We Shall Overcome #WSO2019 takes place over the weekend of October 4/5/6.

At least the main thrust does.

Since the turn of the year activists and organisers have been badging their gigs WSO and raising help for those who need it, whenever and wherever that need is greatest.

It really is that easy.

You can build your own event, or you can badge up something which already exists; if you’re a band on tour you can ask for donations at that weekend’s gigs, or rattle the bucket the whole way round.

It doesn’t even have to be music. We have had poetry and spoken word, history walks, art auctions, lectures, snooker tournaments, boxing nights, battle of the bands, bake-offs……we have done the lot and it was all amazing.

There have been more than 1000 since October 2015, and each has raised help for food banks, soup kitchens, homeless outreach, crisis centres, refugee support, youth projects; basically wherever help is most needed on the streets of your town.

We are NOT a charity. We are a ramshackle alliance of people who aren’t prepared to sit and watch others suffer while we have it in our power to help. We don’t collect donations centrally, everything raised stays where it is and goes straight to the grassroots in the town who raised it.

We Shall Overcome is a metaphorical banner to march under. We help give your local gig a national identity and we help promote it. The scale of our collective efforts gives us all a sense of belonging and a sense of solidarity with like-minded people the four corners of the UK. It gives us a political voice, and it empowers others who may have felt they could not change things and now see they can.

And we can.

We all can.

Those 1000+ gigs have raised food, cash, warm clothing, footwear, tents, toiletries, sleeping bags and sanitary towels to an estimated total of £450,000; and from the first tin of beans to the last 20p piece, it ALL mattered.

It mattered because every last penny says we are not beaten and we will fight til they lose.

JOIN US! BRING A GIG TO THE PARTY!!

Incredible day at Peterloo March for Democracy in Manchester and a massive thank you to the organisers for putting together a blinder to remember the slaughter of Working Class men, women and children on the 16th August 1819.

I was running on empty after last night’s gig in Bradford and two hours kip, but I was soon energised by the trip to pick up Pauline Town and drop off donations from gigs up and down the land. When I arrived at 10.15am Big Sis had already made 50 sarnies for her homeless family. Puts things in perspective don’t it?

Great to march in with Ian Hodson, Sarah Woolley and Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union – BFAWU comrades, together with the amazing folks of Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign and the equally brilliant company of Lesbians and Gay Men Support the Miners. Our procession was so cool that if we hadn’t already been stopping the traffic, we would definitely have stopped the traffic 😂😂😂

Great to arrive in Albert Square in the shadow of Manchester’s incredible City Hall and see so many comrades from up and down the land. Special respect reserved for the Bolton comrades who had marched 12 miles with their banner to be there.

Loved speaking to so many brilliant people and singing from the FBU fire engine, looking out across a sea of smiling faces and banners.

Even the tiny number of fascists who shamelessly came to disrupt an event remembering the slaughter of people whose Class they claim to represent, couldn’t dampen proceedings. We all know if this was 1819 they would have been dressed in the uniform of the Yeomanry murdering for the rich instead of fighting for their own. Same as it ever was.

Right. Must sleep now.

Before I go though, as Pauline and me walked back to the car she stopped to buy a homeless man a sarnie and drink. She was 8 miles from home, way off anyone else’s beaten path, and yet she still knew him by name.

Proud to call her my friend.

Glasgow I f***ing love you.

Phenomenal night at #LoveGlasgowHateRacism with amazing people from all over this wonderful world.

Absolutely blinding sets from Mick Hargan & Andy McBride, The Twistettes and I’ve said before but I’ll say it again, The Wakes playing their hometown is f***ing euphoric!!

Fantastic to see Chip Hamer and Nadia Drews represent Poetry on the Picket Line after nine hours on a train; and Tony Kinsella, soaked to the bone after being caught in a Glasgow squall, loving every second of the night with a great big grin on his face.

Loved meeting the legend that is Richard Jobson too. An absolute gent and a blinding compere.

Big shout out to Glasgow St Pauli comrades for putting the night together and for doing such damn fine work helping Scottish Refugee Council, United Glasgow FC and the wider fight against racism, fascism, bigotry and intolerance.

Big shout out also for Safe Gigs for Women and the work they are doing up and down the land.

…..and to Dave Griffiths for making a nine hour round-trip pass in the blink of an eye.

Right. Recording today, We Shall Overcome Special of The Joe Solo Show tomorrow, and next weekend I’m at Shuttle Shuffle Festival. 17th – 18th August 2019 on Saturday and Peterloo March for Democracy on Sunday.

World won’t change itself ✊❤️👊

Well that was quite a weekend.

986 miles. Three gigs. Seventeen hours at the wheel.

And wouldn’t have missed a single second.

Well, ok…..maybe the part around 2am on Sunday morning when still an hour from my front door I was having to punch myself in the face to stay awake, but apart from that not a single second.

It all started when I sang for the RMT at the Bob Crow Exhibition Centre in Doncaster, as their traditional garden party got rained on once more. But did that stop us? Course not. No fair weather trade unionists in the RMT, especially not when there’s a free bar!

Hehe.

Then it was home to take Mrs S for a long-promised night out.

That box-ticked I had to point the car south after 90 minutes sleep and drive the six hours to Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival. Not easy, but that’s what coffee is for.

I LOVE Tolpuddle.

In 2016 I had an absolute blast, and this year was no different. Such a great atmosphere. Sun shining, comrades assembled from up and down the land, music and politics everywhere I turned, and amazing people I don’t get to see anywhere near as often as I should living up north.

I was booked to play the ‘Martyrs Marquee’ at 7pm, but managed to squeeze in a slot at the open mic, and on Steve White‘s ‘Tolpuddle Unplugged’ stage too. Amazing response everywhere I went and the smiles and singing will live long in my memory.

Hard to overstate what that means to a relatively unknown bloke who has travelled six hours on no sleep. I know it’s a musician’s job to put the wind back in folk’s sails and recharge their batteries for the struggles ahead, but the feeling really is mutual when you are greeted with a response like the Tolpuddle crowd gave, and hand on heart, that was one of the most moving days of my life. Loved it.

And as if that lot wasn’t enough I was asked to join Naomi Bedford and Paul Simmonds on stage to play Woody Guthrie‘s ‘Ain’t Got No Home’, and there was no WAY I was turning THAT down! Thirty years ago when I was learning how to play solo and how to write Folk songs, it was Paul’s many classics for The Men They Couldn’t Hang which formed the bedrock of the busking repertoire I bashed out on street corners up and down this land and beyond; so to join him on stage and share verses written by our mutual inspiration was literally a dream come true. Unbelievable stuff really.

Can’t thank Keith and the Tolpuddle team enough for inviting me, encouraging me, and keeping this amazing festival going year in year out; and I can’t thank everyone who hugged me, shook my hand, gave me badges or money for We Shall Overcome enough either. You made my spirit soar.

So I hauled the six hours home, slept as well as I could, and hurtled south again to play the Tramlines Fringe event at Shakespeares in Sheffield to a brilliant late Sunday crowd who sang me over the line in style.

Now I need rest, fluids, fewer crisps, and more weekends like that one please!

See you out there soon x

Saturday saw 300,000 of us gather in Durham for the Big Meeting, on what is up there with my favourite days of the year.

I once more marched with the Hatfield Brigade, an honour in itself, but made a hundred times more so by being handed a pole and asked to carry that incredible symbol of Working Class solidarity and defiance, the Hatfield Main banner.

So good to meet comrades from up and down the land and share a day celebrating everything we spend the rest of the year fighting for.

Especially great to catch up with the inspirational Mike Jackson of LGSM, who marched directly in front of us, with Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign comrades just in front of them.

A great day in the finest of company.

The speeches weren’t bad neither!

Especially Laura Pidcock, who SMASHED it.

I dropped into People’s Bookshop on my way back through town and gave them a rendition of ‘With Banners Held High’, which pretty much sums up what being handed that pole by the Hatfield Brigade had meant to me.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2295192373850930&id=206528372717351

Amazing day.

Truly incredible night last Friday singing ‘Headscarves and Hurricanes’ live at the opening night of Hull Fishing Heritage Exhibition.

In the poignant setting of the Fisherman’s Church on St. George’s Road myself and Rebekah Findlay played the album live to former trawlermen and relatives of those lost at sea.

It was an emotional night, and one that will live long in my memory.

So great to play these songs to two incredible historians in Brian Lavery and Alec Gill whose books inspired them, and to meet relatives of the legendary Headscarf Revolutionaries.

Perhaps the most poignant moment was meeting Jill, whose first husband, Tony, was lost on the Finbarr in 1966 and who is remembered in my song ‘Don’t Say Goodbye At First Light’.

If you couldn’t make it, the whole gig was recorded and it’s on YouTube if you have a spare hour.

Massive thanks to the organisers and volunteers who made it happen, and to all those who came along to support the event; and especially Lee and Rebekah for whom I have long since run out of superlatives.

We may get chance to do that again someday. The album deserves to be played, but it’s finding a venue and an audience for it.

We’ll see.

Watch this space.

New video interview available from today.

Shot at Strummercamp Festival in Oldham late in May, it’s basically mainman Phil Fitzpatrick and meself talking Joe Strummer, Ranking Roger, music and politics in the hour after I’d come offstage.

Shot and edited by the brilliant James Eddleston.

On the link below.

35 years ago today striking miners made their way from up and down the land to the picket outside Orgreave coking plant.

They were used to the subterfuge of back roads and early morning walks across fields due to police road blocks trying to prevent them getting through; but that day they were waved past by officers only too happy to help, some even providing directions as to where best to assemble.

It soon became clear why.

As miners gathered, most in shorts and t-shirts anticipating a day in the sun, they found themselves facing massed ranks of police in full riot gear, some in ill-fitting uniforms with no ID on their shoulders many of the pickets would later believe were soldiers drafted in to bolster the numbers, and the violence.

The police lines parted and through them rode mounted officers swinging truncheons at anyone and everyone, breaking bones, cracking skulls.

It was a bloodbath.

As miners struggled to run to the aid of fallen comrades they too were clubbed to the ground.

When some tried to fight back they were filmed and the BBC edited the footage to make it appear as though this was the first act of the day, and police were merely responding to the provocation and violence of the pickets. In this way the state broadcaster deliberately assisted the Thatcher government in smearing miners as violent thugs undeserving of public sympathy.

95 were arrested.

They were charged with crimes which could have seen them jailed for life.

The charges were thrown out of court when it was proven the police statements had been doctored and there was no burden of proof against these men.

Doctored by whom? And on whose orders?

The same process of arrest, smear, and fabrication of evidence was used by the same police force to deny justice to the families of 96 football fans five years later, but it had been honed in the summer of 84 at Orgreave.

Those hospitalised were denied anaesthetic by arresting officers who forced medical staff to stitch skulls knowing the intense pain they were causing. This was an act of unforgivable brutality, the mental scars from which some have never recovered.

Orgreave was an act of Class Warfare designed and executed by a malicious Tory government hell bent on breaking the strike, defeating the NUM and destroying the trade union movement.

On many levels it worked.

But no battle is lost until the last of the fight has left us.

Today I pay tribute to comrades in the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign who will fight on until we have that inquiry no matter how long it takes.

And you can help too.

You want to stand at their side, look them up, support their events, wear their t-shirts, share this post, and let’s build an unstoppable chorus of voices no politician can ignore.

And you want to help mend the damage?

Today of all days, join a trade union. Let’s rebuild the movement decimated 30 years ago, and let’s stand in solidarity with each other like never before.

They have the past.

Tomorrow could still be ours.

#NoJusticeNoPeace #Orgreave35 #OrgreaveJustice

WE SHALL OVERCOME: FOUR YEARS ON.

On 8th May 2015, a group of musicians and activists started a grassroots community fightback against the impacts of austerity.

We called it ‘We Shall Overcome’.

The idea was to use events as collection points for food, cash, clothing, toiletries, in fact whatever was needed on the front line; and to use these gatherings to stand in opposition to, and in defiance of, a government we believed was, and is, waging ideological warfare on the poorest and most vulnerable in society.

It took off.

So much so, that as things stand We Shall Overcome organisers have run more than 1000 such events up and down this island and beyond, and have raised an estimated £450,000 worth of help for those hardest hit; and that help was not gathered centrally, but stayed in the town which raised it going straight to the front line of need wherever that was greatest, be it the food bank, a soup kitchen, homeless outreach, a crisis centre or a youth project. We decided from the start that you know your towns best, so you make the choice as to where you target help.

Between the Bedroom Tax, benefit sanctions, Universal Credit, Zero Hours contracts, poverty wages, and a targeted destruction of support services, the government, coupled with a hostile media, have managed to inflict deep and lasting wounds on our communities while being cheered on from the gallery.

But the help we have raised is only the quantifiable outcome of our collective efforts.

What We Shall Overcome represents is a unified response to austerity at the grassroots. It has taken literally THOUSANDS of organisers and activists, musicians and poets, speakers and artists, and it is a wonderful thing. The beauty of We Shall Overcome is in the ‘We’.

So in the long shadow cast by Brexit, where all eyes are on leadership elections and potential outcomes, there exists an island sliding ever deeper into poverty and escalating need for ordinary people to fight back.

And we will.

As We Shall Overcome enters its fifth year we are needed more than ever. We are appealing for new organisers, new activists, new venues and new communities to step forward. All you need is to be that someone somewhere who does something about it. The rest is easy.

Just get in touch.

No event is too small. No gesture is insignificant, because when you add all those seemingly insignificant gestures together, they become something very significant indeed.

They become We Shall Overcome.

With Banners Held High 2019 was an absolute blinder of a day and a massive thank you must go out to the organisers who made such a wonderful occasion possible. Events like this are needed more than ever these days, to remind us who we are and what we are fighting for, to recharge our batteries and put the wind back in our collective sails.

Well, it certainly did all that.

I made it just in time to join the march and fell in behind comrades from Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, as up for it as ever, and just as determined to get that inquiry as the first day I met them. Inspirational folk. You should follow them on Facebook and Twitter, and help spread the word.

I had been asked to write a poem for the opening ceremony and delivered ‘With Banners Held High’ to a street full of amazing people and banners as far as the eye could see. An incredible scene.

There were phenomenal performances by Lily Gaskell, Bard Company and the incredible Commoners Choir whom I borrowed to close my set with ‘Haul Away, Boys’ and ‘No Pasaran’.

And it was great to see so many amazing comrades out supporting the event. From the fab ladies of the Women’s Banner Group to a big RMT contingent, fantastic company all.

Also brilliant to see RMT Deputy General Secretary Steve Hedley take to the stage for his keynote speech wearing a Joe Solo t-shirt remembering the ten International Brigade volunteers from Hull.

So full marks to everyone involved for another superb festival, and here’s to 2020!!

 

Thanks to Neil Terry, Paul and Lindsay Rutland, Sean Mcgowan, James McElhoney and everyone else who snapped the above pics.