FRUITS OF THE MARAZION QUAKER LIBRARY (14) - MARCUS REDIKER (2017) 'THE FEARLESS BENJAMIN LAY - THE QUAKER DWARF WHO BECAME THE FIRST REVOLUTIONARY ABOLITIONIST'

Marcus Rediker, the biographer of Benjamin Lay, is Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Pittsburgh and Senior Research Fellow at the College d'etudes mondiales in Paris. He is from a working-class background and the first in his family to attend university but dropped out in 1971 unable to cope with the elitism he encountered. Already the protests against the Vietnam war were shaping his radical activism which was further honed by three years working in a cellophane factory. When he was laid off, he enrolled on a university course and graduated in 1976. After his doctorate, Marcus Rediker emerged as an outstanding advocate of a 'history from below approach' shaped by a Marxist awareness of the nature of capitalist society. His main focus has been on slavery and the slave-trading ships, showing the influence of the sea in the history of countries bordering on the Atlantic. He is the author of The Slave Ship as well as The Fearless Benjamin Lay. 

The response to his biography of Benjamin Lay has been very positive:

The Publishers Weekly review states that the book "successfully rescues Lay from obscurity" and that Benjamin Lay "deserve[s] to be remembered."^[12] The Guardian included the book on their list of the best biographies and autobiographies of 2017 saying that the book is "micro-history at its best".^[13] Christianity Today commented on the book saying that it "brings vividly to life a near-forgotten figure".^[14]   Benjamin Lay's life story unfolded in England, the Caribbean and the American colonies in a remarkable fashion in the course of which he emerged as a critically important figure in the turn against slave ownership. Lay was a radical, free spirit abolitionist. 

I am impressed with Marcus Rediker. He is a fine historian. As for Benjamin Lay, I find him truly inspirational, as does Marcus Rediker. Lay deserves a prominent place in the larger drama of American history and we Quakers need to know about his remarkable life and learn lessons from his fortitude and spirit. Benjamin Lay embodied a set of principles that fit well with American and Western ideals of democracy and equality too often breached in the real world. Benjamin Lay cared for the world and all its creatures. He wrote on the margin of one of the two hundred books he kept in his cave: "Dear souls, be tender hearted." 

Benjamin Lay - this portrait by William Williams in 1758 depicts Lay in front of his cave in Abington but makes no reference to his deep commitment to the cause of abolitionism. Benjamin Lay would not have given his approval for such a portrait; he would have seen it as an expression of vanity. 

Benjamin Lay's family had lived in the small village of Copford in Essex, around sixty miles from London, for several generations. His grandparents, William and Prudence, joined the Quaker movement sometime after 1655, towards the end of the period that encompassed the civil war from 1642 to 1649, the execution of the king, Charles I, in 1649, and the Cromwellian Protectorate that came to an end in

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM - THESE ARE THE POLICIES NOBODY IN THE LABOUR GOVERNMENT IS TALKING ABOUT

TAX JUSTICE has published a paper on how to manage our economy and be true to the values of social justice. Here it is below; it's well worth a read. I shall print it off and inwardly digest and spread the word. Just a couple of pictures this time:

Osborne was the chancellor between 2010 and 2015; he and Cameron followed policies that meant the poor, weak and vulnerable bore the brunt of their plans to reduce the size of the state. Now Reeves and Starmer are also targeting the most needy in our society - and yet there are billions of pounds of surplus wealth waiting to be redistributed in the interests of a fair and decent society. Why are they not following

FRUITS OF THE MARAZION QUAKER LIBRARY (13) - AKALA (2018) NATIVES: RACE & CLASS IN THE RUINS OF EMPIRE

I am very grateful to Jo Wren, a Quaker in our Marazion Meeting House community, for recommending Akala's book for inclusion in the library some weeks ago. I am also humbled that I had never heard of Akala - an award-winning hip-hop artist, writer, educator and social entrepreneur - before. Shame on me. I try to keep up with what is important in the political and social spheres - but Akala's name and work remained unknown. 

Akala in 2014

Here is a section of the Wikipedia entry for Akala:

"Kingslee James McLean Daley (born 1 December 1983),^[1] known professionally as Akala, is a British rapper, writer and activist from Kentish Town, London. In 2006, he was voted the Best Hip Hop Act at the MOBO Awards^[2] and has been included on the annual Powerlist of the 100 most influential Black British people in the UK, most recently making the 2021 edition.^[3][4]"

Make no mistake - Natives is a vital book for understanding our society and our history. David Olusoga (see my blogpost link here: Rob Donovan - Author: FRUITS OF THE MARAZION QUAKER LIBRARY (8) - DAVID OLUSOGA (2020) 'BLACK AND BRITISH - A SHORT, ESSENTIAL HISTORY') wrote in the Guardian: 'Part biography, part polemic, this powerful, wide-ranging study picks apart the British myth of meritocracy'. The Independent noted that Akala's 'Natives' was 'A potent combination of autobiography and political history which holds up a mirror to contemporary Britain.  

Akala explains that the purpose of his book is to examine how the seemingly impersonal forces of race and class have impacted and continue to shape our lives, and 'how easily I could now be telling you a very different but much more common story of cyclical violence, prison and part-time, insecure and low-paying work'. 

In Chapter 1, Akala provides a devastating analysis of Britain in the 1980s, the decade of his birth. We were and are a racist society and he lays the historical reasons bare. Such racism cannot be understood without grasping the power of class. In short, 'whiteness', to quote James Baldwin, 'is a metaphor for power'. Those who have exercised power in the world have been and still largely are white. Blackness is bad; whiteness is good. This was why, in spite of all the sufferings of poor people in Britain, there was a 'Keep Britain White' campaign that sections of the working class supported. Akala's maternal granddad

FRUITS OF THE MARAZION QUAKER LIBRARY (12) - SHEILA HANCOCK (2022) 'OLD RAGE'

 Jo Wren, a Quaker Elder at the Marazion Meeting House, donated a copy of Sheila Hancock's latest book to our Marazion Quaker library a couple of weeks ago, saying that since Sheila was a Quaker her story should be of interest. Jo had just finished reading her own copy and was impressed. I have now finished reading these 258 pages and agree. This is a work that many will find inspiring. Joan Bakewell, reviewing the book in the Guardian, wrote: 'Her gift for directly communicating the open-heartedness and spirit of adventure with which she confronts her life ... is the stuff of bestsellers'. 

Sheila was born in February 1933 and is now 91 years old. 'Old Rage' is structured around diary entries from January 2016 to June 2021 which serve to relate events from her life during that period and present her commentary on national matters that are shaping the wider world. Within all this, there are many reflections back to other episodes in her past - these are the thoughts of an octogenarian weaving together the threads of her long life. The book, however, starts in November 2020 when Sheila receives the official communication from Downing Street telling her in strictest confidence that she has been recommended for the honour of DBE - she will become a Dame of the British Empire if she accepts the offer. 

Sheila Hancock, aged 90

I was hooked straightaway. Sheila writes: 'I feel sick with inadequacy. A lifetime of getting away with it does not merit reward ... Should I turn it down? It's hardly in keeping with my Quaker belief of equality.' I am thinking: Please, please, do turn it down - as Benjamin Zephaniah did'. I turn to Wikipedia and discover that Dame Sheila had accepted the honour. Alas! I return a little disappointed to the story of her recent and past life - but then I am a paid-up Republican and a proper 21st century socialist in the Corbyn tradition. I find in later pages that Sheila loves the royal family and has no time for Corbyn. Well, we are all shaped by our experiences and influences. And there's still much to admire, enjoy,

REVOLUTIONARY NONVIOLENCE - WITH THANKS TO MILAN RAI, NOAM CHOMSKY, AJ MUSTE, AND PETER LE MARE

Milan Rai is nearly 60. I have come to appreciate him through his work over the last seventeen years as editor of Peace News, the newspaper I used to sell on the corner of Carfax in Oxford on Saturday mornings in 1968 and 1969 as a member of the Oxford University Peace Action Group. In September this year he wrote his editorial goodbye:

'I first bought, and started selling, Peace News when I was at school. Its vision of revolutionary anarcha-feminist nonviolence has had a deep and lasting impact on me.

It has been an enormous honour to have been co-editor, with Emily Johns, and then the sole editor of PN. Emily, you’re a star. 17 years have flown by.

It has also been an honour to be the first sole editor of colour.

I’m so glad to have carried the banner of revolutionary nonviolence alongside Emily, Emma Sangster and Gabriel Carlyle and, earlier on, Claire Poyner, Rebecca Dale, Nik Górecki and John Mcallister. I’m grateful to Ippy and to all the previous PN staff for having built the paper and for having kept this show on the road.'

Milan Rai

Milan Rai had earned his credentials as a nonviolent activist:

Rai first became politically active in the campaign against Pershing II and Ground Launched Cruise Missiles - nuclear weapons scheduled to be deployed in Western Europe in the late 1980s.

Along with fellow activist Maya Evans, he was arrested on 25 October 2005 next to the Cenotaph war memorial in London, for refusing to cease reading aloud the names of

MALGORZATA MIRGA-TAS - A POLISH-ROMA ARTIST OF DISTINCTION - HER TATE ST IVES EXHIBITION IN 2024/5

We visited the exhibitions at Tate St Ives celebrating the work of  Outi Pieski and Beatriz Milhazes earlier this year - see my earlier blogposts: 

Rob Donovan - Author: EXPLORING NEW WORLDS - OUTI PIESKI AT TATE ST IVES - AND REDEFINING BOUNDARIES

Rob Donovan - Author: BEATRIZ MILHAZES AT TATE ST IVES - A PORTUGUESE CELBRATION OF LIFE

Our friend, Stephen Vranch, took us round the latest show at Tate St Ives which is celebrating the art of Malgorzata Mirga-Tas on the morning of 1 November. It was a birthday gift for Louise. Stephen took the photographs that appear in the second part of this blog-post - they tell their own story. 

Malgorzata Mirga-Tas

In the first part below, I am indebted to the Guardian newspaper for the following insight into the artist and her Roma identity, as told by the Guardian's Charlotte Higgins:   

"Her dazzling textile works caused a sensation at Europe’s two most important art events. Mirga-Tas talks about defying centuries of anti-Roma prejudice – and turning her mother’s old dresses into art.

Małgorzata Mirga-Tas is the sort of person who hugs a visitor even before she says hello. She welcomes me into her home in the village of Czarna Góra, at the foot of the Tatra mountains in southern Poland, with a high-wattage smile. The artist’s house is right next to her aunt’s and her mother’s. The modern buildings huddle together, facing each other protectively round a flower garden. Mirga-Tas loves being close to so

MARK WAISTELL, QUAKER SINGER/SONGWRITER FROM DEVON - A CREATIVE VOICE

 A couple of weeks ago, I attended a concert given by Mark Waistell, a Devon Quaker, at the Penzance YMCA which is where the Penzance Quaker Meeting is held. There were around 30 Quakers in the audience. My new hearing aids found it difficult to cope with the acoustics of the room and the sound system seemed too loud but heh that sounds a grumble and what Mark was able to communicate through his playing and voice was poetic and thought-provoking. He took as his theme the wisdom to be found in the Quaker Advices and Queries, linking these with his own songs. I was inspired enough to buy a couple of his CDs at the interval and the all-important collection of his lyrics: Without Music (2020).  

Mark Waistell - the image from the CD cover of 'Latecomer'.

I am a writer and I was already realizing that Mark has the feeling and skill to shine as a word magician. Here's a taste of what we experienced - this song is called 'My England of Long Ago' and Tom Carroll