Anthony McIntyre's Blog, page 1210

Screw Them - It's Long Overdue

Chris Renwick sees the media and establishment colluding against Jeremy Corbyn.
filmsforaction.org: This post has been flying around social media, winning lots of praise and shares. Chris Renwick, we thank you.



Here's what I'm really struggling to understand. All I've ever heard from people, for years, is:
"bloody bankers and their bonuses""bloody rich and their offshore tax havens ""bloody politicians with their lying and second homes" “bloody corporations paying less tax than me”"bloody Establishment, they're all in it together”“it'll never change, there's no point in voting”
And quite rightly so, I said all the same things.
But then someone comes along that's different. He upsets the bankers and the rich. The Tory politicians hate him along with most of the Labour politicians. The corporations throw more money at the politicians to keep him quiet. And the Establishment is visibly shaken. I've never seen the Establishment so genuinely scared of a single person.
So the media arm of the establishment gets involved. Theresa phones Rupert asking what he can do, and he tells her to keep her mouth shut, don't do the live debate, he'll sort this out. So the media goes into overdrive with:
“she's strong and stable”“he's a clown”“he's not a leader”“look he can't even control his own party”“he'll ruin the economy”“how's he gonna pay for it all?!”“And he's a terrorist sympathiser, burn him, burn the terrorist sympathiser.”
And what do we? We've waited forever for an honest politician to come along but instead of getting behind him we bow to the establishment like good little workers. They whistle and we do a little dance for them. We run around like hypnotised robots repeating headlines we've read, all nodding and agreeing. Feeling really proud of ourselves because we think we've came up with our very own first political opinion. But we haven't, we haven't came up with anything. This is how you tell. No matter where someone lives in the country, they're repeating the same headlines, word for word. From Cornwall to Newcastle people are saying:
“he's a clown”“he’s a threat to the country”“she's strong and stable”“he'll take us back to the 70s”
And there's nothing else, there's no further opinion. There's no evidence apart from 1 radio 5 interview that isn't even concrete evidence, he actually condemns the violence of both sides in the interview. There's no data or studies or official reports to back anything up. Try and think really hard why you think he's a clown, other than the fact he looks like a geography teacher. (no offence geography teachers) because he hasn't done anything clownish from what I've seen.
And you're not on this planet if you think the establishment and the media aren't all in it together.
You think Richard Branson, who's quietly winning NHS contracts, wants Corbyn in?You think Rupert Murdoch, who's currently trying to widen his media monopoly by buying sky outright, wants Jeremy in?You think the Barclay brothers, with their offshore residencies, want him in?You think Philip Green, who stole all the pensions from BHS workers and claims his wife owns Top Shop because she lives in Monaco, wants Corbyn in?You think the politicians, both Labour and Tory, with their second homes and alcohol paid for by us, want him in?You think Starbucks, paying near zero tax, wants him in?You think bankers, with their multi million pound bonuses, want him in?
And do you think they don't have contact with May? Or with the media? You honestly think that these millionaires and billionaires are the sort of people that go “ah well, easy come easy go, it was nice while it lasted”?? I wouldn't be if my personal fortune was at risk, I'd be straight on the phone to Theresa May or Rupert Murdoch demanding this gets sorted immediately.
Because here's a man, a politician that doesn't lie - he can't lie - he could have said whatever would get him votes anytime he wanted but he hasn't. He lives in a normal house like us and uses the bus just like us. He's fought for justice and peace for nearly 40 years. He has no career ambitions. And his seat is untouchable. That's one of the greatest testimonies. No one comes close to removing him from his constituency, election after election.
His Manifesto is fully costed. It all adds up, yes there's some borrowing but that's just to renationalise the railway, you know we already subsidise them and they make profit yeah? One more time… WE subsidise the railway companies and they walk away with a profit, just try and grasp the level of piss taking going on there.
Unlike the Tory manifesto with a £9 billion hole, their figures don't even add up.
And it benefits all of us, young, old, working, disabled, everyone. The only people it hurts are the establishment, the rich, the bankers, the top 5% highest earners.
Good, screw them. It's long overdue.
#VoteLabour #ForTheManyNotTheFew!

An Ireland Of Sequels

Anthony McIntyre feels Simon Coveney would have been a a better choice than Leo Varadker   as leader of Fine Gael.

The irony of being in the Central Criminal Court was not lost on me either during that discussion. The criminality that brazenly strutted the austerity arena and which cruelly exacerbated the misery of poverty has rarely made its way to the dock of the court, and certainly not the Special Criminal Court. On the infrequent occasion that the court system found a bankster on its property, it quickly moved to get rid of him - through the front door and not out the back and into a prison van.  Villains are more likely to be seen sipping a pink gin in the Dail bar. 

There are some positives to the Varadker victory. A mixed race, gay man standing on the cusp of being the Taoiseach is revealing of how the political culture in Ireland has been transformed. Certainly not something that seemed conceivable in the days of John Charles McQuaid. The reactionary Catholic establishment has been inexorably pushed back. Its relentless attack on secularism and the rights implicit in that concept has been stunted. The Irish bishops perennially seem to be up a stump over the scandals that have embroiled the Church, increasingly looking more like moral deviants than they do moral guardians.  
And yes, we can rest assured that if an attack of the kind that theocratic fascism launched on the civilians of Manchester a fortnight ago or in London last night, was to hit Ireland, some evangelical wacko will be found pontificating on how it was a punishment from god to the Irish people for having allowed a gay man to become Taoiseach. That few other than fellow wackos will pay heed again underscores the journey travelled from the days when priestcraft held sway.

Another feather in the cap of Varadker was his backing of Garda whistle-blowers: a welcome intervention at a time when many of his party colleagues would have been jolted by such candour. 

That’s about as good as it gets. Coveney didn’t seem as far to the right although this is a matter of degree. A firm believer in a rampant laisses faire free market, he was prepared to see the trickle down effect broaden more than Varadker would countenance. Varadker sees Irish society as being two nations: those who get up early in the morning and the rest who are scroungers. The bulk of Fine Gael TDs and senators got up early to back Varadker but not the membership who preferred to lie on in bed a while longer.

The harsh downside of course is that Varadker is, as Louise O’Reilly of Sinn Fein said, a Tory, sometimes referred to as Tory Boy.  I suppose she means by this that, unlike her own leader, Varadker does actually believe in something other than furthering his own political career no matter what it takes. 

Perhaps the real disappointment about Varadker is that as a gay man able to benefit from the outcome of the same sex marriage referendum, he is clearly unwilling to allow the equality apple to fall too far from the liberal tree where it might fertilise a wider and more inclusive economic ground.
Leo Varadker will need to get up very early in the morning if he is to pull the wool over the eyes of anybody other than his sheepish parliamentary colleagues. The sort of new broom he will bring is likely to be a wire brush. The type of country we will see is not an Ireland of equals, but an Ireland of sequels. Same old, same old from Fine Gael.

From Minister To Atheist And Continuing The Journey

From Atheist Republic a reader's odyssey from superstition to reason.
A reader sent us this story in response to our newsletter “Personal pathways to atheism.” We enjoy reading these personal accounts of people’s journeys and wanted to share this one with you. For reasons you will come to understand, this member of our community wishes to remain anonymous.

My father was a fundamentalist Christian minister. For those of you unfamiliar with what a Christian fundamentalist is, he or she is someone who believes the Bible is inerrant and infallible. Every story in the Bible happened exactly the way the Bible said it did. Given that there are some pretty tall tales in the Bible – talking asses, floating axe heads, strolls across the surface of a lake, etc.– this seems a ludicrous position to those who are not fundamentalists. But that was the environment in which I was raised. I believed that everything in the Bible was true, that when I died, I would go to heaven (if I were good), and that Jesus might return before my death, so I didn't have to even think about mortality. I believed that my church and I were right, and everyone else was wrong, and it was our job to lead them to Jesus. I believed that modern science and history were attempts by evil people to subvert the truth about God.

There were cracks in my fundamentalist foundations from very early on. As an 8-year-old I fell in love with astronomy. I was stunned to discover that there were objects in space whose light had been traveling longer through space than the Bible (or at least my Dad's copy of it) said the universe had existed. I was troubled by this, but accepted it as an anomaly to be explained later. As a 10-year-old, I wondered why dinosaurs had become extinct. If two of everything were taken aboard Noah's ark, what happened to all the dinosaurs? (I didn't care how many million other species might have become extinct. I was dinosaur-centric.) My mother told me that God had put dinosaur bones in the ground as a test. That seemed unlikely. As a 12-year-old, I began opening my eyes during prayer. All I could see was other people with their eyes shut. It seemed as though they were praying to empty air.

But it was the idea of prayer, or more specifically, which prayers were answered and which were not, which began pushing me in the direction of nonbelief. I was born with a disability; it wasn't serious, but it sometimes caused me to be made fun of. (Kids can be such delights.) My father conducted a monthly prayer service for those who wanted to be healed. I came forward. Every month. For years. I was prayed for. Nothing happened. Until finally my father said maybe it wasn't God's will for me to be healed. What? Why? Other people were healed, although I noticed that it was always healing for things that either go away on their own – headaches, fever, anxiety – or things which can go into remission, like cancer. Nobody was ever healed of a deaf ear, a blind eye, a missing limb, etc. Nobody even asked to be. It was as though everybody (but me) knew that the power of prayer was limited to things that, well, we heal ourselves.

Despite all this, though I no longer voluntarily went to church, I still considered myself a Christian. Then I took a course on the Old Testament from a historical perspective. I was confronted by the reality that the Bible is a book written by people who were trying to get other people to believe in their God in a certain way, to behave in a certain way. They used stories not to convey history or science, but theology.

And then I had my "atheophany." One night, I had a dream in which the earth was baking under the red glare of our sun in its red giant phase. It was a barren cemetery of a planet. I could see my name on a gravestone and, though blurred, the gravestones of my children, grandchildren, etc. for millions of years. The earth had died, and nothing of me, nothing I had done, nothing I had believed in had survived. A reluctant atheist? I was plunged into a months-long existential depression. Although I had already stopped believing in the Bible as the inerrant, infallible Word of God long
before, the consequences of my belief had never really come together. I felt adrift in a sea of meaninglessness and oblivion.

I couldn't accept it. I couldn't go there. A friend introduced me to the works of Paul Tillich (a liberal [probably also atheist] Protestant). Reading Tillich's Systematics made me think, "hey, here's a smart person who is still a Christian." I began to look for a non-fundamentalist Christian path. I found a church, and ultimately decided to become a minister.

If anything robs a person of any vestige of faith in the reality of God, it's being a minister. It's like being an actor. Theater goers may be amazed by the performance on stage. The actor knows what went on behind the scenes to make it happen--the blocking, the rehearsals, the set designers, the prop people, lighting, sound – it's not magical to him or her. It is the same way with a minister. Over time, Christmas and Easter, indeed, every Sunday can become a performance. The minister knows what went on behind the scenes, and it's often lonely and empty. Ten years into the ministry, a series of tragic deaths followed by very difficult funerals led me back to where I was as a college student. God was a vacant hole, and I couldn't be his prophet any more. So I left the ministry and became something else.

End of story? I wish. There is something in me that is always searching for meaning and purpose, a philosopher, I suppose. And I couldn't let go of the idea that there was some objective source of meaning that could somehow be found in religion. So I went back. They took me back. I fought for many long years to shape religion into a form that would be acceptable to my congregants and yet also acceptable to me. I couldn't. I can't. I quit.

But, I haven't circled back to that terrified college student this time. I love the world too much to give up on meaning and purpose. I love the stars; I love the furtive fox trotting through my back yard, the wren that sings against the cold, white heart of winter, the bright eyes of a wandering infant. For as long as I live, I will devote myself to enhancing life. If there is a God, she is no more than the Universe and no less. I would never go back to religion. But I will never stop loving the world.

Beyond the Blackthorn Tree

Derry writer and artist Thomas Dixie Elliot with a short story rooted in the IRA's failed campaign to secure British withdrawal. Its central theme contrasts volunteer-commitment with politician-opportunism.
Two ancient Tilly lamps were all that lit the farmhouse parlour, the light casting long shadows in the room. One Tilly lamp had been placed upon the mantel piece of a smoke stained inglenook fireplace and the other gave light from where it was positioned on a heavy oak kitchen table.

The man seated on the busted armchair was lean and had the look of one who worked the land about him. He was someone who cared little about his personal appearance, the heavy stubble on his face attested to that.

His younger companion who paced the stone floor seemed to be the cause of his apparent annoyance. His head rested back on the armchair and his hands gripped both arms tightly. Although his eyes followed the toing and froing of his companion his mind was obviously elsewhere.

“Where the fuck’s that bastard Brian Daly?” The pacing youth looked to the older one seeking an answer. “He said he was popping out to check on something.” He then threw a sidewards glance at a clock on the wall, as if that might have the answer to his question. “How long ago was that? Eh?

“Those lads won’t take too kindly to your swearing,” said the older man nodding at several pictures which hung side by side on the far wall. The youth looked at them, he was fresh faced, his thick dark hair was long at the back, short at the sides; the fashion of the time. His eyes could barely make out the pictures in the gloom, but he did recognise John F Kennedy straight away and of course the same image of Christ that his Mother kept on the wall at home. He wasn’t sure who the Pope was however, he could never remember their names. The Catholic teaching of his childhood had him make a hasteful and hopefully unseen Sign of the Cross on his chest.

The older man wasn’t looking, he leaned to the side and picked up an Armalite rifle which he had propped against a wall within reaching distance of the armchair where he sat. The click he made by unclipping the magazine made the youth flinch. He didn’t even check the magazine but clicked it back into place. A deliberate act done for his own amusement at his younger, inexperienced comrade’s expense.

“And you’d better not let your OC hear you calling him a bastard. Even if he is one.”

The curtains were drawn tightly as rain lashed the window panes. The wind rattled the doors and made it’s way down the chimney to chill them both to the bones.

“Can’t we light the fire John Joe?” Asked the Youth.

“That fire died with old Sha Johnston.” Replied John Joe, “and it’s staying dead, Michael lad.”

“Sha Johnston? Who was he?” Asked Michael, staring at the hearth as if he’d see the dead man in the ashes.

“Sha was an old timer, did his part in the forties, was interned back then and led the IRA in these parts during the Border Campaign.” John Joe paused to reflect before continuing. “The Brits raided this place more times than enough over the years and dragged him from his bed on many’s an early morning with the balls freezing off him. They never got so much as a bullet but kept the farm under surveillance. We knew to stay away so they eventually put him down as an old shit who the IRA never bothered with anymore. And they left him alone.”

“May he rest in peace.” Said Michael, before adding, “but why can’t we light the fire?”

“Because the Brits know he’s dead and this farm is no longer in use. If it’s no longer in use the bastards will kick the door in if they see smoke coming from the chimney. Use your bloody head and fucking well think lad.”

Michael looked like a school child who had been chastised by his teacher for making a basic spelling mistake.

“And that’s why we can’t turn on the lights as well.” John Joe put the Armalite back where it had previously been. “They’ll be seen through the curtains.”

Michael studied a calendar which hung from a nail hammered into the wall nearest the Pope. March 1985 had been the last time anyone had torn a month from it. “I take it old Sha died around that time?” He asked.

“A good observation Michael lad. It’s a year since he shuffled off this mortal coil to be once again reunited with his wife in eternal nagging. A right old bat she was. May she rest in peace and may she give him peace as well. But I seriously doubt it.”

Michael smiled. John Joe hadn’t seen a smile on his face that wasn’t a nervous one since they had set out on this operation earlier in the day. Not a bit wonder, ferrying a landmine concealed inside a milk churn in the back of a van when the British Army and the RUC could be lying in wait anywhere along the route wasn’t a smiling matter. Digging it in at the side of the road and running the fuse wire up the track leading to the farmhouse wasn’t something that amused a person. Not a bit of it.

“Don’t worry I still shit myself the odd time as well.” He said.

Michael spun round, connecting with the old dresser as he did so. Several of the old plates fell and smashed on the concrete floor.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” He muttered.

“Damn you Michael do you want the Brits to hear you?” John Joe looked towards the door as if he expected it to be kicked in at any moment.

“They’ll hear nothing with that wind howling outside.” Snapped Michael back at him. “And I’m not shitting myself either.”

He then glanced back at the clock on the wall, the hands hadn’t moved, it was stopped. “Where’s Brian Daly? He should have been back by now. Do you think the Brit’s got him. Do you for fuck’s sake think he’s been caught? What time is it anyway?”

“If that’s not shitting yourself.” Interrupted John Joe.

Michael didn’t answer him, he stood in the centre of the room and listened to the rain and wind raging outside. Somehow it seemed to have worsened.

“Where did that storm come from?” He turned to face John Joe. “Right up until after we had set things up the skies were clear and the moon lit the whole countryside. There was no mention of a storm in the weather forecast. You said it would be clear and we’d see the mobile patrol coming from miles away.” His voice was growing desperate.

John Joe rose from the armchair and headed across to the dresser, the broken plates cracking under his heavy boots. He opened the dresser doors and rifled around inside. “Old Sha should have something in here to soothe the nerves and keep out the cold.” He said. “Old Sha was fond of a drop or two, he was.”

“Ha!” He produced a whiskey bottle which he shook to test how much it contained. “It’s half full. Get a few glasses Michael lad.”

Before Michael could respond he unscrewed the top and put the bottle to his head and took a swig. He looked confused at first then anger crossed his face as he sniffed the bottle. He poured some into a cup and checked it.

“What’s wrong?” Demanded Michael.

“I think that old bastard pissed in this bottle.”

“Does it taste salty?”

“No. No, it’s tasteless, like water. Try it.” He pushed the bottle into Michael’s chest.
Michael looked reluctant but tried a sip anyway. He then took another one. “It’s definitely not piss and it’s definitely not whiskey either. Maybe it went flat?”

“Whiskey doesn’t go flat you eejit, it matures with age.”

Michael placed the bottle on the dresser while John Joe returned to the armchair where he slumped down and tossed his head back once again.

“The landmine.” Said Michael.

“What about it?"

“It must be soaking wet in all this rain. It might not work when and if the time comes.”

“It’s inside a milk churn.”

“Will that keep it dry?”

John Joe stared at Michael for a few moments but did not answer his question. Then he directed his attention towards the door still creaking as the wind pounded it like hammering fists.

“I never trusted that bastard.” He said suddenly.

“Who?”

“Daly.”

“Brian Daly?”

“I was told to shut my mouth and stop bringing the name of a good volunteer into disrepute whenever I raised questions about him.”

Michael was no longer listening, his attention was drawn to something outside.

“Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?"

“I thought I heard a car approaching.”

John Joe rose from his seat while Michael moved towards the window. As he touched one of the curtains he felt John Joe’s hand on his arm.

“Fucking careful lad it could be the Brits.”

Michael started to ease the curtain aside when John Joe gripped his arm tighter.

“Hold on till I put out the Tilly lamps lad” He said moving away.

The room was thrown into total darkness as Micheal looked out the side of the curtains. He stared long and hard into the pitch black night before moving to try the other side.

“Can you see anything?”

Michael’s face was pressing against the dirty glass. He shook his head, then looked again.

“I can see nothing beyond that old Blackthorn tree. It’s too dark out there.”


****

The black BMW eased it’s way along the narrow winding road, the sun reflecting off the year old paint work. It’s tires easily gripped the road as the driver rounded the occasional pot hole.

Time wasn’t on his side, he had been forced to detour off the main road because of a traffic accident. He was now running late for his appointment. He knew these roads only too well he had grown up around here. Grey and thinning hair was a sign that those youthful days were but a distant memory. He was now an important man, that’s why he wore a well pressed white shirt with a green tie. It had to be green. An expensive jacket hung on a hanger in the back seat.

His mobile phone rang, he touched the brake pedal and slowed down almost to a crawl. It wouldn’t do to be caught breaking the law, not someone in his position. Flicking the phone open he immediately recognised the name of a well known journalist. He eased the BMW into the side of the road and stopped before responding to the call.

“I’m sorry to bother you Mr Daly, I’m sure you must be busy.” Said a voice from the other end.

“Not at all Peter and less of the Mr Daly, Brian will do.”

“I’m sure you’ve heard about the latest shooting?”

“I heard a brief mention on the radio.”

“As MLA for the area could you comment on it?”

“Indeed I will Peter. These micro groups are enemies of our peace process but we will not allow them to drag us back to the dark days of the past...”

As he spoke Brian Daly turned and for the first time he caught sight of where he had stopped. His eyes followed the dirt track to the ruined farm house on the hill, the roof had lost many tiles and had begun to sag inwards. Nature was invading it from all directions and crept up it’s walls. Few windows remained intact and the front door hung by a hinge. At the corner where the dirt track met the former farm yard an old Blackthorn tree stood solemn guard, just as he remembered it always had.

He heard the voice speaking to him from the phone, he was still holding it to his ear. He ignored it.

What had brought him along this road and made him stop here? Here of all places?

Several crows rose to the sky in annoyance, something had disturbed or frighted them. Brian Daly saw a curtain moving ever so slightly. The glass in that window was still intact and not a leaf was disturbed by any breeze, so who or what had moved that curtain? Then it moved again, this time the movement occurred on the other side of the window. A cold chill ran down his back.

He turned off his phone and flung it onto the passenger seat. His hand trembled as he turned the ignition key. The BMW purred and he hit the accelerator and roared off down the road.

Two names pounded at his brain; John Joe and Michael. Young Michael.

A clear moonlit night yet they never saw them coming.

How could he ever forget those names? John Joe and Young Michael.

They never saw them coming.

The Trouble With Jeremy Corbyn: Five Tests The Labour Leader Is Failing

From Democratic Audit UK, a critique of Jeremy Corbyn from Patrick Diamond, a University Lecturer in Public Policy at Queen Mary, University of London. 
Much of the Parliamentary Labour Party want to replace Jeremy Corbyn, and his popularity among the general public is low. Yet he was resoundingly re-elected by party members last autumn. Patrick Diamond assesses the Labour leader’s performance as an opposition leader according to five criteria, and concludes the risk of a Labour schism between ‘principles’ and ‘power’ – of the kind that rivened the party in the early 1980s – is considerable. 

Jeremy Corbyn responds to the Spring Budget in March 2016. Photo: UK Parliament/ Jessica Taylor via a CC-BY-NC 2.0 licence.
As criticism of Jeremy Corbyn’s performance as Labour leader grows louder (at least in the popular media and general opinion surveys), it is worth examining what the literature on political leadership tells us about why party leaders succeed or fail. Stuart Ball has outlined five criteria by which to judge an effective opposition leader in UK politics:

First, ‘fresh faces’: does the leadership promote talent to signal a change of political generations and the renewal of the party in the wake of electoral defeat?Second, ‘cohesion’: are they able to maintain loyalty and discipline to project a unified image to the electorate?Third, ‘visibility’: is the leader able to fashion a distinctive, eye-catching agenda which captures the imagination of the electorate, wins the confidence of opinion-formers, and distances the party from a potentially ‘toxic legacy’?Fourth, ‘efficiency’: has the leader been able to build a party machine that can take on the government of the day?Finally, ‘adaptability’: is the leadership sufficiently pragmatic to respond to events, changing its strategy where necessary to win power?Ball’s five yardsticks offer comprehensive – if parsimonious – criteria for assessing the performance of opposition leaders.

Inept party management has been a key factor in Corbyn’s weak leadership performance. Corbyn came under criticism following his first round of Shadow Cabinet appointments, failing to appoint more women to senior positions and undermining his commitment to bring in ‘fresh faces’. His frontbench reshuffles since have been attacked for being poorly co-ordinated, exacerbating the perception that Labour was a divided party.

The ‘cohesion’ of the party has been undermined by the structural problem that Corbyn’s leadership confronts: his narrow base of PLP support. Having won the votes of only 15 MPs in the leadership contest (the other 20 MPs who nominated him did so to ensure the Left had a candidate), Corbyn has struggled to maintain his legitimacy within the parliamentary party. As a ‘serial rebel’ under previous leaders, he struggles to play the loyalty card effectively. The handling of the Trident and Syria votes indicated major party management problems; Corbyn’s ‘prevarication’ about whether to allow a free vote on Syrian intervention signalled he has no plausible strategy to manage his parliamentary colleagues; the attempt to put pressure on MPs through directives from Momentum and the decision to conduct a last minute plebiscite among party members merely antagonised parliamentarians (66 MPs then voted with the government)

These tensions exploded into the open in the summer of 2016 when Corbyn’s PLP colleagues sought to oust him in favour of Owen Smith, the ‘moderate’ candidate. Corbyn’s objective is to democratise the Labour party by promoting greater participation and pluralism, but opponents insist he is intent on ‘purging’ Labour of its residual ‘Blairite’ elements.

Corbyn has encountered additional problems in projecting ‘visibility’. He had been written-off by most opinion formers and a hostile press, even as his victory in the recent leadership contest was confirmed. He may have links to liberal-left newspapers, but while The Guardian/Observer have a combined online audience of 5.3 million, the vociferously hostile Sun and Sun (Sunday) have 13.5 million readers. There are doubts about the breadth of Corbyn’s appeal given his cultural identity as a left-wing metropolitan liberal representing the constituency of Islington North, allegedly ‘a world away’ from the concerns of most uncommitted Labour voters. Some point out that a moderate version of Corbyn’s views on the central policy issues relating to the economy, welfare, immigration and foreign affairs was decisively rejected by voters in the 2015 general election.

Neither is Corbyn in a position to ignore or discount electability, as his allies struggled to explain Labour’s poor performance in the recent Copeland and Stoke Central by-elections. It might be argued that any leader would have a formidable task in restoring Labour’s ‘efficiency’ as an opposition party. Labour has not won a major election for a decade, while the party has suffered a sharp erosion of support due to the unpopularity of its previous leaders and its inability to manage the issue of immigration (Clarke, Sanders, Stewart, & Whiteley, 2014). The 2015 election underlined the fracturing of Labour’s electoral base, particularly in Scotland where the party’s vote haemorrhaged. In the North of England, Labour’s traditional strongholds have been under attack from the UK Independence Party. The social base of the labour movement, notably trade union membership, has suffered a marked decline. Labour’s travails cannot be attributed solely to Corbyn’s leadership performance; but as John Curtice has pointed out: ‘it can often be difficult to disentangle cause and effect in the relationship between a party’s overall standing and the rating of its leader’.

Finally, there are clearly limits to Corbyn’s ‘adaptability’ which have undermined his success. He rejects the hard-headed instincts of previous leaders, while his commitment to Labour as a party of government is ambiguous. Corbyn’s supporters are less motivated by the imperative of winning elections; they want to articulate their values and reject the New Labour legacy of Iraq and inequality. According to YouGov, 71 per cent of those who voted for Corbyn in the leadership contest believed parties should put forward policies ‘irrespective of whether they help to win elections’.

In rejecting New Labour, Corbyn is emphasising his reluctance to play the game of ‘valence’ politics, despite the fact ‘valence’ remains the best predictor of electoral outcomes in Western European democracies.

In building up his own Momentum organisation and trying to amend the constitutional rules of the Labour party to favour the Left, Corbyn has sought to ‘make the weather’ as leader rather than accepting the structural context he inherited. This strategy was comprehensible in its own terms; the Left has an unprecedented opportunity to refashion the Labour party in its image, a position it will be reluctant to forfeit after decades in the wilderness. The risk for Corbyn, however, is that efforts to reshape the PLP in the leader’s image recreate the historical schism between ‘principle’ and ‘power’ that almost destroyed Labour in the early 1980s. Major question marks over the viability of Corbyn’s long-term leadership are likely to remain.
ReferenceClarke, H., Sanders, D., Stewart, M. C., & Whiteley, P. F. (2014). Performance politics and the British voter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
This post represents the views of the author and not those of Democratic Audit.

Georgia’s Failure To Protect Exiled Journalists

The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom hit out at the treatment of journalists in Georgia.
Georgia’s failure to protect exiled journalists contradicts country’s commitments under EU Association Agreement
The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) strongly condemns the abduction of Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli from his Tbilisi, Georgia exile on 29 May 2017. Mukhtarli, a long-time critic of the Azerbaijani government, is currently detained in that country’s capital, Baku, according to his lawyer Elchin Sadiqov.

ECPMF Board Chairman Henrik Kaufholz says:

While we demand his immediate release from Azerbaijani detention, Mukhtarli's abduction is just the latest example of the Georgian government's inability or unwillingness to protect Azerbaijani journalists who have sought refuge in Georgia. Time after time in recent months, Azerbaijani journalists in Georgia have been harrassed by local law enforcement, denied re-entry into the country or have not had their residence permits renewed.

Kaufholz adds:

The ECPMF considers this conduct by the Georgian government to be entirely irreconcilable with their commitments vis-a-vis the European Union in the recent association negotiations. We urge the Georgian government to live up to its responsibilities and call on the EU Commission and on EU member states to take immediate action and remind Georgia of its promises.

Nothing More Than A List

Press Statement from Kate Nash hitting out at the Bloody Sunday Trust and Museum Of Free Derry.
The hurt and anger which our family and others feel about the inclusion of our relatives on the Free Derry Museum exhibit, which The Bloody Sunday Trust and MODF chose to trivialise as nothing more than ‘a list,’ is clearly shared by others bereaved by the deaths of their relatives who served in the RUC and British Army. We have no wish to add to the pain of loss of others.

This is not about hierarchies or disrespect of others bereaved in war, it is about the accountability function, and governance of a community asset and the arrogance of those who manage both The Bloody Sunday Trust and Museum of Free Derry toward families who do not share their political perspectives.

The core issue here, is that without reference to, consultation with or permission from the relatives of all those whose names and the circumstances of their death form a single museum exhibit, the Trust took on to itself an authority that was not heirs to take.

Why did the Trust decide that this specific ‘list’ should be an exhibit in the museum? It is not a pre -existing artefact but something they consciously decided to create and commission. They decided the brief for this exhibit – the boundaries of this’ list’ both in time; location and manner of death. They designed this list in such a way that it includes local people, non-combatants, who died at the hands of the State and those employed by the state and others who died at the hands of the IRA.
Why did they decide to do that? Who did they consult on any of it? Nobody!

The lack of sensitivity, accountability and the arrogance of a Trust specifically set up to assist the families is what is at issue. Especially when the overwhelming local sentiment is that it is inappropriate. If this was the Imperial War Museum or The National Museum this list might have some rationale and be a lot longer, but this is the people's museum and the people's narrative.

The Museum of Free Derry is owned entirely by the Bloody Sunday Trust who hold it for the charitable purposes of the Trust: to support the Bloody Sunday Families and the pursuit of justice and truth. It is not private property!

To claim that because the Trust hires people who have themselves been bereaved through these events removes the need or responsibility to properly consult and be responsive to the concerns of all the families is symptomatic of the problem. This Trust has now substituted itself for the people, and acts as if it is answerable to nobody, and that the museum, together with the history of the local area is their private property to do with as they wish.

To ask if the Trust were pressurised into this action as a funding requirement is a valid question. They have clearly said this is not the case. So why and when did the Bloody Sunday Trust create this specific exhibit? They should produce the record of the who, when, and how of the decision to commission and create this exhibition and inform the people for whose public benefit the Trust exists who was excluded / included from any consultation process and on what basis?

Until they have secured the support and permission of all of the families of those listed on this exhibit for their inclusion, the exhibit should be removed.

Waterboarding For An Ireland Of Equals

Matt Treacy, writing in Brocaire Books, wonders how the Jonathan Dowdall, jailed today for a vicious assault, ever made his way into Sinn Fein. Matt Treacy, a former IRA prisoner, is author of A Tunnel To The Moon.

The first I ever heard of Jonathan Dowdall was when a long standing republican, and former IRA prisoner, asked me had I heard he had been selected to run in the local elections in 2014.

I confess to having long gotten past the stage of caring one way or another who Sinn Féin ran for anything. My friend was persuasive, however, and there is no doubt that the activities of Dowdall, his family and associates were no secret when the decision was made to have him as a candidate in the north inner city.

So why was he selected? Why were other people who had devoted years to the movement, and indeed paid a price for that, been passed over? What was this chap bringing to the table?

Hindsight is 20:20 as they say but this would be like the New Jersey Democrats selecting Paulie from The Sopranos to run for Councilman.

What makes it all the more galling is that while people like this were being given the imprimatur of the “movement,” that other people were being bullied and intimidated over money and other work related issues. I suppose we can count ourselves fortunate that we were not invited up to the Navan Road to discuss our “issues.”

The simple fact is that while creatures like the Dowdalls were being made councillors and having their photographs taken with the great and the good, long standing members and activists were being threatened over not handing over a significant part of their wages.

Others were forced out of their jobs in a manner that if it was perpetrated by any other employer you would have Sinn Féin TDs crying about it on the telly. Indeed when Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins interrupted the Shinner Waterford TD David Cullinane, while in emotional free flow about “the werkers”, to remind him of the disgraceful treatment of Sinn Féin employee Aoife Booth, Cullinane lost the plot. He demanded that Collins withdraw his “despicable” remarks. Workers rights my arse.

The list of Sinn Féin workers, including former elected representatives, who have been paid off in out of court settlements to prevent the embarrassment of the workers' friends being exposed for what they are would fill a few pages.

And to add insult to injury, while myself and others were told that we were “living beyond our means,” and should therefore pay the vig, the likes of the Dowdalls were being taken in.

Animal Farm. Literally it would seem in this case…

Where Food Is More Than Nourishment

Stanley Cohen looks at the role of hunger strike in an international context. An edited version of this article featured in Aljazeera .
What do Bobby Sands, Nelson Mandela and Palestinian hunger strikers have in common?

Hunger strikes are no stranger to the Palestinian political landscape [Reuters]
Count time, count time, count time. In prisons all across the world, in as many different languages as there are cruel autocratic despots hanging on to ruthless power, political prisoners are called out from the isolation of their cell-blocks to stand for a moment to ensure they’ve somehow not magically escaped from the dungeons and catacombs they call home. What’s missed? For them, prison is a choice... principle is not.
The march from Bobby Sands to Mandela to Palestinian hunger strikers is steady and unbroken. It derives its strength from resistance as ancient as tyranny itself. Often faceless to most but themselves, each collective that has struggled to maintain personal dignity in pursuit of shared justice has become a torch bearer... inheritors of an age-old arch of liberty bound by resistance, sacrifice and little else. It’s enough.
Who today remembers the names of Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst?  In early 20th Century England, these pioneering suffragettes and their many sisters were imprisoned time and time again for little more than rejecting ageless systemic patriarchy. Once there, many said no to food while their jailers said yes to torture. In a powerful account of the effects of forced feeding, suffragette Mary Leigh recounted her experience:

I was then surrounded and forced back onto the chair, which was tilted backward. There were about ten persons around me. The doctor then forced my mouth so as to form a pouch, and held me while one of the wardresses poured some liquid from a spoon; it was milk and brandy. After giving me what he thought was sufficient, he sprinkled me with eau de cologne, and wardresses then escorted me to another cell on the first floor. The wardresses forced me onto a bed (in the cell) and two doctors came in with them. While I was held down a nasal tube was inserted. It was two yards long, with a funnel at the end; there was a glass junction in the middle to see if the liquid was passing. The end was put up left and right nostrils on alternate days. Great pain was experienced during the process, both mental and physical. One doctor inserted the end up my nostril while I was held down by the wardresses, during which process they must have seen my pain, for the other doctor interfered (the matron and two other wardresses were in tears) and they stopped and resorted to feeding me by spoon. More eau de cologne was used.

South Africa

Robben Island, located within view of the waterfront of Cape Town South Africa, has been used since the end of the 17th century to isolate political prisoners of the day. In the mid 1740’s, after leading the early resistance against the Dutch East India Company, Sayed Abdurahman Moturu (one of Cape Town’s first imams) was exiled there... where he died a decade later. His gravestone was to become a shrine that Muslim political prisoners would pay homage to when leaving the island.

The country’s highest security prison, Robben Island was home to a veritable who’s who of political resistance during the revolution that ultimately toppled South African Apartheid. Nelson Mandela served 18 of his 27 years there (initially under a life sentence) as did two others who went on to become President of South Africa... Kgalema Motlanthe and the current President, Jacob Zuma.

One month after Mandela’s release on February 11, 1990, hundreds of other remaining political prisoners, including members of the African National Congress (ANC), its rival the Pan-Africanist Congress, and the Black Consciousness Movement went on a hunger strike demanding their release under a general amnesty for those formally designated as political prisoners.

Precluded from the amnesty because of their individual tactics in confronting apartheid, hunger strikers challenged the government’s attempt to define “acceptable” resistance.

In a statement of political principle, smuggled from the Island, hunger strikers defined political prisoners as ''all incarcerated people who have engaged themselves in various ways in the struggle against the system of apartheid.” Not long thereafter, most of these strikers were released.

An earlier hunger strike in 1989, in South Africa, proved to be no less successful. At the time, hundreds of political prisoners, who had been imprisoned without charges for almost three years, demanded the government end its policy of indefinite detentions and either free its 1,000 detainees or bring them to court.

In the years leading up to this strike, over thirty thousand political detainees had been held for various periods, in administrative detention, without benefit of formal court proceedings through a state policy that permitted the arrest and detention of anyone considered to be a “threat” to public safety without filing of formal charges.

Approximately a month after the strike began, and which resulted in nearly two dozen strikers being hospitalized, the government released hundreds of uncharged detainees and cut back substantially on its practice of indefinite detention without trial.


The IRA

Often, hunger strikes do not end with a joyful break to fast but rather loss of life. Nowhere is that ultimate sacrifice more dramatically spoken than in the not too distant history of Republican resistance to British tyranny.

Beginning first in 1972, then again in 1980... and finally for some 217 days in 1981, Republicans, by the dozens, refused food as they risked all to obtain, among other things, prisoner of war status, the right to wear their own clothing, and freedom of association. 

When the final hunger strike ended, 7 members of the Provisional IRA and three from the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) died in Long Kesh Prison, or the Maze (located just outside Belfast in the North of Ireland), during a staggered protest which, in its later stages, drew in a new political prisoner each week.

Although Bobby Sands, who died less than a month after being elected a Member of Parliament, has become synonymous with the hunger strike, an additional ten political prisoners sacrificed their lives inside the Maze and another 61 people lost their lives to related street violence which raged outside its walls during the strike’s seven months.

In a begrudging testament to the determination and sacrifice of the strikers, some year’s later one of the prison jailers noted:

At first we thought they were dirty animals. The stench was incredible. Our stomachs turned when we went near the cells and we couldn’t understand how anyone could live in such filth. But eventually there was some grudging respect for those on the protest. They were incredibly determined. I didn’t agree with what they were doing but you had to admire them for sticking it out. At first I thought it would only last a few days, or a week or two at the most, but they kept going for years and then queued up to give their lives. I don’t think I would have been able to do it, no matter what the cause.” [pp 256-257, Inside The Maze – The Untold Story of the Northern Ireland Prison Service by Chris Ryder. Methuen 2000. ISBN 0 413 75240 2]

Palestine

Like IRA hunger strikers, to many, resistance is born not of simple choice but, rather, principled necessity... no matter what the ultimate personal cost. Nowhere is that more powerfully viewed than through the prism of Palestinian political prisoners who, by the thousands, have lived and, often, died in their timeless campaigns to obtain justice from deep behind the mask of prisons walls.

Indeed, just as political prisoners played an essential role in ultimately bringing down apartheid in South Africa, so, too, Palestinian political prisoners have long been in the vanguard of a national struggle to confront and dismantle the shroud of Israeli apartheid.

Today, in prisons throughout Israel, more than 1800 political prisoners, including hundreds of uncharged detainees, have now entered the second month of a mass hunger strike. Growing each day in strength and determination, the strike, which began on Palestine Prisoners day, added two hundred more detainees just this past week. The strikers demand a range of fundamental human and political rights including an end to administrative detention, an end to solitary confinement, more time to visit with families and the ability to pursue higher education.

Hunger strikes are no stranger to the Palestinian political landscape. Over the years, they’ve played a central role in challenging a despotic state fueled and sustained by arbitrary, often indefinite, detention under inhumane conditions of confinement punctuated by outright torture that has taken the lives of at least 75 political prisoners since 1967.

Ranging from short-term, individual or small group defiance, in isolated prisons to mass hunger strikes, by the thousands, that quickly spread throughout the Israeli Gulag, these acts of political will and resistance have a history going back some 50 years. Beginning in 1969 with a spontaneous short lived hunger strike in two prisons, they reached their numerical high-point in 1992 when some 7000 prisoners stopped eating for more than two weeks.  

On other occasions, thousands of Palestinian political prisoners have refused food: 3000 for 20 days in 1987, 4000 over 18 days in 2004 and 2000 during a month long hunger strike in 2012.

In the longest hunger strike to date, several hundred prisoners refused food for some 63 days in 2014. During that strike, 70 were hospitalized and subsequently returned to prison. In 1970, hunger striker Abdul QaderAbu al-Fahm was not so fortunate. Nor were Rasem Halawah and Ali Jafari in 1980. These three hunger strikers died as a result of forced feeding procedures. 

Though strikers have challenged a wide range of conditions of confinement over the years, including arbitrary treatment, widespread use of solitary confinement, substandard prison conditions, bans on family visits, poor medical care and the failure to meet sanitary needs of women prisoners... the one constant, throughout, has been a challenge to the system of administrative detention. 

Under this practice, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian prisoners have been detained, many for years on end and without any formal charges or the benefit of civilian judicial proceedings in clear violation of well settled international humanitarian law.

In 2011, renowned professor and author, Ahmad Qatamesh (recently again detained only a few days ago), who has spent more than eight and a half years in prison during multiple administrative detentions, noted, in one of his rote appearances before a military court, what generations of Palestinian detainees have experienced:

You are destroying my life and I want to know why. As a human being I have my own mind and I am educated, and I want to know what I am detained for. The military prosecution talks of its professionalism, and meanwhile I have no rights?

Administrative detention is detention without safeguards of formal charge or trial. When prolonged or repeated, it constitutes cruel and degrading treatment or punishment. Like in South Africa, it remains the hallmark of a draconian “security” system which has been used since 1967 to dampen political resistance in the Occupied Territories.

It has been estimated that, at any given time, some three to four thousand “security prisoners” are detained, or serving sentences, in Israeli prisons under far more severe conditions than those established for “criminal prisoners.”

Likewise, at any given time, hundreds of these security prisoners are held pursuant to purely administrative detention orders with no intention by Israel to ever try them for a criminal offense... in clear violation of their fundamental rights to a fair trial.


International Human-Rights

The right to liberty is one of the core tenets of human rights and prolonged arbitrary detention constitutes a fundamental breach of international customary law.

In relevant part, Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states:


1. Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedures as are established by law.

2. Anyone who is arrested shall be informed, at the time of arrest, of the reasons for his arrest and shall be promptly informed of any charges against him.

3. Anyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings before a court, in order that that court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his detention and order his release if the detention is not lawful.

The provisions of the Covenant are not absolute and provide some flexibility in limited, and well defined, circumstances which permit States to temporarily suspend its mandate. However, the exception was not intended to provide a pretext whereby a state may escape its obligations by simply declaring itself to be in a perpetual public emergency. Yet, that is precisely what Israel has done throughout its existence.

Under Article 4.1 of the Covenant, “[i]n times of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation”, the state may infringe, to a restricted extent, the rights enshrined in some of the articles, including the article addressing the right to liberty. Even then, the state is restricted and may only take vital measures, and only “to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation.” (Emphasis provided)

Furthermore Article 4.3 requires states which seek to avail themselves of the right of derogation to give advance notice of their intention to the Secretary-General of the United Nations on a case by case basis.

In what can only be described as a perverse illustration of the exception swallowing the rule, since its foundation, Israel has declared itself to be in a perpetual state of emergency and thus removed from any of its obligations under this particular human rights provision.


Israeli Torture

To understand the determination of Palestinian hunger strikers demands a walk down the pathway of history of those that have been swept up by a brutal state that sees no limit to its power or abuse.

Israel views all who challenge its reach as enemy combatants whether they be 10 year olds who refuse to stop when ordered or 80 year olds who carry the bodies of their murdered grandchildren to the martyr’s cemeteries that have become so much the norm throughout Occupied Palestine.

Not to be confused with an enlightened state, in Israel, Palestinian detainees can be interrogated for a period of 75 days and denied access to a lawyer for up to 60. Historically, it has made brutal use of essentially unlimited interrogation opportunities of political detainees without the safeguard of counsel.

Until outlawed, in 1999, by its High Court of Justice, Israeli agents routinely used interrogation methods that constitute a veritable primer for torture. Among other procedures, detainees were subjected to sleep deprivation by binding them in painful positions, playing loud music or covering their heads with a filthy sack while exposed to extreme heat or cold.

Often, they were tied to a low chair that was tilted forward with their hands tightly cuffed. On other occasions interrogees were forced to stand with their hands tied and drawn upwards, forced to lie on their back on a high stool with their body arched backwards, or made to crouch on their toes with their hands tied behind them. Violent shaking of detainees was very much the norm with the interrogator using threats and curses, as well as feeding them poor-quality and insufficient amounts of food.

Notwithstanding its ban of such techniques, the court went on to hold that agents could continue to use "physical pressure" upon detainees in the matter of a  so-called "ticking time-bomb," relying on the rationale of “necessity.” 

As reported in May of 2007, agents continued to rely upon this judicial imprimatur for lawful torture in a “small” percentage of cases. Thus, “interrogation” steps pursuant to this exception included sleep deprivation, beatings, painful cuffing, and sudden pulling of the body, twisting of the head, and back bending.

Today, Palestinian political prisoners report that conditions of confinement and interrogation represent but a variation on a theme rendered illegal almost 20 years ago.

For example, many detainees report being held in solitary confinement in narrow windowless cells completely isolated from their surroundings. Others described exposure to extremes of heat and cold and sleep deprivation caused by artificial lighting painful to the eyes. Hygienic conditions have been depicted as abominable; among other things, prison authorities often do not allow detainees to shower, change clothes, or even use toilet paper. Food is poor in quality and quantity, and detainees lose weight while in custody.

In the interrogation room, itself, prisoners are forced to sit bound to a chair and cannot move for hours and even days at a time. Interrogators routinely shout at and torment detainees, often including threats to harm their relatives. On occasion physical force is still used against them.

Palestinian Political Prisoners

As of April, 2017, there were 6300 political prisoners, including 300 children, 61 females and 13 Palestinian Legislative Council members, entombed in Israeli prisons. In addition, 500 uncharged and untried detainees languish alongside them completely in the dark as to what it is they did that caused the loss of their freedom.

These political prisoners continue an unbroken march of 50 years in which as of 11 December 2012, the office of then Prime Minister Salam Fayyad reported that since 1967, 800,000 Palestinians, or roughly 20% of the total population and 40% of the male population, had been imprisoned by Israel at one point in time.

According to Palestinian estimates, 70% of Palestinian families have had one or more family members sentenced to jail terms in Israeli prisons as a result of activities against the occupation.

The latest Palestinian hunger strike has now reached day 40 (May 26, 2017) with 60 prisoners sent to hospital because their medical condition had deteriorated. 592 others have been moved for observation to infirmaries set up in the prisons.

If history is indeed an accurate predictor of events yet to unfold, some, perhaps many, of these prisoners will die from forced feeding procedures which offend prevailing worldwide medical standards.

In Palestine, the streets have exploded in support of hunger strikers by family and friends and those who share their national journey by virtue of being stateless people in their own occupied homeland. Many have been injured, including those felled by Israeli gun fire. 

In dozens of countries across the world, demonstrations by activists, students, trade union members, religious leaders and parliamentarians have taken place in support of the hunger strike.

Demonstrators have called for a global one day hunger strike in support of Palestinian prisoners.

More than a dozen South African political leaders and public figures recently undertook a day-long solidarity fast including deputy minister Nomaindia Mfeketo – who herself was detained several times in the 1980s for anti-government activism.

Of the millions worldwide who have stood as one in support of the strike one voice sums up the spirit and determination of Palestinian hunger strikers:


Our resisting people

I address you from behind the barbed wire on the 37th day of the battle for freedom and dignity to inform you that our bodies may be weakened and barely able to move, but our spirits reach the sky, and despite the stretch of the battle and its ferocity, we are determined to continue until we achieve victory, not only for us but for all of our people.

The prison and security authorities have tried through several meetings offered to us to suspend the strike and discuss our demands after that, but we refused and have categorically rejected this approach.

We are determined to complete the mission to the fullest. This battle is not only a battle of prisoners and their demands, but it is the battle of the people and their dignity.

It is no secret that weakness and fatigue have hit our bodies, but our will and determination have grown and strengthened above the ability of our bodies.

On the 37th day, we assure you that we will not retreat before the escalation and arrogance of the occupier. We will escalate our steps of struggle in the days to come, at the forefront of these steps to refrain from taking salt water.

This requires a parallel escalation of our people and our supporters to expand and take the battle everywhere.

The occupation and its jailers have imprisoned our bodies, but our souls remain resisting and free.

We will not retreat, will not retreat, will not retreat.

Either victory or martyrdom.

Karim Younes

Isolation cells, Ramle Ayalon prison

We Must Keep Going To Concerts

Andrew Copson,   Chief Executive of  Humanists UK, appeals for assistance in the run up to the UK general election.
The tragic events in Manchester last week remind us of a simple truth: that all we have is each other. 

We were deeply moved by the outpouring of support from Mancunians in the wake of this attack, and the sheer humanity and goodwill we saw on the streets of Albert Square in Manchester the following evening.
Every life lost to the bomber's heinous act was a treasure; a story interrupted and never to be finished; a song that will never play its final note. Our trained pastoral carers are on hand to offer support to anyone in the area who is struggling with grief or other feelings following the attack; simply contact info@nrpsn.org.uk. 

It is absolutely right that politicians should seek to challenge the fundamentalist Islamist ideology which motivated this brutal attack, which much like the ISIS attack on the Bataclan in Paris in 2015 chose to target young people enjoying one of life's most universal joys: listening to music with your friends.
As humanists, we have some responsibility here: to speak clearly and confidently about these issues and to support liberal Muslim and ex-Muslim voices who have joined in the condemnation of Islamist killers. 

As humanists, we also have a duty to think long and hard about what we can do to support lasting change for a better society. And while we cannot pretend that we do not live in a world of uncertainty and cruelty, we also must not give up those precious rights and freedoms which make our lives worth living.
We must keep going to concerts, eating at restaurants, drawing cartoons, championing and debating new ideas, and whatever other simple pleasures give us joy. To do anything less would be to capitulate, utterly and finally, to those hate-filled killers who preach a life without freedom, without justice, without pleasure.

We must continue to strive for a more tolerant, rational, and kind society in the here and now. On this front, we have created an election hub to help inform voters about how the current political parties stand on humanist issues. We are also asking for your help collect data on prospective parliamentary candidates across the UK, so that whatever happens on 8 June, we are in the best possible position to continue promoting free thinking and freedom of choice, so that everyone can live in a fair and equal society. 

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Copson

Chief Executive
Humanists UK