May Day march Sydney NSW 2021 -Gannin doon tha Parramatta Road ter the May Day Marches

Eee it were a bonny sight ter see the May Day march this year an sooch a grand turn oot! Helped tha it included a Green Ban by construction workers, who were there in mass handing oot free tee shirts. Slogan in electric green! Parramatta is nowt boot one big building site at the moment. Skyscrapers hell bent on creating a city within a city, while the once living shopping strip is boot a desolate boarded oop site for light rail. Yer can see small businesses are struggling ter get enough oxygen ter survive. I would say two ter three thousand turned oot and marched through Parramatta ter protest the removal of a heritage house ter make way fer the new Powerhouse. 

What a unionist looks like - prepared ter march

Mr Donovan holds forth

Yon anarchists were here this year and grand ter see them and the young guns from Socialist Alliance

CFMEU tee shirts were a hit

Rio Tinto blasts indigenous heritage site to smithereens....must be Sorry Day 2020

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/26/rio-tinto-blasts-46000-year-old-aboriginal-site-to-expand-iron-ore-mine

And from First Dog on the Moon:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/27/a-sacred-site-showing-46000-years-of-continual-occupation-and-its-completely-legal-to-blow-it-up

Here in Australia yer canna make this stoof oop!

Take it away AB original! January 26

Lyrics

You can call it what you want
But it just don't mean a thing
No, it just don't mean a thing
Fuck that, homie
You can come and wave your flag
But it don't mean a thing to me
No, it just don't mean a thing
Fuck that, homie

You can call it what you want
But it just don't mean a thing
No, it just don't mean a thing
Fuck that, homie
You can come and wave your flag
But it don't mean a thing to me
No, it just don't mean a thing
Fuck that, homie

They said, "Hey Briggs, pick a date" (okay)
"You know, one we can celebrate" (for sure)
"Where we can come together
Talk about the weather, call that Australia Day"

I said, "How about March 8th?" (That's a good one)
And we can do it on your Nan's grave (got that, bitch?)
We can piss up, piss on her face
Get lit up and burn out like Mark Skaife

They screamin' "love it or leave it" (love it)
I got more reason to be here, if you could believe it
Won't salute a constitution or who's underneath it
Turn that flag to a noose, put a cease to your breathin'

I can't get in my whip, I get a ticket for that
I get a DWB, and that's a "Driving Whilst Black"
I turn the other cheek, I get a knife in my back
And I tell 'em it hurts, they say I overreact
So fuck that (fuck that)

You can call it what you want
But it just don't mean a thing
No, it just don't mean a thing
(Hey Briggs!) Fuck that, homie
You can come and wave your flag
But it don't mean a thing to me
No, it just don't mean a thing

I said celebrate the heretic anytime outside Jan 26 (anytime)
That's the date for them suckers doin' that sucker shit (that's true)
That's that land takin', flag wavin' attitude
Got this new Captain Cook dance to show you how to move (move it)

How you wanna raise a flag with a rifle
To make us want to celebrate anything but survival?
Nah, you watchin' telly for The Bachelor
But wouldn't read a book about a fuckload of massacres? (What?)

I remember all the blood and what carried us (I remember)
They remember 20 recipes for Lamingtons (yum)
Yeah, their ancestors got a boatride
Both mine saw them comin' until they both died

Fuck celebratin' days made of misery (fuck that)
White Oz still got the black history (that's true)
And that shirt will get you banned from the parliament
If you ain't havin' a conversation, well, then we startin' it

You can call it what you want
But it just don't mean a thing
No, it just don't mean a thing
Fuck that, homie
You can come and wave your flag
But it don't mean a thing to me
No, it just don't mean a thing
No, it just don't mean a thing

Nah, it just don't mean a thing
No, it just don't mean a thing
Nah, it just don't mean a thing
No, it just don't mean a thing
Nah, it just don't mean a thing
No, it just don't mean a thing
Nah, it just don't mean a
Motherfuckin' thing
No, it just don't mean a thing

Wave it, wave it, baby
Wave it, wave it (eat the flag)
Wave it, wave it mama
Wave that flaggy (wear the flag)
Wave it, wave it, baby (what you gonna do?)
Wave it, wave it (wave it, baby)
Wave it, wave it mama
Wave that flaggy

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Adam Briggs / Daniel Leo Sultan / Daniel Hendle Rankine

January 26 lyrics © Mushroom Music Pty. Ltd., Sony/atv Music Publishing Allegro (aust) Pty, Mushroom Music Pty Ltd, Blue Max Music Pty Ltd

Meanwhile:

As the rubble settles post federal election Australia 2019 and what the anarchists had to say

seems the anarchists decided...

(Published late as it sat in draft fer a long time, coming' ter terms with itself like)

Aye, I were looking forward ter Liberal voting folk turning oop ter work on first Monday morning after election. Revitalised. Gloating and thinking soomhow, they can do owt they like on less than 50% of vote. Got a mandate ter be greedy an' look after number one. An particularly I were looking oot for thems that believe the election outcome was a blow against Labor's pact with the unions. Conversations pop and down the red-land along the lines..."Well gaffer, after Saturday's results yer can take away me annual leave entitlement. Sick leave? Don't need it! Poot it terwoords yer obscene sack of profit - yer wurk hard man! Goaan then exploit oos, its joost the natural order of things. Yer deserve ter exploit me because Im daft as a brush, still believin' in the trickle down effect fairy! As fer that sooper stuff, putting in terwards me retirement. Me? Iam gonna work until I drop dead or if yer have ter retrench oos outta door like the would be grand. Gissus another opportunity ter start over working the tills at Woolies or cleaning the floors at sum big office downtown. Aye, its me own time I can wurk a few hours then be stood down fer a four hour break in the day and coom back fer another couple of hours graft. Nae bover! I'll graft like yew and save me pennies, give em ter the banks ter hold in interest free accounts ter save me own. After all the banks are doing it tough. Me? I'm no leaner. Aw right canny, yer spot on, Im not a boss! Gig economy put me blinkers and harness on an' let me go. So what if I have ter work twelve hours, boot you'll only pay me fer eight? How good is a job man! Aye and forget about all that work, health and safety malarky. Joost a pile of red tape getting in way of progress, have ter be agile. Its down to oos wurkers ter pay attention and not fall off things or have things drop on oos."An if I gets Sick, weell, its joost tight I should be on me own like. Me own fault for not takin' care of us-self.

Did they have that conversation? Did they hell, bollocks. It were all "We won!" We stuck it oop them unions." The winner gives oop nowt an the losers get further cuts ter their work and living conditions. An took the young, they gotta stand on their own feet and pay their way. Except me own, neo-lib young that is!

Aye, it were depressing. Most of all how it gutted a united progressive movement that believed there was a shift in thinking. Backed not by polls boot from asking folk ter list their concerns leading into election. It were an election for change that delivered a dysfunctional and inept government back into power to continue wrecking the social infrastructure, and stamping on a future that would be fair to all - marketing over substance, continued wealth fer the wealthy. The wurd tha stuck in the craw? Aspiration. Only the lifters are canny on that one. I aspire ter empty the tax payers till and give wads of cash ter folk who don't need it. Selective sports rorts. Aye the media had their part to play but mostly it were the inability of the progressive folk ter persuade folk that Bill Shorten was a future. Aye yon fatty Palmer chucked cash aboot, boot we did not bring folk along with us. The big bad unions trope (despite the worse union representation since the Industrial Revolution) worked its creaky spell. Labor can't manage money- and despite the evidence of colossal coalition government waste over the last six years - folk believed Morrison and co were the gnomes of Zurich. Steady hands on the tiller - despite the ship of state being missing. How many months in a leaky boat?

Climate change. What can I say. Morrison: Nowt ter see here? Oh, me in me cap pictured in drought stricken farmland. Nowt ter see. Pictures of the dried out Murray Darling. Aye nowt a bit of rain won't fix. Oh and by the way, the rights ter that rain 'WHEN' it falls belongs ter business. Yer will have ter pay to get a cup of it. Nae leaning mind! We''ll give one of our cronies sum public cash ter sell yer some hay bales. Think nothing of that. Boot it wurked.

The one man band ScoMo, man of the people, fer the people as long as yer don't interfere with religion. Pictures of him praying at Hillsong. Fook me and I thought this were a secular, inclusive country - not driven by because I go ter church and am seen woorshipping makes me righteous and a compassionate leader. Is this the future of politics? Elections. No substance. No accountability fer what you do. Spin fer sake of spin and half truths and outright lies accepted as fact because by the time yer ask the question, the caravan is long gone.

Aye, we had door knocked leading oop ter election. Folk didn't like our campaign. Didn't trust Bill Shorten boot believed the murdoch media, the big bad unions were gonna hold them captive ter improved wages an non-flexible work conditions - like permanent jobs. Growing a future. A fairer, more tolerant society. Labor can't be put in charge of grannies pension. And Morrison almost single-handily ran the neo-libs campaign. It worked. We lost and were gutted. Nowt mooch yer can say. Aye, it were reet depressing. Boot people spoke and voted fer government they wanted. Lets hope we learn from it and the damage over the next cycle is not so great, it gets tougher to have an alternative ter neo-lib capital and its acolytes.  

Thanks comrades! 

And in-between then and now, fires, floods and COVID- a recession.  People still think Morrison is the answer. The question though is "what is our future?" Already it is the most disadvantaged paying the price of recession. A bleak future for most, while the few continue to do well out of the wheels coming off the lucky country.

What did we learn? That you loose by not sitting on the fence. Big ideas lose folk. Snappy one liners, like spoonful of sugar, work. A future based on coal and development at the expense of the environment won. Our indigenous people, their place in our future, invisible on the hustings. Post election, the unions did not reflect on what had changed. That to grow we have to involve ourselves in the grass roots and not factions and infighting. Empower people who have little power to be involved in building a future that reflects them. Not to turn away from the big ideas but bring folk along with them. We all want a better future, its how we achieve this together for tha majority and not the few. A tough election to swallow. But a lesson none the less. The next day, the sun still rose, even if it were a bit harder ter appreciate the warmth it gave.

Old man grumbles a poem

Its nae foon

Getting’ awld

 

First

Ah dropped me 

Ice cream

On 

Che Guevara’s 

Heed

 

Then

Ah Peed

Doon tha side

Of me leg

 

Che’s heed

Were on

A tee shirt

The leg

S’ me own

 

Its bollocks

Getting awld

 

Oh, an thems

They

Ache

In the cold

The daughters of charity and wrestling with demons

Belgo Geordie undefined

Aah have been quiet as of late. 2020 - some year eh! Oh, ahm writing! Boot in me mid-sixties me past has come back her pay oos a visit. A decent woman in London, Angry Barnet, told oos aboot a report published by the Scottish Inquiry inta Child Abuse in care homes. Aye, it were in Scotland, a hundred miles from where me and both me older brothers were under care in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Boot same religious order in charge - the Daughter (or sisters) of Charity of St Vincent de Paul. The case study on Smyllum Park Orphanage (near Glasgow) were damning. Reading it were like a punch in the guts! Aye, there are folk who said they sailed thru sooch homes with nair a scratch on their paintwork boot for me, me bruthers, it were hell on earth and then soom!

Likewise, the many submissions on the likes of life in Smyllum Park. It made oos recall the ongoing cruelty of life oonder the care of these religious sisters. Their indifference ter the suffering of wee bairns and in soom cases, their enjoyment at teaching oos ter know our place in their world. By daily pooblic shaming, neglect and lectures aboot how we were so full of sin nae booger cared fer oos boot them! And thems were joost doing their duty - boot really, they had better things ter do - sooch as pray, take part in obscure religious practices. Run around like daft chooks afta pompous priests. Tellin' oos we were shite on the bottom of their sturdy shoes were joost part of their vocation. 

Troost in oos wee bairn...

Ah canna make sense of how three years of abuse has left such deep scars in all aspects of me life. Ten years of counselling in me thirties. Ah thought the ghosts were put ter bed and ah had moved on. Ah were not alcoholic, a droogie, nor voted tory. Ah never battered me partners, step children. Ah were not a great dad, boot aah were responsible. Ah cared the best ah could fer the two bairns in me life. One coot me dead after ah left her ma. She were already an adult. Her decision, her choice boot it were grievous. Ah had raised her over seventeen years. Ah deserved better. Her values and mine were close, we both loved books and valued thinking. Boot she tole oos ah were not her da! Tha blood shite has a lot her answer for!

The other daughter is as far from those values. Boot now in her late twenties, she shows me a loyalty ah barely deserve. Ah gave her support through her teenage years, boot it were tough love. Neither me nor her mam were going ter be doormats fer her to wipe her big feet on. She had her own ghosts we knew nowt about. When they came oot, over a year ago, she is soodenly lighter within her own skin. Aye, the damage caused by her carrying a secret for over ten years that were eating her alive. Having her mam hear her pain and not turn away (she did nowt wrong, as always a boy wrecking a young life without thought- made worse by it was incest within her extended family and her cousins and sum of his siblings turned on her). All those years she were in a lonely, dark place trying ter make sense of that an' her changing body and oonderstand who she were, was going ter become or wanted ter be. Not them. Not when the cost of belonging is ter be treated like yer got what yer deserved. Aye, she still gets bouts of depression through loneliness, barely talks her her many cousins, boot now she better oonderstands why and more importantly, reaches out when she has to, ter her mam and blubs, snots and talks. And she knows these feelings, will pass and they do.

Me brutha digging fer fossils-overseen by a paedophile

Then there is my older, surviving brother. This year, ah was the first person he told in detail the sexual and emotional abuse he went through. He told me he didn't thank me for 'making' him remember like. Aye we put it down in writing and made it a submission ter English inquiry. His recall? Like my recall, like the recall of survivors of Smyllum, St Mary's Tudhoe and St Vincent's Mill Hill. Summat that is close ter evil from thems daughters of charity. Soom may not have set oot ter do harm, boot their indifference to our suffering speaks loudly. It told me - there is no God as they defined - all seeing, compassionate - a protector of little children. Utter bollocks! And fer me that has niver changed. In response ter inquiry, the order said it were an aberration. No it were not! They were joost following the instructions of their order. Aye, where have we heard that afore in history? The fascist justification fer cold blooded cruelty. And worse, oos bairns they looked after so well, now oldies. Waal, joost money grubbing, compensation seeking, anti Catholic spongers. Ungrateful serf the immaculate care we received!

Aye, I wondered why "I" threw me life off the tracks, joost aboot descended inter madness in me teenage years, almost killed me self and then continued ter mess oop me relationships with women, me family and work. Ah moost have been thinking aboot how ter lodge that compensation claim with Vatican! And how ter live a rich life on their '20 pieces of tarnished silver' the choorch throws towards oos survivors of their neglect. Which only a tiny percentage of claimants live long enough ter get. Me brothers and me niver asked for nor received owt! Not quite true, we did ask fer summat! Information from Catholic Care. Ter be listened to by them stuffed penguins from choorch, thems tha told me ter me face, when ah asked, ah were nowt boot a liar! 

Back ter me brother. Like the daughter, he is now mooch lighter. He talks aboot stoof long buried. Not all of it bad. Some lighter moments are trickling through. Nae, it is me who has coom crashing down. Yer can tell from the above, there is lightening flashes of anger boot that sits atop of despair an exhaustion. The despair that counselling did not fix. That a fissure still goes down ter me core and when ah reflect on who ah am, who ah have become, ah struggle to like the person ah am. Let alone the child of four to seven who were abused in ways beyond reckoning. How can it not change oos! Ah try ter be kind ter memory and the wee bairn ah was. It's a struggle. Ah still woork, a responsible job. An naw at times, ah can barely lift ma heed in the morning. Ah'm exhausted!

Read the Smyllum report and see if yer think bairns can live through that and not be damaged? What has shaken me is ah do not like who ah was then, the bairn ah were. Shame. Deep pockets of shame. Dark, biting bile, acidic - that are part of who ah am. Soon times ah can run, stay ahead or say ah don't care, boot ah sigh a lot. Anxiety tells oos ah'm nowt. A make believe man. How dare ah hold down a big job, be a good husband an think ah've done a good thing with me life. That is what ah owe the daughters of charity and the Catholic Church. That is what bubbles oop ter confront me through this. And in my last years of life, it is a fight not ter let it define who ah am. An being a fighter has exhausted me. Boot a fighter ah remain.

Ah thought writing would bring it into light. Boot lately ah have been reminded of Primo Levi who asked why he had survived (the holocaust) and at what cost? At whose expense? What did ah do that let me at least live a life. How did ah get ter the point where ah had almost insulated the past? 

If ah thought the experience had made me stronger, ah were wrong. Ah was strong, boot cracks were running through us that could never be fully fixed. Smyllum was summat that pulled the marrow out of me bones and it is taking time ter recover. Ah went swimming in the winter ocean. Let the icy water turn oos blue. Walking on beaches, in the national park. Just walking because that allows me ter think. Ah have a lot ter be grateful for. There are many folk who have had it much worse. Out there are so many survivors and ah pay them a shared debt of gratitude. For speaking oop and out against cruelty ter bairns, women, people of colour, the vulnerable with no voice. This time will pass. Ah will coom back ter meself, mabbe a bit more battered, feeling bruises. Ah tell meself, those ghosts of religious sisters and their cruelty will not and cannot define me. Boot in the silence of a Saturday afternoon in me living room in Sydney, ah hurt and grieve.

An' George Pell is flying back ter Rome today. Funny wurld! Probably her ask yon pope for his job back counting Vatican shekels. Since his release from prison he was living in religious house in Sydney, no doubt being waited on hand and foot by religious sisters. Drinking fine wine and eating oot with his mates at expensive Sydney eateries. Classy! Boot ther man who were too sick and frail in 2016 ter fly in from Rome fer a Royal Commission hearing inta sexual abuse in Australia - had no difficulty getting back on a flight ter Rome this week. Tsk. Foony awld wurld George! No sign of yer walking stick or frailties in yon media images. An' noo, snaps with yon pope! Wot a lad yer are! An, yon pope? Shame on the man!

Ah'm currently reading "The Case of George Pell - Reckoning With Child Sexual Abuse by Clergy" by Melissa Davey. Aye, noted George! The finest brief money can buy, an further examples of how ter use the legal system ter undermine and destroy anyone who dares ter take on choorch. An' in this case a powerful representative of that body. It is the brave man who stood tall in court, were credible and who said his encounter with Pell and his miserable choorch would not define him. Shame on the choorch and its lackeys does not even begin ter describe this encounter. The powerful and mighty trying ter crush an individual fer standing oop ter them. 

Yup, the verdict were set aside after yer did a bit of porridge. Boot the credibility of the witness against yer were not set aside. Legal technicalities got yer oot of clink man! Boot off yer fly, Rome calls bonny lad.

Like I have said previously, the evidence at the Royal Commission says all yer need ter know of Mr Pell's character. "I knew nowt, I supported a paedophile priest in court, boot I knew nowt. All these stories told ter me. Boot, I knew nowt. I were a powerful, on the rise heavy hitter, information were me currency fer clambering oop hierarchy. Boot I knew nowt about all this stoof. Yer have ter understand, it did not interest me. I were involved in getting me way ter top. Being the best conservative ah could be. More important things ter do. Had her fix the choorch back into 16th century. Put the hennies back in their cage! No time for those unfortunate children who alleged they were abused by clergy. Not my area. I were protected at meetings by my underlings etc etc...of course I feel sorry fer them. Damaged by trouble-makers, encouraged ter make oop stoof aboot ma beloved choorch...oh, gotta a job fer an old codger Francis - me awld marra?"

Lastly, what has helped me over this time, besides nature and Australia's motley collection of daft birdies, has been the support of me many friends and family. Me brother has been champion! Annoying boot champion. And Angry Barnet. Second ter none. Blogging like warrior queen. Political ter core and marra. She keeps tilting away at Daughters of Charity, giving light and oxygen ter stories of hurt, abuse and betrayal. Has joost blogged another piece on Daughters of Charity. All power ter yer quill lass! One of the best. Thank you all. And most of all me missus Mrs Belgo Geordie, keeping me focused - loving me fer who ah am. Knowing when ter tell oos ter pull me head in. Yer all what define me. 

Ah yer comin' oot soon pet? A'hm freezings me tits off here

"Are yer al-reet bairn?" "Aye, boot God, get yer act together like"

Go to www.childabuseinquiry.scot

Smyllum Park orphanage findings is under Case Study 1 on Daughters of Charity residential children's homes in Scotland. This led ter religious sisters and others being charged in a court of law.

"The Case of George Pell-Reckoning With Child sexual Abuse by Clergy" Melissa Davey. Journalist with Guradian Australia. Scribe. Published 2020. A forensic examination of the evidence in Pell's trials, and the trials themselves. Yer canna complain George, tha yer didn't get a fair hearing in this book. Yer still coom oot of it as not mooch of a human being.

And on it goes! March 2025 and the Catholic Church continues to abdicate its responsibility for abuses occurring under its watch. The latest (Bird vs in High Court Victoria) is that priests, and I guess nuns, can't be sued by the great unwashed because they are not employed by the church but by God. And I guess they mean the Catholic God. We'll sue the Church as his representative. Galling when they claimed COVID payments for yon priests as 'employees'. 

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/topic/2025/03/15/the-catholic-churchs-legal-loophole-abuse 

The hairy eyebrowed narcissist - a short, shorn ballad

Scientists prove hairy eyebrows makes yer a narcissist

                    Who’d a thought eh!

                    Brezhnev, Healy and wor Frida

                    So tha’s why me wife

                    Holds me 'tween her knees,

                    More yewe than tup! 

                    An with her sheers

                    Trims me eyebrows.

                    Ter keep oos humble like !

 

                    I think I’ll just call by pond

                    And stare in watta

                    at me reflection

                    Staring back at oos…

 

                                                                                Sydney September 2020

Black Lives matter rally Sydney June 2020

Aah were not able ten make march yesterday, Saturday. Given I work with oldies. Aye, even awlder than me, it were not a risk aah can take. Boot this is an issue close ter my heart. Its time Australia finds peace with indigenous folk and listens ter stories and histories more than first fleet and a rag-bag of explorers claiming bits of sand as their own.

There were the predictable comments aboot 'white lives matter too!' The irony missed by folk saying this is that everyday government demonstrates this principle. As is said, if there were 400 unanswered white death's in custody - there would be outrage. Alan Jones's parrots would be screeching there nuts off ter be heard.

Me, aam pleased so many folk, and young folk took ter streets across the Red Land. That it were global. That we all need a wake oop call. Again, respect ter Raoul in centre of Sydney rally, the families as ever fighting the good fight and all they ask is justice. These placards were left ootside Central where the corrosive smell of pepper spray lingered on. Not necessary.

As for ScomoGladys crew. If yer were serious aboot wanting folk not ter march yer could have done summit aboot it. Implement the recommendations from the Royal Commissions inter Deaths in Custody. Take folk ter court who are negligent or criminal in their actions when exercising duty of care. Take yer finger off the button of using polis ter exercise social control. Give yourself a pay cut. Create meaningful jobs that rebuilds infrastructure (not boost roads and stadiums). Talk ter unions as if yer mean it. Listen ter the people and in particular? The first people of the land.

"Doesn't justice stand for all in white society?" Steel Pulse from Handsworth Revolution as beamed down through me ear phones this morning...