Archive for the ‘USA’ Category
France: The NPA in Crisis
Both the SWP internal communication of 6th February and a commentator on it reffered to the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (New Anti-capitalist Party, NPA) in France. It has truely suffered the dramatic decline in membership mentioned. The NPA is particularly significant for those of us who promote a new pluralist radical left and it deserves consideration beyond hostile and misleading soundbites.
We reproduce below an article on the NPA, complete with comments, by Jason Stanley, from the January/February 2012 issue of the US magazine Against The Current, an analytical journal for the broad revolutionary left sponsored by the Solidarity group there. It is a model, for any online discussion, of informed substance, civility, commitment and calm.
France: The NPA in Crisis
— Jason Stanley
FRANCE’S NEW ANTI-CAPITALIST Party (NPA) is in crisis. While only two years ago many on the international left talked about the NPA as one of the brightest lights on an otherwise dim revolutionary horizon, today the Party is hemorrhaging members and struggling to stay afloat. Read the rest of this entry »
Belfast to Boston Via Afghanistan
Eamonn McCann has written a fascinating account of former Royal Ulster Constabulary Officers who urged a legal assault on the Boston Archive in order to settle old scores :
Norman Baxter’s Long Crusade
Well worth reading :
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/13/norman-baxters-long-crusade/
Mr Baxter was part of the police team that unsuccessfully investigated the 1998 Omagh Bombing.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8356020.stm
Boston College has undermined all researchers and journalists who rely on confidential sources – Liam Clarke Article
A huge amount has been written about the Boston College Saga – and there is plenty more to come – but Liam Clarke sums up the central issues very well
His full article is here :
We need full open and honest debate on the troubles – that cannot happen when the state uses its power to prosecute people for actions they took during the 1969-98 Northern Ireland war which ended with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
The state is biased and will never – taking the most blatant example – prosecute the people responsible for the murder of fourteen unarmed demonstrators in Derry on Bloody Sunday at the end of January 1972.
The Saville Inquiry Found British Paratroopers Guilty of Murdering 14 Innocent Civilians - Nobody Prosecuted
Ed Moloney offers the example of Patrick McCullough :
http://thebrokenelbow.com/2012/01/16/no-subpoenas-for-patrick-mccullough/
“Be Patient and Never Give up the Struggle” An interview with Tommy McKearney
International Viewpoint has published a stimulating interview with Tommy McKearney,
http://www.tommymckearney.com/Site/Blog/Blog.html
Tommy McKearney - A Patient Revolutionary Socialist
We hope soon to carry a review of Tommy’s recently published book
Goodbye Armalite, Hello Ballot Box?
Tommy welcomes the United Left Alliance Project :
Q: In late 2010 the United Left Alliance came together to contest the February 2011 general elections in Ireland, winning five seats. What is you assessment of the ULA?
TM: The ULA is a positive and progressive development. The fact that organizations of the left have come together at any time is good and that these groups are doing so at this time of capitalist crisis is heartening and encouraging. The ULA has also given some needed visibility to the left through its articulate and high-profile spokespersons such as Richard Boyd Barrett and Joe Higgins.
Asked about Ed Moloney’s “Voices From the Grave” and the British state attack on the Boston College Belfast Project, Tommy says : Read the rest of this entry »
Boston College Betrays Interviewees
The legal dispute between Boston College and the British State over the “Belfast Project”, a series of confidential interviews with participants in Northern Ireland’s “Troubles”, has taken a dramatic turn in a foul direction :
Some background: Boston College sponsored the Belfast Project, an effort to secure interviews with former members of paramilitary organizations on both sides of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Because such a project would require people to speak frankly about their participation in acts of unlawful violence, the project’s researchers promised participants that their interviews would be embargoed until their deaths. Each tape and transcript of an interview with a former member of the Provisional IRA, for example, or the Ulster Volunteer Force, would be closely held in BC’s Burns Library, securely locked away from historians and journalists until the contents of the material could no longer cause legal harm or political retribution to the interviewee.
http://chrisbrayblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/boston-college-time-for-resignations.html
More news will follow.
Occupy and the Tasks of Socialists by Pham Binh
The Occupy movement is not as marginal as its Dublin manifestation might suggest. Here an American socialist participant, Pham Binh, long an advocate of the broad new left approach, reflects on how socialists are relating to Occupy in the US:
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/occupy-and-the-tasks-of-socialists/
Occupy Wall Street 2011 Meets Mexico City Olympics 1968 Black Power – Viva John Carlos
Dave Zirin Writes
Last night I had the privilege of introducing 1968 Olympian Dr. John Carlos to the General Assembly at Occupy Wall Street. This morning I had the duty of introducing John Carlos to Sen. Chuck Schumer in the MSNBC green room. Both were unforgettable experiences
Tomás Ó Flatharta 