Ivo's Boat to Noam Chomsky

Some readers of 'Left Field' have asked me what gave me the idea for this memoir. I started writing it while watching men fishing from a harbour wall on a Croatian island. This eventually became the chapter 'Ivos' Boat'. They reminded me of my father-in-law who had learned to fish, not as a summer hobby, but from necessity. A cafe musician, he lived most of his life in poverty and fish you catch yourself are free. Ivo had been a Partisan and communist. Born in the Austro-Hungarian empire, living most of his life in 'communist' Yugoslavia and dying in independent and right-wing Croatia. His country was confusing for him and central to me. My connection to the region is reflected in the heart of the book. But my biological family in this country have exerted a similar strong influence on me. My father was one of the first Allied medics into Bergen-Belsen and took me on my first CND march. My Welsh mother led me to a love of Dylan Thomas and all three of them have found their way into this book. Closely pursued by Pavarotti, Brian Eno and my connections to the music world and whistleblowed charity! Political activism has been a central thread in my life - I must be one of the oldest members of Momentum, but so long as Chomksy lives I feel young. www.davidwilson.org.uk

Protest in the Digital Age

                 Protest in the Digital Age - Huffington Post, 11 June 2016

Tractors and slugs

First break for months from Left Field and have taken to the Mid-Wales hills where I have been staying on the smallholding of my friend Shade Majekodunmi. We have known each other since our time working at the Stop the War Coalition. Shade was an early supporter of my memoir so I thanked her by doing a day's work on her tractor! Her brother Desmond Majekodunmi is a leading Nigerian environmentalist and she is almost there as a 'Green' farmer. Those slug pellets have to go! Here is a great interview with Desmond

in praise of disobedience

This weekend is the first anniversary of my admission to hospital for an operation on a subdural haematoma. I was at the 'Disobedient Objects' exhibition at the V & A. On display, suffragette teapots, battered pan lids that had helped bring down the Argentine government, a Palestinian sling-shot made from the tongue of a shoe and homemade shields made to look like book covers. My behaviour was as surreal as the exhibits and I went directly from the V & A to A & E. You can read about all this in an article I wrote for Huffington Post and later in 'Left Field'. One year on and I am alive, recovered and on my way to join the disobedient at Downing Street to oppose bombing Syria. I have nothing but contempt for our tinpot bombardiers. Cameron's sole experience of war would have been his time on the parade ground at school. Ex-chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir David Richards, once told the PM that 'being in the Combined Cadet Force at Eton did not qualify him to decide the tactics of complex military options.' I know, I don't trust Sir David either. My trust is with Jeremy Corbyn and those who join me in Whitehall at midday. 

Standing in the light

Ex-Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, General Wesley Clark, made this comment eight years ago.“We’re going to take out seven countries in 5 years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran”. Hasn't exactly gone to chronological plan, but they are still working on it. My friend Haifa Zangana, novelist, short story writer and political columnist, invited me to a showing of 'Whose Peace Will it Be' at the P1 Studio London last night. Directed by the Belgian filmmaker, Luc Pien, it was deliberately not a film about the atrocities that have been committed in Iraq—and now far beyond its borders. Pien spoke with writers, poets, academics and refugees. As well as Haifa, they included Zainab Khan and Intisar al Obaidy, artist Rashad Salim, film maker Al Daraji and academic Mundher Adhami. Harold Pinter said, “We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people.” Yet out of this degradation the survivors emerge, defiantly standing in the light and speaking for themselves and for a civilisation that belongs to all of us. Don't forget to be at Downing Street at midday on Saturday. We still have to act against Clark's seven-country plan and stand in the light. More on Haifa Zangana in Left Field

Corbyn - challenging the state's estate agents

I have now been twice to help out on the phones at the Jeremy Corbyn campaign office in London and I will be back there tomorrow. In my 70s now my whole life has involved me in political agitation, from CND to Stop the War. And my take on parliamentary politics has until now been 'don't disturb the dead.' But this is different. One caller today said they had been waiting their whole life for this to happen – a movement challenging the estate agents who run the political parties who service the state. If you have any spare time contact:  http://www.jeremyforlabour.com/contact

Brian Eno and Bosnia

I have blogged about Brian Eno and his backing for Reg Keys ten years ago in the 2005 election. This was when I was working at Stop the War. But my association with him goes back a further ten years when he was a leading supporter of War Child. Remember the Help album? Brian was also instrumental with his wife, Anthea, in the decision to build the Pavarotti Music Centre in Mostar, Bosnia. He then supported me when I was sacked for whistleblowing. He has said this about Left Field (to be published in Feb 2016): “This is an excellent and inspiring book. David is an adventurer and a free-thinker who, despite the best efforts of an education designed to equip him for obedient anonymity, somehow did something truly useful with his life. His stubborn and yet self-effacing commitment to his ideals carried him through many daunting situations ...” Here is a recent interview he did with me.

Photo: Brian Eno with child at a music workshop in Mostar (1998)