the singing of jerusalem what does what emerges in this exhibition as his politics and enduring the fascinating figure and he has been claimed by by the political left by the political right by radicals by conservatives and everybody finds around blake on the one hand he was speaking fierce revolutionary sentiments in his poetry and his art he was against capitalism against materialism against many of the features of the modern world but he was doing so really with reference to quite a small circle of people who understood his art or were interested in his art and supported him and they were i daresay what we call having a liberal metropolitan elite but i mean so tiger tiger isn't just a nursery where i meet any of blake's poems even a poem like tiger tiger is and can be interpreted in lots of ways sets up this idea of a ferocious creature the kind of embodied mint of war nature and yet the design of the bomb that blake has printed on the page is looks like a domestic cat it's a sort of looking cat and you know either that means that they can't or cats very

well people he could if he wanted to or there's something going on between text and images albeit being a revolutionary jacobin symbol as well of this being that interpretation which is which. are open to interpretation and certainly they've been radical sentiments and there are radical present radical symbolism in sentiments in place and we're going to be talking later in the program about a friend of. the great british war hero. he's a radical william blake put at the same term there's a painting of nelson here a picture of nelson here showing less sympathy for radicalism argument really key exhibits. for the exhibition dealing with blake's one man show 1819 the key exhibits which we've got here are allegorical paintings of nelson and the prime minister pitt and they're both shown as figures guiding biblical monsters and by.

in chaos on the destruction of the world that's very we know that blake was not a tory we know from voting records that he voted for the wake of the big opposition and separated but when he had the chance and he wasn't a fan of war he was a great pacifist and was opponent of war so these pictures are very intriguing and quite complex and they seem to celebrate these national figures and what seems to be going on is that he's presenting the idea of nelson war leader guiding the political monster who's going to bring chaos and destruction out of that will be some kind of spiritual rebirth and whether you know whether you see that as a positive thing or a negative thing i think really kind of depends on your perspective of the american evangelical right well i mean yes you could exactly i think that i think there is that aspect to that of course the left of long celebrated william blake notably for their poem london. chartered what is blake's relationship with private property versus public well i mean blake has been long been a favorite figure amongst the liberal the left wing intelligentsia and they see in

him powerful social commentary and they see in him a commitment to spiritual values against materialism against capitalism but blake was also need to put bread on the table and i think it's a much more ambiguous and complex relationship with with with modern capitalism so yeah i mean blake comes out he observes the poverty in the struggle which is going on in the world and in london around him and he complains about tyranny and king merchants and big business men and the damage that slavery child labor slavery and child labor and that that's that's that's all in there at the same time you know he put it on the table and the people that he worked for the people that he aligned himself with to some extent and we didn't work because he died in obscurity and no one really liked his work when. he was he was a shadowy figure but there were moments in his career was actually quite celebrated but. yeah it's in the margins but it's by no means

a quite as obscure as the mythology would have us believe became england's one of england's greatest artists writers renaissance men and after his death what was the need for leads to reclaim. the maybe the greatest you know i think blake's posthumous reputation as a really fascinating story in his life was a pretty obscure figure but the last 10 years best life he found new support with some younger artists. john varley younger men much more professionally successful who look to him as the archetype the model of the authentic artist and the environment being one of the key issues facing women kind of at the moment just tell me a little bit about the newton painting i mean obviously blake didn't know about newton's interest in alchemy and how that shows will help blake love the environment destroyed the importance of it lived in the city throughout his life apart from a stroke period in sussex 1800 as

a lot of nature imagery running through his his work leaves and tendrils and growing forms and newton this extraordinary very memorable image of the 17th century scientist shown is this new figure in this in a cave or underwater that seems to be really an allegory about how reason and geometry and science might involve risks involving turning your back on nature if you look at the forms that he's sitting on and you really need to see the print in the flesh to get the sense of this incredibly complex organic forms that we don't know how he created this using the using as print media you can see their idea of science and nature being opposed in inquiry and the risks of opposing science and nature being exposed to really thank you martin you're only speaking to be there in the tate britain i'm joined now by peter lynn about the author of red brown global burning the title taken from william blake about the struggle of 2 and the privatization revolutionaries peter welcome to. going underground so we have

a labor leader he had talking about nationalisation we have an exhibition on william blake of the tate to the gallery just around the corner from this studio tell me about the title of the book read drowned glue bought burning yes it read round go on burning us from a poem by william blake a prophetic poem his response to the 1st successful slave revolt in haiti in 7091 and read round globe hibernian her 1st to the enclosure of senses and this was at a time of the enclosure of land and the enclosure of the hand but for blake it also was a mental kind of enclosure and a spiritual kind he was afraid that the red brown globe which was represented both his heart and the world around him was destined for obliteration and a ray sure a terrible few but one whose prophetic power i think helped me understand the

time that we live in. i want to get to haiti in a bit of course a country now known for poverty or talking about it in the book is one of the richest countries in the world these 2 figures catherine and edward despond there's actually a t.v. series on the statement they did b.b.c. about them why do you find them such emblematic figures is when it comes to understanding the world today well they both were from different european and british colonies edward s. barred from the oldest colony of britain ireland. catherine or kate from one of the richest colonies of europe haiti or sandow mangas it was known at the time she was a woman of color so this was a mixed race couple at a time when the doctrine of white supremacy accompanied imperialism and and and capitalism so to tell a figure the story of these 2 figures who according to orthodox

a premises opinion responsibly kept apart they were comrades in struggle for democracy and also for the commons believe in that privatization of land or privatization of of the hand and factories and above all in plantations was detrimental oppressive and miserable i'm actually surrounded here in the studio with images of the jacobin french revolution but you say that not only $789.00 but $802.00 is a crucial year the beginning of the anthropocene you claim the defeat of the irish republic victory in haiti and jefferson terminating native america tell me about 1802 and why you see it is so important. counter-revolution against the hopes of common people for seen property land and life in common in

community. you know too also as a time of napoleon's corbet with the pope. so it's a time of sympathy or counter revolution in the name of the king and property against the hopes of a equality and fraternity that had been the international already know the world to slogans after the french revolution and indeed liberty or death was the slogan of the ations slaves who it inspired and will continue to inspire slave revolts for freedom throughout the americas in the coming century it is of course had in venezuela today and in cuba back to despise i mean how does he go from being best friends with nelson to end up being executed in london yes the nation's hero and the nation's villain had joined together in a imperialist plot of $780.00 to divide north from south america by going up this

san juan river which is now in nicaragua separating it from costa rica desperate and became a minor figure in the british empire but he was not the white supremacist and so when he did invent it ups the city lots in belize where he was superintendent he did so equally and all through this you suggest i mean at the moment it was bernie sanders in the united states army kuhlmann as i say here in britain talking about a change in society in this book you say that the concept of the underground is so important i have to say that this shows cool going on the ground you say it's religious geological political and it's key to regaining the idea of common ownership. yes i do. first geologically speaking what lies underneath the ground was removed and became the basis of energy for

the steam engine at the heart of mechanisation and of course that energy produces as a side effect c o 2 carbon dioxide which then goes into the stratosphere and thus is the beginning of planetary warming so that's one meaning of the underground another meaning of course comes from the religion at that time which was christianity where it was thought that jesus even went to hell underground in order in order to comfort those who had been deviled on this earth finally the underground was that of union organizers political reformers and democrats who had been forced to a clandestine surreptitious life by acts the combination acts against trade unions of 7098 this so there is

a 3rd meaning of the underground but if i think now. or perhaps with blake in a poetic voice we need to remove it from the land of metaphor and bring it back into our future so here in the states we are so deeply grateful to grandson byrd for instance who is calling us to think planetary warming and that precious is a crisis also of austerity because this warming comes directly from the capitalist mechanisation world people and i'll stop you them all from peta plus u.k. labor party advisor professor guy standing up to this break. this is a story about what happens auster a stray bullet kills

a young girl in the streets. who happens to have family and daughters in florida know the mother daughter is very innocent and terry meaning this is with your head what happens to the community the public was screaming for a scapegoat the police needed a scapegoat so why not choose a 19 year old black kid with a criminal record who better to pin this on than him and what happens in court be. shot after shot as far off as i reveal that we don't know still justice for the. end of this trial unfortunately you. will still not know who killed just for. the big pain your insistence crossed i started as 10 years and i think it's time to

shake things up maybe change the branding maybe the format. here is what i've been thinking about next season related episodes filmed on an island 10 experts fight it out for a trophy what do you think ok a more affordable option 25 experts. and one red rose another suggestion geopolitical jeopardy parity no political cookout where we will literally wrote the elite. late night show it's a rare form of these days and it's cheap all you need is an old microphone in a printed banner. to leave me with one of my girls i can do this candle after politics gone wild like music. ok crosstalk is not about hype it's about meaning 10 years of talk and still going strong.

peter if you want to change something why don't we get rid of the bow tie no that is too much. welcome back i'm still here with a cause we have an established church still here in in britain you seem to imply that capitalism changed the woods of the lord's prayer you tell us a little bit about the ben franklin i think was shocked by 7090 a nice 1768 general strike of the river thames which was accompanied by roma famine at that time as well with food riots and he thought that the prayer to give us this day our daily bread expressed a kind of entitle meant that that contradicted the free market idiology of that you had to pay to live. and so he changed the lord's prayer but

i think the established church need to know too. i'm not sure they accepted this lake of course also had a version of the lord's prayer which more directly refers to all things in common so it was so in a way that failed but the but the full spectrum attempts at trying to demonize the colemans you you say that in call them pollens when people say that's a bit common and how that became pejorative an insult you trace that to spoons and cup 3 well yes it was no longer ate out of a common dish you're expected to carry your own spoon. and spruance and these refinements were new in a way of degrading spartan prison was to deny him these simple implements of consumption this movement of enclosure is connected with the degradation of the

body and the enclosure also not just of land and of the hand and of the streets and punishment but of the body itself and today we can find echoes over the even in sports you talk about the game of rackets you know. you know a human being is are a cooperative species where gregarious species so even in the depravity and degradation of prison. prisoners row associates and and find ways of sharing or find ways of self-government and discard was there he had been and believes he had been i'm i'm going to mayan people and learn new games which are described in the pope to fool the ancient text of the mayan people and i think he brought this to to the prisoners and so the game of racquets which later of course becomes an upper class sporting in britain or has this beginning within what we can

say is the present criminal population of england as lovely as a great importation from central america from indigenous peoples but this is just one indication of the enclosure of land so that even sport and life and and all activity becomes enclosed with a loss of the commons i'm good at that leovy have one's talking about something called the irish backstop and bricks that you trace social progress in this country where i'm speaking if you have room from those who have experienced english oppression and island tell me about the almost singular importance of britain's 800 year. call in the oh i'm glad you put it that way almost singular it's the 1st the 1st colony of course of the many colonies afterwards and the experience of the of the english ruling class in ireland becomes the basis of conquest

elsewhere as derry becomes londonderry the same people establish jamestown in virginia. so and that's in the 17th century except at the time of to sparta ireland becomes. becomes a place an experimental graveyard you could say as a periodic famines and english agriculture and food policy is 1st dealt with in ireland so our man desk part was of this minor gentry this anglo irish ruling class but he revolted against it there so many primary sources you know in the book telling us william wilberforce isn't the great man we're told about in the textbooks you talk about how britain and france come together to destroy a haiti what is the relevance then of the book particularly about property

ownership in the news here today we have the future labor government might want to stop landlords from being able to permanent the own property and give rights to tenants what is the relevance of the book today the earth as a common treasury for all it is not so much more of a few this is an old if you know lessons for today from disbarred 0 is that we can make the world a new this is what thomas paine and thomas spence taught us we are not we don't have to be ruled by a few and we are capable of self-government and i think these are the lessons for our times now even though this pod was executed in london because you say clearly napoleon the british prime minister then henry addington they came together to destroy the light of revolution in haiti we see today in fact your book begins with

the zapatistas opposing the w t o whereas the hope up the hope is is all around us this neoliberal onslaught was is. it's in response to the zapatista to the movement of women and throughout the planet it's in response against poverty the feminization of poverty it's a movement against. against the hopes and liberation and demands for a wife not just to vote but to live and to live well to live happily with a roof with clean water with good food we have a place to play in a way there are modest plans from africa to indonesia from australia to to the great lakes of north america have been collusion and been destroyed by the false idiology of privatisation be the little thank you well the

arguable western european leader of the fight against privatization and for the commons is jeremy corbyn joining me now is an advisor to his u.k. labor party the author of the new book plunder of the commons professor guy standing guy thanks for coming back on so how can historic concepts i know your new book talks about the 1217 charter of the force how can that translate into actual policy right now ahead of an imminent general election well of the charter of the forest that you just mentioned which was sealed in the member the 5th 1217 was a foundation stone for the british constitution and the constitution of other democracies and basically what it did was it said that everybody had a right to subsistence everybody had a right to home a right to work and the right to live in the commons and the commons was meant then as access to common resources which belong to all of us social amenities and common in the practice of sharing in activities sharing with wealth and sharing in

life and it established a theme that runs all the way through our history which is that the commons is needed to give society you can't have a good society unless you have a rich. common sense yet even when jerry corwin makes saving the models proposals to national israel water mail and electricity there's an outcry from the society that you call it saying this is extreme it's not traditional well of course the idea of the commons was that it referred to natural resources land water air sea beds all the natural resources the minerals under the ground but it also referred to social abilities and social services that were created as a commons if you take water for example water is always been part of our commons

water is owned by all of us and by nobody and yet margaret thatcher in 1909 privatized our water system and created 9 regional private monopolies that had control of our water tends water for example which was privatized part of that system have been convicted of pouring 1600000000 tonnes of untreated sewage into our water system and other water companies have also been record levels of complaints none of the rivers are now safe for drinking or swimming if that is a legitimate process i'm a duck ok and plunder of the commons you you also explain have a london of blake and i know it can be applied to cities all around the world but the london of william blake who we heard about earlier in the show privatisation of kings cross railway station to headquarters battersea power station is it too late

when you advise the shadow chancellor is it too late to untangle little now i think we need a reversal of the privatisation of our cities and towns boris johnson when he was campaigning to become mayor of london said it terrible that the corporatization of london has gone to par. be reversed and then when he became mayor he charged off to the far east all expenses paid and look good malaysian property companies chinese indonesian and promised them buy up parts of london so we now have them a lazier square we have a singapore on thames and we've privatized large parts of our squares of roads and so on and it's not just in london it's in large parts of the country we call them pops privately owned public spaces this is an aspect of the loss of our social commons and it goes on all the way through our social i mean it is

we've had the privatisation of our national health service by stealth by the fact that increasingly they've contracted out to private. corporations large and large chunks of the n.h.s. and increasingly those companies that are taking huge profits from our n.h.s. are american they are us corporations united health and i document that in the book we began with william blake at the tate gallery just explain when it comes to culture your proposal for a media commons beginning with the b.b.c. but you talk about the privatisation of culture itself i think what we've seen particularly in the austerity era since 2010 with the liberal democrats and the conservatives is they starved our cultural institutions of funding they basically cut funding more for our cultural institutions than anything

else partly it was easy to do so because they're not statutory obligations for local authorities as a consequence we've had libraries closing hundreds of libraries closing we have museums restricting hours of opening. a lot of sale of works of art and a new rhodesian of the cultural institutions to such an extent that they've shifted to the american model now the american model is you rely on private donations and philanthropists to fund your your exhibitions and everything like that a gallery like the tate gallery now what that means is that funders. can determine what is shown and what is not show the same with the mass media we've seen an erosion of the mass media as a commons where you have a diversity of opinion you have huge numbers of local newspapers local channels

where increasingly with the privatization and the concentration of ownership you get rupert murdoch owning all of the tabloids so many of them you have an axe k.g.b. . spy running the evening standard owning in the evenings standard and you have known domes owning the daily mail so you have a situation where we'd be lost the commons as our information system and it's been accelerated of course by big tech by the amazons the face books and you tube increasingly we're seeing a standardized product which is aligned to a particular ideology which is predominantly us oriented that's kind stanek thank you that's it for this special show we'll be back on saturday until then give it out for sure you see it up.

unbelievable was.

it. first in the headlines from r.t. in america house speaker nancy pelosi announces a full page for the inquiry into whether donald trump abused his presidential call to the president of ukraine. just going to post it when the 2020 lecture. president's betrayal of his oath of office of our national security and the trail of the integrity of our elections. they all say that's

a positive for really from elections coming up to.