places you have visited that shout loud for the workers !

[MotherCossack]

i am not sure if learning is the right spot ... well i sure learnt a lot..... but if you disagree.... please shift as you see fit....

on my week long holiday this year, myself, 4 woozles and my own mum, their nan [obviously] went to Conwy, north wales.
We took the train, one rainy day, on a visit an old slate mine in Blaneau Ffestiniog.
Deep in Snowdonia the place is a cross between a wonderful, welsh valley, surrounded by imposing and glorious mountains and a village built in a quarry from hell...... debris from the mines [slithers of slate, big and small] piled up everywhere one looked..... behind the cottages, station, school, road..... everywhere.... and to a height of at least .....well....100 feet...ish.... they were almost as tall as the mountains behind them.......
to be honest..... there was so much rubble..... god knows what was supporting the place underneath..... it looked like a family of humugous crackens had chewed up the whole place and spewed it out in mega piles of rock puke.
That was only the surface.... we had to walk a mile up through the village/town into the mountains, to the mine itself.
I spent most of the time with my mouth wide open... Lets say shock and awe does not touch it.... I was was terrified that the huge piles would shift in the heavy drizzle and come thundering down to bury us all!
We took a miners tram around the mine. It went into the mine and along the upper chambers. We saw the mine set up.... learnt about the job... conditions of employment, job description, perks,[HA!], pitfalls.'[!!!!!!], LIFE EXPECTANCY....eg you start at 10 years old.... as a helper ... 12 hours a day 6 to 6. 6 days a week. chapel on sunday. 3 days off a year.
by 14 you are a proper slate miner.... a rockman. oh yes you get 30 minutes for lunch... no tea breaks.... 15 minutes to eat and 15 minutes to have your minuted meeting on politics or religon.... secretary took minutes. all this took place in a tiny little cabin deep in the mine like a tiny enclosed hovel lit by candle.
back to work.... the mine is very sparsely lit by very precious, candles... which were the property of the mine owners and had to be bought by the rockmen if and when they made enough money from the slates they produced.
all rockmen had partners in the mill ...above ground. They picked up the slate that their partner sent up in the cart, [marked with their own mark] he had to make as many roof slates from the raw slate as he could.... the number and quality would dictate their wages

[MotherCossack]

If anyone is interested i will finish this later.... it shook me up proper..., going down there... i recommend it highly if you want to engage with ninteenth century working class conditions. it iks very wet, cold and miserable down there and i was only 500 feet down!

[citizen of industry]

Are you and "dodger" the same person? Because your writing style is exactly the same, with the excessive use of elipsis, lack of paragraphs, incoherency, etc. The persona is different, "dodger" is more humorous, but the writing is the same. Where is son cossack these days?

Anyway, in regards the thread, the boiler room of a steam powered ship comes to mind.

[Mass Grave Aesthetics]

Are you and "dodger" the same person? Because your writing style is exactly the same, with the excessive use of elipsis, lack of paragraphs, incoherency, etc. The persona is different, "dodger" is more humorous, but the writing is the same. Where is son cossack these days?

Anyway, in regards the thread, the boiler room of a steam powered ship comes to mind.

This is like saying the writing style of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf was exactly the same and wondering if Woolf was not merely Joyce´s female alter- ego after all.

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

Are you and "dodger" the same person? Because your writing style is exactly the same, with the excessive use of elipsis, lack of paragraphs, incoherency, etc. The persona is different, "dodger" is more humorous, but the writing is the same. Where is son cossack these days?

Anyway, in regards the thread, the boiler room of a steam powered ship comes to mind.

No it ain't. Mother puts 3 dots after every few words. Dodger doesn't, at least not from what I've seen in my PM-conversations with him.

MYTHBUSTERS

[Igor]

friends dont let friends smoke meth and post on revleft

[Kotze]

FfestiniogIs Welsh and a cat jumping on a keyboard the same thing? Because the writing looks exactly the same.
;)

Here are some photos of child miners in the USA, taken by Lewis Wickes Hine in the early 20th century (http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/history/news-photographs-boys-working-mines-early-1900s?image=0).

[Prometeo liberado]

What was this thread supposed to be about?

[MotherCossack]

god this post is such pompous, arrogant, bourgeois bollocks it barely warrents even the finger....
No i am not Dodger... we have a thing or two in common..... namely a dislike for self- important, meaningless, pseudo-intelligent political dressage and empty words that are dressed in nice frocks and bow ties.
I identify with a few of his posts... they speak to me..... which is what I thought rev-left was about..... now i am not so sure.
For what it is worth i believe it is important to keep alive these memories and not lose sight of what was suffered by the working classes in the last 100 years.
my family is and was poor.
my nan left school at 12 and worked six and a half days a week in service. 6am to 9pm.
my grandad left school at 12 and got a job in a factory. He worked there making tyres for 60 years and got a poxy watch for doing it. His hands were cut to shreds and hard as nails. he earned peanuts... never had anything but spirit, hope, humour, love and integrity.
he passed the 11+ easily.... the poor school had made him enter.... but there was no way he could go to the grammer school....no way at all.
i am so proud of them.... i owe them so much..... keeping their memory alive and those of their contemporaries is about the least i can do...

so before you dismiss what i have tried to say, please do me a favour.... stop trying to be a clever dick and open your mind long enough to let new stuff in.... you might learn something!
Oh.. and .....are you mad.... i love paragraphs..... cant get enough of them...

[Art Vandelay]

Fuck tha haters motha cossack; I love you. :)

To tha haters: try reading some Burroughs.

[MotherCossack]

i have now read the other pitiful posts they contribute nothing to any kind of learning that i have ever come across.
if that is all you lot can come up with..... forget it.... i mean ....really !!!!
you are not worth my time.... You are very much part of the problem.... my problem.... what is this shit even for?
Bullying, wanking, show-boating, posturing, more wanking, grumbling, showing off, more bullying, more wanking... oh yes and a bit of passing the time........
i get it.......
Oh and by the way.... my son has grown out of "rev-left." .... which is clearly something i should have done months ago.
Adieu.

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

To answer the OP. I remember, when I was a little Positive Creep, that me and my mum went traveling and went through a little town. I have no idea what it was called, I was six-ish or something, all houses were very small. I remember everyone I saw there looked so sad and tired, from what I can remember there weren't any young people. I believe it was some town near a factory, and I believe the factory got closed down. So only the poor stayed there without a job or future (Of course that is not what I though then, I just remembered the closed factory and the sad faces and older people), It must've made some impression on me, because it is one of the first things I can remember from my youth (That and sitting on the toiolet with a dog plushy in rainbow colors)

[MotherCossack]

To answer the OP. I remember, when I was a little Positive Creep, that me and my mum went traveling and went through a little town. I have no idea what it was called, I was six-ish or something, all houses were very small. I remember everyone I saw there looked so sad and tired, from what I can remember there weren't any young people. I believe it was some town near a factory, and I believe the factory got closed down. So only the poor stayed there without a job or future (Of course that is not what I though then, I just remembered the closed factory and the sad faces and older people), It must've made some impression on me, because it is one of the first things I can remember from my youth (That and sitting on the toiolet with a dog plushy in rainbow colors)

thank you! someone gets what i am after!

yep..... i'm back!
meth addicted, schizophrenic multi-split personality possessing, poster of bad writing and inventor of imaginary son known as the colonel...... yes.... mother cossack....
what da fok? as my invented son would say [if he existed]

you see.... i seem to possess a rather short fuse...... then i go super-nova..... soon after that......
i am ready for more!!
oh and there is the small matter of my hyper-super-sensitive, fragile and damaged ego, which is controlled by an excessive over-abundence of little feelings....damn.... it is hard being me!

i probably did not explain myself very well.....
i went down a mine, a slate mine, in north wales, last week.
it was , to be honest, a pretty unpleasant experience.... cold, wet and very cramped.
i was touched/moved/ shocked by hearing about the lives of these men and more importantly, by actually experiencing the hell that they worked in... for so much of their short lives!
there was a prevailing feeling of solidarity and pride.... the place is run by ex-miners...and the audio tells of their plight, strength, sacrifice and ongoing respect for the collective heritage of the mining community. the final chamber is a moving and haunting memorial to all the miners who have mined slate all their lives....
so... yeah.... it was worth going....... and did a lot to remind me why i am so proud to be working class...

i was interested in any similar experiences that you lot might want to share........
[ right.... i have tried to express myself a bit better.....hope that makes more sense....]

[#FF0000]

you are my favorite poster for real, mothercossak

EDIT: PA has a lot of museums and things about the coal-mining days (which are pretty much gone now). It's pretty 'funny' I guess because they draw families in with, you know, bright colors and talking about 'oh man come take this mine tour what a great family experience" and then talk about how awful things were.

[Questionable]

So are you asking for places that are shitty for the workers?

Many rural towns in the Southern USA, including mine, have basically become dens for white trash ever since the economy left them behind. My town used to be quite bustling, it had a movie theater and a skating rink and all manners of stores and traffic. But then the interstate went up and you would never be able to believe it was like that at one time. Every business in town has closed, the place is basically split between the "good side" which is like a little slice of 1950s America with its pretty lawns, lush trees, and American flags hung on the porches. Then there's the "bad side" with teenagers creeping around making drug deals, starting fights, breaking into abandoned buildings, and just in general being a nuisance. We're known as the "drug town" in our region.

I have no faith for the town once the older generations pass away. The kids that are worth a damn will succeed in school and most likely move away, while the ones that don't succeed as well will sink even further into poverty and inherit whats the skeleton of this town.

[The Jay]

you are my favorite poster for real, mothercossak

EDIT: PA has a lot of museums and things about the coal-mining days (which are pretty much gone now). It's pretty 'funny' I guess because they draw families in with, you know, bright colors and talking about 'oh man come take this mine tour what a great family experience" and then talk about how awful things were.

You're telling me? I've been to so many of those things it's stupid. My grandfather was a miner and most of his side of the family were in the Molly Maguires.

[citizen of industry]

god this post is such pompous, arrogant, bourgeois bollocks it barely warrents even the finger....
No i am not Dodger... we have a thing or two in common..... namely a dislike for self- important, meaningless, pseudo-intelligent political dressage and empty words that are dressed in nice frocks and bow ties.
I identify with a few of his posts... they speak to me..... which is what I thought rev-left was about..... now i am not so sure.

It was an honest question. Tell me you don't even notice a passing resemblance?


dodger Very true...along with te best home-made cakes. Dodger never passes a church bazaar without loading up.Especially the villages. Good source of clothing, Harris Tweed jacket £5-"the late colonel's favourite,!" Kitting out a home silly to buy new, if money tight, silly. All your needs, there, for a song. I don't get there early, too frenetic. Women singularly or en masse terrify me. Non more so than at a Sale or bazaar. Last days of Rome, just before the Lombards,Visigoths entered.


MotherCossak a wonderful, welsh valley, surrounded by imposing and glorious mountains and a village built in a quarry from hell...... debris from the mines [slithers of slate, big and small] piled up everywhere one looked..... behind the cottages, station, school, road..... everywhere.... and to a height of at least .....well....100 feet...ish.... they were almost as tall as the mountains behind them.......
to be honest..... there was so much rubble..... god knows what was supporting the place underneath..... it looked like a family of humugous crackens had chewed up the whole place and spewed it out in mega piles of rock puke.

And I even answered your question. The heat, like an oven...have to shout over the machines...dripping in sweat, clustered under the ventilation. The pumps all play in minor key, you can hum and it is minor. Can't touch the valves with my bare hands...have to wear gloves, leather. Won't open...where is the crow's foot? More coffee...what day is it? Can't tell, only artificial light...haven't been outside in days. How many more hours left? That many? I'm in a machine. I'm part of the machine. Hungry...boil water in a soda can on a pump and add it to my noodles...wash my laundry in a bucket and hang it on the railing to dry...it dries quickly. Wipe up the oil...always leaking, dripping...thinking...can't escape my mind...nothing to do but think and think and think. How many hours left? That many? So hot...what is that sound? Check the gages...how is my pressure? It's fine, no need to panic...more coffee...must stay awake... How many generations of men have stood here? Ghosts...The ship is gone, mothballed...it sleeps cold and dark...but a part of me is still on it, and always will be, alive...a ghost...

[MotherCossack]

So are you asking for places that are shitty for the workers?

Many rural towns in the Southern USA, including mine, have basically become dens for white trash ever since the economy left them behind. My town used to be quite bustling, it had a movie theater and a skating rink and all manners of stores and traffic. But then the interstate went up and you would never be able to believe it was like that at one time. Every business in town has closed, the place is basically split between the "good side" which is like a little slice of 1950s America with its pretty lawns, lush trees, and American flags hung on the porches. Then there's the "bad side" with teenagers creeping around making drug deals, starting fights, breaking into abandoned buildings, and just in general being a nuisance. We're known as the "drug town" in our region.

I have no faith for the town once the older generations pass away. The kids that are worth a damn will succeed in school and most likely move away, while the ones that don't succeed as well will sink even further into poverty and inherit whats the skeleton of this town.

you know what... i grab what you are saying.... but.... come see a welsh mining community... the mines might be dying but boy!!!!!!!!
does the spirit live on!!!!!
yes siree!!!!!
i am not a bourgeois wanker with a posh upbringing and an equally tastefully put together lifestyle matey.... i dont just go all dewy eyed over a fairy story with poor folk in it that includes original features like black lung and the good old dirty big miner singing his socks off....

No i just remember the miners fighting for their lives in the 80's, their honour and their mates against Thatcher and her cold, cruel, controlled annihalation of working class people.
i remember their courage, strength, their unity and their fight.... i remember the slow, agonising, public struggle.... endless.... they seemed so sure of their survival.... were so proud of each other......
but slowly, inevitably... it was so painful to watch while bit by bit the wall they had built, to keep her out , crumbled.
Eventually, desperate.... the miners marched to london.... they were then humiliated, defeated by miners who sold out..... who were tempted by hunger, debt and the divisive promises from the tories henchman.
it was and is impossible, i think, not to be moved by the strength and spirit of these communities.


shit no words i can find, express the lasting impression i got of the 'power of the people' they remain so.......
it is uplifting, sad, but definitely worth coming quite a long way to experience.

so no... not interested in the arse end of nowhere, which has lost it's soul way back when, and is flailing about in a pool of it's own body waste, vomit, fast food and a super fast connection..... to not any place that you would wanna go!

[MotherCossack]

well.... well.... well.... have you got nowt better to do me old china? siembra socialismo
well remember siembra is socialdismo.

what?? well.... i'm a tired old middle aged woman called not the dodger but a bit like him!

[Sea]

How about we all just shut the hell up and gather 'round the fire so mothercossack can continue imparting her wisdom on us?

[MotherCossack]

How about we all just shut the hell up and gather 'round the fire so mothercossack can continue imparting her wisdom on us?

me like!
tar very mooch me auld china... an' very much 'happreciated i'm sure.

awl yuh ave te do is talk te me nice like int it...

alright mother.... you're boring everyone now with you're extremes of colloquial nonsense....
hang about love.....
you 'ave gone and only read the last bleedin post aint cha!!
what if there is a loada real mean fings bein said up there .... above that last one...? yeah...... love???????
what cha gonna do 'bout that then mother?

oh golly......
there's a thought?????
i'm not entirely sure..... i'm sure!!!!

Mother?....

yes...?

are you a total nutter?

oh golly....
there's a thought?????
i'm not entirely sure.... i'm sure!!!!

Mother?...

yes...?
why are you derailing your own thread?

let me see....
how long is a piece of string?

why does a dog chase its tail

i could have been a miner
there aint nothing finer..

from dawn til late....
what a fate.


when work's done
who wants fun?

in my soul
is a hole.

i am a mole
down a deep hole...

wet and cold
my spirit is bold...

they will tell my tale
or put it up for sale.

when my breath is gone
i'll come back down, where i belong.