Finger Pointing

The old adage about every time you point a finger at someone there are three pointing back at you tries to prevent a blaming culture and have us all take responsibility.

Sometimes though, we need to point fingers. 

Sometimes we just need to say things, because they need to be said.

Bob Dylan said his song Blowing in the Wind, wasn't a 'protest song' because he didn't write protest songs, he said:

'I'm just writing it as something to be said, for somebody by somebody.'

 (Cited by Peter Dreier  in The Political Bob Dylan,  Dissent, 2011).

Blowing in the wind has its questions and answers which are unspecific to a time, people or place. The answers are 'blowing in the wind'. It is up to us to recognise or find them.

Sometimes though we need to point fingers, as Dylan said:

 'you know pointing to all the things that are wrong.' 

(Cited by Jon Bream in Dylan: Disc by Disc, 2015)

Things like war, inequality and injustice. Whether it is the Vietnam or Iraq war or Civil Rights in the US in the 60s or the racism of Brexit in the UK today.

Rolling Stone has a Ten Best Protest Songs of All Time list. As do most music media sites. My favourites include the following ones (in no particular order) from my childhood and since:

1. Imagine by John Lennon
2. Feed the World by Band Aid
3. In the Ghetto by Mac Davis and sung by Elvis
4. Give Peace a Chance by Toots and the Maytales
5. Get Up Stand Up by Bob Marley
6. Talkin Bout a Revolution Tracy Chapman
7. Between the Wars by Billy Bragg
8. Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd
9. Where is the Love? By Black Eyed Peas
10. Zombie by The Cranberries
11. Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell
12. This Land is Your Land by Woodie Guthrie
13. And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda and 14. The Green Fields of France by Eric Bogle

As I write this I happen to be wearing a Tshirt with Bob Marley's Get Up Stand Up emblazoned across it and just now listened again to Bragg's  Between the Wars in tears. We should be upset. We are still battling for a living wage in the UK and still seeking justice and equality in so many ways. We should be singing songs like this.

One of the lines which has always caught me is Manic Street Preachers':

'If you tolerate this your children will be next.'

This reminds me always of the words from Martin Niemöller I spoke of in my post Never Doubt:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

In a Guardian article Jonathan Luxmorre and Christine Ellis (2016) ask 'where are all the protest songs?' Sadly I wonder if they have all already been written and performed and we are just waiting for people to finally hear them.

Protest: Anti-Austerity March

 

 

 

 

  

Biscuit Politics

As Tony Benn would ask:

How would you feel if you went to the dentist and they said I'm not a dentist myself, haven't learned anything about dentistry, or even read a book on it but my dads a dentist so I'll call myself a dentist? 

Tony Benn, 2011

Tony Benn considered inheriting a title in a similar vein, so renounced his title of Viscount on that basis, which it why it's surprising to read in the Guardian that his son Stephen, is now reclaiming this heriditary peerage.

Speaking at rally in Trafalgar Square 2011

Sadly, he hasn't inherited his father's other title - 'socialist'! No that's something you have to work at and believe in and isn't just a badge you stick on when you fancy it.

Biscuit politics. They are most secure in the shop, labelled, in the packet or box or biscuit tin, with all the other biscuits. On their own, in the hands of the public, it doesn't matter which biscuit you choose, if you hold them in hot water long enough they will break and fall, whether they are chocolate or plain, they all create a splash before finally sinking to the bottom.

Tony Ben wasn't a biscuit, he was the biscuit tin and now he's gone, unfortunately, some of the biscuits have now fallen apart and are just a pile of crumbs. Try dunking that in your tea!

Do Something

 

My reaction to the Conservatives getting into power was to rejoin my union Unison (after a lapse during a change of employment). I thought the unions could do with every bit of support they could get and I knew there were many people out there who didn't have the same security in their jobs that I have and would need that support too.

Other direct debits that come out every month are for the NSPCC and Amnesty International. I give Kiva loans,  am a blood donor and buy The Big Issue. I have volunteered doing a variety of projects, from working with under 5s and their parents promoting literacy to working at a homeless shelter to planting trees in the local park.

I buy Fairtrade, recycle and read.

And however much or little I do, there will be people who do more and people who do less. But at least we try to do something.

On Saturday, the 18th of October, I will be on the Britain Needs a Payrise march and rally .

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

Edmund Burke/disputed 

52 Quotes on War and Peace

Quotes on war and peace for every week of the year. I chose the 52 I could most identify with from the hundreds on Anti-War.com.

1. Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. Abraham Lincoln
2. In war, truth is the first casualty. Aeschylus
3. One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one. Agatha Christie
4. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. Albert Einstein
5. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war. Albert Einstein
6. Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. Albert Einstein
7. War is never a solution; it is an aggravation. Benjamin Disraeli
8. When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?Benjamin Franklin
9. There never was a good war or a bad peace. Benjamin Franklin
10. War does not determine who is right, only who is left. Bertrand Russell
11. All forms of violence, especially war, are totally unacceptable as means to settle disputes between and among nations, groups and persons. Dalai Lama
12. We must pursue peaceful end through peaceful means. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
13. All wars eventually act as boomerangs and the victor suffers as much as the vanquished. Eleanor Roosevelt
14. It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it. Eleanor Roosevelt
15. No weapon has ever settled a moral problem. It can impose a solution but it cannot guarantee it to be a just one. Ernest Hemingway
16. Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac. George Orwell
17. War is a way of shattering to pieces...materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable and...too intelligent. George Orwell
18. War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it. George Orwell
19. Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable. George Orwell
20. Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. George Washington
21. Every government has as much of a duty to avoid war as a ship's captain has to avoid a shipwreck. Guy de Maupassant
22. Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction! Be heroes in an army of construction! Helen Keller
23. Even philosophers will praise war as ennobling mankind, forgetting the Greek who said: ‘War is bad in that it begets more evil than it kills.' Immanuel Kant
24. Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Issac Asimov
25. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today. John F. Kennedy
26. Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures. John F. Kennedy
27. The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie: deliberate, continued, and dishonest; but the myth: persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. John F. Kennedy
28. For what can war, but endless war, still breed? John Milton
29. Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary. Mahatma Gandhi
30. What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy? Mahatma Gandhi
31. An eye for an eye makes us all blind. Mahatma Gandhi
32. Liberty and democracy become unholy when their hands are dyed red with innocent blood. Mahatma Gandhi
33. There is no way to peace. Peace is the way. Mahatma Gandhi
34. I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. Mahatma Gandhi
35. We all have to be concerned about terrorism, but you will never end terrorism by terrorizing others. Martin Luther King III
36. The chain reaction of evil--wars producing more wars -- must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. Martin Luther King, Jr.
37. Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. Martin Luther King, J
38. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. Martin Luther King, Jr.
39. Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. Martin Luther King, Jr.
40. Nothing good ever comes of violence. Martin Luther King, Jr.
41. If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. Nelson Mandela
42. Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it. Noam Chomsky
43. Man has no right to kill his brother. It is no excuse that he does so in uniform: he only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder. Percy Bysshe Shelley
44. Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of men. Pope John Paul II
45. Humanity should question itself, once more, about the absurd and always unfair phenomenon of war...Pope John Paul II
46. Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding. Ralph Waldo Emerson
47. Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock. Sigmund Freud
48. If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat. Simone de Beauvoir
49. All wars are fought for money. Socrates
50. Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice. Spinoza
51. War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses. Thomas Jefferson
52. Peace demands the most heroic labour and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. Thomas Merton

History Repeating

I marched in 2003/4 with the students of our school and I will be protesting again this coming Saturday the 4th of October.

Why ? Check out why Stop the War Coalition think Iraq and Syria should not be bombed.

As Franklin D. Roosevelt said 'Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.'

~

 

 

 

Never Doubt

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead 

As I watched Pride and 'Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and George MacKay sparkle in this tale of lesbian and gay activists’ support for the miners’ strike', as Mark Kermode put it (Observer, Sep 14, 2014) and was inspired.

I remembered what Martin Niemöller had said about the need to stand up for other people.


First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

There are so many things I am not and so many things that I am and at one time or another I have been treated with prejudice because of what people thought I was or was not. Hasn't everyone?

So shouldn't I stand up for other people whether they are people like me or not - because they are people? Or should I stand up for stuff like ethical issues or justice? Do I have to have something to believe in? Will I, as Malcolm X suggests 'fall for anything' if I don't 'stand for something'?

What do I believe and what do I stand for? How do I show it? In how I live? What else? In the film Pride you could see prejudice being overcome and shows of unlikely solidarity on a grand scale. I thought of the marches I had been on whether for peace or for trade justice or while on strike, and enjoyed those feelings of solidarity. What did they do though? Were they just to make me feel better, as if I was doing something? Was I doing anything?

Protests work. Look at a writer for the Independent, Johann Hari's article aptly titled 'Protests Work' (2010). Unsurprisingly he ends his article with the same Margaret Mead quote above.

Tomorrow is The People's Climate March. It's happening in 150 countries all over the world, from Melbourne to New York. Its a call to action to influence decisions at the UN Climate Summit. Tomorrow the march will be going from Temple to Parliament Square in London. Tomorrow I will be there. I will be making a stand.

Protests work. Never doubt.