Tag: Anti-imperialism

6,000 March to Commemorate Derry’s Bloody Sunday and in Solidarity with Palestine

On By rebelbreezeIn British imperialism, Civil Rights, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, History commemoration, Human Rights, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, Israeli Zionism, Massacres, National Liberation, Peace Process, Popular Resistance, Song, Song in StruggleLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 7 mins.)

Led by four Republican marching bands and containing a number of organisations, around 6,000 people supported the annual march in Derry on Sunday commemorating the 1972 massacre by the British Parachute Regiment in the city.

This year a special focus on solidarity with Palestine had been called for by the organisers of the Bloody Sunday massacre commemoration and Palestinian flags mixed with ones of Irish Republican organisations decorated the march route.

The march begins at the Creggan Heights, overlooking Derry, a steep walk up from the Bogside, the city’s centre near the river and winds its way down (with a great view of the Foyle river and surrounding area) but then up Westland Street again and along Marlborough Terrace.

Rear banner of the AIA contingent on the Bloody Sunday commemoration march Sunday. (Photo source: AIA)

For a number of years this commemoration has taken place in heavy rain and high winds, or snow, or sleet but it was dry this year – until the march started! However after a short period of strong gusts driving rain it stopped for the rest of the march.

Down Creggan Road to the Bogside once more and past the Bloody Sunday and H-Block memorials to the rally at Free Derry Corner where Kate Nash, one of the main organisers of the march for years and a sister of one of those murdered in the massacre, welcomed the marchers.

The Bloody Sunday 52nd commemoration march makes it way along Lone Moor Road towards the Brandywell on Sunday afternoon. (Photo: George Sweeney via Derry News.)

RALLY AND SPEAKERS

Nash condemned the punitive EU/ UK/ USA cutting of funds to the UNRWA organisation carrying out relief and educational work in Gaza following an Israeli State intelligence allegation1 and also called for no Irish politicians to attend the annual US Presidential St. Patrick’s Day event.2

Kate Nash’s brother Willie was murdered by the Parachute Regiment during the massacre and her father was wounded by fire while trying to reach his fallen son. Kate called for a minute’s silence for the dead and wounded that day but also for those in Gaza, in particular the children.

Kate Nash also mentioned the Noah Donohoe case as being close to everyone’s heart.

The names of the dead and wounded by the Parachute Regiment were read out by Damian Donaghy,3 son of Damian Donaghy one of the survivors on that day. Paddy Nash performed the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome” which was popular among marchers of the time.

Section of the rally to the right as facing Free Derry Corner with a mural based on an iconic photograph from the massacre. (Photo: D.Breatnach)

Kate Nash introduced Huda Ammori, a Manchester-based Palestinian activist and one of the Elbit Eight,4 who said she felt at home in Derry because of the people’s solidarity with Palestine.5 The State in Britain failed to convict all but one of any charges arising out of direct action against the arms company.

Ammori drew parallels between the Irish and Palestinian struggles against colonialism and stated that her grandfather had been assassinated for rising up against the British colonisation of Palestine in 1936, when it was a British “Mandate”.

Mural on a wall in the Bogside, Derry; the words “don Phalaistín” are obscured by a vehicle. (Photo: D.Breatnach)

AIA Short Video with Music Bloody Sunday Derry 2024 AIA Video.MP4 (viewable on FaceBook)

“The British signed away the land of Palestine in 1917,” Amori told the rally, “they colonised our lands and then they armed and trained the Zionist militia to commit a Nakba, to displace over 750,000 Palestinians in 1948, over half the indigenous population.”

Huda Ammori said weapons were used on Palestinians in Gaza and then marketed as ‘battle-tested’. She also praised those who had taken direct action in Derry against arms firms (e.g Raytheon).

Section of crowd gathering in front of the stage for the rally. (Photo: D.Breatnach)

Geraldine Doherty, niece of Gerard Donaghy, youngest of the Bloody Sunday victims, also spoke from the platform, saying it was ‘sad’ but ‘heartwarming’ to see so many people attending the march.

“More than half a century since British troops committed this massacre on these streets, innocent children like my murdered uncle Gerard and hundreds of others as well are still being denied justice”, she said and denounced the British State attempting to prevent the trial of legacy cases being tried.

Doherty spoke of the remaining “trauma for Derry and for Ireland” from which many families have never recovered, with long-term post-traumatic damage such as depression, addiction and divided families.

“But while the people of Derry were battered and imprisoned, we were never broken,” she said to cheers from the rally participants. “Derry has rediscovered its … voice and we are using that voice to oppose the murder of children and women and men, and we stand with the people of Palestine.”

Section of crowd to the left of the stage at the rally. (Photo: D.Breatnach)

ON THE MARCH

Over the years since I returned to Ireland, I have marched in that commemoration many times, either as an individual or as a member of a solidarity committee and this year was glad to be welcomed as part of the Socialist Republican contingent, with Anti-Imperialist Action.

The bloc carried two banners: the one at the front was a new one in which the AIA called for anti-imperialist revolution and socialism, while at the rear the banner celebrated the Palestinian resistance. In between the banners marchers carried flags and placards.

New banner of the AIA in the organisation’s contingent on the march on Sunday. (Photo: D.Breatnach)

In the bloc men and women marched with a flags of the AIA, the Starry Plough, Palestine and Cumann na mBan. From the contingent on many occasions could be heard slogans of solidarity with Palestine and some equally applicable to that nation’s resistance or to Ireland’s.

“In the face of occupation – Resistance is an obligation!” and “No justice – No peace!” were in the latter category while “From the River to the Sea – Palestine will be free!”, “Free, free – Palestine!” and “Saoirse don – Phalaistín!” were specifically supporting the Palestinian struggle.

Most Republican organisations and some Irish socialist organisations attend the annual event, along with campaign groups and on occasion solidarity groups from abroad or Irish ones in solidarity with struggles abroad. Sinn Féin no longer attends but some supporters would as individuals.

Giant Palestinian flag displayed below the Derry Walls above the rally below. (Photo: D.Breatnach)

THE MARCH ROUTE AND HISTORY

The Bloody Sunday march covers the same route as the anti-internment march in January 1972 when the British Paratroopers murdered 14 unarmed marchers and injured so many others. Preceded by the Ballymurphy Massacre in August 1971, it was followed by another in Springhill in July ‘72.

The British military claimed that the Derry victims had been armed and fired first and an inquiry tribunal headed by Lord Justice Widgery exonerated the Army and blamed the victims although the Derry Coroner, an ex-British Army officer had called it “sheer unadulterated murder”.

In 1998, presumably as part of the Good Friday Agreement deal, the British State began a new inquiry which however did not deliver a published verdict until 2010,6 stopping short of accusing the Army of murder but exonerating all the victims except one about which it was equivocal.

At that point, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness said that the march should not be continued; however not one British soldier had even been charged, to say nothing of the commanders and Government Ministers who had either given the orders or arranged the cover-up – or both.

Banner of the organisation combining representation of trade unions in Derry. (Photo: D.Breatnach)

A small group of veterans of the original march and relatives, Kate Nash prominent among them, however decided to keep the march going and have done so every year, often in the face of accusations and disparaging remarks from supporters of Sinn Féin and others.

In 2022, the Massacre’s 50th anniversary, 20,000 marched in it while the Bloody Sunday Trust, an institution and museum supported by the colonial state and Sinn Féin, organised a small “memorial walk” and indoors event in the Guild Hall – the only one reported by the mass media.7

An independent group, badly needed since the Coiste na nIarchimí is controlled by the Provisionals. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Display below Derry Walls created by the Saoradh Irish Republican organisation, according to their social media. (Photo: D.Breatnach)

Although veterans of the massacre and of the annual commemoration often meet one another only once a year at the commemoration, some having come from abroad, there are always new young people to be seen among them and hundreds come out to watch the march.

The march is an important commemoration of a massacre by British colonialism which still holds the colony of the Six Counties, a reminder no doubt inconvenient to unionists, neo-colonialists and those who have left the struggle, either through lack of will or for personal advancement.

In its championing and giving voice to other conflicts too, the commemoration march and other related events during the week are a strong expression of internationalist solidarity.

Wreath of the Bloody Sunday Commemoration Committee among others at the Bloody Sunday Monument. (Photo source: Bloody Sunday Commemoration Committee)

End.

FOOTNOTES

1The Israeli state intelligence agency reported that 12 out of 13,000 employees of UNRWA in Gaza had been implicated in the 7th October Palestinian raid following which at least some, possibly all, were sacked by UNRWA, apparently without any hearing or appeal process. The US, UK, Germany, Italy followed this up by suspending all funding to the relief organisation catering for 2 million people in dire circumstances. 

2Traditionally, leading politicians of the main Irish political parties, both mainstream and Sinn Féin, have sent representatives to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with US Presidents, many of whom are of Irish descent. This year a campaign has arisen calling on them not to do so but spokespersons of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin have insisted they will attend, which the SDLP has declared it will not. 

3Not to be confused with the family of Gerard V. Donaghy (20 February 1954 – 30 January 1972), sometimes transcribed as Gerald Donaghey, a native of the Bogside, Derry who was murdered by members of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment on Bloody Sunday.

4Eight activists of British-based Palestine Action, a direct action organisation, who as a result of their actions against the Israeli-based military technology company Elbit in Britain, were charged with a total of 12 charges which included criminal damage, burglary and encouraging criminal damage. The trial, which commenced on November 13th, related to a series of actions taken during the first 6 months of Palestine Action’s existence from July 2020 to January 2021. In December last year, one activist was convicted on one charge by 10-2 majority, two were completely cleared and jury failed to reach a majority verdict on the rest of the charges on six remaining activists.

5That would be true of the majority ‘nationalist’ population of the city but not so much of the unionist minority, where support for Israel is more dominant, due in part to susceptibility to British propaganda and also simply out of sectarian hostility to anything favoured by the ‘nationalist’ community.

6At a cost of nearly £200m (€227.7m), half of which went in legal fees, a lawyer’s bonanza, to arrive at a decision that just about everyone in Ireland knew and many abroad knew already and which established no safeguards against a similar massacre being carried out by British military in future.

7Browser searches throw up report after media report, including Al Jazeera’s, of “hundreds” attending the early event, without a mention of the many THOUSANDS who marched later in the day.

SOURCES

https://www.derryjournal.com/news/people/when-im-in-derry-i-feel-like-i-am-home-palestinian-activist-tells-bloody-sunday-rally-4496030

Elbit Eight trial and verdict: https://www.palestineaction.org/elbit-eight-verdicts/

The Saville Bloody Sunday Inquiry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_Inquiry

Cost of: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-30477561.html

IRISH SHAMROCK TO SOAK IN PALESTINIAN BLOOD?

On By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Genocide, History, Human Rights, Imperialism, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, irish history, Israeli Zionism, Massacres, Middle East, Palestine, Political Analysis, US Imperialism, ZionismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 10 mins.)

A call has gone out for Irish politicians, as part of pressure on the USA to stop supporting Israeli genocidal attacks on the Palestinians, not to attend friendship ceremonies with the President of the USA on St. Patrick’s Day this year.1

With the US Presidential election scheduled for September, “Genocide Joe” Biden will still be in office on March 17th, a man who apart from representing the major imperialist power in the world, ordered his state’s veto in the UN against a call for a humanitarian ceasefire.

A man who repeated ridiculous Zionist propaganda against the Palestinians of beheading children and rapes, who said that if Israel had not existed the US would have had to invent it, who received more Zionist lobby for his campaigns as Congressman than any other in the whole USA.2

Even without his personal history, after a US-supported slaughter so far of 25,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children and displacement of 85% of Palestinians, you’d think that this would be what UStaters call “a slam dunk”, that Irish politicians would feel too disgusted to make the trip.

Placard carried by a Palestine solidarity marcher in Dublin on 28 October. (Photo: D.Breatnach)

Sadly this revulsion is not felt among most politicians in Ireland, who from from Varadkar in the Government to Mary Lou MacDonald of Sinn Féin in the Opposition have indicated that they have no intention of foregoing this annual pilgrimage to the Boss of the World

What is this strange Irish obsession with the United States of America anyway? Yes, of course, it is a (or the) major world power and yes, a number of people of Irish antecedence have become its Presidents – including the first Roman Catholic to reach that office.3

But really, what has the US concretely done for Ireland? Did it send us troops to help drive the English from our land? No, the Spanish Kingdom did that once and the French did it twice, once as Kingdom and again as Republic. But the US? Never.

It might be protested that the USA permitted Irish to emigrate there but a) it did so for many others too and b) only in order to populate its European colonisation of the Indigenous land and c) to compete against other European colonial powers – in particular the Spanish, French and Dutch.

It is true that it has on occasion served as a haven for Irish ‘on the run’ from British jurisdiction but so did France and in any event, those cases were nearly always when the USA was at war or in diplomatic conflict with the United Kingdom in the USA’s own interests.

WHEN THE USA COULD HAVE REALLY HELPED THE IRISH STRUGGLE

When the US-based Fenians raised an army to invade British colonial Canada in 18664, they had hopes that the government of the US would at least not impede them. The British had supported the Confederacy in the American Civil War which had cost 650,000-800,000 lives.5

That number represented the highest number of US dead in any military conflict before that (or since), fought to eliminate slavery, which the UK had abolished 50 years earlier6 – yet it supported the Confederacy7 in a number of ways including building warships for them.

The charge of the Fenians (wearing green uniforms) under Colonel John O’Neill at the Battle of Ridgeway, near Niagara, Canada West, on June 2, 1866. In reality, the Fenians had their own green flags but wore a very mixed bag of Union and Confederate uniforms (if they still had them, or parts of them left over from the Civil War), or civilian garb, with strips of green as arm or hat bands to distinguish themselves. (library and archives canada, c-18737)

The USA closed the border with Canada and arrested Fenian war veterans under arms8 waiting to cross but only after (perhaps to make a point with the British) an advance Fenian force had already entered British Canada, seized Fort Erie and defeated British soldiers of the line and militia.

The US President, Andrew Johnson issued the border closure and arrest of Fenians by Executive Order on June 5th 1866, which was enforced under orders from General Ulysses Grant9 and put an end to the operation, as the US did to subsequent attempts.

The British subsequently paid $15.5 million in 1872 for damage caused by the British-built Confederate warship, the Alabama, after which both states entered into friendly relations.10

The USA did not support the Irish insurrection of 1916 nor the War of Independence. After WWI, while the victorious imperialists held their “Peace Conference” to discuss the new world order and re-divide up the world, US President Wilson declined to meet the Irish Republican delegation.11

The USA did not support the Irish in the War of Independence (1919-1921) nor support the Republican side in the Civil War (1922-1923). Nor again during the Border Campaign, nor during the Civil Rights Campaign followed by armed struggle (1968-1998).

In 1992, after a long legal and political battle, IRA Volunteer Joe Doherty, in the US since 1983 was finally extradited to the Six Counties despite a) the political nature of his charge and b) the well-known low proof standards of the political courts in the British colony.12

It is true of course that, in deference to the feelings of its large Irish-American population and their representation in the US polity, that it has permitted certain Irish solidarity activities on US soil and, at times, issued statements of concern over British actions in Ireland – but nothing more.

The Irish-American political representation is for the most part US first and Irish second, i.e US Imperialist first and foremost. Ireland is also used by US monopolies as a side door into the markets of the EU and, through registering head offices in Ireland, for avoiding taxes in the USA.

NEO-COLONIAL ASPIRANTS TO THE GOMBEEN CLUB

So what is all this US homage in the Irish official polity about — and in particular among Sinn Féin? How can leaders of the party correctly criticise the genocidal actions of the Israeli State and yet speak no word against the main backer of the zionist state, i.e the USA?

It’s a new SF – two of the party’s leaders, Mary Lou MacDonald and Michelle O’Neill, smiling in joint photo with the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces occupying part of Ireland (and engaged in imperialist actions elsewhere) and a hereditary monarch. (Photo cred.: Irish Times)

The answer is simply that the new SF, which was never overall socialist nor even particularly anti-imperialist throughout the Provisionals phase, is now neo-colonialist and knocking on the doors of the established gombeens,13 asking for admittance, which they are sure to receive in time.

They are not the first to make the transition from revolutionary Irish Republicans to gombeen party. Fianna Fáil, representing some of the leadership of the losing IRA side in the Irish Civil War, was an Irish ‘constitutional’ party and became the preferred choice of the gombeen ruling class.

Fianna Fáil has been in government more often than any other party in the history of the Irish State and is there now, sharing government with their former binary opposition party, Fine Gael, along with the Greens. The FF party too considered the friendship of the USA to be important.

For the SF party leadership however the US is important also based on their perception of it being a guarantor in the Irish pacification process. In their twisted reality, US imperialism is forcing British imperialism and colonialism to do – what?

Remove the British colonialists? Remove the sectarian colonial government? Stop the penetration of the Irish economy by foreign multinationals, including those of the USA?

Of course not and in the unlikely event that thoughts of doing so ever crossed the minds of US imperialists, they would discard them instantly in favour of the continued alliance with the imperialist UK as their junior partner.

NO SOAKING THE SHAMROCK IN PALESTINIAN BLOOD

Although there are many other complicit states, the USA is the major supporter of the Israeli State, financially, militarily and politically, using its position as one of the five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council to veto resolutions proposed against the Zionist state.

The Israeli State represents a western imperialist foothold for the USA in the Middle East, the only one that is entirely safe from either internal national liberation or fundamentalist islamist uprising and it has continued to support Israel throughout the state’s genocidal history.

The role of the US in this conflict is to defend and supply the Zionist state but also to manage client states in the region and around the world get them to support ‘Israel’ (or at least to limit their opposition to the state), alongside preventing or hampering assistance reaching the Palestinians.

Placard produced in support of the demand, seen on recent Palestine solidarity march in Dublin. (Photo: D.Breatnach)

Sinn Féin called recently for the Zionist Ambassador to be expelled from Ireland but initially, Mary Lou had declined to do so, saying it would not be helpful. She came under strong pressure from within the party’s membership and had to join the call for the person’s expulsion.

However, that’s easy to explain to Biden as the necessity of staying on top of a troublesome horse in order to bring it eventually under control. After all, the Government wasn’t going to expel the Ambassador, no matter what anybody said, was it?

There is a statement applicable here from the Christian Bible which has since become a proverb (if it was not already one at the time of writing), that “one cannot serve two masters”. One of the ‘masters’ is usually understood to mean money but that’s not what I mean here.14

The SF leadership cannot serve both Palestinian solidarity and US imperialism but there’s no danger of their even trying to do so – they know who their real master is. The Palestinian solidarity posturing is for their supporters and to show they can play their required role in the world.

Their President, Mary Lou did so when she offered the Irish pacification process as an example for the Palestinians15 and the whole of the SF leadership does so in supporting the imperialist “two-state solution” (sic) in which a colonial Palestinian state is to be set up under Israeli guns.

And on 40% or less of their original land, with the least water.

Neither the SF leadership nor the other politicians have any intention of missing the event in the USA in March when they offer their allegiance along with the symbolic tribute, the bowl of leaders’ shamrock which now, however, is soaked in Palestinian blood.

We should at least make it difficult for them by signing the petition and in other opportunities as may arise between now and that date.

End.

end.

Footnotes

1In three weeks, this has received 5,000 signatures so far https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern-ireland/petition-calling-for-white-house-st-patricks-day-boycott-surpasses-5k-signatures. The petition was originated I believe in Derry by PBP supporters and the IPSC has backed the call publishing their own statement on their media.

2“During his 36 years in the Senate, Biden was the chamber’s biggest recipient in history of donations from pro-Israeli groups, taking in $4.2 million, according to the Open Secrets database.” https://www.reuters.com/world/us/i-am-zionist-how-joe-bidens-lifelong-bond-with-israel-shapes-war-policy-2023-10-21/

3John F. Kennedy, elected in 1963. Biden, current US President has an Irish Catholic background and Obama and Reagan both had Irish antecedents.

4The Civil War ended that year and many Fenians were War veterans, mostly of the Union but with some of the Confederacy.

5https://www.history.com/news/american-civil-war-deaths

6https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/britain-slavery-abolition-act/

7https://www.military-history.org/feature/american-civil-war/it-was-british-arms-that-sustained-the-confederacy-during-the-american-civil-war-peter-tsouras.htm and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_and_the_American_Civil_War

8And many in US Army uniforms, for it was straight after the end of the American Civil War.

9https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2021/03/25/celebrating-irish-americans-the-fenian-brotherhood/ Grant’s mother and grandfather were from Co. Tyrone, as was Johnson’s grandfather. https://epicchq.com/story/us-presidents-with-irish-heritage/

10https://history.state.gov/milestones/1861-1865/alabama

11Or even to reply to their correspondence although interestingly he did reply to that of a young Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam in ‘French’ Indo-China (according to research presented in Dublin some years ago and noted by me)

12He had been a member of a unit in Belfast that killed a captain of an SAS undercover unit attempting to surround them.

13From the Irish language “gaimbíneachas”, a pejorative term describing the practice of those Irish with capital who took advantage of the hardships of the Great Hunger to appropriate land holdings and businesses, something similar to the disdained “carpetbaggers” in the defeated states of the American Confederacy. The term is now applied to Irish politicians and business people who facilitate foreign exploitation of Irish natural resources, labour, infrastructure and housing need.

14Although in that sense too the saying is applicable to the SF leadership.

15 https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41308273.html

Sources

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern-ireland/petition-calling-for-white-house-st-patricks-day-boycott-surpasses-5k-signatures-BXEYUDQHH5GDBHMUBJZOYRZNGE/

American Civil War viewpoints: It was British arms that sustained the Confederacy

Fenian invasion of Canada: https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2021/03/25/celebrating-irish-americans-the-fenian-brotherhood/

Petition: https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/boycott-st-patrick-s-day-celebrations-at-the-whitehouse-2024

CALLING FOR A CEASEFIRE IS WRONG – AND FOR “A PERMANENT CEASEFIRE” IS WORSE

On By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Gaeilge, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Language, Israeli Zionism, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Political AnalysisLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time article: 2 mins.)

Members and management of the Dublin Ladies Senior Football Team (Gaelic Athletic sport) made a courageous public stand in solidarity with Palestine on Saturday and called for a ceasefire.1 However, the call is misguided.

Their motivation and courage is admirable and they are not to be blamed for the error. On an IPSC Palestinian solidarity protest through Dublin’s Henry Street yesterday which spent some time outside Axa Insurance protesting, the ceasefire call was also being chanted.

Destruction of entire neighbourhoods in Gaza in October 2023 (Photo cred: Wafa)

When those who have leadership positions in the solidarity movement make incorrect calls many will follow. I have heard activists of a number of Left political parties making the same call on Palestine solidarity demonstrations and, before I thought about it, joined in myself.

WHY IT’S WRONG

What most people making the call want is probably to save the lives of the remaining Palestinians being subjected to genocide by the Israeli state but a ceasefire, by definition, is a temporary measure only. Even without the usual Israeli violations during it, they return to the bombing afterwards.

That is not, I believe, what most people want. So why not call for what we do really want, such as “Stop the bombing! Stop it now!” Or better still: “End the bombing – end it now!” We could follow that up with a longer-term slogan like “End the occupation – end it now!”

The other thing about a “ceasefire” call is that it ties in to imperialist and colonialist propaganda that this is a war “between two sides”, in which “the legitimate State of Israel” is one side and the “Hamas terrorists” are the other, instead of between a Zionist colony and the Palestinian people.

Along with that, the ceasefire call conveys the impression of two equal sides. The Zionist state is one of the most advanced military states in the world whereas the Palestinian guerrilla resistance has no air force, no navy, no artillery and no armoured war machines.

And “a ceasefire” is imposed on both antagonists. Are we really calling for restrictions to be imposed on whether or when the Palestinian resistance can decide to strike at their racist occupiers?That’s what makes the call for a “permanent ceasefire” worst of all.

Palestine solidarity demonstration in the USA in October 2023 (Photo: Justin Sullivan via Getty Images)

The Palestinian resistance may indeed agree to a ceasefire, as it did previously, for the exchange of prisoners and/or the allowing of safe passage of humanitarian supplies (the reason humanitarian agencies are calling for it); that is a tactical decision, as indeed it is also for the zionist State.

While we would not ordinarily oppose that kind of ceasefire that is up to the Palestinians to call for. For our part we should be calling not for Ceasefire Now, much less for Permanent Ceasefire Now but instead for End the Bombing Now and for an end to the Occupation.

End.

Footnote:

1Before their match they displayed a placard or banner calling for “Sos comhraic sa Phalaistín”, literally ‘a break or rest during conflict’ or, in other words, a ceasefire (not ‘a truce’, as translated by one of the tabloids, which is a related but separate concept). Their full statement (see Balls report) is well worth reading and though non-political, certainly puts our Government and the EU to shame.

Sources:

https://www.balls.ie/gaa/we-want-our-voices-to-be-heard-dublin-ladies-footballers-call-for-ceasefire-in-palestine-585128

https://www.breakingnews.ie/israel-hamas/death-toll-in-gaza-rises-above-25000-palestinian-officials-say-1577749.html

Opposition calls on Irish Government to join South African Case against Israeli genocide.

On By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Human Rights, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Israeli Zionism, Massacres, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Political AnalysisLeave a comment

News & Views No. 16        Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

The main political opposition parties in the Irish parliament have made a united call on the Irish Government, a Coalition of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Greens, to join in the genocide case against the Israeli state at the International Court of Justice.

The original case was opened recently by the South African government and the Israeli Government, to some surprise, indicated it would attend and defend itself. It is due to begin public hearing 11-12 January.

The Irish Opposition parties represented in the call on the Irish Government represent a cross-section politically: Sinn Féin, Social Democrats, the Irish Labour Party and People Before Profit. Other smaller parties have one TD1 and there are many Independent TDs of varying hues.

Accompanying the party representatives at a press conference were Frances Black, independent Senator who moved the Occupied Territories Bill to ban products from those regions, also Fatin al Tamimi, from Palestine and Chairperson of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Some of these parties have moved motions in Leinster House, home of the Irish Parliament, for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland. The Irish government successfully opposed that motion and also opposes joining the South African motion.

The motivation of the concerned party representatives may well mirror their own personal or political feelings, some more than others but it is undeniable that it reflect the feeling across most of Ireland (with the notable exception of Loyalist areas in the British colony).

That has been the general case for decades but has grown enormously since the Zionist State’s genocidal bombardment of Gaza. Every week has seen large marches, rallies and smaller pickets in solidarity with Palestine in Irish cities and towns.

The Department of Foreign Affairs’ main office was paint-bombed in red, the company leasing the Israeli Ambassador’s offices was occupied, as was a hotel bought with a loan from an Israeli bank and also Axa Insurance, the Embassy was briefly occupied and is regularly picketed.

MacDonald’s and Starbucks have also been picketed in various areas and supermarkets have seen regular protests over their sale of goods from the Zionist State. Drivers regularly beep their horns in support as they pass Palestinian solidarity demonstrations.

Photographed at the press conference announcing their joint call, from left to right: Senator Frances Black (Independent), Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Fatin al Tamimi (Chair IPSC), Matt Carthy (Sinn Féin), Gary Gannon (Progressive Democrats), Ivana Bacik (Labour Party). (Photo from: Breaking News report)

THE PARLIAMENTARY PARTIES SUPPORTING THE CALL

The number and pitch of the protests and the numbers involved have definitely pushed some of the parties forward in parliamentary action, in particular Sinn Féin, widely expected to form the next Irish government coalition (though with whom remains to be seen).

Though the party was quick to ride the earlier anti-Russian publicity and call for the Russian Ambassador’s expulsion, it initially balked at doing the same with regard to the Israel one; however it had to support the call in answer to popular opinion and no doubt within its own membership.

The position of the Social Democrats on the question has been surprisingly strong and it was their leader who moved the Ambassador expulsion motion in Leinster House.2 The Labour Party3 has not been generally vocal on the issue though supported the expulsion call.

People Before Profit4 has always had a strong pro-Palestine stand but one of its leading members and TDs5 also attacked the Palestinian incursion on October 7th. Later the party developed the slogan for demonstrations that “In the face of occupation, resistance is an obligation!”

The South African case of genocide against the Israeli State seems to be gaining some support but few governments have so far joined it, despite the Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium and others advocating its support. The EU itself has hardly blinked in its support for the Israeli State.

THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

The ICJ is an organ of the United Nations and, like the International Criminal Court, with which it is often confused, is based in the Hague, Netherlands. There have been criticisms of its effectiveness and its likelihood of bias according to the state origin of each Judge.

At this moment, the main benefit of the legal charge against is the Zionist state is of public opinion against its genocidal bombing but the ICJ can also impose interim restrictions. Whether the Israeli State will obey those or indeed accept an eventual ruling against it is another matter entirely.

The Israeli state’s founding philosophy of Zionism is a genocidal one as is also its very nature of a white European settler occupation of a land already occupied by indigenous populations. It is difficult to imagine how it can tolerate condemnation of its very essence.

Nevertheless, for the moment the case and increased support for it has publicity value. However, the solidarity movement cannot afford to relax on iota and in fact needs to up the pressure on the Zionist entity and all its supporters, be they states or corporations.

End.

Footnotes

1TD = Teachta Dála, elected Parliamentary representative.

2Her speech to the rally outside Leinster House the evening of the debate was more militant than Sinn Féin’s representative.

3The party, though founded by militant syndicalist Jim Larkin and revolutionary James Connolly, has been in coalition government a few times, mostly with the right-wing Fine Gael and was noted for attacks on the working class, despite its trade union support base.

4Like its namesake in Britain, it is mainly a version of the Irish iteration of the Socialist Workers’ Party, founded in the UK.

5Richard Boyd Barrett.

Reference

https://www.breakingnews.ie/israel-hamas/irish-opposition-calls-on-government-to-join-south-african-case-against-israel-1573295.html

https://www.thejournal.ie/varadkar-rules-out-joining-gaza-genocide-case-south-africa-israel-6266230-Jan2024/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/9/which-countries-back-south-africas-genocide-case-against-israel-at-icj

Criticism of ICJ: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jul/13/law.features11

LEGACY OF MANDELA AND THE ANC – A BROKEN SOCIETY

On By rebelbreezeIn Africa, Current Affairs Comment, Human Rights, Imperialism, Indigenous or Original People, Massacres, National Liberation, peace processes, Police Violence, Political Analysis, South Africa, Sud AfricaLeave a comment

News & Views No. 14   Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 6 mins.)

We need to be careful when elevating people from our ranks to the status of heroes – especially if they are alive and can renounce or betray the principles they originally fought for.1

And we have the right to be suspicious when those heroes are also acclaimed by the capitalists and imperialists, those who are certainly not our friends. But most of all, it is by their fruits that we can best evaluate people, whatever their past actions.

The society bequeathed after years of heroic struggle to the South African masses is broken. Housing and homelessness crisis,2 unemployment, poverty,3 prostitution, lack of medical care, inadequate sanitation and soaring crime, including violent crime – is not what the people fought for.

And this is occurring in a country rich in natural resources4 which are being extracted daily by imperialism, while the few on top — the earlier white settler bosses now joined by the corrupt black bourgeoisie – live in luxury.

(Image sourced: Research Gate)

CRIME & POLICING

Anton Koen, a former police officer who now runs a private security firm that specialises in tracking and recovering hijacked and stolen vehicles believes that “It’s not getting better, it is getting worse”, with the murder rate the highest it’s been in 20 years.

(Photo cred: AP)

In crime-ridden societies, the poor suffer the most and are of course also recruited into crime.

There were 27,494 killings in South Africa in the year to February 2023, compared with 16,213 in 2012-2013. South Africa’s homicide rate in 2022-2023 was 45 per 100,000 people, compared with a rate of 6.3 in the US and around one in most European countries.

Those who can afford it, hire private security, which is a booming business with South Africa’s security industry — one of the largest in the world, with more than 2.7 million registered private security officers registered in the country, according to the regulating agency, the PSIRA.5

“People with money make up a very small percentage of South Africa, said Chad Thomas, an organised crime expert who has worked more than 30 years in police work and now in private security.6

“That means that the vast majority of South Africans don’t really benefit from this security industry … If you live in a traditional township environment, or if you live in an informal settlement …7 security patrols in those areas are few and far between because they don’t have paying customers.”

Thomas, like many, ties the high levels of violent crime in South Africa to anger over the country’s deep problems of poverty.8

Private security companies are paid a monthly fee to patrol neighbourhoods and for providing armed response to their clients’ alarm systems. Tracking and car recovery can be part of the service, often resulting in getting involved in high-speed chases of car thieves and hijackers.

According to the PSIRA, the number of security businesses in South Africa grew by 43 per cent in the past decade, while the number of registered security officers has increased by 44 per cent. Meanwhile there are 150,000 police officers for the country’s 62 million people.

It is hardly surprising that the SA police force has difficulty in recruiting numbers. It is a force used to violently repress people9 and culpable in the worst massacre of working people in South Africa’s modern history, killing 40 striking miners over a couple of days.

That slaughter occurred in 2012 at the British-owned Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, when miners wished create a new union and to leave the National Union of Mineworkers which, they said, was more in favour of their employers than the workers.10

Cyril Ramaphosa, the millionaire ex-President of the NUM was widely suspected of having organised the massacre and he’s now President of the ANC and of the South African Government. At the time, Jacob Zuma was President, now in the process of being tried for financial corruption.

But Mandela was still alive and at liberty when the massacre occurred and did not condemn the atrocity nor those responsible. Long-time anti-apartheid campaigner (and Mandela’s friend) Bishop Tutu once famously commented that “The ANC stopped the gravy train – long enough to get on it.”11

IMPORTANT

Is it important whether this person or that were truly the heroes they are reputed to have been? I think it is, not only because we tend to erect them as models for our behaviour but also because their lives and their choices present us with historical lessons.

The South African regime during the struggle was a white European settler state and like all of those, undemocratic and racist too. The masses rose up several times against it but people did not risk beatings, torture, imprisonment and death merely for the right to vote.

The struggles were so strong and the minority settler regime so emphatically opposed to reforms that its imperialist partners felt it vulnerable to revolution. They eventually convinced the regime to enfranchise the majority black population.

But what if the black masses went on kick out the imperialists?

The change had to be managed and the leadership of the ANC, the NUM and the Communist Party of South Africa proved willing to control their supporters. However, something else was needed, as in similar circumstances: a known face, a hero, to be the figurehead before the masses.

Representative of USA, chief imperialist country and Nelson Mandela after latter’s release.

Mandela proved to be that man, not only for his long imprisonment for guerrilla action but because he had been tested among the political prisoners on Roben Island and was judged the most suitable, so he had been separated from the other political prisoners to a new jail for grooming.

Mandela, after a huge publicity buildup around the world, was released in 1990 and began a series of negotiations with the settler minority’s leadership. In 1994, with universal suffrage, Mandela was easily elected head of the ANC and of the new government of South Africa.

Of the wave of pacification processes that swept around the world starting in the very early 90s with Al Fatah in Palestine, the South African process turned out to be the only one that delivered any of the objectives of what was promised12 — and that was the vote for everyone.

But it had the potential beyond that gain: of national liberation, the possession of all its natural resources and of a progressive social order, a beacon for the rest of Africa. It was important for imperialism to prevent all that and, with the help of the leaders of the ANC, NUM and CPSA, they did so.

The immediate result was a drop even further in the standard of living of the masses and an increase in the rapacious grip of imperialism on the natural resources, while municipal services declined further and crime at the bottom took off, matching corruption at the top.

The broken society there now is the cumulative result and should serve as a lesson about pacification processes, negotiations during struggle and our choices of heroes – or those chosen for us.

End.

FOOTNOTES

1As we in Ireland can testify, with the lionisation of Michael Collins, for example, for his role in the War of Independence (1919-1921) but who, a little later, acted on behalf of the Irish colonial bourgeoisie and their British masters to launch the Civil War (1922-1923) to prevent the establishment of a 32-County Republic.

2https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/fire-engulfs-illegal-housing-block-killing-73-in-south-africa-4353926

3 As of 2023, around 18.2 million people in South Africa are living in extreme poverty, with the poverty threshold at1.90 U.S. dollars daily (see Statista in Sources & References).

4See Sources & References

5The Private Security Industry Regulatory Agency.

6https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/private-security-firms-fill-void-in-crime-riddled-south-africa-1572546.html

7Ibid.

8Ibid.

9For examples see series of articles in https://www.saferspaces.org.za/understand/entry/police-brutality-in-south-africa

10It was notable that those popular organisations deeply implicated in pacification processes either reported with great restraint on the massacre or failed, like the Left-Nationalist Basque trade union LAB, to comment on it at all (to say nothing of sending a solidarity message to the striking workers or denouncing the State).

11https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/anc-boards-the-gravy-train-john-carlin-in-johannesburg-on-the-underdogs-who-have-become-fat-cats-in-a-few-months-1379001.html

12For example Palestine, Ireland, the Basque Country, Turkish Kurdistan, Colombia, Sri Lanka …

SOURCES & REFERENCES

Crime and private security firms: https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/private-security-firms-fill-void-in-crime-riddled-south-africa-1572546.html

SA police: https://www.saferspaces.org.za/understand/entry/police-brutality-in-south-africa

SA Housing: https://rebelbreeze.com/2023/09/30/pacification-kills-too/

https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/fire-engulfs-illegal-housing-block-killing-73-in-south-africa-4353926

SA Poverty: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1263290/number-of-people-living-in-extreme-poverty-in-south-africa

Click to access 15%20Mineral%20Resources.pdf

ANC corruption: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/anc-boards-the-gravy-train-john-carlin-in-johannesburg-on-the-underdogs-who-have-become-fat-cats-in-a-few-months-1379001.html

BRITISH IMPERIALIST ESCAPES JUSTICE

On By rebelbreezeIn Assassination, British imperialism, Current Event Report, Ireland, Irish Republicanism, Mass Media Criticism, National Liberation, Political AnalysisLeave a comment

(from Anti-Imperialist Action Ireland)    (Reading time: 2 mins.)

Frank Kitson, a leading terrorist and General in the British Army, died today at the age of 97.

As the national liberation struggle of the Occupied 6 Counties began, Kitson was appointed as commander of British forces in Belfast in 1970. He organised “countergang” death squads such as the Military Reaction Force and the Force Research Unit.

These units bombed and randomly targeted innocent nationalists, attempting to place the blame on the IRA. He promoted infiltration of and psyops against the Republican movement. He emboldened and directed Loyalist death squads and deployed the Paras to massacre nationalists.

Kitson was a leading figure in the British counterinsurgency campaigns in Malysia and Kenya. It was here he developed his theories on how to crush national liberation and communist struggles.

He advocated for massive population control and terror to deprive struggles of support. He advocated for forming paramilitary groups that were free to terrorise and assassinate at will, as well as spread doubt among natives. He drew from these campaigns and deployed them in occupied Ireland.

As an advocate of psyops, Kitson used the mainstream media to spread malicious lies about the Republican movement, including absurd propaganda such as claiming that the IRA were found to be worshipping Satan.

Under his command and through his recommendations prisoners were tortured, civilians brutalised and countless were interned.

While Kitson was removed from his position in 1972, his theories and the framework he established in Belfast came to be adopted by the British imperialists in Ireland for decades.

Many of the terror strategies he developed are used in Ireland and in imperialist occupations around the world today as part of “low intensity operations”.

Frank Kitson was a crusader for Empire and he was well rewarded for his campaign of murder and terrorism. He also lauded by the British press and given countless awards.

It is shameful that he never faced the People’s Justice for his crimes. That this man was allowed to retire and live out his life in peace is a symptom of the deep sickness in British society. That this man dies with full honours shows that collusion, terror and murder were official British state policy in Ireland.

As the imperialists have developed their tactics and strategies, so have the people. No matter what new innovations in subversion, terror and brutality the enemy comes up with they will be overcome. The struggle of the Palestinian Resistance today has taught the imperialists that lesson once again.

The struggle for the All Ireland Republic continues despite the best efforts of British imperialism. One day soon the British Empire will be buried along with Frank Kitson.

THE PRINCIPLES AND PRICE OF UNITY

On By rebelbreezeIn Capitalism, Ireland, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, National Liberation, Political Analysis, Socialist RevolutionLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 5 mins.)

We often hear people talk of the need for unity in progressive and revolutionary movements, which is understandable since the movements are often weakened by divisions – in other words, by disunity.

We may often hear the plaintive cry from someone that “we all want the same thing so why don’t we all just unite”? Clearly the issue is more complicated than it seems at first glance; there are factors working in favour of disunity also.

It is clear that calls for unity alone have not achieved it and much less often do we hear any serious attempt to define the conditions for unity, its principles and the obstacles to overcome, nor at times, the pitfalls in unity for the revolutionary movement, for there are those too. 1

And it does not necessarily mean that if our organisations call for the same thing that what all actually want is the same. We know from experience the widely different meanings that are routinely understood by “democracy”, for example – or even “republic”.

(Image sourced: Internet)

Starting with practice

It has long seemed to me that not only the real test of unity but also its best starting point is in action. That can be in a joint decision to take some specific action (such as a picket or an occupation) or a range of actions but also in joining in an action or actions organised by others.

Not only is action the real test of the expressed desire for action but in the course of action unexpected problems and opportunities arise, posing further questions at the time and for discussion and reflection afterwards.

Practice shines a light on both the conscious intentions and the unconscious reactions to events of activists and organisations.

It is sometimes suggested that what we need is a conference of all those who are in struggle for an objective (or range of objectives), where we can hammer out an agreed statement of aims. I believe that stage should arise after those interested have taken joint action, not before.

For one thing, those who are not really interested in action can attend such a conference and play a disruptive or distracting role in the proceedings. Secondly, those who make great statements of desire for commitment to unity can only be tested in practice, so why not begin with that?

(Image sourced: Internet)

Practical rules

There are certain rules in united action that hardly need discussion but should be understood.

Each component organisation should promote the action either publicly or within close circles as agreed and maintain the agreed confidentiality both before and after the agreed action.

  1. Arrival and departure should be at place and time as agreed.
  2. No distracting event should be planned by any of the component organisations to take place in the vicinity or near the date of the agreed joint action.
  3. The choice of speakers should be agreed beforehand and adhered to.
  4. It is good practice for the action to be reviewed afterwards not only internally but jointly by the participants also, as far as is practicable, to agree on the lessons to be drawn and to be applied.
  5. Publicity before and reports afterwards should list the participating organisations and also mention the presence of independent activists.
  6. Criticism of participating organisations or of individual comrades of such should be taken up with the responsible organisations concerned through private channels before any response is publicised and careful thought given to alternatives and possible consequences of criticism in public.
  7. Revolutionaries should remember and constantly remind themselves that no matter how militant and ideologically correct an organisation may be thought to be, it is not infallible. Furthermore, it does not come at a value above that of the revolutionary and progressive movement.
  8. Consequently, it is not necessarily or always true that what benefits the party or organisation benefits the movement, nor will the reverse always be the case.

Explanation of or expansion on the above:

  1. Late arrival may disrupt the action planned or leave those who arrive on time unnecessarily exposed. On the other hand arrival too early so as to appear in photos or video to be the only ones participating is disrespectful and harmful to unity.
  2. It is not unknown for an organisation to plan its own publicised activity to take place a day or two before that agreed jointly with another organisation, thereby weakening the joint action, a shortsighted promotion of an organisation above the cause of revolutionary unity.
  3. This is often a difficult area in planning joint events as each organisation often wants its own representative speaking or an organisation may want an independent speaker or indeed may have reasons against a nominated speaker. 2
  4. If we do not review the action afterwards we are removing the possibility of learning positive and negative lessons from it.3 On the other hand, if we do not review jointly, we may draw different and even contradictory lessons from the experience.
  5. Listing the participating organisations and the presence of independent activists shares credit, which is good for unity.
  6. Premature publication of criticism will be poison to a united front.
  7. When an organisation takes an incorrect position as is practically unavoidable at some point, or fails to take a correct position that the situation calls for, the existence of those who can criticise it internally and externally is essential for the progress of the revolutionary movement.
  8. However, taking the party or organisation’s health as a measure of that of the movement overall is more likely to benefit the organisation’s leaders than that of the movement, something demonstrated time and again in history.

Possible negative aspects of united fronts

We can take it as read that the courses considered have not only possible positive outcomes (which is why we take them) but also possible negative ones, of which we should be aware and take into consideration, for example with a “Plan B” or with flexibility to adapt to the emerging situation.

  1. A partner organisation may fail to uphold its agreed contribution
  2. Having to consult others outside after internal discussion may delay intended actions
  3. Our plans may be intentionally or unintentionally (through bad security measures) betrayed
  4. An action or statement of a partner organisation may cause us embarrassment
  5. We may be exposed to greater attack by actions not agreed upon taken by a partner organisation or by lack of those upon which we agreed
  6. A part of the united front may attack us publicly or even physically, as has occurred a number of times in history.4
The start of the Irish Civil War/ Counterrevolution: Free State soldiers bombarding Republican stronghold in the Four Courts with British cannon under the orders of Michael Collins, 1922. The Republicans refused unity with the Free State government of a divided country under British dominion. (Image source: Internet)

In Conclusion

The enemies of the people, capitalism, colonialism and imperialism being everywhere strong,5 we need united fronts in order to succeed in overthrowing them. It is important for us to be aware that broad fronts are temporary and that unity is relative, so that we are prepared for eventualities.

For the creation of a broad front there needs to be agreement not only on objectives but also on the practical components, the principles and rules of operation. There may be an overall revolutionary united front but also smaller united fronts on disparate issues.6

Participation in a broad front does not necessarily entail agreement with all the people who are part of that front. We may join in a broad front (for example anti-imperialism) with one organisation that we may not find in another broad front (for example in demand of public housing).

Each component organisation or independent activist of the broad front needs to be able and permitted to retain a certain independence as a matter of democracy but also of diversity of experience in struggle from which we can all learn.

End.

FOOTNOTE

1All trends of the radical and revolutionary Left and a number of Irish Republican sources have written on the question of the formation of the broad front but I have refrained from quoting or listing them since, apart from difficulties of selection, I do not think it appropriate to do so in an article aimed at all elements that may combine in broad fronts. I would advise the reader to do their own research and not to rely on one source or even one tendency.

2The latter was the case for example with Hunger Strike commemorations in London when some political trends wanted a speaker from the Provisionals, which refused to speak at the event if the IRSP also had a speaker scheduled. More than one big planned event collapsed or was not repeated on that issue. Also an independent speaker may outline a position publicly to which a participating organisation may take severe exception.

3This is one of the purposes of exercises, not just the familiarisation of personnel with the practice. In a team in which I worked, the introduction of unannounced fire drills, particularly with an observer following the staff and noting factors, revealed unforeseen serious problems which we were then able to plan to overcome.

4The Communist Party of China had an alliance with the Chinese national movement which broke down twice, the first time resulting in the Shanghai Massacre of between 5,000-10,000 communists and leftists on 12th April 1927. In 1921, after two years of the War of Independence, the alliance of various forces in the Irish national liberation movement fractured and the national bourgeoisie and Catholic Church hierarchy opted for neo-colonial government and partition of Ireland, which in turn in 1922 led to civil war between the new State, supported by the UK, and the Republican forces, which ended in defeat for the latter in 1923.

5Relatively speaking, of course and only so long as they do not face the mobilised masses, resolutely led.

6In Ireland for example these might be for public housing, national independence, against military blocs, for revolutionary history commemoration, promotion of the language, against LGBT discrimination, for trade union democracy and against State restrictions, for urban or rural community planning needs, internationalist solidarity (at the moment particularly with the Palestinians), etc.

SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Breakdown of broad fronts between the Chinese nationalists of the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/whp-1750/xcabef9ed3fc7da7b:unit-8-end-of-empire-and-cold-war/xcabef9ed3fc7da7b:8-2-end-of-empire/a/chinese-communist-revolution-beta:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_massacre:

.

IF WE WANT TO HELP THE PALESTINIANS

On By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Genocide, Guerrilla Action, Imperialism, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, Israeli Zionism, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Peace Process, Political Analysis, Popular Resistance, Zionism5 Comments

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

If we truly want to help the Palestinians, we need to stop calling for a “ceasefire” and also stop calling for implementation of the “two state” option.

A ceasefire is a temporary measure agreed between or imposed on all the belligerents in an armed conflict and indeed the Irish word for it, sos comhraic, conveys that perfectly: “a break/ rest during conflict”.

The Israeli attack on Gaza is nothing like an armed conflict between two sides that are in any kind of balance: the Palestinians have no air force, no navy and only a guerrilla resistance. And overwhelmingly, in their thousands, it is Palestinian civilians who are being targeted.

Drawing of Palestinian fighter by political cartoonist Carlos Latuff (Image sourced: Internet)

Nor is there any question about the justice of competing claims: the Palestinians are the indigenous people on the land for centuries1 whilst the Israeli state is a European colonial occupation of Palestinian land, practicing genocide upon the indigenous people and backed by imperialism.

If what we want is to save lives, in particular civilian lives, we want the Israeli State to stop bombing the Palestinians by bombs and missiles, right? So surely the most accurate and least mixed messages demand would be “Stop the bombing! Now!”?

No ambivalence there at all.

But if we only want a temporary ceasefire so some food and medicine can be delivered to people who will be killed in the following days, well then “Ceasefire now!” is the one for us.

Or if we think the two sides are evenly balanced militarily, or we’re confused about whose cause is just and don’t necessarily think the Palestinians have the right to wage armed struggle against an armed occupier, well then “Ceasefire now!” by all means.

And if we think the Palestinians don’t have the right to resist invasion and occupation, then we can demand the contradictory “permanent ceasefire now” which is a binding on both the occupied and the occupier.2

Dozens killed in 1st November Israeli air attack on Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza. (Photo sourced: Internet). The camp had been hit four times before this from October 9th and was hit again on six different occasions afterwards in November, then another 11 separate times in December so far. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabalia_refugee_camp_airstrikes,_2023

So, as an endgame, what about the “two state option”? The rulers of most of the Middle Eastern Arab states support it, as do the leaders of the USA, China, UK and all the EU States.3 And so does the Al Fatah organisation, which runs the Palestinian Government.4

Well yes, but most Palestinians don’t! And at least a sizeable chunk of Israelis don’t either.5 It is the only “solution” being proposed by most commentators and is in complete contradiction to the only real solution, which is a unitary democratic state with right to return of Palestinian refugees.

“Well, that’s a non-starter!” we might be told. “The rulers of Israel will never agree to that. Nor will the rulers of the USA, UK and EU states.” The implication there is that they, rather than the Palestinians, are the ones who can set the red lines.

And if we outside Palestine promote this option, we are saying that colonial occupation and genocide is OK. Presumably the next step would be to condemn the “dissidents” who are “rejecting peace”, even though those “dissidents”, political and military, represent the majority view.

And we’d be saying that the Palestinians should be glad to accept less than 40% of their land, the worst of it with the least water and under Zionist guns forever.

It also happens to be unworkable, with the thousands of Zionist settlers who have “illegally” occupied the territory. But making much of that factor is a mistake since firstly it is not the point and secondly can give rise to pointless and unprincipled discussion about how to make it viable.6

But of course, this discussion is about slogans, which are important in pointing out direction. But they are also, as the Irish language origin of the word7 suggests, a call to action. And if we want to help Palestine, we must act – and continue in effective actions.

STOP THE BOMBING – NOW! END THE OCCUPATION – NOW!

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA – PALESTINE WILL BE FREE!

End.

FOOTNOTES

1The Palestinian population before the founding of the Zionist state, even with Zionist-organised immigration, was less that 10% Jewish, with smaller percentages of Christian etc, the vast majority Muslim. They were mostly Arab with smaller groups of Berber.

2Although as we have seen, no power currently on Earth is capable – or in cases of capability, such as the EU and USA, willing – to force the Israeli Zionists to stick to any agreement.

3And Varadkar, the Prime Minister of the Irish state, has been flogging that hard of late: https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/very-clear-majority-but-not-unanimity-in-eu-for-gaza-ceasefire-varadkar-1565330.html

4The most popular resistance organisations in Palestine were the secular ones, Al Fatah first and PFLP second. Al Fatah jumped at the ‘two state’ proposal which gave them, through the Palestine National Authority, their own government to run, funded by the EU and USA with greater opportunities for corruption. Their corruption and collusion with Israel was so pronounced that in the 2006 elections, Hamas got most votes and seats, ruling Gaza as a result but not the West Bank, despite their majority. There have been no elections since but funds are still flowing in to the PNA and Al Fatah.

5Most Israelis perhaps for different reasons than those of the Palestinians who reject it.

6Hence complicit politicians raising the issue of the “illegal settlers” in the West Bank (as though the other settlers are entitled), both to look like they are doing something, at least but also fundamentally to seem to make the two-state proposal viable.https://www.irishnews.com/news/ireland/martin-urges-tough-sanctions-on-extremist-west-bank-settlers-if-violence-goes-on-HUHM4I33YNOV5DPGX3V6VJIDOU/ and https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/spotlight/arid-41294251.html

7The word “slogan” is derived from slua-ghairm in the Irish language, i.e “call to the multitude/ crowd/ troop”.

SOURCES

Two-State proposal from Ireland: https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/very-clear-majority-but-not-unanimity-in-eu-for-gaza-ceasefire-varadkar-1565330.html

https://www.irishnews.com/news/ireland/martin-urges-tough-sanctions-on-extremist-west-bank-settlers-if-violence-goes-on-HUHM4I33YNOV5DPGX3V6VJIDOU/

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/spotlight/arid-41294251.html

Two-State proposal from Palestinians & Israelis: https://news.gallup.com/poll/512828/palestinians-lack-faith-biden-two-state-solution.aspx

Israelis have grown more skeptical of a two-state solution

European Complicity with Zionist Genocide

On By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Genocide, Human Rights, Imperialism, Indigenous or Original People, Israeli Zionism, Massacres, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh

(28/12/2023) (Reading time: 6 mins.)

It has been said that with one phone call from Joe Biden to Netanyahu the genocide in Gaza could be halted.

Comparisons have been made to Reagan doing just that with the Irgun terrorist, Menachem Begin, who was the Israeli Prime Minister during the siege of Beirut in 1982 or Obama in later years.

Little has been said of the European Union’s equal capacity to make a similar call and bring an end to the slaughter. The EU is not a minor player in the region, and Israel is as much dependent on the EU as it is on the USA, though in a slightly different manner.

From the start the EU decided to support Israel, come hell or high water, and hell it was to be, for the Palestinians. Ursula von der Leyen stated that Israel had the right to defend itself against what she termed terrorism and that “Europe stands with Israel”.1

Ursula von der Leyen, taken at a time when EU staffers complained about her bias in favour of Israel (Photo credit: EPA-EFE/JULIEN WARNAND)

A month later, as the gravity of Israeli plans were clear for all to see, she continued to talk about the Hamas attack on October 7th, much of which has now been proven to be false (there were no decapitated babies, many of the dead were Israeli military not civilians and furthermore Israel itself killed many of the civilians).

She made no condemnation of Israeli bombings of civilians. She and the EU still stood by Israel.2

But on October 20th 842 staffers at the EU signed a letter condemning her position and pointing out she was legitimising a war crime in Gaza, and pointed to her support for the blockade of food and water in Gaza.3

But Von der Leyen continued as before and still stands by Israel and its “right to self-defence”, despite the evidence that what Israel is engaged in, is genocide and multiple war crimes.

Some have made reference to the Nazi past of her family, and though interesting, it is not the reason for her support nor that of the EU, though it may affect the tone of her statements.

In evaluating her behaviour we should, of course, bear in mind her aristocratic and Nazi past, of which she is apparently very proud of and has made reference to.

But they are just anecdotes, others with a clean family tree have also supported Israel.

The reason why the EU supports Israel is one of naked self-interest. Like the USA, the EU has decided that Israel is also its very own Forward Operating Base to keep in check the Arab masses and ensure the flow of oil.

The EU was in a position to halt the genocide from the word go. Von der Leyen could have told Israel to back off and it would have. Without the EU, the Israeli economy collapses.

A ban on exporting to or importing from Israel would see the modern-day Babylon collapse overnight with little effect on Europe itself. Israel is the EU’s 25th largest trading partner, way behind Turkiye which is the EU’s sixth largest trading partner.

However, the reverse does not hold. The EU is a significant trading partner for Israel.

According to the European Commission’s Office in Israel (Von der Leyen & Co.) 31.9% of Israeli imports come from the EU and 25.6% of Israel’s exports go to the EU with total trade amounting to €46.8 billion in 2022.

Israeli imports of services amounted to €16.7 billion in 2021 with exports representing €9.8 billion. Further the EU invested €60.5 billion in 2021. Israel depends on the EU.4 One phone call is all it would have taken to put Netanyahu in his place and stop the genocide.

European complicity in the genocide is not limited to its economic role. Between 2012 and 2022, Israel received just over 5.4 billion US dollars in arms transfers, from three sources. Unsurprisingly, the USA was the primary supplier.

But Germany supplied Israel with $1.475 billion and Italy supplied a further $261 million. In the same period, Israel exported $7.458 billion to a range of countries, including the UK, bastions of democracy such as Azerbaijan ($854 million), Turkiye ($60 million).

But by far the biggest recipient was India which received $2.879 billion.5

The type of weaponry received is important. Israel received $2.734 billion in aircraft, $609 million in armoured vehicles, $752 million in missiles, just the type of weaponry it has used to reduce Gaza to rubble and carry out its genocide.

Israeli Merkava 4 tank in exercise on occupied ground in the Golan Heights 2016; it and other armoured vehicles carry German engines, according to arms watch organisation SIPRI which believes them to be in operation in Gaza now. (Photo: Ariel Schalit/AP)

All of those regimes who supplied Israel with weaponry are as guilty as the Israelis. After Operation Cast Lead (December 2008 – January 2009) it was obvious what type of regime held sway in Tel Aviv.

They have repeated this type of operation on many occasions since then, with major interventions and also a number of smaller, though still deadly attacks.

The nature of the Zionist regime was laid bare to the world, and yet the EU continued to export the type of weapons needed to carry out a genocide.

The nature of the Zionist regime was laid bare to the world, and yet the EU continued to export the type of weapons needed to carry out a genocide.

Hopefully, some day in the future we can hold a Nuremberg-style tribunal to judge those responsible. The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, places obligations on states and gives them the authority to try people for the crime of Genocide.6

To be clear about what genocide is, the convention to which most states are signatories defines it in Article II as:

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.7

Israel was one of the first signatories to it and has made no reservations on any aspect of it, unlike the USA which has placed some caveats on its jurisdiction in relation to the USA.8

Photo of Nuremberg defendants during the Nuremberg Trials. Will there one day be such a tribunal sitting on the Israeli war criminals and their international accomplices? (Photo sourced: Internet)

Following WWII not only were the Nazis tried at Nuremberg, other Nazis were tried by individual states in the subsequent years. Countries such as France, Germany, Israel, Norway and others brought Nazis to trial after the Nuremberg Trials.

In Hungary alone, around 26,000 people were tried for treason, war crimes and crimes against humanity. In Czechoslovakia around 32,000 people met a similar fate. Some 100,000 Germans and Austrians were tried in Western Europe and in the Soviet Union another 26,000 were also tried.9

Any nation can place those accused of genocide on trial. To date it has been a question of power. The US won the war in the East and so were not charged for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Nearly all those tried for crimes against humanity have been on the losing side of a conflict in which the US and Europe wished to punish one side.

It is entirely conceivable that the powers that make up the BRICS10 could detain war criminals and place them on trial in a national or supranational court convened by them. It is possible though unlikely.

It is however necessary. International law is dead, buried under the rubble of churches, mosques and hospitals in Gaza.

Netanyahu and the entire High Command of the IDF should stand trial like Göring and others did and should face the same consequences as Eichmann who the Israelis tried and executed by hanging.

Ten top ranking Nazis were executed, with Göring committing suicide the night before his scheduled execution. Others should meet another fate as did those lower ranking Nazis in subsequent trials. Various EU leaders should also be tried.

Von der Leyen is a key case and should meet the fate her Nazis family escaped from. Keir Starmer, Macron, Merkel, Rushi Sunak and others should all be put on trial and at the very least imprisoned. Europe is as much to blame for the current genocide as the USA and Israel itself.

NOTES:

1 Press communiqué (13/10/2023) Statement by President von der Leyen with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/STATEMENT_23_4986

2 Von der Leyen, U. (09/11/2023) Speech by President von der Leyen at the International Humanitarian Conference for the Civilian Population in Gaza https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/news/speech-president-von-der-leyen-international-humanitarian-conference-civilian-population-gaza-2023-11-09_en

3 Irish Times (20/10/2023) EU staff members express fury over von der Leyen stance on Israel-Hamas conflict. Naomi O’Leary. https://www.irishtimes.com/world/middle-east/2023/10/20/eu-staff-members-express-fury-over-von-der-leyen-stance-on-israel-hamas-conflict/

4 Figures taken from the European Commission’s page https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/eu-trade-relationships-country-and-region/countries-and-regions/israel_en

5 Figures taken from https://www.sipri.org

6 See Article IV Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.
Article V
The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention, and, in particular, to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III.
Article VIII
Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III.

7 See Convention at https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/genocide-conv-1948?activeTab=undefined

8 See https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/genocide-conv-1948/state-parties?activeTab=default

9 See Postwar trials and denazification https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/survival-and-legacy/postwar-trials-and-denazification/

10 For information on BRICS see https://infobrics.org

The Role of the Vichy Palestinian Authority

On By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Imperialism, Indigenous or Original People, Israeli Zionism, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis, Popular Resistance, US Imperialism1 Comment

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh

19 December 2023

The German Nazis invaded France during the Second World War, however, they did not occupy all of France, opting instead to leave a part of it in the hands of collaborationist government with its administrative centre in the city of Vichy.

This government, under the command of Marshall Petain, a French first world war hero, collaborated closely with the Nazis, repressing the French resistance and deporting Jews to the camps.

Marshal Philippe Pétain (left) with Adolf Hitler in Montoire-sur-le-Loir, France, October 1940. (Photo cred: Roger Viollet/Getty Images)

In addition, freeing up German troops to fight the war by taking over the daily work of occupation. Nowadays, the term Vichy is synonymous with “collaborator with an occupation”, betrayal and surrender.

Although the phrase originated in the context of the Nazi occupation of France, it can be applied to many conflicts following the second World War.

The Palestinian Authority government has a lot in common with Vichy. Following the Oslo Accords the PA took over the repression of the more coherent and revolutionary factions, just as Marshal Pétain had done in Vichy.

It also freed up Zionist troops and police forces from the daily work of occupation and collaborates closely with the fascist regime in Tel Aviv.

Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State and Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, on Blinken’s recent visit to ‘Israel’ during the Israeli genocidal bombing. (Photo sourced: Internet)

Over the years this government has bent the knee time and again to the Israelis, sometimes begging the Western powers to intervene on issues such as settlements in the West Bank. At no point has it led a struggle against the Zionists.

In fact, it presents itself as the reasonable representative with whom negotiations can happen and agreements reached.

Now Israel commits endless war crimes in Gaza and is carrying out a genocide in Gaza against the Palestinians.

It aims to wipe Palestinians off the map, expel them from Gaza and also the West Bank, take control over sacred sites, such as the Al Aqsa Mosque destroy it and build their own temple in its place.

And what does the Vichy regime do in the face of such crimes? Little. It sticks to begging the West to put an end to the barbarity, ignoring that these same powers have always supported Israel, politically, militarily and economically.

It does have other options, but they require them declaring war on the Zionist regime and calling on the Arab masses to unite. Such a revolutionary option fills them with fear and they prefer to continue to collaborate with the fascist regime of Tel Aviv.

It could also ask the reactionary Arab regimes for help. But it hasn’t placed the first demand on those governments. First it could demand the expulsion of the Israeli ambassadors and to break all diplomatic and commercial relations with the regime.

Arab states & ‘Israel’, Middle East (Image sourced: Internet)

But it hasn’t done so, nor will it. The Houthi rebels who have been fighting against one of the most reactionary Arab regimes for eight years, namely Saudi Arabia have done more in a few days to strike a blow against the economy of the Zionist regime.

In a short period, the Houthis have attacked at least 12 commercial ships in the Red Sea, according to Yankee military sources. Their attacks have reduced the flow of trade through the sea and Suez Canal.

Four of the five big shipping companies, Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, CMA CGN Group & Evergreen have suspended shipments through the Red Sea(1) and the company OOCL announced that it would not accept shipments to or from Israel.

And the cost of transport had gone up from USD $1,975 to $2,300 within a few days.(2)

Meanwhile Vichy has done nothing. The Arab regimes have made no demands against Israel and the oil flows not only to Israel but also Great Britain and the USA. Without the Vichy regime, Israel would have had greater problems in the region.

Not only should the Zionist regime fall, but also the Arab regimes and the Vichy government of Palestine. They are all, in their own way, responsible for the genocide in ´Gaza.

Notes

(1) CNN (19/12/2023) Who are the Houtis and why are they attacking ships in the Red Sea? Christian Edwards. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/19/middleeast/red-sea-crisis-explainer-houthi-yemen-israel-intl/index.html

(2) Reuters (18/12/2023) Israel shipping costs rising as lines pull out and Red Sea attacks worsen. Jonathan Saul. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-shipping-costs-rising-lines-pull-out-red-sea-attacks-worsen-2023-12-18/