Where is..?

  1. Bay of Pigs
  2. Buchenwald
  3. Cuba
  4. Dachau
  5. Guernica
  6. Hartheim Castle
  7. Montana*
  8. Mexico
  9. Patagonia
  10. Srebrenica
  11. Stonehenge
  12. Tower Colliery
  13. Treblinka
  14. Wattsville
All entries marked with an * include pictures.
Bay of Pigs - Bay on the south coast of Cuba (Bahía de Cochinos), in 1961 the scene of an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles, supported by the U.S. government. On Apr. 17, 1961, an armed force of about 1,500 Cuban exiles landed in the Bay of Pigs. Trained since May, 1960, in Guatemala by members of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with the approval of the Eisenhower administration, and supplied with arms by the U.S. government, the rebels intended to foment an insurrection in Cuba and overthrow the Communist regime of Fidel Castro. The Cuban army easily defeated the rebels and by Apr. 20, most were either killed or captured. The invasion provoked anti-U.S. demonstrations in Latin America and Europe and further embittered U.S.-Cuban relations. Poorly planned and executed, the invasion subjected President Kennedy to severe criticism at home. Cuban exile leader José Miró Cardona, president of the U.S.-based National Revolutionary Council, blamed the failure on the CIA and the refusal of Kennedy to authorize air support for the invasion. In Dec., 1962, Castro released 1,113 captured rebels in exchange for $53 million in food and medicine raised by private donations in the United States.
("Baby Elian" from the album "Know Your Enemy")

Buchenwald - Concentration camp, established in 1937 by the German National-Socialists. After the 'Kristallnacht' in Nov. 1938 10.000 German jews were round up in Buchenwald, later followed by jews from all over Europe. In 1944 there were 98.000 prisoners. 51.572 people died from starvation, disease, battery and execution. The camp was liberated on April 11th, 1945 and 21.000 survivors were found. The Russians used the camp from 1945 to 1950 as internment camp.
("We Her Majesty's Prisoners", B-side to "Motown Junk")

Cuba - Immigration problems 'started' when Castro allowed Cubans to leave for the US. Many Cubans died en route; they sailed on flimsy rafts and disease was also rampant. This problem was resolved in Sep '94 when the US promised to grant 20,000 entry visas a year to Cubans, and Castro agreed to prevent emmigration.
("Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart" from the album "The Holy Bible" & the artwork of the single "The Masses Against The Classes" which shows the Cuban flag)

Dachau - A town located in Bavary (southern Germany), not too far from Munich. It was the site of the first German concentration camp, created in March 1933, to detain communists and other people considered to be political undesirables. In 1941 the nazis started to use the camps with the specific purpose of annihilating jews. Until the camp was liberated by U.S. troops, on April 29, 1945, more than 200.000 people were detained there, 70.000 of them were killed or died of starvation or diseases.
("Sculpture Of Man" B-side to "Faster/P.C.P.")

Guernica - Historic town (1990 pop. 16,422), Vizcaya prov., Northern Spain, in the Basque region. The oak of Guernica, under which the diet of Vizcaya used to meet, is a symbol of the lost liberties of the Basques. In April 1937, German planes, aiding the insurgents in the Spanish civil war, bombed and destroyed Guernica. The indiscriminate killing of women and children aroused world opinion, and the bombing of Guernica became a symbol of fascist brutality. The event inspired one of Picasso's most celebrated paintings. Guernica is also called Guernica y Luno.
("My Guernica" from the album "Know Your Enemy")

Hartheim Castle - A euthanasia facility near Linz (now in Austria). It was known as the "Dachau sanatorium" and feared by Dachau inmates. If someone fell ill and was sent to Hartheim to recover, they never returned. An excess of 1200 died there between 1941 and 1942.
("The Intense Humming Of Evil" from the album "The Holy Bible")

Montana - "Montana/Autumn/78" refers to where and when the Unabomber sent his first bomb. (The Unabomber [Theodore John Kaczynski] sends bombs to universities and airports. Read his manifesto to "know what you mean but not what you do").
("Montana/Autumn/78" B-side to "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next")

Mexico - Illegal immigration from this country to the US is an ongoing problem, and US' efforts to stem illegal immigration have been controversial. Also, Mexico's increasing activity with Cuba, such as Mexico's investment in Cuba's refinery, and the purchase of part of Cuba's telephone company, has further strained relations with the U.S.
("ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart" from the album "The Holy Bible")

Patagonia - "I'd go to Patagonia but it's harder there" refers to the Welsh colony founded in 1865 in the Chubut Valley in Patagonia, southern Argentina. After a period of considerable hardship, ("but it's harder there") the settlement began to thrive; the first successful harvest followed the building of irrigation canals from the River Chubut. Patagonia is a vast, bleak and windswept dissected plateau and is sparsely populated and largely undeveloped. In Welsh Patagonia is called Y Wladfa.
("Ready For Drowning" from the album "This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours")

Srebrenica - Town in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In July 1995 Bosnian Serb forces overran the 'safe zones' of Srebrenica and Zepa; more than 40,000 Muslims were forced to flee to neighbouring Tuzla and reports emerged of mass slaughter of at least 4,000 Muslim men at Srebrenica.
("The Convalescent" from the album "Know Your Enemy")

Stonehenge - This ancient monument of huge stones solitarily standing on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England has captured imaginations for centuries. Theories about who built it have included the Druids, Greeks, Phoenicians, and Atlanteans. Speculation on the reason it was built range from human sacrifice to astronomy. Investigations over the last 100 years have revealed that Stonehenge was built in several stages from 2800 - 1800 BC. It seems to have been designed to allow for observation of astronomical phenomena - summer and winter solstices, eclipses, and more.
("Nostalgic Pushead" from the album "Gold Against The Soul")

Tower Colliery - Hirwaun, Cynon Valley

"We were ordinary men... We wanted jobs... We bought a pit" - (Tyrone O'Sullivan)

Coal mining has been synonymous with South Wales for centuries. Colliery winding gear, a familiar sight in every valley. Today, Tower Colliery is the last deep mine in Wales, the only survivor of an industry ravaged by Conservative central government policy of the 1980s.

Tower Colliery, spanning the centuries, has witnessed deprivation, tragedy and working-class exploitation, but the miners' continuing strength through adversity saw them win through by 1995 to become mine owners realising a financial profit as Goitre Tower Anthracite. Pugnacious, militant, proud, passionate, self-believing, industrious, loyal, dignified - all adjectives earned by the miners of Tower and as relevant at the start of the 21st century as when Goitre Colliery (later to become Tower) first brought coal to the surface in 1759.

By 1820, Goitre Colliery had been purchased by a local ironmaster, the Merthyr Tydfil based William Crawshay II of Cyfarthfa. The Crawshay dynasty thus dictated the living standards of the workforce to the extent that by 1831 the workers of Merthyr Tydfil rose up against the ironmasters. With calls of 'Reform, Reform' and in the Welsh language 'bara neu waed' (bread or blood) the workers railed against the Truck Act and low wages. The 'Merthyr rallying cry' was heeded by near neighbours and fellow sufferers in Hirwaun and Aberdare. A meeting was held on Hirwaun Common, land which today belongs to Tower Colliery, and plans were made to march on Merthyr Tydfil in what subsequently became known as the Merthyr Rising of 1831. The workers marched behind a flag, which had been dipped in the blood of a calf - the first time in Britain, that a red flag was raised in rebellion by the working classes.

William Crawshay was so uneasy at the prospect of another riot that he built a stone watchtower at Hirwaun as a bolthole from which he could be rescued in the event of further unrest while surveying his acquisitions. In 1864 Goitre Colliery became Tower, taking its name from the nearby watchtower.

Throughout the twentieth century Tower Colliery was noted for high productivity rates. Another characteristic, militancy, was evidenced between 1912 and the General Strike of 1926 when strikes, closures and lockouts were common place. Tower played a leading role in the advancement of the trade union movement in South Wales with an active NUM branch (National Union of Mineworkers). In 1969 Tower was one of only 12 pits to support a strike for shorter working hours for surface men.

From 1979, the Conservative government pressed ahead with the pit closure programme. The last of the deep mines in South Wales were closing with catastrophic effects on the valley communities whose raison d'être was coal production. Despite severe financial hardships caused by the 1984/85 Miners Strike, not a single worker at Tower broke the strike and returned to work. As a high productivity pit Tower was granted a temporary government reprieve at the end of the strike, but on April 22 1994 the miners' worse fears were realised, Tower Colliery was closed.

For the government the closure was inevitable, the miners response however was less predictable. Within a week the workforce had voted unanimously to buy back their pit forming a buy-out group known as T.E.B.O (Tower Employee Buy Out) with Tyrone O'Sullivan, the NUM Branch Secretary elected as Chairman. Every miner opting-in contributed £8,000 of his redundancy money to kick start the 'fighting fund'. With much effort, £1.92 million as share capital and the backing of one of the major banks, the Department of Trade and Industry could do nothing but accept the Tower miners' bid as a serious one. A last hurdle remained, 390,000 tons of coal had still to be mined and sold to cover first year costs. The determination of the miners ensured that 510,000 tons were sold within a few weeks and medium term contracts secured. With a projected income of £40 million, the bid succeeded.

One minute after midnight on 23 December 1994, 242 miners who had never owned anything more expensive than a house or a car now took control of a colliery worth £18 million. On 3 January 1995 the men and their families marched back to Tower in triumph behind the colliery banner and brass band. The centuries old management/worker divide had been replaced by a new era of equality.

The success of Tower Colliery continues. By 1998 it was rumoured that Hollywood had taken an interest in the story and in early 2000 an opera based on the emotive and powerful story of the Tower miners' buy-out was performed in South Wales theatres.

"To be a mine owner at Tower is a marvellous feeling. This is the world's only workers' buyout, a testimony to the strength and endurance of the mining community at large". (Glyndwr Roberts Coalface Manager, speaking after the first shift in 1995).

By Judith Mulry, with thanks to Tyrone O'Sullivan and Tower Colliery for help in compiling this brief history.
(credited in sleeves notes of the album "Everything Must Go ()")

Treblinka - German extermination camp 80 km NE of Warsaw (Poland). About 800.000 prisoners were killed here. A mass mutiny and escape took place August 2nd, 1943 in which many of the SS guards were killed by the inmates. After severe reprisals the camp was closed down and dismantled in November 1943. Originally built in 1940 as forced labour camp for political prisoners, from June 1941 it was rebuilt and had gas chambers and crematoria installed. By the summer of 1942 was receiving shipments of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto and 10 other countries.
("The Convalescent" from the album "Know Your Enemy")

Wattsville - Village in Caerphilly, South Wales where Nicky lives (it's on the A4048 between Risca and Blackwood).
("Wattsville Blues" from the album "Know Your Enemy")

© Copyright 1998 ... 2005 by Gerhard Nijenhuis (sciryl@home.nl). These pages may be freely redistributed for personal use provided that this copyright message remains intact. Any other form of commercial distribution or translation requires explicit permission from the author.