The Plough
Volume 2, Number 50
22 August 2005
E-Mail Newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party
1) Editorial
2) Hunger Strike Commemoration Speech by Martin McMonagle
3) INLA Ceasefire Statement
4) Message from Members of the Families of the Cuban Five
5) Letters
6) What's On
*******
EDITORIAL
August 22nd is the seventh anniversary of the INLA ceasefire and to
those who have not yet read the ceasefire statement we re-print it
below. It is sobering to consider that since that ceasefire sectarian
violence has increased, not decreased, and all the armed loyalist
groups despite their so-called ceasefires have continued unhindered to
engage in violence. Innocent nationalists are prey to random acts of
violence.
Last weekend was a solemn occasion for republican socialists as we
honoured our comrades who died during the 1981 hunger strikes. A large
crowd gathered in Derry to pay tribute to those brave men. Former INLA
prisoner Martin McMonagle, a member of the Ard-Chomhairle of the IRSP,
gave the oration and we include it in this edition of The Plough. In
contrast to that occasion sectarian violence broke out in North
Belfast and Short Strand following the match between two Scottish
teams, Rangers and Celtic. That symbolises the sickness of Northern
society.
In Martin McMonagle's speech he very clearly spelt out the IRSP
position on sectarianism, clearly condemning attacks on the Protestant
Fountain area of Derry.
If more condemnations came from local leaderships on the ground in all
working class areas then perhaps the outbursts of sectarian violence
would diminish. Members of the Republican Socialist Movement in many
areas have reached out to transcend sectarian divisions. We have used
our influence to lessen sectarian tensions and turn working class
youths away from sectarian hatred.
Some socialist purists who theorise about working class unity sit on
their ideological asses and pontificate how equally sectarian
republicans and loyalists are. You will not see them in Ardoyne, Short
Strand, or Ballymena.
The sad reality is that a large percentage of the people who live in
the Northern state want to live "among their own." Benign apartheid is
already in existence. That's why the IRSP oppose the Good Friday
Agreement and oppose the continued existence of the Northern state.
What the INLA said seven years ago, "that the Good Friday Agreement
was not worth the sacrifices of the past 30 years and (we) are still
politically opposed to it," still holds today.
*******
HUNGER STRIKE COMMEMORATION SPEECH
[Delivered by Martin McMonagle]
Friends and Comrades,
I am honoured and humbled to be asked to speak here today at this
commemoration marking the 24th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike.
Occasions such as today are for us to gather and pay a humble homage
to the valour shown by our comrades who paid the ultimate sacrifice
for their beliefs. We have a duty as republicans who honour all of the
dead hunger strikers, to use today's commemoration to motivate
ourselves for the challenges of today's struggle.
It can never be over emphasised what a difficult period the 1981
hunger strike was for republicans. What at times can seem a world
away, or a dark day that has just come to pass, the world in which we
now find ourselves in hasn't changed that much in the intervening 24
years. The primary cause of the conflict remains, the British rule of
our country.
Our people are still oppressed, divided, and partitioned, and no
amount of spin can alter that fact. When we say 'our people' let us be
totally clear we refer to all the people on the island of Ireland -
Catholic, Protestant, dissenter, and migrant workers. Black
skinned, white skinned, brown skinned, gay or straight, they are all
our people.
Republican prisoners are still being mistreated in Maghaberry as the
British attempt to re-impose their failed policy of criminalisation.
From this platform today we salute the courage and determination of
those prisoners, who are fighting against injustice just as the hunger
strikers showed their resolve to defeat that same policy of
criminalisation.
There is a duty on all who honour the men of the '81 hunger strike and
who call themselves republican, especially if they are elected
representatives, to take up the case of the present day republicans in
jail. Let us hear not only about the Colombia Three or the Castlerea
republicans.
Let us also hear about the case of Dessie O'Hare and all the genuine
republicans in for political offences in Maghaberry. The Republican
Socialist Movement stands shoulder to shoulder with all prisoners. We
do not pick and choose.
The men of 1981 are a shining example to us all. Those were men who
selflessly laid down their lives for their comrades, true
revolutionaries motivated by feelings of true love for their class and
their country. They wanted nothing from the struggle except freedom
for their country and their class, for them there was no material gain
when they were lying with nothing but a dirty blanket in the hellhole
that was Long Kesh.
We in the Republican Socialist Movement salute their courage and
resolve in the face of massive oppression and brutality. They are the
people that our young people should be aspiring to emulate rather than
helping to demoralise their community through the ever increasing
anti-social behaviour. Joyriding, or more appropriately death driving,
as we've seen in Galliagh recently when a five year old child was
seriously injured by the criminal recklessness of these people. We can
tell these people that their communities have had enough and that
their activities are totally unacceptable. We cannot and will not
allow them to further demoralise the working class people.
I would also like to use this occasion to call for an end to all
sectarian attacks. These attacks in Ahoghill and the wider North
Antrim area are nothing more than ethnic cleansing and we call on all
political and community leaders to unequivocally condemn these attacks
and to do all they can to bring them to an end. Yesterday the RUC/PSNI
alluded to disputes between neighbours as the reasons why ordinary
Catholics were being targeted by UDA/UFF thugs. This clearly shows
that the RUC/PSNI are still the sectarian force that they always were
and again demonstrates that they can never be acceptable to
republicans.
I would equally condemn the sectarian attacks on people and property
in the Fountain Estate here in Derry. There can be no equivocation.
These attacks are wrong and anti-republican in nature. They go against
everything that the hunger strikers fought and died for. There should
be no hiding places within republican communities for sectarian bigots
and we demand that their activities cease immediately.
Let us state clearly that sectarian actions and words are the weapons
of the oppressor. Sectarianism is a tool to divide workers, spreads
hatred and fear, and plays into the hands of all who rob, steal, and
exploit the working class. What better way to keep wages down than by
pitting worker against worker using sectarian hatred. Sectarianism is
the weapon of the bosses. No republican worthy of the name can be
sectarian.
In honouring in particular our three dead hunger strikers, but also
honouring their seven dead IRA comrades, this movement at times like
this needs to reflect on what has been gained and what has been lost.
In the light of that it is clear that radical republicans need to
change tactics to stay relevant. Hence the turn by the Republican
Socialist Movement towards political action on the ground. There is
much to be done. Comrades and volunteers today need to turn to the
class. That's now the battlefield.
And in turning to the working class we maintain the core principles
upon which this movement was formed; the same core political values
laid by Connolly, forwarded by Seamus Costello and many others. We
stand by the same principles that Kevin Lynch, Michael Devine, and
Patsy O'Hara stood for in 1981.
It is our duty today to find ways to present these same principles in
a clear, relevant manner to the Irish people in as many spheres of
society as possible.
We must as a movement survey the tactics available in order to do this
and use those that serve our purposes best. Presently armed struggle
is not a viable means to achieve political goals. Having said, we do
not however see a necessity to disarm the working class. Today, we do
not see the necessity in handing in weapons as bargaining chips in
fruitless political negotiations.
For let us be totally clear the current peace process is going 90
miles an hour down a dead end street. We argued from the outset that
the Good Friday Agreement not only copper-fastened partition, itself a
crime against the Irish working class, but institutionalised
sectarianism. Those who argued about the progressive nature of the
Good Friday Agreement and who say it is a stepping stone to a Republic
could not be more wrong. Ahoghill, North Antrim, The Fountain, North
Belfast, the Lower Shankill - these and many more areas stand
testimony to the sectarian nature of the state. The GFA only
perpetuates, not destroys, sectarianism.
UVF thugs walk the streets with impunity in an arm-in-arm relationship
with the PSNI/RUC. Unionist leaders mutter softly about loyalist
attacks on Catholics and justify these attacks by roaring, shouting,
and blaming a republican march in a nationalist area of Ballymena. And
these are just the tip of the iceberg. In July alone there were over
60 incidents of loyalist murders, intimidation, petrol bombing, pipe
bombing, attacks on Catholic schools, churches, and brutal assaults on
individual nationalists.
Against such a background how can any republican accept that only our
enemies should be armed? We do not accept the monopoly of force being
granted to our enemies - British colonialism and Irish capitalism.
Such actions would mean us accepting a position of blame for the
recent period of armed struggle. The INLA, and for that matter the
different IRAs, were never a cause of the conflict here. The cause of
the conflict here was a direct result of 800 years of British
imperialism here in Ireland. Patsy O'Hara, Michael Devine and Kevin
Lynch as INLA volunteers were not a cause of the strife here. We
refuse to make them so with our actions today.
Our so-called government in the South mocks Irish neutrality by
allowing the USA war machine to use Shannon Airport as a stage post on
the way to crush, not so called "terrorists", but the Iraqi people.
From this platform we express full solidarity with the armed Iraqi
resistance.
The IRSP and the working class from across Ireland will not be
lectured and moralised at by either the British or US governments,
whose hands drip with the blood of innocent Iraqis. To Britain, to
America, our message is clear: Out of Ireland, Out of Iraq, No War but
the Class War!
In order to move from this period of setback that republicanism is now
in to one of progress we need to identify with the day-to-day
aspirations of our class. While the working class is divided you can
be sure that the supporters of capitalism in Ireland are not. North
and south of the border the dismantling of the public services
continues. Bin charges, water charges, medical charges, etc. etc. etc.
All of the main parties seem to have settled for the neo-liberal
economic model imposed by the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund. The trade union leadership has settled for a cosy
partnership with the bosses and the government. That is not our way.
We support all manifestations of class resistance against
exploitation. In particular we send our warmest greetings to the
Rossport Five who are jailed by Shell. This multi-national is using
Irish courts to crush resistance to their greed.
We believe that the destruction of the existing sectarian states on
the island and the creation of a socialist society is the only way to
overcome sectarian divisions, end poverty and discrimination, and
awaken the real human potential of all our citizens. Our task in the
Republican Socialist Movement is to radicalise the working class and
for that we need a strong working class revolutionary party. All of
you here today can contribute to that by getting involved in the daily
struggles of our class.
All socialists and republicans who seek a way out of the impasse that
the broad republican tradition is in have a choice before them. Repeat
the mistakes of the past and remain disillusioned or else throw your
weight into the struggle for class and national liberation like Patsy
O'Hara, Kevin Lynch, and Michael Devine. Take the class road with the
IRSP, ditch sterile nationalism, and put your energies and efforts
into the radicalisation of the Irish working class. It is the only
viable alternative for republicans and socialists and it is called
socialism.
On to the Socialist Republic!
*******
INLA CEASEFIRE STATEMENT
22 August 1998
We have accepted the advice and analysis of the Irish Republican
Socialist Party that the conditions for armed struggle do not exist.
The Irish National Liberation Army has now shifted from the position
of defence and retaliation to the position of complete ceasefire. We
have instructed all our units to desist from offensive action from
noon today. The Irish National Liberation Army is now on ceasefire.
We take this historic opportunity to pay tribute to our fallen
comrades who gave their lives in the struggle. We wish to praise first
the courage, loyalty, and commitment of our volunteers. For nearly 25
years they have been in the forefront of the anti-imperialist struggle
and have upheld the principles of republican socialism. In armed
combat, in prison protest on the blanket, on hunger strikes, in prison
escapes, on picket lines, and in mass demonstrations, they have at all
times upheld the rights of the whole of the Irish people for
self-determination.
To the wider public who through support and solidarity in such
committees as the Relatives Action Committees, the National H-Block
and Armagh Committees, Relatives for Justice, and other solidarity
committees around the world, we thank them for the support they gave
to our prisoners. To those prisoners in jail in Portlaoise, Long Kesh,
and Maghaberry, we offer our heartfelt thanks for their loyalty and
steadfastness throughout the years. Though scorned, slandered, and
derided, marginalised and demonised, they stuck by the principles of
republican socialism. We salute their courage.
We also acknowledge and praise the role played by the families,
friends, and supporters of our members. Through no fault of their own
they have had to suffer much over the years. We applaud them and
fervently wish they never have to endure such suffering again.
In calling this cessation we acknowledge that the political situation
has changed since the formation of the INLA. We recognise that armed
struggle can never be the only option for revolutionaries. In the new
conditions prevailing it is only right to respond. Those conditions
demand a ceasefire.
Although we for our part believe that the Good Friday Agreement was
not worth the sacrifices of the past 30 years and are still
politically opposed to it, the people of the island of Ireland have
spoken clearly as to their wishes. The working classes have born the
brunt of the consequences of the war for the past three decades. They
have also suffered repression, social deprivation, unemployment, and
poverty. We recognise their desire for a cessation of violence
expressed through the referendum and for a peaceful future. The onus
is now on all political parties, governments, and observers to ensure
that the democratic wishes of the Irish people are upheld. This
includes all armed groups. Therefore we have taken this ceasefire
decision to take account of the people's desires.
Now we turn to the consequences of our part in the war. We acknowledge
and admit faults and grievous errors in our prosecution of the war.
Innocent people were killed and injured and at times our actions as a
liberation army fell far short of what they should have been. For this
we as republicans, as socialists, and as revolutionaries do offer a
sincere, heartfelt, and genuine apology. It was never our intention,
desire, or wish to become embroiled in sectarian or internecine
warfare. We accept responsibility for our part in actions that
hindered the struggle. Those actions should never have happened.
We have however nothing to apologise for in taking the war to the
British and their loyalist henchmen. Those who preyed on the blood of
nationalists paid a heavy price. However the will of the Irish people
is clear. It is now time to silence the guns and allow the working
classes the time and opportunity to advance their demands and their
needs. In the new conditions prevailing, we will support the politics
of the IRSP, who have our full confidence and support. In the words of
our founder Seamus Costello when speaking about his class, the Irish
working class, "We are nothing and we shall be everything."
*******
MESSAGE FROM MEMBERS OF THE FAMILIES OF THE CUBAN FIVE
11 August 2005
In the name of the five Cubans unjustly imprisoned in the United
States and their families, we want to share with all our friends in
solidarity with us, the happiness that we feel on receiving the
verdict from the court in Atlanta and the justice it brings after a
long and anguished wait. Our sincere appreciation for all the support
and unconditional backing for the cause. It was only possible with
the constant work of all of you that had a bearing on the spreading
of the truth so that the American people and the world now knows
about violations that were committed against them. The joyfulness
cannot put a brake on our actions, now more than ever we need the
unity and the strength of everybody to make sure that the victory
will become a reality as soon as possible.
With all our respect and gratitude,
Magali Llort, Irma Sehweret, Mirtha Rodriguez, Carmen Nordelo, Rosa
Aurora Freijanes, Olga Salanueva, Adriana Perez, Elizabeth Palmeiro,
Antonio Guerrero (son), Irma Gonzalez (daughter)
*******
LETTERS
*
Dear Editor,
Relatives for Justice have launched an online petition of support for
the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, shot dead by the London
Metropolitan police. This initiative has come from families who
themselves lost loved ones to Britain's policy of shoot-to-kill who
wish to show their solidarity and support for the de Menezes family.
Please pass this information on to others who may be interested.
Details on http://www.relativesforjustice.com/petition/.
Thank you.
*******
WHAT'S ON
*
Wednesday, 24 August
Next meeting of Belfast branch of Irish Palestinian Solidarity
Ccampaign, 7.30pm.
If anyone has any items for the agenda will you please let me know
asap.
Proposed Agenda
Minutes of last meeting held on 18th July
Matters arising
Reports back from sub groups
· Boycott
· School Twinning
Finance Report
Nat Exec Committee meeting report (AGM 1st Oct) Belfast branch AGM -
date and agenda (work plan for year) AOB
Short report on the National Committee Meeting, Saturday Aug 13th in
Dublin, at 1pm.
Office has now been re-established in central Dublin.
Post of co-ordinator has been advertised - part-time. Money for costs
to be covered by annual membership fees and direct debit monthly
donations from supporters. Out of more than 1000 members only 70
current membership subscriptions.
Wide-ranging discussion on the boycott campaign strategy and tactics.
The need to get a clear statement from Palestinians on this was again
re-iterated. The PNC to be chased about this since the PNA seem
unable to provide this. Document on the cultural boycott to be drawn
up for distribution to festivals etc. Ireland wide work Programme for
coming year on cultural, sporting, and academic and trade boycott to
be drawn up at AGM.
AGM takes place on Oct 1st.
Main national events for the rest of 2005.
· Fundraising Dublin Concert
· IPSC Christmas Card - new design being looked at
· A full page ad in the Irish Times to be sponsored by prominent
people in Ireland? -decision deferred - National Ploughing
Championships in Mogeely, Cork,
Sept 28th-30th - stall
· Fleadh Ceoil na hEireann - Letterkenny 26th Aug - stall
Affiliations, particularly with Trades Unions, and prominent
individuals to be pursued as mandated by the last AGM.
Branch being set up in Derry. One already established in Fermanagh,
which is working with the Sligo branch.
*
Thursday, August 25
Damien Dempsey does a fundraiser for the West Against Racism Network
A rare once off exceptional and sensational night of ceol & craic with
Damien Dempsey plus Fergus, Brian, Meabh, Conor, Terry, Decy &
Deirdre.
Roddy McCorley Club, Moyard House, Glen Road, 8.30pm, doors open
8.30pm.
Tickets Only £10.00 - tickets going fast!
Contact Flair Campbell 90 292013 or campbellphil@yahoo.co.uk for
tickets.
*
Friday-Sunday, 26-28 August
Seventeenth Desmond Greaves Summer School 2005
A weekend of political thought and discussion from Friday to Sunday,
26-28 August 2005, at the Irish Labour History Society premises,
Beggars Bush, Haddington Rd., Dublin 4.
Friday August 26th at 7.30pm: The Prospects for the Left in Ireland
Eugene McCartan, General Secretary, Communist Party of Ireland
Chair: Robert Ballagh
Saturday August 27th at 2.30 pm: Desmond Greaves as an historian
Mary Cullen and Brian Hanley will evaluate Desmond Greaves's
historical writings and his contribution as an historian
Mary Cullen is an historian and research associate at St Patrick's
College Maynooth, and TCD
Dr.Brian Hanley is a Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Modern
History, NUI, Maynooth, and author of The IRA 1926-36 and other books
Chair: Kevin McCorry
Sunday August 28th at 11.00 am: The Politics of the Peace Process
Owen Bennett will examine the current position of the Northern peace
process and the views of its supporters and critics, and will
consider its relevance for the future of Irish Republicanism
Chair: Finian Mc Grath TD.
Sunday August 28th at 2.30 pm: A forum on C. Desmond Greaves -
personal reminiscences by some who knew him
Gerard Curran, who has been a member of the Connolly Association
since 1952 and is former Literary Editor of the Irish Democrat,
London, which Greaves edited from 1948 to 1988;
Helga MacLiam, Dublin, with whose family Greaves used often stay
when visiting Ireland;
Bernard Morgan, long-time member of the Connolly Association,
Liverpool, Greaves's native city;
Sean Redmond, Dublin trade union official and general secretary of
the Connolly Association in the 1960s;
Chair: Anthony Coughlan, Desmond Greaves's Literary Executor
Full School E15; Individual sessions E5; Unwaged half-price;
Enquiries to Frank Keoghan, School Director, at 25 Shanowen Crescent,
Dublin 9; Tel.: 00-353-1-8423076
__________
How to get there: Buses 5,7,7a or 8 from O'Connell Bridge, Dublin,
alighting at the first stop in Northumberland Road, Ballsbridge.
Haddington Road is first on the left, parallel to the canal.
__________
C. DESMOND GREAVES (1913-1988)
C. Desmond Greaves, whose work and writings inspired the foundation
of this annual Summer School, was one of Ireland's leading labour
historians. He was author of The Life and Times of James Connolly,
Liam Mellows and the Irish Revolution, Sean O'Casey: Politics and
Art, Wolfe Tone and the Irish Nation, History of the Irish Transport
and General Workers Union: the Formative Years, The Irish Crisis, and
two books of verse, Four Letter Verses and the Mountbatten Award, and
Elephants Against Rome.
Desmond Greaves held that the peaceful way to end the partition of
Ireland was to secure maximum equality between Protestants and
Catholics in the Six Counties, thereby removing any rational basis
for unionism as an ideology that justified domination over Catholics,
and opening a way for northern Protestants to rediscover in time the
political implications of the common Irishness they share with their
Catholic and non-Protestant fellow countrymen and women.
As an activist in the Connolly Association, London, and editor from
1948 to 1988 of its monthly newspaper, The Irish Democrat, he
pioneered the idea of a campaign for civil rights as the way to
shatter unionist political domination, which was taken up by the
1960s northern Civil Rights Movement. He held that it was essential
for Ireland to win allies internationally for any moves to end
partition and that organised British public opinion, especially as
embodied in the British labour and trade union movement, which the
Irish community in Britain could significantly influence, was the
most important such potential ally.
He believed that in the era of the EU and the near-global domination
of transnational capital, the most important political task for
democrats and the labour movement was to join in an international
movement in defence of the nation state as the fundamental locus of
political democracy, and the only mechanism which history has evolved
for imposing social controls on private capital.
*
Thursday, 25 August and Friday 26 August
Coiste na nIarchimí
Scoil Samhraidh/Summer School
Ti Chulainn Cultural Centre
Mullaghbawn
Co Armagh
25/26 August 2005
Irish Republicanism: can it be militant without being militaristic?
Thursday 25 August
7.00 p.m. Official opening of the summer school by Pat McGinn,
Mayor of Newry and Mourne Council
7.30 p.m. Martin Ferris Sinn Féin TD, Chair: Mike Ritchie
Friday 26 August
10.30 a.m. Mary Lou McDonnell Sinn Féin MEP, Tommy McKearney former
IRA prisoner, Gerry Kelly Sinn Féin MLA, Chair: Laurence McKeown
1.00 p.m. Lunch
1.30 p.m. Historical walk and talk
3.00 p.m. Agnes Maillot lecturer at Dublin City University, Denis
O'Hearn lecturer at Queen's University, Mike Ritchie Director of
Coiste na nIarchimí, John Gray curator of the Linen Hall Library,
Margaret Ward political historian, Chair: Rosie McCorley
A chairde,
I am delighted to invite you once again to south Armagh to the third
summer school organised by Coiste na nIarchimí. The summer school
offers you, the participants, an opportunity to reflect on, discuss
and debate topical issues and explore the opportunities and obstacles
to building a nation rooted in respect for diversity and committed to
justice and peace.
The theme of the summer school, Irish Republicanism: can it be
militant without being militaristic? is very much a live topic at the
moment, viewed much differently depending upon your political outlook.
As an organisation working proactively on behalf of former republican
prisoners, their families and displaced people, you could say we have
been 'militant' in our refusal to accept the status quo and the
discriminatory barriers that currently impact upon the constituency we
represent and deny them full citizenship. In that sense we are
carrying on the tradition from the prisons where republicans displayed
their militancy, as opposed to their militarism, in a host of ways -
the burning of Long Kesh, the blanket protest, the hunger
strikes, the escapes, the education programmes, the handicrafts, the
lobbying, the legal cases. This was not militancy for its sake alone
but to challenge oppressive regimes, strive for intellectual and
physical freedom and to create a better way to live with one another.
Our challenge today is to continue that work at a societal level in an
equally militant, but not militaristic, manner.
I look forward to seeing you in Mullaghbawn.
Mike Ritchie
Director Coiste na n-Iarchimi.
Coiste na n-Iarchimi is the umbrella organisation of the republican
ex-prisoner network throughout Ireland. Since its establishment in
1998 it has played a key role in highlighting and lobbying against the
social, economic, legal and societal barriers faced by political
ex-prisoners and their families.
Coiste na n-Iarchimi has gained a reputation for developing radical
and challenging projects which foster greater interaction between
republican ex-prisoners and all other sectors of Irish society. This
summer school is organised under one such project entitled
'Processes of Nation Building'.
*
Saturday, 17 September
The Irish Republican Socialist Party will be hosting a fundraiser on
the 17th of September 8.30pm in the Ardee Public House (off Cork
Street) Dublin. Admission is 5 euro and will be strictly ticket only.
There will be a benefit draw on the night concisting of a selection of
prison craft with proceeds going to Republican Socialist POWs. For
more details contact DublinIRSP@hotmail.com.
*
Camp Havana Glencolmcille
From Friday 16th to Sunday 18th September 2005 over 100 men, women and
children from every corner of this island - and indeed from much
further away - will gather in Glencolmcille / Donegal. They will
come in busses, by car, bicycle or on foot.
They will erect CAMP HAVANA and walk to the top of Slieve League.
Some will take the challenging hike across the whole ridge,
accompanied by a trained mountain guide. Some will use a more relaxed
walking route and some will only go as far as the bus can take them.
All of them will enjoy Europe's highest sea - cliffs which are
surrounded by scenery incomparable to anywhere else on this earth.
Of course we are not just gathering to admire spectacular scenery. We
will get together in what is going to be the biggest show of
friendship with people from another island, Cuba, ever to happen on
these shores.
We are making this effort mainly because five young men are serving
lengthy prison sentences in the USA, guilty of nothing but the attempt
to stop terrorism; murderous and destructive acts which have killed
over 3,500 civilians in Cuba - more than the troubles in Northern
Ireland.
These men went to Miami to try and stop the people who orchestrate
this terrorism and ended up in US prisons. They have spent months in
isolation cells; their wives, kids and relations have been denied
visits.
The Miami 5 are victims of one of the most brutal human rights
violations in recent history, victims of breaches of both
international and US law.
We want freedom for these innocent men!
With our sponsored mountain walk and the large meeting / concert on
the evening of Saturday September 17th we will achieve;
- Massive publicity and increased awareness about the case.
- Pressure on political representatives (TDs, MPs, MEPs) to act
as opposed to talk.
- Raising of much needed financial support for the campaign and for
another urgent aid project in Cuba
- Pushing forward the world-wide campaign to free the Miami 5
and strengthen the links between campaigners from various countries
(At this very early stage we already know that there will be people
from England, the USA, Austria, Germany and Denmark coming to show
their support).
We can and we will free the Miami 5!
Nobody in this world is going to do it for us!
Lend us your support!
Join Camp Havana Glencolmcille 2005!
Get in touch with us now!
On behalf of the organisers of Camp Havana
Yours fraternally
Hermann Glaser-Baur
Phone us at: 028 77742655 (from Republic of Ireland: 04877742655)
E-mail: yohoocamphavanaglen@yahoo.ie
*
*******
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*
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Monday 22 August 2005
Friday 19 August 2005
The Plough Vol 02 No 49
The Plough
Volume 2, Number 49
19 August 2005
E-Mail Newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party
1) Editorial
2) Remembering the 1981 Hunger Strikers
3) IRSCNA Statement for Hunger Strike Commemoration
4) Solidarity from DHKC
5) Statement from the Free Dessie O'Hare Campaign
6) Covering Up Sectarian Attacks
7) Suicide Treatment Questioned
8) Left Republicanism and the Good Old Days
9) Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign
10) Message from Members of the Families of the Cuban Five
11) What's On
*******
EDITORIAL
On Wednesday 17th August Thomas Devlin was buried by his family. He
was killed by members of the UVF from Mount Vernon. He was stabbed
five times in the back as he made his way home with two friends from
a garage in North Belfast where they had bought sweets and crisps.
The UVF organisation has killed over 30 people since it declared a
ceasefire. No one has been prosecuted for these murders because
police informers are two a penny inside the UVF. The police are
reluctant to say that Thomas's death was sectarian.
Interestingly enough despite the widespread intimidation of
Catholics, including repeated attacks on schools and churches in
Antrim, the PSNI/RUC are still in denial about the sectarian nature
of the attempts by loyalists to drive out the last few remaining
Catholic families in Ahoghill. Indeed they attempt to imply that some
of the intimidation is part of neighbourhood dispute. This is the
same PSNI that allowed three hundred UVF and UDA members to drive out
families from their homes in East Belfast without one arrest. A
worker, allegedly a LVF supporter or member, is gunned down in Sandy
Row in broad daylight by the UVF. The LVF/UVF feud has exercised the
minds of the unionist politicians more that the ongoing campaign
against Catholics. Unionist politicians sit on forums, commissions
and god knows what with the leadership of the loyalist gun gangs.
All of the above goes to show the inherently sectarian nature of the
state here. Sectarianism has been nurtured and fed by the British
ruling class as an instrument of policy. The creation of sectarian
divisions is a well practiced policy whether in Iraq today, India in
the early part of the 20th century or Africa in the 19th century.
We in the IRSP have always adhered to the proposition that the
destruction of the existing sectarian states on the island and the
creation of a socialist society was the only way to transcend the
sectarian divisions, end poverty and discrimination and awaken the
real human potential of all our citizens. That has been one of the
reasons we have been and are critical of the Good Friday Agreement.
We argued from the outset that that agreement was not only copper-
fastening partition, itself a crime against the working classes,
but it institutionalised sectarianism. There is no incentive on
elected politicians to stand up to the sectarian pressures from their
own communities. Indeed many of those politicians are actively
encouraging sectarianism. There is a duty and responsibility of us
all active in politics in Ireland to stand up to sectarianism no
matter where it comes from.
Those who argued about the progressive nature of the Good Friday
Agreement and who say it is a stepping stone to a Republic could not
be more wrong. Ahoghill, North Antrim, The Fountain, North Belfast,
the Lower Shankill - these and many more areas stand testimony to the
sectarian nature of the state. The GFA only perpetuates, not
destroys, sectarianism. There is another way and it is called
socialism.
*******
REMEMBERING THE 1981 HUNGER STRIKERS
A spokesperson for the Irish Republican Socialist Party in Derry
urged all those who supported the demands of the hungerstrikers in
1981 to turn out in large numbers this Saturday to remember the men
who gave all they had in the 1981 hunger strike.
The prison protest in 1981 was a very harrowing time for republicans
as we watched our comrades' lives ebb away in the H-Blocks.
Republicans today are forever in awe of the courage and determination
of all those who stood firm in Long Kesh and Armagh Gaol at that
time. For it is their example that guides us in 2005 as we strive to
build a new society in Ireland, free from British imperialism and
free from foreign and native capitalism. A society that respects
diversity and difference.
This Saturday is the 24th anniversary of the death of the tenth and
last man to die on hunger strike, INLA Volunteer Michael Devine from
Derry.
The Irish Republican Socialist Movement will be holding a march in
Derry on Saturday 20th August.
The march will begin at the Rosemount Factory at 2pm and make its way
from there to the graves of the two Derry city men who died during
the 1981 protest, Patsy O'Hara and Micky Devine, at the Republican
Socialist Plot in the city cemetery.
Speakers will include Martin McMonagle from the IRSP and Margaret
McNutt, whose five-year-old son Michael was seriously injured by
deathriders recently in Galliagh. Margaret McNutt will use the
platform to call for support for the campaign to rid the scourge of
joyriding from the streets of Derry.
Anyone requiring further details should contact the IRSP in Derry on
02871 262999 or email derryirsp@hotmail.com.
*******
IRSCNA STATEMENT FOR HUNGER STRIKE COMMEMORATION
On this the 24th anniversary of the death of Irish National
Liberation Army Volunteer Michael Devine on hunger strike, the Irish
Republican Socialist Committees of North America send our greetings
to the national hunger strike commemoration taking place today in
Derry.
Ten brave men, including INLA Volunteers Patsy O'Hara, Kevin Lynch,
and Michael Devine, died on hunger strike in 1981 not just for their
rights as Irish soldiers and political prisoners, but for the
liberation of Ireland from over 800 years of British imperialism and
the liberation of the Irish working class from the shackles of
capitalism.
While much has changed 24 years later, the struggle for national and
class liberation continues. Let the example of the hunger strike
martyrs inspire us as we continue the long struggle which they
proudly took part in. Let no one say that their deaths were in vain.
The best way we can honour their memories and sacrifices is to never
give up as we boldly go forward in our struggle for the liberation of
the Irish working class from the shackles of capitalism and
imperialism.
As Patsy O'Hara said: Let the fight go on!
*******
SOLIDARITY FROM DHKC
1981 ten brave men lost their lives for maintenance of humanity. 1981
they became immortal. The brave comrades became a symbol for
resistance. They are living in our hearts and our struggles. The ten
comrades became an example for generations of fighters, thousands of
kilometers away. They were our examples in the death fast 1984, 1996
and now in the death fast, which takes place unbroken since 2000.
Against the attacks from the state of Turkey 1984 four comrades
became immortal on the way, which the hunger strikes had paved. Also
1996 twelve comrades fended the state of Turkey by becoming immortal.
Now since 2000 we experience the bulkiest attack of the state of
Turkey. They want to isolate the political prisoners and the whole
population. The ten brave Irish comrades still give us strength in
fighting against isolation and repression. We will win on the way,
which was paved by the brave Irish comrades. 120 fallen comrades are
the guarantee for the victory.
Finally I would like to preserve the memory of the brave fallen
comrades in the hunger strike 1981. They mean a lot for us.
They will forever live in our struggles.
Fraternal greetings,
Nermin on behalf of DHKC International
isolation@post.com
*******
STATEMENT FROM THE FREE DESSIE O'HARE CAMPAIGN
http://www.irsm.org/irsp/free_dessie/
On Tuesday afternoon, eleven activists of the Free Dessie O'Hare
Campaign occupied the top security Deptartment of Justice on St.
Stephen's Green. The government building, which is rigged with high
tech surveillance equipment, is manned by a 24 hour Garda presence
inside and outside the main entrance. Activists had been watching the
building for a number of weeks and noting Garda shift routines. It was
noticed that one particular female officer always parked her car
opposite the government building and five to ten minutes before her
shift was finished would make her way across the busy road and sit in
her car until her replacement took his position guarding the main
entrance of the government building.
It was decided that Tuesday afternoon at 2pm would be the best time
opportunity to gain access to the building. At 11am an activist of the
Free Dessie O'Hare Campaign confirmed that the same Garda was on duty,
so we all arranged to meet in St. Stephen's Green at 1:45. All
activists made there way over to the park entrance facing the
government building. At 1:55 the female Garda keeping to her routine
left her post and made her way over to her car so as to sit and wait
for her replacement to come on duty. Activists bolted out of the park
armed with banners and posters and made their way across the road and
entered through the revolving doors of the government building to the
shock and dismay of the two receptionists. It was immediately made
known to them that it was a peaceful protest organized to draw
attention to the continued refusal of the Irish government to release
Dessie O'Hare.
At this time the extremely agitated female Garda came barging into the
reception and roared with a number of expletives that we must have
been waiting for her to get into her car. She demanded that we leave
at once, that it was a government building, and that we were breaking
the law. I interceded to calm her down and told her to take a chill
pill, that we were not going to be lectured on law breaking
particularly when the Irish government has by its actions totally
ignored a high court ruling which recognized Dessie O'Hare as a
qualifying prisoner under the terms of the GFA. This seemed to make
her worse, she started roaring and screaming at us to get out. I
refused her request and told her that we were engaging in a peaceful
protest. She stormed out of the building to get reinforcements. One of
the activists took a number of photos with a digital camera and then
left the building to put the camera offsite.
A few minutes later a number of Garda reinforcements arrived and we
took a collective decision to leave the building and continue our
protest outside. Six Special Branch men who proceeded to take names
and addresses of all Free Dessie O'Hare activists soon joined us.
After an hour we called a halt to the protest and decided to split up
in pairs so as to distract the attentions of the Special Branch. Not
long after I received a phone call from wheelchair-bound Eddie
McGarrigle, co-coordinator of the Free Dessie O'Hare Campaign, who
explained that he and a female activist were stopped and forcibly
searched by the Special Branch who demanded that they hand over the
digital camera. Eddie told them that he or his companion didn't have a
camera on his possession. They then physically lifted him up to see
was he sitting on the camera and removed the back cushion of his
wheelchair to search for any hidden objects. When they couldn't find
anything they soon left to harass other activists.
For the attention of the Special Branch, photographs of yesterday's
event are below.
http://www.morrigan.net/irsm/dessieohare001.jpg
http://www.morrigan.net/irsm/dessieohare002.jpg
http://www.morrigan.net/irsm/dessieohare003.jpg
http://www.morrigan.net/irsm/dessieohare004.jpg
http://www.morrigan.net/irsm/dessieohare005.jpg
http://www.morrigan.net/irsm/dessieohare006.jpg
*******
COVERING UP SECTARIAN ATTACKS
The IRSP in North Belfast condemn both Peter Hain and the PSNI for
refusing to acknowledge that the murder of Thomas Devlin in North
Belfast was sectarian. Sectarian murder is not motiveless murder. If
an Asian or black person was killed similar circumstances would they
not say it was racist!
For 30 years we have endured this type of random sectarian attack and
murder, for the Brits not to acknowledge Thomas's murder as a
sectarian murder adds insult to injury. Sectarianism needs to be
confronted in North Belfast, the present Brit policy of pretending it
doen't exist on one hand and on the other funding and resourcing the
very division that in the end is responsible for the death of young
people like Thomas Devlin.
The IRSP in North Belfast send our condolences to his Mum and Dad at
this difficult time and urge all young people to exercise caution and
vigilance when out at night.
*******
SUICIDE TREATMENT QUESTIONED
The IRSP in North Belfast are calling on the North and West Belfast
Health Trust to reveal how many of the young victims of suicide were
being treated by a certain type of anti-depressant that have been
subject to drug alerts in Britain and America.
The anti-depressant grouped as SSRIs, which include the brands Seroxat
and Prozac, have been subject to a number of alerts of dangers to
users, especially the young. The Department of Health set up a review
of SSRIs in May 2003, the terms of reference included "to consider
the currently available evidence with regard to behavioural
disorders, particularly suicidal behaviour, suicide attempt and
suicide and a casual association with SSRIs."
The Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. in 2004 issued the
following alert: "Antidepressant Use in Children, Adolescents, and
Adults - Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asks manufacturers of all
antidepressant drugs to include in their labeling a boxed warning and
expanded warning statements that alert health care providers to an
increased risk of suicidality (suicidal thinking and behavior) in
children and adolescents being treated with these agents, and
additional information about the results of pediatric studies."
In June 2005 the FDA further warned "FDA Public Health Advisory -
Suicidality in Adults Being Treated with Antidepressant Medications -
Several recent scientific publications suggest the possibility of an
increased risk for suicidal behavior in adults who are being treated
with antidepressant medications. Even before these reports became
available, the FDA began a complete review of all available data to
determine whether there is an increased risk of suicidality (suicidal
thinking or behavior) in adults being treated with antidepressant
medications. It is expected that this review will take a year or
longer to complete. In the meantime, FDA is highlighting that:
• Adults being treated with antidepressant medications,
particularly those being treated for depression, should be watched
closely for worsening of depression and for increased suicidal
thinking or behavior. Close watching may be especially important early
in treatment, or when the dose is changed, either increased or
decreased.
• Adults whose symptoms worsen while being treated with
antidepressant drugs, including an increase in suicidal thinking or
behavior, should be evaluated by their health care professional."
The IRSP believe that the North and West Belfast Health Trust should
make this information available to the general public, if these drugs
are at the core of the recent huge upsurge in suicides patients have a
right to know. The suicide of a family member is difficult enough for
loved ones to come to terms with, feelings of guilt and blame are not
uncommon in those bereaved, If these type of drugs, SSRIs are
suspected by the medical profession of increasing the likelihood of
suicide they should be withdrawn from the market and replaced by
professional counseling and psychiatric treatment for patients
suffering from depression.
*******
LEFT REPUBLICANISM AND THE GOOD OLD DAYS
(Below is Liam 0'Ruairc's response to criticism of his contribution
to The Plough Vol 2, No 47, by Peter Urban. Urban's criticisms can be
found on the Aontach discussion site for those interested in wasting
an hour or two in cyberspace.)
A few comments on Peter's reaction to the Weekly Worker debate.
"To embrace 'left republican' as an apt description of the IRSP is to
allow the IRSP to retreat from its tradition of revolutionary
Socialism."
Lenin warned against "painting Nationalism red". I think that there
is a clear danger of painting Republicanism and Republican Socialism
as 'redder' than they actually are. For example, it is typical of
Republican Socialists to remove any evidence which does not fit the
image of Connolly as a revolutionary Marxist, i.e. Connolly in 1916
asking his wife Lily Reynolds, a Protestant, to convert to
Catholicism or the ambiguities of his position on the First World
War, etc. I don't think that the "good old days" Peter is referring
to ever existed. I maintain my position that the IRSM stands in the
tradition of Left Republicanism. Marx and Engels were only grafted
fairly late, in 1984. Very few of the members and supporters of the
IRSM are actually Marxists. I see Marxism as the radicalisation of
what is best within Left Republicanism, but it remains a distinct
tradition to that of social republicanism.
"When Liam goes on to quote Ryan, however, his position is not at all
inconsistent with the revolutionary socialist program the IRSP has
traditionally embraced...Certainly to distinguish oneself from the
program of the CP is not at odds with calling oneself a Marxist."
But for Ryan, the problem with the CP was precisely because it
identified itself with Marxism. The CP was too far on the left for
him. And as to the 'left opposition' to the CP, his position was
quite clear. Of Trotskyists and Anarchists, he wrote of the general
necessity of "crushing this pest once and for all", and specifically
backed the destruction of the POUM - "that fascist force in the
rear" - in Catalonia. (Irish Democrat, 8 May 1937)
"One could begin with the revolutionary Marxism of James Connolly,
which Nora Connolly O'Brien said was best represented in contemporary
Ireland by Seamus Costello. That has, in fact, been the starting
point from which the IRSP has said it was proceeding since 1984, at
least, but from with which it apparently no longer identifies."
Seamus Costello identified himself as a Republican Socialist; I don't
think there are any instances where he publicly identified himself as
a 'Marxist'. Interestingly, this is what Nora Connolly O'Brien wrote
about Marxism in 1981: "(Connolly) was also a Marxist. But my view is
that Marxism is no use to workers today. What was good for one
generation is not necessarily good for the next. That is my view and
it was also the view of my brother Roddy." (Nora Connolly O'Brien, We
Shall Rise Again, London: Mosquito Press,
1981, p.64)
Also note that Nora Connolly O'Brien supported not just Costello, but
also the Provisionals because of their "unbroken continuity" with her
father's teachings.
Those may perhaps be the ramblings of an old woman, but our tradition
and movement has had a far more contradictory relation with Marxism
than implied by Peter.
But Marxist or not Marxist, one thing is certain, it is that our
tradition(s) and movement have always been revolutionary.
*******
IRISH PALESTINIAN SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN
Next meeting of Belfast branch of IPSC, 7.30pm, Wed 24th August.
If anyone has any items for the agenda will you please let me know
asap.
Proposed Agenda
Minutes of last meeting held on 18th July
Matters arising
Reports back from sub groups
· Boycott
· School Twinning
Finance Report
Nat Exec Committee meeting report (AGM 1st Oct) Belfast branch AGM -
date and agenda (work plan for year) AOB
Short report on the National Committee Meeting, Saturday Aug 13th in
Dublin, at 1pm.
Office has now been re-established in central Dublin.
Post of co-ordinator has been advertised - part-time. Money for costs
to be covered by annual membership fees and direct debit monthly
donations from supporters. Out of more than 1000 members only 70
current membership subscriptions.
Wide-ranging discussion on the boycott campaign strategy and tactics.
The need to get a clear statement from Palestinians on this was again
re-iterated. The PNC to be chased about this since the PNA seem
unable to provide this. Document on the cultural boycott to be drawn
up for distribution to festivals etc. Ireland wide work Programme for
coming year on cultural, sporting, and academic and trade boycott to
be drawn up at AGM.
AGM takes place on Oct 1st.
Main national events for the rest of 2005.
· Fundraising Dublin Concert
· IPSC Christmas Card - new design being looked at
· A full page ad in the Irish Times to be sponsored by prominent
people in Ireland? -decision deferred - National Ploughing
Championships in Mogeely, Cork,
Sept 28th-30th - stall
· Fleadh Ceoil na hEireann - Letterkenny 26th Aug - stall
Affiliations, particularly with Trades Unions, and prominent
individuals to be pursued as mandated by the last AGM.
Branch being set up in Derry. One already established in Fermanagh,
which is working with the Sligo branch
*******
MESSAGE FROM MEMBERS OF THE FAMILIES OF THE CUBAN FIVE
11 August 2005
In the name of the five Cubans unjustly imprisoned in the United
States and their families, we want to share with all our friends in
solidarity with us, the happiness that we feel on receiving the
verdict from the court in Atlanta and the justice it brings after a
long and anguished wait. Our sincere appreciation for all the support
and unconditional backing for the cause. It was only possible with
the constant work of all of you that had a bearing on the spreading
of the truth so that the American people and the world now knows
about violations that were committed against them. The joyfulness
cannot put a brake on our actions, now more than ever we need the
unity and the strength of everybody to make sure that the victory
will become a reality as soon as possible.
With all our respect and gratitude,
Magali Llort, Irma Sehweret, Mirtha Rodriguez, Carmen Nordelo, Rosa
Aurora Freijanes, Olga Salanueva, Adriana Perez, Elizabeth Palmeiro,
Antonio Guerrero (son), Irma Gonzalez (daughter)
*******
WHAT'S ON
*
Saturday, 20 August
This year's National Hunger Strike Commemoration will take place on
Saturday, 20th August. Assemble 2pm, Rosemount Factory, Derry for
march and rally.
ALL REPUBLICAN SOCIALISTS TO ATTEND
All Welcome
*
Friday-Sunday, 26-28 August
Seventeenth Desmond Greaves Summer School 2005
A weekend of political thought and discussion from Friday to Sunday,
26-28 August 2005, at the Irish Labour History Society premises,
Beggars Bush, Haddington Rd., Dublin 4.
Friday August 26th at 7.30pm: The Prospects for the Left in Ireland
Eugene McCartan, General Secretary, Communist Party of Ireland
Chair: Robert Ballagh
Saturday August 27th at 2.30 pm: Desmond Greaves as an historian
Mary Cullen and Brian Hanley will evaluate Desmond Greaves's
historical writings and his contribution as an historian
Mary Cullen is an historian and research associate at St Patrick's
College Maynooth, and TCD
Dr.Brian Hanley is a Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Modern
History, NUI, Maynooth, and author of The IRA 1926-36 and other books
Chair: Kevin McCorry
Sunday August 28th at 11.00 am: The Politics of the Peace Process
Owen Bennett will examine the current position of the Northern peace
process and the views of its supporters and critics, and will
consider its relevance for the future of Irish Republicanism
Chair: Finian Mc Grath TD.
Sunday August 28th at 2.30 pm: A forum on C. Desmond Greaves -
personal reminiscences by some who knew him
Gerard Curran, who has been a member of the Connolly Association
since 1952 and is former Literary Editor of the Irish Democrat,
London, which Greaves edited from 1948 to 1988;
Helga MacLiam, Dublin, with whose family Greaves used often stay
when visiting Ireland;
Bernard Morgan, long-time member of the Connolly Association,
Liverpool, Greaves's native city;
Sean Redmond, Dublin trade union official and general secretary of
the Connolly Association in the 1960s;
Chair: Anthony Coughlan, Desmond Greaves's Literary Executor
Full School E15; Individual sessions E5; Unwaged half-price;
Enquiries to Frank Keoghan, School Director, at 25 Shanowen Crescent,
Dublin 9; Tel.: 00-353-1-8423076
__________
How to get there: Buses 5,7,7a or 8 from O'Connell Bridge, Dublin,
alighting at the first stop in Northumberland Road, Ballsbridge.
Haddington Road is first on the left, parallel to the canal.
__________
C. DESMOND GREAVES (1913-1988)
C. Desmond Greaves, whose work and writings inspired the foundation
of this annual Summer School, was one of Ireland's leading labour
historians. He was author of The Life and Times of James Connolly,
Liam Mellows and the Irish Revolution, Sean O'Casey: Politics and
Art, Wolfe Tone and the Irish Nation, History of the Irish Transport
and General Workers Union: the Formative Years, The Irish Crisis, and
two books of verse, Four Letter Verses and the Mountbatten Award, and
Elephants Against Rome.
Desmond Greaves held that the peaceful way to end the partition of
Ireland was to secure maximum equality between Protestants and
Catholics in the Six Counties, thereby removing any rational basis
for unionism as an ideology that justified domination over Catholics,
and opening a way for northern Protestants to rediscover in time the
political implications of the common Irishness they share with their
Catholic and non-Protestant fellow countrymen and women.
As an activist in the Connolly Association, London, and editor from
1948 to 1988 of its monthly newspaper, The Irish Democrat, he
pioneered the idea of a campaign for civil rights as the way to
shatter unionist political domination, which was taken up by the
1960s northern Civil Rights Movement. He held that it was essential
for Ireland to win allies internationally for any moves to end
partition and that organised British public opinion, especially as
embodied in the British labour and trade union movement, which the
Irish community in Britain could significantly influence, was the
most important such potential ally.
He believed that in the era of the EU and the near-global domination
of transnational capital, the most important political task for
democrats and the labour movement was to join in an international
movement in defence of the nation state as the fundamental locus of
political democracy, and the only mechanism which history has evolved
for imposing social controls on private capital.
*
Thursday, 25 August and Friday 26 August
Coiste na nIarchimí
Scoil Samhraidh/Summer School
Ti Chulainn Cultural Centre
Mullaghbawn
Co Armagh
25/26 August 2005
Irish Republicanism: can it be militant without being militaristic?
Thursday 25 August
7.00 p.m. Official opening of the summer school by Pat McGinn,
Mayor of Newry and Mourne Council
7.30 p.m. Martin Ferris Sinn Féin TD, Chair: Mike Ritchie
Friday 26 August
10.30 a.m. Mary Lou McDonnell Sinn Féin MEP, Tommy McKearney former
IRA prisoner, Gerry Kelly Sinn Féin MLA, Chair: Laurence McKeown
1.00 p.m. Lunch
1.30 p.m. Historical walk and talk
3.00 p.m. Agnes Maillot lecturer at Dublin City University, Denis
O'Hearn lecturer at Queen's University, Mike Ritchie Director of
Coiste na nIarchimí, John Gray curator of the Linen Hall Library,
Margaret Ward political historian, Chair: Rosie McCorley
A chairde,
I am delighted to invite you once again to south Armagh to the third
summer school organised by Coiste na nIarchimí. The summer school
offers you, the participants, an opportunity to reflect on, discuss
and debate topical issues and explore the opportunities and obstacles
to building a nation rooted in respect for diversity and committed to
justice and peace.
The theme of the summer school, Irish Republicanism: can it be
militant without being militaristic? is very much a live topic at the
moment, viewed much differently depending upon your political outlook.
As an organisation working proactively on behalf of former republican
prisoners, their families and displaced people, you could say we have
been 'militant' in our refusal to accept the status quo and the
discriminatory barriers that currently impact upon the constituency we
represent and deny them full citizenship. In that sense we are
carrying on the tradition from the prisons where republicans displayed
their militancy, as opposed to their militarism, in a host of ways
the burning of Long Kesh, the blanket protest, the hunger
strikes, the escapes, the education programmes, the handicrafts, the
lobbying, the legal cases. This was not militancy for its sake alone
but to challenge oppressive regimes, strive for intellectual and
physical freedom and to create a better way to live with one another.
Our challenge today is to continue that work at a societal level in an
equally militant, but not militaristic, manner.
I look forward to seeing you in Mullaghbawn.
Mike Ritchie
Director Coiste na n-Iarchimi.
Coiste na n-Iarchimi is the umbrella organisation of the republican
ex-prisoner network throughout Ireland. Since its establishment in
1998 it has played a key role in highlighting and lobbying against the
social, economic, legal and societal barriers faced by political
ex-prisoners and their families.
Coiste na n-Iarchimi has gained a reputation for developing radical
and challenging projects which foster greater interaction between
republican ex-prisoners and all other sectors of Irish society. This
summer school is organised under one such project entitled
'Processes of Nation Building'.
*
Saturday, 17 September
The Irish Republican Socialist Party will be hosting a fundraiser on
the 17th of September 8.30pm in the Ardee Public House (off Cork
Street) Dublin. Admission is 5 euro and will be strictly ticket only.
There will be a benefit draw on the night concisting of a selection of
prison craft with proceeds going to Republican Socialist POWs. For
more details contact DublinIRSP@hotmail.com.
*
Camp Havana Glencolmcille
From Friday 16th to Sunday 18th September 2005 over 100 men, women and
children from every corner of this island - and indeed from much
further away - will gather in Glencolmcille / Donegal. They will
come in busses, by car, bicycle or on foot.
They will erect CAMP HAVANA and walk to the top of Slieve League.
Some will take the challenging hike across the whole ridge,
accompanied by a trained mountain guide. Some will use a more relaxed
walking route and some will only go as far as the bus can take them.
All of them will enjoy Europe's highest sea - cliffs which are
surrounded by scenery incomparable to anywhere else on this earth.
Of course we are not just gathering to admire spectacular scenery. We
will get together in what is going to be the biggest show of
friendship with people from another island, Cuba, ever to happen on
these shores.
We are making this effort mainly because five young men are serving
lengthy prison sentences in the USA, guilty of nothing but the attempt
to stop terrorism; murderous and destructive acts which have killed
over 3,500 civilians in Cuba - more than the troubles in Northern
Ireland.
These men went to Miami to try and stop the people who orchestrate
this terrorism and ended up in US prisons. They have spent months in
isolation cells; their wives, kids and relations have been denied
visits.
The Miami 5 are victims of one of the most brutal human rights
violations in recent history, victims of breaches of both
international and US law.
We want freedom for these innocent men!
With our sponsored mountain walk and the large meeting / concert on
the evening of Saturday September 17th we will achieve;
- Massive publicity and increased awareness about the case.
- Pressure on political representatives (TDs, MPs, MEPs) to act
as opposed to talk.
- Raising of much needed financial support for the campaign and for
another urgent aid project in Cuba
- Pushing forward the world-wide campaign to free the Miami 5
and strengthen the links between campaigners from various countries
(At this very early stage we already know that there will be people
from England, the USA, Austria, Germany and Denmark coming to show
their support).
We can and we will free the Miami 5!
Nobody in this world is going to do it for us!
Lend us your support!
Join Camp Havana Glencolmcille 2005!
Get in touch with us now!
On behalf of the organisers of Camp Havana
Yours fraternally
Hermann Glaser-Baur
Phone us at: 028 77742655 (from Republic of Ireland: 04877742655)
E-mail: yohoocamphavanaglen@yahoo.ie
*
*******
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*
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Volume 2, Number 49
19 August 2005
E-Mail Newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party
1) Editorial
2) Remembering the 1981 Hunger Strikers
3) IRSCNA Statement for Hunger Strike Commemoration
4) Solidarity from DHKC
5) Statement from the Free Dessie O'Hare Campaign
6) Covering Up Sectarian Attacks
7) Suicide Treatment Questioned
8) Left Republicanism and the Good Old Days
9) Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign
10) Message from Members of the Families of the Cuban Five
11) What's On
*******
EDITORIAL
On Wednesday 17th August Thomas Devlin was buried by his family. He
was killed by members of the UVF from Mount Vernon. He was stabbed
five times in the back as he made his way home with two friends from
a garage in North Belfast where they had bought sweets and crisps.
The UVF organisation has killed over 30 people since it declared a
ceasefire. No one has been prosecuted for these murders because
police informers are two a penny inside the UVF. The police are
reluctant to say that Thomas's death was sectarian.
Interestingly enough despite the widespread intimidation of
Catholics, including repeated attacks on schools and churches in
Antrim, the PSNI/RUC are still in denial about the sectarian nature
of the attempts by loyalists to drive out the last few remaining
Catholic families in Ahoghill. Indeed they attempt to imply that some
of the intimidation is part of neighbourhood dispute. This is the
same PSNI that allowed three hundred UVF and UDA members to drive out
families from their homes in East Belfast without one arrest. A
worker, allegedly a LVF supporter or member, is gunned down in Sandy
Row in broad daylight by the UVF. The LVF/UVF feud has exercised the
minds of the unionist politicians more that the ongoing campaign
against Catholics. Unionist politicians sit on forums, commissions
and god knows what with the leadership of the loyalist gun gangs.
All of the above goes to show the inherently sectarian nature of the
state here. Sectarianism has been nurtured and fed by the British
ruling class as an instrument of policy. The creation of sectarian
divisions is a well practiced policy whether in Iraq today, India in
the early part of the 20th century or Africa in the 19th century.
We in the IRSP have always adhered to the proposition that the
destruction of the existing sectarian states on the island and the
creation of a socialist society was the only way to transcend the
sectarian divisions, end poverty and discrimination and awaken the
real human potential of all our citizens. That has been one of the
reasons we have been and are critical of the Good Friday Agreement.
We argued from the outset that that agreement was not only copper-
fastening partition, itself a crime against the working classes,
but it institutionalised sectarianism. There is no incentive on
elected politicians to stand up to the sectarian pressures from their
own communities. Indeed many of those politicians are actively
encouraging sectarianism. There is a duty and responsibility of us
all active in politics in Ireland to stand up to sectarianism no
matter where it comes from.
Those who argued about the progressive nature of the Good Friday
Agreement and who say it is a stepping stone to a Republic could not
be more wrong. Ahoghill, North Antrim, The Fountain, North Belfast,
the Lower Shankill - these and many more areas stand testimony to the
sectarian nature of the state. The GFA only perpetuates, not
destroys, sectarianism. There is another way and it is called
socialism.
*******
REMEMBERING THE 1981 HUNGER STRIKERS
A spokesperson for the Irish Republican Socialist Party in Derry
urged all those who supported the demands of the hungerstrikers in
1981 to turn out in large numbers this Saturday to remember the men
who gave all they had in the 1981 hunger strike.
The prison protest in 1981 was a very harrowing time for republicans
as we watched our comrades' lives ebb away in the H-Blocks.
Republicans today are forever in awe of the courage and determination
of all those who stood firm in Long Kesh and Armagh Gaol at that
time. For it is their example that guides us in 2005 as we strive to
build a new society in Ireland, free from British imperialism and
free from foreign and native capitalism. A society that respects
diversity and difference.
This Saturday is the 24th anniversary of the death of the tenth and
last man to die on hunger strike, INLA Volunteer Michael Devine from
Derry.
The Irish Republican Socialist Movement will be holding a march in
Derry on Saturday 20th August.
The march will begin at the Rosemount Factory at 2pm and make its way
from there to the graves of the two Derry city men who died during
the 1981 protest, Patsy O'Hara and Micky Devine, at the Republican
Socialist Plot in the city cemetery.
Speakers will include Martin McMonagle from the IRSP and Margaret
McNutt, whose five-year-old son Michael was seriously injured by
deathriders recently in Galliagh. Margaret McNutt will use the
platform to call for support for the campaign to rid the scourge of
joyriding from the streets of Derry.
Anyone requiring further details should contact the IRSP in Derry on
02871 262999 or email derryirsp@hotmail.com.
*******
IRSCNA STATEMENT FOR HUNGER STRIKE COMMEMORATION
On this the 24th anniversary of the death of Irish National
Liberation Army Volunteer Michael Devine on hunger strike, the Irish
Republican Socialist Committees of North America send our greetings
to the national hunger strike commemoration taking place today in
Derry.
Ten brave men, including INLA Volunteers Patsy O'Hara, Kevin Lynch,
and Michael Devine, died on hunger strike in 1981 not just for their
rights as Irish soldiers and political prisoners, but for the
liberation of Ireland from over 800 years of British imperialism and
the liberation of the Irish working class from the shackles of
capitalism.
While much has changed 24 years later, the struggle for national and
class liberation continues. Let the example of the hunger strike
martyrs inspire us as we continue the long struggle which they
proudly took part in. Let no one say that their deaths were in vain.
The best way we can honour their memories and sacrifices is to never
give up as we boldly go forward in our struggle for the liberation of
the Irish working class from the shackles of capitalism and
imperialism.
As Patsy O'Hara said: Let the fight go on!
*******
SOLIDARITY FROM DHKC
1981 ten brave men lost their lives for maintenance of humanity. 1981
they became immortal. The brave comrades became a symbol for
resistance. They are living in our hearts and our struggles. The ten
comrades became an example for generations of fighters, thousands of
kilometers away. They were our examples in the death fast 1984, 1996
and now in the death fast, which takes place unbroken since 2000.
Against the attacks from the state of Turkey 1984 four comrades
became immortal on the way, which the hunger strikes had paved. Also
1996 twelve comrades fended the state of Turkey by becoming immortal.
Now since 2000 we experience the bulkiest attack of the state of
Turkey. They want to isolate the political prisoners and the whole
population. The ten brave Irish comrades still give us strength in
fighting against isolation and repression. We will win on the way,
which was paved by the brave Irish comrades. 120 fallen comrades are
the guarantee for the victory.
Finally I would like to preserve the memory of the brave fallen
comrades in the hunger strike 1981. They mean a lot for us.
They will forever live in our struggles.
Fraternal greetings,
Nermin on behalf of DHKC International
isolation@post.com
*******
STATEMENT FROM THE FREE DESSIE O'HARE CAMPAIGN
http://www.irsm.org/irsp/free_dessie/
On Tuesday afternoon, eleven activists of the Free Dessie O'Hare
Campaign occupied the top security Deptartment of Justice on St.
Stephen's Green. The government building, which is rigged with high
tech surveillance equipment, is manned by a 24 hour Garda presence
inside and outside the main entrance. Activists had been watching the
building for a number of weeks and noting Garda shift routines. It was
noticed that one particular female officer always parked her car
opposite the government building and five to ten minutes before her
shift was finished would make her way across the busy road and sit in
her car until her replacement took his position guarding the main
entrance of the government building.
It was decided that Tuesday afternoon at 2pm would be the best time
opportunity to gain access to the building. At 11am an activist of the
Free Dessie O'Hare Campaign confirmed that the same Garda was on duty,
so we all arranged to meet in St. Stephen's Green at 1:45. All
activists made there way over to the park entrance facing the
government building. At 1:55 the female Garda keeping to her routine
left her post and made her way over to her car so as to sit and wait
for her replacement to come on duty. Activists bolted out of the park
armed with banners and posters and made their way across the road and
entered through the revolving doors of the government building to the
shock and dismay of the two receptionists. It was immediately made
known to them that it was a peaceful protest organized to draw
attention to the continued refusal of the Irish government to release
Dessie O'Hare.
At this time the extremely agitated female Garda came barging into the
reception and roared with a number of expletives that we must have
been waiting for her to get into her car. She demanded that we leave
at once, that it was a government building, and that we were breaking
the law. I interceded to calm her down and told her to take a chill
pill, that we were not going to be lectured on law breaking
particularly when the Irish government has by its actions totally
ignored a high court ruling which recognized Dessie O'Hare as a
qualifying prisoner under the terms of the GFA. This seemed to make
her worse, she started roaring and screaming at us to get out. I
refused her request and told her that we were engaging in a peaceful
protest. She stormed out of the building to get reinforcements. One of
the activists took a number of photos with a digital camera and then
left the building to put the camera offsite.
A few minutes later a number of Garda reinforcements arrived and we
took a collective decision to leave the building and continue our
protest outside. Six Special Branch men who proceeded to take names
and addresses of all Free Dessie O'Hare activists soon joined us.
After an hour we called a halt to the protest and decided to split up
in pairs so as to distract the attentions of the Special Branch. Not
long after I received a phone call from wheelchair-bound Eddie
McGarrigle, co-coordinator of the Free Dessie O'Hare Campaign, who
explained that he and a female activist were stopped and forcibly
searched by the Special Branch who demanded that they hand over the
digital camera. Eddie told them that he or his companion didn't have a
camera on his possession. They then physically lifted him up to see
was he sitting on the camera and removed the back cushion of his
wheelchair to search for any hidden objects. When they couldn't find
anything they soon left to harass other activists.
For the attention of the Special Branch, photographs of yesterday's
event are below.
http://www.morrigan.net/irsm/dessieohare001.jpg
http://www.morrigan.net/irsm/dessieohare002.jpg
http://www.morrigan.net/irsm/dessieohare003.jpg
http://www.morrigan.net/irsm/dessieohare004.jpg
http://www.morrigan.net/irsm/dessieohare005.jpg
http://www.morrigan.net/irsm/dessieohare006.jpg
*******
COVERING UP SECTARIAN ATTACKS
The IRSP in North Belfast condemn both Peter Hain and the PSNI for
refusing to acknowledge that the murder of Thomas Devlin in North
Belfast was sectarian. Sectarian murder is not motiveless murder. If
an Asian or black person was killed similar circumstances would they
not say it was racist!
For 30 years we have endured this type of random sectarian attack and
murder, for the Brits not to acknowledge Thomas's murder as a
sectarian murder adds insult to injury. Sectarianism needs to be
confronted in North Belfast, the present Brit policy of pretending it
doen't exist on one hand and on the other funding and resourcing the
very division that in the end is responsible for the death of young
people like Thomas Devlin.
The IRSP in North Belfast send our condolences to his Mum and Dad at
this difficult time and urge all young people to exercise caution and
vigilance when out at night.
*******
SUICIDE TREATMENT QUESTIONED
The IRSP in North Belfast are calling on the North and West Belfast
Health Trust to reveal how many of the young victims of suicide were
being treated by a certain type of anti-depressant that have been
subject to drug alerts in Britain and America.
The anti-depressant grouped as SSRIs, which include the brands Seroxat
and Prozac, have been subject to a number of alerts of dangers to
users, especially the young. The Department of Health set up a review
of SSRIs in May 2003, the terms of reference included "to consider
the currently available evidence with regard to behavioural
disorders, particularly suicidal behaviour, suicide attempt and
suicide and a casual association with SSRIs."
The Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. in 2004 issued the
following alert: "Antidepressant Use in Children, Adolescents, and
Adults - Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asks manufacturers of all
antidepressant drugs to include in their labeling a boxed warning and
expanded warning statements that alert health care providers to an
increased risk of suicidality (suicidal thinking and behavior) in
children and adolescents being treated with these agents, and
additional information about the results of pediatric studies."
In June 2005 the FDA further warned "FDA Public Health Advisory -
Suicidality in Adults Being Treated with Antidepressant Medications -
Several recent scientific publications suggest the possibility of an
increased risk for suicidal behavior in adults who are being treated
with antidepressant medications. Even before these reports became
available, the FDA began a complete review of all available data to
determine whether there is an increased risk of suicidality (suicidal
thinking or behavior) in adults being treated with antidepressant
medications. It is expected that this review will take a year or
longer to complete. In the meantime, FDA is highlighting that:
• Adults being treated with antidepressant medications,
particularly those being treated for depression, should be watched
closely for worsening of depression and for increased suicidal
thinking or behavior. Close watching may be especially important early
in treatment, or when the dose is changed, either increased or
decreased.
• Adults whose symptoms worsen while being treated with
antidepressant drugs, including an increase in suicidal thinking or
behavior, should be evaluated by their health care professional."
The IRSP believe that the North and West Belfast Health Trust should
make this information available to the general public, if these drugs
are at the core of the recent huge upsurge in suicides patients have a
right to know. The suicide of a family member is difficult enough for
loved ones to come to terms with, feelings of guilt and blame are not
uncommon in those bereaved, If these type of drugs, SSRIs are
suspected by the medical profession of increasing the likelihood of
suicide they should be withdrawn from the market and replaced by
professional counseling and psychiatric treatment for patients
suffering from depression.
*******
LEFT REPUBLICANISM AND THE GOOD OLD DAYS
(Below is Liam 0'Ruairc's response to criticism of his contribution
to The Plough Vol 2, No 47, by Peter Urban. Urban's criticisms can be
found on the Aontach discussion site for those interested in wasting
an hour or two in cyberspace.)
A few comments on Peter's reaction to the Weekly Worker debate.
"To embrace 'left republican' as an apt description of the IRSP is to
allow the IRSP to retreat from its tradition of revolutionary
Socialism."
Lenin warned against "painting Nationalism red". I think that there
is a clear danger of painting Republicanism and Republican Socialism
as 'redder' than they actually are. For example, it is typical of
Republican Socialists to remove any evidence which does not fit the
image of Connolly as a revolutionary Marxist, i.e. Connolly in 1916
asking his wife Lily Reynolds, a Protestant, to convert to
Catholicism or the ambiguities of his position on the First World
War, etc. I don't think that the "good old days" Peter is referring
to ever existed. I maintain my position that the IRSM stands in the
tradition of Left Republicanism. Marx and Engels were only grafted
fairly late, in 1984. Very few of the members and supporters of the
IRSM are actually Marxists. I see Marxism as the radicalisation of
what is best within Left Republicanism, but it remains a distinct
tradition to that of social republicanism.
"When Liam goes on to quote Ryan, however, his position is not at all
inconsistent with the revolutionary socialist program the IRSP has
traditionally embraced...Certainly to distinguish oneself from the
program of the CP is not at odds with calling oneself a Marxist."
But for Ryan, the problem with the CP was precisely because it
identified itself with Marxism. The CP was too far on the left for
him. And as to the 'left opposition' to the CP, his position was
quite clear. Of Trotskyists and Anarchists, he wrote of the general
necessity of "crushing this pest once and for all", and specifically
backed the destruction of the POUM - "that fascist force in the
rear" - in Catalonia. (Irish Democrat, 8 May 1937)
"One could begin with the revolutionary Marxism of James Connolly,
which Nora Connolly O'Brien said was best represented in contemporary
Ireland by Seamus Costello. That has, in fact, been the starting
point from which the IRSP has said it was proceeding since 1984, at
least, but from with which it apparently no longer identifies."
Seamus Costello identified himself as a Republican Socialist; I don't
think there are any instances where he publicly identified himself as
a 'Marxist'. Interestingly, this is what Nora Connolly O'Brien wrote
about Marxism in 1981: "(Connolly) was also a Marxist. But my view is
that Marxism is no use to workers today. What was good for one
generation is not necessarily good for the next. That is my view and
it was also the view of my brother Roddy." (Nora Connolly O'Brien, We
Shall Rise Again, London: Mosquito Press,
1981, p.64)
Also note that Nora Connolly O'Brien supported not just Costello, but
also the Provisionals because of their "unbroken continuity" with her
father's teachings.
Those may perhaps be the ramblings of an old woman, but our tradition
and movement has had a far more contradictory relation with Marxism
than implied by Peter.
But Marxist or not Marxist, one thing is certain, it is that our
tradition(s) and movement have always been revolutionary.
*******
IRISH PALESTINIAN SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN
Next meeting of Belfast branch of IPSC, 7.30pm, Wed 24th August.
If anyone has any items for the agenda will you please let me know
asap.
Proposed Agenda
Minutes of last meeting held on 18th July
Matters arising
Reports back from sub groups
· Boycott
· School Twinning
Finance Report
Nat Exec Committee meeting report (AGM 1st Oct) Belfast branch AGM -
date and agenda (work plan for year) AOB
Short report on the National Committee Meeting, Saturday Aug 13th in
Dublin, at 1pm.
Office has now been re-established in central Dublin.
Post of co-ordinator has been advertised - part-time. Money for costs
to be covered by annual membership fees and direct debit monthly
donations from supporters. Out of more than 1000 members only 70
current membership subscriptions.
Wide-ranging discussion on the boycott campaign strategy and tactics.
The need to get a clear statement from Palestinians on this was again
re-iterated. The PNC to be chased about this since the PNA seem
unable to provide this. Document on the cultural boycott to be drawn
up for distribution to festivals etc. Ireland wide work Programme for
coming year on cultural, sporting, and academic and trade boycott to
be drawn up at AGM.
AGM takes place on Oct 1st.
Main national events for the rest of 2005.
· Fundraising Dublin Concert
· IPSC Christmas Card - new design being looked at
· A full page ad in the Irish Times to be sponsored by prominent
people in Ireland? -decision deferred - National Ploughing
Championships in Mogeely, Cork,
Sept 28th-30th - stall
· Fleadh Ceoil na hEireann - Letterkenny 26th Aug - stall
Affiliations, particularly with Trades Unions, and prominent
individuals to be pursued as mandated by the last AGM.
Branch being set up in Derry. One already established in Fermanagh,
which is working with the Sligo branch
*******
MESSAGE FROM MEMBERS OF THE FAMILIES OF THE CUBAN FIVE
11 August 2005
In the name of the five Cubans unjustly imprisoned in the United
States and their families, we want to share with all our friends in
solidarity with us, the happiness that we feel on receiving the
verdict from the court in Atlanta and the justice it brings after a
long and anguished wait. Our sincere appreciation for all the support
and unconditional backing for the cause. It was only possible with
the constant work of all of you that had a bearing on the spreading
of the truth so that the American people and the world now knows
about violations that were committed against them. The joyfulness
cannot put a brake on our actions, now more than ever we need the
unity and the strength of everybody to make sure that the victory
will become a reality as soon as possible.
With all our respect and gratitude,
Magali Llort, Irma Sehweret, Mirtha Rodriguez, Carmen Nordelo, Rosa
Aurora Freijanes, Olga Salanueva, Adriana Perez, Elizabeth Palmeiro,
Antonio Guerrero (son), Irma Gonzalez (daughter)
*******
WHAT'S ON
*
Saturday, 20 August
This year's National Hunger Strike Commemoration will take place on
Saturday, 20th August. Assemble 2pm, Rosemount Factory, Derry for
march and rally.
ALL REPUBLICAN SOCIALISTS TO ATTEND
All Welcome
*
Friday-Sunday, 26-28 August
Seventeenth Desmond Greaves Summer School 2005
A weekend of political thought and discussion from Friday to Sunday,
26-28 August 2005, at the Irish Labour History Society premises,
Beggars Bush, Haddington Rd., Dublin 4.
Friday August 26th at 7.30pm: The Prospects for the Left in Ireland
Eugene McCartan, General Secretary, Communist Party of Ireland
Chair: Robert Ballagh
Saturday August 27th at 2.30 pm: Desmond Greaves as an historian
Mary Cullen and Brian Hanley will evaluate Desmond Greaves's
historical writings and his contribution as an historian
Mary Cullen is an historian and research associate at St Patrick's
College Maynooth, and TCD
Dr.Brian Hanley is a Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Modern
History, NUI, Maynooth, and author of The IRA 1926-36 and other books
Chair: Kevin McCorry
Sunday August 28th at 11.00 am: The Politics of the Peace Process
Owen Bennett will examine the current position of the Northern peace
process and the views of its supporters and critics, and will
consider its relevance for the future of Irish Republicanism
Chair: Finian Mc Grath TD.
Sunday August 28th at 2.30 pm: A forum on C. Desmond Greaves -
personal reminiscences by some who knew him
Gerard Curran, who has been a member of the Connolly Association
since 1952 and is former Literary Editor of the Irish Democrat,
London, which Greaves edited from 1948 to 1988;
Helga MacLiam, Dublin, with whose family Greaves used often stay
when visiting Ireland;
Bernard Morgan, long-time member of the Connolly Association,
Liverpool, Greaves's native city;
Sean Redmond, Dublin trade union official and general secretary of
the Connolly Association in the 1960s;
Chair: Anthony Coughlan, Desmond Greaves's Literary Executor
Full School E15; Individual sessions E5; Unwaged half-price;
Enquiries to Frank Keoghan, School Director, at 25 Shanowen Crescent,
Dublin 9; Tel.: 00-353-1-8423076
__________
How to get there: Buses 5,7,7a or 8 from O'Connell Bridge, Dublin,
alighting at the first stop in Northumberland Road, Ballsbridge.
Haddington Road is first on the left, parallel to the canal.
__________
C. DESMOND GREAVES (1913-1988)
C. Desmond Greaves, whose work and writings inspired the foundation
of this annual Summer School, was one of Ireland's leading labour
historians. He was author of The Life and Times of James Connolly,
Liam Mellows and the Irish Revolution, Sean O'Casey: Politics and
Art, Wolfe Tone and the Irish Nation, History of the Irish Transport
and General Workers Union: the Formative Years, The Irish Crisis, and
two books of verse, Four Letter Verses and the Mountbatten Award, and
Elephants Against Rome.
Desmond Greaves held that the peaceful way to end the partition of
Ireland was to secure maximum equality between Protestants and
Catholics in the Six Counties, thereby removing any rational basis
for unionism as an ideology that justified domination over Catholics,
and opening a way for northern Protestants to rediscover in time the
political implications of the common Irishness they share with their
Catholic and non-Protestant fellow countrymen and women.
As an activist in the Connolly Association, London, and editor from
1948 to 1988 of its monthly newspaper, The Irish Democrat, he
pioneered the idea of a campaign for civil rights as the way to
shatter unionist political domination, which was taken up by the
1960s northern Civil Rights Movement. He held that it was essential
for Ireland to win allies internationally for any moves to end
partition and that organised British public opinion, especially as
embodied in the British labour and trade union movement, which the
Irish community in Britain could significantly influence, was the
most important such potential ally.
He believed that in the era of the EU and the near-global domination
of transnational capital, the most important political task for
democrats and the labour movement was to join in an international
movement in defence of the nation state as the fundamental locus of
political democracy, and the only mechanism which history has evolved
for imposing social controls on private capital.
*
Thursday, 25 August and Friday 26 August
Coiste na nIarchimí
Scoil Samhraidh/Summer School
Ti Chulainn Cultural Centre
Mullaghbawn
Co Armagh
25/26 August 2005
Irish Republicanism: can it be militant without being militaristic?
Thursday 25 August
7.00 p.m. Official opening of the summer school by Pat McGinn,
Mayor of Newry and Mourne Council
7.30 p.m. Martin Ferris Sinn Féin TD, Chair: Mike Ritchie
Friday 26 August
10.30 a.m. Mary Lou McDonnell Sinn Féin MEP, Tommy McKearney former
IRA prisoner, Gerry Kelly Sinn Féin MLA, Chair: Laurence McKeown
1.00 p.m. Lunch
1.30 p.m. Historical walk and talk
3.00 p.m. Agnes Maillot lecturer at Dublin City University, Denis
O'Hearn lecturer at Queen's University, Mike Ritchie Director of
Coiste na nIarchimí, John Gray curator of the Linen Hall Library,
Margaret Ward political historian, Chair: Rosie McCorley
A chairde,
I am delighted to invite you once again to south Armagh to the third
summer school organised by Coiste na nIarchimí. The summer school
offers you, the participants, an opportunity to reflect on, discuss
and debate topical issues and explore the opportunities and obstacles
to building a nation rooted in respect for diversity and committed to
justice and peace.
The theme of the summer school, Irish Republicanism: can it be
militant without being militaristic? is very much a live topic at the
moment, viewed much differently depending upon your political outlook.
As an organisation working proactively on behalf of former republican
prisoners, their families and displaced people, you could say we have
been 'militant' in our refusal to accept the status quo and the
discriminatory barriers that currently impact upon the constituency we
represent and deny them full citizenship. In that sense we are
carrying on the tradition from the prisons where republicans displayed
their militancy, as opposed to their militarism, in a host of ways
the burning of Long Kesh, the blanket protest, the hunger
strikes, the escapes, the education programmes, the handicrafts, the
lobbying, the legal cases. This was not militancy for its sake alone
but to challenge oppressive regimes, strive for intellectual and
physical freedom and to create a better way to live with one another.
Our challenge today is to continue that work at a societal level in an
equally militant, but not militaristic, manner.
I look forward to seeing you in Mullaghbawn.
Mike Ritchie
Director Coiste na n-Iarchimi.
Coiste na n-Iarchimi is the umbrella organisation of the republican
ex-prisoner network throughout Ireland. Since its establishment in
1998 it has played a key role in highlighting and lobbying against the
social, economic, legal and societal barriers faced by political
ex-prisoners and their families.
Coiste na n-Iarchimi has gained a reputation for developing radical
and challenging projects which foster greater interaction between
republican ex-prisoners and all other sectors of Irish society. This
summer school is organised under one such project entitled
'Processes of Nation Building'.
*
Saturday, 17 September
The Irish Republican Socialist Party will be hosting a fundraiser on
the 17th of September 8.30pm in the Ardee Public House (off Cork
Street) Dublin. Admission is 5 euro and will be strictly ticket only.
There will be a benefit draw on the night concisting of a selection of
prison craft with proceeds going to Republican Socialist POWs. For
more details contact DublinIRSP@hotmail.com.
*
Camp Havana Glencolmcille
From Friday 16th to Sunday 18th September 2005 over 100 men, women and
children from every corner of this island - and indeed from much
further away - will gather in Glencolmcille / Donegal. They will
come in busses, by car, bicycle or on foot.
They will erect CAMP HAVANA and walk to the top of Slieve League.
Some will take the challenging hike across the whole ridge,
accompanied by a trained mountain guide. Some will use a more relaxed
walking route and some will only go as far as the bus can take them.
All of them will enjoy Europe's highest sea - cliffs which are
surrounded by scenery incomparable to anywhere else on this earth.
Of course we are not just gathering to admire spectacular scenery. We
will get together in what is going to be the biggest show of
friendship with people from another island, Cuba, ever to happen on
these shores.
We are making this effort mainly because five young men are serving
lengthy prison sentences in the USA, guilty of nothing but the attempt
to stop terrorism; murderous and destructive acts which have killed
over 3,500 civilians in Cuba - more than the troubles in Northern
Ireland.
These men went to Miami to try and stop the people who orchestrate
this terrorism and ended up in US prisons. They have spent months in
isolation cells; their wives, kids and relations have been denied
visits.
The Miami 5 are victims of one of the most brutal human rights
violations in recent history, victims of breaches of both
international and US law.
We want freedom for these innocent men!
With our sponsored mountain walk and the large meeting / concert on
the evening of Saturday September 17th we will achieve;
- Massive publicity and increased awareness about the case.
- Pressure on political representatives (TDs, MPs, MEPs) to act
as opposed to talk.
- Raising of much needed financial support for the campaign and for
another urgent aid project in Cuba
- Pushing forward the world-wide campaign to free the Miami 5
and strengthen the links between campaigners from various countries
(At this very early stage we already know that there will be people
from England, the USA, Austria, Germany and Denmark coming to show
their support).
We can and we will free the Miami 5!
Nobody in this world is going to do it for us!
Lend us your support!
Join Camp Havana Glencolmcille 2005!
Get in touch with us now!
On behalf of the organisers of Camp Havana
Yours fraternally
Hermann Glaser-Baur
Phone us at: 028 77742655 (from Republic of Ireland: 04877742655)
E-mail: yohoocamphavanaglen@yahoo.ie
*
*******
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*
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Saturday 13 August 2005
The Plough Vol 02 No 48
The Plough
Volume 2, Number 48
13 August 2005
E-Mail Newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party
1) National Hunger Strike Commemoration
2) Editorial
3) IRSP Speech at Anti-Internment Rally
4) Free Dessie O'Hare Now
5) Announcement from the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
6) What's On
*******
This year's National Hunger Strike Commemoration will take place on
Saturday, 20th August. Assemble 2pm, Rosemount Factory, Derry for
march and rally.
ALL REPUBLICAN SOCIALISTS TO ATTEND
All Welcome
*******
EDITORIAL
Within the last week the Irish Republican Information Service issued a
statement saying: "The body styling itself 'Limerick Republican
Information Service' is not connected with the Irish Republican
Information Service (IRIS), 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, email
saoirse@iol.ie and has not been authorised either by IRIS or by the
body that sponsors IRIS, Republican Sinn Fein. Therefore it is totally
unauthorised and should be regarded as such."
It appears that a number of very prominent members of RSF from the
wider Limerick area have left RSF. All political organisations have
internal disagreements and disputes. Republican organisations are no
different from the many left-wing organisations that have doctrinal
disputes. We have no wish to delve into the internal affairs of RSF.
But it is clear from the position in the prisons, from our knowledge
of the organisations that once were part of the Provisional Movement
and from the lack of activity on the ground, that there is a major
crisis of confidence in the so-called "dissidents."
In a number of speeches and statements the IRSP have said there was a
crisis in republicanism. But the IRSP has been prepared to do
something about that crisis. We repeatedly called for a Republican
Forum and took part in futile talks with other republicans, that
against our wishes called itself "Republican Congress" at one meeting
and then never met again. If one was cynical one could say some of the
participants were only interested in getting electoral support.
The IRSP wrote to a number of republican and left-wing organisations
requesting a meeting but their desire for dialogue was so strong we
never even got an acknowledgment never mind a meeting. Despite this
and despite our reservations about the organisation behind the
anti-internment rally in Ballymena on August 9th 2005, the IRSP
supported, spoke at, and provided a band for that rally as well as
helping to defuse possible violent situations following the march.
The speech below from Paul Little clearly outlines our reasons for
supporting this march.
The reasons for our reservations are and were clear. We are not into
so-called "Provo bashing." We have made clear our political
disagreements about the political direction of Sinn Fein and we will
continue to make criticisms not only of Sinn Fein but of all other
nationalist and unionist parties which condone or support capitalism.
We are not in the business of yelling "sell out" and "traitor." The
IRA (P) has made their decisions. They fought a war. They called a
ceasefire. They decommissioned their weapons. That's their business.
Too many republicans, having for years accepted the leadership of the
Provisionals and their politics, are jumping up and down trying to
make sense of it all now. They think they can re-create the conditions
that led to the formation of the IRA (P) in the first place. They
can't. The world has changed and political circumstances in Ireland
have changed so republicans and socialists have to adapt to the
changed circumstances.
Our business in the Republican Socialist Movement is to radicalise the
working class and for that we need a strong working class
revolutionary party. We recognise that the republican project has
suffered a severe setback.
To all those socialists and republicans who seek a way out of the
impasse that the broad republican tradition is in, we say there is
only one clear way forward. Take the class road with the IRSP, ditch
the nationalism and put your energies and efforts into the
radicalisation of the Irish working class. Join the IRSP. It is the
only viable alternative for republicans and socialists.
*******
IRSP SPEECH AT ANTI-INTERNMENT RALLY
[Delivered by Paul Little, Ballymena, County Antrim, 9 August 2005]
Tonight we applaud the courage of the organisers of tonight's
demonstration and recognise the historical significance of the first
ever republican rally in Ballymena.
Sixteen years ago, ten miles down the road in Antrim, same date, same
time and same reason, a small group of republicans, some of whom I see
here tonight, gathered with the Brendan Convery Flute Band to remember
the anniversary of internment. This was the first republican public
demonstration in the unionist dominated town. It took place against a
backdrop of a media frenzy and an incessant loyalist campaign of
murder and intimidation of Catholics across County Antrim.
Like tonight's demonstration is restricted to Fisherwick it was
restricted to the Rathenraw estate, the restriction did not and could
not take away from the historical significance for Antrim republicans.
For Ballymena republicans tonight's rally has the same significance.
Fast forward 16 years, half a dozen ceasefires and the Good Friday
Agreement and what is the wider backdrop of tonight's demonstration?
A media frenzy and the ongoing intimidation and sectarian attacks
against Catholics in Ballymena, Ahoghill, Rasharkin, Antrim and
Cloughmills. Catholics still remain twice as likely to be unemployed
as their Protestant neighbours. Discrimination in public housing
allocations is rife, with Catholics unable to get homes in certain
areas despite there being empty houses. In Ballymena today, it's still
a case of keeping your heads lower than a Larne Catholic.
Having stated that, it would be wrong to classify all unionists and
Protestants as supporting the above repression, we recognise those
from the unionist tradition who wish to represent the face of modern
unionism and engage in positive dialogue in an attempt not only to
achieve peace but also to improve the lot of their own community.
Those from the unionist tradition who recently offered and indeed did
help to clean up the chapel after another sectarian attack in
Ballymena are to be applauded for their courage and decency.
The IRSP considered carefully the request for a speaker from the
organisers of tonight's demonstration, we are not strictly a
nationalist political party, we have very little in common with the
'Hibs' and chapel gate politics, so speaking at what the media have
dubbed a 'nationalist' demonstration caused some debate within the
party.
We are however Irish republican Socialists with a proud history of
standing shoulder to shoulder with the oppressed, marginalised and
censored among the Irish working class, this is a demonstration for
rights: human rights, civil rights and national rights. No more second
class Irish citizens, whether it's in Dublin or Galway, Antrim or
Ardoyne, Ballymurphy or Ballymena.
If the issue of rights is to be addressed, it has to be for everyone
and not a geographical lottery where isolated communities are left at
the mercy of reactionary British forces. That is why we decided to
accept tonight's invitation to speak.
The anniversary of the introduction of internment by the British at
the behest of Faulkner's government is nothing to celebrate; the date
is carved into the collective memory of the oppressed of the occupied
six counties, as the date when republicans, socialists, trade
unionists, nationalists and dissenters were dragged from their beds by
the British Army to face torture, imprisonment and an uncertain
future. Indeed no one returned from internment unaffected by its
brutality.
As republican socialists we don't celebrate the 9th of August, as
republican socialists we remember this as the date when the Brits
tried to smother the struggle for Irish freedom. They failed! The
struggle continues today and will continue as long as Britain
continues the occupation of the six counties. The struggle as we know
it has changed and those who refuse to acknowledge those changes and
adapt their struggles to engage with the modern manifestation of the
British occupation in Ireland, no matter how well intentioned and
historically valid, will fail.
But let us be clear, whichever form our struggle takes, whichever
tactics we use, the republican socialist struggle will continue until
this state is smashed and our class and our country are free.
The Republican Socialist Movement accepts the need for changed tactics
in a rapidly changing world. But changed tactics don't mean changed
principles. We stand by the Republic of James Connolly and Liam
Mellows.
Only when the Irish working class achieves full economic and political
freedom will we say that the struggle is over.
Let me be clear on this point. The INLA will only disarm when that
objective is met.
Internment continues in modern Ireland today, both north and south.
Whilst we join with others to welcome home Sean Kelly and the Colombia
Three, their freedom remains a concession to a political party, there
are other 'internees' in Ireland. The continued detention by the Free
State government and Michael McDowell of republican socialist Dessie
O'Hare is a disgrace and a direct denial of his human rights. We call
on the Dublin government to release him to his family immediately.
Elsewhere, the jails in Ireland are filling up with asylum seekers who
come to these shores fleeing persecution and seeking work and shelter.
Instead they end up detained indefinitely in detention centres having
committed no offences.
In Mayo we have five Irishmen detained at the behest of a
multi-national oil company for trying to protect their land - our
land, Ireland - from exploitation. What price now for Rockall? Free
the Rossport Five!
Internationally the illegal detention by the USA of thousands of
detainees from across the Middle East at Guantanamo Bay is immoral and
an affront to human rights. Across Iraq and Afghanistan ordinary
working men and women are imprisoned without trial or evidence by the
hands of an illegal occupying power that is the Anglo-American axis in
the Middle East. These detentions continue as the West murders its way
through these sovereign countries, plundering their oil resources or
stealing land for oil pipelines.
Oppression, occupation, exploitation, corruption, murder, internment -
these are the tools of western democracy, of capitalism. The tools
that they use with abandon against the poor, the defenceless and the
starving across the globe.
The IRSP and the working class from across Ireland will not be
lectured and moralised at by national governments whose hands drip
with the blood of those who cannot defend themselves. They bring shame
on the very democracy they talk about defending. From Ballymena
tonight we send this message: to Britain, to America, our message is
clear - out of Ireland out of Iraq no war but the class
war!
On the 28th of January 1994, a crisp Ballymena morning, I stood in
Fisherwick Gardens outside the home of Cormac McDermott. Cormac had
been murdered the previous night by the UVF. I stood with his
father-in-law, Councillor Willie Cunning, waiting to for the RUC
forensics to leave. They left after awhile leaving behind them spent
ammunition, fragments of Cormac's hair, blood and bone still clung to
the bullet, evidence if any was needed that there would be no
comprehensive RUC investigation into this sectarian murder. Cormac was
murdered because he was a Ballymena Catholic, who was not prepared to
keep his head down, his 'crime' to sell republican newspapers. Murder,
the ultimate form of censorship!
Ten years on from Cormac's murder, they have failed. We stand in the
same street, delivering the same message that he lost his life for:
Irish unity, Irish freedom and no more second class citizens.
Onwards to the Socialist Republic - Brits Out!
*******
"FREE DESSIE O'HARE NOW"
Recently Monsignor Denis Faul, never a friend of republicans, has
called for the immediate release of INLA prisoner Dessie O'Hare from
Castlerea Prison in Roscommon. Monsignor Faul is one of an increasing
number of people who support the immediate release of Dessie, who was
given a 40-year prison sentence in April 1988 for offences including
the kidnapping and mutilation of Dublin dentist John O'Grady. The
sentence was the longest in the history of the Republic for any
offence other than capital murder. It was also a sentence that showed
that attacks on members of the middle class even when they were not
killed deserved stiffer sentences than the killing of working class
people.
"The man has served his sentence and I don't believe that he should be
left in jail. There are so many people that are part of the forgotten
wreckage of the Troubles and while Dessie O'Hare is not so much
forgotten, he is part of that wreckage," said Monsignor Faul.
He went on to criticise the media, saying that the Dublin media should
leave him alone.
Eddie McGarrigle, of Teach na Failte, which provides support for
republican socialist ex-prisoners and their families, has been
spearheading the campaign to have Dessie O'Hare released.
Eddie McGarrigle, who is also on the Ard-Chomhairle of the Irish
Republican Socialist Party, said: "The Prison Service have basically
washed their hands of Dessie and say that it is up to Michael McDowell
when he gets released. Michael McDowell agreed to release Dessie in
April and the prison service is now saying that the decision lies with
the minister."
The IRSP say release Dessie now.
*******
ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE NATIONAL COMITTEE TO FREE THE CUBAN FIVE
On August 9, after more than one year of weighing the evidence, the
11th Circuit Court of a Appeals vacated the trial court's ruling
against the Cuban Five and ordered a new trial with a change of venue.
This is a sensational victory for the Five, the Cuban people, and the
international people's movement that supports them! The Five will now
receive a new trial in a place other than Miami. This blow to the U.S.
government undeniably was made possible by the hard work and growing
support of progressive, justice-loving people in the U.S. and all over
the world. The Five are one big step closer to freedom. Let's continue
the struggle and ensure total victory.
Free the Cuban Five!
U.S. Hands Off Cuba!
Volverán! They will return!
National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
For more info call 323-464-1636 or e-mailfreethefivela@yahoo.com.
(See WHAT'S ON below as to how to support the Cuban Five)
*******
WHAT'S ON
*
Friday, 10 August
Teach na Failte (North Belfast) Fundraiser in the Crumlin Star,
Ardoyne, Friday August 19th 2005 from 8.00pm till late admission
£3.
*
The Irish Republican Socialist Party will be hosting a fundraiser on
the 17th of September 8.30pm in the Ardee Public House (off Cork
Street) Dublin. Admission is 5 euro and will be strictly ticket only.
There will be a benefit draw on the night concisting of a selection of
prison craft with proceeds going to Republican Socialist POWs. For
more details contact DublinIRSP@hotmail.com.
*
Friday-Sunday, 26-28 August
Seventeenth Desmond Greaves Summer School 2005
A weekend of political thought and discussion from Friday to Sunday,
26-28 August 2005, at the Irish Labour History Society premises,
Beggars Bush, Haddington Rd., Dublin 4.
Friday August 26th at 7.30pm: The Prospects for the Left in Ireland
Eugene McCartan, General Secretary, Communist Party of Ireland
Chair: Robert Ballagh
Saturday August 27th at 2.30 pm: Desmond Greaves as an historian
Mary Cullen and Brian Hanley will evaluate Desmond Greaves's
historical writings and his contribution as an historian
Mary Cullen is an historian and research associate at St Patrick's
College Maynooth, and TCD
Dr.Brian Hanley is a Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Modern
History, NUI, Maynooth, and author of The IRA 1926-36 and other books
Chair: Kevin McCorry
Sunday August 28th at 11.00 am: The Politics of the Peace Process
Owen Bennett will examine the current position of the Northern peace
process and the views of its supporters and critics, and will
consider its relevance for the future of Irish Republicanism
Chair: Finian Mc Grath TD.
Sunday August 28th at 2.30 pm: A forum on C. Desmond Greaves -
personal reminiscences by some who knew him
Gerard Curran, who has been a member of the Connolly Association
since 1952 and is former Literary Editor of the Irish Democrat,
London, which Greaves edited from 1948 to 1988;
Helga MacLiam, Dublin, with whose family Greaves used often stay
when visiting Ireland;
Bernard Morgan, long-time member of the Connolly Association,
Liverpool, Greaves's native city;
Sean Redmond, Dublin trade union official and general secretary of
the Connolly Association in the 1960s;
Chair: Anthony Coughlan, Desmond Greaves's Literary Executor
Full School E15; Individual sessions E5; Unwaged half-price;
Enquiries to Frank Keoghan, School Director, at 25 Shanowen Crescent,
Dublin 9; Tel.: 00-353-1-8423076
__________
How to get there: Buses 5,7,7a or 8 from O'Connell Bridge, Dublin,
alighting at the first stop in Northumberland Road, Ballsbridge.
Haddington Road is first on the left, parallel to the canal.
__________
C. DESMOND GREAVES (1913-1988)
C. Desmond Greaves, whose work and writings inspired the foundation
of this annual Summer School, was one of Ireland's leading labour
historians. He was author of The Life and Times of James Connolly,
Liam Mellows and the Irish Revolution, Sean O'Casey: Politics and
Art, Wolfe Tone and the Irish Nation, History of the Irish Transport
and General Workers Union: the Formative Years, The Irish Crisis, and
two books of verse, Four Letter Verses and the Mountbatten Award, and
Elephants Against Rome.
Desmond Greaves held that the peaceful way to end the partition of
Ireland was to secure maximum equality between Protestants and
Catholics in the Six Counties, thereby removing any rational basis
for unionism as an ideology that justified domination over Catholics,
and opening a way for northern Protestants to rediscover in time the
political implications of the common Irishness they share with their
Catholic and non-Protestant fellow countrymen and women.
As an activist in the Connolly Association, London, and editor from
1948 to 1988 of its monthly newspaper, The Irish Democrat, he
pioneered the idea of a campaign for civil rights as the way to
shatter unionist political domination, which was taken up by the
1960s northern Civil Rights Movement. He held that it was essential
for Ireland to win allies internationally for any moves to end
partition and that organised British public opinion, especially as
embodied in the British labour and trade union movement, which the
Irish community in Britain could significantly influence, was the
most important such potential ally.
He believed that in the era of the EU and the near-global domination
of transnational capital, the most important political task for
democrats and the labour movement was to join in an international
movement in defence of the nation state as the fundamental locus of
political democracy, and the only mechanism which history has evolved
for imposing social controls on private capital.
*
Thursday, 25 August and Friday 26 August
Coiste na nIarchimí
Scoil Samhraidh/Summer School
Ti Chulainn Cultural Centre
Mullaghbawn
Co Armagh
25/26 August 2005
Irish Republicanism: can it be militant without being militaristic?
Thursday 25 August
7.00 p.m. Official opening of the summer school by Pat McGinn,
Mayor of Newry and Mourne Council
7.30 p.m. Martin Ferris Sinn Féin TD, Chair: Mike Ritchie
Friday 26 August
10.30 a.m. Mary Lou McDonnell Sinn Féin MEP, Tommy McKearney former
IRA prisoner, Gerry Kelly Sinn Féin MLA, Chair: Laurence McKeown
1.00 p.m. Lunch
1.30 p.m. Historical walk and talk
3.00 p.m. Agnes Maillot lecturer at Dublin City University, Denis
O'Hearn lecturer at Queen's University, Mike Ritchie Director of
Coiste na nIarchimí, John Gray curator of the Linen Hall Library,
Margaret Ward political historian, Chair: Rosie McCorley
A chairde,
I am delighted to invite you once again to south Armagh to the third
summer school organised by Coiste na nIarchimí. The summer school
offers you, the participants, an opportunity to reflect on, discuss
and debate topical issues and explore the opportunities and obstacles
to building a nation rooted in respect for diversity and committed to
justice and peace.
The theme of the summer school, Irish Republicanism: can it be
militant without being militaristic? is very much a live topic at the
moment, viewed much differently depending upon your political outlook.
As an organisation working proactively on behalf of former republican
prisoners, their families and displaced people, you could say we have
been 'militant' in our refusal to accept the status quo and the
discriminatory barriers that currently impact upon the constituency we
represent and deny them full citizenship. In that sense we are
carrying on the tradition from the prisons where republicans displayed
their militancy, as opposed to their militarism, in a host of ways
the burning of Long Kesh, the blanket protest, the hunger
strikes, the escapes, the education programmes, the handicrafts, the
lobbying, the legal cases. This was not militancy for its sake alone
but to challenge oppressive regimes, strive for intellectual and
physical freedom and to create a better way to live with one another.
Our challenge today is to continue that work at a societal level in an
equally militant, but not militaristic, manner.
I look forward to seeing you in Mullaghbawn.
Mike Ritchie
Director Coiste na n-Iarchimi.
Coiste na n-Iarchimi is the umbrella organisation of the republican
ex-prisoner network throughout Ireland. Since its establishment in
1998 it has played a key role in highlighting and lobbying against the
social, economic, legal and societal barriers faced by political
ex-prisoners and their families.
Coiste na n-Iarchimi has gained a reputation for developing radical
and challenging projects which foster greater interaction between
republican ex-prisoners and all other sectors of Irish society. This
summer school is organised under one such project entitled
'Processes of Nation Building'.
*
Camp Havana Glencolmcille
From Friday 16th to Sunday 18th September 2005 over 100 men, women and
children from every corner of this island - and indeed from much
further away - will gather in Glencolmcille / Donegal. They will
come in busses, by car, bicycle or on foot.
They will erect CAMP HAVANA and walk to the top of Slieve League.
Some will take the challenging hike across the whole ridge,
accompanied by a trained mountain guide. Some will use a more relaxed
walking route and some will only go as far as the bus can take them.
All of them will enjoy Europe's highest sea - cliffs which are
surrounded by scenery incomparable to anywhere else on this earth.
Of course we are not just gathering to admire spectacular scenery. We
will get together in what is going to be the biggest show of
friendship with people from another island, Cuba, ever to happen on
these shores.
We are making this effort mainly because five young men are serving
lengthy prison sentences in the USA, guilty of nothing but the attempt
to stop terrorism; murderous and destructive acts which have killed
over 3,500 civilians in Cuba - more than the troubles in Northern
Ireland.
These men went to Miami to try and stop the people who orchestrate
this terrorism and ended up in US prisons. They have spent months in
isolation cells; their wives, kids and relations have been denied
visits.
The Miami 5 are victims of one of the most brutal human rights
violations in recent history, victims of breaches of both
international and US law.
We want freedom for these innocent men!
With our sponsored mountain walk and the large meeting / concert on
the evening of Saturday September 17th we will achieve;
- Massive publicity and increased awareness about the case.
- Pressure on political representatives (TDs, MPs, MEPs) to act
as opposed to talk.
- Raising of much needed financial support for the campaign and for
another urgent aid project in Cuba
- Pushing forward the world-wide campaign to free the Miami 5
and strengthen the links between campaigners from various countries
(At this very early stage we already know that there will be people
from England, the USA, Austria, Germany and Denmark coming to show
their support).
We can and we will free the Miami 5!
Nobody in this world is going to do it for us!
Lend us your support!
Join Camp Havana Glencolmcille 2005!
Get in touch with us now!
On behalf of the organisers of Camp Havana
Yours fraternally
Hermann Glaser-Baur
Phone us at: 028 77742655 (from Republic of Ireland: 04877742655)
E-mail: yohoocamphavanaglen@yahoo.ie
*
*******
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Subscribe to the bi-monthly
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THE VOICE OF REPUBLICAN SOCIALISM!
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Fighting Fund/Donations
To: The Starry Plough
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Account No. 14986015 Sort Code No. 93-86-10
http://www.irsm.org/irsm.html (Pairtí Poblachtach Sóisialach na
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http://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/ (James Connolly Archive)
The Republican Socialist Forum from Derry IRSP
http://rsmforum.proboards23.com/
Republican Socialist Online Merchandise - A website that offers a
central place to go on the Internet to find good quality items with a
distinct Republican Socialist theme. Proceeds from sales from this
effort go towards the IRSM and its various projects.
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*
Support the IRSP
Standing Order Form
To the Manager First Trust Bank, Andersonstown.
Please pay First Trust Bank Andersonstown Branch, Belfast, and credit
to Irish Republican Socialist Party, A/C Number 70490021, Branch Code
93-84-75
The sum of:
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Volume 2, Number 48
13 August 2005
E-Mail Newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party
1) National Hunger Strike Commemoration
2) Editorial
3) IRSP Speech at Anti-Internment Rally
4) Free Dessie O'Hare Now
5) Announcement from the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
6) What's On
*******
This year's National Hunger Strike Commemoration will take place on
Saturday, 20th August. Assemble 2pm, Rosemount Factory, Derry for
march and rally.
ALL REPUBLICAN SOCIALISTS TO ATTEND
All Welcome
*******
EDITORIAL
Within the last week the Irish Republican Information Service issued a
statement saying: "The body styling itself 'Limerick Republican
Information Service' is not connected with the Irish Republican
Information Service (IRIS), 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, email
saoirse@iol.ie and has not been authorised either by IRIS or by the
body that sponsors IRIS, Republican Sinn Fein. Therefore it is totally
unauthorised and should be regarded as such."
It appears that a number of very prominent members of RSF from the
wider Limerick area have left RSF. All political organisations have
internal disagreements and disputes. Republican organisations are no
different from the many left-wing organisations that have doctrinal
disputes. We have no wish to delve into the internal affairs of RSF.
But it is clear from the position in the prisons, from our knowledge
of the organisations that once were part of the Provisional Movement
and from the lack of activity on the ground, that there is a major
crisis of confidence in the so-called "dissidents."
In a number of speeches and statements the IRSP have said there was a
crisis in republicanism. But the IRSP has been prepared to do
something about that crisis. We repeatedly called for a Republican
Forum and took part in futile talks with other republicans, that
against our wishes called itself "Republican Congress" at one meeting
and then never met again. If one was cynical one could say some of the
participants were only interested in getting electoral support.
The IRSP wrote to a number of republican and left-wing organisations
requesting a meeting but their desire for dialogue was so strong we
never even got an acknowledgment never mind a meeting. Despite this
and despite our reservations about the organisation behind the
anti-internment rally in Ballymena on August 9th 2005, the IRSP
supported, spoke at, and provided a band for that rally as well as
helping to defuse possible violent situations following the march.
The speech below from Paul Little clearly outlines our reasons for
supporting this march.
The reasons for our reservations are and were clear. We are not into
so-called "Provo bashing." We have made clear our political
disagreements about the political direction of Sinn Fein and we will
continue to make criticisms not only of Sinn Fein but of all other
nationalist and unionist parties which condone or support capitalism.
We are not in the business of yelling "sell out" and "traitor." The
IRA (P) has made their decisions. They fought a war. They called a
ceasefire. They decommissioned their weapons. That's their business.
Too many republicans, having for years accepted the leadership of the
Provisionals and their politics, are jumping up and down trying to
make sense of it all now. They think they can re-create the conditions
that led to the formation of the IRA (P) in the first place. They
can't. The world has changed and political circumstances in Ireland
have changed so republicans and socialists have to adapt to the
changed circumstances.
Our business in the Republican Socialist Movement is to radicalise the
working class and for that we need a strong working class
revolutionary party. We recognise that the republican project has
suffered a severe setback.
To all those socialists and republicans who seek a way out of the
impasse that the broad republican tradition is in, we say there is
only one clear way forward. Take the class road with the IRSP, ditch
the nationalism and put your energies and efforts into the
radicalisation of the Irish working class. Join the IRSP. It is the
only viable alternative for republicans and socialists.
*******
IRSP SPEECH AT ANTI-INTERNMENT RALLY
[Delivered by Paul Little, Ballymena, County Antrim, 9 August 2005]
Tonight we applaud the courage of the organisers of tonight's
demonstration and recognise the historical significance of the first
ever republican rally in Ballymena.
Sixteen years ago, ten miles down the road in Antrim, same date, same
time and same reason, a small group of republicans, some of whom I see
here tonight, gathered with the Brendan Convery Flute Band to remember
the anniversary of internment. This was the first republican public
demonstration in the unionist dominated town. It took place against a
backdrop of a media frenzy and an incessant loyalist campaign of
murder and intimidation of Catholics across County Antrim.
Like tonight's demonstration is restricted to Fisherwick it was
restricted to the Rathenraw estate, the restriction did not and could
not take away from the historical significance for Antrim republicans.
For Ballymena republicans tonight's rally has the same significance.
Fast forward 16 years, half a dozen ceasefires and the Good Friday
Agreement and what is the wider backdrop of tonight's demonstration?
A media frenzy and the ongoing intimidation and sectarian attacks
against Catholics in Ballymena, Ahoghill, Rasharkin, Antrim and
Cloughmills. Catholics still remain twice as likely to be unemployed
as their Protestant neighbours. Discrimination in public housing
allocations is rife, with Catholics unable to get homes in certain
areas despite there being empty houses. In Ballymena today, it's still
a case of keeping your heads lower than a Larne Catholic.
Having stated that, it would be wrong to classify all unionists and
Protestants as supporting the above repression, we recognise those
from the unionist tradition who wish to represent the face of modern
unionism and engage in positive dialogue in an attempt not only to
achieve peace but also to improve the lot of their own community.
Those from the unionist tradition who recently offered and indeed did
help to clean up the chapel after another sectarian attack in
Ballymena are to be applauded for their courage and decency.
The IRSP considered carefully the request for a speaker from the
organisers of tonight's demonstration, we are not strictly a
nationalist political party, we have very little in common with the
'Hibs' and chapel gate politics, so speaking at what the media have
dubbed a 'nationalist' demonstration caused some debate within the
party.
We are however Irish republican Socialists with a proud history of
standing shoulder to shoulder with the oppressed, marginalised and
censored among the Irish working class, this is a demonstration for
rights: human rights, civil rights and national rights. No more second
class Irish citizens, whether it's in Dublin or Galway, Antrim or
Ardoyne, Ballymurphy or Ballymena.
If the issue of rights is to be addressed, it has to be for everyone
and not a geographical lottery where isolated communities are left at
the mercy of reactionary British forces. That is why we decided to
accept tonight's invitation to speak.
The anniversary of the introduction of internment by the British at
the behest of Faulkner's government is nothing to celebrate; the date
is carved into the collective memory of the oppressed of the occupied
six counties, as the date when republicans, socialists, trade
unionists, nationalists and dissenters were dragged from their beds by
the British Army to face torture, imprisonment and an uncertain
future. Indeed no one returned from internment unaffected by its
brutality.
As republican socialists we don't celebrate the 9th of August, as
republican socialists we remember this as the date when the Brits
tried to smother the struggle for Irish freedom. They failed! The
struggle continues today and will continue as long as Britain
continues the occupation of the six counties. The struggle as we know
it has changed and those who refuse to acknowledge those changes and
adapt their struggles to engage with the modern manifestation of the
British occupation in Ireland, no matter how well intentioned and
historically valid, will fail.
But let us be clear, whichever form our struggle takes, whichever
tactics we use, the republican socialist struggle will continue until
this state is smashed and our class and our country are free.
The Republican Socialist Movement accepts the need for changed tactics
in a rapidly changing world. But changed tactics don't mean changed
principles. We stand by the Republic of James Connolly and Liam
Mellows.
Only when the Irish working class achieves full economic and political
freedom will we say that the struggle is over.
Let me be clear on this point. The INLA will only disarm when that
objective is met.
Internment continues in modern Ireland today, both north and south.
Whilst we join with others to welcome home Sean Kelly and the Colombia
Three, their freedom remains a concession to a political party, there
are other 'internees' in Ireland. The continued detention by the Free
State government and Michael McDowell of republican socialist Dessie
O'Hare is a disgrace and a direct denial of his human rights. We call
on the Dublin government to release him to his family immediately.
Elsewhere, the jails in Ireland are filling up with asylum seekers who
come to these shores fleeing persecution and seeking work and shelter.
Instead they end up detained indefinitely in detention centres having
committed no offences.
In Mayo we have five Irishmen detained at the behest of a
multi-national oil company for trying to protect their land - our
land, Ireland - from exploitation. What price now for Rockall? Free
the Rossport Five!
Internationally the illegal detention by the USA of thousands of
detainees from across the Middle East at Guantanamo Bay is immoral and
an affront to human rights. Across Iraq and Afghanistan ordinary
working men and women are imprisoned without trial or evidence by the
hands of an illegal occupying power that is the Anglo-American axis in
the Middle East. These detentions continue as the West murders its way
through these sovereign countries, plundering their oil resources or
stealing land for oil pipelines.
Oppression, occupation, exploitation, corruption, murder, internment -
these are the tools of western democracy, of capitalism. The tools
that they use with abandon against the poor, the defenceless and the
starving across the globe.
The IRSP and the working class from across Ireland will not be
lectured and moralised at by national governments whose hands drip
with the blood of those who cannot defend themselves. They bring shame
on the very democracy they talk about defending. From Ballymena
tonight we send this message: to Britain, to America, our message is
clear - out of Ireland out of Iraq no war but the class
war!
On the 28th of January 1994, a crisp Ballymena morning, I stood in
Fisherwick Gardens outside the home of Cormac McDermott. Cormac had
been murdered the previous night by the UVF. I stood with his
father-in-law, Councillor Willie Cunning, waiting to for the RUC
forensics to leave. They left after awhile leaving behind them spent
ammunition, fragments of Cormac's hair, blood and bone still clung to
the bullet, evidence if any was needed that there would be no
comprehensive RUC investigation into this sectarian murder. Cormac was
murdered because he was a Ballymena Catholic, who was not prepared to
keep his head down, his 'crime' to sell republican newspapers. Murder,
the ultimate form of censorship!
Ten years on from Cormac's murder, they have failed. We stand in the
same street, delivering the same message that he lost his life for:
Irish unity, Irish freedom and no more second class citizens.
Onwards to the Socialist Republic - Brits Out!
*******
"FREE DESSIE O'HARE NOW"
Recently Monsignor Denis Faul, never a friend of republicans, has
called for the immediate release of INLA prisoner Dessie O'Hare from
Castlerea Prison in Roscommon. Monsignor Faul is one of an increasing
number of people who support the immediate release of Dessie, who was
given a 40-year prison sentence in April 1988 for offences including
the kidnapping and mutilation of Dublin dentist John O'Grady. The
sentence was the longest in the history of the Republic for any
offence other than capital murder. It was also a sentence that showed
that attacks on members of the middle class even when they were not
killed deserved stiffer sentences than the killing of working class
people.
"The man has served his sentence and I don't believe that he should be
left in jail. There are so many people that are part of the forgotten
wreckage of the Troubles and while Dessie O'Hare is not so much
forgotten, he is part of that wreckage," said Monsignor Faul.
He went on to criticise the media, saying that the Dublin media should
leave him alone.
Eddie McGarrigle, of Teach na Failte, which provides support for
republican socialist ex-prisoners and their families, has been
spearheading the campaign to have Dessie O'Hare released.
Eddie McGarrigle, who is also on the Ard-Chomhairle of the Irish
Republican Socialist Party, said: "The Prison Service have basically
washed their hands of Dessie and say that it is up to Michael McDowell
when he gets released. Michael McDowell agreed to release Dessie in
April and the prison service is now saying that the decision lies with
the minister."
The IRSP say release Dessie now.
*******
ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE NATIONAL COMITTEE TO FREE THE CUBAN FIVE
On August 9, after more than one year of weighing the evidence, the
11th Circuit Court of a Appeals vacated the trial court's ruling
against the Cuban Five and ordered a new trial with a change of venue.
This is a sensational victory for the Five, the Cuban people, and the
international people's movement that supports them! The Five will now
receive a new trial in a place other than Miami. This blow to the U.S.
government undeniably was made possible by the hard work and growing
support of progressive, justice-loving people in the U.S. and all over
the world. The Five are one big step closer to freedom. Let's continue
the struggle and ensure total victory.
Free the Cuban Five!
U.S. Hands Off Cuba!
Volverán! They will return!
National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
For more info call 323-464-1636 or e-mailfreethefivela@yahoo.com.
(See WHAT'S ON below as to how to support the Cuban Five)
*******
WHAT'S ON
*
Friday, 10 August
Teach na Failte (North Belfast) Fundraiser in the Crumlin Star,
Ardoyne, Friday August 19th 2005 from 8.00pm till late admission
£3.
*
The Irish Republican Socialist Party will be hosting a fundraiser on
the 17th of September 8.30pm in the Ardee Public House (off Cork
Street) Dublin. Admission is 5 euro and will be strictly ticket only.
There will be a benefit draw on the night concisting of a selection of
prison craft with proceeds going to Republican Socialist POWs. For
more details contact DublinIRSP@hotmail.com.
*
Friday-Sunday, 26-28 August
Seventeenth Desmond Greaves Summer School 2005
A weekend of political thought and discussion from Friday to Sunday,
26-28 August 2005, at the Irish Labour History Society premises,
Beggars Bush, Haddington Rd., Dublin 4.
Friday August 26th at 7.30pm: The Prospects for the Left in Ireland
Eugene McCartan, General Secretary, Communist Party of Ireland
Chair: Robert Ballagh
Saturday August 27th at 2.30 pm: Desmond Greaves as an historian
Mary Cullen and Brian Hanley will evaluate Desmond Greaves's
historical writings and his contribution as an historian
Mary Cullen is an historian and research associate at St Patrick's
College Maynooth, and TCD
Dr.Brian Hanley is a Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Modern
History, NUI, Maynooth, and author of The IRA 1926-36 and other books
Chair: Kevin McCorry
Sunday August 28th at 11.00 am: The Politics of the Peace Process
Owen Bennett will examine the current position of the Northern peace
process and the views of its supporters and critics, and will
consider its relevance for the future of Irish Republicanism
Chair: Finian Mc Grath TD.
Sunday August 28th at 2.30 pm: A forum on C. Desmond Greaves -
personal reminiscences by some who knew him
Gerard Curran, who has been a member of the Connolly Association
since 1952 and is former Literary Editor of the Irish Democrat,
London, which Greaves edited from 1948 to 1988;
Helga MacLiam, Dublin, with whose family Greaves used often stay
when visiting Ireland;
Bernard Morgan, long-time member of the Connolly Association,
Liverpool, Greaves's native city;
Sean Redmond, Dublin trade union official and general secretary of
the Connolly Association in the 1960s;
Chair: Anthony Coughlan, Desmond Greaves's Literary Executor
Full School E15; Individual sessions E5; Unwaged half-price;
Enquiries to Frank Keoghan, School Director, at 25 Shanowen Crescent,
Dublin 9; Tel.: 00-353-1-8423076
__________
How to get there: Buses 5,7,7a or 8 from O'Connell Bridge, Dublin,
alighting at the first stop in Northumberland Road, Ballsbridge.
Haddington Road is first on the left, parallel to the canal.
__________
C. DESMOND GREAVES (1913-1988)
C. Desmond Greaves, whose work and writings inspired the foundation
of this annual Summer School, was one of Ireland's leading labour
historians. He was author of The Life and Times of James Connolly,
Liam Mellows and the Irish Revolution, Sean O'Casey: Politics and
Art, Wolfe Tone and the Irish Nation, History of the Irish Transport
and General Workers Union: the Formative Years, The Irish Crisis, and
two books of verse, Four Letter Verses and the Mountbatten Award, and
Elephants Against Rome.
Desmond Greaves held that the peaceful way to end the partition of
Ireland was to secure maximum equality between Protestants and
Catholics in the Six Counties, thereby removing any rational basis
for unionism as an ideology that justified domination over Catholics,
and opening a way for northern Protestants to rediscover in time the
political implications of the common Irishness they share with their
Catholic and non-Protestant fellow countrymen and women.
As an activist in the Connolly Association, London, and editor from
1948 to 1988 of its monthly newspaper, The Irish Democrat, he
pioneered the idea of a campaign for civil rights as the way to
shatter unionist political domination, which was taken up by the
1960s northern Civil Rights Movement. He held that it was essential
for Ireland to win allies internationally for any moves to end
partition and that organised British public opinion, especially as
embodied in the British labour and trade union movement, which the
Irish community in Britain could significantly influence, was the
most important such potential ally.
He believed that in the era of the EU and the near-global domination
of transnational capital, the most important political task for
democrats and the labour movement was to join in an international
movement in defence of the nation state as the fundamental locus of
political democracy, and the only mechanism which history has evolved
for imposing social controls on private capital.
*
Thursday, 25 August and Friday 26 August
Coiste na nIarchimí
Scoil Samhraidh/Summer School
Ti Chulainn Cultural Centre
Mullaghbawn
Co Armagh
25/26 August 2005
Irish Republicanism: can it be militant without being militaristic?
Thursday 25 August
7.00 p.m. Official opening of the summer school by Pat McGinn,
Mayor of Newry and Mourne Council
7.30 p.m. Martin Ferris Sinn Féin TD, Chair: Mike Ritchie
Friday 26 August
10.30 a.m. Mary Lou McDonnell Sinn Féin MEP, Tommy McKearney former
IRA prisoner, Gerry Kelly Sinn Féin MLA, Chair: Laurence McKeown
1.00 p.m. Lunch
1.30 p.m. Historical walk and talk
3.00 p.m. Agnes Maillot lecturer at Dublin City University, Denis
O'Hearn lecturer at Queen's University, Mike Ritchie Director of
Coiste na nIarchimí, John Gray curator of the Linen Hall Library,
Margaret Ward political historian, Chair: Rosie McCorley
A chairde,
I am delighted to invite you once again to south Armagh to the third
summer school organised by Coiste na nIarchimí. The summer school
offers you, the participants, an opportunity to reflect on, discuss
and debate topical issues and explore the opportunities and obstacles
to building a nation rooted in respect for diversity and committed to
justice and peace.
The theme of the summer school, Irish Republicanism: can it be
militant without being militaristic? is very much a live topic at the
moment, viewed much differently depending upon your political outlook.
As an organisation working proactively on behalf of former republican
prisoners, their families and displaced people, you could say we have
been 'militant' in our refusal to accept the status quo and the
discriminatory barriers that currently impact upon the constituency we
represent and deny them full citizenship. In that sense we are
carrying on the tradition from the prisons where republicans displayed
their militancy, as opposed to their militarism, in a host of ways
the burning of Long Kesh, the blanket protest, the hunger
strikes, the escapes, the education programmes, the handicrafts, the
lobbying, the legal cases. This was not militancy for its sake alone
but to challenge oppressive regimes, strive for intellectual and
physical freedom and to create a better way to live with one another.
Our challenge today is to continue that work at a societal level in an
equally militant, but not militaristic, manner.
I look forward to seeing you in Mullaghbawn.
Mike Ritchie
Director Coiste na n-Iarchimi.
Coiste na n-Iarchimi is the umbrella organisation of the republican
ex-prisoner network throughout Ireland. Since its establishment in
1998 it has played a key role in highlighting and lobbying against the
social, economic, legal and societal barriers faced by political
ex-prisoners and their families.
Coiste na n-Iarchimi has gained a reputation for developing radical
and challenging projects which foster greater interaction between
republican ex-prisoners and all other sectors of Irish society. This
summer school is organised under one such project entitled
'Processes of Nation Building'.
*
Camp Havana Glencolmcille
From Friday 16th to Sunday 18th September 2005 over 100 men, women and
children from every corner of this island - and indeed from much
further away - will gather in Glencolmcille / Donegal. They will
come in busses, by car, bicycle or on foot.
They will erect CAMP HAVANA and walk to the top of Slieve League.
Some will take the challenging hike across the whole ridge,
accompanied by a trained mountain guide. Some will use a more relaxed
walking route and some will only go as far as the bus can take them.
All of them will enjoy Europe's highest sea - cliffs which are
surrounded by scenery incomparable to anywhere else on this earth.
Of course we are not just gathering to admire spectacular scenery. We
will get together in what is going to be the biggest show of
friendship with people from another island, Cuba, ever to happen on
these shores.
We are making this effort mainly because five young men are serving
lengthy prison sentences in the USA, guilty of nothing but the attempt
to stop terrorism; murderous and destructive acts which have killed
over 3,500 civilians in Cuba - more than the troubles in Northern
Ireland.
These men went to Miami to try and stop the people who orchestrate
this terrorism and ended up in US prisons. They have spent months in
isolation cells; their wives, kids and relations have been denied
visits.
The Miami 5 are victims of one of the most brutal human rights
violations in recent history, victims of breaches of both
international and US law.
We want freedom for these innocent men!
With our sponsored mountain walk and the large meeting / concert on
the evening of Saturday September 17th we will achieve;
- Massive publicity and increased awareness about the case.
- Pressure on political representatives (TDs, MPs, MEPs) to act
as opposed to talk.
- Raising of much needed financial support for the campaign and for
another urgent aid project in Cuba
- Pushing forward the world-wide campaign to free the Miami 5
and strengthen the links between campaigners from various countries
(At this very early stage we already know that there will be people
from England, the USA, Austria, Germany and Denmark coming to show
their support).
We can and we will free the Miami 5!
Nobody in this world is going to do it for us!
Lend us your support!
Join Camp Havana Glencolmcille 2005!
Get in touch with us now!
On behalf of the organisers of Camp Havana
Yours fraternally
Hermann Glaser-Baur
Phone us at: 028 77742655 (from Republic of Ireland: 04877742655)
E-mail: yohoocamphavanaglen@yahoo.ie
*
*******
Please feel free to comment on the contents of The Plough. We welcome
political comments and criticisms.
If you would prefer to receive The Plough as an attachment please
e-mail with heading "add attachment".
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
First Trust Bank, Derry, BT48 6BU
Account No. 14986015 Sort Code No. 93-86-10
http://www.irsm.org/irsm.html (Pairtí Poblachtach Sóisialach na
h-Éireann)
http://www.wageslave.org/jcs/ (James Connolly Society)
http://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/ (James Connolly Archive)
The Republican Socialist Forum from Derry IRSP
http://rsmforum.proboards23.com/
Republican Socialist Online Merchandise - A website that offers a
central place to go on the Internet to find good quality items with a
distinct Republican Socialist theme. Proceeds from sales from this
effort go towards the IRSM and its various projects.
http://www.angelfire.com/folk/irishshop/
*
Support the IRSP
Standing Order Form
To the Manager First Trust Bank, Andersonstown.
Please pay First Trust Bank Andersonstown Branch, Belfast, and credit
to Irish Republican Socialist Party, A/C Number 70490021, Branch Code
93-84-75
The sum of:
Amount in words:
Commencing date: and thereafter every month till further notice.
And debiting A/C number:
Name (Please print clearly):
Date:
Address:
Signature:
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