Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
General Election: U.S. Journalist Chris Hedges flies in to back Blackburn candidate Craig Murray
"Craig [Murray's] central campaign issue is the genocide in Gaza. He calls for a permanent ceasefire, the establishment of a full and independent Palestinian state and backs the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against the apartheid state of Israel."
Chris Hedges went to Blackburn to support him. Hedges gives a speech full of raw emotion, and power. With deep knowledge gathered over decades as a journalist and author in many countries. Not everyone will agree with him. (I have friends and family members who may find his views and arguments shocking.) Even so, and whatever your own views, I would ask you to pay Chris Hedges close attention.
Even for an event within a General Election supposedly dealing with fundamental issues, how many speakers can we think of who could match Hedges during a local hustings?
His speech is called "Nero's Guests". In it he refers to incidents in ancient Rome. But this is not some quaint historical anecdote. Hedges applies this image to today's and tomorrow's killings. He warns and explains why it is us and our local Members of Parliament who - right now and in real time - are on the verge of being Nero's Guests.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Thanks for reading, JamesN.
If I don't agree with your pithy advice it's partly due to a little book by Tip O'Neil, "All Politics is Local". And partly because Craig Murray and Chris Hedges illustrate how all localities can be Gaza.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Michaels on
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That's not what the concept of all politics is local actually means and, moreover, the fact that you can't even spell the name of the person whose book you claim to have read (Tip O'Neill) suggests to me that you haven't actually read it.
The fundamental problem with those who are driven by ideology like you Marxists is that, in addition to pretending not to know things, the language you use is full of bogus premises. Where is the "genocide" in Gaza? All I am seeing is what is unfortunately a very muted response to an actual attempt at genocide on 7 October 2023 thanks to the weakness and Iranian support of the United States.
That clown of a "journalist" you cite doesn't know much about ancient history as his analogy is wrong. This historical revision stands to reason because he doesn't know anything about modern history either. For starters the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians (the current use of the term "Palestinian" was a genius of marketing on Arafats part in 1964) already have a state, it's called Jordan. Problem is that they tried to overthrow the corrupt royal family there so now Jordan will have nothing to do with them.
The Arabs who call themselves Palestinians were given the Gaza strip and rather than take the billions and billions given to them to build hotels and attractive beach resorts, tech businesses, etc., they built tunnels and terrorist networks. They had the chance to make Gaza a state and they demonstrated themselves not worthy.
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Thanks for reading and replying, Mark Michaels. Special thanks for the proof-reading. I'm glad too that my discussion took you to Chris Hedges' piece recorded in Blackburn.
Though I'm puzzled why you think he's a "clown". Can I please try to persuade you and other HoL members to sample a few more of his recent pieces. Hedges explains that he was in Cairo to receive a journalism award. In his acceptance speech he announced a new book he is working on with cartoonist Joe Sacco.
❶ Video Link to Chris Hedges piece "My Promise To Gaza".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BLQOEDG8DE
❷ Video Link January 2024 - Chris Hedges in conversation with Joe Sacco. They talk about how Sacco developed his blend of reporting and cartooning in his classic work in Palestine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3sH87DEydg
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Your reference to "the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians" is offensive. You're generating heat but no light.
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James H. - I suggest that fair and sensible people could take offence at much of what Mark Michaels writes. So let's instead assume that he is a decent balanced person living quietly in North London who could not possibly believe the Israeli propaganda he has posted. And that in reality Mark Michaels has no wish to support war criminals on either side. Nor to endorse more murders - including more killing, starving and maiming of children.
Perhaps taking pseudonyms from a biblical evangelist and multiple angels shows Mark Michaels' true character and wishes?
_____I don't expect to see David Lammy or Catherine West between now and 5th July. Though I'm told they're both out and about locally. (Yesterday David was outside Tottenham Hale station.)
Should I see them I would ask them to call publicly and immediately for a permanent ceasefire. And for the UK to cease arming Israel. If you read this could I please ask you to make this request to David or Catherine.
In any case if they do not make such public calls I would regard them as complicit in the almost certain continued murder and maiming. Time is fast running out for new Labour MPs to disassociate from Keir Starmer's Genocidal policies.
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Mark Michaels is correct on a number of points.
The irony of you claiming he is spouting propaganda is stark given you continually claim that Israel is somehow responsible for a 'genocide'.
The only genocide was that perpetrated by Hamas on 7 Oct. 1200 innocents murdered including children, rape and hostages taken!
No ceasefire until Hamas surrender and return the hostages.
Bless the IDF!
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Today's update from "Democracy Now" website with Amy Goodman.
Includes reports from Navi Pillay, chair of a separate U.N. inquiry into the war, before the U.N. Human Rights Council.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3OmaCQqBy0
I ask potential new members of the UK Parliament to consider these and later updates and think carefully about their own legal and personal complicity due to the supply of UK made weapons to carry out Collective Punishment on Gazans. Many thousands of them civilians, including a majority of women and children.
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Permalink Reply by Cathy on
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Alan, if you live in Tottenham, you can't vote for Craig Murray, but you can vote for Jennifer Obaseki, of the same party (the Workers Party of Britain).
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Thanks for the suggestion, Cathy.
Several years ago I made a personal decision to vote for, endorse and recommend only election candidates who I knew and trusted. When posting online I suggested that electors tried to meet candidates or hear them speaking if this was possible. Alternatively to seek out the opinions of people who knew a candidate and could be trusted to give a truthful assessment of them.
As you may have seen, during this General Election campaign I'm hoping that our current MPs David Lammy and Catherine West will cry out against Genocide, child murder, starvation, collective punishment and Apartheid in Israel/Palestine. I believe them both to be honourable and ethical human beings who realise that what is now happening inside Gaza is evil, as was the attack by Hamas through the fences of Gaza on 7 October 2023.
I'm hoping that Catherine and David will publicly add their voices to any others to persuade Keir Starmer at minimum to support the World Court judgement instead of endorsing the Genocide.
It is now four years since Starmer appeared to be pondering which weasel words he needed to gain the party leadership. He tried out different versions. Telling The Times of Israel:
"I do support Zionism,” ... "Zionism can mean slightly different things to different people", and… "to some extent it has been weaponized. I wouldn’t read too much into that. I said it loud and clear — and meant it — that I support Zionism without qualification.”
—— https://www.timesofisrael.com/keir-starmer-elected-uk-labour-chief-...We may in due course discover whether or or not Keir Starmer has a moral as well as a political compass. By which time many more thousands will have sickened, died, and been wounded and maimed.
I trust that David and Catherine do have such a moral compass and if Starmer does not, then on an issue as important as this, Labour MPs should not serve under him. It would stain the rest of their lives. -
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Alan — I’d suggest it would be good if your obviously sincere and deeply-held views on conflict and oppression were also harnessed to condemn the Saudi Arabian regime, the beneficiary of billions of pounds-worth of military aid and commercial partnerships between it and the UK, US and other Western governments and a genuinely totalitarian regime, world-renowned for its oppressive internal policies, denial of women’s rights, opposition to free speech and extra-territorial assassination of critics. Somehow this is a country that remains consistently unscrutinised and uncriticised by so many who choose to condemn Israel, perhaps because it has and controls a natural resource whose value western governments feel outweights human rights considerations.
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Or Iran, perhaps.
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