Hastings, 12^th December 2020, Hastings.

…all the rights and freedoms that we have were not given to us as acts of generosity and charity by the powerful…..

…people had to fight with determination, courage and resilience ….

…the suffragettes, now lauded as secular saints, in their time reviled as anarchists and terrorists dragged from demonstrations thrown into dirty cells….

… those who fought for the NHS and the welfare state in the teeth of what seemed like overwhelming opposition from the powerful….

…. those who fought racism, sexism, homophobia….

…battered, spat at demonised, reviled, persecuted, locked up – vindicated…

…all our rights, all our freedoms, won no doubt by people in this very crowd, our mothers, our fathers our grandmothers our grandfathers, our ancestors before them. We owe it to them, not just to defend the rights and freedoms they won at such cost, at such sacrifice, but to finish the battle they started which is to build a new society free of injustice, exploitation, oppression racism and violence…

Thanks Owen.

Yours sincerely,

quite a lot of women with interesting expressions on their faces.

Hastings, 12th December 2020

I’m thinking of people I know, personally and directly, have been seriously mistreated whilst campaigning for their political beliefs in the last couple of years, and I don’t mean just abusive twitter-posts, I mean real life mistreatment like assaults, or attacks on family security and livelihood. It’s quite a long list. I messaged some of them and, if and when they give permission, I will add them here. Thank you, brave souls.

You probably know some too. Do drop them a line and say thank you.