Archive for the ‘Six County State’ Category
Open the Borders! Let Refugees Enter Europe! Shameful Scenes at Greece-Turkey Border – Huge Anti-Racist Demonstrations in Athens
Brendan Young :
Great to see this demonstration in solidarity with Syrian and other refugees seeking escape from the terrible conditions of the camps in Turkey and Northern Syria. The Irish government should publicly distance itself from the despicable and shameful stance of the president of the European Commission who has praised the current right wing government of Greece as the ‘shield’ of Europe – by physically driving refugees from the border and killing some in the process. Urusla von der Leyen may speak in the name of the ruling bureaucracy of the EU and the governing parties of EU member states and be cheered by racists and neo-nazis, but she evidently does not speak for the ordinary people of Greece and many others across Europe. Open the borders: let refugees into Europe. Provide money to move people out of the overcrowded camps on the Greek Islands – not to further militarise the borders. End the struggle between the poor and the very poor for scarce resources caused by the the austerity which the EU imposed to pay for the bank bailouts, a struggle that is fueling racism and the far right, by lifting the EU restrictions on public spending so as to fund the housing, health and social services needed by both the existing population and migrants.
The deepening standoff over the Irish Protocol
On 12 February a team from the European Commission met a group of Northern Ireland business organisations at the University of Ulster campus in Belfast.
— Read on www.rte.ie/news/analysis-and-comment/2020/0229/1118290-brexit-blog-tony-connelly/
It is time for the Irish Radical Left to Get Real about Brexit.
EU Brexit Negotiator Michel Barnier Responds to the British Government Attempting to Waive the Rules – Perfidious Albion is playing ancient tricks :
“Barnier is becoming increasingly insistent on making the point,” says one source, “not least to Dublin, that if this thing doesn’t go well there are only two options for Ireland. One is the imposition of a land border, the other is exclusion from the single market.”
Result of the Irish General Election February 2020 – A Muddy Field Is Reviewed
Notes on a muddy field
Des Derwin
There is a traditional and defining dividing line in Southern Irish politics between principled left politics (revolutionary, radical and left social democratic) and opportunist betrayal, and that is willingness to enter coalition with (or to support) a government of either of the two capitalist parties, Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael. The radical and marxist left, including PBP, have remained unshakable in this. Labour, the Greens and others have gone into coalition with FF or FG and administered with them not reform but austerity. For years now, and before and after this election, the radical left has kept up a barrage of calls upon Sinn Fein not to follow its new willingness, and apparent ambition, to enter coalition with FF or FG. That remains the position of PBP and the radical left.
There have been several quick left-denunciations of calls on the Irish left for a left government including (effectively led by) Sinn Fein. Here are some quick thoughts in response if not necessarily in reply (for a couple of excellent introductions to the Irish political terrain, see two articles in Jacobin magazine by Daniel Finn and Ronan Burtenshaw).
Not enough left leaning TDs (members of parliament) were elected to provide a majority for ‘a left government’ even if all conceivable forces were pressed into service. So then People Before Profit (PBP) called for a minority left government, which is harder to underpin logistically. Sinn Fein has now declared that the numbers are not there for a left government and moved on to seeking one involving Fianna Fail (necessary for a majority).
But Fianna Fail have unexpectedly maintained, after the election results, as hard a line against coalescing with Sinn Fein as Fine Gael and themselves had before it. Joining an apparent ‘stop Sinn Fein’ heave (aided by new media-manufactured scares) they are backing Sinn Fein and themselves into a corner, with the only door exiting to another election, a very unattractive option, not least for the electorate.
The idea of a left government is a government led by Sinn Fein with a Sinn Fein Taoiseach (prime minister). The (now hypothetical) prospect of actual cabinet membership by the radical left is unclear. A few things need to be considered before comparing the proposal to Millerand and entry into a capitalist government.
There is a traditional and defining dividing line in Southern Irish politics between principled left politics (revolutionary, radical and left social democratic) and opportunist betrayal, and that is willingness to enter coalition with (or to support) a government of either of the two capitalist parties, Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael. The radical and marxist left, including PBP, have remained unshakable in this. Labour, the Greens and others have gone into coalition with FF or FG and administered with them not reform but austerity. For years now, and before and after this election, the radical left has kept up a barrage of calls upon Sinn Fein not to follow its new willingness, and apparent ambition, to enter coalition with FF or FG. That remains the position of PBP and the radical left.
While part of the radical left in Ireland (including the Socialist Party, who have just been reduced to one TD) have always characterized Sinn Fein as outside the left, as the Catholic nationalist side in a sectarian war, the bulk of the revolutionary left, including the PBP-SWP-SWN (IS) tradition, have always regarded Sinn Fein (like most people in the Irish body politic) as left wing, part of the left, often involved in class issues and campaigns. This has been accompanied by varying degrees of socialist criticism of Sinn Fein and Republicanism and the dead end it must lead to, and has led to in Stormont.
“To all of them we say – Rule out coalition with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael! – Sinn Féin should seek to lead an alternative minority government” – Interview with Paul Murphy TD, RISE
“To all of them we say – Rule out coalition with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael! – Sinn Féin should seek to lead an alternative minority government”
The Irish General Election to the 33rd Dáil, February 8 2020
Interview with Paul Murphy TD, RISE, Dublin South-West.
Paul Murphy is a member of RISE
RISE – Radical Internationalist Socialist Environmentalist
RISE was part of the Solidarity-People Before Profit (SPBP) Electoral Coalition.
Full Statewide results are here
Irish General Election February 8 2020 – Results
The Dublin South-West Result is here :
Result of the 2020 Irish General Election, Dublin South-West
The interview took place in Dáil Éireann on February 19 2020.
John Meehan asked the questions.
Dan Finn’s excellent analysis of the Irish General Election Results is here : Ireland’s Left Turn
Finn summarised the main features of the result :
“At a time when left parties in Europe have been losing ground to their rivals on the Right and Centre, the Irish election bucked the trend. Whatever Sinn Féin does next, this was clearly a left-wing vote. The exit poll showed that health and housing were by far the most important issues for voters. [1] Two-thirds wanted investment in public services to be prioritized over tax cuts. 31 percent agreed with the statement that Ireland “needs a radical change in direction”. It’s possible that this opportunity for change will be squandered. But right now, the momentum in Irish politics is with the Left, and the traditional conservative parties are on the back foot. An election that was supposed to call time on the political turbulence of the last decade has had the opposite effect.” Read the rest of this entry »
Bernadette McAliskey on Racism, Brexit, and proposed British Immigration Controls on Northern Ireland
This article appeared in the Thursday February 20 2020 Edition of The Irish Times. The author is Freya McClements.
The North’s Economy Cannot Survive Without Immigrant Labour
Bernadette McAliskey on Racism, Brexit, and proposed British Immigration Controls on Northern Ireland :
“There will be a “whitening” of immigration into the UK as a result of the country’s points-based application system, the activist and campaigner Bernadette McAliskey has warned.
Read the rest of this entry »Plain Speaking About Torture – Ireland’s Hooded Men Betrayed
On Tuesday March 20 2018 the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decided that in August 1971, during an Internment Operation in the six counties of Northern Ireland, the British State did not torture a group of “Hooded Men”. In plain language the ECHR says the British State did not, in this instance, deliberately inflict pain on captive persons.
Is that credible? Consider this :
Former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband Linked With Torture in Sri Lanka
Gareth Pierce is a distinguished human rights lawyer who helped free Irish people wrongly convicted by the British government. She wrote: “Torture is the deliberate infliction of pain by a state on captive persons. It is prohibited and so is the use of its product. The UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment emphasises that there are no exceptional circumstances at all justifying its use” According to Pierce, the British, during the Mandate period in Palestine, in Kenya and Northern Ireland mastered the art of the “lesser” tradition of stress torture, forced standing, forced sitting and choking with water, exposure to extremes of heat and cold, and suspension. “These tortures were clean and allowed for plausible denial not because they are less painful, but because they leave less of a visible mark.” Nonetheless, these tortures produce agonising muscle pain. The kidneys eventually shut down.
Amnesty International describes what the British State did to the Hooded Men in 1971 :
Amnesty International comments on a “disappointing” ruling
The detained men were interned in 1971, and subjected to sustained interrogation by the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary, involving the ‘five techniques’ of hooding, stress positions, white noise, sleep deprivation, and deprivation of food and water. These were combined with physical assaults and death threats, which the Court did not consider in its 1978 ruling.
Amnesty International’s full statement is, as Oscar Wilde might say, disappointing.
This ECHR ruling is careless – those six judges who left the British State off the hook don’t even know what torture looks like.
The surviving hooded men will not give up. Why should they? They were tortured.
Mr Paisley Meets the Trumps – A fabulous gift 🎁 from the Irish Peace Process
Another fabulous gift 
🎁 from the Irish Peace Process : Far-right reactionaries Ian Paisley and Donald Trump schmooze at the Washington DC Patrick’s Day Parties and get away with it – corruption, hate, misogyny, warmongers, eyes wide shut :
“It is understood no DUP figures are set to attend St Patrick’s parades on Saturday.
Accompanying Mr Dodds on the American trip is his wife Diane, one of the Province’s three MEPs.
Also with them are Paul Givan and Edwin Poots, MLAs for Lagan Valley, and Jonathan Buckley, MLA for Upper Bann.
Mr Paisley and Mr Givan were pictured meeting Donald Trump himself during a lunch on Thursday.
Mr Dodds’ trip is funded by Parliament, and his wife’s trip by the European Parliament; the other DUP delegates are there as guests of pro-life group “Family and Life”.
It is understood the fact that Ian Paisley was personally invited to a St Patrick’s lunch at the White House is because of a family connection to the Trumps.
A party spokesman suggested this may date back to a meeting Mr Trump had with Rev Ian Paisley concerning golf courses in Northern Ireland.
The Scotsman newspaper reported in January 2008 that Mr Trump and Rev Paisley had met the previous month in New York.
It also said that a meeting between Ian Paisley Junior and a key Trump business aide was thought to be scheduled in January 2008, at which the future of Runkerry golf course on the north Antrim coast was thought to have been up for discussion.”
Cash for Ash -Will the Stormont Sinn Féin-DUP Coalition be Incinerated?
A BBC (Northern Ireland) news story offers a neat summary of the key issues in Belfast’s FosterGate : £400 million disappear into the pockets of Cash for Ash friends of the Stormont Peace Process Government.
Cash for Ash – Stormont Incinerated?
“It is estimated the way the scheme was set-up will cost taxpayers £400m over its 20-year lifetime.
Mr Bell told the BBC that top advisers from his DUP party stopped him from restricting the RHI scheme.
According to Mr Bell, the advisers, who deny the allegations against them, secretly tried to “cleanse the record” of references to Mrs Foster.
Those alleged attempts to alter the papers were made “without my knowledge, without my consent”, Mr Bell said, and were revealed to him by a senior civil servant at the department.
In Derry, Pressure Mounts on Stormont First Minister Arlene Foster
If Arlene Goes, so does her Deputy Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin.
Goodbye Marlene?
Arlene Foster, First Minister, Under Pressure in Derry
“Arlene needs to resign. Take to the streets! Demand her resignation!
People Before Profit have called a protest at the Guildhall, calling on Arlene Foster to resign over the Renewable Heat scandal. People are outraged because we’re told day in, day out that there is no money for benefits or for public services, but here we have £400 million wasted due to sheer incompetency.
Coming hot on the heels of the Social Investment Fund fiasco, it seems anything goes up on the Hill as long as DUP-Sinn Fein dominance is maintained.
The Coalition partners stage occasional sham fights to maintain credibility. But mostly they are watching and scratching one another’s back.
Sinn Fein goes easy on the DUP now, perhaps remembering how helpful the DUP was two years ago when Spotlight exposed a phoney “research” organisation which Sinn Fein had used to claim a staggering £700,000 in “expenses.”
In the last three years, the DUP has had involvement in the Red Sky affair, the Nama scandal, the SIF/Charter NI fiasco and now the bonfire of public-money that is the Renewable Heat scheme.
But the Assembly hasn’t laid a glove on either wing of the Executive.
None of this is accidental. The Stormont structures are designed to sustain a system based on the idea of communal solidarity. Bread and butter issues don’t figure when it comes to forming or getting rid of a government. In practice, it is permissible to plunder the public finances – but not to upset the Orange-Green balance.
Working-class people should take a hard look at the parties which have either been involved in or turned a blind eye to these events.
Arlene Foster is unfit for office. She should resign without further ado.
Join us at the Guildhall, 5pm – Friday December 16″
Gerry Adams and the Sons of former Portlaoise Prison Officer Brian Stack, Killed by the IRA in 1983
Many of my friends may be surprised, but I think Gerry Adams is telling the truth about his encounters with the sons of Brian Stack, a Portlaoise Prison Officer killed by the IRA in 1983.
Austin Stack probably gave the names of alleged 1983 IRA killers of his father Brian Stack (a prison officer) to the Sinn Féin President, not the other way around. That explains the Gerry Adams email to Garda boss Nóirín O’Sullivan on this matter.
Tomás Ó Flatharta 