The Plough
Volume 2, Number 30
27 March 2005
E-Mail Newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party
1) Easter Statement from the Leadership of the Irish Republican
Socialist Movement
2) Easter Statement from the Irish National Liberation Army Prisoners
of War
3) Easter Statement from the Federation of Irish Republican Socialist
Committees Abroad
4) What's On
*******
EASTER STATEMENT FROM THE LEADERSHIP OF THE IRISH REPUBLICAN SOCIALIST
MOVEMENT
[Delivered by Andy Gallagher, Easter Sunday 2005, Milltown Cemetery,
Belfast]
Comrades of the IRSP, volunteers of the INLA, our republican socialist
prisoners in Portlaoise and Castlerea, relatives of our dead comrades,
our ex-prisoners and friends and supporters, the Republican Socialist
Movement sends you fraternal greetings and solidarity on this Easter
afternoon as we honour not only our own dead comrades but also all
republicans who fell in the struggle against British imperialism.
Republicanism is in crisis, is floundering, and seems to be coming
more and more detached from reality. The generic term republicanism
has been sullied not just in the past few months but in the past
number of years by spin doctoring, by blatant and persistent lying, by
cover-ups and clean ups worthy of the mafia.
But we in the Republican Socialist Movement cannot afford a holier
than thou attitude. The Republican Socialist Movement has not been
immune itself from errors, mistakes, and actions which sullied the
name of republicans. Only a year ago we faced the wrath of many for
incidents in Ardoyne. But we did not run and hide from those
difficulties. We faced up to them, dealt with it both internally and
externally. The result has been a rise in our support and an increase
in our membership.
In the long history of republicanism there has always been people who
joined for the so-called protection of the army. There are people who
play at revolution and strut around like the bullyboys they are.
There is a time for flexing muscles and a time for flexing brains.
This is a time, comrades and friends, for flexing our brains. We do
not need bar room republicans full of brawn and testosterone. The INLA
has made clear to us that it supports the disciplined and politically
controlled use of physical force in the context of armed
anti-imperialist struggle. It is not a private militia used to
intimidate people in the context of personal disputes, bar brawls,
personal grudges, and the like. And it will do all in its power to
ensure that it never becomes that.
I could mention many of our volunteers and activists but let me
mention just three of our fallen comrades and committed INLA
volunteers, Seamus Costello, Ta Power, and Gino Gallagher. All three
were also political activists and no task was too small for them to
do. Whether it was sitting at boring meetings, making tea for
comrades, driving around the country, planning military attacks,
moving guns, making bombs, and in Seamus's case sitting in local
councils, or selling the Starry Plough, no task I repeat was too small
for them.
There is no place in this movement for those who stand apart from the
everyday tasks of building the movement and part of that means selling
the party newspaper. All three of those brave men believed
passionately in the politicisation of republicans. If that was good
enough for Costello, for Power, for Gallagher, then it should be good
enough for you.
By following their example we will play our part in re-establishing
the credentials of republicanism as a valid revolutionary doctrine
relevant to the needs and aspirations of the Irish working class. For
there can be no doubt that the broad republican tradition has since
the beginning of the so-called peace process lost the high moral
ground that had been obtained by virtue of being genuine
anti-imperialists. But, comrades, we will not join with the friends
and allies of the British, the USA, and the Free State in the
demonisation and victimisation of other republicans. Yes, we have
been, are, and will be critical of policies that other republicans and
socialists follow. We vehemently disagree with the Good Friday
Agreement and all that has flowed from it. But, comrades, we recognise
other republicans as republicans and acknowledge and admire the brave
struggle that they have carried out. But politically we believe they
have taken the wrong road.
Instead of recognising that the armed struggle had run into the ground
other republicans elevated the so-called peace process as another step
on the road to the Republic. They were and are wrong and mistaken. All
that has happened since 1998 has strengthened partition. Sectarianism
has raged like a virus throughout many working class areas and instead
of unity we have even more divisions than ever.
Doing deals with the Free State establishment and entering alliances
with the ruling classes of Britain and the USA has weakened
republicanism not strengthened it. Those who challenge us "where's
your mandate?" and "what's the alternative to the Good Friday
Agreement?" have fallen for the illusions of power that a few election
gains bring. Muttering the mantra of mandates does not blind us to the
stark realities on the ground. The republican struggle has suffered a
defeat.
Our dead comrades did not fight for "an Ireland of equals." They
fought for a socialist republic not a revamped Stormont - for the
destruction of capitalism - not for seats in a capitalist coaliation -
for unity not for more division. For us as a movement, despite our
mistakes and errors, it was always about the liberation of our class -
the working class – from the chains of capitalism. Real politics
are not about implementing the Good Friday Agreement. Our politics are
about challenging the status quo, not making capitalism work.
Ten years ago the great and good scoffed at our so-called outdated
views on capitalism. They thought the collapse of the Soviet Union was
the death knell of socialist and revolutionary ideas and actions.
Well, comrades, look at the present state of the world and tell me
that capitalism is working. Africa is in dire poverty with millions
dying of AIDS and starvation. Asia is in turmoil as the reactionary
rich seek to maintain almost feudal power over the masses. South
America is increasing turning towards the ideas of socialism as
witnessed by the revolutionary process underway in Venezuela and the
increasing contact by many states with socialist Cuba. Meanwhile the
USA is becoming increasingly belligerent in its imperialism despite
its failures to end the Iraqi resistance.
But we are not enemies of the USA or of Britain. As internationalists
we recognise the working classes in those countries as our brothers
and sisters. We recognise that the real enemy is the system of
capitalism that spawns the reactionary policies of the World Trade
Organisation, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. It
is these organisations that are dictating the policies of
privatisation that is inflicting so much suffering on people around
the world and that unfortunately other republicans bought into when
ministers in Stormont.
The consequences of the neo-liberal agenda of these world bodies can
be seen on the ground here in Ireland. 8,000 job losses in the North
West as a direct result of globalisation. These losses are not just
figures, they are the real lives of Irish people destroyed by
capitalism. The poor of Eastern Europe flock to Ireland to be
exploited by every crook, gangster, and thug that calls himself an
employer. It is no wonder that increasingly independents get elected
to the Dail, as there is growing disillusionment with the established
political parties. Low wages, anti-trade union practices, racism,
homophobia, educational services cut to pieces, increasing gaps
between the rich and the poor, and tax free breaks for the super
rich.
Meanwhile many working class areas in the cities and towns of Ireland
are breeding grounds now for thugs, knife wielding morons, and young
people with no social conscience. Social cohesion of working class
communities has collapsed. Individualism and the "me me me" generation
have almost destroyed working class solidarity. The health services
north and south are in almost terminal decline and many now dread
going into hospitals for fear they come out dead due to the appalling
state of the hospitals themselves. Everyday, in many ways, the working
classes on this island suffer humiliation and exploitation from the
capitalist classes.
Those parties who in the face of these defeats whip up nationalism
and/or sectarian hatred are the enemies of the working class.
Comrades, flags don't put food on the table. We refuse to allow
ourselves to be boxed into the role of defenders of this or that
community. Our only community is the working class - Catholic,
Protestant, Dissenter, Sikh, Muslim or Jew.
It is clear that there are three options facing the broad republican
movement.
Route one is to follow the Provisional Movement in its headlong rush
into constitutional nationalism and accept the status quo of
capitalism. Be in no doubt that PSF want to manage capitalism in
Ireland and believe they can do it better than the existing rulers.
The IRSP reject that route.
Route two is to unify those republicans who reject the Good Friday
Agreement in a joint political and military onslaught on British rule.
Some belief that the "Republican Movement" can be rebuilt around the
re-commencing of the armed struggle. The IRSP reject that route.
Route three is to return to the republicanism of James Connolly and to
raise the class questions in every arena, in every struggle, on every
battlefield. For it is only by the working classes in Ireland taking
up the issues that affect them, that the link can be made between the
class and the national question. There is no short cut available. We
face only a long hard slog of persuasion and of hard work. Republican
socialists must reach out to the youth, to the trade union activists,
to the community activists trying to improve their communities. We
need to reach out to other republicans and socialists and together
find a way to implement the visions of Connolly and Costello. For
partition and British imperialism will never be defeated until the
class question comes to the fore. The IRSP accept that route.
Republicans need to return to basics. A return to the democratic
principles inherent in republicanism is a first step followed by the
taking up of the class issues that press down on the Irish working
class. All republicans should henceforth put their trust not in
parliamentary leaders or army councils but in the revolutionary
instincts of the advanced sections of the working people on the island
of Ireland. What this means in practice is the building of a
revolutionary republican party that links the struggle against
privatisation north and south, that opposes imperialism at home and
abroad, that stands up for the rights of all workers, and that is
firmly committed to the creation of a Socialist Republic. That's where
the energies of real republicans should be geared.
That is no mean task. We must overcome our own divisions and
suspicions, our own inertia, our own self-righteousness and elitism.
For our part we are prepared to sit down with any party or group to
discuss issues frankly and in a comradely spirit, and to consider
working together on issues we can agree on. We call on all those with
a radical or republican or a socialist view to engage in constructive
dialogue with us.
There is real truth in the old slogan that "you cannot have a free
Ireland without a free working class." Let us return to the ideals of
James Connolly. His ideas were relevant in 1916. They are still
relevant today. Stand by the ideals of Connolly and we cannot go
wrong. On this Easter 2005 let us renew our faith in the republicanism
and the socialism of James Connolly, the founding father of our
republican socialism. Back to Connolly - forward to Socialism!
*******
EASTER STATEMENT FROM THE IRISH NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY PRISONERS OF
WAR
The INLA POWs give our continued support to the leadership of both the
INLA and IRSP. We send Easter greetings to all our comrades within the
Republican Socialist Movement, to friends and supporters at home, and
throughout the world. We extend our support and solidarity to our
fellow political prisoners. To the Basque and Catalan prisoners, to
the Turkish and Kurdish death fasters, to the Palestinian prisoners,
and to all political prisoners in Chile, Puerto Rico, and the USA and
throughout the world. We stand resolutely with, and pay tribute to,
all those fighting imperialism worldwide. We support the freedom
fighters of Iraq.
Comrades, on this, the 89th anniversary of the Easter Rising, we
gather once more to pay homage and to remember all those who gave
their lives for a democratic Socialist Republic. We pay respect to,
and honour the republican dead, no matter what organisation they
belonged to. While today we in the Republican Socialist Movement
remember in particular our own martyred dead and our fallen comrades,
we do not forget or ignore those other republicans who sacrificed
their lives so that this country could be free. We remember them all
with pride.
At noon on that Easter Monday in 1916, members of the Irish Citizen
Army and the Irish Volunteers occupied the GPO and strategic buildings
around the centre of Dublin. From the steps of the GPO, Padraig Pearse
read aloud the proclamation of the Irish Republic, announcing that
they were setting up a Provisional Government replacing Britain's.
These were extraordinary events involving ordinary men and women who
lived in extraordinary times.
Today let us pause for a moment and reflect on what all those who died
for the Republic think they were doing. Irish men and women bravely
fought and died for the rights of all of us, for all the people of
this island to live in political, economic, and social freedom in a
Republic that cherishes all the children of the nation equally.
Ask yourself, "who today stands by that concept of the Republic?" The
fat cats of Irish business life, the politicians who feed on
corruption, greed and bribery, these very same politicians who have
labelled republicans and republican socialists as criminals? The full
force of the establishment have united to try and denigrate the
sacrifices of all those we honour here today by there continuance in
making unsubstantiated allegations of criminality against our
movement.
The facts speak for themselves, imprisoned INLA members were all
convicted of political offences, there are no members of the INLA
awaiting trial for criminal offences, no member of the INLA or indeed
the IRSP is involved in any type of criminality. However there are
those out side of the Republican Socialist Movement who use the name
of the INLA for there own ends, some with the approval and
encouragement of the security agencies both north and south. These
parasites who have descended into this type of activity besmirch the
name of republicanism and not only is there no place for them in our
movement, there is no place for them in society, for like the
capitalist system they are piranha who feed off the working class.
There will never be a place in our movement for anyone who believes
they can use it for personal advancement or financial gain.
Unlike Fianna Fail, which has seen high ranking members of their party
involved in criminal activities such as money laundering with the
Guinness, Mahon, Cayman Trust, C. J. Haughey was rather partial to the
odd bribe or two, and ex-Fianna Fail minister Ray Burke is in jail on
bribery and corruption convictions. The hypocrisy of the establishment
is breathtaking. None of these stand for the Republic, for they have
allowed the poor of this country to slip into further debt and misery,
with the gap between the rich and poor growing wider.
Nor do the racists who preach hatred and enflame sectarianism, or the
trade union leaders who have sold out the workers, nor those who wish
to maintain oppression and inequality. None of these stand for the
Republic we want to see.
We as republican socialists cannot and will not live under British
colonial or unionist rule, for that rule is unjust, cruel,
discriminatory, and imperialistic. Seven years on since the signing of
the GFA, what has changed? Westminister maintains direct rule. The
British Army still patrol our streets, their intelligence service
still operates clandestine operations, they continue to maintain and
update their military installations. Sectarian clashes have increased
and there is still no real justice or equality for the
republican/nationalist community. Dessie O'Hare continues to be held
as a political hostage by the Free State government who has reneged on
its commitments under the GFA and republican prisoners in Maghaberry
are denied recognition of their political status which was won because
of the sacrifice of the hunger strikers in '81.
Comrades, it is time for us in the Republican Socialist Movement to
take stock of where we are and where we are going, and how best to
prepare politically and organisationally for the next phase, which
will be our struggle, i.e. the class struggle. There is a danger at
the moment of republican socialists ending up simply reacting to
events. We encourage and fully support the Ard-Chomhairle of the IRSP,
who are actively involved in preparing a long-term overview of a
strategic and political understanding of what has to be done to
achieve our aims and objectives.
Now that there is an acceptance of the primacy of politics, as
outlined in the Ta Power Document, the development of the party is
critical if we are to prepare the Irish working class for the
struggles ahead. Political leadership comes from a political party
that fully understands the situation and who possess the necessary
tactics, strategies, and policies that enables the working class
struggle to move forward.
Our role should be to act as a catalyst to the struggle of the people,
north and south, Protestant and Catholic, so as to give them a
cohesive programme of direction whilst raising their level of
political consciousness. Our movement has this potential if we are
prepared to take the political responsibility that goes with it, and
one of those responsibilities is to give voice to the people. There is
a duty on each and every comrade to identify with, and participate in,
the everyday struggles of the people. Educate, agitate, and organise,
comrades. It was the way of James Connolly, it was the way of
Costello. Onward to victory!
*******
EASTER STATEMENT FROM THE FEDERATION OF IRISH REPUBLICAN SOCIALIST
COMMITTEES ABROAD
Comrades and friends, the members of the Federation of Irish
Republican Socialist Committees Abroad send greetings of solidarity to
the comrades of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, the volunteers
of the Irish National Liberation Army, and the prisoners of war of the
Irish Republican Socialist Movement.
Inspired by the sacrifice of the martyrs who have fallen in pursuit of
national liberation and socialism in Ireland and mindful of the
responsibility that we share to ensure that their sacrifice was not
made in vain, at Easter we again reflect on the course of the past
year and rededicate ourselves to the struggle to liberate the Irish
nation and its working class.
The Irish Republican Socialist Movement has been in existence now for
over three decades and the party's comrades in Canada and the USA this
month celebrate their own 21st anniversary. It has been a long
struggle together, at times rewarded with the strength of comradeship
and elation of small victories, at times difficult and demoralising.
For the sum of all of this, we remain proud to be part of the Irish
Republican Socialist Movement, proud of the movement's history of
dedication to a revolutionary course and its rejection of the
reformist morass in which so many revolutionary movements in Ireland
have sunk in the past. The members of FIRSCA, your comrades abroad,
renew our own commitment to supporting the IRSP in upholding the
revolutionary tradition in its struggle for national liberation and
socialism in Ireland.
We find ourselves today in the midst of a class war, the form of which
we did not fully anticipate. It is a war in which our enemies in the
capitalist class have now gone on the offensive. Around the world, our
class is under attack. The imperialists have launched bloody wars of
aggression and occupation, of slaughter and pillage, in Afghanistan,
Iraq, Haiti, and Palestine. They are threatening to wreak more
violence on the people of Iran, Venezuela, Syria, and Korea. In North
America, throughout Europe, and around the globe, wages are being
driven down, benefits stripped away, work weeks increased, and job
security undermined. As capitalism increasingly confronts the
inevitable fall in the rate of profits, the ruling class increasingly
cannibalises its own capital, pads its profits through criminal acts,
strips away civil liberties, and rules with naked hostility to the
interests of working people.
As members of the working class, your comrades in FIRSCA around the
world are engaged in this international class war. We are proud of the
internationalism of the IRSM and recognise that there is no separation
between the IRSM's struggle in Ireland and our own struggles around
the world. Through FIRSCA we continue to struggle at home and to
support the struggle for Irish national liberation and socialism.
Forward to the Workers' Republic, comrades!
*******
WHAT'S ON
*
Wednesday, March 30
Public Meeting: Eamonn McCann - Author and Broadcaster - Speaks on
Sinn Fein and the IRA - Republicanism at the crossroads? - Why we need
a Socialist Alternative
7.30pm - Wednesday 30th March - An Culturlann, Falls Road, West
Belfast
For more information call Gordon Hewitt on 07742 531 617
*
Wednesday, 6 April
Public Meeting - The Fight to Make Poverty History
Speakers: Angela McCormick, Anti-poverty activist, G8 Alternatives
Committee, Scotland; Goretti Horgan, Chairperson of the Northern
Ireland Anti Poverty Network
7.30pm Wednesday April 6th, Room 302 Peter Froggatt Centre, Queens
University
Poverty is one of the central issues of the age with nearly half the
world's population surviving on less than $2 per day and over one
third living on less than a dollar per day.
In Northern Ireland, one of the poorest areas in Europe, 170,000 (25%
of the population) exist solely on benefits. Wages here are at least
25% less than they are in Britain and over 30% lower than in the US.
Homelessness is increasing and the availability of public housing is
shrinking. The introduction of Water Charges will impoverish many more
people in Northern Ireland when they are introduced. On that basis the
Make Poverty History mobilisation is of crucial importance.
The Public Meeting is intended to raise awareness of the central
issues, how various groups are fighting to alleviate poverty and most
importantly to raise awareness of the mobilisation in Scotland on July
2nd.
For more information please feel free to call Gordon Hewitt, Campaigns
and Information Officer at the Northern Ireland Anti-Poverty MTG on
07742 531 617 or 0845 120 3771.
*******
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Sunday 27 March 2005
Monday 21 March 2005
The Plough Vol 02 No 29
The Plough
Volume 2, Number 29
21 March 2005
E-Mail Newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party
Easter Sunday Republican Socialist Commemoration: 12.00 noon,
gathering top of the Donegall Road, Belfast for parade to Milltown
Cemetery
1) Solidarity with Basque Hunger Strikers
2) Statement from the Family of Mark "Mousey" Robinson
3) New Dublin IRSP Website Launched
4) The Path is Socialism
5) Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
6) Human Right and Cuba
7) What's On
*******
SOLIDARITY WITH BASQUE HUNGER STRIKERS
Micky Óg Devine
P.O. Box 1981, Derry,
BT48 8GX, Ireland
02871 262999
March 18th
A Chara,
I would like to draw to the attention of your readers as we enter into
the twenty-fourth year since my father, Irish National Liberation Army
(INLA) Volunteer Micky Devine, and his comrades died on hunger strike
in the gulags of Long Kesh. At a time when we as republican socialists
and republicans look back on the significance of that struggle news
has broke of a similar pain and sacrifice currently unfolding in the
prisons of France and Spain. Following an announcement on the 16th
March 2005 by the Basque Political Prisoners' Group (EPPK), it is now
estimated that 720 young men and women have begun an indefinite hunger
strike.
Following protest after protest within gaol, Basque political
prisoners, united for the first time ever through the EPPK have begun
an indefinite hunger strike to demand nothing more than recognition of
their political status, so that those incarcerated for political
activities and that of their people be given a voice within the
political arena with which to make their case.
Their struggle, in many ways resembles and even mirrors that which my
father and his comrades embarked on twenty-four years ago this year in
the struggle against a policy of criminalisation, however this is the
criminalisation of the entire Basque population by both France and
Spain.
As someone who has been personally affected by such a high profiled
hunger strike during the early eighties as a child, I would like to
extend my support and solidarity as an Irish republican socialist to
the families, friends, loved-ones and comrades of each and every
political prisoner involved.
To this day, I am deeply conscious of the fact that our own family and
that of the families of other INLA and IRA men on hunger strike back
in 1981 received widespread support from the people of the Euskal
Herria (Basque Country). Thousands came onto the streets to protest
across that country in anger at developments here in a gesture
international solidarity with their demands and in sympathy with the
families as lives were eventually lost.
However what gave my family and that of the other families and
relatives of 1981 the strength to carry on was the daily support and
solidarity from their communities. The action groups and international
committees who made sure that we were not alone in the fight for
justice.
The political prisoners and the people of Euskal Herria are not alone
in their fight for justice. It must also be made clear that both
French and Spanish authorities have an obligation to the hundreds of
political prisoners they hold. They must dispel themselves of their
perpetual arrogance towards the people of Euskal Herria as this has
been the trigger for recent developments and those of the past. They
have a duty to immediately open up channels already in existence, to
meet with the prisoners representatives and enter into dialogue so
this situation can be brought to a successful conclusion before any
lives are lost.
It is with this in mind that I would encourage everyone, republican or
otherwise to play their own small part in a gesture of solidarity with
the political prisoners and the people of Euskal Herria at this time.
You can write a letter of protest to the French and Spanish Embassies
in Ireland to immediately enter into dialogue before lives are lost.
Demand that these governments respect the human rights of all
prisoners and call for them to end the continuous torture and
punishment meted out against Basque political prisoners.
You can actively participate in the Basque-Ireland Committees and the
solidarity activities which are currently being organised. I call upon
both France and Spain not repeat the mistakes of the British
government in dealing with the just demands of Irish National
Liberation Army and Irish Republican Army prisoners in the past, which
led to the death of my father and his comrades on hunger strike in
1981.
In solidarity with the Basque Hunger strikes,
Micky Óg Devine,
Derry
Letters Of Protest Should be Sent to:
Spanish Ambassador to Ireland
Mr Enrique Pastor de Gana
Embassy of Spain
17A Merlyn Park
Dublin 4
Tel 1: +353 (0)1 2691640
Tel 2: +353 (0)1 2692597
Fax: +353 (0)1 2691854
Spanish Prime Minister
Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
Presidente del Gobierno
Complejo de La Moncloa
28071 Madrid
Spain
Frédéric Grasset, French Ambassador
French Embassy in Ireland
36 Ailesbury Road
Dublin 4
Tel. (01) 277 5000
Fax (01) 277 5001
ambassadeur@ambafrance.ie
*******
STATEMENT FROM THE FAMILY OF KNIFE MURDER VICTIM MARK "MOUSEY"
ROBINSON
Re: Fisher Family Has Suffered Also But Must Realise That Bart Has
Brought Attention on Himself.
Thursday, 10 March 2005
We wish to put on public record our view that the family of Bart
Fisher have suffered as a result of his actions and the recent media
coverage involving their son and brother but their anguish pales into
insignificance compared to the hurt that our family has suffered in
the four years since Mark's brutal killing on a dark pathway in the
dead of night. It gives us no pleasure to issue this statement but we
feel we have a duty to fight for justice for our son and brother. We
have remained silent for too long and it is our desire to get justice
for Mark. It is not our desire to, in any way, put any further strain
on the Fisher family. We haven't done that in four years and we do not
intend to do it in the future.
The person responsible for bringing this media attention is Bart
himself, not the families of his victims.
Bart Fisher is a convicted killer who has openly boasted of killing
our son and brother Mark. This begs the question why would an innocent
person do something like this? We received the following answer when
members of our wider family circle asked members of the Provisional
Movement, we were told that because Bart was being accused of it so
much he admitted it. Some logic?
If Bart felt he was being accused in the wrong then why didn't he
contact our family, even through intermediaries, to discuss the
allegations against him? He didn't.
Instead he openly boasted in the street about how he plunged a knife
into Mark, in fact he shouted it out for all to hear, he didn't care
who heard. His admission of guilt was heard by Margaret Devine, wife
of Derry hungerstriker Micky, who has already described what she was
confronted with when she returned from work one evening and even had a
gun put to her head by Bart's comrades in the PIRA.
The Provisional IRA has so far failed to contact the family to discuss
our concerns despite it being public knowledge for four years that
rogue members of their organization were being accused of this brutal
knife killing within weeks of the killing happening.
Our family has suffered the indignity of a whispering campaign of
innuendo that was engineered by people associated with Bart and the
PIRA in a vain and desperate attempt to cover up and divert attention
away from his crimes. The clean-up operation, similar to the clean-up
in the McCartney case, began immediately. Evidence was destroyed and
witnesses threatened.
Mark's killers and their associates launched a vicious character
assassination campaign against a dead youth who could not defend
himself. This campaign of lies and innuendo is not going away lightly
but we as a family have the will and desire to bring this to an end
and for the truth to be brought to light.
There is a lot of talk at yesterday's Fisher family press conference
about due process and the courts, no such luxury was afforded to Mark.
Instead he suffered the indignity of being attacked from behind whilst
walking home from a friend's home late at night. He, like DeDe
McGinley and Robert McCartney, was killed in a knife attack by
criminals.
We welcome the statement from the IRPWA that criminals should not be
housed in the segregated wing of Maghaberry prison. Bart Fisher is a
criminal, convicted of a criminal offence, he was tried and convicted
in a criminal court and it is an affront to the men and women inside
and on the outside who campaigned for political status that the
prisoners are being forced into an an unacceptable situation. Members
of our family stood on the pickets during the last number of years in
support of the prisoners in their fight for political recognition and
for separate accommodation within the prison. It is unfortunate that
criminals such as Bart Fisher have been able to twist the system
within Maghaberry and discredit that hard fought campaign. Bart Fisher
should immediately be removed to the criminal section of Maghaberry
prison to serve out the remainder of his meagre sentence.
Bart's family, despite being fully aware of the allegations against
him for the last four years since May 2001, have never once shown any
concern for our family and our plight. Do they even know the details
of what happened to Mark on the night he was attacked? He was attacked
from behind in the dead of night. He had an iron bar rammed into the
back of his head and had a twelve inch dagger plunged into his leg
with such force that it actually broke his thigh bone. This knife was
brought down on Mark's leg from a height as Mark was lying on the
ground after being attacked from behind with an iron bar as he walked
home on a dark lane. He was then left to die in a dark pathway in the
dead of night. These certainly weren't the actions of upstanding
pillars of the community.
One member of our family was told by a representative of the
Republican Movement, a former Blanketman who is now involved in the
security industry, in the days following the attack on Mark and before
there was any evidence of PIRA involvement, that the PIRA had indeed
launched an investigation into his brutal knife killing. Indeed so
repulsed by the attack on Mark that this person actually said that
whoever killed Mark, in his words: "Should be put down a hole."
We are now calling on the PIRA to furnish our family with the results
of their own investigation into the killing.
Yesterday's claims that there is CCTV footage exonerating Bart from
being near the scene of Mark's killing is a lie. We are aware of
information that proves otherwise. The PSNI have informed us that they
are not aware of CCTV footage exonerating Bart being in existence.
Dodgy CCTV evidence, mentioned after four years, is the latest
desperate attempt by those associated with Bart Fisher to cover up for
his vile crimes against Mark and against this community.
*******
NEW DUBLIN IRSP WEBSITE LAUNCHED
In a statement issued by Dublin IRSP, a spokesperson for the Dublin
Cumann said: "The IRSP in Dublin have launched a new web site. The new
site is very impressive and is a credit to all involved. Please pass
these details on to anyone interested."
An introduction to the website stated, "We, in the Irish Republican
Socialist Party in Dublin, are proud to announce the launch of our new
website. This site will hopefully add to our growing presence in the
capital. In this city which saw so many battles in the struggle for
National Liberation and Socialism there has always been a strong
Republican Socialist tradition.
"As far back as the late nineteenth century to the present, ordinary
working class people from this city have been to the forefront of many
struggles, all of which has contributed to the liberation of the
working class. Since the very first demonstrations against the
imperialist first World War to the present campaigns against
imperialist war in Iraq.
"From the factory lockouts to today's struggle against globalisation,
bin taxes and privatisation, Republican Socialists will always be
there. Standing shoulder to shoulder with the working class!
"This website is just another tool in our arsenal against the
parasites of native capitalism and foreign imperialism!"
The spokesperson concluded by stating: "Since its launch the site has
received hundreds of hits from around Ireland and as far away as
Wellington, New Zealand. The site can be viewed by clicking on to:
http://www.dublinirsp.150m.com/."
*******
THE PATH IS SOCIALISM
Speaking on his television program, Hello President on February 27,
Venezuela's popular pro-poor president, Hugo Chavez, explained: "I am
convinced, at this stage of my life - I am now 50 years old -
after six years as a president, after nearly 30 years of political
struggle...after many readings, debates, discussions and many travels
around the world, I am convinced, and I think that this conviction
will be for the rest of my life, that the path to a new, better and
possible world, is not capitalism, the path is socialism." The studio
audience cheered.
These comments, like Chavez's comments to tens of thousands of
participants in the World Social Forum (WSF) in Brazil in January, are
part of increasingly overt agitation for socialism by Chavez.
In his WSF speech, Chavez insisted that "capitalism could not be
transcended from within capitalism itself, but through socialism".
This message, delivered by a political leader with enormous respect
across the Latin American continent, is among the most radical calls
put to a mass WSF audience.
Chavez, whose government has led a process known as the Bolivarian
revolution aiming to eradicate poverty, made it clear in the WSF
speech that he stood for "democratic socialism", differentiating that
from the model existing in the Soviet Union. He stated: "We must
reclaim socialism... but a new type of socialism, a humanist one,
which puts humans and not machines or the state ahead of everything."
On February 25, addressing the 4th International Conference on Social
Debt in Caracas, Chavez re-emphasised the point. He declared "if not
capitalism, then what? I have no doubt, it's socialism", according to
Pascal Fletcher's account for Reuters, which Fletcher titled: "Defying
the US, Chavez embraces socialism".
Then, two days later, came the Hello President program, where Chavez
said: "I am convinced that the way to build a new and better world is
not capitalism. Capitalism leads us straight to hell".
In a March 1 article or the Hands Off Venezuela website that discussed
the television program, Jorge Martin claims that Chavez has urged the
start of an ideological discussion about socialism amongst those
supporting the Bolivarian revolution, including Chavez's own Movement
for a Fifth Republic.
Chavez's presidency is based on popular support and mobilisation.
Pro-Chavez forces have won nine national elections in the last six
years, including a referendum on whether or not to recall Chavez from
the presidency.
A key part of the Bolivarian revolution has been organising the poor
majority into institutions of power so they can directly control their
lives. Chavez argued that the "tools for building socialism" were
these popular organisations already constructed as part of the
struggle to create "participatory democracy".
The uprising in Venezuela is part of a continent-wide revolt against
harsh neoliberal policies pushed upon Latin America during the 1980s
and 1990s by the institutions of imperialism, the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) in particular. The resulting wealth
disparity in Venezuela was staggering. While the country is the fifth
largest supplier of oil in the world, 80% of Venezuelans were living
in poverty by 1998.
By then, only 20% of the state-run oil company's revenue was getting
to the government, the rest remaining in the hands of a wealthy
management clique, while foreign companies extracting Venezuelan oil
paid extremely low royalties.
In 1989, the Venezuelan government, at the behest of the International
Monetary Fund, increased the price of basic goods and services out of
the reach of the poor.
This provoked a spontaneous uprising known as the Caracazo, which was
brutally put down by the military, with some reports putting the death
toll as high as 2000. Inspired by the bravery of the poor and repulsed
by the use of the military to repress the people, thousands of young
officers and soldiers led a rebellion to overthrow the government in
1992. The rebellion failed, and its leaders were jailed. But as the
central leader, Chavez became a popular hero.
Riding a wave of anti-neoliberal fury, Chavez swept the 1998
presidential elections on a platform of redistributing the nation's
wealth. While it immediately encouraged self-organisation of the
people, Chavez's government didn't break decisively with the
capitalist system. It did, however, introduce some good reforms.
In a series of laws passed in 2001, the government significantly
increased royalties levied on foreign oil companies, made 100% of oil
revenue go to the government and allowed for expropriation of large
land-holdings to be redistributed to landless peasants, amongst other
measures. Also, the rich were taxed for the first time and a program
of building homes and public works for the poor implemented.
These measures provoke bitter opposition from the capitalist class. In
April 2002, the business elite organised a US-backed military coup
that briefly overthrew Chavez and installed the head of the Chamber of
Commerce in power. The coup was overturned by a working-class
uprising. In December 2002, the capitalists again tried to overthrow
Chavez, this time by means of economic sabotage, with bosses shutting
their factory doors and locking out their workers. In the oil
industry, which the government depends on for 30% of its income, the
pro-capitalist management clique locked-out the oil workers and
sabotaged the industry - hoping to bring the country to its
knees.
Instead the oil workers mobilised to take the company over and get it
up and running under their control. Chavez sacked the entire upper
management - bringing the company under true government control.
In the process of defending the government through these fights,
Venezuela's people have become more organised, radicalised and
confident in their ability to make a better, fairer society
themselves. This means that the government is in a much stronger
position to introduce measures that directly shift wealth to meet the
needs of the majority, and out of the pockets of the capitalist
class.
Funded by the oil wealth, the government launched a series of
"missions" that have: brought free health care to the poor for the
first time, eradicated illiteracy, lowered unemployment, created
popular markets that sell cheap goods among other gains. The
government also introduced a law that banned bosses from sacking
workers, and Chavez has encouraged workers to take over factories if
the boss tries to lay them off.
According to Martin, Chavez stated on Hello President that when first
elected he was hoping to create "a third way, capitalism with a human
face, trying to give the monster a mask". But he concluded: "this mask
has fallen to the floor shattered by reality".
["Chavez steps up calls for socialism" by Stuart Munckton; Green Left
Weekly http://www.greenleft.org.au/; March 13, 2005]
*******
THE GRASSROOTS PALESTINIAN ANTI-APARTHEID WALL CAMPAIGN WEEKLY
E-NEWSLETTER
From: Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign lists@stopthewall.org
StoptheWall.org PRESS RELEASE
March 14th, 2005
Despite Occupation Checkpoints and Blocked Gates of the PNA Compound:
Over 5000 Protestors Refuse to Accept the Apartheid Wall Making Their
Voices Heard in Front of Kofi Annan
Contact: Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign:
+972-22-401-946; Health Working Committees: + 972 22 407518; Jamal
Juma' (Campaign Coordinator): +972-52-285-610 Email:
mobilize@StopTheWall.org
Ramallah (West Bank), Palestine - While villagers were delayed, and in
many instances barred entry at Occupation Checkpoints throughout the
West Bank, a huge crowd of over 5000 thronged the streets of Ramallah
to protest at the gates of the Muqata', the compound of the
Palestinian National Authority (PNA), where Secretary-General of the
UN Kofi Annan was holding talks with Mahmoud Abbas. The crowd
assembled at al-Manara Square in the morning, with numbers swelling as
they marched through the city to the Muqata' to deliver a memorandum
to Kofi Annan, issued by the National Committee To Resist The
Apartheid Wall. In front of the barred main gates of the PNA Compound
locking out the people and their demands, rallying speeches from the
representatives of the local committees to resist the Apartheid Wall
buoyed the crowd. Slogans and chanting condemned the Secretary-General
for the UN policy that fails to apply pressure on Israel to abide by
the International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision that the Apartheid
Wall is illegal, and must be torn down. Anger was directed at the
latest UN report on the Wall, published in February, which regards the
Apartheid Wall as a matter of compensation, funding and humanitarian
aid, and not as a political issue intrinsic to the whole colonial
settler-based project which Israel is escalating in the West Bank. The
UN report even goes so far as to adopt and give legitimacy to the
Israeli position which calls the Apartheid Wall a "security" measure.
Deep hostility has been created by Annan's refusal to visit any areas
of the Apartheid Wall, or any of the refugee camps which had invited
him. These claims were also expressed in the memorandum and the
various political press releases and letters sent by local committees
against the Apartheid Wall to President Abu Mazen. In spite of
protestors being locked outside the gates of Muqata', Annan could not
have been deaf to the demonstrators that pounded the main gate,
threatening to break it down, and their cries of "Annan, Annan - Don't
ignore The Apartheid Wall!" which reverberated through the streets.
As tensions grew, Annan was forced to cut short his media conference
and meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, leaving swiftly via the back entrance.
The demonstration was attended by thousands affected by the Wall; the
local committees of the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign from the
districts of Hebron, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Salfit, Jenin, Qalqiliya,
Jordan Valley, Bethlehem and Tulkarem; together with the
representatives from the different parties and grassroots
organizations which make up the National Committee To Resist The
Apartheid Wall. The UN's apparent complicity to the Wall, and failure
to work within the mandates of international law, draws the fate of
the Palestinian people perilously close to the final solution that
Sharon's plans dictate: IMPRISONED PALESTINIAN PEOPLE IN APARTHEID
BANTUSTANS!
To see the memorandum to Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United
Nations see: http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/872.shtml
For More Pictures Click Here:
http://rd.bcentral.com/?ID=2651491&s=87031491
StopTheWall.org
Visit the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign web site.
*******
HUMAN RIGHTS AND CUBA
From March 14th to April 22nd,2005, the 61st session of the UN
Commission on Human Rights will take place in Geneva, where once more
the US government will try to pass a resolution against Cuba.
It is a manipulated and selective treatment of the topic to justify
the intensification of the policy of blockade and aggressions by the
greatest power on the planet against a small country, in violation of
International Law. The
Commission must represent every United Nations member State and ensure
respect for the rights of all men and women worldwide. It is
significant, however, that within the Commission, during the last year
sessions, it was not possible to evaluate, not even to debate, the
atrocious violations of human rights taking place in US prisons in
Abuh Ghraib and Guantanamo.
The US government has no moral authority to set itself up as a judge
of human rights in Cuba, where there is not a single case of missing
persons, torture or extra judicial killing and where internationally
recognized health, education and cultural levels have been reached
despite the blockade.
We request the countries represented in the Commission not to allow it
to be used to legitimize the Bush Administration's anti-Cuban
aggressiveness, when the current war-mongering policy led by
Washington makes predictable an eventual escalation of very serious
consequences. We also call on journalists, writers, artists,
professors, school teachers and social activists to address their
governments and express by every possible means that this dangerous
maneuver stop.
TEXT IN SEVERAL LANGUAGES AND MANY OF THE INITIALSIGNERS MAY BE FOUND
AT THIS ADDRESS: http://www.lajiribilla.cu/
*******
WHAT'S ON
*
Wednesday, 23 March
Stop Deportations Belfast Solidarity streetseen@hotmail.co.uk phone:
0774 327 5533
Weds 1 pm @ Irish Tourist Board
Stop The Deportations
Wednesday 23 March 1 p.m.
Irish Tourist Board, Castle Street, Belfast
Please bring banners/ placards and noise!!
Speakers: Mick O'Reilly, TGWU; Davy Carlin, Chair ARN; Jon Glackin,
Co-Ordinator Street Seen; Paddy Hughes, Dep. Pres Queens University
Co-inciding with protests occurring in Dublin, London and Amsterdam
against Deportations
*
Thursday, March 24
Building an Island of Equals: The Left, Socialism & Sinn Fein
March 24th 8pm Central Hotel, Exchequer Street, Dublin 2
Public discussion with Brid Smith, a member of the Socialist Workers
Party (who was imprisoned as part of the Bin Tax Campaign) and Eoin O
Broin (Sinn Fein Director of European Affairs). The evening is being
hosted by the SWP.
All Welcome
Everyone has seen the media and mainstream politicians unleash a
ferocious and hypocritical attack against Sinn Fein. What does this
all mean fo Sinn Fein and republicanism? Will it push Sinn Fein
towards accommodatin with the establishment or will they present an
alternative to the real criminals in FF and FG? & if the move towards
the establishment is to remain on the Sinn Fein agenda how within this
context can the party bring about an island of equals for the working
classes throughout the island and does the fight against global war
and poverty fit into the party's perspective?
This discussion is aimed to build trust amongst the left, trying to
identify common goals and strategies within our different politics,
with the hope that we can get closer to the 'another world' we are all
fighting for.
*
Wednesday, 6 April
Public Meeting - The Fight to Make Poverty History
Speakers: Angela McCormick, Anti-poverty activist, G8 Alternatives
Committee, Scotland; Goretti Horgan, Chairperson of the Northern
Ireland Anti Poverty Network
7.30pm Wednesday April 6th, Room 302 Peter Froggatt Centre, Queens
University
Poverty is one of the central issues of the age with nearly half the
world's population surviving on less than $2 per day and over one
third living on less than a dollar per day.
In Northern Ireland, one of the poorest areas in Europe, 170,000 (25%
of the population) exist solely on benefits. Wages here are at least
25% less than they are in Britain and over 30% lower than in the US.
Homelessness is increasing and the availability of public housing is
shrinking. The introduction of Water Charges will impoverish many more
people in Northern Ireland when they are introduced. On that basis the
Make Poverty History mobilisation is of crucial importance.
The Public Meeting is intended to raise awareness of the central
issues, how various groups are fighting to alleviate poverty and most
importantly to raise awareness of the mobilisation in Scotland on July
2nd.
For more information please feel free to call Gordon Hewitt, Campaigns
and Information Officer at the Northern Ireland Anti-Poverty MTG on
07742 531 617 or 0845 120 3771.
*******
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*
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Volume 2, Number 29
21 March 2005
E-Mail Newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party
Easter Sunday Republican Socialist Commemoration: 12.00 noon,
gathering top of the Donegall Road, Belfast for parade to Milltown
Cemetery
1) Solidarity with Basque Hunger Strikers
2) Statement from the Family of Mark "Mousey" Robinson
3) New Dublin IRSP Website Launched
4) The Path is Socialism
5) Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
6) Human Right and Cuba
7) What's On
*******
SOLIDARITY WITH BASQUE HUNGER STRIKERS
Micky Óg Devine
P.O. Box 1981, Derry,
BT48 8GX, Ireland
02871 262999
March 18th
A Chara,
I would like to draw to the attention of your readers as we enter into
the twenty-fourth year since my father, Irish National Liberation Army
(INLA) Volunteer Micky Devine, and his comrades died on hunger strike
in the gulags of Long Kesh. At a time when we as republican socialists
and republicans look back on the significance of that struggle news
has broke of a similar pain and sacrifice currently unfolding in the
prisons of France and Spain. Following an announcement on the 16th
March 2005 by the Basque Political Prisoners' Group (EPPK), it is now
estimated that 720 young men and women have begun an indefinite hunger
strike.
Following protest after protest within gaol, Basque political
prisoners, united for the first time ever through the EPPK have begun
an indefinite hunger strike to demand nothing more than recognition of
their political status, so that those incarcerated for political
activities and that of their people be given a voice within the
political arena with which to make their case.
Their struggle, in many ways resembles and even mirrors that which my
father and his comrades embarked on twenty-four years ago this year in
the struggle against a policy of criminalisation, however this is the
criminalisation of the entire Basque population by both France and
Spain.
As someone who has been personally affected by such a high profiled
hunger strike during the early eighties as a child, I would like to
extend my support and solidarity as an Irish republican socialist to
the families, friends, loved-ones and comrades of each and every
political prisoner involved.
To this day, I am deeply conscious of the fact that our own family and
that of the families of other INLA and IRA men on hunger strike back
in 1981 received widespread support from the people of the Euskal
Herria (Basque Country). Thousands came onto the streets to protest
across that country in anger at developments here in a gesture
international solidarity with their demands and in sympathy with the
families as lives were eventually lost.
However what gave my family and that of the other families and
relatives of 1981 the strength to carry on was the daily support and
solidarity from their communities. The action groups and international
committees who made sure that we were not alone in the fight for
justice.
The political prisoners and the people of Euskal Herria are not alone
in their fight for justice. It must also be made clear that both
French and Spanish authorities have an obligation to the hundreds of
political prisoners they hold. They must dispel themselves of their
perpetual arrogance towards the people of Euskal Herria as this has
been the trigger for recent developments and those of the past. They
have a duty to immediately open up channels already in existence, to
meet with the prisoners representatives and enter into dialogue so
this situation can be brought to a successful conclusion before any
lives are lost.
It is with this in mind that I would encourage everyone, republican or
otherwise to play their own small part in a gesture of solidarity with
the political prisoners and the people of Euskal Herria at this time.
You can write a letter of protest to the French and Spanish Embassies
in Ireland to immediately enter into dialogue before lives are lost.
Demand that these governments respect the human rights of all
prisoners and call for them to end the continuous torture and
punishment meted out against Basque political prisoners.
You can actively participate in the Basque-Ireland Committees and the
solidarity activities which are currently being organised. I call upon
both France and Spain not repeat the mistakes of the British
government in dealing with the just demands of Irish National
Liberation Army and Irish Republican Army prisoners in the past, which
led to the death of my father and his comrades on hunger strike in
1981.
In solidarity with the Basque Hunger strikes,
Micky Óg Devine,
Derry
Letters Of Protest Should be Sent to:
Spanish Ambassador to Ireland
Mr Enrique Pastor de Gana
Embassy of Spain
17A Merlyn Park
Dublin 4
Tel 1: +353 (0)1 2691640
Tel 2: +353 (0)1 2692597
Fax: +353 (0)1 2691854
Spanish Prime Minister
Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
Presidente del Gobierno
Complejo de La Moncloa
28071 Madrid
Spain
Frédéric Grasset, French Ambassador
French Embassy in Ireland
36 Ailesbury Road
Dublin 4
Tel. (01) 277 5000
Fax (01) 277 5001
ambassadeur@ambafrance.ie
*******
STATEMENT FROM THE FAMILY OF KNIFE MURDER VICTIM MARK "MOUSEY"
ROBINSON
Re: Fisher Family Has Suffered Also But Must Realise That Bart Has
Brought Attention on Himself.
Thursday, 10 March 2005
We wish to put on public record our view that the family of Bart
Fisher have suffered as a result of his actions and the recent media
coverage involving their son and brother but their anguish pales into
insignificance compared to the hurt that our family has suffered in
the four years since Mark's brutal killing on a dark pathway in the
dead of night. It gives us no pleasure to issue this statement but we
feel we have a duty to fight for justice for our son and brother. We
have remained silent for too long and it is our desire to get justice
for Mark. It is not our desire to, in any way, put any further strain
on the Fisher family. We haven't done that in four years and we do not
intend to do it in the future.
The person responsible for bringing this media attention is Bart
himself, not the families of his victims.
Bart Fisher is a convicted killer who has openly boasted of killing
our son and brother Mark. This begs the question why would an innocent
person do something like this? We received the following answer when
members of our wider family circle asked members of the Provisional
Movement, we were told that because Bart was being accused of it so
much he admitted it. Some logic?
If Bart felt he was being accused in the wrong then why didn't he
contact our family, even through intermediaries, to discuss the
allegations against him? He didn't.
Instead he openly boasted in the street about how he plunged a knife
into Mark, in fact he shouted it out for all to hear, he didn't care
who heard. His admission of guilt was heard by Margaret Devine, wife
of Derry hungerstriker Micky, who has already described what she was
confronted with when she returned from work one evening and even had a
gun put to her head by Bart's comrades in the PIRA.
The Provisional IRA has so far failed to contact the family to discuss
our concerns despite it being public knowledge for four years that
rogue members of their organization were being accused of this brutal
knife killing within weeks of the killing happening.
Our family has suffered the indignity of a whispering campaign of
innuendo that was engineered by people associated with Bart and the
PIRA in a vain and desperate attempt to cover up and divert attention
away from his crimes. The clean-up operation, similar to the clean-up
in the McCartney case, began immediately. Evidence was destroyed and
witnesses threatened.
Mark's killers and their associates launched a vicious character
assassination campaign against a dead youth who could not defend
himself. This campaign of lies and innuendo is not going away lightly
but we as a family have the will and desire to bring this to an end
and for the truth to be brought to light.
There is a lot of talk at yesterday's Fisher family press conference
about due process and the courts, no such luxury was afforded to Mark.
Instead he suffered the indignity of being attacked from behind whilst
walking home from a friend's home late at night. He, like DeDe
McGinley and Robert McCartney, was killed in a knife attack by
criminals.
We welcome the statement from the IRPWA that criminals should not be
housed in the segregated wing of Maghaberry prison. Bart Fisher is a
criminal, convicted of a criminal offence, he was tried and convicted
in a criminal court and it is an affront to the men and women inside
and on the outside who campaigned for political status that the
prisoners are being forced into an an unacceptable situation. Members
of our family stood on the pickets during the last number of years in
support of the prisoners in their fight for political recognition and
for separate accommodation within the prison. It is unfortunate that
criminals such as Bart Fisher have been able to twist the system
within Maghaberry and discredit that hard fought campaign. Bart Fisher
should immediately be removed to the criminal section of Maghaberry
prison to serve out the remainder of his meagre sentence.
Bart's family, despite being fully aware of the allegations against
him for the last four years since May 2001, have never once shown any
concern for our family and our plight. Do they even know the details
of what happened to Mark on the night he was attacked? He was attacked
from behind in the dead of night. He had an iron bar rammed into the
back of his head and had a twelve inch dagger plunged into his leg
with such force that it actually broke his thigh bone. This knife was
brought down on Mark's leg from a height as Mark was lying on the
ground after being attacked from behind with an iron bar as he walked
home on a dark lane. He was then left to die in a dark pathway in the
dead of night. These certainly weren't the actions of upstanding
pillars of the community.
One member of our family was told by a representative of the
Republican Movement, a former Blanketman who is now involved in the
security industry, in the days following the attack on Mark and before
there was any evidence of PIRA involvement, that the PIRA had indeed
launched an investigation into his brutal knife killing. Indeed so
repulsed by the attack on Mark that this person actually said that
whoever killed Mark, in his words: "Should be put down a hole."
We are now calling on the PIRA to furnish our family with the results
of their own investigation into the killing.
Yesterday's claims that there is CCTV footage exonerating Bart from
being near the scene of Mark's killing is a lie. We are aware of
information that proves otherwise. The PSNI have informed us that they
are not aware of CCTV footage exonerating Bart being in existence.
Dodgy CCTV evidence, mentioned after four years, is the latest
desperate attempt by those associated with Bart Fisher to cover up for
his vile crimes against Mark and against this community.
*******
NEW DUBLIN IRSP WEBSITE LAUNCHED
In a statement issued by Dublin IRSP, a spokesperson for the Dublin
Cumann said: "The IRSP in Dublin have launched a new web site. The new
site is very impressive and is a credit to all involved. Please pass
these details on to anyone interested."
An introduction to the website stated, "We, in the Irish Republican
Socialist Party in Dublin, are proud to announce the launch of our new
website. This site will hopefully add to our growing presence in the
capital. In this city which saw so many battles in the struggle for
National Liberation and Socialism there has always been a strong
Republican Socialist tradition.
"As far back as the late nineteenth century to the present, ordinary
working class people from this city have been to the forefront of many
struggles, all of which has contributed to the liberation of the
working class. Since the very first demonstrations against the
imperialist first World War to the present campaigns against
imperialist war in Iraq.
"From the factory lockouts to today's struggle against globalisation,
bin taxes and privatisation, Republican Socialists will always be
there. Standing shoulder to shoulder with the working class!
"This website is just another tool in our arsenal against the
parasites of native capitalism and foreign imperialism!"
The spokesperson concluded by stating: "Since its launch the site has
received hundreds of hits from around Ireland and as far away as
Wellington, New Zealand. The site can be viewed by clicking on to:
http://www.dublinirsp.150m.com/."
*******
THE PATH IS SOCIALISM
Speaking on his television program, Hello President on February 27,
Venezuela's popular pro-poor president, Hugo Chavez, explained: "I am
convinced, at this stage of my life - I am now 50 years old -
after six years as a president, after nearly 30 years of political
struggle...after many readings, debates, discussions and many travels
around the world, I am convinced, and I think that this conviction
will be for the rest of my life, that the path to a new, better and
possible world, is not capitalism, the path is socialism." The studio
audience cheered.
These comments, like Chavez's comments to tens of thousands of
participants in the World Social Forum (WSF) in Brazil in January, are
part of increasingly overt agitation for socialism by Chavez.
In his WSF speech, Chavez insisted that "capitalism could not be
transcended from within capitalism itself, but through socialism".
This message, delivered by a political leader with enormous respect
across the Latin American continent, is among the most radical calls
put to a mass WSF audience.
Chavez, whose government has led a process known as the Bolivarian
revolution aiming to eradicate poverty, made it clear in the WSF
speech that he stood for "democratic socialism", differentiating that
from the model existing in the Soviet Union. He stated: "We must
reclaim socialism... but a new type of socialism, a humanist one,
which puts humans and not machines or the state ahead of everything."
On February 25, addressing the 4th International Conference on Social
Debt in Caracas, Chavez re-emphasised the point. He declared "if not
capitalism, then what? I have no doubt, it's socialism", according to
Pascal Fletcher's account for Reuters, which Fletcher titled: "Defying
the US, Chavez embraces socialism".
Then, two days later, came the Hello President program, where Chavez
said: "I am convinced that the way to build a new and better world is
not capitalism. Capitalism leads us straight to hell".
In a March 1 article or the Hands Off Venezuela website that discussed
the television program, Jorge Martin claims that Chavez has urged the
start of an ideological discussion about socialism amongst those
supporting the Bolivarian revolution, including Chavez's own Movement
for a Fifth Republic.
Chavez's presidency is based on popular support and mobilisation.
Pro-Chavez forces have won nine national elections in the last six
years, including a referendum on whether or not to recall Chavez from
the presidency.
A key part of the Bolivarian revolution has been organising the poor
majority into institutions of power so they can directly control their
lives. Chavez argued that the "tools for building socialism" were
these popular organisations already constructed as part of the
struggle to create "participatory democracy".
The uprising in Venezuela is part of a continent-wide revolt against
harsh neoliberal policies pushed upon Latin America during the 1980s
and 1990s by the institutions of imperialism, the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) in particular. The resulting wealth
disparity in Venezuela was staggering. While the country is the fifth
largest supplier of oil in the world, 80% of Venezuelans were living
in poverty by 1998.
By then, only 20% of the state-run oil company's revenue was getting
to the government, the rest remaining in the hands of a wealthy
management clique, while foreign companies extracting Venezuelan oil
paid extremely low royalties.
In 1989, the Venezuelan government, at the behest of the International
Monetary Fund, increased the price of basic goods and services out of
the reach of the poor.
This provoked a spontaneous uprising known as the Caracazo, which was
brutally put down by the military, with some reports putting the death
toll as high as 2000. Inspired by the bravery of the poor and repulsed
by the use of the military to repress the people, thousands of young
officers and soldiers led a rebellion to overthrow the government in
1992. The rebellion failed, and its leaders were jailed. But as the
central leader, Chavez became a popular hero.
Riding a wave of anti-neoliberal fury, Chavez swept the 1998
presidential elections on a platform of redistributing the nation's
wealth. While it immediately encouraged self-organisation of the
people, Chavez's government didn't break decisively with the
capitalist system. It did, however, introduce some good reforms.
In a series of laws passed in 2001, the government significantly
increased royalties levied on foreign oil companies, made 100% of oil
revenue go to the government and allowed for expropriation of large
land-holdings to be redistributed to landless peasants, amongst other
measures. Also, the rich were taxed for the first time and a program
of building homes and public works for the poor implemented.
These measures provoke bitter opposition from the capitalist class. In
April 2002, the business elite organised a US-backed military coup
that briefly overthrew Chavez and installed the head of the Chamber of
Commerce in power. The coup was overturned by a working-class
uprising. In December 2002, the capitalists again tried to overthrow
Chavez, this time by means of economic sabotage, with bosses shutting
their factory doors and locking out their workers. In the oil
industry, which the government depends on for 30% of its income, the
pro-capitalist management clique locked-out the oil workers and
sabotaged the industry - hoping to bring the country to its
knees.
Instead the oil workers mobilised to take the company over and get it
up and running under their control. Chavez sacked the entire upper
management - bringing the company under true government control.
In the process of defending the government through these fights,
Venezuela's people have become more organised, radicalised and
confident in their ability to make a better, fairer society
themselves. This means that the government is in a much stronger
position to introduce measures that directly shift wealth to meet the
needs of the majority, and out of the pockets of the capitalist
class.
Funded by the oil wealth, the government launched a series of
"missions" that have: brought free health care to the poor for the
first time, eradicated illiteracy, lowered unemployment, created
popular markets that sell cheap goods among other gains. The
government also introduced a law that banned bosses from sacking
workers, and Chavez has encouraged workers to take over factories if
the boss tries to lay them off.
According to Martin, Chavez stated on Hello President that when first
elected he was hoping to create "a third way, capitalism with a human
face, trying to give the monster a mask". But he concluded: "this mask
has fallen to the floor shattered by reality".
["Chavez steps up calls for socialism" by Stuart Munckton; Green Left
Weekly http://www.greenleft.org.au/; March 13, 2005]
*******
THE GRASSROOTS PALESTINIAN ANTI-APARTHEID WALL CAMPAIGN WEEKLY
E-NEWSLETTER
From: Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign lists@stopthewall.org
StoptheWall.org PRESS RELEASE
March 14th, 2005
Despite Occupation Checkpoints and Blocked Gates of the PNA Compound:
Over 5000 Protestors Refuse to Accept the Apartheid Wall Making Their
Voices Heard in Front of Kofi Annan
Contact: Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign:
+972-22-401-946; Health Working Committees: + 972 22 407518; Jamal
Juma' (Campaign Coordinator): +972-52-285-610 Email:
mobilize@StopTheWall.org
Ramallah (West Bank), Palestine - While villagers were delayed, and in
many instances barred entry at Occupation Checkpoints throughout the
West Bank, a huge crowd of over 5000 thronged the streets of Ramallah
to protest at the gates of the Muqata', the compound of the
Palestinian National Authority (PNA), where Secretary-General of the
UN Kofi Annan was holding talks with Mahmoud Abbas. The crowd
assembled at al-Manara Square in the morning, with numbers swelling as
they marched through the city to the Muqata' to deliver a memorandum
to Kofi Annan, issued by the National Committee To Resist The
Apartheid Wall. In front of the barred main gates of the PNA Compound
locking out the people and their demands, rallying speeches from the
representatives of the local committees to resist the Apartheid Wall
buoyed the crowd. Slogans and chanting condemned the Secretary-General
for the UN policy that fails to apply pressure on Israel to abide by
the International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision that the Apartheid
Wall is illegal, and must be torn down. Anger was directed at the
latest UN report on the Wall, published in February, which regards the
Apartheid Wall as a matter of compensation, funding and humanitarian
aid, and not as a political issue intrinsic to the whole colonial
settler-based project which Israel is escalating in the West Bank. The
UN report even goes so far as to adopt and give legitimacy to the
Israeli position which calls the Apartheid Wall a "security" measure.
Deep hostility has been created by Annan's refusal to visit any areas
of the Apartheid Wall, or any of the refugee camps which had invited
him. These claims were also expressed in the memorandum and the
various political press releases and letters sent by local committees
against the Apartheid Wall to President Abu Mazen. In spite of
protestors being locked outside the gates of Muqata', Annan could not
have been deaf to the demonstrators that pounded the main gate,
threatening to break it down, and their cries of "Annan, Annan - Don't
ignore The Apartheid Wall!" which reverberated through the streets.
As tensions grew, Annan was forced to cut short his media conference
and meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, leaving swiftly via the back entrance.
The demonstration was attended by thousands affected by the Wall; the
local committees of the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign from the
districts of Hebron, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Salfit, Jenin, Qalqiliya,
Jordan Valley, Bethlehem and Tulkarem; together with the
representatives from the different parties and grassroots
organizations which make up the National Committee To Resist The
Apartheid Wall. The UN's apparent complicity to the Wall, and failure
to work within the mandates of international law, draws the fate of
the Palestinian people perilously close to the final solution that
Sharon's plans dictate: IMPRISONED PALESTINIAN PEOPLE IN APARTHEID
BANTUSTANS!
To see the memorandum to Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United
Nations see: http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/872.shtml
For More Pictures Click Here:
http://rd.bcentral.com/?ID=2651491&s=87031491
StopTheWall.org
Visit the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign web site.
*******
HUMAN RIGHTS AND CUBA
From March 14th to April 22nd,2005, the 61st session of the UN
Commission on Human Rights will take place in Geneva, where once more
the US government will try to pass a resolution against Cuba.
It is a manipulated and selective treatment of the topic to justify
the intensification of the policy of blockade and aggressions by the
greatest power on the planet against a small country, in violation of
International Law. The
Commission must represent every United Nations member State and ensure
respect for the rights of all men and women worldwide. It is
significant, however, that within the Commission, during the last year
sessions, it was not possible to evaluate, not even to debate, the
atrocious violations of human rights taking place in US prisons in
Abuh Ghraib and Guantanamo.
The US government has no moral authority to set itself up as a judge
of human rights in Cuba, where there is not a single case of missing
persons, torture or extra judicial killing and where internationally
recognized health, education and cultural levels have been reached
despite the blockade.
We request the countries represented in the Commission not to allow it
to be used to legitimize the Bush Administration's anti-Cuban
aggressiveness, when the current war-mongering policy led by
Washington makes predictable an eventual escalation of very serious
consequences. We also call on journalists, writers, artists,
professors, school teachers and social activists to address their
governments and express by every possible means that this dangerous
maneuver stop.
TEXT IN SEVERAL LANGUAGES AND MANY OF THE INITIALSIGNERS MAY BE FOUND
AT THIS ADDRESS: http://www.lajiribilla.cu/
*******
WHAT'S ON
*
Wednesday, 23 March
Stop Deportations Belfast Solidarity streetseen@hotmail.co.uk phone:
0774 327 5533
Weds 1 pm @ Irish Tourist Board
Stop The Deportations
Wednesday 23 March 1 p.m.
Irish Tourist Board, Castle Street, Belfast
Please bring banners/ placards and noise!!
Speakers: Mick O'Reilly, TGWU; Davy Carlin, Chair ARN; Jon Glackin,
Co-Ordinator Street Seen; Paddy Hughes, Dep. Pres Queens University
Co-inciding with protests occurring in Dublin, London and Amsterdam
against Deportations
*
Thursday, March 24
Building an Island of Equals: The Left, Socialism & Sinn Fein
March 24th 8pm Central Hotel, Exchequer Street, Dublin 2
Public discussion with Brid Smith, a member of the Socialist Workers
Party (who was imprisoned as part of the Bin Tax Campaign) and Eoin O
Broin (Sinn Fein Director of European Affairs). The evening is being
hosted by the SWP.
All Welcome
Everyone has seen the media and mainstream politicians unleash a
ferocious and hypocritical attack against Sinn Fein. What does this
all mean fo Sinn Fein and republicanism? Will it push Sinn Fein
towards accommodatin with the establishment or will they present an
alternative to the real criminals in FF and FG? & if the move towards
the establishment is to remain on the Sinn Fein agenda how within this
context can the party bring about an island of equals for the working
classes throughout the island and does the fight against global war
and poverty fit into the party's perspective?
This discussion is aimed to build trust amongst the left, trying to
identify common goals and strategies within our different politics,
with the hope that we can get closer to the 'another world' we are all
fighting for.
*
Wednesday, 6 April
Public Meeting - The Fight to Make Poverty History
Speakers: Angela McCormick, Anti-poverty activist, G8 Alternatives
Committee, Scotland; Goretti Horgan, Chairperson of the Northern
Ireland Anti Poverty Network
7.30pm Wednesday April 6th, Room 302 Peter Froggatt Centre, Queens
University
Poverty is one of the central issues of the age with nearly half the
world's population surviving on less than $2 per day and over one
third living on less than a dollar per day.
In Northern Ireland, one of the poorest areas in Europe, 170,000 (25%
of the population) exist solely on benefits. Wages here are at least
25% less than they are in Britain and over 30% lower than in the US.
Homelessness is increasing and the availability of public housing is
shrinking. The introduction of Water Charges will impoverish many more
people in Northern Ireland when they are introduced. On that basis the
Make Poverty History mobilisation is of crucial importance.
The Public Meeting is intended to raise awareness of the central
issues, how various groups are fighting to alleviate poverty and most
importantly to raise awareness of the mobilisation in Scotland on July
2nd.
For more information please feel free to call Gordon Hewitt, Campaigns
and Information Officer at the Northern Ireland Anti-Poverty MTG on
07742 531 617 or 0845 120 3771.
*******
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*
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Sunday 13 March 2005
The Plough Vol 02 No 28
The Plough
Volume 2, Number 28
13 March 2005
E-Mail Newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party
Easter Sunday Republican Socialist Commemoration: 12.00 noon,
gathering top of the Donegall Road, Belfast for parade to Milltown
Cemetery
1) Editorial
2) Women Unfree Shall Never Be At Peace
3) On Spy Tower
4) Lest We Forget
5) Demand Justice for Palestine
6) Privatising the Iraq War
7) Soweto Like Belfast?
*******
EDITORIAL
Acres of print have been written about the slaughter of Robert
McCartney and the manner in which the Provisional Republican Movement
has reacted to it. Within nationalist areas a number of families have
begun to speak out about what happened to their loved ones. A man
called Fisher convicted of the manslaughter with a knife of a Derry
man is also strongly suspected of involvement in the murder with a
knife of Mousey Robinson also in Derry. Fisher is now in the
republican bloc in Maghaberry. What he was convicted of had nothing to
do with republicanism but plenty to do with thuggery and criminality.
The arguments flowing from the publication of Richard O'Rawe's book on
the '81 Hunger Strike has caused pain to many involved at the time not
least to the families of the hunger strikers and the other hunger
strikers who lived. Meanwhile politicians from Ireland flock to pay
homage to USA imperialism on St Patrick's Day. Great events taking
place - heated debates on TV and spinning by the manipulators of the
media - does all this really pass for politics on this island?
All of the above happenings can sometimes blind one to the reality on
the ground. Many working class areas in the cities and towns of
Ireland are breeding grounds now for thugs, knife wielding morons and
young people with no social conscience. The health services north and
south are in almost terminal decline and many now dread going into
hospitals for fear they come out dead due to the appalling state of
the hospitals themselves. The Western Health Board in the Republic
build themselves new facilities costing Euro 9.5 million without
permission from the department of health and a 48 million Euro health
centre stands idly and unused in Ballymun for the past two years. The
poor of Eastern Europe flock to Ireland to be exploited by every
crook, gangster and thug that calls himself an employer. It is no
wonder that increasingly independents get elected to the Dail, as
there is growing disillusionment with the established political
parties. Now even the Orange Order has broken with the Unionist
Party!!!
What does all this mean for republicanism? It is clear that there are
three options facing the broad republican movement.
Route one is to follow the Provisional Movement in its headlong rush
into constitutional nationalism and accept the status quo of
capitalism. Be in no doubt that PSF want to manage capitalism in
Ireland and believe they can do it better than the existing rulers.
The IRSP reject that.
Route two is to unify those republicans who reject the Good Friday
Agreement in a joint political and military onslaught on British rule.
Some believe that the "Republican Movement" can be rebuilt around the
re-commencing of the armed struggle. The IRSP reject that.
Route three is to return to the republicanism of James Connolly and to
raise the class questions in every arena, in every struggle, on every
battlefield. For it is only by the working classes in Ireland taking
up the issues that affect them, that the link can be made between the
class and the national question. There is no short cut available. We
face only a long hard slog of persuasion and of hard work. Republican
socialists must reach out to the youth, to the trade union activists,
to the community activists trying to improve their communities. We
need to reach out to other republicans and socialists and together
find a way to implement the visions of Connolly and Costello. For
partition and British imperialism will never be defeated until the
class question comes to the fore. The IRSP accept that.
*******
WOMEN UNFREE SHALL NEVER BE AT PEACE
7 March 2005
Irish Republican Socialist Party, Derry
In its annual March 8th message the Irish Republican Socialist Party
has hit out against the Turkish Regime's state forces, during what can
only be described as a brutal assault on protesters over this years
International Working Women's Day demonstrations, at which least 70
people were beaten and arrested.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the IRSP, Yvonne Dalton, said,
"International Women's Day in one of Europe's newest bedfellows
dramatically turned in to a virtual whirlpool of violent assault on
innocent protesters and onlookers.
"Several hundred political activists from women's groups, prisoner
support groups to human rights organisations participated in the
demonstration through the Turkish capital of Istanbul. The scenes that
followed were brutal, with men and women pushed to the ground, kicked
in the head and sprayed with gas in the face. Many were left crouching
in a ball with their hands protecting themselves.
"Unfortunately this is a scene which is played out on an all to
familiar basis by this fascist regime. Despite what the godfathers in
Brussels would have us believe, Turkey in 2005 is truly in the grip of
patriarchal traditions and violence against women from its westernised
cities to is sunny holiday resorts and it remains a serious problem.
It is something that cannot be overlooked in the powerhouses of the
Euro state.
"Throughout the past four years, the Turkish state has been unable to
break the resistance of the political prisoners and their supporters
in what can only be described as one of the largest a high profile
prisoners campaign for political status since the 1981 hunger strikes.
Despite solitary confinement, torture, arrests, force-feeding of
hunger strikers, brutal assaults, and more, the fight continues.
"As a republican socialist, I would like to pay tribute to those
activists who have taken to the streets and in the prisons of Turkey
to demand equality, justice and an end to this regime. We can clearly
see that once again, Turkey, your terror mask has slipped.
"On March 8th can I state that it is not about middle class coffee or
wine parties or superficial art classes. It is about real class
struggles of the past, present and future struggles of working class
women and the liberation of our class. As a gesture of international
working class women's solidarity on this day, our party call upon all
those who believe in equality and social justice, all those who oppose
fascism, to join us in supporting Kurdish and Turkish political
prisoners in Turkey, and the continued fight against that regimes
campaign of isolation in the prisons, in the homes and on the streets
at home and abroad."
*******
ON SPY TOWER
9 March 2005
Irish Republican Socialist Party, North Belfast
The North Belfast branch of the Irish Republican Socialist Party
welcome the demolition of the PSNI spy tower placed at Oldpark
barracks today.
This is a step in the right direction to normalisation for the people
of North Belfast and is a symbol that "Big Brother" contrivances have
no place in our society. For years now the people of North Belfast
have been monitored and spied on by the RUC and the PSNI in what can
only be described as an unacceptable method of intelligence gathering.
This accompanied by the news that Girdwood barracks is also to be
removed can only be of benefit to the people of North Belfast.
The IRSP welcome all actions of British demilitarisation and removal
from within our communities.
*******
LEST WE FORGET
Sixty years ago, on March 10 1945, the US abandoned the last rules of
warfare against civilians when 334 B-29s dropped close to half a
million incendiary bombs on sleeping Tokyo. On the sixtieth
anniversary of the firebombing of Tokyo Saotome Katsumoto was 12 when
he heard the familiar rumble of B-29 bombers. "It was a midnight air
raid, but unlike anything we had experienced before. The planes flew
in very low, so low you could see the fires reflected in their
undercarriages, and they dropped mostly incendiaries. The fires
started everywhere and we tried to fight them, but there was a strong,
northerly wind fanning the flames. All around me people were on fire,
writhing in agony.".
(From Japan Focus Newsletter)
*******
DEMAND JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE
This is an urgent appeal to Palestinian organisations and solidarity
organisations to endorse the statement below. Your endorsement will
greatly assist our efforts. Please circulate this statement to your
contacts and respond to supportpalestine@ireland.com
Demand Justice for Palestine
SHOW ISRAELI APARTHEID THE RED CARD!
On March 26 Ireland is due to play Israel in Tel Aviv as part of the
2006 World Cup Qualifiers. The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
(IPSC) supported by the Movement against Israeli Apartheid is calling
on the FAI and on Irish players & supporters to boycott this match in
protest against Israel's continued refusal to respect Palestinian
rights and International law. Show your support for justice and human
rights by staying at home on March 26 and showing Israeli Occupation
and Apartheid the red card!
While Israeli sportsmen and women travel freely around the world, the
Palestinian team has to surmount a labyrinth of checkpoints and border
crossings just to play their home matches overseas. With no decent
pitches on which to train and a suspended national league, their
success in getting to the preliminary qualifiers cannot be overstated.
Furthermore, Israeli authorities regularly prevent Palestinian players
from attending international games. Last September five players were
prevented from travelling to the World Cup qualifier against
Uzbekistan. Unable to play in Palestine the team travels to Doha,
Qatar, for home games and trains in Ismailia, Egypt, more than 100
miles from the local Gaza players' homes. Israel's labyrinth of
checkpoints makes just getting to and from training a journey fraught
with danger. Players from the West Bank have to circumvent Israel's
Apartheid Wall, take a bus to Amman (Jordan) and then fly to Cairo to
meet up with their Gazan team-mates. Travelling within the Gaza Strip
can take hours because of the checkpoints. For instance, it took
Palestinian players 40 hours to get to Rafah from the Egyptian border
after last year's Uzbekistan match. Despite these hurdles, their
recent success has inspired tens of thousands of Palestinian children
to hope that there can be a future beyond the latest Israeli curfew.
Palestine's future generations and sporting talent is being wasted by
illegal occupation, restrictions on movement and collective
punishment. Since September 2000 Israeli forces have killed over 3,565
Palestinians - 22% of whom were children. In the past year alone
Israeli soldiers have killed 176 Palestinian children. Many more have
been left seriously injured by snipers and tank shells - unable to
kick a football again. Although youth under 17 make up more than 50%
of the population of Palestine, there are few resources available to
them under the occupation. Youth centres have been destroyed by the
Israeli army. For instance, prior to the April 2002 reinvasion of West
Bank towns and cities, the Old City of Nablus had 13 youth
institutions. Now only 5 of these are operating.
Despite the restrictions imposed on them, Palestinian children
continue to defy Israeli curfews just to play soccer in the streets.
Their steadfast resistance to occupation is mirrored in the
determination of the Palestinian team to one day hear their national
anthem played to tens of thousands of cheering supporters in a home
ground in a Free Palestine.
Not only sports, life for the Palestinian people is getting daily more
unbearable. Ghettoised and isolated from each other behind
checkpoints, settlements, Jewish-only roads and the Apartheid Wall,
the Palestinian people is deprived of its land and livelihood or
uprooted as refugees.
Israel today stands in violation of over sixty UN resolutions as well
as many international conventions on human rights. Through its
continued military occupation of Palestinian territories, its policies
of racial discrimination against its Palestinian citizens and its
denial of Palestinian refugees' rights, Israel resembles a 21st
century Apartheid South Africa.
However, despite its refusal to abide by international law, Israel
continues to enjoy preferential trading terms with the European Union
and governments have been cowardly in its refusal to demand sanctions
against Israel.
Palestinian and international civil society is calling for a boycott
of all Israeli goods and services, divestment and sanctions until the
Israel respects Palestinian rights.
During the 1970s and 80s Irish sporting fans showed their opposition
to Apartheid policies by boycotting sporting events with South Africa.
Like the Dunne's stores' workers who refused to handle South African
produce, the Irish people refused to give legitimacy to Apartheid by
boycotting the Springboks tour.
It's time for the people to demand justice for Palestine.
We are calling upon the Irish soccer players ad supporters to stand up
for justice and human rights by boycotting the March and June soccer
matches Ireland vs. Israel.
The Irish people should not allow Israel to use the football field to
represent and assert itself and its occupation and apartheid politics
in front of the international community. Irish football should not
allow players and supporters to be manipulated as political pawns by a
criminal Israeli regime, who show a total disregard for International
Law, and continue to imprison the Palestinian people behind an 8 metre
high Apartheid wall built on stolen Palestinian land, while at the
same time, pretending to engage in peace talks.
Empty seats and a major protest outside need to show the Israeli
Government that there is no place for Apartheid in the 21st century.
To endorse this call please write to: supportpalestine@ireland.com
*******
PRIVATISING THE IRAQ WAR
By Geoff Thale
If U.S. officials learned one lesson from Vietnam it was that
opposition at home to U.S. military intervention abroad grew as
American casualties mounted. Now officials have found a way around
this problem -- in Iraq, U.S. contractors are recruiting people from
poor Latin American countries to carry out security tasks.
As U.S. military actions abroad have increased in the last decade, the
Pentagon has searched for ways to fight wars effectively while
minimizing U.S. casualties. Where possible, war is conducted from the
air. In ground combat, U.S. troops are equipped with the latest
high-tech weapons and protected by the best armour.
U.S. officials seem to have hit on a new strategy to minimize U.S.
casualties: recruit people from Latin America to do some of the
fighting.
A December 9th Washington Post story reports that two U.S. private
security firms, under contract to the Pentagon, are recruiting in El
Salvador to fill security positions in Iraq. And a December 12th
report from El Tiempo in Bogota says that a major U.S. contractor is
recruiting retired Colombian military officers to work in Iraq.
Salvadorans and Colombians are being recruited to guard Embassies and
other public buildings in Baghdad, protect oil and gas pipelines, and
provide security. This is dangerous work that was previously done by
U.S. military personnel.
Reportedly, recruitment efforts in Latin America will expand. U.S.
contractors believe there is a pool of people in the region with
military backgrounds and training, eager to work for the wages
offered. Interestingly, the first recruits came from militaries with a
history of human rights abuses.
In El Salvador, the security firms are said to be pleased with the
candidates, many who served in the Salvadoran Armed Forces. They are
highly motivated, being paid several times what they could earn in El
Salvador, and they are cheap (less than 1/5 the cost of recruiting
U.S. civilians).
The economic logic of this is unassailable. The U.S. military
contracts out security operations to U.S. companies who recruit
relatively low-cost Latin Americans to fill the jobs. The contractors
keep labor costs down, thus helping their bottom line. The Latin
Americans are poor, need the work, and benefit from what are – by
their standards -- high salaries. What's wrong with this?
It's deeply wrong, for both moral and political reasons. Latin America
and other less-developed regions shouldn't serve as a cheap labor for
dangerous jobs because of a U.S. military mission in Iraq. It may be
tempting to pay people from foreign countries like El Salvador,
Colombia, or Chile, so that we don't experience the human cost of
casualties or deaths ourselves. But it's not morally acceptable.
It's wrong for political reasons as well. Whether one supports or
opposes the U.S. war in Iraq, one can agree that the U.S. military
ought to bear the burden of fighting a war that the United States
initiated. Allies may join in, and send their own troops in support if
they so choose. But, U.S. military and government officials should not
be allowed to avoid paying the political cost in the United States of
the war in Iraq by hiring poor Latin Americans to risk dying while
carrying out a U.S. military mission.
In the United States, when a U.S. soldier is wounded or killed in
combat, his or her family, neighbours, and community, feel the weight
of the war in Iraq, and ask themselves, "Is it worth it?" In a
democracy, citizens must understand the burden related to U.S.
military action abroad, feel the impact, and make the judgment about
whether it's worthwhile.
But when those who do some of the fighting and dying are not U.S.
soldiers, not members of allied military forces, not even U.S. private
contractors working for the Pentagon, but private citizens of another
country, whose injuries and deaths will have no impact on the
political debate in the United States, then democracy is being
undermined, and war is being fought without a public weighing of the
costs.
Our leaders shouldn't be recruiting Latin Americans (or others) to
stand in our place, or pay the ultimate price in U.S. military
conflicts, to avoid political debates at home.
[Geoff Thale is Senior Associate for Central America and Cuba at the
Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a non-governmental
organization that promotes human rights, democracy and sustainable
economic development in Latin America.]
From WASHINGTON OFFICE ON LATIN AMERICA
http://www.wola.org/central_america/transf_cost_of_war_op_ed_geoff.htm
*******
SOWETO LIKE BELFAST?
London Guardian
8 March 2005
Boom Time for Soweto Property
By Andrew Meldrum
The South African township whose uprising became a turning point in
the struggle against apartheid is enjoying a property boom. House
prices in Soweto rose by more than 35% last year, on top of an average
annual increase of 16% since 2000, Standard Bank reports. Once starved
of development funds, Soweto now has new roads, streetlights, water
systems and transport as the result of 850m rand (£77m) spent by
Johannesburg city council. Crime is lower than in many formerly
white-only suburbs. Electric security fences are conspicuous by their
absence.
"Over the past couple of years Soweto has improved dramatically," said
Jerry Gaesale Setlhare, the owner of a transport business. "I am proud
of Soweto. It has more life to it than the white suburbs. When this
house came up, I grabbed it." Mr Setlhare remodelled his house to
include a three-storey atrium, a curving granite staircase, a swimming
pool and a state-of-the-art kitchen. "Property values are increasing,
so we can expect a good return on our investment," he said
"It used to be difficult to sell a property in Soweto, but now we are
able to sell a house within three days because of growing demand,"
said Alex Molomo, an agent for Realty Executives.
But large parts of Soweto remain in poverty, and shacks and shanties
still prevail. "Zola and Emdeni are rougher areas, but even they are
improving," Mr Molom said. "People are buying two-roomed houses and
expanding them."
Retail developers are following the property boom. The new Southgate
and Dobsonville malls are bustling with shoppers. Five more malls are
planned: surveys show that Soweto residents spend 80% of their 4.2
billion rand disposable income outside the township.
The places where violent incidents of racial oppression occurred have
been commemorated as historic sites and the homes of former residents,
famous and infamous, have become tourist attractions, including the
Mandela family home museum, where Nelson Mandela lived and practised
as a lawyer in the 1960s. Nearby is the home of fellow Nobel
prize-winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu. "Even now people still remember
that Soweto was the centre of the struggle," Mr Molomo said. "We are
very, very proud of that. We don't want to be bitter. We want to be
relaxed and feel good.
"We want to improve Soweto, we don't want to go away."
*******
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Volume 2, Number 28
13 March 2005
E-Mail Newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party
Easter Sunday Republican Socialist Commemoration: 12.00 noon,
gathering top of the Donegall Road, Belfast for parade to Milltown
Cemetery
1) Editorial
2) Women Unfree Shall Never Be At Peace
3) On Spy Tower
4) Lest We Forget
5) Demand Justice for Palestine
6) Privatising the Iraq War
7) Soweto Like Belfast?
*******
EDITORIAL
Acres of print have been written about the slaughter of Robert
McCartney and the manner in which the Provisional Republican Movement
has reacted to it. Within nationalist areas a number of families have
begun to speak out about what happened to their loved ones. A man
called Fisher convicted of the manslaughter with a knife of a Derry
man is also strongly suspected of involvement in the murder with a
knife of Mousey Robinson also in Derry. Fisher is now in the
republican bloc in Maghaberry. What he was convicted of had nothing to
do with republicanism but plenty to do with thuggery and criminality.
The arguments flowing from the publication of Richard O'Rawe's book on
the '81 Hunger Strike has caused pain to many involved at the time not
least to the families of the hunger strikers and the other hunger
strikers who lived. Meanwhile politicians from Ireland flock to pay
homage to USA imperialism on St Patrick's Day. Great events taking
place - heated debates on TV and spinning by the manipulators of the
media - does all this really pass for politics on this island?
All of the above happenings can sometimes blind one to the reality on
the ground. Many working class areas in the cities and towns of
Ireland are breeding grounds now for thugs, knife wielding morons and
young people with no social conscience. The health services north and
south are in almost terminal decline and many now dread going into
hospitals for fear they come out dead due to the appalling state of
the hospitals themselves. The Western Health Board in the Republic
build themselves new facilities costing Euro 9.5 million without
permission from the department of health and a 48 million Euro health
centre stands idly and unused in Ballymun for the past two years. The
poor of Eastern Europe flock to Ireland to be exploited by every
crook, gangster and thug that calls himself an employer. It is no
wonder that increasingly independents get elected to the Dail, as
there is growing disillusionment with the established political
parties. Now even the Orange Order has broken with the Unionist
Party!!!
What does all this mean for republicanism? It is clear that there are
three options facing the broad republican movement.
Route one is to follow the Provisional Movement in its headlong rush
into constitutional nationalism and accept the status quo of
capitalism. Be in no doubt that PSF want to manage capitalism in
Ireland and believe they can do it better than the existing rulers.
The IRSP reject that.
Route two is to unify those republicans who reject the Good Friday
Agreement in a joint political and military onslaught on British rule.
Some believe that the "Republican Movement" can be rebuilt around the
re-commencing of the armed struggle. The IRSP reject that.
Route three is to return to the republicanism of James Connolly and to
raise the class questions in every arena, in every struggle, on every
battlefield. For it is only by the working classes in Ireland taking
up the issues that affect them, that the link can be made between the
class and the national question. There is no short cut available. We
face only a long hard slog of persuasion and of hard work. Republican
socialists must reach out to the youth, to the trade union activists,
to the community activists trying to improve their communities. We
need to reach out to other republicans and socialists and together
find a way to implement the visions of Connolly and Costello. For
partition and British imperialism will never be defeated until the
class question comes to the fore. The IRSP accept that.
*******
WOMEN UNFREE SHALL NEVER BE AT PEACE
7 March 2005
Irish Republican Socialist Party, Derry
In its annual March 8th message the Irish Republican Socialist Party
has hit out against the Turkish Regime's state forces, during what can
only be described as a brutal assault on protesters over this years
International Working Women's Day demonstrations, at which least 70
people were beaten and arrested.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the IRSP, Yvonne Dalton, said,
"International Women's Day in one of Europe's newest bedfellows
dramatically turned in to a virtual whirlpool of violent assault on
innocent protesters and onlookers.
"Several hundred political activists from women's groups, prisoner
support groups to human rights organisations participated in the
demonstration through the Turkish capital of Istanbul. The scenes that
followed were brutal, with men and women pushed to the ground, kicked
in the head and sprayed with gas in the face. Many were left crouching
in a ball with their hands protecting themselves.
"Unfortunately this is a scene which is played out on an all to
familiar basis by this fascist regime. Despite what the godfathers in
Brussels would have us believe, Turkey in 2005 is truly in the grip of
patriarchal traditions and violence against women from its westernised
cities to is sunny holiday resorts and it remains a serious problem.
It is something that cannot be overlooked in the powerhouses of the
Euro state.
"Throughout the past four years, the Turkish state has been unable to
break the resistance of the political prisoners and their supporters
in what can only be described as one of the largest a high profile
prisoners campaign for political status since the 1981 hunger strikes.
Despite solitary confinement, torture, arrests, force-feeding of
hunger strikers, brutal assaults, and more, the fight continues.
"As a republican socialist, I would like to pay tribute to those
activists who have taken to the streets and in the prisons of Turkey
to demand equality, justice and an end to this regime. We can clearly
see that once again, Turkey, your terror mask has slipped.
"On March 8th can I state that it is not about middle class coffee or
wine parties or superficial art classes. It is about real class
struggles of the past, present and future struggles of working class
women and the liberation of our class. As a gesture of international
working class women's solidarity on this day, our party call upon all
those who believe in equality and social justice, all those who oppose
fascism, to join us in supporting Kurdish and Turkish political
prisoners in Turkey, and the continued fight against that regimes
campaign of isolation in the prisons, in the homes and on the streets
at home and abroad."
*******
ON SPY TOWER
9 March 2005
Irish Republican Socialist Party, North Belfast
The North Belfast branch of the Irish Republican Socialist Party
welcome the demolition of the PSNI spy tower placed at Oldpark
barracks today.
This is a step in the right direction to normalisation for the people
of North Belfast and is a symbol that "Big Brother" contrivances have
no place in our society. For years now the people of North Belfast
have been monitored and spied on by the RUC and the PSNI in what can
only be described as an unacceptable method of intelligence gathering.
This accompanied by the news that Girdwood barracks is also to be
removed can only be of benefit to the people of North Belfast.
The IRSP welcome all actions of British demilitarisation and removal
from within our communities.
*******
LEST WE FORGET
Sixty years ago, on March 10 1945, the US abandoned the last rules of
warfare against civilians when 334 B-29s dropped close to half a
million incendiary bombs on sleeping Tokyo. On the sixtieth
anniversary of the firebombing of Tokyo Saotome Katsumoto was 12 when
he heard the familiar rumble of B-29 bombers. "It was a midnight air
raid, but unlike anything we had experienced before. The planes flew
in very low, so low you could see the fires reflected in their
undercarriages, and they dropped mostly incendiaries. The fires
started everywhere and we tried to fight them, but there was a strong,
northerly wind fanning the flames. All around me people were on fire,
writhing in agony.".
(From Japan Focus Newsletter)
*******
DEMAND JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE
This is an urgent appeal to Palestinian organisations and solidarity
organisations to endorse the statement below. Your endorsement will
greatly assist our efforts. Please circulate this statement to your
contacts and respond to supportpalestine@ireland.com
Demand Justice for Palestine
SHOW ISRAELI APARTHEID THE RED CARD!
On March 26 Ireland is due to play Israel in Tel Aviv as part of the
2006 World Cup Qualifiers. The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
(IPSC) supported by the Movement against Israeli Apartheid is calling
on the FAI and on Irish players & supporters to boycott this match in
protest against Israel's continued refusal to respect Palestinian
rights and International law. Show your support for justice and human
rights by staying at home on March 26 and showing Israeli Occupation
and Apartheid the red card!
While Israeli sportsmen and women travel freely around the world, the
Palestinian team has to surmount a labyrinth of checkpoints and border
crossings just to play their home matches overseas. With no decent
pitches on which to train and a suspended national league, their
success in getting to the preliminary qualifiers cannot be overstated.
Furthermore, Israeli authorities regularly prevent Palestinian players
from attending international games. Last September five players were
prevented from travelling to the World Cup qualifier against
Uzbekistan. Unable to play in Palestine the team travels to Doha,
Qatar, for home games and trains in Ismailia, Egypt, more than 100
miles from the local Gaza players' homes. Israel's labyrinth of
checkpoints makes just getting to and from training a journey fraught
with danger. Players from the West Bank have to circumvent Israel's
Apartheid Wall, take a bus to Amman (Jordan) and then fly to Cairo to
meet up with their Gazan team-mates. Travelling within the Gaza Strip
can take hours because of the checkpoints. For instance, it took
Palestinian players 40 hours to get to Rafah from the Egyptian border
after last year's Uzbekistan match. Despite these hurdles, their
recent success has inspired tens of thousands of Palestinian children
to hope that there can be a future beyond the latest Israeli curfew.
Palestine's future generations and sporting talent is being wasted by
illegal occupation, restrictions on movement and collective
punishment. Since September 2000 Israeli forces have killed over 3,565
Palestinians - 22% of whom were children. In the past year alone
Israeli soldiers have killed 176 Palestinian children. Many more have
been left seriously injured by snipers and tank shells - unable to
kick a football again. Although youth under 17 make up more than 50%
of the population of Palestine, there are few resources available to
them under the occupation. Youth centres have been destroyed by the
Israeli army. For instance, prior to the April 2002 reinvasion of West
Bank towns and cities, the Old City of Nablus had 13 youth
institutions. Now only 5 of these are operating.
Despite the restrictions imposed on them, Palestinian children
continue to defy Israeli curfews just to play soccer in the streets.
Their steadfast resistance to occupation is mirrored in the
determination of the Palestinian team to one day hear their national
anthem played to tens of thousands of cheering supporters in a home
ground in a Free Palestine.
Not only sports, life for the Palestinian people is getting daily more
unbearable. Ghettoised and isolated from each other behind
checkpoints, settlements, Jewish-only roads and the Apartheid Wall,
the Palestinian people is deprived of its land and livelihood or
uprooted as refugees.
Israel today stands in violation of over sixty UN resolutions as well
as many international conventions on human rights. Through its
continued military occupation of Palestinian territories, its policies
of racial discrimination against its Palestinian citizens and its
denial of Palestinian refugees' rights, Israel resembles a 21st
century Apartheid South Africa.
However, despite its refusal to abide by international law, Israel
continues to enjoy preferential trading terms with the European Union
and governments have been cowardly in its refusal to demand sanctions
against Israel.
Palestinian and international civil society is calling for a boycott
of all Israeli goods and services, divestment and sanctions until the
Israel respects Palestinian rights.
During the 1970s and 80s Irish sporting fans showed their opposition
to Apartheid policies by boycotting sporting events with South Africa.
Like the Dunne's stores' workers who refused to handle South African
produce, the Irish people refused to give legitimacy to Apartheid by
boycotting the Springboks tour.
It's time for the people to demand justice for Palestine.
We are calling upon the Irish soccer players ad supporters to stand up
for justice and human rights by boycotting the March and June soccer
matches Ireland vs. Israel.
The Irish people should not allow Israel to use the football field to
represent and assert itself and its occupation and apartheid politics
in front of the international community. Irish football should not
allow players and supporters to be manipulated as political pawns by a
criminal Israeli regime, who show a total disregard for International
Law, and continue to imprison the Palestinian people behind an 8 metre
high Apartheid wall built on stolen Palestinian land, while at the
same time, pretending to engage in peace talks.
Empty seats and a major protest outside need to show the Israeli
Government that there is no place for Apartheid in the 21st century.
To endorse this call please write to: supportpalestine@ireland.com
*******
PRIVATISING THE IRAQ WAR
By Geoff Thale
If U.S. officials learned one lesson from Vietnam it was that
opposition at home to U.S. military intervention abroad grew as
American casualties mounted. Now officials have found a way around
this problem -- in Iraq, U.S. contractors are recruiting people from
poor Latin American countries to carry out security tasks.
As U.S. military actions abroad have increased in the last decade, the
Pentagon has searched for ways to fight wars effectively while
minimizing U.S. casualties. Where possible, war is conducted from the
air. In ground combat, U.S. troops are equipped with the latest
high-tech weapons and protected by the best armour.
U.S. officials seem to have hit on a new strategy to minimize U.S.
casualties: recruit people from Latin America to do some of the
fighting.
A December 9th Washington Post story reports that two U.S. private
security firms, under contract to the Pentagon, are recruiting in El
Salvador to fill security positions in Iraq. And a December 12th
report from El Tiempo in Bogota says that a major U.S. contractor is
recruiting retired Colombian military officers to work in Iraq.
Salvadorans and Colombians are being recruited to guard Embassies and
other public buildings in Baghdad, protect oil and gas pipelines, and
provide security. This is dangerous work that was previously done by
U.S. military personnel.
Reportedly, recruitment efforts in Latin America will expand. U.S.
contractors believe there is a pool of people in the region with
military backgrounds and training, eager to work for the wages
offered. Interestingly, the first recruits came from militaries with a
history of human rights abuses.
In El Salvador, the security firms are said to be pleased with the
candidates, many who served in the Salvadoran Armed Forces. They are
highly motivated, being paid several times what they could earn in El
Salvador, and they are cheap (less than 1/5 the cost of recruiting
U.S. civilians).
The economic logic of this is unassailable. The U.S. military
contracts out security operations to U.S. companies who recruit
relatively low-cost Latin Americans to fill the jobs. The contractors
keep labor costs down, thus helping their bottom line. The Latin
Americans are poor, need the work, and benefit from what are – by
their standards -- high salaries. What's wrong with this?
It's deeply wrong, for both moral and political reasons. Latin America
and other less-developed regions shouldn't serve as a cheap labor for
dangerous jobs because of a U.S. military mission in Iraq. It may be
tempting to pay people from foreign countries like El Salvador,
Colombia, or Chile, so that we don't experience the human cost of
casualties or deaths ourselves. But it's not morally acceptable.
It's wrong for political reasons as well. Whether one supports or
opposes the U.S. war in Iraq, one can agree that the U.S. military
ought to bear the burden of fighting a war that the United States
initiated. Allies may join in, and send their own troops in support if
they so choose. But, U.S. military and government officials should not
be allowed to avoid paying the political cost in the United States of
the war in Iraq by hiring poor Latin Americans to risk dying while
carrying out a U.S. military mission.
In the United States, when a U.S. soldier is wounded or killed in
combat, his or her family, neighbours, and community, feel the weight
of the war in Iraq, and ask themselves, "Is it worth it?" In a
democracy, citizens must understand the burden related to U.S.
military action abroad, feel the impact, and make the judgment about
whether it's worthwhile.
But when those who do some of the fighting and dying are not U.S.
soldiers, not members of allied military forces, not even U.S. private
contractors working for the Pentagon, but private citizens of another
country, whose injuries and deaths will have no impact on the
political debate in the United States, then democracy is being
undermined, and war is being fought without a public weighing of the
costs.
Our leaders shouldn't be recruiting Latin Americans (or others) to
stand in our place, or pay the ultimate price in U.S. military
conflicts, to avoid political debates at home.
[Geoff Thale is Senior Associate for Central America and Cuba at the
Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a non-governmental
organization that promotes human rights, democracy and sustainable
economic development in Latin America.]
From WASHINGTON OFFICE ON LATIN AMERICA
http://www.wola.org/central_america/transf_cost_of_war_op_ed_geoff.htm
*******
SOWETO LIKE BELFAST?
London Guardian
8 March 2005
Boom Time for Soweto Property
By Andrew Meldrum
The South African township whose uprising became a turning point in
the struggle against apartheid is enjoying a property boom. House
prices in Soweto rose by more than 35% last year, on top of an average
annual increase of 16% since 2000, Standard Bank reports. Once starved
of development funds, Soweto now has new roads, streetlights, water
systems and transport as the result of 850m rand (£77m) spent by
Johannesburg city council. Crime is lower than in many formerly
white-only suburbs. Electric security fences are conspicuous by their
absence.
"Over the past couple of years Soweto has improved dramatically," said
Jerry Gaesale Setlhare, the owner of a transport business. "I am proud
of Soweto. It has more life to it than the white suburbs. When this
house came up, I grabbed it." Mr Setlhare remodelled his house to
include a three-storey atrium, a curving granite staircase, a swimming
pool and a state-of-the-art kitchen. "Property values are increasing,
so we can expect a good return on our investment," he said
"It used to be difficult to sell a property in Soweto, but now we are
able to sell a house within three days because of growing demand,"
said Alex Molomo, an agent for Realty Executives.
But large parts of Soweto remain in poverty, and shacks and shanties
still prevail. "Zola and Emdeni are rougher areas, but even they are
improving," Mr Molom said. "People are buying two-roomed houses and
expanding them."
Retail developers are following the property boom. The new Southgate
and Dobsonville malls are bustling with shoppers. Five more malls are
planned: surveys show that Soweto residents spend 80% of their 4.2
billion rand disposable income outside the township.
The places where violent incidents of racial oppression occurred have
been commemorated as historic sites and the homes of former residents,
famous and infamous, have become tourist attractions, including the
Mandela family home museum, where Nelson Mandela lived and practised
as a lawyer in the 1960s. Nearby is the home of fellow Nobel
prize-winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu. "Even now people still remember
that Soweto was the centre of the struggle," Mr Molomo said. "We are
very, very proud of that. We don't want to be bitter. We want to be
relaxed and feel good.
"We want to improve Soweto, we don't want to go away."
*******
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Sunday 6 March 2005
The Plough Vol 02 No 27
The Plough
Volume 2, Number 27
6 March 2005
E-Mail Newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party
1) PSNI Release Death Drivers
2) The Water War Continues in Bolivia
3) Honor the Working Women of the World!
4) China Issues Human Rights Record of the United States
5) Cuba Support Group - Ireland
6) Who Will Carry the Can for Waste Debacle?
7) What's On
********
PSNI RELEASE DEATH DRIVERS
The RUC/PSNI tactics deployed in Ardoyne during the early hours of
Monday 28th February 2005 have been heavily criticised by the North
Belfast branch of the IRSP. At approximately 1:00am RUC land rovers
were in hot pursuit of a stolen Vauxhall Astra car that had been
speeding through the streets of Ardoyne. The car was rammed by one of
the land rovers at the junction of Etna Drive and Holmdene Gardens,
where it crashed into the front garden of an elderly resident asleep
in her bed.
The culprits, all male and in their twenties were stunned momentarily
by the impact and some were apprehended by the pursuing police, before
being promptly released at the scene. A spokesperson for the party
has claimed that the RUC/PSNI swamped the area with twelve to thirteen
land rovers in what can only be described as a fiasco and a PR stunt.
Residents were awoken from their sleep by the crashing of this stolen
vehicle that was being driven by these death drivers into the wall of
an elderly resident of Etna Drive. It had been carelessly rammed by
the RUC/PSNI who showed no regard for the safety of the residents of
this community. Anyone could have been hurt or seriously injured;
this car could quite easily have crashed through the front window of
this house. The death drivers that were in control of this stolen
vehicle were released by the RUC and advised to steal another car to
get them home. This is ludicrous and shows quite clearly the utter
contempt that these people have for the residents of this community.
An acceptable police force would not encourage this sort of behaviour.
It is also quite clear just how seriously they deem this type of
anti-social behaviour within republican communities. A member of the
RUC/PSNI gave chase on foot to two of the fleeing death drivers and
suffered a minor abrasion to his elbow. This was swiftly followed up
with the invasion of a further nine to ten jeeps in addition to the
already present three carelessly driving through the area with no
regard for the safety of others. An ambulance was also summoned for
the injured officer where he was taken to hospital. I have never saw
anything like it before in my life, it was just comical, a deliberate
PR stunt. We in North Belfast have suffered at the hands of these
thugs for years, which has had a catastrophic climax in recent weeks
when the community witnessed the tragic murder of local man Stephen
Montgomery by this ruthless death driving. Twelve jeeps were summoned
to the aid of a slightly cut officer when a week or so previous an
innocent man was able to bleed to death like a dog in the street.
Where were the RUC/PSNI then? They didn't have the decency to cordon
off the area around the man so that a proper and thorough
investigation could take place. This is exactly why the new PSNI are
not and will not be acceptable to the people of this area, while they
continue to exercise their right to double standards. No injuries
were sustained to members of the community during the operation,
although minor verbal hostilities were exchanged. A second car full
of death drivers was able to elude the police without being chased or
apprehended, after speeding along Etna Drive at immense speeds in
front of the parked land rovers. The IRSP seriously question this and
believe this sort of double standard policing is not acceptable to the
residents of republican North Belfast.
[Irish Republican Socialist Party, North Belfast, Statement]
*******
THE WATER WAR CONTINUES IN BOLIVIA
The Spanish Transnational company Abengoa asks $25 million from the
Bolivian government.
In a complaint lodged with the International Center for Settlement of
Investment Related Disputes (ICSID), the transnational corporation
Abengoa is asking the Bolivian government for $25 million in damages
for breach of the 2002 Cochabamba water privatization contract by the
Bolivian government – a breach made under pressure from the
inhabitants of the region, who have established grass-roots management
of the water.
Summary of the facts
In October 1999, following the passage of Law No 2029, the Bolivian
government awarded a 40-year water concession, for the province of
Cochabamba, to the international consortium Agua del Tunai,
underwritten by International Water Limited (Bechtel and Edison),
Abengoa Servicios Urbanos and a group of Bolivian companies.
Immediately following the privatization of the Cochabamba water, the
Aguas del Tunari consortium raised the price of water 400% through a
monthly indexing of the rates in relation to the United States dollar.
This did not include installation costs billed to the customers
(meters, connections to water mains and sewerage and systems), which
came to several hundred dollars. For desperately poor people, it was
equivalent to a death sentence.
The concession accorded to the consortium a total, overreaching
monopoly, making it illegal for anyone to use water from natural
springs or wells in the areas where Agua de Tunari supplied water.
These factors prompted a substantial mobilization, over several
months, of the local population, both urban and rural, who demanded,
in essence, the cancellation of the contract with Agua del Tunari, the
amending of Law No 2029 and a rejection by the government of water
privatization. In spite of severe repression by the authorities (who
killed one adolescent and injured and arrested dozens of people), in
April 2000, the Bolivian government was obliged to break the contract
signed with the abovementioned transnational corporations.
The complaint to the ICSID is neither acceptable nor tolerable
The lodging of the compliant with the ICSID is neither acceptable nor
tolerable given that this institution is heavily influenced by the
private commercial sector and presided over by the president of the
World Bank.
Given the Herculean efforts of the World Bank in pushing for
privatization, including in the case in question, and given the bias
that characterizes its actions, it is reasonable to expect a decision
in favor of Abengoa. Moreover, the ICSID norms do not take account of
these concerning human rights and environment.
Further, the sum sought is disproportionate, for the consortium in
question has invested, according to its own estimates, only somewhere
between $.5 million and $2 million, and Abengoa owns only a 25% share
in the consortium.
It is also worth noting that the other members of the consortium
(Bechtel and Edison) accepted the arrangement proposed by the Bolivian
government.
This case demonstrates yet again - if need be - the profit
driven motivation of transnational corporations. They have no interest
in the vital needs and development of countries and regions in which
they operate. It is intolerable that private interests should take
precedence over the basic rights of human beings such as the right to
life and its concomitant right to water, without which life is not
possible. Moreover, numerous United Nations resolutions reflect the
acknowledgement within the international community that human rights
take precedence over commercial interests.
Thus, the American Association of Jurists and the Europe - Third
World Centre maintain that litigation between governments and
transnational corporations should be resolved by the courts of the
country in question and, secondarily, by a permanent international
jurisdiction at such a time as it may come into being, which will rule
in accordance with existing international human rights standards.
The American Association of Jurists and the Europe - Third World
Center call upon the Bolivian government to reject the arbitration of
the ICSID and acknowledge the right to food and, in particular, to
water, and by so doing the right of its citizens to life, a right of
which it is the guarantor.
[Geneva, 1 March 2005, press release from the American Association of
Jurists and the Europe - Third World Centre]
*******
HONOR THE WORKING WOMEN OF THE WORLD!
CONTINUE THE STRUGGLE AGAINST IMPERIALISM!
On the 95th commemoration of International Women's Day, created by
women engaged in the struggle for women's rights against monopoly
capitalism, we call on the women of the world to recognize and honor
the women who create the greater share of the profits of imperialist
globalization. Often unpaid or paid at less than subsistence level;
barely recognized in large sections of the world as human beings;
bought, sold, traded and enslaved, deprived of their rights and
freedoms, and oppressed, these women nevertheless bear the greater
burden for the survival of families, communities and even entire
nations economically and spiritually. They are the finest expression
of the nobility of the human spirit even as the conditions of
oppression and exploitation under which they live constitute the worst
expression of humanity's rapacity.
This International Women's Day comes in the midst of two wars of
aggression (in Afghanistan and Iraq) and threats of more (Iran, North
Korea and Syria) wars. It comes in the midst of the continuing
impoverishment of peoples - whether in the developed or undeveloped
countries - and the continuing enrichment of transnational
corporations and their shareholders. Truly, we live at a time when
monopoly capitalism is engaged in a rapacious re-casting of the world
after its own image. Power and profit are reserved for a few while
the rest of us have only a lifetime of wage-slavery, if not outright
slavery, and powerlessness to look forward to. As in the corporate
structure, the most hierarchical and most tyrannical organization
created by humankind, those who work the hardest and longest earn the
least while those who sit in air-conditioned rooms fatten themselves
on multimillion-dollar salaries and dividends.
The violence that this acute contradiction breeds in the world today
must be ended. We have seen the steady constriction of rights,
freedoms and public space for women the world over. We have seen
women suffer both collateral and enduring damage in wars launched by
imperialism. Women and children constitute 70% of collateral damage,
while enduring damage is done through the creation of the breeding
grounds for the traffic of women and children, religious
fundamentalism and violence against women. We have seen conditions
inimical to women legitimized ostensibly for "the good of the women" -
from capital's assault on the human body in prostitution to the
removal of overtime pay under the so-called "flex-time work." We have
seen gender oppression in the household transferred from the well-off
women of the First World to the women of the Third World, who have
been impoverished by the bloodsucking International Monetary
Fund/World Bank and the World Trade Organization. We have seen
women's knowledge of plants and medicines patented for the exclusive
use and control of transnational corporations. We have seen women's
bodies experimented on medically to generate profits in an
entertainment world that caters mainly to male fantasy. We have seen
women murdered when they choose to protest and speak out, whether at
home, in the workplace or in countries contending against
globalization.
Time to end this. We call for women of the world, especially poor and
working women, to unite and finally shatter the conceptual link
between women and private property. Let us not wait another hundred
years for political, social and economic equality. Let us start by
reclaiming March 8 as the International Working Women's Day from the
cooption of the US and other imperialist states through United
Nation-sponsored and government-sponsored celebrations. We call on
the women of the world to strengthen and expand the women's
anti-imperialist front. Continue the struggle for women's liberation,
class emancipation and national liberation. Let us forge on in
militant sisterhood!
*******
CHINA ISSUES HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD OF THE UNITED STATES
People's Daily Online
3 March 2005
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200503/03/eng20050303_175402.html
China issued the Human Rights Record of the US in 2004 Thursday in
response to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004
issued by the US on Feb. 28.
Released by the Information Office of China's State Council, the
Chinese report listed a multitude of cases to show that serious
violations of human rights exist on the homeland of the United States.
"In 2004 the atrocity of US troops abusing Iraqi POWs exposed the dark
side of human rights performance of the United States. The scandal
shocked the humanity and was condemned by the international community.
It is quite ironic that on Feb. 28 of this year, the State Department
of the United States once again posed as the 'the world human rights
police' and released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for
2004. As in previous years, the reports pointed fingers at human
rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions (including
China) but kept silent on the US misdeeds in this field. Therefore,
the world people have to probe the human rights record behind the
Statue of Liberty in the United States," said the report.
The report reviewed the human rights record of the United States in
2004 from six perspectives: Life, liberty and Security of Person;
Political Rights and Freedom; Economic, social and Cultural Rights;
Racial Discrimination; Rights of Women and Children; and Infringement
of Human Rights of Foreign Nationals.
This is the sixth consecutive year that the Information Office of the
State Council has issued human rights record of the United States to
answer the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices issued annually
by the State Department of the United States.
American citizens are threatened by rampant violent crimes and severe
infringement of civil rights by law enforcement departments. "Violent
crimes pose a serious threat to people's lives," said the record.
The record quoted the Department of Justice of the United States on
Nov. 29, 2004 as saying that in 2003 residents aged 12 and above in
the United States came across about 24 million cases of crimes,
including 1.38 million violent crimes like murders and robberies,
averaging 475 cases per 100,000 people.
"Police violence and infringement of human rights by law enforcement
agencies also constitute a serious problem," the record said.
Chinese citizen Zhao Yan was handcuffed and severely beaten on Jul.
21, 2004 while she was in the United States on a normal business trip.
She suffered injuries in many parts of her body and serious mental
harm, according to the record.
Boasted as "a paragon of democracy," the United States' democracy is
actually manipulated by the rich and malpractice, said the record.
Referring the elections in the United States are in fact a contest of
money, the record said, the presidential and Congressional elections
last year cost nearly four billion US dollars, some one billion US
dollars or one third more than that spent in the 2000 elections.
According to the U.S.' official website http://www.opensecrets.org/
the 2004 presidential election has been listed as the most expensive
campaign in the country's history, with the cost jumping to 1.7
billion US dollars from 1 billion US dollars in 2000.
Poverty, hunger and homelessness have been haunting the United States,
the world richest country, according to the record.
The report stressed the United States refuses to ratify the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights and
took negative attitude to the economic, social and cultural rights of
the labourers.
According to the statistics released by the US Census Bureau in 2004,
the number of Americans in poverty has been climbing for three years.
It rose by 1.3 million year-on-year in 2003 to 35.9 million, the
report said.
Racial discrimination has been deeply rooted in the United States,
permeating into every aspects of society, said the record.
The record said that the coloured people are generally poor, with
living condition much worse than the white. According to a report of
The Guardian of Britain on Oct. 9, 2004, the average net assets of a
white family is 88,000 US dollars in 2002, 11 times of a family of
Latin American ancestry, or nearly 15 times of a family of African
ancestry.
Racial prejudice is ubiquitous in judicial fields, the record said.
The proportion for persons of coloured races being sentenced or being
imprisoned is notably higher than whites.
In accordance with a report published in Nov. 2004 by the US
Department of Justice, coloured races accounted for over 70 percent of
inmates in the United States.
The situation of American women and children was disturbing. The rates
of women and children physically or sexually victimized were high,
said the report.
According to FBI Crime Statistics, in 2003 the United States witnessed
93,233 cases of raping. Virtually 63.2 in every 100,000 women fell
victims. Statistics released by the US Labor Department in Jan. 2004
showed a woman who worked full time had the median earning of 81.1
percent of that for a man, according to the report.
In addition, according to the report, child poverty was a serious
problem. A story released from AP Washington on Oct. 12, 2004 said
that about 20 million children lived in "low-income working families"
- with barely enough money to cover basic needs.
Children were also victims of sex crimes. Every year about 400,000
children in the US were forced to engage in prostitution or other
sexual dealings on the streets.
The atrocity of US troops abusing Iraqi POWs exposed the infringement
of human rights of foreign nationals by the United States, said the
record.
According to US media like the Newsweek and the Washington Post, as
early as several years ago, in US forces' prisons in Afghanistan,
interrogators used various kinds of torture tools for acquiring
confession, causing many deaths.
The International Committee of the Red Cross believed that abuse of
detained Iraqis in the notorious Abu Ghraib Prison was not a single
case and it was a systematic behavior, the report said.
The report pointed out that the United States frequently commits
wanton slaughters during external invasions and military attacks. A
survey on Iraqi civilian deaths, based on the natural death rate
before the war, estimates that the US-led invasion might have led to
100,000 more deaths in the country, with most victims being women and
children.
Jointly designed and conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins
University, Columbia University and the Al-Mustansiriya University in
Baghdad, the survey also finds that the majority of the additional,
unnatural deaths since the invasion were caused by violence, while air
strikes from the coalition forces were the main factor to blame for
the violence-caused deaths.
Despite tons of problems in its own human rights, the United States
continues to stick to its belligerent stance, wantonly trample on the
sovereignty of other countries, and constantly stage tragedies of
human rights infringement in the world, said the report.
At last, the report said that the United States should reflect on its
erroneous behavior on human rights and take its own human rights
problems seriously instead of indulging itself in publishing the
"human rights country report" to censure other countries unreasonably.
*******
CUBA SUPPORT GROUP - IRELAND
15 Merrion Square Dublin 2 Tel: (01) 8436448 087 6785842
News & Views
1) Cuban Authorities Reject New US Sanctions against the Island
2) Fidel Castro condemns the destruction of the US war on Iraq
3) Cuba elected to UN Human Rights panel
1) Cuban Authorities Reject New US Sanctions against the Island
Havana, Feb 25 (Prensa Latina) Cuban authorities rejected Friday the
new US sanctions against the Caribbean island and published a
statement expressing their stance toward the new US restrictive
measures.
The text of the statement, written by Cuban Food Import Company
ALIMPORT, which has signed agreements and developed businesses with US
food staples producing companies, says as follows:
STATEMENT:
In a press release of February 22, 2005, the US Department of Treasury
announced its interpretation of the term "cash in advance" established
in the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act promulgated
by the US Congress in 2000.
According to the aforementioned release, the Cuban payments must be
received prior to the Cuba-bound cargoes are loaded on board ships in
the US, a departure from the existing practice of payments against
documents, with transfer of title to the Cuban buyer upon receipt of
cash payments by the American exporter. It should be noted that no
delay has been reported in the implementation of the existing
practice.
This measure would represent an escalation designed to hinder the
American food and agricultural sales that are already subjected to
numerous restrictions impose by US.
From December 2001 to February 23, 2005, ALIMPORT had signed on a
total of 4.9 million tones, worth US $1.255 billion, with freight
costs included. Cuba's timely cash payments of US $1.06 billion
for these purchases have helped meet the Cuban people's basic food
basket needs and conveyed a desire to see a normalization of relations
between both countries in an atmosphere of peace and friendship.
Year-to-date, Cuba has imported nearly 90 million dollars worth of
American supplies, with an estimate $250 million in contracts that
will be implemented in the 2005 balance. These numbers could grow
significantly as additional contracts are formalized in the course of
this year.
Under this procedure, goods earmarked to the Cuban people could
apparently be liable to court-ordered seizures in the US to satisfy
legally groundless claims against the Republic of Cuba. The measure
also ignores the will if the US Congress when it authorized the sales
to Cuba.
While the American suppliers are recognized for their quality products
and efficiency, to purchase from the US under the new measure would be
highly unreliable, for the direct food supplies to the Cuban
population, including its children, as well as the procurement of
input materials for other food items, would be placed at risk.
The US Treasury pronouncement places the American producers, carriers
and port operators in disadvantage and gives ground to competitors in
other foreign countries that are keen to develop the Cuban market.
ALIMPORT hereby reiterates its commitment to comply with its existing
contractual obligations and its readiness to make further purchases
from US businesses, subject to acceptable terms and conditions that
are consistent with the international business practices.
ALIMPORT ratifies its confidence in the American farmers,
businesspersons, shoppers, port operators, legislators and other
personalities who over the last three years have shown a will to
develop mutually advantageous trading relations with Cuba. ALIMPORT
renews its message of peace and friendship to the American people, as
well as its wishes for normalized relations between Cuba and the US.
ALIMPORT, February 25, 2005.
2) Fidel Castro condemns the destruction of the US war on Iraq
Fidel Castro called the US-led war in Iraq a "brutal bombing
spectacle," and criticised the Bush regime for its spending on the war
declaring that the billions of dollars being spent in Iraq "won't cure
AIDS won't cure any disease, won't cure anybody."
Meanwhile, Cuba exports thousands of doctors to countries in need.
"Mr. Bush put forth 15 billion dollars, and with that the world moved
on to the stage of the Iraq war, that brutal bombing spectacle. But
what is needed over there is a man, a revolutionary doctor who can
save lives. And that's what we have."
Castro also criticised several developed nations, especially those
who frequently voice concerns about human rights, for not doing more
in the field of health.
"All of Europe together couldn't pull together the 500 doctors and
health care workers we have over there," he said, referring to Cuban
teams of specialists working in Haiti.
Castro also advised those who continue to accuse Cuba of human rights
violations to focus on their own problems. "They'll have to shut their
mouths, or...start admitting that revolution can be just," he said
as he explained that socialism is certainly more humane than the
imperialism that is being imposed around the world.
3) Cuba elected to UN Human Rights panel
Cuba has been elected to a panel that will decide on the agenda for
the 2005 session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission. The
role of the "Working Group on Situations" panel is to rule on
the admissibility of complaints to be heard by the full 53-member
commission when it meets in Geneva.
*******
WHO WILL CARRY THE CAN FOR WASTE DEBACLE?
Friends of the Earth (Northern Ireland)
Press Release
Contact: John Woods
Direct: 028 9023 3636
Mobile: 07712 843 213
Home: 028 9042 4109
Who will carry the can for waste debacle?
As a House of Commons Committee published a damning report on Northern
Ireland's waste management strategy Friends of the Earth demanded that
heads should roll in the Department of the Environment (DOE).
In its report the Committee described the Government's leadership role
as "a lamentable performance", quoting the fact that it had taken four
years to set up a waste management steering group and had achieved
only four of fifteen leadership targets.
While DOE claimed in a written submission "very substantial progress
has been achieved" [3] on the strategy, the MPs countered with their
opinion that "overall [progress] has been slight"
MPs further warned that because of Northern Ireland's failure to
reduce waste going to landfill, a requirement under European law, we
could be in line to pay a substantial share of fines of £180
million per annum.
Describing planning and procurement processes as "seriously behind
schedule" the Committee says that "the prospect of meeting the first
Landfill Directive target in 2010 looks bleak."
In a salvo aimed at Doe's Planning Service the Committee said it
was "deeply concerned at the continuing delays in dealing with
planning applications for waste management facilities". MPs said "We
were astonished to learn that it can take up to ten years to get
planning permission for waste management facilities."
Friends of the Earth gave evidence in to the Committee and are quoted
extensively in the final report. Director (Northern Ireland) John
Woods said today: "This report spells out what we all know - that
since the launch of Northern Ireland's Waste Strategy five years ago
the DOE has failed to deliver on its own targets and those required
under European law. It is now time for individual civil service
managers to be held to account for what can only be described as
incompetence.
"The DOE has the powers it needs, included planning powers, to
implement a successful strategy. As we head towards an ever growing
waste crisis it is time to clear out the dead wood and employ managers
who are up to the job."
*******
WHAT'S ON
*
Tuesday, 8 March 2005
Public Lectures - All Welcome
Belfast Trades Council
Present a Public Lecture
"From Alabama to Jerusalem: End Apartheid - Support Civil Rights"
By Lenni Brenner, the renowned American human rights activist, civil
rights and racial equality campaigner.
Tuesday, 8th March 2005, 7.30pm
Transport House, High Street, Belfast
Lenni will also speak at a public meeting at QUB on Tuesday 8th at
1.00pm, Room 307 Peter Frogatt Bld.
Lenni Brenner was born into an Orthodox Jewish family. He became an
atheist at the age of 10 and a Marxist at 15. He has been involved
with the American Civil Rights Movement since the 1950s.
He was an anti-war activist from the first days of the Vietnam War,
speaking frequently at rallies in the Bay Area of San Francisco where
he was arrested several times. He met with Huey Newton, later founder
of the Black Panthers. Subsequently he worked with Kathy Cleaver and
Bobby Seale.
In 1968 he co-founded the National Association for Irish Justice, the
American affiliate of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.
In the 90s he and Kwame Ture (aka Stokely Carmichael), the legendary
"Black Power" leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee, co-founded the Committee against Zionism and Racism. They
also published The Anti-War Activist.
Brenner is the author of 4 books, Zionism in the Age of the Dictators,
The Iron Wall: Zionist Revisionism from Jabotinsky to Shamir, Jews in
America Today, and The Lesser Evil, a study of the Democratic Party.
He has written over 100 articles for many publications, including the
Amsterdam News, the Anderson Valley Advertizer, the Atlanta
Constitution, CounterPunch, the Jewish Guardian, the Nation, the
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Middle East Policy, Middle
East International, the Journal of Palestine Studies, the New
Statesman of London, Al-Fajr in Jerusalem and Dublin’s United
Irishman.
In 2002 he edited 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis.
It contains complete translations of many of the documents quoted in
Zionism in the Age of the Dictators and The Iron Wall. In 2004 he
edited Jefferson & Madison On Separation of Church and State:
Writings on Religion and Secularism.
Articles by Lenni Brenner
http://lennibrenner.eccmei.net/
Jewish Friends of Palestine
http://www.eccmei.net/j/
*
Tuesday, 8 March
Rural Community Network are currently organising our second annual
event for International Women's Day for Tuesday, 8 March. This will
take place in Omagh (venue to be confirmed) and the theme is again
centred on diversity in rural areas. If you wish further info or
would like to participate please contact Marion Weir or Anna Clarke at
RCN.
*******
Please feel free to comment on the contents of The Plough. We welcome
political comments and criticisms.
If you know of anybody who might wish to receive The Plough please
send his or her e-mail address to johnmartinps@eircom.net.
If you wish to receive back copies of the The Plough please e-mail
to johnmartinps@eircom.net stating which numbers you wish.
To unsubscribe to The Plough please send e-mail
entitled "unsubscribe" to johnmartinps@eircom.net.
It is the policy of The Plough to acknowledge information and
articles from other sources.
Subscribe to the bi-monthly
"The Starry Plough/An Camchéachta"
P.O. Box 1981, Derry, BT48 8GX, Ireland.
THE VOICE OF REPUBLICAN SOCIALISM!
Email: starry_plough@hotmail.com
Website: http://www.irsm.org/irsp/starryplough/
Fighting Fund/Donations
To: The Starry Plough
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Volume 2, Number 27
6 March 2005
E-Mail Newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party
1) PSNI Release Death Drivers
2) The Water War Continues in Bolivia
3) Honor the Working Women of the World!
4) China Issues Human Rights Record of the United States
5) Cuba Support Group - Ireland
6) Who Will Carry the Can for Waste Debacle?
7) What's On
********
PSNI RELEASE DEATH DRIVERS
The RUC/PSNI tactics deployed in Ardoyne during the early hours of
Monday 28th February 2005 have been heavily criticised by the North
Belfast branch of the IRSP. At approximately 1:00am RUC land rovers
were in hot pursuit of a stolen Vauxhall Astra car that had been
speeding through the streets of Ardoyne. The car was rammed by one of
the land rovers at the junction of Etna Drive and Holmdene Gardens,
where it crashed into the front garden of an elderly resident asleep
in her bed.
The culprits, all male and in their twenties were stunned momentarily
by the impact and some were apprehended by the pursuing police, before
being promptly released at the scene. A spokesperson for the party
has claimed that the RUC/PSNI swamped the area with twelve to thirteen
land rovers in what can only be described as a fiasco and a PR stunt.
Residents were awoken from their sleep by the crashing of this stolen
vehicle that was being driven by these death drivers into the wall of
an elderly resident of Etna Drive. It had been carelessly rammed by
the RUC/PSNI who showed no regard for the safety of the residents of
this community. Anyone could have been hurt or seriously injured;
this car could quite easily have crashed through the front window of
this house. The death drivers that were in control of this stolen
vehicle were released by the RUC and advised to steal another car to
get them home. This is ludicrous and shows quite clearly the utter
contempt that these people have for the residents of this community.
An acceptable police force would not encourage this sort of behaviour.
It is also quite clear just how seriously they deem this type of
anti-social behaviour within republican communities. A member of the
RUC/PSNI gave chase on foot to two of the fleeing death drivers and
suffered a minor abrasion to his elbow. This was swiftly followed up
with the invasion of a further nine to ten jeeps in addition to the
already present three carelessly driving through the area with no
regard for the safety of others. An ambulance was also summoned for
the injured officer where he was taken to hospital. I have never saw
anything like it before in my life, it was just comical, a deliberate
PR stunt. We in North Belfast have suffered at the hands of these
thugs for years, which has had a catastrophic climax in recent weeks
when the community witnessed the tragic murder of local man Stephen
Montgomery by this ruthless death driving. Twelve jeeps were summoned
to the aid of a slightly cut officer when a week or so previous an
innocent man was able to bleed to death like a dog in the street.
Where were the RUC/PSNI then? They didn't have the decency to cordon
off the area around the man so that a proper and thorough
investigation could take place. This is exactly why the new PSNI are
not and will not be acceptable to the people of this area, while they
continue to exercise their right to double standards. No injuries
were sustained to members of the community during the operation,
although minor verbal hostilities were exchanged. A second car full
of death drivers was able to elude the police without being chased or
apprehended, after speeding along Etna Drive at immense speeds in
front of the parked land rovers. The IRSP seriously question this and
believe this sort of double standard policing is not acceptable to the
residents of republican North Belfast.
[Irish Republican Socialist Party, North Belfast, Statement]
*******
THE WATER WAR CONTINUES IN BOLIVIA
The Spanish Transnational company Abengoa asks $25 million from the
Bolivian government.
In a complaint lodged with the International Center for Settlement of
Investment Related Disputes (ICSID), the transnational corporation
Abengoa is asking the Bolivian government for $25 million in damages
for breach of the 2002 Cochabamba water privatization contract by the
Bolivian government – a breach made under pressure from the
inhabitants of the region, who have established grass-roots management
of the water.
Summary of the facts
In October 1999, following the passage of Law No 2029, the Bolivian
government awarded a 40-year water concession, for the province of
Cochabamba, to the international consortium Agua del Tunai,
underwritten by International Water Limited (Bechtel and Edison),
Abengoa Servicios Urbanos and a group of Bolivian companies.
Immediately following the privatization of the Cochabamba water, the
Aguas del Tunari consortium raised the price of water 400% through a
monthly indexing of the rates in relation to the United States dollar.
This did not include installation costs billed to the customers
(meters, connections to water mains and sewerage and systems), which
came to several hundred dollars. For desperately poor people, it was
equivalent to a death sentence.
The concession accorded to the consortium a total, overreaching
monopoly, making it illegal for anyone to use water from natural
springs or wells in the areas where Agua de Tunari supplied water.
These factors prompted a substantial mobilization, over several
months, of the local population, both urban and rural, who demanded,
in essence, the cancellation of the contract with Agua del Tunari, the
amending of Law No 2029 and a rejection by the government of water
privatization. In spite of severe repression by the authorities (who
killed one adolescent and injured and arrested dozens of people), in
April 2000, the Bolivian government was obliged to break the contract
signed with the abovementioned transnational corporations.
The complaint to the ICSID is neither acceptable nor tolerable
The lodging of the compliant with the ICSID is neither acceptable nor
tolerable given that this institution is heavily influenced by the
private commercial sector and presided over by the president of the
World Bank.
Given the Herculean efforts of the World Bank in pushing for
privatization, including in the case in question, and given the bias
that characterizes its actions, it is reasonable to expect a decision
in favor of Abengoa. Moreover, the ICSID norms do not take account of
these concerning human rights and environment.
Further, the sum sought is disproportionate, for the consortium in
question has invested, according to its own estimates, only somewhere
between $.5 million and $2 million, and Abengoa owns only a 25% share
in the consortium.
It is also worth noting that the other members of the consortium
(Bechtel and Edison) accepted the arrangement proposed by the Bolivian
government.
This case demonstrates yet again - if need be - the profit
driven motivation of transnational corporations. They have no interest
in the vital needs and development of countries and regions in which
they operate. It is intolerable that private interests should take
precedence over the basic rights of human beings such as the right to
life and its concomitant right to water, without which life is not
possible. Moreover, numerous United Nations resolutions reflect the
acknowledgement within the international community that human rights
take precedence over commercial interests.
Thus, the American Association of Jurists and the Europe - Third
World Centre maintain that litigation between governments and
transnational corporations should be resolved by the courts of the
country in question and, secondarily, by a permanent international
jurisdiction at such a time as it may come into being, which will rule
in accordance with existing international human rights standards.
The American Association of Jurists and the Europe - Third World
Center call upon the Bolivian government to reject the arbitration of
the ICSID and acknowledge the right to food and, in particular, to
water, and by so doing the right of its citizens to life, a right of
which it is the guarantor.
[Geneva, 1 March 2005, press release from the American Association of
Jurists and the Europe - Third World Centre]
*******
HONOR THE WORKING WOMEN OF THE WORLD!
CONTINUE THE STRUGGLE AGAINST IMPERIALISM!
On the 95th commemoration of International Women's Day, created by
women engaged in the struggle for women's rights against monopoly
capitalism, we call on the women of the world to recognize and honor
the women who create the greater share of the profits of imperialist
globalization. Often unpaid or paid at less than subsistence level;
barely recognized in large sections of the world as human beings;
bought, sold, traded and enslaved, deprived of their rights and
freedoms, and oppressed, these women nevertheless bear the greater
burden for the survival of families, communities and even entire
nations economically and spiritually. They are the finest expression
of the nobility of the human spirit even as the conditions of
oppression and exploitation under which they live constitute the worst
expression of humanity's rapacity.
This International Women's Day comes in the midst of two wars of
aggression (in Afghanistan and Iraq) and threats of more (Iran, North
Korea and Syria) wars. It comes in the midst of the continuing
impoverishment of peoples - whether in the developed or undeveloped
countries - and the continuing enrichment of transnational
corporations and their shareholders. Truly, we live at a time when
monopoly capitalism is engaged in a rapacious re-casting of the world
after its own image. Power and profit are reserved for a few while
the rest of us have only a lifetime of wage-slavery, if not outright
slavery, and powerlessness to look forward to. As in the corporate
structure, the most hierarchical and most tyrannical organization
created by humankind, those who work the hardest and longest earn the
least while those who sit in air-conditioned rooms fatten themselves
on multimillion-dollar salaries and dividends.
The violence that this acute contradiction breeds in the world today
must be ended. We have seen the steady constriction of rights,
freedoms and public space for women the world over. We have seen
women suffer both collateral and enduring damage in wars launched by
imperialism. Women and children constitute 70% of collateral damage,
while enduring damage is done through the creation of the breeding
grounds for the traffic of women and children, religious
fundamentalism and violence against women. We have seen conditions
inimical to women legitimized ostensibly for "the good of the women" -
from capital's assault on the human body in prostitution to the
removal of overtime pay under the so-called "flex-time work." We have
seen gender oppression in the household transferred from the well-off
women of the First World to the women of the Third World, who have
been impoverished by the bloodsucking International Monetary
Fund/World Bank and the World Trade Organization. We have seen
women's knowledge of plants and medicines patented for the exclusive
use and control of transnational corporations. We have seen women's
bodies experimented on medically to generate profits in an
entertainment world that caters mainly to male fantasy. We have seen
women murdered when they choose to protest and speak out, whether at
home, in the workplace or in countries contending against
globalization.
Time to end this. We call for women of the world, especially poor and
working women, to unite and finally shatter the conceptual link
between women and private property. Let us not wait another hundred
years for political, social and economic equality. Let us start by
reclaiming March 8 as the International Working Women's Day from the
cooption of the US and other imperialist states through United
Nation-sponsored and government-sponsored celebrations. We call on
the women of the world to strengthen and expand the women's
anti-imperialist front. Continue the struggle for women's liberation,
class emancipation and national liberation. Let us forge on in
militant sisterhood!
*******
CHINA ISSUES HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD OF THE UNITED STATES
People's Daily Online
3 March 2005
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200503/03/eng20050303_175402.html
China issued the Human Rights Record of the US in 2004 Thursday in
response to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004
issued by the US on Feb. 28.
Released by the Information Office of China's State Council, the
Chinese report listed a multitude of cases to show that serious
violations of human rights exist on the homeland of the United States.
"In 2004 the atrocity of US troops abusing Iraqi POWs exposed the dark
side of human rights performance of the United States. The scandal
shocked the humanity and was condemned by the international community.
It is quite ironic that on Feb. 28 of this year, the State Department
of the United States once again posed as the 'the world human rights
police' and released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for
2004. As in previous years, the reports pointed fingers at human
rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions (including
China) but kept silent on the US misdeeds in this field. Therefore,
the world people have to probe the human rights record behind the
Statue of Liberty in the United States," said the report.
The report reviewed the human rights record of the United States in
2004 from six perspectives: Life, liberty and Security of Person;
Political Rights and Freedom; Economic, social and Cultural Rights;
Racial Discrimination; Rights of Women and Children; and Infringement
of Human Rights of Foreign Nationals.
This is the sixth consecutive year that the Information Office of the
State Council has issued human rights record of the United States to
answer the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices issued annually
by the State Department of the United States.
American citizens are threatened by rampant violent crimes and severe
infringement of civil rights by law enforcement departments. "Violent
crimes pose a serious threat to people's lives," said the record.
The record quoted the Department of Justice of the United States on
Nov. 29, 2004 as saying that in 2003 residents aged 12 and above in
the United States came across about 24 million cases of crimes,
including 1.38 million violent crimes like murders and robberies,
averaging 475 cases per 100,000 people.
"Police violence and infringement of human rights by law enforcement
agencies also constitute a serious problem," the record said.
Chinese citizen Zhao Yan was handcuffed and severely beaten on Jul.
21, 2004 while she was in the United States on a normal business trip.
She suffered injuries in many parts of her body and serious mental
harm, according to the record.
Boasted as "a paragon of democracy," the United States' democracy is
actually manipulated by the rich and malpractice, said the record.
Referring the elections in the United States are in fact a contest of
money, the record said, the presidential and Congressional elections
last year cost nearly four billion US dollars, some one billion US
dollars or one third more than that spent in the 2000 elections.
According to the U.S.' official website http://www.opensecrets.org/
the 2004 presidential election has been listed as the most expensive
campaign in the country's history, with the cost jumping to 1.7
billion US dollars from 1 billion US dollars in 2000.
Poverty, hunger and homelessness have been haunting the United States,
the world richest country, according to the record.
The report stressed the United States refuses to ratify the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights and
took negative attitude to the economic, social and cultural rights of
the labourers.
According to the statistics released by the US Census Bureau in 2004,
the number of Americans in poverty has been climbing for three years.
It rose by 1.3 million year-on-year in 2003 to 35.9 million, the
report said.
Racial discrimination has been deeply rooted in the United States,
permeating into every aspects of society, said the record.
The record said that the coloured people are generally poor, with
living condition much worse than the white. According to a report of
The Guardian of Britain on Oct. 9, 2004, the average net assets of a
white family is 88,000 US dollars in 2002, 11 times of a family of
Latin American ancestry, or nearly 15 times of a family of African
ancestry.
Racial prejudice is ubiquitous in judicial fields, the record said.
The proportion for persons of coloured races being sentenced or being
imprisoned is notably higher than whites.
In accordance with a report published in Nov. 2004 by the US
Department of Justice, coloured races accounted for over 70 percent of
inmates in the United States.
The situation of American women and children was disturbing. The rates
of women and children physically or sexually victimized were high,
said the report.
According to FBI Crime Statistics, in 2003 the United States witnessed
93,233 cases of raping. Virtually 63.2 in every 100,000 women fell
victims. Statistics released by the US Labor Department in Jan. 2004
showed a woman who worked full time had the median earning of 81.1
percent of that for a man, according to the report.
In addition, according to the report, child poverty was a serious
problem. A story released from AP Washington on Oct. 12, 2004 said
that about 20 million children lived in "low-income working families"
- with barely enough money to cover basic needs.
Children were also victims of sex crimes. Every year about 400,000
children in the US were forced to engage in prostitution or other
sexual dealings on the streets.
The atrocity of US troops abusing Iraqi POWs exposed the infringement
of human rights of foreign nationals by the United States, said the
record.
According to US media like the Newsweek and the Washington Post, as
early as several years ago, in US forces' prisons in Afghanistan,
interrogators used various kinds of torture tools for acquiring
confession, causing many deaths.
The International Committee of the Red Cross believed that abuse of
detained Iraqis in the notorious Abu Ghraib Prison was not a single
case and it was a systematic behavior, the report said.
The report pointed out that the United States frequently commits
wanton slaughters during external invasions and military attacks. A
survey on Iraqi civilian deaths, based on the natural death rate
before the war, estimates that the US-led invasion might have led to
100,000 more deaths in the country, with most victims being women and
children.
Jointly designed and conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins
University, Columbia University and the Al-Mustansiriya University in
Baghdad, the survey also finds that the majority of the additional,
unnatural deaths since the invasion were caused by violence, while air
strikes from the coalition forces were the main factor to blame for
the violence-caused deaths.
Despite tons of problems in its own human rights, the United States
continues to stick to its belligerent stance, wantonly trample on the
sovereignty of other countries, and constantly stage tragedies of
human rights infringement in the world, said the report.
At last, the report said that the United States should reflect on its
erroneous behavior on human rights and take its own human rights
problems seriously instead of indulging itself in publishing the
"human rights country report" to censure other countries unreasonably.
*******
CUBA SUPPORT GROUP - IRELAND
15 Merrion Square Dublin 2 Tel: (01) 8436448 087 6785842
News & Views
1) Cuban Authorities Reject New US Sanctions against the Island
2) Fidel Castro condemns the destruction of the US war on Iraq
3) Cuba elected to UN Human Rights panel
1) Cuban Authorities Reject New US Sanctions against the Island
Havana, Feb 25 (Prensa Latina) Cuban authorities rejected Friday the
new US sanctions against the Caribbean island and published a
statement expressing their stance toward the new US restrictive
measures.
The text of the statement, written by Cuban Food Import Company
ALIMPORT, which has signed agreements and developed businesses with US
food staples producing companies, says as follows:
STATEMENT:
In a press release of February 22, 2005, the US Department of Treasury
announced its interpretation of the term "cash in advance" established
in the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act promulgated
by the US Congress in 2000.
According to the aforementioned release, the Cuban payments must be
received prior to the Cuba-bound cargoes are loaded on board ships in
the US, a departure from the existing practice of payments against
documents, with transfer of title to the Cuban buyer upon receipt of
cash payments by the American exporter. It should be noted that no
delay has been reported in the implementation of the existing
practice.
This measure would represent an escalation designed to hinder the
American food and agricultural sales that are already subjected to
numerous restrictions impose by US.
From December 2001 to February 23, 2005, ALIMPORT had signed on a
total of 4.9 million tones, worth US $1.255 billion, with freight
costs included. Cuba's timely cash payments of US $1.06 billion
for these purchases have helped meet the Cuban people's basic food
basket needs and conveyed a desire to see a normalization of relations
between both countries in an atmosphere of peace and friendship.
Year-to-date, Cuba has imported nearly 90 million dollars worth of
American supplies, with an estimate $250 million in contracts that
will be implemented in the 2005 balance. These numbers could grow
significantly as additional contracts are formalized in the course of
this year.
Under this procedure, goods earmarked to the Cuban people could
apparently be liable to court-ordered seizures in the US to satisfy
legally groundless claims against the Republic of Cuba. The measure
also ignores the will if the US Congress when it authorized the sales
to Cuba.
While the American suppliers are recognized for their quality products
and efficiency, to purchase from the US under the new measure would be
highly unreliable, for the direct food supplies to the Cuban
population, including its children, as well as the procurement of
input materials for other food items, would be placed at risk.
The US Treasury pronouncement places the American producers, carriers
and port operators in disadvantage and gives ground to competitors in
other foreign countries that are keen to develop the Cuban market.
ALIMPORT hereby reiterates its commitment to comply with its existing
contractual obligations and its readiness to make further purchases
from US businesses, subject to acceptable terms and conditions that
are consistent with the international business practices.
ALIMPORT ratifies its confidence in the American farmers,
businesspersons, shoppers, port operators, legislators and other
personalities who over the last three years have shown a will to
develop mutually advantageous trading relations with Cuba. ALIMPORT
renews its message of peace and friendship to the American people, as
well as its wishes for normalized relations between Cuba and the US.
ALIMPORT, February 25, 2005.
2) Fidel Castro condemns the destruction of the US war on Iraq
Fidel Castro called the US-led war in Iraq a "brutal bombing
spectacle," and criticised the Bush regime for its spending on the war
declaring that the billions of dollars being spent in Iraq "won't cure
AIDS won't cure any disease, won't cure anybody."
Meanwhile, Cuba exports thousands of doctors to countries in need.
"Mr. Bush put forth 15 billion dollars, and with that the world moved
on to the stage of the Iraq war, that brutal bombing spectacle. But
what is needed over there is a man, a revolutionary doctor who can
save lives. And that's what we have."
Castro also criticised several developed nations, especially those
who frequently voice concerns about human rights, for not doing more
in the field of health.
"All of Europe together couldn't pull together the 500 doctors and
health care workers we have over there," he said, referring to Cuban
teams of specialists working in Haiti.
Castro also advised those who continue to accuse Cuba of human rights
violations to focus on their own problems. "They'll have to shut their
mouths, or...start admitting that revolution can be just," he said
as he explained that socialism is certainly more humane than the
imperialism that is being imposed around the world.
3) Cuba elected to UN Human Rights panel
Cuba has been elected to a panel that will decide on the agenda for
the 2005 session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission. The
role of the "Working Group on Situations" panel is to rule on
the admissibility of complaints to be heard by the full 53-member
commission when it meets in Geneva.
*******
WHO WILL CARRY THE CAN FOR WASTE DEBACLE?
Friends of the Earth (Northern Ireland)
Press Release
Contact: John Woods
Direct: 028 9023 3636
Mobile: 07712 843 213
Home: 028 9042 4109
Who will carry the can for waste debacle?
As a House of Commons Committee published a damning report on Northern
Ireland's waste management strategy Friends of the Earth demanded that
heads should roll in the Department of the Environment (DOE).
In its report the Committee described the Government's leadership role
as "a lamentable performance", quoting the fact that it had taken four
years to set up a waste management steering group and had achieved
only four of fifteen leadership targets.
While DOE claimed in a written submission "very substantial progress
has been achieved" [3] on the strategy, the MPs countered with their
opinion that "overall [progress] has been slight"
MPs further warned that because of Northern Ireland's failure to
reduce waste going to landfill, a requirement under European law, we
could be in line to pay a substantial share of fines of £180
million per annum.
Describing planning and procurement processes as "seriously behind
schedule" the Committee says that "the prospect of meeting the first
Landfill Directive target in 2010 looks bleak."
In a salvo aimed at Doe's Planning Service the Committee said it
was "deeply concerned at the continuing delays in dealing with
planning applications for waste management facilities". MPs said "We
were astonished to learn that it can take up to ten years to get
planning permission for waste management facilities."
Friends of the Earth gave evidence in to the Committee and are quoted
extensively in the final report. Director (Northern Ireland) John
Woods said today: "This report spells out what we all know - that
since the launch of Northern Ireland's Waste Strategy five years ago
the DOE has failed to deliver on its own targets and those required
under European law. It is now time for individual civil service
managers to be held to account for what can only be described as
incompetence.
"The DOE has the powers it needs, included planning powers, to
implement a successful strategy. As we head towards an ever growing
waste crisis it is time to clear out the dead wood and employ managers
who are up to the job."
*******
WHAT'S ON
*
Tuesday, 8 March 2005
Public Lectures - All Welcome
Belfast Trades Council
Present a Public Lecture
"From Alabama to Jerusalem: End Apartheid - Support Civil Rights"
By Lenni Brenner, the renowned American human rights activist, civil
rights and racial equality campaigner.
Tuesday, 8th March 2005, 7.30pm
Transport House, High Street, Belfast
Lenni will also speak at a public meeting at QUB on Tuesday 8th at
1.00pm, Room 307 Peter Frogatt Bld.
Lenni Brenner was born into an Orthodox Jewish family. He became an
atheist at the age of 10 and a Marxist at 15. He has been involved
with the American Civil Rights Movement since the 1950s.
He was an anti-war activist from the first days of the Vietnam War,
speaking frequently at rallies in the Bay Area of San Francisco where
he was arrested several times. He met with Huey Newton, later founder
of the Black Panthers. Subsequently he worked with Kathy Cleaver and
Bobby Seale.
In 1968 he co-founded the National Association for Irish Justice, the
American affiliate of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.
In the 90s he and Kwame Ture (aka Stokely Carmichael), the legendary
"Black Power" leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee, co-founded the Committee against Zionism and Racism. They
also published The Anti-War Activist.
Brenner is the author of 4 books, Zionism in the Age of the Dictators,
The Iron Wall: Zionist Revisionism from Jabotinsky to Shamir, Jews in
America Today, and The Lesser Evil, a study of the Democratic Party.
He has written over 100 articles for many publications, including the
Amsterdam News, the Anderson Valley Advertizer, the Atlanta
Constitution, CounterPunch, the Jewish Guardian, the Nation, the
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Middle East Policy, Middle
East International, the Journal of Palestine Studies, the New
Statesman of London, Al-Fajr in Jerusalem and Dublin’s United
Irishman.
In 2002 he edited 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis.
It contains complete translations of many of the documents quoted in
Zionism in the Age of the Dictators and The Iron Wall. In 2004 he
edited Jefferson & Madison On Separation of Church and State:
Writings on Religion and Secularism.
Articles by Lenni Brenner
http://lennibrenner.eccmei.net/
Jewish Friends of Palestine
http://www.eccmei.net/j/
*
Tuesday, 8 March
Rural Community Network are currently organising our second annual
event for International Women's Day for Tuesday, 8 March. This will
take place in Omagh (venue to be confirmed) and the theme is again
centred on diversity in rural areas. If you wish further info or
would like to participate please contact Marion Weir or Anna Clarke at
RCN.
*******
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