Month: June 2020

JOIN THE VIRTUAL ORGREAVE RALLY – JUNE 20

On By Tony TaylorIn PoliticsLeave a comment

Last year I had the privilege of attending, together with Malcolm Ball, both of us remnants of the Leicester ‘Dirty Thirty’ Miners Support Group, the 35th Anniversary Orgreave Rally. On this blog I used the occasion to argue afresh for the significance of class struggle for the politics of youth work – YOUTH WORK & CLASS: THE STRUGGLE THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME

Leading a sponsored run round the Derbyshire pits – early 1985? Where’s John Dunn, you might well ask!

We promised ourselves that we wouldn’t miss another one, but the virus seemed to have put paid to that desire. However all is not lost as the virtual world rides to the rescue.

PRESS RELEASE

Join us for our:

VIRTUAL ORGREAVE RALLY
Saturday 20th June 2020, 1.00pm

Watch the live virtual rally, including guest speakers, on our facebook page – Let us know you’ll be joining us at this event – https://www.facebook.com/events/256199362195476/

TACKLING WORKING CLASS INJUSTICES 
UNITED AND STRONG

Every year the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign hold a wonderful, vibrant rally at Orgreave to commemorate the day Striking Miners were brutalised by police at the Orgreave Coking plant on 18th June 1984. This gives us all an opportunity to meet and show solidarity with comrades and friends and gather together with our magnificent display of banners and placards. 

Our campaign for truth and justice this year is commemorating the 36th anniversary of the Miners’ Strike and the events at Orgreave. Covid-19 Pandemic restrictions and the lockdown mean that we need to hold our Annual Rally online to keep us all safe. 

SPEAKERS include:

Chris Kitchen: General Secretary NUM
Eileen Turnbull: Shrewsbury 24 Campaign
Sheila Coleman: Hillsborough Justice Campaign
Jan Cunliffe: JENGbA (Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association)
Lee Fowler: Blacklisting Support Group
Judy Bolton and Yvette Williams: Justice4Grenfell
Kevin Horne: Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign
Janet Alder, sister of Christopher Alder, unlawfully killed in police custody Sal Young: NHS Worker and GMB Branch Secretary 

Compères

Chris Peace and Joe Rollin: Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign 

MUSIC:

UNITE Brass Band
PCS Samba Band

Given the dedication at the top of this blog I know that my dearest friend and comrade, Steve Waterhouse will be with us in spirit.

ON GROWING OLD AND WALKING IN RESISTANCE

On By Tony TaylorIn Politics2 Comments

I was 73 yesterday, no great age nowadays in the Western Empire, at least unti the arrival of COVID-19. Would-be friends ask of me, ‘why don’t you settle for a quiet life?’ Marilyn found this lovely poem, to which I’ll keep returning as the years roll by. The poet is Brian Bilston, who can be found at https://brianbilston.com/about-brian-bilston/

Brian Bilston is a laureate for our fractured times, a wordsmith who cares deeply about the impact his language makes as it dances before our eyes.’ Ian McMillan

Refusing to shuffle, grimacing in resistance to the passing years, November 2019

AS I GROW OLD I WILL MARCH NOT SHUFFLE

As I grow old I will not shuffle
to the beat of self-interest
and make that slow retreat to the right.

I will be a septuagenarian insurrectionist
marching with the kids. I shall sing
‘La Marseillaise’, whilst brandishing
homemade placards that proclaim
‘DOWN WITH THIS SORT OF THING’.

I will be an octogenarian obstructionist,
and build unscalable barricades
from bottles of flat lemonade,
tartan blankets and chicken wire.
I will hurl prejudice upon the brazier’s fire.

I will be a nonagenarian nonconformist,
armed with a ballpoint pen
and a hand that shakes with rage not age
at politicians’ latest crimes,
in strongly worded letters to The Times.

I will be a centenarian centurion
and allow injustice no admittance.
I will stage longstanding sit-ins.
My mobility scooter and I
will move for no-one.

And when I die
I will be the scattered ashes
that attach themselves to the lashes
and blind the eyes
of racists and fascists.

Brian Bilston