The Plough Vol 02 No 39

The Plough
Volume 2, Number 39
8 June 2005

E-Mail Newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party

1) Corrupt Police Force
2) Shoot to Kill
3) No to Bosses Europe!
4) Castro Strikes a Nerve
5) Incorrect Information
6) Letters
7) What's On

*******

CORRUPT POLICE FORCE

The Morris Tribunal chaired by retired judge Fredrick Morris was
established to enquire into the activities of the Garda in Co. Donegal
and their attempts to frame members of the McBrearty family for the
death of Richie Barron, who died as a result of a hit-and-run
accident. The report is damming for the Free State establishment and
there have been calls for the resignation of both the 26-County
Justice Minister Michael McDowell and the Garda Commissioner Noel
Conroy. The Morris Tribunal found that the Garda inquiry into the
death of Richie Barron was "prejudiced, tendentious and utterly
negligent in the highest degree." The Tribunal also stressed the need
for an independent body to investigate complaints against the
26-County police force, something which both the Garda and the Dublin
government have expressed opposition to so far.

This is the same Garda force in recent years it has emerged that
during the early 1990s Gardai deliberately planted weapons so as to
fake major arms finds. They also forwarded information from informers,
which they knew not to be factual. This latest report not only indicts
the Donegal police force but the entire Garda management structure.

The McBrearty family who have been the victims at the centre of it all
called for the resignation of Michael McDowell. "I would call on the
Taoiseach to sack the Minister for Justice because we have been
telling him for nearly nine years since he was attorney general of
this country, that we are innocent people being framed for a crime
that didn't happen," said Frank McBrearty Jnr.

*******

26-COUNTY POLICE SHOOT-TO-KILL

T'wo men were shot dead by armed members of the 26-County police force
on May 26 during an attempted raid on a post office. Serious question
arise however because of the fact that the five raiders only had one
gun between them which was not fired.

One of the two men shot dead, Eric Hopkins, was armed with only a
hammer. Both men were shot once, which again points to the fact that
the Gardai intended to kill both men.

This is not the first time the 26-County police force has been accused
of operating a shoot-to-kill policy. John Morris, a volunteer from the
Irish National Liberation Army, was killed in action on 5 June 1997.

John Morris, aged 26, from Sundale Close, Tallaght, County Dublin,
died in hospital a day after being shot by Irish police during an INLA
expropriation in Goldenbridge Industrial Estate, Inchicore,
County Dublin.

The gun he used was unloaded and he offered to surrender when the
police arrived. Despite early press reports to the contrary, it was
later clarified at an inquest that he had been shot seven times in the
back and in the head.

His family announced in May 2003 that they would sue the Irish
government for wrongful death. In March 2004, the Irish High Court
ruled against his family's attempt to challenge the coroner's decision
not to release statements and other material relating to the
investigation before the inquest.

The shoot to kill mentality permeates the police north and south in
Ireland.

*******

NO TO BOSSES EURPOE!

French voters in the May 29th French Referendum rejected unequivocally
the neo-liberal European Constitution, by a margin of 55% to 45%. This
decisive vote was achieved in the face of non-stop official
propaganda, shameless manipulation by the media, the line-up of the
whole pro-European elite, the blatant use of intimidation, They were
then followed by the Dutch in an even more emphatic poll. Despite this
the Irish Taoiseach B. Ahern has promised to go ahead with an Irish
referendum. The political elites of Europe don't like the results of
popular referendum so enormous pressure will now be brought to bear on
the Irish electorate to come up with for them the "right answer", i.e.
Vote Yes. That must be resisted and the Irish left should learn the
lessons of the French left and begin a unified campaign against the
Bosses Europe that is implicit in the proposed European Constitution.

Despite efforts to bracket the no camp with the extreme right there is
no doubt that the French vote was a victory for the left and rather
than a rejection of the concept of a unified Europe was indeed an
endorsement of a Social Europe a rejection of neo-liberalism a
rejection of the law of the jungle that pits worker against worker
scrabbling for low wages.

Under the proposed new constitution, under Article III-144 it would be
illegal to restrict the sales of "services" from one country in
another country of the EU. This means that workers in one country can
be sub-contracted to work in another country but not be subject to
that country's labour law but to those of the home country. Hence
agencies in Poland can sub-contract their workers to companies in
Germany, but the worker receives none of the benefits of German work
laws, (and is thus doubly exploited) while the German workers are
being under cut and the laws for which they fought for are now made
meaningless. This is already happening in Dublin as the case of the
Turkish workers and Gama illustrates.

The only ones to gain are the employers.

*******

CASTRO STRIKES A NERVE

By Jill Soffiyah Elijah, AlterNet
Posted on June 3, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/22155/

In April 2005 the international community began to take a closer look
at the United States justice system as its government attempted to
explain and or deny the presence of admitted terrorist, Luis Posada
Carriles. As news stories sprouted from even mainstream media calling
for the extradition of Posada to Venezuela, a country with which the
U.S. has had a longstanding extradition treaty, Washington went into
frenzy.

After some false starts concerning what it was going to do about
Posada, Washington "defended" its position by hurling barbs at Cuban
President Fidel Castro about the political asylum granted to Assata
Shakur by the Cuban government. President Castro retorted that Ms.
Shakur had not received justice in the United States and that she,
like many other political prisoners, had been persecuted and denied a
fair trial.

By aiming the spotlight on the criminal justice system in the United
States, President Castro exposed a tender nerve for Washington. My
more than 20 years as a criminal defence lawyer and professor of
criminal defence advocacy confirm the widely known assessment that
every aspect of the criminal justice system is ripe for criticism and
laden with hypocrisy.

The United States incarcerates more people per capita than any other
developed nation on earth. The population of the United States
comprises 5% of the world's population but its incarcerated population
is equal to more than 25% of the world's prisoners.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, based on current rates
of first incarceration, an estimated 32% of black males will enter
state or federal prison during their lifetime, compared to 17% of
Hispanic males and 5.9% of white males. In other words, one third of
black men can expect to be incarcerated during their life times if
they live in the United States.

Incarceration in the U.S. is a growing industry. In 2001, an estimated
2.7% of adults in the U.S. had served time in prison, up from 1.8% in
1991 and 1.3% in 1974. The BJS reports that as of December 31, 2001,
there were an estimated 5.6 million adults who had ever served time in
state or federal prison, including 4.3 million former prisoners and
1.3 million adults in prison.

At every stage of the criminal justice system in the U.S., blacks,
Latinos, Chicanos and other people of colour and the poor are
disproportionately impacted. Decisions by law enforcement personnel
concerning whom to stop, who to arrest and how to charge, are all
infused with racial bias. Decisions regarding indictments, plea offers
and requests for enhanced sentences and the death penalty are
similarly guided by considerations of race and class.

Sentencing decisions regarding probation and incarceration reflect the
same racial overtones as the earlier stages of the system. The racist
practices of prosecutors was so prevalent that in 1986 the United
States Supreme Court finally outlawed the practice of routinely
removing blacks from the jury in Batson v. Kentucky (476 U.S. 79).
Prior to 1986, the courts routinely ignored the practice. Following
Batson, prosecutors simply offered pre-textual reasons for their
racist challenges to potential jurors and the courts turned a blind
eye.

Prisoners in the U.S. are systematically incarcerated hundreds, and in
many instances thousands, of miles away from their families and loved
ones. Family contact is discouraged and thwarted. Frequently family
members travel hundreds of miles to visit their loved one and they are
denied entry on minor technicalities.

U.S. prison officials regularly create obstacles when attorneys seek
to visit their clients. Memos authorizing the visit mysteriously
disappear on the day the attorney arrives for the visit. Use of
private attorney-client conference rooms is denied. Visits are
inexplicably cut short and routinely monitored by video camera and
roaming guards.

Similar tactics are often employed against political defendants during
pre-trial proceedings. The cases of both Assata Shakur and the Cuban 5
are reflective of the unconstitutional obstacles created to interfere
in trial preparation. Shakur's lawyer, Evelyn Williams, had to obtain
a court order to get access to her client. Lawyers for the Cuban 5
were limited to brief designated time periods when they were allowed
to meet with their clients prior to trial.

Such interferences compromise the ability of the defendants and their
counsel to develop trial strategy, prepare testimony and make crucial
decisions about witnesses and evidence. In the case of the Cuban 5,
independent polls showed that it would be impossible for them to get a
fair trial in Miami. Despite this objective evidence, the judge
denied the defendants' motion for a change of venue, even to Fort
Lauderdale, just 30 miles away.

Assata Shakur's requests for a change of venue were initially denied
and then finally granted with a move to Morris County, one of the
richest and most conservative overwhelmingly white counties in the
state of New Jersey. Further, the hysterical pre-trial publicity
assisted in creating an atmosphere that guaranteed the defendants
would not get a fair trial.

Last month President Fidel Castro delivered a calculated series of
public addresses that have been heard around the world, including in
the United States. The arduous campaign to obtain justice for the
Cuban 5 and to expose the hypocrisy of the criminal justice system has
been the backdrop to these presentations.

President Castro's expose of the system rings so very true to the
millions of Americans who have been incarcerated in the United States
and the more than 100 political prisoners who are currently held in
its prisons. The millions who have had their lives interrupted by the
criminal "justice" system know that fairness is usually an illusion
discussed widely in classrooms but not mentioned in courtrooms. They
know it's unjust. Castro's pronouncements bear witness to the fact
that "justice" in the United States, isn't justice at all.

[Jill Soffiyah Elijah, Esq. is deputy director of the Criminal Justice
Institute at Harvard Law School.]

*******

INCORRECT INFORMATION

In the information below published by breakthechains02@yahoo.com.
Peter Urban is described as of the Irish Republican Socialist
Committee of North America. This is incorrect. Peter Urban has been
expelled from the IRSCNA and has no mandate to speak on behalf of
Irish Republican Socialism.

Eugene, Oregon- Sunday, June 12th, 7PM at Sam Bond's Garage, 407 Blair
Blvd [at West 4th Avenue]. Donation is $5-50 sliding scale, but nobody
will be turned away for lack of funds. Speakers: former Earth First!
political prisoner Peg Millet, Peter Urban of the Irish Republican
Socialist Committee of North America and members of Break The Chains
and the Civil Liberties Defence Centre. Music: Eugene's own Los Mex
Pistols Del Norte, the Happy Bastards, The Glenwood Rebel Rovers and
The Inkwell Rythm Makers. The film 22/8: The Jeffrey Luers Story. will
be shown as well. Contact: Break the Chains, 541-485-7215,
breakthechains02@yahoo.com or plreber@yahoo.com.

*******

LETTERS

*

Help Needed to Promote Palestinian Olive Oil in Ireland

Zaytoun Fair Trade Palestinian Olive Oil has
been selling in Britain for about 2 years. The company was started by
4 activists with little experience of business and trade, but the
company has taken off and it is hoped that the oil will be sold in
major supermarkets before too long. All profits are sent back to the
farmers and communities who provide the oil - many of whom are losing
their land to the Apartheid Wall. No one in the company is gainfully
employed.

The market in Ireland has not been tapped into yet for this product,
so we are hoping to get a small team together who can work on
promoting the product in the local market - through political/trade
union/religious channels, as well as getting the product on sale in
local independent food shops, and promoted at taste fairs etc.

If you think you would like to be part of this team (with as much or
as little involvement as you can manage, please email me directly. I
will be in Belfast this weekend and would like to meet people to talk
through a promotion strategy, which Zaytoun have asked me to take to
Belfast.

Please let me know if you are interested. xxc
Email charlotte@ism-london.org.uk

*

Subject: Campaign
Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 00:14:58 +0200

Dear Comrades,
in the way of the next regional election taking place in Germany in
March 2006 we want to make our aims real:
1) Cancel Hartz IV
2) Reduction in working hours
3) A more social taxation system
4) No more privatization
5) More investments in education

Anyway, we would be very glad if you could support our campaign which
will start in the next few weeks. Even a little amount of money would
help us for example to print flyers etc.

Kindest regards,

Adrian Lobe
Socialist People's Party
Argonnenstraße 30
70374 Stuttgart
Germany

*******

WHAT'S ON

*

Every Wednesday 1pm to 2 pm

Lunchtime political discussion on the issues of the day in 392 Falls
Road, Belfast. Telephone 028-9032-1024. Wednesday June 8th –
Venezuela. Comrades and friends welcome.

*

Saturday-Sunday, 18-19 June

Day School and AGM, 18 and 19 June 2005
Conway Hall, Red Lion Square
London WC1
Nearest tube: Holborn

Colombia Solidarity Campaign Day School, fundraiser and AGM
18 June 2005
Day School

Suggested donation: £4/2

11am: Privatisation, Repression and Resistance in the Public
Universities.

Luz Estella Villareal (Colombian University Lecturer)
Juan Pablo Ochoa (Colombian Student Activist)
Lara Coleman (Universidad Viva Campaign)
12am: Communities in Resistance: Barrancabermeja, San Jose de Apartado
and Arauca.
Juan Carlos Galvis
(Vice President CUT Barrancabermeja and Human Rights Director,
Sinaltrainal)
Juan Pablo Ochoa
Andy Dockett

1-2 pm: lunch will be available in Conway Hall

2pm: The Multinationals in Colombia: Coca-Cola and BP Juan Carlos
Galvis (Juan Carlos is one of the plaintiffs in the US court case
against CC)
Marta Hinestroza
(Lawyer representing communities destroyed by BP)

3.30pm: The rebirth of the Social Movement across the Andes.
Speakers on Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia.

7pm-2am, Fundraising party
With live Cumbia, salsa DJs, food and drink.
Venue to be announced

19 June 2005.
AGM
11am-3pm. The AGM of the Colombia Solidarity Campaign will take place
in Conway Hall, with a prompt starting time of 11am. We aim to be
finished by 3pm. Details of the meeting; reports, motions and all
relevant instructions will be available soon. Lunch will be available.
Members and Affiliated Organisations only.

Conway Hall is fully wheelchair accessible.
Colombia Solidarity Campaign
- E-mail: colombia_sc@hotmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk/

*

Saturday, 18 June

NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST RACISM
Let us stay! Let us work!
JUSTICE FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS
Saturday 18 June, 12.30 pm

GPO, O'Connell Street, Dublin

Organised by RESIDENTS AGAINST RACISM

NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST RACISM

Michael McDowell's deportation machine has got worse than ever in
recent months. He has sent his snatch squads into schools, attempting
to drag children away from their classmates and teachers. He has
separated mothers from their children. He has torn people away from
communities they are now a part of, ignoring calls for compassion from
their friends and neighbours. Asylum seekers in Ireland are forced to
live on only E19.10 a week. They are banned from working or studying.
People who are ready, willing and able to work are condemned by the
government to compulsory unemployment and poverty.

His ideological obsession with deporting people makes Michael McDowell
unfit to be in charge of the asylum system. The system should be taken
out of the hands of politicians altogether, and run by a body such as
the Human Rights Commission committed to fair play for asylum seekers.

Exploitation of immigrant workers is widespread in Ireland, based
largely on the current work permit system. The permit is given to the
employer, not the worker, which ties you to a single company with no
right to change jobs. If the boss doesn't renew your permit, you have
no legal right to stay in Ireland. Recently, popular protest forced
McDowell to do a U-turn, and reverse the deportation of Kunle
Elukanlo, a school student from Dublin. In the run-up to World Refugee
Day, 18 June is a chance to show that not everyone is prepared to
stand by and allow state racism to continue.

- Stop the deportations
- Give asylum seekers the right to work
- Take the asylum system out of the politicians' hands
- Take the work permits away from the employer

Residents Against Racism was set up in 1998 to fight against state
racism, and to oppose all manifestations of racism. We have
successfully campaigned in support of refugees facing deportation and
other forms of harassment from the state. Our supporters include Joe
Costello TD, Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD, Joe Higgins TD, Ciarán Cuffe
TD, Finian McGrath TD, Michael O'Reilly of the ATGWU, and many other
individuals and groups. We are not connected to any political party,
and do not receive any state funding.

Contact details on website
http://www.residentsagainstracism.org/

*

Wednesday, 22 June 2005

Linen Hall Library Lecture

The Act Of Union Virtual Library

Wednesday 22nd June 2005 at 1pm

Speakers:

Dr Jonathan Bardon & Dr Paul Ell

Jonathan Bardon and Paul Ell will describe and illustrate the
innovative project, which saw the creation of a virtual library of
contemporary sources relating to the Act of Union between Great
Britain and Ireland in 1800. The accessibility and utility of this web
based archive will be demonstrated in a user friendly way.

Admission Free - All Welcome

This lecture has been sponsored by the International Fund for Ireland.

*

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

*

Sunday, 26 June

Annual IRSM Wolfe Tone Commemoration will take place at 2pm on Sunday
26th of June in Bodenstown, Sallins, Co. Kildare. Republican Socialist
bands will be in attendance. All welcome. Contact
DublinIRSP@hotmail.com for further details.

*******

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: