Benjamin Zephaniah’s break-up of UK and the republican dimension

Benjamin Zephaniah’s unexpected death on the 7^th December at the early age 65 has been a shock to the countless thousands, maybe millions, who have come to love his work. His autobiography, The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah, is a very powerful book.  It draws on a range of life experiences that few others have ever come across.  In his struggle against ‘Babylon’, he has won widespread support, particularly amongst the oppressed.  He has also appealed very much to children, with his strong concern for animals and the environment highlighted in his poetry.

There will be obituaries covering the many aspects of Zephaniah’s life, poetry, music and politics, including by those who knew him well. So, the rest of this post deals with only a couple of aspects of Benjamin’s life and politics.

Benjamin’s politics had a strong anarchistic theme, but he was also a marked republican. He also saw that that the break-up of the UK state is vital to overthrowing ‘Babylon’. This led Benjamin to developing an interest in Scottish politics. When the Scottish Socialist Party united the majority of the Left in Scotland, it had 6 MSPs and several councillors. 4 of the 6 SSP MSPs organised a protest at Holyrood, against the use of the ‘Met’ (with whom Benjamin was well acquainted!) to suppress protests against G8 at Gleneagles in 2005. Despite being an entirely peaceful and silent protest, the other MSPs, including the SNP and Greens, went along with the Labour Lib-Dem Holyrood coalition in imposing draconian sanctions.  Benjamin organised solidarity support.

The late Eddie Truman, one of the organisers of the first Calton Hill Declaration and the very successful protest there on October 9^th, 2003 , wrote a piece about this for the Australian socialist magazine, Green Left, which is posted below.

Attempts were also made to win Benjamin over to the establishment. Although always ready to speak to a wider audience, he firmly rejected the attempt to give him an OBE – Order of the British Empire or ‘Babylon’ as he termed it – an empire built on slavery. Benjamin’s response, posted in the Guardian is also posted below.

27.11.23

 

RAP & HIP ARTISTS RELEASE CD FOR SSP

Some of the leading rap and hip hop artists in Britain and internationally have come together to produce a compilation CD for the Scottish Socialist Party. Featuring internationally renowned artists such as Benjamin Zephaniah and KRS1 alongside the very best of Scottish and British rap and hip hop talent, Fight The Power: Defend Socialism was born following the Scottish Parliament protest of four Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) MSPs over the right to march at the Gleneagles, Scotland, venue of the G8 summit. The protest, in July last year, led to draconian sanctions taken against the party by the Scottish Parliament.

Outraged at the treatment of the SSP MSPs, some of Britain’s leading rap and hip hop record labels set about appealing to their artists to donate tracks for the compilation. The response was overwhelming and the SSP is proud to announce a CD of superb material from Rodney P, Skinnyman, King Biscuit Time, Benjamin Zephaniah, Monkey Tribe, Emmanuel featuring KRS1 and many others.

All the money raised from the CD will go towards the fighting fund established to make good the £30,000 fine imposed by the parliament on the SSP MSPs and parliamentary staff for the protest.

The CD was released by Single Cell Press on February 27. SSP national convener Colin Fox said of it, “We are absolutely delighted that the rap and hip hop artists featured on this CD have given their time and world renowned talent in recognition of the injustice that was perpetrated on the SSP following our protest in the Scottish Parliament in June of 2005 over the right to peaceful protest at the G8 summit at Gleneagles.

“The SSP is enormously proud that artists of such stature should contribute to this CD and it is a testament to the vibrant rap and hip hop community of which Single Cell Press is a part of that this CD has been released under the title Fight The Power: Defend Socialism.

“We are honoured that all of the artists on this CD have made such a significant and important contribution to our fighting fund.”

Sleeve notes on the CD eloquently explain the cause. “In June 2005 four MSPs from the SSP and 28 of the party’s staff were stripped of their wages and allowances by the Scottish Parliament. Their crime was mounting a silent protest demanding that parliament defend the right to protest against the G8 at Gleneagles. Their action led to the march going ahead but the draconian sanctions cost the party over 30,000 pounds. This CD is a tribute to the four MSPs and all funds raised will help pay back some of the wages the activists and workers lost.”

17.9.2005

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ME? I THOUGHT, OBE, ME?

UP YOUR, I THOUGHT 

An invitation to the palace to accept a New Year honour… you must be joking. Benjamin Zephaniah won’t be going. Here he explains why.

I woke up on the morning of November 13 wondering how the government could be overthrown and what could replace it, and then I noticed a letter from the prime minister’s office. It said:

The prime minister has asked me to inform you, in strict confidence, that he has in mind, on the occasion of the forthcoming list of New Year’s honours to submit your name to the Queen with a recommendation that Her Majesty may be graciously pleased to approve that you be appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire.

Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought. I get angry when I hear that word “empire”; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my fore mothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised. It is because of this concept of empire that my British education led me to believe that the history of black people started with slavery and that we were born slaves, and should therefore be grateful that we were given freedom by our caring white masters. It is because of this idea of empire that black people like myself don’t even know our true names or our true historical culture. I am not one of those who are obsessed with their roots, and I’m certainly not suffering from a crisis of identity; my obsession is about the future and the political rights of all people. Benjamin Zephaniah OBE– no way Mr Blair, no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire.

There’s something very strange about receiving a letter from Tony Blair’s office asking me if I want to accept this award. In the past couple of months I’ve been on Blair’s doorstep a few times. I have begged him to come out and meet me; I have been longing for a conversation with him, but he won’t come out, and now here he is asking me to meet him at the palace! I was there with a million people on February 15, and the last time I was there was just a couple of weeks ago. My cousin, Michael Powell, was arrested and taken to Thornhill Road police station in Birmingham where he died. Now, I know how he died. The whole of Birmingham knows how he died, but in order to get this article published and to be politically (or journalistically) correct, I have to say that he died in suspicious circumstances. The police will not give us any answers.

We have not seen or heard anything of all the reports and investigations we were told were going to take place. Now, all that my family can do is join with all the other families who have lost members while in custody because no one in power is listening to us. Come on Mr Blair, I’ll meet you anytime. Let’s talk about your Home Office, let’s talk about being tough on crime.

This OBE thing is supposed to be for my services to literature, but there are a whole lot of writers who are better than me, and they’re not involved in the things that I’m involved in. All they do is write; I spend most of my time doing other things. If they want to give me one of these empire things, why can’t they give me one for my work in animal rights? Why can’t they give me one for my struggle against racism? What about giving me one for all the letters I write to innocent people in prisons who have been framed? I may just consider accepting some kind of award for my services on behalf of the millions of people who have stood up against the war in Iraq. It’s such hard work – much harder than writing poems.

And hey, if Her Majesty may be graciously pleased to lay all that empire stuff on me, why can’t she write to me herself. Let’s cut out the middleman – she knows me. The last time we met, it was at a concert I was hosting. She came backstage to meet me. That didn’t bother me; lots of people visit my dressing room after performances. Me and the South African performers I was working with that night thought it rather funny that we had a royal groupie. She’s a bit stiff but she’s a nice old lady.

Let me make it clear: I have nothing against her or the royal family. It is the institution of the monarchy that I loathe so very much, the monarchy that still refuses to apologise for sanctioning slavery.

There is a part of me that hopes that after writing this article I shall never be considered as a Poet Laureate or an OBE sucker again.

Let this put an end to it. This may lose me some of my writing friends; some people may never want to work with me again, but the truth is I think OBEs compromise writers and poets, and laureates suddenly go soft – in the past I’ve even written a poem, Bought and Sold, saying that. There are many black writers who love OBEs, it makes them feel like they have made it. When it suits them, they embrace the struggle against the ruling class and the oppression they visit upon us, but then they join the oppressors’ club.

They are so easily seduced into the great house of Babylon known as the palace. For them, a wonderful time is meeting the Queen and bowing before her presence.

I was shocked to see how many of my fellow writers jumped at the opportunity to go to Buckingham Palace when the Queen had her “meet the writers day” on July 9 2002, and I laughed at the pathetic excuses writers gave for going. I did it for my mum; I did it for my kids; I did it for the school; I did it for the people, etc. I have even heard black writers who have collected OBEs saying that it is symbolic of how far we have come. Oh yes, I say, we’ve struggled so hard just to get a minute with the Queen and we are so very grateful – not.

I’ve never heard of a holder of the OBE openly criticising the monarchy. They are officially friends, and that’s what this cool Britannia project is about. It gives OBEs to cool rock stars, successful businesswomen and blacks who would be militant in order to give the impression that it is inclusive. Then these rock stars, successful women, and ex militants write to me with the OBE after their name as if I should be impressed. I’m not. Quite the opposite – you’ve been had.

Writers and artists who see themselves as working outside the establishment are constantly being accused of selling out as soon as they have any kind of success. I’ve been called a sell-out for selling too many books, for writing books for children, for performing at the Royal Albert Hall, for going on Desert Island Discs, and for appearing on the Parkinson show.

But I want to reach as many people as possible without compromising the content of my work. What continues to be my biggest deal with the establishment must be my work with the British Council, of which, ironically, the Queen is patron. I have no problem with this. It has never told me what to say, or what not to say. I have always been free to criticise the government and even the council itself. This is what being a poet is about. Most importantly, through my work with the council I am able to show the world what Britain is really about in terms of our arts, and I am able to partake in the type of political and cultural intercourse which is not possible in the mainstream political arena. I have no problem representing the reality of our multiculturalism, which may sometimes mean speaking about the way my cousin Michael died in a police station. But then, I am also at ease letting people know that our music scene is more than what they hear in the charts, and that British poetry is more than Wordsworth, or even Motion. I have no problem with all of this because this is about us and what we do. It is about what happens on the streets of our country and not in the palace or at No 10. Me, OBE? Whoever is behind this offer can never have read any of my work. Why don’t they just give me some of those great African works of art that were taken in the name of the empire and let me return them to their rightful place? You can’t fool me, Mr Blair. You want to privatise us all; you want to send us to war. You stay silent when we need you to speak for us, preferring to be the voice of the US. You have lied to us, and you continue to lie to us, and you have poured the working-class dream of a fair, compassionate, caring society down the dirty drain of empire. Stick it, Mr Blair – and Mrs Queen, stop going on about the empire. Let’s do something else.

27.9.23

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also see:

Announcing the 2023 Declaration of Calton Hill – Radical Independence Campaign

A monarchy based on slavery – Mike Small, bella caledonia

For a republican all-islands, internationalism from below alliance – Allan Armstrong, RCF, RSP

People of Belize reject Will and Kate – Jamaica’s about to do the same – Eliza Egret, The Canary

Their Royal Heilnesses – John Tummon – Republican Socialist Alliance

Full marks for republican initiative – RCN

Hamish Henderson (OBE declined), 1919-2002 – RCN

EL&SD coverage of republicanism since 2002