Vol. 3- No 21
March 2006
E-mail newsletter of the
Irish Republican Socialist Party
1) Samuel L. Jackson
2) Statement from the INLA
3) The Pensions Strike
4) Court Action by Turkish Workers
5) Teamsters join protest against Coca-Cola over workers rights
6) Solidarity with CGRP Activist Harassed in Free State
7) A Question for Irish Republicans
8) Letters
a. German Solidarity
b. Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association
c. Canadian Solidarity
d. Easter Cards
e. Communist Youth Union
f. National Day Of Mourning
g. Organising Mc Donalds
h. Launch of Charter
i. Land Day
j. Aiden Hulme
k.
9) From The Newspapers
a.
10)
a. Organising McDonald’s
b. Too Much To Do?
c.
11) What’s on
RESPECT to Samuel L. Jackson.
The screen legend was recently interviewed by Kate Thornton on British T.V. about working with Colin Farrell in S.W.A.T. when the following conversation took place:
Kate: What's it like working with Colin, 'cos he is just so hot in the U.K. right now.
Samuel: He's pretty hot in the U.S. too
Kate: Yea! but he's one of our own!
Samuel: Isn't he from Ireland?
Kate: Yeah, but we claim him 'cos Ireland is beside us.
Samuel: You see that's your problem right there. You British keep claiming people that don't belong to you. We had that problem in America too - it was called slavery.
30th March 2006
The Irish Republican Socialist Party have received the following statement from the Derry Brigade of the INLA:
"The Derry Brigade of the Irish National Liberation Army can confirm that our volunteers were this week involved in an operation to smash a North-West based crime gang concerned with the supply and distribution of Class-A drugs. During this operation, volunteers recovered a substantial amount of Cocaine estimated to be worth thousands of pounds. These drugs were then handed in to a priest in St Joseph's parish in Galliagh last night.
"The Irish National Liberation Army view the sale and distribution of these dangerous and highly addictive drugs with serious concern and we take this opportunity to warn all others involved in this trade to come forward to and make themselves available to any member of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement.
"The Irish National Liberation Army will not allow the working class people of this city to be used as cannon fodder by these criminals whose only concern is profit by whatever means available to them."
The Pensions Strike:
The one-day national strike on Tuesday 28th March for council workers and others covered by the LGPS in education and elsewhere was the single biggest work stoppage in Britain since the May 1926 General Strike and involved more than one million members.
The prospect of a mandatory retirement age of 65, the effective result of a swingeing cut of up to 30 per cent in benefits for those seeking to retire at 60 was the impetus that drove so many to strike. The average annual payout under the existing scheme falls below £4,000, with many women workers receiving as little £31 a week.
An international neo-liberal campaign to increase the working lifetime has sparked two one-day general strikes in Belgium, while France, Italy and Austria have also seen national strikes.
The British pensions system currently leaves elderly people in grinding poverty on a weekly state pension of less than £85 a week. More than one in six retired people survive on less than £5,000 a year, while the incomes of another 40 per cent fall below £15,000.
Meanwhile, just over 200 directors of companies listed among the FTSE 100 are grabbing pension payouts exceeding £100,000, with 43 of them chalking up post-retirement rewards of more than £400,000 a year, and at least five, including the former top bosses of BP, Cadbury Schweppes and Unilever, on more than £700,000.
That’s Capitalism for you.
Court Action by Turkish Workers
Twenty six Turkish and Kurdish workers have raised a civil action in the New York District Court against the Coca-Cola Company and its Turkish affiliates, demanding a jury trial for relief and damages. The case “involves the systematic intimidation and torture of workers” in Istanbul who decided to join the Nakliyat I trade union affiliated to the progressive DISK federation. But “Coke’s local managers, employees, agents and/or co-venturers unleashed the brutal Çevik Kuvvet, a ‘special branch’ of the Turkish police on the workers and their families, who were peacefully assembled to protest that all of the workers who joined or supported the Union were summarily discharged by Coke”.
The case can be downloaded from http://laborrights.org/projects/corporate/coke
Teamsters join protest against Coca-Cola over workers rights
Coca-Cola is now facing a labour relations problem in the US, after the Teamsters Union joined protesters calling for boycotts against the company over alleged human rights violations in Colombia. While Coca-Cola said that it was "greatly disappointed and offended" by the "false and inflammatory" allegations made by the Teamsters, the union's action marks a situation where its workforce is becoming activist on a global scale.
The Teamsters are also afraid of job losses due to the cancellation by universities of a number of lucrative contracts with the company. The universities have been pressured into action due to student protests over allegations involving hit squads, murder and pollution. "Coca-Cola's refusal to take the students seriously is having a direct impact on the company, its reputation and the Teamsters who service university contracts," stated Joe Wojciechowski, president of Teamsters Local 812, which represents about 2,000 of the company's workers in New York.
http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/news/ng.asp?n=65735-coca-cola-teamsters-bottling
Solidarity with CGRP Activist Harrassed in Free State
28-3-06
On 23 March 2006 a member of the Concerned Group for Republican
Prisoners charity organisation was detained and held by Free State authorities
under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. The person in question was denied access to a solicitor, access to telephone or a doctor.
These abuses have been specifically condemned by human rights advocates
such as Amnesty International for years now.
In a report from 1999, "Amnesty International urges the Committee to recommend that the government ensure that the internationally
guaranteed rights of each person arrested or detained under the OAS Acts are
respected, including among other things, the right to counsel and access
to counsel including free assistance of counsel during the investigation and questioning." (Submission to the Committee to Review the Offences
Against the State Acts and Other Matters)
Republican Socialist Youth urge all republicans to unite against an attempt to criminalise republicans after the events in Dublin.
Republicans will continue to oppose sectarianism and invoke their peaceful right
to protest Loyalist supremacism. Republicans and progressives should view
this recent detainment as yet another form of internment without trial.
Is muidne,
RSYM Ard Comhairle
A QUESTION FOR IRISH REPUBLICANS COMING UP TO THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE
1916 RISING
"We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland
and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and
indefeasible"
Proclamation of the Irish Republic
"Approximately 70% of the legislation passing through the Dail now
originates from the EU."
- Sinn Fein European Department document, "Putting Democracy at the Heart
of the EU" (Sec.3/9)
QUESTION: Is the Irish Republic proclaimed in Easter 1916 compatible with
over half the laws we must obey being made by the European Union in
Brussels?
"The right of the Irish people to the ownership of Ireland and to the
unfettered control of Irish destinies" is clearly not compatible with the
EU as it stands and is developing.
Having to obey laws made mainly by others means being ruled by others. It is the opposite of a country being independent, sovereign and democratic. What role do the Irish State and Irish people have in making EU laws? We have one member out of 25 on the EU Commission, the body of nominated, non-elected officials which has the monopoly of proposing all EU laws. That is 4% influence there. Ireland also has one Minister out of 25 on the EU Council of Ministers, which actually makes EU laws on the basis of the Commission's proposals. That is again 4% influence there. In practice most EU laws are adopted by qualified majority vote on the Council of Ministers, a system in which Ireland has 7 votes out of 345, that is, 2% of a say, and in which it may be outvoted on most matters.
The European Parliament can propose amendments to draft laws from the EU Council of Ministers, but it cannot have these amendments adopted without the agreement of the Council and Commission, and it cannot itself initiate any law. The 26-County State has 13 members out of 732 in the European Parliament, that is 2% of a say there, and the 6-Cos. has 3 MEPs.
Yet when the whole of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom from 1800 to 1921,it had 100 MPs out of 600 in the British Parliament, of which over 70were Nationalists. That gave Nationalist Ireland 12% of a say at Westminster; yet the Irish people were unhappy with majority rule from London then and aspired to a Parliament of their own in an independent Republic.
As for "the right of the Irish people to the ownership of Ireland", how can
people pretend to have that right when under EU law it is illegal for an Irish Government to adopt any measure that would prevent the 450 million citizens of the other EU States from having the same rights of ownership and establishment in this country as Irish citizens, in relation to land-buying, fisheries, residence, work or the conduct of any economic activity?
In addition to being subject to laws made overwhelmingly by non-Irish people in Brussels, the Dublin Government is regularly fined for breaking
EU laws by the EU Court of Justice - something no sovereign State is ever subject to. How is that compatible with "the unfettered control of Irish destinies"?
In addition, EU membership means that Member States lose their right to
sign trade treaties with other States, this being done by the Brussels
Commission acting for the EU as a as a whole. It means that the Member
States are legally obliged to work towards a common foreign policy and
common rules in crime and justice matters. A judgement of the EU Court of Justice some months back laid down that the EU can adopt supranational criminal sanctions such as fines, imprisonment or confiscation of assets for breaches of EU law by means of majority vote. This means that Ireland and its citizens would be subject to such criminal sanctions even if they had voted against them and for matters they did not necessarily regard as crimes.
How is that for "unfettered control" of our destinies? Before the
26-Cos.joined the EEC in 1973, Article 15 of the Irish Constitution stated that "the sole and exclusive pwoer of making laws for the State is hereby vested in the Oireachtas: no other legislative authority has power to make laws for the State." The Irish State was certainly constitutionally sovereign then.
As a member of the eurozone Dublin has no control of either the rate of interest or its currency exchange rate, which are classical economic tools of all independent governments that seek to advance their people's welfare.
All this is clearly incompatible with "the unfettered control of Irish destinies", proclaimed in the Declaration of the Republic of 1916. Yet the
leaders of Fianna Fail, which has put us under EU rule and wants to give
the EU more power still by ratifying the proposed EU Constitution, proclaim themselves to belong to "The Republican Party" and will brazenly perpetrate the hypocrisy of pretending to honour the men and women of 1916on Easter Sunday next. And they will be supported in that hypocrisy by the leaders of the other major Dail Parties.
Real Republicans will seek to expose that hypocrisy and put Fianna Fail and the rest on the defensive with regard to it.
Anthony Coughlan
Letters.
German Solidarity
Dear friends of republican socialism and freedom for all people, we have a little newspaper here in Germany/ Hamburg, we are trying to make a grassroot Project by involving all kinds of groups and organisations who believe in the need to do something against the exploitation of the world and our beloved nature. The fact that capitalism destroys our nature and with in this, our respect for living creatures, shows that only if we do unite from one country to the next, by an international movement or at first by co-operations that we do have to begin, than our voices will grow from one day to the next. Our newspaper is just a very small drop in the water, but with your help, by supporting us with information about the situation in your country, you would give the people in Germany more inside informations than they would get on the regular news.
Our project: "Alles für Alle/Todo para todos" would be glad to get in contact with you. Greetings from Hamburg,
Manu Kumar Loganey phone : 0172 1558 421
Homepage: www.myblog.de/loganey
Press Release: Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association.
24/03/2006.
Contact: Martin Mulholland/Marian Price
Telephone 78801726412 or 02871261063
e-mail: irpwa@hotmail.com
Protest for Political Status.
Saturday 1st April.
Assemble 2.30pm Free Derry Corner.
Derry City.
The IRPWA urge ALL republicans to attend a protest for political status on Saturday 1st April in Derry City. This protest is to highlight the fact that 25 years on from the heroic sacrifices of 10 brave IRA/INLA volunteers, political status is again denied to this generation of Republican prisoners.
Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, which was supported and endorsed by all constitutional nationalist parties in Ireland, the British government has deemed captured Republican volunteers as criminals and has portrayed their struggle as a criminal conspiracy rather than a legitimate resistance to colonial rule.
As a result of the criminalisation policy adopted by the British and supported by the SDLP,PSF, the Unionists and the Free State government, Republicans lost all they had gained from many years of struggle. The regime which Republican POW_s currently encounter in Maghaberry is extremely restricted due to a practice known as controlled movement whereby no more than two prisoners can be unlocked at any one time. Access to education, recreation and washing facilities is minimal and 23 hour lock up is a daily occurrence. Strip searches are frequent with up to seven a day not unusual.
POW’s have reported a high level of behaviour meant to demean and degrade with some likening this process to sexual assault. Arbitrary sentencing of men to the punishment blocks for long periods of isolation is another common feature of life for Republican prisoners, the slighted _breech_ of prison protocol can affect parole later on down the line. Another result of this criminalisation is the criminalisation of friends and family visiting the POW. Visitors are frequently denied access to their loved ones by a sniffer dog that is there to allegedly detect drugs. Republican visitors have stopped on numerous occasions but when they have challenged the prison staff to search them and call the police to have them undergo drug testing the prison has refused. Given the large quantity of drugs in the criminal and loyalist wings in Maghaberry it would appear the dog is better trained at sniffing out republicans than illegal substances.
We also take this opportunity to call for the immediate repatriation of the seven Republican POW_s in English gaols and urge the Dublin government to intervene to uphold their rights as Irish citizens.
These seven men have been ghosted around the English prison system at a moments notice which has caused untold distress both emotionally and financially for their visiting relatives.
The IRPWA urge the Republican community to resist this criminalisation policy and to confront it and those who have endorsed it wherever and whenever they can. The Republican community must demand answers as to why the POW’s must endure a label that criminalises not just the prisoner but all those who reject British rule in Ireland. While Britain maintains its illegal sovereign claim over part of Ireland there are always going to be POW’s incarcerated in British and Irish gaols.
Join us to ensure they regain the political status that so many brave volunteers have fought and died to achieve.
Message Ends.
Re. Derry City demo April 1st/06
Greetings and solidarity to you all.
Almost 30 years ago we organized ourselves to resist the label of criminalization the British had imposed on Republican and Republican Socialist POWs. Through our H-Block/Armagh committee we worked with others, labour unions and the various prisoner support networks from New York to San Francisco, Toronto to Vancouver.
Never in our innermost being could we believe that anyone, political organization, or faction within the ‘republican family’ could sell- out or turn their backs on the hard won battle fought within, and on the outside of the H-blocks and Armagh prisons from 76-81. Neither can we ignore the tremendous courage of those who have endured and resisted with their lives the label of criminal both in 26 county and British mainland prisons.
In memory of those brave comrades of the IRA and the INLA we lost in ’81 we stand in solidarity with you again as you resist the label of criminalisation in Maghaberry.
Mike Quinn
IRSC-NA
Saskatchewan, Canada
As you may have heard,there is an effort to declare illegal and ban the Communist Youth Union of the Czech Republic(KSM).
This is an effort of the Czech government with much deeper intention.
I am sending you a link, where you can read a petition and sign(if you agree).
There are already more than 4000 signatures from allover the world(you can view them),by all kind of representatives of political, social,cultural sectors.
You can also send the link to friends,to be signed by them as well.
http://4ksm.kke.gr/
Greetings
Iraklis Tsavdaridis
EASTER CARDS FOR IRISH REPUBLICAN SOCIALIST POWS
Send a greeting to the prisoners this Easter!
The Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America are now selling Easter cards that can be purchased for 2.50USD a set(or the equivalent amount in sterling / euro).
The cards are a simple and dignified design of light green with text that read "Happy Easter" in Celtic font. If you purchase a card set for the POWs, it will come with matching addressed envelopes.
Contact tj@irsm.org if you are interested, but act quickly. Payments can be arranged through paypal or by mail.
Saoirse go deo.
NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING EVENTS to be held Friday April 28th 2006, starting at 7pm with a wreathlaying ceremony at the Celtic Cross Memorial, Wellington St. Locks (nominated and likely to be named a World Heritage Site in 2007), followed at 8pm at the Ottawa Public Library Auditorium, 120 Metcalfe Street, by a Showing of the CPAC Documentary, Col By, Hero Without Honour, The Story of The Rideau Canal with Ms. Holly Doan, Speaker, - Producer, and Dolas & Friends performing music, poems and songs . The concert is a benefit for the Ottawa & District Injuried Workers Group (ODIWG) Sponsors: Ottawa Mayworks (OMW) Canal Workers Commemmorative Group For Info: 839-1953 or 726-7583
!
If you need any clarification of the above, please contact me at 726-7583 or email at above,
Thank You
Kevin Dooley,
(Sent by Onagh Dooley)
347 Poulin Ave
Ottawa. On
K2B 5T9
ORGANIZING MCDONALDS - A PLUCKY NZ UNION ATTEMPTS THE IMPOSSIBLE?
They said it couldn't be done.
They said you can't organize young, minimum wage workers at places like
Starbucks, Pizza Hut, and McDonald's.
But the plucky New Zealand union known as "Unite" wasn't listening, and
stunned the world a few weeks ago by launching the first-ever strike at
Starbucks.
Now they've taken on McDonald's, and they are serious about challenging one
of the most ruthlessly anti-union corporations on the planet. They're
signing up workers, taking the company to court, and launching a global
campaign to flood McDonald's in New Zealand with thousands of email protest
messages.
Your support for this effort is essential. If we can compell McDonald's in
tiny New Zealand to cave in and finally respect both the law and the basic
human rights of its employees, we can begin to challenge the company in
other countries as well.
Please click here now:
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=80
Then, pass on this email message to your fellow union members. Get everyone
involved!
THE NORTH BELFAST CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION FORUM
c/o 218 York Street, Belfast BT15 1GY
24 March 2006
You are cordially invited to the launch of the North Belfast Conflict Transformation Forum’s Charter:
ON MONDAY 10 APRIL
AT 10:30am
IN The NICVA Conference Room
The North Belfast Conflict Transformation Forum evolved out of a series of informal networks between community practitioners from North Belfast.
This organic process has now been formalised through the development of the Forum. Current membership of the Forum represents a diverse range of backgrounds and all of whom have agreed to work within a specific charter.
This is an exciting and innovative model that brings together practitioners to combine local knowledge and expertise to work in transforming conflict and interface violence.
The Forum intends to promote its charter throughout North Belfast. Copies of the charter will be available on the day of the launch.
Please confirm if a member of your organisation can attend by emailing louise.linc@btconnect.com before Friday 7 April.
We look forward to seeing you then.
Kind regards.
On behalf of
The North Belfast Conflict Transformation Forum.
Land Day
Most of the news about the conflict in the Middle East focuses on Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem and its ongoing oppression of the 3.2 million Palestinians living there. Less is heard in the media of the oppression of the 1.2 million Palestinians who managed to remain in Israel despite the expulsions since 1947/8. The Palestinians who remained in Israel after 1947/8 had to live under martial law until 1966. Since then they have continued to exist as second-class citizens constantly under the threat of expulsion, land confiscations and home demolitions.
Land Day, or Yoam Al-‘Ard in Arabic, commemorates the bloody confrontations with state “security” forces that took place in 1976, within the state of Israel, when seven Palestinians were killed and some 100 injured.
In March 1976 the Israeli government confiscated 20 thousand “dunums” of Palestinian farmland within Israel. The land was to be used to build new Jewish settlements and also a military training camp. In anticipation of Palestinian protests the Israeli Government declared all Arab villages and towns as military zones and imposed a curfew on the villages of Sakhnin, Arabeh, Der-Hannah, Turhan, Tamra, and Kabul (all in lower Galilee), which was to be effective from 5pm on March 29, 1976.
On the morning of March 30 1976, the Palestinians organised a general strike, which was accompanied by workers marching through the streets of Palestinian towns, from Galilee to the Negev. The Israeli government sent in the army and police with tanks and heavy artillery. The demonstrations were brutally attacked. Unarmed Palestinian workers were shot at. Dozens were wounded and seven were killed, mostly young teenagers. One of those young people was a 16 year-old, Khaddeajeh Shawahdeh, killed in Sakhnin. She had just stepped outside of her home to pull her young 5-year old brother back into the safety of the house. She was just one of the victims of that day.
Today, thirty years later, Palestinians in Israel, in the Occupied Territories and throughout the world, still commemorate Land day, when Palestinians people peacefully protested against the denial of civil and human rights within Israel and were cruelly massacred for their troubles.
Historical background
Israel was established in 1948 by means of a UN resolution, which handed over 50% of historic Palestine to the new Jewish state, over the heads of the majority Palestinian population. The ensuing war led to ¾ million Palestinian refugees, the destruction of more than 400 Palestinian villages and towns and the confiscation of a further 28% of Palestine by Israel. Israel refused to allow these refugees to return home despite UN resolutions requiring them to do so. In contrast, any Jewish person living anywhere in the world has the right to go and become a citizen of Israel.
After the war in 1967, Israel occupied the remaining 22% of historic Palestine (the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem). In defiance of UN Resolutions Israel has continued this illegal occupation for the past 39 years, and despite the recent Gaza pullout continues to confiscate Palestinian land and build illegal settlements in the West bank and East Jerusalem.
* There are now over 431,500 Israeli settlers living illegally in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
* There are currently nearly 5 million Palestinian refugees living outside Palestine and a further 3.5 million living in often abominable conditions in the Occupied Territories.
* 75% of the Palestinians are living on less than $2 a day well below the poverty line, as a result of
Israel’s policy of closures
* Israel has refused to implement at least 70 UN resolutions and ignores International Humanitarian Law. Currently Israel is building an Apartheid Wall in the West Bank (despite the International Court at the Hague stating in July 2004 that this contravened international law). The Wall cuts off the Palestinian areas not just from Israel but also from other Palestinian towns and villages. Confiscating a further 10% of the land for Israel it is creating a giant prison within the West bank for the entire Palestinian population.
Apartheid with Israel
Within Israel itself, the Palestinians who remained after 1947/8 now make up 1.2 million (20%) of the population. Yet they continue to be treated as second-class citizens in their own land.
There are a number of laws against Palestinian citizens of Israel (who lived under martial law from 1948 to 1966). In fact the Israel-based human rights organisation, Adalah (www.adalah.org/) has identified over 20 laws that discriminate against Arab (Palestinian) Israeli citizens, making every aspect of their life unbearable. For example, 93% of the land, which is now inside Israel, is actually off limits to Palestinians and designated for Jewish people only. Thus, although Palestinians are 20% of the population of Israel they are only entitled to live on 7% of the land and indeed they only live on 2% or 3% of the land.
If a Palestinian within Israel marries a Palestinian from the West Bank or Gaza Strip they can no longer get citizenship for their spouse. This means that the spouse and her/his family will not be allowed to enter Israel – the Palestinian will have to leave Israel. The aim of this is to force out more of the Palestinians who still live in Israel and to prevent more from getting in. This is not the case for Jewish people – who can marry anyone in the world and bring them to Israel.
There are a number of Palestinian villages in Israel that Israel refuses to recognise as being legal villages - villages that have been there since before 1948. Since these villages have not been recognised by the state, it is impossible for them to get social services, whether it is health-care, or municipal services such as garbage collection, whether it is roads or sewage, water, telephone usage etc. Particularly affected by this are the Bedouin, second-class citizens of Israel whose ancient way of life has been almost completely destroyed.
Palestinians who have been absent from their home for more than three years will have their right to return denied and their land confiscated while any Jewish person from anywhere in the world who has never lived in Israel is entitled to come to Israel and is given financial incentives to do so.
Féilim
AIDEN HULME
An online petition aimed at securing the repatriation of republican prisoner Aiden Hulme has just been launched by the New Republican Forum.
Aiden is currently serving a 22-year sentence in Full Sutton prison, England. He was imprisoned for alleged involvement in the 2000/2001 â•?Realâ•? IRA bombing campaign in London. He has lost his appeal against conviction and sentence and is currently awaiting repatriation to Portlaoise Prison in Ireland.
Prior to his arrest and imprisonment Aiden was involved in a serious motorcycle accident that left him with a severely injured leg. In the immediate aftermath of the accident he was receiving medical treatment at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast and his condition was improving at the time of his detention.
However, subsequent to his arrest and imprisonment in Britainâ•?s notorious Belmarsh Special Secure Unit [SSU], Aidenâ•?s medical condition began to deteriorate at an alarming rate.
In response to intense political pressure the Belmarsh authorities reluctantly acquired the services of a medical specialist and doctor to examine Aidenâ•?s injured leg. After a brief examination the Belmarsh-appointed specialist informed him that the injured leg should be amputated. Aiden?s family and friends, disturbed by and suspicious of this opinion, immediately sought a second opinion.
After intensive and prolonged political lobbying by the Irish Political Status Committee and other human rights groups an independent specialist was permitted access to Belmarsh SSU to examine Aiden. After the examination the independent specialist deemed the limb ?saveable contrary to the opinion of the prison-appointed specialist.
Not only is Aiden still being denied proper treatment but astonishingly, the Full Sutton prison authorities have decided to withdraw his pain-killing medication on a gradual basis. No alternative medication has been offered on the grounds that the pain in his leg is â•?purely psychologicalâ•?.
The British authorities had transferred all the official documentation relating to Aidenâ•?s repatriation bid to the Department of Justice in Dublin by September 2005 but the application has still not been processed. These delays are leaving Aiden at risk of having his injured leg amputated in England.
Here’s the link in case anyone is interested in signing it:
http://www.petitiononline.com/87bb92a/petition.html
We plan to picket the department of Justice where the delay in Aiden’s repatriation bid is occuring - during which we intend to present a printed version of the petition to department staff.
If anyone is interested in helping with this campaign, which has the support of several political and humanitarian organisations, contact me on:
pauldoyle2006@hotmail.com
Thanks,
Paul Doyle,
New Republican Forum.
www.newrepublicanforum.ie
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TOO MUCH TO DO, TOO LITTLE TIME
It's hard to keep track of all the things we're working on. This is why I
use some software you probably never heard of: VIP Simple To Do list.
This fantastic program allows me to set up many different categories for my
tasks, to set priorities for each one, to indicate if I've made any
progress, and to easily view tasks I have completed, the ones I am still
working on, the ones where I am waiting for someone or something, and so on.
I use it every day, all the time -- an indispensable tool for the busy
activist.
You can download a free trial here:
http://software.labourstart.org/vipsimpletodo.shtml
If you choose to purchase the software, LabourStart gets a share of the
income.
Thanks -- and have a great weekend.
Eric Lee
WHAT’S ON
OPEN DISCUSSION: ORGANISING AGAINST MILITARY USE OF SHANNON
This meeting is meant for people working in the peace movement in Ireland and those who would like to get more involved.
We would like to explore the basics of the struggle against Irish involvement in war in particular the military use of Shannon airport.
What are our goals?
How do we organise to achieve those goals?
Who are our opponents?
Who is willing to help us?
Who are our targets?
Which tactics do we use?
Which should never be used?
This is a forum for people of all persuasions, opinions, of all religions and none, to come together, see what we can come up with and then take it further.
We can use the experience of the past three years to increase our effectiveness in the future. Mistakes that were made don’t have to be repeated.
How do we get people with such differing perspectives on tactics and priorities working together in a cohesive way?
This meeting is meant to be the start of a series of meetings and contacts, to reconnect those who work against war in Ireland.
Anybody who agrees that Shannon airport or any other Irish facility should not be used to assist in the attack on Iraq and other countries should come along.
APRIL 1st Teachers Club 2pm – 5.30
36 Parnell Sq, Dublin 1
All welcome open discussion
For more information contact 0863454332 or info@cosantoiri.org
Hosted by Cosantóirí Siochana / The Peace Network, an independent group wishing to forge alliances in the Irish Peace Movement.
What’s Online:
Official website of the International Brigade Commemoration Committee in Belfast is now online and can by viewed by clicking on: www.connollycolumn.org
No Pasarán Online:
You can visit the project online by clicking on: www.nopasaran.netfirms.com
REPUBLICAN SOCIALIST YOUTH MOVEMENT RAFFLE
The RSYM is selling tickets for a raffle which will be held at a funraising
event in Belfast on 28 April which will include a ballad group with disco
afterwards.
The prizes are a Hunger Strike commemorative bodhran, a Portlaoise prison
craft, Portlaoise bodhran and a selection of Republican CDs.
Tickets are priced as - 2 euro, 1 pound and 3 dollars each. Available from
the usual outlets.
The funds raised from raffle ticket sales will help RSYM to acquire a
banner, pins and to cover finances for the coming year. It's important work
in establishing the IRSM's youth wing and all sales are greatly appreciated!
THE biography "Ruairí Ó Brádaigh - The Life and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary" will be launched by Dr Ruán O'Donnell, Department of History, Limerick University, on April 12 - the Wednesday before Easter.
Other speakers at the launch in the Cúltúrlann, Monkstown, Dublin at 7.30pm will include the author Professor Robert W White of Indiana University and the subject of the book himself, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh.
The book is in hardback and runs to 350 pages with another 60 pages of notes and is the result of over 20 years of research and interviews with the subject. Dr O'Donnell did extensive work for the bicentenaries of 1798 and 1803 and is now engaged in a study on the Republican Movement in the 1950s.
As part of the celebration for the 90th Anniversary of the execution of James Connolly the Communist Party of Ireland has organised a weekend of events on the 12th-13th-14th May. On Friday we have booked Liberty Hall to have a celebration of Connolly's Life & Times with visitors coming from India, Venezuela, Cuba and Britain. On Saturday will be an all day conference dealing with contemporary Ireland. On Sunday we have plannedan International wreathe laying ceremony in Arbour Hill.
For further details visit our website , www.communistpartyofireland.ie
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