Tuesday 28 October 2014

Assata Olubala Shaker (b 16/7/47) - She who struggles, Poet , Revolutionary.


Assata Olugbala Shakur was born JoAnne Deborah Byron  on July 16, 1947, in Flushings, Queens Jamaica, New York. a descendent of slaves. Adopting an African name, she took on Assata, meaning 'she who struggles,' Olugbala, meaning 'love for the people,' and Shakur, meaning 'the thankful. An inspiring individual she was the first woman to be placed on the FBI's most wanted  Terrorist list, Shakur was a member  of the Black Panther Party and the Black liberation Army..
In the early 1970', several false criminal accusations for murder, robbery and kidnapping were bought against Shakur. All except one were later acquitted or dismissed. In 1973, Shakur and two other friends were cornered by state troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike, and became involved in a shootout where she was  severely wounded, apprehended and charged  for the murder  of  Werner Foerster, a New Jersey State Trooper. Although Shakur  protested her innocence, and subsequent medical and forencic evidence  indeed  proved it was not possible for her to have  shot the state trooper, she was however convicted of the murder. She was incarcenated  in several prisons throughout the 1970'  until she managed a daring escape in 1979, and has managed to live in exile  in Cuba since 1984.She is recognised  by the Cuban Government as a revolutionary fugitive in exile, at once venerated by supporters, the Cuban Government continue to contribute to her living expenses, and is regarded as an icon by many others, as a living link  to  a revolutionary era.
The FBI's animalistic hunting of her resumed after nearly 40 years when it labelled  her a terrorist, offering $2 million for her capture,  still reminding the world, and becomming a symbol of America;s gaping racial divide, reminding us that the oppression  of Black women by America is far from over and to many the world over she continues to remain an inspiration to all lovers of freedom,  as a courageous fighter, liberator and hero, and is defended by many who do not want to see her returning to a prison cell.
She has since continued to dedicate  her life to challenging injustice, advocating  on behalf of those persecuted using her skills as a writer, artist and poet. In 1987 she published a powerful memorable book 'Assata Shakur - An Autobiography' where she outlines her beliefs, and the book contains many of her poems, two of which I include here. In this book she also writes from a perspective whose life continues to be on trial.
Long may Sister Assata Olubala Shaker retain her freedom and we carry on breaking down the chains.

" Nobody in the world, nobody in history has ever gotten their freedom  by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them."

- Assata Shakur

Affirmation - Assata Shakur


I believe  in living
Ibelieve  in the spectrum
of Beta days and Gamma people.
I believe in sunshine
windmills and waterfalls,
tricycles and rocking chairs.
And I believe that seeds  grow into sprouts.
And sprouts  grow into  trees.
I believe  in the magic of the hands.
And in the wisdom of the eyes.
I believe  in rain and tears.
And in the  blood of infinity.

I belive in life.
And I have seen the death parade
march through the torso of the earth,
sculpting  mud bodies in its path.
I have seen the destruction of the daylight,
and seen bloodthirsty maggots
prayed to and saluted.

I have seen the kind become the blind
in one every lesson.
I have walked on cut glass.
I have eaten crow and blunder bread
and breathed the stench of indifference.


I have been locked by the lawless.
Handcuffed by the haters.
Gagged by the greedy.
And, If I know any thing at all,
it's that a wall is just a wall
and nothing more at all,
it can be broken down.


I believe in  living
I believe in birth
I believe  in the sweat of love
and in the fire of truth.


And I believe that a lost ship,
sneered by tired, seasick sailors,
can still be guided  home
to port.

Love is Contraband in Hell - Assata Shaker

Love is contraband in Hell,
cause love  is a acid
that eats away bars. But you, me, and tomorrow
holds hands and makes vows
that struggle will multiply.
The hacksaw has two blades.
The shotgun has two barrels.
We are pregnant with freedom.
We are a conspiracy.
It is our duty to fight for our freedom
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to  lose but our chains.

Reprinted from :-

Assata An Autobiography (1987/2001)

Here is a link to a campaign that continues to support and  defend her:-

http://www.assatashakur.com/





Assata Shaker in her own words










Sunday 26 October 2014

October 30th UK.Drugs debate..





On October 30th, 2014 the UK Parliament  will host a debate on the country's drug policy. To ensure your MP represents you at the debate and works to support evidence-based drug laws in the country. visit here:-



http://www.talingdrugs.org/parliamentary-drugs-debate



Friday 24 October 2014




Blog Stuck in rut


Blog unable to upload photos or videos at moment in time, I hope it's temporary, any suggestions please?Also missing a dear  friend, but that's another story. Meanwhile between 13 and 26th October a joint police Operation called 'mos maiorum'  takes place  in nearly all European countries to  identify, imprison  and finally  deport illegallised  migrants. Thousands of  people will be subject to so called ' racial profiles ' and will be harassed and criminalised  upon those criteria.
The following site tries to document the actions that are part of 'mos maiorum'  and to make these effects visible to everyone.
Please contribute  to document public police checkpoints  or identify  checks throughout the European union.


http://map.nadir.org/ushahidi





Monday 20 October 2014

The Battle of the Tarpaulin - Police Brutality



Hundreds of police officers attack Occupy Democracy participants because they don't want them  to sit on tarpaulins. This was after Occupy Democracy broke  away from  the TUC march on  Saturday and headed to Parliament Square for an open Assembly,  wardens had asked protestors to leave under an old by law, then sent the police in, and  then their was a total overreaction, on behalf of the police and a standoff lasted till yesterday. What was witnessed was a scene that  had reminiscences of Hong Kong, less freedom seen in Parliament Square. The protestors sound system was confiscated and   tents and sleeping bags were not allowed into the camp. The massive overpolicing and  attempshut down this democratic forum is truly shocking and outrageous. The protestors plan to occupy  the square for the next week.  Viva  freedom.


George Orwell on the police ;-

" I have  no love for  the idealized 'worker' as he appears in the bourgeois mind, but when I see an actual flesh and blood worker in conflict with his natural enemy, the policeman, I do not  have to ak myself which side I'm on."



Wednesday 15 October 2014

Freudian Slip



Freudian slip:-

Tory welfare minister Lord Freud apparently thinks disabled people  should be paid less than the minimum wage. And where is the opposition to these  remarks, Millibland just keeps on shuffling and smiling,  he needs to wake up...  did he read any of his dads books for gods' sake... somewhere he must have some guts.
Lord Freud the same heartless individual who said ' The poor should take more risks as they have the least to lose.' Lord Fraud every time he opens his gob,  a shallowness  emerges  that says much about his character and  very much about the nasty party  that he represents. People holding these views should not be in government, they are  reckless and damaging, but their they are pontificating about realities that they know nothing about. He has no previous experience of the welfare system  Baron Fraud, but who asked him first to provide a review of these services, Mr Tony Bliar under New Labour. You couldn't make these things up. My mind boggles. Oh blundering Mr  Fraud has since apologised, but  he's done that before as well, over previous  gaffes of his  own making, time he got another job, same applies to the rest of his cohorts in government who are equally complicit in their appalling attitudes to the poor and disabled.

The truth of Charlie Chaplin's 1940's anti war message for all humanity rings down the ages.


Charlie Chaplin's inspirational final speech  in  "The Great Dictator "

On 15 October 1940 Charlie Chaplin's first talkie The Great Dictator debuted in New York (while the US was still formally at peace with Nazi Germany)
The physical resemblance between the Tramp and another famous man with a little black mustache was not lost on Chaplin. In his first all-talking picture, he plays both a Jewish barber and his double, Adenoid Hynkel, the absolute ruler of Tomainia. As Hynkel and his henchmen Herring and Garbitsch engineer the persecution of Jews and the invasion of neighboring Osterlich, the amnesiac barber may be the only person innocent enough to stop them. Throughout the anti-fascist film Chaplin powerfully exploits the deflating power of parody, while in the finale he abandons both character and comedy to deliver one of the most inspirational speeches in recorded history with an impassioned plea to the audience for human tolerance, encouraging us in opposing all forms of oppression,Many years later, the  world still needs to stand still and listen and stand against the forces of fascism.An earlier tribute  of mine to this great man can be found here :- 

Here is the full transcript.

I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible- jewish, Gentile, black men, white…

We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each others’ happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls; has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind.

We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery ,we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all.

Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.

To those who can hear me, I say “Do not despair.”

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers! Don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder!

Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men—machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have a love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate!

Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural.

Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty!

In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it’s written “the kingdom of God is within man”, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power.

Let us all unite.

Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill their promise. They never will!

Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people!

Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance!

Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Tuesday 14 October 2014

Wonderful news: British MP's vote to recognise Palestine as a state.




Ok I would be the first to admit that I don't always like what emerges out of the  house of commons, but  as a result  of tireless campaigning, yesterday finally  resulted  in the historic occasion  which resulted in the UK Parliament  voting to recognise the state of Palestine. This follows the Swedish Parliaments decision to do the same. Wonderful news. It  saw as many as 274 voting for the motion to 12 against in a momentous  event that  gave  me much joy, when usually the only thing that emerges from these dusty corners are dark shadows.
Surely it is a big thanks to all  who for years  have marched, demonstrated  for the rights of the Palestinian people and is  also a sign of times in the fact   that British Parliament seems to have noticed and reflected  what  it's people really feel  in the wake  of  Israels recent onlslaught in Gaza, that left over 2,000 Palestinians dead,  and that people are now wide awake to its continuing illegal military occupation and recognise that Israel is losing the battle for public opinion and is part of a growing international trend that demands justice for the Palestinians. The time is  now right for the Palestinians to have the state that it deserves.
This symbolic  vote will mean absolutely nothing if further action is not taken, to bring the  Palestinians dream of statehood into reality. International pressure must continue to be mounted  until oppression is ended and the maxim  from the 'rivers to the sea' is finally achieved.