Month: July 2018

#PeriodPoverty Solidarity Appeal

Poetry Logo

Right folks, important ask of you.

Many of you will know that alongside We Shall Overcome I run #SocksAppeal during the winter months, collecting warm socks, hats, gloves and scarves which are distributed among the street homeless of Greater Manchester during the worst of the weather.

Well I want to ask your help with another campaign.

I have been appalled by some of the stories reaching me of #PeriodPoverty and the desperate attempts not only street homeless women are forced to go to, but those sanctioned by the State or in work with poverty wages, when their bodies call.

This is a national shame and I want to try to help.

So from today ALL Joe Solo gigs will become collection points for sanitary products. I want everyone to feel totally free to pass me a carrier bag of sanitary towels in much the same way as you would pass me warm clothing in the winter.

I will distribute these according to where there is need. Pauline Town has posted movingly on this subject before so I will start there, and once Pauline has enough I will look to make drops elsewhere.

If that is too much for you and you’d rather donate cash, I will see to it that this is spent on what is needed most, but I will say I’m hoping this ridiculous taboo around something which affects, and in many cases genuinely afflicts, 50% of the population can be broken, and that no-one will feel embarrassed or ashamed to help this appeal.

Let’s use my gigs to help alleviate #PeriodPoverty for as many people as we can.

It’s a big ask and such a small one all at the same time.

Thanks folks, I appreciate you reading.

Let’s do this.

#WeShallOvercome #FoodBankBritain #NotOnOurWatch #WSO2018

We Shall Overcome: A CALL TO ARMS!

Bradford

We Shall Overcome is a grassroots movement fighting the impact of austerity on our communities and pointing the finger of blame for this suffering where it lies.
 
Anyone can join us. Absolutely anyone. We have all kinds of events from your traditional three-band bills, all the way to bake-offs and history walks. Whatever talents you can bring to the party are more than welcome here. All you need is the will and we’ll help you find the way.
Hull Adelphi
 
We Shall Overcome events raise everything from food and cash, to clothing, bedding, furniture, small electrical appliances, toiletries, sanitary products, tents and sleeping bags. Where there is a need we try and tailor events to fill it.
 
And here’s the beauty of it. You know your own towns, your own streets, better than we do. So you choose where your help goes. The help you raise stays in your town and goes direct to the front line of need. So if your food bank is struggling, then collect food and cash for them; if your friends run a soup kitchen, then do it for that; if your town has a crisis centre or a homeless outreach project in desperate need of help, then go for that. We don’t dictate. We want you to take control of it and see it home.
Luton
 
We are effectively a banner to march under. We unite a series of otherwise separate events in order to give them a national voice and highlight just how much work is having to be done at the grassroots to keep people alive. You may run similar events locally, and we applaud that from the bottom of our hearts, but why not stick the logo on your posters and let us know what you’re up to? That way you have a national voice for your local gig and you join together with thousands of other people saying ENOUGH IS ENOUGH to austerity.
 
You can message me on here, or email me at joesolomusic@hotmail.co.uk if you want to get involved.
Scarborough
 
#WSO2018 is 108 gigs strong, and since October 2015 we have collectively run 822 such events and the actions of our artists and organisers together with the amazing people who supported them with voices and applause and donations, have genuinely helped save lives out there.
 
This is not charity.
 
This is solidarity.
 
Please spread the word.

Durham Miners Gala 2018

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Cracking day at Durham Miner’s Gala with my comrades in the Hatfield Brigade. Always a very special weekend of sun, solidarity and Socialism and one I look forward to very much.

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The new stage and PA set-up didn’t disappoint and the speeches were universally excellent, from the opening broadcast by Bernie Sanders right up to the headline act, one Jeremy Corbyn, who stormed it!

I hunted high and low for a photograph which did the turnout some justice, and this one taken backstage and tweeted by Kevin Maguire of the Daily Mirror is the best I’ve seen.

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I’m somewhere around 50 yards from the front over on the right there…..

There were many impassioned words on that stage, from the FBU‘s Matt Wrack through to the legendary Dennis Skinner, but one of the most striking for me was Ibrahim Dogus speaking on behalf of the Free Abdullah Ocalan Campaign.

The Kurds have been fighting the invisible war on fascism, risking their lives and their homes in the struggle against ISIS. Not only that, but they do it against a backdrop of brutal injustice from the Turkish government and a betrayal by the West. Ocalan was imprisoned 18 years ago on Imrali Island, in total isolation and in inhumane conditions, yet his writings offer hope for his people and the wider world, and a future of peace, democracy, tolerance and inclusion. He has been described as a 21st Century Mandela, and it is time his story was known.

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It was great to see so many comrades from up and down the land and beyond, and to hook up with the good people of Scarborough and Whitby Labour Party for a quick photo in the late afternoon sun.

Durham Miners 2018 5

But my lasting memory of the day will be Billy Bragg‘s set to close the event, especially ‘Between The Wars’, as spine-tinglingly brilliant as ever, and sadly perhaps more relevant than it has ever been.

Billy+Bragg+iqyvzZj4uJzm

Anyway. With batteries charged next stop is Rotherham Trades Club on Thursday for a Labour Party fundraiser; then I’m back on We Shall Overcome duties for two consecutive Saturday’s, firstly at The Station in Ashton-under-Lyne for Pauline Town‘s 50th Birthday Event and then Hull Adelphi on the 28th to open for Country Joe & The Fish legend Bruce Barthol.

Be good to see you out there x