Mike Jenkins - Welsh Poet & Author
  • Mike's Blog
  • New Book!
  • About Mike
  • Contact
  • What's the point?
  • The Climbing Tree
  • The Fugitive Three
  • Publications
  • Red Poets

MERTHYR AGAINST UKIP

12/21/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture

   This year I've taken part in a number of important protests : at the Senedd against opencast at Nant Llesg ; in Cardiff against Israel's barbaric treatment of the Palestinians; in Newport against the NATO warmongers summit there and an anti-bedroom tax march also in the capital.
   Yesterday in Merthyr I joined with many others of the Left to Stand Up to UKIP outside their recently-opened shop at the bottom of High St.
   It was an indication of what we can achieve when working in unison : anarchists, Greens, Commies, Plaid Cymru, unaligned like myself and even left Labour (I think).
   While the event was a great success, I often wonder why we can't stand together on a platform FOR something, rather than always AGAINST.
   So much left-wing politics is purely reactive.
   We see a racist threat and respond to it with passion and energy, yet we need to put the same drive into offering alternatives.
   Of course, the Red Poets is just one of those alternatives : performing group and magazine who try to  stand for co-operation and equality.
   Now we need a collective of the many such groups who strive for a very different society, one where everyone is valued and talents are fully realised and rewarded; where wealth and schooling can't buy you power and privilege. 
   Maybe, out of a united opposition to the appalling policies of UKIP such a collective will emerge and what better place than Merthyr, which rose in 1831 under the red banner to take control of the town till British soldiers shot many people down and Dic Penderyn was hung , as a scapegoat, in Cardiff?
   It's possible that nothing will come of this unity......could anarchists really agitate alongside Plaid Cymru, the former wanting no borders and the latter an independent country?
   Well,Saturday was a glimpse of what can be done and a reminder of the Welsh Socialist Alliance which, in Merthyr certainly, worked well to bring the Left together.
  While Saturday's event may have exposed the disturbing prejudices of UKIP candidates - one is caught on video claiming to have witnessed a gay person having sex with an animal! - we  need to do far more to bring to the people our message of HOPE not FEAR.
   I spent most of the time leafleting and met a few UKIP supporters, who yelled at me about democracy and then either refused a leaflet or tore it up in a couple of instances.
   The appeal to base emotions of blaming new-comers to our community for problems created elsewhere is akin to fascist parties and it's little wonder that leader of the EDL Tommy Robinson has declared support for them.
   All their policies lead back to the evils of the EU and immigration, despite the fact that their last election campaign was part-funded by expenses obtained by their MEPs!
   They are masters of hypocrisy!
   Farage's recent attempt to blame his tardiness in getting from London to Port Talbot for a Conference on high immigration levels is typical.
  Despite all this , they retain popular appeal and, sadly, Merthyr is no exception.
   It's so much easier to point the finger at in-comers from Portugal or Poland, rather than view the wider picture.
   For me, that picture is crucially one of British imperial history.
   Just like all other colonies, Cymru has now been largely abandoned because we no longer supply the coal and iron which made Britain so 'great'. Also, cheaper labour can be obtained from other countries , shipped like slaves by ruthless employers, including Welsh UKIP MEP Nathan Gill, whose family business used immigrant workers.
   Divide and rule was the choice weapon of Empire and now in a vain attempt to keep Britain together.
   What better way for the Westminster Gov. and their allies in the City to divert and distract, than to focus constantly on the very agenda set by UKIP?
   UKIP are not the English Independence Party : they are avowed patriots in a British sense which can only appeal to those caught up in the nostalgia for war.
  Their advocacy of Grammar Schools typifies this and has no basis in educational reasoning.
   They were abolished because they simply didn't work. So many of those condemned at the 11 plus to a life of struggle against being dubbed as failures proved that the system had failed.
   We need a revolution in education, where learning becomes exciting and children no longer spend their whole lives being trained for exams.  Creativity must be the core of the curriculum.
   As ever, UKIP preach division.
   However, it's no use the Left just exposing their crass contradictions and the frightening racism and homophobia of so many candidates : we must offer genuine alternatives.
   And even if we can't agree on whether Cymru should have self-determination, we have to appeal to people's better nature, their desire to see a clean, green world where crazy inequalities and rip-off companies are consigned to the spoil-heaps of history. 


                        POUND   SHOP   POLITICS

This bloke see,
ee didn know nothin
bout pol'tics whatsoever.


Nearest ee got to it
woz drinkin in-a Labout Club,
or votin f'r a neighbour oo stood.


If yew arst  im 
ee'd problee say - 'Labour,
I always vote Labour!'


Ee always ad an eye 
f'r a bargen, tha's why
ee loved it in Merthyr.


Charity an Pound shops galore
an ee seen this new one open
down by-a Lucy Thomas Fountain.


It ad a bright purple sign
an a £ clearly displayed.
Ee entered in anticipation.


Expectin loads of is favourite
Belgian chocolates, German beers
an, o course, Italian pasta ;


all ee seen wuz a table
fulla leaflets an posters
an a man in a sewt be'ind.


'Wha yew got f'r a quid?' ee arst
an a man showed im two pamphlets :
'No To EU' an 'Cutting Immigration'.


'Got anythin ot as peri-peri
Portuguese sauce like in Nandos?
Or spicy as a tasty chorizo?'


'This is the UKIP shop, my friend,
not another Pound Store.'
Pissed off, ee visited the Polish shop nex door.   
1 Comment
MerthyrFan link
12/21/2014 10:06:29 am

Shwmae Mike: turns out the UKIP candidate for Cardiff South is a very good storyteller. Here's one about a gay donkey that he was telling at the protest on Saturday! http://youtu.be/W0jn66WypaM

Reply



Leave a Reply.



    Archives

    November 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from johnharveypegg, Dai Lygad, joncandy, victoriapeckham, David Holt London, aeneastudio, fromthevalleys-, Metro Centric, andymag, David Bergin Photography, villunderlondon, @markheybo, joncandy, Martin Pettitt, Between the Shadows, joncandy, johnkell, olivia.barrie, villunderlondon, Lake Worth, MittenStatePhototog, frankieleon, robynejay, joncandy, mcaretaker, Thomas Leuthard, Knight Foundation, joncandy, Joybot, brownpau, Iburiedpaul, villunderlondon, amit_gaur, abegum, simonw92, beeveephoto, Aislinn Ritchie, Shannon Green Photography, joncandy, Nick J Webb, Vish Menon, AberCJ, gcoldironjr2003, joncandy, World Can't Wait, jonl1973, Watt_Dabney, petejam70, Kerndav, MJ Klaver, joncandy, Daquella manera, spratt504, joncandy, ashleigh290, Glyn Lowe Photoworks., afanatochka, r.nial.bradshaw, themendingnews, rikkis_refuge, Matthew Straubmuller, joncandy, onnola, final gather, funktionhouse, marioanima, joncandy, Dai Lygad, joncandy, Guttorm Flatabø, brittreints, garryknight, villunderlondon, wonker, Martin Pettitt, joncandy, tnarik, AJC1, simonw92, wardyboy400, joncandy, Bombardier, joncandy, Cargo Cult, joncandy, joncandy, SeanOConnor2010, Feral78, comedy_nose, Abode of Chaos, mkairishstudies, joncandy, avail, Jörg Weingrill, Gwydion M. Williams, Leshaines123, KiltBear, eisenbahner, Capt' Gorgeous, Francis Storr, New Chemical History, Matthew Black, jc.winkler, Gwenael Kere, Karen Roe