Saturday 20 August 2011

MOBILISE raises the roof with anti-cuts poetry - Sat 20 August


Not content with having the actual POET LAUREATE Carol Ann Duffy giving TWO special readings today (3pm and 5.30pm - get down here now!) at our final day of MOBILISE: The Anti Cuts Festival on Edinburgh Fringe - we are bringing poetry and campaigning together again tonight in a SPECIAL SNEAK PREVIEW of the UNISON-commissioned poem  For the People by Glastonbury Festival poet-in-residence Tony Walsh, aka Longfella.

Tony will read the hard-hitting anti-cut poem tonight as part of the MOBILISE show which begins at 8.30. We expect the poetry performance to take place around 10pm - so be here, have a drink, have a laugh, have some fun... and get inspired.

Come along to Fringe Venue 138 - UNISON Office, Belford Road and join in - campaigning can be fun.


(NB If you can't make it you can read the whole poem below.)



Activate, agitate, debate, laugh, mobilise
Mobilise is on all week from Sat 13 - Sat 20 August. Tickets for the evening's entertainment (£6/£4) are available at www.mobilisefestival.co.uk or 0131 226 0053 or on the door at UNISON Offices, Douglas House, 60 Belford Road, Edinburgh EH4 3UQ - map here www.mobilisefestival.co.uk/where-are-we.
All other events are FREE!

Cafe/wine Bar open all day and until 11pm

For more Mobilise Festival information please contact Nancy Kelly on 07904 342230 or the UNISON Press Office. Find out more at UNISON Scotland website: www.unison-scotland.org.uk/mobilise11



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FOR THE PEOPLE
by Tony Walsh (aka Longfella)

commissioned in 2011 by UNISON The public services union



I was asked to write a poem on behalf of public services 

And I’m proud to be allowed to and I want to get the hurt in this
And I want to get some truth in here and to get behind the mysteries
And to think about the future here from lessons in our histories

And I want some recognition of my colleagues who have served 

And to show the demolition of what this country still deserves
And I want to ask the nation, see the real cause of the trouble
Not to fight us but unite with us, our struggle is your struggle

And so this… is for the people:

And so this is for the people who are shouting at tv 

With “It’s good to hear that somebody is speaking up for me!”
And so this is for the people who are crying over bills 

And the water rates can drown them and the gas bill gives them chills

And so this is for the people who are turning off the heating
For the voiceless and the choiceless cos it’s either that or eating
And so this is for the people who are looking at the banks 

Asking “How come they’re still motoring, when we’ve got empty tanks?”

And so this is for the people who are feeling like a victim 

In the fall out from the bailout of a failed financial system 
And so this is for the people who’re denied by student loans 
Those who scrimp and save but still can’t raise enough for decent homes

And so this is for the people who are frightened in their pelts
But you’re tightening your nooses while we’re tightening our belts
And so this is for the children as the future of our nation 

So let’s talk of value not of cost and fund their education

And so this is for the people who have seen their gateways closed
When the local vocal folk who spoke were choked until they froze
And so this is for the people for whom libraries saved their lives
Shouting “throw the book at those who look to cut us with their knives”

And so this is for the people who know lives are saved by culture
But have seen the arts all torn apart by Philisitines and vultures
And so this is for the people who are being demonised 

Being scapegoats just to scrape votes for these peddlers of lies

And so this is for the people who are learning that the truth
Is “decimation, decimation, decimation” is your message to our youth
And so this is for the people who stood up for our conditions
Through the centuries of injustice and the Tory opposition 



And so this is for the people and their strikes to get us welfare
Win equality and dignity, win us pensions and our health care
And so this is for the people who fought hard until they died
Against the poverty and indignity of working people’s lives 



And so this is for the people who campaigned for women’s rights
For contraception, votes and childcare, equal pay and all those fights
And so this is for the people who remember in our bones 

How we fought against injustice and the right to decent homes

And so this is for the people who are turning in their graves
At the assaults on their advances for a dignified old age 

And they think we don’t remember this! They think that we’ve forgotten! 
And swap centuries of progress for their fast race to the bottom

And so this is for the people who give years of dedication 

In the thankless tasks and all they ask is modest compensation
And so this is for the people in our cities and our towns 

In our shires and in the valleys, in our glens and hills and downs

For the vital public services, the needs in our communities 

Those providers who provide us with so many opportunities 
And so this is for the carers who work the hardest of us all 
Day after day after night after day and who catches when they fall?

And so this is for the people who need help to get them dressed
And for those who smile while all the while they wipe your mother’s mess
So don’t talk to me of “cushy” like the Tory press have tried
Because for thousands upon thousands – it’s still barely dignified

And so this is for the people who can spot divisive fools 

Setting worker against worker. There they go, divide and rule.
But we know that stood together is our strongest, safest bet
But they’ve bought us off with trinkets which they’ve sold to us with debt 



And so this is for the people who are aching every day 
For someone to say to Cameron just what I’m about to say 
And so this is for the people at the rough end of your smooth
Those who know that you are lying when your lips begin to move

And so this is for the people who are spitting blood and thunder
When you drop the ball, we watch appalled, another thud and blunder
And so this is for the people who are bitten hard and raw 

In this rumble in your jungle which is blue in tooth and claw

And so this is for the people who are deafened by the screams
In their daily living nightmare world of Maggie Thatcher’s dreams
And so this is for the people at the sharp end in eighties 

Weren’t invited to the nasty party, learned what Tory hate is

And so this is for the people who recoil Clause 28 

And your “Hang Nelson Mandela badges” a part of all the hate.
And so this is for the people who can see through all your games
Yes, you’ve hired a smiley choirboy but the songs are still the same

And he’ll happily kiss babies but he flatters and deceives 

Says “I mean it most sincerely, folks.” Then batters us and leaves.
And you’re still the nasty party and you’re party clothes are fake
So don’t expect us to respect you when you throw us crumbs of cake

And so this is for the people who first formed the NHS 

Against the fierce opposition from, go on – I’ll let you guess!
And so this is for the people who see Cameron roll his sleeves
And he can wash his dirty hands all day. It’s poison when he breathes!

And so this is for the people who see Lansley picking sores 

With his answers filled with cancers which his snakeoil never cures.
And so this is for the people who regret the choice they made
When they voted liberal democrat and now they’ve been betrayed

And so Nick Clegg, if you’re listening, can you hear your people weep?
Can you hear the people crying? Does your conscience let you sleep?
And so “Stand up to the Tories, Nick!” the voters cry and bellow
But by now they’ve seen you’re blue not green and, like your tie, you’re yellow

And you’ve weasel words and even worse your pledges were all hollow
And they “agreed with Nick” but now they’re sick, they see you suck and swallow
And the ruthless, truthless Tories do the same old Tory things
You’re their puppets now you Muppets! And they’re pulling all your strings

And so this is for the people who you smile at as you fail 

But your throats will slit on voting slips with a cross against betrayal
And so this is for the people who can see a global story 

For the mud stained and the blood stained who can see no hope or glory

And so this is for the people as you prostitute the earth 

Who are destitute but resolute against your sense of worth 
And so this is for the people who have heard you make an oath
To make sustainable attainable in a system based on growth!? 



And so this is for the people know that that remains unseen 
There’ll be camels through a needle’s eye first! Do you think we’re green?
And so this is for the people who just look and look again 

And can only see a government of privileged white men 


And so this is for the people who can see you’re millionaires
In your spivvy suits and in cahoots with shady billionaires 

And so this is for the people who can see you’re in the thrall
Of the trillionaires and zillionaires who are squeezing our …Town Halls

And they’ve kidnapped all our futures and they’re holding us to ransom
And they’re screwing knives in ruined lives unless we pay them handsome
And they’ll measure this in misery, they’ll measure this in debt
And they’ll measure this in poverty, they’ll measure this in deaths

And they’ll measure this in ghost towns and closed down old communities
They’ll measure this in hauntings from the ghosts of opportunities
But our grandchildren will judge this as a criminal deceit 

And they will take the corpse of justice and they’ll lay it at your feet

And Osbourne, Clegg and Cameron flash their blades like cavaliers
With the rapiers and the cutlasses of mad free marketeers 

And they genuflect to Thatcher but in truth they’re even worse
As they rob the poor to feed the rich like Robin Hood reversed

And we see them in Cathedrals hiding blood stains on their pslams
What did Jesus do to moneylenders? Now there’s a call to arms!
They’re just the storm troopers of blitzkrieg, economic shock and awe

But it’s shocking and it’s awful, and we’re not taking any more

And so this is or the people who refuse to be a pawn 

To be money shots on honey pots in economic porn 
And we see their countenance malign and their dark satanic ills
But we’re rising from our slumbers and we’ll chase them to the hills


And so this is for the people who are standing to be counted 
For the decent men and women and the campaigns being mounted 
And so this is for the people who would join us if they dared
Our unvanquishable numbers will soon have them running scared



And so again, I ask the nation, see the real cause of the trouble
Please don’t fight us, help unite us. 

Our struggle is your struggle


And so this is for the people and the soul of William Blake 
And the spirit of our forebears and the world they tried to make


And they tied a blood red ribbon around the scroll that tells us how
And they fought so we could read it, and by God, we’re reading now



So bring your bows of burning gold now! Bring your arrows of desire!
Bring me your spears, oh clouds unfold now! Bring me chariots of fire!



We will not cease from mental fight, nor will our sword sleep in our hands!
We’ll fight in union, sing in unison for this green and pleasant land!






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