Radio Free Scotland

Once upon a time I posted this... Chris Moyles, on todays Radio One Show reminded that the reason I despise local radio is because they've nothing to say that's worthwhile.

And then something happened a couple of week back some people were discussing some shinto on a forum I frequent and it ACTUALLY happened. Someone broadcast a Radio Show I couldn't miss... It just felt right. I didn't have to bugger off to the kitchen to avoid being patronised, I didn't get to shout at the Brit Broadcasters who were playing Keane because a few London stations though they were "cool" or because they were banging the drummers girlfriend... (this bit might be libellous though...)

So... maybe they're just learning and there's the odd delay and sometimes the songs end a bit early... but in this case it's just enigmatic. On the basis of the three episodes I've listened to thus far there even seems to be a structure: one hour of folky tunes, and the next hour for modern music. Interspersed are interviews, new Scottish music, snippets, comment and general humour and propaganda.

For someone who has listened to BBC Radio One because there was -- "fuck all else to do" - Friggin' in the Riggin' -- I've FINALLY got something to listen to.

And therefore SO DO YOU. Go to Radio Free Scotland and work out how to listen from there. It's pretty simple. If you can't listen, then either a) your computer is shit or b) you are a moron. There... I've said it. LISTEN.

Why? Because this gives us, as a pro-independence movement, credibility. You can HEAR people talking our talk on a wednesday and friday at 9pm. You can send your stuff via email to the DJ and you can just listen in and switch off feeling good.

English Independence First

This is reasonably interesting... With the advent of the rather hypnotic and beautiful "Independence First" campaign has occurred a formation of ENGLISH Independence First.

What was it that the corries sang about "Johnnie Lad" way back when?

"All our problems will be solved when ENGLAND gets home rule!"

Anyway... send 'em an email and wish 'em well... They're gonnae need it when the Brits start paying attention.

The Road to 2007

1797 and Tranent by Donnie Fraser

Read this article:

The United Scotsmen

by Donnie Fraser

Following the final suppression of the Friends of the People (FoP) with the execution of Robert Watt the democrats were forced into retreat. Britain was still at war with revolutionary France, and the government was making full propaganda use from the ‘Reign of Terror’ in France, and using it to whip up patriotism, and repression, at home. With the FoP in Scotland destroyed popular democratic activity was forced to take place on a local scale until such time as a national framework for resistance could be established.

It found an outlet through the food riots that swept the winter of 1795-6 when the export of food was prevented and then distributed amongst the local population. This raising of public well-being over the rights of private property was indicative of an embryonic class-consciousness. In Inverness workers came out on strike and marched to Castle Stuart to prevent the shipment of grain. There they were met by the British Army and representatives of the Anglo-Scottish ruling class, and were shot at until they dispersed, leaving several wounded. In Montrose the houses of rich Unionists were attacked and John Rodgers from Dundee, an ex-FoP, was arrested when a ship in Dundee harbour was commandeered by the crowd and accused of stating “That we ought to have had a Revolution long ago and… that if they wanted a Revolution the present was the properest time to obtain one.”(1)

It was a situation that would not last long. Wage labour in factory-based production had given rise to a new class of workers owning little but their labour power, the proletariat. It transformed the nature of national resistance in Scotland and Scottish Republicanism came to the fore.

The United Irishmen (UI) had been formed in 1791 but the failure of their constitutional approaches led to their adoption of an openly revolutionary programme in 1795. The following summer they set emissaries to Scotland with a copy of the new UI Constitution for the ‘inspection and approbation of the Scots’ (2). The emissaries reported back favourably that ‘the Scotch are willing to act with the Friends of Liberty in Ireland’(3).

United Scotsmen


Societies of United Scotsmen (US) had existed since the early 1790s but after being invited to re-organise along Irish lines their philosophy became overtly revolutionary and their strategy insurrectionary.

New members were inducted into the organisation by means of a secret oath, and secret passwords and handshakes were used to greet each other. The basic unit of organisation was the branch. When any branch reached 16 members a new branch was formed in order to prevent extensive penetration by government spies. When more than 3 branches in any district were formed they elected delegates to a Parochial Committee, which in turn elected delegates to County and Provincial Committees and then to the National Committee, which met in Glasgow every six or seven weeks. Within the National Committee was a secret seven-man executive that governed the movement. The expenses of the delegates were funded from a sixpence joining fee and subscriptions of threepence per month thereafter. Only the delegates and the branch secretary would know who the delegates were. Delegates to the National Committee were told the name of a contact called the ‘Intermediary’ who would call for them and conduct them to the secret meeting place.

The subterfuge was deemed necessary when dealing with an enemy that had shown its brutality when the largely bourgeois leaders of the Friends of the People had been sent to Botany Bay. The US were based almost exclusively in the ascending working class and had ‘decided to go by themselves’ and ‘the common people by themselves’ instead of ‘relying upon the gentry’ (4). They built up a strong base of support in working-class communities, especially the textile manufacturing areas of west-central Scotland, Ayrshire, Angus, Fife and the Lothians, where the weavers were to the fore. “Their ostensible object was Universal Suffrage and Annual Parliaments, but their ulterior aim was purely republican.” (5) Throughout Scotland they set about the task of preparing an organisation capable of acting in unity with sister organisations in England and Ireland and, with French military assistance, “found, on the ruins of the established government, three distinct republics of England, Scotland and Ireland”. (6)

French Aid


At the end of 1796 a French force of 15,000 men sailed for Ireland but weather conditions meant that a landing couldn’t take place at Bantry Bay. Exiled Irish Republican leader, Theobold Wolfe Tone remarked that, “England has never had such an escape since the Armada” (7). The ruling class was shaken and the initiative passed firmly to the radicals. The French had promised ‘fraternity and assistance’ to any in Europe who followed their lead and rose against the old order, also promising asylum to the ‘victims of despotism’ (8). Under these auspices many Scots had made their way to France to press for military assistance. But when the French sailed again in February it was to Fishguard near Bristol leaving the Scots and Irish riled. Plans hadn’t been laid with the locals and when they failed to rise significantly in support of the French the invaders were quickly arrested. But the ruling class’ fear of French style revolution still precipitated a crisis in the financial markets.

In the late spring a Dutch fleet began preparations for invasion at the River Texel. One plan was to send 50,000 troops to Scotland from where they would seize control of central Scotland from the Forth to Clyde. The Radicals believed that à Ghaidhealtachd would rise in support and the troops would then pass over to Ireland. Then mutiny broke out in the British Navy’s Channel Fleet at Portsmouth. Many radical prisoners had been given the chance to join the navy rather than face deportation, in particular many hundreds from Ireland had chosen this fate, and in many ships Irish made up the majority of crew. Under the influence of many UI sailors the mutiny soon spread to the North Sea Fleet at Nore. Richard Parker, who had spent much time in Perth radical politics, was elected President of the mutineer’s Committee. They attempted to get ships to defect to the French and for others to sail to Ireland and Scotland to form a republican navy. A lack of wind prevented the Dutch fleet from taking advantage of the situation and before the winds had picked up the mutiny had been put down. Lord Camden moved quickly to ensure that no more US prisoners were sent to the Navy.

French and Irish emissaries toured Scotland in the spring as the US launched a recruitment drive and even by this early stage of their development their membership, of almost 3000, exceeded the total electorate of Scotland (9). By the end of the summer it had multiplied many times. At local level US infiltrated the regular army, Highland Regiments and local Volunteer Regiments in order to receive some form of military training for their planned insurrection.


The Scottish Militia Act


The Government countered in July with legislation to outlaw the taking or administering of illegal oaths, effectively making membership of the US liable to 7 years transportation, and by introducing ‘an Act to raise and embody a Militia force in that part of the Kingdom of Great Britain called Scotland’, to strengthen forces against external invasion and internal revolution. (10)

The army was already hated by the working-class because it was used by the ruling class to crush democracy at home and abroad. The Militia Act was seen as a direct attack on workers as the bourgeois could buy their exemption from it. The Act gave powers to raise a force of 6000 men to be chosen from a ballot of all able bodied men aged between 19 and 23, a random conscription. Lists of names were to be drawn up by schoolmasters preceding meetings of Deputy Lieutenants, where a date would be set for the ballot. The posts of Deputy Lieutenant (DL) had been appointed to each Scottish county from the ranks of the gentry. Their remit was ‘for the preservation of internal tranquillity’ and to bolster the state’s spy network. (11)

Across Scotland the class lines became clearly drawn. Workers proclaimed that ‘we are not going to risk our lives for [the gentry] and their property’ (12), that they ‘disapproved of the War’(13) and, ‘would rather die to a man than be pressed for soldiers’ (14). Resistance first broke out on August 17 at Eccles in Berwickshire, where a crowd armed with sticks and stones prevented the Authorities from carrying out the Act. Resistance spread like wildfire throughout the country from the Borders to Aberdeenshire within days. Wherever the authorities tried to implement the Act lists were seized from schoolmasters and destroyed, property destroyed and trees of liberty planted as the people sought to oppose the Militia by force.


Tranent


On August 28 a large crowd gathered from the local colliery villages and behind a drum, shouting ‘No Militia’ (15), they marched to Prestonpans where a meeting passed a series of resolutions against the Act. Led by Joan Crookston they sacked the schoolmasters house and destroyed the list before dispersing in order to return to Tranent the next day, where the proposed ballot was due to take place. The Scottish authorities couldn’t cope with the pressure erupting around the country and some 1400 English troops had been drafted in to prevent opposition to the Militia.

Early the next morning the Deputy-Lieutenants gathered at St-Germains and, backed by troops from both the Cinque Port and Pembrokeshire Cavalry, as well as local yeomanry, made the journey to Tranent.

There they were met by a hostile crowd of several thousand ‘chiefly women’ (16) who ‘damned them for a parcel of English buggars’ (17) and claimed that the Militia was, ‘against the Union’ (18). All the neighbouring villages and workplaces came to show their opposition including the salters from Prestonpans who had been implicated in the Pike Plot of 1794. John Caddell of Cockenzie, a local mine-owner and DL, was particularly incensed by the presence of so many women ‘damning them for bitches’ and threatening to hang them all (19). When the resolutions of the Prestonpans meeting were rejected by the DLs as seditious Caddell tried to incite the crowd by throwing several stones into its midst.

The soldiers were forced into John Glens Public House where Alison Watson marched outside the door beating a drum and shouting ‘No Militia’ (20). The pub was surrounded and when the authorities tried to escape they were forced back as locals ripped up chimneys and fired them from the rooftops. They weren’t going to let them go until the authorities abandoned their plans for the militia. As the tension mounted at first the soldiers fired blanks, but before long adopted a policy of shoot to kill.

The soldiers broke out round the back of the pub and managed to clear the streets, before chasing the people out into the open fields where the Cavalry would be more effective. For a half-hour the drunken troops, along with those stationed at the entrances to Tranent, set about ‘shooting, spearing, slashing and riding down a populace armed only with stones’ (21). By the end of the massacre 12 men, women and children had been murdered, and many more injured. After the streets had been cleared the authorities waded in and made 36 arrests. The Lord Advocate, Robert Dundas, refused to indict the troops for murdering unarmed civilians and justified their actions in the face of “such a dangerous mob as deserved more properly the name of an insurrection.” (22)



Strath Tay Rebellion


A week of protests throughout Perthshire in late August had followed the same pattern as across the rest of the country. Lists were destroyed and local gentry were forced to sign bonds not to execute the Act. But the Tranent Massacre provoked an open rebellion in Strathtay.

The local US took control of the situation and under the leadership of Angus Cameron, a Wright from Weem, issued a call to turn local protests into an open uprising. Cameron and James Menzies had been conducting nocturnal drilling throughout the summer and inducting new members into the US by means of the now illegal secret oath. Cameron, who was said to be a great orator, spread the rebel message addressing crowds in both Gaelic and English. 16,000 rose at his call and captured Menzies Castle, where Cameron administered the seceet oath to ‘stand by one another’ (23). They swept the area forcing the local gentry to sign bonds against the Militia and compelled the Duke of Atholl to swear not to implement the Act ‘until the general feelings of the country were made known’ (24). A regiment of rebels were despatched to Taymouth Castle to clean out the armoury and to raise a Cavalry regiment. Cameron had seen the barracks being built in towns and cities in Scotland and warned of future military government. They planned the get arms and take to the hills to fight a guerrilla campaign, launching night time raids on the army. But before the people could be armed extra troops had been sent to the area. Cameron ordered his army to melt back into the countryside. Cameron and Menzies were arrested in midnight raids on September 14th. Hundreds of armed Highlanders chased the convoy to Dunkeld, shooting at them, but not getting close enough to rescue the prisoners. Eventually the authorities made their escape and the Strathtay uprising was over. And though armed crowds in Aberdeenshire forcibly halted further meetings most of the ballot meetings were now over and the authorities turned their attention to those responsible.

They realised that ‘from the symptoms of Resistance appearing at places considerably remote from each other there cannot be a doubt that it is the operation of Jacobin Emissaries employed for the purpose’(25), blaming ‘the set of men who were active with Muir etc’ (26). And so they set out to rid the US of its leadership, a number of whom had been arrested for involvement with the Militia riots. First though came the Militia trials. At the first of them on 9 October Lord Braxfield sentenced three men and a woman from Eccles to 14 years transportation to Botany Bay. The harshness of the sentence led subsequent juries to leniency though several leading US such as Christie and Campbell from Fife were transported and many more, including Angus Cameron, simply fled the country and made for the radical exile communities of Paris and Hamburg.

George Mealmaker


The Dutch fleet that had been assembling at the River Texel eventually set off in October where they were met and defeated at Kamperduin by the British Navy. The Brits had weathered the storm for now and soon followed the arrests of leading US. The most prominent was George Mealmaker, a Dundee weaver. He’d been responsible for writing the anti-war pamphlet that saw the Rev. Palmer sent to Australia in 1794 and was also arrested in connection with the Pike Plot but released. Now a leading figure within the US he wrote and published the ‘Resolutions and Constitution of the Society of United Scotsmen’. At his trial in January 1798 he was accused of distributing another of his pamphlets ‘The Moral and Political Catechism of Man’ in which a moral defence of rebellion was made, and of ‘administering unlawful oaths’ (27). As he was being sentenced the Government learnt in full of the detailed plans to establish a Provisional Government of the Scottish Republic with Thomas Muir as President. Mealmaker was duly sentenced to the same 14 years transportation that Muir received by a jury made up of bankers and merchants whose houses had been marked down for burning.

Thomas Muir had escaped from the penal colony in Australia on a boat sent by George Washington in February 1796. He’d been imprisoned by the Spanish in Mexico, and taken as a prisoner to Cuba to await transportation to Spain. On sailing they were caught in a gunbattle with a British gunship during which Muir was hit in the face with shrapnel. The extent of the injuries meant that the Brits failed to recognise him, when they searched the crew. After eventually being transferred to Spain he was released due to French pressure and in November 1797 he eventually reached Bordeaux where he was hailed as a ‘Hero of the French Republic’ and a ‘Martyr to Liberty’.(28) Working in close connection with Napper Tandy and Thomas Paine he urged the French to intervene with military assistance to establish a Scots Republic and moved to Chantilly, near Paris, where he could meet US delegates away from the eyes of British informers.

But the French tactics were changing and in February 1798 they sent their forces to Egypt, where they hoped they would be able to launch an offensive against British shipping trade to India.


Ireland


The Governments counter-offensive continued with the arrests of many more US as well as the leaderships of the United Irishmen, United Englishmen (UE) and London Corresponding Society. The UI resolved to make a fight for it before the authorities came for the rest of them as well. In May 1798 large parts of Ireland rose in open rebellion. Minus its leadership the UI rising was badly co-ordinated but throughout the summer the revolutionary forces sought to establish an Irish Republic. A French force of 1000 men eventually landed at Killala in August but by September the rising had been suppressed leaving tens of thousands dead in it’s wake.

Without French assistance, and minus most of its leadership, the US didn’t risen in support. And while reports filtered through of Highland regiments refusing to fire in Ireland, many more were used as the brutal pawns in the British Empire’s great game of divide and rule. The Radicals did have some success. On 13 June Scottish regiments refused to go to Ireland after meeting with the local US. This prompted more arrests and transportations. David Black and James Paterson, two Dunfermline weavers, were sentenced to five years transportation after they, ‘traitorously expressed sorrow for the success of HM armies and joy at the existing rebellion in Ireland’. (29) Black, like many others, fled the country.

The failure the Irish rising and of an attempted third French invasion of Ireland, with Wolfe Tone, in October increased Irish immigration to Scotland. Many members of the UI joined with the US, but the down side was that it wasn’t just Irish radicalism that was imported to Scotland but also Orangeism. The authorities had realised that ‘the worse of [republicanism] is that it stands to unite protestant and Papist, and whenever that happens, goodbye to the English interest in Ireland’ (30). The orange order had been formed as a counter-revolutionary force to combat Irish republicanism and though it only existed in the Ulster protestant immigrant community in Scotland for generations it is still deployed to divide catholic and protestant workers to this day. The authorities tried to bribe the Catholic hierarchy in Scotland by offering large sums of money in return for keeping the Scots-Irish from identifying themselves as Scots, but the Irish rebel remained a rebel, and continued to play a large part in the early political and industrial organisation of Scotland.

Anti-Combination Laws


The failure of the Irish Rebellion was an obvious blow to Scots republicans and the Government soon laid plans for the destruction of all working class self-activity. They outlawed the US, UI and UE, brought in a series of anti-combination laws, bribed Ireland into Union, and tightened the controls over the press.

The advent of rapid industrialisation had led to a growth in the combinations of working people. The working class, still in its infancy, was rapidly growing and exerting its influence. With US members petitioning the early forms of Trades Councils with anti-government petitions the government had never been in doubt about the organic links that existed between combinations and radicals, and that all working class activity must be crushed. The United Journeymen Shoemakers of Edinburgh had been formed to negotiate higher wages and support the unemployed, but when they tried to strike for higher wages in 1798 the authorities stepped in and tried them for ‘combination’.

Under the new legislation the US were forced further underground and, given their procedure to destroy all documentation, it is difficult to find hard evidence of their activities. Certainly many were arrested and charged with all manner of ‘crimes’, and there were several other deportations to Australia. In early 1802 the US were asking for membership returns to the National Committee, asking for details of anyone with military training. In April they called for a scaling down of low-level resistance in order to lull the authorities into a false sense of security as a prelude to ‘imminent revolt’(31). Later that year in the last trial of any US, Thomas Wilson, a weaver from Strathmiglo in Fife and delegate to the National Committee, was banished from Scotland for two years for spreading sedition amongst farm labourers. In the villages of Auchtermuchty and Strathmiglo alone the US had over 2000 members by this time. In England republicans were arrested in connection with the Despard Conspiracy when it was alleged that a plan had been hatched to kill the King and spark an uprising. And in 1803 the Irish were again in rebellion under Robert Emmet, but it was quickly suppressed.

But by this time the people’s faith in revolutionary France was waning. Napoleon had earlier returned to France to overthrow the Directory and, in the counter-revolutionary coup of 18 Brumaire, a three man Consulate was created to govern the Republic. By 1802 Napoleon had been installed as ‘First Consulate for Life’ and later ‘Emperor of France’. The democratic ideals were gone and when War was restarted with Napoleonic France in 1803 the government found it easier to whip up patriotism against a France which was no longer interested in expanding democracy but upon expanding a continental empire.

The goal of establishing a Scottish Republic with the backing of French arms had gone but the experiences of the United Scotsmen played a large part in forging working-class identity in Scotland. The Militia riots, by pitting the Anglo-Scottish ruling class and its various tools of oppression against the people, had raised the awareness of the class relationships within Scottish society. They had ‘united the lower against the higher ranks. They swear they will rather die to a man than be pressed as soldiers…. to defend the property of the rich.’ (32) The next time the struggle of the Scottish working class would erupt into open class warfare the republican goals of US were still prominent.



REFERENCES

1) Kenneth Logue, Popular Disturbances in Scotland, pg 47
2) Newells Report, 21 July 1796, HO 100/62/14 (W)
3) Henry Meikle, Scotland and the French Revolution (1969) pg 192, also Roger Wells, Insurrection the British Experience 1795-1803, pg 72
4) James D. Young, The Rousing of the Scottish Working Class, pg 54
5) George Penny, Traditions of Perth (1830) (Young)
6) Report of the Committee of Secrecy of the House of Commons, 1799
7) Johnathon Bardon, A History of Ulster, pg 229
8) Graham Bain, The Thunderbolt of Reason & pg 22
9) The United Scotsmen had a membership of 2871 in April 1797 (Wells) v Scottish electorate of 2655 out of a population of 1.4 million in 1790 (Scots Magazine LII, pg 354). This figure incidentally is less than that of Preston which had an electorate of 2800. By early September the US membership had grown to 9653 (Wells) before the heavy recruitment that followed the Militia Riots.
10) Logue, pg 75
11) Dundas letter to Lord Luitenants, 14 May 1794 (Logue)
12) anon. letter to Bathgate schoolmaster (Logue)
13) Logue, pg 105
14)A. Dixon letter to H.Dundas 28 Aug 1797 (L)
15) Meikle, pg 180
16) Rev James Lapsie to R. Dundas 28 Aug 1797 HO Corr., RH2/4/80, f.216v. Note the Rev Lapsie testified against Thomas Muir in 1793, for this outhouses at his manse were burnt to the ground during the Milita Riots in Campsie on Aug 22 1797.
17) Declaration of John Batham CPC 28 Oct. 1797 (Logue)
18) Herald & Chronicle 14 Oct 1797, evidence of Major Wright at Tranent trial.
19) Deposition of M. Smith, SRO CS230 c/10/12 (L)
20) Declaration of William Aiton, 28 Aug 1797, HO Corr RH2/4/80, f.202v
21) Tom Johnston, The History of the Working Classes in Scotland (1974), pg 230
22) Robert Dundas letter to Portland, 26 Dec 1797 (Logue)
23) Declaration of John Menzies, 3 Oct 1797
24) P. Berresford Ellis & Seamus Mac a Ghobhainn, The Scottish Insurrection of 1820, pg 77
25) Boswell to R. Dundas, 8 Sep 1797, HO Corr., RH2/4/81, f.98v
26) Duke of Montrose letter to Portland 7 Sep 1797 (L)
27)1820, pg 78
28) Michael Donnelly, Thomas Muir of Huntershill, pg 23
29) 1820, pg 83
30) Archbishop of Armagh, as cited in Peter Berresford Ellis, History of the Irish Working Class (1972), pg 68
31) Wells, pg 235
32) Alexander Dixon (DL) letter to H. Dundas, 28 Aug 1797 (L)

Radio Free Scotland

Sic Contra Confessional

Well, since Blogger and gmail seems to finally be working I thought I'd blog and speak unto the masses...

I joined Independence First a few weeks ago and when I got access to their forum and went to the meetings, I suddenly started thinking that I had made a huge mistake.

The meeting that started me thinking was at the location of the photograph you will see to your left.

After the may elections, I was thinking about cutting back the politics in favour of doing more writing and artsy stuff. Going to that honey coloured building in Perth on a Saturday IF meeting on that rather nice Saturday I didn't realise how right I was.

I didn't mind the fact I found myself in votes where mine was crucial. Didn't like it one bit, mind you. I voted FOR Eric Canning of the Communist Party of Scotland to be Honorary Convener of IF and AGAINST Party Political speeches at the March IF Rally in Edinburgh. Showing Scotland what its brothers and sisters think is crucial, but is it the best way to run a rally? I guess we'll all have to wait and see.

The meeting was traumatic. It seeme more personal and unprofessional than I'm used to. I didn't expect that. It was one of those familiar feelings where you realise that you've made a huge mistake and that what should be a cruel and beautiful thing is, in fact, more cruel than beautiful and more intense and destructive than you gave it credit for.

I guess it wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for HER. She who I can't quite forget. She, who I've mentioned a long time ago in a passage I've long since deleted. She, who made me want to change my own self destructive ways...

Fuck it. So be it.

The "Saltires... Everywhere" Video is for HER. The Saltires don't represent a country, they represent a person. I guess I'm just that effin' soppy sometimes. I don't care that no-one entirely understands. It doesn't matter. It wasn't the point.

And that's it... isn't it? It's the point where the pebbles don't get to vote on the avalanche that has already started. It's the point where gravity waits until it realises the coyote is hanging in mid-air before springing its inevitable trap.

Last Train to Trancentral

So, was up at Perth today and took a photo.

I also illegally downloaded a KLF track.

That is all.

For now.

Reasons for Scottish Independence #14 - Saltires... Everywhere

Virgin Media

As a Telewest Customer (ish) having lost 24 and the Simpsons I guess I'm about as angry as everyone else is with Richard Branson. Not only did he gobble up Telewest via his Mobile firm, he managed to botch the negotiations with Rupert Murdoch's Sky Corporation and pretend that it was really okay because Rupert is a big bully who wanted Richie's dinner money and that he had lots of nice and lovely programs for serfs like me to watch.

Er... no Richie, you're trying to replace Sky with old episodes of Alias (which is just as shit in Russian - I've seen it in Russian - as it is in English) and Spooks (the series with the blond guy who isn't as good as Matthew MacFadyen). Also! You can now buy shit music videos for forty pence! Doesn't that make you feel all warm and squishy!

Because we live in a Capitalist State, sometimes the decisions of the Business Class occasionally piss us off, we have one recourse: to go and fuck ourselves.

Actually, there's another recourse: search the interweb for Sky or Virgin Media (whichever you have) and learn how to hack the fucking thing and watch what you like.

Richard Branson is a Cunt. Rupert Murdoch is a Cunt. When did you morons think they EVER had your best interests at hearts? They're more concerned with how big each others dick is and whether it is bigger than the other. That's what the dispute is about: capitalist scum lost in an ego trip.

The Revolution says: I was, I am, I will be again!

Movie Making

I'm not George Lucas, haven't been to film school, so when I obtained a fuzzy DVD of some home movie footage from the 80s and 90s with the instruction: "See if you can't get this into a better format, split up and back to me. Here's some CDs."

I can't deny, I was more than interested. In my naivety, I forgot to tell myself that I knew bugger all about converting this kind of stuff. Actually that's not entirely true. What I thought was: "How hard can it be?"

Occasionally over the past few months you'll have heard the odd rattling thump from this blog. It's not some cool new type of music (and this isn't myspace) it's my head rattling off a keyboard as I struggle with program after program trying to learn something that people go to film school for.

I've had to learn words like transcoding, encoding, VOB. It's still not done! My latest attempt at creating an AVI file (which I CAN use) from a VOB (that's DVD to you) is currently running in the background as I type this.

I think after this I'll use my newly learned skills to kill two birds with one stone: money and sex. If you need help with your porno call Mr. Kenny! (ahem).

The moral of this tale bloggerinos, is that if you ever hear yourself utter the words: "How hard can it be?" then back away from the monitor and go and have sex with something.

When do you see this masterpiece of movie making? You don't, I'm afraid. Only people involved in a secret society or join my cult* get to see the movie footage.

*and even this isn't guaranteed...

Next, let's plug the brand spanking new "Scottish Republican Voice" (created by someguy) as well as replug First Foot - by far the most entertaining forum I've read.

Finally, open letter to the BBC:

Dear BBC,

hello. I'm Kenny and I'd like to take issue with your BBC website headline: "World waits to hear oscar winners!"

One, I couldn't give a crap and you KNOW IT.

Two, when's Heather the Weather gonnae get a prime time show?

Yours,

Kenny

Reasons for Scottish Independence #13

When your armed services are nuttier than a squirrel's jobby, you KNOW it's time to fence off the border and train most of your farmers as militiamen and pray that the English Military Brass don't go even more postal than they already are...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6388575.stm

Reasons for Scottish Independence #12 - 5000 Posts

Well isn't THAT an effin' turnup for the books! 5000 human beings have read The Firefox Chronicles for the first time. The only Scottish Republican, Socialist, Dadaist and Situationist Blog on the internet has achieved a living, breathing milestone. And it's all for a Scottish Worker's Republic.

I'm touched. No... really.

I'm also machiavellian and rather conspiratorial of late. Some of my life feels like a Neurocam assignment even though I wasn't in it that long, and haven't read stuff on it for while. Weird.

But the world is going to be a safer place, your narrator read on the BBC website that Tony Blair is to bring home 1500 troops from I-raq (like I-pod but with more dead people). From the 7100 who are there, it means (according to MY mathemonics, that only 5600 human beings are being underequiped and get to die.

AND HARRY OF WALES IN ONE OF THEM!

How happy is this republican?

I just can't put it into words.

I don't care if he has a retinue of bodyguards, I don't care if he's just there to make us think the sponging germans who rule us are "doing their bit". He's a royal, and he's near to Al Qua'eda. Maybe now SOMEONE will listen to the cries of the working classes who found themselves, through poverty, in a hell hole with a weapon and too little equipment and fully measured up for a body bag. All because Harry (son of James Hewitt) Wales is nearer to Osama than the government would like him to be.

When a working class Scot gets sent home (if we have the body, obviously) in a body bag no-one gives a damn. When it's the ruling classes, people listen.

But... it's okay. If we really ALL have to leave I-raq, we still get to keep all those nice weapons of Nuclear holocaust in Faslane, and all get to live in poverty in Glasgow and Edinburgh so that london gets our oil money, so it's okay. It really IS okay... we also get to allow ourselves to be lied to by a succession of Brit Left imperialists who trade their Marxist economics for an MI5 payroll and serve the 57 varieties of British Socialism and the British State.

Today is the 23rd February. The election is on May 3rd. Vote election. Between then use your anger to get us a vote for INDEPENDENCE.

"I'm not a slave to a god that doesn't exist. I'm not a slave to a world that doesn't give a shit. The death of one is a tragedy. The death of millions is just a statistic." Marilyn Manson - from the Video - How to Burn a Union Jack by the Nine of Diamonds Project

Best Blog Header... Ever

I REALLY liked the Tubthumpers Blog when I read it today. You should read it... Even if it's only for the graphic I've included to the left...

My Holiday in San Andreas...

Dear Spammers...

Dear Spammers,

whilst I appreciate your custom there are three points I wish to make.

Firstly, whilst I appreciate the benefits of Viagra in combatting erectile disfunction, I don't suffer from this and have simply no idea why you'd think otherwise. I also know, for a fact, that you have sent the same emails to my friend Alyson. She doesn't even HAVE a penis. How you think she's about to spawn one and find out that it is not working, all on the same night, is, at best, a zillion to one shot. Seriously.

Secondly, if you are going to send me letters saying that you unfortunately have ten million US dollars in your bank and can't find a bank account to transfer it into, I know you are a lying bastard. If I found myself a job in a bank and stumbled across a surplus ten million I'd have a fair idea what to with it other than write to an anonymous blogger and donate ten percent out of the spirit of kindness. Also, you don't actually think I'm about to trust someone who has (should I go against all my natural instincts and BELIEVE your emails) stolen a copious amounts of money from his traumatised and grieving relatives.

Thirdly, the "lottery win". Em... Just how dumb do you think I am? I mean... my god, deirdre, have you nothing better to do with your time? Like my Nigerian Amigos, you clearly have ten million stashed away somewhere and just HAVE to give it to me. I understand this concept. Clearly the world has dictated that Mr. Kenny should have lots and lots of cash, just not right now and YOU are my saviour.

Thank you for your time,

etc

If you want something doing right...

Job done.

Well, how was your day?

Entertainment Tonight from the Firefox Chronicles!

You've got to admire how little of a fuck the Italians give about foreign countries. Can you imagine Union Jack McConnell sending diplomats from their Edinburgh embassay to trial?

It's interesting to walk through the mire of propaganda and realise how little you know. On another board, people were discussing this article about this tv show. Then a comrade mentioned an article which discussed the politics of Joel Surnow, the creator of 24.

How can someone like myself, Socialist, Republican and fully paid-up Independentista dig the torture and human rights abuses by anti-Hero Jack Bauer? Partly it's because I don't like programs like Shameless or Skins. I live in an urban environment, some of my mates have jobs, some don't, some people have sex, some don't, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. What I don't want to watch is some crappy TV rip-off of real life to remind me what I either SHOULD be doing, or how someone else is wandering aimlessly about their lives in THEIR way.

Take the office. I WORK in an office. I know people who dug the office because "it's just like in here." Aye, of course... How fucking self-involved is that? It's the same self-involved shinto that goes own when people justify - seriously - their own family nightmares being "just like the Simpsons."

I like different. I'm not going to go home from my job to watch TV and someone else going to THEIR job. It's why I broke "The Sims" CD in half twenty minutes after I put the fucking thing in my PC.

Typically, I like 24 and Jack Bauer because it is conservative propaganda. It's reverse psychology for me. It's a fantasy poll on torture in the modern era. It's also the only show (aside from Battlestar Galactica) which try to use those old Bogart-style alpha male characters. I like flawed genuis's and anti-heroes rather than your average wet metrosexual postcard man who's got all the charisma of your average second division player.

I'll update you (since you asked) about work on MY novel. It's almost done. I've two chapters to finish and bearing in a mind a cursory spell-check and etc it's done.

When it's done I'll be redesigning the blog and including it on the right hand side. This is because I'm putting it up on lulu.com along with the photobook I put up there a while ago.

Rock X (pronounced rock ex and not rock ten as Karen in my work suggested at one point...) is a science fiction comedy in which the two main characters, Max and Kaz battle their way through various parallel universes to save their main compadre: YOU. Yep. You've gone missing and unless Max and Kaz find you all sorts of bad and unspecified things might happen. You got that right YOU are in my book. You've had sex with all the persons you've ever wanted and felt warm and squishy in several different parallel universes.

History from other perspectives

I haven't seen this news story much outside of the BBC website. I kind of hoped it would appear on some of the left wing websites I frequent, but it hasn't and I'm not about to pass it on. I'm guessing I'm one of the few whose interest this peaked.

Back in 1998 I was finishing up at University, started to get back involved in politics again and turning more towards Socialism (which I'd always liked "in principle" but I didn't fancy selling newspapers on street corners.

Then I read this, a rather spiky and well written document outlining the dying days of a Socialist organisation whose impact, militantism and history I only appreciated after I read up on them through this website. Including buying this rather fetching peice of literature:

I'm not trying to glamourise what they did, I'm just reiterating to you that politics has different perspectives and it's interesting to explore radical socialism which doesn't involve selling newspapers.

The happy medium for Scotland should be one where protesting at Faslane is acceptable, and not likely to end up being caught up in some orwellian purge.

I used to enjoy reading futuristic literature of the near future where a group of subversives battle some imperialist dogma while being filmed all the time, had biochips fitted and where civil rights were negotiable when it suited whichever administration was in charge.

But when you wake on the path you've watch on TV and start thinking that it was all a bit close to home, and Independence for Scotland isn't just an option, but necessary for domestic civil rights... When you wake up then you're either paranoid or as crazy as David Icke. Unfortunately David was right about a few of his predictions regarding the walls of the state closing in like the tomb walls in an Indiana Jones film.

I can just about deal with CCTV cameras. Some neds are wee bastards and the public needs to be protected. Knife crime needs to be stamped out. I have no bother with crime prevention for that. But when ministers start outlining vague schemes to target a minority population whose only crime is not to speak English? I start feeling uneasy. When we start funding racist political parties in the name of "democracy" I get just a smidge paranoid... And these are just two I've dug up today. I've whinged many, many times before on this blog about varying attacks on civil rights by the british state.

There's a whole ream of campaigns, anti-campaigns, demonstrations and contingents designed to point out aspects of the large cancer that is the british state. But the lessons from history in other political perspectives (one of which I've shown about with the RAF) show the path we're destined for if we don't start winning back our civil rights right here, right now.

Scottish NOT British
Vote Independence
Twice
May 3

Glencoe Comment

I'd like to take this opportunity to put my "official" SRSM hat on and thank all members and friends who attended this joint event. I also thank you all for your patience with the traffic problems which caused the delay in the Glasgow contigents arrival.

Special thanks to Zed who gave a memorable and welcome speech. Thanks to Jim for piping for us (at pretty short notice as well I believe). Thanks to the Siol, Na Fir Dileas, Crann Tara and even the contingent from Embra Indy First who showed up. I've more than likely forgotton someone; best way to remedy that is to PM me who i've forgotten so that I can pretend I remember later on...

Donald was missed as he's currently skiving in hospital. We missed his historical input and personality. I'm sure he was sorry to miss the scattering of Dave Leadbetter's ashes (as well as a certain other event that happens at the end).

I'd also like to (publicly) thank Mr. Miles. Donald has been dealing with MM in helping to rebuild the SRSM Flag collection after a theft last year. If it wasn't for Mr Miles we simply wouldn't HAVE a flag collection right now. I'm not sure whether he would like be thanked or not, but he's been brilliant in helping us.

Most importantly, we were there to pay tribute to the dead of Glencoe and all others who have died because of tyranny in this country. We do it because we refuse to forget. We also refuse to consign those people to a history book. They were our brothers and sisters, and EVERYONE who turns up, does so because they recognise this.

We marched in silence. Well... you did. I didn't. I could hear Republicans marching alongside Jacobites alongside Socialists and alongside ordinary people. It should be incompatible. But it's not. Most of us believe in Independence. And we all were there for the same purpose. That, to me, was louder than the usual music we have playing when we march to the Glencoe monument.
Everyone there should be immensely proud. People were marching, some of whom want different types of an independent Scotland. But we all have the same respect for our ancestors, and I believe, for each other. I think the old Siol slogan (not sure who came up with it) "To act when words go unheeded" is most appropriate here.

I didn't get the chance to speak to everyone as much as I'd have liked, but I'll see you all somewhere else and make up for it.

I wanted to get a couple of things off my chest and "officially" thank you all.

Appendix: You won't recognise some of the names in this post. Use the links and investigate.

Fluffy Bunny Rabbits

How evil are you?

Don' t say I didn't warn you. There was a meeting, a trial and some goats blood.

Shit happens.

Now where's the virgins?

Glasgow Bus for Glencoe

Every year the Glencoe Massacre is Commemorated.

We're running a bus from Glasgow for the Rally on Sunday.

The Glasgow Bus for Glencoe is 9:30am on Sunday Morning at George Square in Glasgow. Tickets up and back are £10 a head. You pay for your own food (I'm chasing up the Tulli Inn regarding the menu).

If you'll be in the neighbourhood, email me and I'll let you know more.

Blog and Forum Patrol

Fucking Great Maker...

The hits on this blog have rocketed over the past week.

It all started with the "Reasons for Independence" posts. Some dude posted the posters onto a Spanish website. Then I posted them on the Siol site. They ended up on ITWP and Our Scotland.

I've been avoiding Our Scotland because of the amount of Brits on the forum. I don't know why. I can't be bothered arguing any more. I want to engage and persuade those who want to be persuaded.

It came about because I'm finishing off my novel. It's a science fiction comedy. I'm redrafting key sections, writing out characters, writing plots in and getting it ready for publication on lulu dot com. Sometimes you stare at blank pages waiting for some kind of inspiration and getting nothing. I browse to break up the periods when there's just nothing there to write. I put up a post on a few forums asking for ideas for posters. It worked.

I've also been playing Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. It inspired the second novel: the one more abjectly about Scottish Independence. I need to finish one to get to the other. The next one is about a guy caught up in a coup d'etat on Scottish Independence Day. It's an intense thriller with a Noir element woven in. I'm intending it to be a shorter affair than the Rock X novel. Rock X took three years to write. It was a fantastic experience, and there's only three chapters waiting to be rewritten before I feel it's suitable for posting. I even have a cover artist and an online publisher.

Glencoe is upcoming. Feb 11 in the morning at Glencoe Car Park. Put it in your diaries and come along. Arbroath is as well, but we'll get to that later.

Forumwise I'm browsing the Siol Forum and the Firstfoot Forum. My two faves this month. The Siol are debating the Homosexual adoption issue more heavily than anyone else, and Firstfoot are being typically droll about the universe in general. That's why I like firstfoot. They balance out the serious stuff. Like I said before, my love affair with Our Scotland has diminshed because of the volume of Brits on the forum. I'd like to say I'm done with the lies and the propaganda. I still end up on there, sooner or later... Our Scotland is the Film Noir girl in my own Noir Cumbernauld Story. I shouldn't love her, but I do... I keep going back, falling into that canyon like a Wile E. Coyote when gravity kicks in.

Communism and Radicaisml

Rage Against The Machine reform!

From Metalhammer

Legendary rap metal pioneers to reunite for massive festival

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE have reportedly reunited for at least one show, playing at this yearÂ’s Coachella festival in California. According to a report in Billboard magazine, frontman Zack de La Rocha has remained on good terms with other band members and that the reunion show may in fact be only the first show in what could be a world tour. According to recent interviews, all the members of the band have been in regular contact with their former singer and have met socially, most notably in 2005 when de La Rocha and guitarist Tom Morello were photographed together at a protest in support of the South Central Farmers, whow were being forcibly evicted from their land.

While Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk from the band have been active as members of Audioslave, de la Rocha has remained out of the public eye – bar a few low-key appearances – since the band split in 2000.

The solo album that he was reportedly working on has never been released and his collaboration with Trent Reznor was, according to the NIN man, not good enough to be released. He has recently been performing at political benefit shows with a Mexican band playing acoustic music.

The band have turned down all offers to reform and tour over the past few years.

Reasons for Scottish Independence #11

Courtesy of Jacobus:

Reasons for Scottish Independence #10

A reasonably controversial Firefox Chronicles today brothers and sisters... Maybe this will generate some real comments for a change... ;-)

Suggested posters from readers:

credit to Saorsa no Bas for this one:



















and nicked from the SSP, this one:

The Communist Manifesto

Scottish Republican Burns Night

Firstly I need to point out one thing. My Vivitar Vivicam camera which costs £30 was a great investment. Except for the miniscule detail that it's scared of the dark and takes horrible pictures in dark areas. Otherwise it's fan-flippin' tastic.

The Burns Night itself should have been a complete disaster: Albannach failed to show until literally the last minute and none of the other musicians turned up. That being said though, the two tunes they DID do were worth waiting for and the food and speakers were great. This was a fantastic night, and certainly memorable for all the right reasons, and a few of the wrong ones as well.

Patrick Scott Hogg took us through the Republican Burns, the one the establishment would much rather we all pretended didn't exist, but the one through whom we glimpse a Scotland through deeply philosophical and intelligent eyes. It's ironic, but some of the most genius pieces of Burns are the very ones the Burns Establishment wants us to write out of history.

The weapons you can see in one of the photos were part of a talk given by David R Ross, all round good egg and one of the best historians you're likely to read. I was tempted to post the one of me with his Claymore, but we'll leave that to another time...

The bottom-most picture you can see is a rather artsy shot of Albannach. This was one of the worst photos I was experimenting on with Paint Shop Pro in an attempt to get a "Max Payne 2" Graphic Novel shot.

Reasons for Scottish Independence #9

Reasons for Scottish Independence #8

Ministry of Security

That has a nice ring to it doesn't it? "Ministry of Security" - it's the first time in real life I've read a news story and wondered if the writers of "V for Vendetta" and George Orwell saw a script for the future and wrote their stuff to warn us about new labour.

John Reid's proposals are to create two new ministries from the ashes of his failed tenure in the Home Office. "Security" dealing with MI5 and Immigration and "Justice" dealing with prisoners and pretty much everything else.

This is a scary idea, particularly when you remember that immigration and defence are amongst the "reserved" issues of the Scotland Act. Typically New Labour in the Vichy Parly don't allow debates on reserved issues. You get the odd Motion from the SSP / Solidarity and occasionally from the SNP but those "motions" you often seen forwarded are usually about as much use a fishnet condom.

This is one of my recent favourites:

S2M-05356 Ms Rosemary Byrne (South of Scotland) (Sol): That the Parliament believes that the Royal Regiment of Scotland should use the highest quality woollen cloth for its tartan; is concerned that there is a shortage of kilts for the army at present; notes that EU rules insist on competitive international tendering for the supply of goods worth more than £300,000 which could result in the cheapest and most inferior product being chosen, and calls on the Ministry of Defence to announce when the trialling of kilts for the Royal Regiment will end and to ensure that every consideration is given to the contract to supply kilts to the Royal Regiment of Scotland being kept in Scotland.

It's a good sentiment, and it will all be for nought. It makes Rosemary (and presumably anyone who signs it a certain degree of kudos, but you shouldn't be fooled that it actually means anything. Which brings me to my point: If the Home Office is split and we get our scary new V-for-Vendetta britain with it's Spook Ministry what, if anything, is the Vichy Parly going to do except look at each other frowning? But more importantly, are our Political Parties actually going to anything more substantial against developments like this, or against attacks against immigrants, or against ID cards than write a terse letter in parliament or put forward a "motion"?

What with the endless war in Iraq, ID Cards, refinancing a Nuclear Deterrent; it's clear the scare tactics employed by GB & TB aren't just wrong, they're hypocritical. The British State need euthanasia by fair means preferably, but by foul if that isn't possible.

The Second Coming

God Almighty has arrived on earth...

And he has a fucking sick sense of humour:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/01/17/pregnant.chimp.ap/index.html

Someone call Friedrich Nietzsche, he'll be killing himself at this one!

Reasons for Scottish Independence #7

In some cases the nearest foreign country is on on our own border, is Scotland, where there are experiments being undertaken which have a lot to teach us.

Oliver Letwin on Scotland

If you want YOUR special reasons included in this series, email me at: kenny.sheerin@gmail.com

Fanks.

Reasons for Scottish Independence #6

It will be great. Fifty years after we had it before. It is the right time for England to have it

Gordon Brown on England Winning the World Cup when they host the event in 2018.

Reasons for Scottish Independence #5

This is probably going to require more explanation than I want to include in these snippets.

Firstly, the quote from Popbitch:

>> Vote Shilpa! <<
C4 - How low can you go

Since Jade Goody shot to fame on Channel 4
she has had the same management as Celebrity
Big Brother host Davina McCall, and both
Big Brother spin-off show hosts, Dermot O'Leary
and Russell Brand, as well as last year's
Celebrity Big Brother winner Chantelle.
So is it any surprise that C4 and CBB
producers are so reticent about condemning
the racist bullying, led by Jade, on their
show? They have their own interests to protect

Racism of any variety is a blight on our society. Naturally, we all want it curbed. It is *however* interesting when Capitalism interferes in this process. Calling account to Jade Goody's racism should be a simple enough process (despite the obvious confusion with "political correctness" that is unfortunately used as a defence by the most idiotic of society) without Capitalist interest intervening.

Dave Gorman's Blog has the starting points of this problem for your interest. Dave went on BBLB and was the unfortunate go-to-guy at the start of the arguments with Dermot (whose reticence is rather conveniently explained by Popbitch).

This *should* make us re-evaluate our society in Socialist terms, but then I *would* say that, wouldn't I?

Somebody has to kill the Radio Star...

I've been talking about this IRL for a while now, and at the behest of people I know, I think the subject should be broached about the lamentable state of Scottish Radio.

On Xmas morning, I was setting up the Freeview box that was a prezzie for mumsie and cos she wasn't up, I ended up on BBC Radio 7, instead of finding out what Sky Three was actually like. It was this brilliant documentary about Kenny Everett. I mind as a kid being gutted that he had been sacked from Radio One - not because of the sacking, but because he ended up in a London Radio Station I wouldn't be able to hear.

My politics should dictate I should be glued to Clan FM, Clyde or XFM Scotland or whatever... I guess... I can't face it, honestly. Alyson at work insists that Dominik Diamond is a cunt. I'm guessing Anne Diamond's little boy (???) will just have to live without the blonde bombshell's input on this one. I like the guy because I can recognise who he is.

And here's the reason I don't listen to Scottish Radio: Ross King. I mind him on Radio Clyde. Then I mind him on Pebble Mill and finally as a Weatherman before ending up on GMTV. As nice and fluffy as Ross obviously is, I want something DANGEROUS or someone that actually MEANS something on the radio. I'm not talking about Scotty McClue, because frankly I don't like TalkSHITE or any form of Radio where they have more talk than they have records.

Nicky Campbell on Radio One once took the smeg out of Scottish Radio by taunting the DJs that they all sounded like Deputy Dog. For years I've never been able to listen to the local stations because I keep seeing the wee varmint in my head while some guy introduces some "70s Classics with Rah-Rah-Rasputin!!!

Because of Mr. Fujitsu Seimens here I get to listen to Last FM . If it wasn't for that I wouldn't have heard Shadows Fall... Ah... memories... Well, partially that's my point. I should be able to hear some guy in Scottish Accent taking his music seriously, being comedically dangerous or simply doing something different.

What seems to happen is this: Mr John Nightly gets his own show on some poxy channel no-one listens to for three weeks and electrifys the airwaves. Not too many people hear him except a big broadcaster who takes him somewhere else (TV, Radio in England, whatever...) I can live with that, because money is always going to talk, but we end up left with the pish that Glasgow's nightclubs spawn who frankly have more teeth than brains and can't have an Ad break without having a "funny" competition...

Reasons for Scottish Independence #4

Reasons for Scottish Independence #3

Strange Poster gotten by email

Reasons for Scottish Independence #2

"The failure to defend and promote the United Kingdom is becoming more a feature of the thinking of the Right, in contrast to Lady Thatcher, who rightly defended the Union." Gordon Brown, Labour, estoling the virtues of Margaret Thatcher.

Email your reasons for Scottish Independence to the usual email address.

Reasons for Scottish Independence #1

"People should be thankful that a Lib Dem's going out with a straight girl." - Gabriela Cheeky Girl.

You can submit your "reasons for Scottish Independence" to the usual email address.

A very late New Year post

Well my bloggerinos it's been a while, hasn't it? While you've been avidly awaiting an update to the Firefox Chronicles, I've been awaiting the upcoming premiers of Battlestar Gallactica and 24. Pointless, irrelevant and true...

Anyway, to business: 2007 heralds the year when Scotland has been three hundred years in the Union and frankly I know of a lot of shinto that has been planned and it's going to be memorable even if we lose the Scottish Parly elections.

January heralds a Republican Robert Burns Supper. February heralds the Glencoe Commemoration. March I've got a wee Nine of Diamonds Project stunt planned. April heralds the Delcaration of Independence Rally in Arbroath. May is the elections. Fun, fun, fun... as the beach boys might say.

Have a look here: http://www.srsm.net/srsm/events.htm

Politically, I've been feel more and more disenfranchised. I remain a paid up member of the Scottish Socialist Party. But the thing is... Airdrie. A friend of mine, John, pointed out that the citizens and residents of Airdrie voted Labour and Socialist Labour Party because they saw the SSP as being more aligned with the underclasses on benefit than those regular workers who wanted represented and didn't feel they could go to the SNP. When I told another friend of mine it was a watershed... As Socialists have we fogotten the majority at the expense of those we want to represent? Should there even be a dilemma?

Fuck it... I don't know. I only know that for now, the SSP represents the party closest to my own beliefs.

News wise: I'm one hundred pages away from completing my debut novel. I've even started planning my second. I've even got enough short stories for a short story collection.

In terms of photography, I'm almost done photographing the Rallies I go to. I don't see what else I can achieve photographing them. I'm still going to go, but simply taking pictures I've taken a dozen times before isn't enough any more.

Israel & Banned Websites

Hello bloggerinos,

how are we? Below is an email received which I thought I'd forward on in the interests on freedom of speech.

Le meas,

Kenny

Hi. My name is Eugene Gershin. Perhaps we have met online, but more probably you don't know me from Adam. I monitor blogs for SamsonBlinded, and came across your post.

I'd like to welcome you to look at Obadiah Shoher's blog. Obadiah - an anonymous Israeli politician - writes extremely controversial articles about Israel, the Middle East politics, and terrorism.

Shoher is equally critical of Jewish and Muslim myths, and advocates political rationalism instead of moralizing.

Google banned our site from the AdWords, Yahoo blocked most pages, and Amazon deleted all reviews of Obadiah's book, Samson Blinded: A Machiavellian Perspective on the Middle East Conflict.

Nevertheless, 170,000 people from 78 countries read the book.

Various Internet providers ban us periodically, but you can look up the site on search engines. The mirror www.terrorism-in-israel.org/blog currently works.

Please help us spread Obadiah's message, and mention the blog in one of your posts, or link to us from kennysheerin.blogspot.com. I would greatly appreciate your comments.

Best wishes,
Eugene Gershin

Blood Money to Whitechapel

I considered making a couple of political points regarding the Serial Killer on the loose in England, before I remembered that a far better writer than I had done so over a hundred years ago in response to another uncaught Serial Killer.

From The Star, 24 September 1888
Letter from George Bernard Shaw "Blood Money to Whitechapel"

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE STAR."

SIR,-- Will you allow me to make a comment on the success of the Whitechapel murderer in calling attention for a moment to the social question? Less than a year ago the West-end press, headed by the St. James's Gazette, the Times, and the Saturday Review, were literally clamering for the blood of the people--hounding on Sir Charles Warren to thrash and muzzle the scum who dared to complain that they were starving--heaping insult and reckless calumny on those who interceded for the victims--applauding to the skies the open class bias of those magistrates and judges who zealously did their very worst in the criminal proceedings which followed--behaving, in short as the proprietary class always does behave when the workers throw it into a frenzy of terror by venturing to show their teeth. Quite lost on these journals and their patrons were indignant remonstrances, argument, speeches, and sacrifices, appeals to history, philosophy, biology, economics, and statistics; references to the reports of inspectors, registrar generals, city missionaries, Parliamentary commissions, and newspapers; collections of evidence by the five senses at every turn; and house-to-house investigations into the condition of the unemployed, all unanswered and unanswerable, and all pointing the same way. The Saturday Review was still frankly for hanging the appellants; and the Times denounced them as "pests of society." This was still the tone of the class Press as lately as the strike of the Bryant and May girls. Now all is changed. Private enterprise has succeeded where Socialism failed. Whilst we conventional Social Democrats were wasting our time on education, agitation, and organisation, some independent genius has taken the matter in hand, and by simply murdering and disembowelling four women, converted the proprietary press to an inept sort of communism. The moral is a pretty one, and the Insurrectionists, the Dynamitards, the Invincibles, and the extreme left of the Anarchist party will not be slow to draw it. "Humanity, political science, economics, and religion," they will say, "are all rot; the one argument that touches your lady and gentleman is the knife." That is so pleasant for the party of Hope and Perseverance in their toughening struggle with the party of Desperation and Death!

However, these things have to be faced. If the line to be taken is that suggested by the converted West-end papers--if the people are still to yield up their wealth to the Clanricarde class, and get what they can back as charity through Lady Bountiful, then the policy for the people is plainly a policy of terror. Every gaol blown up, every window broken, every shop looted, every corpse found disembowelled, means another ten pound note for "ransom." The riots of 1886 brought in £78,000 and a People's Palace; it remains to be seen how much these murders may prove worth to the East-end in panem et circenses. Indeed, if the habits of duchesses only admitted of their being decoyed into Whitechapel back-yards, a single experiment in slaughterhouse anatomy on an artistocratic victim might fetch in a round half million and save the necessity of sacrificing four women of the people. Such is the stark-naked reality of these abominable bastard Utopias of genteel charity, in which the poor are first to be robbed and then pauperised by way of compensation, in order that the rich man may combine the idle luxury of the protected thief with the unctuous self-satisfaction of the pious philanthropist.

The proper way to recover the rents of London for the people of London is not by charity, which is one of the worst curses of poverty, but by the municipal rate collector, who will no doubt make it sufficiently clear to the monopolists of ground value that he is not merely taking round the hat, and that the State is ready to enforce his demand, if need be. And the money thus obtained must be used by the municipality as the capital of productive industries for the better employment of the poor. I submit that this is at least a less disgusting and immoral method of relieving the East-end than the gust of bazaars and blood money which has suggested itself from the West-end point of view.--Yours, &c.,

G. BERNARD SHAW.

How Many Socialists?

How many Socialists?

Q. How many Socialist Workers Party members does it take to change a light bulb.
A. Four. One to change the bulb, one to write about it for "the paper", one to sell you "the paper" and another to follow you home and ask why you weren't at the bulb changing, if you plan to make the next one and if you were still as committed.

Q. How many Socialist Party members does it take to change a light bulb?
None. They have to wait for Peter Hadden to take the lead.

Q: How many New Labour Party members does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They haven't got a policy on that in case they lose votes.

Q: How many Stalinists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: One to petition the Ministry of Light for a bulb, fifty to establish the state production quota, two hundred militia to force the factory unions to allow production of the bulb, and one to surreptitiously dial an '800' number to order an American light bulb.

Q: How many running-dog lackeys of the bourgeoisie does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None, that's the proletariat's work!
A: Two. One to exploit the proletariat, and one to control the means of production!

Q: How many American Imperialist Pigs does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Three - one to put in the bulb, and two to search through the cartons of inferior American produced light bulbs for one that isn't defective.

Q: How many Marxists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: None, the seeds of revolution and change are within the light bulb itself.

Q: How many Spartacus members does it take to change a light bulb?
A: You can't CHANGE a light bulb!

Q: How many Trotskyites does it take to change a light bulb?
A: It's no use trying to CHANGE it; it's got to be SMASHED!!!

Q: How many anarchists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: All of them.

Q: How many Communists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Two - one to screw it in, and a second to hand out leaflets.
A: One, but it takes him about 30 years to realize that the old one has burnt out.

Q: How many Chinese Red Guards does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: 10,000 - to give the bulb a cultural revolution.

Q: How many Maoists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: One to screw in the bulb and a thousand to chant "Fight Darkness!"

Q: How many Green Party members does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None, they use light bulbs, which don't burn out, so they don't know how.

Q: How many Hoxhaists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Only one, but he will be expelled as a revisionist.


Q: How many members of the RSF does it take to change a light bulb?
A: That's a cop question! Don’t Answer!!!

Q: How many members of the 32 County Sovereignty Committee does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Three. One to call in the United Nations for advice on bulb sovereignty, one to check if the light bulb was made in Ireland and one to stop Marianne punching the backs of members of Sinn Fein who are trying to prevent the light from being switched on in case their members can see.

Q: How many members of Sinn Fein does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Irrelevant: It's not included in the Good Friday Agreement

Q: How many members of IRSP does it take to change a light bulb?
A. None. The ERPS can’t afford electricity. They use candles (borrowed from Strabane)!

La Fosse in the Mail on Sunday

This story got my blog quite a few hits a while back, so I feel the need to follow it up. It's more of a "what happened next" and to show that the fall-out is still happening. Some of my contacts insist there's more to come, but honestly I'm not sure. I think too many people want to forget, but we'll see.

Have a swatch at the Mail on Sunday story anyway. As always, click to enlarge.

As always, replies in the "comments" section or in an email to: kenny.sheerin@gmail.com

A simple Pillar Box in Edinburgh

Back in 1953 Scottish Republicans coalesced in a way we haven't seen since those few years in the early fifties. This depressing snippet is far outweighed by what I've summarised below. The summarising is of some source material I researched with a few pointers on how to read the original stuff yourself.

To get it, I took some dates inside my head into the Mitchell Library reading room and read. This is my one and only tip.

A Collection of Ciphers

The Scots Independent reported, in 1952 how a series of Pillar Boxes would be erected with the objectionable "EiiR" monogram across Scotland by the British Government, in order to celebrate the Coronation of Elizabeth of England.

Summarised from: the Scots Independent, December 1952, Page 2

The Pillar Box in Edinburgh

Location: Inch Housing Scheme, Edinburgh

28 November, 1952: Pillar Box unveiled in Edinburgh. It had on it, the Royalist Cipher "EiiR". Mainstream Nationalists, disapproving of this since there had never been an Elizabeth the First to lord it over the citizens disapproved and would argue in courts. There were destined to lose.

What happened next would change things :

36 hours after the unveiling, the Pillar Box was daubed in tar.

8 days after the unveiling, the police, acting on a warning found Gelignite in a brown envelope inside the Post Box. With it was a note which read: "Danger. To the Postmaster General. We trust you will pay attention to Mr. Stuart."

22nd December, 1952: The "ii" in EiiR were daubed with white paint.
2nd January, 1953: An amatuerish attempt to blow up the pillar box was tried out.
7th February, 1953: A man hammers (and remarkably) damages the numerals on the Pillar Box
10th February, 1953: The Pillar Box is repaired
12th February, 1953: The Pillar Box is blown to pieces by a substance believed to be Gelignite.

The explosion would be claimed by two organisations: the Scottish Republican Army (the most likely candidates) and the "Hundred Men"

The pillar box in Edinburgh would inevitably be replaced. This time there was no cipher.

Summarised from: the Scots Independent, March 1953, Page 2

When even the Bailies resist...

A Bailie, sworn into becoming a magistrate who refused to acknowledge that Brenda (present -day codename for Elizabeth) was "the second" found that the person swearing him in was perfectly happy not to include the "the second" part.

From: Daily Record, "New Bailie omits part of the oath", May 9th, 1953

In Broad Daylight?

During lunch hour, Messrs Copland and Lyst shop on Sauchiehall Street had the "ii" from the Elizabethan monogram stolen by a man who, after whipping it off the display, disappeared down Wellington Street. This was in spite of being warned beforehand about it. This was also in spite of the lunchtime crowds, none of whom (conveniently for this particular protagonist) would be able to say who he, in fact, actually was or looked like.

From: Daily Record, "Crowds see man whip "ii" from EiiR display", Saturday May 23rd, 1953

And then we invaded England (again)

In an article entitled "Blue Bonnets across the Border" it is reported how Scottish Nationalists were busy targetting the "EiiR" monogram / cipher in an attempt to get Elizabeth to change this historical travesty. Specifically mentioned were areas in Northumberland and Flodden Field (quoted in the Scots Independent from the Scotsman).

Article: Scots Independent, July 1953, Page 4

Sooner or later you just have to admit defeat...

The Scots Independent ran a story on the Scottish Republican Army. It reported how the police initially viewed the SRA as "little unconnected groups of irresponsible youths." It went on to described how that "So far the SRA's [...] successful exploits include have been the destruction of EiiR Coronation symbols and the bombing of an Edinburgh Post Box because it bore the new royal cipher."

The story was ran after the Daily Mail reported how the SRA was about to link up with the IRA for a campaign. So much for disaffected youths and the enduring paranoia of journalists...

From: Scots Independent, November 1953, Page 1

What was the SRA doing?

The Scots Independent remained gripped on the SRA (as was the mainstream press at the time, circulating a series of wild claims and trials).

Three events were listed as being possibly linked to SRA activities: a raid on Milngavie Quarry for explosives, an attack on a Glasgow Labour exchange and a plan to raid a rifle club in Largs.

From: Scots Independent, January 1954, Page 3

Legacy?

Surprisingly, at least for Scotland's warrior culture, who are usually quicker to fight than Mike Tyson with his hotel maid, there is a legacy from this period: Despite the Agents Provocateurs, despite the Press Paranoia and the many, many arrests you'll be hard pressed to find an EiiR cipher in Scotland. It's been reported from Independent sources inside the Royal Mail in Scotland that there are no pillar boxes with the EiiR monogram in Scotland.

Up and down the country, from professional people to organised gangs a campaign was engendered and... surprise sur-fucking-prise WE WON.

The next time you read some Independence Organisation bitching about themselves on a public forum and bringing the rest of us into disrepute remember that some of us still believe. Some of us KNOW our history and our unity and the capability that we have. We remember what we achieve when we are united.

The Book the First

This is intended to be the introduction of the Book the First:





Have a nice day!