My twopenn’orth - fifty years of Labour Party membership and still a Socialist! Recommending our future Prime Minister.

                                          Billy Bragg & Jeremy Corbyn sing 'The Red Flag'

I have stuck with the party I love for over 50 years. If it swung too far to the right in my opinion, I didn't criticise it publicly* but worked within it's democracy to express my views and hopefully change the views of comrades. This was especially the case in the Blair years. [*The only time I have publicly expressed any disatisfaction with the leader was in the anti-war marches when I considered my pacifism more important than my party membership]

However the reactions of my comrades to the election of Jeremy Corbyn to Party Leader has appalled me. Threats before he was even elected not to work with him, undermining him - I don't have to repeat the examples from earlier blogs. I have followed Corbyn for very many years, not always agreeing with everything he says but admiring the way he sticks to his principles and his honesty. When he takes on a cause he is faithful to it. I unexpectedly found this out a few years ago when he supported a five year campaign in which I was involved. Unobstrusively but always there. Now I am returning the compliment. I am lucky that my local CLP is pro-Corbyn - I cannot imagine how it must feel to be working for someone who may shaft him the moment the election is over.

In the words of the song [!]: Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer/
We'll keep the red flag flying here. Keep the faith brothers and sisters.

So I am confident in recommending Jeremy Corbyn as our future Prime Minister.

^{Elizannie​ x}

I am not so vain as to think you may have noticed a bit of a gap in my blogs lately. However lots has been going on in the Elizannie world: family stuff and mounds of building work in the new abode. But still a party activist with plenty to say!

Who would live in a house with a [new] bedroom window like this?  
                                                                  ^{Elizannie​ x}

Peace

Dedicated to Leonard Cohen 21 September 1934 – 7 November 2016
I've seen the nations rise and fall / But love's the only engine of survival The Future 1992

So every year around this time I write a blog attempting to explain that I am pacifist but we pacifists honour the dead and injured of all conflicts anywhere  and anytime. And that of course those dead and injured include military and civilian personnel. So this year I thought I would give  everyone  a rest and desist. It has not been an easy year for me on a personal front, being a pacifist when all sorts of crap has been thrown at me from all sorts of directions and trying to be dignified and not retaliate [and not always succeeding] has meant that I have been reminded that my often claimed thought 'being a pacifist is hard work and not the easy option' has been reinforced many times.

However when I facebooked and tweeted my 'Armstice message' [that sounds so presumptious!]

Honouring all those who have been lost world wide as a result of all conflicts. Whether they be military or civilian. Praying for the peace which is the best remembrance for them all

I received a couple of replies from comrades suggesting that it was vain hope. But I have to keep believing. When I moved earlied this year I even called the Little House 'Peace' and the first thing I put through the front door was my Peace Tree. One of my kids years ago said that my Pacifism was the most important thing about me. I acknowledge it is the biggest thing about my both my faith and my Socialism. Even with the bad things that have happened to me I still have to believe in the essential goodness of humanity. And one of the biggest influences in literature on me in my youth - Mrs Do-As-You-Would-Be-Done-By* in Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies




means that I hope to act in a way that exemplifies that peace which I wish others would display. I would be happy if you joined me if you haven't already

*An interesting article on Mrs-Do-As-You-Would-Be-Done-By can be found at:  http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/mary-wakefield-what-the-water-babies-can-teach-us-about-personal-morality-1850416.html

Was there a winner in the vote to bomb Syria?

This has been a very sad few days for those of us who as pacifists want to find better ways to reach a solution to the troubles in the Middle East. I was attending a Church carol concert this afternoon, with the images in the church of the Middle East at the time of Jesus, and all the messages of Hope, Love and Peace that this time of year brings. In my head were the thoughts that the vote in Parliament last night carried with it on a "Very dark night in Parliament. [I] Will never forget the noise of some Labour and Tory cheering together at the idea of bombs falling." - as described by the youngest member of Parliament, the SNP Mhairi Black.

Listening to news reports and the comments of others on the 'Labour Party Split' supposedly engendered by the vote, I do wonder about some of the prognostications and conclusions. The following was put on a FaceBook page to which I belong which discusses current affairs and I thought it so succinct that I begged permission to put it here:


"The government won the bomb Syria vote by a lot more than 66 votes. So ultimately the Labour 'free vote' did not lead to war. What it did do is let everyone know where our [individual] MP[s] stood on the issue. Useful to know at the very least. Also when Blair went to war in Iraq 139 Labour MP's rebelled and voted against and Robin Cook resigned. 66 pro-war rebels is nothing compared to that."

So in the middle of the tragedy of war being declared, political gamesmanship is also being played out over whether or not the leader of one party is 'suitable' and whether X or Y will be the next leader. And the number crunching begins when in fact it is more important to look at the numbers of innocent people who may be caught in collateral damage from whatever side should be considered. And discussions should be ongoing in all political parties to find a better solution, not who will be more popular with the voters and who looks better on the TV and vox pop by the tv interviewers should be about the death and destruction which our representatives have just voted for not whether or not one man is popular with all those in the parliamentary party he leads. He is popular enough with the members of his party as a whole to have had an overwhelming vote to make him leader less than three months ago, and since all those who voted him - like me! - knew his views on military action once can be sure that they were in our minds when we voted. We knew the context. Read on.

Context is everything when quoting political speeches etc. Journalists know this. So always check the context when looking at a quote - the context of the time and place where the quote is made; the context of the speaker and the audience; and the context of those doing the quoting and where that quote is making its appearance. History is another important contextual fact. Looking at the actions of the British Parliament today in the light of the historical context of the last 2,000+ years gives one plenty of pause for thought.


Remembering the context that I am a pacifist in a - what I feel -is a more violent society, I expect some of you to dismiss my views. That is your right. But you will still allow me to believe I am right, I am sure. I hope and pray that the better way will be found and followed.

Anyone interested in my views may like to read more at: http://http://www.stopwar.org.uk//

Remembrance Day 2013 - Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron

Its almost a tradition that I write a Remembrance Day blog. Not what I intended when I wrote the first one in 2010. Or the next in 2011. Or the one in 2012. And I definitely wasn't going to do it this year, but once again there has been so much discussion in the media about the wearing or not of red poppies and in political forums about the terrible principles of those who do not - or even worse wear white poppies - that I felt I had a bit more to add.

The lovely photograph above, although blurred in the copying, was sent to us from one of Other Half's relatives in Canada last night. It is of his Uncle Harry who was killed in WW2 in Belgium. We have never seen this picture before and it is therefore very precious to us, blurred or not. And that is what Remembrance Day should surely be all about. Remembering those who died or were affected in whatever conflict, on whatever side and whenever. And for us as Pacifists working toward Peace so that waste will never happen again, and that all the Uncle Harrys in future will live and meet their nephews, nieces, great nephews and nieces and great-great nephews and nieces. This Uncle Harry never met his descendants - but they still remember him and have talked about him all their lives.

Also this year my family will additionally mourn the passing this August of my lovely Uncle Ron who was taken prisoner of war at the Battle of Arnhem which left him with emotional battle scars. In the title of the book written about him by his son 'Too nice to be a soldier':

So whatever colour poppy one wears, or whether one wears one or not, do remember all those who have died. I respect others' rights to disagree with my wearing a white poppy but the surprising thing is they do not seem to respect my right so to do whilst claiming that wars are fought to allow freedom of thought and expression......

Remembrance and Pacifism

In memory of Frederick Ernest Bunning who fought in France
Richard Williams who fought in the Balkans
just two representing the many serving on both sides in 1914 - 1918

In honour of Ronnie Mills, taken prisoner at the Battle of Arnhem 1944
Trevor Williams, conscientous objector 1935 - 1967
just two of the many of all nations scarred by World War Two


As I have said before in these pages, pacifism does not mean one does not honour those who have died in the service of their country. Remembrance days are not the days to argue about pacifism versus militarism but I would like to say that I feel that 'remembrance' should not be exclusive to a few days in the autumn but should be always with us. This is why this year I have taken the decision not to wear a poppy, white or red - read on before you lambast me for this decision - but will of course honour the two minutes silence.

Every year I go through the 'Should I buy/wear a poppy? Will it honour the dead or glorify war?' debate in my mind. I have ranged through buying red poppies and wearing/not wearing them, buying white poppies and wearing/not wearing them, buying white and red popppies and wearing both.... This year there have been debates in the media about when is an appropriate time to start wearing poppies [red] and whether those on TV are wearing them just because they have been told to. Enough! Wear a poppy if you want to - that's fine. Don't if you don't want to - that's fine too. But please remember the dead of all nations with honour. Remember too those who showed another kind of bravery and stood up for what they felt was right and were conscientous objectors or pacifists, refusing to bear arms against their fellow wo/man. Believe me it is not easy. A subject for another day, perhaps.

In honour of all who suffered, a fine poem from a fine poet:

Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918)
Strange Meeting
It seemed that out of battle I escaped
Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped
Through granites which titanic wars had groined.


Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned,
Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred.
Then ,as I probed them, one sprang up, and stared
With piteous recognition in fixed eyes,
Lifting distressful hands, as if to bless.
And by his smile, I knew that sullen hall, -
By his dead smile I knew we stood in Hell.


With a thousand pains that vision's face was grained;
Yet no blood reached there from the upper ground,
And no guns thumped, or down the flues made moan.
'Strange friend,' I said, 'here is no cause to mourn.'
'None,' said that other, 'save the undone years,
The hopelessness. Whatever hope is yours,
Was my life also; I went hunting wild
After the wildest beauty in the world,
Which lies not calm in eyes, or braided hair,
But mocks the steady running of the hour,
And if it grieves, grieves richlier than here.
For by my glee might many men have laughed,
And of my weeping something had been left,
Which must die now. I mean the truth untold,
The pity of war, the pity war distilled.
Now men will go content with what we spoiled,
Or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled.
They will be swift with swiftness of the tigress.
None will break ranks, though nations trek from progress.
Courage was mine, and I had mystery,
Wisdom was mine, and I had mastery:
To miss the march of this retreating world
Into vain citadels that are not walled.
Then, when much blood had clogged their chariot-wheels,
I would go up and wash them from sweet wells,
Even with truths that lie too deep for taint.
I would have poured my spirit without stint
But not through wounds; not on the cess of war.
Foreheads of men have bled where no wounds were.


I am the enemy you killed, my friend.
I knew you in this dark: for so you frowned
Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.
I parried; but my hands were loath and cold.
Let us sleep now...'

May the dead Sleep Gently and the living find Peace.


Photograph of the white and red poppies taken from http://www.ppu.org.uk/whitepoppy/white-news108.html which illustrates 'Thought for the day, BBC Radio Bristol, 30th October 2008' and is really worth reading.

Dunkirk Spirit

Remembering all the little boats and their sailors who crossed over to Dunkirk 70 years ago today, many from this little stretch of the Thames Estuary near to where I am sitting.

Many people cannot understand that although I am a committed pacifist I also want to honour and remember those who have died in the service of their country. Why should the two things be thought opposing? I do not believe that war and bearing arms solves anything, but still acknowledge the bravery of those who felt/feel differently and mourn their deaths. Individuals can become very aggressive toward me when they find out I am a pacifist and that always surprises me. I am not going to argue all my beliefs here as obviously there is another time and platform for that. But it would be nice if others remembered that sometimes to stand up and be counted as having a different view to the majority takes bravery of a different sort. And in this I am remembering and honouring all those who lost their lives or were imprisoned or otherwise suffered for their pacifism or conscientous objections in earlier times.

Shown above one of the little ships that left Leigh-on-Sea for Dunkirk, taken from the website: http://www.leigh-on-sea.net/leigh_dunkirk.html with thanks and I would recommend a visit to this site for more detailed information