Exemplary Moments in English History. 1649

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.

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.

The reverse of the note:

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

Better still

Eliminate (oh utopia) the money altogether.

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

Black.

Size 39

Wall Street Weeps

###
Iraq War Cost




click here to learn more


So do I.

Victor Jara

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

Land and Freedom

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

Country people. Tortosa.
Estampa. 18 July 1933

In Catalonia the situation wasn't so bad with its milder climate,
and more equal distribution of (largely fertile) land. Conditions
were probably worse for the factory workers and the unemployed
in Barcelona.


When news of the Nargis cyclone broke I was going over some
Spanish Civil War documents, specifically the daily log of the
Information and Liaison section of the organization in charge
of civil defence: La Junta de Defensa Passiva de Catalunya.

The minute by minute reports of the raids, from the detection
of approaching enemy planes to the final count of the victims, are
hard reading.

The chaos, the fear and the tragedy get closer.

I was looking at the log of March 1938 and wondering why Amposta
and Tortosa, small towns in the delta where the river Ebro comes
down to the sea, were getting bombed so frequently.

The Delta de l'Ebre is a now a wetlands sanctuary for over 300
species of birds.

But they also grow rice and have done for hundreds of years.

That log entry from 15th March '38: the destruction of a rice
factory in Amposta the previous day with five dead. Of course,
they were trying to destroy supply lines to the front, further up
the river.


Rice fields and war - inevitable images of Vietnam and Cambodia.

Weary, angry that so little changes.


As if natural disasters were not enough.

Do you have a flag?

It's Sunday and for so very many who share this planet the Horror is near.

So much impotence.


Humour can help to lighten the load and is sometimes a powerful
weapon against those who would be king.

This version of British comedian Eddie Izzard's sketch was apparently
made by a fifteen-year-old in the USA.

Queridos Cómicos indeed.

(Click on Eddie's name to see the original.)

The Road from Mandalay

Over 100 years of British Colonial interference and rule in
Burma ended in 1948. For most of its 60 years' independence
the country has been dominated by the military. It's probably
not a coincidence. The present is inextricably linked to what
has gone before.

George Orwell, author of Homage to Catalonia, served the
British Raj as a police officer in Burma.

He resigned.

A convinced anti-imperialist, he came to Spain in 1936 to
fight for the Republican government against fascism.

And the Generals.

It's probably not a coincidence.

The Generals (again)

An ear of rice and stars.

Beautiful symbols on the Myanmar/Burmese flag.

Though I doubt that survivors of the cyclone have much
time to contemplate or get philosophical about starry skies.
They are probably more concerned about the rice.

And the dead.

International offers of aid pour in but the current General and
his Junta are being difficult.

Military dictators always have so many things to hide.

General Than Shwe would like the aid but isn't so enthusiastic
about the aid workers. He may be right, first you get the aid
but then you find you got the CIA or some other intelligence
agency as well.

And Blackwater gets the monopoly on the contracts.

MAYDAY

In Manila, a woman cooks food scavenged from
restauarant garbage.

Photo Reuters April 25 2008

"A lot of scavengers sell recycled food that they segregate
from other waste. It's common practice around here."

Three out of ten Filipinos in a population of 88.57 million
live below a poverty line of $149 a month for a family of five.

Meanwhile...

The Fidelity Millionaire Outlook, a 2008 survey of 1000 people
with at least $1 million in assets to invest, reports that they, too,
are feeling the economic squeeze. 19% do not even consider
themselves wealthy.

Those with more than $10 million being the most pessimistic.

They're not sure where to invest their money to get the best returns.


Garbage bags, perhaps.

CNT FAI AIT Food Sector Union


DISTRIBUTE
FOOD
EQUALLY
DENOUNCE HOARDERS

Song for Monday

"Johnny"

La Polla Records (late, lamented) Basque punk band

Johnny coge el bombardero
y lo eleva por el cielo,
no hay cañon que alcanze a Johnny
ni rival que lo derribe.
Johnny está en un video juego
controlando la pantalla
Johnny nunca ve la muerte
Johnny tira los pepinos oyendo heavy-metal
Es nuestro campeón.
Johnny no mata la gente,
elimina el objetivo.
Johnny no es un asesino.
Johnny tiene un buen oficio.
Johnny es frío y profesional.
Johnny escribe en una bomba
"el petroleo es para mi"
y la gente quiere a Johny
que defiende a su pais.
Se acabo la gasolinaaaaa
Y aunque Johnny vuelve a casa
convencido de su hazaña.
Johnny solo es un cretino
que maneja un bombardero.
Johnny es un bastardo.

Johnny gets into his bomber
Takes it up into the skies
There's no cannon can touch Johnny
no rival that can shoot him down.
Johnny's inside a video game
he's controlling all the screen
Johnny never sees the dying.
Johnny drops his bombs listening to heavy metal
He's our champion.
Johnny doesn't murder people
He eliminates objectives.
Johnny isn't an assassin
Johnny's got a real good job.
Johnny's cold and professional
Johnny writes on one of the bombs
"The petrol's all for me."
And the poeple do love Johnny
He's defending his country.
The gas has all run out now.
And though Johnny's going home,
Sure of his what he has achieved,
Johnny is just a cretin
Who flies a bomber plane
Johnny is a bastard
Oh Johnny is a bastard.
Repeat.

A little more to do with air raid shelters

The barbarians came with their arms blessed by the Pope
Gráficas Valencia. U.G.T. C.N.T 1937 (?)

Southworth Collection. University of California San Diego

At a Pentagon press conference last Friday, America's

top military officer, Admiral Michael Mullen, announced
"potential military courses of action" against Iran.

The excuse?

Iran's "increasingly lethal and malign influence" in Iraq."


Pardon me, "Sir."

(Is that the correct form of address? I obviously cannot
misuse "Compañero")*

The only lethal and malign influence most of us have noticed
in the last few years in Iraq is the purveyor of those B-2 Spirits.
Et al.

"Stealth" bombers?

We did notice who sent them.




*At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War there was an attempt to
abolish forms of address denoting rank or title. In the new world
they were fighting for everyone would be an equal, a "compañero,"

a companion.

Rank

Pedrero. Junta Delegada de Defensa de Madrid
Delegación de Propaganda y Prensa. 1937(?)
Sindicato de Profesionales de las Bellas Artes, UGT.

Southworth Collection UCSD


Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that
the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of reasons,
will somehow work for the benefit of us all.

(or words to that effect)

John Maynard Keynes.

Useful translations:

English to Catalan/Spanish:
Rank (n) Rang/Rango
Rank (adj) Putrefacte/Podrido.

Spanish to English:
"isimo" suffix meaning enormously, most superlative.

"El Generalisimo" is the title given to Franco by his admirers.

One wonders if they were being sarcastic.

Franco was only 5ft 4in. tall.

This is not a way of life at all

Share of arms sales of top 100 arms-producing companies
excluding China. 2004


"Every gun that is made, every warship launched,
every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a
theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those
who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms
is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat
of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes
of its children… This is not a way of life at all, in any
true sense."

Dwight D.Eisenhower April 16th 1953

Nothing to do with air raid shelters

Banksy


Or maybe it has.

PRICE RISES MARCH 2007 - MARCH 2008

CORN 31%

RICE 74%

SOYA 87%

WHEAT 130%

Source BBC

Gerda Taro

Gerda Taro. Guadalajara front, Spain July 1937
International Center of Photography.

A few posts down (10 March) I posted a wonderful photo
of a group of Republican Navy marines.

I had been digressing about war ships and the news had
just come in that the ultra-conservative Popular Party
had not won the Spanish general elections. The men in
the photo are all beaming. For those who do not understand
Spanish perhaps I should also have mentioned that a polite
translation of the song "Tragala" linked to the post might be
rendered as something like "Oh you'll just have to grin and bear
it."

I found the photo on some web page which cited the author as
"Capa".

Robert Capa is considered one of the greatest of war photographers,
thanks, partly, to his much-published photos of the Spanish Civil War.
But this wasn't one I recognized as his so I didn't post his name.


I'm glad I didn't because the photo was taken by Gerda Taro.


Gerda Taro was Robert Capa's friend, lover and companion.
She was also a photographer but, until the recent exhibition of her
work at the ICP in New York, had been given very little credit for her
work or for being, perhaps, the first woman photo-journalist to cover
a war.

The first to die.

She was 26 years old when she was hit and killed by a tank at the
battle of Brunete on 25 July 1937 soon after the photo on this post
was taken.

There's more about her on the ICP web and The New York
Times and The Telegraph.



I hope they bring the exhibition to Barcelona.

Boy wearing cap of FAI (Iberian Anarchist Federation)
Barcelona August 1936. Gerda Taro.

I love Poble sec, the district I live in in Barcelona.

I love the narrow little streets and the park of Montjuïc behind.

I love its working class history, the sense of community.

Which survives.


Gerda probably didn't know that this photo was taken in Poble sec.

It's the anarchist barricade in front of the old Molino Rojo theatre
(Barcelona' s version of Le Moulin Rouge) and was decisive in
stopping the advance of the insurgent troops at the beginning of the
Civil War.


I love that she was here.

Truth, Lies and the Olympics

Photo: Agustí Centelles Ossó

"All British and US troops serving in Iraq will be withdrawn within
a year...The planned pull-out from Iraq follows the acceptance by
London and Washington that the presence of the coalition ...is now
seen as the main obstacle to peace."
Telegraph 08/03/2006


"...the Bush administration has begun negotiations...to keep U.S
troops in Iraq for years, even decades, after George W. Bush leaves
office."
Washington Independent 26/03/2008


I would prefer to explain the history of the suitcase with the
negatives of Agustí Centelles photos of the Spanish Civil War,
recuperated, like Robert Capa's, to bear witness to a time.

But that must wait.

Because Iraq is now.


Britain isn't saying much about troop withdrawal except that it
has been "delayed".


Meanwhile preparations for the 2012 Olympics in London
continue.

Just think how many armless, legless athletes they can bring from
Iraq for the "Para-Olympics".


I wonder who will boycott London.

Fear and loathing in Barcelona

Manuel Monleon

On Monday afternoon Tony Blair was in Barcelona to give a
conference.

2000 of the more economically privileged were invited.

But not the general media. Apparently at his request.

Afraid of something, Tony?

After all hundreds of thousands of people protested in Barcelona
about the invasion of Iraq and TV3, the main Catalonian television
channel, has always maintained a critical coverage of the Iraq war
and its terrible and continuing aftermath.


Tony Blair, who is directly responsible for the deaths of unimaginable
numbers of Iraqi people was paid nearly 300.000 dollars for a 30
minute speech.

His visit was given very little advance publicity and was surrounded
by strange secrecy.

Like a sneak thief.

Like the criminal he is.

What did he speak about?

There is little information available.

Probably something to do with the wages of sin.


"New Labour"?

The old labour is still around. It earns 31 dollars a day.

STOP THE WAR COALITION

Tibet and Berlin 1936

Two years before Hitler came to power in 1933,
the 1936 Olympics had been awarded to Germany.

Intimations of what the Nazi regime was and
would be capable of led some to call for a boycott.

Not many listened.

But that Spain of 1936...

The dreams of freedom and a better world.

The Republican government decided not to send
any participants to Berlin. Instead, with the government
of Catalonia and the City of Barcelona, they organized
an alternative in protest:

The People's Olympic Games.

With 6000 registered athletes from 23 nations the games
were due to start with an inauguration ceremony on the 19th
July.

But with the fascist uprising on the night of 18th to 19th
Spain was plunged into 3 years of civil war. The popular
Olympics, evidently, did not take place.

Some of the foreign athletes immediately enlisted in the
militias on behalf of the Republic forming the basis of what
would later be the International Brigades.

Some died.


I don't like competitive sports and do not believe the
Olympics significantly further peace and understanding
between Nations. But, oh, I would have liked to have seen
Hitler, Master of the Master Race, watching Jesse Owens,
black and beautiful, winning 4 gold medals that summer
in Berlin.


Today, on the news, I watched the Olympic torch on its
journey through London, surrounded by heavy police
protection and jeered by crowds protesting about Tibet.

I wonder who will boycott Beijing.

Manel Cabanes Fernandez

Photo Copyright: Carmen Cabanes

The 70th anniversary of the March bombings
of Barcelona in 1938 seems a fitting time to get
back to the story of Air Raid Shelter 307.

Manel, to whom this blog is partly dedicated,
died on the night of the 17th March when a section
of the shelter collapsed. He was 5 years old.

He had always been terrified of the narrow, winding
tunnels of the shelter and never wanted to go
inside. But the intensity of the air raids which had
started the previous day was so frightening for his
mother, her sister and their four other children
that he was forcibly taken inside

There is no record of a direct hit on the shelter.
Lack of foresight, materials and manpower meant
that many shelters were being used while work was
still in progress. A section collapsed just where the
children were sleeping.

Manel's eight-year-old cousin Dolores died instantly.
Manel was still alive but bleeding from the eyes and
ears. There were no ambulances or cars available in the
chaos. So his mother ran, with her son in her arms, to the
central hospital.

It's about 40 minutes´walk, uphill, on a normal day.

They couldn't save him.

His mother, Angela, never really forgave herself for
making him go inside the shelter. She washed and kept
the jacket he was wearing the night he was killed. She
died in 1998 and was buried, as she had requested, with
the jacket in her arms.

I can think of others to blame.


Manel's sister Carmen, who was born after the war so never
knew him, told me the story. We cried, for the pity and the
horror of it all.

I look at his photo and imagine losing a child in this way.

I look at the photo.

Strange premonition, the doll's striped suit.

It looks so much like the ones issued to inmates of the
Nazi concentration camps.

Of flags and freedom and other messages

Flags are a difficult subject.

They have dubious military and patriotic associations.

But, sometimes, they are an easy and beautiful way to attract people's attention.

To the abuse and misuse of power.

There were lots of flags at the anti-war demonstration on Saturday.

The Tibetan flag.

The Palestinian.

"A World Without Wars"

There were many messsages.

Some were innocently hopeful.

"No to a Global Guantanamo"

Others angry about illegal, insidious incursions on basic human rights and freedom.

"Solidarity with Malalai Joya"

Some a celebration and solidarity with Afghani women who dare to be free.

At the end of the demonstration one of the speakers was a little
Pakistani girl.

Her father is one of the men arrested, violently, in Barcelona in
January accused of planning a terrorist attack on the city. She
begged for tolerance, for resistance to fear and criminalization
of Muslim people.

For presumption of innocence.

Her father may or may not be guilty. Spain suffered one of the
worst al-qaeda inspired terrorist attacks in Madrid in March
2004 which left 191 dead and 1755 injured.

But I remember a similar spate of arrests in Catalonia in 2003,
"Operation Estany" when 22 men of Arab origin were arrested
on suspicion of plotting a chemical warfare attack. They were
later freed without charges though some have since been re-arrested
and convicted. The sentence is still under appeal.

But one man, Youb Saoudi, not one of the convicted, was extradited
to Algeria in 2006 where he was put on trial accused of belonging to
a terrorist cell. He was found innocent.

The Spanish authorities are refusing to give him a visa to return to
Spain and his family.

The incriminating chemical substance found at the time of the
original arrests was washing powder.

5 YEARS

Josep Renau

On February 15 & 16 2003, with the invasion of Iraq imminent, unprecedented anti-war demonstrations were held all over the world. Estimated numbers vary, strangely, but in 800 cities in 60 countries, between 8 and 30 million people went out onto the streets to say no to war.

So what?

You just lie your way through when you want the petrol and the profits of war.

Bush´s recent visit to the Middle East, alone, resulted in arms deals of an estimated 20 billion dollars.

This man accuses Iran and Syria of fomenting violence.

If he can he will move the war to Iran.


This afternoon there will be demonstrations, for those who still rage and sorrow, to mark the 5th anniversary of the war.

In Barcelona: Plaça Universitat 17.00h


I do try to get back to the story of the air raid shelter.....

War Games. Are contagious.

Photo: EFE

It seems I was too quick to criticize the Americans for how they spend public funds.

Not to be outdone, last Monday Spain also launched a new battleship, the "Juan Carlos I".

Capable of transporting 1,200 troops, it will be equipped with the normal array of canons and machine guns plus its own anti-missile defence system. It will also double as an aircraft carrier. On the news I heard the Captain mumbling something about humanitarian missions.

Like saving Iraq perhaps.

It cost over 553 million dollars.

Ah yes, humanitarian missions.

The "Juan Carlos I" could be so useful.

Spain is only a few miles from the North African coast, such a terrible temptation for the hopelessly poor. The war-weary.

That dream of a better life.

So many die in the attempt.


The photo is from Boris Hoppek´s "86 Negritos" (86 Little Negroes) exhibition last summer in Cadiz.

Another Song for (Election) Sunday

Photo: Gerda Taro
Marines playing musical instruments on board the battleship Jaime I,
Almeria, Spain. February 1937.


I was looking for the song "Cabo de Palos" about
the Republican Navy but found this.

Somehow it seems more appropriate.

How will it ever change?

Spanish children, especially working class children, didn't have many toys in the 1930s.

Life was hard.

For the poor.

The little cardboard boat in the picture, the old battleship Jaime I (which remained loyal to the Republican Government after the fascist uprising in 1936) was part of a series:

THE REVOLUTION
IN SURPRISE ENVELOPES

issued during the war.

It cost 25 cents or was available in exchange of 25 of the vouchers
given for each purchase of 5 pesetas or more in ALMACENES
ALEMANES (The German Store) (collectivized) in the centre of
Barcelona.

It`s one of my prize possessions.


Last Sunday I read that the US Navy had just launched a new destroyer - the USS New York.

The bow contains 7.5 tons of steel salvaged from Ground Zero

In honour of those who died.

They think it will defend freedom and combat terrorism.

A war boat.


There is no National Health Service in the United States of America.

Life is hard for the poor, if they fall ill.

Perhaps a state hospital would have been a more fitting tribute.

Of books and books

Encouraging the underprivileged to read was one of the constant Republican preoccupations during the Spanish Civil War.

It was seen as a way to fight fascism.


But there are books and books.

And bookshops.


This afternoon David Irving, Holocaust denier (he has claimed that Auschwitz was merely "a labour camp with an unfortunately high death rate") anti-semite, racist and jailbird has been invited to speak at the same bookshop in Barcelona where David Duke was prevented from giving his conference a couple of weeks ago.

David (a rather unfortunate name for an anti-semite) (I seem to be repeating myself) has written a lot of books about Nazis and Nazi Germany, mostly in a rather favourable light. This is somewhat perplexing given that they nearly killed his father in 1942 when they sank the boat he was serving on.

He has been barred from entering Austria, Germany, Italy, Canada and New Zealand and in May this year was expelled from the 52nd Warsaw International Book Fair in Poland for attempting to promote pro-Nazi and anti-Semite books.

Barcelona is a wonderful, generous, open-hearted city. But sometimes...

Christmas

This year the boys and girls from Santa's Ghetto have moved the show to Bethlehem.

Where else?



Thursday evening.

Coincidentally the International Commitee of the Red Cross has just issued a report about the Gaza Strip entitled "Dignity Denied", the political nature of which is unusual for their normally discreet, "non-political" stance.

Worth a read.

Click the link for the full report.


Some extracts:

Occupied

Throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, in the Gaza Strip as well as in the West Bank, Palestinians continuously face hardship in simply going about their lives; they are prevented from doing what makes up the daily fabric of most people's existence. The Palestinian territories face a deep human crisis, where millions of people are denied their human dignity. Not once in a while, but every day...

Trapped in the Gaza Strip

While the Gaza Strip is sealed off, the conflict between militants and Israel continues inexorably. Palestinian militants are launching rockets towards Israel almost every day. The Israeli army regularly carries out incursions deep into the Strip, air strikes and attacks from the sea. The civilian population remains trapped, with no escape possible, and is also affected by continued intra-Palestinian clashes...

"Even after the disengagement, they did not leave us alone, they return every now and then, levelling our land, uprooting our trees and destroying our houses. In addition, you only know that you are inside the buffer zone when they shoot at you."
Saleh, farmer, Gaza

Since the violent clashes between Hamas and Fatah-affiliated forces and the Hamas takeover in June this year, the crossing points remain closed to most Gazans. Studying or receiving medical treatment in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Israel or abroad has become nearly impossible, with the exception of patients who are in need of life saving treatment. And sometimes even they are not permitted to leave...

Since its unilateral disengagement in 2005, Israel has gradually established a buffer zone along the fence that surrounds Gaza, extending into the Strip's already cramped and overpopulated territory, with heavy consequences for the population. More and more agricultural land is being lost through the ill-defined extension of this buffer zone, and this is endangering anyone who gets too close. Indeed, Gazans are often killed, wounded or arrested when they approach the fence.

Enough to survive, not enough to live

"It is difficult to find certain types of medication, such as antibiotics. We have already run out of cereals, and these days milk powder for babies is very hard to find. When you do find it, it is unaffordable for most, as its price has increased dramatically."
Dr Salah, pharmacist, Gaza

According to the World Food Programme, some 80,000 Gazans have lost their jobs since June 2007, increasing the already high rate of unemployment to the point where around 44% of the working population is jobless. Many local industries had to shut down and fire their personnel, as 95% of local production depends on imports of raw materials from Israel. Israel has restricted imports to what it deems "basic goods" – mostly staple food products – while other essential items needed to keep industry running or repair infrastructure cannot enter the Strip.

Shrinking agricultural production

"First, they took land for the road, then more land for the security zone along the road, and then they destroyed my house because it was too close to the security zone. Now they have levelled the land again. I have nothing left."
Abdul, Gaza


Crumbling infrastructure

The infrastructure of the Gaza Strip is in a fragile state. Some eight months ago, a wastewater lagoon in northern Gaza containing hundreds of thousands of litres of raw sewage burst its embankments. Sewage flooded a Bedouin village, killing five people, injuring 16 others and destroying the homes of thousands. Since then, no substantial repairs could be carried out due to a lack of funding and Israel's restrictions on imports of spare parts.

Since Israeli air strikes destroyed a large part of the Gaza Power Plant in June 2006, it has been working at roughly half of its original capacity. The electrical supply to the Gaza Strip is precarious, unreliable and dependent on external sources. In its current state, it cannot produce sufficient power to meet the needs of the population.

As a result, essential infrastructure such as hospitals, water systems and sewerage systems is having to use backup generators. Relying on generators is risky, and creates new dependencies on fuel and spare parts, quite apart from the higher running costs. Current import restrictions are preventing delivery of essential fuel and spare parts, which means that vital services are in danger of complete collapse.

Access to land

The humanitarian situation in the West Bank is also deteriorating day by day. Palestinians stand by powerlessly as their land is confiscated. Over the years, Isitraeli settlements and roads have expanded, taking over more and more of the land that the same families have cultivated for generations.


Access to roads

Many West Bank roads that used to connect Palestinian villages to nearby cities are now closed off by concrete blocks, ditches, earth mounds or iron gates. These obstacles separate Palestinians from their lands, their water sources and even their rubbish dumps. They divide one community from another, villages from cities, and districts from each other...

Harassment by settlers

"I had to build a high fence around my house to protect my children. Before, my children were stoned by settlers when they were playing outside. They stone us for the simple reason that we continue to live on our land and do not want to leave."
Anwar, Hebron

Palestinians living close to Israeli settlements are not only dispossessed of their land, but are often harassed by settlers. The number of assaults on civilians in the West Bank has grown steadily. ICRC data collected in the field indicates that the number of offences more than tripled in the last five years, while complete police investigations are rare and most of the time reach the conclusion that "the culprits could not be identified.”

An appeal for a dignified life

The dignity of the Palestinians is being trampled underfoot day after day, both in the West Bank and in Gaza.

Israel's harsh security measures come at an enormous humanitarian cost, leaving those living under occupation with just enough to survive, but not enough to live normal and dignified lives.

Israel has the right to protect its own civilian population. However, there should always be a sound balance between Israel's security concerns and the protection of the rights and liberties of the Palestinians living under occupation. So far, the balance between the Israeli legitimate security concerns and the right of the Palestinian people to live a normal life has not been struck.

The 1.4 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip continue to pay for conflict and economic containment with their health and livelihoods. Cutting power and fuel further compounds their hardship and is contrary to fundamental humanitarian principles.

In the West Bank, the establishment of Israeli settlements affects every aspect of Palestinians’ lives and leads to the loss of much land and income, together with recurrent violence by settlers. Exhausting movement restrictions hinder access to work and have led to unprecedented levels of unemployment and poverty.

Only prompt, innovative and courageous political action can change the harsh realy of this long-standing occupation, restore normal social and economic life to the Palestinian people, and allow them to live their lives in dignity.

AY, CARMELA. A song for Sunday.

Ay, Carmela, is one of the most famous of Spanish Civil War songs. This version by the group El Ultimo Ke Zierre uses the lyrics dedicated to the XVth Brigade formed in 1937 and which incorporated volunteers from twenty-six different countries including 600 Englishmen, 550 Americans (the Abraham Lincoln Battalion), 800 French and Belgians and 800 from the Balkans.

I doubt if anyone will ever dedicate a song to Mr David Duke.

But a good friend in the US, when I told him Duke was coming to Barcelona wrote:

"David Duke is fortunately a crook rather than a fanatic and has been bought and sold more times that a 10th Avenue hooker. That's all I can say that's positive about the swine."

Perhaps, once more, the less said the better.


Better the lyrics of the song

Viva la quince brigada,
Rumba, rumba, rumba

Que se ha cubierto de gloria,
¡Ay Carmela, ¡Ay Carmela!

Luchamos contra los curas,
Rumba, rumba, rumba

Legionarios y fascistas,
¡Ay Carmela, ¡Ay Carmela!

En los frentes de Gandesa,
Rumba, rumba, rumba

No tenemos municiones, ni cañones
¡Ay Carmela, ¡Ay Carmela!

Pero nada pueden bombas,
Rumba, rumba, rumba

Donde sobra corazón,
¡Ay Carmela, ¡Ay Carmela!

Sólo es nuestro deseo,
Rumba, rumba, rumba

Acabar con el fascismo,
¡Ay Carmela, ¡Ay Carmela!

Luchamos contra los curas,
Rumba, rumba, rumba

legionarios y fascistas,
¡Ay Carmela, ¡Ay Carmela!


Long live the 15th Brigade
The glorious 15th Brigade.
We're fighting the priests
The Foreign Legion and the fascists.
On the fronts of Gandesa
We have no ammunition or canons
But bombs can do nothing
Where there are hearts and to spare
Our only desire is
To eradicate fascism.
We're fighting the priests
The Foreign Legion and the fascists.

Ay Carmela, Ay Carmela!