Watch “Stiff Little Fingers – Doesn’t Make It All Right” on YouTube
8 responses to “Watch “Stiff Little Fingers – Doesn’t Make It All Right” on YouTube”
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Love and peace as well to you! Stiff little fingers was such an important band to so many people I’ve met and then on Facebook when I was actually on Facebook briefly all of their posts were just about getting really drunk at their shows. It was terribly disappointing. However the other guitarist Henry who wrote the song only one lives in the United States Midwest and he I guess plays music locally. There was a big falling out with Jake Burns but that was kind of continuous – Henry always wanted to have it be more punk and Jake kept moving into other stuff – his solo album is really bad if you like SLF. I’m talking about Jake Burns. But they were probably one of the most important bands for most of the people I know – I will say half of them . And they don’t really get the credit for that because they’re overshadowed I think by the Clash but there was something about SLF that reaches you as a emotional person , it connects on a deep level especially as a teenager and it’s like a lifeline and it sets people’s politics in order while at the same time emotionally validating all of the experiences – that’s pretty amazing and it’s rarely mentioned . But that’s why they’re such loyalty. And why they are timeless.
Yes, Jeremy is part of that anonymous thing which I actually don’t know a lot about LOL. I didn’t know who he was when I wrote him aside from what I saw in the anarchist black cross penpal list so I actually was just writing as a person to another person and recently when I actually saw a lot of articles it was strange and then the Twitter feed doesn’t sound like Jeremy who is angry but underneath that is so much love and also very dark humor and if I had read the articles and especially the Twitter feed I never would have written him because I would’ve thought he was an asshole. What’s been really helpful is discussing manarchist stuff with him – I don’t know any other men who really take seriously what I call the decolonization of the psyche importance .
Everything could be changed in the revolution – it happens all the time with revolutions – but the mentality of the people stays the same so it just becomes usually worse in some ways and nothing really changes because it’s always power over. Without the internal liberation work that is hard the external stuff won’t last – but the external cannot be ignored for just selfish personal growth that makes you feel better , it has to go into manifesting truth into the world somehow so the two together hand-in-hand are absolutely necessary . Also I sent him a bunch of my writing about spirituality which is always political . And I got a very nice letter from solitary confinement recently , he is very very focused and it doesn’t seem like psychicly prison has done much harm, which has always been my worry, but he is really careful about that and has to just get through four more years.
Having such severe MCS just is a lot like house arrest with the visitors so writing people in prison is helpful because we have similar environment issues – we are forgot . Also friendship means a lot more for me than most people on the outside and it’s the same in prison. I have all of these handouts between four pages and 100 pages about different types of paganism and how to practice but also there’s group skills for the people who have circles in prison and all of that comes from books by anarchist Permaculture teachers! 🙂 also I have as the main handout personal values so they don’t end up just reacting or being values that they were told. Since I can live from my values and I’m really sick from Lyme disease/malaria and totally isolated bedridden with the MCS and I’ve been thinking about how I don’t really remember what physical contact is like with humans or anyone and also eye contact, there is none and it’s so dehumanizing – so having your own values that you live by in prison is a way to start developing goals in alignment with values and having some ownership of your life when you are treated like a number – which is how I was always treated but as a diagnostic code that kept changing all of the time and my identity was different depending on the code . There’s a lot of stuff about mindfulness, radical acceptance, distress tolerance , self compassion meditation that goes with all of the personal value stuff which helps with living your values and also I hope is some kind of harm reduction for prison . And if they have a circle that’s one place where they have power and having the handouts about understanding power and collective leadership etc. I hope gives them more chances to be human.
And then there’s the different pagan religions from African Diaspora traditions to Hellenistic Greek polytheism to animism . It gives reading material and also spiritual support which they don’t have at all. And I’m available to discuss things with them so it’s really rewarding but it’s also very expensive and if I’m going to expand to other prisons I might need to start looking for funding sources .
Also I’m one of the writers of a book specifically for people in prison about Celtic polytheism and the prayers connect with actual real-life things in prison that most people don’t know about but I actually just ask people. It’s like that great saying that guy said who’s name I never can remember – once I was a liberal and I wanted everyone to have what I have and then I was a radical and I wanted people to have what they decided they wanted to have. Becoming disabled really really makes you hate the well-meaning liberal savior complex people because they ignore the population that actually knows what it needs. That whole invisible privilege entitlement issue along with allies, allies do the crap work a lot, don’t get control, never really have community membership. There’s no parade for not being an asshole. Which is a lesson I learned with Native American support and also other stuff and being on the receiving side really helps to make me check myself – I can’t speak for people in prison because I’m not in prison. However I can ask them what they have to say and what they need because they know what it’s like to be in prison. Kind of obvious but something well-meaning liberal mentality doesn’t learn.
Anyway I’m very happy to make your acquaintance. Curtsy. 🙂 By the way I’m not asking for money LOL for the pagan stuff in prison – it’s just something I realized today. Because I have in total 900 pages at least . So that’s like $60 for each person if I were to send everything .
I have a section on my blog “soundtrack for revolution” by the way . I try to mix it up with a lot of different types of music but I am starting to run out of ideas – it just can’t be public enemy and SLF ! I try not to double back onto any bands . Anyway solidarity and love – Heather I’m really glad that you are blogging ! That’s really really cool.
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There is a book by gabriella coleman called hacker hoaxer whistleblower spy. The many faces of anonymous. Jeremy and Barratt brown and others come up a lot in it. It charts their move from the darkness of the dark Web into fighting censorship and Exposing wrongs carried out by private government agencies. Well worth the read. I can’t even imagine life inside any form of prison but what I do know is that you can imprison the body but not the mind
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Sorry sent accidently. After SLF my main influence became anarchist punk bands ie crass, poison girls, subhumans and conflict. They remain with me as do SLF always. They explore existentialism and permaculture and many who follow them are from pagan beliefs. Their music as is their message is a full frontal attack on all that is wrong with society and governments. They are well worth looking into as well.
I wish you well in your condition and wish there was more that could be done to aide you. My thoughts are with you as to my mantras of healing. Namaste-
crass, poison girls, subhumans and conflict – YEP! The book The Day The Country Died has interviews with anarcho-punk bands who never released music even. I was influenced by them as an anarcho-peace punk but the music wasn’t as exciting to me as proto-punk from Detroit, NTC, Boston. But whenever I traveled I just found the people with a CRASS t shirt or pin or painting on their leather jackets- safe place to stay, cool people, it was awesome. I squatted London after that as rave was starting but there were still some good punk things like the Hackney Homeless People Festival with great music. It changed my life, living in squatter land there. Culture shock to the US is always hard. Relearning fear mostly. I felt much safer living in Toronto.
It’s always funny how I’ll be talking to a Zen Buddhist ecologist and yeah, until he was 29 all just played in punk bands or my permaculture teacher friend turns out to be a well know anarcho-punk musician in her previous life or that women doing indigenous rights stuff is playing SLF right when I contact her!
Lyme disease/babesia is awful but MCS is part of being one with the planet for me. Being exiled from the dystopian present makes survival a series of wins in changing the world. All I need to stay safe is fresh air, clean water and safe food. That my special needs are the requirements for life itself possibly did more for my life focus than anything else. If other people change what they clean home and self with, I am free and no longer oppressed. It just depends on how much people care. But I have no ties or place in this world so the creation of a healthy infrastructureis already the daily process. Thank you for putting my in your spiritual devotional practice. That’s lovely! : )
I couldn’t read the book I think. It’s hard to not get worried about Jeremy as it is. Every bit of new information makes it weirder. I recently sent 100 page letter and part is about how reading about him is strange because it’s just in context with hacking. Does that make sense? I’m used to the guy who when in solitary worries people are not sharing his comic book collection. With someone whose life was made so public, I have learned I need to just stay connected to him through him or it gets all distorted. Thank you telling me about it though, I’m often confused and ask him if he’s famous or something and he doesn’t answer that LOL. I joke that his band must have been totally bummed Rolling Stone didn’t mention their name in their article about him.
I’m hoping that I can get the Pagan Circle in the main prison I support to form a weekly mindfulness meditation group open to anyone. Some of the hand outs do touch on Buddhism and I thought it would be a good way to practice. Because any Buddhists could help with it too.
Wes Hael.
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This is so strange but I was writing about whistleblower Jeremy Hammond who is my penpal and all of the antiracist work especially the direct action against Nazis and this was the song I mentioned – although the specials do it as well so I’m guessing it’s a Jamaican reggae song. Stiff Little fingers was the most important bands for my survival as a teenager – I actually just sent Jeremy the lyrics to “the only one” because it still helps me feel so isolated with multiple chemical sensitivity . And I saw them in 1989 before I moved to Ireland. So that’s really synchronicity for you to see my blog and for me to have just written about that song ! Peace and power
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Wow that’s cool. SLF were a band integral to my growth and development when I was young and their songs and lyrics were very influential to me. I nearly joined the army when leaving school and a song by them stopped me. So glad it did now. I have read about Jeremy Hammond. I believe he was part of anonymous. I have great respect for them and what they do to expose those who exploit people and the system. Love and peace to you.
fauxcroft 
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