Archive for the ‘Irish Left With Ukraine’ Category
Russia’s war on Ukraine and the European lefts – Murray Smith casts a harsh light on the radical left in Europe
Murray Smith is a member of the leadership of déi Lénk (“The Left”) in Luxembourg and is one of its representatives on the Executive Board of the Party of the European Left. Article Source : http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article67205
The war in Ukraine has cast a harsh light on the radical left in Europe, revealing the best and the worst. On the one hand, an internationalist response of solidarity with Ukraine. On the other, a “peace camp” where you find pacifists, but especially sectarians, for whom the main enemy is always US imperialism. Rather than a movement for peace, it is above all a movement of non-solidarity with Ukraine. We will come back to that.
Let’s start with some thoughts on war. We can be against war in general. We can consider that we must overcome this barbaric way of settling conflicts. We can think that it is possible to do it in the existing capitalist society, or that to put an end to war it is necessary to finish with capitalism. But historically, and again today, the left is never confronted with war in general, but with real existing wars, specific wars, which succeed each other and do not always have the same nature. So, each war must be analyzed in its specificity. There are no slogans outside of time and space, which are valid for all wars. It is not because Lenin or Luxemburg or Liebknecht spoke of revolutionary defeatism or said that the enemy was in one’s own country, that we can trot out these slogans for any war, independently of the context.
World War I was an inter-imperialist conflict over the distribution of territories, resources and markets. Those who refused to support their own imperialism were right. And history proved them right. The activity of the small minority of internationalist circles of 1914 led to strikes, mutinies, mass parties and revolutions. Yet since 1914 no war has been a simple repetition of World War I, and a simple repetition of the slogans of 1914 has not been enough. In all the wars of national liberation against the colonial empires, it was clear that it was necessary to support the insurgents who fought for the independence of their countries. The same applies to attacks on independent countries by imperialist powers. So, in the 1930s, the left supported China against Japan and Ethiopia against Italy. And, closer to the present day, Iraq against the United States. This despite the fact that these countries were ruled by regimes that the left could not support.
Read the rest of this entry »Family home of Dún Laoghaire Councillor Hugh Lewis attacked – Fighting Back Against Racist Thugs in Ireland
Late in the night of Monday July 17 2023 racists threw a brick through a window of Councillor Hugh Lewis’s family home in Dún Laoghaire. The only occupant in the house was Hugh’s 78 year old father Peter, who, fortunately, was not physically injured. Hugh describes the incident in the radio interview below.
https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22276344/
Anti-racists in the area are organizing :
We believe it is important for people to go Beyond the Myths and Lies. Here are some Facts we have prepared on how the Process of Seeking Asylum works
Read the rest of this entry »Cluster munitions delivered to Ukraine – Debate among the pro-solidarity left
The Ukrainian state’s decision to import cluster bombs has generated considerable debate in all parts of the globe, including Ireland.
Des Derwin and Fred Leplat offer critical commentary here :
Catherine Samary provides a different perspective; source : https://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article67186
1-Even if there are specific differences between various types of weapons that legitimise global campaigns to ban them, the same weapons can be used to attack and dominate peoples or to defend themselves. This is true on the whole, even if it has always been the great dominant powers that have organised the production and use of weapons: the vital need to defend oneself has extended their use to various protagonists. War crimes and crimes against humanity are committed with all kinds of weapons – conventional or not.
Read the rest of this entry »Finbar Cafferkey: The life and death of an Irish fighter in Ukraine – Irish Times, July 15 2023
Dan McLaughlin and Conor Gallagher have written a fine tribute to Finbar Cafferkey. When Russia’s genocidal imperialist invasion of Ukraine is over – and hopefully is defeated – Finbar Cafferkey will deserve to be honoured as an Irish fighter who fought imperialist war at home and abroad.
How an Achill Islander came to fight and die as an international soldier in a foreign war
Colm Cafferkey was getting a bag of chips in Keel on Achill Island when he got the call saying his older brother Finbar was missing in action on the front lines in Ukraine.
Finbar and two other international volunteers were fighting with Ukrainian units in April to keep open a vital supply route to the city of Bakhmut, which was on verge of being overrun by the Russian invaders.
A sustained mortar strike hit the group, causing many casualties. Amid the chaos no one could be sure what happened to the 45-year-old Mayo man.
For the next week the Cafferkey family was worried but hopeful. Finbar had a reputation for disappearing for days or weeks at a time, only to pop up in another city or country.
Colm recalls them attending 1996 All-Ireland football final between Mayo and Meath and Finbar failing to show up at an arranged meeting spot.
“He rings us a few days later and he is in London. And then he rings a week later and he’s in Holland,” Colm recalls with a smile. “He could go three months without texting you.”
A week after he first heard his brother was missing, Colm got confirmation: Finbar was killed in the strike near Bakhmut, the devastated city in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, during Europe’s bloodiest battle since the second World War. He is the third Irish man known to have been killed in the fighting since the war started in February 2022. Continued fighting and the trading of territory between the sides meant recovering his remains was impossible.
Interviews with those who knew and fought alongside Cafferkey paint him as a brave, occasionally withdrawn man who was unable to stand still for long and who was willing to make sacrifices for his beliefs, even when it meant working alongside ideological opponents.
Read the rest of this entry »500 Days Since Russia Invaded Ukraine on February 24 2023 – Demonstration, Embassy of the Russian Federation, Dublin, Orwell Road
Ukrainian Action on Ireland called a demonstration marking Day 500 of the Russian genocidal invasion of Ukraine.
Here is a pictorial record – thanks to John Lyons for the photographs. Over 100 people attended.
Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) 2023 Conference Unanimously Passes Resolution in Solidarity With Ukraine
We reported on debates about Ukraine at the ICTU 2023 Conference in a recent post :
Trade Unionists for Solidarity with Ukraine -Russian Troops Out of Ukraine Now – Irish Congress of Trade Unions Conference Official Fringe Meeting – Maginnes 3, Lyrath Hotel Kilkenny – Tuesday July 4 2023, 17:30
Des Derwin and Gregor Kerr, members of Irish Left With Ukraine, proposed and spoke in favour of the motion below :
Gregor Kerr speaking in favour of the motion :
The motion was carried unanimously. We look forward to practical trade union action flowing from this decision.
A Warning : The Russian Federation, which occupies the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, is Planning to Blow Up the Facility
Credible sources from Ukraine are warning us : Adrian Ivakhiv writes; source ; https://blog.uvm.edu/aivakhiv-ukrtaz/2023/07/05/zaporizhzhia-npp-warnings/
Zaporizhzhia NPP warnings
Here’s my read of what’s going on with all the recent warnings surrounding the fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP).
All signs point to a Russian plan to do something with or at the plant — something that could potentially contaminate a large portion of Ukrainian territory and decommission at least part of the ZNPP (so that Ukrainians wouldn’t be able to use it or the land around it) — and that would have enough ambiguity around it as to allow Russian “deniability.”
The ZNPP is the largest such plant in Europe, and is currently, though barely, on the Russian controlled side of Ukrainian territory. As Ukrainian forces advance, Russia does not expect to hold onto it. As with the Kakhovka dam explosion, Russia will continue to blame Ukraine. Their propaganda players have been ratcheting up the “Ukrainian false flag” narratives for days (have a look at responses to Zelenskyi’s recent Twitter post warning of a potential Russian explosion at the ZNPP to see what that looks like).
The reality-check question here is: who would benefit from any ZNPP disaster and who would lose out? It is Ukrainian land, which Ukrainians expect to gain back and Russians expect (at this point) to lose. Furthermore, it has been historically significant Ukrainian land going back to the 17th century Cossack state, which Ukrainians consider an early progenitor of Ukrainian democracy. (As I and many have been arguing, culture and history are important in this neocolonial/anti-colonial struggle.)
Read the rest of this entry »“The challenge for each of us as Irish trade unionists and as Irish left political activists is to be able to step outside our theory and to listen to the voices of Ukrainian trade unionists” – Gregor Kerr at the 2023 Irish Congress of Trade Unions Conference
Gregor Kerr, is an Irish National Teachers Organisation delegate to ICTU BDC, a member of the ICTU Global Solidarity Committee and former member of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) Central Executive Committee. Gregor is also a member of Irish Left With Ukraine and has been an active member of several trade union and political campaigns for many years. here is a speech he was not able to deliver :
Due to time constraints I didn’t get an opportunity to deliver my prepared speech at the Irish Left With Ukraine Fringe Meeting at the ICTU Conference yesterday evening. If you get a chance to listen to the 3 fabulous Ukrainian speakers, you will realise that my speech wasn’t missed!
If I had had time, this is what I would have said –
To its credit, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and many individual unions have been unequivocal in their support for Ukraine since the brutal Russian invasion in February 2022. As is noted in the Executive Council report to BDC, in March 2022 ICTU organised a well-attended demonstration outside the Russian embassy to mark the one-month anniversary of the invasion. ICTU and many unions have run fundraising efforts and moneys raised have gone to the Irish Red Cross and to the International Trade Union Confederation fund to support Ukrainian unions. At meetings of the ITUC General Council, ICTU supported suspension of the Russian Trade Union Federation from the ITUC, and at the ITUC Congress in Melbourne in November 2022, ICTU President Kevin Callinan attended a special session which pledged support to Ukrainian and Belarus unions. Also in November, David Joyce ICTU Global Solidarity Officer and Séamus Dooley of the NUJ spoke at a public meeting in Dublin organised by Irish Left With Ukraine.
Gregor Kerr and a few of the causes he supports :
Many individual unions have also made contact and pledged solidarity with their sister Ukrainian unions. At Easter, 2 representatives of the Trade Union of Education and Science Workers of Ukraine received a standing ovation following a very powerful speech to the annual Congress of my own union – the Irish National Teachers Organisation.
Read the rest of this entry »500 Days Since Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine : Protest, Friday, July 7 2023, at 3:00 pm near the Russian Embassy in Dublin on Orwell Road
Ukrainian Action in Ireland Announcement :
500 days since the full invasion. Irish protesters near the Russian Embassy and Ukrainian Action invite you to remind representatives of the aggressor country that they must not escape responsibility for their military crimes and urge the world community to help Ukraine expel Russian detainees from our land.
Friday, July 7 2023, at 3:00 pm near the Russian Embassy in Dublin on Orwell Road.
Bring the posters, Ukrainian flags.
Also, on Sunday, July 9, there will be an art installation dedicated to 500 days of war in central Dublin, we will write about it later.
Trade Unionists for Solidarity with Ukraine -Russian Troops Out of Ukraine Now – Irish Congress of Trade Unions Conference Official Fringe Meeting – Maginnes 3, Lyrath Hotel Kilkenny – Tuesday July 4 2023, 17:30
Trade Unionists for Solidarity with Ukraine –
Russian Troops Out of Ukraine Now
ICTU BDC Official Fringe Meeting
Maginnes 3, Lyrath Hotel, Kilkenny
Tuesday July 4 2023 17.30
Zoom Link : https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82438977972?pwd=NlR1dVVra0VoNkRXTFFjYnY4SHZKdz09
Speakers :
Gregor Kerr – Irish National Teachers Organisation delegate to ICTU BDC, member of the ICTU Global Solidarity Committee (Personal Capacity)
Nataliya Levytska , Deputy Chair, KVPU (Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine)
Sergey Movchan, member of Solidarity Collectives Ukraine
Denys Pilash, political scientist and historian representing Sotsialnyi Rukh (Social Movement Ukraine)
Chairperson : Nóirín Greene, Former ICTU Executive Member
We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and their defence against the illegal and brutal invasion of February 2022. We want an immediate stop to the bombardment of civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure by the Russian Federation and to war crimes and human rights abuses in the occupied territories.
We are for the speediest possible end to the war, based on
- The immediate withdrawal of all Russian forces
- Self-determination for Ukraine and restoration of occupied territory
- Ukraine’s right to appeal for, and be provided with, the military equipment needed to defeat the invasion.
- Approval of any ‘peace deal’ by the people of Ukraine
We extend our solidarity to Ukrainian trade unionists and socialists who continue to promote
and defend workers’ rights. We oppose the introduction of new labour laws in Ukraine which
have undermined trade union and worker rights.
We support a socially progressive reconstruction of Ukraine, with trade unions and civil society
playing a central role. We therefore support the cancellation of Ukraine’s foreign debt and
seizure of Russian assets to help fund state and society-led reconstruction with fully state-
funded welfare state and a low carbon sustainable economy.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tomás Ó Flatharta 