Felly, mae'n gweithio i ddweud o'r Martin Luther King a'r ysgrifennu'r ysgrifennu yng Nghymru. Mae'n gweithio'r Martin Luther King oherwydd mae'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gweithio. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis. He'd gone to Memphis in support of black sanitary public workers. He was part of the struggle obviously for civil rights and equal rights for blacks, which still had not been achieved in that period. This group of black workers had been on strike since March the 12th when he arrived. They were on strike over wages and conditions. They had suffered discrimination and it's just an example of the kind of thing that was going on. There had been bad weather previously and the workers were sent home. But the black workers received two hours' pay for the day, whereas the white workers who were sent home were paid for the whole day. That showed still the level of discrimination that existed. In this case of course it sparked off a strike. Now Martin Luther King was assassinated by an obscure petty criminal. If you look at the guy, he's just a secondary insignificant figure. And who was behind the assassination has never really been fully investigated or discovered. But many pointed the fingers at government authorities or people up on high. In any case it was clearly a racially motivated assassination. And it wasn't the only one, I'll refer to others later on. Just days after his assassination the Civil Rights Act of 1968 was passed in the United States. That act contained the prohibition of discrimination in such matters as housing based on race, religion or national origin. On paper it established equality in these questions. Now Martin Luther King had been involved in the Poor People's Campaign which culminated in a march on Washington and a camp set up outside the White House which continued also after his death. Now he originated in the segregated south. He grew up in the southern part of the United States where they still had apartheid. Blacks couldn't go in some places where whites could go etc. But in the 50s and this would have marked also his development we have two cases. One is Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old black girl in Montgomery who refused to give up her seat to a white person which went against the Jim Crow laws which were still on the statute books. December the same year Rosa Parks, much more famous an adult because the earlier girl, the earlier was a minor was arrested for doing the same thing. She was arrested because she was an adult of course and could be arrested for such a thing. Arrested simply for not giving up your seat to a white person. These were the conditions of that period in that part of the United States. This event led to the Montgomery bus boycott led by Martin Luther King which lasted for 385 days. That was the degree of anger which was sparked by what seemed like a small event. During this period King's house was bombed, he was arrested and he became a national figure in the civil rights movement. Just a little briefing on the Jim Crow laws these were introduced after the civil war. Although they granted slaves freedom i.e. they could no longer be treated as a possession they introduced segregation into the system. They weren't allowed the same civil rights. In effect they were disenfranchised and these laws stayed on the statute books as late as 1965. So in the 50s when all this was happening those were the laws which were in place. King said many times that he stood for nonviolent peaceful protest. He took part in the movement for black's rights to vote against segregation, for equal rights at work etc. He opposed the Vietnam War. He began to speak of a redistribution of resources i using some of the wealth to alleviate some of the worst aspects of class society. Apparently he even read Marx but he drew the conclusion that Marx wasn't for him. He didn't agree with the analysis. I'm being very telegraphic here obviously but this place is King in the category of what we as Marxists would call a reformist. Somebody who believes it's possible to gradually reform the evils out of capitalism. So trying to improve the lives of the working class people without overthrowing capitalism. Of course in the post war boom period that illusion would have been a very powerful one that you could achieve such improvements for working class people because there was such a huge development of the economy and with it came massive industrialisation. Millions of blacks for instance moved from the southern states to the major cities into the auto industry and the other industries and with it of course came jobs, wages etc. But there were some black leaders who went further than Martin Luther King. For example Malcolm X who was assassinated earlier in February 1965 he started out as a black nationalist and for separation of blacks from whites. But through the experience of the struggle observing events he eventually dropped this and he moved more and more towards a socialist outlook. He grew to understand the need for unity across the colour divide. In 1964 he came out with his famous quote which I've seen a lot of comrades have reposted on their Facebook pages and think you can't have capitalism without racism which was a big step forward in the thinking of blacks involved in the liberation movement. And I quote him in 1965 he said this I am not a racist. I am against every form of racism and segregation every form of discrimination. I believe in human beings and that all human beings should be respected as such regardless of their colour. That's a step away from the nationalism and the separatism and a recognition that the struggle has to be a common struggle of blacks and whites. He was reaching these conclusions and of course that's when he was assassinated because to have black leaders who base themselves on basically almost a kind of inverted racism blaming all white people for the ills of blacks that doesn't create a problem to the capitalist class because it helps to keep the workers divided along colour lines race lines et cetera ethnic divisions but when you have leaders of the blacks rising above that and drawing more radical conclusions that this is a working class struggle then those people start to become more dangerous not less dangerous and then there were those who went even further there's the famous Fred Hampton murdered in 1971 at a very young age he was born in 1948 that would make him 23 according to these figures he was a leader of the Black Panther Party in Illinois and he was killed by the police during a raid in December 1969 it was an open police assassination they set up a spy who drugged Fred Hampton so when the police came in he was lying in his bed with his partner they just shot him cold bloodedly killed him on the orders of the FBI now Fred Hampton went much further than Malcolm X he actually drew very clear class conclusions if you listen to the videos that are available on the internet of him speaking you'll hear him say I am a revolutionary, a proletarian he refers to the international proletarian revolutionary struggle and he says racism is an excuse used by capitalism he said we don't hate white people but the oppressor whether he be white or black he saw things in class terms and he referred to the idea that we're fighting amongst each other when in actual fact we should be fighting together he had a class position which was a product of the 1960s and the radicalization that went with it now just some context to what was happening at the time let us not forget we had the Vietnam War in March 1968 this is the same period I've just been referring to 400-500 unarmed civilians were massacred in the famous Milai massacre some of the women were gang raped and their bodies were mutilated by American soldiers this provoked revulsion in the United States and particularly amongst the youth and then we have events such as the shooting of students at Kent State University in Ohio in May 1970 four students were killed when the National Guard opened fire during a demonstration against the Vietnam War a further 10 were seriously injured some of those killed, if you look at the list were just happening to be there some were walking through the campus some were moving away some were just looking at what was happening they were shot in cold blood this led to a nationwide student strike across the United States universities were closed down, occupied previous to that, in South Carolina State College February 1968 again similar to period in which Martin Luther King was assassinated three students were shot and killed by the police while protesting against racial discrimination the result, the investigations led to the exoneration of the police and the only person charged from those events was one of the students who was shot shows you the nature of the state now this radicalized the student movement to an extreme degree at the same time as this student radicalization has taken place which is in line with what we saw in May 1968 in Italy in 1969 and across the globe in Mexico, Pakistan we have a growing radicalization of the working class growing worker militancy especially young workers and black workers the blacks were moving into the cities as I said before and becoming proletarianized and for example in 1967 40% of the United Auto Workers Union was under the age of 30 it was a very young working class very young people going into industry and in the mid-60s it's not by chance therefore that the strike levels begin to climb again in line with the statistics you have for Germany, for Italy, for France, for Britain everywhere you have the same kind of statistics appearing between 1967 and 1971 the number of workers taking part in strikes in the United States doubled and this was a consequence of the pressure of capitalism this was the boom these were the so-called golden years of capitalism of the post-war boom but see what happened between 1955 and 1967 industrial workers weekly hours worked went up by 14% not down, up workers were working longer hours corporate profits in the same period were up over 100% in those years the capitalist doubled their profits now the number of industrial workers also grew which is clearly a positive development from a capitalist from a Marxist point of view, sorry because it increases the strength of the working class the number of industrial workers in that same period I-55 to 67 went up by nearly 30% a massive strengthening of the industrial working class but output went up by over 90% so they're squeezing more surplus value out of the working class they're investing massively in technology therefore you have automation but you also have speed ups checks on breaks how hard the workers are working how fast they're working etc and the trade union leaders, the American trade union leaders agreed to all this this was all agreed in the contracts in the agreements they made with the bosses and this led to an interesting process which was one of the rank and file from the early 60s onwards you see the beginnings of a change in the trade union leaders they're getting replaced local officials are being voted out new officials, more radical, more militant are being voted in and then at the same time you have wild cat strikes wild cat strikes because the trade union bureaucracy was putting a break on the movement of the working class holding them back doing everything to try and keep social peace in 1960 there were 15 wild cat strikes in the different Chrysler plants in 1967 49 wild cat strikes in 1968 over 90 that shows you the growing rank and file militancy of the workers in an attempt to circumnavigate the bureaucracy which was holding them back what was happening to black workers wages also was part of the process in 1950 average wages of black workers were 60% the level of white workers but instead of improving through the boom it actually got worse 1955 average black wages went down to 55% of white workers wages and 1962 to 53% basically by the mid 60s the average wage of a black worker was half that of a white worker but it wasn't just wages, unemployment the rate of unemployment amongst blacks was double what it was amongst whites but the number of industrial black workers was massively increasing and this was a significant element in the situation Detroit for example had a majority black population at that time and large numbers of blacks were entering the auto industry in and around Detroit and in the period 1969-73 we see a rank and file rebellion not just against the bosses but also the trade union leaders this is what was happening on the workers front which is parallel to the radicalization taking place amongst the youth is a historical discrimination against blacks which is pushing the civil rights movement you have the growing militancy of the working class a huge reaction and a radicalization of the working class particularly the youth and the blacks but the working class as a whole growing levels of strikes combined with the reaction against the imperialist war in Vietnam and the protests against that combined with the repression that the state met it out shooting unarmed students on more than one occasion where students were shocked by they couldn't believe if you listen to the survivors of those events they say they saw police shooting into the crowd and they thought they must be shooting blanks they would never do such a thing instead they were shooting live ammunition and killed the students all of this massively radicalized the movement and explains why you had of course you had Martin Luther King who was a leader of the civil rights movement but limited himself to trying to fight for improvements within the system and then you have the much more radical layer such as the Fred Hamptons who draw very radical revolutionary conclusions about it's not about race it's about class and it's about class struggle this was what was being produced in the United States the most powerful capitalist country on the planet on one of the two big superpowers of the time so although we had the economic boom and the economic growth and all the rest of it the other side of it was that of course being a class society with all the injustices of that all these elements came together to produce a very radicalized situation in the United States and in those conditions that had been you've discussed May 68 and other movements if the French workers had taken power in May 68 this would have been followed by the workers of Italy taking power very shortly afterwards Britain in 1972 was on the verge of a general strike I remember it I'm a little less young than you are I remember my dad being on strike for seven weeks in 1972 coming home every day I had a good lesson in the trade union politics even before I joined the organization for seven weeks I was told every day what happened at the factory assembly and how the mood was going of course the end of that was that he was really angry with the trade union leaders because they sold out but that was a taste of the mood that existed at the time the country was on the verge of a general strike so you can see May 68 in France could have led to a revolution in Europe and what I've just described about the United States shows you that potential was there also in the States there's this myth that America was a bulwark of reaction I can remember in countries like Italy and France in the 60s and 70s they used to talk about the Americanization of society well they ignored that there was another side to Americanization what I just described to you could also be called Americanization i.e. the American working class rising up and challenging the system now some more general points about racism and the black question there are attempts or there were attempts in the past to find a kind of scientific justification for racism i.e blacks are inferior intellectually only good for hard labour of course there's no basis to that what so ever in actual fact there's no such thing as race when we talk about racism I know it means discrimination against people who look different but there isn't actually any such thing as a black race or a white race there's no genetic basis to it what so ever the colour of your skin or the kind of hair you have is actually a very minor difference now I've had cats over the years about black cats, white cats, ginger cats they're all cats and none of them ever say I'm not playing with you because you're a ginger cat cats don't do it and humans humans in normal conditions don't do it either if you put black children or white children to play together when they're very young their instinct is not to say oh you're black I'm not playing with you it just doesn't happen it does not happen what does happen is as they grow up in this class society the racist element where it does exist is passed on to the next generation and what is potentially a harmonious society is transformed into a society based on racial discrimination but there's a reason why they invented the idea that blacks were somehow inferior and it's not from the Roman times it's not from feudalism it's actually capitalism that creates the need to develop the idea that somehow blacks African blacks are inferior somehow why is that? because well first of all if you can divide the working class according to colour or language or religion then that plays a useful role in dominating the working class in Northern Ireland there is no physical difference really between Protestants and Catholics I can't tell a Catholic from a Protestant by looking at him or her I can tell a black from a white simply from the colour of the skin but in Northern Ireland there's no nothing nothing whatsoever and yet they've managed to successfully create a divide which led to thousands of people being killed during the troubles why the British ruling class ordered to divide divide and rule it's a classic if you look around the whole of the British empire Cyprus, nice little division there between Cyprus speaking people and Turkish speaking people India, partition, Muslims and Hindus with millions killed in the process of partition wherever you go they left little presence for the people you go to Nigeria today and you find the divisions in the society and again, they're all black in Nigeria it's not a white black division and yet there are houses who are discriminated by Yruba's and vice versa, Ebo's there have been terrible wars and killings as a result of this so a division based on language, religion or some kind of identity in this case colour plays a very useful role in dividing working class people and pitting them against each other i.e. if there's not enough jobs it's because of the immigrants it's because of the foreigners who are coming here taking our jobs etc etc and of course this is fermented by the media if you read the media the local media, little examples of girl is physically attacked or raped if the attacker is black or Muslim that adjective will be added to the report if he happens to be white and has a very English name and he happens to be a Christian maybe all those adjectives are superfluous they are not necessary it makes for shorter news report fewer adjectives the reason is it creates this idea that while the blacks are more violent they're more dangerous and they are more criminal inclined in Italy at the moment they're fermenting racism to an incredible degree the other day there was actually a report a bus in a town in northern Italy a black immigrant was pushed to the back of the bus and the driver helped in pushing him to the back of the bus now there's no laws in Italy which says that blacks have to be somewhere in a separate part of the bus that's happening and if you read the press it's a constant barrage about how dangerous everything has become I've spoken to people who say oh I used to walk down here but I don't walk here anymore because of all these blacks and I say can I ask you a question do you actually know somebody in this neighbourhood who's been physically attacked by a black no so why are you frightened of being attacked by blacks oh they're criminal they rob houses I said do you know anybody in this neighbourhood who's been burgled by a black no it's always the same and I said so what are you frightened of and are you telling me that it's safe to walk the streets when it's just Italians there's no such thing as Italian criminals there's no such thing as the mafia or the drangada which clearly was invented by the blacks who just arrived but it shows you the power also the propaganda it's a conscious policy we have the minister of the interior who is consciously promoting racism the mayor of Riaccia in the south who applied a policy of integration a very intelligent policy actually he revived the town because of the emigration of Italians with blacks from Africa and Asians and Middle Eastern people he actually revived the town creating jobs they've opened the bars reopened the houses that had been abandoned this guy was put under house arrest and now he's been expelled from the town he can't go back to his hometown the other night he slept in a car this is the mayor of Riaccia in the south of Italy so they're promoting racism as a conscious policy to divide why because of the crisis of the system in a deep crisis the deepest crisis it's ever been in in actual fact if you look at what's happening around the world and therefore the promotion of racism is a conscious policy to weaken the working class Marxists oppose all forms of discrimination whether it's based on your gender your orientation your age your language your religion you believe in or don't believe in or whatever we oppose all forms of discrimination all forms of oppression and we fight for the right of everybody to live their lives as they wish now the point is this the origins of the racism towards the blacks is in the slave trade you see initially they didn't use blacks to work on the plantations they used indentured workers whites, irish and others to sell themselves for a period of time in order to get across the Atlantic and try and hope for a better life in America now of course that was limited because eventually you'd finish your contract you'd be free they tried to enslave the local indigenous population as well the problem with that is that once a Native American escapes from slavery back to his tribe it's difficult to distinguish the slave from the non slave the beauty for the capitalists of the blacks of Africa was you bring blacks to the United States and their very physical appearance and that's connected to being a slave makes it impossible for that person to escape into freedom because they escape but they're blacks they just picked up again back to the master so with it also came the need to create the idea that they are inferior because you see human beings naturally don't like treating other human beings as if they were animals that's a general a natural tendency but class society has to brutalize human beings and make them believe that they're somehow inferior but I had the joy yesterday of watching Italian TV the national because they did badly at football so we forget about the world cup in it but the national women's volleyball team I don't know if you know them they beat China three sets two the other day and they're in the final against Serbia so Italy now is all we're in the final of the women's volleyball championship but three of the girls who play for the team are black one of them is of Nigerian parents and she scored the final winning shot apparently she's super fast when she hits the ball I was watching it and I was thinking of a few people I know in Italy who are quite racist and I thought I wonder if they support this team or not it brings out the contradictions of course when they're interviewed this week perfect Italian it's a new phenomenon of course but going back to the question of creating this idea that they're inferior they did that to justify the terrible treatment of the slaves in the United States they're not human beings they're not like whites they're below us they're on the level almost of animals the Romans didn't have black slaves the Romans were much more democratic and egalitarian everybody could be a slave white, black or whatever and they just did things like crucify them in the thousands if they're ever dead to rebel like the Spartacus rebellion but they had no concept that you are inferior because you are of a specific colour all they said was they called slaves a tool with a voice so rather nice way of calling human beings a tool with a voice he's not really human but he speaks like a human in the States they created this myth of the blacks now of course the liberation of the slaves was also part of the development of capitalism initially black slavery played a useful role for capitalism in the cotton fields played a role actually in Lancashire and in the north in the development of industry the supply of cheap and plentiful cotton worked by slaves in America but as capitalism develops slavery becomes unproductive no longer productive Marx refers to it when he explains you have to put tools in the hands of workers and you want workers who will respect the tools and treat them in a certain way and you've invested in them what interest does a slave have in anything that he does he doesn't even have a higher wage at the end of the day if he or she works harder he just produces more wealth for the boss he still owns still owned by the land owner and has no rights whatsoever but as capitalism developed in the north they moved in a different direction in the same way in a certain sense that in Britain in the past they had to provide a huge supply of labour for the cities by literally expelling the peasants and they were white English peasants who were being expelled off the land pushed into the cities capitalism requires what are called free labourers i.e. free to sell themselves on a daily basis to whichever capitalist is prepared to employ them and of course a plentiful supply of unemployed workers also helps the capitalist to hold down wages because it's a pressure on the working class and so the material base at the end of the day for the liberation of the slaves was to be found in capitalism itself which ended with the ending of slavery but as you see it didn't reach full equality I just refer to the Jim Crow laws and the discrimination which continued blatantly until the 60s but in spite of all the formal equality on paper if we look at the statistics we see that blacks are still not at the level of whites in the United States something like 13-14% of the population was in poverty but among the blacks it's over 25% unemployment amongst the blacks to this day is more than double what it is amongst the whites now some blacks have made it right to the top haven't they? Obama amazing liberation of the black people or nice people like Condoleesa Rice if you remember her or Colin Powell the black army officer you see capitalism uses racism and colour to divide the working class but there are moments when the same capitalist class which can be responsible for terrible racism such as in South Africa when the class struggle becomes so powerful that it risks overthrowing the system itself like in South Africa you see they had a problem in South Africa black and working class was like interchangeable if you were black you were working class if you were working class you were black there were some white working class but a small minority the bulk of the proletariat the people producing the surplus value were blacks and the discrimination was blatant with the apartheid system in the struggle of the South African working class in ending that system you see how flexible the bourgeois is prepared to make all kinds of concessions when it comes to equality before the law and also in promoting some blacks to become capitalists I'll give you an example Cyril Ramaphosa you know him now as the president but he used to be the leader of Kasatu the trade unions and I have a video of him speaking in 1985 at the founding congress of Kasatu I hear him speaking they're talking about the symbol of the union which had to have the wheel of industry but also a woman because women are part of the workforce and the colour red's got to be in there because red is the colour of socialism this is the guy who now is a multi-billionaire and a leader in South Africa he's been bourgeoisified he's been allowed to become extremely rich I'll tell you something you do not become a billionaire simply as the general secretary of the trade union although some of them do get some good money and it helps them on their way this guy was promoted in order to be able to say we have now blacks in the government in fact if you look at the government today in South Africa it's overwhelmingly black so you would say wouldn't you the blacks have achieved freedom but if you go down into the black neighbourhoods you will find the same social and economic conditions that existed before when it comes to health care schooling etc so equality equality before the law under capitalism doesn't mean equality that's the point we have the stress because you can be equally sentenced to death for killing somebody or you can have the right to be employed in a certain sector but if unemployment is double what it is amongst blacks to whites you're still equal in the law you're equal in the face of the law but in actual fact you're very unequal because it's capitalism capitalism is not a system that is based on true equality capitalism is a system which is based on the exploitation of labour by a minority of the population which is called the capitalist class exploits the working class and extracts surplus value from the working class and then in this society we're all equal but if mum and dad have a lot of money they can pay very very good school can't they? and if mum and dad have social problems, economic problems unemployment, single mothers without another parent to help low income etc then those children do not have they're not equal to the parents to the children of the parents who can pay for the private school I've been to a school my daughter does her music exams there and it's a private school and it costs something like £100,000 to send your child for five years to a school like that and I look at the school and I feel absolutely disgusted not that the young kids have got that I'm thinking this is what everybody should have this is what all kids should have access to and the wealth is there but they don't then I have my wife who works in the nursery in a very run down area and she tells me that the majority of the kids she deals with have special needs and they don't have the staff to deal with them children who are violent to other children children who are with obsessive behaviour, learning difficulties and those children could be helped if they had the extra staff instead what we have is a cutting of the staff because they're cutting back on spending because of the austerity now in these conditions where you already have unequal relations between blacks and whites between immigrants and local people then what you have is the poverty is generated and regenerated and it remains it doesn't go away even though on paper we have equality like in Britain you have equal wages don't you I mean nobody can employ a woman and a man and pay them different wages and yet if you look at the average wage differential between men and women not only is it still there since this crisis began it's got wider the average wages of men the last figures I saw was something like £24,000 a year and the average wages for women £18,000 it used to be £21 now how do you explain that well women mainly work in childcare that's a fact and childcare is paid for wages so although a man working in the same nursery would get the same wage you very rarely find a man working there occasionally you do cleaning and a lot of other jobs it's the same thing women because they tend to have babies and men don't the boss doesn't like to employ them in certain jobs or prefer to keep them on a temporary contract so that in six months or years time they can get rid of them and they can work unstable work some total leads to inequality in practice even though in theory the law says you're equal and that's because it's the capitalist system clearly that is to blame I have a lot of stuff here on black nationalism in America but I'm not going to go into it there's a material on the website which you can read on black nationalism which is very good which goes into great detail into the history of slavery how it developed and why the struggle against slavery the civil rights movements etc it goes into the black panthers there's a very interesting article on the American on the US website on the program of the black panther party which analyzes it in detail this is all material which if you're interested in further studying this question I would look it up if you're interested it's actually called hold on the program of the black panther party which way forward for black workers and youth and this is the one I've got is part one and it's from 2014 the document of the American Congress is called the black struggle and the socialist revolution published by the workers international league and available on their website I strongly advise you to read it and maybe hold meetings of Marxist societies based around these documents and maybe the lead off I'm giving here which is more of a general more of a general character now the question of how to fight discrimination, racism etc there's been a lot of talk since the 60s of positive discrimination of favouring blacks when there's a job comes up in a kind of trying to redress the historical injustices we as Marxist would argue that we shouldn't limit ourselves to deciding who gets the limited number of jobs you know there's ten black unemployed and there's ten white unemployed and there's two jobs you give the jobs to two blacks you haven't solved the problem for the other eight blacks you have provoked a resentment amongst the ten unemployed white who say, I mean the same condition as them, why are they getting it it doesn't help to unify it actually divides and it actually explains why some people like Trump or others can actually use this to lean on the poor layer of the white working class to try and drag them towards a reactionary position what we require is a revolutionary position which says we want a job for all of the ten blacks and all of the ten whites that's the way to stop one, divisions between people based on colour because there won't be any resentment because he's black or whatever and that means that what Marxist should fight for is not this or that small redress because think of it this way if a whole factory is going to close what's the point of positive discrimination in jobs all of them, black and white will lose their jobs if you introduce the concept of discrimination let's say half the factory has got to be sacked if you apply positive discrimination you'd have to say logically white workers first ie get the sack imagine what that would do for working class unity it would actually strengthen racism it would strengthen the right wing that is actually what has happened that is part of the explanation of what is happening at the moment with these parties because the left is not giving a serious explanation as to the nature of the crisis what it's about because it's basing itself on the reformist outlook it cannot answer the burning questions facing working class people working class people are actually facing some very dire conditions again I was in Italy in the south last week Comrade took me, took him home to his block of flats he said there should be 15 families living in this block of flats there's 15 flats he said there are over 40 families living in this building and I said how does that work he said it's the sons and daughters of the older generation who've lost their houses they can't pay the mortgage they can't pay the rent so what you have is a son comes back with his wife and kids the daughter comes back with her husband and kid and they have one family in each room when I saw that and I saw the neighbourhood I thought this is an explosion in the making this is a social explosion being prepared the problem is of course the left doesn't explain the answer of course is expropriate the millions of empty homes which exist than families that need them but they've been kept empty for speculative reasons in order to fight that you don't do it with some cosmetic change here and there you've got to expropriate the big corporations that own the housing and it's the same with the rest of the economy now in America today going back to the states we have the black lives matter we have the shooting of blacks it's much more likely you'll be killed on the streets if you're black than if you're white there's an inbred racism in the police force even though there are black policemen of course but in general the tendency will be to regard a black as dangerous you've seen the videos of black guys put your hands up in spite of that ends up getting shot if he's white less likely to happen they still have the discrimination, the racism and the de facto inequality before the law they talk about equality before the law where's the equality before the law when if a policeman turns up you're not equal if you're black you're more likely to be killed or beaten up or die in the hands of police officers black Americans have the highest death rates of any ethnic group in the United States how do you explain that? well it's the economic conditions the education the healthcare they don't have the living conditions etc some statistics from 2005 average family income 67,000 for whites 38,000 for African Americans college educated is they're 33% higher African Americans is 20% sorry of the population living in poverty whites 9% blacks 26% if you live in poverty if you go to a school which doesn't have the staffing doesn't have the funding you're more likely to end up in the wrong end of the spectrum of income in society because there is a class divide now under capitalism we're not equal because there are social and economic inequalities there are rich and there are poor those who can pay for education and those who can't and racism keeps coming back even when there are periods if you looked at Britain up to about 10 years ago you would have said look at the integration look at the multiculturalism look at how things are moving nicely in the right direction the laws are there and all the rest of it and then you have Brexit and the right wing side the nationalism that went with it which was we want to kick all the immigrants out racism comes back even where it seems that it was going down and the reason why it comes back is because it's a useful tool for the capitalist class and even if it's not there they will revive it or they will blow on the embers of racism which are below the surface and light it up once again because capitalism needs a scapegoat they need somebody who can be identified as the cause of the problems none of housing is all these immigrants now the target is of course Muslims Islam is the target and they are using the wars in the Middle East the terrorism and all the rest of it to pinpoint Muslims as the force to blame yesterday on the news there was another of these gangs that groom young girls but you notice there was a gang that was all white English who did the same thing didn't make the news headlines I thought why doesn't that one make the news headlines they're both awful they're both disgraceful human beings in the way they behave but if they're Pakistanis and Muslim they make the headlines the idea is it's a process of transforming Pakistanis into monsters they are monsters because they're Pakistanis they're monsters because they're dark because they're Muslims and therefore we have to fight them and that is provoking a division within the class itself as Malcolm X said to return to him you can't have capitalism without racism and the point is capitalism is a system which because of its very nature returns to crisis crisis comes back because of the contradictions of the economy I'm not going to give an economics lesson here I'm sure you've all discussed Marxist economics we've got to bring out the lessons of the past because what we see what we saw in America in the 60s wasn't in effect the black population, the black working class their consciousness reaching the point of understanding that it's not just blacks but it's a class struggle and in struggle itself we've seen it many times in strikes the workers come together men and women fight together against the boss not fight each other blacks and whites come together and fight the boss whatever colour he is they learn from experience that if you had a strike imagine having a strike and you say only the white workers or only the black workers are going to go on strike who would win would be the boss he'd have black legs who would be prepared to work against the strikers so our task is to build working class unity we have to explain the class interests what's behind all this with facts and figures and also understand that through class struggle racism begins to break down the opposite process begins the capitalist promote division class struggle brings workers together and the workers begin to see in the process of struggle who the real enemy is it's not your work mate that's the enemy it's not the black cleaner or the black care worker that's your your enemy it's the boss whatever colour he has in South Africa in the rising struggle against apartheid the classification on your documentation whether you are white black or coloured and one of the slogans of the rising youth movement and the black youth used to shout it they would they in the classification they would say not black not white not important that was their slogan it's not the issue it's the issue is the nature of society reformism cannot do this the left of reformists will fail to combat racism at the end of the day because racism is not fought by making appeals to people to be nice to each other it's fought by solving the economic and social problems the material basis upon which racism can thrive and if there's growing unemployment growing poverty increasing austerity and people are suffering and people are really suffering young comrades should really go into some of the working class neighbours and just talk to people just listen to the problems they're talking about and you'll realise what an explosive move exists down right down in the depths of society you can't remove racism in that environment simply by appealing to be nice it's by raising the class issues and saying we need houses for everybody jobs for everybody healthcare for everybody and highlighting the super profits which the capitalists are making they have money for certain things they have the billions for trident when it comes to the potential to destroy the whole of humanity they have billions and billions when it comes to financing an extra teacher of special needs in a nursery they don't have the money this is the society we live in we have to highlight that capitalism inevitably enters into crisis at some point that's abundantly clear now the last 10 years of crisis and it's creating greater tensions and it's seeing the rise of far-right groups based on racism and discrimination violent attacks on people of colour or on women etc and it's only a revolutionary programme which can cut across that they accuse us the Marxists of being utopian because we think we can change society the utopians are the ones who think that in a society where unemployment is growing whole neighbourhoods where the mass of the population is unemployed poverty is growing cuts in healthcare cuts in pensions people are literally going hungry food banks are on the increase all the time that in these conditions you can make some kind of wishy-washy liberal appeal against racism and think that it will work they are the utopians not us unless you expropriate the capitalist class you take the wealth which has been accumulated by the working class and use it to build the houses to build the nurseries to employ the extra teachers to improve the transport system etc etc then you are not going to fight the phenomenon if we change society gradually over time racism will die down and eventually it will disappear because it is not a natural way of being for human beings but you have to create what I would call the natural way of living together for human beings which is a social question and it means a radical change in society which means a revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and that is what we stand for


ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third-party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. We rarely hear about women serial killers. I think the most talked about female killer is Eileen Warnos, who was brought into the public's attention due to books and a movie that was released in the last few years. Rarely do I hear people talk about, though, much less know the horrific history of Elizabeth Bathory, the Hungarian Countess, who is said to have butchered more than 600 young girls and bathed in their blood. And you likely have never heard of a serial killer named Dr. Linda Burfield-Hazard. Until now. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome, Weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up in this episode In a very remote part of Mongolia, one person made an incredible find. It's a discovery that could easily turn our understanding of ancient history upside down. What would you do if you saw a flash of light down the hall of a nursing home? When you dream of loved ones who've passed away, do you consider it just a dream or is that deceased family member reaching out to speak to you? A college girl leaves campus in her car, never to be seen again. But first, a female serial killer is described as a sadistic killer who reveled in her evil actions while pretending to cure people in her sanitarium. We begin with that story. If you're new here, welcome to the show. While you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, my newsletter, Twitter contests, to connect with me on social media. Plus, you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you're struggling with depression or dark thoughts. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com.  Dr. Linda Burfield Hazard was known as a fasting specialist, meaning she believed that with fasting, one could cure themselves of all diseases. Starving the body is used in many religious ceremonies as well as meditative practices. Clear the body, clear the mind. Dr. Hazard was labeled as a sadistic killer because she derived pleasure from her macabre methods. Dr. Hazard would convince her patients that with her methods, they would be cured completely of their ailment within months. The doctor created a sanitarium which she named Wilderness Heights. The treatment was basic and evil. She would feed them eight ounces of a watered down tomato soup or asparagus soup and some orange juice once a day during their stay and convince them that through this new method they would be able to go home cured in no time. When the patients complained of starvation, she would convince them just to hold off a bit longer because they were almost done with the treatment. Needless to say, many of them suffered a horrible death. Neighbors from around town dubbed Dr. Hazard's place Starvation Heights since it was not uncommon for them to run across patients who tried to escape. Looking like living skeletons, many of the doctor's neighbors would take it upon themselves to feed these patients. One eyewitness described how her parents found a patient of Dr. Hazard crawling on the road. She described them looking like Holocaust victims. The eyewitnesses told of how her parents took the person home and fed them. While her patients were moribent, laying in what essentially became their deathbeds, the doctor and her husband would take their time and steal everything they could from the patients, going through their belongings, stealing cash and valuables as well as forging documents for monetary gains. Around 1912, Dr. Linda Hazard was convicted for the death of a wealthy Australian woman, Claire Williamson, who at the time of her death weighed less than 50 pounds. The only reason why Dr. Hazard was caught was because Claire Williamson's sister, Dora, was also in treatment and had managed to get a hold of a family member to come to her rescue. They both testified against the doctor, who was found guilty and sent to Walla Walla Prison in Washington State. After serving only two years, she was pardoned by the governor and the doctor and her husband fled to New Zealand. Years later, in 1920, Dr. Hazard returned to Washington State and opened a new sanitarium called School of Health. Not having a medical license anymore, she continued starving her patients under her new sanitarium. Fifteen years later, a fire broke out and burned the place to the ground, never to be built again. Dr.  Dying by her own hands, the same way many of her victims had perished before. It is only a shame that justice did not prevail in this story. Serving two years of a 20-year sentence for murdering countless victims speaks volumes of the jaded justice system of the olden days. Dr. Hazard's story does not end there. The story does have its paranormal side, as you can imagine. Current residents of the actual place, which was known as Starvation Heights, were interviewed. The old sanitarium, now turned into a home, still stands in good condition. Many of the old original fixtures, like the kitchen sink, bathtub and even window panes, still exist. Reporters interviewed people that currently inhabit the building. They are well aware of its macabre history and find it fascinating to be living in a place with such gruesome history. The current resident showed the original bathtub in which Dr. Hazard would dismember her victims. The bathtub is still in use by the husband, wife, and kids. The kitchen sink, which was once used to prepare watery tomato soup to starving victims, is now being used by the family in a normal day-to-day lifestyle. You would assume that with such a tragic history, the building would be torn down, a la Jeffrey Dahmer style. Apparently, some people are not bothered by such things that happened in the past. The current residents did mention some paranormal activity that happens around their home. Feelings of being watched all the time is not uncommon, as if there was always someone in the house with them. They talked about faint apparitions of faces that were seen through the time-stained window panes. Victims of Dr. Hazard, perhaps.  As you are about to find out, some stories are so incredible they seem almost unreal, and yet those who have witnessed things beyond our comprehension swear their accounts are truthful. In a very remote part of Mongolia, one person made an incredible find. It is a discovery that could easily turn our understanding of ancient history upside down. Was it all imagination? Did the monks lie? This event dishrouted in mystery and no one has been able to shed light on what really happened in Mongolia on that day when ancient secrets hidden in an artificial cave were found by mistake. Whenever we encounter a controversial, unexplained ancient mystery, there will always be those who say the events never took place and those who are convinced the account is genuine. Here, we think you deserve to know what happened and you can judge for yourself what you want to believe or not. So be prepared to go on a long journey and uncover an astonishing secret. The following story deals with an event that took place in a monastery in Mongolia. It should be added right from the start, there are certain problems with this account, especially concerning names of people and places, but we will deal with these historical and geographical problems later. In 1920, an American named John Spencer made an astonishing discovery in a remote Mongolian monastery. At the time, Spencer was living in luxury, in a large, very comfortable house in China. He earned money on illegal trades like arms and drugs. When there was a dispute between some of his clients, he was forced to leave everything behind. Overnight, he fled his house and escaped the country. He was a wanted man and he had no other choice than to flee on foot. Without much food or water, John Spencer struggled through marshlands, mountains and desert until he finally reached Mongolia. He was so exhausted and tormented by thirst, hunger and fever that he collapsed on the ground. He most likely would have died there if it had not been for a group of wandering Buddhist monks who found him and carried him to the Le Maste Monastery at Turin. The monks nursed him day and night, and soon Spencer regained some of his former strength. John Spencer was not the only foreigner who stayed at the monastery at the time. Another American guest was also present there. He was a businessman whose name was William Thompson. Thompson had been with the monks for several weeks and he was absolutely fascinated with the religion and tradition of the Far East. It is very likely that Thompson told Spencer several interesting things concerning the monastery because, instead of staying in bed until he made a full recovery, Spencer was very interested in exploring the monastery. He was an adventurer and a man who liked money. He thought that he could discover a hidden treasure that would make him a rich man once again. One day, early in the morning, Spencer went outside to explore the surroundings. He discovered a worn stone staircase not far from the monastery. He followed it to a narrow door entering a brightly colored polygonal room of 12 or more sides. Spencer stared at the walls that were decorated with strange drawings which seemed to depict constellations. He was able to recognize one of them. It was the constellation Taurus. He knew that because it was the sign under which he was born and he had an engraved representation of Taurus on a medallion hanging around his neck. With his finger, Spencer touched the wall and followed the depicted constellations. When he came to the end and touched the drawing representing the Pleiades, the wall suddenly opened before him. Spencer could see a narrow corridor. He took a few steps and was now able to distinguish a dim green glow coming from a distance. He looked around and noticed some boulders on the ground. He took one of them and pushed it into the doorway so that it would remain open. He advanced forward and tried to follow the green light but it was difficult. The green light seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It became clear to him that he was inside a tunnel of an artificial cavern. Spencer continued to follow the tunnel until it reached an intersection of several available tunnels at the end. He thought for a while and then took the one to the right. If he kept to the right, he would probably not get lost, he thought. At the time, he was unaware that he had chosen the way dictated by the sketch of the Pleiades constellation above the tunnel entrance. He walked for several minutes until he reached the end of the tunnel. A large hall opened out before him and he found himself inside a chamber where the green light was much stronger. Standing in a row along one of the walls were 25-30 rectangular enshrined coffins and one of them contained a surprise. The explorer was obviously shocked but he couldn't believe that his eyes had deceived him. He was convinced that the horrifying sight was real. The discussion with the monks gave him much to think about but was he told the truth. At the end, we are confronted with some problems that may or may not have a proper explanation. Some missing links can be explained but we are also left with a couple of unanswered questions. Undoubtedly, this is one of the most curious ancient mysteries. Spencer thought that he'd found the treasures he was hoping for and started to open the coffins. One by one, he pushed the lids off the coffins. In the first three coffins, he discovered corpses of monks who wore the same clothes as the monks in the monastery. In the fourth coffin, he uncovered a body of a woman dressed in man's clothing. In the fifth coffin was a man from India dressed in a red silk cloak. Another coffin contained a man dressed in garb from the 1700s. There was also the body of a woman whose origin he could not determine. All the bodies were surprisingly well preserved and showed no signs of decomposition. None of the coffins, though, contained treasures he was searching for, only well-preserved dead bodies. When he reached the last shrine and opened it, he could hardly believe his eyes. It contained something not human. The small creature inside was dressed in a sort of silver suit.  Spencer was still in shock, but he leaned forward to touch the corpse. Suddenly, the big round eyes were wide open, emitting a horrifying green gleam. Spencer was not a man who was easily scared, but this sight made him absolutely terrified. He screamed and fled as fast as he could. He managed to remember the way out and ran until he reached the doorway leading to the room of constellations. Then came the next shock. To his astonishment, Spencer saw it was now dark and might outside. He hurried to Thompson and related the whole story. I must have walked for two or three hours all told. It's impossible that I could have lost all sense of time to such an extent there, Spencer said. Thompson was a little angry that Spencer had taken advantage of the monk's hospitality, but he decided to tell the monks about his friend's experience. The next morning, Spencer was called before the llama of a very high degree. The monk was neither angry nor upset. Instead, he smiled and greeted Spencer in a friendly manner.  Why didn't you expect to be cured by visiting our holy places? The llama said, smiling. Spencer inquired about the corpse without a mouth and was told there are neither corpses nor vaults down there. However, this did not convince Spencer, so the monk suggested that they should visit the chamber together. The llama accompanied Spencer to the room of constellations, touched a wall with his finger and walked through a different tunnel than the one Spencer had traversed. After a few minutes they reached a room, but this chamber was much smaller than the one Spencer had visited. There was an altar in the center of this room. On the altar there was a series of many coffins. These were the same coffins Spencer had seen earlier, but they were much smaller. This is what you really saw, said the monk, and lifted the lids that revealed perfect miniature replicas of the body's Spencer had seen. They are images of people who have enriched the world with their wisdom, and so we honor them.  And as you can see, there is no green light, but only the yellow one from our humble lamps, explained the monk. Spencer was convinced the monk was not telling the truth, though. It was all an effort to deceive him. He did not wish to argue with the llama and contradict him. Instead, he asked about the silver being with a large round head and no mouth. The llama pointed to the Pleiades on the map and said, A High Lord from the Stars. Later, when Spencer talked to Thompson, he said, It might easily be that I still had some fever, but I absolutely reject the idea that I dreamt at all or was the victim of delirium. I lost the heel of one of my shoes down in the labyrinth and scratched my hands at least a dozen times when I was feeling the stones for possible snags. I touched the clothes on that corpse and noticed the veins and wrinkles. The piece of wall which opened was on the left of the entrance, whereas the opening the llama stood in front of was almost right in front, slightly to the right. The monk has tried to convince me by showing a miniature copy of what I actually saw. A few days later, shortly after he had left the monastery, John Spencer disappeared without a trace. He was never heard from again. The reason we can read about Spencer's remarkable discovery is because William Thompson published the entire story in the periodical adventure after returning to America. Thompson always maintained that every word of the published story was actually what Spencer had told him. Thompson also added, I have on some occasions myself seen corpses in Mongolian monasteries preserved intact for centuries, perhaps thousands of years and have heard people talk several times about silver men who had come from the stars. This is undoubtedly a remarkable story. Legends and myths of the Far East are full of accounts of shining, flying spheres and visitors from the stars who came to the earth in ancient times. It should be added that the American Indians and Australian Aborigines also refer to creatures without mouth who come down from the heavens. The story was described in the books not of this world by Peter Colosimo as well as The Chinese Roswell by Hartwig Haasdorf. Those who questioned the account say the Turin monastery has never been found. It is correct, but we should also remember that hundreds of monasteries were destroyed during the period of communist rule in Mongolia. Elizabeth Kendall mentions Turin in her book, A Wave Error in China Impressions of a Trip Across West China and Mongolia, stating that this was once a village. Turin, not a house but a village, she says, built in and out among the rocks. It was an extraordinary sight to stumble upon, here on the edge of the uninhabited desert.  The whole thing had the look of a seaside camp meeting resort. The greatest problem with the entire story is that we cannot confirm the existence of either John Spencer or William Thompson. Until we find evidence of their existence, we can only relate the story. Due to lack of evidence, we are unable to say whether this incredible event took place or not. As stated at the beginning of this story, it is a remarkable discovery and it is naturally up to you to form your own opinion of what did or did not happen in ancient Mongolia. Coming up, when you dream of loved ones who have passed away, do you consider it just a dream or is that deceased family reaching out to speak to you? Plus, a college girl leaves campus in her car, never to be seen again. These stories and more when Weird Darkness returns. Are you a member of the Darkness Syndicate? The Darkness Syndicate is a private membership where you receive commercial-free episodes of the Weird Darkness podcast and radio show. Behind the scenes, video updates about future projects and events I am working on. You can share your own opinions on ideas to help me decide upon Weird Darkness contests and events. You can hear audiobooks I am narrating before even the publishers or authors get to hear them. You also receive bonus audio of other projects I am working on outside of Weird Darkness. You get all of these benefits and more, starting at only $5 per month. Join the Weird Darkness Syndicate at WeirdDarkness.com I was 13 years old when I moved in with my mom. I was a good kid, but my dad's girlfriend didn't like me from the moment she laid eyes on me three years earlier. I told my dad what she did when he wasn't around, but his response was always to placate her. In November 1992, she'd given him an ultimatum and, as always, she won. I was moving out. I was upset that my dad chose his girlfriend over his daughter, but moving out was also a weight lifted off my adolescent shoulders. My mom loved me. I never questioned that, but my time with her would prove short. My bedroom was small and could only fit a futon from a second-hand store. The next thing I became aware of was my mom's cat.  Epi was the little black runt of her litter, and I'm told she was the last of her litter to be adopted. I was constantly aware that I was unwanted, but life went on. I started classes at a new school, and life slowly took on a sense of normalcy. The days marched by, and the air outside grew chilly. It was December, and that normalcy was about to be turned upside down. I came home this night to find my mom pale and white. I thought she looked as though she had died, but she hadn't died. She was alive and talking on the phone. I must have had a habit of fighting bedtime because I overheard her comment on how easily I went to bed that night. She then chalked it up to a full moon outside. I climbed into bed, closed my eyes, and fell asleep, but the night wasn't done with me yet. My grandma had died a decade earlier. My grandma was never a frequent or recurring character in my dreams, but tonight she would be back. I saw her so clearly in my mind's eye that this dream is how I remember her face today. My grandma looked right at me and told me that I wouldn't have my mother for much longer. She made it clear I only had days left and that I had to get ready to let her go. I spent the next morning trying to make sense of the night before, while behaving as close to perfect as I knew how for the next three days. News would soon come that my mom's dad had died. Life as a single mother was unfair and difficult. Dad couldn't even be relied on to pay child support, but nothing ever stopped mom until the day her dad died. My mom fell into an immediate deep depression, and by morning, December 10, 1992, my mom would be joining her father in death. She passed away in her sleep. She couldn't live without her dad. I left her apartment for the last time with Epi, who was now my cat. Though I would never again hear from my grandma, my mom would, soon after passing, make herself known to at least three people, myself included. After her passing, my mom has made one phone call the day after she died, the call to her best friend Michael to say goodbye. Her face has been repeatedly seen as a partial and once-as-a-full form apparition in the home of another friend, Elaine. For me, she never appeared in a physical form. As a kid watching TV, I would hear her talking to me, telling me to turn off the TV and go do my homework. As I got older and times got tough, I tried talking to my mother, feeling foolish. I asked if she could hear me, would she make herself known by turning off a specific lamp? I talked aloud in an empty room, and when I finished, that lamp flickered. This lamp would flicker again in the future, but only after talking to my mom. I was never able to replicate the lamp's flicker. I'm now 37 years old, one year older than my mom was when she died. I don't think she's here anymore, or at least she's gone quiet for a while. One February day in 2004, Mara Murray climbed into her car and drove away from her dorm room at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She headed north, her destination unknown. As night descended, a local in New Hampshire caught one last glimpse of Mara and her wrecked vehicle along a desolate stretch of Route 112. By the time police responded to the crash, Mara was gone, seemingly vanished into thin air. Mara Murray's disappearance shocked her family and friends. Fourteen years later, the cold case continues to baffle authorities, armchair detectives and internet slews around the world. It has inspired everything from books and podcasts to an increasingly bizarre web of conspiracy theories and true crime message board threads. Yet the mystery remains, what do we truly know about the disappearance of 21-year-old Mara Murray? On the surface, Mara Murray's life seemed ideal. She was a promising student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in pursuit of a nursing career. She came from a loving family and shared a strong relationship with her boyfriend of a few years. Yet all was not as it seemed. In November 2003, around three months before her disappearance, Mara was caught fraudulently using a credit card number that was not her own. The young woman had to have been desperate. She used the card only to order pizza, charging less than $80. Then, on February 7, 2004, two days before her disappearance, Mara's father, Fred, arrived in Amherst, Massachusetts for a visit. Mara borrowed her father's car to go to a party. Around 3.30 am, while driving back to Fred's room at the Quality Inn, Mara hit a guardrail on Route 9. The police responded to the scene, but they didn't perform a sobriety test. Mara may have believed that these encounters with the law would tarnish her professional record, thus threatening her dreams of becoming a nurse. Some sleuths point to this as a motive for Mara to disappear of her own volition. The theory seems extreme, though. Fred Murray doesn't buy it. Since there was no ticket cited at the scene of the crash, there would be no reason for Mara to believe this was the end of the line. Nevertheless, something changed in Mara after the crash that night. In the early hours of February 9, Mara researched and printed out map quest directions to two different locations, one set that led to the Berkshires, the other to Burlington, Vermont. Throughout the day, she also phoned vacation rentals in the northeast, inquiring about availabilities. Nothing was booked. Then, Mara's messages took a dark turn. She wrote to her professors and work supervisors stating that she would be away from campus for a week. The reason? There was an unexpected death in the Murray family. No such death, however, had occurred. At approximately 3.30 pm, Mara Murray got in her car and left the UMass Amherst campus. Inside her vehicle were clothes, toiletries, some textbooks and her birth control pills. Soon after her departure, Mara was recorded withdrawing $280 from a nearby ATM. She then entered a liquor store where she purchased wine, coffee liqueur and vodka. Security cameras captured Mara at the ATM providing some of the last confirmed sightings of her before the disappearance. In the footage, she was alone. Whether Mara meant to temporarily escape the pressures of her life or disappear for good may never be clear. Upon leaving the liquor store, Mara drove north and then left Massachusetts. Sometime after 7 pm, 145 miles north of Amherst in Haverville, New Hampshire, a resident heard a heavy thump outside her home. She peered out her window to see a car crashed against a snow bank on Route 112. The witness phoned the police. Meanwhile, an area bus driver who lived down the road came upon the scene of the accident. He noticed a young woman whom he later identified as Mara Murray. The bus driver offered to help. The young woman convinced him not to call police claiming she had already spoken to AAA. The man agreed to the woman's request and left. Yet he found her claim about a phone call odd. He knew the area lacked cell phone service. Upon arriving home, he decided to phone the police. At 746 pm, police arrived at the scene. The car was locked, windshield cracked and the airbags deployed. The police later reported that they found an empty soda bottle that smelled as though it had once been filled with alcohol. But Mara Murray was nowhere to be found. The bus driver who stopped and spoke with Mara didn't think she seemed intoxicated. Nevertheless, many theorists believe that Mara had been drinking that night. A shaken and inebriated Mara may have left the scene of her own accord. She may have stumbled into the dark woods and lost her way. Or, as Mara's father maintains, she may have encountered a dangerous individual who wished to do her harm. The following day, at 1221 pm, police issued a bolo, be on the lookout, for the young woman. 24 hours after the discovery of the abandoned car, police officially declared Mara Murray missing. Mara's family, especially Fred, view the police's investigation as substandard.  The police, meanwhile, have criticized Fred's involvement in the investigation. A 2014 article in Boston Magazine cites Jeff Strelzin, chief of the homicide unit at the New Hampshire Attorney General's office and the lead prosecutor in the Murray investigation, who said Fred Murray had been a difficult person to deal with from the beginning. Strelzin went on to describe Fred's anger at the police as understandable but misplaced. As relations between Mara's family and the police soured, rumors of infidelity and secret lives surfaced among armchair detectives and internet sleuths intent on cracking the case. James Renner, author of True Crime Addict, How I Lost Myself in the Mysterious Disappearance of Mara Murray, claimed to have evidence that Mara and her boyfriend were cheating on one another. Others believe that Mara may have been pregnant, bulimic or both, and fled to escape judgment from her loved ones. Theories then split over whether she simply got lost and perished somewhere in the woods, purposefully disappeared to begin a new life, or if someone snatched her along Route 112. Despite legions of obsessive searching for the truth, there have been no definitive breaks in the case. I've been a personal support worker for 14 years and have witnessed several strange occurrences, including a few that really stick out. This happened during a graveyard shift a few years after I started. The night started like any other. There were no call bells in that facility as we visually checked everyone every hour. During our first round, as I walked to the end of the hall, I saw a white flash out of the quarter of my eye in the doorway of Route 312. I quickly turned to look, but nothing was there. I continued on with my task, thinking my mind was playing tricks on me. It happened again during the second round, but this time the flash of white was in the doorway of Route 313. I ignored the flash, thinking I was still seeing things. On our third round, we checked on the women in Route 312 and one of the ladies had a very frightened look on her face. Her eyes were fixed on the corner of the ceiling above her bed and she looked terrified. This patient had advanced dementia and was non-verbal. She was a very pleasant lady who often shuffled around the halls, confused about who or where she was. The charge nurse sat with the woman, giving her as much comfort as possible. The patient passed away suddenly a few minutes later. We completed her final care and continued with our night. A few hours later, as I folded laundry across from the nurse station, I started to hear shuffling sounds coming down the hall. Infused, I asked the nurse if she was shuffling her feet under the desk. She said no, but I hear it too. The shuffling continued slowly down the hall toward the dining room. To this day, I wonder if it was the frightened patient, taking one last walk down the hall. Thanks for listening. If you like the show, please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do. You can also email me anytime with your questions or comments through the website at WeirdDarkness.com. That's also where you can find all of my social media, listen to free audiobooks that I've narrated, shop the Weird Darkness store, sign up for the email newsletter to win monthly prizes, find other podcasts that I host, and find the Hope in the Darkness page if you or someone you know is struggling with depression or dark thoughts. Plus, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, you can click on Tell Your Story. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. 2 Timothy 1, verse 7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline. In a final thought from Charles Sullivan, one must not focus on the risk of saying yes, the greater risk is missing opportunities by saying no. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.


Rhaiddoch yn fwy fwy, cywpeth ysgol, yn ymddiad yw'r ffyrdd yma yn 2322 ac yn dechrau'r ffyrdd yn 2050. Rhywbeth y 10 ymddiad ymddiad ymddiad yma yn euchynig. Ym ydych chi'n meddwl o'r bwysig, mae'n fwy ffyrdd hynny sy'n ei wneud yn ei ddweud. Y cyfnodau, fel y cwntum cyfwysg, ac y nanotechnoedd, maen nhw'n mynd i ddweud y gweithio'r 100 ymgyrch o'r cyfnodau cyfwysgol ychydig yn cael eu ddweud y cwmparribol i'r oedd yn y prif sy'n ysgol yw'r 2,000 yma. A'r ysgrifennu yma, yw'r cyfnodau cyfwysgol yw'r 1 cyfwysgol yw'r 1 cyfwysgol yw'r 12. Fydd yw'r 2050, mae'n ddweud yw'r 7 cyfwysgol yw'r 7 cyfwysgol yw'r 7 cyfwysgol yw'r 8. Felly, mae'r ddweud yw'r ddweud yw'r 100 yw'r 100? Felly, rwy'n gwybod. Mae'r ddweud yw'r 100 yw'r 100? Yn wych, ac wrth gwrs ddweud bod hi'n rhoi'r gweithio'r cyfwysgol yw'r 100, cyfnodd yw'r 100 yw'r 100, mae'r ddweud yw ddweud yw'r 100 yw'r 100, ac mae'r 100 yn ddweud yw'r 100. Yn ddweud yw'r 1 cyfwysgol yw'r 1 cyfwysgol, yn gwybod, yn ddweud, ymddangosol, ymddangosol, yn ddweud yw'r 100 yw'r 100. now. Second, that this change will have decisive consequences for the living standards and for the life prospects of the people of Europe. Now you'll note that I've been very careful here not to say whether this change will be good or bad. I'm simply saying that there's a period of intense global change underway due to changes in global demographics, technology and purchasing power and its allocation across the globe. People, the fabled ordinary man and woman on the street know this change is happening. Our agricultural communities see it in the price they can achieve for their produce in new markets and in new competition. Young people feel as in the impact of technology in their daily lives and how they interact with other people and how they communicate with their friends. We all feel as in our working lives, in the race at which and in the speed with which new industries blossom or wither in response to shifts in global competitiveness. And this is the context for our discussion here today. In the last few minutes, I haven't mentioned any of the lexicon soup that you refer to a moment ago. Haven't mentioned any of the lingo, the lingo of peer reviews, country specific recommendations or semesters. And why is that? That's because we can spend too much time talking about the what of processes and not enough time talking about their why. And because of this, we do not relate this kind of work to the intuitive feeling that people do have of great change unfolding. And the core theme of my address here this morning is that the European semester process represents the strongest national response by Ireland and by our neighbours to these vast changes and vast opportunities, most of which are captured by the term globalization. And I look at this in four different ways. First, by relating the union and the semester back to how we want to help our citizens be secure and prosper in an ever changing world. Second, by explaining this process as simply as I can, and it is simple, it is simple, and noting how it differs from what went before. Third, by referring to Ireland now stands in our participation in the semester and fourth, by concluding with observations about the operation of this process now and some questions about it in the future. This new way of working and this new model of coordination and oversight is known as, as you all know, the European semester process. And it is rooted within what I believe to be the contemporary rationale for the European Union and what is that? I believe it's very straightforward and it's as follows. That we are more effective together, the we here refers to the countries of Europe on our own, on our own as countries, we're less effective in responding to the things that our people care about. So let me ask some questions to illustrate that point. Do we believe that European countries on their own could more effectively respond to climate change? Indeed, do we believe they would respond at all if they had to respond on their own? Do we believe that European countries on their own could better regulate banks that exist within national borders? It is obvious that national balance sheets on their own cannot deal with the failure of global banks. Do we believe that European countries on their own could best create conditions in which their own companies could fairly compete in the markets of their neighbour? Now, the common theme in all of these questions is globalization, how interdependence has changed the game for nations. The common answer in all of this is the need for us to work together. And this, as I've said, is the contemporary rationale for what we are now doing, that by working together we can achieve more as countries than we could on our own. And that's the hair shampoo advert says now for the science bit. This challenge is well summarised by David Held in his work on global governance when he refers to the paradox of governance as follows. The fact that collective issues with which we must grapple are of growing extensity and intensity and yet the means for addressing these are weak and incomplete. Global public goods seem to be chronically undersupplied and global bards build up and continue to threaten livelihoods. And the European Union is a response to this paradox. But what does this have to do with the semester process? The answer is absolutely everything. It is a response to these challenges. The process is not the rationale. Explaining how it works without first explaining why adds to the very questions and challenges of legitimacy. So then what is this? Simply it provides a structured process for coordination. Allowing the coordination of policies to improve the growth and social prospects of individual countries. The outcomes of this, the so-called country specific recommendations, are then reflected in the national budgetary cycles and decision making processes of countries in the second half of their year. And crucially what this is about doing is coming up with a way of agreeing and implementing a shared understanding of what each country needs to do to promote jobs, to promote growth and to promote social inclusion. In terms of the technical aspect of how it works, the cycle begins with the publication of the commission by their annual growth survey in November. This has a look at the social and economic situation of Europe and sets out the broad policy priorities for the EU as a whole for the coming year. This provides the framework then within which the national semester works. And let's have a look at what the priorities are that the commission has identified, each of which were then affirmed in the European Council meeting of December. The promotion of growth and competitiveness, tackling unemployment and the social consequences of the crisis, making national budgets sustainable, the restoration of normal lending to the economy and modernising public administrations. Each of these are things that our country would want to do and would be doing anyway. This framework provides a buttress to make sure we're doing this work and to support other countries in doing this work too. At the same time, the commission publishes their alert mechanism report and what's that? Well the alert mechanism report simply looks at whether developments or changes are taking place within national economies that are capable of dealing with the kind of crisis that we've been grappling with over the last five years. These very processes then are overseen by the relevant council bodies that consist of ministers elected by people through their governments and then the entire process is endorsed and looked at by the European Council which consists as you all know of heads of states. So what do we have again to take a step back from us? We've an overview by the commission, we've engagement between the commission and member states, overseen by ministers endorsed by heads of states. But within this process let's go back to the central insight here. Let's go back to the rationale of helping our citizens respond to huge changes and opportunities and all of these form integral elements of the European response to the changing world that I emphasised in my address. And how does this differ from what went before? How is it different for example from the stability and growth pact? Well in a number of important ways. This is the first time we've had a mechanism which provides for economic and budgetary coordination at EU level with a horizon that stretches beyond the immediate. The key points at its heart are stability, competitiveness and social inclusion. In order to respond to the challenges that I referred to earlier on Europe and its member states have to think long term. This is what the semester aims to do. Second this way of working does not focus just on budgetary decisions. It looks at the breadth of policy decisions that influence the opportunities open to people. Previous systems focused on fiscal reference points which were the consequences of policies. The semester aims to look at the very policies that produce these consequences. And third it is proactive. It looks at policies that will have consequences in the future not just the consequences of today and the decisions already made. And while it isn't the difference it is important to point out that the semester has very clear delineated and emphasised roles for both the Commission and the Council of Ministers. So thirdly the world of Ireland stands now in relation to all of this. Well we're now at the halfway point at the semester cycle. We're now in the middle of the fourth annual cycle of the European semester but now participation in it fully due to our excess from the bailout programme. We have completed and submitted to the Commission our national reform programme for 2014 publicly available on the website of the Department of the Tishock and the stability programme updates publicly available on the website of the Department of Finance. And these documents set out the economic and budgetary reforms we have undertaken and are continuing to implement. They informed the approach the Commission is taking in the development and proposing of country specific recommendations for Ireland in early June. Now these are documents, they're policy statements that really do repay study. I brought here with me the national reform programme which as I said is publicly available. It sets out the breadth of policies that the government is pursuing to ensure a job-rich recovery and to set Ireland on the path to sustainable prosperity with the high standard of quality public services. Inevitably given what I'm so deeply aware of as a constituency representative given the scale of our jobs crisis that we have and the one in particular facing young people the NRP in other words the national reform plan gives very detailed considerations to the range of measures adopted by the government to tackle unemployment and to provide the necessary skills to our workforce. And the main point I would emphasise in relation to this policy document it's the breadth of policy that's covered off within us. The stability programme updates sets out the government's macroeconomic and fiscal projections up to 2018. So in other words it provides the backdrop against which these policy measures will be taken and evaluated. This is a context and an analysis that has been independently endorsed by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council. At the start of April I had the opportunity to present this draft plan to the Joint Committee on European Affairs in other words the national reform programme and Minister Newton presented the draft stability programme update to the Joint Committee on Finance and Public Expenditure before Easter. And I very much welcome these processes because they are essential. There are means of providing democratic scrutiny of the semester process and I know that one of the issues we will have to consider in the future is how to strengthen the role of national parliaments in the European semester process. And on the basis of all of these policy frameworks all of which are publicly available we are now engaged in bilateral in other words one-on-one engagement with the commission in Brussels and from this the commission will prepare draft country specific recommendations for each member states published in early June and then adopted by the European Council. So to conclude with is it all working? And I want to conclude with some questions and observations in relation to this. So first is it working? Well the truth is for a process of this breadth in the relatively early stages of its implementation it's probably just too early to say. It is clear itself that the process is undergoing evolution and change. For example it's had to accommodate developments in relation to the so called two pack and six pack proposals. What are they? The ways in which national budgets can be looked at in the earlier stages of their preparation. So this process continues to be refined and streamlined notably last year under the Irish presidency. What the commission does do is appoints to very substantial progress on fiscal consolidation across Europe. It appoints to improved market confidence in the sustainability of public finances leading to a lowering of borrowing rates excuse me and then it notes that member states have taken important steps in relation to the reform of labour markets. What the commission also notes is that much does remain to be done to improve the functioning and flexibility of market and services markets and implement structural reforms. However there is little doubt that the close scrutiny and peer review of each other's economies is now a fully accepted norm and this is a major and important and positive development. It is also crucial for all those of us who share the single currency. Secondly while the recent crisis was a spur to the development of this process it does not provide the full rationale for us. The pressures of the financial markets may have created the background for the semester process but as these pressures ebb this process is still vital. It is a european response to changes and opportunities for our people and third this is why peer review is a positive concept. It is simply a better way of navigating and making changes rather than dealing with the inevitable crises that the absence of these changes create. And fourth this process will lead to changes in productivity and so-called real economic performance that are vital necessities for the prospering of the euro in the future as opposed to just in inverted commas its mere survival. Thomas Mayer has argued that the end of cheap and indiscriminous credits pulled the rug from under European monetary union. So what the semester does is provide the solid foundations for not just the EU but for the euro to ensure that the euro will prosper in the future as it reflects positive improvements in member state economies. And finally there has been and there is some debate over the introduction of more binding and what's referred to as contractual arrangements to support the implementation of key reforms. Now while I welcome and I hope it's clear from this address here this morning all serious and constructive discussion of the effectiveness of the semester process we should be given the opportunity to implement the range of tools that we have already adopted and these are not at all inconsiderable before we move to introduce further measures. So let me conclude with where I've begun. On the nature and scale of change that Europe is facing the process that we are discussing this afternoon is part of the response to this huge change and of course like any human construction it isn't perfect it can be improved and it will be improved but globalization and all of these kinds of changes are not things imposed on us by some sinister other it is a natural consequence of our human willingness to trade and cooperate with each other and the semester is the same it is part of the solution not part of a problem and on that note I'll conclude and say I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you.


Hello and welcome to the chart of the week video with me David Madden Today's date is Wednesday the 16th of January 2019 and the time has just gone 1140 GMT This week's chart of the week is the Ibex of the Spanish 35 of Spain 35 as we call it on our platform Taking a look at the price action on the market in the back end of 2018 We can see there's been a very obvious downward trend nice example of a series of lower lows and lower highs Yes, I'm fully aware that the high in December managed to just about take off the high of November But as we can see the subset the sell-off that we saw Surely after that managed to print a fresh low and that managed to take out the October lows And in fact the low in December Was the lowest level seen since August 2016, so I give you indication of how bear a sentiment was just after Christmas time Since late December global equity markets have managed to rebound We could see a fairly decent bounce back in the Ibex here But notice how it's running into resistance at this blue line here at the fifth-day moving average Which comes into play at 88 76 Now if you notice if you kind of track the track the marks performance against the fifth-day moving average in recent months We can see it didn't manage active resistance in the in mid-December Also in November October and also in September back in September here Granted it did manage to trade above it as and And then and then sell off sharply below it again in early December But by and large in the last few months this metric has managed to act as a as a ceiling or as an area of resistance For the Ibex now if that continues to be the case We could potentially see the market turn over on itself and Taking a look at the price action here whereby the market is trying to get above the fifth-day moving average But quite can't quite get there We can see that the positive momentum on the MACD indicator is actually declined So the market is trying to push higher it can't get above the fifth-day moving average and guess what on the MACD histogram We're seeing that positive momentum is in decline ever so slightly cooling So we could see the market turn over itself yet again, which would be In line with the wider negative trend we've seen for many months if we do manage to drop below the most recent Now of 8750 we could be looking any back down towards the 8500 area we saw a lot of consolidation in that region and if you go below that We could be looking heading down towards 80 to 30 if on the other hand the market does manage to Retake and close above and hold above the fifth-day moving average here the next area to keep a mile for will be 9000 it's a big psychological number and if you go beyond 9000 and they're into keep a mile for will be the early December high of 9,260 and if you take out that if you take out the December high back of then look to actually kind of Chained traders opinions above the I could potentially begin to chain traders opinion that about the the downward trend that we've been in for a number of Months because an upward trend is defined as a series of higher highs and higher lows If you are trading the Ibex, please keep an eye out for The Eurozone CPI numbers which are released tomorrow That will give us a good indication of demand in the region as a whole Lately the economic indicators for Spain and the Eurozone as a whole have actually been quite disappointing So there's a lot of talk out there That the Eurozone is going through kind of an economic slowdown So please keep an eye out on the economic news if you can be trading the Ibex 35 And lastly if you have any comments to make on this video or any other videos We've made here at CMC markets, please feel free to leave review on Google reviews. Thank you very much