John Simkin

In 1931, Sylvia Pankhurst published an account of the evidence concerning Emily Davison's death:

On the eve of the Derby she (Emily Davison) went with two friends to a W.S.P.U. bazaar in the Empress Rooms, Kensington, where, amid the trivial artificiality of a bazaar-fitter's ornamental garden, and the chatter of buying and selling at the stalls, she had joined in laying a wreath on the plaster statue of Joan of Arc, whom Christabel had called "the patron saint of Suffragettes". With a fellow-militant in whose flat she lived, she had concerted a Derby protest without tragedy - a mere waving of the purple-white-and-green at Tattenham Corner, which, by its suddenness, it was hoped would stop the race. Whether from the first her purpose was more serious, or whether a final impulse altered her resolve, I know not. Her friend declares she would not thus have died without writing a farewell message to her mother. Yet she had sewed the W.S.P.U. colours inside her coat as though to ensure that no mistake could be made as to her motive when her dead body should be examined. So she set forth alone, the hope of a great achievement surging through her mind. With sure resolve she ran out onto the course and deliberately flung herself-upon the King's horse, Anmer, that her deed might be the more pointed. Her skull was fractured. Incurably injured, she was removed to the Epsom Cottage Hospital, and there died on June 8 without regaining consciousness. As life lingered in her for two days, Mansell-Moullin performed an operation, which, in surgeon's parlance, "gave great temporary relief," but the injured brain did not inend.

A solemn funeral procession was organised to do her honour. To the militants who had prepared so many processions, this was the natural manifestation The call to women to come garbed in black carrying purple irises, in purple with crimson peonies, in white bearing laurel wreaths, received a response from thousands who gathered from all parts of the country. Graduates and clergy marched in their robes, suffrage societies, trade unionists from the East End, unattached people. The streets were densely lined by silent, respectful crowds. The great public responded to the appeal of a life deliberately given for an impersonal end. The police had issued a notice which was virtually a prohibition of the procession, but at the same time constables were enjoined to reverent conduct.

Constance Lytton was force-fed in October 1909. An account of her experiences was included in her book Prison and Prisoners.

Two of the wardresses took hold of my arms, one held my head and one my feet. The doctor leant on my knees as he stooped over my chest to get at my mouth. I shut my mouth and clenched my teeth… The doctor seemed annoyed at my resistance and he broke into a temper as he pried my teeth with the steel implement. The pain was intense and at last I must have given way, for he got the gap between my teeth, when he proceeded to turn it until my jaws were fastened wide apart. Then he put down my throat a tube, which seemed to me much too wide and something like four feet in length. I choked the moment it touched my throat. Then the food was poured in quickly; it made me sick a few seconds after it was down. I was sick all over the doctor and wardresses. As the doctor left he gave me a slap on the cheek. Presently the wardresses left me. Before long I heard the sounds of the forced feeding in the next cell to mine. It was almost more than I could bear, it was Elsie Howley. When the ghastly process was over and all quiet. I tapped on the wall and called out at the top of my voice. 'No Surrender', and then came the answer in Elsie's voice, 'No Surrender'.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wlytton.htm

Constance Lytton was force-fed in October 1909. An account of her experiences was included in her book Prison and Prisoners.

Two of the wardresses took hold of my arms, one held my head and one my feet. The doctor leant on my knees as he stooped over my chest to get at my mouth. I shut my mouth and clenched my teeth… The doctor seemed annoyed at my resistance and he broke into a temper as he pried my teeth with the steel implement. The pain was intense and at last I must have given way, for he got the gap between my teeth, when he proceeded to turn it until my jaws were fastened wide apart. Then he put down my throat a tube, which seemed to me much too wide and something like four feet in length. I choked the moment it touched my throat. Then the food was poured in quickly; it made me sick a few seconds after it was down. I was sick all over the doctor and wardresses. As the doctor left he gave me a slap on the cheek. Presently the wardresses left me. Before long I heard the sounds of the forced feeding in the next cell to mine. It was almost more than I could bear, it was Elsie Howley. When the ghastly process was over and all quiet. I tapped on the wall and called out at the top of my voice. 'No Surrender', and then came the answer in Elsie's voice, 'No Surrender'.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wlytton.htm

It is claimed that a significant proportion of the British electorate will not vote on Thursday. For those women contemplating the possibility of not voting, I would ask them to consider the sacrifices made in order to get them the vote.

In 1866 a group of women from the Kensington Society organised a petition that demanded that women should have the same political rights as men. The women took their petition to Henry Fawcett and John Stuart Mill, two MPs who supported universal suffrage. Mill added an amendment to the Reform Act that would give women the same political rights as men. The amendment was defeated by 196 votes to 73.

Members of the Kensington Society were very disappointed when they heard the news and they decided to form the London Society for Women's Suffrage. Similar Women's Suffrage groups were formed all over Britain. In 1887 seventeen of these individual groups joined together to form the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).

By the end of the 19th century the NUWSS had about 100,000 members but women were no closer to gaining the vote. Emmeline Pankhurst was a member of the Manchester branch of the NUWSS. By 1903 Pankhurst had become frustrated at the NUWSS lack of success. With the help of her two daughters, Christabel Pankhurst and Sylvia Pankhurst, she formed the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).

By 1905 the media had lost interest in the struggle for women's rights. Newspapers rarely reported meetings and usually refused to publish articles and letters written by supporters of women's suffrage. In 1905 the WSPU decided to use different methods to obtain the publicity they thought would be needed in order to obtain the vote.

During the summer of 1908 the WSPU introduced the tactic of breaking the windows of government buildings. On 30th June suffragettes marched into Downing Street and began throwing small stones through the windows of the Prime Minister's house. As a result of this demonstration, twenty-seven women were arrested and sent to Holloway Prison.

Marion Wallace-Dunlop was one of those arrested. Christabel Pankhurst later reported: "Miss Wallace Dunlop, taking counsel with no one and acting entirely on her own initiative, sent to the Home Secretary, Mr. Gladstone, as soon as she entered Holloway Prison, an application to be placed in the first division as befitted one charged with a political offence. She announced that she would eat no food until this right was conceded."

Marion Wallace-Dunlop refused to eat for several days. Afraid that she might die and become a martyr, it was decided to release her after fasting for 91 hours. Soon afterwards other imprisoned suffragettes adopted the same strategy. Unwilling to release all the imprisoned suffragettes, the prison authorities force-fed these women on hunger strike.

Here is Mary Leigh's account of being force-fed:

I was then surrounded and forced back onto the chair, which was tilted backward. There were about ten persons around me. The doctor then forced my mouth so as to form a pouch, and held me while one of the wardresses poured some liquid from a spoon; it was milk and brandy. After giving me what he thought was sufficient, he sprinkled me with eau de cologne, and wardresses then escorted me to another cell on the first floor, where I remained two days. On Saturday afternoon the wardresses forced me onto the bed and the two doctors came in with them. While I was held down a nasal tube was inserted. It is two yards long, with a funnel at the end; there is a glass junction in the middle to see if the liquid is passing. The end is put up the right and left nostril on alternate days. Great pain is experienced during the process, both mental and physical. One doctor inserted the end up my nostril white I was held down by the wardresses, during which process they must have seen my pain, for the other doctor interfered (the matron and two of the wardresses were in tears), and they stopped and resorted to feeding me by the spoon, as in the morning. More eau dc cologne was used. The food was milk. I was then put to bed in the cell, which is a punishment cell on the first floor. The doctor felt my pulse and asked me to take food each time, but I refused.

On Sunday he came in and implored me to lie amenable and have food in the proper way. I still refused. I was fed by the spoon up to Saturday, October 2, three times a day. From four to five wardresses and the two doctors were present on each occasion. Each time the same doctor forced my mouth, while the other doctor assisted, holding my nose on nearly every occasion. On Monday, September 27, I was taken to a hospital cell, where I was fed by spoon in similar fashion. On Tuesday, the twenty-eighth, a feeding cup was used for the first time, and Benger's Food poured into my mouth for breakfast and supper, and beef-tea mid-day.

On Tuesday afternoon I overheard Miss Edwards, on issuing from the padded cell opposite, call out, "Locked in a padded cell since Sunday." I called out to her, but she was rushed into it. I then applied (Tuesday afternoon) to see the visiting magistrates. I saw them, and wished to know if one of our women was in a padded cell, and, if so, said she must be allowed out. I knew she had a weak heart and was susceptible to excitement, and it would be very bad for her if kept there longer. I was told no prisoner could interfere on behalf of another; any complaint on my own behalf would be listened to. I then said this protest of mine must be made on behalf of this prisoner, and if they had no authority to intervene on her behalf, it was no use applying to them for anything. After they had gone I made my protest by breaking eleven panes in my hospital cell. I was then fed in the same way by the feeding cup and taken to the padded cell, where I was stripped of all clothing and a night dress and bed given to me. As they took Miss Edwards out they put me into her bed, which was still warm. The cell is lined with some padded stuff-india-rubber or something. There was no air, and it was suffocating. This was on Tuesday evening.

I remained there until the Wednesday evening, still being fed by force. I was then taken back to the same hospital cell, and remained there until Saturday, October 2, noon, feeding being continued in the same way. On Saturday, October 2, about dinner time, I determined on stronger measures by barricading my cell. I piled my bed, table, and chair by jamming them together against the door. They had to bring some men warders to get in with iron staves. I kept them at bay about three hours. They threatened to use the fire hose. They used all sorts of threats of punishment. When they got in, the chief warder threatened me and tried to provoke me to violence. The wardresses were there, and he had no business to enter my cell, much less to use the threatening attitude. I was again placed in the padded cell, where I remained until Saturday evening. I still refused food, and I was allowed to starve until Sunday noon. Food was brought, but not forced during that interval.

Sunday noon, four wardresses and two doctors entered my cell and forcibly fed me by the tube through the nostrils with milk. Sunday evening, I was also fed through the nostril. I remained in the padded cell until Monday evening, October 4. Since then I have been fed through the nostril twice a day.

The sensation is most painful - the drums of the ears seem to be bursting and there is a horrible pain in the throat and the breast. The tube is pushed down 20 inches. I am on the bed pinned down by wardresses, one doctor holds the funnel end, and the other doctor forces the other end up the nostrils. The one holding the funnel end pours the liquid down - about a pint of milk... egg and milk is sometimes used.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Whunger.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WleighM.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wwspu.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/women.htm

A couple of YouTube videos on General Walker here:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKwalker.htm

Email on General Walker:

I lived Central Arkansas as a child, I am now 57 years old. My father is over ninty years old and has had strokes. I have only recently begin to become interested in trying to find out why General Walker frequently visited our home when I was about twelve years old.

I have only recently learned of Walkers background. When he visited our home I thought he was just another Fort Roots VA patient that my father had met while in one of his stays in this facility.

My mother had told me after his first visit to our home that Mr. Walker had been in charge of the Troops in Little Rock During the school crisis.

I am beginning to remember bits and pieces of his visits and I am now left with many questions, especially since this time frame for Mr. Walker seems to be so important with regard to important historical events.

My father tells me that he has little recollection of Mr. Walker except that he says he did not like him much.

The Kennedy assassination seemed a million miles away from me at the time, and in retrospect it now seems closer to home after I realized that Mr. Walker was in our home shortly after an attempt was made on his life.

Mr. Walker and my father took my brother and I squirrel hunting, which now seems very odd to me, that is after learning more about his life during that time.

I's not sure if any of this has any bearing on anything, but it has certainly peaked my curious nature.

In June, 1913, Emily Davison attended the most important race of the year, the Derby, with Mary Richardson: "A minute before the race started she raised a paper on her own or some kind of card before her eyes. I was watching her hand. It did not shake. Even when I heard the pounding of the horses' hoofs moving closer I saw she was still smiling. And suddenly she slipped under the rail and ran out into the middle of the racecourse. It was all over so quickly." Davison ran out on the course and attempted to grab the bridle of Anmer, a horse owned by King George V. The horse hit Emily and the impact fractured her skull and she died on 8th June without regaining consciousness.

Among the articles found in her possession were two WSPU flags, a racecard, and a return train ticket to Victoria Station. This has resulted in some historians arguing that she did not intend to kill herself. Sylvia Pankhurst has argued: "Emily Davison and a fellow-militant in whose flat she lived, she had concerted a Derby protest without tragedy - a mere waving of the purple-white-and-green at Tattenham Corner, which, by its suddenness, it was hoped would stop the race. Whether from the first her purpose was more serious, or whether a final impulse altered her resolve, I know not. Her friend declares she would not thus have died without writing a farewell message to her mother." However, Emmeline Pankhurst has suggested: "Emily Davison clung to her conviction that one great tragedy, the deliberate throwing into the breach of a human life, would put an end to the intolerable torture of women. And so she threw herself at the King's horse, in full view of the King and Queen and a great multitude of their Majesties' subjects."

You can see a film of her death here:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wdavison.htm

Members reading this thread should take a look at this excellent article by Tony Austin:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=15845

Conclusions

The police arrived on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository after the assassination of President Kennedy and soon found the sniper’s nest in the southeast corner. Here they found three cardboard boxes positioned up against the widow. The arrangement of the boxes suggested they were set up to act as a gun rest for the sniper who shot at the President. This was the assumption made by the police on that day and the Warren Commission continued with that assumption thereafter.

Important statements were made by Dealey Plaza witnesses Amos Euins and Howard Brennan who saw a man firing a rifle from the sixth floor and Detective Studebaker who examined the boxes found in the sniper’s nest. Their statements suggest that the gunman on the sixth floor did not use the boxes to rest his rifle on when he shot at the President.

If the gunman was Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone it is difficult to see why he would have constructed the gun rest and then not used it. Particularly when you consider the important advantages associated with using the boxes as a gun rest.

It is theoretically possible that an Oswald look-a-like could have fired at the President from the sixth floor sniper’s nest. This theory would explain why the gun rest was constructed but not used, why none of the boxes had fingerprints or palm prints on their sides but there were prints on the top surface of one particular box and why the gunman did not move the boxes out of the way having decided not to use them. It also explains why the gunman did not seem too concerned that people in Dealey Plaza could see his face and he was allowing so much of his body to be seen by the people at ground level. Finally, it allows us to see why Amos Euins gave very clear descriptions of a man with a white bald spot on his head shooting at the President when all the photographic and film evidence shows that Lee Harvey Oswald did not have a bald spot.

The observations of two witnesses and one crime scene detective have led us to one simple question: “why would Lee Harvey Oswald acting as a sniper on the sixth floor set up a gun rest and then not use it?” There is one simple answer to this question that explains it perfectly and also explains all the other observations highlighted in this article. The answer is as follows: Lee Harvey Oswald would not have done this and the reason it was done is because Oswald was not the sniper and the three boxes were not a gun rest.

Excellent article Tony. It is impossible to find any flaws in your argument.

Murdoch's Sky News had Gordon Brown fixed with a microphone today. They have picked-up Brown's comments that will destroy his election campaign:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/ele...010/8649012.stm

The Spanish Civil War was another subject that was well-covered by the Left Book Club. This included Harry Gannes and Theodore Repard (Spain in Revolt, December 1936), Geoffrey Cox (Defence of Madrid, March 1937), Hewlett Johnson (Report of a Religious Delegation to Spain, May 1937), Hubertus Friedrich Loewenstein, A Catholic in Republican Spain (November 1937), Arthur Koestler (Spanish Testament, December 1937) and Frank Jellinek (The Civil War in Spain, June 1938). However, Victor Gollancz rejected the idea of publishing Homage to Catalonia. In the book George Orwell attempted to expose the propaganda disseminated by newspapers in Britain. This included attacks on both the right-wing press and the Daily Worker, a paper controlled by the Communist Party of Great Britain. Although one of the best books ever written about war, it sold only 1,500 copies during the next twelve years.

Email message about Saul Sage:

I am very interested in seeing the pictures you have of Saul Sage. Saul lived with us in the Chicago area in the mid-1960’s when I was about 11 or 12 years old. My father and grandfather met him in Mexico. He was working as a glass bottom boat tour guide. They brought him back to Chicago and he stayed with us for several months. Some posting I read said he was born in 1911 but there is no way he was that much older than my dad. I would say he was born somewhere around 1930. I would like to see the picture. I am not sure I would recognize him after all these years though.

He was quite an artist and story teller. He would draw pictures for me of all the places he had been. He used S&H Green Stamp books as his passport and had border stamps in there from all over South America. He said they didn’t speak English and had no idea what they were stamping. I thought this was the funniest thing I ever heard!

He told my Dad he wrote for Soldier of Fortune magazine but most all of the stories weren’t true. He said he was involved with the Bay of Pigs but no one in my house believed him. We just thought he was a great story teller. His stories seemed so outrageous to us at the time. It wasn’t until information about our government’s dealings came out years later that we wondered whether he was actually telling us the truth.

Saul moved out of our house after about 3 months and got a job as a cab driver. I adored him and missed him terribly. He would come on Sunday’s with his cab and take me for a ride sometimes. I loved sitting in the back of the cab being chauffeured around. Then he just disappeared. I never saw him again. My dad got a call from him about a year later asking for money for his daughter who was supposedly sick. My Dad never believed the story but wired him some money. He was somewhere out in the western US but I don’t remember where. We never heard from him again.

Sometime around 1970, the FBI went to my aunt’s house looking for him. He had used her address to get a job as a cab driver because you had to live in Chicago to drive a Chicago cab. She didn’t remember him and did not put it together. When she told my mom about it, my mom realized they had come looking for Saul. By then, however, he was totally out of our lives.

I know you are probably looking for more “hard” information about the man but it is really all I remember. I would love to see the pictures if you would send them. Thanks

I feel like an outsider here. I honestly don't know what you are all talking about.

The CIA didn't make any mistakes in Iraq (well, at least not any major ones that I'm aware of).

The Bush administration is the entity that made the mistakes.

The Intelligence Community did NOT claim that Iraq had WMD or that Saddam posed a threat.

The Bush administration's appointees at the Pentagon are the ones that cooked the books, so to speak....

Please get your facts straight. In addition, Tim Weiner's book is a load of crap, missing many of the major problems that should have been highlighted. Weiner's an insider, so I expected no more and no less than a by-the-numbers rundown of what we already knew.

Have you read the article? This is the opening two paragraphs:

"Slam dunk.” George Tenet, the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency, later admitted that those were “the two dumbest words I ever said” when he had assured President George W. Bush in December 2002 that the CIA held solid proof of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. This monumental error led directly to the American decision to invade Iraq.

While the CIA's mistake on Iraq was arguably the most consequential in its history, it was certainly not the first. As Tim Weiner's compelling book, “Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA,” makes clear, the U.S. has suffered serious intelligence failures from the CIA's earliest days.

It is clear that Bush and Blair selected the CIA and MI6 intelligence that encouraged the belief that Iraq had WMD. However, it is also clear that the CIA and MI6 went along with providing the information that the politicians were looking for.

What "mistake on Iraq" are you referring to? I'm not aware of the CIA making any major mistakes regarding Iraq. I'm not being facetious.

That they believed they had weapons of mass destruction. Another major mistake was their assessment of what they thought would happen if the US and UK invaded Iraq. According to the testimony of Tony Blair at the Chilcott Inquiry, the CIA and MI5 did not predict the resistance that they faced after the invasion. However, I suspect he was not telling the truth because when Clinton asked the CIA what would happen if he ordered the invasion of Iraq, they told him that other countries in the region, including Iran, would get involved.

Churchill: Cometh the Finest Hour

The great war leader’s rise to power was far from inevitable. Taylor Downing explains what a difference a day made.

The Chartists: Charting a Future Democracy

David Nash argues that the Chartists’ campaign for political inclusion and social justice have much to offer Britain’s political system.

The Murder of Le Roi Henri

In May 1610 Henry IV of France was assassinated by a religious fanatic apparently acting alone. Though popular, Henry had nevertheless aroused animosity on his way to kingship, not least because of his Protestant beliefs, writes Robert J. Knecht.

British Society: Never So Good Again

By the time the sixties arrived, with the welfare state established, Britain’s baby boomer generation was having a ball. But its obsession with novelty and a lack of respect for the traditions of its elders sowed the seeds of today’s anxieties, argues Francis Beckett.

Captain Jennings Causes Chaos

Early 17th century England saw the emergence of pirates, much romanticised creatures whose lives were often nasty, brutish and short. Adrian Tinniswood examines one such career.

Science & Shelley: What Mary Knew

Patricia Fara explores the scientific education of Mary Shelley and how a work of early science fiction inspired her best-known novel Frankenstein.

No Gifts for the Greeks

The current economic plight of Greece is part of a long feud between Athens and Europe’s great powers, writes James Miller.

http://www.historytoday.com/NewBlank.aspx?m=21010

Another message frpm Beverly Oliver:

"Aubrey Rike, gentleman extrodainaire and a wonderful part of history, passed away. His services will be Thursday at 2:00 P.M., in McKinney, Texas at Turrentine/Jackson Funeral Home with interrment at Sparkman Hillcrest. Please keep Glenda and the rest of their loved ones in your prayers. All of us will have an Arbrey ...shaped hole in our hearts. Rest in Peace sweet Friend."

One of things that is clear is that people who had evidence about the assassination were kept quiet by threats against their children. This is of course the most effective way of keeping people from talking. Virtually no one would take risks with the life of their children. Sixteen days after the assassination of JFK, Frank Sinatra's son, Frank Sinatra, Jr. was kidnapped. Was this a warning to keep him quiet about what he knew?

Message from Beverly Oliver:

"To all of my President Kennedy Friends, Followers and Researchers, Our beloved Aubrey Rike passed away yesterday at 5:30 P.M. Another precious friend and man of history has now entered the Heavenly Portals and is sitting at the feet of Jesus. Praise the Lord he has his leg back and he has no more pain. Rest in Peace dear friend. You will be sorely missed. Peace and comfort to his sweet wife, Glenda."

This, I hope, will be my FINAL posting on this subject. Someone or some agency

has designed the JVB affair TO DIVIDE RESEARCHERS. The have succeeded beyond

their expectations.

Let us all concede for a moment EVERY STATEMENT made by JVB is TRUE. What are

we left with which might advance the solution to the JFK case???

1. This teen science student was recruited by the CIA to assist David Ferrie in designing

a means of killing Fidel Castro using cancer cells.

2. This teen girl was introduced into high level anti-Castro Cuban persons in New Orleans,

including Carlos Marcello, Guy Bannister, Clay Shaw, Dr. Oschner and others.

3. This married teen girl was assisted by these anti-Castro persons on a few days notice

to become involved in a romance with a CIA asset who had been steered into employment

at a CIA asset company.

4. What agency recruits high school students to devise cancer infections to be used in

assassination attempts? What agency uses this student, a strange ex-pilot, a famed

doctor and medical researcher who is strangely murdered to devise cancer strains to

be delivered to Cuba to kill Castro?

5. Much later, this teen girl learned that her lover was involved in a plot to kill the president

but instead of reporting this plot, she aids and abets her lover's involvement.

Now where have we heard all of this before? Who or what agency has been heavily

involved in promoting the Cuban connection as the perpetrators of the assassination?

The answer is clear.

I hope this is my final word.

Carry on.

Jack

Jack, I have been very impressed with your postings on this thread.

In January 1936, the publisher, Victor Gollancz, the writer, John Strachey and Harold Laski, the Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics, creating the Left Book Club. The main aim was to spread socialist ideas and to resist the rise of fascism in Britain. Gollancz announced: "The aim of the Left Book Club is a simple one. It is to help in the terribly urgent struggle for world peace and against fascism, by giving, to all who are willing to take part in that struggle, such knowledge as will immensely increase their efficiency."

Ben Pimlott, the author of Labour and the Left (1977) has argued: "The basic scheme of the Club was simple. For 2s 6d members received a Left Book of the Month, chosen by the Selection Committee - which consisted of Gollancz, John Strachey and Harold Laski. Left-wing books could be guaranteed a high circulation without risk to the publisher, while members received them at a greatly reduced rate."

Victor Gollancz had hoped to recruit 10,000 members in the first year. In fact, he achieved over 45,000. By the end of the first year the Left Book Club had had 730 local discussion groups, and it estimated that these were attended by an average total of 12,000 people every fortnight. As Ben Pimlott pointed out: "In April 1937 Gollancz launched the Left Book Club Theatre Guild with a full-time organiser; nine months later 200 theatre groups had been established, and 45 had already performed plays. Sporting activities and recreations were also catered for." As The Tribune newspaper pointed out, "walks, tennis, golf and swimming are quite different when your campanions... are... comrades of the left". By March 1938, membership of the Left Book Club had reached 58,000.

Would the idea work today?

Here is a full list of the books published by the Left Book Club:

• Acland, Richard. Only one battle. (November 1937)

• *Acland, Richard. Public speaking. (May 1946)

• *Acland, Richard. What it will be like in the new Britain. (December 1941)

• *Addison, Lord. A policy for British agriculture. (January 1939)

• *Aguirre, Jose Antonio de. Freedom was flesh and blood. (May 1945)

• *Allan, Seema Rynin. Comrades and citizens. (November 1938)

• Allen, Frederick. Can capitalism last? (March 1938)

• *Anderson, Evelyn. Hammer or anvil. (June 1945)

• Arnot, R. Page. A short history of the Russian Revolution, Vol. I. (October 1937)

• Arnot, R. Page. A short history of the Russian Revolution, Vol. II. (December 1937)

• *Attlee, Clement R. The Labour Party in perspective. (August 1937)

• Baker, Joseph. The law of political uniforms, public meetings and private armies. (January 1938)

• *Barnes, Leonard. Empire or democracy? (March 1939)

• *Barou, N. British trade unions. (March 1947)

• *Barou, N. The Co-operative Movement in Labour Britain. (February

1948)

• *“Barrister, A” [Hill, Mavis]. Justice in England. (July 1938)

• Bartlett, Francis H. Sigmund Freud. (November 1938)

• *Bateson, F.W., ed. Towards a Socialist agriculture. (February 1946)

• Beck, Alan. Chemistry: a survey. (May 1939)

• *Belfrage, Cedric. Let my people go. (February 1940)

• *Belfrage, Cedric. Promised land. (February 1938)

• Bernstein, Hillel. Choose a bright morning. (July 1936)

• *Bhattacharya, Bhabani. So many hungers. (December 1947)

• Bibby, H.C. The evolution of man and his culture. (October 1938)

• Bibby, H.C. Heredity: eugenics and social progress. (July 1939)

• Birtles, Birt. Exiles in the Aegean. (October 1938)

• *Blum, Leon. For all mankind. (June 1946)

• *Brady, Robert A. The spirit and structure of German Fascism. (September 1937)

• *Brailsford, H.N. Subject India. (April 1943)

• Brailsford, H.N. Why capitalism means war. (August 1938)

• *Braunthal, Julius. In search of the millenium. (July 1945)

• *Braunthal, Julius. Need Germany survive? (May 1943)

• *Braunthal, Julius. The tragedy of Austria. (Summer 1948)

• *Brockway, Fenner. German diary. (October 1946)

• *Brockway, Fenner and Mullally, Frederic. Death pays a dividend. (July 1944)

• *Brontman, L. On top of the world. (April 1938)

• *Browne, Lewis. Something went wrong. (December 1942)

• *Burger, John. The black man’s burden. (March 1943)

• Burns, Emile, ed. A handbook of Marxism. (July 1937)

• Burns, Emile. Money. (July 1937)

• Burns, Emile. What is Marxism? (June 1939)

• Bush, Alan and Swingler, Randall, eds. The Left song book. (March 1938)

• Cambridge Scientists Anti-war Group. The protection of the public from aerial attack. (February 1937)

• *Campbell, Alexander. Empire in Africa. (April 1944)

• *Campbell, Alexander. It’s your Empire. (August 1945)

• Campbell, J.R. Soviet policy and its critics. (February 1939)

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http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jgollancz.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUleftbook.htm

I think you have very persuasively demonstrated the WHEN of the assassination, as well as outlined the deep corrupt nature of the American political system then, and now.

What's the difference between them getting kickbacks on vending sales at military bases and defense contractors and the CIA's Foggo giving his pals million dollar contracts to provide bottled water to troops in Afghanistan? That's the way capitalism works, right?

I see no difference between the situation in 1963 and 2010. It is true, that traditionally that is the way capitalism works. However, I do believe it is possible to reduce corruption to a minimum. This is what JFK meant in his conversation with Evelyn Lincoln.

It is also good to see that John Williams did what he could to expose corruption. During a 15 year period his investigations resulted in over 200 indictments and 125 convictions. What makes Williams noteworthy was that he was willing to expose the corruption of both Republicans and Democrats.

Most research is concerned with the how and why but you have effectively answered the question of why they killed him then, at that time, the when - because it would be too late if JFK did to LBJ what he did to Dulles, Bissell, Cabel, Harvey, Stockdale and McCormick, and that was about to happen, as Nixon and the Dallas newspapers speculated on the very morning of the assassination. The whole reason for killing JFK depended on LBJ being there to take over, and it was quite clear he was on the way out the door, despite the call girl blackmail card he had on JFK. And maybe because of it.

One of the interesting aspects of this case is that when Reynolds appeared before the Committee on Rules and Administration on 1st December, 1964. He testified, not against Johnson, but against Kennedy's appointment, Matthew H. McCloskey.

I think you can take this further. Have you tried to get the records of correspondence/cables beween David Bruce and JFK re: Profumo?

Bobby Baker himself is still alive, right? And certainly Douglas Caddy and others with an inside track can help answer some of the questons - Was LBJ's personal secretary related to the Sheriff who investigated the Marshall murder?

No, I have not looked at the correspondence/cables beween David Bruce and JFK.

I would be very interested in Douglas Caddy's views on the subject.

If they don't have a prepared written out paper, maybe someone has an abstract or synopsis of what they were going to say. Thanks for checking,

Alaric Rosman and Clay Ogilvie said he will send me a copy of their lecture. However, Gerald McKnight and Nancy Weiford want to hold on until they present their talks next year.

For what it's worth, HEMMING believed her. And HEMMING was a hard case--a difficult man to convince of anything. He was probably tougher than most skeptics could ever be. He wouldn't have asked me to give her the time of day otherwise.

Hemming did know a lot but as one CIA insider told me, he was paid by the word. Hemming was one member of the Forum who was a disinformation agent.

In the 1930s C. E. M. Joad was the UK's most popular philosophers. In his book, Under the Fifth Rib (1932), he produced a Charter for Rationalists. What do members make of these ideas today.

Examples of such goods are the following. I put them in the form of a programme which twentieth-century rationalists might do well to adopt.

(1) Repeal of the divorce laws; it should be made as easy for people to get divorced as to get married.

(2) Repeal of the laws against what is called unnatural vice. I have never been able to see that sodomy does harm, or to understand why it should be persecuted with such malignant ferocity.

(3) Diffusion of birth-control knowledge, including the provision of information and advice with regard to birth-control at all Government and Local Authority clinics and of birth-control appliances at all chemists' shops.

(4) Repeal of laws penalizing abortion as a criminal offence.

(5) Sterilization of the feeble-minded.

(6) Abolition of the censorship of plays, films and books.

(7) Abolition of all restrictions on Sunday games, plays, entertainments, etc.

(8) Disendowment and Disestablishment of the Church. If people want priests and churches to put them in, I do not see why they should not be expected to pay for their upkeep.

(9) Preservation of the amenities of the countryside, including compulsory town and country planning, restriction on ribbon development, access for walkers to mountains, moorlands and wild places, and the provision of national parks.

(10) Prohibition of exhibitions of performing animals.

(11) Abolition of all licensing restrictions.

(12) Complete disarmament. Involving the abolition of the army, navy and air-force.

These are the main points in a modern rationalist's charter. If they were embodied in legislation, the general level of public health and happiness would, I am convinced, be sensibly improved. For my part at any rate, soft middle-aged man that I am, with a status to maintain and goods to lose, I am prepared to abjure revolutionary activity and to devote my energy to the task of persuading my fellow-beings of the desirability of such measures as I have enumerated.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jjoad.htm