The Barnsby Blog

TODAY BELONGS TO NASIR KHAN
I’ve sometimes thought of patenting. ‘Today belongs to’ and using it. In fact I have used it twice. Once,’Today belongs to Marx and Engels’ and the second, ‘Today belongs to Hugo Chavez and Evo Mores’.
Now I’m proposting to use it for my good friend and comrade Nasir Khan, devoted disciple to all four of the names mentioned but also a man entitled in his own right to have today named after him.
Nasir Khan is frrom Poonch in Kashmir. His father was a leading freedom fighter in Kashmir both for Socialism in that country and against the incursions of India and Pakistan. He spent many years in Kashmiri jails. His son, Nasir, fights for his father’s principles, but also adds his own characteristics.
Nasir moved from his native land to Norway where there was a better chance of having his two most important books published. These are, ‘Perceptions of Islam in the Christendoms, A Historical Survey’. and, ‘Development of the Concept and Theory of Alienation in Marx’s Writings March 1843 to August 1844′. Both are published by Solum Forlag the Norweigian publishers of Oslo. The books are distributed in the USA by International Specialised Books Inc and in Europe by Lavis Marketing, Oxford.
‘Perceptions’ established Nasir’s reputations as a leading scholar in this field. It showed how, starting in the eighth century Christian thelogians and authors laid the foundations of an anti-Islamic tradition that was to shape the relations between Christian and Muslim countries right up to the present.
‘Alienation’ comes with a forward by thr eminent Norwegian scholar Dag Osterberg Professor of Sociology in the University of Oslo.Osterberg says tnat Marx’ activity as a scientific and philosophic wrier extended over four decades - from the youthful first attempts to come to grips with social and political reality to the gigantic enterprise of his maturity.
Nasir Khan has devoted himself to the study of Marx’ early writing with special attention to his treatment of man’s alienation.
His study is not intended as an introduction to the study of the subject but for those who are already acquainted with Marx and Engels’ materialist conception of history and the concept of alienation as an aspect of human subjugation and suffering.
Heavy weather for most of us, but Nasir’s treatment of the subject is superb.
But this is only part of Nasir’s accomplishmens. He also runs a daily BLOG which I think is of equal merit and augments his status as the most important living authority of what I call Middle Asia - Kashmir, India and Pakistan.
Nasir learned of my BLOG and my historical writings and my 90th Birthday Party las January becmae a perfect time for us to meet in person and this cemented our friendsip.
Our latest joint venture has been to popularise Simon Jenkins’ statement that Obama is kikely to find that the war in Iraq is liable to be his Vietnam and I am full of admiration for Nasir’s speed and efficiency at a computer which allows him time to read.
This was the gist of his latest communication to me on 28 June when he said he had recently read Christopher Hill’s essay from Lollards to Levellers, John Saville’s Robert Owen on the Family and the Marriage System of the Old and Immoral World and Eric Hobsbawm’s The Historian’s Group of the Communist Party (Rebels and their Causes 1978).
He had only a sketchy view of William Morris from Marx’s writings but Saville’s paper is a comprehensive narative.
How envious I was of of Nasir having time to do all that reading whereas I in the sme period also read John Saville but I managed only 18 pages of John’s Memoirs of the Left which interested me greatly because he told of his pre-war years at the London School of Economics which i was to attend after the war and become the first working class secretary of the Communist Society.
But Nasir cemented his claim to be my Man of the Day when he states that our political work and struggle is not against any country or people but is in the interests of all the ordinarypeople everywhere. We stand for humanity, human values, human rights, peace and peaceful coexistence of the uman race. We are Communists and will stay like this till our last breath. Yes indeed comrade, we will.

MORE PEOPLE WHO WILL NOT TALK TO ME.
Have I misjudged Gordon Brown in thinking that he is an ordinary man troubled by being an accesory to the daily murder of innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan? He certainly isn’t responding to the billions of pounds that he is spending on wars which if he repudiated the wars would mean the the Economic Crisis would be at an end and he would be a national hero.
Nor have I heard from David Cameron the Tory leader who thinks he is going o be the next Prime Minister, but who talks on everything under the sun except his support of the war in Iraq and his refusal to reply to me which shows his utter contempt for the people he wishes to rule.
Nor have I heard from Sir Trevor Phillips, charged with being an unfit person to be in charge of race relations because he supports the war in Iraq.
No doubt this flagrant disregard for the laws of the land is the reason why journalists and broadcasters have given up questioning these common criminals and who have a living to earn no longer raise the question of Iraq. But we shall persist and say:

BE SURE YOUR SINS WILL FIND YOU OUT

CHECKING UP ON THE LAGGARDS.
If the new Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, can reply tomy emails then there is no reason why lesser mortals (I use that expressionfor those who do not recognise their obligations) should not do the same.
So I spent part of the day reminding those who need not merely a nudge but a clout around the ear.
I started with the most important man on earth Barak Obama. I had
greeted this man when he was the hope of all men, black and white , for radicalchange, but harked back to the times of Abraham Lincoln when he also was the hope of the world for radical change. On the election of Lincoln the International Working Men’s Association, based in London sent a letter congratulating him and assuring him that in the most important task of the day, the abolition of slavery, he could count on the support of the organisedworkers of the world. Unlike Obama (so far) Lincoln replied to this letter and said he would continue the policy on which he had been elected strengthened
by the knowledge that he was supported by the organised working men of the world. We decided to send the same letter to Obama and ask him to reply.and were told that so much mail arrived for the president that it might take six months to get a reply, so we might still get a reply, although one’s faith in the integrity of Obama has been broken since his inauguration.
The most important contribution concerning Obama has come from an article in the Guardian by Simon Jenkins stating that he is taking the same path as the US took with regard to the Vietnam war and unless Obama withdraws from Iraq, Afghanistan and other places he will suffer the same fate. I immediately emailed Simon Jenkins telling him that that I would put his article on all my contacts especially COPAM and would alert my good friend, Nasir Khan. Once Nasir was informed he had the article printed on all his contacts including Global Post International. We shall have to see how many people take up this matter now that Simon has raised it.

WOLVERHAMPTON CONTINUES TO REJECT FAME
Wolverhampton continues to squabble about a 13 million pound deficit when it is in the unique position of being able to field a coalition council of Tories and Labour opposed to the war in Iraq and Lib-Dems who hold the
balance of power who never supported the war in the first place. If they exercised this power, Gordon Brown would almost certainly be forced tofollow our example and the amount of money released by stopping the war would be so enormous that the Slump would disappear and the crisis in our socialservices could also be met. So the buck stops with Neville Paton the Tory leader of the Council and his colleagues of all three parties who refuse to reply to me ad quarrel among themselves.

KEITH WYMER .
I sent an email to the editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger today,
as follow: ‘Now that Keith Wymer is dead I hope that you will stop your
boycott of me and the Friends of Bilston Community College by accepting
that he was one of the most remarkable educationalists in Britain with a
world wide circle of admirers’.
The closure of BCC was one of the greatest educational scandals of the 20th century. It was the first multicultural college in Britain with 30% of staff from ethnic minorities and a similar proportion of ethnic minority pupils. Figures never before and never again reached anywhere in Britain. It was closed by racists and bigots who included David Blunkett and Estelle Morris, both Education Secretaries within a short time of each other not to mention the highest civil servants who supported the closure and the quangoes Further Education Funding Council and its successor Learning and Skills Council.
Time has run out again with much unfinished business in the pipe line, but :

THAT’S LIFE.

Ray in Spain, November 2007

I would now like to say a few words about dad’s life. These are based on my memories and so I will leave lots out that I don’t know about or have forgotten. So please interrupt me at any time to correct any mistakes, fill-in any gaps or just to add your own thoughts and memories.

I will start by asking his grandson Tom to read something written by dad about his early life.
He wrote this a couple of years ago as an exercise while learning to use a word processor. He studied at the IT Suite at the Chubb building in Wolverhampton, where Tom was an IT Trainer at the time.

Ray George – Personal Profile

1.Family background
Grandfather employed as a Master Baker in Malvern divorced his wife leaving her with two children. Maternal Grandfather was a Master Bricklayer.
Both Skilled working class Maternal Grandfather’s wife gave birth to 11 children 2 (twins) died.

2.Early years
Born 28/11/1928 – Tettenhall Wood near Wolverhampton.
Moved to New Cross area, opposite entrance to Workhouse 1932.
My father had a secure job in the Accounts department of the local newspaper whilst most of our neighbours were on and off dole for several years.
In 1935 my mother developed Familial Tremors and fainting fits and also became pregnant. Two aunts were moved in to help out.

3.Education
I started school over a month late due to chronic Bronchitis.
This recurred most winters until I was 11.
At the age of eleven I sat the notorious 11+ and obtained a marginal Pass which allowed me to attend Wolverhampton Municipal Secondary School on payment of a small fee each term. At least one fellow pupil was known to be better than the rest of the class at maths and science but his family could not raise the necessary finance.

We have dad’s secondary school reports.
He was top of the class in maths but, according to the headmaster, “it is clear handwriting must improve”

It was while at secondary school that dad joined the YCL, the Young Communist League, the youth section of the Communist Party.
This was in 1943 at the age of 14. We know this because last week we got a phone call from one of his comrades from that time, Max Bennet.
Max phoned to say he couldn’t make today’s memorial because of ill-health. However he did ask us to pass on his condolences to the family. He said a few kind words about dad, that Ray was loved and respected by many.  He went on to recall how they had first met in 1943 when we both joined the Young Communist League.

This was also the time that Ray met Marion, at a YCL meeting. I think mom was thirteen at the time.

I don’t know where dad got his political views from at such an early age.
He did tell me of a particular teacher at school who was a big influence. This teacher was a socialist and an admirer of the Soviet Union.
Also, dad grew up during the second world war. This was an incredibly politicising time. We were fighting against the hateful philosophy of fascism.
Our allies included the Soviet Union. After the first world war the Russian people had overthrown their ruling classes and built the world’s first workers state. In 1943 the Soviet army were starting to turn the tide against nazi Germany.
There was no way that the British people were going to allow a repeat of what happened after the first war when a “Land fit for heroes” turned out to be the depression and hunger marches of the 20s and 30s .
After the war there was the landslide Labour victory and the birth of the Welfare State. The British people had come out of the war believing another World is Possible. A World where ordinary, working people could be masters of their own fate. A World very different from the one created by the rich and powerful elites who ran the World for their own benefit, resulting in the horrors of war and in the obscene extremes of fantastic wealth for the few and grinding poverty and starvation for the millions. Dad spent much of his life making his contribution to making this Other World Possible.

Dad left school in 1945. He was a good scholar, leaving with the equivalent of 8 ‘O’ Levels. Of course, many of his fellow pupils at the Grammar School would continue on to ‘A’ Levels and university, but a working-class family at that time could never afford to support him for another five years.

In September 1945 he started his first job, at Goodyears in Wolverhampton.
His job was as a statistical clerk, using his mathematical skills.
Goodyears was a massive employer, making tyres that went around the world – in both senses. Now, 60 years on, like so much of our manufacturing base, Goodyears is gone.

He worked at Goodyears for six years, until 1951.
In those six years a number of things happened.
Dad did his National Service. I believe that NS was for two years starting at the age of 18 or 19. So dad must have done his around 1947 to 1949.
I don’t know much about his time doing NS. I don’t think he spent any time abroad.
I can remember only three things he told me:

• he was in the RAF
• he only went up in a plane once
• and the scariest time was one bonfire night when he was on guard duty at an ammunition dump with fireworks falling out of the sky around him

The other major event during his time at Goodyears was marrying Marion on the 23rd December 1950

In October 1951 dad changed jobs to work at Ever Ready, in Park Lane. He started at £6.10 a week as  a  Cost and Progress Clerk.
He worked for the same company until he retired in 1989 – 38 years.
He worked his way up from office clerk to factory manager.
In 1952 his first child was born, Steven. Four years later there were 3 sons. Then, after a gap of 5 years, he completed his family with a daughter, Sally.
We are now in the 60s. Ray has a large family to support and is progressing at work.
At the same time he is politically active and secretary of the Wolverhampton North East branch of the Communist Party. This was the time when the CP was standing in every ward in local elections and vying with the Liberal Party to be the third largest party.
As dad moved into management he became less politically active. There was no way that he would progress to senior management as a prominent communist, yet he needed promotion to provide for his family.
His views didn’t change though and he never left the Communist Party.
He still did plenty of political work:

• every local election he would  get us out helping to deliver leaflets. We would go into Northicote or Low Hill and dad would get the gangs of local kids drafted into delivering the election address of the Communist Party candidate
• every Xmas we would be at the Morning Star Bazaar, raising funds for the daily paper of the left
• he was a mentor to many of the younger comrades, there always seemed a member of the Young Communist League around the house having earnest political discussions with dad
• and of course he was always ready to make a financial contribution to the cash-strapped Party, with money for the national appeals, and to pay for the replacement of the local branch’s worn-out duplicating machine, used for producing leaflets, posters, meeting notices etc.

Dad’s two biggest political passions were Peace and anti-racism.
He argued and campaigned against nuclear weapons all his life. We have somewhere a photo of dad  pushing Sally in a pushchair on the annual Aldermaston march against nuclear weapons, the photo appeared on the front of the Express & Star. Over on the table is a photo taken a generation later on another anti-nuclear weapons demonstration, this time dad is with his grandchildren.
Dad hated racism in all its forms. He campaigned against Powell in the 60’s and the National Front in the 70’s. When he became a manager at the Ever Ready factory in Park Lane he recruited the first black workers to the factory. He ignored the warnings from fellow managers that this would cause racial conflict at the factory - he was proved right and the workforce soon became a harmonious racial mix.
In the mid 1980s dad became a prominent member of the campaign to prevent the deportation of Som Raj, an immigrant and photographer on the Express and Star. I think dad was secretary of the campaign. Som was married to a British woman and had 2 daughters born in the country. After many demonstrations and public meetings over several years the campaign was successful. And in April 2005 dad was delighted to be invited to the wedding of Som Raj’s eldest daughter, Anglika.
In the early 1980s dad was surprised by a passing remark from one of the Company directors along the lines that many of the directors had never fully trust dad, he being a lay member of the Communist Party. So, they had know all along!
After that dad was less worried about keeping his political head down. He organised the management and formed a branch of the Engineers and Managers Association (now called Prospect) a TUC-affiliated union. He was secretary of the branch until he retired and remained an active retired member afterwards.

Dad retired in 1989, three years after mom had retired.
He immediately bought a brand new campervan. He then built a brick-garage from scratch all by himself. Digging out the foundations, mixing the concrete and all the rest.
Mom and dad then spent much of the next ten years touring the UK and France - they were now holidaying big-time. He would disappear for 6 weeks at a time. In the summer this meant someone had to mow his lawns and since I lived the nearest I got the job. Still, there was some compensation. Dad had a big garden and I could take any fruit and veg. that needed harvesting. Dad loved his garden and his marrows were particularly good. If I was lucky the strawberries would ripen before they got back. But this was rare, he somehow always managed to get back just before they were ready to pick!
One of the highlights of their decade of holidays was 3 months in New Zealand from November 1995 to February 1996. Dad planned the holiday like a military operation. In New Zealand he hired a car and bought all new camping gear. At the end of the 3 months he returned the car and gave away the camping gear to a local charity. They had a wonderful time touring the two islands, meeting the local people and watching whales from a boat - something my mom had always wanted to do.

After New Zealand it became clear that mom was not well. Over the next ten years she got progressively worse as Alzheimer’s took its inevitable course. All the time dad cared for the woman he had loved for so long. When the house got too much they moved into a bungalow where it was easier to care for mom. It was there that dad met and befriended his new neighbour Ernie, who we are pleased to see here today. Ernie shares dad’s great love of gardening and helped dad with his new, now much smaller garden.

Dad was not well himself. He had developed Parkinsons Disease. It became clear that his own health was suffering as he tried the impossible task of almost single-handedly looking after someone in the late stages of Alzheimer’s. Even with the help of the family, especially Sally who went part-time to help, it became too much. He took some persuading, we all know how stubborn Ray was, but we moved mom into a nursing home for her last year. Dad would visit her every day, travelling by bus or Ring-and-Ride.

While mom was in the nursing home dad took the opportunity to take some well-deserved holidays. We, his sons and daughters, took him to various places including a weekend at Eric & Jean’s caravan in Wales, on the same site we had all camped many years before. In 2005 he spent a weekend under canvas with me and his grandson Tom, the three of us in one tent, camping at the back of the best pub in Wales. In the evenings in the pub he thrashed me and Tom at cards, after claiming he couldn’t remember how to play Russian Rummy!

After mom died dad started an IT Course at the Chubb building in Wolverhampton. After one training session dad attended a public meeting in the building to commemorate the abolition of slavery. When it came to question time dad reminded everyone that slavery still existed in the World and rather than congratulating ourselves for its abolition in Britain 200 years ago, we should be campaigning against modern slavery.

Dad got himself a new passport in September 2007 he and once again went abroad for a holiday. This time it was visiting Belinda and Rob in their home in Spain. Dad had a whale of a time, one of the highlights being a ride on the back of Rob’s motorbike - the first time he had been on a motorbike for many a year.

In September 2006 dad made his first visit to Sally and Malcolm’s smallholding in small island of Westray in Orkney. After the visit he started to consider moving up there, attracted by the quiet, the wildlife, the fishing and the chance of having a small corner of the 8 acres for his garden.
The following year he spent a three-month trial on the island and decided he would move there.
So, in May last year Ray started his last great adventure. He threw an emigration party here and off he went, with all his worldly belongings in a large van - mainly records, books, photos and plants.

Sally would now like to say a few words about dad’s time in Orkney.

When I asked dad if would like to move to Orkney he jumped at the chance.
After several heartbreaking years of caring for his wife Marion he welcomed the challenge of what he called “One last Adventure”.
And, although by the time he did eventually come up to Orkney permanently his health had deteriorated, he did have his “last adventure” and enjoyed  his time up there.
Dad loved fishing and while Up North he had a number of opportunities to fish both on land and at sea, the latter being the more fruitful of the two.
Despite my attempts to “mollycoddle” him he could often be seen taking off down the beach with his rods, his trolley and his flask for a morning’s fishing.
Even in the last 6 months when he was quite frail he would still like to walk the 2 miles round-trip to the local shop for a yarn, his Radio Times and his weekly supply of cakes and biscuits.
Dad made many new friends on Westray and I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who have sent messages of condolence and shared their happy memories of Ray with me. He will be very much missed by lots of people on the island.

Raymond George was a kind, generous loving man.
He touched the lives of everyone he met and I am proud to have known him and been part of his life.

Sadly my daughter Amy can’t be here today but she has written a poem for me to read about his last Xmas which we all spent at our local hotel – Cleaton House.

GRANDAD

Glenfidich, Drambuie,
Morangie and Bells,
‘What the hell, whiskey is whiskey’ he stands up and yells

For 24 years I have known his as quiet,
’till this Christmas Day he sat by the fire,
A dram in one hand, a smile on his face,
He sang songs with Eric, keeping the pace,
With the other he tapped out the beat to the tune,
Sporadically laughing ‘Oh what a boom’

We decided to quiz – Girls versus Boys,
Tone was the Quiz Master – Controlling the noise,
For we were quite drunk and getting quite loud.
Especially Grandad sitting there proud,
He knew the answers to every question,
But someone had obviously forgotten to mention,
That this was a quiz where you wrote them all down,
For he’d shout out the answers and Malcolm would frown.

There are many things I will miss about you,
Happy memories and sad ones too,
Orange Plastic Cups,weird loo paper and soap,
Lemon biscuits and mixed nuts, to name but a few.
All bring me hope,
That I live to be half the person you were,
Your Spirit lives on, of that I am sure,
In the family you have raised in such a great way.
I will miss you Grandad
GOODBYE

(Amy George 21st June 2009)

Malcolm couldn’t make it today, having pigs and chickens and geese and dogs and cats to look after. In his absence I would like to say a big thank you to Malcolm for helping to look after my dad over the last year. When he married Sally 5 years ago he can’t have bargained for having to look after an 80-year old with failing health. He has been a star, as much as any devoted son.

Malcolm writes an internet blog where he records the highs and lows of a sports writer on the Express & Star in Wolverhampton giving it all up to restore a run-down croft and raise pigs on a tiny island on the edge of Scotland. Malcolm’s latest blog is a tribute to dad. I will finish my talk with the reading of Malcolm’s tribute. I have asked Colin to read it out, because I think any of the family would having trouble finishing it off through the tears.

http://the-edge-of-nowhere.blogspot.com/2009/06/ray.html

Martin George 21st June 2009

A LETTER FROM THE SPEAKER.
A very nice letter this morning from John Berkow the new Speaker of
the House of Commons. He asked Peter Barrett, his Assistant Secretary tothank me for my kind words following his election and asked him to reply.
He explained that the Speaker is not able to initiate debates which
falls within the remit of the Government. In addition back bench Members are able to apply for a limited number of certain types of debates which are then drawn from a ballot. Mr.Speaker therefore suggests that I write to my own member of Parliament, Rob Marris Esq. MP in order to make my views known to him.
I immediately replied to the Speaker under the heading of, ‘A New Type of Speaker’, thanking him for his reply. I also commended his use of second class mail to reply to non-urgent correspondence and said I was already in touch with my MP Rob Marris who could well take a leaf out of John Bercow’s book and in future send replies to my non-urgent correspondence second class. Iintended to end my le-mail but forgot by congratulating him on his natty choice of gents civilian suits instead of the musty wig and gown

A LETTER FROM OFCOM.
Ofcom sent me an email some weeks ago answering my complaints that they had not disciplined the BBC and Channel 4 for not disciplining their employees, Jeremy Paxman, Andrew Marr, Kirsty Wark, Martha Kearney and Jon Snow for not questioning Blair on the war in Iraq and thus provided Blair with an excuse for joining Bush’s illegal and racist war. This letter made some attempt to absolve OFCOM from any blame in this matter. Unfortunately I have lost the letter and I am reduced to asking OFCOM if they can provide me with another copy of their letter. The only excuse I can offer for losing the letter is that these things happen to a ninety year old and ask pardon for bothering them.

A LETTER TO THE GUARDIAN.
The Guardian newspaper has for long operated a boycott on publishing anything submitted by me or by Friends of Bilston Community College. This is not in keeping with the liberal traditions of the paper and is an infringement of human rights. I therefore sent them an email yesterday saying that now Keith is dead that they cease their boycott by accepting that he was one of the most remarkable educationalists in Britain with a world wide circle of admirers. I also requested that they reply to me.

LETTERS TO ME.
Just to show that I practice what I preach I have received a letter
today from an organisation many of whose activities I can scarcely approve, but which seems to have its heart in the right place by condemning the war in Iraq.
It comes from a Bob Bloomfield of London. who prints what he calls G.I. Joe’s Newsletter of July 2008 which begins thus. It ain’t so hard to get into women’s knickers. The hard bit is getting into their heads. Second page, no numbering:If ever the people are ever to get a square deal we have to take all the politicians and ’so-called’ money experts and shoot them down like mad dogs. Don’t fight to live, live to fight. Smash the system that is killing you and your family. All power to the people and the Communist Workers Movement world wide.
Page 3 has a red flag emblem and a heading - Communist Workers Centre Bermondsey London. It goes on The Labour Party is not the party of labour but serves the workers masters Capitalism.
Black and White must unite in our common fight. How can the mass of the people (90%) keep supporting this evil system they will never be free..
So there it is -support Workers Communism with a killer policy greater than any anarchist advocated.
But then page 5: ‘Support our campaign to get a 25% discount for pensioners at local massage parlours. We may be old but we still have needs’ and it is signed Bob Bloomfield, Aged 84, ex-army19421947.
And so to page 6. The last page. This is an attack on the CPB as
an official state communist party and a paper seeking respectability not
revolution
So there it is. A one man band? Certainly an old man of energy and what ever you think, a man that the GB Working Class Library will publicise but not necessarily support.

WOLVERHAMPTON CITY COUNCIL WALLOWING IN MISERY.
This is the ultimate fate of those who will not reply to
correspondence. Here is the one City council in Britain capable of forming a council of anti-Iraq war councillors from Labour and Conservative anti-war councillors as well as Lib-Dems who never did support it. If they did this Brown would have to follow suit and such a flood of money would be released that nobody would have to worry about such as a piffling thing as a thirteen million overspend which the Council will have to squabble about next week. And these are the people who profess a high regard for Wolverhampton’s
reputation and which has a special department to join with the GB Working Class Library and Free Communist Bookshop to promote Wolverhampton as the :

CITY OF CULTURE, EDUCATION, SPORT AND BUSINESS FOR 2010

ANOTHER SHORT BLOG.
Today’s BLOG will be short, not only because of continuing fears that it will be erased by the phantom destroyer, but also because I have spent most of the day at the dreaded New Cross Hospital being reminded of how and why I detest the place, but also by being surprised how many people agree with me when I put the causes of my grievances to them. This is not a complaintagainst the people who work at New Cross who are invariably competent,kindly and patient with the elderly people like me with whom they will increasing have to deal
in the future as the David Loughton, chief of New Cross Hospital. He was an inefficient chief executive of Coventry and Warwickshire hospitals and resigned before he was sacked and was promptly taken on at New Cross. Who proposed this I have never been able to find out, but the whole Hospital Board were responsible for his appointment. At the time, New Cross was heavily indebted and he seemed to be obsessed with a single idea; that the Wolverhampton Eye Infirmary should be taken over,its status as a listed building would have to be recognised, but the Eye Infirmary should be moved into New Cross Hospital and the building sold and however much or little it
realised could go to meeting New Cross debt.
The problem with that scheme was that the Eye Infirmary had no example of the most dangerous infectious diseases MESA or Cdifficile whereas New
Cross was rife with such diseases and the problem was that if an eye patient caught either of these diseases they were much more likely than other patients to die. And I immediately said that if an Eye Patient died I would consider Loughton guilty of manslaughter but other matters intervened.
There had been an enormous campaign to preserve the Eye Infirmary in Compton Rd. with a petition of many thousands, but to no avail. The site at Chapel Ash was acquired by a shady country wide building conglomerate called St.Modwens. But before they could do much damage their money ran out and the site boarded up which is how it remains - a ruin and eyesore on one of the most important routes into the City.
What needs to be done is the Eye Infirmary moved back to Chapel Ash and there is enough land to re-create one of the most efficient optical units in Britain. But of course, now we have a slump in which all important projects in Britain are at a standstill including the most important one of Wolverhampton Low Level Station.

TODAY AT NEW CROSS.
Well, as I started to say , an ambulance called for me at 1-20pm to
take me to the cardiac department to be fitted up with gadgets that will act as a 24 hour heartpacer. Just a two minute job, but it involved waiting around and I tried trying to snooze, and I was beginning to need food for my diabetes but woke up as I thought a man who was with a very old woman was saying that she had been on the infamousJapanese railway building on the River Kwai and as I was in Burma during the war, I pricked up my ears. It turned out that I was mistaken, but the man who I later learned was named John McCarroll was not only sympathetic to my complaints about the eye infirmary but was also, like me, something of a history buff and he told me some remarkable stories. The man on the Kwai was a long term reporter on the Express and Star called Love. He left papers at the Express and Star telling
of his experiences and I was invited to see Peter Rhodes and ask to see
Love’s papers which I will certainly do. Further conversation revealed that some one connected with him had lessons with Percy Young the noted musicologist and linguist who used to go to Moscow and Budapest with the great Wolverhampton Wanderers team in the 1950s as an interpreter. Percy beamed the chair of the Wolverhampton Race Equality Council which I was also connected and both of us know Renee his American widow who is still alive. A kindred soul had been met and the old adage of what a small world this is.had again been demonstrated. The upshot is that John is now on my email list and will receive this BLOG tonight
TELLING BROWN AND OTHERS THAT THEY MUST REPLY TO ME

:

REPUDIATE WAR
Dear Prime Minister
We know that you are a humane and religious man and that wars and the slaughter of so many innocent people must hang heavy on your conscience.
But I wish to suggest to you that you have the remedy in your own hands, and
indeed you are the only person in the world who can remedy most of the
problems facing the world.
How? Repudiate the war in Iraq, and bring our troops home
If you were to do this it would release such an enormous flow of cash that the present economic crisis would be solved with enough left over to fundour social services.
Moreover you would be back on the moral side of the people of Britain who are opposed to the war in Iraq and your recklessness in retaining a nuclear strategy.
On the personal side you would become the most popular person in
Britain instead of a man hunted , harassed and despised and save the seats of your fellow Labour MPs and revive the fortunes of the Labour Party at presentfaced with extinction.
Please join the ranks of those who are for Peace and Multiculturalism and
REPUDIATE THE WAR IN IRAQ

GEORGE BARNSBY
90 year old pioneer of
GB Working Class Library and Free Communist Bookshop

CYRIL SMITH’S FUNERAL.
Here is a short account of the celebration of the life of Cyril. A full
account will be put on the Web as soon as possible and will join the
section of Midlands Communists already recorded.
Cyril’s was a Humanist Funeral Ceremony at Bushbury Crematorium on the 17th June 2009 and the Celebrant was Wendy Weavin of the British Humanist Association and Co-operative Funeral Care of Bloxwich was the Funeral Director.After an introduction by Wendy and Music:Nessum Dorma - Pavarottione of Cyril’s grand daughters? Carrie then recited a four verse poem requested by
the family of which here I shall just give the first verse: When I come to
the end of the road/and the sun has set for me / I want no rites in a gloom filled room/ Why cry for a soul set free?
Cyril’s younger brother Norman then spoke of their experiences together around the age of 11 when Cyril taught Norman to play chess but Cyril’s passion for the game got them both in trouble. In later years when they both worked together at Laystalls they played table tennis and snooker at Landywood Club and tennis at Blakenall Park and TP Riley school at Bloxwich which was remarkable because he was then well into his seventies!
Wendy then related some of the events in his life as told to her by his family.
He was born 85 years ago in Darlaston. His first school was the Board
School at Darlaston and he then moved to Darlaston Central School which he left at 14. He then worked with brother Vic at Union Locks Willenhall but after a while went to Laystall Engineering where he served for many years asa shop steward. After becoming one of Laystall’s longest serving employees he took early retirement at the age of 62.
Cyril was married to Gwendoline at Walsall Registry Office in 1946 and both joked that they went together on the bus. They had two children, Colin and Betty and were happily married for 53 years before Gwendoline died in 1999.
Andy Goodall, a CPB organiser was the next speaker and stressed Cyril’s devotion to the Party not only over the past 50 years, but also more recently when he succeeded in helping to breathe new life into Party organisation in Walsall.in the present situation.
The celebration ended with the singing of Jerusalem and Frank Sinatra’s I did it My Way and Wendy closed the proceedings by reminding all that death was always a tragedy and hard to bear, but a small price to pay for a life as grand as Cyril’s.

HONOUR TO CYRIL SMITH - LIFE LONG COMMUNIST

A SHORT BLOG AGAIN TO NIGHT.
The computer is still playing up and wiping out my material. Fortunately
damage has been limited by yesterday’s BLOG appearing on my website, but
whether this can be repeated if this disappears tonight. I don’t know.

JUSTICE FOR THE SHREWSBURY TWENTY FOUR PICKETS.
I was very pleasantly surprised to learn the Shrewsbury and Telford
Trades Union Council was still running a campaign for justice for the
building workers imprisoned for conspiracy in the 1970s They are staging a
March against State Conspiracy on Saturday 4 July in Shrewsbury . Assemble
10-30am at Abbey Foregate car park. March off 11 am and rally at 12 noon at
Shrewsbury Council Offices (Monument) Speakers will include Arthur
Scargill, Ricky Tomlinson (jailed picket) and Rob Williams (S.Wales Convenor
PCS Union and Shrewsbury Justice Campaign. A Social event after at the
Unison Club with refreshments, music and progressive ideas!
The leaflet goes on to say that during the 1970s building workers were
framed, sent to jail and fined as a warning to other workers not to engage
in struggle. As the present recession deepens workers will be forced into
struggle in defence of wages, jobs and services. How will the leaders react
this time and what will our leaders do? Let us expose the conspiracy that
surrounds the Shrewsbury trials and be better prepared for what is fast
approaching,

OFSTED REPLIES.
Ofsted replied to me today and answered some of my questions. So simple
and easy.Why do so many others not reply? My BLOG is intact tonight and I
shall send it shortly. I had a fall today. Fortunately it was outside my own
house and I was quickly rescued, but I shall be happy to get to bed just
after midnight.

SLEEP PERCHANCE TO DREAM

nn

MORE TROUBLE WITH THE BLOG.
Just as I thought I woulde get an early night when I returned to my
computer after dinner, I find all my work has been wiped out again and I
must make a summary of what has been lost and this will prevent me getting to bed early, even if this second edition is not also wiped out.
Item No 1 was my congratulations to John Bercow for his election as the Speaker to the House of Commons which brings nearer a constituional and peaceful resolution of the removal of Gordon Brown and the election of an anti-Iraq war Prime Minister. Luckily that was put on my BLOG so everyone is able to down load it.
Item No.2. was my thanks to my great friend Nasir Khan for saving me from a fundamental error when I wrote last night night of one of the greatest events of the twentieth century - the Invasion of the Soviet Union by Hitler, who thereby signed his own suicide note but I managed to get the year wrong, 1942 instead of 1941 and would have been most embarrassed had it not been for my good friend Nasir Khan who must have been just about the first person to read the BLOG and he put me right.
Item No.3 was the British Pensioner and Trades Union Action Association Bulletin whose secretary is Ann Green of 12 Aubern House, Aikman Av. Leicester LE3 9JN. That was as far as I had got and I am not going any further in case this version is also wiped. Butt I was going to end with the slogan:

HONOUR THE SOVIET PEOPLE WHO WERE SOME OF THE FIRST TO EXERCISE PEOPLE’S POWER

FORGOTTEN - ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST EVENTS - 22 JUNE 1942 HITLER INVADESTHE SOVIET UNION..
Am I the only one to remember and celebrate the day Hitler invaded the Soviet Union and signed his own death warrant? I’ve heard no mention of the event today from anyone. Not the papers I’ve read and the radio I’ve listened to nor the television I’ve watched. Not even Stop the War Coalition mentions it largely because its website has just been hacked and they’ve had set up a temporary one, similar but different:Web http://stopwar.org.uk .Other details remain the same including email office@stopwar.org.uk
Not even the Society for Co-operation in Russian and Soviet Studies
remembered the Great Patriotic War and advertised a Russian Culture Day onthe 22ns June supported by the Embassy of the Russian Federation and a 2009 Year of Young People. These events take place on Sunday 28 June 2009 at the Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square London WC1R 4Rl from 2pm to 5 and everyone is welcome. The public are asked to dress in Russian Costumes. Excellent fare, comrades. But how about mentioning the war at this event and it is not too late to make a press release today.
But this event helped change my life and that of millions of others in
Europe and elsewhere. So I’m going to repeat why this event is so etched in my memory and repeat more or less what I have written on every 22 June sincI have had a computer.
At the time of he attack I was serving with the 139 Field Ambulance in
the 56th London Division near to Canterbury where with a group of soldiers from my Unit we made contact with the Red Dean of Canterbury, the Rev.Hewlett Johnson and attended sessions on current affairs taken by his secretary a Mr.D’Eye.
When the Second World War broke out Communists and progressives,
like myself, followed the dictat of Comrade Stalin that the war was an
imperialist one and he signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of friendship withGermany which was intended to prevent an attack by both Germany and herallies and Neville Chamberlain and his fellow Appeasers who still ruled Britain and whose intentions were to allow the Germans to attack and destroythe Soviet Union which would leave the British Empire intact and greatly strengthened.
It was a bitter pill to swallow, particularly we Communists and
progressives had been the backbone in building Popular Fronts in England and France particularly,to prevent the Second World War. Another factor must also be mentioned. In 1938 the Soviet Union had demanded the cession of a small piece of land from the Finns allowing them to retain a much larger area further north which the Finns refused. So the Russians attacked Finland and appeared to have the greatest difficulty in beating ‘poor littleFinland’ which in fact was ruled by a dictator Mannerheim who Hitler supplied with arms and money to build a Mannerheim Line and anti-Soviet propaganda told the tale of Russian soldiers ragged and inefficient and the Soviet Union a country incapable either of building Socialism or able to defend itself.
It was in this sort of situation that I grew up and had to
make a choice of which side to support.
The work of Hewlett Johnson was not only to write the Socialist Sixth of the World which became and remains one of the great books of the world explaining the alternative society to capitalism which the Soviet Union was building, but also a lesser known book ‘Soviet Strength its Source and Challenge’
published in 1942 which told of Britain under Capitalism and war and
compared it with the world the Soviet Union was building
This was the state of the world on Tuesday 22nd June 1941 when Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. Five days later there was a church parade of our Division at which the Dean of Canterbury preached the sermon. In that week Winston Churchill, by then Prime Minister in place of Chamberlain announced that he would support the Soviet Union and the man who had been reviled preached a sermon of hope. After the service I found myself with a group of soldiers including high ranking offices to which my Communist beliefs had evidently percolated for I was asked, ‘How much respite do you think the Soviet Union offers us? I was proud to announce to them that Hitler’s attack on the Soviet Union had made allied victory certain which surprised them.
It was a close run thing however, the Soviet Union fighting virtually
alone against the German hordes, the British having taken what seemed the softer option of invading the Middle East and fighting the armies of Rommel.
During that summer and autumn the news was only of Russian defeats while the Germans advanced deep into Russia laying waste the country and committed atrocities on the population. So that when I came on leave near to Xmas 1941 I saw a newspaper headline as I came out of an underground station which read, ‘Russian Winter halts German Armies,’ and I cried with relief for both the Russians and for us and realised that with the immense admiration of the British people for the Russians’ courage and achievements my promise was being fulfilled .
So honour the Soviet men and women who were among the first to employ:

PEOPLES POWER.

RAY GEORGE AND KEITH WYMER.
It promised to be a most intriguing day when Esme woke up with pains and giddiness and was obviously unable to take me to Ray George’s Memorial Meeting at 3pm that day. A telephone call to Ray established that someone would call and pick me up at 2-30 but I wasn’t told who. Esme had prepared a show case to go with the promised exhibition of photos of Ray and the pictures have been left with Martin, Ray’s second son who will sort them out and put them on my BLOG for me. Esme’s pictures came from a Daily Worker
Bazaar which was held at Enid Balshaw’s house on the Penn Rd.
Wolverhampton showing Ray George playing with my then infant first son Robert Owen Barnsby. Others in the pictures included the idiosyncratic Communist old man Pop Lindsay who never wore socks and whose wife had been an important social worker in
Wolverhampton and whose Communist daughter Elizabeth had married Johnny Hazlehurst who was a draughtsman in Wolverhampton in TASS
and who was a member of the Young Communist League.
I have been most disappointed not to have been able to find anything on Ray under his name in my History of Wolverhampton Communism on my website when I’m convinced there is material somewhere, so here is something else
for me to recall ‘YCL’ and if that fails ‘W’ton CP’ and I
might be able to find this information before I send this blog - or I might
not.
When some one did call to pick me up it was Ray’s first son, Steven
who I recognised because he was so like his father but my poor memory let me down until he talked of delivering the Daily Worker with his father and going to Daily Worker Bazaars and being a member of the YCL and the Party until recent years and his wish to attend Bilston Community College and he was as upset as anyone at the recent unexpected death of Keith Wymer, its former principal and as determined as the rest of us to get restored Community
Education in Wolverhampton.
This afternoon’s affairs were presided over by Martin George, Ray’s
second son, who is my Webmaster and keeper of my computer in order who had in his hands a sheaf of papers concerning Ray which he will later see goes on my Blog. This revelation of the life and times of Ray was obviously interesting because it aroused much lattention and some laughter but which I, even with my hearing aid in could not share and indeed I was feeling rather fragile by then and needing something to eat because of my diabetes. But Martin’s speech was interrupted by ad libs from all four of his brothers and sisters which created more laughter. Alan, Ray’s third son also made an interesting speech about his father which I did understand from notes he had written which he has promised to make a typed copy of since he is not a
computer man.
Comrades from the Communist Party of Britain also attended who had also been at Cyril Smith’s funeral two days earlier which I also had not been able to attend because of Esme’s attacks. I had phoned Betty, Cyril’s daughter, earlier today because I had not heard from her and Andy Goodall although they had promised to let me know who attended the funeral and also what was happening to Cyril’s papers and books. Betty told me that she was bearing up ovr the loss of her father and had been obliged to the comrades of the CPB who had been splendid in having the funeral conducted as Cyril
would have wished including a Red Flag to drape on the coffin and a Morning Star inside the coffin. Later in the day the same CPB comrades expressed their admiration for Betty who had gone to such pains to see that her father’s wishes were carried out, although she was not a political animal.
The next job for Betty is to bring Cyril’s papers (which are pretty
voluminous) and books over to me and determinetogether what goes into the GB Working Class Library as Cyril wished what Betty might want to keep and what goes into the Free Communist Bookshop. There is no particular hurry about this and it might be done by instalmentswhen I shall be very pleased to meet her personally which I have not done yet having missed the funeral and she might
be brought here by Cyril’s grandson who shared his grandfather’s political views and who I shall also be pleased to meet personally.
Similar questions arise about Ray George’s books and papers but his
children’s political contacts are such as to ensure not only that they come here to the GB Working Class Library, but the more important question of what happens when I die and how the documents in it can be preserved for posterity.
The time is now 12-30am on Monday and I prefer to leave matters at that.
Conscious that we have today:

HONOURED TWO SPLENDID COMRADES - RAY GEORGE AND CYRIL SMITH