Free Showing, I Daniel Blake.

         For those in and around Glasgow, who have not seen Ken Loach's new film I, Daniel Blake, there will be an opportunity to see it for free, on January 31st. It will be screened at the Castlemilk Youth Complex, on January 31st. from 19:00 to 21:30, thanks to the worthy effort of Castlemilk Against Austerity.

 

Castlemilk Youth Complex

January 31st. 19:00-21:30

39 Ardencraig Road, G45 0EL Glasgow, United Kingdom.

       This event is not just a film showing, there will be a discussion in which you can express, your views on the subject matter of benefits and sanctions as portrayed in the film, and what we can do about these matters

    Castlemilk Against Austerity and RISE: Glasgow South Circle Invite you to come along to the FREE screening and discussion of the new Ken Loach film I Daniel Blake. I, Daniel Blake is a 2016 drama film directed by Ken Loach and written by Paul Laverty.
         Daniel Blake has worked as a joiner most of his life in Newcastle. Now, for the first time ever, he needs help from the State. He crosses paths with a single mother Katie and her two young children, Daisy and Dylan. Katie’s only chance to escape a one-roomed homeless hostel in London has been to accept a flat in a city she doesn’t know, some 300 miles away. Daniel and Katie find themselves in no-man’s land, caught on the barbed wire of welfare bureaucracy as played out against the rhetoric of ‘striver and skiver’ in modern day Britain.
        This is a must see film that truthfully records the inhumane attitudes that are being borne out of the economic policies of austerity. The film will make you feel both sad and angry but will also Inspire you to change it

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

 

I Daniel Blake.

       Last night Stasia and I went to see the Ken Loach film, "I Daniel Blake", we both found it the most powerful and moving film we had seen. We left the cinema traumatised, not because we didn't know the facts and all the statistics of the system before hand. In my case I felt that I wasn't watching a film, I was looking through a window at the real life of real people. Real, honest decent people, being slowly destroyed through an inhuman bureaucratic system designed to attempt to fit people, through a confusing and humiliating process, into non-existent jobs, fit for work or not. A system of slowly breaking down the self respect of the individual. A system callously set up by faceless bureaucrats, devoid of human empathy, knowing that it would fail in its stated aims. If anybody sees this film, and leaves the cinema without a gut wrenching desire to pull down and destroy this vicious inhumane system, they have lost their empathy with humanity.

       Some of the figures to back up the film. In this extremely rich country of approximately 65 million, 13.5 million live in poverty. This breaks down as 7.9 million working age adults, 3.9 million children, and 1.6 million pensioners. There are over 1 million individuals in work in the low paid industries who live in poverty. This breaks down as, residential care workers, 130,00, accommodation and catering workers, 360,000, and in that back bone of the consumer society, the retail trade, 460,000 of these workers live in poverty.

     There were 2,380 individuals who died shortly after their Employment Support Allowance was stopped. Between December 2011 and February 2014, a staggering 50,850 individuals claiming ESA died, of those 7,200 had been judged, by this bureaucratic killing machine, as fit and able to return to work.

      This is the traumatic reality that crushes so many honest decent people, who through no fault of their own, find themselves, entangled in the vicious claws of this inhuman, callous and  destructive bureaucracy, operated by robotic rule obeying, automatons. A system designed to silence them through frustration, humiliation and the destruction of their self worth, and at the same time save money by getting rid of social spending.

     As one commentator said, "I Daniel Blake" is a rallying call for the dispossessed, I wouldn't be surprised if you wake up one morning and find your local job Centre with large graffiti saying, "I Daniel Blake".  "I'm Spartacus", solidarity is the weapon to defeat this festering nightmare of injustice and inequality called capitalism.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Fit The Box, Or Be Abused.

        The smooth talking, unbending, rule following, rule enforcing, stooges of this authoritarian system, are its pillars and its lubrication. Without them the system crumbles, they deserve our venom and our anger. They follow a rule book devoid of humanity, intended to humiliate and repress those who may not fit into the little box that the system has prescribed them. It is a case of fit in, or be abused.

        This is well portrayed in this short extract from Ken Loach's film, "I, Daniel Blake"

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Respect!!

        I hope this is the last thing I write or say about Thatcher and the Thatcher era, as it is now being called. The usual mouths from the parasite class are calling for respect for, and during the funeral of this individual. What respect are they showing by this multi million pound, in your face, show of worship, for someone who was the leading figure in the crushing of thousands of ordinary working class families? What respect is this theatrical pomp showing for those families? Respect surely is double sided, to earn respect, you must show respect. She showed no respect for the ordinary people of this country, and therefore should receive none from those ordinary people. This expensive extravagance is an attempt at re-writing history, attempting to put sainthood on what was a class warrior of the right, a crusader for the rich, a preacher of selfish greed. Though she was not the architect of those right-wing policies, she was a willing and brutal general for their implementation. She pushed through the ideology of her masters with a callous disregard for all those ordinary people who would be affected. Success of that ideology mattered more than the suffering of those being devastated by that ideology.

      Sadly the funeral of this enemy of working class culture, will not see the end of those same policies that she so religiously pursued. The same savage ant-working class policies are in the safe hands of the present millionaire cabal that sit today in The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. As for expecting “Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition” to do anything to remove these policies of repression, you only have to listen to the leader of that opposition, Ed Miliband, spewing his mince on the matter of Thatcher, to realise that it won't happen:

“I send my deep condolences to Lady Thatcher’s family, in particular Mark and Carol Thatcher. She will be remembered as a unique figure. She reshaped the politics of a whole generation. She was Britain’s first woman prime minister. She moved the centre ground of British politics and was a huge figure on the world stage. The Labour Party disagreed with much of what she did and she will always remain a controversial figure. But we can disagree and also greatly respect her political achievements and her personal strength. She also defined the politics of the 1980s. David Cameron, Nick Clegg and I all grew up in a politics shaped by Lady Thatcher. We took different paths but with her as the crucial figure of that era. She coped with her final, difficult years with dignity and courage. Critics and supporters will remember her in her prime.”

      There are some who have spoken of Thatcher in a more honest working class manner and therefore should be quoted when ever her name is mentioned This quote from Ken Loach approaches a more accurate assessment:

"Margaret Thatcher was the most divisive and destructive Prime Minister of modern times. Mass unemployment, factory closures, communities destroyed – this is her legacy. She was a fighter and her enemy was the British working class. Her victories were aided by the politically corrupt leaders of the Labour Party and of many trades unions. It is because of policies begun by her that we are in this mess today. Other prime ministers have followed her path, notably [Labour's] Tony Blair. She was the organ grinder, he was the monkey. Remember she called Mandela a terrorist and took tea with the torturer and murderer Pinochet. How should we honour her? Let’s privatise her funeral. Put it out to competitive tender and accept the cheapest bid. It’s what she would have wanted."

     Miner David Douglas's speech at Trafalgar Square on why miners are celebrating Thatcher's demise.

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WORLD'S BIGGEST WORKING CLASS MUSIC FESTIVAL,

3 weeks time the Working Class Life & Music Festival begins.

LET'S GET DOON THERE.

    The amazing 9 day programme of events makes the festival the largest celebration of working people on the planet.
Here's a taster of what's to come.

Fri 22nd - folk legend Leon Rosselson with support from Rich Mans Ruin, National Museums 800 Lives Exhibition at Radio Merseyside, Another Day In Liverpool photo exhibition.

Sat 23rd - Almanac's Radical City night at The Everyman Theatre, award winning actor Tayo Aluko's new show From Africa To The White House, Ken Loach's Navigators at The Casa featuring two of the actors in a Q&A, Kaya's Under The Influence, The Suitcase Ensemble's Railway Cabaret, Liverpool Music Barcamp for DIY musicians, The Leaving Of Liverpool at The Maritime Museum, AFC Liverpool v Eccleshall football match, Liverpool Socialist Singers flashmob workshop, and Metal's Edge Hill Archive Exhibition.

Sun 24th - A Night of Musical Comedy featuring award winning duo Jollyboat, Rathole Roadshow at The Zanzibar, Saturday Night Sunday Morning special screening at Crosby Plaza cinema, biographer Dave Harker on writer Robert Tressell, political historian Ron Noon on the 1911 Transport Strike.

Mon 25th - Great Stories' charming social documentary My Fifties Liverpool at FACT, Radical Rogues and Reformers Irish Heritage Walking Tour, Liverpool Socialist Singers workshop and fete, Philosophy in Pubs at The Crown host the first in a range of specially themed discussions, Mouth of the Mersey's Storytelling Club tell some working class tales at Studio 2.

Tue 26th - Acoustic Night at the Unity, The Radical Route Walking Tour of Liverpool's history as a city of protest, more musings from the Philosophy in Pubs gang at Keith's Wine Bar and The Victoria Hotel.

Wed 27th - Radio 4 poet Luke Wright at The Unity, Liverpool Socialist Singers in concert with Vinny T Spen and Claire Mooney, MESH Culture's Cool Kids at Tabac, Traditional Irish Ceili at St Michael's Irish Centre.

PEACE MAN.

Thu 28th - folk legend Roy Bailey at the Woody Guthrie Folk Club supported by local folk songwriter Alun Parry, more from Philosophy in Pubs at the Half Way House and The Vernon Arms.

Fri 29th - Michael Weston King at Liverpool Philharmonic, a community forum on art, culture and class at The Tate, a lecture on Robert Tressell by Stuart Borthwick, a traditional Irish music session at St. Michael's Irish Centre.

Sat 30th - Scottish folk star Dick Gaughan at the Liverpool Philharmonic, Rub A Dub Dub reggae night featuring We The Undersigned, News From Nowhere's 37th Birthday Party, the final match of the season as AFC Liverpool face AFC Blackpool in a promotion decider.

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