SWEARING AT THE TELLY

2012-01-31T20:16:00.007Z

READY TO KILL
(Carl Sandburg)

Ten minutes now I have been looking at this.
I have gone by here before and wondered about it.
This is a bronze memorial of a famous general
Riding horseback with a flag and a sword and a revolver
on him.
I want to smash the whole thing into a pile of junk to be
hauled away to the scrap yard.
I put it straight to you,
After the farmer, the miner, the shop man, the factory
hand, the fireman and the teamster,
Have all been remembered with bronze memorials,
Shaping them on the job of getting all of us
Something to eat and something to wear,
When they stack a few silhouettes
Against the sky
Here in the park,
And show the real huskies that are doing the work of
the world, and feeding people instead of butchering them,
Then maybe I will stand here
And look easy at this general of the army holding a flag
in the air,
And riding like hell on horseback
Ready to kill anybody that gets in his way,
Ready to run the red blood and slush the bowels of men
all over the sweet new grass of the prairie.

I was going to make that the last poem in my current season, but I've found another poem about John MacLean, a great source of bardic inspiration, it seems - Matt McGinn, Sorley MacLean, now Derick Thomson.

WARRIOR
(Derick Thomson)

In another age
you might have been "a warrior of Mull,"
John MacLean;
the history of your people flung you
into a new battle:
the Gael's exultant cry
coming from the chest of the Lowlands;
if only the flame lasted
it would write "Freedom" on Scotland's sky yet.

ARMANN
(Ruaridh MacThòmais)

Fear de dh'àrmainn Mhuile is dòcha
ann a linn eile,
Iain Mac'illEathain;
ach thilg eachdraidh do dhaoine
a chath ás ùr thu;
iolach a'Ghaidheil
a'tighinn á cliabh na Galldachd;
nam biodh seasmhachd ás a laisir
sgrìobhte "Saorsa" air nèamh Alba fhathast.

2012-01-31T15:51:00.008Z

AN ACT OF VICTIMISATION
(From the London Regional Secretary, Industrial Workers of the World)

The Industrial Workers of the World Cleaners and Allied Grades Branch
Secretary Alberto Durango was today sacked from his job at the Heron Tower
by the contractor Incentive FM Group Ltd. It is an act of victimisation
of a leading union activist well known for campaigning to defend and
improve the conditions of workers in the cleaning industry.

In August 2011 IWW secured a significant success on the London Living Wage
for cleaners at Heron Tower and in defence of victimised staff. Since
then there have been those seeking revenge against Alberto and the IWW.
In November 2011, Alberto was suspended for using a service lift used
daily by other staff. The same month IWW negotiated an agreement with
the cleaning contractor LCC that there would be no compulsory redundancies
and any staff reductions would be by transfers to alternative posts. A
new contractor has taken over at Heron Tower who have not recognised this
agreement which continues under TUPE, Incentive have singled out Alberto
for redundancy without any objective justification.

The company Cushman & Wakefield who manage Heron Tower also manage
Exchange Tower where IWW has a campaign for the London Living Wage. This
company had taken an excessively aggressive stance against IWW and our
members, preventing leaflets being distributed and threatening IWW members
with investigations.

The Industrial Workers of the World is based on the principle that an
injury to one is an injury to all. We call on all workers to show their
solidarity with the Cleaners Branch Secretary and demand the immediate
reinstatement Of Alberto Durango and no compulsory redundancies.

2012-01-30T14:30:00.008Z

This morning I switched on BBC Radio 4's 'Today', and heard the name of Mustafa Barghouthi. Dr. Barghouthi was about to be heard on BBC radio. He spoke, about the Qatar (Doha?) skyline. He remembered when there were only two high-rise buildings in Qatar.
And that was it.
The report was was about the growing importance of Qatar in Middle East politics and business. I'm guessing the Dr. Barghouthi was corralled by the programme makers on the pretext of his being questioned about matters Palestinian, and Qatar's possible role as a mediator. Then the superfluous stuff about Israel/Palestine was binned.

I wonder what safe pair of hands will replace the arch-zionist Mark Thompson as Director-General of the BBC.

"Obviously someone close to Thompson believes that the best way to rebut his Zionist and pro-Israel allegiances is by erasing from Wikipedia any reference to them which – like his meeting with Ariel Sharon – lay bare his political bias. Lest anyone is still in doubt, analyse the BBC’s coverage of this latest Israeli atrocity. No amount of whitewash on Wikipedia can hide the facts."

(Yvonne Ridley)

2012-01-27T15:46:00.005Z

"With all of its defects, the global market makes war less likely, even between the USA and China." Umberto Eco
You see now there are no wars, no civilian casualties. Pouf! Eco has abolished them. Evviva il mercato globale! Now, on to the next award ceremony.
Eco, the man who finds he's too busy to protest at Israel's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
The man's a fraud, though we will probably wait for his passing to learn how much of a fraud.

2012-01-25T15:10:00.008Z

Via IWW Sheffield, whose website I visited in pursuit of news on the pizza front, I encountered an alien life form called conservapedia. There I was able to view my union through extra-terrestrial eyes (on stalks?) -

'In contrary to traditional American values, IWWs are known for their open support of radical extremists such as Earth First, Mumia Abu Jamal, homosexuals, lesbians, and transvestites, convicted criminals, Black Panthers, Mexican re-conquistas, Leonard Peltier, Judi Bari, Palestinian extremists, radical Jewish Communists, and atheists of all stripes. Current IWW poster children include members such as anarchist "professor" Noam Chomsky, UFC "Fighter" Jeff Monson, and left wing rock "musician" Tom Morello.'

On Planet Conversapedia Professor (emeritus) Avram Noam Chomsky is no professor; Jeff Monson is no fighter;
Tom Morello is no musician.

Stripped of their titles by reason of membership of the One Big Union. Planet Conversapedia is union-free, and talent-free.
And short on facts, if this article is typical.

2012-01-25T14:33:00.002Z

NHS 'culture' trip to Florida included sunset cruise on luxury yacht
(Hull Daily Mail)
Safe in their hands.

2012-01-24T20:09:00.002Z

Welcome to the home page of Sheffield Pizza Hut Workers Union – 460. Sheffield is the birth place of our union, which started up the hill in Crookes. Get Organised Get Involved – email us at pizzahutIU640@IWW.org.uk
http://iwwgmbsheffield.wordpress.com/pizza-hut-workers-union/
The Pizza Hut Workers Union is currently fighting on three key issues -

1.Drivers Conditions

2.Pay

3.Union Recognition

In drivers conditions we are demanding regular updates of all moped drivers safety gear. We are also demanding an increase to deliver drivers per-delivery commission, which now stands at 60p, which clearly does not cover costs.
Over pay we are demanding pay increases in line with inflation, as currently our pay is seeing regular decreases. We also that we deserve time and a half for working Bank and National Holiday days. This is industry standard, we are not demanding the earth!
Lastly on the subject of Union Recognition, we believe it is only right as the workers that make the Pizza Hut company what it is we deserve to be talked to on an equal footing to management and have the right for our union to be recognised, giving us all stronger voice

2012-01-23T16:37:00.019Z

Brendan Gleeson secures funds for Flann O'Brien film (BBC News)
I just read this on Ian Duhig's facebook.
I posted before (23rd November 2010) about this project. I honestly don't know whether to hail the news as good or bad. Strange things happen to books once film people get hold of them, and, as this is a strange yarn to start with, it can only become less so as the adaptors work on it.

The swans were rustled from the blog of the Rev. Patrick Comerford.

2012-01-21T19:20:00.004Z

Man in coma loses benefits as he's classified "fit for work"

(Via Viola Wilkins' post on Unionbook)

2012-01-21T16:35:00.003Z

Last July, American historian William Blum published his "updated summary of the record of US foreign policy". Since the Second World War, the US has:
- Attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, most of them democratically-elected.
- Attempted to suppress a populist or national movement in 20 countries.
- Grossly interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries.
- Dropped bombs on the people of more than 30 countries.
- Attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders.
In total, the United States has carried out one or more of these actions in 69 countries. In almost all cases, Britain has been a collaborator. The "enemy" changes in name - from communism to Islamism -- but mostly it is the rise of democracy independent of western power or a society occupying strategically useful territory, deemed expendable, like the Chagos Islands.
The sheer scale of suffering, let alone criminality, is little known in the west, despite the presence of the world's most advanced communications, nominally freest journalism and most admired academy. That the most numerous victims of terrorism - western terrorism - are Muslims is unsayable, if it is known. That half a million Iraqi infants died in the 1990s as a result of the embargo imposed by Britain and America is of no interest. That extreme jihadism, which led to 9/11, was nurtured as a weapon of western policy ("Operation Cyclone") is known to specialists but otherwise suppressed.
While popular culture in Britain and America immerses the Second World War in an ethical bath for the victors, the holocausts arising from Anglo-American dominance of resource-rich regions are consigned to oblivion. Under the Indonesian tyrant Suharto, anointed "our man" by Thatcher, more than a million people were slaughtered. Described by the CIA as "the worst mass murder of the second half of the 20th century", the estimate does not include a third of the population of East Timor who were starved or murdered with western connivance, British fighter-bombers and machine guns.

The full article here. It's by John Pilger, so can be dismissed by some as the work of the Devil.

2012-01-21T16:03:00.008Z

SUBSTANDARD and PISS-POOR
Who are these people? Why does anyone take any notice of them when they have been so disastrously wrong - or criminally misinformative - in the past? More and more observers are recognising these people as key conspirators in a gigantic con-game. And yet the media continue to disseminate their thimble-rigger's patter, as if it had some basis in reality.
As we used to say, what a load of old MOODY.

2012-01-19T21:01:00.008Z

AT LAST
(Attila József)

I have scrubbed boilers, I have cut seedlings,
On rotting straw mattresses I've found sleep;
Judges have sentenced me, fools have mocked me,
My glitter poured forth from cellars deep.
I've kissed a girl who sang even as
she was baking someone else's bread,
I was given clothes and I gave books
to peasants and to workers instead.
I was in love with a well-to-do girl
but her own class wrested her from me;
I ate but once every other day
and I got an ulcer finally.
I've felt that the world, too, was a turning
inflamed stomach and that slimy thing,
our dyspeptic love was our mind, while war
was nothing but bloody vomiting.
Since sourish silence has filled our mouth,
I kicked my heart that it might shout with rage.
How could my active mind content itself
with lulling songs composed for a wage.
They offered money for my great vengeance;
Priests have said: trust in the Lord, my son.
And I knew, he who returned empty-handed,
with axes and hoes and stones would come.
I have flashing eyes and the will to win,
and I must have the willingness, the means
to do justice and so to take sides
with these severest of memories.
But what concern are memories to me?
Rather, I lay my worthless pencil down
and start grinding the scythe's edge instead,
for time is ripening in our land
with a silent, threatening sound.

(English version by John Székely)

VÉGÜL

Kazánt súroltam; vágtam sarjat;
elnyúltam rothadt szalmazsákon;
bíró elítélt; hülye csúfolt;
pincéből tódult ragyogásom.
Csókoltam lányt, aki dalolva
ropogós cipót sütött másnak.
Ruhát kaptam és könyvet adtam
a parasztnak és a munkásnak.
Egy jómódú lányt szerettem,
osztálya elragadta tõlem.
Két naponként csak egyszer ettem
és gyomorbajos lett belőlem.
Éreztem, forgó, gyulladásos
gyomor a világ is és nyálkás,
gyomorbeteg szerelmünk, elménk
s a háború csak véres hányás.
S mert savanykás csönd tölti szánkat,
szívembe rúgtam, ordítson már!
Hogyan is hagyna dolgos elmém
feldtető, de bérdaloknál.
Kínáltak pénzt nagy sok bosszúmért,
pap mondta: Fiam, szállj az úrhoz!
S tudtam, ki üres kézzel tér meg,
baltát, kapát meg köveket hoz.
Villogó szívû, győzni bíró
vagyok, kinek kell legyen kedve
igazat tenni, pártot állni,
ím, e szigorú emlékekre.
De emlékhez mi közöm nékem?
Rongy ceruzámat inkább leteszem
s köszörülöm a kasza élit,
mert földünkön az idő érik,
zajtalanul és félelmesen.

2012-01-19T20:27:00.005Z

"The government is investigating 82-year-old Agnes Heller, Hungary's most famous philosopher, a former dissident, Marxist and student of the Marxist philosopher Georg Lukács. The government, with massive support from the right-wing press, claims that she squandered European Union grant money.
"A monument to the poet Attila József on a square in front of the parliament building is expected to be taken down soon. József, whose works are classics of proletarian poetry, was a humanist with a Marxist worldview. He threw himself in front of a freight train in 1937. The new government does not believe that a monument to this sort of a person ought to be standing in front of the parliament. It's as if the Germans were to remove a statue of Friedrich Schiller because the poet had long hair."

(Philipp Oehmke, in Der Spiegel)

Somebody tell them that Lajos Kossuth, father of the nation, was a Slovak; and Sándor Petöfi, national poet, was a Serb. I'm not crazy about József's poetry, but I think I'll post something to revive my flagging poetry season.
I wonder if these are allies of Cameron-Clegg in the European Parliament, along with the Polish fascists.

I first read of this on Ian Duhig's facebook pages, which I now read daily.

2012-01-18T11:07:00.005Z

QUADROFENIANS - amusing hybridisation. Well, I laughed when I heard it.
My son just told me about them and I had to seek them out, if only for the name. It's anybody's guess what the music's like.

2012-01-17T14:30:00.003Z

Happy 70th birthday, Muhammad.

An hour after Ali refused induction into the armed forces the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing licence. Every other state athletic commission did likewise and Ali was stripped of his title.
It was a period in history in which he stood alone against a tide of militarism and reaction in a society that has since embraced him. He faced prison and financial ruin, and his passport was confiscated to ensure that he wouldn't be able to make a living outside the country.
Yet for the three years of exile from the ring that he endured he grew in stature and with it strength. Speaking at colleges throughout the country, he resonated with young people of every race and background as a man of deep conviction. His defiance in the face of such massive odds inspired more and more to follow his example.
When he returned to the ring in 1970 it was as a hero. He had defied the mightiest government in the world and emerged as a symbol of justice and hope for millions of poor people in the US and beyond.
He truly was the lion that roared.

(John Wight)

2012-01-16T20:22:00.005Z

Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:04:45
Appeal to Trade Unionists, Trade Union Branches, Trades Councils, Political Organisations, and Supporters

From: siteworkers@virginmedia.com

Dear Comrades,
Our dispute has reached a critical stage, the BESNA 7* have upped
the ante by threatening to sack workers in the coming weeks if they do not sign
these new contracts.Wages will be cut by 35%. They intend to introduce a new
grade, an installer , who will do 75% of the work normally done by skilled
electricians, completely destroying our trade and exploiting workers. Most of us will end up out of work or forced to work for less money, doing the work we have
always done on £6 an hour less. Apprenticeships will be non existent.
These firms have been bullying workers to sign these inferior contracts since before Xmas, holding a gun to workers' heads with the carrot being dangled (Well if you don't sign you are throwing away 5 years work or more). The Crossrail Project is the
perfect example; NG Bailey has this contract. They are one of the rogue 7. Balfour
Beatty also have stacks of work all over the country.Unite the union are re
balloting BB, result should be known 2nd February. We are confident of a massive
yes vote bigger than the last vote. In the meantime the rank and file are
continuing with their weekly protests. We have a number of meetings planned and
if all goes to plan we will need transport to get around and picket all BB
sites.
Please pass this email on.

Donations to Unite rank and file construction workers fighting fund
cheques payable to joint sites committee
70 Darnay Rise
Chelmsford
Essex
CM1 4XA

Many thanks
In solidarity, Alan Keays

*Building Engineering Services National Agreement
The seven are -
Balfour Beatty Engineering Services Limited
N G Bailey Building Services
Crown House Technologies
Gratte Brothers
Spie Matthew Hall
Shepherd Engineering Services (SES)
T.Clarke Plc

2012-01-12T20:38:00.003Z

... and the new look Titi Henry reminds me of someone.

2012-01-12T20:29:00.006Z

Bashshar al-Asad - I knew I'd seen him somewhere before.

2012-01-09T19:59:00.006Z

Before I read this poem I'd never heard of Manuel Palafox, but he was a real person. Did he write letters, Herzog-style, to famous people? Was he a cross-dresser? We should be told.
For me Ian Duhig is one of the top poets around today; erudite, witty, his work full of references you (well, I) have to go in search of. Before reading Duhig I'd never heard of Fauvel, or Palafox, or Poggio Braccioli. Also he mentions exotic locales such as Hull and Beverley; yea, even the Fishermen's Bethel on Hessle Road where my missus was inducted into the Church Militant.
Here's an interview with the poet, with some quotable observations.
Where's my notebook?

NINETEEN HUNDRED AND NINETEEN
(Ian Duhig)

Dismissed from Tlaltizapa for changing sex
Manuel Palafox sulked in Arenista. At markets
he bought chimoyas, limes and ink from Oaxtepec.
Some days he wore his twenty-ounce sombrero,
Deerskin pants and "charro" boots. On others
Gold-embroidered blouses and red kerseymere skirts.

He wrote to Magonistas; "Zapata is finished.
He takes orders from Obregon. Rally the Peones!
Death to Carranza! Tierra y Libertad!"
He wrote to Lenin; "Trotsky is finished.
Seek concord with the Ukraine Makhnovshchina.
Brest-Litovsk's a cock-up. Regards to the Missus."

He wrote to Freud; "Were you coked when you dreamt up this?
No Mexican has even heard of the sexual revolution.
All Eros last year now it's Thanatos, bloody Thanatos.
Jung was right- grow a beard, you think you're Moses.
I hope your jaw drops off. Regards to the Missus."
At last he wrote to Yeats: "Dear Willie, how's The Vision?

Mine's double, ha-ha. Shit. Willie, I'm finished
In Mexico - it's full of bigots. Ireland can't be worse.
I'll work. Your brother paints - I'll hold his ladders.
You can have my poems. The one about this year -
Change it round- it'll do for Ireland. What happened
To my lift with Casement? Willie, GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

Shopping in Cashel for pulque, Michael Robartes-
"Research Assistant to a popular writer"-
Itched in his Connemara Cloth. Himself well-known
For a Special Devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe,
He frowned on local talk of a drunken madwoman
In red skirts, publicly disputing with the bishop.

Ian Duhig also has a facebook page. I'm sure it's genuine and not a case of identity theft.

(... but who was Michael Robartes?)

2012-01-09T14:43:00.003Z

The Irish for jellyfish translates literally as 'seal snot'.

We learn something new every day, so they say, and the things that stay with me are such useless pieces of information.
Unfortunately I've already forgotten where I read that snippet, so can't give the exact Irish. I think it's either smug róin or smugairle róin.

2012-01-09T14:36:00.001Z

The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: Hacking of Israelis: Saudi hacking of Israelis received more coverage in the Western press than Israeli killing of Palestinians.

2012-01-06T19:39:00.007Z

VEOLIA WATCH

One of the largest actors on these markets is Veolia Environment, an international giant in the fields of water supply, waste disposal (where it was formerly known as Onyx), energy supply (Dalkia) and public transport (formerly Connex). The company is the largest private employer in France, and has specialized in taking over public services in all the areas mentioned and in all parts of the world. It has more than 320,000 employees in more than 70 countries, and a worldwide turnover of €45 billion (2007).
Along with another French company, Suez (formerly Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux), Veolia controls no less than 70 per cent of all the privatized water supply in the world (Hall, 2002, p. 6)! Both belong to a small cluster of multinational companies that seek to take over public companies over a broad spectrum. There is, however, not always the cut-throat competition between these two competing giants that one might expect. They cooperate on tenders within a number of areas by establishing joint ventures. How they cooperate on the same board in one town, yet keep tenders a secret from each other when competitors in the next town, is a problem we are not going to investigate further here.
In waste disposal, the world market is dominated by only four companies – including subsidiaries of the two French companies mentioned. A few years ago, the figure was eight, but the four others have been taken over by the remaining giants. In both energy supply and public transport, the same concentration is taking place. From scarcely owning a single bus outside France in the early 1990s, Veolia Transport has advanced to being the world’s largest private company in the public transport sector (Hall 2002, p. 7).
Just recently (in March 2011), Veolia Transport merged with another French-based major international actor in the field of public transport, Transdev. After the merger, this transport company has become a real giant, with 124,000 employees in about 30 countries and an annual turnover of just over €8 billion. The markets are systematically monopolized, something that naturally helps to weaken the competition the neoliberals are so eager to emphasize. The result is of course increased market control by these companies. Despite all rhetoric in the opposite direction, maximum competition is not precisely what the companies are yearning for. They want maximum profits – and monopoly profit does not differ from any other profit except that it is often larger.

Asbjørn Wahl, "The Rise and Fall of the Welfare State" (Pluto Press)

This is the company that pollutes Palestinian land and its meagre water supply on behalf of ethnic cleansers.

2012-01-05T20:57:00.001Z

HEALTH AND SAFETY CULTURE? I WISH ...

2012-01-04T15:53:00.005Z

Fellow Worker Arthur J. Miller on political prisoner Leonard Peltier, "North America's Nelson Mandela".

INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER
CLEMENCY FOR LEONARD PELTIER MARCHES AND RALLIES
FEBRUARY 4, 2012, WORLD WIDE

The Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee calls on supporters worldwide to protest against the injustice suffered by Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier. Gather on February 4, 2012, at every federal court house and U.S. embassy or consulate worldwide to demand the freedom of a man wrongfully convicted and illegal imprisoned for 36 years!
If you can organize, or help organize and event in your area, please contact LPDOC. Please if you can make a donation to help with the costs of the LPDOC. Scheduled events will be announced and details provided at www.whoisleonardpeltier.info. Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
PO Box 7488, Fargo, ND 58106 Phone: 701/235-2206 E-mail: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER FACEBOOK EVENTS PAGE. PLEASE SHARE AND INVITE YOUR FRIENDS:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=hp#!/events/173509072747628/

From: Tacoma Chapter, LPDOC

As individual fingers we can easily be broken, but all together we make a mighty fist.
-- Sitting Bull

STATEMENT

"I have no doubt whatsoever that the real motivation behind both Wounded Knee II and the Oglala firefight, and much of the turmoil throughout Indian Country since the early 1970s, was - and is - the mining companies' desire to muffle AIM and all traditional Indian people, who sought - and still seek - to protect the land, water, and air from their thefts and depredations. In this sad and tragic age we live in, to come to the defense of Mother Earth is to be branded a criminal." (Leonard Peltier, Prison Writings)

Leonard Peltier (of the Anishinabe, Dakota, and Lakota Nations), long time Native Activist and member of the American Indian Movement. Leonard Peltier, an innocent man who was convicted for the 1975 shooting deaths of two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. U.S. prosecutors have repeatedly admit ted that they did not and cannot prove Peltier's guilt, and the appellate courts have cited numerous instances of investigative and prosecutorial misconduct in this case. As late as November 2003, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that "Much of the government's behavior at the Pine Ridge Reservation and its prosecution of Mr. Peltier is to be condemned. The government withheld evidence. It intimidated witnesses. These facts are not disputed." The trial of the first two AIM members in this case were found not guilty for reason of self-defense.
Behind the case of Leonard Peltier and the events that took place on the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Reservation is the continuing theft of Native land for energy corporations. High grade Uranium was found in the northwest corner of Pine Ridge. It was well known that the Lakota people would be unwilling to sell their land because they refused payment for the Black Hills. So a plan was carried out to suppress the traditional Oglala Lakota people and their supporters from the America Indian Movement. This lead to the Wounded Knee II Occupation, over 500 AIM members being indited on charges, a two and a half year reign of terror against the Oglala Lakota people, and the firefight near Oglala, that Leonard was charged with, that took place at the same time that a corrupt tribal Chairman was illegally signing away the part of Pine Ridge with the Uranium. The firefight took place as a means to divert attention and to suppress AIM.
Leonard has been in prison for over 35 years for a crime he did not commit and a crime that forces of greed were responsibly for. They have withheld medical care for Leonard and recently Leonard was placed in solitary confinement for 72 days and then sent to a high security prison in Florida, as far away from his lawyers and family as they could send him. Leonard is in bad health and they want Leonard to die in prison, alone and forgotten. We will not let that happen.
We are now organizing a new clemency for Leonard Peltier campaign and the regional marches on Feb, 4, 2012 are a very important part of that. Please help us raise money for it and get the word out everywhere. Please. let us come together in the spirit of unity for Leonard and for the kind of justice and peace we want for our world. Thank you.

2012-01-03T20:24:00.003Z

Miles Copeland, one of the CIA agents who organised the earlier coups in Syria, later regretted his actions. After the publication of his book, the Game of Nations, in 1969, he told Keith Kyle of the BBC: "My feeling is that on balance this is a bad thing to do, and it's better to let a country stew in its own juices. If it has a corrupt leader, let them have it. It's their tough luck. If the people in the country don't have what it takes to get rid of a corrupt leader, to hell with them. Let them keep him."

A little Syrian background from Charles Glass.

2012-01-03T19:58:00.004Z

STS Bulletin no.42

Big Talk From Egypt -
"We will not recognize Israel under any circumstances; we are talking about an occupation entity and a criminal enemy," said Dr. Rashad Bayoumi, the deputy head of the [Muslim] Brotherhood."

means

"Washington we want more money, from you or from your Sa'udi fixers."

2012-01-02T16:12:00.010Z

Being fond of poetry featuring imaginative insults I thought to make a copy of of a poem know as "The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy" to spice up my poetry season. Then I found that the version in the Penguin Scottish Verse gives only William Dunbar's side of the slanging match. Also I realised it's not an easy read on account of the antiquated and very Scottish vocabulary. Furthermore it's a little too long for this blog.
It can be found on the internet if anyone's enthusiastic enough. And someone has englished up part of it here.
Rather than act as ringmaster for the the big guns of verbal duelling, I've settled for a more manageable, one-sided example.
I'm also partial to alliteration, so double points to this gent.

SATYR UPON SIR NIEL LAING
(Sir Thomas Maitland)

Canker'd, cursed creature, crabbed corbit kittle,
Buntin-ars'd, beugle back'd, bodied like a beetle;
Sarie shitten, shell-padock, illshapen shit,
Kid-bearded gennet, all alike great;
Fiddle-douped, flindrikin, fart of a man,
Wa worth the, wanshapen wran.

Sir Niel Laing was a Catholic priest, a "Pope's Knight". So the title doesn't indicate knighthood but, I believe, an uneducated cleric. An educated priest would be styled "Master".
Sir Thomas was a genuine knight, and a religious reformer. Intriguingly he died(1572) en route to Rome in the company of a Jesuit priest. Second thoughts?
I think the same gent was responsible for two other poems which I like, but am unable to locate at the moment; approximate titles "The Pleasures of the Football", and "Anent the Thieves of Liddesdaill".

Glossary-
buntin-ars'd, fat-arsed
beugle-back'd, bent-backed
flindrikin, contemptible person
shell-paddock, tortoise
sarie-shitten, constipated?
Wa worth the(e), loosely, "you're not up to much.

Addendum, 3rd January: of the other poems I mentioned the correct title of the second is "Aganis the Thievis of Liddisdale", and was the work of Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, father of Sir Thomas. I suspect that Sir Richard was also the author of the football poem, but am still in pursuit.

2011-12-29T20:42:00.007Z

A couple of pieces of news.

i) The NHS wants more sick old people to be cared for (or neglected by the NHS) in their homes, "freeing up" hospital beds.

ii) The government is going to allow to NHS hospitals to assign 49 percent of their beds to private patients.

No connection of course.

Still more than half of beds will be reserved for NHS patients, so don't call it privatisation, not even creeping privatisation. And I'm sure there'll be quango created to ensure that the Hospitals don't go above the 49 percent "freeing up" (Christ! I hate that stupid expression), Only like all the Of---s (Ofsted, Ofcom, etc.), it will turn out to be toothless, even an arm of the privatisation as non-privatisation flim-flam. Later the 49 percent will turn out to be a "target", and not to be taken too seriously.

2011-12-29T20:34:00.004Z

'Twas Christmas Day in the harem
The eunuchs were sitting on chairs
Watching the Vestal Virgins
Combing their pubic hairs.
When suddenly Father Christmas
Came striding through the halls,
And said, "What do you want for Christmas?"
And the eunuchs cried out "BALLS!"

An old army song,sung to the tune of the "Eton Boating Song". There is another verse about the sexual proclivities of the camel, but we'll draw a veil over that one.
A little seasonal ribaldry to get me back in the mood for blogging.

2011-12-23T20:37:00.002Z

Recently Alan Hansen got in hot water when he talked on the telly of 'coloured' footballers. When his faux pas was pointed out he apologised immediately.
A couple of black players wondered out loud what colour Mr. Hansen imagined them to be.
I don't know who wrote the following lines. They are in French and not too serious, but the sense probably comes through. If I find an English version I'll add it later. No title -

Quand je suis né, j'étais noir.
Quand j'ai grandi, j'étais noir.
Quand j'ai peur, je suis noir.
Quand je vais au soleil, je suis noir.
Quand je suis malade, je suis noir.
Quand je me blesse, je reste noir.

Tandis que toi homme blanc,
quand tu es né, tu étais rose,
quand tu as grandi, tu es devenu blanc,
quand tu vas au soleil, tu deviens rouge,
quand tu as froid, tu deviens bleu,
quand tu as peur, tu deviens vert,
quand tu es malade, tu deviens jaune,
quand tu te blesses, tu deviens violet à cet endroit

et après ça, tu m'appeles homme de couleur.

I have some sympathy for Hansen. When I was young - he too, probably - 'coloured' was the accepted term, 'black' considered in bad taste. Even since black has replaced 'coloured' I've heard black West Indians use the latter term. And the NAACP in the United States retains its original title.

2011-12-21T15:58:00.006Z

The following poem is by Michael Rosen. It is from a collection called "Fighters for Life" (2007), and has no title. I would refer to it by the title "Promised Land".

A family arrived and said that they had papers
to prove that his house was theirs.
- No, no, said the man, my people have always lived here.
My father, grandfather ... and look in the garden,
My great-grandfather planted that.
- No, no, said the family, look at the documents.

There was a stack of them.

- Where do I start? said the man.
- No need to read the beginning, they said,
Turn to the page marked 'Promised Land'.
- Are they legal? he said. Who wrote them?
-God, they said, God wrote them, look
here come his tanks.

2011-12-21T15:36:00.008Z

"Eventually, just as we were getting restless and starting to tut-tut, in they trooped to a shambling step, a picture of latter-day bohemianism, a gang, I felt, with little respect for the great literature and fine art housed at The Huntington, protected by locks and alarms and earthquake stabilizers. I recognized at once (from his many appearances on television current affairs programmes) Christopher Hitchens, the transatlantic pundit. A red hot poker in print, in the flesh he seemed a pathetic creature, as he struggled past us, a person you needed to stay clear of in case he might suddenly lash out. His long floppy corduroy jacket could not conceal the shirt tail hanging down over the seat of his jeans. His bullet eyes, piercing through a film of blood, darted around the half-empty room, giving our little group a curl of the upper lip and a glance as if to acknowledge that he recognized the land of the crass but at least there might perhaps be some potential customers present.
"He was part of a shaky line of literary lions but I recognized none of the others. Where was Martin Amis? I continued to fix on Hitchens, a loathing enveloping me like a nasty cold. Led onto the dais by an official, he flopped down into a chair, his belly parting his jacket, his eyes closing contentedly, a hand shaking noticeably as it was raised to push back a stray lock of greasy hair."

"... I attacked with my follow-up question (something you're allowed to do in America): 'You have made no mention of the finest of all modern British comic novelists'. Hitchens performed his lip-curling:'And who might that be, in your opinion?' 'Julian McLaren Ross', I answered loudly and with relish. "I've heard the name but never read a word of him. Next..........'"

(Ian Whitcomb)

Cavalier dismissal of the work of Julian MacLaren-Ross - one more reason to despise Hitchens.

2011-12-20T20:44:00.010Z

(I can't help messing with this post. Sort of a work in progress.)

House of Commons public accounts committee: You gave Goldmann Sachs £20 million of our money.

Her Majesty's Tax Avoidance Facilitators: No we didn't, your conclusion is based on incomplete information.

HoCPAC: Then give us all the information.

HMTAF: We can't do that, it's confidential.

HoCPAC: So how can we know what you're up to?

HMTAF: You'll just have to trust us.

Jackals of the Press:What is The Government going to do about this, Mr Spokesman?

Government Spokesman: HMTAF has the Prime Minister's full support.

JotP: Based on what, Mr. Spokesman?

GS: Based on our just having to trust them.

First Goldmann Sachs Oligarch: Anybody know the current price of a Public Accounts Committee?

Second Goldmann Sachs Oligarch: You can ignore them, we already bought the government.

2011-12-19T20:18:00.016Z

The name of the poem Mná na hÉireann became well known after the release of Stanley Kubrick's film "Barry Lyndon", released in 1975. An air, composed by Seán Ó Riada and recorded by the Chieftans, was part of the musical score. The air was the setting for the words of the 18th century Ulster poet, Peadar Ó Doirnín. Later these original lyrics were recorded by a variety of singers, mainly female, though the sentiments expressed are clearly those of a male.
The following English language version is by the poet Michael Davitt. It does not appear to be literal; but who am I to criticise the work of a Gaeilgeoir?

WOMEN OF IRELAND

There's a woman in Erin who'd give me shelter and my fill of ale;
There's a woman in Erin who'd prefer my strains to strings being played;
There's a woman in Erin and nothing would please her more
Than to see me burning or in a grave lying cold.

There's a woman in Eirinn who'd be mad with envy if I was kissed
By another on fair-day, they have strange ways, but I love them all;
There are women I'll always adore, battalions of women and more
And there's this sensuous beauty but she's shackled to an ugly boar.

There's a woman who promised if I'd wander with her I'd find some gold
A woman in night dress with a loveliness worth more than the woman
Who vexed Ballymoyer and the plain of Tyrone;
And the only cure for my pain I'm sure is the ale-house down the road.

MNÁ NA hÉIREANN
(Sean Ó Doirnín, d.1769)

Tá bean in Éirinn a phronnfadh séad damh is mo sháith le n-ól
Is tá bean in Éirinn is ba binne léithe mo ráfla ceoil
Nó seinm théid; atá bean in Éirinn is níorbh fhearr léi beo
Mise ag léimnigh nó leagtha i gcré is mo tharr faoi fhód.

Tá bean in Éirinn a bheadh ag éad liom mur bhfaighinn ach póg
Ó bhean ar aonach, nach ait an scéala, is mo dháimh féin leo;
Tá bean ab fhearr liom nó cath is céad dhíobh nach bhfagham go deo
Is tá cailín spéiriúil ag fear gan Bhéarla, dubhghránna cróin

Tá bean a déarfadh dá siúlainn léithe go bhfaighinn an t-ór
Is tá bean 'na léine is is fearr a méin nó na táinte bó
Le bean a bhuairfeadh Baile an Mhaoir agus clár Thír Eoghain,
Is ní fhaicim leigheas ar mo ghalar féin ach scáird a dh'ól

2011-12-18T11:18:00.006Z

Latest News: Salah Hamouri to be released today.

Update 2053 hours: according to the latest bulletin Salah is free and with his parents. Only a few thousand more hostages to liberate.

2011-12-18T10:55:00.004Z

Professor AbuKhalil on the Barstool Bombardier.
The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: Hitchens: I debated whether to write about someone who agitated for war and for racism against Arabs/Muslims. I never met this man, and never liked ...

2011-12-17T22:00:00.011Z

What has happened to Thankgodimatheist's blog, 'Angry Arab's Comments Section'? When I try to log in I get a message that it has been removed.
WHY?
If you read this, TG, leave a message.

2011-12-16T20:24:00.002Z

TO QUILCA
(Jonathan Swift)

Let me thy Properties explain,
A rotten Cabbin, dropping Rain;
Chimnies with Scorn rejecting Smoak;
Stools, Tables, Chairs, and Bed-stede broke:
Here Elements have lost their Uses,
Air ripens not, nor Earth produces:
In vain we make poor Sheelah toil,
Fire will not roast, nor Water boil.
Thro' all the Vallies, Hills, and Plains,
The Goddess Want in Triumph reigns;
And her chief Officers of State,
Sloth, Dirt, and Theft around her wait.

Full title, "To Quilca, a Country House in no very good Repair, where the supposed Author, and some of his Friends, spent a Summer, in the Year 1725"
Quilca, or Cuilcagh, was the home of Swift's friend, Thomas Sheridan, grandfather of the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Thomas S. was described by one who knew him as, "ill-starred, good natured, improvident ... a punster, a quibbler, a diffler and a wit ... his pen and his fiddlestick were in continual motion, and yet to little or no purpose." He was a clergyman, too outspoken to retain any position in the church. When he obtained any money he found himself "besheridaned" (his own coinage), that is, surrounded by importunate kinsfolk. County Cavan is Sheridan territory.
'Sheelah', the name suggests, would have been a household servant, Catholic, peasant, and in language a Gael. The Sheridan family had Protestant and Catholic branches, the latter having to remove to the Continent in order to avoid descent into extreme poverty. Their landowning cousin did not prosper in spite of conforming to the established religion.

2011-12-13T20:32:00.008Z

"It's dark out, Jack, the stations out there don't identify themselves, we're in it raw — blind like burned rats, it's running out all around us, the footprints of the beast, one nobody has any notion of. The white & vacant eyes of something above there, something that doesn't know we exist. I smell heartbreak up there, Jack, a heartbreak at the center of things, & in which we don't figure at all."
Kenneth Patchen, poet, born 100 years ago today.
"Mingus Ah Um", powerful back-up there.

Photograph and poem lifted from "anti-CopyRite" Daily Bleed.

2011-12-13T16:09:00.008Z

Norman Mailer on Gore Vidal's homosexuality*: "As a homosexual he's very much a man ... in sex, he does it ... No one does anything to him."

When I read Mark Thompson's fulsome, and spewsome, praise of Dirty Harry Clarkson and his juvenile killing spree fantasies I wonder what hold Clarkson has on Thompson and his managerial coterie. I also wonder at times if one of them's doing it and the other's having it done.
The search for an explanation goes on.

*Or, as Vidal himself would insist, homosexualism.

2011-12-12T19:59:00.014Z

Some unconfirmed news on political prisoner Salah Hamouri, whose original release date was the 28th of last month -

Benjamin Netanyahu was contacted by French President Sarkozy (Salah is a French citizen), and informed him that everything depended on the Grand Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and his agreement to the release of Salah at the second exchange of prisoners linked to the release of Gilad Shalit (Salah was accused of plotting the Rabbi's assassination).
Sarkozy wrote to the Rabbi, and the French Ambassador to Israel, Christophe Bigot, met Salah, then Rabbi Yosef. The latter expressed his agreement. This agreement has been confirmed by the Israeli Minister of the Interior. The final decision on Salah will be made by Netanyahu and the Israeli cabinet, and should be known by the 18th December.

2011-12-12T14:14:00.005Z

"It is not an exaggeration to say Cameron's priorities lay with the City of London, not the mass of the British people he was placed in office to serve. Although it is worse than that alone, as it was the casino and tax dodging end of the city which the British prime minister tried to protect. The very people who wrecked the world economy. Cameron, and his closest colleague George Osborne should forever be known as the the first, and deputy first minister of the ‘city’ of London, which incidentally despite what the rightwing media claims, makes up only 7.5% of the UK’s GDP."

(Mick Hall)

2011-12-12T10:52:00.009Z

Dave Hartnett, the man who gave £20 million* of our money to Goldman Sachs, is to retire.
That's Dave Hartnett who gave £5 million of our money to Vodaphone.

I wonder what he'll be doing now.
Going to work for Goldman Sachs - 3/1
Going to work for Vodaphone - 5/1
Going to work for some other firm he helped - 7/1
Taking up post as advisor** to George (tax dodger) Osbourne 9/1
Cultivating his garden - 50/1

*Apparently he only admits to giving them £8 million of our money.

** Alongside Philip Green the billionaire who pays no tax at all.

2011-12-11T20:06:00.009Z

ANOTHER EPITAPH ON AN ARMY OF MERCENARIES
(Hugh MacDiarmid)

It is a God-damned lie to say that these
Saved, or knew, anything worth any man's pride.
They were professional murderers and they took
Their blood money and impious risks and died.
In spite of all their kind some elements of worth
With difficulty persist here and there on earth.

A reply to A.E.Housman's "Epitaph ..." (here)

MacDiarmid served, as a conscript, in World War I. Housman was too old.

TO NEARLY EVERYBODY IN EUROPE TODAY
(Hugh MacDiarmid)

A war to save civilization you say
Then what have you to do with it, pray?
Some attempt to acquire it would show truer love
Than fighting for something you know nothing of.

Today's wars are fought for freedom, democracy, human rights.
Killing people to civilise them is no longer fashionable; we find other reasons.

2011-12-09T20:38:00.009Z

THE DESERTER
(Boris Vian)

Mr. President
I'm writing you a letter
that perhaps you will read
If you have the time.
I've just received
my call-up papers
to leave for the front
Before Wednesday night.
Mr. President
I do not want to go
I am not on this earth
to kill wretched people.
It's not to make you mad
I must tell you
my decision is made
I am going to desert.

Since I was born
I have seen my father die
I have seen my brothers leave
and my children cry.
My mother has suffered so,
that she is in her grave
and she laughs at the bombs
and she laughs at the worms.
When I was a prisoner
they stole my wife
they stole my soul
and all my dear past.
Early tomorrow morning
I will shut my door
on these dead years
I will take to the road.

I will beg my way along
on the roads of France
from Brittany to Provence
and I will cry out to the people:
Refuse to obey
refuse to do it
don't go to war
refuse to go.
If blood must be given
go give your own
you are a good apostle
Mr. President.
If you go after me
warn your police
that I'll be unarmed
and that they can shoot.
(English version by Gilles D'Ayméry
and Jan Baughman)

LE DÉSERTEUR

Monsieur le Président
Je vous fais une lettre
Que vous lirez peut-être
Si vous avez le temps
Je viens de recevoir
Mes papiers militaires
Pour partir à la guerre
Avant mercredi soir
Monsieur le Président
Je ne veux pas la faire
Je ne suis pas sur terre
Pour tuer des pauvres gens
C'est pas pour vous fâcher
Il faut que je vous dise
Ma décision est prise
Je m'en vais déserter

Depuis que je suis né
J'ai vu mourir mon père
J'ai vu partir mes frères
Et pleurer mes enfants
Ma mère a tant souffert
Elle est dedans sa tombe
Et se moque des bombes
Et se moque des vers
Quand j'étais prisonnier
On m'a volé ma femme
On m'a volé mon âme
Et tout mon cher passé
Demain de bon matin
Je fermerai ma porte
Au nez des années mortes
J'irai sur les chemins

Je mendierai ma vie
Sur les routes de France
De Bretagne en Provence
Et je dirai aux gens:
Refusez d'obéir
Refusez de la faire
N'allez pas à la guerre
Refusez de partir
S'il faut donner son sang
Allez donner le vôtre
Vous êtes bon apôtre
Monsieur le Président
Si vous me poursuivez
Prévenez vos gendarmes
Que je n'aurai pas d'armes
Et qu'ils pourront tirer.

One of the best anti-war poems/songs. There are plenty of sung versions online, including Vian's own (corny arrangement). A singable English version given a British context is here.

2011-12-07T15:04:00.004Z

My old comrade John T., alias "Homebrew", who died a year ago today. I posted a poem in his memory at the time. I post it again.

If sadly thinking, with spirits sinking,
Could more than drinking my cares compose,
A cure for sorrow from sighs I'd borrow
And hope tomorrow would end my woes.
But as in wailing there's nought availing
And Death unfailing will strike the blow
Then for that reason, and for a season,
Let us be merry before we go.

To joy a stranger, a way-worn ranger,
In every danger my course I've run;
Now hope all ending, and death befriending,
His last aid lending, my cares are done.
No more a rover, or hapless lover,
My griefs are over - my glass runs low;
Then for that reason, and for a season,
Let us be merry before we go.

2011-12-04T15:49:00.013Z

Goodbye, Sócrates.

"Até já, Doutor. Tá confirmada aquela próxima cerveja. Vai na paz."

"At a time when most people were still afraid to speak out against the regime, he politicised football in a way no other player has even attempted, before or since. And he was as proud of his team's valiant contribution in helping dismantle the dictatorship as he was his considerable football achievements. At the end of 1982, Corinthians won the São Paulo state championship with "Democracia" printed on the back of their black shirts. Sócrates said it was "perhaps the most perfect moment I ever lived. And I'm sure it was for 95% of [my teammates] too".

2011-12-03T15:59:00.005Z

A poem by a Fellow Worker -

ENRON
(Richard Myers)
Friend, have ya heard the corporate lies--
They vow to double your dough?
They solemnly swear the stock will rise,
You'll watch it climb before your eyes
As your savings grow and grow?

Have you learned too late the corporate rule:
The boss already cashed?
Have ya felt just like a bloody fool
'Cause ya bought him that new swimming pool
While all your dreams are trashed?

Have you watched him haul away the loot
And ya know that you've been had?
Have they given you the golden boot
While the boss straps on his parachute
And it leaves you fightin' mad?

If you're sick to death of corporate lies
But ya don't know how to approach it,
Then fellow worker, organize.
Prepare the boss a big surprise
And stop ingesting bullshit.

No more the thief, the parasite!
No more of this abuse.
When workers everywhere unite
The bosses we shall disinvite,
We'll keep what we produce!

2011-12-03T14:20:00.005Z

"... we might observe that there are two kinds of jokes about incitement to violence. There's the kind you make on The One Show, which sells your DVD, and there's the kind you make on your obscure little Facebook page that gets you a four-year sentence, as happened during the summer unrest with a pair in Northwich who didn't even turn up to their own "riot" (nor did anybody except the police). Or perhaps you prefer the chap convicted for a joke tweet about Doncaster airport."

(Marina Hyde)

2011-12-02T15:54:00.017Z

I feel a poetry season coming on.
I just bought a book described as collected poems of Sorley MacLean. We've sampled the great man before on these pages (here and here) and I'm happy to have access to more of his work, some previously unpublished. Here's a short, angry assault on a deserving target -

To the Pope who offered thanks to God for the fall of Barcelona
Deceitful pious whore of a bitch
who carries Christ's tiara,
around this time last year you were wallowing
in children's blood and holiness.

Don Phàp a thug buidheachas do Dhia airson tuiteam Bharsalòna
A ghalla shiùrsaich shlìom, dhiadhiadh,
's tu giùlan tiara Chrìosda,
mun àm seo 'n-uiridh bha thu blianadh
am fuil naoidhean 's nad dhiadhachd.

The English language version is by Christopher Whyte, editor, along with Emma Dymock, of this collection.
I'm assuming that the Pope referred to is Pius xii, later known as Hitler's Pope. Pius xi was on his last legs when Barcelona was taken by Franco and his rebel forces, and died a couple of weeks later.

Another poem, this time translated by the Emma Dymock -

Scotus Erigena
Did you hear the tale
about Scotus Erigena
who spoke out against the Election
for two days, without tiring;
and who also abolished Hell
and Sin with the unfailing vehemence
and subtlety of his argument
before he was forced to fall silent?
Pity a voice like his was not heard
among the flock of seceders.

Scotus Erigena
An cuala sibh an sgeulachd
mun Scotach Erigena
a labhair an aghaidh an Taghaidh
dà latha, gun sgìths air;
's a chuir às do Ifrinn cuideachd
's don Pheacadh aig dìorras
is eagnaighachd a labhairt
mun deach a stad chum sìthe?
Nach bochd nach cualas a leithid
am badaibh nan Sisìdear

I take it that 'Election' refers to predestination.

2011-12-01T19:57:00.006Z

HOW TO BE A TALKING TURD

2011-12-01T15:52:00.014Z

So Shithead apologised - well no, he didn't. He said IF people were offended by his repetition of the Cameron dinner party table talk, he'd be happy to apologise. So he hasn't apologised, has he?
There is, of course, no chance of the BBC's unofficial spokesman on industrial relations getting the push. The ONE Show (one's enough) is live, according to the BBC. Live shows, we all know, go out with a minute or more's delay, in case anyone says anything reprehensible. So the BBC OK'd this incitement to violence.
Later, when asked if the corporation would apologise for offending millions, spokesperson stated that no comment would be made.
Then the manure started to pile up, and a mealy-mouthed semi-apology slithered out.
Let's try to imagine what would have happened if a statement of this nature had been made by a Muslim about Christians or Jews. I believe there's a law against such inflammatory speech.

The talking turd is on a million quid a year, and, as has been pointed out he works in the public sector, i.e., at the BBC. But his job's safe, unlike those of hundreds of thousands of the poorly-paid people he wants to kill.

Addendum (2nd December): I knew it -

But Clarkson told the Times that he had informed the One Show's production team of the details of his joke. A BBC spokeswoman said last night: "Jeremy had a meeting with a One Show producer before appearing, as is standard for all guests. The meeting is to cover the topics that will be discussed and the expectations the show has around issues such as tone and balance, and it was made clear where those boundaries lay."

So, passed for tone and balance by the BBC.

2011-11-30T19:48:00.007Z

Over 5,000 people marched through Hull city centre today to show their opposition to pension theft being perpetrated by the millionaire clique in Whitehall. I believe it was the biggest demonstration in Hull that I've ever taken part in. As we made our way through the streets bystanders applauded us. I don't recall that ever happening before.
Many people were filming and taking photographs. I hope someone filmed the whole march from start to finish, and that they'll post it on the net. I saw one acquaintance with a camera on the roadside, and hoped he was filming, but it seems, looking at his website, that he was only taking photographs.
In the meantime, a short burst from the local paper.

2011-11-29T20:22:00.002Z

I wonder if Malaysia is on Tone's money-spinning lecture tour itinerary.

2011-11-29T20:12:00.001Z

I found this on facebook. Seems appropriate.

2011-11-29T15:56:00.004Z

British companies targeted for investment in Israeli agricultural export companies

2011-11-28T20:20:00.003Z

"The government of Goldman Sachs is getting a grip on one European country after another. On Wednesday we will get a glimpse of an alternative – not on paper or a petition, but when millions stand up for themselves."

2011-11-28T10:30:00.010Z

According to a BBC poll 61 percent of the population support Wednesday's public sector workers' strike. So all the government lies are not working.
A missing figure from this survey is the percentage of the population opposed to the strike. It can't be high, as the BBC tells us that the strongest opposition is among the over-65s, but then tells us that just under half of that group support the strike.
The survey results, which must have come as a disappointment to the BBC, don't get a big splash. Slithy Gove's attack on the unions is higher up the running order. That's the little chap formerly known as 'Red Mike' Gove. The BBC's diffidence won't prevent the "Bolshevik Broadcasting Corporation" tomfoolery being aired by the hominids on the government benches.
The Conservatives are making noises about increasing the restrictions applied to the legally most restricted unions in Europe. Personally I hope they make unions illegal. Then we'll be forced to build working class organisations that cannot get into bed with the class enemy.

Another statistic: people admitted to hospital at the weekend have a ten percent higher chance of dying. This is being blamed on lack of staff on duty.
The government's going to have to come out fighting on this one if it wants the NHS to continue shedding workers and closing down hospitals.
We may soon hear that the research that led to this result is based on out of date figures, and matters have improved markedly.
Or we may be informed that the research was flawed.
Or someone at the Department of Health will declare that these figures are intolerable and action must be taken to bring them down.
Apart from a search for a method of massaging the figures nothing will be done.

2011-11-25T14:32:00.007Z

Conservative MP Richard Ottaway said strikes should be banned unless at least 50% of members voted for them. The prime minister replied: "Just one quarter of Unison members voted to strike, just 23% of those balloted at Unite voted in favour."
Unison and Unite only balloted members who belonged to the affected pensions schemes. Unison had a 30% turnout for its members in local government who voted 75% in favour of a strike and a 25% turnout for its NHS workers, 82% of whom backed strikes.
Unite workers voted 75% in favour of strikes - on a turnout of 31%.
Downing Street aides said the prospect of banning strikes which did not get the backing of at least 50% of a union's members was never "off the table" but added: "We are not at that stage."

Let's see now. General election 2010 - turnout, 65%; Conservative share of the vote, 36%: Percentage of electorate voting for Cameron's Conservatives, 12-. Post-Liberal share of the vote, 23%: percentage of electorate voting for Clegg's clique, 8.5-. Combined percentage of electorate electing (though not voting for) the Con-Dem conspiracy, circa 20%.
Not at the 50%+ stage yet.

2011-11-24T20:12:00.005Z

Every time I've gone to wikipedia recently there's that unshaven, needy face giving me the Evil Eye. I was going to boycott the site for a while until I learned that there's an unobtrusive x in the upper right-hand corner. Press that and the bad screws are gone for good (I pray).
I've been trying to find out how much the randroid Wales is worth. No luck so far, apart from his claim that he's only worth $1 million. Nobody believes him.

While searching for the information I found this site, and learned that I'm the 655,895,612th richest person in the world. This places me in the top 11% globally. Still, Cameron and Osbourne are working on that. Third World, here we come!

2011-11-23T20:13:00.005Z

I've just discovered the works of a lady who goes by the name 'Sedulia Scott' on the internet - very informative. I had to copy these definitions of French nouns (she is only responsible for the English translation) -

* Un gars : a young man
* Une garce : a whore

* Un courtisan : someone close to the king
* Une courtisane : a whore

* Un masseur : a masseur
* Une masseuse : a whore

* Un coureur : a jogger [someone who runs]
* Une coureuse : a whore

* Un rouleur : a cyclist [someone who rolls]
* Une roulure : a whore

* Un professionnel : a top athlete [a professional]
* Une professionnelle : a whore

* Un homme sans moralité : a politician [a man with no morals]
* Une femme sans moralité : a whore

* Un entraîneur : a man who trains a sports team
* Une entraîneuse : a whore

* Un homme à femmes : a ladies' man
* Une femme à hommes : a whore

* Un homme public : a well-known man [a public man]
* Une femme publique : a whore

* Un homme facile : a man easy to live with [an easy man]
* Une femme facile : a whore

* Un homme qui fait le trottoir : a paver [a man who does the sidewalk]
* Une femme qui fait le trottoir : a whore

* Un péripatéticien: a pupil of Aristotle
* Une péripatéticienne: a whore

The mother of Guillaume Apollinaire was described as an 'entraîneuse' when she was thrown out of Monte Carlo. I thought it meant 'hostess'.

Afterthought (24th November): 'coureur' can have a meaning other than 'jogger', which might be considered disapproving. I would consider it at best a euphemism.

After-after: I neglected to add a link. Rectified below.

2011-11-21T19:41:00.007Z

I've had a couple of messages from my cyberstalker, who uses two IP addresses.

Just read your debate with vza on aacs. She destroyed you. Haha Yessss sure, business is evil.....Jemmy, do you have a brain the same size as a rabbit's? Meanwhile he can't explain why capitalism has worked so much better than anything else in building wealth the world over. But damnit, common sense and logical thinking never held much sway for Jemmy Whemmy! LMAO!

As I should have expected you misrepresented, mostly, my post here to vza. Deception being your hallmark, it comes as no surprise. But let me affirm her denunciation. I have always confirmed caitalisms flaws. It has many, some that are hard to stomach, perhaps. But that is just like mother nature. Even at it's worst capitalism is 10000 times better than any other system. As "bad" as you potray capitalism, you have no examples of where your preferred system has produced anything besides misery and decay. Cuba? N korea? The USSR? Pathetic. The tiny country of Sweden, with it's homogeneous populstion and singular culture, is the classic choice of all who defend your philosophy. Tell us, why not implement that system in Hatii and expect wondrous prosperity to ensue?

"Why not implement that system in Haiti ..." Haiti is capitalist country, also a country occupied by capitalism's most enthusiastic missionaries. This fool thinks that any other economic system would make it worse. To borrow from his vocabulary, hahaha. Of course, the fool could fall back on another of his arguments, that he deploys with care - the Haitian people are not white, so it will take them a thousand years (I think that's his usual figure) to attain the standards of the white man.

2011-11-19T15:05:00.007Z

More on the name Emily, and its saintly bearers.
Aemilia (yes there were some), two virgins, both martyred at Lyon (Lugdunum) anno 177. Their joint feast day, 2nd June.

Émilie de Rodat, born 1778 at Druelle near Rodez France. This lady founded an order called the Sisters of the Holy Family, apparently an offshoot of the Ursuline nuns. She died 1852, and was buried at the convent she founded. Feast day, 19th September.

Émilie de Vialar, born Gaillac, near Albi in the Pyrenean Midi, 1797. Founded, 1832, the Order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Apparition (?). Died at Marseille, 1856; canonised 1951. Her feast day, 24th August.

The above was taken from this site.

Emilia Bicheria, reliever of headaches and gout, appears to be this lady, Emilia Bicchieri. Born Vercelli, in the Piemonte region, circa 1238. The obit, 1314, is the same for both Emilias. However this Emilia is only a 'beata', Blessed Emilia, not Saint Emilia, which wouldn't preclude her from effecting those cures; continue your devotions, cephalalgics and hyperuraemics.
This is another nun, and founder of a convent - "Beata Aemilia de Bicheriis de Poenitentia Sancti Dominici, fundatrix monasterii Sanctae Margarethae de Vercellis extra muros." She was beatified in 1769. Who knows? Maybe she's been canonised recently.

2011-11-18T20:01:00.005Z

(Lifted from Uruknet)

"If you miss me at the back of the bus
You can't find me nowhere",
That's because I'm banged up in an Israeli cell.
(Apologies to Pete Seeger)

2011-11-15T14:50:00.006Z

"Is there a neo-con cell of senior ministers and officials, co-ordinating with Israel and the United States, and keeping their designs hidden from the Conservatives' coalition partners?"

We-ell ... neo-con cell, yes. Keeping the Post-Liberals out of the loop, maybe. But why would the Post-Liberal leadership have a problem with zionism or warmongering?
Clegg called the Iraq war illegal. His party, under a different leader, opposed that war. That leader paid the price for breaking ranks with his Privy Council colleagues.
One assumes that Clegg doesn't consider the Libyan adventure illegal, as he was part of the government responsible for that war. Personally I also assume that if Clegg had been party leader before the Iraq invasion and occupation he would not have paused for one minute to question its legality. He is a Conservative in Lib-Dem clothing.

The quote is from "Matthew Gould and the Plot to Attack Iran" by Craig Murray. This is an article that no British newspaper wants to publish.

2011-11-14T16:01:00.004Z

Some thoughts of Professor Richard Falk on blogging and an approaching birthday (the (the internal quotations are from Yeats' poem "The Second Coming") -

"Overall, doing a blog reminds us of the art of amateurship (affirming the French root meaning of ‘lover of’), almost lost in our age caught between the mind of the specialist and the nihilistic effects of various cynical brands of postmodernism. The specialist impact on language exhibited by its impoverishment of the word ‘amateur’ to mean dabbler, or superficial idler who should never be taken seriously, and of the nihilist postmodern success in discrediting all forms of belief in a better tomorrow."

"Yes, ‘the center cannot hold,’ but that might, if true, be welcomed rather than lamented as it is the center that is mainly responsible for ‘the blood-dimmed tide’ that has been ‘loosed upon the world.’ Instead of (re)constructing centers, especially governmental centers, more responsive to our needs and desires, maybe we should think more about revitalizing peripheries or finding ways to dispense with or at least all centers of hard power for a while."

"My most abiding lifelong political commitment is to side emotionally and actively with the underdog in conflict situations without attention to ethnic, religious, and class differences."

"It is strange how we never manage to move much beyond the shadows cast by our parents ...

"I do wish that a year from now the lines from the Yeats poem will seem quaint and obsolescent so far as the surrounding world situation is concerned, and will be replaced in 2012 by a more life-affirming lyric that thanks time’s angel for spreading its joy to the world. Maybe by then we will think about people as much as we now dwell on the perils of the Euro! Of course, happily, life didn’t begin or end for me at 80, and so I can only become 81 in a state of expectant bemusement!"

2011-11-13T16:54:00.013Z

Europe, as viewed from Hopetoun -

The Masters of the Universe are getting anxious about pseudo-democracy. Everything was hunky-dory until the subservient political class, once "intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich", could no longer hold the line. The people are on the streets demanding that their elected "representatives" take control of the economy, start taxing the filthy rich and super-rich, and put a stop to the depredations of the the crooks and privateers.
The politicians are turning to the people they sold their souls to and asking, "What do we do now?"
The crooks, the financiers and bankers, seeing their frontmen wavering, some making sympathetic noises to the masses rising from their knees, turned to their trade union, the IMF.
Now the kleptocrapts' "beards" (the politicians) are being discarded. Time for the experts to take over, govrnments are resigning to be replaced by the so-called technocrats, who turn out to be bankers and financiers. These latter may co-opt some of the more docile representatives of the people to be thrown to the wolves when the sans-culottes bay for blood.
A bloodless coup, one might say, or the end of the puppet show.

Cameron knows what he must do to stay in Downing Street. He may have to increase police numbers instead of cutting them. There are streets to be cleared of riff-raff; banks and finance houses to be defended; scabs to be escorted through picket lines.

Addenda (14th November)
The new Greek Prime Minister - "A former ECB vice president (2002 - 2010), he earlier served as Governor of the Bank of Greece from 1994 - 2002. In 1980, he was Federal Reserve Bank of Boston senior economist. Afterwards, he became Bank of Greece's chief economist.
"Since 1998, he's also been a Rockefeller-controlled Trilateral Commission member."

The new Italian Prime Minister - "Earlier he served as European Commissioner for Internal Market Services, Customs and Taxation. He also chairs the Breugel think tank, is Trilateral Commission European chairman, and leading Bilderberger Group member close to Goldman Sachs."
(Stephen Lendeman)

2011-11-08T19:50:00.005Z

R.I.P. Joe Frazier - maybe now they'll put up that statue.

"Not that most people would know, however. Philadelphia is the birthplace of American independence, yet its biggest tourist draw is probably the Rocky Balboa statue at the foot of the art museum steps. What makes the statue so depressing is that not only is it a tribute to a fictional boxer, but that Sylvester Stallone burgled Joseph William "Smokin' Joe" Frazier's life story for his Rocky movies. It was Frazier who worked in a Philly slaughterhouse, pounding the huge sides of beef in his down-time; it was Frazier who trained by running up those steps; and it was Frazier who went head-to-head with Muhammad Ali in the 1970s in a trilogy of fights now known as the pyramids of boxing."

(John Dower)

2011-11-08T19:37:00.009Z

"City of London shame on you."

Film of IWW cleaners' protest on BBC website.

2011-11-07T20:40:00.004Z

Cameron's al-qa'ida allies

2011-11-07T15:15:00.003Z

"Remembrance Day is not long off and the period of poppy wearing will start in a few weeks. It is normal for the BBC to agree dates between which, for those wishing to do so, poppies may be worn on screen.
"This year, David Jordan (Director, Editorial Policy and Standards) suggests that poppies may be worn on screen from 06.00 am on Saturday 29th October to 23.59 on Sunday 13th November - Remembrance Sunday."
(from the BBC's Director of Editorial Policy and Standards)

So now we know, poppy wearing is "for those wishing to wear them". Now the BBC is going to have to designate a token non-poppy wearer, in order to garner some credibility for this line.

2011-11-04T20:02:00.001Z

2011-11-01T20:28:00.012Z

A more legible version here.

Reminiscent of Wu Ming's declaration -
"They say that they are new, they christen themselves by acronyms: G8, IMF, WB, WTO, NAFTA, FTAA… They cannot fool us, they are the same as those who have come before them: the écorcheurs that plundered our villages, the oligarchs that reconquered Florence, the court of Emperor Sigismund that beguiled Ian Hus, the diet of Tuebingen that obeyed Ulrich and refused to admit Poor Konrad, the princes that sent the lansquenets to Frankenhausen, the impious that roasted Dozsa, the landlords that tormented the Diggers, the autocrats that defeated Pugachev, the government whom Byron cursed, the old world that stopped our assaults and destroyed all stairways to heaven.
"Nowadays they have a new empire, they impose new servitudes on the whole globe, they still play the lords and masters of the land and the sea.
Once again, we the multitudes rise up against them."

2011-11-01T14:19:00.009Z

"Historian" Sebag-Montefiore, at it again -
"Montefiore reminds us, Yasir Arafat 'shocked the Americans and the Israelis when he insisted that Jerusalem had never been the site of the Jewish Temple.' He also forbade Palestinian historians to mention the fact."

No he didn't -
"Who on earth believes that Arafat--as much as I detest him--has ever forbade Palestinian historians from writing on anything, and who but an idiot would believe that Palestinian historian would ever take orders from Yasser Arafat. Imagine if Anis Sayigh, for example, received an order from Arafat along that line. But this reveals the extent to which those Zionists are so ignorant of the nature of Palestinian society and of the political dynamics of the PLO. Arafat never ever had the power to forbid any Palestinian academic from saying or doing anything."
(Angry Arab)

2011-10-31T20:06:00.005Z

Admirers of Gadhafi - Cameron's allies decree that they must die.

" I have met these people while on mission in Tripoli. I talked with some of them. Contrary to what the media and the rebels proclaimed, they were in no way ' mercenaries '. Some were black skinned Libyans - as a matter of fact, a major part of the population in Libya is composed of Black African people - the others were civilians who came from sub-Saharan African countries and who had been living in Libya for a long time. They all supported Gaddafi for the very reason that he opposed racism and treated Arabs and Africans as equals. Unlike the « rebels » of Benghazi, who are well-known for their anti-Black racism and who made themselves guilty of dreadful and systematic atrocities from the very first days of the war. What is paradoxical is that NATO says it wants to bring democracy but allies itself with a Libyan branch of Al Qaeda and with a group of KKK-like racists ! "

2011-10-30T21:42:00.003Z

Emily, a name I'm going to have to get used to, as it's the name of my latest grandchild, born 48 hours ago.
All I knew about the name is that it comes from the name of a Roman clan, the Gens Aemilia. I don't understand how this type of name enters the modern European name store, Claudia, Julia, etc. Unless it's the name of some early Christian martyr.
I searched the net for a Saint Aemilia - no dice. Santa Emilia - nope; Sainte Émilie? I drew a pair, Émilie de Rodat, and Émilie de Vialar. So that's OK, part of the Frankish tradition, a name recognised by the universal church. Strange how reactionary an old heathen can be with regard to some things, in my case given names.
I'm not keen on Germanic names, Old Testament names, or surnames as forenames. Surnames as middle names pass muster, a common Scottish custom. My Old Man had a belter of a middle name , which he hated, partly because some people thought he had a double-barrelled name and addressed him accordingly. Highly embarrassing for a staunch proletarian.
Later searches have turned up a Saint Emilia Bicheria (d.1314) who, it seems, will come to the aid of sufferers from gout or headaches (Michael Gibson, "Saints of Patronage and Invocation", 1982). I've also learned that Emily was the third commonest girl's name been handed out by parents last year; so nothing adventurous for my progeny.

2011-10-30T21:19:00.004Z

I note that this year's poppy crop is as abundant as ever at the BBC. I continue to scan my the TV screen in hope of seeing someone in a BBC studio not wearing a poppy. It's as if reporters, newsreaders, interviewers, guests, had given up their freedom to choose in return for the monetary favours of the voice of the Establishment.
I expect that I'll see Nick Robinson on screen sans trousers before I see him sans poppy.

2011-10-25T14:38:00.007+01:00

"Let me say this to my readers: the NATO intervention in Libya will bring you a Bin Ladenite republic the likes of which we have not seen since the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan. A monster is about to be born there. And some of those armed factions will be engaging in a war against Western targets. I have seen this movie before."

Is the Professor exaggerating? Nothing is settled in Natostan except that the Europeans are back in charge of oil production and distribution (i.e., to Europe). On the BBC News channel this morning the question that was skirted round but was almost expressed was, "When does the bloodbath start?" For black-skinned Fezzanis and other 'abid', it has started already.
If and when the power struggle develops into civil war Cameron-Sarkozy-Merkel will shrug their shoulders and say "Tut-tut, but none of our business." As long as the oil keeps flowing, that is. Oil is the ace all the factions will want to hold.
The IMF will turn up and demand that the welfare system Gadhafi introduced be dismantled and the privateers be allowed to gorge themselves on the remains.
During the rising that western media insist on calling a revolution* the only slogan I heard from the fighters was "allahu akbar". I don't recall hearing any reference from the rebels to freedom, democracy, human rights. So maybe a theocracy is on the cards. Allah rules, through his venal, shifty representatives on earth.
Then there's the ubiquitous flag. The Natostanis have more flags than the Yanks, and that's going some. It is the flag of the Sanusi monarchy, another pseudo-theocratic mob. Are they going to make a comeback? Maybe in an alliance with those oxymoronic 'Wahhabi moderates'.
So, whatever bullshit we hear from Cameron and Mme. Clinton, no democracy, no human rights. Probably a rigged election which UN observers will find to be 'flawed', but somehow acceptable.
Like the professor we've all seen this movie before. Some of us may be old enough to remember the version featuring the arch-villain, Mossadegh; or the one in which Iraq was saved from the red menace by the more acceptable Baath party "riding to power on the CIA train". That's the Baath Party of Saddam Hussein and Bashshar al-Asad.
"History repeats itself , first as tragedy, then as farce." (K. Marx) History is one long tragedy for the wretched of the earth (J. Hope)

*Perhaps in the sense that a revolution means a 360 degree turn with everything ending up in the same place.

2011-10-21T16:18:00.002+01:00

All hail the freedom fighters of Natostan, allies of Cameron, Hague, and Liam Fox.

The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: Qadhdhafi's last minutes: This is a clearer video . I was thinking: if he was a Gulf potentate being tortured to death, I could have seen Arab liberals and Western ...

2011-10-20T20:30:00.005+01:00

New to me -
"ricky gervais", meaning a person who shares the language of people who bully the disabled, while denying any intention of encouraging the bullies.

More loosely, a sick gobshite.

2011-10-18T14:51:00.006+01:00

I won't be at this important event, but I wish them every success. Someone has to take on the welfare bullies, they're getting away with murder (well, manslaughter) at the moment.

Hi there,

Really hope you might be able to make it to the Defend Welfare Gathering
on Sunday 23rd October in London. It should be a great chance to share
information, meet in person and strategise together.

There’ll be workshops on the Boycott Workfare campaign, Stopping Atos &
the work capability assessment, Cuts to Housing and Human Rights, Data and
Privacy. The afternoon will be an open space session where everyone
present sets the agenda.

Please let us know if you can make it, or would like to feed in ideas for
the day! We’ll send round an update afterwards!

Here’s the details:

>>>> Please forward to lists and friends, post on blogs, etc >>>>

Defend Welfare Gathering
Sunday 23rd October, 11am-5pm
Somers Town Community Centre, 150 Ossulston Street, London, NW1 1EE
(5 minutes walk from Euston, St Pancras and Kings Cross stations)
Wheelchair accessible

Join us for a meeting with like-minded people to share ideas and
strategise to stop the government's attacks on welfare.

Welfare is being systematically attacked:
• Unemployed people are being forced to work without pay.
• Disabled people are being deprived of their entitlement to benefits
through the devastating Work Capability Assessment process.
• People can now be left destitute for up to two years through benefit
sanctions.
• The right to housing is under attack: Housing benefit cuts are set to
make thousands homeless. The right-wing called for evictions in response
to the riots, even before courts had found people guilty.
• Private companies stand to make millions through bullying claimants on
the Work Programme.
• Legal aid cuts make it harder to challenge bad treatment.
• The only benefit that was available to people under 18 – EMA – has been
abolished by this government.
• Single mothers are being forced to be job-seekers when their children
are at an even younger age.
• Asylum seekers are forced to survive on incomes far below benefit
levels, which are already set at subsistence level.
• The full impact that the Universal Credit will have is yet to be
understood.

But people across the UK are organising to defend welfare. The Boycott
Workfare campaign recently forced the “Making Work Pay” conference to
relocate at short notice. Atos, the private company responsible for
depriving hundreds of thousands of people of sickness benefits, has had
many of its offices occupied, costing it thousands of pounds. Claimants
are sharing information on how to challenge the bullying and
discrimination that is rife in the new set-up.

This gathering is open to everyone who wants to take action to defend
welfare. We are a claimant-led network - our response to welfare reforms
is led by people who feel their effects the most – but the attacks on
welfare will affect us all whether we are in work or may need welfare as
parents, if we become unemployed, due to sickness or disability, or as
pensioners.
We plan to run the day with lots of discussion and chances to share ideas
and information in workshops and an open space session where we can set
the agenda on the day. If you can offer a workshop or would like to
propose something for the agenda, please get in touch.

Please help make the day happen!

• Let us know you can make it!
• The network does not have any funding, so if your group or union branch
can make a contribution to the costs of the room or participants' travel,
please help raise funds for it. Groups and individuals may want to
approach union branches or organise fundraisers to raise funds for your
travel.
• Let us know if you can help with food, childcare or facilitation on the
day.
• Forward this invite to anyone else you know who might be interested,
post it on your blog or social media; mention it at meetings, and help
spread the word!

Here’s the agenda for the day:
11am Tea & Coffee
11.15am Introductions and who else is here?
11.35am Workshops from Boycott Workfare & The Anti-Atos Campaign
12.35-1.15pm Lunch – get open space agenda ideas
1.15pm Workshop on Attacks on Housing & Human Rights, Data and Privacy
2.15pm Feedback from workshops
2.30pm Quick break – set open space agenda
2.45pm Open Space Discussions – participants set the agenda and run
parallel discussions (can get tea and coffee throughout as no more breaks
3.45pm Feedback
4pm Next steps
5pm Finish

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=258554577519629

Hope to see you there.

2011-10-17T14:49:00.003+01:00

Sorry! I couldn't resist it. Cloned from Larry Gambone's blog.

2011-10-14T20:18:00.008+01:00

Will he be released in the prisoner exchange? Probably not. Salah has been moved to a new prison and his whereabouts are now known only to his captors.

2011-10-12T20:02:00.005+01:00

HARK THE UNION ANGELS SING!

Tapping into the energy surrounding November 30th and supporting a Xmas No 1 would expose trade unionism to millions of new people . . . but why stop there?
(by Donnacha DeLong - 24th September 2011)

The now annual fight between the X-Factor winner and people with taste for the Christmas No.1 spot in the UK charts was something of a damp squib last year.
Following the first failed mobilisation in 2008 (the battle of the Hallelujahs) and the glorious RATM victory in 2009, the uncoordinated multiple attempts last year failed badly.
So, I’d like to suggest something different for Christmas 2011 – how about some solidarity? The end of this year will either mark a period of victory for the trade union movement in the UK after the N30 day of action, or will be a period for reflection and rebuilding as we enter further battles in 2012. More than that, 2012 will mark the centenary of the highpoint of the Great Unrest, a period of radical trade union action in the UK that lasted from 1910 to 1914.
If there’s one song that best mobilises and celebrates the potential power of the trade union movement, it’s got to be the Wobbly anthem Solidarity Forever.
Imagine a new version of Solidarity Forever, bringing together a range of musicians and singers who want change and support solidarity amongst all working people. Imagine a version of this great song recorded like the BBC reworked Perfect Day a few years ago.
Like the idea? Well, I’m just a mere writer – I don’t own a label, or a recording studio or anything else that would be necessary to put this together. I’m just putting the idea out there, if you’re interested in getting involved, let’s see if we can pull people together and make it happen.
If you think this isn’t ambitious enough, how about following it with an album of radical trade union songs performed by contemporary artists? Selections from the IWW Little Red Songbook along with other songs from around the world, including the tribute to the executed writer of many of the Wobbly songs, Joe Hill, the CNT’s A Las Barricadas, Patrick Galvin’s James Connolly and many, many more.
It’s time for trade unions to celebrate our history and remind people how much our predecessors and forefathers achieved in their time. Without the radical unions of 100 years ago, we wouldn’t have weekends!
Aiming for the Christmas No. 1 is a chance to get a bit of publicity in an area where we’re normally absent – on radio, on iTunes, in the music press. Alongside the strikes and the battles with government, let’s get our songs out there as well and maybe encourage more people to get involved and join a union.
If you want to get involved, particularly if you know any musicians who might be interested, check out the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Solidarity-for-Christmas/190253847706342
or comment on the original blog post
http://donnachadelong.info/2011/04/13/solidarity-for-christmas/

(Cloned from Union News)

2011-10-12T10:44:00.006+01:00

Amitiés Particulières

There is a proverb I've been trying to remember, something like - Though the fox is cunning you can always buy its coat. Something along those lines.
"I'm sorry I broke the law, now let's move on." If only all lawbreakers could enter that plea; no overcrowded prisons, no backlog of cases to come to trial. I wonder what the Adam Smith Institute and the Taxdodgers Alliance think.
Teresa May should commission a report.

2011-10-10T14:49:00.003+01:00

From the Angry Arab -

The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: Hitchens: In my first decade in the US, in the 1980s, Christopher Hitchens was a leftist anti-Zionist writer. The mainstream press strictly ignored...

2011-10-09T21:30:00.004+01:00

2011-10-09T20:49:00.003+01:00

Paintings by Alasdair Gray, who I have adopted as my painter in absence.

2011-10-08T16:29:00.005+01:00

PUBLIC MEETING

2011-10-07T19:56:00.011+01:00

Yesterday was National Poetry Day; late again.

I was browsing in a bookshop today and picked up a book of poetry, by Seán O'Brien. £12.99 for the proverbial slim volume, no danger of my acquiring a copy. I'll look for it in the library.
One of the poems listed was called 'Cahiers du cinéma', a phrase of some weight to one with a predilection for the Nouvelle Vague of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
In fact the poem was about afternoons spent at the cinema in younger days. As Professor O'Brien's boyhood and youth were spent in Hull ( I knew his dad, we didn't get on), references to the city are sometimes found in his work, and so it was in this case. A mention of the Criterion picture house, 'Cri', in this case.

"Above the gulfs and Thrones and Dominations of the grim Criterion
I wondered at the vast occluded system of the secondary stars,"

also

"Arriving in the middle I could always leave when I came in,
Collapsing time into the image of an arrow shower
Curving out of sight, as in The Charge at Feather River –
Modernism, yes, but this was Hull: no 3-D specs for us."

Yep, nothing but the second best for us second-class citizens.

The whole poem is here on the net, the source of these quoted lines.

2011-10-07T14:12:00.003+01:00

Pete Paphides writes on Bert Jansch in the Guardian 'Film and Music' section, with a video of the Pentangle's "Light Flight" thrown in -

"The Scottish folk singer Archie Fisher said it took him two lessons to teach Bert everything he knew. It would have taken one, but on the first lesson they went out and got drunk."

2011-10-05T16:17:00.005+01:00

Sad, sad news, the death of Bert Jansch.
He has been ill for some time but still the blow falls hard upon an admirer, particularly one who's older than his 67 years.
Now there remains only one of the "Three Kings", Davy Graham having passed away a couple of years ago. The accompanying video features Davy's "Angie", as played by Bert on his first, eponymous, album.

"... and yet he will continue to be, without doubt, the legendary Bert Jansch." (Colin Harper, "Dazzling Stranger")

2011-10-03T14:24:00.007+01:00

"Libya's new rulers have named a new Cabinet, AP reports"
(from today's Guardian)
When was the election? I missed the news reports.

Demos - 'people', krateia - 'rule, government'; some people are governing Natostan, let's call it democracy.

2011-10-02T15:08:00.004+01:00

I don't know the provenance of this artwork. I came across it on facebook.

2011-09-27T20:42:00.004+01:00

Reading through a book of Gaelic proverbs* I took a liking to these two -

A' chuiseag a dh'fhàsas anns an otrach 's i as àirde a thogas a ceann.
"The weed that grows on the dunghill lifts its head the highest."
(I know them, I know them.)

Is sona iadsann a chumas o lagh is o léigh.
"Happy are they who have no dealings with lawyers and doctors."

An old favourite of mine is Is cliùtach an onair no 'n t-òr.
"Honour is more commendable than gold."
(The poor man's consolation)

"Gaelic Proverbs", Babi Nic Leòid.

2011-09-22T19:46:00.008+01:00

I did not believe what I heard, it sounded as if the Palestinians were occupying Israel. There was no empathy for the Palestinians, he only spoke of the Israeli problems.
He told us that it isn’t easy to achieve peace, thanks, we know this. He spoke about universal rights – Good, those same rights apply to Palestinians.
[The Americans] are applying enormous pressure on everybody at the UN, they are using threats and coercion. I wish they would invest the same energy in an attempt to promote peace, not threats.

(Hanan Ashrawi, lifted from Angry Arab2)

2011-09-20T20:38:00.004+01:00

"What I will not do is provide cover for the ideological descendants of those who sent children up chimneys". (Chris Huhne)
Well, not during conference week anyway.

2011-09-20T20:12:00.009+01:00

How the impartial BBC gathers "news" on Israel/Palestine -

Bicom is the British Israel Communications and Research Centre.
Sophie Long, whoever she is, must be in line for promotion.

(via Jews sans frontieres)

2011-09-18T21:45:00.003+01:00

Questions:
Who owns the Gleision mine?
Where is the management?
Has there been a statement about the deaths from either board or management?
If there has, I haven't seen or heard it.

2011-09-15T19:58:00.003+01:00

<<¡Permanece la escucha!>>

Interview with Manu Chao (audio), plus videos.