Changing spots time? February 8, 2021
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Intriguing that Jeff Bezos has left Amazon on a day to day basis to become the Executive Chair of the outfit. Apparently he wants to spend more time with his rockets (or space exploration company – Blue Origin). But be that as it may, Amazon continues to have lamentable worker practices.
Despite the high-tech innovation, Amazon still operates in many instances much like a traditional business, happily elbowing rivals out of the way and exploiting sellers by, for example, replicating their products and retailing them for a lower cost. Meanwhile, the company has arguably been among the worst in terms of looking after its staff.
There have been multiple instances of unethical practices going on in Amazon warehouses or “fulfilment centres” as the company insists on calling them. Evidence gleaned from a large number of undercover investigations show that they are certainly not fulfilling places to work for staff.
Among the allegations are tales of employees urinating in bottles because they were concerned they didn’t have enough time to take proper toilet breaks. There is this and much more.
Late last year, it was disclosed that Amazon, which employs one million million, had nearly 20,000 warehouse staff who tested positive for coronavirus. More recently, it has been reported the company is intensifying attempts to stop such workers from unionising.
And:
And it’s not just the warehouses. The New York Times and others have previously reported on the cut-throat environment for office staff in which they were encouraged to tear one another apart in meetings and work long hours far beyond the norm.
All of this has taken place under Bezos’s watch and there is little evidence to suggest any of it has greatly upset him. It has certainly done no harm to the bottom line. But concerned consumers are increasingly unhappy at the notion of buying from a behemoth that has such poor alleged treatment of staff. Can we really enjoy our bargains when they cost so much.
Will the company change? Can the company change?
Green peace? February 8, 2021
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Not likely to judge from a piece in the SBP a week or so ago which warns that other members of the GP, including Councillors could leave in the wake of the controversy over CETA. Some obvious aspects to this. First the openness with which elected members are discussing their concerns and also the idea that they will walk. That would concern me were I part of the GP leadership. Secondly the seeming gulf between members and leadership according to some reports. What’s curious and telling is that many of those most disenchanted appear to have come on board in the period from 2011 onwards. Curious in that the leadership seems less concerned about their opinions, telling in that they were a different cohort to those who were there during the GP’s last period in government. Was the expectation that they too would row in as the party membership had in the previous decade? And a thought, they aren’t by any means ‘fundis’. They do however appear to hold somewhat more radical views on a range of matters relating to concerns beyond those most usually associated with the GP. A drip drip drip of people and representatives away from the GP is bound to have consequences.
Left Archive: Articles by John Swift from Irish Socialist, 1983-1986 February 8, 2021
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To download the above and other documents please click on the following links.
<a href=”http://www.clririshleftarchive.org/”>Please click here to go the Left Archive.</a>
Many thanks to the person who forwarded these to the Archive. They are articles from Irish Socialist, printed by the Communist Party of Ireland in the 1980s, penned by left wing trade unionist and long time Labour Party member, John Swift.
Swift, born in 1896 had a fascinating life, active in the Irish National Federal Union of Bakers, briefly a member of the Irish Volunteers and essentially forced into the British Army late in the First World War. Returning to Ireland he continued his participation in union activity, one key component being the establishment of a bakery school (later taken over by the VEC in Dublin). By 1936, and with the INFUB renamed the Irish Bakers, Confectioners and Allied Workers Amalgamated Union, he was active as national organiser. In the early 1940s he was elected as General Secretary. However his involvement in union matters extended much further, and in 1945 he became President of Dublin Trades Council. The next year he was President of the Irish Trades Union Congress and was instrumental in the establishment of The People’s College. Later he was president of the International Union of Food and Allied Workers’ Association.
A left-wing member of the Labour Party from 1927, he wrote the policy document on Workers Democracy which can be found here in the Archive. In the 1970s he was active in support of membership of the EEC by the Republic of Ireland. He was also a founder of the Ireland-USSR Society. Later he was President of the Irish Labour History Society. He died in 1990.
Further information on him can be found in John P. Swift’s biography, ‘John Swift, an Irish dissident’.
The documents collected here date from 1983 to 1986 and all were published in Irish Socialist. They range in subject matter from a retrospective look at the Ireland of fifty years previously, to ‘The De-politicisation of Big Jim Larkin’, ‘The fight for the Sixty-hour Week’ and ‘How the Bakers’ library came to be blessed’. Some were printed as part of a series entitled ‘Reflections on Labour History’. They provide a compelling overview of the Irish Left from one who was centrally involved in it.
We would be very grateful for full editions of individual publications in which John Swift’s writings appeared.
Stefan Cush (The Men They Couldn’t Hang) R.I.P February 7, 2021
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Many thanks to Joe Mooney for the following post…
Very sad and shocking news this past week that Stefan Cush of The Men They Couldn’t Hang had died of a sudden heart attack . Aged just 60 , the guitarist and co-vocalist had been a founding member of the band which emerged from the same London scene as The Pogues in 1984 . In fact Cush had been a roadie for The Pogues when he met his future bandmates busking , and Phil Chevron went on to produce some of their material.The band had a short hiatus in the early 1990’s but reformed and have continued recording and performing down through the years. Their version of the anti war classic “Green fields of France” went to #1 in the indie charts . Always fiercely political , they had their song “Ironmasters” banned during the miners strike , an era which also delivered the powerful “Shirt of Blue”. Another classic release was the anti fascist anthem “Ghosts of Cable Street” . Throughout the years they continued to reference the English radical tradition and republican history for many of their songs .
But it wasn’t just the sound politics which attracted me to them – they were a great band – a perfect blend of punk & folk & country . I saw them on a few occasions , and wish it had been more often. They always delivered an amazing live set , and after all these years didn’t seem to have lost any of their enthusiasm. I last saw them in Bristol in 2019 , and we’d all planned to return there for their shows due last year.
During Lockdown Cush performed a number of sets from his back-garden , tied in with the public support being expressed for the NHS each week . Each weekly session featured a wide range of songs reflecting his musical influences from punk through rockabilly and all things in-between. He was also very funny , and watching back on them this weekend it was sad hearing him look forward to a return to live gigs.
TMTCH are a band well served by Youtube . Here is a small selection , with Cush at his best . Includes a Cush penned nostalgic reflection on the 1970’s and even aChristmas tune from one of his other projects. I was at that show in The Fleece – it took place the weekend when the news was dominated by the fate of Welsh miners trapped underground. Cush referenced this in his introduction , and the video doesn’t capture the emotion or passion of the moment . I’ve also linked one of his lockdown shows from facebook – the best one in my opinion , with a selection of TMTCH favourites , Teenage Kicks and a special NHS Stranglers cover version. Enjoy a great talent .
Stefan Cush R.I.P.
Sunday and other Media Stupid Statements from this week… February 7, 2021
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Newton Emerson believes that…
The principle of “both sides as bad as each other” – the weary resignation on which Northern Ireland rests – had been re-established. EU arrogance and British embarrassment were evened out. Irish Europhilia, mostly displaced Anglophobia, had met its Waterloo.
Such statements might, one think, require some evidence. But no, none is forthcoming.
Meanwhile Stephen Collins was nostalgic for back in the day and offered an unusually critical analysis of the current government:
A number of sources in Brussels remarked this week that the protocol debacle would never have happened if Phil Hogan was still trade commissioner. Whether or not that is the case, it illustrates once more the foolish behaviour of Leo Varadkar and Martin in throwing our most powerful EU official to the wolves for short-term political advantage. More strategic thinking is required in future decisions affecting Ireland’s place in the EU.
All other examples welcome!
Mogwai interview… February 6, 2021
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…in the Mirror. Jason O’Toole chats to the post-rock(ers?). Always liked them, particularly Rave Tapes. And I suspect no great surprise there given Stuart Braithwaite’s musical likes would be… not a million miles from my own in one area!
Growing up, Stuart’s own big influ-ences were Scottish bands like Primal Scream and The Jesus and Mary Chain.“My big sister, who was a big music fan, introduced me to bands like The Cure, The Velvet Underground, The Jesus and Mary Chain.“Probably, Primal Scream and The Jesus and Mary Chain were the big ones for me.“Teenage Fan Club as well because they’re kind of local to where I grew up in Lanarkshire in the Clyde Valley, about 20 miles south of Glasgow. So, that was a big inspiration.He added: “I was always into quite gloomy music but, as an actual person, I was always quite positive.
Interesting political angle…
I’m guessing Stuart might have some Irish heritage seeing as he supports The Hoops? “I do. Not quite enough to get a passport. But, yeah, I think all of my great grandparents are Irish. I think you need actual Irish grandparents to still keep the EU passport.” It certainly looks like a referendum on Scottish independence is fast coming down the track. “I hope so,” he said. “I think Brexit’s been an absolute disaster. I feel way more European than I do British.”
And;
In the meantime,Stuart said he would’ve “100 percent” jumped at the chance of an Irish passport if possible. “I’m one generation too short to get the (Irish) passport, sadly. But if you could have a chat with the – is it the Taoiseach?” he said, pronouncing it perfectly, as we wrapped up the interview. “Yeah, get him to sort us all out. We’d be very grateful.”
Does make one wonder what sort of links between the ROI and an independent Scotland might be possible in the future, or indeed a UI and an independent Scotland.
A reboot too far? February 6, 2021
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I wonder how many people cheered at the news that:
George Clooney could be heading to outer space once more after it was announced he had joined the team putting together a reboot of the classic sci-fi series Buck Rogers. The Hollywood Reporter writes that the project, written by Under the Dome’s Brian K Vaughan, could be a “starring vehicle” for Clooney, who will be executive producer of the series.
Would Clooney play Rogers? Does that work? Some talk it might be closer to the original source material.
Well I remember the 1970s version on television which was of… dubious… merit! Though in fairness the effects weren’t totally grim.
Galaxies… February 6, 2021
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When I was a kid and finally got a room of my own after sharing for many years one thing I decided was that I’d paint the walls. Took a while for that to happen – or rather for me to persuade the powers that be that this was a good, no – a brilliant, idea. Very creative you see. So, first up was a sub-Tolkien mountain-island in a sea very much along the lines of Pauline Baynes works with a city that would be not a million miles from Minas Tirith and some pretty well painted ships around it. Then later I had the idea of painting the wall black, gloss paint, and doing a galaxy on it. This was tricky, how, after all do you paint a galaxy? Spattered poster paints didn’t build up quite the density I was looking for, so, what I used on top of them was shampoo in a tin which came out in a fine almost mist like spray. This lasted for years, as long as you didn’t touch it. To complete the effect I also did ‘planets’ on circles of paper which were blu-tacked on at various points to increase the field of depth. It lasted a long time too, and was kind of appropriate, well at least the colour was, once I started listening to the likes of Joy Division and goth and so on. I still think it’s a good idea and it’s something I’d love to replicate. Of course others have done similar. In fact I found this which sort of takes you half the way, but not sure that it would get the votes.
But I’ve always loved the visuals of galaxies, from the end of the Empire Strikes Back through to actual astronomical photographs. Granted all these are, to an extent constructs since the actual galaxies are more wispy and hazy to our eyesight, but I figure in the future some sort of gene engineering may allow us – as a species – improved eyesight in that regard.
What brings all this to mind? This piece in the Guardian from last week about a dwarf galaxy, Tucana II, which:
is an ultrafaint dwarf galaxy about 163,000 light years from Earth and is thought to be a remnant from the formation of the earliest galaxies in the universe. It was already known to contain ancient stars, including some with a very low metal content, indicating they formed shortly after the big bang. Now researchers say they have discovered a handful of stars far from the centre of Tucana II, revealing the galaxy to be larger than previously thought and offering fresh clues as to its formation.
…galaxy filaments (subtypes: supercluster complexes, galaxy walls, and galaxy sheets)[1][2] are the largest known structures in the universe. They are massive, thread-like formations, with a typical length of 50 to 80 megaparsecs h−1 (or of the order of 200 to 500 million light-years) that form the boundaries between large voids in the universe.[3] Filaments consist of gravitationally bound galaxies. Parts wherein many galaxies are very close to one another (in cosmic terms) are called superclusters.
And their existence has only been known about since the late-1980s. Consider the size of the Pisces-Cetus Supercluster; ‘1 billion ly wide, 150 million ly deep’. Think of the sheer number of galaxies in this – there are 60 or so clusters in the Supercluster and each cluster could have up to a 1,000 galaxies. That’s potentially up to 60,000 galaxies. Then think of the number of stars in a typical galaxy (if there is any such thing as a ‘typical’ galaxy) – our own, the Milky Way has somewhere between 100 and 400 billion stars in it. Multiply that up and the numbers are staggering. And of course the prospects for life and likely intelligence…
This weekend I’ll Mostly Be Listening to… Blue Öyster Cult February 6, 2021
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Funny that Blue Öyster Cult were mentioned last weekend in comments. This Christmas I had a little bit of money over from a job I did during the year – so, I thought, I’ll do something I’ve never done before and get a box set of albums, those being the ones released by US rock band Blue Öyster Cult in the 1970s and 1980s. Now I actually had a two-disc greatest hits CD of theirs but had always found it maddeningly inconsistent to listen to to the point that I’d never managed to get all the way through. There were some great songs cheek by jowl with some really clunky numbers. Something about the album put me off listening closely enough to fillet it down to a playlist. But a general interest in them remained – in part because I’d heard they had had some similarity thematically to Hawkwind, and that author Michael Moorcock who had worked with the latter had also worked with them too.
So, since the box set arrived just after Stephen’s Day I’ve been listening fairly assiduously to their albums (I do this so you don’t have to). It’s been an odd experience, in some respects a bit too much like work, though also quite enjoyable. And while I’m not sure I’d repeat the exercise any time soon (for example over the past three years I’ve been slowly acquiring Yes and Zeppelin’s remastered discographies for gifts and one album at a time is a lot more palatable – particularly given I am very familiar with Zeppelin’s catalogue and not at all with most of that of Yes).
But Blue Öyster Cult. Hmmm… a strange band. To put it mildly. They do demand a lot of a listener. There’s a jarring clunkiness to a lot of their output. Clumsy riffs, curious juxtapositions, a certain tendency to an American (as in US American) sense of the baroque or sinister that can come across as a little leaden. At times they sound like KISS, but weirdly less sophisticated, which is saying something. And yet, there’s also some extremely well written and thoughtful tracks which are sophisticated and listenable. On the same album. Often on the same side of the album – as we used to call them. Here and there one will find proto-punk. There garage or photo-metal. In other places pop and so on. It’s a puzzle.
Though no more than the question as to why Patti Smith (who was in a long term relationship with Allen Lanier, the keyboardist) was co-writing songs and vocals? Or the generally terrible 1970s outfits that can be seen in some videos from that period. And what about that AOR period, though in fairness that’s better than their earlier more mainstream period from Agents of Fortune on which saw them lose the bite of their first three albums and move to something that might be pop, but wasn’t. Actually one can divide up their career (I could make a BÖC song title related pun there, but I won’t) into three or four phases. An initial one where they had a roughness and hard rock aspect that was very listenable. To some extent they were a construct. Sandy Pearlman, then a newly minted music journalist and critic recruited musicians to play songs based around lyrics he had met. He would go on to manage, co-write and in many respects shape their output. If this sounds very Year of Zonk, very Robert Anton Wilson and the Illuminatus Trilogy, well, yes, so it is, though I always loved his lash-up with the Golden Horde. Whether that is a good thing is another matter entirely. Entertainingly he went on to produce the Clash’s second album and managed the likes of Black Sabbath, Romeo Void, the Dictators and various others. But one can argue that BÖC is where it had all started.
And in truth, the first album is brilliant – in a proto-metal sort of a way. And there’s a lot more than proto-metal. Folk (Then Came the Last Days of May), psychedelia and an eclectic mix of sounds. Where it falters is oddly, given they were once positioned as the US answer to Black Sabbath, is on tracks like Cities on Flame With Rock and Roll with a non-more Sabb riff but a jokey lyrical content. Thing is the secret to Sabbath was their utter seriousness and sincerity in their adherence to what they sung about – sure, it was all Grand Guignol stuff about nuclear war and alienation and so on but they meant it. Whereas BÖC don’t. There’s a tongue lodged securely in their cheek and that undercuts the songs. I find the group’s sensibility a puzzle. I read about ‘biker’ aspects and I guess maybe there’s something of that in there. The occult too, and a sort of Velvet Underground S&M darkness, are meant to be influences, but somehow the tone is off for me. And while I like the songs, it sort of points to problems further down the line. But that’s a minor quibble. The first three albums are broadly excellent. This I like (Tyranny And Mutations excellent O.D’d On Life Itself, a song which Endless Boogie appear to have based whole albums on).
Then, there’s that aforementioned three or four albums where they went more mainstream – their biggest hit, Don’t Fear the Reaper was on Agents of Fortune. They opened up the musical palette but not necessarily to great effect. Agents was followed by a sequence of two or three more albums of a similar sort of sound – characterised by an eclecticism that doesn’t work for me.
Then there was a period where they seemed to reconsider and for about three or four albums they moved from a harder edged output (as on 1980s Cultosaurus Erectus which is pretty great) more akin to their early career (I’m still resisting making that pun) through to those more explicitly AOR songs. Actually, and here I feel all my punk and post-punk inclinations kind of giving up in disbelief, I actually find the period from 1980 to 1985 where they dabbled and more than dabbled in AOR actually remarkably palatable. I’m not sure why but musically and in terms of their overall sound albums like The Revolution By Night and Club Ninja (an album with one of the worst album covers of all time) to be better than they have any right to be. Notably Patti Smith is still collaborating into that phase (see Shooting Shark below). After that their record company clearly lost interest though they’ve been very intermittently releasing albums subsequently.
One could applaud their willingness to share song-writing amongst (all?) the band members. One can also applaud their ability to turn out pretty great songs. None of their albums is lacking that – though some of the albums are a bit of a slog. But one thing that I find fascinating is that if one maps their albums to a broader chronology they don’t seem to particularly follow any developments taking place elsewhere. I find it hard to hear much influence of punk or new wave on their songs post 1976, indeed arguably the first three albums are much more proto-punk and hard rock than that which was to come after (Did I mention the live covers of Kick Out the Jams – full marks for the selection of same, some marks deducted for changing the key spoken lines to “Kick Out the Jams Brothers and Sisters!”.). Then again when they’re good they’re very good indeed. That two CD compilation I had wasn’t sufficiently representative of them as a band, at least to my ears. Whether all the individual albums are necessary to listen to is a different matter again. I actually went out and bought their most recent album which is actually very strong, somewhat of a return to their harder rocking sound, though there’s a couple of songs that have a curiously They Might Be Giants vibe.
So, not what I expected at all, but in its oddly contrarian fashion more enjoyable than if it had indeed simply been the US equivalent of Hawkwind.
There’s far too many tracks by them to do any justice to their output but here’s a range from across the years.
Take Me Away (1983)
Then Came the Last Days of May
O.D’d on Life Itself 1973
Subhuman 1974
Don’t Fear the Reaper
Godzilla (1977)
Black Blade, 1980
Veteran of the Psychic Wars
Shooting Shark 1983
Perfect Water 1985
That Was Me – 2020.
Unionism backing the wrong horse again…. February 5, 2021
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Watching the DUP and others trying to whip up their base over the Northern Ireland Protocol is depressing yet not unexpected. I read something somewhere yesterday about looking back over the past 50 years that the voices in the Unionist Community calling for people to Stand Up and Fight something that impacts The Union are never those that do the fighting, never those that end up in prison and so on.
It looks to me too that the DUP are spooked by the recent Lucid Talk poll which showed them losing support to both the Alliance and The TUV. So they are going after the support they are losing to the TUV. Yet surely voters must see that it is the DUP that got them into this position….
Yet Northern Ireland is actually in a wonderful position, the best of both worlds. Part of the UK and part of the EU Customs Union. Many within Northern Ireland are embracing the possibilities of this, enticing business away from the mainland UK to base themselves in The North. The only place in the UK with easy access to both markets.
If Unionism had any sense they would embrace this unique opportunity. Make a success of it and it’s going to be harder for people to turn their back on the UK, done correctly and the economic benefits of this could be huge. It’s incredible short termism , playing the Lundy card rather than exploiting something that could actually mean a lot to the middle ground and in the process make Irish Unity less likely.
