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It's been a while since we've posted about Mohamed and his family. We are still sending them money every couple of weeks, and they are still dependent on our donations. Some people still send us donations regularly, but a lot of what we used to receive has tailed off, and that's why we are writing now.

Mohamed and his family, including children and elders, are still living in a tent, still fighting to survive, still wondering how they are going to rebuild their lives when absolutely everything- their home, their businesses-have been destroyed. Here is a message Mohamed sent me last week, which we read at a rally here in Edinburgh

" I want to tell you all something important. Don't believe that the war is over. I swear it's not over. It's only in the media that they say it is. Every day they kill us, and more martyrs fall. Life is still hard and hell here. I swear I feel like my life is over, but I have to fight for my family and myself. I know you support us and fight for us, and that's something I'm proud of. It gives me motivation and hope. Keep doing what you're doing. You are what's left of humanity. You are the meaning of humanity. I apologize for what I'm about to say, and I don't want to be a burden on anyone. We live here without a home or any basic necessities, and what you help us with and donate is what helps us get through and live this beautiful life. Keep donating and helping. I love you all."

Please keep sending what you can to:

Paypal.me/anniegcohen
Monzo.me/martinnickolayblake
Or via the Chuffed link in my bio

A workshop of Yiddish folk and protest songs! We’ll learn to sing some classics like « daloy politsey » (down with the police) « oy ir narishe tsionistn » (oh you foolish zionists) and sapozhkelekh (the little boots —the yiddish answer to The Proclaimers). We’ll also learn a couple of new Yiddish songs from the album lider mit palestine (songs with Palestine) and a Yiddish translation of the Manchester Rambler. No knowledge of Yiddish is required. Sheet music will be provided for some of the songs, so bring musical instruments if you have them!

The workshop is free, but we are encouraging participants to donate to @annsplaining’s fundraiser for a family in Gaza (see her bio)

Accessibility : Alison house has a ramped entrance, and there are lifts in the building
Air purifiers will be running at the event and masks will be available for those who want them.

Today's episode should have been a halloween episode! This time, Dan sits down with Historian, Yiddishist, singer, and messenger of deep Jewish ritual practices, @annsplaining Annie Gottfried Cohen! Annie is based in the UK, teaches Yiddish through the Workers Circle, and has sung with Cantor Rachel Weston, the @isleofklezbos , and on her own Yiddish translations of folk and pop songs with Mikhl Yashinsky and our very own producer Beila Ungar! Alongside all that work, Annie created the website pullingatthreads.com, an incredible resource documenting the ritual practices of Jewish Women, especially but not limited to "Cemetery Measurers" and Klogerins or "Mourning Women".

After Dan and Annie discuss their journey's into Yiddish and discover many parallels in their Jewish stories, they turn to these women and their practices that peer beyond our physical world in to realms we might even call supernatural. Annie describes the process and the experience of uncovering the powerful stories of women who fulfilled communal roles like speaking with the dead, that beautifully enrich and complicate many standard narratives about our Jewish past. There's talk of superheroes, of how to connect to our ancestors, of magic, and measuring cemeteries in Lithuania, and what all those big and impossible ideas might mean for us in the present.

We also root this conversation in our horror and opposition to the genocidal devastation of Palestinian life that continues to happen in Gaza and in the West Bank, alongside many other horrible acts led by the US, the Israeli government, and other imperial powers around the world. In light of that, we are asking for your help supporting a campaign that Annie helps lead to to assist Mohammed Abdel Gatah Kamel Haggag, along with his multi-generational family, survive in a devastated and intensely dangerous Gaza Strip, Palestine.

You can find out more and donate at the link in our bio.

Next Tuesday at 7pm EST (midnight BST, in case any night owls want to stay up with me 🦉) Free registration, link in bio

@yenta_laureate and I will be talking to the one and only Anthony Russell about 'From Popular Front to Cold War', a new book on the International Workers Order, edited by Elissa Sampson and Bob Zecker, and including my chapter about the IWO and the International Brigades.

Come for the ever relevant history of immigrant and minority workers organising to help each other survive capitalism and fight fascism, all while grappling with (or failing to grapple with) the dogmas and prejudices and of their own movement. Stay for the stories of revolutionary theatre, chicken impersonation and anti-fascist 'capture the flag'.

There's very few things you can persuade me to stay up past my bedtime for these days, but this is one of them.

I've shared this before but seems worth sharing it again in light of the attacks on @greenpartyzack and the Green Party

In his memoirs, translated into English by Samuel Portnoy, the famous Bundist leader Vladimir Medem described having his words misconstrued by a Zionist journalist. Medem and other Bundists fought tirelessly for Jewish rights within the revolutionary movement, to make sure that the coming revolution would mean not just an end to persecution and violent pogroms but also full political and even national emancipation for Jews in Russia. Addressing a public meeting, he expressed the hope that recent pogroms, horrific as they were, were a sign that this change was coming. But the Zionist journalist twisted his words to make it sound like he was saying that violence against Jews was a good and even a necessary thing.

And there was nothing he could do about it, his responses were ignored. In fact, Portnoy notes in a footnote that as late as 1972, almost 50 years after Medem's death, this was still being repeated by Zionist writers.

Medem is arguably one of the greatest champions of Jewish rights of modern history. He learned Yiddish to be able to communicate with the Jewish masses, was the principle advocate of the Bund's position on Jewish national autonomy, and famously fell out with the Bolsheviks over their refusal to recognise Jews as a nation. But for Zionists, his opposition to the Jewish colonial project in Palestine made him an antisemite. In Medem's day, that was a minority position in the Jewish world, but today it has become the dominant one. Those of us who stand up for Palestinian liberation are often attacked, like Medem was, with Zionists finding ways to demonstrate that we aren't "real Jews."

Reading the news this morning, you'd think that the Green Party were behind the attack in Golders Green. It's almost obscene the way that violence against Jews is being manipulated by political pundits to attack their opponents— in this case, the one major party that actually wants to change the system. But it's all too fucking familiar. They've been playing these games for over a century, the only thing to do is to refuse to join in.

I've shared this before but seems worth sharing it again in light of the attacks on @greenpartyzack and the Green Party

In his memoirs, translated into English by Samuel Portnoy, the famous Bundist leader Vladimir Medem described having his words misconstrued by a Zionist journalist. Medem and other Bundists fought tirelessly for Jewish rights within the revolutionary movement, to make sure that the coming revolution would mean not just an end to persecution and violent pogroms but also full political and even national emancipation for Jews in Russia. Addressing a public meeting, he expressed the hope that recent pogroms, horrific as they were, were a sign that this change was coming. But the Zionist journalist twisted his words to make it sound like he was saying that violence against Jews was a good and even a necessary thing.

And there was nothing he could do about it, his responses were ignored. In fact, Portnoy notes in a footnote that as late as 1972, almost 50 years after Medem's death, this was still being repeated by Zionist writers.

Medem is arguably one of the greatest champions of Jewish rights of modern history. He learned Yiddish to be able to communicate with the Jewish masses, was the principle advocate of the Bund's position on Jewish national autonomy, and famously fell out with the Bolsheviks over their refusal to recognise Jews as a nation. But for Zionists, his opposition to the Jewish colonial project in Palestine made him an antisemite. In Medem's day, that was a minority position in the Jewish world, but today it has become the dominant one. Those of us who stand up for Palestinian liberation are often attacked, like Medem was, with Zionists finding ways to demonstrate that we aren't "real Jews."

Reading the news this morning, you'd think that the Green Party were behind the attack in Golders Green. It's almost obscene the way that violence against Jews is being manipulated by political pundits to attack their opponents— in this case, the one major party that actually wants to change the system. But it's all too fucking familiar. They've been playing these games for over a century, the only thing to do is to refuse to join in.

Back in Edinburgh. Blossoms + a lovely @edinmaskbloc hang

Back in Edinburgh. Blossoms + a lovely @edinmaskbloc hang

Back in Edinburgh. Blossoms + a lovely @edinmaskbloc hang

Back in Edinburgh. Blossoms + a lovely @edinmaskbloc hang

Back in Edinburgh. Blossoms + a lovely @edinmaskbloc hang

Back in Edinburgh. Blossoms + a lovely @edinmaskbloc hang

Back in Edinburgh. Blossoms + a lovely @edinmaskbloc hang

An update from Mohamed and his family in Gaza:

"Everyone believes that the war is over, but every day there are martyrs and bombings, and no one stops them. We continue living in tents without the most basic things. Now that summer is approaching, mosquitoes are starting to bite us and bother us a lot. Plus, there's a scary new problem: rodents have multiplied and are attacking people. They have attacked children and seriously injured some.

The bombing continues, and the martyrs are increasing every day. Hospitals are overflowing with martyrs and wounded. There's a shortage of medicine, blood, and equipment. We can't sleep a single night without hearing bursts of gunfire, the force of explosions, and the sound of tanks in northern Gaza. Not to mention the harshness and difficulty of life, the bleakness of the situation, the catastrophic living conditions, the tents and their inhabitants, the rubble of Gaza, the pollution of its environment, water, and sewage, the spread of diseases and viruses. This is life, this is reality. Talk about it, don't forget it, and tell everyone that everyone here is dying in Gaza in every way."

The video shows food distribution in the camp, which Mohamed emphasises does not happen every day. You can see here how desperate people are. There is still a huge shortage of food, medicine and other essentials, and on most days the only way to get these things are to buy them at extortionate prices.

Please keep donating so we can keep supporting this family and letting them know that people outside of Gaza have not forgotten them.

Chuffed link in bio or :
monzo.me/martinnickolayblake
paypal.me/anniegcohen
Or DM me for bank details

An update from Mohamed and his family in Gaza:

"Everyone believes that the war is over, but every day there are martyrs and bombings, and no one stops them. We continue living in tents without the most basic things. Now that summer is approaching, mosquitoes are starting to bite us and bother us a lot. Plus, there's a scary new problem: rodents have multiplied and are attacking people. They have attacked children and seriously injured some.

The bombing continues, and the martyrs are increasing every day. Hospitals are overflowing with martyrs and wounded. There's a shortage of medicine, blood, and equipment. We can't sleep a single night without hearing bursts of gunfire, the force of explosions, and the sound of tanks in northern Gaza. Not to mention the harshness and difficulty of life, the bleakness of the situation, the catastrophic living conditions, the tents and their inhabitants, the rubble of Gaza, the pollution of its environment, water, and sewage, the spread of diseases and viruses. This is life, this is reality. Talk about it, don't forget it, and tell everyone that everyone here is dying in Gaza in every way."

The video shows food distribution in the camp, which Mohamed emphasises does not happen every day. You can see here how desperate people are. There is still a huge shortage of food, medicine and other essentials, and on most days the only way to get these things are to buy them at extortionate prices.

Please keep donating so we can keep supporting this family and letting them know that people outside of Gaza have not forgotten them.

Chuffed link in bio or :
monzo.me/martinnickolayblake
paypal.me/anniegcohen
Or DM me for bank details

An update from Mohamed and his family in Gaza:

"Everyone believes that the war is over, but every day there are martyrs and bombings, and no one stops them. We continue living in tents without the most basic things. Now that summer is approaching, mosquitoes are starting to bite us and bother us a lot. Plus, there's a scary new problem: rodents have multiplied and are attacking people. They have attacked children and seriously injured some.

The bombing continues, and the martyrs are increasing every day. Hospitals are overflowing with martyrs and wounded. There's a shortage of medicine, blood, and equipment. We can't sleep a single night without hearing bursts of gunfire, the force of explosions, and the sound of tanks in northern Gaza. Not to mention the harshness and difficulty of life, the bleakness of the situation, the catastrophic living conditions, the tents and their inhabitants, the rubble of Gaza, the pollution of its environment, water, and sewage, the spread of diseases and viruses. This is life, this is reality. Talk about it, don't forget it, and tell everyone that everyone here is dying in Gaza in every way."

The video shows food distribution in the camp, which Mohamed emphasises does not happen every day. You can see here how desperate people are. There is still a huge shortage of food, medicine and other essentials, and on most days the only way to get these things are to buy them at extortionate prices.

Please keep donating so we can keep supporting this family and letting them know that people outside of Gaza have not forgotten them.

Chuffed link in bio or :
monzo.me/martinnickolayblake
paypal.me/anniegcohen
Or DM me for bank details

דער בונד אין פֿראַנקרײַך
Der bund in frankraykh

My emotional support void 👀

My emotional support void 👀

This wonderful person is 40 years old today 🧿

איך מיט מײַן מאַנעלע
Me and my little husband 💕

איך מיט מײַן מאַנעלע
Me and my little husband 💕

First spotting of "From Popular Front to Cold War - The Interracial Left and the International Workers Order, 1930–1954" in the wild! At @lighthousebks

Photo by @lutopianx , pictured here with their and Kenyon Zimmer's book "With Freedom in Our Ears: Histories of Jewish Anarchism"

Also a reminder that Lighthouse books holds a stash of masks from @edinmaskbloc if you want to be cool and safe like me and Anna 😷

First spotting of "From Popular Front to Cold War - The Interracial Left and the International Workers Order, 1930–1954" in the wild! At @lighthousebks

Photo by @lutopianx , pictured here with their and Kenyon Zimmer's book "With Freedom in Our Ears: Histories of Jewish Anarchism"

Also a reminder that Lighthouse books holds a stash of masks from @edinmaskbloc if you want to be cool and safe like me and Anna 😷