Archive for the ‘USA’ Category
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
Tale of the tape pits law against history
Liam Clarke has written a very good article about the PSNI (six-county police) “attempt to gain access to Boston College’s Belfast Project Archive of the taped testimonies of IRA and loyalist figures.”
It can be read here on the excellent Newshound site :
http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/Sunday_Times/arts2011/jun19_Tale_of_tapes_BC__LClarke.php
Nobody is denying US torpedoed plan to save the Irish State €20bn — Only Gene Kerrigan is asking
We are paying Gene Kerrigan the compliment of reproducing his entire article in today’s Sunday Independent (June 19 2011).
We covered this ground during the recent general election campaign.
https://tomasoflatharta.com/2011/02/05/make-a-bonfire-of-irish-banking-vanities/
No apologies for the action replay.
We also recommend the following articles from Vanity Fair and the British Guardian – very relevant to Gene’s article.
Let us hope the United Left Alliance TD’s run with this ball
http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/03/michael-lewis-ireland-201103
We’re shamed by conspiracy of silence
Nobody is denying US torpedoed plan to save the State €20bn — but no one’s asking either, writes Gene Kerrigan Read the rest of this entry »
Eamon Gilmore – Are You telling the Truth, or Is that what you are telling the American Embassy?
Labour Party Leader Eamon Gilmore, lord-lieutenant to King Kenny in the Dublin Government, is having a difficult time.
Did he have one policy in opposition, and is he following an opposite line in government?
Yes, we will come to that – but first something completely different –
Gene Kerrigan reports on the Labour Party leader’s reaction to the defeat of the first Lisbon treaty referendum in 2008: Read the rest of this entry »
“Dispatches from the Dark Side – On Torture and the Death of Justice” – Gareth Peirce Talk at the Law Society of Ireland
Gareth Peirce is a dedicated lawyer who, for the last 30 years, has defended “suspect communities” against state attacks. In the 1970’s successive British governments targeted Irish people living in Britain and many individuals were framed, tortured, and forced to spend several years in jail for IRA bombings they did not commit.
Peirce came to public attention for tirelessly defending individuals in cases such as the Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four, Judith Ward and Danny McNamee. She delivered the Law Society of Ireland 2011 Human Rights Lecture on May 10 in Dublin.
http://www.humanrights.ie/index.php/tag/law-society/
John Meehan reports.
On March 14 1991 the free man Paddy Hill grabbed a microphone outside the London Old Bailey Court where the Birmingham Six were finally released, and told the world that the Judges inside the building behind him “did not even understand” the word Justice.
Gareth Pierce marked the 20th anniversary of the release with a Guardian article pointing out lessons from that era had been ignored, and today the British state is trying to create another “suspect community” : Muslims.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/mar/12/gareth-peirce-birmingham-six
The Law Society Meeting Room was packed – Scattered among the large crowd were many activists from the Miscarriage of Justice Campaign in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. One was Michael Farrell, who texted me and many other people about the meeting.
Some are no longer with us – notably Thom McGinty (the Diceman) who starred as “British Justice” in a huge Dublin “Parade of Innocence” protest march against the Birmingham Six frame-up in 1989 :
http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/article/1375/troubled-images-posters-1-10 Read the rest of this entry »
Tomás Ó Flatharta 