Showing posts with label History Worth Remembering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History Worth Remembering. Show all posts
30 Jun 2009
6 Jun 2009
Cry Freedom
“We would go in to Liverpool and we were treated like normal people. There was no segregation and we could go where we wanted and do what we wanted. We went dancing in the Grafton Ballroom and shopping on Whitechapel like everyone else.
“My time in England was the first time I had really felt free in my life. And I wondered why another country was treating us better than our own country, better than the country we were fighting for.”
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Never Forget
They will never forget,
the events of 'D-Day',
they will never forget,
their friends who passed away.
They will never forget,
the sound of bagpipes playing,
they will never forget,
the thousands of men praying.
They will never forget,
the blood red sea,
they will never forget,
the courage and the bravery.
We must never forget,
why they had to fight,
and we must never forget,
always to do what's right.
The Piper was Glaswegian Bill Millan of the 1st Commando Brigade.
He played until his bagpipes took a bullet,
the Germans all thought he was mad,
he miraculously never got killed,
our lucky Scottish lad.
But when a German sniper,
put his bagpipes out of action,
he picked up his gun,
a natural reaction.
For if they thought he was mad before,
they just had no idea,
for to deny a Piper his bagpipes,
leaves a man with no fear!
Stanley Bruce
written 6th June 2004
Read more...
the events of 'D-Day',
they will never forget,
their friends who passed away.
They will never forget,
the sound of bagpipes playing,
they will never forget,
the thousands of men praying.
They will never forget,
the blood red sea,
they will never forget,
the courage and the bravery.
We must never forget,
why they had to fight,
and we must never forget,
always to do what's right.
The Piper was Glaswegian Bill Millan of the 1st Commando Brigade.
He played until his bagpipes took a bullet,
the Germans all thought he was mad,
he miraculously never got killed,
our lucky Scottish lad.
But when a German sniper,
put his bagpipes out of action,
he picked up his gun,
a natural reaction.
For if they thought he was mad before,
they just had no idea,
for to deny a Piper his bagpipes,
leaves a man with no fear!
Stanley Bruce
written 6th June 2004
19 May 2009
In Defence of The Working Class - John Wheatley
Today is the 160th birthday of Red Clydesider and affordable housing pioneer John Wheatley. For those unfamiliar with his fantastic life story here it is in summary:Born into absolute poverty in rural Ireland in 1869, his family moved to Scotland a few years after his birth, regarding scraping a living in the Lanarkshire coalfields and being treated as third class immigrants, as a step up. John Wheatley received only an elementary eduction and by the age of 12 he was working down the mines. Aged 23, and still living with his family of 13 in a two roomed house, he moved to Glasgow to become a publican and eventually a campaigning journalist and publisher, educating himself along the way. He joined the infant Independent Labour Party in 1907 and in it developed his own unique brand of Catholic socialism which saw him take on not just the establishment of his day but also a local catholic hierarchy inclined to advise Irish immigrants to keep a low profile and wait for the afterlife.
Elected to Glasgow City Council, Wheatley was a tireless campaigner against injustice , the appalling housing conditions in his adopted city in particular. An opponent of World War 1 , Wheatley was the leading light in the 1915 Glasgow rent strike, started by the impoverished and doubly exploited wives of on duty servicemen, - a strike so solid and successful it forced Lloyd George to come to Glasgow and cut a deal in which rents were controlled and wages guaranteed.
Wheatley was not done. Elected MP for Glasgow Shettleston in 1922, he became UK Housing Minister in the first ever Labour Government two years later. A minority administration, it did not last long. But long enough for Wheatley to near single handedly pioneer the 1924 Housing Act through Westminster. And the Act was so good it was the basis upon which almost 500,000 council houses were built across the UK over the next 15 years. And good quality homes for rent, "workers cottages", with gardens and front and back doors, with local shops and facilities that built communities: Knightswood, Carantyne, Bellahouston, Lochfield, Gallowhill - places where my own parents were born and brought up. Good places.
And every city and town across the UK has its Wheatley homes - so fine that sadly they were amongst the first to go under Tory right to buy policy in the 1980s....... Land that is lost now.
But Wheatley delivered - and he never sold out. Spurned by Labour leader Ramsey MacDonald because of his opposition to Labour's move to the centre, Wheatley never regained office and died suddenly in 1930. His funeral was one of the largest Glasgow had ever seen. In a deeply divided city, Catholics, Protestants, Rangers and Celtic supporters, even Tories turned out in their tens of thousand to pay respects to a man who had not only offered hope but had delivered homes.
John Wheatley, for his people, in his time - Martin Luther King. And his promised land was for everyone, not just the chosen few. So let's all celebrate his birthday today.
1 May 2009
25 Apr 2009
St Mirren Win The Scottish Cup - Exactly 50 Years Ago Today
.........Find out how they did it - and in front of over 100,000 fans, not an Old Firm one in sight.
29 Mar 2009
Pay No Poll Tax !
It is 20 years ago, 1st April 1989 to be precise, that the Poll Tax was introduced in Scotland. That legal requirement to pay, and a year ahead of England, was of course preceded intense campaigning, and Scotland on Sunday has done a good feature on it all today.
I would recommend it to those too young to remember or so old we have forgotten!
In particular, I like the paper's slideshow- here's a direct link to it.
Strange days, in hindsight great days, but they just felt like any other day to me and I guess most folks living through them at the time But we won! - the beginning of the end for Thatcherism
And a campaign led from Scotland - but let's not forget finished in England.
But a big hats off to the tens of thousands of Scots who led the way, refused to pay.
If only Sandi Thom had done likewise
Read more...23 Mar 2009
8 Mar 2009
Political Thought for the Day - Thought for the Century
"If you remove the English army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the socialist Republic your efforts would be in vain. England would still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole army of commercial and individual institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs. (...) Nationalism without Socialism - without a reorganisation of society on the basis of a broader and more developed form of that common property which underlay the social structure of Ancient Erin - is only national recreancy."
James Connolly, Socialism and Nationalism.
Born The Cowgate Edinburgh, 1868. Died Dublin Castle, 1916. Lives forever
6 Mar 2009
Whit, Nae History? - Dinna mess wi the Falkirk Bairns !
From Today's Scotsman
HISTORY is to be dropped from a school's curriculum for two years, after poor results and falling interest in the subject.Pupils at St Mungo's High in Falkirk will not be able to take history at Standard grade next year or Higher the following year.Professor Tom Devine, a historian, said the move was "scandalous" and St Mungo's experience bucked the national trend. He said: "The evidence from the Scottish Association of Teachers of History, suggests of the three social subjects – modern studies, history and geography – the most popular in growth of pupil numbers and examinations over the past five years, has been history. "Would they ever think about doing this with maths, English or physical education?
I SAY
Here here, prof Devine
This is most concerning and simply must be reversed, must not be allowed to happen in a large mainstream Scottish comprehensive - a stones throw from the Antonine Wall, the site of the Battle of Falkirk ( 1298, monument to it pictured above), The Forth and Clyde Canal, The Carron Iron Works, The Bonnybridge Riots, and Dennis Canavan, May 1999! And lots more
If you can't interest the bairns of Falkirk in history with this rich tapestry you are teaching it wrong marketing it wrong - you are a bureaucrat no a teacher, Mr McPhee headie at StMungo, or whoever is the Education Convener at Falkirk Council - Go homeward and think again.
Let's not rush to specific judgment - unionist conspiracy, nationalist conspiracy, poor teachers, bad marketing, bad luck, hidden agendas? ( I know how schools work, there's probably a promotion in this for somebody) Let's find out and let's put this right before May 2009 when the pupils will have made their near irreversible subject choices. - but they have no history choice there to make. A disgrace!
Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Education, down the road in Linlithgow, whit are you doing? Keith Brown, my MSP for Ochil, right across the Kincardine bridge from Falkirk, and new Schools minister ?- you first job, pall.
How can this happen? What aboot these single outcome agreements you have wi cooncil? Is this the real cost of your populist council tax freeze? Wake up. Intervene. I thought we lived in a democracy, with accountable schools, accountable to our councils, government. our parliament
I know this school, traditionally anyway, one of the best in Scotland, the best in the town. And they are in the process of constructing a brand new building on the current site. The notion that with these resources, they can't offer history at standard or soon higher level is just incomprehensible. You isn’t doing your job Mr McPhee - to innovate, to solve problems, not list them
Sort out or ship out. And the same applies to you history department teachers - if you cannae attract the enough bairns to make one class viable then you ain't up to it. You should have four, be turning folks away!
And Falkirk Council - Labour/Tory controlled, but SNP biggest group and a few indies - just what are you doing?
I worked briefly at that "Community" football stadium you own, and have seen you pour hundred of thousand down the drain year on year, subsiding ineptitude. But you cannse find the resources, the wit, to teach history in one of your town's biggest schools?
"Need to train more history teachers! - there are dozens of them out there looking for work wi dozens more still come this summer. Go out recruit the best of them - visit Jordahill, St Andrews and Moray House now, offer a pay supplement if need be - but you won't, St Mungo is a fine school. great location - right next to Falkirk Grahamston Station - another story to tell your pupils, the area where you school stands, Grahamstoun, named after Sir John de Graham, Wallace's right hand man slain at Falkirk in 1298, buried in your local Kirk by his own men in risk of English retaliation - but they secured an amnesty such was his standing, even amongst the enemy.
If you can't interest the bairns of Falkirk in history with this rich tapestry you are teaching it wrong marketing it wrong - you are a bureaucrat no a teacher, Mr McPhee headie at StMungo, or whoever is the Education Convener at Falkirk Council - Go homeward and think again.
Let's not rush to specific judgment - unionist conspiracy, nationalist conspiracy, poor teachers, bad marketing, bad luck, hidden agendas? ( I know how schools work, there's probably a promotion in this for somebody) Let's find out and let's put this right before May 2009 when the pupils will have made their near irreversible subject choices. - but they have no history choice there to make. A disgrace!
Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Education, down the road in Linlithgow, whit are you doing? Keith Brown, my MSP for Ochil, right across the Kincardine bridge from Falkirk, and new Schools minister ?- you first job, pall.
How can this happen? What aboot these single outcome agreements you have wi cooncil? Is this the real cost of your populist council tax freeze? Wake up. Intervene. I thought we lived in a democracy, with accountable schools, accountable to our councils, government. our parliament
I know this school, traditionally anyway, one of the best in Scotland, the best in the town. And they are in the process of constructing a brand new building on the current site. The notion that with these resources, they can't offer history at standard or soon higher level is just incomprehensible. You isn’t doing your job Mr McPhee - to innovate, to solve problems, not list them
Sort out or ship out. And the same applies to you history department teachers - if you cannae attract the enough bairns to make one class viable then you ain't up to it. You should have four, be turning folks away!
And Falkirk Council - Labour/Tory controlled, but SNP biggest group and a few indies - just what are you doing?
I worked briefly at that "Community" football stadium you own, and have seen you pour hundred of thousand down the drain year on year, subsiding ineptitude. But you cannse find the resources, the wit, to teach history in one of your town's biggest schools?
"Need to train more history teachers! - there are dozens of them out there looking for work wi dozens more still come this summer. Go out recruit the best of them - visit Jordahill, St Andrews and Moray House now, offer a pay supplement if need be - but you won't, St Mungo is a fine school. great location - right next to Falkirk Grahamston Station - another story to tell your pupils, the area where you school stands, Grahamstoun, named after Sir John de Graham, Wallace's right hand man slain at Falkirk in 1298, buried in your local Kirk by his own men in risk of English retaliation - but they secured an amnesty such was his standing, even amongst the enemy.
Bring these stories and many more back to life, Involve these veteran Polish airman who helped win the Battle of Britain for us , and then settled in the town ; that Chippy owner. Michael Lemetti from Barga who has developed the National Tartan of Italy - his brother Joe's on the cooncil!
Nae teachers? Whit planet you on Falkirk Council? Planet mince, pure mince. It's you lot that needs retraining - or another vocation. In fact, you should personally all be made to enroll in a standard grade history class, se how its done well - you sound like you need it.
Try Wallace High, Stirling! You'll get a warm welcome.
Read more...
5 Mar 2009
Mick McGahey - The Leader the Miners Deserved
The Miners' Strike started 25 years ago today, 5th March, 1984. Mick McGaghey was the President of the Scottish Area of the NUM, and Vice President of the NUM ( UK)
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25 Feb 2009
It was 68 years ago today - lest we forget these bravehearts
The 1941 February Strike was a general strike organized during World War II in The Netherlands against the anti-Jewish measures and activities by the Nazis.Its direct causes were the razzias held by the Germans in the Jewish neighbourhood of Amsterdam. The strike started on 25 February and was largely struck down the next day.
The February Strike was the first direct action undertaken against the anti-Jewish measures of the Nazis in occupied Europe, and performed by non-Jewish citizens.
The timng and context was also significant. The strike was largely Dutch Communist Party led. But this was February 1941, four months before Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, a time in which Stalinist Russia was in a formal aliance with Hitler, Stalin actively supressing anti-nazi activity . The Dutch communists, the Dutch labour movement, chose justice and solidarity over party loyalty - doubly brave if you knew anything about what happened to communist dissidents under Stalin - not just in the Soviet Union. This strike was truly remarkable, courageous, inspiring Learn more
21 Feb 2009
Malcom X - Assasinated, 44 years ago today..His message lives on and his spirit needed as much as ever
25 Jan 2009
About 1st July, 1999
Scotland's Day of Days when Rabbie Burns, beautifully assisted by Fife's Sheena Wellington, stole the entire show with his international and libertarian anthem A Man's a Man for 'a That .
We were not meant to sing along, and were were just meant to politely applaud - "what would the Queen or the Duke think?" thought Sir David, big Donald and the powers that be. But we could not give a dam. This was Scotland's day and it took Rabbie to lift the roof, set the tone and give our new parliament its immortal memory
Eat your heart out Willie Shakespeare! Match that Oliver Cromwell! And an "irrelevant 18th century poet"?
Read more...
20 Jan 2009
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