No fracking way

There was a knock one morning, a man was standing at my door He said, hello, I'm from Halliburton, have you heard of us before? We'd like to lease your backyard to drill for natural gas It's called hydraulic fracturing and it is the very pass For a clean energy future above the Marcellus stone Plus we'll give you lots of money and a new mobile phone I said you are a corporate crook, I don't believe the things you tell And you can drive right of my property and then go straight to hell No fracking way! (2x) I don't trust corporate salesmen, whatever they may say No fracking way! (3x) My neighbor was out of work and things were looking grim So when the fracking guy came knocking he had better luck with him The company said don't worry, everything will be just fine So just sign your name right here, sir, on this dotted line Pretty soon the water was tasting pretty dire One day I lit a match and the water caught on fire I thought about a lawsuit, then stumbled upon the fact That fracking is exempted from the Clean Water Act ...Is that how democracy works here in the USA As if the situation weren't sufficiently unattractive We tested the water and found it was radioactive Now my property is worthless and there's a tumor in my brain Half of my neighbors are sick, the rest are just in pain Maybe I should take the money, move off to live somewhere But all the places I look at, they're fracking there Our choices now are simple, lose that which we hold dear Or communicate the message in a way that's unstoppably clear ...Tell these frackers to frack off, both tomorrow and today

Why we still need the Man in Black (Man In Black - Johnny Cash)

The incident yesterday with Ed Miliband, some eggs and a disgruntled voter has sparked a flurry of articles about how Labour has failed to represent the interests of the regular man and woman in the street. It does concern me that the down-trodden, the poor and the needy don’t always see the Labour and Co-operative movement as being representative of their needs. It saddens me that a truck driver sees the Conservative Party as being the facilitator of his personal wealth (a vaguely remembered interview on Radio5Live where he said that he voted Tory because he hoped one day to be wealthy). Unfortunately the Labour Party appears unable to shake off the stereotype that it is a Party of high taxation.

Labour is seen by some as being the party of state interference and totalitarianism. Such hyperbole is seen everyday on the comment sections of numerous websites. On these forums vitriol pours back and forth from both sides of the political divide, most of which is based much more on prejudice than evidence. (A lot of comments also state the view that ‘the Left’ are an arrogant, pompous bunch, who fail to comprehend why they are misunderstood.) Where evidence is presented, by either side, it can be contradicted by other evidence to support whichever viewpoint you choose to inhabit. Political persuasion therefore often boils down to instinct; and generally to your view on big or small government. The irony of this is that the small government mantra of the conservatives is contradicted by the intensive centralization of public sector management starting in the 1980s with the appropriation of municipal powers by Whitehall and continued in the present decade by the acceleration of the academy programme in schools. The view of people that favour small government often seems to be based on the premise that excessive interference by government is preventing them maximizing their personal wealth creation. This is characteristically twinned with the view that taxation is equivalent to “the state” stealing their money. This view ignores the positive impact that the state has on enabling this person to earn a living.

I have borrowed the following statement from a comment forum on the following very interesting article; how-america-spends-money-100-years-in-the-life-of-the-family-budget. I think it sums up the situation very neatly.
“There are things that we've agreed (collectively) are important. Roads, schools, military, police, etc. There is no market incentive to provide these services. Thus if we want them (and we do), there needs to be a non-profit motivated entity to provide them...aka the government. How would this entity be funded? It certainly can't be voluntary, since we can all come up with a reason why we (personally) are more important than us (collectively). As an individual, you might disagree with certain things...for example I think we spend too much money on military adventurism, and you clearly think we spend too much money on everything (though I'll bet there are some things you're pretty happy the government provides). But as a group, we've set some priorities. There is a process to realign those priorities called elections. Some things don't make sense out of context. Environmental regulations for example. Its more profitable to dump your waste on the group than treating it right? But we've (collectively) decided that having clean drinking water is valuable, so we set (very weak) rules on how much waste and where it can be dumped to avoid pollution of water. Unless you are personally profiting from this waste dumping, you should be in favor of this..because the alternative is that you pay for the cleanup/disposal (maybe with cash, maybe with poor health outcomes, maybe with more expensive drinking water). Without the context of the cost (that is the polluted water or whatnot), its hard to see why the regulation makes sense. There is also a ton of money spend on "helping" you think that this sort of regulation hurts businesses. In a sense it does, they lose some profits due to responsible habits. But their loss is your gain. The biggest problem with our system is that we've allowed to relatively similar groups (the Ds and Rs are much closer in thinking than all the partisan rhetoric would imply) to have total control for an extended period. That means that the small group of corruptible political elites have set up rules that benefit themselves and their supporters."

There is some historical truth in the notion that Labour is a party of large state; not least the nationalization of industry in the mid-twentieth century. But Labour was also the party that led Welsh and Scottish devolution, devolution to London assembly and Mayor of London and attempted to introduce regional assemblies in parts of England. I get the impression that many in the Labour and Co-operative movement now strongly believe that the future of a more equitable society is predicated on stronger local governance and local accountability. For this reason the Localism Act and the city deals that the coalition government has introduced should be, tentatively, welcomed. However without increased funding, increased power means very little. Local authorities now, rightly, have responsibility for coordinating public health provision in their region. But they have to take on this extra responsibility with no additional funding.

But lets face it these macro-political schemes actually have very little impact on the day-to-day life of many ordinary people. These schemes of varying complexity and success may lead to some future prosperity and may guarantee future jobs, but the majority of individuals will still have very little influence on their future. People will still be bound to the will and caprice of employers, who are increasingly corporate and therefore removed from personal interaction. The majority of people will still subsist on wages that represent a small proportion of the value that their employment creates and the cost of living will continue to rise as the banks and other vested interests maintain the high cost of housing. I think that all political parties have done the people a disservice by pretending that ‘we are all middle-class now’. Yes disposable incomes are higher; yes more people now work in offices rather than in manual occupations; yet the availability of credit and the cultural incitement to home and car ownership means that just as many people are now wage-slaves, dependant on employment to pay for their ‘standard of living’, as they ever have been.

"Man In Black"

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
 Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he's a victim of the times.

I  wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.

Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believen' that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believen' that we all were on their side.

Well, there's things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin' everywhere you go,
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You'll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything's OK,
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black.

The International Labour Organisation offers Ed the policies for jobs and growth

“Women and men without jobs or livelihoods really don’t care if their economies grow at 3, 5 or 10 per cent a year, if such growth leaves them behind and without protection. They do care whether their leaders and their societies promote policies to provide jobs and justice, bread and dignity, and freedom to voice their needs, their hopes and their dreams” -Juan Somavia

Juan Somavia was the Director-General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) until 2012. The ILO was founded in 1919, in the wake of a destructive war, to pursue a vision based on the premise that universal, lasting peace can be established only if it is based on social justice. The ILO became the first specialized agency of the UN in 1946.
From the 5^th to the 20^th of June 2013 the ILO are holding the 102nd International Labour Conference in Geneva. On the agenda are several themes that have been prevalent in the UK media recently and have relevance to the lives of the UK population. These are;

1. Sustainable development, decent work and green jobs
2. Employment and social protection in the new demographic context
3. Social Dialogue

OK so they don’t sound relevant in the bureaucratese in which they are written, however these issues could all have a profound impact on our quality of life. I shall attempt to decipher them for you.
The first of these deals with the two most significant challenges facing humanity in the 21^st Century; achieving environmental sustainability and ensuring decent work for all. The ILO report on this topic states that “The shift to a sustainable, greener economy offers major opportunities for social development: (1) the creation of more jobs; (2) improvement in the quality of large numbers of jobs; and (3) social inclusion on a massive scale.”
The report goes onto to say that “an assessment of a broad range of green jobs in the United States, for example, concluded that they compare favourably with non-green jobs in similar sectors in terms of skill levels and wages. Research in China, Germany and Spain has also found the quality of new renewable energy jobs to be good.”
Major investment both in terms of policy and money will therefore only reap rewards; if we are to gain the most from this opportunity then we can’t simply play at building wind-farms.
Long-term policy commitments must be made to ensure that private investment is forthcoming, something not helped by last week’s UK parliamentary vote against a clean power target, which will also affect the motor manufacturing industry.
The demographic context to which the second item refers is the “inevitable and irreversible trend of ‘population ageing’”.
By 2050 there will be an extra 2 billion people globally, but as the birth-rate stabilises and people live longer the number of people over 60 will triple. This change in the ratio of working-age and retired people could result in shortages in labour supply and skills as people retire.
This could result in loss of productivity and innovation and will certainly affect how national governments make provision for social security services.
A report on this by ILO emphasises the importance of having active labour market policies and recognise that “social security systems work best when they are well integrated and co-ordinated with wider social, economic and employment policies”.
A key element of this is getting the young into employment. This is important because not only will the young have to pay tax in the future to support the increasingly aged population but also to ensure intergenerational social cohesion.

Social dialogue is defined in the ILO report as “the term that describes the involvement of workers, employers and governments in decision-making on employment and workplace issues. It includes all types of negotiation, consultation and exchange of information among representatives of these groups on common interests in economic, labour and social policy.”

This is important both in giving people a voice and role to play in shaping their workplaces and by extension wider society but also as a means of achieving social and economic progress. Social dialogue has taken an important role in shaping the workplaces of the UK over the last few decades but the new century has brought new challenges.
Collective bargaining power is now weaker as a result of increased competition from new global markets, increased unemployment and a decline in the proportion of GDP arising from labour intensive industry.
This, combined with a decline in unionisation an increased income inequality, means that new methods of achieving social dialogue must be found. The fact that the unions remain strong in the public sector but are weak in SMEs where the majority of people work results in many people having a negative view of their potential to enable change in the workplace. More must be done to make social dialogue more inclusive.
In addition to these agenda items the ILO has produced several documents that explore how these topics are inter-related and propose policies that would both improve social justice and achieve financial equilibrium for nation-states.
In the World of Work Report 2013 the ILO present the case for a more job-friendly approach to macroeconomic policy.
The report argues that “well-designed and coordinated macroeconomic, employment and social policies can have mutually reinforcing effects.” Both Argentina (in 2001-2002) and Sweden (in 1990s) successfully pursued policies that focused on job protection and creation rather than on fiscal consolidation.
In Sweden in particular this was achieved by the development of a package of labour market policies designed with the specific intention of reducing the risk of long-term unemployment. The flagship policy of this package was a youth employment guarantee.
There are several policy proposals that the World of Work Report present and provides evidence for their beneficial impact on increasing employment and stabilizing the economy. These are;

1. Public investment for innovation
2. Investment in and extension of credit to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs):
   1. supporting the creation and development of credit mediators to reassess SMEs’ credit requests that have been rejected by banks;
   2. introducing credit guarantees for viable SMEs, in which a percentage of the loan is backed by government support; and
   3. directly earmarking a portion of bank recapitalization funds for the provision of SME credit
3. Avoiding wage stagnation or deflation traps: A significant proportion of GDP is in domestic consumption, particularly in larger or more developed economies. Therefore attention to employment, wages and other sources of household income is a critical part of a sound macroeconomic policy mix.

Resilience in a Downturn: The power of financial cooperatives is a report that discusses the historical, statistical, conceptual, and policy aspects of financial cooperatives. With particular reference to how cooperatives fare in times of crisis.
The report shows that financial cooperatives have continued to provide banking services to people on low incomes, to stabilize the banking system, to regenerate local economies and, indirectly, to create employment.
The report explains that cooperatives are able to do this because of their unique combination of member ownership, control and benefit. It concludes with a set of policy recommendations for governments, development agencies and other policy-makers, for instance using cooperatives not as “conduits” but as partners in the wider aims of business development, insurance against episodic poverty and decent work.
Ed Miliband has recently given a speech outlining his direction for the Labour party over the next few years. In summary he said that “We all know Labour in 2015 will have less money to spend, because the Tories have failed on the economy. So we are going to take action on the big problems our country faces to control spending:

• Cut costs by helping the long-term unemployed back to work
• Make sure jobs are well-paid to reward work, so the state does not face rising subsidies for low pay
• Get the cost of renting down by ensuring more homes are built – thereby reducing the welfare bill
• Cap social security spending by focusing on the deep-rooted reasons benefit spending goes up.”

Conservative MPs have predictably derided this speech; however it is a welcome intervention from Ed Miliband and should be welcomed by all who would rather see a Labour led government.
The findings of these ILO reports all generally agree with the view of most Labour supporters and Tory critics that jobs must come before growth and not the other way around. Conservative opinion seems generally to be that only by reducing national expenditure can we afford to invest in education and provide social security. As numerous economic experts have commented however, fiscal consolidation reduces domestic consumption, which reduces GDP.
The major role that governments can take in this approach is in forming policy that encourages private investment. For example long-term clean energy policy that drives investment in manufacturing and development; macroeconomic policy that facilitates lending to SMEs and incentives for youth employment and a housing policy based on using financial co-operatives to invest pension funds in the development of new residential and commercial units for long-term tenancies.

This article first appeared on Labour uncut.

Working Mans Blues - Bob Dylan

This week I had another article up on Labour-Uncut; the theme of this is creating new jobs and ensuring that people are fairly paid for the work that they do. Sustainability is at the core of this; and by this I don't just mean environmentally friendly, although that is part of it, but ensuring that the younger generation have gainful employment so that they can provide for themselves and the ageing population.

The article is predicated on the International Labour Organisation's conference, which ends tomorrow (20th June) in Geneva. Three of the discussion topics at the conference are

1. Sustainable development, decent work and green jobs
2. Employment and social protection in the new demographic context
3. Social Dialogue

The fundamental premise of all three is that by global co-operation we can help each other to face the challenges of the coming century. Workers representation and communication between governments, employers and employees is the glue that should enable sustainable development to provide a future for all.

Bob Dylan's great modern anthem - Working Mans Blues - is a song full of emotion that holds a mirror up to contemporary America and challenges governments and voters to confront the socio-economic problems that cause misery and despair for millions.

Workingman's Blues #2 by Bob Dylan

There's an evenin' haze settlin' over the town
Starlight by the edge of the creek
The buyin' power of the proletariat's gone down
Money's gettin' shallow and weak
The place I love best is a sweet memory
It's a new path that we trod
They say low wages are a reality
If we want to compete abroad

My cruel weapons have been put on the shelf
Come sit down on my knee
You are dearer to me than myself
As you yourself can see
I'm listenin' to the steel rails hum
Got both eyes tight shut
Just sitting here trying to keep the hunger from
Creeping it's way into my gut

Meet me at the bottom, don't lag behind
Bring me my boots and shoes
You can hang back or fight your best on the front line
Sing a little bit of these workingman's blues

Now, I'm sailin' on back, ready for the long haul
Tossed by the winds and the seas
I'll drag ‘em all down to hell and I'll stand ‘em at the wall
I'll sell ‘em to their enemies
I'm tryin' to feed my soul with thought
Gonna sleep off the rest of the day
Sometimes no one wants what we got
Sometimes you can't give it away

Now the place is ringed with countless foes
Some of them may be deaf and dumb
No man, no woman knows
The hour that sorrow will come
In the dark I hear the night birds call
I can hear a lover's breath
I sleep in the kitchen with my feet in the hall
Sleep is like a temporary death

Meet me at the bottom, don't lag behind
Bring me my boots and shoes
You can hang back or fight your best on the front line
Sing a little bit of these workingman's blues

Well, they burned my barn, they stole my horse
I can't save a dime
I got to be careful, I don't want to be forced
Into a life of continual crime
I can see for myself that the sun is sinking
How I wish you were here to see
Tell me now, am I wrong in thinking
That you have forgotten me?
Now they worry and they hurry and they fuss and they fret

They waste your nights and days
Them I will forget
But you I'll remember always
Old memories of you to me have clung
You've wounded me with words
Gonna have to straighten out your tongue
It's all true, everything you have heard

Meet me at the bottom, don't lag behind
Bring me my boots and shoes
You can hang back or fight your best on the front line
Sing a little bit of these workingman's blues

In you, my friend, I find no blame
Wanna look in my eyes, please do
No one can ever claim
That I took up arms against you
All across the peaceful sacred fields
They will lay you low
They'll break your horns and slash you with steel
I say it so it must be so

Now I'm down on my luck and I'm black and blue
Gonna give you another chance
I'm all alone and I'm expecting you
To lead me off in a cheerful dance
Got a brand new suit and a brand new wife
I can live on rice and beans
Some people never worked a day in their life
Don't know what work even means

Meet me at the bottom, don't lag behind
Bring me my boots and shoes
You can hang back or fight your best on the front line
Sing a little bit of these workingman's blues

Copyright © 2006 Special Rider Music

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/workingmans-blues-2#ixzz2WfPOwfFF

"Stand up take to the streets, they can't ignore us if we all choose to speak"

Neil Lawson had an article up on the Guardian and Compass Online yesterday talking about single issue campaign organisations and their effect on mainstream politics. The gist of the article is that campaigners such as the Occupy Movement and UK Uncut have been effective at drawing media attention to issues such as corporate tax avoidance and political action has followed as a result

“But these are mostly single issues, and the multiple crises we face demand joined-up answers. The political parties we can't live with, we also can't live without. The urgent task at hand is to construct a politics that not only joins the concerns of all of us who seek a much more equal, sustainable and democratic world – a good society – but which finds a way of linking formal and informal politics…So the challenge to the parties is to democratise internally and practise pluralism externally. The challenge to the movements is to shift beyond single issues and join forces to tackle the root causes of markets that are too free or too powerful, and states that are too remote or too intrusive.”

Neil Lawson is the Director of pressure group Compass and as such has a strong affiliation with Labour and the Co-operative Movement. I happen to agree with him that the Labour Party must be in the vanguard of a new movement for democratic change; for it is only through the democratic system that we can achieve meaningful and permanent change.

Ernest Bevin said that ‘We must not confuse democracy with the maintenance of a particular form of economic or financial system…rather it is a condition which allows for change in the system itself.’

Change in the system itself is what we need. Lucy Ward’s recent single “For the Dead Man” serves as a poignant reminder of what is going wrong and what we can do to change it.

“Those who run our countries they will never see

Cause they’ve never had to make the choice to bite the hand that feeds

There are thousand of people who were left to fall between

The cracks in our culture that were torn apart by greed”

Lucy calls on the people to “Stand up and take to the streets, they can’t ignore us if we all choose to speak”. The phrasing of this is spot on; if we choose to speak then other voters and politicians will listen.

Apathy is the enemy of change. If we want a better life for ourselves and our children then we must stand up and be counted.

Lucy Ward sings "For the Dead Men" http://www.lucywardsings.com/

http://lucywardsings.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/billy-bragg-for-the-dead-men-and-fishermen/

"someone asked me at my gig on monday why I wrote this song and why ‘dead men’; it was quite a big question and I think I could of rambled on about it for yonks (you know how I like to talk :p ).  Well I have been thinking about it more since that question and thought that for this weeks post I would have a little muse about what inspired it, how I wrote it and how I feel about it now.
Why did I write it?
I wrote it out of desperation! I guess it was a reaction to what is going on in the world, catalysed by watching the marches, riots and revolutions unfold on my tv screen. I am a total pacifist, and a veggie one at that so please know that I would never condone any violence, but there was something about watching  those who were making their voices heard (in a peaceful way) that just…i dunno…spoke to me.

 Why dead men?

It started out as a reference to those who have marched before us, but as the song has developed I feel it has become more than that. I really think it refers to us all, ‘the dead men’ are those of us sticking our heads in the sand, ignorant to what is happening and our power to affect it. It’s apathy. It is also all those on the thin edge of the wedge who have been left deal with the true fall out of the cuts and reforms… while the rest of us (including myself) sit in our warm, paid up homes thinking about cutting down our broadband package.

The response that this song has had so far has been quite overwhelming with lots of you guys sharing it online, it has been knocked around ‘occupies’ all over the world since I recorded it, Mike Harding has shared it, it’s beginning to get airplay and today with Billy Bragg sharing it with his 90,000 + fans on facebook it really feels like something important is happening. It’s just great to know that there are people out there who feel the same.

please continue to share this should you feel so inclined.

 Just for your info, this single is my first new release since my album last year. It is available on itunes and amazon as a download and if you would like a physical copy then they are only available from me, (just £3 + £1 for postage and packaging)…just drop me an email on info@lucywardsings.com and I’ll get back to you asap   " 

Chris Wood - None the Wiser

Chris Wood's song None the Wiser is an extremely thoughful and thought provoking song and is part of a tremendous album of the same name.  

"The argos catalogue is our tormentor" ...

"I just had my montly meet with the job club supervisor, I was none the wiser"...

"while in the five star saunas of the hotel trip advisor, its just business, business, business, its always none the wiser"

and my favourite

"in the bowels of the Bank of England they are sacrificing chickens to a god they call 'quantitative easing' "

In March 2013 Chris Wood said this about the making of his latest album "While this musical journey was going on, Britain was sinking deeper into recession. From radio and television studios our political and fiscal masters were insisting we should continue to listen to them, to take seriously their initiatives and their projections while out in the streets our personal experience was, and remains, in gritty contradiction to their rhetoric.

I believe we are on our own. I believe all we really have is ourselves and what we make, and, the most precious of what we make lies in our connection to each other. They have not found a way of taxing what flows between us and our loved ones." -

Gritty, acerbic and at times grumpy the whole album is a triumph.

I bought my copy from Bandcamp where you can directly support your favourite the songwriters making new music.  http://chriswoodfolkmusician.bandcamp.com/album/none-the-wiser

Springhill Mine Disaster - Peggy Seeger - performed by Martin Carthy

I couldn't mention mining without this tremendous song by Peggy Seeger. This version is by Martin Carthy and the video contains pictures from Springhill. The mood and lyrics of the song capture perfectly the horror and sacrifice that miners face to bring home a wage to support their family.Blood and bone truly is the price of coal.

SPRINGHILL MINE DISASTER

In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia
Down in the dark of the Cumberland Mine
there's blood on the coal and the miners lie
In the roads that never saw sun nor sky (2x)

In the town of Springhill, you don't sleep easy
Often the earth will tremble and roll
When the earth is restless, miners die
Bone and blood is the price of coal

In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia
Late in the year of fifty-eight
Day still comes and the sun still shines
But it's dark as the grave in the Cumberland mine

Down at the coal face, miners working
Rattle of the belt and the cutter's blade
Rumble of the rock and the walls closed round
The living and the dead men two miles down

Twelve men lay two miles from the pitshaft
Twelve men lay in the dark and sang
Long hot days in the miners tomb
It was three feet high and a hundred long

Three days past and the lamps gave out
Our foreman rose on his elbow and said
We're out of light and water and bread
So we'll live on song and hope instead

Listen for the shouts of the barefaced miners
Listen thru the rubble for a rescue team
Six hundred feet of coal and slag
Hope imprisoned in a three foot seam

Eight days passes and some were rescued
Leaving the dead to lie alone
Thru all their lives they dug their grave
Two miles of earth for a marking stone

In the town of Springhill, you don't sleep easy
Often the earth will tremble and roll
When the earth is restless, miners die
Bone and blood is the price of coal

Copyright Sing Out
by Peggy Seeger,