Linton Kwesi Johnson - Fite Dem Back

Here is a message to all the rude boys and girls who have anything to do with the BNP, or the EDL or any other neo nazi group there is or will be

EDL English Defence League: Inside the violent world of Britain's new fa...

This documentary film shows the vile nature of the English Defense League and their racist and violent intentions. For all of our sakes, the EDL must be stopped. They are brain dead morons intent on causing trouble.

John McDonnell: I am not Old Labour or New Labour - just Labour - mirror.co.uk

John McDonnell: I am not Old Labour or New Labour - just Labour - mirror.co.uk

The Con - Dem coalition government as they are so affectionately known have started their rolling programme of cuts. They are coming after the social wage (pensions, benefits, hospitals, school, libraries, swimming pools, jobs all manor of things) saying that 'we' have to manage 'our' budget deficit and there is no alternative to cuts.

The snippet from today's Mirror on line shows there is an alternative in the form of this man John. A breath of fresh air, some sanity, some simple solutions. It is what we need. I just hope he does get the necessary amount of nominees so that at least there can be a decent and healthy debate about the way forward, the way through and out of the disgusting race to bottom that the present coalition government is attempting to put us under.

CathArtic Art and room to show it

There is good news; at last, it is something I have wanted to do for a long time, I have finally attracted some funding to put on an art exhibition by six or possibly seven artists who have suffered some form of severe mental illness and who use art as a way of expressing the emotional pain, and can now show off their work to everyone, in Chatham.

The exhibition will most likely be called 'The Art of Recovery' unless I can think of a better title. It will have as a common thread; the classics, i.e work that is influenced by classical masters or has a classic 'feel' to it. The majority of the work I do and have done has been while listening to some lovely classical music, if you get into the music, this can help to bring out the emotions. No - one would necessarily know of my underlying influences or the accompanying music I listen to by looking at my work.

There will also be live performances by a classical guitarist; Nina Rideout. She has performed at the National Gallery in London to an art exhibition, so it is great honour for us to have her perform at our exhibition in Chatham.

There will be a painting at the Exhibition by a famous artist called Maureen Oliver, her work is really very good. The piece she is willing to lend us for the exhibition is a painting she has done in oil of Vincent Van Gogh painting his starry night from what looks like a mental hospital (in his life he did many of his works from such places), and in an open window looking in on him there are many people huddled together in groups and looking on in a judgemental and disapproving manner, but Vincent carries on with his work despite this and despite the bandage around his head and over his ear. It is a most inspiring painting, and will hopefully be the piece that sets the tone for the rest of the works.

As well as Maureen Oliver, there will be other artists, John Excell, Chris Barchard, Ian Melville and hopefully something from Adam Halpern.

Adam is my partner in crime in the pottery group. We both love pottery, positively potty about it. When we work with clay, forms start to take hold themselves, the shapes make suggestions to us and we work with the clay rather than trying to force it into something that we want, or what we want it to end up being. Both myself and Adam have the same approach to clay modeling, the pieces we make have a life of their own to us. We also have a good laugh in each others company in the group, and by gum I am really going to miss it when the group stops which is likely to be in the next couple of weeks.

The venue of the exhibition will be the Nucleus Ats Centre, just off the High Street Chatham (past in shops and on the same side) It will start with an opening night and private view ( refreshments included ) on Thursday 29th October and run for three weeks until the 18th November.

I will put some of my work up on here, my blog, but there is just so much to do, most of the photographs of my work will need to be re-done as they are poor quality pictures. Then the paintings will probably have to be re - framed so that they can be in uniform and orderly frames which will look much better on exhibition, rather than the hodge podge style frames they are in now. Oh me oh my so much work to do.




Bacchaus(inspired by a Reubens painting)

Right to Work

The right to work is a basic human right, just like the right to food, warmth and shelter. Our governors are attempting to and will make a concerted effort to cut jobs and services. This will have a devastating effect on all of us and most worryingly will hurt the young.

Young and old alike do not deserve mistreatment, but the young are being hurt, denied a future at a tender age, this is a sorry indictment of the society we live in, that the governors hurt and abuse the young. The youth need love and should be nurtured, they are the future, and if you don't care about that, what do you care about?

The answer to that is becoming increasingly obvious, they don't care about us, they do care and they do worship their own wealth and privilege. The solution to the economic crisis is not to dwindle the economy more by cutting jobs and services, but to use what is being wasted on trident, on wars, the tax loop holes, the second third and even forth homes of the wealthy to get the economy going.

Trouble is our governors cannot see this or they don't want to see it, if they did and many of them indeed do, they would rather not pitch in with society to maintain its workings, they prefer and many of them are conditioned in to thinking that maintaining their short term goals of accumulation, wealth and power is the primary aim. This is at the expense of the whole, at the expense of the earth. This is a struggle, this is a fight for the earth against those who are destroying her.

See this brilliant video, how the right to work campaign is taking hold and gathering momentum in Ireland. There is an emergency right to work campaign meeting being held in London on 22nd May, for more details click the socialist worker link at the top of the page.

Make Mischief ?

On the subject of the new government, I don't think I have much insight to add to what is already being said, of course the old saying 'never trust a liberal' rings true here and we will just have to see how long this new government (Condem - as it is being called) is going to last, some say six months. Of course it might be longer if we the people do nothing. I am sure there will be protests in the offing, sign up and join in anyway you can, I will certainly be doing my bit.

People don't want to see attacks on their jobs and services, the things they rely on and make their lives a bit more interesting. I am losing my beloved pottery group, I am almost beside myself at this loss, but it has become clear that I am being priced out of the craft. I cannot afford the high prices charged at adult education classes and these are for a short time only as well. Neither can I afford the exorbitant prices they charge for a studio and hire of a kiln, so I am stuffed. It is the end of my clay models and pots for the foreseeable future. I can't afford to go to college, so what am I expected to do now? Nothing?

Well you know what they say about idle hands ...

[11-March-2010] - Strike- Συγκρούσεις στην Ομόνοια

There is an amazing dog in Athens, Greece at the moment, he is fighting with the workers in their protests against austerity, he is such an inspiration.

In this five minute video below, you can see him go for riot cops when they shoot at the crowd, (at about 1 min 30 to 2 min 30). There are many pictures of him and the protesters on the web, here is a web address where you can see more of the star :- www.rebeldog.tumblr.com

We'll have our own horses next ...

The Evil Eye

Does this picture look bad to you? Well a police officer from the metropolitan police thought so, he took it away from my flat in January 2009 to destroy it. He said it might be satanic !!!!!! Whoops.