More from the St Andrews Day rally - here, Tommy Campbell from Unite...
It is important that we continue to demonstrate our commitment to fight back against racism and fascism
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| Tommy Campbell, Unite |
On 27th January next year sees the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz the Nazi extermination camp by the Soviet Red Army and the eventual defeat of Hitler and Mussolini in May 1945.
However there are those in power who wish to see the Soviet Red Army’s role in the defeat of Fascism re-written and if possible completely written out of the major role they played in WWll.
Its important that Fascism is still challenged when it raises its head and a credit to young people. Trade Unionists and others who are now counter protesting when the far right hold any public meetings.
Resistance to the far right is necessary as you must the follow the footsteps and uphold the principled stand by others in the past who have fought Fascism in Spain and during WWll.
No Pasaran !!!
Tommy concluded by reading the following poems;
An excerpt from 'For the
hearing of the tale, For the future of the wish – Resistance in Nazi
Concentration Camps' by the late Hilda Meers…
At the cut edge of a chain of
circumstance
In a prison yard, here a man
risks death-by-beating
To pick a daisy for his cell
mate, who can’t walk.
In the gruesome dark of the
camps, sparks flare.
Shared bread, light from hope
that glimmers on, undimmed
There’s one who unsuspected
sprinkles petrol over the roof
At his comrades’ signal, a
new bright flame
Consumes the Nazi crematorium
as prisoners rebel.
The dead call us in harsh
voices – Listen,
Buried tales tell of what we
strove to do,
Men, children, women, to save
each other
And peoples of the world…
including you.
Strange Fruit by Abel Meeropol (pseudonym: Lewis Allan)
Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
the bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
scent of magnolia, sweet and fresh,
and the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
for the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
for the sun to rot, for a tree to drop,
here is a strange and bitter crop.
Granite
City Heroes (about the International Brigaders, and others who continue to fight back against Fascism in Aberdeen) by Tommy Campbell
Working-class
heroes, so strong; so proud
your ideals
keep us fighting, shouting aloud
whilst we
campaign for justice, your hopes see us through
in this time
of peace in Aberdeen, paid for by you.
Your voices still
echo, in the old Castlegate
where you
challenged the fascists and spoke out against Hate
with your
thoughts for the future and a better world yet to gain
the same dreams
of freedom that took you to Spain.
Your courage
emboldened on an Aberdeen street
you determined
your fate and accepted no defeat
humanity, so
chiselled, seen sharp on your face
the photos now
displayed in so many a place.
Your flame,
burning gentle, we will keep it alight
fighting the good
fight, for right, against might
and the love for
all others that’s the meaning of you
your example a
guidance, a help to bring us through.
Your proud
battle flag is there for all to see
it mirrors your
conscience and marks your bravery
shrouded in
blood and shrouded in pain
your memory lives
on as you have not died in vain.
For the
campaign’s not over, as onwards we go
we are strong,
proud and many, we want all to know
No Pasaran was
their call and it’s with us still
for we’re holding
that line and we always will.