State funerals…
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In the Torygraph,
Quote:The Government Funeral Payment system, designed for those who need support with funeral costs, is being inundated with applications, a new report has revealed. Even for those who do get help, the typical sum awarded is £1,217, which is far short of the average £3091 cost of a funeral.Now, ISTR Eric Hobsbawm writing somewhere that one of the early parts of the workers' movement was the funeral co-op/society. The class struggle begins with the struggle for dignity, for recognition that we are human too, and are worth celebrating and mourning, whoever we are. This is worth remembering when Thatcher's procession wends it's way through the streets.
I mentioned on another thread about remembering the white sheet collections around the doors when someone died.On a personal level when my wife died, without knowing if she was insured or not, (she wasn't), independent of one another, my place of work did a collection and where we lived did one as well. A practical example of self-help and mutual aid. No thought of means testing in their generousity. Many work colleagues even though thay had never met my wife attended her cremationHer friends in the local Thai community closed a restaurant for a day and put on the customary spread free of charge since after so many marriage and new baby celebrations, a death was the first. They arranged for the visit of three Thai Buddhist monks from Birmingham to conduct traditional rituals. This in turn later led to the formation of a Buddhist temple and permanent monks.Death is still in many ways treated as a community event that all share in.Needless to say, I used the local co-op funeral services and even if it is just now a folk-memory, they are still considered the first-stop for many after a bereavement for the working class.
Thatcher bonfire in Goldthorpe in South Yorkshire:http://ianbone.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/grimethorpe-2/
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