Revolutionary socialist & anti-imperialist; Rebel Breeze publishes material within this spectrum and may or may not agree with all or part of any particular contribution. Writing English, Irish and Spanish, about politics, culture, nature.
On Friday September 20, Anti-Imperialist Action Ireland and Saoirse Don Phalaistín held an emergency solidarity demonstration with Hezbollah and the Lebanese people on O’Connell Bridge in Dublin.
(Photo sourced: AIA social media page)
Although called at short notice, there was a great turn out, demonstrating the support of Irish Revolutionaries for the Anti Zionist Resistance.
A large Hezbollah flag was the centrepiece of the demonstration and flew proudly beside Irish Republican flags including the Tricolour and Green Starry Plough of the Irish Citizen Army, Palestine, Lebanese, Iraqi and Basque national flags and the flags of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Chants at the demonstration included From Ireland to Palestine – Occupation is a crime! and Hands off Lebanon!. As it was culture night, two singers gave renditions of ‘We only want the earth’ by James Connolly and ‘Go on Home British and Zionist Soldiers’, a twist on the Republican classic linking the fights for Freedom in Ireland and Palestine.
(Photo sourced: AIA social media page)
The demonstration was monitored by the special branch who took photos of the participants but their presence could not stop the solidarity action with Hezbollah and the Lebanese People.
Irish Republicans will always stand with our international anti imperialist comrades in the fight against Imperialism and Zionism. AIA and SDP will continue to organise events and actions to increase our solidarity with the Anti Zionist Resistance.
(Photo sourced: AIA social media page)
Additional comment – Clive Sulish: The event was also filmed by a well-known Irish Zionist who regularly tries to intimidate Palestine solidarity activists and also tries to get the Gardaí to arrest those carrying flags of Palestinian resistance organisations.
O’Connell Bridge crosses the Liffey river dividing the north from the south Dublin city centres and is directly passed by north and southbound traffic but also closely by west and eastbound traffic along the quays.
There were many expressions of appreciation from passersby on foot, in vehicles or on bicycle. End.
(Photo sourced: AIA social media page)(Photo sourced: AIA social media page)
Diarmuid Breatnach (feel free to share with acknowledging source)
13 July, the IOF kill at least 19 and injure many more when it bombs a tent town in Al-Mawasi, an area the IOF had declared ‘safe’ for refugee relocation near Khan Younis in Gaza .Ongoing resistance of the heroic Palestinian people takes many forms, including blowing up invading IOF troop-carriers, bulldozers and tanks.With comparatively cheap anti-aircraft missiles of their armoury, the Yemen Army shot down their tenth USA MQ-9 Reaper drone, each of which is costed at $32 Million.
NB: Rebel Breeze shares this near the anniversary of the fascist military coup in Chile, the same date as the Twin Towers massacre years later.. The article is a year old but relevant as long as British imperialism exists.
As the Pinochet regime rounded up and murdered its political opponents after the 1973 coup, a UK Foreign Office propaganda unit passed material to Chile’s military intelligence and MI6 connived with a key orchestrator of the coup, newly declassified files show.
Foreign Office helped Pinochet regime to develop a counter-insurgency strategy based on British military campaigns in Southeast Asia
MI6 officer David Spedding was attached to British embassy in Santiago in 1972-4, and had relations with a key member of the military junta
The UK government assisted Chile’s military intelligence in the aftermath of the brutal 1973 coup against elected president Salvador Allende, newly declassified files show.
The assistance was authorised by the Information Research Department (IRD), a secret Foreign Office propaganda unit which worked closely with Britain’s secret intelligence service, MI6.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office building, Whitehall, London. Many a dark deed was planned here. (Photo accessed: Internet)
The IRD had long seen Allende as a political threat. As Declassified previously revealed, throughout the 1960s, the unit had sought to prevent Allende from ever becoming president through election interference and covert propaganda operations.
After Allende was elected in 1970, the IRD’s distribution of propaganda material became “strictly limited”, with the British embassy having fewer reliable contacts in the Chilean government.
This all changed after the coup.
In January 1974, the IRD began to “extend the distribution” of its material, which was now passed “to the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government information organisations” and, crucially, the dictatorship’s “military intelligence” services.
At this time, Chile’s security forces – including the country’s intelligence apparatus – were responsible for massive human rights violations, including the widespread use of torture as a political weapon.
The UK government was under no illusions about this. As Foreign Office official Christopher Crabbie noted three months after the coup in December 1973, “I do not think that anyone seriously doubts that torture is going on in Chile”.
Reliable figures indicate that, between 1973 and 1988, Chilean state agents were responsible for over 3,000 deaths or disappearances and tens of thousands of cases of torture and political arrests. This was in a country which, in 1973, had a population of only 10 million people.
Chile Army 1973 coup soldiers watch detainees – many were shot, many more tortured then shot, many more still ‘disappeared’, probably tortured and shot. Many, many more were jailed where they were also tortured; young children were also abducted and given to fascist childless couples. (Photo accessed: Internet)
‘Hearts and minds’
The nature of the information passed to Chile’s military intelligence remains unclear, though the files suggest it may have included material for use in propaganda, research reports on left-wing activity, and even manuals on domestic security operations.
For instance, newly declassified files show how the UK government secretly helped the Chilean authorities to develop a counter-insurgency strategy, using techniques refined during Britain’s colonial interventions in Southeast Asia.
The idea for such assistance was first raised during the visit of British navy chief Sir Michael Pollock to Chile in late November 1973, two months after the coup.
The timing of Pollock’s visit was “politically tricky”, noted the British ambassador in Santiago, Reginald Secondé, since there was “much critical attention” being given “to the Chilean Government’s treatment of their political opponents”.
However, there were “two frigates and two submarines for the Chilean Navy under construction in British yards” – an arms deal worth around £50m – and “this was not a moment to prejudice the historic tradition of Anglo-Chilean naval friendship”.
“This was not a moment to prejudice the historic tradition of Anglo-Chilean naval friendship”
In Santiago, Pollock and Secondé met with a number of regime officials, including navy chief José Toribio Merino Castro, defence minister Patricio Carvajal Prado, and foreign minister Ismael Huerta.
With Huerta, the British officials spoke about the UK government’s “hearts and minds” campaign in Northern Ireland, a counter-insurgency strategy inspired by Britain’s war in Malaya (1948-60).
Huerta “seemed impressed with the concept”, and Secondé “later twice heard him muttering to himself ‘hearts and minds’”.
Subsequent meetings were held between Secondé, British information officer Tony Walters, and Captain Carlos Ashton, the director of overseas information in Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Like Huerta, Ashton was “very receptive to the idea that this kind of approach to Chilean security problems might be the right answer”, and requested “details of what practical measures a ‘hearts and minds’ exercise would involve”.
Ashton’s request for assistance was forwarded to Rosemary Allott, the head of the IRD’s Latin American desk.
In a letter dated 15 February 1974 and marked ‘secret’, Allott agreed to provide the Chilean regime with counter-insurgency advice, but limited this to material on Britain’s past colonial interventions.
“In view of the delicate political considerations involved”, Allott wrote, “it would be best to confine, at this stage at least, the material we send you of insurgencies of the past, rather than those currently preoccupying HMG” such as Northern Ireland.
The Pinochet regime was soon issued with three books on British counter-insurgency strategy, alongside a “Manual of Counter Insurgency Studies”.
“Britain agreed to share its colonial policing methods with the Chilean junta”
Allott also tracked down “various official reports on Malaya” including “The Fight Against Communist Terrorism in Malaya”, the “Review of the Emergency in Malaya (1948-57)”, and “two booklets on the Philippines insurrection”.
Britain’s military campaign in Malaya involved the “resettlement” of over 500,000 civilians, aerial bombardment, and an intensive propaganda operation.
Embassy officials suggested that they were teaching Chilean officers “tactics of tolerance and magnanimity”. However, brutal repression often lay behind the UK government’s rhetoric about “winning hearts and minds”, and the Chilean authorities were only sharpening their repressive techniques.
None of the material given to the Pinochet regime was “for attribution to HMG”. This meant that the Chilean authorities could use the information but not source it to the UK government.
The extent to which Britain’s advice was acted upon remains unclear; the Pinochet regime was certainly not lacking in support from the CIA.
Nonetheless, it is clear that Britain agreed to share its colonial policing methods with the Chilean junta, with the goal of stabilising Pinochet’s regime against domestic opposition.
MI6 in Chile
Evidence of British assistance to Chile’s intelligence services raises further questions about what Britain’s own secret intelligence service, MI6, was doing in Chile.
In 1972, MI6 officer David Spedding was attached to the British embassy in Santiago – his only foreign posting outside of the Middle East throughout his career.
This was not Spedding’s first visit to Chile. As a postgraduate student at Oxford University during the mid-1960s, Spedding had spent his gap year in Santiago and found work as an assistant in the British embassy’s press office.
Spedding’s first role in the diplomatic service was thus in the same British embassy that had been directing covert propaganda operations against Allende throughout the 1960s. The job gave him “an entrée into SIS [MI6]”, historian Nigel West noted.
Spedding remained in Chile until September 1974. He was subsequently made responsible for MI6 operations across the Middle East, and would go on to become MI6 chief between 1994 and 1999.
‘Our relationship with Admiral Merino’
Spedding’s name rarely appears in declassified Foreign Office files on Chile.
Yet in one file, dated 4 December 1973, Spedding informed the Foreign Office that 2,800 civilians and 700 armed forces personnel had been killed during and after the coup.
“In order to protect our relationship with Admiral Merino”, Spedding noted, “we would not like these figures to be quoted, at least for the time being”.
Admiral Merino was one of the key orchestrators of the 1973 coup. He was head of the Chilean navy in September 1973, and remained in post until the fall of the dictatorship in 1990. Merino claimed responsibility for convincing Pinochet to join the coup.
Some of the culprits saluting (Photo accessed: Internet)
One of Spedding’s roles, then, was to ensure close collaboration with the Chilean junta by covering up its responsibility for massive political repression and human rights violations.
The MI6 station in Santiago was only closed down in 1974 amid the UK Labour Party’s return to government.
It would not be surprising if MI6 played a supporting role to the CIA’s covert operations against Allende during the early 1970s. It was recently revealed that the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) had “opened a base in Santiago to assist in the US Central Intelligence Agency’s destabilisation of the Chilean government” in 1971.
Britain’s secret assistance to the Pinochet regime was consistent with the UK government’s position on the coup.
The Conservative government under Edward Heath had welcomed the coup and rushed to give diplomatic recognition and arms to the Chilean junta, with the Foreign Office noting that it had “infinitely more to offer British interests than the one which preceded it”.
The coup against Allende inaugurated a 17-year dictatorship under General Augusto Pinochet, who only left office in 1990.
end.
John McEvoy is co-directing a forthcoming documentary investigating Britain’s hidden role in the death of Chile’s democracy and rise of the Pinochet dictatorship. You can support the film’s production here.
A number of demonstrations were held in Ireland to make it clear that Kier Starmer, Prime Minister of the UK and supporter of the Zionist state of ‘Israel’, has no céad míle fáilte in Ireland, or indeed any fáilte whatsoever for his Dublin visit.
After fourteen years of Conservative Party management of the UK, Starmer at the head of the Labour Party rode a change-seeking wave to win the General Election in July this year. But he soon revealed how little difference there is between the parties, including on Palestine.
Mostly of the east-facing section on the Bridge (Photo: R.Breeze)
Although the Labour Party on the Zionist State, its Government continues to support that state politically and economically, also militarily with supply of weapons components and RAF missions.1
Very recently the UK Labour Government temporarily suspended 30 military items which may (may!) be implicated in genocide. The UK, holder of one of the five Permanent seats of the UN Security Council is complicit in the ongoing Zionist colonial settler genocide of Palestinians.
In fact, the UK is responsible for settling Zionist Jews in Palestine and then for allocating much of Palestinian land to the settler who, as European settler colonists do, expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and continued extending their land-grabbing ever since.
West-facing section of protest (Photo: R.Breeze)
PROTEST ON O’CONNELL BRIDGE
The Saoirse Don Phalaistín and Anti-Imperialist Action groups organised a protest against Starmer’s visit to take place on O’Connell Bridge at 3pm on Saturday and took up position on the central pedestrian reservation, with one section facing eastward and the other towards the West.
The Bridge spans the River Liffey and is in the heart of the city centre, crossed by north and southbound traffic and in view of westbound and eastbound traffic along the quays also.
There was a heavy presence of uniformed police in the vicinity, with five Special Branch nearby and a Public Order Unit van driving by a number of times as did other Garda vans. A prisoner transport van was also parked on the Bridge for a period but no attack was forthcoming.
Collection of banners and flags in west-facing section of protest. (Photo: R.Breeze)
RECORD OF THE LABOUR PARTY
One of the speakers at the O’Connell Bridge event reminded people of the history Labour Governments vis-a-vis Ireland, having sent the troops to the Six County colony to quell the struggle for civil rights there and also targeting the Irish in Britain with the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
This 1974 PTA, the speaker said, was later extended into the current Terrorism Act of repression in Britain. He reminded people too of the innocent Birmingham Six, Guildford Four, Maguire Seven and Judith Ward who were framed and jailed for long years under a Labour Government.
A speaker at the protest giving some reasons why Keith Starmer is not welcome in Ireland. (Video cred: Social Action Ireland)
The speaker could have also mentioned the Labour Party’s participation in the WWI War Cabinet which had sentenced and executed 16 Irish leaders after the 1916 Rising and its bipartisanship with the Conservatives on the partition of Ireland in 1921 and instigation of the Civil War in 1922.
SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION
The attitude expressed by protest passers-by on foot, bicycle or in motorised transport was nearly uniformly supportive. One exception was a fascist who called the protesters ‘traitors’ and attempted to take closeup photos before being blocked by a participant with a flag and seen off.
(Photo: R.Breeze)
Another was a big man who in a UStates accent seemed to shout something derogatory about Ireland and then claimed to be Irish (he might have been part of the diaspora there since the Irish tricolour colours appeared on the back of his top).
For much of the two hours of the event, slogans were shouted in support of Palestine, against the Zionist State, against Starmer, against British occupation of Ireland, for Intifada revolution, and for the solidarity action of Yemen at sea regarding Zionist-collusive shipping companies.
End.
Another view of west-facing section of protest with newly-made ornate Starry Plough flag. (Photo: R.Breeze)
FOOTNOTE
1There have been a number of reports of special units of the British army in Palestine and on British Intelligence personnel assisting the ‘Israeli’ Occupation Force.
The national demonstration called by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign for 31st August began at the Garden of Remembrance and, traversing the city’s main boulevard, crossed the river to rally across from Leinster House, the Irish Parliament.
Having a weekly Saturday commitment until 1.30 and the IPSC march start advertised for 1pm, I had to run to catch it up as it marched away up O’Connell Street. I hurried alongside it to try to reach the front but failed to do so before I had to stop and fly the flag with comrades.
Having to run to catch up with the demonstration after an earlier weekly commitment. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Looking back southward from O’Connell Bridge I could see the march stretching back along part of O’Connell Street while ahead I could see the front of the march winding along the outside of the Trinity College entrance.
Since early October last year, the IPSC and others have organised Palestine solidarity marches at least every second week through different parts of the city, mostly to Government offices and the Parliament. Similar events have also taken place across the land.
There have also been pickets of Zionist-friendly businesses and motorway bridge flag and banner drops, weekly roadside pickets in addition to building occupations and university protest/solidarity encampments.
This community solidarity banner may be seen every Thursday evening in four different areas of North Dublin (but for some reason the IPSC does not include it in its weekly list of events). (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Meanwhile, in Palestine the Zionist genocide grinds on unabated through bombing, ground attack, starvation and disease, along with torture of prisoners, destruction of infrastructure, including buildings, while the Resistance fights back with their missile launchers, guns and explosives.
While the fluid tactics of the Resistance are appropriate to the genocidal and well-armoured enemy, we must ask ourselves whether ours are too. Marches are important in showing numbers and in increasing the feeling of wider participation among individuals and small groups of friends.
(Photo: D.Breatnach)(Photo: D.Breatnach)
However the demonstrations are not moving the Government, much less the State, not even to bring forward the agreed Occupied Territories Bill, much less keeping Irish state airspace free of genocidal collusion.
Targeted direct action seems more likely to exert the necessary pressure, as was the case with Axa Insurance, where regular pickets and some occupations resulted in its divestment from ‘Israeli’ banks. University protest encampments also scored some successes.
But where are their trade unions? (Photo: D.Breatnach)But where are their trade unions? (Photo: D.Breatnach)
There are other possibly suitable targets of protest in terms of assistance to the Resistance. Is the Irish Red Cross fulfilling its duty in seeking access to Palestinian prisoners being tortured and starved? Are ‘Israeli’ imports being blocked?
Quite possibly other kinds of organisation are necessary to discuss, plan and lead these kinds of processes and indeed it was such sprung-up organisations that led those direct action events. Perhaps it is wrong to expect and organisation like the IPSC to lead them.
But is it wrong to think that the IPSC should advertise or at the very least tolerate such actions and not discourage them? Or even more, not warn people off from supporting such groups?
(Photo: D.Breatnach) (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Watching IPSC stewards shepherding people to clear the Molesworth Street from Dawson Street to the junction, even when they are packed solid from there to the rally across the road from Leinster House sometimes looks as though they see themselves as policing the march — and the movement.
Those who want that road cleared are the police but a) that is their concern and b) the demonstration is on the road which it has a right to be and traffic will just have to avoid it.
(Photo: D.Breatnach)(Photo: D.Breatnach)
We don’t have to work against one another. If the IPSC doesn’t want to lead some kinds of actions, they don’t have to. And if others want to do things the IPSC doesn’t, then they can. But no-one has the right to be the police within the movement, much less restrict development.
End.
(Photo: D.Breatnach)Aerial view of the march crossing O’Connell Bridge and the numbers all the way back to the Garden of Remembrance. (Photo sourced: IPSC Facebook)
I am falling in love with Mrs. Durrell, which is unfortunate in a number of ways. Not for her, she won’t mind. For me.
Well, she’s long dead. And she’s middle-class English. Not sure which of those is the biggest problem. I know, I know, the English individually are ok. Most of them. But there is that 800 years thing.
Yes, people keep telling us to get over that. Who does? Well, mostly the English, as it happens.
I’d be willing … it would be easier to “get over that”, if their army and colonial police force were not sitting on one-sixth of our country and their air force wasn’t flying through our air space.
Yes, I know, the Yanks are doing that too, carrying murder for Palestinians. And maybe with prisoners they haven’t murdered yet (but who might wish they were dead).
And yes, I do also know that it’s our government that has invited the RAF into our skies and welcomes the US military into our country. And I’m not happy about that at all, believe me.
But Mrs. Durrell … And then there’s the thing about her being dead. No, I’m not at all into necrophilia. In fact, not even a little turned on by lack of response.
Well, the woman who plays Mrs. Durrell would be way out of my social circle anyway.
Keeley Hawes as Mrs. Durrell in The Durrells series. (Photo sourced: Internet)
I first met Mrs. Durrell when I was not even a teenager and it was her son, Gerald, in whom I was most interested. I thought he was my alter-ego. Crazy about animals, collecting all kinds of live ones … How I wished I was he! Well, maybe not with that family but certainly on that Corfu island, at that time.
And as it happens, yes, I have lived on an island, a small one, as a child. Not in sunny Greece but off the West Coast of Ireland. Went to school there without shoes, in all weather. My first day of school I went there via the rocks and rock-pools which were so educational and interesting that by the time I reached the school (less than a mile from the house where I was staying), school was over for the day and everyone had gone home.
As an adult, Gerald made a living catching wild animals for zoos, writing about his expeditions, running a zoo and later with a TV series. I watched the weekly episodes in a friend’s house because we didn’t have BBC access in our house.
I read I think all of Gerald Durrell’s books, including The Drunken Forest, Three Singles to Adventure and I thought I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up. But it was My Family and Other Animals, about Gerald Durrell’s childhood on the Greek Island of Corfu that most spoke to my boyhood spirit.
As a child, I had at various times kept mice, a guinea-pig, a rabbit, frogs, sticklebacks, newts, a fledgeling magpie, hedgehogs and various invertebrates from pond and land. And a dog, that had to be trained to leave all those others alone.
I was far from immune to having the hots for females at that time but Mrs. Durrell did not even pass close to my fantasies then. But now that I’ve seen her again and also have seen her personality, I am definitely falling for her.
In England, she berated a schoolmaster for caning her son. Widowed, in financial trouble, neither of her two older boys earning a wage, she took the whole family off to Corfu to live.
Apart from being out of my social circle, the part of Mrs. Durrell, the widowed mother of two young men, a teenage daughter and young Gerald on Corfu is being acted by Keeley Hawes
Mrs. Durrell apart, The Durrells series, so far on Netflix, is very enjoyable.
Irish Republican hunger strikers were commemorated in Dublin with a march and rally on 24th August. The event was organised by Dublin Independent Republicans and attracted representation from many groups in addition to independent activists.
Those ten Irish Republicans who died on hunger strike in 1981 are still remembered well in the general Irish population, most of all their leader Bobby Sands. However another twelve died on hunger strike in earlier days, going back to 1917, before the War of Independence (1919-’21).
Marchers in Westmoreland Street carrying images of the hunger-strike martyrs on the return to the Garden of Remembrance. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
For over a century, hunger strikes have been one of the traditional methods of protest and struggle by Irish Republican prisoners in jails of the British and also of the Irish State.
Those Republican prisoners who died on hunger strike in 1981 did so from the effects of starvation but some died through force-feeding also, which was the case with Vols. Thomas Ashe (1917), Michael Gaughan (1974) and Frank Stagg (1976).1
James Connolly Memorial Band with their own colour party in Westmoreland Street on the return to the Garden of Remembrance. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
PARADE THROUGH CITY CENTRE AND RALLY
Led by a colour party,2 the parade set off in two columns3 from the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square with the James Connolly Memorial Republican Flute Band leading and along the City’s main thoroughfare, O’Connell Street, crossed the Liffey to ‘touch’ Trinity College and back again.
Marchers setting off from the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Upon returning to the Garden of Remembrance, the banners and band took up position in front of the memorial with the audience facing them, where Ado Perry as MC for the event welcomed all.
As well as recalling the struggles of Republican prisoners within the jails and deaths on hunger strike, Perry also took some time to denounce the Zionist genocide in Palestine and to express the Palestinian solidarity of Republicans (and of the majority of the Irish people).
Ado Perry as MC of the rally in the Garden of Remembrance, flanked by the No Extraditions banner, the colour party behind and behind them, the Monument to those who fell in the struggle for Irish freedom. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Perry also condemned the planned extradition of Irish Republican prisoners to British jurisdiction and called for Irish Republicans to unite in opposition, recalling the struggles against extradition over the years.
Floral tributes were laid at the Monument and Cáit Inglis read the names of the 22 who died on hunger strike, before the MC called on Cathal Graham for a song. Graham performed Wrap the Green Flag Around Me, a song that seems to have fallen somewhat in popularity in recent years.
Frankie Quinn giving his speech at the rally. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
The main speaker for the day was Frankie Quinn, a long-time Republican, community activist and ex-political prisoner who spoke first in Irish before turning to English. Quinn too condemned the genocide in Palestine and expressed solidarity with the Palestinian resistance.
In a reference to recent racist mobilisations in Ireland, Quinn made it clear that those people had nothing in common with Republicans or with the Irish national struggle for a socialist republic. (A known racist female activist had reportedly been encouraged to leave the scene a little earlier.)
The speaker was vigorously applauded and was followed by Gráinne Gibson who performed hunger strike martyr Bobby Sands’ poem The Rythm of Time.
(Photo: D.Breatnach)
Cathal Graham returned to perform The Time Has Come, a representation of hunger strike martyr Patsy O’Hara’s plea to his mother not to withdraw him from the fast when he lost consciousness, unless their demands were conceded. The colour party lowered their flags in respect to the martyrs.
Perry thanked all for their attendance in particular the marching band, colour party, performers and stewards, once again emphasising the need for united action to prevent the extradition of Irish Republicans to British jurisdiction, then called the band to perform Amhrán na bhFiann.4
The colour party leading the march out of Westmoreland to cross the river to the rally in the Garden of Remembrance. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
There was broad support for the event as shown by the participation of a number of different organisation and individual activists, which is a hopeful sign for the future. The real test however will be whether the disparate elements will act in unity as called for by Perry and Quinn.
End.
The lowering of the flags in honour of the martyrs in the struggle. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Footnotes
1Their deaths under medically-supervised force-feeding caused the British Medical Association to oppose force-feeding of any hunger-striker in possession of normal cognition.
2The flag composition of Irish Republican colour parties varies but when flags and members are available traditionally are composed of the Irish Tricolour, the Starry Plough (blue or green version), the Sunburst and the flags of the Four Provinces. I have also seen on occasion the inclusion of a Scottish Saltere and on another, the Palestinian flag.
3More or less two columns – outside of the Six Counties marchers are unaccustomed to that formation and stewards were hard-pressed to ensure marchers kept to either one column or the other, a difficulty I remember well myself from my capacity as chief steward on a Dublin march against internment of Marion Price years ago.
4Irish language translation of The Soldiers’ Song by Peadar Kearney and Patrick Heeney, the air of the chorus which is the official National Anthem of the Irish State. At commemorations and such events it is usual for the air of both the verses and the chorus to played. In the 26 Counties it is common for people to sing along to the air played (or to a solo singer) but not in the 26 Counties. Unusually with cases of songs with versions in both langauges, it is the translated lyrics into Irish which most people know.
Yemeni Defense Minister Major General Mohammed Nasser Al-Atifi during a commemorative event held by the Ministry of Defence spoke a good lesson for the Irish ruling class:
Hesitation or retreat from Yemen’s supportive stance towards Gaza is impossible and not subject to negotiation or compromise.
Yemen’s powerful and resounding response to the Nazi entity is coming without hesitation or concern, and we will meet Zionist madness with Yemeni strength, which they have tasted in the seas.
We continue to develop our capabilities quantitatively and qualitatively, in accordance with the latest military building concepts we seek.
Major-General Mohamed Nasser Al-Atifi, Minister of Defence in Yemeni Government. (Photo sourced: Internet)
Yemen’s position is central in the Axis of jihad and resistance, in defense of the nation, its sanctities, values, lands, and our national security.
Yemen is on the path of liberation and independence, and will not accept any foreign subordination or domination. It will not be a backyard for any regional regime or subject to international guardianship.
National wealth is a sovereign resource, and we will not allow its waste, corruption, or neglect in its investment, in a way that serves the higher interests of all of Yemen.
We will not allow any threat to destabilize the security and stability of our country, and we will not accept the presence of any foreign forces on our land and islands.
Major-General Mohamed Nasser Al-Atifi in planning conference with senior Yemeni military officers, August 2024. (Image sourced: Internet)
Thanks for those words as an example of national independence from Major-General Mohamed Nasser Al-Atifi. The Irish government on the other hand, as a management committee of the Irish ruling class:
Allows the partition of the country and occupation of six counties by an invader; also our air space and sea to be flown and sailed by UK and US warplanes and warships and our foreign policy dictated by NATO & EU.
And our natural resources and infrastructure sold to foreign companies and our educated labour force to be exploited by foreign companies.
Also, our produce taken by foreign companies and food we used to grow ourselves imported and sold to us in foreign-owned supermarkets, even our national airline sold to another country.
The photo of the massive antifascist rally in London on 28th July following a march from Russel Square shows the recapture of Trafalgar Square from Tommy Robinson and his sea of Union Jacks. Not for the first time, the Irish made their mark upon the place.
There the only two high flying flags were the Irish Tricolours and the Palestinian flags, the Irish contingent being one of the few on the day to see the fight in Britain against the fascists as part of the same fight against the fascist Zionist regime.
Irish and Palestinian flags in Trafalgar Square rally against racism, end July 2024 (Photo cred: PA)
We are mindful of the history of our occupied territories and our 1930s fight against the anti-Semitic Blackshirts1 in London (e.g. standing with the Jewish community at the Battle of Cable Street, 1936) and against the Bridgeton Billy Boys in Glasgow in the 1930s.2
On 28th July our flags sent out a message: We stand against all fascists, at home or abroad. That day we could not but remember all our brave men and women who marched past here from 1971 to 1998 carrying our fight to the heart of government3 in harder times.
We also know that the anti-racist movement now takes its new life from the strength of the Palestinian solidarity movement in Britain and needs to recognise this.
It was strange being in Trafalgar Square again with Tricolours given that we were barred from being there during the ‘Troubles’. Irish solidarity events were banned from using the Square under any circumstances from 1972 to 2001, well after the Good Friday Agreement.
The ban was lifted only once for an Irish event during that period and that was for the Peace Women4 (sic) calling for an ‘end to violence’ (mainly that of the Resistance) and famous US folk singer/ political activist Joan Baez displayed her ignorance of the Irish situation by speaking there.
It was interesting that a reporter for GB News of the British mass media was aware that a picket had been held in Dublin in protest against the assassinations of Palestinian and other Arab resistance leaders. He tried to link the Irish contingent in Trafalgar Square with ‘support for Hamas’.
The linkage was hinted in his broadcast report though he was careful enough not to report a direct link as the Irish group in Trafalgar Square had in fact no connection with the Dublin group. The reporter asked how to pronounce ‘Saoirse Don Phalaistín’ — but still got it wrong in his report.
One of the Irish contingent spoke to the young GB News journalist: He had the stuff from Dublin on his phone and wanted to say that the Irish in the Square were part of the Dublin group.
“Next thing you’d know the Zionists would call for a ban on the Irish for ‘supporting Hamas’”,5 commented one of the veteran Irish activists. “We also get targeted because of the flag and our placards.”
The UK State and the police are all pro-Zionist and the Zionist press tries to trap the Irish into dangerous statements but “We know our history and are well able for them; we just say we support Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation just as we did with the British in Ireland.”
Irish contingent with flags on Palestine solidarity march to Downing Street very recently (not sure whether the SW person is part of it). (Photo sourced from participant).
The Irish Tricolours, often in the company of the Palestinian national flag with Saoirse Don Phalaistín printed on it have been seen on Palestine solidarity marches in London since the current Zionist genocide began but also on anti-fascist rallies and in support of Julian Assange.
This is in keeping with the history and tradition of the Irish in Britain who helped found the republican United Englishmen6, the Chartists,7 many trade unions, a section of the First International8 and also gave the British working class their anthem9 and their classic novel.10
Classic novel of the working class in Britain was written by Robert Noonan, aka Robert Tressell, from Dublin. (Image sourced: Internet)
In later times they were prominent in organising solidarity with Vietnam and of course Ireland, against repressive legislation and fascist organisations, solidarity with Nicaragua, Palestine etc. and in struggles against state repression, including within the jails.
The Prevention of Terrorism Act (1974), forerunner of the current Terrorism Act (2000) specifically targeted the Irish community in Britain with suspension of habeas corpus for a period of up to five days, refusal of access to solicitor, as did also the framing of a score of people.
In the midst of the Irish Hunger Strikes of 1981, the Irish community broke out of the State terror stranglehold and formed the Irish in Britain Representation Group, among its objectives being the abolition of the Labour Government-introduced Prevention of Terrorism Act.
End.
Saoirse don Phalaistín and Irish Tricolour flags on Palestine solidarity march this year photographed against Westminster’s ‘Big Ben’. (Photo cred: being investigated)
NOTE ON AUTHORS
Pat Reynolds is a former trade unionist, social worker, a veteran anti-racist, anti-fascist activist, also for Irish independence and for rights for the Irish community in Britain. He was PRO for the Irish in Britain Representation Group for two decades, founding the Haringey Branch and the Green Ink Bookshop. Reynolds is from Granard in Co. Longford and lives in London.
Diarmuid Breatnach is a former trade unionist, worker with homeless/ substance misusers (manual worker before that), also a veteran anti-racist, anti-fascist activist and campaigner for Irish independence. For a decade he was on the Ard-Choiste of the IBRG, founder of the Lewisham Branch and of the Lewisham Irish Centre. Breatnach is from Dublin to which he has returned to settle.
FOOTNOTES
1The British Union of Fascists led by Sir Oswald Moseley which had substantial support in the British elite, including the publisher of the The Daily Mail with police attacks on anti-fascists.
2The Billy Boys were founded and led by Billy Fullerton, a former member of the British Fascists. Fullerton also later became a member of the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s. The Billy Boys adopted a militaristic style of behaviour, marching on parades, forming their own bands, composing their own songs and music, and all dressed in a similar manner.[3] The Billy Boys also formed a junior group whose members were teenagers called the Derry Boys. (Wikipedia)
3From Trafalgar Square to the Houses of Parliament in Westminster runs a broad thoroughfare, in the centre of which is the Cenotaph and a little further, the entrance to Downing Street.
4The organisation/ campaign was founded by Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan in 1976 after a car driven by an IRA fighter mortally wounded by British soldiers in Belfast crashed into pedestrians and mortally wounded three children of Anne Maguire, sister of Mairead. Branding itself as against all violence the Peace Women in fact targeted primarily the Republican movement, secondarily the Loyalist paramilitaries and hardly ever the Occupation Army. Williams accused the IRA unit of having fired on the Army unit that killed the driver which was untrue (but is repeated on her Wikipedia entry). Both founders received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 and a substantial cash prize. Williams resigned from the group in 1980 and disappeared from Irish-related activities though prominent externally. Corrigan however remained politically active in Ireland and elsewhere against war and has campaigned among other things for the end of the ‘Israeli’ siege on Gaza, being arrested with crew and passengers on the Spirit of Humanity aid ship in 2009 by by the Zionist navy, taken to ‘Israel’ and subsequently deported.
5Hamas is proscribed organisation in the UK since March 2001 and a person promoting it would be liable to prosecution under the Terrorism Act.
6A spin-off from the United Irishmen in Ireland; the English chapter led the Spithead and Nore naval mutinies. The Irish also reformed the United Scotsmen when it was faltering.
7Karl Marx called the Chartists “the true mass movement of the working class” – two of its principal leaders, Bronterre O’Brien and Fergus O’Connor were Irish, as their surnames would suggest.
8The Fenians were accepted into the First International Workingmen’s Association.
9The lyrics of The Red Flag were composed by Jim Connell from near Kells, Co. Meath and set to the brisk air of The White Cockade, later changed to the mournful air of Tannebaum.
10The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists was written by Robert Tressell (real name Robert Noonan) from Dublin.
April 2023: Leaked files reveal that British intel used local Yemeni NGOs and social media in a covert campaign to undermine the Sanaa government and influence the war-torn country’s peace process.
Kit Klarenberg
(Reading time: mins.)
The CradleEditor’s note:All Yemeni NGO employees, journalists, and other private individuals named in this article appear in the ARK documents seen by The Cradle.These Yemenis may be unaware of the UK’s role and/or intent in funding their activities.
Yemen’s civil war, considered the world’s gravest humanitarian crisis, appears to be nearing its end due to a China-brokered detente between Iran and Saudi Arabia, who support opposing sides in the bitter conflict.
Early signs suggest that the rapprochement between Tehran and Riyadh may not only end hostilities in Yemen, but across the wider region.
The US, Israel, and Britain have the most to lose from a sudden onset of peace in West Asia. In the Yemeni context, London may be the biggest loser of all.
For years, it provided the Saudi-led coalition with weaponry used to target civilians and civilian infrastructure, with receipts running into billions of pounds sterling.
During the entirety of the war, Yemen was struck by British-made bombs, dropped by British-made planes, flown by British-trained pilots, which then flew back to Riyadh to be repaired and serviced by British contractors.
In 2019, a nameless BAE Systems executive estimated that if London pulled its backing for the proxy war, “in seven to 14 days, there wouldn’t be a jet in the sky.”
A Typhoon at RAF Akrotiri, near Limassol in Cyprus, after striking Houthi targets in Yemen (Photo cred: Sgt. Lee Goddard/ AFP)
In addition to supplying weapons, the war also presented a golden opportunity for Britain to establish a military base in Yemen, fulfilling long-held fantasies of recovering the Empire’s long-lost glory days “East of Suez.”
Al-Ghaydah airport in al-Mahrah, Yemen’s far eastern governorate, has for some time quietly housed “a fully-fledged force” of British soldiers, providing “military training and logistical support” to coalition forces and Saudi-backed militias.
There are even indications that this involvement could extend to torture methods, which is a troubling reflection of one of London’s leading exports.
The Cradle has obtained exclusive information about a previously undisclosed aspect of London’s role in the proxy war against Yemen’s Ansarallah-led resistance.
It has been revealed that a multi-channel propaganda campaign, led by the intelligence cut-out ARK and its founder Alistair Harris, a veteran MI6 operative, has been operating in complete secrecy throughout the nine-year-long conflict – one that specifically targeted Yemen’s civilian population.
Anti-Ansarallah ops
Leaked Foreign Office documents have revealed that ARK’s “multimedia” information warfare campaign was designed to undermine public sympathy for the Ansarallah movement and ensure that the conflict would only end on terms that aligned with London’s financial, ideological, and geopolitical interests.
For instance, public acceptance of the UN’s widely unpopular peace proposal required propaganda support from local NGOs and media organizations that “support UK objectives” to “communicate effectively with Yemeni citizens” and change their minds.
It was also necessary to counter “new actors” in the information space that were critical of the Saudi-led coalition’s brutal bombing campaigns and the illegitimate, US-backed puppet government that the aerial assaults sought to protect.
Considering the high rate of illiteracy in the local population, ARK conceived the creation of a suite of “visually rich” products extolling the virtues of a Riyadh-dominated peace plan.
These products would be disseminated on and offline and would “deliberately include different demographics, sects, and locations to ensure inclusivity,” informed by focus groups and polling of Yemenis.
ARK’s campaign even extended to convening “gender-segregated poetry competitions using peace as a theme” and “plays and town hall meetings.”
Publicly, many of these propaganda products appeared to be the work of Tadafur – Arabic for “work collectively and unite” – an astroturf network of NGOs and journalists constructed by ARK.
Its overt mission was to “resolve local level conflicts” and “unite local communities in their conflict resolution efforts.”
The campaign began initially at a “hyper-local level” across six Yemeni governorates, “before being amplified at the national level.” Activities “[in] all areas and at both levels” had unified messaging across “common macro themes,” such as the slogan “Our Yemen, Our Future.”
In each governorate, a “credible” local NGO was identified as a messenger, along with “well-known” and “respected and influential” journalists who served as “dedicated field officers” across the sextet, managed by ARK.
In Hajjah – “a site of strong Houthi influence” – the Al-Mustaqbal Institute for Development was ARK’s NGO of choice; in Ansarallah-governed Sanaa, it was the Faces Institution for Rights and Media; in Marib, the Marib Social Generations Club.
In Lahij, ARK’s choice was the Rouwad Institution for Development and Human Rights; in Hadhramaut, Ahed Institute for Rights and Freedom; in Taiz, Generations Without Qat.
These local NGOs were instrumental in promoting ARK’s agenda and advancing the narrative that aligned with Britain’s objectives in Yemen.
The company’s roster of “field officers” comprised of individuals with various backgrounds, such as:
“Human rights abuse” specialist Mansour Hassan Mohammad Abu Ali, TV producer Thy Yazen Hussain, Public Organisation to Protect Human Rights press official and “experienced journalist” Waleed Abdul Mutlab Mohammed al-Rajihi,
Also producer from Alhadramiah Documentary Institute Abdullah Amr Ramdan Mas’id, editorial secretary of Family and Development magazine and the Yemen Times’ Taiz news manager Rania Abdullah Saif al-Shara’bi, as well as journalist and activist Waheeb Qa’id Saleh Thiban.
A Trojan Horse
Once ARK’s field officers and NGOs “successfully designed and implemented hyper-local campaigns,” coverage of “information around the related activities will then be amplified at the national level.”
A key platform for this amplification was a Facebook page called “Bab,” launched in 2016 with tens of thousands of followers who were unaware that the page was created by ARK as a British intelligence asset.
Under the guise of a popular grassroots online community, ARK used the Bab page to broadcast slick propaganda “promoting the peace process,” including videos and images of “local peacebuilding initiatives” organized by its NGO and field officer nexus.
“Campaign content will highlight tangible, real-life examples of compelling peacebuilding efforts that all Yemenis, regardless of their political affiliation, can relate to,” ARK stated.
“These will offer inspirational examples for others to emulate, demonstrating practical ways to engage with the peace process at a local level. Taken together, these individual stories form the broader campaign with a national message: Yemenis share a collective desire for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.”
When “high engagement levels” with this content were secured, Bab users were invited to submit their own, which demonstrated “support for the peace process.” They were explicitly asked “to mirror content ARK has produced, such as voxpops, short videos, or infographics.”
This was then “shared by the project and field teams through influential WhatsApp messaging groups, a key way of reaching Yemeni youth.”
ARK’s “well-connected communications team” would then “strategically share packaged stories with broadcast media or key social influencers, or offer selected journalists exclusive access to stories.”
Creating a constant flow of content was a deliberate ploy to “collectively be as ‘loud’ as partisan national political and military actors.” In other words, to create a parallel communications structure to Ansarallah’s own, which would drown out the resistance movement’s pronouncements.
ARK’s role in Yemen’s peace process
While one might argue that the non-consensual recruitment of private citizens as information warriors by British intelligence was justified by the moral urgency of ending the Yemen war quickly, the exploitation of these individuals was cynical in the extreme.
It amounted to a Trojan Horse operation aimed at compelling Yemenis to embrace a peace deal that was wildly inequitable and contrary to their own interests.
Multiple passages in the leaked files refer to the paramount need to ensure no linkage between these propaganda initiatives and the UN’s peace efforts. One passage refers to how campaign “themes and activities” would at no point “directly promote the UN or the formal peace process.”
Another passage says concealing the operation’s agenda behind ostensibly independent civil society voices “minimizes the risk” that “outputs are perceived as institutional communications stemming from or directly promoting the UN.”
Yet, once ARK’s campaigns began “performing successfully at the national level,” the company’s field officers planned to “build a bridge” between its local foot soldiers and national “stakeholders” – and, resultantly, the UN.
In other words, the entire ruse served to entrench ARK’s central role in peace negotiations via the backdoor.
Diminished western influence
At that time, the ceasefire deal proposed by the UN required Ansarallah and its allied forces to virtually surrender before Riyadh’s military assaults and economic blockade of the country could be partially lifted, along with other stringent requirements that the Saudis refused to compromise on.
Newly recruited Houthi fighters gathered for training outside Sana, the capital of Yemen – they became the Ansarrallah Army. (Photo credit: Yahya Arhab/EPA, via Shutterstock)
The US aggressively encouraged such intransigence, viewing any Ansarallah influence in Yemen as strengthening Iran’s regional position.
However, these perspectives are no longer relevant to Yemen’s peace process.
China has now encouraged Riyadh to offer significant concessions, and as a result, the end of the war is within sight, with critical supplies finally allowed to enter Yemen, prisoners returned, Sanaa’s airport reopened, and other positive developments.
Evidently, Washington’s offers of arms deals and security assurances are no longer sufficient to influence events overseas and convince its allies to carry out its agenda.
The failure of ARK’s anti-Ansarallah propaganda campaigns to coerce Yemenis to accept peace on the west’s terms also highlights Britain’s significantly reduced power in the modern era.
Whereas wars could once be won on the coat-tails of well-laid propaganda campaigns, the experiences of Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan show that the tide has turned. Subversive information campaigns can confuse and misdirect populations but, at best, can only prolong conflict – not win it.
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