Slave trader Edward Colston’s ‘sacred’ hair/nails on display in Merchants Hall – Conjunction of Luther, Balfour and Lenin’s planets 500 and 100 years ago
Friday 3rd November 2017
BCfm’s weekly Politics Show presented by Tony Gosling
At five – discussing the big stories in Bristol, Britain and around the world
After six – straight talking and investigative reports with Martin Summers
Listen live http://www.bcfmradio.com/player or http://stream.bcfmradio.com:7017/live.mp3
BCfm audio files usually available 30mins, Radio4All 3/4hrs, after TX
Any probs mp3s should be on alternative links below by then
First hour: news review: with Green councillor for Clifton Down Carla Denyer, Christine Townsend from Counter Colston group and Dr. Roger Ball from Bristol Radical History Group – Bristol mayor Marvin Rees’s father Valentine was one of the biggest gangsters in Bristol, running the unlicensed ‘Crystal Dove’ club and machete attacked St. Pauls’ Republican sympathiser, Bristol West Labour party chairman and 1980s civil rights leader Kuomba Balogun. Valentine somehow escaped from custody after being charged, believed to have moved to London. Could this ‘skeleton in Marvin’s cupboard’ be used against him? Marvin as Mayor – talks and campaigned about openness but his door is not always open, library closures, how to deal with cuts – borrow money and illegal budget? Increase in Executive pay; Marvin Rees has defended the decision to keep details of a “huge pay-off” to a former city director private – saying “we have been transparent”. Has £92,000 bung to Anna Klonowski been reported to the police? – leaving Chief Exec.; selling off Bristol Council public space to fill holes in budget; Private firms may be given powers to arrest people: Companies would be able to hold individuals who fail to pay fines imposed by courts – Private security firms such as G4S could be empowered to arrest fine dodgers ; privatising our schools – Academisation – Bristol schools now worsening under system and many ‘inadequate’; moving Bristol City Library to The Galleries or Colston Hall; Bristol businesses asked to pay for Christmas lights; Christine Townsend, form Counter Colston Group, went to Colston Society service on anti-slavery day in St. Mary Redcliffe church; Merchant Venturers’ Charter Day next Friday on November 10th; Colston Girls School won’t change it’s name but all of Bristol’s Academies have changed school’s names; has Colston been canonised? Part of Edward Colston’s body, his ‘sacred’ hair and nails have been kept in cabinets up at Merchants Hall; pagan ancestor worship? PMQs Corbyn – rich paying less tax, HMRC ‘dismal’ fallen from £4.4bn to £3.5bn since 2009 but being given help by HMRC to avoid tax – cuts – debt interest payments £50bn every year – Tories supported bank bailout in 2008; Years of austerity ‘have left UK with same level of public spending as it had 10 years ago’ says IFS – what’s point of paying Council Tax?
Radio4All download pages
BCfm audio file
Radio4All audio file
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPuj5xOKcEw
Second hour: Investigative reports: with Manfred Petritsch, Edwin Black and Shulamit Aloni: US release of the ‘JFK Files’: 7 things that aren’t in the JFK files but probably should be : the Fleet Street FOx in the Daily Mirror – Here’s what Donald Trump’s not telling us about the world’s biggest mystery – 1. The Files file – James Files 2002 confession – scores (40) journalists favourable to CIA were agents in the US media spinning the assassination, multiple shooters; Our 50th anniversary show all about LBJ, FBI, CIA and the JFK assassination; theories and motives for assassination; James Files, ex Mafia hit man, confessed to shooting JFK – why not in mainstream media? New York attack, Las Vegas attack, Yemen attack, Iraq attack. 500 years since Martin Luther started Protestant Church: Martin Luther’s Unintended Reformation Today; the 1521 ‘Diet of Worms’ justification by faith or works? Reformation meant you only had to say you believed in God to go to heaven, actually the Bible says its about how you act. So the reformation was either a theological mistake or a confidence trick by the up-and-coming merchant classes. Religion and the Rise of Capitalism by R. H. Tawney. A classic of political economy that traces the influence of religious thought on capitalism. Making money was suddenly a ‘good’ under the protestants and the monasteries were an obstacle to pure capitalism. The monks didn’t spend the money they made, they provided hospital and education services to local people and reinvested it. Henry VIII privatising Britain’s monasteries to his mates: Martin Luther’s Unintended Reformation Today: Scholar Brad Gregory Addresses the 500-Year Split. The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society. and many clergy were against Protestantism eg. 1536 Pilgrimage of Grace. 100 years since Balfour Declaration: Swiss-German former banker and blogger Manfred Petritsch, ‘All Smoke and Mirrors’ blog, discusses how Zionists told British they would help them win WWI; Edwin Black, author of ‘IBM and the Holocaust’, discussing many Balfour deals – UN Charter – Palestinian State offered but they didn’t want it; Netanyahu in London to celebrate Balfour and talk Iran; Theresa May wants British people to feel ‘pride’ in the Balfour Declaration. What exactly is there to be proud of? 100 years since Russian Revolution: history of this and why it happened. Amnesty Turkey Chair kept in jail. If you ridicule Chinese National Anthem in China you will be put in prison for 3 years. Chinese historian calls Xi’s consolidation of power “dangerous”. Craig Murray in trial for libel – he has crowd funding site. Michael Fallon steps down over ‘sex pest’ scandal. Former Israeli Education Minister, Shulamit Aloni, says anti-Semitism slur used to further Israeli cause and weaken Palestine.
Radio4All download pages
BCfm audio file
Radio4All audio file
Ottoman Empire: A Safe Haven for Jewish Refugees
http://www.jerusalemonline.com/israel-history/ottoman-empire-a-safe-haven-for-jewish-refugees-5797
Christianity and antisemitism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_antisemitism
————————————————————————————————————-
Christian Persecution of Jews over the Centuries
https://www.ushmm.org/research/the-center-for-advanced-holocaust-studies/programs-ethics-religion-the-holocaust/articles-and-resources/christian-persecution-of-jews-over-the-centuries/christian-persecution-of-jews-over-the-centuries
Overall a good article but the author I think makes a bit off an error in one section . He says in so many words some Polish Nobleman encouraged the Jews to move to Poland as a safe Haven around the 14th century . He goes on to write that by the time of King Sigsimund and the Roman Catholic counter reformation in the 17th century that Jewish life deteriorated and Polish anti semitism began up until ww2 and after. Not so, It was a temporary persecution of Jews . From Casimir the Great in the 1300’s to 1939 Poland was indeed the greatest safe haven for Jews in Europe. During the so called era of the Enlightned Despots in the 18th century Joseph II ended Jewish persecution of Jews in Austria , gave them equal rights to worship and acquire work , and social and work reforms . He also had a secret police to make sure his reforms were being implemented nor ignored.
Comparing the two Super Powers : Christian Europe and the Islamic empires who were going at each other from 750 till end of the first world war , Overall Jews were treated better in the Islamic super power than in the Christian Europe super power . Of course there were at times atrocities and persecutions by the Muslims against Jews but much less so than in Europe. You see , when there is a famine, plague, or an economic crisis , Our greedy Leaders whip up the people to fear and hate and mob mentality becomes violent and any minority is the easiest to scapegoat. And the leaders of the corporate state as in the US and UK make wars for the people to naively rally round the flag, when the wars are to the benefit of the corporate/military complex and the wealthiest. Since time immemorial this has been the case . Today our major scapegoats are muslims and the working class and poor .
It is not religion in and of itself that is the cause of war and oppression . It is twisted by our leaders hand picked clergy to use as a tactic of hatred and aggression.