Like the way this thread has developed. Interesting conversation gents. I've been thinking a lot recently about what's happening and there's a lot of encouragement coming from the generation below me. We're still a long way from perfect but issues of equality decrease everyday (despite what the EDL stirmongers say) and people are starting to tap into alternative news sources to get more accurate and truthful information. Certainly over the past couple of years papers like The Guardian and Independent have had to up their game as online journalism and opinion starts to supersede them e.g. Salon, Democracy Now and The Atlantic offer serious opinion on the US and The Huff Post (still a corporate beast itself) is starting to make inroads over here in the truth market.

It's as exciting a time as it's ever been. Music may not be at the forefront like it was in the 60s but there's a greater mix of arts in its many forms taking up the mantle after a good decade of foundation building with things like Adbusters.

There is a bit on the footage of the Orgreave saga from the miners strike that they show quite often recently, a piece that annoys me every time I see it.
A blondish lad is being led away, presumably arrested, by a copper who has him by the arm. He is 'coming quietly', when out of left field comes another copper, who must have been feeling left out of things who dives on the lad and pushes him face first into the gravel.
I hope that he felt a rush of job satisfaction for what was blatantly assault.
Nowadays he'd have been pilloried and quite rightly IMHO.

There's no doubt that self expression is easier now than it ever has been thanks to technology and unrestricted access to both it and any information that you wish to read or participate in, Immediately.

You don't even need to leave the house, or your chair in order to register a protest, simply sign an online petition and when a relatively small number of like minded others have signed up then the government of the day HAVE to take regard to it - can you imagine what sort of online protest could have been organised in the 1950s when CND first started, can you imagine what efforts must have been needed to generate the interest that they did when they were largely denied access (initially) to a print and broadcast (such as it was) media, factor in a much smaller university population from which a lot of support was collected and you can see what a huge effort those marches really were.

Its the complete freedom and access to information and dis-information that has governments looking a bit scared at the moment, Lord Justice Leveson is starting to look like a bit of a control freak at the moment when speaking in Australia [urlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/dec/07/lord-justice-leveson-australia[/url and while lots of us may have applauded him when he recommended legal control of the print media, are we now left wondering who the hell he thinks he is when he takes it a step further and demands legal control of social media - and how the hell does he expect it to work on a global scale ?

Lennon was a great campaigner, knew perfectly well that he was one of few people who could rely on as much publicity as he wanted just by picking up a phone, campaigned so voraciously against The Vietnam War that Nixon tried to deport him permanently, but he also supported a long running campaign for the Hanratty family to have justice, donated money to the Clyde Shipbuilders and supported campaigns to have personal marijuana possession downgraded from a Grade A offence - Yoko Ono is still a great campaigner for all sorts of issues but has a much easier job these days via her imaginepeace.com website.

If you go to [urlhttp://www.imaginepeace.com[/url you can download that poster as desktop wallpaper, I'm doing a training session tomorrow at our head office with a guy who used to be in the Paras and another who was in one of HM's Tank Regiments so I've put that poster as the desktop.

Just to kick off the session nicely of course

Lunch break...................

[iEx-Para[/i - 'What do you make of him doing the training?'

[iEx-Tank Reg[/i - 'Bit of a boring 2@ but just doing his job I suppose.'

[iEx-Para[/i - 'S'pose so but have you seen his laptop?'

[iEx-Tank Reg[/i - 'No, why?'

[iEx-Para[/i - 'He's got some Lennon anti-war cr@p on it.'

[iEx-Tank Reg[/i - Fooking commie to$$er.'

Could see that coming straight away when a press editor mentioned it on Five Live when the report was being announced. They've realised that with things like Twitter they can't keep people silent and having control of communications is critical to their propaganda, especially the Tories. They'll use the privacy issue as a reason for legislating against social media but people will find a way around that.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is what impact all this supposed studying on 'media studies' is having. People complained at the time but there's a real opportunity for the UK to become a serious media hub because our mainstream media is vulnerable to its citizens pointing out untruths and lies. We may not possess the militancy of other European countries but that also helps prevent against lunatics like the EDL getting a foothold and our healthy love of gossip ensures people are open to hearing ideas when backed with facts. Not all, of course. There are still those stuck in ideological positions like the unrestrained free market, military, punishment over rehabilitation and international issues like Israel's warmongering.

Not a fan of her art but it's truly beautiful how she's managed to keep the message alive. It's easy to see what Lennon saw in her especially when listening to her talk back in the day.

But, but, but, she broke the Beatles up, didn't she?



On this day in history, Dec 9th 1987, the [iFirst Intifada[/i began against the Israelis and their occupation of the Palestinian Territories.

On this day in history, Augusto Pinochet died, Dec 10th 2006.

Must be his mates turn shortly?

[url=http://www.historyorb.com/day/december/10Also these. Is there anything of special interest?[/url

The UN's adoption of the Declaration of Human Rights would be significant.

Then again, try telling them in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo all about it?

No loss is it.

probably celebrate the anniversary.

They are entitled to, along with pi$$ing on his grave.

I'm not a Sting admirer but this was one of his finest tracks and the lyrics say it all.

[urlhttp://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/sting/theydancealone.html[/url

Very poignant

Also U2's 'Mothers of the Disappeared' from 'The Joshua Tree' is worth a listen too.

By the way, the greatest soul singer of all time died today in 1967.....Otis Redding, nobody else comes close.

Yeah, got the Joshua Tree, also the U2 song Bullet the Blue Sky is a good old protest song.

Neve much into soul music, but I agree with your assessment from a pure vocal point of view, also though Marvin Gaye had a cracking voice.

Today is also when the UN adopted its Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the world still continues to not adopt.

Please don,t put Otis in the same breath or sentence as that glory seeking mercenary.

I have (unplayed) Otis live in Europe in 67' still in origiginal cover.

But,IMO, Otis playing "try a little tenderness" at Monterrey in 67 ranks among the best sounds ever. What a voice

Apart from Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke...

Marvellous, a soul thread.

May I point devotees to the Sam and Dave tour of Scandanavia in about 68, with Stax ims. YouTube Hold on.

And as for Pearl harbour, American intelligence (sic) was told 3 days beforehand by the Australians that a team of Japanese destroyers was on its way.

The American government let it happen, so it was seen to be a reasonable reason to join ww2. History books tell you this.

Thanks for that. Brilliant.