AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT FOR EACH

On August 5, 2026 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Imperialism, Indigenous or Original People, Middle East, National Liberation, National Sovereignty, Palestine, Political Analysis, US Imperialism, ZionismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 8 mins.)

As we face the possible escalation of an extended regional war in West Asia it is worthwhile to consider what’s at stake for some of the various ‘players’.

‘Israel’ constantly claims existential threats to its state but Iran has stated the same with regard to attacks upon it by the US and ‘Israel’. The Resistance in Palestine and in Lebanon have also spoken in those terms with regard to themselves.

It might seem that the US is the only major participant in the wars in Western Asia which is not itself threatened existentially. However, in a sense it too is facing a kind of existential threat, the threat to its continuing existence as a superpower.

Dr. Mohamad Hasan Sweidan, one of the panel of regular news updates on YouTube for The Cradle online media regularly states that in reality, all of the principal actors are indeed fighting a threat to their existence, though the weight of threat being of varying degrees for each.

The ‘Israeli’ state

The Zionist state of ‘Israel’ came into being in 1948 as a Zionist-led European settler project to impose itself on the indigenous Palestinian people of all ethnic groups. Supported by the USA, Zionism gathered force since 1945 to the full-blown terror and ethnic cleansing of the 1948 Nakba.¹

Despite claims of recovering ancestral lands, the culture of Ashkenazi colonisers and their languages were European, not West Asian, in keeping with their origin. Citizenship was opened to any Jewish person around the world but not to the Arab Palestinians who had been driven out.

The Zionist state is of course completely dependent on western imperialism for its defence and its very he existence. But ‘Israel’ is not content with that alone and in the logic of all settler colonialism, is constantly fighting wars of expansion with its neighbours.²

The location of this settler colony makes it of important political and military value to western imperialism and in particular to the USA superpower. It is a dagger at the throat of West Asian sovereignty, let alone socialism and in the region is totally free of both those dangers internally.

The settler colony is never secure until it has either wiped out the indigenous people or totally broken their resistance and scattered them. Consequently the indigenous people will resist and if they can, logically, aided by their threatened neighbours, will overthrow the occupation.

Therefore the Zionist State is truthfully facing an existential threat.

The Resistance

The Resistance to imperialism and Zionism in West Asia is wide and multi-faceted but for the purpose of this examination we’ll look at sum of the factions inside Palestine, both Islamic and secular factions as one Resistance; and Hizbollah and political allies in Lebanon as another.

Because of its practices, its origins and attitudes to the cultures of West Asia, ‘Israel’ is viewed by Palestinians and most people of the region as an occupier. It has functioned as a proxy of imperialism, particularly the US variety, in the region since it came into being.

Like settler colonies in general, the Zionist state has been expanding its territory since its inception.

It has also waged war on its neighbours for most of its existence: 1948 against Palestinians and Arab states, 1950s-1960s against the Palestinian Resistance; with France and UK against Egypt (Suez) 1956; 1967 against Egypt, Jordan, Syria; 1973 against Egypt and Syria.

And in 1971-1982 in South Lebanon.³ In September 2024 it attacked Lebanon with assassinations and exploding pagers and in December of that year, invaded Syria⁴ (though it had regularly bombed it previously) and attacked Iran (during peace negotiation) in February 2026.

The Zionist military carried out a great number of major attacks within Palestine including against the West Bank and Gaza in between what the Zionists call ‘mowing the lawn’, i.e. regular assassinations, raids, arrests and imprisonment of hostages.

The attitude of the ‘Israeli’ occupation to the Palestinian resistance is typified in its attitude to Hamas, the political party elected by significant majority across Palestine in 2006: it totally rejects the people’s choice and attempts to eliminate it in Gaza through economic and military means.

In the West Bank the Occupation’s proxy, the Palestine Authority refused to accede to the popular vote and collaborates with the Occupation, even though the even more extreme elements in ‘Israeli’ government and society despise it, regularly denouncing it and calling for its elimination.

The PA represses criticism by Palestinians in the West Bank, jails critics and fighters, sets them up for ‘Israeli’ jailing and has even murdered Resistance fighters.

‘Israel’ and the US are in concert attempting to use elements of the Lebanese Government against Hizbollah and political parties close to or friendly with them, attempting to turn the Lebanese Army to that purpose. Were they to succeed this would result in another Lebanese civil war.

It is a fact that the state of ‘Israel’ has no formal borders, except where its present territory reaches the borders of Egypt and Jordan.⁵ The ‘Greater Israel’ concept⁶ and Zionist aspiration exceeds far beyond even those,⁷ including Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and swathes of Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Many Israeli political leaders including Ze’ev Jabotinsky,⁸ Menachem Begin⁹ and Benjamin Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir¹⁰ have openly promoted the ‘Greater Israel’ (sic) concept as an objective and seems to have the support of US foreign policy and the ‘Israeli’ opposition.¹¹

In all ‘peace’ proposals the ‘Israeli’ establishment seeks the ‘disarmament’ of the Lebanese and Palestinian Resistance, while itself remaining the most heavily armed state in the whole of West Asia, the only one with a nuclear weapon and a long history of committing massacres and genocide.

Hizbullah and the Palestine Resistance are therefore indeed facing an existential threat.

The USA

The USA is the chief world imperialist power and in order to maintain that position has a number of requirements, among which are that it can direct or at least influence events around most of the world and that its military might is seen as impossible to defend against.

The Warsaw Pact bloc, a former impediment to expansion of US dominance has gone, though the Russian Federation remains. However the rising economic power of China already threatens the world dominance of the US imperialist ruling class.

But it has faced a new threat to its hegemony of West Asia. Although the non-compliant regimes there of Iraq and Syria (and Libya in North Africa) have been overthrown, US influence in Iran¹² had been defeated by uprisings and founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979.

Despite war against the Republic (1980-’88) by then western-supported Saddam Hussein, the Islamic Republic survived and supplied resistance organisations in Lebanon and in Palestine with weapons.

The US failed to subdue Iran with decades of sanctions or to instigate popular or separatist insurrection against the ruling elite during unprovoked attack in February, having to accept the stability of the Republic and to agree to ceasefire terms, losing much of its mythos of invincibility.

Not only were its military installations in West Asia shown to be vulnerable but they became regular targets in retaliation for US strikes against Iran. Client regimes began to wonder whether they could even afford to have such failed protection US military bases on their soil.

The repercussions of that will extend right around the World.

Iran

The Islamic Republic of Iran came into existence in 1979 in a revolution against the Pahlavi monarchy, its repressive Savak secret police and against Iran’s client status of US imperialism (such that the CIA’s head office for the whole of West Asia was located there).

The revolution found the CIA desperately shredding their spy documents (many of which were later painstakingly stuck back together by the Iranian revolutionaries). The revolutionary leadership and its followers were immediately targeted by imperialism, in particular by the USA.

The imperialists instigated Saddam Hussein (at the time their client) to have Iraq invade Iran in a war which lasted eight years during which 188,015 to 217,489 Iranians were killed (about 70 people per day).¹³ Hussein used gas attacks¹⁴ as well as bullets and explosives.

In addition, US imperialism has imposed sanctions on Iran since 1979, which is to say threatened sanctions on any state prepared to sell to or trade with the Islamic Republic and these have had a heavy negative impact on the population, in particular in the area of health treatment.¹⁵

In January 2026 the USA manipulated currency trading and the value of the Iranian rial fell. Protest demonstrations took place which Israeli and US intelligence operatives in places turned into armed attacks on police, government buildings and even some place of religious worship.

The Iranian authorities issued figures of 3,117 killed during the disturbances,¹⁶ which included civilians and agents acting under foreign direction, without identifying which was which. A significant number of those killed were State employees, including public security and police.

Sources sympathetic to the West have issued a range of fatal casualty numbers, rising to 36,000. It does not seem possible to separate real figures from propaganda, certainly of Western sources and possibly too of the Iranian State.

However the involvement of agents working for foreign powers to destabilise Iran has been established, not only in results of raids by Iranian State security forces but also in statements by US and ‘Israeli’ authorities¹⁷ and in admissions of Starlink-linked devices smuggled into Iran.¹⁸

Trump admitted that the US had supplied weapons to Iranian Kurdish pro-independence groups at this time also and complained that the Kurds had failed to use them against the US. Probably Baluchistan separatists were similarly urged to rise but did not do so in any numbers.¹⁹

The presence of foreign agents in Iran was also evident not only by intelligence possessed by the aggressors during the following war but also by when drones were launched against targets in Iran from within the country.

‘Israel’ accompanied by the USA,on 28 February, during negotiations, assassinated the religious and political supreme leader, Ali Khamenei and others, along with families and launched air strikes across Iran, including killing 124 schoolgirls with their teachers in a ‘double-tap’ strike.

The USA is too far away for a retaliatory strike but their military assets are distributed around the Gulf and Iran’s response struck those hard, US defences proving inadequate in action. Iran also closed the Strait of Hormuz, cutting the flow of essential gas and oil from the region to the West.

The US was forced to negotiate and to agree to Iranian terms in a Memorandum of Understanding for peace talks, most of which the US has yet to carry out in practice and much of which it has violated. But it is difficult to see what final options it has other than compliance.

The intentions of US imperialism to the Islamic Republic of Iran are irremediably hostile, proven in sanctions, assassinations, war, subversion attempts, rhetoric and threats, wishing the Iranian revolutionary regime overthrown and Iran dismembered, i.e. indeed an existential threat to Iran.

CONCLUSION

The mutual existential threats of antagonists do not usually cancel each other out. Rather, one of the antagonists must fall. Liberal solutions of ‘peace’ between them are illusory and chasing such mirages is not only fruitless but diverts attention from the necessary resolution.

In fact, wars where none of the antagonists feel they can afford to give way are complicated and very hard to resolve.

In the short term, for relative peace in Western Asia, both the US imperialists and the Israeli Zionists need to be severely weakened and those who wish for that relative peace must logically wish success to the struggles of the Islamic Republic of Iran and of the Resistance organisations.

In the medium term, the existence of the state of ‘Israel’ needs to cease and the democratic state of Palestine to come into being with US Imperialism weakened further or overthrown.

The ruling class of the strengthened Iran will need to see how they can manage Iran’s new status and the Resistance organisations how they develop and grow their respective nations as independent and sovereign states.

In the longer term, new threats and new conflicts will emerge throughout the world. As long as capitalism exists, parts of it will grow into monopoly capitalism and that in turn will seek to maximise its profits by venturing abroad in competition and/or in coercion.

End.

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FOOTNOTES & SOURCES

1During the 1948 Nakba (Arabic for “catastrophe”), approximately 750,000 to one million Palestinians were displaced from their homes, and an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Palestinians were killed.

More than 80% of the Palestinian population living in the territory that became Israel was forced to leave.At least 530 villages and towns were destroyed or depopulated.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency reports that this initial displacement grew into an ongoing crisis, with nearly 6 million Palestinian refugees registered today. Historians and organizations generally estimate that 10,000 to 15,000 Palestinians were killed. Deaths occurred during combat, in dozens of targeted massacres, and from the general violence of the war.

2 https://thecradle.co/articles/israels-permanent-security-doctrine-turns-war-into-the-states-condition

3From 16 to 18 September 1982, the IOF’s proxy, the Lebanese Forces, one of the main Christian militias in Lebanon, massacred between 1,300 and 3,500 civilians—mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shias — in the Sabra neighbourhood of Beirut and in the nearby Shatila refugees camp, with the support of the IOF.

4As the Syrian regime collapsed in early December 2024.

5 https://campaigns.acri.org.il/50yearsen/

6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Israel

7 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greater_israel.jpg

8An early leading Zionist ideologue and activist.

9Leader of Zionist terrorist group Irgun, founder of political parties Herut and Likud, Prime Minister of ‘Israel’ 1977-1983.

10Respectively in order: Leader of Likud party of current ‘Israel’ government coalition; leader of Religious Zionist Party and current Finance Minister since 2022; National Security Minister since 2022, leader of Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Power”), an Israeli far-right, Kahanist and anti-Arab party which won six seats in the 2022 legislative election and is part of the thirty-seventh government of Israel (Wikipedia).

11 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/26/what-is-greater-israel-and-how-popular-is-it-among-israelis

12 Formerly referred to internationally as ‘Persia’ until 1935.

13 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23981159/

14Western media were not interested at the time – Hussein was attacking Iran and was therefore one of ‘the good guys’. Journalists who tried to get western media to cover the wiping out of a Kurdish village Halabja by gas attack in 1982 were getting nowhere. However, many years later, when the Saddam Hussein had switched and started defying the western imperialists, western media suddenly found the story valuable even though years old by then.

15 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_impacts_of_U.S._sanctions_against_Iran

16 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/5/questions-after-irans-government-releases-victim-list-in-protest-killings (Qatar-based Al Jazeera, while hostile to Israeli Zionism, is also hostile to the Islamic Republic of Iran. However other online sources I found in a quick search were even worse.)

17 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/14/iran-accuse-foreign-intelligence-behind-protest-movement

18 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgzk91leweo and https://www.aa.com.tr/en/science-technology/us-sent-thousands-of-starlink-terminals-to-iran-after-january-protest-crackdown-report/382849

19 https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/trump-claims-he-disagreed-with-arming-kurds-against-iran-ill-remember-that-kurds/

Desperately lying Trump

On August 4, 2026August 4, 2026 By rebelbreezeIn Cartoon, Current Affairs Comment, National Sovereignty, Political Analysis, US ImperialismLeave a comment

“AIRPORT FOR AIRPORT, PORT FOR PORT, BLOCKADE FOR BLOCKADE”

On August 3, 2026August 3, 2026 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, History, Imperialism, National Liberation, National Sovereignty, Political Analysis, Popular ResistanceLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time main text: 5 mins.)

The words are those addressed to Saudi Arabia’s Monarchy by the Ansar Allah leadership of Yemen. They indicate a coming change in the whole of Yemen, responding to a changing of the balance of power in the rest of West Asia.

Ansar Allah went on to list the Saudi airports, ports and oil facilities within reach of Yemen’s missiles.¹ And as of 20^th July, Ansar Allah announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia.²

The Yemenis were responding to an attempt by Saudi military planes to enforce its blockade of Ansar Allah’s Yemen by preventing through bombing an Iranian plane landing at Sanaa Airport on 13^th July.³

*The Saudi bombing of Ansar Allah’s Sanaa Airport.* (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

The follow-up was a bombing of the Saudi airport in retaliation for the Saudi bombing of Sanaa along with hitting two Saudi tankers on 22^nd July for ‘violating the blockade.’ The Saudis foolishly bombed Hodeidah port in retaliation and the Yemeni’s response in turn is still burning days later.

Yemen’s Ansar Allah bombed Saudi’s AramCo oil installation with a black smoke plume visible from cameras in space causing damage which may take years to repair.

The 13^th July Iranian passenger flight to prevent which the Saudis bombed Sanaa Airport had challenged a 12-year long Saudi blockade, Mohamed al-Bukhaiti, senior official and politburo member of the Ansar Allah Government explained recently.

Speaking in a ‘Rock the Cradle’ podcast interview by Sharmine Narwani⁴ of The Cradle online media, al-Bukhaiti revealed that in discussions with Iranian and Omani government figures it had been decided to send a plane to collect Yemen’s delegation for Iran’s Supreme Leader’s funeral.

Those discussions took account of the changing power relations in West Asia, al-Bukhaiti related, the rise of Iran as a regional power challenging the imperialist domination of US and of its client states, of which the Saudi Arabian rulers are a prime example.

No doubt the falling out between former regional partners-in-crimes Saudi Arabia and the UAE also seemed to present a good opportunity for Yemen to break out from their joint blockade.⁵

But al-Bukhaiti stated that Ansar Allah had been preparing for that challenge when the October 7^th 2023 breakout by the Palestinian resistance had occurred and shifted their focus into solidarity action with Palestine instead, bombarding ‘Israel’ at different junctures from 2024 to 2025.

*Yemen’s Ansar Allah acting directly against ‘Israel’ due to latter’s genocide in Gaza 2024/ 2015* (Cartoon by *D.Breatnach*)

RECENT YEMENI MOBILISATION

That some kind of initiative was planned by the Ansarallah Government was evident when it recently organised and called for national mobilisations but also when an Ansar Allah attack was reported on a Saudi occupying military outpost 3-5 July, killing 14 occupation soldiers.⁶

Prior to the bombing of Sanaa Airport, the specific purpose of the internal preparation by mobilisations was unclear, nor was it clear whether the short military action was a prelude to further action, a probe or limited action under a local command.

But after Ansar Allah’s declaration of intention to break the blockade and to respond in kind to any military attack or blockade of their country, it seems likely that their Government will not be content with a relaxation in the application of sanctions but intends the liberation of all Yemen.

It seems clear that Yemen’s actions now are based on what is widely seen as a new balance of forces in West Asia, with western imperialism and in particular its chief, the USA, in decline while much of the axis of Resistance – in particular Iran, Yemen and Hizbollah – are in ascendant.

But according to Prof. Mohamad Hasan Sweidan on The Cradle’s news round-up podcast on YouTube,⁷ Yemen is also ensuring that it is a participant in the ongoing war in the region and will therefore be a party to its ending, with attendant benefits for Yemen and its people.

Trump of course has threatened to attack Yemen, though it’s difficult to see what different result he can expect a from his previous bombing campaign of March-April 2025 from which he had to walk away on May 6th without success but the loss of many Reaper drones and two fighter aircraft.⁸

Saudi Arabia has been joining a consortium to free the Red Sea ports from the Ansar Allah blockade. Most of the Gulf States included do not have a navy and only three members can contribute much⁹ Pakistan, Egypt and Turkiye. The EU has wisely stayed out.

However, some members such as Nigeria could contribute substantial ground troops. And Saudi Arabia is reported about to attack Ansar Allah on land too.¹⁰

*Huge plume of smoke from Saudi Arabia’s Aramco refinery in Jazan after being hit in retaliation by Ansar Allah’s Yemini missiles.* (Photo cred: *Getty Images*)

THE FALSE ‘GOVERNMENT OF YEMEN’

When we read of the ‘Government of Yemen’ in the mass western media¹¹ it may surprise some that the entity to which being referred is not at all what one would think with such a title. It is in fact nothing but a proxy of Saudi Arabia and of the western imperialists, the USA chief among those.

The real Government of Yemen in effect is actually Ansar Allah, to which the aforesaid media tend to refer as ‘the Houthis’, controlling 75% of Yemen’s population¹² with strong internal societal allegiance, something that cannot be said for the region under the proxy ‘Government’.

If we acknowledge Ansar Allah as a national state, which it clearly is, we must also acknowledge that it was the only state in the world that has taken clear physical action to end the Zionist genocide of the Palestinians, which it did without any interests of its own in its attack on ‘Israel’ in 2024-’25.

On behalf of the Zionist State, the US in 2025 sent two aircraft carriers near to Yemen and bombarded the country but had to retire its ships further and further away from Yemeni defences, lost a number of piloted aircraft and drones¹³ and Trump soon gave in and pulled out on 6^th May.

PAKISTAN THREAT?

In what seem to be promising prospects for Ansarallah in particular and the people of West Asia in general, Pakistan is the fly in the ointment. This is despite its Government’s strenuous efforts in pursuit of a peace deal between Iran and the USA and its publication of the agreed MOU.¹⁴

In September of last year, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a mutual defence treaty, in which an attack on one will be seen as an attack on the other, obliging the first to come to the military assistance of the second.¹⁵

Whereas repulsing Saudi attacks on Yemen and even on Saudi military assistance to their proxy there might not activate the mutual defence treaty provisions, it’s hard to see how sustained attacks on Saudi Arabia itself would not, even perhaps if in justified retaliation for attacks on Yemen.

However Prof. Sweidan observes that with the USA’s breaking of agreements and commitments, these generally are not being taken as seriously as used be the case and he predicts that, having nothing to gain from military intervention, Pakistan will let the Saudis fight Yemen alone.

End.

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APPENDIX: BRIEF HISTORY OF YEMEN

(Reading time: one min.)

The land of Yemen has an ancient history¹⁶ but at the end of the 19^th and early 20^th Centuries, had come under control of the Ottoman Empire with the British maintaining a mercantile imperialist foothold through the East India Company, officially extended by the victorious British after WWI.

A national liberation struggle forced the British to abandon their occupation of south-eastern Yemen and the port of Aden in 1967, to be replaced by the Marxist People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, known as South Yemen, under the patronage of the USSR.

After the collapse of the USSR ‘South Yemen’ and ‘North Yemen’ unified and also came under US Imperialist influence. The USS Cole bombing in Aden in 2000 by an Al Qaeda offshoot sparked a war against the latter but President Saleh prioritised a brutal war against northern Shia.

The main tribe being targeted was the Houthi.¹⁷ In 2012 the US pressured the resignation of President Saleh (with immunity from prosecution for human rights abuses) and replacement by Hadi, who in 2014 was captured with his cabinet by an Ansar Allah (leading the Houthi) offensive.

Hadi and his ministers subsequently fled to Saudi Arabia which then led a war against the Ansar Allah-controlled North Yemen, with the support of the UAE, western imperialism and the UN Security Council’s Resolution 2216.

From that date Yemen has been under UN-led sanctions supported by the western Imperialist powers and a coalition of US client Gulf states which Mohamed al-Bukhaiti stated has been hard mainly on civilians¹⁸ including a Saudi-imposed ban on flights into Sanaa Airport.

FOOTNOTES

1 https://www.palestinechronicle.com/one-battle-yemens-military-announces-forthcoming-major-announcement/

2 https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/yemens-houthis-declare-naval-blockade-against-saudi-arabia-statement-2026-07-20/

3The Iranian pilot avoided Sanaa but went on to land at another Yemeni airport instead.

4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fvH1h1FzkU

5 https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-growing-rift-between-saudi-arabia-and-the-uae

6 https://thecradle.co/articles-id/38613

7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDuyDX16GQM at 10.40 mins.

8At an estimated combined cost of $369.6 million.

9Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey.

10 https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/middle-east/artc-saudi-arabia-prepares-offensive-against-houthis-that-could-include-ground-assault

11And even, shamefully, by Al Jazeera. And the Saudi-occupied rump of Yemen is also often characterised in the media as “the internationally-recognised Government.”

12While the Ansarallah Government controls only about a quarter of Yemen’s physical territory, their zone of administration encompasses the most densely populated urban centres in the north and west, including the capital city, Sanaa, and the critical Red Sea port of Al Hudaydah.

13Two Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter aircraft and 7 General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper combat drones (Wikipedia)

14The famed Memorandum of Understanding, a number of terms of which the USA has violated to such degree that it is no longer in operation.

15 https://globalsecurityreview.com/understanding-the-pakistan-saudi-defense-agreement/

16Including coming under expansionist Persian, Arab and native rule and monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam overcoming the older tribal ones, then struggling for domination among themselves with attendant massacres and suppression.

17“Whom Saleh accuses of separatism and of trying to impose their religious orthodoxy on the state. The Houthis, in turn, complain of discrimination and disenfranchisement under Saleh’s autocratic rule. (Yemen’s population is 40-45% Zayidi Shia, with Sunni Muslims making up most of the remainder. Zayidi Shi’ism is distinct from Iran’s Shi’ism.) https://unfoundation.org/what-we-do/issues/peace-human-rights-and-humanitarian-response/yemen-a-brief-background/

18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fvH1h1FzkU

SOURCES

Recent events: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fvH1h1FzkU&t=4s

https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthis-airport-saudi-strikes-7bddae3006304df8bf7f89e980006b33

Understanding the Pakistan–Saudi Defense Agreement

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/yemen-threatens-retaliation-over-sanaa-airport-restrictions

Biased of course but interesting: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/world/middleeast/houthis-saudi-arabia-iran-war.html?eafs_enabled=false

Sanctions (biased UN source): https://globalsanctions.com/region/yemen/

History: https://unfoundation.org/what-we-do/issues/peace-human-rights-and-humanitarian-response/yemen-a-brief-background/

Literature that must not be forgotten

On July 27, 2026 By rebelbreezeIn Capitalism, Cultural Comment, Political Analysis, WritingLeave a comment

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh

Reprinted from author’s substack 26 July 2026 and reformatted for Rebel Breeze

(Reading time: 9 mins.)

The history of societies is the history of their ruling classes. So it comes as no surprise that we are told that Lord X built a palace, Lady Y built a garden and so forth.

The history of society is the history of great men (and the occasional woman, when she’s allowed) with those who actually do anything written out of history.

Take a tour of any stately home and you will be told that the Earl built the west wing in a given year, an incredible chippie, brickie and plumber all in one with some artistic flair to boot.

The workers who actually carried out the work are not mentioned and if it was slave labour, well let’s not go there at all.

It is the type of situation that led the great German poet and dramatist Bertolt Brecht to ask the question

Who built Thebes of the 7 gates?
In the books you will read the names of kings.
Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock ?

And Babylon, many times demolished,
Who raised it up so many times ?

In what houses of gold glittering Lima did its builders live ?
Where, the evening that the Great Wall of China was finished, did the masons go?

Great Rome is full of triumphal arches.
Who erected them ?

Over whom did the Caesars triumph ?
Had Byzantium, much praised in song, only palaces for its inhabitants ?

Of course it is not just the obvious contribution of workers to the construction of buildings no fat cat could ever build, their contribution to the world of literature and art is also deliberately ignored.

The aforementioned poem of Brecht is titled Questions From a Worker Who Reads. Brecht was well aware that in order to overthrow capitalism you have to be able to question it and reading is part of the process.

His famous quote from his poem In Praise of Learning is “Hungry man reach for the book, it is a weapon”.

It is indeed and the weapon is mightier if you think that people like you wrote it. It is partly why the history of literature is a bit like the history of stately homes, the Lords and the Ladies did everything.

No workers, no peasants, no one putting down the hammer for a minute wrote a poem or pausing the plough either.

Literature belongs to the rich, so working class writers or even just opposition writers are routinely written out of history and their literature is reserved for small literary circles and revolutionaries who have retired to the café.

Under no circumstances should it ever be read by other workers, lest the reader get the idea that they too can produce it. Of course there are lots of writers from a working class background, but they are a minority in comparison to the middle and upper classes.

Or least they are in terms of contracts with commercial publishers and libraries tend not to organise catalogues of their works, as they are not worthy of merit in the eyes of the middle class pedants who populate literary studies.

The working class writer Kit de Vaal asked where were all the working class authors and published an anthology of such authors.[1] There is no anthology of middle class or rich authors, as they are the norm, they are everywhere, ubiquitous, ever present.

Pick a book at random on a library shelf or in a book shop and you will invariably pick one written by someone who is not working class, even with non-fiction.

One thing is writing about the working class, which can be financially rewarding and lead to career advancement especially if you are already not of the working class.

But there have been many writers, written out of literary history, or relegated to specialist circles in some academic institute where increasingly the working class can be studied, but not study.

There is one Japanese author, Tajiki Kobayashi who had been on my must-read list for a long time before I eventually got around to him. His most famous novel is The Crab Cannery Ship (also translated as The Factory Ship) which is based on a real incident.

In Japan in the 1920s workers revolted on the ships where they were kept in almost slave like conditions harvesting crabs and then canning them on the ships themselves (hence the title).

The novel is a searing indictment of Japanese capitalism, nationalism and the emperor, who was in Japanese law a divinity.

*Takiji Kobayashi* (Photo source: *Wikipedia*)

We often think, in fact we are told that Japan is a land of hard working obedient workers who never question authority and this is the key to its success. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Japan experienced waves of social unrest as it industrialised along with brutal repression from the state and following the end of WWII trade union membership boomed reaching 5 million by 1947.

This movement was repressed with the US military occupation playing a key role in the Red Purge with thousands of workers hounded out of their jobs, the Communist Party was effectively banned and freedom of speech was suppressed.

The Japanese consensus is the result of oppression, not of some quaint cultural quirk.[2] But if you are to buy into this consensus myth then not only has history to be ignored, but so too must the literature that talks of it.

Kobayashi didn’t just write about the working class, he wrote for them as part of his political militancy. He paid dearly for his commitment. In 1933, at the age of thirty, the Japanese police tortured him to death, leaving two of his novels incomplete.

The Crab Cannery Ship had been serialised in a magazine, Senki, and was not available as a novel in Japan until 1948, though its English translation was available in the year of his murder.

It is a strange consensus that requires torturing poets and writers to death, but not so strange that we would be asked to forget them.

Not that Takiji’s novel had ever been entirely forgotten.

It occupied a secure position in Japan’s modern history as the best-known literary product of the proletarian movement, a major cultural and political current of the 1920s and early 1930s—a time when labor activism, socialism, feminism, and antimilitarism were briefly in the ascendant, while paintings, posters, prose narratives, poetry, and plays depicting the lives and struggles of the dispossessed enjoyed a considerable degree of popular interest and critical esteem.

By the mid-thirties, however, as the country’s elites led the nation ever closer to an all-out war on the Asian continent, this progressive groundswell had been largely obliterated through a combination of internal dissension, government propaganda, and intensified repression: arrests, beatings, imprisonment, and censorship.[3]

He was part of a movement of proletarian literature and president of the Proletarian Writer’s Guild of Japan.

Proletarian literature was not just written by working class authors (and also middle class authors who had turned their backs on their own class), nor was it just stories about the working class for middle class audiences.

It was for the working class with no middle class filters applied to make it suitable for chats over coffee, and it talked of socialism. His novels are political, in an overtly Marxist sense, class struggle is a key part of the plot.

The clandestine nature of political work in Japan is dealt with in the unfinished novel Life of a Party Member, and would be familiar to anyone who has lived under repressive regimes. Kobayashi himself engaged in clandestine work and was arrested numerous times and tortured.

The use of the term Proletarian rather than working class tells you all you need to know.

He was a fighter, he may well have liked coffee but his life was not that of the quaint coffee shop, arcane academic discussions where the middle class engage in their favourite pastime, talking and writing about the working class, earning royalties and accolades in the process.

His most famous novel The Crab Cannery Ship went through a huge revival in 2008, following the financial crash, selling hundreds of thousands of copies.

In 2008—the year Takiji’s novel skyrocketed to fame—over thirty thousand Japanese people killed themselves, tens of thousands were homeless, some three million were unemployed, twenty million were living in poverty, and more than a third of the active labor force comprised irregular workers who were poorly paid and could easily be fired.[4]

Reading it, it is easy to see why. I am neither Japanese nor a fisherman, yet much of what happens on the ship speaks to me, it speaks to everyone, abusive bosses, people trapped in low income, insecure work with little security, poor safety.

What Kobayashi describes is something that never went away in the third world and has made a comeback now everywhere due to the defeat of the trade union movement and, let’s be honest, the constant sell outs by the bureaucracy.

But that novel and his other writings are not about the plight of the working class or the proletariat to use the more accurate term that the middle class so loathe and despise. It is about the fight of the working class against those conditions.

He argues through his characters for a struggle for socialism, against the Japanese ruling class, nationalism, empire and also for the liberation of women.

In his novel Yasuko, two of the main protagonists are women who as the plot develops become independent forceful characters, through their participation in the class struggle and their fight against the repression of the state.

One of them, Yasuko lends her name to the title. It is obvious why the Japanese literati would not have promoted him so much. There are equivalents all around the world of proletarian writers or other oppositionists who have been relegated to a dusty corner.

The proletarian wave did not just happen in Japan, but throughout the East, Russia and also the United States.

There of course exceptions who became worldwide phenomena within their own lifetime.

One such author is Bertold Brecht who coincides in time with various proletarian literature movements around the world and then there is also the Italian artist Dario Fo, the author of many works such as Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can’t Pay! Won’t Pay!

The title of this particular play became a catchphrase and slogan in the English speaking world.

Both were products of their time and achieved international fame, making them hard to relegate to dusty corners and though there are always attempts to relativise writers, soften the sharp edges of their plume it is not easy with either.

Brecht was unrepentant till his death and Dario Fo and his wife Franca Rame were lifelong activists and enemies of the Italian state, so much so that fascists under orders from the Italian police kidnapped tortured and raped her in an unsuccessful attempt to silence her.

*Franca Rama and Dario Fo in performance.* (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

There was more at stake for her and her husband than artistic awards. Their work was political in all senses of the word and they were participants in the class struggle.[5]

In oppressed countries around the world various writers such as the El Salvadoran Roque Dalton, or the Palestinian Ghassem Kanafani are still remembered and celebrated amongst their people.

But they fought against foreign empires, Kobayashi was from the empire he fought against. It is harder to reinterpret him as anything other than what he was, a proletarian writer who gave his life not so much for a literature that was forgotten but for a revolution that never came.

What literature is remembered and celebrated is a question of power and politics. There is literature that must be remembered and there is that which must be forgotten or in rare exceptions begrudgingly acknowledged.

Kobayashi, however, is now acknowledged so much so that there are now Kobayashi tours, which is itself worrying, but there is no escaping who or what he was, though Sabu, the director of a remake of the film version did make an attempt at this depoliticising the novel.

There is also no escaping that the current Japanese inbred royal family murdered him. All of the post war institutions are the direct heirs of those who murdered him.

That his novel could speak to the Japanese working class 79 years after it was written, is testament to the lasting value of his writing.

Darkness never lasts and despite the best efforts of the media, the cultural gatekeepers in publishing, academia and galleries, it is as Brecht remarked in his poem Literature will be scrutinised.

But at that time will be praised

Those who sat on the bare ground to write

Those who sat among the lowly

Those who reported the deeds of the fighters

With art. In the noble words

Formerly reserved

For the adulation of kings…

Yes, a time will come when

These clever and friendly men

These angry and hopeful men

Who sat on the bare ground to write

Who were surrounded by the lowly and the fighters

Will be publicly praised.

And so literature once forgotten or relegated to a lowly category comes forth in all its glory and as Rosa Luxembourg put it, when talking about revolution, proclaims, I was, I am, I shall be.

End.

Note: You may wish to read other articles by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh on his substack https://gearoidloingsigh.substack.com/

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NOTES:

[1] The Guardian (10/02/2018) Kit de Waal: ‘Make room for working class writers’. Kit de Waal. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/10/kit-de-waal-where-are-all-the-working-class-writers-

[2] For an overview of class struggle in Japan in the post war period see Ichiyo, M (1987) Class Struggle and Technological Innovation in Japan since 1945. IIRE. Amsterdam. https://fileserver.iire.org/nsr/nsr5.pdf

[3] Translator’s Preface to Kobayashi, T. (2013) The Crab Cannery Ship and other novels of struggle. University of Hawai’i Press. Pp ix & x.

[4] Ibíd., p.x

[5] The Guardian (29/05/2013) Franca Rame obituary. John Francis Lane https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/may/29/franca-rame

TOXIC LOYALISM IN IRELAND – WORSE THAN DANGERS OF 12th JULY BONFIRES

On July 14, 2026July 14, 2026 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Human Rights, Indigenous or Original People, Ireland, irish history, National Liberation, Political Analysis, Popular Resistance, Racism, Religious Sectarianism, Traditions & Folk Custom2 Comments

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

If it turns out that the fire destruction of homes in Greenisland, Carrigfergus was caused by Loyalist bonfire embers,¹ there may be renewed calls to ban the construction of such bonfires in the cause of safety.

Or even to prevent the deaths of people from Loyalist bonfire tower construction.²

If so, such calls will miss the main point, which is that Ulster Loyalist bonfires are an expression of sectarianism and racism. It is Ulster Loyalism itself which is toxic and more lethal than any mismanaged fire. That is what is expressed in burning Irish Tricolours, Palestinian flags, images of Irish individuals, representations of migrants and of Islam.

A Loyalist bonfire with Irish Tricolour and Palestinian flags to be burned along with images of the popular rap group Kneecap and an attempt at some message aimed at them in Irish. The rejection of SDLP and Alliance colonial political parties is clear, while that of Sinn Féin is taken for granted. (Photo: *Niall Carson/ PA Wire*).

The record of Ulster Loyalism is as the communal enforcers of settler colonialism upon the indigenous Irish. When the United Irishmen, mostly led by Protestants, were organising in unity with Irish Catholics for Irish independence, the Orange Order was founded in 1795.

At that time it was not controlling the indigenous Irish that was of greatest concern to the British ruling class as much as the Republican Protestants, in particular the Republicans among the Presbyterians and the Orange Order targeted them too with propaganda and intimidation.

Once the threat of Protestant Republican rebellion was contained through intimidation, repression and emigration, the Orange Order concentrated on the majority mostly Catholic indigenous Irish, with general repression and periodic pogroms, continuing after Partition of Ireland in 1922.

The colonial Statelet institutionalised in law and practice discrimination against Catholics, enlisting the help and support of the majority of the Protestant working class, with the result of the worst housing and generally lowest wages in the UK – for workers of both communities.

The Loyalists mobilised against the Civil Rights campaign in the Six Counties, a campaign led by liberal Protestants as well as Catholics. During three decades of war that followed, Loyalist militias with British colonial army and police help, carried out bombings and sectarian murders.³

At this time of year people concerned for their safety or just peace of mind temporarily leave areas near to those under Loyalist control and not only in the Six Counties colony but in parts of Scotland too.

A REACTIONARY FESTIVAL

Unionist and liberal propaganda tell us that some of the bonfires are just good community fun, without flags, politician faces, migrant boat or mosque replicas on top. But the historical excuse for the marking of the 12^th of July is the victory of William of Orange’s forces at the Boyne in 1690.

*Loyalist mural probably in Belfast depicting at top gable end King William at the Battle of the Boyne*. (Photo source: *https://petermoloneycollection.com/category/events-people/king-billy/*)

The Unionists celebrate this chiefly because they perceive it as a victory of Protestant forces over Catholic but also because it facilitated the destruction of the remnants of the Gaelic Order, breaking the power of Irish resistance in Ulster and completed the British conquest of Ireland.

Even without a single representation of person, country or religion on top of the bonfires, their very nature and what they intend to celebrate is reactionary, sectarian and colonial.

Most Ulster Protestants are probably unaware that although William was a Protestant and James II a Catholic, from whom Irish Catholics hoped to gain relief from repression, the Battle of the Boyne was actually part of the Nine Years War with William fighting for the League of Augsburg.

And one of the supporters of that League was none other than Pope Innocent XI because of what he and the League saw as the threat of King Luis XIV of France. The News of William’s victory at the Boyne was celebrated with high mass in a number of Catholic countries.

*This year’s Loyalist Bonfire in Moygashel, Co. Armagh, with a representation of a Mosque to be burned on top and a placard calling for ‘secure borders’ against emigration*. (Photo sourced: *Sky News*)

Loyalism has gone on to extend its hatred of Catholicism to Islam, of indigenous Irish to migrants from other lands, for example in the recent riots in Belfast.⁴

‘ONE MILLION PROTESTANTS IN A UNITED IRELAND’

We are frequently counselled to tolerate Ulster Loyalism, told that we must make Loyalists welcome into a united Ireland, that we need to accept their culture on equal level with others and are also subtly threatened with the potential violence of ‘One million Protestants’ if not accommodated.

The culture of Loyalism is toxic. It is intolerant, racist, homophobic, sectarian and violent. Might as well ask black people or native Americans to accept the Ku Klux Klan – after all, the KKK too have a community culture and they live in the USA along with everyone else.

A united 32-County Ireland should of course accept everyone as citizens. That is not at all to say that it should tolerate religious sectarianism, racism or homophobia. On the contrary it should oppose those evils through education and if necessary through application of the law.⁵

As for the implied threat of “one million Protestants”, that is to assume that all are sectarian Loyalists or at least that such are in leadership over the rest. Not all those reared in Six Counties Protestantism are Loyalists nor in fact even necessarily Unionists.

Removing the military, ideological and structural support for Unionism and Loyalism and also the control exercised by Loyalists on sections of communities will reduce Unionism and its most virulent expression, Loyalism, to a much smaller core who will have to make their choice.

Adjust to get on with your fellow citizens, or leave.

End.

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FOOTNOTES:

1 https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/fire-which-destroyed-homes-likely-caused-by-embers-from-nearby-bonfire-1925794.html

22026 https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2026/0711/1582923-bonfire-death/

2022 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-62111760

3According to Wikipedia, Loyalist paramilitaries killed 1,027 people during the 30 Years War, approximately 30% of all conflict-related deaths. 911 according to https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/violence/sutton.htm (a biased source) including 33 in the no-warning Dublin and Monaghan Bombings of 1974.

4 https://www.politico.eu/article/anti-immigrant-terror-takes-northern-ireland-back-darkest-chapters/

5In the wording of the 1916 Proclamation: “The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty to all …”

SOURCES:

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/fire-which-destroyed-homes-likely-caused-by-embers-from-nearby-bonfire-1925794.html and https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/07/12/fire-that-destroyed-antrim-homes-likely-caused-by-embers-from-nearby-bonfire/

2026 https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2026/0711/1582923-bonfire-death/

2022 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-62111760

IRISH STATE PRESIDENCY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION — PROTEST CLOSES DUBLIN CITY CENTRE STREET

On July 11, 2026 By rebelbreezeIn Anti-War, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Imperialism, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Left, National Liberation, Political Analysis, ZionismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time:4 mins.)

As the Irish State marked the start of its six-month Presidency of the European Union, a protest march calling for Irish neutrality and an end to EU collusion with ‘Israeli’ genocide in Palestine headed for the formal event, closing a principal street to traffic.

*Section of the crowd at Central Plaza.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

A Call to Action poster had promoted the protest to take place at the Plaza in Dublin’s south side city centre in front of a multi-story building, formerly HQ of the Central Bank of Ireland. Curiously, the name of no party, campaign or collective convening the protest appeared on the poster.

Groups of various Palestine solidarity or of pro-Irish neutrality nature, anti-war and left-wing nature, along with many individual activists congregated at the Plaza while a group from the weekly broad Dubs for Palestine meeting outside Leinster House¹ marched to meet them there.

*Some banners among the crowd at Central Plaza.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The ‘Granny Squares for Gaza’ quilt was unrolled, featuring up to 2,900 squares, each one representing 10 Palestinian children killed by the IOF and volunteers, along with its custodians, held it at around waist height.

Soon afterwards, the crowd of several hundred took up the westward traffic side of Dame Street and began to march towards Dublin Castle,² where the Irish Government was marking the first day of its EU Presidency. However a police line blocked progress at the junction with George St.

After a temporary stand-off, the marchers moved to occupy both sides of Dame street and traffic could no longer proceed westward or eastward along the street. The crowd continued with slogans in solidarity with Palestine, against ‘Israel’, for peace, against war, for warplanes out of Shannon.

*Another banner at the Plaza.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The Irish State is the second-biggest single importer of ‘Israeli’ exports, next only to the USA. Permitted flights over Irish airspace have been identified carrying war material to ‘Israel’ and US warplanes regularly refuel at Shannon Airport, despite the state’s ‘neutral’ status.

Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit, which seemed now to be leading the demonstration addressed the crowd informing them that the police had said earlier that they could proceed to the square immediately before City Hall and hold the protest event there.

They had reneged on that which is the reason why traffic was now blocked in the street, Barrett told the crowd and introduced Jimi Cullen to perform for the crowd. Cullen, who has performed at a US Embassy picket for 122 weeks up till then, sang his We Are All Palestinians composition.

*Jimi Cullen in full voice.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The crowd joined in the chorus, words with which they have become familiar in chants through many demonstrations.

A police officer approached Barrett requesting to speak to him and both went aside as one of the Dubs for Palestine group took up leading the chants. Barrett returned later to inform the crowd that the police had offered a different route down side streets, which had been rejected.

Cullen then performed his song defending the Irish State’s neutrality status with which the Irish ruling class are trying to dispense, after which Barrett invited the crowd, while the megaphones sounded sirens to lie on the ground in evocation of the many Palestinians being killed by the day.

*Also another banner at the Plaza before the march.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

COMMENT

It was good that the capital city saw agitation opposing the Irish State joining military ventures of the EU and USA imperialist alliances and also against Irish collusion in the genocide in Palestine.

Those leading the march were unwise to accept the police assurance that they would allow the march to proceed to just before City Hall. A PBP-led march to protest Hillary Clinton’s 2012 visit to Dublin Castle had been told they could proceed there but were stopped just before City Hall.

Wednesday’s march was stopped even further from the Castle, which is a step further in curtailing protest, ensuring those inside the Castle will not even hear a hint of opposition. The police obstruction could have been bypassed by diverging through side streets but it was not attempted.

Though individual members may have been there, no Irish Republican organisation was notably present which probably accounted to an extent for the very scarce presence of Tricolour flags (and only one Starry Plough). PBP and their followers do not generally fly those flags.

However their absence cannot be attributed to any ambivalence: Irish Republicans are in strong antipathy to the Irish Government and to the institution of the European Union.

Only one of the slogans called from the front of the march referred to the colonial occupation of one-sixth of Ireland, viz. ‘From Ireland to Palestine/ Occupation is a crime!’ but it was from the Dubs and as is usual with PBP, in none of the speeches was there a mention of it.

Not one word of Irish language was spoken through the PA, not even the Saoirse don Phalaistín slogan.

The lie down to conclude the protest. The Gardaí may be seen in the distance blocking any advance of the march towards Dublin Castle or even the square beside City Hall. People are in most cases lying on the quilt of which each square represents 10 Palestinian children killed by ‘Israel’. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

MOVING FORWARD

For the defeat of colonialism, imperialism and capitalism in Ireland, a revolutionary mass movement will be essential. For that in turn, construction of an anti-imperialist broad front is an essential task.

That requires those claiming Irish Republicanism to be present on mobilisations alongside those claiming revolutionary socialism or just anti-imperialism.

If use of the Irish language is to be popularised and the civil rights of Irish speakers in Ireland protected, Gaeilge must be heard in particular among the most progressive sections of society.

End.

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FOOTNOTES

1This broad group meets every Wednesday from 12 noon to around 1.00 pm. listening to speeches, songs and poems. Two of their major campaigns are seeking to have the genocide-funding Allianz company kicked out of the Gaelic Athletic Association and, more recently, to prevent the Irish soccer team playing the ‘Israeli’ one.

2For centuries centre of administration and repression of Ireland by the English occupation.

MARCHERS PROTEST TERENCE WHEELOCK’S DEATH, AS YET ANOTHER DIES IN GARDA CUSTODY

On June 12, 2026June 12, 2026 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Ireland, Irish Left, Police Violence, Political Analysis, Song, Song in StruggleLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

As campaigners marched in Dublin on June 6^th seeking justice for the death of Terence Wheelock in a Garda station in 2005, yet another death in Garda custody was announced in the media.¹

*Crowd gathering beside Remembrance Garden before Terence Wheelock protest* (*Photo*: D.Breatnach)

Terence Wheelock was a young man from Summerhill, a north Dublin inner-city area housing many from a working class background. On that fateful day he set out to buy a paintbrush for a painting job but was ambushed by Gardaí lying in wait for youths who had stolen a car.

Terence had nothing to do with that but his protests were ignored and it may be that his insistence on his innocence merely infuriated the Gardaí further. In Store Street Garda station Terrence acquired his fatal injuries which the Gardaí claimed resulted from attempted suicide.

However, the Gardaí directed the family to the wrong hospital for Terence, which gave them the time and opportunity to dispose of his clothes (which were never produced in evidence) and quickly redecorated the cell in which Terence had been held.

Tension between youths and police is a well documented social fact but when the youth are from working class areas a certain dimension is often added to that antagonism. In addition, the Gardaí are aware that the families of the youths lack access to middle-class sources of social influence.

MARCH THROUGH CITY CENTRE TO GARDA STATION

Saturday’s protest began at Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance with a rally addressed by Sammy Wheelock, brother of the deceased Terence and campaigner for justice for the family over many years, taking over a leading role from another brother, Larry Wheelock who died a few years ago.

*Campaign banner held up beside Remembrance Garden by (R-L) Sammy Wheelock and Mary Lou McDonald*. (*Photo supplied* by S.Wheelock)

The march set off down along Parnell Square and into O’Connell Street, Dublin city’s main thoroughfare, down to the quays and left along to the Busáras, turning left again there and up to Store Street Garda station, the location where Terence Wheelock received his fatal injuries.

In front of the station Conor Reddy and Boyd Barrett of PBP both spoke, as did Janice Boylan of Sinn Féin, James O’Toole of Red Media and Sammy Wheelock again. Róisín Tracy read a poem and Jacob Guerin sang a song, both compositions regarding Terrence’s death.

Sammy Wheelock commented also on the harassment and rough treatment meted out to young men from the area on their way to or from work or college, when they are identified by their casual street clothes of tracksuits, etc. This is also a theme taken up in an article by the Aontacht media.²

A clip posted on Facebook recently (believed to be from the Coolock area) shows two plainclothes Gardaí treating a youth roughly while they search him.³

According to a report published by Fiosrú, the office of the Police Ombudsman,⁴ incidents in or following Garda custody accounted for eight referrals in 2024, involving five deaths and three serious injuries. The report for 2005 is awaited.⁵

The Gardaí have also killed before any arrest, as with George Nkencho who was shot dead during a mental illness episode in the family garden in 2020, Mark Hennessy in a car park in 2018, Gareth Molloy (2009) and Ronan Mac Lochlainn (1998) both shot by undercover Gardaí.

In each of those cases and in others the Gardaí have been officially exonerated of any blame.

Solidarity with Palestine protesters, housing activists occupying empty property and anti-NATO protesters have all been subjected to Garda violence⁶ and humiliation⁷ during the past year.

As the State feels a growing necessity to increase repression and as economic conditions worsen, Garda violence will be on the increase with a probable increase also in deaths at their hands.

It is essential for all revolutionary, progressive and civil liberty sectors of society to unite against Garda violence, to protest incidents of Garda violence and to keep alive the memory of past incidents of violence by the police force of the Irish State.

There will be another public event in the campaign on Saturday September 19^th with details to be announced nearer the time.

end.

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FOOTNOTES

SOURCES

https://www.fiosru.ie/news-and-publications/latest-news/fiosru-publishes-inaugural-report-on-incidents-of-death-and-serious-harm

https://www.facebook.com/share/1HCQNVHE6a

PROTESTING DEATH OF YOUTH AT HANDS OF GARDAÍ

https://aontachtmedia.ie/the-blue-wall-of-silence-around-terence-wheelock

1 https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2026/0607/1577165-garda-custody-death/ Fiosrú said that they would not comment as an investigation was underway but that did not prevent a number of media outlets and the Gardaí from making public remarks about the deceased’s alleged character and alleged crimes, the subtext seeming to be that it’s all right that he died in Garda custody or at least that no-one should worry too much about where and how he died.

2 https://aontachtmedia.ie/the-blue-wall-of-silence-around-terence-wheelock/

3 https://www.facebook.com/share/1HCQNVHE6a/

4This agency is funded through the Department of Justice but claims to be independent, i.e not biased towards the Gardaí, a claim disputed by people including myself (from personal experience).

5 https://www.fiosru.ie/news-and-publications/latest-news/fiosru-publishes-inaugural-report-on-incidents-of-death-and-serious-harm/

6Baton blows, rough handling such as throwing to the ground, handcuffs cutting circulation, pepper-spraying into the face from very close proximity and even breaking a foot.

7Strip-searched in each case.

THE 1994 CHINOOK CRASH — AIRCRAFT MALFUNCTION, PILOT ERROR OR INTER-INTELLIGENCE ASSASSINATION?

On June 8, 2026 By rebelbreezeIn Assassination, British imperialism, History, Ireland, irish history, National Liberation, peace processes, Political Analysis, Song, Song in StruggleLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

A group mainly of relatives of the deceased are seeking an official inquiry into the Chinook helicopter crash at the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland in 1994 killing 25 intelligence experts and four special forces crew on their way to a conference.

The crash wiped out almost all the top officers in command of intelligence gathering and operations in the occupied Six counties of Ireland from MI5, Army, RUC Special Branch and state Security Service.

*Photo of the crashed Chinook helicopter on the Mull of Kintyre 1994.* (Photo: *Sky News*)

The first crash inquiry failed to confirm pilot error which was then overruled by State reviewers who blamed the pilots on the basis of supposition without any evidence. After campaigning by a number of people including families of the deceased pilots, a 2011 inquiry exonerated the pilots.

The current campaign wants to focus on questions as to the reliability of the aircraft but an alternative and darker interpretation developed at the time, alleging that the different departments of British spooks, MI5 and MI6 had a fatal falling out over territory and policy.¹

The remit of MI5 is of domestic ‘UK’ matters while that of MI6 is external. However, the Six Counties, though being under the rule of the UK, was also geographically part of a foreign country, Ireland — and the Irish State, just across the border, a government foreign to the UK.

In addition, the Republican armed resistance groups frequently had contacts abroad and many people with connections to other resistance organisations in the world; both parts of Ireland were visited by representatives along with many media agencies in the pursuit of their reporting work.

Whereas a resort to assassination as a result of rivalry or difference in objectives between different arms of a state’s security service is no doubt extreme, the existence of the rivalry itself is quite likely and the stakes in terms of funding, staffing and operational management can be high.

If the rivals are working towards opposing ends, that will raise the stakes much higher. The secrecy of the State’s reaction to the event did nothing to dispel such theories and the mismanaged attempt to blame the pilots only lent added credence to such suspicions and belief.

The fact of the collusion of British secret service with Loyalist murder squads in the 6-Counties colony is well known and has been documented by a number of investigations. Such collusion from the Royal Ulster Constabulary, especially its Special Branch, is well known too.²

Quite a few familiar with the British colonial security forces in the Six Counties believe that there was an ‘inner force’ inside the RUC with the support of MI5 and British Army Intelligence, all colluding with or even managing assassinations and Loyalist sectarian murder gangs.

The British ruling class had set their sights on achieving the cooperation of the Provisionals in a pacification process and MI6 was in favour of this initiative. It is posited that MI5, the Inner Force inside RUC and Army Intelligence opposed this, believing that they could defeat the IRA.

It was the clash of these radically different approaches (albeit with the same ultimate objective of ending Republican armed resistance) that is believed by some to have culminated in the assassination of the anti-pacification section in the Mull of Kintyre crash.

We may never know for certain and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) sealed key files relating to the 1994 Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash for 100 years, locking them away until 2094

‘HEROES’?

Sorcha Eastwood calls those who died ‘heroes’,³ confirming herself and the Alliance political party she represents as on the side of British colonialism and its violent repression of Irish resistance, repression in the forms of internment, no-jury trials, assassinations and sectarian murders.

Those features are the reality of colonial repression and were very much in evidence in the colonial war of three decades which was approaching an end at the time of the crash.

The leadership of the Provisionals had accepted that although they could not be beaten, nor could they win the war⁴ and so were ready to participate in a pacification process.

British Intelligence had compromised or recruited elements of that leadership at highest and medium levels and had targeted assassinations of the less malleable individuals.⁵ The leadership was heading for the process culminating in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

Up to 3,500 people had died violent deaths 1969-1994 as the hands of of British military, colonial police, colonial proxies and Irish Republican resistance.

There were no tears shed for the dead at Mull of Kintyre among the subjected population of the colonial entity nor in many quarters of the Irish community at home or abroad and resistance culture soon produced a dark mocking parody to the air of Paul McCartney’s ‘Mull of Kintyre’ song.⁶

Confirmed assassination and suspicious deaths by aircraft crash are not unknown, among UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld’s 1961 plane crash on his way to negotiate peace in the Congo,⁷ General Zia-ul-Haq⁸ and commander of Russian mercenary force Yevgeni Prigozhin.⁹

end.

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FOOTNOTES

SOURCES

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/truth-being-withheld-over-raf-chinook-disaster-families-say-1907193.html
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/jun/14/northernireland.comment

1What is more often but inaccurately called ‘the Irish peace process’; inaccurate because it was not designed to address the underlying reasons for the conflict and approaching three decades later has not done so. It resulted in The Good Friday Agreement, signed in 1998.

2See for example the Stevens Inquiries, Barron Tribunal, Dirty War by Martin Dillona (1990), also Lethal Allies (2013) by Anne Cadwallader.

3 https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/truth-being-withheld-over-raf-chinook-disaster-families-say-1907193.html

4The war against a major imperialist power was concentrated in a territory one-sixth of Ireland and with a population divided along sectarian lines.

5See the cases of Denis Donaldson and Scappaticci (British Intelligence code name Stakeknife) for example and there are well-founded suspicions of a number of others that were never publicly exposed. See also the elimination of Volunteers Jim Lynagh and Padraig McKearney and their unit in the Loughgall Ambush/ Massacre.

6‘Mull of Kintyre, oh Brits falling into the sea’ etc

7 https://www.un.org/en/delegate/63-years-later-mystery-still-surrounds-death-dag-hammarskj%C3%B6ld

8 https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-08-25-mn-1417-story.html

9 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/05/hand-grenade-explosion-caused-plane-crash-that-killed-wagner-boss-says-putin

PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE IN PALESTINE

On May 29, 2026May 29, 2026 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Genocide, Human Rights, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Israeli Zionism, National Liberation, Palestine, peace processes, Political Analysis, Song, Song in StruggleLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

Two famous people addressed a crowd outside Leinster House, home of the Parliament of the Irish State on 25^th May. Rami Elhanan, an Israeli graphic designer, and Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian scholar, had forged a remarkable friendship.

*Section of participants in the Dubs for Palestine noontime event outside Leinster House 27 May 2026.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Bassam Aramin, now a Palestinian scholar, had been sentenced to a 7-year term of imprisonment for throwing a grenade at Israeli soldiers when he was 17 and had lost his daughter later to a plastic bullet fired at short distance by an IOF soldier.

Rami Elhanan, an Israeli graphic designer, had also lost his daughter Smada but to a suicide bomber in 1997. Both men became advocates of peace and dialogue and friends to one another.

Their audience was the weekly Dubs for Palestine gathering outside Leinster House on Wednesdays 12 noon to about 1.00 pm, with speeches, songs and poetry and David Hickey as MC. This week’s was the 113^th such weekly gathering and the duo had been invited to speak.

The broad group has of late been concentrating on parting the Gaelic Athletic Association¹ from its sponsor and insurance underwriter, the former Nazi and since Zionist-friendly Allianz company, along with now campaigning for the Irish soccer team not to play the ‘Israeli’ team.

*Rami Elhanan (L-R) and Basam Aramin* *addressing the Dubs for Palestine noontime event outside Leinster House 27 May 2026.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Rami Elhanan referenced his descent from Holocaust survivors and outlined the different living standards of the Palestinian and Israeli Jewish communities, commenting on the sickness in Israeli society, that they did not want to know what is being done in their name to the Palestinians.

Basam Aramin’s contribution was against the Occupation and claimed that without that, Palestinians and Israelis could live in peace (it was not clear whether he was referring to the ‘Two State’ proposal²). David Hickey, the MC of the group presented them with an Arum Lily each.³

After their speeches had been applauded, they were asked to comment on the recent Leinster House debate and the Government’s refusal to endorse a boycott of Israel. Rami Elhanan replied that boycotts entrenched opposing sides and that continuing to talk was the answer.

Singer and activist Emma Browne, invited next to the microphone, sang Keep the Little Flame Alive, among the lyrics of which Faye, Dolores, Bernadine, Table grapes and gasoline, Homemade rifles, kitchen knives, Kept the little flame alive riposted the previous speakers.

Soon afterwards, Paul Lynch read a poem of a Palestinian father mourning the killing of his child. Poet and activist Dorothy Collin declared that in order to have peace there must be justice first and that we must support the oppressed in whatever way they choose to resist.

*Áine Ruttley reading her poem while addressing the Dubs for Palestine noontime event outside Leinster House 27 May 2026.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Áine Rutley also upheld our duty of solidarity and the right of the Resistance movement to choose its own methods, as did Jimi Cullen who then performed his own song composition The Freedom Fighter about a fighter from Gaza.

As I was called to the microphone, I commented that my views had already been well expressed in song and speech and that one of the forms of resistance is song, of which we had more than probably any other people in the world and sang An Dord Féinne,⁴ which is banned in Germany.

A little later the event came to an end with another song from Emma Browne, Never Again Is Now and with group chanting for Palestine, against Allianz and against playing the ‘Israeli’ team.

IN CONCLUSION

It is a popular proposition in certain circles that all social conflicts can be resolved by discussion, by understanding our opponents’ view. It is an attractive idea but flies in the face of history and of contemporary reality.

The interests of Occupied and Occupier are opposed and cannot be reconciled through understanding. The Occupier understands that the Occupied wish to be rid of them. The Occupied do understand that the Occupier wishes to continue appropriating their land and resources.

In this kind of situation one must win and the other lose. Far from understanding leading to peaceful resolution, the more the oppressed understand the nature of their oppressor, the more resolutely they are likely to resist and this is surely true of the Palestinians resisting the Zionist settlers.

The false proposition of resolving irreconcilable interests through discussion is usually of liberal or social-democratic origin when applied to anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and anti-racist struggles and though appearing even-handed, always ends up disempowering the victimised.

The journeys of both these men is extraordinary and interesting but it should not be presented as representative of the Palestinian struggle against Occupation, Theft and Genocide. Each father lost a child but the Palestinian is losing a lot more on top.

Furthermore, a just resolution can only come about through the total defeat of the Zionist forces and the dismantling of their State, so that if we really want that kind of resolution we are called to support the Palestinian side, unequivocally and resolutely.

Of course, in reality there is no question of real peace without justice, for ultimately the oppressed (unless wiped out) will rise in struggle again and again. The proposition of accommodation of opposites by discussion can only undermine or distract the struggle of the oppressed.

We cannot take the story of Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan, however remarkable, as even a metaphor for a just resolution nor allow ourselves to be seduced from resistance nor our struggle undermined by it.

End.

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FOOTNOTES

1The management of the Gaelic games, including hurling and Gaelic football. The GAA has teams in every one of the 32 counties of Ireland, crossing the colonial border and is the biggest community sports association not only in Ireland but also in Europe and perhaps in the world.

2This proposal came out of the Oslo Accords, to give the Palestinians 20% of their land for peace with the Zionist settlers who would own the remaining 80%. Apart from its basic injustice the proposal was never realistic since Zionist settlers continued to construct settlements on additional land. Despite this, supporting that proposal is the formal position of most western imperialist states and the Irish State and of most parliamentary political parties.

3In Ireland these are often viewed as symbolic of the 1916 Easter Rising.

4Also known as Gráinne Mhaol and Óró Sé Do Bheatha ‘Bhaile, an Irish traditional song of some antiquity refashioned into an Irish resistance song by Patrick Pearse, a martyred leader of the 1916 Rising.

SOURCES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apeirogon_(novel)

MAN DEAD AFTER BRUTAL RESTRAINT BY ARNOTTS SECURITY

On May 19, 2026May 23, 2026 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Human Rights, Ireland, Political Analysis, Traditions & Folk Custom1 Comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

A vigil was held today outside Arnotts department store, Dublin at the site of the death of a man yesterday while being restrained by four men, apparently employed as security by the store.

*The crowd grew dense in front of Arnotts in Henry Street Dublin as more people arrived to support the vigil about the killing of Yves Sakila*. *A woman can be seen displaying the flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

A video of the four security staff restraining a man has now circulated widely. It is brutal. He is being held face down with one operative pressing his head to the ground. Another is placing his knee against the man’s neck and then shoving hard it inwards while the man’s cries are ignored.

The other two, not clearly in view, are presumably restraining at least his legs.

*View of the initial crowd in front of Arnotts in Henry Street Dublin to support the vigil about the killing of Yves Sakila*. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

According to media reports, the man is alleged to have shoplifted something. That is an unproven allegation but even had it been so, are we to accept the endangering of a life to defend a commercial company from the theft of some article?

Are we to accept the right of a commercial company’s security team to brutally take a suspect down and to restrain him without regard to the safety of his life?

It is possible but not yet certain that attitudes to race played a part in Yves’ treatment. One of the speakers at the vigil today seemed to say that was not so, that it could’ve happened to anyone in the hands of that security team. Perhaps. And perhaps not.

*One of the Congolese adjusting flower offerings in mourning for* *the killing of Yves Sakila* *in Henry Street in front of Arnotts.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Just over five years ago George Nchengo, a Nigerian experiencing an episode of mental illness, was shot dead by Gardaí. While brandishing a knife he was in his own family’s garden and of no immediate threat to the Gardaí or anyone else but they were cleared by GSOC investigation.¹

The victim’s name is Yves Sakila, of Congolese background, who came to Ireland as a child, where he attended secondary school 22 years ago, according to one of the speakers at the vigil. A number of apparently Congolese spoke, most in English and one in French and were widely applauded.

One of the speakers angrily drew attention to the recently-reported racist comments of Fianna Fáil politician and former Taoiseach (Prime Minister equivalent) Bertie Ahern, who in his anti-immigration comment specifically mentioned people from the Congo.

*Another view of the initial crowd in front of Arnotts in Henry Street Dublin to support the vigil about the killing of Yves Sakila*. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

That is a man who used his Government positions to rip off the Irish people and was judged by the Mahon Tribunal to have lied during at least four sessions of the Tribunal from 2007 to 2008 about the purpose of substantial cash transactions during his time as Minister of Finance.

Gardaí were present at the vigil today but in the background. One Congolese man told the crowd he was an engineer and paid his taxes in Ireland. A few Congolese present were in Dublin Bus jackets, with a white-skinned man in the same uniform talking to them.

The crowd of both black and white-skinned people took up chants of No Violence! and Justice for Yves! Flowers were purchased from a street stall, brought to a nearby spot and attached to a lamppost. A group of African women led a chant in a circling dance around the spot.

One of the Congolese explained to me that the chant is a mourning one and, in reply to my comment about the keeners in our tradition, said that they also have women who come to funerals to perform that service; like ours, there are also stories, songs and laughter amid the mourning.

There were photo and video cameras much in evidence with individuals being interviewed but there was no mention of the vigil in Breaking News this afternoon. RTÉ News issued a reasonably full report while the Independent seemed to be slanting against the victim.²

Earlier today the Irish Network Against Racism (INAR) issued a statement expressing concern and its Director Shane O’Curry was quoted calling for a thorough investigation “in order to ensure minority ethnic community confidence in the criminal justice system.”³

While expressions of concern are welcome, one needs to ask why one should expect the minority ethnic community to have confidence in the Irish criminal justice system. Quite apart from their own experience of it, many in the host community themselves have no confidence at all in it.

A number of presumably Congolese called for further protests at the spot: Thursday at 1pm and Saturday also at 1pm, Thursday’s at least to be followed by a march to Leinster House, the seat of the Parliament of the Irish State.

IN CONCLUSION

From the video alone there are clear grounds for the charging of the security team with manslaughter.

An early inquiry should be held – not one sitting years down the road⁴ – to also produce recommendations on appropriate types of restraint by security guards and on what occasions.

But Arnotts, as the responsible employer of the security staff, also has tough questions to answer. According to RTÉ their management expressed regret at the death: at the very least, out of respect, Arnotts should have closed today rather than carrying on business as usual.⁵

end.

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FOOTNOTES

1Two years after the event.

2See Additional Sources section.

3 https://inar.ie/statement-on-the-death-of-mr-yves-sakila/

4See the two-year-long investigation in the Garda fatal shooting of George Nchenko.

5In the case of a fatality on a building site in England, closing that day out of respect was a minimum demand of the Construction Safety Campaign.

ADDITIONAL SOURCES

https://www.rte.ie/news/2026/0519/1574115-yves-sakila-death

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/crime/horrible-locals-on-death-of-man-after-alleged-shoplifting-incident-on-dublins-henry-street/a/151795866.html