Wednesday, November 21, 2012

The Persistance of Slavery

Another field trip with Garth's Extension Group!  This time to the Wilberforce Museum in Kingston-Upon-Hull to explore the disgusting dirty history of slavery.  And also the heroic efforts not only of the Victorian Do-Gooders to end it but of the oppressed and downtrodden themselves to resist and ultimately end it in one form.    Here we are


Here's Garth at Wilberforce House.



William Wilberforce himself was a Yorkshireman, played cricket for Yorkshire


here's yer man!



So he goes down to Cambridge to become a Bloody Student!


ooops bit of a problem rotating that one

here's some chains, quite possibly used on real slaves....


How did people become slaves?  Fill the form in I suppose.


In today's money Britain made 2.5 trillion pounds.  And we are really really sorry and we have given it all back.  Well maybe not.  Is our economic system fundamentally the same or radically different from one based on slavery?
 


Just thought I would ask..

Four Hundred years!  Four Hundred Years!



There was much resistance to slavery with colonies of maroons in Jamaica and a successful revolt in Haiti by the Black Jacobins gaining their independence .  Slavery was abolished in the French Empire during the Reign of Terror.  After the terror an expedition was sent to restore slavery to Haiti.  It was defeated.  Well in the Black Jacobins!




Evidently Voodoo played a part, not only as a way of liberation but jolly good fun yaya!




Here is the Voodoo Alter



The Immortal (though sadly now dead) Tom Paine


Slavery persisted after it's abolition, and resistance to the new forms of slavery continued.



And slavery persists...


In different forms...


There can be no Peace without Justice




Proclaim Liberty Throughout The Land! (Leviticus 25:10)









Thursday, November 15, 2012

Civic responsibility to protest


Dam!  I was so angry I made a typo.  Oh well.  Today I exercised by perogative as and Independent Elector to vote and my duty as a citizen to protest as vigourously as possible by for the first time spoiling my ballot paper.

Alas this miserable Con-Dem Wheeze will probably run and run.

The Dire Wheeze of Police and Crime Commissioners....


Tomorrow in England and Wales we have elections for the new post of 'Police and Crime Commissioner'.  After much thought I have decided to spoil my paper and support the campaign to do so.  I hope that there is a record number of spoilt papers.

First, it needs to be said that this is at best a dire wheeze.  Improving the Police Service is to be welcomed, as is improved accountability of the Police Service and better links between the Police and Community.  No one has explained to my satisfaction how having a Police and Crime Commissioner does any of this.  At best it is a sideways step.  And a remarkable indication of where the Con-Dem administration's priorities lie.

There is also much to be said against creation of the post of PCC.  The politicisation of the Police Service is a dangerous thing.  Sure Independents can stand but they will be at the disadvantage of not being able to use emblems and the name of their Party.  They will also have to find a 5K deposit.  5K is nothing if you win and gain a juicy salary starting about 80K a year and get deposit back anyway.  It does put off the poorer Political Parties.  And speaking of which, how is an honest independent going to find no strings funding.... so yes, not only is the PCC a potential route into politicisation of the Police Service but also has inbuilt potential for corruption.  All for an unhelpful layer between the Police Service and what remains of the Police Committee and Local Authority (a police panel in West Yorkshire).  Now had the Con-Dems genuinely wished to give the Independent Electors of West Yorkshire a democratic opportunity they could have transferred the Police Service and other County functions back to a County Council......

And yes, the Conservatives in particular seem rather enamoured with personality politics, as shown in recent drive to introduce Executive Mayors to English Cities (a boris in every village).  And replacing elected volunteers with richly paid professional politicians.

Leading again to the issue that the deposit has been set at £5000 but this is for a single candidate (unlike the £4000 for a slate at the European Parliament Elections or £500 for the Westminister deposit) it is much too high. 

So enough.  It is a most dreadful wheeze.  Will whoever is elected be able to stem the cuts in the police service and privatisation that the insane ultra-thatcherite Con-Dem administration has planned?

As an Independent Elector I have 3 choices.  To express a preference, to spoil my paper or to not vote.  Here in West Yorkshire there are Tory, Fib-Dem, Labour and one Independent candidates.

So vote Tory for privatisation and cuts in the police service?  No thank you!  Then there is the Fib Dems.  Ditto.  Or Labour, the Con-Dems in drag.  There is an independent who used to serve in the police service.  I hear that he didn't perform all that well at the hustings saying his priority would be to increase siezure of drugs.  Making a priority of seizing more drugs is not the most sensible of drug policies.  Seizing of all drugs does not mean an end to drug related crime.  For a while it once happened in Glasgow, and Glasgow was entirely free of heroin, but then prescription drugs went missing by the caseload to fill the gap.  I have had a look on his website but alas it does not inspire much confidence. 

So why not stay at home?  In view of how hard the Chartists and Suffragettes fought for the right to vote, not to say my Granddad risking all fighting the Nazis.  This is put rather well by Sarah Hall in The Electric Michaelangelo:-


-Can I start piercing folk?
  -No you bloody can't. Not in my shop. It's gimmicky. It's for people who don't understand the craft.
  Nina tutted loudly and tossed out the remaining inch of leafy tea from her cup into the sink. Cy was reading a book in his room, with his leg up on a stool, waiting for a customer to appear. This was an argument they had had before
  -It's not fair. You wouldn't have to do any of the work. I could be in charge of it.
  -Oh, its always lip from you, isn't it? Never a moment's peace. Does it say Nina Shearer's Tattoo Parlour on that sign up there? Does it?
  -Fascist!
  Cy smiled and looked up from his book from her.
  -Speaking of, have you been to the polling station yet today, missy? Have you voted?
  -No. They're all a bunch of farts, why should I bother?
  -Listen. I don't care if you never put a single cross in a single box, but you get yourself down to that polling station right now. You've got your voting card?
  -Yes. But why the bloody hell should I go if I am not ticking any boxes? You've gone soft in the head.
  -Well, go and write 'you're all a bunch of great fat farts' across it and hand it in! At least they will know that you have been there and had your say.
  Nina was giving him a look of bemused pity, as if commiserating with his insanity, his obviously retarded condition. Or as if he had suddenly grown another head. And damn it if Cy didn't want to kick her up the backside and give her a hug all at once.
  -All I am saying pet, is that you shouldn't take these things for granted. That's all.  Now off you go.

'The Electric Michaelangelo' by Sarah Hall p 334

So there you have it.  Picture to follow when I have done the deed.  A couple more points.  Spoilt papers have to be counted, but do not count towards turnout, as according to the Electoral Commission, spoilt papers are not counted towards the turnout.  Best express choice for all candidates equally so that there is no clear preference.  Tomorrow will probably be a record low turnout.  A record number of spoilt papers won't make the Con-Dems think again, nothing will.  But we will have made our point.  I spoil my paper as a last resort, tomorrow for the first time.

And what to write.  A witty suggestion was 'A Plod on the Street, not pillocks on a fat wedge'  How indeed does giving a PCC a fat salary improve the police service?

Saturday, November 10, 2012

What about the workers! Visit to the Peoples' Museum

With Garth's Extension group it was wonderful to visit the Peoples Museum in Manchester.

Here is me in the foyer


Funny I don't recall Bloody Harold on Spitting Images...





The Peace Movement! A splendid firm!





Workers Unite!






The Co-op!  A splendid firm!!




Abuse of power and rule by a few very rich people.  Things entirely of distant memory.  Well if you read the papers and are completely trapped in the media and commodity spectacle.





And now we have the right to vote what difference does it make?  Votes are not equal under an institutionalised system of ballot rigging and vote stealing that is plurality voting (erroneously called 'First Past The Post')

The Immortal (though sadly now dead) Tom Paine





Wilkes and Liberty!  Anyone drink to that?




Particularly love the story that when Wilkes stood for election in Middlesex, he asked one Independent Elector of the County of Middlesex could he count on his vote.  'I would rather vote for the Devil'  'But with your preferred candidate not standing on this occasion, can I count on your vote?'

There were black Chartists like William Cuffee




Industrial Workers


Tomorrow!  When Labour rules!  So now we know





Comrades!




Self explanatory I suppose




All together now! Raise higher the red banners of the class struggle!




say 'Socialism!'





Something a bit topical. 





Come back David Lloyd-George!  All is forgiven!

The Drink Map of Manky!





Should come in handy when drinking.

I am the man, the very fat man, who waters the workers' beer


hic


here endeth the lesson

Congratulations!


so now you know

England Takes Drugz in psychic self defence...


and back to Leeds


As I wasn't allowed flash photography I have decided against any pics that didn't work in museum light.

Well, it would seem that the history of the People has been one of exploitation and struggle against this exploitation.  And a few rich and powerful people who generally clung onto that wealth and power.








Thursday, November 08, 2012

Crem Day 18th October 2012


I really need to do a blogging frenzy... Anyway for now... Good to have been able to finally do a crem day, this time a year on from Pamela departing this life. I am particularly grateful to my host Lisa and Pamela's wonderful friends Taffy and Sarah. And special thanks to National Express for rescuing my laptop, which I left on the coach when changing coach at Sheffield. Fan mail to follow guys.... So by the time I got to Mansfield the crem was shut for the day. So thankfully able to get to crem the following morning then back home to feed Ewah.

Had intended to do a memories of Pamela post long ago.  Still haven't even opened a file.  But it's a story that should be told.  A wonderful story.  Hopefully to follow.  Anyway, for now, G-d bless you Pamela, thanks for everything!  Love never comes to an end.


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