, carries with it legal warrant to invite as a means of redress the cooperation of a mob, with its accompanying acts of violence."

 

The unified power of railroad management working intimately with federal authorities  ultimately broke the strike but  Debs emerged from this experience as an avowed and committed socialist and dedicated himself to the start-up of a number of institutions now prominent in the American politics and international labor law such as Social Democracy of America, the Social Democratic Party of the United States, the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Debs questioned the ultimate ability of trade unions to combat successfully capital’s economic power and, after the 1896 elections, looked upon socialism as the answer to working people’s problems.

Between 1900 and 1920 Debs was the Socialist party’s standard-bearer in five presidential elections. In 1912, in a four-way race with Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, he received 6 percent of the vote-,highest total ever.

Between campaigns, Debs was a tireless, charismatic and passionate  speaker who sometimes called on the vocabulary of Christianity and much of the oratorical style of evangelism—even though he was generally disdainful of organized religion.

Debs often was uncomfortable with his position  as a  leader, despite the Socialist's great love for him and his oratorical skills. Debs  personal values  and lifelong philosophy can be summed up by the following quotes from him  : 

 

"I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.

 

" I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world."

 

" In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor  and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to decieve and overawe the People. "

 

"Years ago, I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth... While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."

 

As an  organizer he traveled the nation defending workers in their strikes and industrial disputes. Although many workers enthusiastically applauded Debs’s vision, sadly relatively few actually  endorsed his political program.

On June 16,1918 Debs made his famous anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio, protesting World War I which was raging in Europe. 

 

 ". I   am for that war with heart and soul, and that is thee world-wide war of the social revolution. In that war I am prepared to fight in any way the ruling class may make necessary, even to the barricades." 

For this speech he was arrested and convicted in federal court in Cleveland, Ohio under the war-time espionage law. He was his own attorney and his appeal to the jury and his statement to the court before sentencing, are regarded as two of the great classic statements ever made in a court of law. He was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison.also disenfranchised for life meaning he could never again vote again in America. At his sentencing he told the court:

 

"Your honor, I ask no mercy, I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never more fully comprehended than now the great struggle between the powers of greed on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of freedom. I can see the dawn of a better day of humanity. The people are awakening. In due course of time they will come into their own."

 

His conviction was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States who, again, ruled against him and upheld both the conviction and sentence.

 Debs began serving his sentence in Moundsville, W. Va. State prison and was transferred to Atlanta, Ga. Federal prison two months later. His humility and friendliness and his assistance to all won him the respect and admiration of the most hardened convicts.

Over time, calls went out that Debs be pardoned  bringing this remark this from President Woodrow Wilson:

 

"This man was a traitor to his country and he will never be pardoned during my administration."

 

Debs conducted his last campaign for president as prisoner 9653 in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary and received nearly a million votes, though he had been stripped of his citizenship. In his five campaigns as the Socialist Party candidate for president of the United States, Debs excoriated the economic exploitation of workers, including the then rampant abuses of child labor, with rare oratorical skill. He advocated for unions in all major industries and promoted a vision of socialism as grassroots economic democracy. In a deeply racist, patriarchal society, he was also staunchly anti-racist and pro-women’s rights.

Refusing to ask for or accept special treatment, he was confined to his cell for fourteen hours a day and was allotted twenty minutes a day in the prison yard. He wore a rough denim uniform. He ate food barely fit to eat. He grew  gaunt and weak. He  became an American folk hero, a principled advocate of free speech, and even as he grew sicker Convict No. 9653 refused to ask for a pardon.

While he was accustomed to campaigning by train and speaking in front of thousands, in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, Debs was allowed  to give one political statement every week, which was then handed over to news wires. Supporters did the campaigning for him on the ground, making posters featuring the slogan “From Atlanta Prison to the White House, 1920” and campaign buttons that showed Debs in a prison jumpsuit with the words “For President: Convict No. 9653” splashed across them. It wasn't so much a campaign as it was a protest against what many thought was Debs's unconstitutional imprisonment.

On Christmas Day 1921 he was released without a pardon but with a commuted sentence. He was 66. 

But with the war over, President Harding pardoned Debs and invited him to the White House. “I have heard so damned much about you, Mr. Debs, that I am now very glad to meet you personally,”Harding said  upon meeting him. Indeed, Debs had left prison almost as a mythic figure to his followers—50,000 of whom lined up to watch his train pull in upon his return to Terra Haute.

Though the meeting with Harding was as close as he ever got to the White House, Debs proved he didn't need to win an election to make his voice heard.

Sadly Debs never recovered from his time in prison  and lived most of of what remained of his life  in a sanatorium.  He died on October 20, 1926, at the age of 70 in Elmhurst.

 Throughout his lifetime Debs was the nation’s most widely known and eloquent exponent of a socialist alternative to American capitalism. Unlike many other American and European socialist leaders, Debs sought to avoid complex and often divisive ideological debates over the pace and purity of a theoretical socialist revolution and sought instead to connect the idea of socialized control over the industrial economy to indigenous American traditions of political democracy, utopian individualism, and radical reform.

He is remembered as an opponent to big corporations and World War One. American socialists, communists, and anarchists honor his compassion for the labor movement and motivation to have the average workingman build socialism without large state involvement. He motivated the left in America and continues to this day. In the legacy of Eugene Debs there is much more than a speech here, a prison term there, and nor did he push the plow of labor rights by himself. But on countless occasions he said what had to be said, urged on his nervous union leaderships to do what was right in spite of the overwhelming force and might of the wealthy in America of his generation. In this, he always put himself on front lines and paid the prices that were collateral to his duties as a social justice crusader: jail, fines, ridicule in the press, but also the heavy personal cost of not just those personal injuries but also of being necessarily loud and alone at the front of a still unawares and very suspicious population as slowly, the American citizen became aware of the importance of unions and of worker rights.

Ten years after his death  later his beloved wife, Kate, was buried beside him. Debs was cremated and his ashes were interred in Highland Lawn cemetery, Terre Haute, with only a simple marker. Today, his home in Terre Haute, Indiana has the designation of a National Historic Landmark, and a website http://debsfoundation.org/   dedicated to him Debs citizenship was finally restored in 1976, fifty years after his death and in 1990, the U.S. Department of Labor named Debs a member of its Labor Hall of Honor.

As a socialist, Debs denounced as irrational and unjust a capitalist system that created extravagant wealth for a few at the top, while millions of ordinary working people struggled to get by. Most important, he thought it was possible to build a new, cooperative society, to transcend the irrationality, waste, and greed of the capitalist economic system, and to end wage slavery and all forms of social oppression. He called this socialism. 

 The life and legacy of Eugene V. Debs stands as a rich and vibrant testament to one man’s dedication to a liberated future. Indeed, Debs was an individual for whom solidarity with his fellow humans was in his blood. who used his  voice in defense of the common man, his legacy can  best summed up in his own words.:

 

 "Yes, I am my brother's keeper," he wrote. "I am under a moral obligation to him that is inspired, not by maudlin sentimentality, but by the higher duty I owe myself." 

As a principled left-wing socialist, Debs was cut from a different cloth than most mainstream politicians, then and now. How many career politicians today would be willing to go to prison for their views and ideals. In short Debs is a socialist icon that we so need  in our present times.