Politics and Protest

When Rosa gazed through prison bars to street
She saw the water buffalo which drove
The heavy coated cart on cloven feet
And when they could not pull their weighty load
Their master turned his whip and beat and strapped
Until they bled and flinched and hauled and strained
The final yards, their last resources sapped
And stood, defeated, bloodied, sad and pained

Published by The Clarion, 27 November 2018:

All hail to public hospitals
Which treat us at no cost at all
Come forth and heed the homage call
Give thanks and praise

Admire their shiny corridors
The wonder drugs in well-stocked stores
And colour-coded wings and floors
And curtained bays

Where patients' injuries are healed
By specialists in every field
Equipment-laden trolleys wheeled
In urgency

Autistic, dyspraxic, dyslexic and other people with atypical brain wiring have particular experiences under capitalism. These experiences have positive and negative aspects, and for many people include distress and disadvantage. What are the roots and the causes of this experience? Can we develop the positives while removing the disadvantages? Can we resolve the negatives by tweaking the current system?

The established religion
is
this:

Royals
bring gifts to baby
born in poverty

Now those
born in poverty
bring gifts to baby
Royals

This
is
the established religion

Widening roads
parking lorries
carrying loads
of no-deal worries

Laying Tarmac
digging ditches
making car parks
burning bridges

Office holder
riding high on 
a hard Brexit shoulder
to pull over and cry on

Sailing boats away
laying mines
widening motorways
narrowing minds

Janine has co-written (with Sacha Ismail and Simon Hannah) this pamphlet for the Clarion magazine, giving a thorough but readable explanation of Britain's anti-union laws and calling on Labour to carry out its policy to scrap them all.

Just two pounds per copy, from here.

This is the speech I gave at the fringe meeting at Labour Party conference on 25 September 2018 about the draft Labour Party Autism / Neurodiversity Manifesto.

A lot has happened since I said to John McDonnell at a book launch two-and-a-half years ago that it would be a good idea for the Labour Party to have a specific manifesto on autism and neurodiversity.