Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Posts Tagged ‘history

Struggles for Self-Determination: Ukraine and Palestine Solidarity Discussion

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Link :

Ukraine and Palestine: building real solidarity is hard work

A guest post by JOHN LAWRENCE, from the People and Nature Blog hosted by Simon Pirani.

This article is relevant to the European Parliament Election campaign in Ireland and other parts of Europe.

“Genocide is genocide, a mass grave is a mass grave. We are with the people who are in there, and against the people who put them there”, journalist Ed Vulliamy told a discussion meeting in London on Monday.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Israel’s war on Gaza – both of which have settler colonial and genocidal dimensions – had thrown an unusually clear light on the hypocrisy of people who oppose one, but not the other, Vulliamy said.

Marching in London, March 2024. Photos from United Action UK on instagram

In the United Nations, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky abstains over Gaza, and South Africa abstains over Ukraine, Vulliamy said.

“Large sections of the left wonderfully support Gaza but, having denied and justified [the massacre in 1995 of Bosnians by Serb troops at] Srebrenica, at best indulge, or support, Vladimir Putin and his imperial endeavour,” he continued.

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Ireland’s Open(ish) Border – Sinn Féin on the Warpath

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Ireland’s Open(ish) Border – Sinn Féin on the Warpath

Sinn Féin’s is warning Irish voters about “Open Borders”.

The party is promoting relentless propaganda in the run-up to the June 7 2024 European and local elections in Ireland.

This leaflet from Balbrigggan (Dublin) is a local version of statewide propaganda.

Let’s ask ourselves a question : What’s wrong with Open Borders?

Andrew Flood calls the border in Ireland Open(ish) – and he is spot on. Here is why :

I say Open(ish) because for two decades black or brown people crossing that border have been stopped and told to produce ‘papers’ by the Garda (claiming to be doing random checks). Maybe they want such checks stepped up, if not what is the demand here?

The border between the EU and the rest of the world is so closed that 3,000 people died trying to sneak across it last year. Over 20 times the number of people killed crossing the Berlin Wall in the 28 years it existed. The border with the 6 counties is Open(ish) – is it that?

OK we all know this is a response to the far right working with FFFGGP to blame Sinn Féin on the government’s failure to plan & communicate for large number of Ukrainian refugees. But this shite is just going to underline that Sinn Féin are no more principled that the rest.

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British Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris “accused of ‘unprecedented political intervention’ in legacy inquest” – News from the 6 County Bit of Ireland

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Exclusive: Chris Heaton-Harris accused of ‘unprecedented political intervention’ in legacy inquest – Irish News Newspaper

Northern Ireland Office minister seeks to block information being passed to family of murdered Catholic man Fergal McCusker


Family Members of Fergal McCusker attend the Inquest at Laganside courts on Tuesday April 9 2024

News like this does not get the attention it deserves. Low standards of justice remain very common in the sick state of Northern Ireland.

Here are the details.


Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris has been accused of “an unprecedented political intervention” as it emerged he has written to chief constable Jon Boutcher questioning his actions.

Dramatic details came to light during an inquest hearing liked to the LVF murder of Fergal McCusker (28) in Maghera, Co Derry, as he made his way home from a night out on January 18, 1998.

No-one has ever been charged with the Catholic man’s murder, although four men were arrested and later released.

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Patrick’s Day 2024 – Ireland, Palestine, the USA – Blood-Stained Shamrocks in Belfast while Irish-Americans turn against Joe Biden

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John Hurson of Tyrone, a dedicated pro-Palestine activist, speaks for many :

Thought she was going to bring up Gaza when she met Genocide Joe? :

US President Joe Biden (Genocide Joe) meets Irish forelock-tuggers Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly, the White House, Washington DC, Patrick’s Day 2024

Publicity for a Belfast protest stated ” ‘As Irish political leaders prepare to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with Joe Biden, the Gaza Genocide’s main sponsor, join us to show that the people of Ireland stand with the people of Palestine’” – but the event took a strange turn.

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Freddie Scappaticci, a British Agent in the IRA, was publicly unmasked in 2003 – on March 8 2024 the British State publishes a cover-up report called Kenova – the authors refuse to name Scappaticci – and nobody will be prosecuted

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Ed Moloney is the first journalist who publicly unmasked Freddie Scappaticci. A strange coalition issued denials : Scappaticci himself, the British Government, and Sinn Féin. Shortly afterwards extraordinary proof emerged, which proved beyond any shadow of doubt that Scappaticci was a British informer.

Questions remain – above all whether the state organisations and the then IRA leadership – responsible for many Scappaticci murders – can be made accountable for their actions. The British state is determined to prevent this happening.

On March 8 2024 a cover-up Kenova Report does not name Scappaticci. In the same week we learned that an innocent civilian called Seán Brown, an active GAA member, was killed in 1997 by loyalists, with help from 25 members of the British state security forces. An inquest into the assassination of Seán Brown was stopped because the British State, covering up its dirty work, issued Public Interest Immunity Certificates.

presiding coroner Mr Justice Kinney abandoned the long-running inquest in Belfast and confirmed he would write to Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris to ask for a public inquiry.

He said Mr Brown’s inquest could not continue due to material being withheld by state agencies on the grounds of national security.

The PSNI and MI5 have made applications for multiple redactions to sensitive documents connected to the murder under Public Interest Immunity (PII).

https://tomasoflatharta.com/2024/03/05/surveillance-operation-on-lvf-suspect-mark-swinger-fulton-lifted-the-day-before-sean-brown-murder-irish-news-report-lifts-lid-on-a-1997-sectarian-murder-facilitated-by-the-bri/

The stories below are recommended.


Stakeknife ‘told TV crew that McGuinness ordered killings’

Army mole in IRA allegedly told reporters they had not revealed enough about Sinn Fein leader

Rosie Cowan, Ireland correspondent
Monday July 14, 2003

Guardian

The Army/IRA double agent Freddie “Stakeknife” Scappaticci told television documentary makers Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness was a ruthless terrorist leader who sanctioned murder, secret tapes have allegedly revealed.

Mr Scappaticci was exposed two months ago as military intelligence’s top spy within the Provisionals, for whom he was deputy head of the notorious internal security unit, the Nutting Squad, responsible for torturing and killing suspected informers.

So far, Mr Scappaticci, whom the government paid more than £80,000 a year and whom sources have linked to more than 40 murders, has brazened it out, denying everything and returning to his west Belfast home after his security force handlers failed to persuade him to flee the country for his own safety.

Although many IRA members believe he is Stakeknife, the republican leadership has stuck by him, albeit at a distance, perhaps reckoning that the secret services would capitalise further on any IRA attempt to harm or exile him.

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“Surveillance operation on LVF suspect Mark ‘Swinger’ Fulton lifted the day before Seán Brown murder” – Irish News report lifts lid on a 1997 sectarian murder, facilitated by the British State – “Inquest abandoned due to material being withheld on the grounds of national security as coroner asks for public inquiry”

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Twenty seven years ago, and the British State is determined to prevent a true story being told.

Here is the Irish News report, published on March 5 2024.


A security surveillance operation on a leading loyalist and suspect in the murder of GAA official Sean Brown was lifted the night before the killing, a coroner has been told.

Details emerged as presiding coroner Mr Justice Kinney abandoned the long-running inquest in Belfast and confirmed he would write to Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris to ask for a public inquiry.

He said Mr Brown’s inquest could not continue due to material being withheld by state agencies on the grounds of national security.

The PSNI and MI5 have made applications for multiple redactions to sensitive documents connected to the murder under Public Interest Immunity (PII).

Loyalist Volunteer Force Killers Mark Fulton and Billy Wright

PII certificates are used by state agencies to withhold sensitive or top level security information they do not want in the public domain.

Last week the coroner heard that more than 25 people had been linked by intelligence to the murder, including several state agents.

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Sinn Féin Leaders are attending President Joe Biden’s Washington DC White House on Patrick’s Day, March 17 2024 – “drowning of the shamrock” decision has generated an avalanche of hostile left-wing criticism in Ireland

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A Patrick’s Day “Drowning of the Shamrock” celebration in Washington DC’s White House, including Irish politicians and the USA President, is a long-established tradition. President Joe Biden is an Irish-American who enjoyed a warm welcome “home” to Mayo and Louth in 2023. Biden’s Irish-American links are very strong and genuine – but many people who welcomed him to Ireland less than a year ago have broken with “Genocide Joe” because of USA political and military support of the Israeli murderous assault on the people of Gaza and Palestine.

An articulate response came from a Derry GAA All-Ireland winner, who is related by marriage to Mr Biden – Joe Brolly’s wife is Laurita Blewitt, a third cousin of Mr Biden.

Joe Biden, Laurita Blewitt and Joe Brolly

“President Biden has pledged 14 billion in state of the art weapons of war for Israel to continue to pummel this defenceless population. And 20 trucks of humanitarian aid for Gaza.
“I cannot think of anything sicker or more obscene bombing churches, hospitals, indiscriminate slaughter. Israel is a rogue state, completely out of control, as described by many leading Jewish academics and thinkers, acting beyond all norms of morality and anything that we could conceive of as decency and humanity.
“And when Joe Biden goes to Israel and hugs, quite rightly, the parents of those slaughtered children and human beings who lost their lives on 7th October, he doesn’t f***ing go to Palestine and do it and hug the children there and hug the mothers and fathers and tell them that he loves them.
“That alone would bring about a ceasefire. I stand with humanity he should be saying.”

https://tomasoflatharta.com/2023/10/24/irish-podcast-host-and-former-gaelic-footballer-joe-brolly-slams-president-joe-biden-over-usa-support-of-israel-a-rogue-state-completely-out-of-control/#more-7255

The leaders of Sinn Féin are going to the White House to shake hands with “Genocide Joe” on March 17 2024.

Here is one typical online response :

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Learning to Swim – “an argument against a retreat from broad parties and electoral work” – Paul Murphy TD

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Paul Murphy TD (People Before Profit, Dublin South-West) has written an interesting article :

Learning to Swim,;Paul Murphy; December 31 2023

It is published on the ISJ site, a British website :

“International Socialism is associated with the [British] Socialist Workers Party, but articles express the opinions of individual authors unless otherwise stated. We welcome proposals for articles and reviews for International Socialism..”

Paul Murphy is replying to a Joseph Choonara article; link here Revolutionaries and Elections

Here is Paul Murphy’s core argument :

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