Planty at the Barbican Christy Moore 's 1972 album "Prosperous" still stands out as a work of genius - fusing the American folk of Woody Guthrie, Irish traditional music and the socialism of James Connolly.
The musicians - himself, Liam O'Flynn, Andy irvine and Donal Lunny got on so well that they formed their own group. Planxty went on to mass popularity and changed the face of Irish music.
Breaking with the staid conformity and sentimentalism of the main interpreters of Irish tradition, like The Chieftains, and "fenian balladeers" like The Wolfe Tones - they revitalised and re-invented the culture to reflect an era of social turmoil, anti-imperialist struggle and even feminism.
In part this was achieved through late 70s spin-off the Moving Hearts and Moore's ongoing solo career. But Planty was the starting point, the bedrock.
The cultural repercussions were considerable. Without them there would never have been the best band of the 1980s, The Pogues, who fused Planxty with punk and were banned from the radio for singing of the Birmingham 6.
And for many activists in solidarity with the struggle against imperialism, these musicians in their various incarnations provided the "soundtrack".
So the reformation of Planty and their first London gig for 25 years had to be an emotional moment. They didn't disappoint.
Moore's younger brother Luka Bloom provided the first set. The second of his two numbers about migration - a core theme of this music - was a warmly received contemporary piece about an Algerian muslim refugee who settles in Galway.
The Barbican Hall in the City of London may be acoustically fantastic, but it encouraged both Planty and audience to approach the occasion with almost churchy reverence. However they soon warmed up.
Running through many of the old familiar tunes they reminded the audience through anecdotes where all the pieces had come from -handed down through oral traditions of Irish travelling families or rescued from memories of great performances in the 1950s and
This is not the music of a conservative mid-20th century reactionary ireland dominated by the Catholic church. They sang of drunkenness, illicit sex and murder.
The dazzling musicianship has not faded. Christy Moore may be the one to have attained international celebrity since Planxty split, but it was Flynn on the Uillean pipes and Irvine on vocals and mandola who were centre stage in both senses. Haunting and sublime. performed the abortion that was liable to prosecution regardless of whether they were paid, whereas Lil had actually committed no crime.
I had the privilege of seeing the film followed by a question and answer session with Imelda Staunton, who portrayal of Vera is riveting, and at times agonising and Peter Wight who plays the rather improbably sympathetic Detective Inspecter Webster.
John Snow who chaired the session irritated me somewhat by spending the first section of the limited time we had focusing on questions about Leigh's style of direction, in a way that seemed to wall questions off from the subject of the film.
While it is interesting to realise that the powerful acting in the film is partly
page 24 of the scan
Fight now to stop New Labour's pensions rip-off!
SUBSCRIBE to resistance i www.socialistresistance.net February 18 has been named as a national day of action by public sector unions as they mount a desperate rearguard action to defend their members pension rights. And UNISON, the largest public sector union, has decided to ballot its 700,000 members in local government over strike action to challenge government plans.
Pensions are effectively deferred wages, and the comparatively generous NHS and local government schemes have until now helped compensate staff for low rates of basic pay, and provided a safety net for many forced to retire early on grounds of illBut Tony Blair's government has been "reviewing" all public sector pension schemes, arguing that people are living longer to draw their pensions, resulting in escalating costs.
In a bid to cut spending, and foist the costs back on to individual workers, ministers have already decided as a matter of policy to increase the normal pension age in all schemes to 65 years.
In addition the minimum age at which a pension will become payable (except on grounds of ill health) is set to increase from age 50 to 55 years.
Many groups of staff in stressful occupations - such as mental health officers - would lose their enhanced pension rights and early retirement age.
FEBRUARY 18 TUC Campaign Day Protect Public Service Pensions
The changes proposed in the civil service, NHS and the Local Government Pension Scheme would mean millions of people working longer, or retiring on smaller pensions.
Increasing the age at which a full pension is payable from 60 to 65 is the equivalent of cutting the VaLC of the scheme by around 30 percent.
To suggest that NHS workers should be forced to work until they are 65 is obviously ridiculous. Working for the NHS is physically, mentally and emotionally demanding.
73% of paramedics are forced to retire through illhealth before they reach the age of 60, let alone carry on until they are 65.
Average life expectancy for hospital cleaning staff has not increased at all in the last 30 years, and the lowest paid section of the workforce can on average look forward to just 8 healthy years of retirement after they reach 65.
Forcing staff to work longer will simply raise the level of ill-health retirements and end up costing the NHS and other public services more money.
Under the proposals, new employees joining from 2006 would be asked to work up to the age of 65, while existing employees who have not hit 60 by 2013 will be required to work until 65 before retiring. socialist No. 22. February 2005
Belatedly waking up to the scale of the attack, and under pressure from an increasingly angry and suspicious membership, public sector unions and the TUC have linked up to mount a campaign to resist these changes.
PCS leader Mark Serwotka has led calls for the February 18 Day of Action to be followed by a concerted day of Address…... L
Force Blair and his team to drop their plans to rip off public sector pensions - and to focus instead on taxing the rich to raise the cash needed for a decent state pension for today's pensioners. SOCIALIST RESISTANCE is a monthly marxist paper. We are offering a special introductory subscription rate 1 year for £12 (UK), £15 (Europe) or £20 (other overseas). For more details fill in this coupon, ticking the make cheques payable to RESISTANCE
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Post Code .. strike action by the public sector unions - effectively a one-day general strike in the run-up to the next election.
So far there have been few takers for Serwotka's suggestion. Despite the UNISON ballot, other union leaders appear to have cold feet on the prospect of further and wider action at a time when they want to ease the pressure on Labour.
However they know that their members are increasingly angry over this issue, and want something done about it. appropriate box and send to us: PO Box 1109 London N4 2UU Please
The rallies and events on February 18 must be followed by demands for more and continuing strike action with one simple aim: to force Blair and his team to drop their plans to rip off public sector pensions - and to focus instead on taxing the rich to raise the cash needed for a decent state pension for today's pensioners. • MPs will be retiring at the next election with a five-star pension package while plotting to make public sector staff work longer for less pension.