I am now the unwilling possessor of a new upgraded blog. I am getting sick of these bastards messing me about, and am seriously considering transferring the lot over to wordpress. A couple of weeks ago I got a message as I logged in that I'd better hand over my mobile phone number or I might not be able to access my blog in the near future. Who says I own a mobile phone? Another time I went to delete a link to a blog I thought was no longer operative and was asked for all kinds of personal information before I would be permitted to perform this simple task. They can kiss my left buttock. I'm going to find an alternative to this parcel of snoops, data farmers and busybodies. If I lose all previous postings, tough. I don't suppose there's anything recorded here that hasn't been written by someone else at some time or other, and in better prose. The search is on.

28th March 1812: West Riding manufacturers turn their Mills into fortresses following warnings

NEW TO ME (No.16)

Mazy - "Sone Aluko opened the scoring after a mazy, 10th-minute run into the box" (BBC Sport). I looked it up, the word exists. It means something like "confusing, perplexing", though I suspect that a slightly different meaning; Young Sone was trying to find a way through the maze of the defence.

Another word I've just picked up, slang this time - jam roll, 'a Pole'. This is rhyming slang, and, as its a straightforward rhyme on the accepted name, it strikes me as inoffensive. Other terms, e.g., ship's rigger, tiddly-wink, are rhymes on offensive terms, and can only be taken as offensive in themselves.

I read a couple of verses of this song on FW Viola Wilkins' facebook wall, and had to chase it up. Iris Dement was just a name to me. I thought she was in a punk band and her surname was a shortened version of demented.
There is a video on youtube of Ms. Dement singing the song, but it's not a good one, and the crowd does a lot of yawping and gaping, which annoys - "whooping like out-of-work cowboys", as an old mate used to put it.

LIVING IN THE WASTELAND OF THE FREE

We got preachers dealing in politics and diamond mines
And their speech is growing increasingly unkind
They say they are Christ's disciples
But they don't look like Jesus to me
And it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free

We got politicians running races on corporate cash
Now don't tell me they don't turn around and kiss them peoples' ass
You may call me old-fashioned
But that don't fit my picture of a true democracy
And it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free

We got CEO's making two hundred times the workers' pay
But they'll fight like hell against raising the minimum wage
And If you don't like it, mister, they'll ship your job
To some third-world country 'cross the sea
And it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free

Living in the wasteland of the free
Where the poor have now become the enemy
Let's blame our troubles on the weak ones
Sounds like some kind of Hitler remedy
Living in the wasteland of the free

We got little kids with guns fighting inner city wars
So what do we do, we put these little kids behind prison doors
And we call ourselves the advanced civilization
That sounds like crap to me
And it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free

We got high-school kids running 'round in Calvin Klein and Guess
Who cannot pass a sixth-grade reading test
But if you ask them, they can tell you
The name of every crotch on MTV
And it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free

We kill for oil, then we throw a party when we win
Some guy refuses to fight, and we call that the sin
But he's standing up for what he believes in
And that seems pretty damned American to me
And it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free

Living in the wasteland of the free
Where the poor have now become the enemy
Let's blame our troubles on the weak ones
Sounds like some kind of Hitler remedy
Living in the wasteland of the free

While we sit gloating in our greatness
Justice is sinking to the bottom of the sea
Living in the wasteland of the free
Living in the wasteland of the free
Living in the wasteland of the free

"We don't care if we win, lose or draw ..." (old song)

Among the winners in Smirks Osborne's true-blue budget, one George Osborne PC. That's if he pays income tax, which is in doubt. Cameron too is better off, by £3,000 on his declared income ("Aides were said to be 'deeply concerned'by how Mr. Cameron's tax affairs will look to the public"). Mrs. Cameron is thought to be better off by c.£2,500. "Berkeley" Hunt, president of the Conservative Friends of Rupert Murdoch, is also a winner.
Let's cut to the chase - a cabinet containing 22 millionaires, any of them bothering to pay income tax is a few thou up.
To quote the catchphrase of one spewsome Tory bitch, "SURPRISE, SURPRISE!"

Now for a quote from Polly Toynbee in today's Guardian; "Labour says of 400 people earning £10m, only 16% pay any tax at all."

ASSIGNATION
(Maurice Rutherford)

It's not, dear Death, that I'm afraid to meet
you yet, but rather that I'd like to be
prepared, you know, leave nothing incomplete,
have time to dot my 'i's, to cross each 't'
and tidy up my final manuscript -
(the sneaking thought occurs that I might then
make late amendments, even have it ripped
to shreds, have time to write it all again).
It's not that I'm afraid of you at all,
no, just that all the deaths I've known have left
so much unsaid, unchronicled, the small
important things; and guilt in those bereft.
I do not ask you to defer my day
but Death, do send me first your e.t.a.

My big problem with "shaking a double-six" as older workmates used to call it, is lacking life insurance. My missus and sons will be left with a bill for the obsequies. Some legacy!
Anyway it's the hospital for me in the morning. If all goes well I'll be released back into the wild after three days. Otherwise, anybody's guess. Last time I was having my innards sorted out it didn't go too well - complications. So I'm not looking forward to this lot. Anyone who says what doesn't kill you leaves you stronger is full of shit (verbum sap.)

Maurice Rutherford is a local poet, knocking on, so illness, death, and reflections on soldiering in World War II, feature in his work. But there's a lot more, including the kind of local references dear to my heart. Here's a couple of lines about his childhood, hearing the place names that stirred his curiosity -

... I heard the names of magic places
beyond the garden gate - Bowlalley Lane, Springhead
Little Switzerland, Land of Green Ginger, Wincolmlee.

(later, same poem)

... White City, Swanland, Rotenhering Staithe,
Sammy's Point and Argyle Street Bridge, Gloucester Street.

SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE? 16 dead in Afghanistan murdered by a lone U.S. solider. The talking heads of the ruling class cry crocodile tears in proclaiming that this was just an isolated case, and not a reflection on what America is. Nor were the other murders by a few “bad apples” in Afghanistan and Iraq? Nor is the rise of family murders by soldiers? Nor is the American culture of violence seen throughout the U.S.? So how about the fact the the U.S. military has killed more innocent people in Afghanistan and Iraq than those the U.S. went to war against because they were murdering tyrants? How about the Moro Crater Massacre (Philippines), No Gun Ri Massacre (South Korea), My Lai Massacre (Vietnam), to name just a few Massacres of the innocent in U.S. wars? How about the genocide of the Native people in the land of America? The Washitam Massacre, the Bear River Massacre, the Sand Creek Massacre, the Wounded Knee Massacre, the Pine Ridge Reign of Terror, to name a few? Or the shooting down of working people, the Ludlow Massacre, the Lattimer Massacre, the Memorial Day Massacre, to name a few? How about the kidnapping of Black people for slavery, how many dead in that crime? How about the long list of lynchings of Black people, Native people, Chicano people, labor activists, remember Frank Little and Wesley Everest? Or the murder of Asian people throughout the west? Or the gunning down of students, the Orangeburg Massacre, the Jackson State Massacre, and the Kent State Massacre? Or the near endless list of cop killings of innocent people, remember John T. Williams, Bobby Hutton, Fred Hampton, and Joe Stuntz Killsright to name a few? How many innocent people have died by those trained at U.S. run School of Assassins? Are they all just isolated cases?

FW Arthur J. Miller, Tacoma IWW, Washington, USA

For Patrick's Day, some opinions of the Irish. One or two probably tell us more about the author than the subject. I posted similar quotations about the Scots one New Year's Eve and intended to do the same for the Irish, until I noticed that too many were about the Irish interest in genealogy, a product of the clan system. English officials, desiring the destruction of the Gaelic order and the adoption of feudal relationships, continually complained about, or sneered at, this custom. I've cut down on the genealogically oriented moaning, and boosted the vituperation level.

Scotus est, piper in naso.
Could have been of the Scots or the Irish, as I opined before. "No sooner a word than a blow", as the saying goes.

All the Irishe almoste, boste them selves to bee gentlemen ... for yf he can deryve him self from the heade of a septe, as most of them can ... then he holdeth him self a gentleman.
(Edmund Spenser, 1596?)

The people in general are great admirers of their pedigrees, and have got their genealogy so exactly learnt that though it would be two hours work for them to repeat the names only from whence they are lineally descended, yet, will they not omit one word in half a dozen several repetitions.
(Richard Head, "The Western Wonder", 1674)

... the Irish are all gentlemen, tho beggars and vagabonds, if they be of a name that has ever a gentleman of it.
(John Dunton, "The Dublin Scuffle", 1699)

Sometimes I addressed myself to certain Hibernian strangers who asked no better; and you should have seen us argue! ... We might have been taken for madmen rather than for philosophers. (Alain-René LeSage, "Gil Blas of Santillana" published serially 1715-1735))
The Irish exiled in mainland Europe were by repute as disputatious as the Scots. The notes to my English translation of LeSage's novel refer to an observation by his contemporary, Montesquieu, the the Irish have " ... a talent for argument that is to be reckoned with."

The Irish are not in a conspiracy to cheat the world by false representation of the merits of their countrymen. No, sir, the Irish are a fair people; they never speak well of one another. (Samuel Johnson, 1775)
Another gobshite.

He is a foreigner, he is Irish; republicanism does not penetrate such skulls.
(Dictionary of National Biography, first edition)
The reason given by the French convention commissaries for rejecting General Charles Kilmaine for a command-in-chief, though they described him as "brave, active and dashing".
Wrong!

The uncivilised Irishman ... abides in his squalor and unreason,in his falsity, and drunken violence, as the ready made nucleus of degradation and disorder.
(Thomas Carlyle, 1839)
Carlyle really was an old shit.

Torpid and degraded pariahs
(W.E.H.Lecky, C.1892)
The Irish peasantry, historically.

The great Gaels of Ireland
Are men that God made mad'
For all their wars are merry
And all their songs are sad.
(G.K.Chesterton, The ballad of the White Horse" 19??)
Poetic licnce, nobody's wars are merry.

Charming, soft-voiced, quarrelsome, priest-ridden, feckless and happily devoid of the slightest integrity in our stodgy English sense of the word.
(Noel Coward, 1960)
"The times they are a-changing."

A suggestion worthy of consideration -
"Calling anyone (without real cause) an anti semite should be labeled a 'hate crime'."
The comment follows this article. The writer is American, as is his spelling.

Last week, the BBC published an article by Defence Correspondent Jonathan Marcus under the title, ‘How Israel might strike at Iran’ (Subsequently altered to, 'How Iran might respond to Israeli attack').
Like a tourist guide, the piece listed Israeli aircraft under the banner ‘Getting There – Aircraft, Details, Task’ and identified ‘Potential targets’...

Returning to the BBC analysis, the ‘Task’ for each Israeli weapon system was described. However, when it came to Iranian defences, instead of ‘Task’, Marcus used the word ‘Threat’, thus presenting the imagined conflict from an Israeli perspective. Of course the Iranians might well perceive Israeli ‘Tasks’ as ‘Threats’. The media monitoring website News Unspun noted the biased language, complaints followed, and the BBC changed ‘Threat’ to ‘Efficacy’.
(Medialens, March 6, 2012)

TOLERABLE SAVAGERY
Western governments never expressed sympathy for the Syrian people: as victims of the Assad regime and as victims of Israeli occupation and brutality. Yet, Western governments were quick to call for arming the Syrian people only months after the uprising began.
The Palestinians, however, have never been treated with such permissiveness. No matter how much massive violence is inflicted on them, and no matter how many massacres they suffer, Western governments insist that the Palestinian people (and any other people living under Israeli occupation) have no right to resort to arms to liberate their lands and to “protect their civilians.” The last phrase is now the convenient Orwellian expression that allows NATO to bomb civilians in the name of protecting civilians. Protecting civilians is the new UN mandate for a select few (formerly colonialist) countries to rule over and determine the destiny of some countries that are not in the US camp. Saudi, Bahraini, and Jordanian civilians don’t enter into this formula, of course.
(via AACS)

RAMALLAH, March 12, 2012 (PIC)-- Palestinian captive Hana’ al-Shalabi who has been on hunger strike over the past 26 days is suffering a serious deterioration to her health according Physicians for Human Rights.

"The Labour leader had been set to give a speech to healthcare workers and union members in Hull on Saturday lunchtime, however he called off the appearance a day earlier.
"However, he was seen in the crowd at the football match at the KC Stadium, pictured with Hull City chairman Assem Allam".

Millionaire businessman 1, healthcare workers 0.
New Labourites never die, they only hide their true colours.

HANA SHALABI: A BRAVE ACT OF PALESTINIAN NONVIOLENCE

( by FW Flo, 10 Mar 2012)
IWW Cleaners and Allied Trades, London - Dear friends, compañeros, on the 5th March 2012, after a long and high profile campaign, the IWW secured yet another victory for our cleaner members employed at Exchange Tower who will now be paid the London Living Wage of £8.30 per hour.
For ten years many members have been earning poverty wages on the minimum wage. The arrival of the IWW immediately set about changing this situation launching a campaign for the London Living Wage, this saw widespread publicity, a motion in Parliament, our members stood firm in the face of the intimidation of the management company Cashmens who also managed Heron Tower.
On March 8th IWW in Frankfurt and industrial unionists in Warsaw and Tokyo were planning solidarity demonstrations at the offices of the MGPA owners of Exchange Tower.
However, the employers have finally conceded to the overwhelming and just demands of the workers.
Some of the traditional unions at Canary Wharf have abandoned the cleaners - full-time officials declared 'you need to keep your head down in a recession'. The IWW has continued to fight, organising the unorganised, the abandoned and the betrayed.
At Reuters nearby IWW is engaged in another campaign for the London Living Wage and for the removal of a gang of a feral managers intimidating cleaners. The gains at Exchange Tower send a clear message that solidarity wins justice in the workplace!

Thank you to all our members and supporters!
An Injury to One is an Injury to ALL! Solidarity Forever!

Europe is not for sale
This was the audience that greeted the German Finance Minister at his blame game lecture in Florence.
(via AACS)

feminism ain't about women
that's not who it is for
It's about a shift in consciousness
that will bring an end to war
so listen up you fathers
listen up you sons
and tell me which side are you on now
which side are you on?

A verse from Ms Ani DiFranco's latest offering, in recognition of International Women's Day.

From the same song -

lord knows the free market
is anything but free
it costs dearly to the planet
and the likes of you and me

I don't need no money lenders
suckin on my tit!
a little socialism
don't scare me one bit!

(lifted from Andy Funnell's blog on Unionbook)

"Following a report yesterday in The Observer the Labour MP John McDonnell has called for a parliamentary investigation into claims that police and the UK security services assisted in the compilation of an illegal blacklist of trade unionists and safety campaigners, who were denied work and have endured long term unemployment due to the blacklist operated by the Consulting Association."

Does anyone know how often 'President' Obama has to address AIPAC? It seems to me he has to renew his Israel First credentials every month. Maybe he gets a handout every time he grovels to the assembled moneybags.
I note that he's also made obeisance to the real President of the US, Netanyahu. How often does he have to lick those jackboots?

OH DEAR! Cameron's allies are getting out of hand. Let's just call them, bad apples, Dave, and get on with pumping the oil.

"They're not Salafists, they're very naughty boys." (Dave "Python" Cameron)

"All the arguments that are invoked by Western commentators in favor of arming the Syrian opposition can--nay should--be applied to the case of Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation. I can't wait for the next Western person to lecture to Palestinians about the virtues of non-violence." (Angry Arab)

Speaking of hypocrisy, I note that our Prime Minister (who other national leaders seem to regard as something of a joke) has had harsh words to say to the Syrian government over its violent and repressive treatment of protestors. On the sickening events taking place in the former Libya he remains silent. If he cares at all I suppose the behaviour of his protegés is something he'd rather not acknowledge.

Ten Reasons Why the Israel Lobby AIPAC is So Dangerous
by Medea Benjamin / February 28th, 2012

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is one of the most powerful lobby organizations in the country. AIPAC’s clout helps fuel a never-ending cycle of violence in the Middle East.
Here are ten reasons why AIPAC is so dangerous.

1. AIPAC is lobbying Congress to promote a military confrontation with Iran. AIPAC – like the Israeli government – is demanding that the U.S. attack Iran militarily to prevent Iran from having the technological capacity to produce nuclear weapons, even though U.S. officials say Iran isn’t trying to build a weapon (and even though Israel has hundreds of undeclared nuclear weapons). AIPAC has successfully lobbied the U.S. government to adopt crippling economic sanctions on Iran, including trying to cut off Iran’s oil exports, despite the fact that these sanctions raise the price of gas and threaten the U.S. economy.

2. AIPAC promotes Israeli policies that are in direct opposition to international law. These include the establishment of colonies (settlements) in the Occupied West Bank and the confiscation of Palestinian land in its construction of the 26-foot high concrete “separation barrier” running through the West Bank. The support of these illegal practices makes to impossible to achieve a solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict.

3. AIPAC’s call for unconditional support for the Israeli government threatens our national security. The United States’ one-sided support of Israel, demanded by AIPAC, has significantly increased anti-American sentiment throughout the Middle East, thus endangering our troops and sowing the seeds of more possible terrorist attacks against us. Gen. David Petraeus on March 16, 2010 admitted that the U.S./Palestine conflict “foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel.” He also said that “Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples in the [region] and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda and other militant groups exploit that anger to mobilize support.”

4. AIPAC undermines American support for democracy movements in the Arab world. AIPAC looks at the entire Arab world through the lens of Israeli government interests, not the democratic aspirations of the Arab people. It has therefore supported corrupt, repressive regimes that are friendly to the Israeli government, such as Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. Events now unfolding in the Middle East should convince U.S. policy-makers of the need to break from AIPAC’s grip and instead support democratic forces in the Arab world.

5. AIPAC makes the U.S. a pariah at the UN. AIPAC describes the UN as a body hostile to the State of Israel and has pressured the U.S. government to oppose resolutions calling Israel to account. Since 1972, the US has vetoed 44 UN Security Council resolutions condemning Israel’s actions against the Palestinians. President Obama continues that policy. Under Obama, the US vetoed UN censure of the savage Israeli assault on Gaza in January 2009 in which about 1400 Palestinians were killed; a 2011 resolution calling for a halt to the illegal Israeli West Bank settlements even though this was stated U.S. policy; a 2011 resolution calling for Israel to cease obstructing the work of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees; and another resolution calling for an end to illegal Israeli settlement building in East Jerusalem and the occupied Golan Heights.
6. AIPAC attacks politicians who question unconditional support of Israel. AIPAC demands that Congress rubber stamp legislation drafted by AIPAC staff. It keeps a record of how members of Congress vote and this record is used by donors to make contributions to the politicians who score well. Members of Congress who fail to support AIPAC legislation have been targeted for defeat in re-election bids. These include Senators Adlai Stevenson III and Charles H. Percy, and Representatives Paul Findley, Pete McCloskey, Cynthia McKinney, and Earl F. Hilliard. AIPAC’s overwhelmingly disproportionate influence on Congress subverts our democratic system.

7. AIPAC attempts to silence all criticism of Israel by labeling critics as “anti-Semitic,” “de-legitimizers” or “self-hating Jews.” Journalists, think tanks, students and professors have been accused of anti-Semitism for merely taking stands critical of Israeli government policies. These attacks stifle the critical discussions and debates that are at the heart of democratic policy-making. The recent attacks on staffers at the Center for American Progress is but one example of AIPAC efforts to crush all dissent.

8. AIPAC feeds U.S. government officials a distorted view of the Israel/Palestine conflict. AIPAC takes U.S. representatives on sugar-coated trips to Israel. In 2011, AIPAC took one out of very five members of Congress—and many of their spouses—on a free junket to Israel to see precisely what the Israeli government wanted them to see. It is illegal for lobby groups to take Congresspeople on trips, but AIPAC gets around the law by creating a bogus educational group, AIEF, to “organize” the trips for them. AIEF has the same office address as AIPAC and the same staff. These trips help cement the ties between AIPAC and Congress, furthering their undue influence.

9. AIPAC lobbies for billions of U.S. taxdollars to go to Israel instead of rebuilding America. While our country is reeling from a prolonged financial crisis, AIPAC is pushing for no cuts in military funds for Israel, a wealthy nation. With communities across the nation slashing budgets for teachers, firefighters and police, AIPAC pushes for over $3 billion a year to Israel.

10. Money to Israel takes funds from world’s poor. Israel has the 24th largest economy in the world, but thanks to AIPAC, it gets more U.S. taxdollars than any other country. At a time when the foreign aid budget is being slashed, keeping the lion’s share of foreign assistance for Israel means taking funds from critical programs to feed, provide shelter and offer emergency assistance to the world’s poorest people.

The bottom line is that AIPAC, which is a de facto agent for a foreign government, has influence on U.S. policy out of all proportion to the number of Americans who support its policies. When a small group like this has disproportionate power, that hurts everyone—including Israelis and American Jews.
From stopping a catastrophic war with Iran to finally solving the Israel/Palestine conflict, an essential starting point is breaking AIPAC’s grip on U.S. policy.

AIPAC, for those who don't know, is a right wing US zionist organisation that has almost all US senators and representatives in its deep pockets. Most of its political creatures hate AIPAC but fear its power. President Obama is one who dances to the music of the AIPAC piper. AIPAC dictates US policy on the Middle East. Note the 'AIPAC' banner in the Latuff cartoon, below.

(From Dissident Voice via Angry Arab's Comments Section)

Carlos Latuff pinxit (via Team Palestina)

UK Green Party endorses campaign against JNF
Media Release: Israel ‘charity’ accused of racism suffers another blow
27 February 2012

The Jewish National Fund (JNF), a British charity implicated in human rights violations in Israel, received yet another blow when Green Party of England and Wales members voted overwhelmingly to support an international call for action against JNF practices in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and to revoke its charity status in the UK.
Green Party member Deborah Fink, who is co-founder of Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, moved the motion on Sunday. Fink alerted the conference to “JNF greenwash” and said that “the Green Party stands for environmental and social justice, the upholding of human rights, is against racism and is officially in solidarity with the Palestinian people who have called for this campaign. The JNF is a major impediment to realisation of Green Party policy on the Middle East, therefore the JNF should be condemned. As a charity, the JNF gets tax advantages, so through our taxes, we are subsidising injustice”. The motion passed with no one speaking in opposition and with only three people voting against.

(via Jews Sans Frontieres)

A4e, the welfare-to-work business which Ms Harrison used to pay herself an £8.6m dividend last year, confirmed that it had told the Department of Work and Pensions about suspected fraud inside the company in November 2010 – at least 10 days before Mr Cameron named her as his unpaid adviser for troubled families. She has since resigned from that role.

(Independent)

November 2010? In August 2009 I quoted a wikipedia article, as follows -
"On the 28th June 2009, The Guardian disclosed information regarding to a fraud investigation into A4E which was instigated after the Department for Work & Pensions uncovered discrepencies [sic] in its 'confirmation of employment' forms - discrepencies which centred upon the falsifaction of employer's signatures by a number of recruiters. Further to this, as the largest New Deal scheme provider, A4E has a turnover of over £145 million and yet has only helped 19,725 people back to work (a figure which is almost impossible to qualify as the success of the applicant in actually keeping the job is not disclosed). Alongside the widespread corruption which has recently been uncovered in various recruitment companies, these statistics have called into question the actual necessity of spending tax payer's money on these schemes as their vast and lucrative turnovers as private businesses are in direct opposition to their limited public service."

So Cameron is stupid, or badly briefed, or he likes to employ crooks - remember Andy Coulson?

" It is a shame so many jobs have been outsourced to the likes of Apple's Foxconn factory in China, with its "suicide nets" around the building. But there's me being snobby again. A job is a job, and apparently we can't all win The X Factor. Who knew? Still, unlike IDS's CV, mine is real. Remember he said he attended the University of Perugia when he didn't? And his grandiose management qualifications turned out to have been a few weekend courses at GEC Marconi. Still, va va vooming your CV is all part of it, isn't it? Get a suit. Drone on. You could be work and pensions minister. Or something in Matalan. You just need to adjust your attitude."

(Suzanne Moore)

The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: NATO rebels in Libya: mistreating blacks in cages: (thanks Shawky)
Freedom and democracy in Natostan.
Cameron, Clegg, Hague, are you proud of your allies in the former Libya? Send them more arms and ammunition, there are still more blacks to kill.

The other day I went into that bookshop I don't like and was looking through some swag being sold off cheap. I lighted on a map of Bologna.
Do I need a map of Bologna? No
Did I want a map of Bologna? At 99p, yes.
Difficult to say why.
I associate the city of Bologna with three things -
An ancient and famed university
A football team with left-leaning supporters
The Wu Ming literary collective.

So what? I suppose it's something like that workmate of George Orwell's in Paris. Leaving work by Métro he always got off at the Cambronne station even though it wasn't the nearest station to his home. The reason; he was an old soldier and the station commemorated a brave general. "The Old Guard dies, it does not surrender."
Some say Cambronne's last word (not words) was otherwise. But no matter, the Old Guard did not surrender.
Some things elicit a positive, though not necessarily rational, response in a person's mind. Leastways that's how my mind works.
So I got the map and learned that there is a park in Bologna called the "Parco Pier Paolo Pasolini". Also I found that the street on which the university, or part of it, is situated is called the Via Zamboni. Could this be for the poor little Anteo Zamboni who tried to curtail Mussolini's dictatorship with a bullet? I checked. It could. I also learned that the multi-talented Pasolini was a native of Bologna, though he spent most of his life elsewhere.

I love maps, and atlases and gazetteers. No doubt there is a psychological explanation for this condition. I know there is a posh word for map collectors, but I've forgotten what it is. Learn something, forget something, the mind of the septuagenerian.

Ed Sheeran

"Work experience scheme in disarray as Tesco and other retailers change tack"
(Guardian)

"It is a great relief to those millions around the world who were moved to prayer and action by Khader Adnan’s extraordinary hunger strike of 66 days that has ended due to Israel’s agreement to release him on April 17." (Richard Falk)

"BESNA deal dead and buried"

(via London IWW)

I don't usually listen to news chat shows, whatever they're called - political comment or opinion or something. People from different parties telling us how they can manage a rip-off economy better than the others, while newspaper columnists tell them what the billionaire press barons expect of them.
Clicking through the channels today I heard mention that more workdays are lost through strikes of late than since the early eighties, you know the Thatcher Francis of Assissi period. I lingered a while.
Right, so what is behind all this conflict? Why are workers in precarious jobs risking those jobs by striking? Was that what the pundits were going to ask and discuss?
No, the question was, is it time for more legislation to stop people withdrawing their labour? Good old reliable BBC, the Tory Party at the microphone. I cursed the boss class's propagandists and moved on.
On ITN news I encountered someone called Lucy Manning explaining workfare to the newsreaders in the studio. She quoted growling Grayling; the opponents of unpaid labour were left wing extremists out to wreck the economy. Then she told us the taxpayers' opinion; better to work for nothing than sit at home doing nothing. Those, you see, are the alternatives from the viewing platform of the well-heeled and securely employed. I'm assuming that Ms. Manning didn't interview all taxpayers before appointing herself their spokesperson. Maybe she made the whole thing up. I'm certain she didn't interview the many people on jobseekers pittance who pay, via Value Added Tax, the highest proportion of income of all taxpayers.
I wonder who feeds her the crap she tries to feed us. A government spin doctor perhaps?

"He's not a fascist, he's a very silly boy." (Dave 'the Python' Cameron)

Despite 30,000 complaints to the BBC, and 800 to OfComm, Jeremy 'Gobshite' Clarkson has been found to have done nothing wrong in advocating the murder of trade unionists on a BBC talk show.
This is Gobshite Jez whose offensive remarks about the people of Mexico were okayed by the BBC, in spite of a complaint lodged by Mexico's Ambassador to the Court of St. James.
This is the gobshite who managed to insult the population of India and get away with it in spite of the protests of the Indian High Commissioner.
So how do we account for the baleful influence of this racist and homophobe?
I think he's blackmailing somebody, but I don't know who. Cameron? Mark Thompson?

"No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour."
Human Rights Act (1998), section 1(3), article 4

A-HA! Is this why the Conservatives want to get rid of the Human Rights Act?

Firms taking advantage of the Conservative and Post-Liberal Slave Labour scheme include -
Tesco, Asda, Argos, Holland & Barrett, Primark
Addendum (20.2.12) How could I have missed those leaders in the field of exploitation - McDonalds, Burger King? And a special mention for Sir Philip Green, chevalier d'industrie; he's the individual who is a pauper for tax purposes and a billionaire for all other purposes. One of his money-makers, Arcadia by name, has its share of Sklavenarbeiter.
"Et in Arcadia ego"
Etiam in servitute, it seems. Arcadia ain't what it used to be.

Firms known to have used slave labour, possibly still doing so -
Morrisons, Savers, Wilkinsons, B&Q, Matalan

Firms who have pulled out of the scheme -
Sainsbury, Waterstones, TK Maxx

Firms not cooperating with "Arbeit macht frei C21"
Waitrose


Update (20.2.12) I have heard that Matalan has suspended its dealings with the state's people traffickers. So what then happens to those already in bondage? Are they returned to the trafficker, or kept in servitude? (Sarcasm alert!) Maybe they become paid workers.

Update (21.2.12) An appallingly long list of offenders can be studied here.

"Every little hurts."

The government recently said it was extending the scheme to more than 100,000 placements a year. However, this has not stopped Sainsbury's, Waterstones and clothing giant TK Maxx announcing in recent weeks that they were pulling out.
Waterstones said it did not want to encourage unpaid work. Sainsbury's stressed the only back-to-work scheme it was engaging with was entirely voluntary and would try out benefit claimants for an actual job vacancy. The Guardian understands that other major high street chains are reconsidering their involvement>.

BESNA 7, CRACKS BEGIN TO SHOW
(see below, January 12th)

In what could be a major breakthrough for rank and file action, Balfour Beatty has withdrawn the imposed ‘BESNA’ contracts at the heart of a 7-month dispute. Balfour Beatty and six other construction companies were aiming to scrap longstanding pay and conditions arrangements and impose new contracts on sparks and other workers, involving deskilling and cuts in pay and allowances of up to 35% - with threats of dismissal for those not signing up.
It comes after Balfour Beatty failed this week to win an injunction to stop strike action by Unite. However the front-line battle has been fought over the last seven months by rank and file electricians organising on their own account. Hundreds of electricians have taken part in weekly protests throughout the country, including wildcat strikes when an earlier official strike vote was overturned by the courts. In London, early morning weekly actions (with London GMB members regularly attending in solidarity), included blockades of Park Lane and Oxford Street, invasions of Kings Cross and Cannon Street stations and demonstrations and occupations at Blackfriars, the Shard and other sites. At recent actions we distributed a Polish language flier translated and produced by London FWs which made the case against crossing picket lines.
Balfour Beatty abandoning this attack on workers is a real shot in the arm for rank and file direct action, but the sparks need to be vigilant – as Unite and Balfour Beatty promise future talks “to secure members’ livelihoods and the stability of the industry”. Rank and file organisers are carrying on the protests until the other six companies follow Balfour Beatty’s lead. As one of the sparks said: “Victory is near. Let’s not be rushed into a deal now.”

(lifted from iww.org.uk)

IWW CLEANERS LIVING WAGE VICTORY AGAINST CONTRACTOR DYNAMIQ!
Friday 17 Cleaners Demo against NTT Communications CANCELLED

London, 16/02/2012 -IWW Cleaners and Allied Trades
Once again vindicating the IWW mottos - "An Injury to One is an Injury to All" and "Don't Mourn - Organise!" - the Fighting Industrial Workers of the World Cleaners and Allied Trades Union today gained yet another victory notch on their belt against unscrupulous bosses! Not ones to passively accept injustice, after their unfair sacking for organising a union, the Cleaners of NTT Communications stood up and confronted the management of cleaning services contractor Dynamiq for this unacceptable act of union-busting. Through the IWW Cleaners' Union's negotiations with Dynamiq management, the NTT Cleaners today obtained their reinstatement as a workforce onto a single worksite, and payment of the London Living Wage. The demonstration planned for Friday 17 February has thus been CANCELLED for cause of VICTORY!!
Dynamiq Cleaning and Program Management Ltd kicked out an entire workforce who had been at NTT for years - why? Because they joined a union and stood up for their rights in the face of bullying and intimidation.
Following today's negotiations with the cleaning contractor Dynamiq, who cover the contract for NTT, the Workers, with the IWW Cleaners Union's representation, secured an agreement which puts all the workforce in one site and provides full-payment of the London Living Wage.
As a result the IWW Cleaners Branch and London Delegates Committee has cancelled the demonstration called for Tomorrow at Devon house. We thank all trade unionists and fellow workers for their solidarity and support.

The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: On hunger strike but not famous: "By the time you read these words, Khader Adnan could be dead. After 58 full days on hunger strike, his body is already well past the stage...

3.8 million children in the UK don't own a book, according to a survey conducted by, or for, the National Literacy Trust*.
Well, maybe some of them have a library ticket. They could always read online, but most probably don't.
But, as Chris H. pointed out earlier, there's more to books than just reading matter.

*Never heard of them, but I stick to my old caveat; never trust an organisation with the word 'Trust' in its name.

Addendum: I have heard of this mob. They're the ones who recruited Premier League footballers to pretend that they can read, and name their favourite tome. It turns out that these jokers are all childrens' authors by proxy, and their favourite books turn out to be the ones they get royalties for putting their names to.
I was going to suggest that these moneygrubbers would sell their own grannies. But maybe they already have ... Wayne Rooney's a collector.

This morning I caught the tail-end of Melvyn Bragg's programme (I don't know what it's called). There was a panel of academics talking about Erasmus. I keep saying that I learn one new thing every day, and forget two or three old ones. Today I learned that, more than anything else, old Desi was an unequivocal, and vocal, opponent of war. One of the panel - I think it was Eamon Duffy - quoted him; "Dulce bellum inexpertis", a great line. "War is sweet to those who haven't experienced it", to those who haven't been "up to their necks in muck and bullets", as the old army saying goes. But the Latin version is short and bitter-sweet, succinct.
Later, chasing up the adage online, I found that Professor Duffy (if it was he) was quoting Erasmus quoting a fourth century Roman known as Vegetius.

I remember a couple of things about the learned Erasmus from school. He was a humanist; an advocate of reform in religion. He remained loyal to the old faith in spite of his objections to it's corrupt ways. He wrote a work called "In Praise of Folly". That's it.
Now my interest is awakened. Now I have to find out what of the works of Desiderius Erasmus is available in print. There's stuff online, but that's no good to an old gimmer like me.

E-books, PAH!

Leading neuroscientists believe that the UK Government may be about to sanction the development of nerve agents for British police that would be banned in warfare under an international treaty on chemical weapons.

... the Royal Society working group says the Government shifted its position to allow the development of more severe chemical agents, such as the type of potentially dangerous nerve gases used by Russian security forces to end hostage sieges. "The development of incapacitating chemical agents, ostensibly for law-enforcement purposes, raises a number of concerns in the context of humanitarian and human-rights law, as well as the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)," the report says.

(The Independent)

This on top of the news that the Paras are been trained to brutalise their fellow citizens. Nothing new there, of course. Remember Bloody Sunday?

Hardy Sheffield Wobblies brave the elements to show support for ripped-off P*zza H*T workers.
According to the British IWW website, "Solidarity demos were held all over the UK and worldwide, including Birmingham, Glasgow, London, Calais, Portland, Vancouver, Berlin." In Hull the placards were taken up by our comrades of the Solidarity Federation, living up to their name. The manager called the cops on them, but - silly manager! - the picket was legal. Book that man a place on the company's next union-busting seminar!

Courtesy of Viola Wilkins (though she doesn't know yet).

Stating the obvious -
'Right wingers are "less intelligent"'
(Headline in today's "I on Saturday")

The research leading to this conclusion is supposed to have been publicised in a periodical called "Psychological Science".
One problem for me -
If the research was commissioned by right-wingers then the results would have been suppressed. If commissioned by left-wingers then they were demonstrating a want of intelligence, chucking their money away to learn what they should have known and been relaxed enough not to need to go in search of external confirmation.
Value-free academic research conducted by disinterested individuals or organisations? I chortle at the idea.

Maybe it's a wind-up, to induce an epidemic of coronaries among fascists, crypto-fascists (aka Mail readers), racists, tories, etc.

During the course of a long correspondence, the BBC’s head of editorial standards for audio and music, Paul Smith, wrote that the show’s producer "did not edit out the word 'Palestine’ because it was offensive — referencing Palestine is fine, but implying that it is not free is the contentious issue."

In the same letter in which he disputed the occupation, the BBC’s Paul Smith went on to say: "Palestine does not exist at the moment … 'Palestine’ refers to a historical state or an aspiration."

I don't like to plug brand names here but sometimes they merit a mention -

"No more slimeburgers? Until recently, 70 percent of burgers in the United States contained “pink slime”, also known as ammoniated boneless lean beef trimmings, a cheap beef filling unfit for consumption until it is gassed with ammonia. Now McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Burger King are dropping the magic additive following a campaign of withering criticism from celebrity chef Jamie Oliver."

I wonder what appetising ingredient will replace the missing bonne bouche.

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.

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.

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)

"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.

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.

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

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

Brendan Gleeson secures funds for Flann O'Brien film (BBC News)
I just read this on Ian Duhig's facebook.
I posted before (23rd October 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.

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

(Via Viola Wilkins' post on Unionbook)

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.

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.

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 tőlem.
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.

"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.

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.

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)

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

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

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

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 Bracciolini. 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?)

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.

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.

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.

HEALTH AND SAFETY CULTURE? I WISH ...

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.

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.

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."

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.