REFUGI 307

The Feast

2009-06-21T23:31:00.005Z

Jean Michel Folon. The Feast.

Last Friday the UN reported that world hunger has
reached a record high of one billion people.

One-sixth of the world's population.

"The first time in human history that we have so many
hungry people in the world."

And "a serious risk" to world peace and security, said the
director general of the FAO.

Needless to say the majority are not from the "developed"
countries (the report cites a mere fifteen million).

I get repetitive but no doubt NATO (see below June 10th)
not to say total inanition of the risk, will justify their
scandalous budget and save us from the starving hordes.

The Flix Shelter

2009-06-19T21:43:00.005Z

Miguel Carrillo and Oscar Bosch
Flix June 2008

We also wanted to see the Civil War air raid shelter that
had recently been refurbished and opened to the public.

But weren't sure where it was.

Miguel went into the market hall to ask and, one of those
lucky coincidences, found one of the Flix town councillors,
Sr. Oscar Bosch, having breakfast.*

He was kind enough to leave his family and meal to come
outside to show us where to go. During the conversation
I had an idea. Cities and towns are always being twinned for
cultural exchanges - why not twin our air raid shelter in
Poble Sec with the one in Flix? Sr Bosch was very open to the
idea. calling cards were exchanged and we all promised to work
on the idea and get in touch after the summer.

We left in search of the shelter.

*For those visiting Spain, it is often a very good idea to eat in
the cafés and little restaurants inside or around the markets.

Saturday 20th June

I have just read that Sr Bosch has just been elected Lord
Mayor of Flix. Congratulations!

2009-06-19T21:41:00.008Z

The subterranean shelter that runs between carrer
St Josep and plaça de la Música. Flix. June 2008.

The shelter, one of several documented in the town, was
locked - visits have to be booked in advance.

No matter, there would be occasions in the future to visit,
we thought, once our twinning project got off the ground.

But I took some photos through the railings of the door.
You can just see the typical zigzagging of the tunnel,
designed to minimize the effects of possible bomb blasts,
and the subsequent shock waves and fragmentation.

Flix was one of the first towns in Catalonia to suffer an attack
from the air.

It was a strategic target with its hydro-electric power station,
the electrochemical plant which the fascists said was
manufacturing mustard gas (thought the experts in this field
were Franco's German allies) and the iron bridge was an
important transit point for troops and supplies across the Ebro
River.

On the night of 23rd february 1937 a raid on the chemical factory
part of which had been converted to a military hospital, and the
town began. It lasted four hours. Eight dead, numerous injured
and a terrified civilian population that took to the caves in the
hills.

We, the lucky ones who have never lived a war, are so used to the
virtual experience via assorted screens it's hard to imagine the
horror and the panic these first air raids caused. Not surprisingly,
the town with a population, then, of around 3,300 quickly organized
the construction of eight shelters.

What has been a little surprising is the success of my idea to twin
the shelters. But then Flix seems to be a town with a sensitivity to
historical memory that dates from well before the recent vogue to
recuperate the Republican experience in the Civil War - just the
date of the installation of the monument to the International
Brigades, 1990, is indicative. Most of Catalonia at the time was
more concerned with the imminent celebration of the Barcelona
Olympic Games.

But then Flix seems to display a felicitous good taste in its choice
of lord mayors. Information above on the February air raid is
from the book Alemanys al'Ebre by the historian, and previous
lord mayor of Flix, Pere Muñoz.

Next Saturday 27th at 12 o' clock there will be an inaugural act
at Refugi 307 in Poble Sec to celebrate the twinning of the
shelters.

Flix

2009-06-18T23:49:00.005Z

Stork nesting. Flix. June 2008

Shelter from the Storm

Flix is a small town.

On the Ebre river in Catalonia.

Where so many died that summer of 1938.

The battle lost, here, against fascism.

I am privileged.

My life always lived at a safe distance from conflicts.

That continue.

I am privileged.

I have a student, a friend, Miguel, who took me, 70 years later,
to find the memories.

The forgotten battlefields.

Remembered friends.

Wild rosemary in the hot blue afternoon.

So silent

In this sunlight

There are no bombs now

To stop

The storks nesting.

2009-06-18T23:48:00.006Z

Inscription on the base of the monument to the International
Brigades. Flix. June 2008.

We had gone to Flix to photograph the monument to the
memory of the Italian (and other) antifascist volunteers
for an exhibition Miguel was preparing on the Battle of the
Ebro.

The inscription reads:

1938

Here, on the Ebro

Antifascist volunteers from Italy
And from all over the world
Fought beside the Spanish people
For Justice, Liberty and Democracy
In the last great battle of the Republican Army

25.10.1990

2009-06-18T23:47:00.007Z

At the foot of the monument there is a commemorative plaque,
installed 15 years later, in homage to Milton Wolff, who died
last year, and the Lincoln Brigade.

In recent years he and other surviving members of the
International Brigades had returned to Spain for diffferent
acts in recognition and celebration of their solidarity.

THE PEOPLE OF FLIX
TO MILTON WOLFF AND THE INTERNATIONAL
LINCOLN BRIGADE
WHO FOUGHT FOR FREEDOM
AND THE REPUBLIC

6 NOVEMBER 2005

Putting out the fire with gasoline

2009-06-10T23:00:00.011Z

Duality of Humanity
Shepard Fairey

"Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my Browning"

Hermann Göring.
(Again)

Last April, in Strasbourg, they celebrated the 60th Anniversary
Summit of NATO.

With pomp and ceremony and Obama.

And riot police armed to the teeth.

Because members of anti-war and peace movements from
19 different countries had planned a counter summit with
cultural events and demonstrations in protest as they believe
that NATO has become the "key vehicle for the US and its allies
to pursue their wars."

And sell themselves the arms they produce.

Only the violent protesters got media coverage.

Of course.

One has to justify the €150 million cost of policing the 3-day
event.

Some figures from the NATO Defence Expenditure Report
(Estimated for 2007)

USA.......... 545,328,000,000 dollars
France........ 44,283,000,000 euros
UK............. 31,629,000,000 pounds
Germany...... 30,739,000,000 euros
Spain.......... 12,771,000,000 euros

Guns and Butter

2009-06-08T12:03:00.003Z

John Heartfield (Helmut Herzfeld).
1891-1968.

"We have no butter... but I ask you, would you rather have
guns or butter?"

Hermann Göring.

According to the Stockholm peace institute SIPRI

in a press release today

global military spending reached a record $1,464bn in
2008.

"The global financial crisis has yet to have an impact on major
arms companies' revenues, profits and order backlogs."

Oh I'm so relieved, thought we'd all be out on the streets soon
because of the crisis.

Diego Camacho - Abel Paz.

2009-04-16T23:30:00.011Z

At a homage to Andreu Nin and the POUM
Palau de la Virreina Barcelona 16.6.07

(Which of course he said was a waste of time.)

Diego Camacho Escámez. "Abel Paz"
Las Chocillas, Almeria. 12 August 1921
Gracia, Barcelona. 13 April 2009.

A fighter, a writer.

Of what happened.

And what should be.

An anarchist.

Such a wise, clear, generous heart.

To the end.

"Si la esperanza se apaga
Y el Babel se comienza.
Que antorcha iluminará
Los caminos de la tierra?

Si el azul es un ensueño
Qué será de la innocencia?
Qué será del corazon
Si el Amor no tiene flechas?

Si la muerte es la muerte
Qué será de las poetas
Y de las cosas dormidas
Que ya nadie las recuerda?
Oh sol de las esperanzas!
Agua clara! luna nueva!
Corazones de los niños!
Almas rudas de la piedra!
Hoy siento en el corazon
Un vago temblor de estrellas
Y todas las rosas son
Tan blancas como mi pena."

Federico Garcia Lorca. November 1918.

Accountability. Francesc Boix.

2009-03-24T03:27:00.013Z

Francesc Boix Campo 1920-1951
With his Leica at Mauthausen

Francesc Boix Campo was born in Poble Sec just round the
corner from the small local library which now bears his name.

Just 16 years old when the civil war broke out, he was too young
to enlist, but he had a passion, inherited from his father, for
photography, and a camera - his inseparable Leica. A privilege in
working-class Poble Sec in the 1930s.

A militant in the communist Unified Socialist Youth movement,
he collaborated as a photographer for the magazine Juliol and
served in the Republican army during 1938.

In January 1939 he left his homeland for France with the thousands
of other refugees who, quite rightly, feared for their lives when
Franco and his fascist hordes won the war.

He was young and he survived, though so many did not, the terrible
conditions of the French internment camps set up for the Spanish
Republicans.

Though one war was lost, he knew the fight against fascism had
barely begun. He volunteered and was incorporated into the 28th
Foreign Workers Battalion of the French Army. Sent north he was
caught by the invading Nazis in 1940 and deported to the
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex in Austria.

It was the camp for the Spanish Republicans (60%) along with the
gypsies, the homosexuals, the Jehovah's Witnesses and of course the
Jews.

In his book "Spaniards in the Holocaust: the Horror on the Danube"
David Wingeate cites 23,400 registered Spanish prisoners in
Mauthausen, though some sources cite less.

But all coincide that over two-thirds died.

Francesc was lucky.

At the request of another Catalan prisoner, Antonio Garcia Alonso,
he worked in the camp´s photographic laboratory. Prisoners were
photographed on arrival, for identification and when they died, for
the record. More incriminatingly for those who would later deny
participation, official visits to the camp by Nazi officials were also
photographed.

Garcia was a professional photographer. When he arrived at
Mauthausen he was sent to work in the laboratory where a Polish
prisoner, Grabowski (who would commit suicide before the camp
was liberated) had started making secret copies of key photos.
Garcia collaborated with the clandestine archive, as did Francesc
when he joined them. It was Francesc who passed the photos and
negatives to the well-organized Spanish Communist underground
in the camp. Two young Spanish teenagers, Jacinto Cortes and Jesus
Grau, working with the brigades in the quarries outside the complex,
gradually passed the photos into the hands of Anna Pointer, a brave
and all but forgotten Austrian socialist - one of the few, so they say,
who realized what was really happening in the camp. She hid the
archive behind loose stones in her garden wall.

When Mauthausen was liberated Francesc retrieved the photos
and took them to Paris where some were published in the press.
They were used as evidence of Nazi war crimes in the Nuremberg
Trials and at Dachau during which Francesc was called to testify.

A witness. To help bring some, few, of the criminals to account.

He continued to work as a photographer in Paris after the war, but
the hardship and the suffering had taken their toll.

He was just 30 years old when he died.

There is no lack of photographic evidence of what recently happened
in Gaza.

Enough to prove war crimes.

Yesterday UN human rights investigators presented a detailed
report, questioning the legality of the Israeli offensive. The Guardian
have just published their own investigation.

Even the Israeli military have twice issued reports in the last week
which include testimonies of the criminal tactics employed.

But who will bring these new Jews to account?

Free Gaza. A love song

2009-02-16T00:18:00.001Z

Plaça Sant Jaume 20th January 2009

2009-01-22T04:19:00.006Z

Gaza Razed to the Ground

There weren't so many people at the last demonstration.

Maybe because of the ceasefire.

People think it's all over.

Maybe they were watching the inauguration, the world has
placed so much faith and hope in this new President...

But there were children

2009-01-22T04:12:00.006Z

Plaça St Jaume 20th January 2009

The eyes of a child...

How can you look into the eyes of a child and continue
with this hatred?

It didn't take them long to get up on the stage

2009-01-22T04:07:00.003Z

Plaça St Jaume. 20 January 2009

With a message for Obama

2009-01-22T04:04:00.004Z

Plaça St Jaume 20th January 2009

Obama Stop arming Israel.

And one for Bush

2009-01-22T03:56:00.005Z

Plaça St Jaume 20th January 2009

Bush you arrived with a war and you're
leaving with a war.

2009-01-22T03:52:00.003Z

But fame and asking the world to listen gets tiring in the end.

According to the UN

More than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed and over 5000
injured.

More than 4,000 buildings destroyed and 20,000 severely
damaged.

There are 50.800 Gazans homeless and 400,000 without
running water.

Around $1.9 billion worth of damage.

And so, yes, I will blatantly use photos of children

Because israel has just killed 300 of them

2009-01-22T03:36:00.006Z

Photo Gaza Graffiti Mark Seager 2007

A letter for Obama

2009-01-19T00:24:00.003Z

As part of the ongoing campaign in Solidarity with the People
of Palestine, on Tuesday 20th of January at 18h. there will be
an attempt to deliver a letter addressed to the new President of
the United States at the US Consulate in Barcelona asking him
for a change from the war-mongering policies of George Bush
and specifically to stop arming and financing Israel.

At 20h. the same evening there will be a demonstration in Pça.
St. Jaume, with saucepans as they seem to be deaf, to demand
that the Governments of Catalonia and Spain break off relations
with Israel.

Criminal Complicity

2009-01-18T23:21:00.003Z

The F-16 jet fighter was originally developed by General
Dynamics for The US Air Force.

It is now manufactured by Lockheed Martin.

The bombers have been sold to 25 countries.

Including Israel who have used them in their attack on Gaza
to kill 1300 people and injure 5340. And now, with this fragile
ceasefire, they are still pulling the dead from under the rubble.

The Shipload of Arms for Israel.

The ship carrying US munitions for Israel that was blocked from
Greek ports on Friday has a name: the Wehr Elbe. It's a chartered
German-owned vessel. It has now moved away from Greece but
has turned off its transponder tracking to prevent its location
being identified.

The sale of arms is, of course, totally legal.

Even to rogue states.

The Pentagon insists the sale was arranged last summer and
approved in October. I have read Israel has been planning this
attack on Palestine for months, obviously with knowledge of the
Bush administration. Criminal complicity.

So yes, Mr Obama, we want a change.

We are all Palestinians

2009-01-18T15:59:00.005Z

Marco delli Santi.

House of Love and Dissent

Though many look away and carry on their lives as if it
were of no concern.

Like Spain, so many years ago.

And look what happened then, when they did not stop
the fascists.

The world at war.

These words of Pastor Martin Niemöller have been used
and abused many times but are true nonetheless.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats, 
I remained silent; 
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
 I did not speak out; 
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews, 
I remained silent;
 I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,

 There was no one left to speak out.

Silence is complicity.

The Spirit of Humanity

2009-01-17T05:45:00.007Z

Free Gaza Movement

http://www.freegaza.org/

They bought 2 boats.

The Spirit of Humanity and The Dignity

Four women - Bella, Eliza, Greta and Mary.

And one man - Paul.

To break the seige.

From Greece to Gaza in August 2008.

The first to arrive freely in 41 years.

They subsequently made four more voyages.

Since this war started they have sailed again.

This, for some, is totally unacceptable.

On the 30th December Israeli gunboats, without warning,
deliberately and repeatedly rammed the Dignity, almost sinking
the ship, causing significant structural damage and endangering
the lives of its passengers and crew. The ship found safe harbor
in Lebanon, and is currently awaiting repairs.

If you have seen what has been happening in Gaza hospitals
during this atrocious war you will understand why these, brave
and wonderful people were not deterred.

On the 14th of January The Spirit of Humanity left the port of
Larnaca in Cyprus for Gaza.

With 21 passengers: doctors, human rights workers, parliamen-
tarians and journalists. And more than a ton of medical supplies

Thursday 15th January.

"At roughly 3am UST (1am GMT), in international waters 100
miles off the coast of Gaza, at least five Israeli gunboats surrounded
the Spirit of Humanity and began recklessly cutting in front of the
slow-moving civilian craft. The Israeli warships radioed the Spirit,
demanding that the ship turn around or they would open fire and
"shoot." When asked if the Israeli navy was acknowledging that they
intended to commit a war crime by deliberately firing on unarmed
civilians, the warships replied that they were prepared to use
"any means" to stop the ship.

Israel's reckless and shocking threats against an unarmed ship on
a mission of mercy are a violation of both international maritime
law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which states that
"the high seas should be reserved for peaceful purposes."

They were forced to return to Cyprus.

The only small consolation:

Another boat, carrying a new shipment of arms from the US to
Israel was refused permission to sail from the Greek port of Astakos
on Friday morning.

International Criminal Court. Of Justice.

2009-01-17T05:36:00.002Z

There can be no global justice unless the worst of crimes
against humanity are subject to the law.
In this age more than ever, we recognize that the crime of
genocide against one people truly is an assault on us all -
a crime against humanity.

The establishment of an International Criminal Court
will ensure that humanity's response will be swift and will be
just.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan

But, of course, in this case it won't.

It changes colours in the desert sun

2009-01-16T03:35:00.003Z

But it is the same.

War crimes

2009-01-15T06:32:00.004Z

Rockets and mortars fired into Israel since 27th Dec.
Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.
(Since Israel first attcked.)

The photos of the dead, that first day the 27th of December,
were Hamas police, for some a legitimate target.

Though, let's get the facts right.

It was Israel who broke the four-month truce on the 5th of
November with a raid on Gaza which killed 6 members of Hamas.

Though now they lie and whine.

And say they are the victims.

And continue massive air and land attacks on Gaza.

The victims

2009-01-15T06:28:00.002Z

Deaths in Gaza since 27th Dec. Palestinian Ministry of Health.

There are now 1054 Palestinian dead and nearly 5000 injured,
the majority civilians.

Israel, the aggressor, while perpetrating this massacre, has:

Denied the Red Cross access to the injured and UN relief services
access to a people who have been under blockade for 18 months.

Deliberately targeted hospitals and civilian enclaves

Made use of weapons which are banned by the Geneva Convention.

Attacked civilians clearly bearing white flags who were attempting
to flee the bombing.

Denied access to the majority of media representatives,
deliberately attacking those who are there.

Do they really think they can hide their crimes?

Probably not.

They think they are special.

They think they are immune.

A dangerous delusion.

Solidarity with Gaza. Barcelona 10 January 2009

2009-01-13T12:16:00.004Z

Escalator Universitat Tube Station.

It was impossible to get a better photo.

The dove of peace covered in blood.

2009-01-13T11:52:00.003Z

Because there were so many people this time.

At the meeting point in the old University square.

Under a threatening grey sky.

But only clouds.

30,000? 170,000?

As always the numbers differ.

Not so important, maybe.

Enough to show, as in so many other protests around the world,
that we do not believe the lies.

It took four hours for all the people to reach St Jaume Square.

Mother and daughter

2009-01-13T11:38:00.006Z

Remembering November.

Of all the photos I took of the Muslim women, so often, still,
here, silent in the background, without a voice, this is my
favourite.

The love and admiration in her daughter's eyes.

2009-01-13T11:31:00.003Z

Human Rights. Fontanella St. 10.01.2009

She called me back.

To show me the other side of her message.

Of which there were many

2009-01-13T04:24:00.006Z

Fontanella St. 10.01.2009

The European Union

Israel

United Nations

USA

Something smells bad.

Boycott

2009-01-13T04:14:00.003Z

729 for those who are interested.

Picasso, again.

2009-01-13T03:49:00.006Z

Plaça St Jaume. 10.01.2009

Picasso's Guernica was the last to arrive.

This version, a little the worse for wear, is, I think, the one
displayed for months in the window of a student hall of
residence when the US first began the war on Iraq.

Painted over 70 years ago.

Still denouncing the horror and destruction.

That continue.

2009-01-13T02:27:00.003Z

Plaça St. Jaume 10.01.2009

18 days.

920 dead.

292 of these are children.

4,300 injured.

Last night on the news George Bush, laughing and joking, was
warning Barak Obama of his legacy: the possibility of a new
terrorist attack on the United States.

From the start of this war on Gaza, with the go-ahead, you can
be sure, of the Bush administration, it seems obvious that
this is exactly what has been planned.

The anger and radicalism increase as the days pass...

A new terrorist attack.

What better way to justify the violation of human rights, the
limits on freedom in the name of homeland security.

To ensure the proliferation of the arms industry.

In which they have such a large stake.

And most especially to sabotage the change that so many hope
for with Barak Obama.

Handala

2009-01-08T03:59:00.007Z

There are now at least 700 dead and 3000 injured.

Since this war started, I have been trapped; impotent, horrified,
outraged, because it was obvious, from the beginning, what
would happen and that we could do nothing to stop them.

Obsessively looking at news feeds and webs and the photos.

The photos. . .

At the demonstrations and on some Palestinian blogs the symbol
of this little figure appeared. Today I read that it is Handala.

An iconic symbol of Palestinian identity and defiance.

He first appeared in 1969 and is the most famous of Palestinian
cartoonist Naji al-Ali’s characters.

In 1973, he turned his back to the viewer and clasped his hands
behind his back.

The artist explained that ten-year-old Handala represents himself,
forced to leave Ash Shajara, one of the 480 Palestinian villages
destroyed in 1948 to create the State of Israel, and that he would
not grow up until he could return to his homeland.

His turned back and clasped hands are a rejection of “outside
solutions.”

His ragged clothes and bare feet symbolise his allegiance to the
poor.

Naji Al-Ali was assassinated in London in 1987.

Earlier tonight I had to turn my back on the photos.

The decapitated head of a child was too much.

Protecting windows

2009-01-08T03:43:00.012Z

Photo ANC

The aerial bombardment of civilians as a legitimate war strategy
really got to the point of no return during the Spanish Civil War.
Guernika, the raids on Barcelona in March of 1938, Madrid, the first
to suffer, though it is mentioned less as the battle front was on the
edge of the city itself at the university campus. Difficult to separate
civilians from the military.

Sounds familiar.

Shattered glass from windows can be lethal in explosions. I don't
know what caused the decapitation of the Palestinian child in the
photo but I do know who is responsible - and I'm still trying to
comprehend something I read yesterday: that some Israelis are
taking plastic chairs and cans of pepsi out onto the hills of Sderot
to watch the raids and cheer the explosions.

Then I remembered these other photos.

To be a spectator of this war is almost unbearable. To study a past
war in any depth is almost as bad, in spite of the ideals, the
solidarity, the hope that is tangible. Sometimes just a small thing
can help, some indication that people prefer to create rather than
destroy.

Protecting Windows

Some of the first civil defence instructions issued in the autum of
'36 by Manuel Muñoz.

Paper tape to be glued on all house windows.

In neat criss-crosses.

Until, perhaps, you start to think something else would look better.

2009-01-08T01:33:00.005Z

Photo ANC.

I hope these two little children survived.

Ideas from Venezuela

2009-01-07T01:58:00.006Z

Ideas. Weekly publication.
Read it and spread the word!
Libertarian voice of the Bajo Llobregat

Catalonia
1936-1939

Venezuela Expels Israeli Ambassador.

By Latin American Herald Tribune staff.

CARACAS -- Venezuela expels the Israeli ambassador and
part of his staff in Caracas to show its condemnation of the
Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Communique from the Foreign Ministry:

"The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,
along with the Peoples of the world, is witness, once more, to
the horror of the death of innocent women and children resulting
from the invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli troops, and the
systematic bombing by air and land perpetrated by the State of
Israel on Palestinian territory.

Indignant in this tragic hour, the people of Venezuela express
their unreserved solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people, share
in the pain of thousands of families for the loss of loved ones and
states that the Venezuelan government will work tirelessly to see
those responsible severely punished for these atrocious crimes.

The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela strongly
condemns the gross violations of international law that the State
of Israel has engaged in and denounces its planned use of state
terrorism.

For the above reasons, the Government of the Bolivarian Republic
of Venezuela has decided to expel the Israeli Ambassador and the
staff of the Israeli Embassy in Venezuela, reaffirming its mission
of peace and its call for respect for international law.

The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has
instructed its Mission to the UN to press, along with the majority of
governments who so demand, for the Security Council to implement
urgent and necessary measures to halt this invasion by the State of
Israel on Palestinian territory.

President Hugo Chávez, who has held meetings with senior
representatives of the World Jewish Council, and has always been
opposed to anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination and racism,
calls for the Jewish people throughout the world to oppose these
criminal policies of Israel that are reminiscent of the worst pages in
the history of the twentieth century. With the genocide of the
Palestinian people, Israel will never be able to offer their people
the prospect of a lasting and much needed peace."

Caracas. 6th January 2009.

On the 6th of January

2009-01-06T12:29:00.001Z

AFP/ Getty Images

The day in Spain that the children, excited, happy, open
their presents from "Los Reyes" - The Kings - The Three
Wise Men.

There is no, absolutely no, other way to look at this war.

A doctor's testimony

2009-01-06T12:23:00.004Z

Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian Doctor at the Al Shifah hospital in Gaza
talks of what is happening.

Later

By Azmi Keshawi and James Hider / London Times

Amid the tidal wave of human misery swamping Gaza City's central
hospital a horrified Norwegian volunteer doctor found a minute to
type a text message on his mobile phone to friends back home.

"We are wading in death, blood, and amputees. Many children. A
pregnant woman. I have never experienced anything so terrible.
Now we hear tanks. Pass it on, send it around, shout it out. Anything.
DO SOMETHING! DO MORE! We are living in a history book now, all
of us."

It was signed Mads Gilbert.

The emergency protest against the invasion of Gaza

2009-01-05T05:32:00.004Z

Yesterday evening in Plaça St Jaume.

Again.

There were a lot more people, maybe three to four thousand.

Because the number of dead continues to rise: 512 at a conservative
estimate over 70 of whom are children. And with 2500 injured the
aggressors are refusing the entry of humanitarian aid.

Yes, you are right, Shimon Peres: "What country can tolerate this?"

Though your "this" is different.

There was smoke over the government buildings

2009-01-05T05:29:00.003Z

But not like the smoke over Gaza

2009-01-05T03:55:00.005Z

AFP Getty Image

It was just a flare

2009-01-05T03:40:00.004Z

There were more messages

2009-01-05T03:36:00.003Z

One for Obama

2009-01-05T03:33:00.002Z

Because he has said nothing.

A poem

2009-01-05T03:17:00.003Z

By Mahmoud Darwish.

A strange sad lament

2009-01-05T02:07:00.006Z

Shia Muslims, I think.

Striking their chests as they stood and sang.

At the end the children played with the candles

2009-01-05T01:49:00.003Z

Because here, today, we are safe from war.

2009-01-05T01:44:00.005Z

Photo Fadi Adwan AP

This child isn't.

Used by Hamas as a human shield - claim the Israeli army.

Like Rachel Corrie.

I remember other shoes

2009-01-04T16:18:00.005Z

AFP/Getty Images. London Demonstration

Don't they?

2009-01-04T15:23:00.005Z

Photo Dan Maudsley. Auschwitz shoes

Other genocides.

Maybe that's it... the evil that continues and corrupts
and eliminates the light.

A thousand useless shoes now in Gaza.

The Israelis have prohibited the majority of international media
access to the strip.

But we know what they are doing.

For what solidarity is worth, the least, the very least, is to say: No

Another protest has been called for this evening in Barcelona:

Plaça St. Jaume 20.00h.

http://www.palestina.cat/

The balconies were empty on Friday evening

2009-01-04T02:47:00.005Z

For the demonstration in Barcelona

Against what is happening

In Palestine.

The Generalitat, seat of the autonomous government of
Catalonia, in Plaça St Jaume.

With its discreet Christmas lights...the statue of St George
fighting the dragon.

Where the people of Barcelona always go when they have
something to say.

Remained silent.

And the Town Hall

2009-01-04T02:30:00.005Z

On the other side of the square.

Where were they, the politicians, of this city?

They who, so often, speak of "peace" when there is an
opportunity for personal and party gain?

But the people, maybe 2000, were there

2009-01-04T02:17:00.006Z

Not just the muslim immigrants.

As most of the media has shown.

Spelling out the Catalan word for peace

2009-01-04T02:03:00.004Z

In candles.

"PAU"

"PEACE"

At least, now

For the dead.

Peace. Almost surely now impossible

2009-01-04T01:30:00.007Z

I swear neither to forgive nor to forget.

With so many killed and injured.

And 60 years of occupation, aggression and humiliation.

But this is, of course, what Israel wants.

To justify the genocide.

Meanwhile Israel continues their PR campaign

2009-01-04T01:24:00.007Z

Getty Images.

Al Shifah hospital Gaza.

Though their attempts to use Youtube prove problematic

"Trusting what we see" BBC News

And smile, still, as they invade Gaza

2009-01-04T01:20:00.004Z

Getty Images

Tzipi Livni was smiling in Paris yesterday

2009-01-02T16:21:00.001Z

Reuters.

But there is nothing to smile about

2009-01-02T16:18:00.002Z

Photo Ashraf Amra AP

Nothing to smile about at all

2009-01-02T16:15:00.002Z

AFP Getty image

Five Sisters

2008-12-31T15:48:00.006Z

Mohammed Abed AFP

Jawaher, Dina, Samar, Ikram and Tahrir

Killed Monday December 29th by an Israeli air strike in the Jabalia
refugee camp

If you had contemplated the victim's face
And thought it through
You would have remembered your mother
In the gas chamber
You would have been freed from the reason for the rifle
And you would have changed your mind:
this is not the way to find one's identity again.

From: Under Siege

Mahmoud Darwish

Translated by Marjolin de Jager

I say: how is it my concern?
I am a spectator.
He says: no spectators at chasm's door
And no one is neutral here.
And you must choose your part in the end.
So I say: I'm missing the beginning, what's the beginning?

From: I Have a Seat in the Abandoned Theatre

Mahmoud Darwish

2008-12-31T15:39:00.003Z

Barcelona:

Divendres 2 de gener 2009 concentració a Pl. St. Jaume 19h.

Dissabte 10 de gener 2009 manifestació a Pl. Universitat 17h.

http://www.aturemlaguerra.org/

But dead children look the same

2008-12-30T05:05:00.002Z

Abid Katib. Getty Images

2008-12-30T04:24:00.009Z

Though the wars are different and years apart.

The fourth day and still they continue:

Operation Solid Lead they call it and from some saner Jewish
voices I learn it comes from a children's poem by Nachman Bialik:

Teacher bought a big top for me
Solid lead the finest known.
In whose honour, for whose glory?
For Hanukkha alone.

Hanukkha is the Jewish winter Festival of Light...

Have they no shame, no compassion?

TV news says the dead are now 360 with more than
1500 injured.

And 4 Israelis.

But what can you do against the fourth military power in the
world, aided and abetted by the first?

Stand in protest?

2008-12-30T03:59:00.005Z

Barcelona Travessera de Gracia. 29.12.2008

Imagine, these hours, in Gaza now?

2008-12-30T03:36:00.011Z

Barcelona Travessera de Gracia. 29.12.2008

Pray?

2008-12-30T03:32:00.006Z

Barcelona, Travessera de Gracia. 29.12.2008.

Or raise bare hands to say: Stop

2008-12-30T03:23:00.005Z

Barcelona, Travessera de Gracia. 29.12.2008
Outside the Spanish-Israeli Chamber of Commerce.

Palestinian Firefighters. Look different.

2008-12-28T21:19:00.009Z

Hatem Omar. Associated Press.

With the wonderful video of Barcelona Firefighters from Friday,
I was planning to post a little about their role in rescue operations
during the air raids on Barcelona in the Civil War.

The present gets in the way.

"Firefighters at the site of a bombing of a Hamas security
compound" said the caption on the New York Times' report.

Where are the helmets, the masks, the protective uniforms?

A search for "Palestine Firefighters" on the net frustratingly,
ironically, gives you Palestine, Texas.

It seems the real Palestine hardly has a fire brigade at all, relying
on trained civil defence workers and a few Japanese donated
engines.

But then, under siege since long before yesterday's brutal,
unjustifiable attacks, Palestine hardly has anything at all.

Imagine life under these conditions:

...Having your free movement denied by enclosed population
centers, closed borders, regular curfews, roadblocks, checkpoints,
electric fences, and separation walls. Having your homes regularly
demolished and land systematically stolen to build settlements for
encroachers in violation of international law prohibiting an occupier
from settling its population on conquered land.

Having your right to essential services denied - to emergency health
care, education, employment, and enough food and clean water.
Being forced into extreme poverty, having your crops destroyed,
and being victimized by punitive taxes. Having no right for redress
in the occupier's courts under laws only protecting the occupier.

Being regularly targeted by incursions and attacks on the ground
and from the air. Being willfully harassed, ethnically cleansed,
arrested, incarcerated, tortured, and slaughtered on any pretext,
including for your right of self-defense. Having no rights on your
own land in your own country for over six decades and counting.
Vilified for being Muslims and called terrorists, Jihadists, crazed
Arabs, and fundamentalist extremists. Victimized by a slow-motion
genocide to destroy you.

So begins an article:

Israel's Slow-Motion Genocide in Occupied Palestine

by Stephen Lendman.

There are other voices, if you bother to search.

And others.

As some news articles report: Israel has launched an intense
diplomatic and media PR campaign to blame Hamas and
justify the killings.

Truth and lies.

2008-12-28T10:48:00.006Z

Hazem Bader AFP/Getty Images

"Hamas must stop launching rockets into Israel. The United
States holds Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire...

We understand that Israel is reacting to the hundreds of
rockets that have been fired upon the innocent people of
Israel... (1 fatality yesterday - after the attack on Gaza).

We want the ceasefire restored but we also understand
(repeat message) that Israel is responding (at least 271
dead 700 injured) to Hamas's repeated rocket attacks on
the innocent (repeat message) people of Israel."

Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council
from Texas where Bush is holidaying at his ranch.

And celebrating what he has done

to this world.

And Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni asks us to understand.

I must be stupid.

Barcelona Firefighters. Punk Not Dead.

2008-12-27T14:05:00.009Z

Soundtrack: Nirvana Stay Away

Have just seen on the news that fire fighters have been called out
360 times in the last few hours - Catalonia is in the middle of
violent snow and sea storms.

I remembered had been meaning to post this video...

For the last few months Barcelona Firemen have been fighting
for better work and pay conditions. According to their web Plataforma Bombers Barcelona
just before Christmas they reached a beginning of an agreement.

Hope so.

Wouldn't want any of our dear city councillors to drown or freeze to
death in their SUVs.

Love the Poster David

2008-12-13T14:58:00.005Z

The other Hitler
David Irving

Do talk to your press people.

I think they mean this is the title of the conference David Irving
will be giving, or trying to, in Barcelona this evening.

Same Nazi bookshop.

Same hate and lies.

Prefer this one

2008-12-13T14:29:00.005Z

Shepard Fairey's poster defending the right of
same-sex couples to marry.

From the campaign against California' Proposition 8.

Spain was the third country to legalize marriage between
homosexuals, in July 2005.

I believe in freedom, so I suppose David Irving should
be allowed to speak, if only to show himself for what he is.

But you remember the millions who died, and it's hard.

Between 10,000 and 15,000 homosexuals were exterminated
in Nazi concentration camps.

Postscript

2008-11-14T13:48:00.004Z

Lia Nickson illustration
for Edwin Rolfe's book
First Love and Other Poems

"And we must remember cleanly why we fought,
clearly why we left these inadequate shores
and turned our eyes, our hearts, Spainward. We must never
lie to ourselves again, deceive ourselves with dreams
that make sleep sluggish. Our world
is new now, clean and clear; our eyes can see
the perfect bone and tissue now, remembering
the flesh cut open, the gangrened limbs, the rot
that almost, almost...but did not reach the heart.

And if we find all known things changed
now after two years amid fabulous truth;
if we find dulled the once sharp edges
of trivial loves; even if we find
our truest loves indifferent, even false -
we must remember cleanly why we went,
clearly why we fought; and returning see
with truth's unfilmed eye what remains constant,
the loyalties which endure, the loves that grow,
the certainties men need, live for, die to build,
the certainties that make all living tolerable."

"Postscript to a War"

Edwin Rolfe

for Michael Gordon

iNeed

2008-11-14T05:01:00.004Z

London graffiti by Mantis

According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day
due to poverty.

Each day.

They "die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth,
far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world.
Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even
more invisible in death.”

Oh yes we have a crisis.

Quotation taken from:

Anup Shah, Poverty Facts and Stats, GlobalIssues.org,

1938. 1968. 2008.

2008-11-05T22:18:00.017Z

At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, medal winners
John Carlos and Tommie Smith gave the raised fist salute during
the American national anthem as a sign of black power and protest
on behalf of the Olympic Project for Human Rights.

For this, they were barred from further Olympic activities.

"The raised fist which greets you in Salud is not just a gesture,
it means life and liberty being fought for and a greeting of
solidarity with the democratic peoples of the world."

Mary Rolfe.*

to Leo Hurwitz and Janey Dudley.

25 November 1938.

"Madrid 1937: Letters of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade from
the Spanish Civil War."
Cary Nelson & Jefferson Hendricks.

Great expectations indeed.

* To read another letter from Mary Rolfe describing an
air raid in Barcelona, click here.

And for a little about her life: Cary Nelson's article in

The Volunteer
Journal of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
Volume XXI, No.2. Spring 1999 p18-20

Volunteers of America

2008-11-04T11:49:00.007Z

Salaria Kee (O' Reilly)

Why Didn't You Come Yesterday?

Salaria Kee (O' Reilly) was one of the few Afro-American women
who came to Spain with the International Brigades as a nurse for
the American Medical Bureau to Aid Spanish Democracy.

She had graduated from the Harlem Hospital School of Nursing
in New York in 1934. After hearing a speech by a Spanish doctor
at the University of New York about what was happening
in Spain she volunteered.

"On March 27, 1937 she sailed from New York with the second
American Medical Unit to Republican Spain. A party of twelve
nurses and physicians. Salaria was the only Negro in this group.
Hundreds of Negro boys had preceded her. They had gone as
soldiers, physicians, and ambulance drivers. She was the first
Negro woman to go.

It was April third when the party reached Port Bou, Spain. A
huge delegation of Spanish men, women and children came
down to welcome them. A small boy left the crowd and came over
to Salaria. Taking her hand he complained softly,

"Why didn't you come yesterday?"

"Why yesterday?" Salaria asked him.

"Because yesterday the fascists came in their planes and dropped
bombs. My mother and my father and my small brothers died..."

Stationed first at the hospital installed in Villa Paz, former
summer residence of the abdicated King of Spain Alfonso XIII,
she later moved to a field hospital unit near Teruel. She was
captured by German troops but managed to escape.

In October 1937 she married John O' Reilly, one of the first Irish
volunteers to go to Spain.

Information (mainly) and quotation from the excellent web:

Ireland and the Spanish Civil War

http://www.geocities.com/IrelandSCW/index.htm

where you can read more.

And if you have the chance watch Julia Newman's
documentary:

Into the Fire. American Women in the Spanish Civil War

2008-11-04T09:50:00.010Z

Afro-American members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

"why I, a Negro, who have fought through these

years for the rights of my people, am here in Spain
today? Because if we crush Fascism here, [we] will
build us a new society - a society of peace and plenty.
There will be no color line, no jim-crow trains, no
lynchings. That is why, my dear, I am here in Spain."

Canute Frankson.
(to my dear friend).
Albacete, Spain, July 6, 1937.

And a song:

From Jefferson Airplane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SboRijhWFDU

some 30 years later.

for a day, like today.

Manuel Muñoz and Barcelona Air Raid Shelters

2008-11-02T00:47:00.012Z

From the cover of Defiendete del Peligro Aero-Quimico
Mariano Barrasa, Juliàn Castresana. Toledo 1935.

Manuel Muñoz' report of what the municipal authorities
had achieved by the time the Generalitat, the autonomous
Government of Catalonia, created the Junta de Defensa
Passiva and took over ARP in the summer of 1937 will
perhaps help to show that Ramon Perera neither invented
the air raid shelters nor was solely responsible for their
construction. The report dates from August 1937.*

The Junta had been created the previous June and after
some insistence by the council and the CNT Manuel
Muñoz was accepted as a member in representation of the
council. Surprisingly, given the persecution not to say
elimination of the anarchists after the Barcelona May days,
he maintained this position until the end of the war.

Manuel had joined the city council in October 1936 when
the anarchists began to participate in formal government.
In November he was named as liaison with the Generalitat's
Department of Defense for questions of air raid protection
and very soon the construction of shelters was under his
supervision.

Initially it was thought that basements, with a little
preparation, could provide sufficient protection during
the raids. So his department of Urban Planning and Public
Works organized the inspection of 17,000 buildings.
Only 700 were considered suitable and of these the
Generalitat quickly decreed a prohibition of the use of
some (below banks) as shelters.

Stronghold evidently having a variety of meanings.

Underground "mine" tunnels were also considered
suitable for shelters so, besides preparation of the existing
metropolitan tube stations he overseered the construction
of 24 new tunnels of 100 metres each (for posterior use as
sewage tunnels) 14 of which had been completed by August
1937.

For the 600 or so shelters that were being built independently
by the people of Barcelona, Manuel's department offered
technical advice and subsidised the cost of labour and building
materials and most especially published the excellent manual
"Air Raid Shelters" with instructions on how to build them.
Many of the calculations on the destructive capacity of the
bombs and the type of construction necessary to resist them
are based on information provided by Swiss and French ARP
organizations. The Spanish military had also published
recommendations prior to the war.

After the first raids had shown the real effects of the bombs,
the council began the construction of a number of larger,
more resistent collective shelters below city squares in
the different districts of Barcelona. 11 were in construction
in the summer of '37. But by this time the increasing scarcity
of materials and reduction of available labour force because
of conscription were already seriously affecting progress in all
the shelters.

In his 17-page report Manuel Muñoz gives credit to all of the
many different people and organizations involved to date in
the building of shelters and civil defence.

He, at least, knew that without the collective effort of every
one of them Barcelona's extraordinary achievement of over
1000 shelters would never have been possible.

*For those interested in consulting the report, the reference is:
Arxiu Administratiu Caixa 21411 Carpeta 1.5

Ramon Perera.

2008-10-29T23:29:00.004Z

Strange.

If you google search "Ramon Perera" my previous post no
longer appears.

It did for a couple of days. Right on the first page.

Sixth down I think it was.

And first place if you searched

"Ramon Perera. The Making of a Myth"

I think someone has been meddling.

Ramon Perera. The making of a myth.

2008-10-27T05:59:00.005Z

As I have said before, unfortunately I do not have a photo
of Manuel Muñoz Diez, chief councillor in charge of the
Department of Urban Planning and Public Works during the
Civil War in Barcelona.

So here is his signature.

He was an anarchist, a member of the CNT, which is probably why
as many people as possible chose to forget his role in the building of
Barcelona air raid shelters, a role, shared with many others, which is
now being solely attributed to Ramon Perera thanks to a documentary
made by two journalists from Catalan national TV3.

The documentary is based on solid research and would be excellent
except for the surprising presentation of Ramon Perera as the man
who single-handedly invented the air raid shelters and saved the
entire population of Barcelona from the bombs and then
unfortunately was unable to save the entire population of Great
Britain from the Blitz because the British Government did not listen
to him.

One fact: Ramon Perera did not take charge of the section of
plans and public works of the Junta de Defensa Passiva
(organization responsible for coordinating civil defence and
created in 1937 after the Barcelona May Days) until 26 February
1938 by which time most of the shelters were already in progress.

When I started the research I had no idea who was responsible
for civil defence in Barcelona during the war. The authorities of the
time seemed to suffer from the same problem. Very little had been
done in preparation to protect civilians from aerial bombardment
in spite of the increasing fears since WWI that this would be an
accepted means to the end in future conflicts. But by the autumn of
1936 the building of shelters was under the auspices of Barcelona
City Council and chief councillor Manuel Muñoz.

And mainly in the hands of thousands of normal citizens who went
out into the streets and built their own.

In August 1937 Manuel Muñoz, little suspecting an attempt 70 years
in the future to rewrite history, left a 17-page report about what had
been achieved to date in connection with the city shelters. Perhaps he
was concerned after the Barcelona May days that the Communists
would try to take the credit...

I will write more about the contents of his report in the next post but
felt obliged to take time to beg to differ with Montse Armengou and
Ricard Belis and express disapproval at their attempt to falsify the
past because now we have:

The book of the film.

Presented last week by the authors.

Credibility assured by the presence of Paul Preston.

As I remember when I approached Mr Preston 12 years ago to
ask for his support in the campaign to save Air Raid Shelter 307
and for any relevant information he had come across in military
archives (to which I had no access) he replied that they hadn't let
him in either and he had seen little about civil defence measures
taken in Barcelona. He was favourably inclined to saving the shelter
and am sure gave his verbal support in the right places but I would
ask him to check his facts before helping to create a myth, he is a
prestigious historian after all.

Ramon Perera was one of many who worked tirelessly to defend the
most vulnerable during the war.

A collective effort.

His story and his work, carefully preserved through documentation
donated on his death to the Abbey of Montserrat, is most valuable.
It is also very sad - forced as he was into exile as a refugee in
England for the rest of his life.

So far from his beloved Catalonia.

But I'm sure he would not have been happy with this attempt to
single him out from his colleagues as "the man who saved Barcelona."

Because I think he was an honest man and this simply isn't true.

To my father. Who taught me not to drive.

2008-09-24T16:31:00.005Z

Anarchist worker-collective tram. Plaça Espanya 1936
Arxiu Fotogràfic AHC

Today is la Merced, a holiday in Barcelona in honour of the
city's patron saint. The week-long celebrations culminate tonight
with a giant firework display over the fountains of Montjuïc, just
next to Plaça Espanya.

I normally go if I am here.

To stand below the falling coloured sky... such a strange and magical
sensation.

But not this year.

Today is also my father's birthday.

But there will be no celebrations as he died in January this year.

A good man. A gentle man. He once went to war to fight fascism.

Because they did not listen to the warning voices from Spain.

He taught me a love of books and animals.

And fireworks.

Though my sister and I only got the sparklers while he played with all the rest.

He taught me to laugh.

And he taught me not to drive.

Never instilled that unquestioned belief in the need for a car.

Belief which has had so many consequences.

And he was right.

I miss him.

The choice of graphic was indirectly inspired by Jon who
visits this blog and who works for a bus company in California.

Turning Worlds Upside Down

2008-09-24T05:31:00.004Z

The song is in fact by the folk singer and writer Leon Rosselson
but I prefer Billy's version.

Even if he does now live in a very large house with a view.

(Not, at least, over the private golf course which now occupies the
site of the Diggers' long-lost, but not forgotten, dream. Neighbouring
houses on St George's Hill are currently valued at around 3 million
pounds; sometime neighbours the likes of Elton John and Cliff Richard).

What on earth do they do with all the rooms?

Exemplary Moments in English History. 1649

2008-09-23T11:32:00.015Z

Signed for and in behalf of all the poor oppressed
people of England, and the whole world.

Gerrard Winstanley (and 44 others)

"That the earth was not made purposely for you, to be Lords of it,
and we to be your Slaves, Servants, and Beggers; but it was made
to be a common Livelihood to all, without respect of persons: And
that your buying and selling of Land, and the Fruits of it, one to
another, is The cursed thing, and was brought in by War; which
hath, and still does establish murder, and theft, In the hands of
some branches of Mankinde over others, which is the greatest
outward burden, and unrighteous power, that the Creation groans
under..."

Gerrard Winstanley, a creationist one must admit (though in his
writing God and Reason seem to be interchangeable) was a
founding member and guiding theoretician of the English Diggers.

They believed that land was a "common treasury" which belonged
collectively to the people. Especially poor people.

Great believers in direct action, in the spring of 1649, they proceeded
to cultivate a stretch of common land on George's Hill Surrey.

Needless to say this utopian experiment in agrarian communism
lasted less than a year. Not for nothing are the ill-gotten gains of
private property generally connected with the "power of the
murdering and theeving sword."

But it's hard to keep a good idea down and it keeps popping up:

The anarchist agrarian collectives of the Spanish Civil War,

The San Francisco Diggers in the 60's.

Indirectly innumerable projects to give access to land to the poor
in Latin America.

All share something of Winstanley's vision.

Even the Queen, 11th in the Forbes richest monarch ranking
and worth a mere $600 million, is not immune.

Winstanley was a great promoter of the "Common-wealth."

Unfortunately I don't think Lizzie quite got the message right.

And even more unfortunately that old sword is still alive and
wielding.

Money? Let's just print our own.

2008-09-16T16:46:00.003Z

Luis Romero Exposito Collection

Most local Councils did during the Spanish Civil War as metal coins
disappeared.

From the graphics it seems they held the eccentric belief
that wealth is somehow connected to labour and the means
of production.

As opposed to the infinite greed of Stock Market thieves
and speculators.

For a little insight into who is responsible for the current financial
chaos listen to or read the transcript of "The Giant Pool of Money."
from This American Life radio.

2008-09-16T16:39:00.002Z

The reverse of the note:

"The price of our heroic sacrifice will be the freedom and
well-being of the world."

Better still

2008-09-16T16:29:00.004Z

Eliminate (oh utopia) the money altogether.

CNT FAI (Light/Strength) coupon valid for a pair of shoes.

Black.

Size 39

Wall Street Weeps

2008-09-15T17:27:00.006Z

###
Iraq War Cost

click here to learn more

So do I.

Victor Jara

2008-09-11T17:36:00.011Z

They try to conceal the infamy
they have inherited from past centuries,
but the mark of murderers
cannot be wiped from their faces.

From "Vientos del Pueblo"

Victor Jara, much-loved poet, singer and political activist was
supposed to sing at the Technical University that 11th of September
1973 in Santiago, Chile.

They were opening an exhibition on the horrors of fascism and
civil war. President Salvador Allende was also expected to attend.

Early that morning it became evident that the feared fascist military
coup had started.

Victor still went to the University, where he was also a teacher, and
he did sing: to the 600 students and teachers trapped on the campus
that night by the curfew - the university buildings surrounded by tanks
and troops.

The tanks and heavy artillery attacked next morning. Victor was one
of the many taken prisoner and force marched to the Chile Stadium.

He was repeatedly vilified, tortured and beaten, his ribs and wrists
broken.

On Sunday 16th September his machine-gunned body, dumped near
the Metropolitan Cemetery with five others, was recognized by local
people just before an unidentified van appeared and picked up the bodies.

He wrote one more poem during those four last days in the Stadium,
unfinished as he was finally dragged away.

How hard it is to sing
when I must sing of horror.
Horror which I am living,
horror which I am dying.
To see myself among so much
and so many moments of infinity
in which silence and screams
are the end of my song.
What I see, I have never seen
What I have felt and what I feel
Will give birth to the moment...

Victor's wife, Joan, was English.

Today on the web:

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/jaraunfinsong.html

I found three chapters of her book Victor: An Unfinished Song.

Worth reading, especially for the translation of one of his songs:
Cuando voy al trabajo, written when a young militant worker he
knew was shot dead during a peaceful demonstration. It's a love
song.

Victor believed in love.

Great Expectations

2008-06-04T09:23:00.012Z

Plan of the British slave ship Brooks. 1788

When I started researching the civil defence measures taken
in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War I remember being
confused by press references to arrested fascists being sent to
Uruguay at the beginning of war.

In fact they were talking about the prison ship "SS Uruguay"
anchored in the port of Barcelona.

Dickensian I thought.

One learns humility.

As a "temporary measure to ease prison overcrowding" Britain
reverted to this shameful system with the prison ship, HMP Weare.
Between 1997 and 2005 four hundred prisoners floated in cramped
and often airless conditions off Her Majesty's Coast in Portland
Harbour. It was finally closed as "entirely unsuitable for its function."

But at least it was no secret.

On Monday The Guardian published an article on the covert prison
ships allegedly being used by the US to keep detainees, abducted in
their "war on terror," away from the public eye and in the attempt to
conceal their exact number and whereabouts.

I don't know how much will change if Barack Obama wins the next
presidential elections, there are ubiquitous and very powerful
interests involved in keeping war and fear and hunger as driving
forces in this world.

But...

Something about justice, retribution or one for Martin Luther King:
Please click on the graphic illustrating this post. It was drawn and
used by the British Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade to
lobby for change.

Waltzing Matilda

2008-06-02T09:52:00.004Z

Lance Corporal Adrian Jones.

By Michael Fay, official US Marine war artist.

Australia, one of the first countries to support the
US war on Iraq five years ago, ends combat operations
there and begins troop withdrawal this week.

With a deployment of only 500 soldiers (and in fact
300 will remain on logistical and surveillance duties) little
will change while the US and Britain remain.

But....

Bringing the boys back home

2008-06-02T08:36:00.006Z

When I was a young man I carried my pack
And I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in nineteen fifteen my country said Son
It's time to stop rambling 'cause there's work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we sailed away from the quay
And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers
We sailed off to Gallipoli

How well I remember that terrible day
How the blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
He chased us with bullets, he rained us with shells
And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia
But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then we started all over again

Now those that were left, well we tried to survive
In a mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
But around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit
And when I woke up in my hospital bed
And saw what it had done, I wished I was dead
Never knew there were worse things than dying
For no more I'll go waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and near
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs two legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

So they collected the cripples, the wounded, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where my legs used to be
And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
Then turned all their faces away

And now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving old dreams of past glory
And the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore
The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question
And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men answer to the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
And their ghosts may be heard as you pass the Billabong
Who'll come-a-waltzing Matilda with me.

For YouTube version by the best of Irish bands, click here:

The Pogues.

Concha Pérez. A Woman of '36

2008-05-20T07:48:00.004Z

I went over to see Concha last week.

She's always an inspiration, 92 years old, her mind still
sharp and clear. She's one of the founding, anarchist, members
of Les Dones del 36, the group of 8 women formed in
1997 to tell the story of the women who fought, in one way
or another, to defend the Republican government from the
fascist uprising.

I first met her in the summer of 1995 when I was looking
for information about civil defence. Somebody at the Salvador
Segui Foundation suggested I should go to talk to a group of
libertarian survivors of the war who met every week in a social
centre near the old university.

Note: Will have to finish this later as it's late and the graphic is
provisional till I can scan the photo I prefer. Though the breaking
chains in Catholic Spain in the 30s is very apt.

Bicicletes Castells

2008-05-20T06:44:00.004Z

Concha's new council flat is near the beautiful old power station
where I used to give classes and where two students first provided
valuable information about air raid shelters.

When I went to take photos of Pere Falque's building for this blog
last year I took a long walk home, and a lot more photos. This one
of an old bicycle shop just near the Arc de Trionf, the nearest tube
station to Concha and my old class.

I'm glad I did.

Because it's gone.

When I came out of the station last week there was just a walled-up
lot.

A jagged space.

Founded in 1928 by Josep Castells, the shop, now run by his great
grandson Pau Foguet, was a meeting point for cyclists, the place to
buy a new model, to repair the old, had even been the base of a
cycling team, the France-Espagne.

For four generations the family have been promoting passion for
sport and this gentle, environmentally friendly means of transport.

But a few years ago urban planners decided this was an ideal place
for a hotel.

Such a wonderful view down one of Barcelona's most beautiful
avenues, Passeig Lluis Companys, to the park.

For the tourists.

Ildefons Cerdà's original and visionary plan for the extension of
Barcelona in the 19th century included gardens in the interior of
every new city block.

Such a waste of space.

This part of the plan was largely ignored.

In recent years, the city council has been recuperating some of the
spaces for public gardens. Admirable, even if they are a little
heavy-handed with the concrete. They decided to recuperate the
one behind the projected hotel.

The entrance to the garden would be through the bicycle shop.

The old bar next door went first but the Castells family had no
intention of leaving. They fought the forced acquisition in court
and, surprisingly, won the case.

Bring in the heavy artillery.

The Generalitat, the autonomous government of Catalonia, plans to
refurbish and extend the tube and train stations below. Apart from
a special reinforcement necessary to support the weight of the new
hotel, improved accessibility to the station requires a lift.

Guess where.

The ideal place is, of course, the middle of the bicycle shop.

This time the family had to admit defeat and have moved to new
premises. They received compensation.

But for some, it is not a question of money.

2008-05-20T05:42:00.004Z

Maybe not so evident from the photos but the building is
only one storey high.

Such a terrible waste of space.

Not to mention potential income.

At €4746 per square metre, property in Barcelona, though currently
affected by the economic slowdown, has more than doubled in the
last 6 years.

Hardly surprising that there are 1,000,000 new apartments they
can't sell in Spain.

I would like to think that the real estate empires are finally cracking,
that they will stop the destruction of the small scale things, the
working class things, in this beautiful old city.

But I am sure they are just lying in wait.

In their greed.

In their ignorance.

For those who do value history, Bicicletes Castells have started
a blog.

Click on the name for some wonderful old photos.

Barcelona City Council have recently discovered the joys of Bicing,
the new (though some, of course, have been promoting this for the
last 80 years) sustainable form of public transport. Since last year
they have installed 400 stations with 6000 bicycles for use, after
registration and payment of a small fee, to travel short distances
around the city.

Admirable.

Except for one thing. They service is subcontracted to Clear
Channel, an American multinational based in Texas.

They promoted the war in Irak, helped finance George Bush 's 2004
election campaign and continue to support Republican candidacy for
the White House.

Bicycle to Baghdad, anybody?

12th May 1938

2008-05-13T14:44:00.008Z

The old Municipal Dispensary. Carrer Roser, Poble Sec.

The afternoon raid of 12th May 1938 hit the docks and
Poble Sec.

Without radar, invented during World War II, detection of
approaching enemy planes relied on a network of observation
posts.

They listened and watched.

There was often very little time for Information and Liaison
to activate the air raid warning systems and that afternoon a
power cut meant their siren was out of action.

Even less time for people to reach the shelters.

Five planes are sighted at 15´53.

The raid starts 3 minutes later.

At 16'08 the Municipal Dispensary in Roser Street
communicates that they're dealing with a lot of injured
as the bombs have fallen near the power station on the
main road Francesc Layret (now Paral.lel).

At 16'09 a dispensary in the docks communicates they also
have a lot of victims.

By 17'30 there are 35 known dead and about 100 injured.

Poble Sec now has a wonderful new Medical Centre, right
next to Air Raid Shelter 307 in fact. The National Health
Service here really is excellent, in spite of all the complaints.
But in the 30s...primary public health care was limited to the
municipal dispensaries, totally inadequate to deal with the
increasing number of air raid victims and the terrible injuries
involved.

I'm surprised the Roser Street Dispensary was able to cope at
all - it had been bombed during the March raids two months
previously and services had stopped just when they were
most needed.

The District Council still uses the premises for different
community things.

Peaceful things.

2008-05-13T12:05:00.009Z

C.N.T A.I.T
NATIONAL HEALTH CONGRESS
20 March 1937

Land and Freedom

2008-05-11T20:24:00.010Z

LIFE
Weekly publication of the Regional Federation of Farmers of Levante.

It's always the same old story: those who have
and those who have not.

In the 1930s in Spain 70% of the people still lived on the
land 67% of which was owned by a very privileged few.
Abject poverty was rife and many, with a situation little
better than serfs, were close to starvation.

Redistribution of land was to be one of the major revindications
in the years leading to and during the Civil War.

World hunger has been in the news a lot recently.

The privileged few are still around.

Mainly around Wall Street