Wednesday 17 November 2010

Beating police repression after the student occupation.

The following piece is one that led to Fitwatch website being suspended, so in solidarity with them and with the students at Millbank and all who deemed it time to fight the cuts thought I'd reprint their last post.I leave it up to you to read it and consider the implications of police officers demanding the closure of blogs and websites without due process. The words contained in the following apparently attempt to "pervert the course of justice", judge for yourselves . I would not want to encourage any perversions ,well of justice that is. Please reproduce and circulate Spartacus style.....

The remarkable and brilliant student action at Millbank has produced some predictable frothing at the mouth from the establishment and right wing press. Cameron has called for the "full weight of the law" to fall on those who had caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage to the expensive decor at Tory party HQ. Responsibility is being placed on a "a violent faction", after the march was "infiltrated" by anarchists.

There are an encouraging number of initiatives to show solidarity with the arrested students - something that is vital if they are to avoid the sort of punitive "deterrent" sentences handed outto the Gaza demonstrators. A legal support group has been established and the National Campaign against Cuts and Fessa has started a support campaign. Goldsmiths lecturers union has publicly commended the students for a "magnificent demonstation". This is all much needed, as the establishment is clearly on the march with this one. TheTorygraph has published an irresponsible and frenzied "shop-a-student" piece and the Met are clearly under pressure to produce "results" after what they have admitted was a policing "embarrassment".
51 people have been arrested so far, and the police have claimed they took the deatails of a further 250 people in the kettle using powers under the Police Reform Act. There may be more arrests to come.
Students who are worried should consider taking the following actions:
. if you have been arrested, or had your details taken- contact the legal support campaign. As a group you can support each other , and mount a coherent campaign.
. if you fear you may be arrested as a result of identification by CCTV, FIT or press photography;

.DON'T panic. Press photos are not necessarily conclusive evidence, and just because the police have a photo of you doesn't mean they know who you are.

DON'T hand yourself in. The police often use the psychological pressure of knowing they have your picture to persuade you to come forward. Unless you have a very pressing reason to do otherwise, let them come and find you, if they know who you are.

DO get rid of your clothes. There is no chance of suggesting the bloke in the video is not you if the clothes he is wearing hve been found in your wardrobe. Get rid of all clothes you wre wearing at the demo, including your shoes, your bag, and any distinctive jewellery you were wearing at the time. Yes, this is difficult, especially if it is your only warm coat or decent pair of boots. But it will be harder still if finding these clothes in your flat gets you convicted of violent disorder.

.DON'T assume that because you can identify yourself in a video, a judge will be able to as well. That isn't me . has got many a person off before now.

.DO keep away from other demos for a while. The police will be on the look-out at other demos, especially student ones, for people they have put on their wanted list. Keep a low profile.

DO think about changing your appearance. Perhaps now is a good time for a make-over. Get a haircut and colour, grow a beard, wear glasses. It isn't a guarantee, but may help throwthem off the scent.

DO keep your house clean. Get rid of spray cans, demo related stuff, and dodgy texts/photos on your phone. Don't make life easy for them by having drugs,weapons or anything illegal in the house.

.DO get the name and number of a good lawyer you can call if things go badly. The support group has the names of recommended lawyers on their site. Take a bit of time to read up on your rights in custody; especially the benefits of not commenting in interview.

.DO be careful who you speak about this to. Admit your involvement in criminal damage/ disorder only to people you really trust.

.DO try and control the nerves and panic. Waiting for a knock on the door is strssfull in the extreme, but you need to find a way to get on with business as normal. Otherwise you'll be serving the sentence before yo are even arrested.

Once again - we can't let them get away with this. They - the police, the government, and all the other insruments of power which seem to get confused about this on a regular basis - are sworn to serve us. They are there for our convenience and protection. Not vice versa ,no matter how much they wish to believe so. Accordingly if they start acting like they're in charge and w'ere just there to give them a nominal raison d'etre, then at the very least they have abused the power we have granted them - and at worst, they have committed treason and crime against humanity. They must be stopped - if nothing else, for their own protection. We cannot allow them to lose the humanity their jobs and orders continually threaten to chase into oblivion; we must look after them, and stop them if they go too far. It's what the Big Society is about, after all...
-
Seems like plain old common sense to me.
Laters.

Monday 15 November 2010

The Censor - Ivan Kraus ( born, Prague 1/3/39/ )

Ivan Kraus, a witty Czech author and puppeteer, was one of the artists who started the first Black Theatre of Prague in the 1960s. He emigrated after the Soviet invaion in the summer of 1968 and made his home in West Germany. 'The Censor' comes from his collection of short satirical pieces and appeared in Index on Censorship in 1976.


The Censor is seated on a stool ( or possibly two stools).
The Dancer enters.
At a sign from the Censor she begins to dance.
Censor: More slowly, please.
The dancer continues to dance.
The Censor stops her.
Censor: Hold it! Show me that last movement again.
The Dancer does so.
The Censor shakes his head.
Censor: No. Not that. Omit it.
The Dancer resumes her dance.
Censor: No. Not that. Onit it.
The Dancer dances.
Censor: That's not allowed.
The Dancer again resumes dancing.
Censor: Omit!
(after a while)
Omit!
(after a while)
Leave out!
(after a while)
And that!
The Dancer no longer dances, she is merely walking about
the stage.
Censor: What's this? Call that a dance? Why aren't you
dancing?
The Dancer shrugs her shoulders helplessly.
Censor: Don't do that!
The Curtain starts to come down.
Censor: Just a moment!
The Curtain stops.
Censor: I won't stand for any innuendo. Gently, now...
that's better... gently ... very, very slowly ...

The End


Translated by George Theiner



http://www.indexoncensorship.org/



Saturday 13 November 2010

HENRY MORGAN'S MARCH ON PANAMA -A.G.Prys-Jones (1888 -??)

Henry Morgan  (Harri Morgan ) who was born in 1635 in Llanrhymney, then a village between Cardiff and Newport, in South Wales, to a prosperous farming family, who died on 25th August in 1688 in  Jamaica , was otherwise known as Admiral Henry Morgan, privateer. Regarded as the greatest of the privateers, amassing huge fleets, attacking prominent targets and being the worst enemy of the Spanish since Sir Francis Drake. Now the face of spiced Rum, which on all accounts, his excessive consumption off led to his demise from acute alcoholism.

Morgan's curls are matted,
His lips are cracked and dry,
His tawny beard is tangled,
And his plumed hat hangs awry:
But his voice still booms like thunder
Through the foetid jungle glade
As he marches, bold as Lucifer,
Leading his gaunt brigade.

Twelve hundred famished buccaneers
Blistered, bitten and bled,
A stricken mob of men accursed
By the monstous sun o'erhead:
Twelve hundred starveling scarecrows
Without a crumb to eat,
And not a drink for tortured throats
In that grim, festering heat.
Twelve hundred threadbare musketeers
Rotting in tropic mud
Where the reeking, fevered mangroves
Wake havoc in their blood:
Twelve hundred febrile wretches,
A legion of the dead:
But Morgan in his blue brocade
Goes striding on ahead.
Twelve hundred tatterdemalions,
The sorriest, maddest crew
That ever the green savannahs saw
When the Spanish bugles blew:
Twelve hudred rattling skeletons
Who sprang to life, and then
Like a wild wave took Panama,
For they were Morgan's men.


a captive bows begore Welsh pirate Sir Henry Morgan's as Morgan and his men sack the city of Panama in the 1870s.



Thursday 11 November 2010

Raymond Garlick - Auguries of Guilt.

One must be realistic : man
Is crueller and more violent than
All other living creatures. We
Alone of animals agree
To decimate our species by
Polluting land and sea and sky.
This we must face: the human lot
Is to be capable of garrotte.
To be a creature who guillotines,
Hangs, shoots, tortures; builds a store
Of nuclear weapons; goes to war.

No other animal does this -
Not the hamadryad's kiss
Nor the scorpion's plunging thorn
Match the weapons man has worn.
No cloud of hook-beaked birds of prey
Dismembered Dresden that dark day.
The leopard nor the jaguar
Ripped apart Hiroshima.
No flame-eyed, ravening tiger fell
On Guernica. Man shaped its hell.
Wolf and hyena had no part
In Auschwitz. All was human art.

The world view of a red-eyed bull
Today is quite respectable.
Who are our Great? The school-books pick
Alexander and Frederick;
And, to impress that violence rules,
The cane and strap sing in the schools.
What is honour? a gun-bright guard,
Its files inspected in charade;
A statue in a city square
Of General X slashing the air,
The shadow of arch-violence thrown
Down the ages from the stone.

Mock machine-guns make fine toys
For nicely bought up little boys,
And tailored royals ride the street
Costumed for bloodshed, gloved and neat
Whose image many a church augments
With laid-up flags of regiments.
Each village has its cenotaph
Raised on violence's behalf.
Man is the animal that hates.
What hope for us, for nations, states?
This: only we, who hate like hell,
Only we can love as well.

FROM:- Glas-nos, Cerddi Dros Heddwch/ Poems for Peace. CND Cymru 1987.


LEST WE
FORGET

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Thursday 4 November 2010

Dance with your Neighbours for F**K's Sake.

Many Western media outlets have been delighted to report that two Israeli women have teamed up to become the first same-sex couple to compete in a version of the internationally popular television series 'Dancing with the Stars'.
Indeed it is a great day for humanity with even Rupert Murdoch's Sky news reporting that "30 different countries have versions of the show, but none have done what Israel has done this week.

Israel because of this is now being praised for being an exemplary , tolerant and liberal society, but how come it won't even dance with it's own neighbours. Ah the smell of hypocricy.

Keep on dancing everybody. Heddwch.
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/gilad-atzmon-dance-with-your-neighbours-for-fks-sake.html

Sakineh Astiani; EMERGENCY, THERE ARE 24 HRS TO GET KEY POWERS TO TAKE EMERGENCY ACTION TO STOP HER EXECUTION.


Take action to try stop her execution here.



http://www.avaaz.org/en/24h_to_save_sakineh/?v1



Monday 1 November 2010

Britons Never Shall be Slaves. - Helen Heslop.

Henry Drake still at school sees
His father, put away for
Misbehaviour, wave goodbye.
He cries.

A teenager before the
Word is born, the Army claims
Him for the country's fight for
Freedom.

Benghazi - weather sunny,
Plenty grub; that's new. Payment
Too. Peace intervenes; home to
Blighty.

Better off by one new suit
He's free to find a job, low
Pay, and a girlfriend, Ann, keen
To save.

Romance falls through, but there's his
Cycling, gardening, fishing,
Same boring job, same low wage,
But free,

At forty-four Henry Drake
Is made redundant. 'Sorry. . . .
Years. . . cut backs, but we . . . thanks for. . . '
He's free

To care for his mother, ailing
Fast. He does his nest; she dies
At eighty-two, leaving him
Free to

Stare awhile, at least he's hept
Some hair; he'll join . . . make new . . .
But Englishmen of Henry's
Station

Unprivileged, no decent
Education, find themselves
Ditched by a freedom loving
Nation.




REPRINTED FROM :-
SING FREEDOM, ed Judith Nicholls
Faber and Faber, Published with assistance of Amnesty International, 1991.