Revolution

Nuremberg is Ready (For Tony Blair)
***********************
As a truly brave man once said,
"It's not God you will answer to -
It is us "
He was talking of justice
He was talking to you
Over the heads of a silent crowd
Of thousands
Who understood
That they were listening
To a man of wisdom
One who was not willing
To sell his soul
For vanity
(Or the Queen's shilling)
That man stood up and refused
To commit war-crimes
And you will never know
At what cost to him
How could you?
You joined in for the golden handshake
Sending British soldiers to their deaths
Without any interest
Collaborating in the murder of thousands
And splitting your country
Into quarters
As an ideology, you've destroyed the Labour Party
Thinking yourself divine
You have condemned many
Endangering your people
By arming fundamentalists
With the moral right to protect themselves
Obsessed with your own power
You've stood by as Lebanon burned
And manipulated the press
And misrepresented the British public
The list goes on and on Mr Blair
The lies and the ball-****
Refusing to meet troops or their families
Like the coward you are
Your message was
"You're either with us
or you're with the terrorists."

With you?
May your God forgive you…
Because we never will


Endymion 2006

It's our Country



Where can we go from here?
Do all roads now lead to war
And more war?
What are we fighting for?
Stability?
Peace and harmony?
A better world for our families?
This is our Country
We can make it whatever
We want it to be


Fuc k Corporate Globalisation
Nothing good comes of greed
The meek shall inherit the earth?
….Indeed



Endymion 2006

With you?
May your God forgive you…
Because we never will


Yes, indeed, Endy!
And it's not just Tony Blair, of course, (though it seems worse, somehow, this coming from a Labour leader) ... it's also those other "leaders" (like my own PM) who have willingly gone along with this outrage against humanity. Shame on them all. We will never forgive nor forget what they've done. Actually there's no way we'll be allowed to forget (even if we fervently want to). We'll be living with the consequences of this for years to come.

Spiral
*****

We were moving forward
Joining together in spirit
But then
What power could allow it?
This unity of common minds
This turning of the tide
All men are equal?
How can equality help the elite?
The supreme?
The pharaohs of our planet?

Divide and rule
That is how we live these days
And perhaps how we have always lived
For the ancient path reveals
The stench of down-trodden man
The stolen sword and smashed drum
And just beyond the mist
The forgotten hoop
The spiral of our universe
Insisting that we love


Endymion 2006

Is This The World We Created?
Words and music by Freddie Mercury and Brian May

Just look at all those hungry mouths we have to feed
Take a look at all the suffering we breed
So many lonely faces scattered all around
Searching for what they need

Is this the world we created?
What did we do it for?
Is this the world we invaded
Against the law?
So it seems in the end
Is this what we're all living for today?
The world that we created

You know that every day a helpless child is born
Who needs some loving care inside a happy home
Somewhere a wealthy man is sitting on his throne
Waiting for life to go by

Is this the world we created?
We made it on our own
Is this the world we devastated
Right to the bone?
If there's a God in the sky looking down
What can he think of what we've done
To the world that He created?

http://www.theusversusjohnlennon.com/

http://www.lennonfbifiles.com/

Two OLD TIMERS
Two SIDES OF THE POND[/b]




Thousands Demonstrate Outside U.N. Against War

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Thousands of Iraq war protesters marched Tuesday to the United Nations, where President George W. Bush was presenting his vision for the Middle East to skeptical world leaders.

After Vietnam I thought the U.S. had learned a lesson," said Lillian Pollack, 91, a retired city schoolteacher. "But Bush was planning this war for two years. He tried to make it look like it was legitimate. But it backfired."
*********************************************************

Britain's oldest university student takes the train

97 year old Bernard Herzberg, Britain's oldest university student and longtime Stop the War activist, will be on the London peace train to Manchester this Sat 23rd. Bernard, who was a refugee from Hitler's Germany in 1933, says "I've been on all the Stop the War demonstrations and, as long as my feet hold out, I'm not stopping protesting until all Blair's wars are ended."

http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.htm
**********************************************************

Yay!
Go Lillian & Bernard!
(They're right, you know!)


(Hi there, Endy, how's it going?)

Families of British soldiers banned from Labour conference in censorship row
By Kirsty Walker
Daily Mail


Labour officials have banned the grieving families of the Iraq war dead from staging a peaceful protest outside the party's forthcoming annual conference in Manchester.

Furious members of Military Families Against The War accused the party of 'censorship' after they applied to hold a small peace camp near the conference later this month.

But officials on Labour-run Manchester council told them they could not do so for 'health and safety' reasons.

The latest attempt to prevent embarrassing protests came only days after it emerged that potential hecklers had also been banned from the conference.

In what was condemned as a desperate attempt to stifle debate, dozens of members with a record of demonstration have been blacklisted. Rose Gentle, from Glasgow, whose 19-year-old son Gordon died in Iraq in 2004 said the council were "doing the Government's bidding".

She said that 20 activists from Military Families Against the War said they were refused permission to pitch tents in the city centre from September 21.

"The Military Families were looking to camp out for about four days in Manchester along with the Labour Party conference but Manchester City Council have told us we can't do it," she said.

"We think it's because it's Labour conference and they don't want us going and voicing our opinions because Mr Blair is going to be there."

She said the families had organised peace camps outside Downing Street and in Trafalgar Square and had no problems. "We're still going to come down and camp out and if the police come and lift us then they do," she added.

A source at Greater Manchester Police said they had no security objections to the protest, insisting: "They (the council) are saying it's a security issue but it's not. We're fuming about this. We've got no problem with the protest."

Labour has a long track record of being heavy handed with protesters. Ministers were humiliated last year when 82-year-old Mr Wolfgang, a refugee from Nazi Germany, was manhandled out of the conference by burly Labour Party workers for daring to heckle the then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

Mr Wolfgang was removed from the conference hall in Brighton last year along with another lifelong Labour Party member. He was arrested by police under the Terrorism Act when he tried to get back in.

But the incident badly backfired on Tony Blair when Mr Wolfgang was last month elected to Labour's ruling national executive.

The veteran peace campaigner last night accused officials of behaving like 'heavy handed idiots'. Mr Wolfgang said: "These are people who have lost members of their family who are members of the Armed Forces in a war which should never have taken place.

"They have got every right to protest, and I think we will find they will protest. Whoever responsible for this are idiots. This is very heavy-handed and sounds like it comes from the same people responsible for the treatment given to me last year. They are very foolish to do this."


Rose Gentle at her son Gordon's funeral

*************************************



Brave Heart (For Rose Gentle)


I did not know my mother
Have no conception of her in my being
It's a strange feeling
A drifting rootless dream
Insubstantial

And when I think
Of Gordon Gentle
19 years old
24 weeks of training
After being recruited
Outside the dole office

When I think
Of Gordon Gentle
Who said his brave farewell
And settled on the train
And how you expected
To never hold him again

I wonder on the love
Between a mother and her son
Mary witnessing
The crucifixion

How your eyes filled with tears
As you stood by
Waiting to wave
Your son off to war
As down through the dark ages
So many mothers
Have done before

Until suddenly
Oh, so unexpectedly
There he was again
Ready to face your suffering
Refusing to turn his back
Six foot three
Your wee laddie
Stepping down
And coming back

I think of Gordon Gentle
Running to you as he did
As he had done many times
As a boy
Desperate for that one last hug
Your warm and tender
Mother love

And when I think of
All his pain
In that final embrace
When I see the grief
The torture on your face
When I hear you speak
For the boys still over there
I think of Gordon Rose
And wonder at his intuition
So similar to yours

For as the train disappeared
And you turned away
Didn't you look at your youngest girl
And say …
"We'll never see him again."

And I wish in shame
For all of you
That I could die in Gordon's place
That in another time
He would step down again
To see the joy on your face

For no son should be torn from his mother
And no mother should be torn from her heart
As we remember
The bravery you shared
While being torn apart
Let love endure in that last unexpected hug
Rose, With the brave heart




Endymion 2006

*************************************


Rose Gentle's Rage
http://www.sundayherald.com/44361

Rose Gentle Censored by MoD
http://www.spinwatch.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=195


**************************************

Hi Olga -I've been working on this poem for Rose Gentle all day
I heard her speech in London last month and it got to me
I'm so sick of bloody war

How's things down under?
Is it spring there?
Here, the leaves are starting to turn, autumn is coming
I hope that it heralds other changes

Peace,
Endy

Some good news for a change



Manchester Council Caves in Under Pressure

Rose Gentle and Peter Brierley are pleased to announce that the Peace Camp in Central Manchester will go ahead as planned.
The Camp will start at 3pm on Thursday 21st September and run until the beginning of the Stop the War demonstration on the 23rd.
The venue for the Camp will be the Peace Gardens, St Peters Square, thanks to an agreement with Manchester City Council.
This is within sight of the Tony Blair's luxury hotel.
For over two years now families of servicemen killed in Iraq have been seeking a meeting with the Prime Minister. The Camp is part of their campaign.
Rose and Peter said today, "We would like to thank the people of Manchester for all the support we have received from them. They have shown to us that Manchester is truly a city of peace and we look forward to welcoming all those who wish to visit us at the Camp."

I really liked your poem for Rose, Endy.
You should send her a copy.

Yes, yes, it's finally spring! Phew, we made it through winter!
If I was a poet I'd write about the sheer breathtaking beauty of it.

Yes, I'm hoping for some big changes, too. It's time. It's way past time!

Thanks for stopping by Olga

I've greatly valued your support - it's given me a lot of strength

It's at times like these people have to dig down deep.

Over the last couple of days that is what I've been doing.

Things are heating up here and in the US - I think people have got to the point where they realise the great danger we are in.

I am doing what I can to support the peace movement. What I've written below is a part of that.

***************************************************
Time to be brave




Why I'll Be Marching



Tomorrow I shall be in Manchester, marching with thousands to protest against the war in Iraq (amongst other things),

Until last year, I hadn't thought I would ever be out on the streets, demanding justice from my Prime Minister - but times change.
I have marched alongside British pensioners, war veterans, school kids and everyday folk, who have the foresight to see that what we are doing in the Middle East is perpetuating the alienation of our country with the rest of the world. (Not to mention committing crimes against humanity).

Every one is united in some inexplicably complicated and greatly empowering way during these marches. You catch people smiling; you smile yourself out of sheer relief - because for the short time that the march lasts - you are liberated by the freedom of expression.

The deep need within, to speak out against injustice, is I believe, a natural one. It is in me to feel compelled to protect the weak and defenceless. That is all.

The march connects people of similar consciousness. As you look around at all the different classes/races/ages/religions united in consensus, i t suddenly hits you. We can live together in peace - if only our Governments would allow it.

At the same time, everyone is there for their own personal reasons. The breakdown of the NHS, the slow stripping of human rights, the poor treatment of our soldiers abroad - the deaths of over 200,000 Iraqi citizens, murdered in an unforgivable war that amounts to nothing more than US corporate invasion.

I have met many parents who fear the future, for their children and understand that Corporate Globalisation and Aggressive War fit together, hand in glove - one exposed without the other.

Some have issue with the fact that Tony Blair has 'invented' and passed more new laws through the House of Commons, than the callous and out-of-touch Margaret Thatcher. Or even Churchill. Laws that segregate the British people by class/race/age/religion.

Yet you need to look deeper than that to understand people's motives for marching - because it isn't always obvious. If you're walking along with a hundred thousand people in the middle of London and a BBC reporter (a rarity) puts a microphone in your face and asks, "Why are you doing this?" in a voice that suggests you might have difficulty understanding the question, it's easy to give an acceptable answer and move on…

Because it takes bravery to march - to ignore the plain clothed police taking your photograph - to face police dogs - to stomach the ignorance of those who call you 'extreme' for fighting against tyranny - and always holding inside you the real reason you are there.

So, why do I march?
I can answer that question very simply.
With one word in fact: trauma


War Trauma

It doesn't end here
The trauma
Until the cycle of abuse
Is broken
The traumatised
Will traumatise
Victims will rise
Into Goliaths
And those that crush
The hearts of nations
Will bring crushing defeats
Down on the heads
They swore to protect
While the men returned
From the battlefield
Will be shell-shocked
By truth in their eyes
To survive
They'll have separated
Out their minds
Fragments, extensions
Torn by lies
And their children
Like their parents before
Will suffer the burden
Of war

Is that what we voted for?



I write political poetry because I don't wish to 'talk' politics - people are often too caught up in figures and facts in my opinion. All my life I've lived by my instincts and my intuition and I don't think I'll ever change.

I am a survivor of trauma myself - medically diagnosed as having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, for which I receive Disability Living Allowance as part of my income.

I was abused and traumatised for most of my childhood by a man mentally scarred by war.

He taught me how to use a gun for the purpose of killing by the time I was ten years old.
He taught me how to fight with my hands and feet and (amongst other things) how to overcome my instinctive fear of climbing - an experience which left me unable to speak for several days.
He talked incessantly about "the enemy."
He was an insane teacher - quick to punish and incapable of praise. He was full of rage that could erupt at any time, often attacking unexpectedly, to 'test' my reflexes. He taught me how to defend myself against a man with a knife, a hammer, a hosepipe.
In his gun cupboard he kept an old tin - full of medals and insignia and buttons.
Not his of course, but trophies taken from the bodies of his dead enemies.

The poem 'It Is Not Me' (death diary) written in response to the revealing of current torture, I wrote in empathy - I wrote about myself.

I learned how to protect my mind, but I could not protect my body. At the time, the physical pain seemed much worse than the emotional, psychological abuse; but the scars on my body have faded to a certain degree - whereas the ones in my mind have grown into deep trenches.

As a young adult I tried to get myself killed on many occasions, taking risks that I see know, looking back, as senseless. I have carried my abuser with me since the day I escaped him.
In keeping with the legacy he passed onto me, I have always walked close to death.
Twice in my life I have closed the eyes of a dead friend and twice in my life I have carried a dead child in my arms, believing that the injustice I felt must be so great that I could harness the power of its energy to will new life back into a corpse.
But of course, I soon learned that there are no miracles.

If we want to end war, we have to do it ourselves.

I am no longer in a position to put myself in harms way - because I no longer have the guts for it. I've lost my protective layer, my fortitude. I would rather never see violence or death ever again. I use other methods to punish myself now.
But I can never forget how it feels to be a child un-rescued. Or to witness the destruction of ordinary people's lives.

I have not been able to break the chain of abuse - only halt it.
All my anger, all my pain is released through self-abuse.
As I add to the physical scars - so the mental scars become more bearable.
Knowing that thousands of children (and I include teenage soldiers) are being traumatised around the world everyday without end; aware of the terribly disabling effects of that, on their lives and on the lives of future generations - I must march against aggressive war.

Can you image trying to explain all this to an impatient and distracted reporter during a march?
Can you imagine wishing that you could?

Politics is personal.

Tomorrow I will be joining thousands of honest to good British citizens of all classes, races, ages and religions who, for whatever personal reason, understand how it feels to be powerless and without rights - and don't want that for any of the children who come after us.

They are brave enough to face their own fear of being caught in a riot because they know that the true enemy lies in our past - in the on going cycle of abuse spiralling down through history as a result of war trauma.
In fact, they are willing to put themselves through more trauma in order to end it.

I know that the chain of abuse can be broken - or at least halted.
We must work to ensure that the violence ends here.
Or alternatively, sit back and watch humanity's self-inflicted destruction.


By the way, if you're on the march tomorrow and a reporter does stick a microphone in your face and ask you, "Why are you doing this?" And you cannot say, as I have done here, because you are not ready to share your pain, answer with another question:

Why aren't you?





Endymion 2006

Endy - I hope you achieve peace in your soul, whether or not we achieve peace in our world.

I marched in Washington in March 2003, when the invasion of Iraq was all but a certainty - but still hadn't happened. I took my two children - we rode a bus from North Carolina, leaving at 4:00 in the morning and joining hundreds of thousands of Americans on the mall in DC between the Lincoln and Washington memorials at 8:00 that Saturday morning. Our government invaded anyway - just weeks later.

It was a bitter pill to swallow - but what I learned is that even one more peaceful heart is another step in the right direction. Don't ever give up.

"Peace will come on the wheels of fire."

Bob Dylan.

I think I understand now.

As a child I made a difficult but informed decision to abstain from violence.
I knew how I felt about my abuser - how much I feared and resented and hated him - and I never wanted anyone to feel those things about me. It was very important to me, because I wanted to be nothing like him - the opposite in fact.

I admit that it was hard. At times, especially after I had been subjected to pain myself, I had incredibly strong urges to 'hurt' our next-door neighbour's cat, a peaceful tom that sometimes sat on the fence at the bottom of our garden.
I was five or six years old at the time, but I clearly remember recognising that the cat was much more vulnerable than me and that if I wanted to, I could hurt him very badly. I was stroking his back one day and I had the urge to grab his tail and hang on - but I was stopped by the thought that if I behaved like my 'daddy,' then I would have crossed over onto his side and I would turn into a monster just like him.

Throughout my childhood I struggled with the grief and anger and every time the need arose, I would hurt myself rather than attacking something weaker than me.
I wouldn't even kill spiders (which I had a fear of), because I told myself that anything as easy to kill as a spider was at a disadvantage and should there for be protected.
I wanted to protect the innocent - even back then. I recognised desperation when I saw it. I was for the under-dog - always.

As a five year old, I was strong enough to defy my situation.
As an older child growing up, I was able to hang onto that one thing I could be proud of - the fact that I was not hurting others - even when provoked - I could hold inside all the rage and loose it in my own, private way…not cutting back then, but by doing something to my mind to bring me peace.

I was a much stronger individual as a boy.
These days I have to accept that where my childhood abuser couldn't totally destroy me - as an adult, my Government has managed to.

This is the thing I can not bare. In fact every bit of bad luck I've ever had in my life pales into nothing compared to what I have to go through every day watching the sick maggots that rule and lead the US/UK, bring on the fourth reich.
I am now on the side of the abusers, the aggressors.

I understood this suddenly on Saturday in Manchester while I was listening to (Flight-Lieutenant) Malcolm Kendall-Smith's speech during the 'Time to Go' demo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swa2x4x0v6I

NOT IN MY NAME

I want justice - for once in my bizarre f*cking life.

The abusers are still lying, still hitting on the vulnerable, still torturing, still trying to justify their sickness by using crafty and efficient methods to deceive the law.
Except now, the abusers are killing hundreds of thousands - not just me, when I was a powerless child.

How can I stand by and watch?
And if I can't - what does that leave me?




Endymion 2006

I know some of you understand my motive for doing this - thanks for that - if you want to know more about the march last Saturday in Manchester and the speeches made at the demo go to:
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.htm

No, you're not!
Neither am I.
None of us are responsible for what our mad governments are doing!
It's certainly not what we wanted, or expected them to do.

We just have to keep plugging away, telling them again & again that what they're doing is completely unacceptable.
These are very hard times.

But, hey, Endy, that looked such a strong demonstration!
Congratulations, Manchester!

Eyes on the Prize

Paul and Silas bound in jail
Had no money to go their bail
Keep your eyes on the prize -
Hold on.

Paul and Silas thought they was lost
Dungeons shook and the chains came off
Keep your eyes on the prize-
Hold on.

Freedom's name is mighty sweet
And soon we're gonna meet
Keep your eyes on the prize-
Hold on.

I got my hand on the gospel plow
Won't take nothing for my journey now
Keep your eyes on the prize-
Hold on.

Only chains that a man can stand
Is that chain o' hand on hand
Keep your eyes on the prize-
Hold on.

I'm gonn board that big Greyhound
Carry the love from town to town
Keep your eyes on the prize-
Hold on.

The only thing that we did wrong
was staying in the wilderness too long
Keep your eyes on the prize-hold on
The only thing that we did right
was the day we started to fight
Keep your eyes on the prize-
Hold on.

Endy - this is a traditional Holiness hymn (also known as Gospel Plow, Paul and Silas and Hold On). "Keep your hand on the plow" became "Keep your eyes on the prize" in a l956 rewrite by American civil right's activist, Alice Wine. It was sung by local freedom marchers during the American civil right's movement".

*I paraphrased the above from the liner notes of Bruce Springsteen's latest cd - "We Shall Overcome" -The Seeger Sessions. I don't know what your musical tastes are, but I think even those who don't typically like Bruce Springsteen, might like this record. It's got a lot of great songs, a real activist, spirited feel - and backing voices that sound like a gospel choir and on some songs (such as Eyes on the Prize) what sound like a New Orleans jazz band. Lots of brass and accordians - anyway, the music put me in a good mood and made me feel reinspired- and I thought it fit on your thread, moreso than anywhere else. Hope you don't mind me crashing your thread. See what you think.

Thanks for your support Aidan
Springsteen lyrics are welcome here
and you're not crashing the thread -
it's good to have contributions to it.


Olga
I hear what you're saying
Thanks for saying it
Yes indeed, Manchester was well supported
First major demo outside London for the STWC

The hard bit to swallow is the lack of news coverage
here in Britain. (Some things never change)
I doubt for instance that many know Blair's sister-in-law
led the march and got up on the stage afterwards
and said how ashamed she was of Tony Blair's failure to
call for a cease-fire concerning Lebanon.




Lauren Booth (Blair's sister-in-law) marching (in red) beside Lindsey German
National Convenor of Stop the War


Here's a couple of short poems I scribbled during my visit -





Upgrading Trident

Seventy something billion pounds?
Are you sure?
Is that the price to pay for power?
Is that the price of war?
Seventy something billion pounds
To spend on all that killing
Is seventy something billion pounds
That could be spent on living

http://www.banthebomb.org/showNews.php?newsID=202







Civil War

What have we done to Iraq?
They've no country left
For us to give back
What the hell
Have we done?
Mesopotamia
Split and undone
One to two hundred
Thousand
Are dead
And the streets run red







Yeah, well done Manchester!

Seeing the unmasked villain
behind the pedistule
of the wonderous victories
on the backs of the inncoents
that have fallen to the ground
while we shed tears
for the fallen
among the ranks he hides
trying to escape the tragic destruction
he sees but he does not let his hand
be touched by those is in need
prisoners of their own war
stranded by their fearless leader
praying the day might come
when the time of retrobution shall be called
from the lips of the unforgotten
he who stands behind his fortress
will fall to the gurdians
and extend his hand and plead
for the pity he did not render
to the protectors
they shall whisper
"revolution"