Conghaileach
10th August 2004, 23:02
The Plough #51
E-mail newsletter of the
Irish Republican Socialist Party
Number 51
Date Tuesday 10th of August 2004
1. The Republic of James Connolly
2. Impressions of a Revolution
3. Anti-War Case: Solidarity For Comrades
4. Anti-Racist Network
5. Police Ombudsman's report 'A Whitewash'
6. The Abernethy Case
7. Six Basque Nationalists Imprisoned in Mexico
8. Colombian Army executes three union leaders in Arauca
9. What's On
The Republic of James Connolly
Speech for the Kevin Lynch Commemoration Dungiven
The following speech was delivered by Gerard Murray on Sunday 1st August 2004
Struggles take many forms and the Republican Struggle in Ireland has taken many forms. Armed struggle against British Imperialism, street protests, riots, hunger strikes, pickets all have been weapons in the armoury of republicans. The sacrifice of Kevin and his comrades and their use of the hunger strike was on the immediate issue of political status. The refusal since the republican struggle began in the 1790s of Irish republicans to accept criminalisation is absolute. No body, especially not an administration of Brits, whose hands are covered with the blood of thousands of innocent Iraqis, has the right to call republicans, who oppose their claim to rule this island, criminals. We are not and we never have been terrorists. Kevin and his comrades were never terrorists. They were freedom fighters, patriots and anti-imperialists.
Today as we salute the memory of Kevin Lynch hunger striker and political prisoner it would be remiss of us not to express our full solidarity with current Republican political prisoners in Maghaberry and re-iterate our call for the immediate release of Desi O'Hare and the other qualifying Republican prisoners under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. We make no distinction between different republican groupings when it comes to solidarity with republican prisoners. Do not forget there would be no republican prisoners in gaols if there were a final settlement to the national question. And so long as the national question is unsettled then so will there be republicans who will wage a struggle to establish a republic on the island for all the people of the island.
It has been a learning experience for many of us as we watch how the Brits were able to transfer that same national question down to the level of "divided communities". We have had recently various spokespersons for the great and the good reduce the problems here in the North to the levels of flag and parades disputes. This is now called a community problem. In recent weeks statements from a wide range of bodies including statements from two PSNI-RUC spokesmen claimed that the communities could only resolve the issues. The implication of this is that the "two communities" can sit down and resolve the problem while the state bodies act in a mediating role!
Let me run that by you again. The state bodies act in a mediating role.
Ah yes now I see it * the Paratroopers in Ardoyne on July 12th 2004 were mediating- just like they did on Bloody Sunday 1972. And yes the Parades Commission made two rulings that the mediating RUC-ohps sorry, PSNI, overruled in order to allow loyalists to trample the croppies back into the ground in Ardoyne and Lurgan. And oh did you not realise that the British state is neutral between the two communities and only want to help us get together and be nice neighbours!! Really those Catholics and refugees who are being petrol bombed and pipe bombed from their homes by "decent loyalists" will really have to be nicer to their neighbours and do nothing to offend them- like being different. Blame is allocated equally by the great and the good. We are all to blame and those who claim jurisdiction over us really have our best interests at heart.
But we know different. The reality is that sectarian elements in unionism want to lord it over nationalists. It is a case of "croppy lie down". They are aided and abetted in this by a range of state bodies including the NIO, the Police force, the prison service and the intelligence agencies. Many employees of state bodies acquiesce in sectarian attitudes and actions. The theft of security documents by RIR soldiers from Castlereagh and the subsequent handing over of them to the UDA shows the continuing close contact between armed loyalism and the British military.
Six years after the Good Friday Agreement in terms of troop levels and collaboration nothing has really changed. The Independent Monitoring Commission has highlighted the ongoing high number of British soldiers stationed in the North.
In a report on British demilitarisation, the commission said troop levels in the North were at just under 15,000. This is larger than the number of British troops in Iraq
This number was supposed to be reduced to 5,000 as part of Britain's commitments under the Good Friday Agreement.
Six years on from the so-called historic Good Friday Agreement we do not have justice, democracy or freedom. We have a biased police force, a bigoted prison service, and an arrogant bevy of British overlords making decisions for us, no democratic assembly and naked sectarian hatred given free range every July. Unionism simply does not recognise the right of people in the North to be either republicans or nationalists. Like the Bourbons kings of France they have learnt nothing!! July 2004 confirms that the state of Northern Ireland is in essence still a cold house for nationalists.
It is very important for us as republicans not to fall into the trap posed by the misuse of language. We all have seen how the spin doctoring of the Blair Government in Britain has turned language around so that the truth becomes lies and lies become the truth. The armed occupation of a foreign country becomes its liberation.
We reject the notion that there are two separate divided communities. There are not two communities- instead we have a divided working class who clash in deprived areas. And while elements of that self same working class clash particularly in July those who benefit from the sectarian clashes jet off to sunnier climates tut-tuting about the fighting going on amongst the lower classes.
Was it for this that men and women sacrificed the best years of their lives in struggle in prison in exile and for many in death? Was it for this that the hunger strikers died? Surely it is legitimate to ask hard questions? Is it not time to call a halt to the endless round of talks about talks about talks?
Don't misunderstand what we are saying. We republican socialists are in favour of dialogue. We emphatically state that armed struggle is not the way forward. To go down that road at this time is to go down the road to nowhere. It is not an option. Armed struggle today is emphatically not the road that leads to the Republic.
Yes dialogue is possible but there can be no more pussyfooting around. If there are those who refuse to talk to any section of republicanism or nationalism then it should be clearly understood that Republicans can and will withhold their consent to the running of the six county state. And we believe it should be clearly understood that from the republican perspective any arrangement that is internal is temporary, transient and transparent. Surely it is time for Republicans, socialists radicals and anyone else who cares to come together and say loud and clear- the Good Friday Agreement has not worked, does not work is unlikely to work in the future. Northern Ireland as a political entity does not work. There is no permanent solution possible that envisages the continued existence of the sectarian six county state.
Our whole history of struggle, our experiences of fighting the Brits, of living under the thumb of reactionary unionism, of enduring prisons, hunger strikes brutality and sectarian hatred has steeled into our souls the unbreakable belief that the only solution to our problems is the establishing of a Republic that the workers, that is the vast majority of the people of Ireland, catholic protestant dissenter and refugee control.
At the end of the day the only class republicans can rely on, is not that class that sucks you in and then sells you out but the Irish working class the incorruptible inheritors of the fight for freedom.
In perpetuating and honouring the name of Kevin Lynch, hunger striker, soldier, socialist we reaffirm our commitment to the Republic of James Connolly.
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Impressions of a Revolution
By Heiko Khoo *from The Hands off Venezuela Campaign
Caracas is a place where people have woken up. Revolution is part of everyday vocabulary, not in the sense of the dead phraseology of the former Stalinist states where the very word was designed to send people to sleep, but in the genuine meaning. Everywhere, amongst street vendors of cheap jeans and magic herbal potions, you also find a vendor selling laws. The Law on Armed Forces, the Law on Intoxicating Substances, the Law on the Rights of Women and Children, and dozens of others. These law pamphlets are not for the consumption of students at the law faculty but for the poor. Not so the poor can to read the laws to become lawyers, but to know how to exercise their rights according to 'their laws'. The masses feel that politics, government and the state belong and should belong, to them. Further along you find a vendor selling pirate DVD's of US films and pornography, amongst the films Fahrenheit 9-11 and The Revolution Will not be Televised are given pride of place. A vendor selling posters has half his stall decked out in posters of supporting Chavez and the revolution. When I asked their price he says they are not for sale. A T-shirt saleswoman shows her Che and Chavez shirts, but also has opposition ones, I ask 'what this?' She says they're for the 'squalid ones' as the opposition are known. Two men digging through piles of stinking bin bags in search of something of value stand upright and I see they are wearing Chavez Will Not Go T shirts.
We stop and talk to older men and women in the Plaza Bolivar. On hearing we are supporters of the revolution from Europe we are welcomed as comrades with warmth, there is no hostility. They seek to know our views and give back with power their own views. The more radical the speaker the more the audience approves breaking into applause as the crowd around listens intently. Here on the street the phraseology is more direct and the overthrow of 'the capitalists' is more readily spoken of than in intellectual circles. A cavalcade of motorbikes takes off to defend and strengthen the resolve of the masses by their hooting and flag waving. A man stands behind a microphone 25 meters further on warning that after the 15th the day of the referendum, 'we must deal with the traitors in red berets'. He is referring to the enemies of the revolution who are seeking a compromise with the opposition, with capitalism. He is referring to those who are corrupt within the revolution, the bureaucrats and careerists.
Young teachers at the Bolivarian University tell me later that night that this man, I assume they mean him by their description, is 'more chavista than Chavez', they appreciate his determination.
At the Simon Rodrigez Experimental University, deep inside the impoverished district of El Valle, a crèche full of children and children's party are noisily taking place, upstairs the local Ali Primera Radio station is broadcasting in FM as the forum, voice and self-organised entertainment channel of the community. On the stairway, a group of twenty or so local activists for the NO vote gather and discuss and plan their action, in another room the Marxists are meeting, next door a room full of beds for those needing rest, this building is a revolutionary centre, organisational, cultural, political and social. There is to my knowledge not a single building in all Europe used like this, this despite decades of attempts to create 'alternative spaces' by the left, sometimes with significant funds behind such projects!
The dynamism and creativity of revolution sweeps aside petty bureaucratic formalism and impels the masses to participate. In a nearby restaurant, well a room that passes as one, we are served food and beer. Meeting me on the street afterwards the owner asks, why and for whom I am filming, when I explain for Hands Off Venezuela a look of great pride exudes from his face, I see him return to his open door and shout out 'Viva la Revolution!' to his family inside.
At the experimental Bolivarian University symbolically located in the former HQ building of the Petrol Company PDVSA, our guide Victoria welcomes us as comrades, no suspicion or distrust. The professors expound their thoughts and ideas and welcome ours. They are more 'Bolivarian,' in the sense of believing in a theory of encircling capital and its institutions rather than directly attacking it. This does not at all mean they do not listen to and discuss Marxist ideas, 'Chavez has said Marxism is an important source of inspiration' they inform us, and at no stage do you feel they have any barrier against you expounding and propagating your views. One director who spoke more specifically of the 'Venezuelan road', its 'uniqueness' and so on, welcomes us distributing Marxist literature inside a prestigious event where the minister for higher education was speaking. There is open an honest and open exchange of ideas, what a relief after seeing movements in Britain from the Labour Party to the Stop the War Coalition constantly react in a knee jerk fashion to any serious criticism of their policies, strategy and tactics, as if they have to repress opposition and alternative viewpoints.
At a rally of the Commando Maisanta Electoral Platoons of Caracas, the bureaucratic tendency has a stronger hand; some ten thousand activists pack the hall. A certain former police officer by the name of Freddy Bernal, who is now the mayor of Caracas Libertador Council, takes the microphone. He rallies the troops with chants and slogans and then asks for each district patrol to stand up, which they do almost in Mexican wave style. But then our friend Freddy warns that when Chavez arrives to address them, he may want to know details about how the campaign is being run in each area. So Freddy Bernal calls up representatives to interrogate them and gets them to parrot out his requested facts and figures about their local area commando.
A week or two before, someone on 'Alo President' castigated the local organisation of the Commando, Chavez railed against the bureaucrats responsible. Mr. Bernal¹s concerns appeared to emanate from a fear for his own position more than the efficiency and success of the situation on the ground. Bernal then called on each district to rise to their feet and then for the leaders of each district to remain standing, the 23rd January District rebelled, chanting 'We Are All Maisanta', a chant which within seconds rung around the auditorium from ten thousand voices. Freddy Bernal¹s face was visibly shaken, and he was forced to desist from interrogating and demagogically commanding. Chavez as it turned out did not request any such information anyway, so Mr. Bernal was saved the public humiliation he feared... for now.
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Anti-War Case: Solidarity For Comrades
Just a reminder about the anti- war trial on Thursday morning, 10.00 at Laganside, Belfast, N.I. We need to support the five charged as they feel because it has gone on so long they have been forgotten. They are Catherine Ross, Colette Dornan, Tomas Gorman, Padraig O Connor and Darren Malone.
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Anti-Racist Network
The first ever LMHR - ARN gig was held in the Empire Music Hall in South Belfast last week and was a case of standing room to the back door. Many attended from the Network, representatives from minority ethnic organisations such as the African cultural and Chinese Welfare association. Human rights activists and human rights organisations from Amnesty International to the Equality commission, attended as well as rank and file trade union representatives from NIPSA to Unison, various grassroots community, women¹s and gay right campaigners also attended. Many people who came along to hear the bands and to lend solidarity to the cause also joined grassroots environmental, anti war, anti globalisation, community, solidarity, and campaign activists. So a broad collection of organisations and individuals lend support, with many people joining up to the network. A good night and thanks for all who came to lend support for the fundraiser.
The ARN will seek to hold a meeting in the near future to bring all the various contacts that we have to date met, and who have held gigs with us, and in solidarity for us. This as so to plan further gigs around different towns and cities, similar to the ARN hosting meetings in Sept to establish new groups of activists for the network.
PS - At the end of the month the ARN logo shall be voted on {via the whole network} so again if persons want to put their ideas forward for the logo that will eventually go on the badges, caps tee-shirts, placards, art, and of course our ARN local and Central banners then send your designs to the network.
D. Carlin *ARN
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Police Ombudsman¹s report 'A Whitewash’.
Media revelations that the Police Ombudsman report is to clear police of malpractice regarding the case of Dungannon man Noel Abernethy, leads the 32 County Sovereignty Movement to conclude that the report itself is a whitewash. Mr. Abernethy was acquitted last September of attempted murder arising out of a gun attack on the RUC in Draperstown in 2001. At his trial it was revealed that the police investigating the case had routinely ignored forensic procedures and incorrectly presented Mr. Abernethy¹s clothes to the forensic science laboratory to be tested for Gun residue.
Dr Anne Irwin, a senior forensic scientist told the court that the police pressed her to test the clothes for forensics even thought she had told them she could not. It was also revealed to the court the no less than five police personnel of varying degrees of seniority subsequently contacted Dr Irwin pressing for clothes to be examined.
In acquitting Noel Abernethy Judge Nicholson spoke of his concern about the RUC/PSNI¹s requests.
The report by the Ombudsman cannot by any stretch of the imagination claim to be impartial given that the ombudsman¹s office did not contact Mr. Abernethy, his legal team nor, we assume Dr Irwin. Indeed the ombudsman has to answer the question, is it or is it not wrong to pressure the Independent Forensic Science Laboratory to ignore procedure in order to secure a conviction or is the ombudsman accusing Dr Irwin of perjury given that she testified in court that this is exactly what happened. Mr. Abernethy was held by the RUC for five days, an extension to his detention being granted when a senior police officer lied to the court saying that machinery in the Forensic science laboratory was defective. He then was remanded in custody for a number of months in Maghaberry Gaol and following that had his trial played out in public through the media. Now to add insult to injury the ombudsman¹s office have cleared the police of any wrongdoing and have not the courtesy to consult Mr. Abernethy nor his legal team nor indeed do they have no plans to furnish them with a copy of the report!!!
The message that this episode sends to the RUC/PSNI is clear, that it is OK to ignore procedure and set up innocent people as long as you don¹t get caught, and if you do get caught there are no consequences. The message that this sends out to the nationalist community is equally clear, that the ombudsman¹s office is just another British state agency that exists, like the policing board, to vindicate and lend credence the political police in the north. At its inception the Police ombudsman was sold as an agency that would investigate and uncover police malpractice it is clear that its real role is to conceal or justify policing malpractice. The 32 County Sovereignty Movement reiterate our demands for an independent, impartial non-British inquiry into the internal workings, malpractice and corruption of the RUC/PSNI, it is clear that one state agency cannot adequately investigate another and that the police ombudsman has the same political motivations as the RUC/PSNI.
Message Ends.
PRESS RELEASE FROM
32 COUNTY SOVEREIGNTY MOVEMENT
-------
SOLIDARITY!!!
FREEDOM TO THE SIX BASQUE NATIONALISTS IMPRISONED IN MEXICO!
The Asociación Diáspora Vasca, nationalist collective with presence in more that 20 countries, calls out to the international community to sign a petition to free the Basque citizens Asier Arronategi (Mexican by naturalization), Jon Artola, Axun Gorrotxategi, Joseba Urkijo, Felix Garcia and Ernesto Alberdi, illegally detained for over a year at the Reclusorio Norte in Mexico City. Pending against them there is an extradition request to the Mexican Government by the Spanish Audiencia Nacional, an institution heir to the Franco era Tribunal de Orden Publico and used by the Spanish Government to persecute Basque nationalism. The petition and all the signatures will in turn be delivered to Mexican President Vicente Fox.
The case against this six Basque citizens, initiated as a result of a political and law enforcement deal, is plagued with blatant irregularities, among them, the manipulation of documents by the Spanish Ambassador. If the extradition takes place and they are sent to Spain, they would be in the hands of a state that, as indicated by the UN¹s Committee Against Torture, Amnesty International and numerous world-wide organizations, tortures the Basque prisoners both physically and psychologically.
To the dignity of Mexico.
To the solidarity among nations.
Free the six Basque nationalist prisoners!
Sign the Petition:
http://www.6demexico.org/firmas/guestbook.php
------
SUPER URGENT ACTION
Colombian Army executes three leaders in Arauca (Colombia)
Samuel Morales and Raquel Castro Detained
FACTS:
Humanidad Vigente Corporación Jurídica denounces and energetically condemns the extrajudicial execution of HÉCTOR ALIRIO MARTÍNEZ, LEONEL GOYENECHE and JORGE PRIETO at the hands of the Colombian Army. These three historic leaders were under the protective measures scheme of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.
Alirio Martínez was president of the National Peasants Association ADUC- Asociación Nacional de Usuarios Campesinos, Leonel Goyeneche was a member of the Executive Committee of United Confederation of Colombian Workers -CUT Arauca and Jorge Prieto belonged to the Executive Committee of the National Association of Hospital Workers -ANTHOC and the CUT. The three leaders were assassinated in an operation carried out this morning by the Revéis Pizarro Battalion of the Colombian Army in the hamlet of Caño Seco, in Saravena municipality.
SAMUEL MORALES, Presidente of the CUT in Arauca, and RAQUEL CASTRO, a member Arauca Teachers Association ASEDAR were both detained in the same operation.
These leaders have been spokesmen for the araucana community in the numerous mobilisations, marches, civil stoppages that have taken place in the face of military and paramilitary action against the population that has cost so many lives. At the same time they have led the continual and effective protests against the violation of human rights that took place in the bombing of the village of Santo Domingo in 1998.
The initial versions by the Reveiz Pizarro Mechanised Group reported that the operation had "put down" three people and captured three others.
Later, a few hours afterwards, the National Army claimed that the three leaders had attacked a military unit that was trying to rescue a kidnap victim and so they gave a military response, and the military claimed to have seized arms and munitions. They also signaled that they had started an investigation of the murder.
We are enormously concerned by this account as well as the competency of the military judicial jurisdiction to carry out the investigation, given that there are already multiple cases in Colombia and especially in Arauca, in which the military authorities manipulate the evidence to hide their responsibility and put blame on the victims.
WE ASK:
Because of the above, we ask that you send messages immediately to the people listed below demanding that the Colombian Government urgently forms a Verification Commission composed of government officials and Human Rights NGOs that goes to Arauca on 6 August to verify the facts and avoid tampering with evidence, and to guarantee an effective investigation.
- Programa Presidencial de Derechos Humanos y de DIH
Dr. Carlos Franco
Calle 7 N° 5-54
TEL: (+571) 336.03.11
FAX: (+57 1) 337.46.67
E- mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
- Ministerio de Defensa Nacional
Dr. Jorge Alberto Uribe
El Dorado con Carrera. 52 CAN,
Bogotá.
Tel. (57 1) 315 01 11
Fax: (+57 1)222.18.74
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]fensa.gov.co, [email protected],
- Procuraduría General de la Nación
Dr. Edgardo José Maya Villazón
Carrera 5 No. 15-80
Santa Fé de Bogotá.
Tel: (57 1) 352 00 76
Fax: (+57 1)342.97.23
E-mail: [email protected]
- Fiscalía General de la Nación
Dr. Luis Camilo Osorio
Diagonal 22 B No.52-01
Santa fe de Bogotá.
Fax: (+571) 570 20 00
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
- Defensoría del Pueblo
Dr. Wolmar Pérez Ortiz.
Calle 55 No. 10-32
Santa Fe de Bogotá.
Tel: (57 1) 314 73 00
Fax: (+571) 640 04 91
E-mail:[email protected]
- Presidencia de la República Dr. Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Cra. 8 No.7-26, Palacio de Nariño,
Bogotá.
Tel: (57 1) 562 93 00
Fax: (+57 1) 566.20.71
E-mail: [email protected]
UN Human Rights in Colombia
- Oficina en Colombia de la ONU (Derechos Humanos), delegación Nororiente colombiano.
Dra. Karen Sherlock
Tel: (57-7) 643 38 81, 657 26 47.
Fax: 1-6293637
Bucaramanga
COLOMBIA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN ADDS:
Please also demand the immediate release of Samuel Morales and Raquel Castro. In your message please express concern for their safety and that they are not being tortured.
And, in the UK, send messages to:
Colombian Embassy (UK): [email protected]
With a copy to the Colombia Solidarity Campaign at [email protected]
-------
What's On?
Strategies for Fighting Racism and Fascism in Ireland - A panel discussion
Venue: Pilot¹s Row Theatre, Derry @ 12 noon, Saturday 14th August
Speakers include;
Dave Hann, Anti-Fascist Action Manchester, co-Author of 'No Retreat' - a first hand account of the success of British anti-fascists in breaking up British fascism in the 70's, 80's and 90's Spokesperson for Anti Fascist Action, Ireland.
Davy Carlin, activist, WARN, West Belfast Anti-Racist Network
Roseanna Flynn, Activist, RAR - Residents Against Racism, Dublin
Dr. Robbie Mc Veigh, Activist, writer and researcher into racism and anti-racism in Ireland.
Also speakers from Fascists Out! North Antrim and the Belfast Islamic Centre.
This event is hosted by the Pat Finucane Centre
ALSO
Unity Gig that night, featuring Cruncher "viva la quintal brigada" O¹Neill, Decky "Bin Lid" McLaughlin and Seanchai (Irish American hip hop from New York).
C/o PO Box 3355
Dublin 7
Ireland
http://www.geocities.com/irishafa
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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E-mail newsletter of the
Irish Republican Socialist Party
Number 51
Date Tuesday 10th of August 2004
1. The Republic of James Connolly
2. Impressions of a Revolution
3. Anti-War Case: Solidarity For Comrades
4. Anti-Racist Network
5. Police Ombudsman's report 'A Whitewash'
6. The Abernethy Case
7. Six Basque Nationalists Imprisoned in Mexico
8. Colombian Army executes three union leaders in Arauca
9. What's On
The Republic of James Connolly
Speech for the Kevin Lynch Commemoration Dungiven
The following speech was delivered by Gerard Murray on Sunday 1st August 2004
Struggles take many forms and the Republican Struggle in Ireland has taken many forms. Armed struggle against British Imperialism, street protests, riots, hunger strikes, pickets all have been weapons in the armoury of republicans. The sacrifice of Kevin and his comrades and their use of the hunger strike was on the immediate issue of political status. The refusal since the republican struggle began in the 1790s of Irish republicans to accept criminalisation is absolute. No body, especially not an administration of Brits, whose hands are covered with the blood of thousands of innocent Iraqis, has the right to call republicans, who oppose their claim to rule this island, criminals. We are not and we never have been terrorists. Kevin and his comrades were never terrorists. They were freedom fighters, patriots and anti-imperialists.
Today as we salute the memory of Kevin Lynch hunger striker and political prisoner it would be remiss of us not to express our full solidarity with current Republican political prisoners in Maghaberry and re-iterate our call for the immediate release of Desi O'Hare and the other qualifying Republican prisoners under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. We make no distinction between different republican groupings when it comes to solidarity with republican prisoners. Do not forget there would be no republican prisoners in gaols if there were a final settlement to the national question. And so long as the national question is unsettled then so will there be republicans who will wage a struggle to establish a republic on the island for all the people of the island.
It has been a learning experience for many of us as we watch how the Brits were able to transfer that same national question down to the level of "divided communities". We have had recently various spokespersons for the great and the good reduce the problems here in the North to the levels of flag and parades disputes. This is now called a community problem. In recent weeks statements from a wide range of bodies including statements from two PSNI-RUC spokesmen claimed that the communities could only resolve the issues. The implication of this is that the "two communities" can sit down and resolve the problem while the state bodies act in a mediating role!
Let me run that by you again. The state bodies act in a mediating role.
Ah yes now I see it * the Paratroopers in Ardoyne on July 12th 2004 were mediating- just like they did on Bloody Sunday 1972. And yes the Parades Commission made two rulings that the mediating RUC-ohps sorry, PSNI, overruled in order to allow loyalists to trample the croppies back into the ground in Ardoyne and Lurgan. And oh did you not realise that the British state is neutral between the two communities and only want to help us get together and be nice neighbours!! Really those Catholics and refugees who are being petrol bombed and pipe bombed from their homes by "decent loyalists" will really have to be nicer to their neighbours and do nothing to offend them- like being different. Blame is allocated equally by the great and the good. We are all to blame and those who claim jurisdiction over us really have our best interests at heart.
But we know different. The reality is that sectarian elements in unionism want to lord it over nationalists. It is a case of "croppy lie down". They are aided and abetted in this by a range of state bodies including the NIO, the Police force, the prison service and the intelligence agencies. Many employees of state bodies acquiesce in sectarian attitudes and actions. The theft of security documents by RIR soldiers from Castlereagh and the subsequent handing over of them to the UDA shows the continuing close contact between armed loyalism and the British military.
Six years after the Good Friday Agreement in terms of troop levels and collaboration nothing has really changed. The Independent Monitoring Commission has highlighted the ongoing high number of British soldiers stationed in the North.
In a report on British demilitarisation, the commission said troop levels in the North were at just under 15,000. This is larger than the number of British troops in Iraq
This number was supposed to be reduced to 5,000 as part of Britain's commitments under the Good Friday Agreement.
Six years on from the so-called historic Good Friday Agreement we do not have justice, democracy or freedom. We have a biased police force, a bigoted prison service, and an arrogant bevy of British overlords making decisions for us, no democratic assembly and naked sectarian hatred given free range every July. Unionism simply does not recognise the right of people in the North to be either republicans or nationalists. Like the Bourbons kings of France they have learnt nothing!! July 2004 confirms that the state of Northern Ireland is in essence still a cold house for nationalists.
It is very important for us as republicans not to fall into the trap posed by the misuse of language. We all have seen how the spin doctoring of the Blair Government in Britain has turned language around so that the truth becomes lies and lies become the truth. The armed occupation of a foreign country becomes its liberation.
We reject the notion that there are two separate divided communities. There are not two communities- instead we have a divided working class who clash in deprived areas. And while elements of that self same working class clash particularly in July those who benefit from the sectarian clashes jet off to sunnier climates tut-tuting about the fighting going on amongst the lower classes.
Was it for this that men and women sacrificed the best years of their lives in struggle in prison in exile and for many in death? Was it for this that the hunger strikers died? Surely it is legitimate to ask hard questions? Is it not time to call a halt to the endless round of talks about talks about talks?
Don't misunderstand what we are saying. We republican socialists are in favour of dialogue. We emphatically state that armed struggle is not the way forward. To go down that road at this time is to go down the road to nowhere. It is not an option. Armed struggle today is emphatically not the road that leads to the Republic.
Yes dialogue is possible but there can be no more pussyfooting around. If there are those who refuse to talk to any section of republicanism or nationalism then it should be clearly understood that Republicans can and will withhold their consent to the running of the six county state. And we believe it should be clearly understood that from the republican perspective any arrangement that is internal is temporary, transient and transparent. Surely it is time for Republicans, socialists radicals and anyone else who cares to come together and say loud and clear- the Good Friday Agreement has not worked, does not work is unlikely to work in the future. Northern Ireland as a political entity does not work. There is no permanent solution possible that envisages the continued existence of the sectarian six county state.
Our whole history of struggle, our experiences of fighting the Brits, of living under the thumb of reactionary unionism, of enduring prisons, hunger strikes brutality and sectarian hatred has steeled into our souls the unbreakable belief that the only solution to our problems is the establishing of a Republic that the workers, that is the vast majority of the people of Ireland, catholic protestant dissenter and refugee control.
At the end of the day the only class republicans can rely on, is not that class that sucks you in and then sells you out but the Irish working class the incorruptible inheritors of the fight for freedom.
In perpetuating and honouring the name of Kevin Lynch, hunger striker, soldier, socialist we reaffirm our commitment to the Republic of James Connolly.
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Impressions of a Revolution
By Heiko Khoo *from The Hands off Venezuela Campaign
Caracas is a place where people have woken up. Revolution is part of everyday vocabulary, not in the sense of the dead phraseology of the former Stalinist states where the very word was designed to send people to sleep, but in the genuine meaning. Everywhere, amongst street vendors of cheap jeans and magic herbal potions, you also find a vendor selling laws. The Law on Armed Forces, the Law on Intoxicating Substances, the Law on the Rights of Women and Children, and dozens of others. These law pamphlets are not for the consumption of students at the law faculty but for the poor. Not so the poor can to read the laws to become lawyers, but to know how to exercise their rights according to 'their laws'. The masses feel that politics, government and the state belong and should belong, to them. Further along you find a vendor selling pirate DVD's of US films and pornography, amongst the films Fahrenheit 9-11 and The Revolution Will not be Televised are given pride of place. A vendor selling posters has half his stall decked out in posters of supporting Chavez and the revolution. When I asked their price he says they are not for sale. A T-shirt saleswoman shows her Che and Chavez shirts, but also has opposition ones, I ask 'what this?' She says they're for the 'squalid ones' as the opposition are known. Two men digging through piles of stinking bin bags in search of something of value stand upright and I see they are wearing Chavez Will Not Go T shirts.
We stop and talk to older men and women in the Plaza Bolivar. On hearing we are supporters of the revolution from Europe we are welcomed as comrades with warmth, there is no hostility. They seek to know our views and give back with power their own views. The more radical the speaker the more the audience approves breaking into applause as the crowd around listens intently. Here on the street the phraseology is more direct and the overthrow of 'the capitalists' is more readily spoken of than in intellectual circles. A cavalcade of motorbikes takes off to defend and strengthen the resolve of the masses by their hooting and flag waving. A man stands behind a microphone 25 meters further on warning that after the 15th the day of the referendum, 'we must deal with the traitors in red berets'. He is referring to the enemies of the revolution who are seeking a compromise with the opposition, with capitalism. He is referring to those who are corrupt within the revolution, the bureaucrats and careerists.
Young teachers at the Bolivarian University tell me later that night that this man, I assume they mean him by their description, is 'more chavista than Chavez', they appreciate his determination.
At the Simon Rodrigez Experimental University, deep inside the impoverished district of El Valle, a crèche full of children and children's party are noisily taking place, upstairs the local Ali Primera Radio station is broadcasting in FM as the forum, voice and self-organised entertainment channel of the community. On the stairway, a group of twenty or so local activists for the NO vote gather and discuss and plan their action, in another room the Marxists are meeting, next door a room full of beds for those needing rest, this building is a revolutionary centre, organisational, cultural, political and social. There is to my knowledge not a single building in all Europe used like this, this despite decades of attempts to create 'alternative spaces' by the left, sometimes with significant funds behind such projects!
The dynamism and creativity of revolution sweeps aside petty bureaucratic formalism and impels the masses to participate. In a nearby restaurant, well a room that passes as one, we are served food and beer. Meeting me on the street afterwards the owner asks, why and for whom I am filming, when I explain for Hands Off Venezuela a look of great pride exudes from his face, I see him return to his open door and shout out 'Viva la Revolution!' to his family inside.
At the experimental Bolivarian University symbolically located in the former HQ building of the Petrol Company PDVSA, our guide Victoria welcomes us as comrades, no suspicion or distrust. The professors expound their thoughts and ideas and welcome ours. They are more 'Bolivarian,' in the sense of believing in a theory of encircling capital and its institutions rather than directly attacking it. This does not at all mean they do not listen to and discuss Marxist ideas, 'Chavez has said Marxism is an important source of inspiration' they inform us, and at no stage do you feel they have any barrier against you expounding and propagating your views. One director who spoke more specifically of the 'Venezuelan road', its 'uniqueness' and so on, welcomes us distributing Marxist literature inside a prestigious event where the minister for higher education was speaking. There is open an honest and open exchange of ideas, what a relief after seeing movements in Britain from the Labour Party to the Stop the War Coalition constantly react in a knee jerk fashion to any serious criticism of their policies, strategy and tactics, as if they have to repress opposition and alternative viewpoints.
At a rally of the Commando Maisanta Electoral Platoons of Caracas, the bureaucratic tendency has a stronger hand; some ten thousand activists pack the hall. A certain former police officer by the name of Freddy Bernal, who is now the mayor of Caracas Libertador Council, takes the microphone. He rallies the troops with chants and slogans and then asks for each district patrol to stand up, which they do almost in Mexican wave style. But then our friend Freddy warns that when Chavez arrives to address them, he may want to know details about how the campaign is being run in each area. So Freddy Bernal calls up representatives to interrogate them and gets them to parrot out his requested facts and figures about their local area commando.
A week or two before, someone on 'Alo President' castigated the local organisation of the Commando, Chavez railed against the bureaucrats responsible. Mr. Bernal¹s concerns appeared to emanate from a fear for his own position more than the efficiency and success of the situation on the ground. Bernal then called on each district to rise to their feet and then for the leaders of each district to remain standing, the 23rd January District rebelled, chanting 'We Are All Maisanta', a chant which within seconds rung around the auditorium from ten thousand voices. Freddy Bernal¹s face was visibly shaken, and he was forced to desist from interrogating and demagogically commanding. Chavez as it turned out did not request any such information anyway, so Mr. Bernal was saved the public humiliation he feared... for now.
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Anti-War Case: Solidarity For Comrades
Just a reminder about the anti- war trial on Thursday morning, 10.00 at Laganside, Belfast, N.I. We need to support the five charged as they feel because it has gone on so long they have been forgotten. They are Catherine Ross, Colette Dornan, Tomas Gorman, Padraig O Connor and Darren Malone.
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Anti-Racist Network
The first ever LMHR - ARN gig was held in the Empire Music Hall in South Belfast last week and was a case of standing room to the back door. Many attended from the Network, representatives from minority ethnic organisations such as the African cultural and Chinese Welfare association. Human rights activists and human rights organisations from Amnesty International to the Equality commission, attended as well as rank and file trade union representatives from NIPSA to Unison, various grassroots community, women¹s and gay right campaigners also attended. Many people who came along to hear the bands and to lend solidarity to the cause also joined grassroots environmental, anti war, anti globalisation, community, solidarity, and campaign activists. So a broad collection of organisations and individuals lend support, with many people joining up to the network. A good night and thanks for all who came to lend support for the fundraiser.
The ARN will seek to hold a meeting in the near future to bring all the various contacts that we have to date met, and who have held gigs with us, and in solidarity for us. This as so to plan further gigs around different towns and cities, similar to the ARN hosting meetings in Sept to establish new groups of activists for the network.
PS - At the end of the month the ARN logo shall be voted on {via the whole network} so again if persons want to put their ideas forward for the logo that will eventually go on the badges, caps tee-shirts, placards, art, and of course our ARN local and Central banners then send your designs to the network.
D. Carlin *ARN
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Police Ombudsman¹s report 'A Whitewash’.
Media revelations that the Police Ombudsman report is to clear police of malpractice regarding the case of Dungannon man Noel Abernethy, leads the 32 County Sovereignty Movement to conclude that the report itself is a whitewash. Mr. Abernethy was acquitted last September of attempted murder arising out of a gun attack on the RUC in Draperstown in 2001. At his trial it was revealed that the police investigating the case had routinely ignored forensic procedures and incorrectly presented Mr. Abernethy¹s clothes to the forensic science laboratory to be tested for Gun residue.
Dr Anne Irwin, a senior forensic scientist told the court that the police pressed her to test the clothes for forensics even thought she had told them she could not. It was also revealed to the court the no less than five police personnel of varying degrees of seniority subsequently contacted Dr Irwin pressing for clothes to be examined.
In acquitting Noel Abernethy Judge Nicholson spoke of his concern about the RUC/PSNI¹s requests.
The report by the Ombudsman cannot by any stretch of the imagination claim to be impartial given that the ombudsman¹s office did not contact Mr. Abernethy, his legal team nor, we assume Dr Irwin. Indeed the ombudsman has to answer the question, is it or is it not wrong to pressure the Independent Forensic Science Laboratory to ignore procedure in order to secure a conviction or is the ombudsman accusing Dr Irwin of perjury given that she testified in court that this is exactly what happened. Mr. Abernethy was held by the RUC for five days, an extension to his detention being granted when a senior police officer lied to the court saying that machinery in the Forensic science laboratory was defective. He then was remanded in custody for a number of months in Maghaberry Gaol and following that had his trial played out in public through the media. Now to add insult to injury the ombudsman¹s office have cleared the police of any wrongdoing and have not the courtesy to consult Mr. Abernethy nor his legal team nor indeed do they have no plans to furnish them with a copy of the report!!!
The message that this episode sends to the RUC/PSNI is clear, that it is OK to ignore procedure and set up innocent people as long as you don¹t get caught, and if you do get caught there are no consequences. The message that this sends out to the nationalist community is equally clear, that the ombudsman¹s office is just another British state agency that exists, like the policing board, to vindicate and lend credence the political police in the north. At its inception the Police ombudsman was sold as an agency that would investigate and uncover police malpractice it is clear that its real role is to conceal or justify policing malpractice. The 32 County Sovereignty Movement reiterate our demands for an independent, impartial non-British inquiry into the internal workings, malpractice and corruption of the RUC/PSNI, it is clear that one state agency cannot adequately investigate another and that the police ombudsman has the same political motivations as the RUC/PSNI.
Message Ends.
PRESS RELEASE FROM
32 COUNTY SOVEREIGNTY MOVEMENT
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SOLIDARITY!!!
FREEDOM TO THE SIX BASQUE NATIONALISTS IMPRISONED IN MEXICO!
The Asociación Diáspora Vasca, nationalist collective with presence in more that 20 countries, calls out to the international community to sign a petition to free the Basque citizens Asier Arronategi (Mexican by naturalization), Jon Artola, Axun Gorrotxategi, Joseba Urkijo, Felix Garcia and Ernesto Alberdi, illegally detained for over a year at the Reclusorio Norte in Mexico City. Pending against them there is an extradition request to the Mexican Government by the Spanish Audiencia Nacional, an institution heir to the Franco era Tribunal de Orden Publico and used by the Spanish Government to persecute Basque nationalism. The petition and all the signatures will in turn be delivered to Mexican President Vicente Fox.
The case against this six Basque citizens, initiated as a result of a political and law enforcement deal, is plagued with blatant irregularities, among them, the manipulation of documents by the Spanish Ambassador. If the extradition takes place and they are sent to Spain, they would be in the hands of a state that, as indicated by the UN¹s Committee Against Torture, Amnesty International and numerous world-wide organizations, tortures the Basque prisoners both physically and psychologically.
To the dignity of Mexico.
To the solidarity among nations.
Free the six Basque nationalist prisoners!
Sign the Petition:
http://www.6demexico.org/firmas/guestbook.php
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SUPER URGENT ACTION
Colombian Army executes three leaders in Arauca (Colombia)
Samuel Morales and Raquel Castro Detained
FACTS:
Humanidad Vigente Corporación Jurídica denounces and energetically condemns the extrajudicial execution of HÉCTOR ALIRIO MARTÍNEZ, LEONEL GOYENECHE and JORGE PRIETO at the hands of the Colombian Army. These three historic leaders were under the protective measures scheme of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.
Alirio Martínez was president of the National Peasants Association ADUC- Asociación Nacional de Usuarios Campesinos, Leonel Goyeneche was a member of the Executive Committee of United Confederation of Colombian Workers -CUT Arauca and Jorge Prieto belonged to the Executive Committee of the National Association of Hospital Workers -ANTHOC and the CUT. The three leaders were assassinated in an operation carried out this morning by the Revéis Pizarro Battalion of the Colombian Army in the hamlet of Caño Seco, in Saravena municipality.
SAMUEL MORALES, Presidente of the CUT in Arauca, and RAQUEL CASTRO, a member Arauca Teachers Association ASEDAR were both detained in the same operation.
These leaders have been spokesmen for the araucana community in the numerous mobilisations, marches, civil stoppages that have taken place in the face of military and paramilitary action against the population that has cost so many lives. At the same time they have led the continual and effective protests against the violation of human rights that took place in the bombing of the village of Santo Domingo in 1998.
The initial versions by the Reveiz Pizarro Mechanised Group reported that the operation had "put down" three people and captured three others.
Later, a few hours afterwards, the National Army claimed that the three leaders had attacked a military unit that was trying to rescue a kidnap victim and so they gave a military response, and the military claimed to have seized arms and munitions. They also signaled that they had started an investigation of the murder.
We are enormously concerned by this account as well as the competency of the military judicial jurisdiction to carry out the investigation, given that there are already multiple cases in Colombia and especially in Arauca, in which the military authorities manipulate the evidence to hide their responsibility and put blame on the victims.
WE ASK:
Because of the above, we ask that you send messages immediately to the people listed below demanding that the Colombian Government urgently forms a Verification Commission composed of government officials and Human Rights NGOs that goes to Arauca on 6 August to verify the facts and avoid tampering with evidence, and to guarantee an effective investigation.
- Programa Presidencial de Derechos Humanos y de DIH
Dr. Carlos Franco
Calle 7 N° 5-54
TEL: (+571) 336.03.11
FAX: (+57 1) 337.46.67
E- mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
- Ministerio de Defensa Nacional
Dr. Jorge Alberto Uribe
El Dorado con Carrera. 52 CAN,
Bogotá.
Tel. (57 1) 315 01 11
Fax: (+57 1)222.18.74
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]fensa.gov.co, [email protected],
- Procuraduría General de la Nación
Dr. Edgardo José Maya Villazón
Carrera 5 No. 15-80
Santa Fé de Bogotá.
Tel: (57 1) 352 00 76
Fax: (+57 1)342.97.23
E-mail: [email protected]
- Fiscalía General de la Nación
Dr. Luis Camilo Osorio
Diagonal 22 B No.52-01
Santa fe de Bogotá.
Fax: (+571) 570 20 00
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
- Defensoría del Pueblo
Dr. Wolmar Pérez Ortiz.
Calle 55 No. 10-32
Santa Fe de Bogotá.
Tel: (57 1) 314 73 00
Fax: (+571) 640 04 91
E-mail:[email protected]
- Presidencia de la República Dr. Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Cra. 8 No.7-26, Palacio de Nariño,
Bogotá.
Tel: (57 1) 562 93 00
Fax: (+57 1) 566.20.71
E-mail: [email protected]
UN Human Rights in Colombia
- Oficina en Colombia de la ONU (Derechos Humanos), delegación Nororiente colombiano.
Dra. Karen Sherlock
Tel: (57-7) 643 38 81, 657 26 47.
Fax: 1-6293637
Bucaramanga
COLOMBIA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN ADDS:
Please also demand the immediate release of Samuel Morales and Raquel Castro. In your message please express concern for their safety and that they are not being tortured.
And, in the UK, send messages to:
Colombian Embassy (UK): [email protected]
With a copy to the Colombia Solidarity Campaign at [email protected]
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What's On?
Strategies for Fighting Racism and Fascism in Ireland - A panel discussion
Venue: Pilot¹s Row Theatre, Derry @ 12 noon, Saturday 14th August
Speakers include;
Dave Hann, Anti-Fascist Action Manchester, co-Author of 'No Retreat' - a first hand account of the success of British anti-fascists in breaking up British fascism in the 70's, 80's and 90's Spokesperson for Anti Fascist Action, Ireland.
Davy Carlin, activist, WARN, West Belfast Anti-Racist Network
Roseanna Flynn, Activist, RAR - Residents Against Racism, Dublin
Dr. Robbie Mc Veigh, Activist, writer and researcher into racism and anti-racism in Ireland.
Also speakers from Fascists Out! North Antrim and the Belfast Islamic Centre.
This event is hosted by the Pat Finucane Centre
ALSO
Unity Gig that night, featuring Cruncher "viva la quintal brigada" O¹Neill, Decky "Bin Lid" McLaughlin and Seanchai (Irish American hip hop from New York).
C/o PO Box 3355
Dublin 7
Ireland
http://www.geocities.com/irishafa
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