The War in Ukraine: Agenda for the Left – the most serious war on the European continent since the end of World War 2 in 1945 has not gone away, you know
Here are the latest articles published on the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine website ukraine-solidarity.eu in English.
For more information, write to the network at info@ukraine-solidarity.eu.
Israel’s genocidal war against Palestine has pushed Putin’s genocidal invasion of Ukraine off the national and international headlines, but the most serious war on the European continent since the end of World War 2 in 1945 has not gone away, you know.
In a rational left-wing political ecosphere, all forces across the left would be promoting the information below, and seeking collective action in solidarity with the workers and social movements of Ukraine against Moscow’s sinister far-right invasion. It is time to step up solidarity with Ukraine, before it is too late. One of the articles linked below is reproduced at the end of this blog post : The War in Ukraine: Agenda for the Left . We also reproduce the latest news report written by the outstanding Irish Times Eastern Europe correspondent, Daniel McLaughlin.
Racist Scumbags in Ireland Are Burning Unoccupied Buildings – The Hug-a-Thug Policing Strategy of Garda Boss Drew Harris is coming home to roost
A question to Garda Boss Drew Harris : How is the Hug-a-Thug Policing Strategy Playing Out?
In 2023, in his weekly Sunday Independent columns, Gene Kerrigan wrote devastating examinations of Garda Boss Drew Harris’s strategy for dealing with escalating far-right activity in Ireland. November 23 2023 racist riots in Dublin’s city centre prompted this sarcastic Kerrigan twitter comment :
“The classic part of their playbook,” Drew Harris said of the far right, “is an over-response by the authorities. We are not going to fall into that trap.” How’s the hug-a-thug policing strategy playing out, Drew?
Source : The Drew Harris Hug-a-Thug Policing Strategy
Racist riots erupted on Dublin’s streets on November 23 2023. The “hug-a-thug” philosophy of Drew Harris finds its way into this Irish Times report :
Many Garda officers do not accept the disturbances on the night were “far-right riots”, saying the event was more nuanced. They say the trouble was whipped up by a small far-right element before opportunists with no ideology seized the chance to go on a rampage, taking on gardaí and looting shops.
Conor Lally, Crime & Law
How far right-sparked violence dominated the year in policing during 2023, Irish Times December 27 2023
The Irish Far-Right is on an arson roll – its activists are burning unoccupied buildings which are earmarked to house homeless refugees.
Read the rest of this entry »Did British Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer say “Israel has the right” to cut off food water and electricity to 2 million people in Gaza?
A resident of Great Britain advises these posters are appearing in an English city. The correspondent observes “Someone is sailing very close to the wind with electoral law even if it is an accurate account of what he said. This is the latest and biggest of a series of these that have popped up locally.”
Has anyone seen these posters in other parts of the British state, including the bit styled “Northern Ireland”. I am guessing the posters would be popular in Scotland and Wales. They could catch on!
A correspondent wondered “And of course it’s not what he said!” – so the blog team looked it up.
Read the rest of this entry »Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin opens the door to coalition with Sinn Féin
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said there would be “huge difficulties” with his party going into government with Sinn Féin, but did not rule out the possibility of such a coalition after the next election.
Irish Times December 26 2023
Fianna Fáil (FF) and Fine Gael (FG), two tweedledum and tweedledee capitalist parties, have controlled every government running the southern 26 county bit of partitioned Ireland since a 1921 Treaty was signed with the former occupying power, Britain. A carnival of reaction followed on both sides of the Irish border.
Faced with a false choice between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the only rational policy for the left was and is : no coalition, on principle, with any right-wing party.
The need for this policy is explained in this interview with Paul Murphy TD (People Before Profit, Dublin South-West) : To all of them we say: rule out coalition with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael – interview with Paul Murphy TD after the February 2020 Irish General Election
Read the rest of this entry »The comments of Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald TD on Ukrainian refugees in Ireland are a mistake
I note the statement by Mary Lou Mc Donald TD,leader of Sinn Fein with regards to her view that the position to grant special status to Ukrainians following the Russian invasion in 2022 was a mistake.
At the time her party supported the government position. While party banners were not present, Mary Lou Mc Donald was present for protest outside the Russian Embassy in July to mark 18 months since the invasion.
I think it unfortunate that the Sinn Fein leader has now expressed a sense of regret at the level of support for Ukraine in Ireland. Sinn Féin and others have been loud in the support for Palestine rightly, but like so many have left their attention drift with regards to Ukraine.
Rather than reacting to the menacing activity of far right activity and call for a more robust policing and courts response to the fire attack at a hotel in Galway, the Sinn Fein leader’s comments will embolden the nativist elements.
Read the rest of this entry »A Leon Trotsky, a Chara – A short post(card) and festive greetings
Thanks to Maurice Casey for this story : a postcard from Paul Kirchoff to Leon Trotsky, sent from Ireland in May 1933. Source ; Paul Kirchoff to Leon Trotsky, Dublin, May 23 1933
My final piece of work before I turned on the ‘out of office’ for Christmas was to return to some sources I accessed in the Leon Trotsky papers, now stored in Harvard, and partly digitised.
Among the documents I looked through were postcards sent to Leon Trotsky from Paul Kirchoff, a German revolutionary and anthropologist who spent part of the early 1930s working with the Harvard-Irish study.
One of Kirchoff’s letters to Trotsky from Ireland stood out because it opened with the Irish-language greeting ‘A Chara’, meaning ‘Dear friend’ (more-or-less). It was sent in May 1933 and is otherwise written in German:
I don’t have any deep analysis of this document for you.
Read the rest of this entry »Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song – Ian Parker’s Critical Review
Source : Prophet Song The Grim Booker
The evening of 23 November 2023 in Dublin saw a mixture of racist protest fuelled by the far right and “riots” by marginalised youth taking what they could from stores, for which they will be punished. The alarm at the potent combination of populist rage and popular resentment was palpable (I arrived on Friday afternoon and heard accounts of what had gone on), and that Saturday’s Palestine solidarity march (which I had planned to attend) was postponed for a week.
On the Sunday evening this year’s Booker Prize was announced, Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song (Oneworld, 2023). Some enthusiasts for the book are treating it as prophecy, and it does trace a downward spiral into chaos that engulfs the south of Ireland after the election of a “National Alliance Party”.
Austerity and reaction
There has been plenty of speculation in Ireland and abroad about how Lynch touches nerves about austerity and reaction, and warnings about plot spoilers now are hardly necessary. You know what is coming before you open the book.
Read the rest of this entry »Reflections: Dublin’s racist mobs smashed the city centre, 23.11.23 – “You Don’t get to be Racist and Irish” – Imelda May
Very often, like many others (in their millions), I walk into Dublin city centre, passing through Parnell Square. November 23 2023, shortly before 1.00pm seemed no different. That impression was soon shattered. I collected a monthly prescription from a chemist on Portland Row, off the North Circular Road. Proceeding into town past Mountjoy Square, I dropped into my former place of work – the FÓRSA Trade Union headquarters in Nerney’s Court off Gardiner Place – for a chat, a cup of coffee, and a visit to the jacks. The staff at reception were, as usual, very friendly. Then a woman in her 30’s entered, very shook. She told us about a big police cordon around Parnell Square and a horrible incident – news was spreading about a man who stabbed children and an adult outside an Irish language school. Rumours were circulating.
At this point I encourage readers to read and listen to a very good short Dáil speech of Paul Murphy delivered on November 28 2023. It explains a lot :
First, I send my thoughts and solidarity to the victims and the families of the victims of the stabbing attack. It is just horrifying and so nightmarish to think of children being attacked in such a way. In the response to that horror, we saw the very best of our city – Warren, Caio, Leo, Siobhán and others – people who were white Irish and immigrants coming together and putting their lives on the line to try to protect children.
Paul Murphy TD (Dublin South-West), People Before Profit, Dáil Éireann, November 28 2023
Our city and country should have now been uniting around the families of the victims in solidarity with them. Instead, sickeningly and disgustingly, far-right, racist and fascist agitators said this was their chance to incite a riot and to spread hatred and division. We know who incited this riot and called for people to come out on the streets. These people did not hide themselves or issue the calls anonymously. At 2.16 p.m., a white supremacist, Mick O’Keefe, issued his first tweet. He followed that at 2.50 p.m., saying that a foreign man entered the school and stabbed five children and he said the kids were dead. Fergus Power tweeted at 2.55 p.m. that a five-year-old girl was alleged to have passed away and that “This better get people off their arses and out onto the streets”. Phillip Dwyer, a crèche creeper and dog kicker, streamed a video at 4.04 p.m. in which he said he would be in town at 6 p.m. Gavin Pepper, another far-right agitator, called people onto the streets for 7 p.m. in town. Derek Blighe had a video in which he said “We are at war,” echoing the words of Conor McGregor. We know who called people out. We also have to look at the role of some people in this Chamber. I will mention one. Deputy Mattie McGrath earlier called for a “reasonable debate” on migration. Fine, let us have the debate but a part of that will be Mattie’s connections with the far-right. He has been photographed with Gavin Pepper; photographed with Andy Heasman; a street meeting with many of the people who were involved in organising this. He has been laundering far-right conspiracy theories using his platform in this Dáil repeatedly and he is not the only one.
Ukraine Needs Extra Aid – Everywhere, far-right forces are trying to facilitate Putin’s genocide – Oppose genocide in Ukraine and Palestine
Dublin City Council has voted unanimously to fly the Palestinian flag at City Hall on Dame Street for seven days. Great decision.
The Ukrainian flag should flutter alongside the Palestinian flag. Solidarity with the people of Palestine and Ukraine – under genocidal bombardment from the states of Israel and the Russian Federation.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tomás Ó Flatharta 