Kafka or Brecht ? Journeys in Oran via Port Talbot

 

A British Virus for British workers and other tales of Port Talbot debate and argue... the system is cracking. It's hard enough as it stands for the working poor in normal times let alone now. Universal credit is not fit for purpose and the food banks are drying up and closing. Over the last ten years we have axed warehouse and storage facilities. 'Herd immunity" should come from vaccination rather than mass infection. Yet the Brexit mentality runs on. On the well known centre of humanity and compassion Port Talbot Arsehole and Dispair Facebook group those of us who point out the reality and weaknesso f our system are put under special measures where "politics" cannot be mentioned..'Politics" of course means pointing out that the price mechanism cannot fairly distribute vital resources, that austerity has destroyed our resistance, reduced our numbers of respirators and hospital beds and the ratio of doctors to people. There is no shortage of food yet the system us in crisis. Yet we cannot publish these facts without it being checked.

I have seen a panic buying of Pasta and Rice and people on this wonderful group are still celebrating the wonders of British Independence day. I even saw them raving against the £37 billion spent by the terrible EU in its battle against the virus. It's there money the gammon raves yet it will not protect them against the virus . A well known far right activist and his wife from the football fraternity has become an admin of a local Swansea Coved 19 group. It sends a wonderful message of hope to ethnic groups throughout Swansea. But hey naughty Martyn don't mention it at all... it's politics not truth.
We are underfunded in pharmacies and care homes and it was the patriots who voted for it. There is no NHS deliveries of medicine...the Tories left it to the market and the market has let them down. The market never could solve it and those moaning the most about the criticism has brought it on them selves. But hey I should be kind to them and not pointit it out. ..
I should listen to Boris and be quiet accept my lot and know my place. Well all I have to say is f**k you I will not go into the selfish gammon fueled darkness.
The bus is much quieter today. After today all therapy will be done online, by Skype, by Zoom and on the phone or at my small practice in Ystradgynlais. I shall still take the risk and represent clients at Benefit Tribunals if they run.

Real suffering is about to happen, social isolation will create real suffering and real poverty. Yet you can't say that on Port Talbot Debate and Argue it's "politics" and we should all hide behind the mytg of patriotism and Brexit. Of course the words I say simply come from a lefty; a remoaner and so its fake news. We can't point out that's it's obscene that the NHS must pay £2.5 million a day to rent private beds from private hospitals.. it's obscene that statuary sick pay here us half of what it is in Europe. We need mortgage holidays and rent holidays but hey Martyn shut up don't mention politics . We are British and it's a British Virus for British people ..but don't mention politics you lefty just shut up.. is it Kafka or Brecht? You will have to decide. But don't mention politics..


On 'Herd Immunity" and waking up to the true conspiracy theory. . How on earth can the vulnerable be protected by an economic system that denies and exploits them? How can a philisophy based on the normative individualistic narcissism of the Tory Party use the collective to protect us from the Pandemic stalking the world.? As we stand on the beach dancing to the myth and fiction of 'self :as the wave rushes towards us. We are the "herd" waiting for group immunity at the direction of the 1%And as the private planes allow our masters to escape.and as the conspiracy theories grow and mutate we find the one great true conspiracy theory that is based on power and wealth is obscured. The perspective now is coll

ective and communitarian and it dawn's upon us down amongst the herd that we have been fooled..
The pandemic is carried in and on the clothes and the breath of those of the international bankers and oligarchs. It did not come from the refugees from climate and wars sold by the elite. Those labelled as unskilled in the caring professions are the true front line warriors against the virus. and so its now time for collective solutions. Those who promoted austerity as reality destroyed the readiness of the NHS to resist ad powerfully as Stalin's purges damaged the Red Army and it's resistance to the Nazis. The purges run on now as the defences of the market are promoted over people. It's time to take the private hospitals and private medicine into the NHS and share the privilege of wealth and power with all. It was socialism that gave us the NHS and it was late capitalism that gave us climate change the solutions to both pandemic and inequality are the same. We stand on the edge of socialism or Barbarism. The normative demands of the narcissists hung in desire and projection cannot save us now. I hear the chief medical officer use the word "Herd immunity" and I wonder about the discourse and images of "Herd Slaughter" come to mind. The gates of the slaughter house lead us to the high altar to be sacrificed by the high priests of capitalism . The "herd" needs socialism not slaughter....it' needs immunity not isolation it needs inclusion and equality not exclusion and elitism. The discourse of the 'herd" impies slaughter and alienation. The only solution for us all waiting on the beach is collectivist and socialist....i stand on tbe beach as tbe waves rushes toaards us and the flocks of black swans swerp by good morning.... who will resist, collaborate or deny as reality dawns upon us all? We don't need no education ....we are waking up..

Parody, pastiche and post modernism......

These are strange times. I feel a sense of unreality there is a disjunct between what I hear on the media and the daily experience of my life I will see clients as long as possible and if necessary move on to zoom, what's app, or Skype.. the blog will be written the tweets sent and so on.. .these are post modern times ..I see parody, pastiche and ignorance. ..as the Tory Party reaches 50% in the polls I feel that something very odd is about to happen...

 Emlyn Pearce

20 hrs ·

Coronavirus has revealed painful political truths in a way that nothing in our lifetimes has done before.
We were told that care workers were ‘unskilled’, that we didn’t need them in the way we need bankers or doctors.

Now we see that they are one of our most important lines of defence in a global health crisis.
We were told we could divide our country from other countries and thrive in splendid isolation.
Now we discover that we are intrinsically connected to our neighbours, and that if a vaccination is developed we will need the cooperation of other countries to access it as quickly as possible.
We were told that a zero hours, gig-based economy where workers must continue to be productive even if they are ill would be to the benefit of all of us.
Now we see that putting work before health costs lives.
We were told that refugees and migrants would bring disease into our country.
Now we discover that wealthy travellers are much more mobile, and therefore much more likely to fuel epidemics.
We were told that our National Health Service could be whittled away and dismantled in the name of money.
Now we discover that without the NHS, we will have no money.
Nothing reveals truth as powerfully as vulnerability.
Whereas the right likes to think that we can build elaborate ivory towers and separate ourselves from others, the left has now been proven correct in its belief that - whether we like it or not - our fate is always bound up in the fate of other people, even if they live on the other side of the world.
Human beings are not separate from each other, we ARE each other.
Human beings are not separate from the economy, we ARE the economy.
A robust public health service is not a luxury that we pay for if we can, it is the very foundation of wealth and security.
Unfortunately, these lessons may have come too late to save us.

Where there is fear there is power.

Where there is fear there is power...So the interest rate is cut to 0.25 %. Nadine Dorris tests positive as we stagger on into an unreal dystopian future. At the full Moon we hear varying reports and a vast swarm of fake news flows ever onwards.

In America the Democratic party seems to turn it's back on Bernie Sanders and embraces four mire years of Trump I reflect as I wait for the bus to arrive if Jeremy Corbyn was a Justinian figure in a long and prolonged decline of Empire Those who came after Justinian were bland and ineffective. 2017 was the reconquest of Spain, Italy and North Africa before the decline began again.

Perhaps he was Julian the Apostate turning back to the old faith as the world became grey from the toxicity of neo liberalism. I cling to the old faith and party, sustained by Hegel and Gramsci. I feel like the old Pagan in Swinburnes poem sure of my faith and loathing of the new ways. I am one of Eliot's Magi returning home and finding society clinging to strange ways and alien gods.
Maybe Hegel will sustain me in these strange times ...maybe history will turn on odd events and black swans.. My shadow and Id arises as I fantasize rather cruelly on just who Nandine Dorris infected and then i hurridly dismiss the thought with shame and self dislike.

I reflect that Italy gas twice as many emergency beds and a greater ratio of doctors to people than we do here. I reflect on how treatment will be distributed and who will be first for the respirators. Then just below the surface I detect my own anxiety I an asthmatic and of a certain age . If my own shadow and id drives me to dark and unwholsome thoughts I wonder what fears and hate roams the land. There are monsters in these time Leon Trotsky horrendous ones.. we await events, dear boy, events as I prepare to teach Max Weber in my philisophy class. We all await the unforseen circumstances of history as Dylan the Dog from a Welsh rescue centre is to be sent packing. The mask slips as we see behind it the monsters lurking in the administration of the "People's ParlIament". Dylan like us all makes too much mess for our rulers and we await the future. It is not Brexit that is done .. I shake off my dark mood ...Spring is coming and my resistance rises...where there is fear there is power...

Give him a mask and I will tell the truth...

 Lets remember when workd capitalusm collapseed in 2008 blamed Labour? They cant do rhat now. ..the chickens are coming home to roost as we are forced to develop collective sutions ..in the ultimate voice between an 'i' or "we" society. Nothing bro gs it home more than the wearing of a mask protects others rather than our selves.. which we will choose?

The crisis in the market rolls on....what matters more the economy or the people? We learn now that the greatest creation of socialism the NHS gives us a chance to battle on..while the greatest creation of late capitalism global warming threatens our destruction.
It's as if the old gods via Mother Gaia tells us through flood and virus what we have done to her. In the USA who will benefit from the antidote...who will pay for it and will those who distribute it be given it free. The contradictions of late capitalism reach a critical mass...never before has so many anamollies pointed to the sheer stupidity of humanity. .its ignorance and sheer brutality..

Disability Labour AGM and Monday political musings..and radical uncertainty....

Disability Labour AGM and Monday political musings.... what does it take to wake up to the reality of late capitalism? As the price mechanism empties the supermarkets of anti bacterial wipes and soap, the "free" market that makes us "freer" takes more from us and limits us more. Marx was right he always has been. Since 2010 the first three chapters of "Kapiral" finds perfect illustration in the economic structure and policies of coalition and Tory governments where Exchange value rather than use value is the order of the day. The myth of the individual is clearly seen as we run from 
collectivism into getting Brexit done. As the culture wars rage on we stagger in early March towards a virus fueled moral panic. The price of oil falls and the global economy runs out of fuel . Yet while we fear corona we say nothing of the arms trade and the poverty fueled by the World Bank and the WTO that kill far more. And on the macro level we tip towards recession as Dominic Cummings brave new world becomes cowardly, bitter and parochially narrow. The walls are closing in....

On the micro level of political praxis Disability Labour holds its first AGM online using the Zoom App facility. The meeting was a great success and apart from a few glitches worked very well. Fran Springfield chaired the meeting effectively and well. The success of the meeting offer a a way for Brecon and Radnor CLP to reach many members in the constituency that is more of a continent. ZOOM offers a perfect solution for those who are disabled or isolated because of geography or circumstances. I was delighted to be re-elected onto the National Executive of DL particularly as it was without coupon or recommendation. Wales now has three members on the Executive and we will be bringing a unique Welsh element to DL.. I will be raising many of the issues at the Welsh Labour Conference in late March. It's a lovely sunny spring day as the week begins... let's see what the week brings.

Probability becomes meaningless... the love of quantification pointless . Economic prediction breaks down as all we can now do us defend our selves by narrative and we return to the time of the parable... and of radical uncertaknty...
...

The enemy of my enemy is my fiend.....

 I found this blog this morning. It's fascinating

 https://wereasmadashell.wordpress.com/2020/03/05/starting-small-when-councillors-go-bad/?fbclid=IwAR20Bk0CCF3-nW19_vWaBfLZbFoTpDbxWNQdgh61PHhefqJJ7s49qOinNAY

 

Starting small. When councillors go bad.

Posted bytcpaulhMarch 5, 2020

Posted inUncategorized

The Welsh government was the first to declare a climate emergency. Individual councils followed suit but Neath Port Talbot has held back. Everybody has heard of climate change so I won’t labour the point here, I’ll just use one example. The United Nations Secretary-General described it as an “existential threat to humanity”.
I started out concerned then the more hard science I read, then more terrified and angry I became so I joined Extinction Rebellion. There are a couple of hundred thousand of us in the UK and we don’t all go around standing on top of trains. Far from it. Our local group started small and we wanted to reach out to the local community. Where better to start than the largest local online community Facebook group “Neath Constituency Voice For Everyone” which has over 11,000 members and is solely run by ‘independent’ councillor Stephen Karl Hunt.
Mr. Hunt has certain duties and obligations as a councillor e.g. the promotion of equality; accountability and openness; selflessness; objectivity, propriety and integrity. He must not conduct himself in a manner which could reasonably be regarded as bringing his office or authority into disrepute. 
The Neath Voice For Everyone group has enormous reach and influence within the community, especially when run by a single partisan moderator who can choose exactly which direction it takes, which posts are deemed ‘too political’, ‘too contentious’ or labelled as advertising etc. Basically anything Mr. Stephen Karl Hunt doesn’t like. This hardly represents his duty as a councillor to have integrity or to be selfless or objective under the code of conduct. Indeed, I contend that Mr. Hunt uses it as a medium to progress his own personal agenda, whatever that may be on a day to day basis.
One thing Mr. Hunt doesn’t like is discussion of the climate and ecological emergency, the biggest threat humanity has ever faced. He bans those who post about it and certainly anyone who posts about local climate activist meetings or fundraisers.
He also ignored my requests to rejoin the group to ask for help and recommendations for tradesman following the recent flooding across Wales. Something I was badly affected by personally. There’s no irony here. First he dismisses discussion of climate change, then he refuses to let one of his electorate ask for help following flooding due to the increasingly severe weather we are seeing.
Here’s my own personal experience with him. You can judge for yourself.

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Posted bytcpaulhMarch 5, 2020

Posted inUncategorized

We’re as mad as hell and we’re not going to take it any

The lost pubs of Swansea

I have measured out my last 45 years visiting these pubs it was a shock to see virtually every memory, political, personal and dramatic now condemned to history. I caught myself this morning musing on these pubs upin who had been there with me, what was said and what happened next. These are the days of memories now and there is a bitter sweet sadness over some of them and an ecstatic celebration in others. The interludes in bars and pub gardens run back to 1976 and as late as 2008 in others. 

The decline of these pubs measures many things. They represent the destruction of community and the semi independent landlord. These are mirrored in the rise of the large company creating bland identical meals prepared by micro wave I all its glory.
"I grow old, I grow old I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled" T S Eliot calls out to me as the bus reaches Godre Craig. These pubs take part of my history with them and with it a generations memory. I shake myself out if a maudlin mood and look out of the window...it's March and Spying is coming...farewell the Rhyddings, the Cricketers, the Singleton, the Rohin Hood. And many more...all things decay work out your own salvation with diligence ..

 https://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/pubs-closed-swansea-last-decade-17790159?fbclid=IwAR33aPkciiwh_obu20bdZ2jjnnCLcE7jJAMmZo8BMk25-dD4er0CYBgNuXU
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manor

The ruffian on the stiars..,,,,,.mortality and virus.....

The virus is carried in the blood of the shark skinned suited men who run for power. It's attached to the skin of the bankers and money nen . It's promoted and sold by the arms dealers who follow those of the shark skinned attire. The world bank has killed more than any virus ever will. Each day those in the third world die because of debt, lack of water and food. Since the Lib Dems and the Tories brought in austerity in 2010, 120,000 have died from its plague. The length of life is declining in some cities the average age at which the poor die is 58 and the wealthy 85 The corona virus gives the Tories an opportunity to hide the bad news, obscure their forgotten promises and create fear and loathing. The plague comes in an education system determined to stop critical thinking and make a docile low skilled and low informed voters except the way things are. 

The power of the state tips in support of the economy rather than it's people. As Joe Biden prepares to become Hilary Clinton 2.0 we find the plague promoted by certain right wingers and centrists. As Peter Mandleson once said we are all Thatcherites now the Ruffian on the stairs walks with them all. As the mainstream candidates of the centre and right walk with the Ruffian explaining how things are and knowing who they prefer. They simply desire the status quo and loath Sanders and Corbyn more.
We all wait for the Ruffian on the stairs and thousands will meet him today. Yet it will not be by the Corona virus. It will be at the hands of the system promoted by the centre and political right. The smoke and mirrors of late capitalism covers our eyes and blocks our perceptions. The Ruffian on the stairs looks at us all and in the fullness of time we all meet him. It is our sharpness and critical thinking and of love that gives meaning to the necessity of death. There are worse things than death and life made stale and empty is one of them. Those who have lost a faith and found a faith will fight on even against the Ruffian on the stairs . Fear of corona fills many and we avoid the question about an economic system that makes the price of antibacterial soap rise and disappear from the shops when it is needed most,,,when the invisible workers who are the cleaners, security guards and social carers are not protected from illness and poverty and are forced to work with broken bones and to hide ill health . This plague is promoted by those who defend the system and they are the allies of the Ruffian on the stairs. The corona virus is the least of his allies but it pays many to promote the virus to equal status. There is only one God and his name is death and all we can say to him is not today. It's about resistance and the journey of life it's purpose. The freer the market the more brutalized the people and the more devalued. Don't fear the Reaper.. or the virus there are worse things and individuals...

The Coronavirus and the Ruffian on the stairs

The Coronavirus and the Ruffian on the stairs. The virus is carried in the blood of the shark skinned suited men who run for power. It's attached to the skin of the bankers and money nen . It's promoted and sold by the arms dealers who follow those of the shark skinned attire. The world bank has killed more than any virus ever will. Each day those in the third world die because of debt, lack of water and food. Since the Lib Dems and the Tories brought in austerity in 2010, 120,000 have died from its plague. The length of life is declining in some cities the average age at which the poor die is 58 and the wealthy 85 The corona virus gives the Tories an opportunity to hide the bad news, obscure their forgotten promises and create fear and loathing. The plague comes in an education system determined to stop critical thinking and make a docile low skilled and low informed voters except the way things are. 

The power of the state tips in support of the economy rather than it's people. As Joe Biden prepares to become Hilary Clinton 2.0 we find the plague promoted by certain right wingers and centrists. As Peter Mandleson once said we are all Thatcherites now the Ruffian on the stairs walks with them all. As the mainstream candidates of the centre and right walk with the Ruffian explaining how things are and knowing who they prefer. They simply desire the status quo and loath Sanders and Corbyn more.
We all wait for the Ruffian on the stairs and thousands will meet him today. Yet it will not be by the Corona virus. It will be at the hands of the system promoted by the centre and political right. The smoke and mirrors of late capitalism covers our eyes and blocks our perceptions. The Ruffian on the stairs looks at us all and in the fullness of time we all meet him. It is our sharpness and critical thinking and of love that gives meaning to the necessity of death. There are worse things than death and life made stale and empty is one of them. Those who have lost a faith and found a faith will fight on even against the Ruffian on the stairs . Fear of corona fills many and we avoid the question about an economic system that makes the price of antibacterial soap rise and disappear from the shops when it is needed most,,,when the invisible workers who are the cleaners, security guards and social carers are not protected from illness and poverty and are forced to work with broken bones and to hide ill health . This plague is promoted by those who defend the system and they are the allies of the Ruffian on the stairs. The corona virus is the least of his allies but it pays many to promote the virus to equal status. There is only one God and his name is death and all we can say to him is not today. It's about resistance and the journey of life it's purpose. The freer the market the more brutalized the people and the more devalued. Don't fear the Reaper.. or the virus there are worse things and individuals...

Of class and the Corona virus

Of class and the Corona virus....as the Tories tell us of their preparation to defend us from the coming plague causes questions to rise in my mind..

Yet no preparation is made to sustain then as they work and provide low skilled and low paid workers. Who will care, clean and cleanse those in isolation and quarantine? It will be the working class and those on zero hour contracts who will do that. On the cruise ships those in isolation and quarantine were served by the staff who were not. It was as if a chasm existed between those who served those in quarantine.. without quarantine themselves. If you serve and sustain you become invisible and beyond consideration of infection. We know that the stewards and the servants of the passengers are treated as if corona does not threaten them..will those who self isolate get paid? Will the Tories show that they are a people"s government? The market rules the concerns of the shareholders will always win. How will care home workers be protected? Who will be the victims ? Yes you are right the working class... 

The truth is that simply the need of capitalism and the market trumps all other considerations and concerns. It may be the greatest irony of all that a virus destroys late capitalism and globalisation . It was not peak oil that brought down late capitalism....it was the black swans of Corona landing..and it will be the working class, the migrant workers and those who work zero hour contracts that will be most at risk as they serve those who "must" self isolate and protect their masters...the bus drivers, the transport staff the street cleaners and the health workers nothing new there....nothing new under the Sun.

As I age and become my grandfather I glance back over the 100 years of my family history and the Socialist in me grows further and more powerful. Beyond middle class moderation and class my illusions are burnt away as reality dawns and Engels speaks out more relevant and brutal than ever...The greatest struggle is telling the truth to the oppressor..

Victory over DWP after three years

Victory over DWP after three years...I had a seat news this morning. Back in 2002 a client of mine was involved in a mini bus crash leaviing him virtually the only survivor. He had undiagnosed Post Traumatic Stress and was and still is In crippling pain. He contacted me back in 2017 to help with his appeal and both myself and his friend Will represented him at the appeal as the DWP had rejected his claim. Unfortunately the tribunal decides that PTSD was not similar to agoraphobia and refused the appeal. His friend Will persevered with the case and took it to a higher court that overturned the decision. The claim began again but unfortunately was rejected by the DWP and at an further lower court rejected. Once more Will and my client appealed to a higher one and won.. Last week a lower court upheld the appeal and the DWP had to pay out three years back benefit and granted my client the benefits for life. Many people would have given up in that length of time and the lesson is to be persistent. 

I remember this case rearly well as on the way to it the bus i was on crashed into a car near Pontardawe . I was shaken by it and probably had a some yes I.a from it. However I attended the initial appeal in this condition. The irony was that it took till December of last year 2019 to settle my claim. Persistence is the key and though my injuries were infinitely less than my clients we both won. There is an odd synchronicity and an echo in these stories. As we face the horrors of this Tory government there will be many cases like that of my clients .. many will give up but the lesson is keep fighting...

Ivan Monckton for the Welsh Labour Executive

Ivan Monckton for the Welsh Labour Executive I am pleased to Support Ivan Monckton as the Left candidate for Mid and West Wales on the Welsh Labour Executive . I have known Ivan for a couple of years now he is delightfully blunt, yet politically astute and has a kind, heart of gold. His political analysis is spot on and he dies not tolerate any bull shit. Ivan is a member of my own Union Unite. It's essential that Welsh Labour continues it's radical democratic reforms and that we widen the party to reflect the diversity we truly need. I suspect that the right of the party wish to slow down the process using the cover of the leadership campaign as a smoke sscrern. Vote for Ivan Monckton .

MID AND WEST WALES LABOUR PARTY COLLEAGUES
As many of you will be aware, I am a candidate in the elections for Welsh Labour’s Executive Committee (WEC), standing for one of the two seats for Mid and West Wales. Having been a Labour Party member continuously for nearly 40 years, I have held various positions at Branch and Constituency level, and am currently chairman of Brecon and Radnorshire CLP.
I moved to Wales at the age of 21 in 1974 to work as a Forestry Commission woodsman, having previously worked in a children’s residential home in Stafford, and then on a Shropshire farm. For the last 30 odd years, I have worked as a countryside contractor, maintaining and opening up footpaths and bridleways, and latterly, back in the woods during winter months coppicing hazel.
I have been a trade union member since my first working week, first with NALGO, but then transferring to TGWU when I moved to Wales. I became a shop steward and Branch Secretary in the early days and have been active at all levels ever since, serving for 34 years as the Agricultural Delegate on the Executive Council of TGWU/ Unite, and presently sitting on the Welsh Regional Committee and chairing the Regional Political Committee. However, as a lifelong Socialist, activism has always been about more than just sitting on committees. I believe in supporting workers and communities in struggle, whether in Wales, the U.K. as a whole, or internationally in Colombia, Palestine etc. Whether it’s a bullying boss, a Cabinet Minister or a Foreign Ambassador, I have confronted them all about injustices.
To be completely straight with you, I am of the Left and currently chair of Welsh Labour Grassroots. I campaigned to get Jeremy Corbyn elected leader, speaking alongside him at huge rallies in Cardiff and Merthyr. I also campaigned to win the debate on OMOV (One Member One Vote) elections for Welsh Labour leadership, and then again to get Mark Drakeford elected.
So, why do I want to be part of WEC? I believe that the Welsh Labour establishment is too ready to take a middle-of-the-road-approach to it’s affairs, often against the better interests of us members, and sometimes of the leadership itself! We need a more radical approach, and for that we need radical WEC members. How is it possible that the Welsh Democracy Review is going to be allowed to stumble on for another age before conclusions are put to a future conference?
I am plain speaking and occasionally blunt, nevertheless, I am always keen to work as part of a team and attempt to see others’ point of view. I am a capable public speaker, have been dealing with TV and radio interviews for many years and believe, absolutely, in reporting back to anyone I am in a position to represent. I am always happy to be contacted by phone, mail or email, and will accept as many requests to report back in person as is physically possible.
Last Years General Election result was devastating for Wales and the whole of the U.K. we are going to need a Welsh Labour Party that fights as never before to look after those who are going to suffer under a Conservative Government in Westminster. We also have the Welsh Assembly elections coming up next year, and we need to start working on a strong Socialist manifesto that will show the Nation we believe in equality, fairness and a decent life for all, wether you are a Managing Director, a farmworker or one of the homeless, and whatever your gender, sexuality, ethnicity or age.
If you want someone, as your representative, in a smart suit, tie and cuff links, telling you how difficult everything is, pass me by. If you want someone who will be YOUR voice, please vote for me.
I also urge you all to vote additionally for my colleague CHRISTINE HARDACRE, another thoroughly committed Socialist.

It's Friday in Oran...an interlude with Sisyphus

It's Friday in Oran...an interlude with Sisyphus.. The crisis of globalisation begins as the economic slow down takes effect. An unforeseen event shows exactly the effects of the black swan landing in the backyard of Europe. As climate change bites and Heathrow expansion is turned down we see a coming collision between conventional economic growrh and the need to limit emissions. As we flirt with descriptions of pandemic our: 'mature' democracy staggers towards panic . The streets are quieter and brooding with a sense of anxiety. As we look around we experience the continuation of culture wars as the western mind undergoes rapid an ever becoming revolution of identity.

Perhaps the greatest irony yet will be that the authoritarian state capitalists of China will be far more effective in resisting the corona virus. Would it not be odd if the myth of self and individualism was the Trojan horse that slew capitalism. Within 20 years of the claim of the victory of liberal capitalism we near an end to it's domination. It was not peak oil that was it's assasin it was corona.
The structures of globalisation, it's facilities exposed unconscious beyond comprehension are revealed as the fears of Ricardo, Malthus, Adam Smith and Marx become prophetic. The hints in the texts and the footnotes of the chroniclers of political economy move from the implicit to the explicit. As I said on Monday we all live in Oran now and the challenge to all is whether we are a resistor, collaborator or other.....this is the age of Camus as absurdity points out the flaws in the stassi capitalists of Johnson's government on Brexit Island....who will be Tarrou or Dr Rieux or indeed Rambert? Perhaps Sisyphus will have the last laugh as the corona virus stalks the market? Events, dear boy , events ...the road ahead cannot be seen....cannot be felt as the stock market staggers back to 2008 and all the logic of neo liberalism revealed once more as false...on Radio 4 the PM programme discuss with subtle seeding how we can cope in the age of pandemic...with restriction, limitation and a tinge of panic..

The praxis of meaning on a Thursday bus ride.

The praxis of meaning on a Thursday bus ride.. It's nearly March as a rain soaked and lashed Ystradgynlais staggers towards Spring. It's light now as I reach the bus stop in the mornings now. As the days lengthen and the cycles of existence weave and dance through events to come with numerous unseen consequences and echoes. Yet still there is still nothing new under the Sun. Freud, Nietzche, Marx and Hegel all knew this yet each in their own way gave a new lens and perspective upon the praxis of history.

There is tragedy followed by farce as the good old defence mechanism are dusted down and brought out and as the dialectical process of thesis and antithesis runs on into the death of God and on even to beyond good and evil. All things that were solid melt intro air as history moves on. As the bus travels towards Godre÷graig through out the world millions of lives acting upon one another at both micro and macro levels in numerous ways. I stare from the Bus window and think about the clashing aims, ideas and purposes. I think of the vast unconscious uncomprehending nature of world economics under late capitalism.

As the Red Wall Tory MPs fail to comprehend that an expansion of Heathrow will continue to destroy their local economies ... it is revealed that London and the South East has grown nine times as fast the areas of the North. I hear Airport Adonis champion the cause of Heathrow as I wonder when our Prime Minister will lay down in front if the bulldozers.
As centrist and right wing Labour "big beasts" dream of shadow cabinet glory I reflect on all of the possibilities and events to come. I reflect that we now reach a point where prediction becomes nearly merely a reflection of our own prejudices and blind spots. There is nothing new under the sun...or perhaps we are just locked in Baudrillard"s hyper reality....

Mercy me I am becoming Bill Brand or shall we call it " My friends in Ystradgynlais"

Tbe Ystradgynlais Labour AGM is over.... Mercy me I am becoming Bill Brand or shall we call it " My friends in Ystradgynlais". The greatest irony of my political persona is that finally at the age of nearly 62 I become my adolescent hero Bill Brand. The Ystradgynlais Labour AGM is over and a new committee elected. Trish oncemors is chairperson and I once more am the Secretary. Roger Maidment becomes Treasurer and Josh Morgan the Youth Officer. We have Lisa Phillips as Vice Chair and Monique Craine in a Job share with Roger Rees as Political Education Officer. Welcome to Vaughan our new Social Media Officer and Stephen Gray as Campaign Committee member . It was one of the largest meetings I have seen here . I say I feel like Bill brand as a voice on the Left as I hear the plaintiff cry "We are a broad church" which effectively means I accept the status quo but want to make it slightly less nasty. It also implies that the broadeness is effectively used without the word socialism and implies that our there somewhere are a secret group plotting the revolution of which I am a representative. There is also an inability to distinguish Momentum from Militant and forgets that 18 months ago the branch met bimonthly with an average attendance of 8 .The episode of Bill Brand below carries echoes of what I have seen, experienced and enjoyed. The Labour Party in all its glory and shadow is a wonderful political education that attracts, at times repels yet creates a fascination with the human psyche in all its glory and all of its Id. Within it all the Freudian defence mechanisms can be seen and experienced . I wouldn't miss it for the world and within it I often glimpse my own frailties, strengths and perceptions. At long last I have become Bill Brand....Venceremos comrades ...enjoy the first episode of the series...

From the Cefn Saeson by election onwards to the Senedd elections of 2021.

From the Cefn Saeson by election onwards to the Senedd elections of 2021...There begins a long cycle now of the electoral processes within the Labour Party, through its branches, Brecon and Radnor CLP, the party leadership and onto a certain Town Council by election on Thursday in the Cimla area of Neath. You may be surprised to consider the relevance of this Thursday"s by election to the future of the Labour Party in general yet it may be that it is merely an omen for the shape of things to come if Labour moves to the right. The Cefn Saeson by election pits the Green Party in a contest with Labour. This may well become a pattern under a Starmer or Nandy led Centrist or right wing Labour Party. As the Left within Labour battle for the party's future we may yet find that any centrist nudge may find Labour losing up to one million of it's December votes to the Green Party and other smaller parties. The defection of Sonia Klein to Plaid may well be another warning to those calling for centrism. As the clarion calls of Tony Blair call for an arrangement between Labour and the Liberal Democrats we see the trajectory of the Labour right and centre.
After the European elections and General Election of December we saw a remain alliance between Plaid the Greens and the Liberal Democrats..Labour must steer clear of such a development. The sight of Greens in alliance with austerity supporting Liberal Democrats was the ultimate in a lack of principle and ambition. Yet it will not prevent social democracy losing millions of young people switched on to politics by Jeremy Corbyn to the Greens and others.
For Plaid too must realise and understand that devolution for Wales only became possible because of the conversion of Labour to it's cause. It took Labour a long time to exorcise the ghosts of George Thomas and yet the ultimate irony may be yet to come where in the end Welsh independence becomes possible because of the conversion of Welsh Labour to it's cause. It would be a strange irony and a Weberian unforseen consequence of some surprise.

For myself I see no possibility of a mass party of ecosocialism outside of Labour. I see the present leadership election within Labour as a Hegelian moment of struggle that will be fought in leadership and General Elections to come. It may be that the left will triumph on April 4th or it may come in 10 years or more. Of course climate change and other unforseen events may well demolish the seemingly monolithic Tory dominance giving the Left power very quickly.

The Senedd election of 2021 will reveal much in Wales of political trends. The Tory victory in December makes it impossible for Plaid to ally within Wales with the Tories . Had Labour won in December Plaid could well have surged in future elections . There is a Welsh political axiom that suggest a Plaid only does well when Labour is in power at Westminster. At best Labour will win the elections for the Senedd in 2021 or otherwise come to a similar arrangement of the one Wales government of 15 years ago with Plaid. The sheer ignorance of Lisa Nandy over Catalonia and Scottish self determinism offers some attraction to certain elements within Welsh Labour yet offers us nothing more than a narrow cup de sac haunted by the ghost of George Thomas. The British state is cracking apart and the Labour Party must understand just what is happening.
The Cefn Saeson by election may be a warning to the devotees of a centrist Welsh Labour future particularly with the history of by elections in recent years in Neath Port Talbot.
As for myself it's odd how my victory in the delegate election for Disability Labour has an echo of both karma and schadenfreude that perhaps only Neil Wagstaff and Lisa Phillips would understand over certain events after the Uplands by election of 2014 in another party and universe. We move on tonight to the AGM of Ystradgynlais Labour Party and then in March to Brecon and Radnor CLPs AGM in March. The battle with the right and centre moves onto other times and other places for the soul of the Labour Party...the only way that eco socialism can be made manifest is through a socialist Labour Party...

We all live in "Oran" now........

We all live in "Oran" now as the pandemic comes... The borders begin to close as the plague comes. We see the borders shut between Austria and Italy. But where is it carried and how? Is it carried in our heads and hearts, or at the biochemical or microbial level? The cruise ships carrying right-wing gammon traverse the world as a pandemic nears. Has the world become Camus' Oran? I wonder then where a new theodicy will come from ? A woman raves on Question Time with bare-faced racism, unaware that her vile emotion lacks any basis in facts.

The plague is a metaphor and a metonymy for our times. It's closing the borders for us and it forms a fog in the channel. Europe is closing off to both the UK and to its respective states. The boring and bland voice of Keir Starmer sounds in my ears from Radio 4 as Lisa Nandy celebrates the uninformed reactionary attitudes as virtues to be listened to and celebrated. The plague kills our critical thinking and makes us believe that opinion without facts is valid. Ignorance carried in the blood becomes a source of confidence in the psyche. The defence of right-wing nut jobs with swivel eyes become a model to be aimed for. Hate speech becomes free speech as white straight men cannot see racism, homophobia and sexism as real and defend it as banter. The minds close as the bacillus spreads in multiple ways. Farage, Trump, and others are the epidemiological agents that spray us with it...
Those of who live in this worldwide Oran must choose how we resist. There will be many who collaborate with the plague, and there will be those who are carried off by it and those who resist and turn back. The choice is yours, and be it coronavirus or conservatism the vulnerable are always its victims. Will you collaborate, or resist? The choice is yours..

Disability, the trains to Treblinka and economic activity.

Disability, the trains to Treblinka and economic activity.. so we learn now that work makes us free and that there are eight million economically "inactive" people within the country. I watch on television an interview with the 50 somethings in cafe in Stratford upon Avon , they think that requiring the economically inactive to wipe bums and pick fruit as wonderful Yet they do not ask why during the day they are at the cafe and not being economically active. Like those 83% who believe that if you go to live in another country you must learn the language yet never apply this to the expats who are of course not economic migrants. When an eugenicist has been an advisor to number 10 and believes that women should submit to men you have a discourse that leads us to an instrumentalist view of humanity. Economic activity is measured by Pritti Pattel as simply working and ignores the spending in living that we all do whether we work or not. It is not work that makes us free it is the money we spend...

And after this discourse will come an attitude to the disabled . When Tories argue that the disabled should be paid less and the DWP creates a taxonomy that denies psychological definitions and confuses the meaning of cognitive possinluties with actual ones. It won't be long before the eyes of the patriots turn onto the clearly perceived disabled and then begin a witchuni upon the hidden disabled. "Economic inactivity" opens the doors to 'work makes free' and in the simplistic approach of the naive Tory's sinister outlook threatens us all. The far right and the alt right fear disability, the rights of women; the trans person and those who do not look, work or spend like them.
I have been told in letters from the DWP that it is not my job to comment on fitness to work.. I have seen a Doctor at a DWP Tribunal shout at a client, telling her to speak up because he has left his hearing aid at home. I have seen a client in a DWP interview so terrified that he dug his nails so deeply I to his hand that he bled u noticed by the health care professional I have seen the disabled bullied in public and experienced it myself in December when my magnifier bothered a bus traveller on the X6. All of these were not done by fascists yet each action feeds the fascist within and without. It empowers the fascist groups and those who practice and promote emotional fascism. If you can create a system that would have prevented your own parents coming here then you at best lack insight and empathy and at worst a hidden psychopathy and narcissism. If you can bully a high ranking civil servant that leads to their collapse...then you must ask what could you do to the other, the disabled and the different?

This must be the time we resist the fascist within and without. We must understand our shadow, our id and our prejudices.. we must resist those who would deny the expert and fail to understand the nature of power..We must promote critical thinking and deny the simplistic emotional explanation. We must concentrate on ideas and defend the vulnerable and ourselves in and when we experience our own vulnerabilities. We are all broken, disabled and at risk at times...let's resist and fight back against those locked in denial, projection and displacement. It's insight, critical thought and empathy Pritti Pattel that makes us free and not work for fucks sake...just tell me of the billionaires whose wealth makes them inactive .....if you can be slain in a sleepy shiska bar by the far right, then we open the doors to the gas chambers.. and catch the trains to Trblinka....no paseran...

The Glanrhyd bus stop in the rain in February.. musings and reflections

The Glanrhyd bus stop in the rain in February.. musings and reflections..as news of a far right attack comes from Germany. We hear that the attacker posted a video and had a hunting licence and attacked two Kurdish bars frequented by guest workers. We hear that the German state took away resources from observing the far right to observation of Isis terrorism. Like the UK the far right flexes and stretches it's muscles and few see the symbiotic relationship between the far right and Isis. Each has a similar world view, each share one another's social media tweeting and retweeting one another's efforts and each left behind in a globalised world.

My mind turns to the nature of Februay and I reflect the on the tide of misery, illness and mortality around me. I am Sissyphus pushing the stone of my will and optimism up the hill each day and each morning it has rolled down to the bottom so I begin the process again each day The same inanities echo around social media each day on Port Talbot arseholes and dispair the same unthinking prejudice babbled on ....

As Pritti Patel brings in a points-based immigration system we discover that her own parents would not have been granted entrance to the UK what us it about newsagents and the Tory Party? Is it the prejudice of the tabloids entering into their souls by osmosis? Is it the grubiness of selling cigarettes and booze to under age kids in the 70s? Is it the crassness of the top shelf ? Or the inflated prices charged to poor and desperate people?

This is February as three storms have merged into days of rain and wind that never seem to end. I glance up around the bus there are six of us as we move through Trebanos and onwards towards Pontaradawe ...where are we going what are our stories? I dreamt last night of a train journey Freud would have speculated on mortality perhaps this bus is a metaphor for the train. Sissyphus within all of us heading on the X6 to pick up our individual rocks?

On Radio 4 I hear of the floods in Wales and throughout the country. The reality of climate change comes down to us all. Yet denial is everywhere...

But the days are lengthening and the light grows daily. In the USA Sanders goes on the attack and lays into the racist Israeli Government and the theocracy of Saudi Arabia. As Bloomberg stutters and staggers awkwardly into the Presidential election. The potential for change is there and the small acorns and bulbs of hope burst with energy. Spring is coming steadily as we all Sissyphus like battle through existence . There is only one God and his name is death and all we can say to him is not today. There are many Goddesses with multiple views and perspectives and the rocks we push up the hill can become tools of change and weapons of resistance ....but dare we rebel that us the question.
Meanwhile the ex Pats in Spain rail against migrants and call for the economically inactive with the UK to pick fruit and wipe a

"Even damnation is poisoned with rainbows"..

...it's very quiet the cafes, the shops and the businesses. Yes it's half term, but as I write I notice that the bus I am on is emptier than usual. It's almost as if the paradise of Brexit and the government of Boris Johnson exists in a way that is yet to be perceived or understood. I feel as if the pages of Hannah Arendts book on totalitarianism and fascism is being acted out. As Kier Starmer bores the Labour into submission with a stream of visionless words and Lisa Nandy has conversations with socially conservative ex Labour voters who are concerned with "anti western" policies and hung up on immigration and the threat of diversity . Yet in the conversation she has she never states what values she has or indeed those she supports. Her history is constantly revised, adapted and reinterpreted .Anti Semetism as Corbyns sin is woven into her narrative tapestry and coloured by ambition as great as Lucifers and as cold as a Lizard she weeps tears for the blue Labour values that she so sadly mourns.

The Left wrestles with the false binary choice between the electable centrism option and the purity and relevance of Socialism. Late capitalism is here and we cannot go back to Blair. 2008 destroyed for ever that world has gone for ever. Neoliberalism has been replaced by benefit capitalism in which large corporations and banks are the recipients . The system has gone and only it's shell remains. The superstructure of the state persuades many that we can go back yet automation, climate change and the change of commodities and their opportunity costs slips by their awareness.

The Left must keep its nerve and battle on. Whatever happens on April 4th is yet another state in a Hegelian process. Blair led Labour to the arms of Bush and war where so would the centrist pragmatists lead us now? Which right wing populist would serve that role? There is no way other than to campaign, educate and empower. Socialism is the only way now. Rosa Luxembourg long ago said the choice was either Socialism or Barbarism. Never has the first three chapters of volume of Das Kapital been more relevant, prophetic and valid. The centre is dead but does not yet know it, the right off Labour has no relevance or value to post industrial society. All that is solid is melting into air and all that was holy is now profane. Socialism calls to us as a faith to those who have lost a faith..keep your nerve ...the dialectic runs on as thesis and antithesis battles it out. Free movement becomes essential as the crisis of late capitalism nears.....it will come in an event, moment or episode that is yet unforseen, unknown and shocking...:to all my architects let me be traitor to those I cannot obey.."

The Old Revolution

Leonard Cohen

I finally broke into the prison,
I found my place in the chain.
Even damnation is poisoned with rainbows,
All the brave young men
They're waiting now to see a signal
Which some killer will be lighting for pay.
Into this furnace I ask you now to venture,
You whom I cannot betray.

I fought in the old revolution
On the side of the ghost and the King.
Of course I was very young
And I thought that we were winning;
I can't pretend I still feel very much like singing
As they carry the bodies away.
Into this furnace I ask you now to venture

Lately you've started to stutter
As though you had nothing to say.
To all of my architects let me be traitor.
Now let me say I myself gave the order
To sleep and to search…

Yes, you who are broken by power,
You who are absent all day,
You who are kings for the sake of your children's story,
The hand of your beggar is burdened down with money,
The hand of your lover is clay.
Into this furnace I ask you now to venture

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Leonard Cohen

The Old Revolution lyrics © BMG Rights Management