Dunnes Stores, South Africa, Gaza: A Tale of Two Boycotts

On March 5, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, History, Human Rights, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Left, Israeli Zionism, Palestine, Political Analysis, Sud Africa, Trade unionsLeave a comment

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh

29 February 2024

Anti-apartheid activist Nimrod Sejake with some of the Dunnes Stores striker.

Reference has been made on a number of occasions to the heroic actions of the Dunnes Stores Anti-Apartheid strikers in 1984 who spent nigh on three years on strike because they refused to handle South African merchandise.

It has been pointed to as a success story for boycotts and one to emulate. The real story of the strike points to the difficulties we now face in implementing a real boycott of Israel.

I used to go down to the picket line at the Dunnes branch in Henry Street every Wednesday, as we had a half day at school and on Saturdays when there was no school and then more regularly once I had sat my Leaving Cert exam and was, like many young people in 1980s Ireland, unemployed.

So, I recently bought a copy of Mary Manning’s autobiographical account of the strike, Striking Back: The Untold Story of an Anti-Apartheid Striker (Collins Press).

The book brought to mind many of the instances and difficulties that they faced and it raises many questions for those who wish to point to them as an example to follow.

The strikers were implementing a trade union resolution, and at first knew little of the reality of South Africa, something they corrected relatively quickly, thanks in no small part to a South African exile, Nimrod Sejake, who turned up to join them on the picket line.

Sejake was an activist who had been arrested as part of the infamous Treason Trial. Mary Manning is full of praise for Nimrod and rightly so.

Others do not come out so well and it is worth remembering the reality of that strike as it tells us some of the things that need to happen if we want to see similar action in relation to Israel.

The first thing that jumps out of the pages, early on, is that the trade bureaucracy did not give them any support and even their own trade union, IDATU (now called Mandate) was very reluctant to support them.

What support they got was down to their official Brendan Archbold who was a stalwart in supporting them and the then head of the union John Mitchell. At every twist and turn they had to fight the executive of IDATU, whilst the rest of the trade union movement ran for cover.

There will be no similar type of action around the Zionists unless it is put to the bureaucracy and they are challenged over their inaction in the midst of a genocide.

Karen Gearon, the shop steward at Dunnes Store made a call at the National March in Dublin on February 17th for the trade union movement to stop talking and take action. It is not something that has been seriously echoed by others.

Neither People Before Profit TDs or the IPSC have ever made a clear call for action from the trade union movement. It should be a central part of any boycott movement now.

It is all well and good picketing Starbucks, but stopping the importation of Israeli goods would be more important and will only happen if the bureaucracy is pushed to it. The history of PbP is one of cowering in the shadow of the bureaucrats and never putting it up to them on any issue.

They frequently share polite platforms with the bureaucrats and never challenge them. Their calls, when made are generic and are in passing. Their website and the IPSC site is limited to a consumer boycott with calls for the government, not workers, to take action.

I was also reminded by the book how the great and good in Irish society stood by whilst these workers were on strike. The Minister for Labour at the time was Ruairí Quinn, a member of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement (IAAM) and yet he did nothing.

He was not the only mealy-mouthed figure in Irish society, nor indeed in the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement.

The head of the Catholic Bishops Aid Agency, Trócaire, Bishop Eamon Casey privately wrote to IDATU early on describing the strike as ‘economically harmful to the already impoverished Black South Africans.’

The strikers’ request for support from the Catholic Church was described as impertinent and just in case anyone doubted how he saw himself, he was of the view that both he and Trócaire should have been consulted before the strike took place.

Their currency now is much devalued in Ireland but there are others like them who also think they have a veto on decisions.

He was later forced to publicly back the strike having been embarrassed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s decision to present two strikers to the world at his London press conference en route to pick up his Nobel Peace Prize.

Though that took a while and meantime nuns proudly scabbed and crossed the picket line. Casey’s attempts at sabotage and his later hypocrisy in belatedly supporting the strike, should not be forgotten.

At the time he was seen as a moral guardian, his plundering of church funds to keep his lover and his child comfortable was not known.

There are lots of other figures like him around now, who we might expect to support workers implementing a boycott, but might not when faced with the reality of it.

Another figure who comes out badly in it is Kader Asmal, the head of the IAAM. After three months of strike action, he met with John Mitchell and Brendan Archbold and told them to call off the strike, that it had served its purpose and that he was pulling his support.

When Desmond Tutu invited the strikers to South Africa he privately told them he would not support them going as it was a breach of the cultural boycott of South Africa.

Their trip to the country and the refusal of the Apartheid regime to let them in along with their detention at the airport was a pivotal moment in the strike.

Upon their return to Ireland, Asmal was one of the people to rush to the airport and give interviews and bask in the glory, as his position opposing the trip was never made public. He comes across very badly in the book.

I recall him asking me for information on South African goods coming through the port where I had begun working and Brendan Archbold telling me not to trust him, that he was a sleiveen and would hang me out to dry. He was, and like him there are others just like that on the issue of Gaza.

The contrast with Nimrod Sejake could not have been greater.

Sejake was a working class militant who suffered greatly and enjoyed none of the middle class trappings of Kader Asmal’s life in Ireland and unlike Asmal he had never crossed a picket line, something Asmal did in Trinity College where he worked, scabbing during a strike there.

There are Palestinian equivalents to Asmal and also to Sejake. The IPSC pretends otherwise.

So, what are the lessons of the Dunnes Stores strike?

One is that it wasn’t just a consumer boycott, it was a workers’ boycott and they were left high and dry by many of those who would have been expected to support them.

If we are going to call for workers action, various people and bodies need to be challenged and would have to commit themselves publicly to it. So far this is absent. PbP and the IPSC are not putting it up to any of the institutions.

View of the protest outside Axa Insurance 14 December 2023 while others inside carried out a protest sit-in. (Photo: D.Breatnach)

In fact, the UNITE union complained about a sit-in at Axa Insurance company saying it was harmful to the workers. The sit-in was not organised by the IPSC but by CATU and Dublin for Gaza.

It turns out that UNITE is a bit like IDATU.

The union has also passed resolutions supporting the campaign of BDS and yet “according to union insiders, Axa is Unite’s insurer in Ireland – and Unite’s designated provider of hotel accommodation is the Leonardo hotel group, which is part-owned by the Israeli Fattal group.”(1)

UNITE members taking action would most likely be shunned by their own union. Just like the head of the IAAM, Kader Asmal had tried to undermine the Dunnes Stores strike, there are those in the IPSC who would run for the hills were workers to take action against Israel.

So, we do need to emulate the Dunnes Stores strikers, but we need to be clear about the challenges and the opposition we would face from the trade union movement itself, the Catholic Church (they never went away either) and sectors of the IPSC.

It is time for action, but it is also high time that both PbP and the IPSC made clear calls for action and workers are not left hung out to dry, should they take action.

Notes

(1)Skwakbox (15/12/2023) Outrage builds over Unite’s use of Israel-linked firms as protestors occupy Axa Dublin office
https://skwawkbox.org/2023/12/15/outrage-builds-over-unites-use-of-israel-linked-firms-as-protesters-occupy-axa-dublin-office/

DUBLIN POLITICAL PRISONERS’ PICKET REFUTES MINISTER’S LIE

On February 28, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn British imperialism, Civil Rights, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, History, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, National Liberation, Political Analysis, Political PrisonersLeave a comment

Clive Sulish

(Reading time: 2 mins.)

On Tuesday evening in one of Dublin city centre’s high-end shopping street picketers refuted colonial Minister for ‘Justice’ Naomi Long’s lie that “There are no political prisoners in Northern Ireland” (sic – she means the Six-County colony).

The Ireland Anti-Internment Campaign came on to the street to highlight that yes indeed, there ARE political prisoners in Ireland – over two score between both sides of the Border. And that furthermore, they are convicted in special political no-jury judicial processes.

View of the picket and the IAIC banner in Henry Street on Tuesday (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

The IAIC states that these judicial processes are called the “Diplock Court” in the occupied Six Counties and the “Special Criminal Courts” in the Irish state and were “specifically created in both cases for the easy conviction and jailing of Irish Republicans.”

The SCC has been labelled “a sentencing tribunal” rather than a court of law by human rights campaigners. IAIC states that the Diplock Court is “now being administered by former Republicans while the SCCs have now, after years of opposition, been approved by those same people.”

View of placards on the IAIC banner in Henry Street on Tuesday (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

However, as accused before these courts are also regularly refused bail, IAIC points out they are also effectively administrators of internment without trial, jailing activists for around two years before judicial process. If bail is granted, it is always under severe conditions preventing political activity.

The IAIC, an independent group campaigning for ten years, was supported in their picket yesterday by Irish Republicans and Socialists including from the Anti-Imperialist Action and Saoirse Don Phalaistín groups, in addition to some independent activists.

Although Henry Street is a high-end shopping street of Dublin city centre, lots of working class people use it also.

A member distributes leaflets to passers-by near the picket in Henry Street on Tuesday (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

Over 100 leaflets were distributed and a number of people stopped to discuss the issues. Some queried the mix of flags flown (Irish Starry Plough, Palestinian and Basque) and participants explained that these represented some of the struggles where repression has taken prisoners.

“We thought it particularly important to refute the colonial Minister’s lie today,” commented a spokesperson for the IAIC “and we’re glad for the support we received on the picket line and from interested people on the street. We hope to do it more often this year.”

“Internment continues in Ireland, just on a different scale and more selectively than for example in the Six Counties in the 1980s”, continued the spokesperson.

The IAIC states that it is “an independent campaigning group run on a participative democratic basis” and that it “welcomes democratic people” on their pickets. The Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063166633467 is their usual public outlet for notification of events and highlighting of related issues.

End.

IRELAND IN RUGBY – AND PALESTINE!

On February 25, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn Cultural Comment, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Human Rights, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, irish history, Israeli Zionism, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, social commentary, SongLeave a comment

Clive Sulish

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

Thousands on Saturday (24^th) witnessed Palestine supporters demonstrating outside the Israeli Embassy in Dublin’s Ballsbridge, their reactions for the most part ranging from neutral to applause, some having their photos taken alongside the picketers.

On this Saturday there was no Palestine solidarity march in Dublin and some instead attended a picket of the Zionist Embassy.

There were also a handful of hostile provocative reactions, ranging from mention of “the hostages” to cheering “Israel” and one who tried to make an issue of Jewishness but was firmly told that opposition to Zionism has nothing to do with anti-semitism.

*Palestinian solidarity flag displaying designed by Brazilian political cartoonist Carlos Latuf during an earlier attack by the Zionist State on Palestinians.* *The building housing the Israeli Embassy is in the background.* (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

Those who mention “the hostages” refer only to the 130 or so prisoners taken by the Palestinian resistance in their operation of October 7^th, never to the thousands of civilians, including children, taken prisoner by the Zionist state and, if judicially processed, tried in Israeli military courts.

Initially the crowds leaving the Rugby game between the Irish and Welsh teams, seemed neutral as they passed the picketers but gradually grew warmer.

The handful of passersby who expressed support for the Zionist state were militantly denounced by the picketers as “Genocide supporters” but much more common from the crowds were signs of approval such as applause, thumbs-up and occasional cheers and clenched-fist gestures.

A few in the crowd also shook hands with or gave a fist-bump to a demonstrator and some also thanked the picketers.

Some asked to have their photos taken alongside a picketer, one also waving a borrowed Palestinian flag. A woman approached one of the demonstrators, removed her Ireland rugby colours scarf and wrapped it around the picketer’s neck, saying “We support you” before walking away.

*One of the Palestine solidarity picketers wearing the Irish rugby colours scarf with which he was presented by one of the Irish team’s fans returning from the game.* (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

The nearly non-stop chants of the picketers, led by a young man of Middle Eastern appearance in a keffiyeh were directed at solidarity with the Palestinians and denunciation of the Israeli State, including calls for boycott and sanctions and the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador.

One of the female demonstrators, a regular at the site, is garbed in white “blood-stained shroud.” At least half the picketers appeared Irish by appearance and accent. A majority were female, which seems to be the pattern in pickets, rallies and marches in solidarity with Palestine.

The thousands who passed the picketers were in contrast to the earlier near-deserted Shelbourne Road, as the Gardaí had closed the road to vehicular traffic in the vicinity of the Aviva Stadium where the Ireland rugby team was playing the Welsh one.

*A fragment of the rugby fans leaving the Aviva Stadium after the game and passing the picketers.* (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

The Israeli Embassy moved in 2019 to its current location on the fifth floor of a multiple-business-occupied building at 23 Shelbourne Road. Formerly the zionist embassy occupied an upper floor at Carrisbrook House, Northumberland Road, with every other floor unoccupied.

Some of the occupants of the current building, which is protected by a Garda presence, have reportedly asked their landlord to remove the Embassy but the request was denied.

When Gardaí reopened the road a senior Garda officer directed the demonstrators, ‘for their safety’, to remove from the road in front of the Embassy building to the side. However, it is the Gardaí who have barricaded off the entire section of pedestrian pavement in front of the building.

It seems likely that this will become an issue at some point in the future.

*The scene outside the Israeli Embassy in Dublin shortly before the commencement of the protest, showing the pedestrian footpath completely fenced off by Garda barricades.* (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

THE RUGBY

The Irish team beat the Welsh one 31-7 on Saturday. The Irish rugby team is a 32-County team, unlike soccer, where the Irish state and the colony each has their own ‘national’ team and are obliged to compete against one another internationally.

However, the song played for the Irish rugby team is the anodyne Ireland’s Call and not Amhrán na bhFiann/ The Soldiers Song, which is played for the Irish soccer team and in Gaelic Athletic games.

Rugby has gained in wider popularity in Ireland in recent decades but formerly in most parts of Ireland was considered a game for Anglophiles or “West Brits”.

Also, with the exception of Limerick, socially a game of the upper middle class, being played in Anglican colleges and in Catholic colleges of the English public school model.

Until the advent of the now-defunct Irish Press(1931-1995), neither of the main national newspapers, The Irish Times nor The Irish Independent reported on Gaelic Athletic Association games, reporting instead on the minority rugby, hockey and cricket matches.

End.

DUBLIN STREETS RESOUND WITH “FREE PALESTINE!” AND AWASH IN PALESTINIAN NATIONAL COLOURS

On February 19, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Gaeilge, Human Rights, Imperialism, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Language, Irish Left, Israeli Zionism, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis, ZionismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 5 mins.)

On a day when the Israeli military killed another 83 Palestinians, to bring the state’s death-tally since October 8^th to almost 29,000¹ known dead and thousands injured and missing,²over 50,000 people marched in solidarity through Dublin city centre.

The Israeli military is killing, on average, a Palestinian child every ten minutes.

*Section of Mothers Against Genocide Ireland marching with bundles simulating children killed by Israel* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The national demonstration was convened by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity campaign and, though people came from all over the country and from many organisations, the numbers did not seem to quite match their last national demonstration, believed attended by 100,000.

As they marched from the Garden of Remembrance, the usual slogans were prompted and taken up in chanting responses: 1, 2, 3, 4 – Occupation no more! 5, 6, 7, 8 – Israel is a terrorist state!³ Gaza, Gaza, don’t you cry – Palestine will never die! Free, free – Palestine!

Taking over 20 minutes to pass through the north city centre’s O’Connell Street, they marched over O’Connell Bridge into D’Olier Street, through College Green and right into Dame Street, constantly chanting out the slogans⁴ of solidarity to which, by now, thousands have become accustomed.

From the River to the Sea – Palestine will be free! In our thousands and our millions – we are all Palestinians! Netanyahu (also Joe Biden, Western Powers etc) what do you say? – How many kids did you kill today? Zionist Ambassador – Out, out, out!

In some sections could also be heard: There is only one solution – Intifada revolution! Irish Government (also Western powers, USA), you can’t hide – You’re supporting genocide!

*Section of the march about half-way through O’Connell Street, looking northwards.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

*Section of the march about half-way through O’Connell Street, viewing southward.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The Irish Government, the EU and the Genocidal Israeli State

Among EU states, the leaders of the Irish Government have been the most pressing on the EU to call for a ceasefire and have now teamed up with the Spanish state’s current government leadership to press the EU to revise its preferential trade agreement with the Israeli State.

They are not likely to succeed since Germany and France have led the strident pro-Israel position of the EU, rejecting even a call for a humanitarian pause to deliver food, fuel and shelter to starving Palestinian refugees or any attempt to restrain the Zionists’ leaders from their genocidal bombing.

But in addition the main concern of the Irish Government ministers (probably Spain’s also) is that the whole situation is going to escalate further in Palestine and further, across the Middle East; in other words they are offering ‘good advice’ and concerned that it’s being ignored by Israel.

Children on the march – a reminder that the Israeli state kills a Palestinian child on average every ten minutes. Also Irish language flag and placard in this photo employing the “Saoirse don Phalaistín” slogan. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

In any case, although the USA is the main supplier of finance and arms to Israeli Zionism, the EU is by far the Zionist state’s largest export market and could stop the genocide tomorrow with an ultimatum to stop bombing or face an embargo on Israeli products.

The International Court of Justice determined that the Israeli State is plausibly guilty of genocide but declined to order a ceasefire and again during the week rejected a South African application to order a cessation of genocidal actions though it did warn the zionists not to commit genocidal acts.⁵

Meanwhile the UN court is to begin hearings on Monday to determine whether the Israeli occupation is guilty of practising apartheid but the verdict is months away and the Israeli State continues its genocide unabatedly.

Palestinian solidarity in the Irish language

*Small banner, group unknown with what has become a common slogan in Irish.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

At the junction with South Great George’s Street the marchers turned left and continued up into Aungier Street and then left again into Cuffe Street with people gathered on the pavements and at junctions, sometimes applauding but never expressing hostility.

A number of slogans and messages of solidarity in the Irish language could be seen on placards, flags and banners; two of the latter calling for Saoirse don Phalaistín. One of the banners had a large group behind it which included marchers calling out slogans in Irish.

Ón dtalamh go dtí an spéir – Beidh an Phalaistín saor! Stad an slad!

The Mothers Against Genocide group used Irish too, singing the chorus from Róisín Elsafty’s song and video with Irish and Arabic: A Phalaistín, a Phalaistín, hosni alaikum ya falastin. (Good luck to you, Palestine) and mixed the singing with chants of solidarity.

Once reaching the south side of Stephens’ Green,⁶ where the IPSC stage was set up near the Department of Foreign Affairs’ building,⁷ many marchers just stopped, began socialising, folding up banners or just going off for coffee etc (some also had long journeys ahead to return home).

Of course some stayed to hear speakers and performances but I didn’t.

Once again the thought struck me that this period could be used to advantage in small public meetings on the street but removed from the central stage; different currents in the solidarity movement could be discussed, along with basic principles and demands in our solidarity.

Collusion and Repression

As a Sinn Féin contingent self-identified by banners and placards marched in, some greeted them with Oh hey, oho! — No shamrocks for Genocide Joe! in a clear rebuke to the party’s leader’s intention to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with the US President at the White House.⁸

Passing through the southside’s city centre afterwards, people were frequently seen wearing Palestinian keffiyehs in various colours (black and white, red and white, green and white and the Irish green, white and orange version) as were people walking with furled Palestinian flags.

*Indeed, action the health worker unions could have taken but failed to do so* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

At least two people were arrested by Public Order Gardaí for demonstrating in the city centre outside Israeli-colluding businesses, to be bailed until their case in March, amid reports⁹ that activists have been threatened with charges and court for December’s Israeli Embassy occupation.

Although people came from many parts of Ireland, there were smaller solidarity demonstrations in many of those too.

End.

FOOTNOTES

1 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/2/17/israels-war-on-gaza-live-icj-warns-of-perilous-situation-in-rafah

2Another 7,000 are believed buried under rubble of buildings bombed by the Israeli military. Palestinians had very little undamaged digging and earth-moving equipment and the pieces of masonry are often massive but they do try and dig through it, often with their bare hands.

3I think “israel is a fascist state!” would be entirely appropriate.

4“slogan” in English is of Irish-language origin, perhaps via Scottish Gaedhlig, from ‘slua/ slóga’ = “a host/ large gathering, troop” and ‘gairm’ to “call, address”. The original root is of Indo-European origin.

5Which the Israeli State has continued to do every single day since the ICJ initial judgement, killing thousands of civilians since then and bombing and invading hospitals.

6As in most parts of Dublin city the Green has been the scene of important historical events but this one perhaps more than most: it was a 1916 battleground, the location of a force of mostly Irish Citizen Army during the 1916 Rising before they were forced to relocate to the Royal College of Surgeons, where the garrison remained until the surrender. The Commandant Michael Malin and another senior officer, Constance Markievicz, were both sentenced to death by British Army military court. Michael Malin was shot dead by firing squad but Markivicz’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

7A Palestine solidarity activist accused of ‘decorating’ the building with red paint in protest at the Government’s collusion with Israeli zionism was in court last week, having been raided at 7am, arrested and charged. The case has been deferred until next month.

8In a Belfast meeting organised by the party in Palestine solidarity recently a small group of Palestinians were ejected for pointing out that one of the speakers, the Palestine Ambassador is “a mouthpiece of the Palestine Authority” which is an undemocratic organisation working in collusion with the zionist occupation and has not held an election since 2006 (though supposed to do so every five years).

9Report from Anti-Imperialist Action.

AN PHOBLACHT ABÚ CALLS FOR BROAD UNITY IN STRUGGLE

On February 14, 2024February 14, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, Journalism, National Liberation, Political Analysis, Socialist RevolutionLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

The first edition of the socialist republican weekly newspaper An Phoblacht Abú for 2024 has been available in hard copy from sellers now for several weeks; I am reviewing it here as I have done on occasion with another few issues during 2023.

APA is a hard-copy newspaper of usually 12 x A4 sides, produced monthly from I believe the last months of 2022, including articles on anti-imperialism, anti-fascism, recent Irish history, internationalist solidarity and sometimes on older history, culture and reports on events, selling at €2/£1 per issue.

Hard-copy revolutionary papers are important as a means of distribution to those who don’t wish – or are unlikely — to seek it online but more than that, they also provide the opportunity to make contact on a personal and organisational level with people with whom to discuss events.

*Masthead image taken from the An Phoblacht Abú Facebook page.*

However, back issues are also available electronically, I’m told, from the producers.

This particular issue reports on the Palestinian struggle and the solidarity movement in Ireland, featuring a report of an occupation of the Israeli Embassy on 19^th December with a following picket and blockade of the gates to the building which hosts it for many hours.

Another page carries a report on Palestine solidarity actions across the country and a “Hands Off Iran & Iraq” item, also an obituary on the death of a recent comrade of the organisers. Separately there is a report and comment on the death of an Irishman in the conflict in Ukraine.

Political prisoners in Ireland and the Basque Country are also covered, the latter focussing on the ‘non-compliant’ Basque prisoners and their support network, in contrast to the colluding “official leadership” and the great majority of prisoners who have come under their influence.

An article comments on the upcoming Referendum on Article 41 of the Constitution of the Irish State, condemns the treatment of women historically by the Irish ruling class and, without recommending how to vote, calls for the destruction of the State.

Commemorations of historical events, including martyrs, are an important part of the culture of all peoples in struggle and APA reports on some. A statement on the escape from justice by natural death of war criminal Brigadier Kitson was widely shared in appreciation on social media.

NEW YEAR CALL FOR BROAD FRONT UNITY

Organisations traditionally issue New Year statements, perhaps reflecting on the past year but always looking to the coming year. The ISR NY Statement covered three pages and called attention to all the struggles discussed in the reports, along with some others.

The one theme in the Statement dominating all others was the call for united action in developing a broad anti-imperialism united front to work for unity “around common Republican principles” while at the same time maintaining “the autonomy and independence of different groups.”

In furtherance, ISR proposes that a “Broad Front Congress” be organised before the end of this year and called on those interested to contact them “to turn the demand of the Republican base into action.”

COMMENT

The importance of revolutionary newspapers is underlined historically by the preparations of the British Government prior to the General Strike of 1926, when they purchased all stocks of newsprint paper to deny them to revolutionaries and other strikers.

Governments today can close down social media transmission and reception over an area and even nation-wide.

The APA editorial is undoubtedly correct in its call for a broad front while stipulating independence of organisations within that front. A congress may further this aim but I wonder if it will, without some advance agreement on working principles (about which I have written previously).

I find it striking that in the New Year’s message which mentions working class communities, there is nothing about workplace organisation, or trade unionism, to give it another name. Working class people do not live in communities alone – they also work many hours outside them.

And in the most commonly-imagined scenario for revolution in western countries, revolution is preceded by a general strike. To organise and carry out such a strike and maintain it against external repression and internal undermining, requires leadership deep and wide within the movement.

How this is to be achieved is an issue, the resolution of which can only follow of course from recognition of its necessity. Across the Left and Socialist Republican movement I see no sign of this recognition.

The founding of this newspaper for socialist republicanism and its monthly production and distribution is a great achievement and to their credit for a young and still relatively small organisation.

Some typographical errors persist in APA which could be removed by greater editorial checking. The reproduction of images might be improved substantially too, space made for enlargement possibly by reduction in the area covered by print, increasing the visual attractiveness of the page.

However, APA is right to concentrate on the written word and the spread of themes, the reporting of actions and the reasoning behind them. A regular revolutionary newspaper has long been needed but missing and monthly production at least is needed for its effectiveness.

Fáilte uaimse roimh an nuachtán míosúil réabhlóideach seo, An Phoblacht Abú!

end.

Note: Back copies of An Phoblacht Abú are available electronically from isr media@protonmail.com

PALESTINIANS EVICTED FROM PALESTINIAN SOLIDARITY MEETING

On February 12, 2024February 13, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn Cartoon comment, Current Affairs Comment, Human Rights, Imperialism, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Diaspora, irish history, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, Massacres, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, peace processes, Political Analysis, US Imperialism, ZionismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time main text: 7 mins.)

Videos doing the rounds of social media sites show a brief intervention by Palestinians at a Sinn Féin-organised meeting in Belfast about Palestine followed by the party’s heavies evicting them to applause from many in the audience.

The event at the Europa Hotel on Thursday evening was intended, according to the party’s National Chairperson, “… as an opportunity to demonstrate that Ireland stands with the people of Gaza and the West Bank and to reiterate calls for an immediate ceasefire, and an end to the occupation.”¹

Actually Ireland is already – except for the Unionists — well behind the Palestinians as shown by attendance at marches and opinion surveys. What is needed is a) clarity on what we are calling for and b) direct action to put the States and companies under greater pressure.

The video of the intervention I’ve seen began with an apology for interrupting the Palestinian Ambassador, Dr. Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid, as “a mouthpieceof the Palestinian Authority” which, the challenger said, is an undemocratic organisation which has not had an election since 2006.

Boos and cries of objection followed from the audience as the Palestinian asked to be listened to, pointed out that those doing the intervention were all Palestinians but the party’s security men were soon hustling them out and periodically trying to block the phone camera.

When people don’t want to examine the issues or are feeling guilty about them, it’s always tempting to blame the critics, suggest they’re dissidents, trouble-makers, etc. That way the pointing finger is turned around and the actual issues don’t need to be thought about.

Of course this time some SF supporters commented along those lines, accusing their critics of being Loyalists, or as they have in the past outsiders, ultra-leftists, intelligence service agents, dissidents, malcontents, trouble-makers … or just plain Utopians.

“MOUTHPIECE OF … AN UNDEMOCRATIC ORGANISATION”

The intervention from the floor was challenging but what of the content? Palestinian Ambassadors are appointed and employed by the Palestinian Authority which, though never intended as a government is acting like one. So “mouthpiece for the PA”? Blunt — but entirely accurate.

*Palestinian Ambassador to Ireland of the undemocratic and corrupt Palestinian Authority at a Sinn Féin meeting (note SF President Mary Lou McDonald applauding in the background).* (Sourced: *Internet*)

The PA “has not had an election in 18 years”? Accurate also – though they’re supposed to have one every five years. The last time there were elections in Palestine was 2006 and Hamas won overall throughout Palestine. However Fatah, the losers, refused to give up their seats.

In 2007 in Gaza, Hamas moved against Fatah and after a short struggle, took the seats to which the electorate had voted them. However, they chose not to do that in the West Bank, where the PA’s HQ is and where EU and USA money comes flowing in to Abbas and his unelected cronies.

The reason for not holding elections is that Hamas would almost certainly win again. Meanwhile, “democratic Israel” refused to recognise the Gaza administration or the elected representatives of the Palestinians while the US, EU and UK followed suit and ‘Israel’ blockaded Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority, as well as being undemocratic, deeply corrupt, unrepresentative and repressive² is also actively colluding with the Zionist state and feeding its masters intelligence on the Palestinian opposition and resistance while it represses their supporters.

That’s what most Palestinians think about the PA and, as is widely known and even tacitly admitted by the USA³, whether in the West Bank or in Gaza, Palestinians have no confidence in the institution.⁴

Some of the comments on the circulating videos criticised SF’s bad management of the event, opining that the Palestinians should have been allowed to speak and then the meeting could have proceeded as the organisers planned and the challenge would have got little publicity.

True … but SF is used to throttling dissent inside its party or in the communities it controls and managing dissent – rather than crushing it — is just not its style.

In any case, is ‘bad management’ the main issue with regard to SF and Palestine? More important than supporting partition of Palestine, the institutionalisation of a Bantustan “Palestinian State” under the guns of the Zionists – and the PA’s collusion with those same Zionists?

The Provisionals weren’t always pro-Palestinian; though it might shock some people, they originally mirrored Irish society’s position of support for Israel, the perceived ‘underdog’ up to the mid-1960s, Hollocaust survivors (Zionists) who had fought the British police and army.⁵

THE PROVO LEADERSHIP AND PALESTINE

For a while pieces by a Fred Burns O’Brien apparently based in the USA were featured in the Provos’ newspaper but some time after he revealed himself as a Zionist he was ‘let go’, probably through internal pressure from those who thought the Palestinians were the natural ally.⁶

One of the problems with taking a political position, physically or ideologically, is that you might get called on it someday. This is why bourgeois politicians try to give themselves wriggle and even retreat room in their statements – lots of good-sounding bites with little content.

The Provisionals owe a debt to some Palestinians but it’s a very bad one. I don’t mean when they got some arms for the struggle⁷ but rather their following Fatah/PLO down the pacification process, for which Fatah and the ANC sent fraternal delegates to SF’s Ard-Fheiseanna (annual congresses).

Subsequently, Ireland and South Africa were used as promotional examples of the pacification process and their delegates travelled as kinds of sales representatives⁸ — but Palestine got dropped from 2000 onwards because of the Second Intifada, when Palestinians rejected Fatah’s deal.

You can’t sell a process as ‘working’ when the youth have overwhelmingly rejected it and are fighting the Occupation in the street.

“ORGANISE YOUR OWN EVENT”

One prominent member of SF in the British colony told the Palestinian protesters they should have organised “their own event.” Er – was this event not advertised as being for solidarity with Palestine? But ‘Palestinians not welcome’? Or only zionist-collaborating Palestinians?

Imagine if back in the day some political party had been having a meeting about Ireland and were inviting an Irish State or British colonial minister as a speaker, would anyone have been shocked to see and hear SF activists challenging or even heckling the speakers during the meeting?

Would we not be reading statements from SF talking about ‘no right of colonialists to represent the Irish people’ and about ‘censorship of Irish voices’?

Gerry Adams, former President of the party was quoted as saying the calls are “inconsistent” because they are not making the same call with regard to the UK though “the Brits are up to their neck in this” and what is important for SF in the USA is Irish-America.

But SF long ago accommodated itself to the colonialist “Brits”, including its royalty. Irish politicians don’t flock to London for St. Patrick’s Day. Anyway the primary financial and military supplier – and political backer of the Zionist state in the UN Security Council — is the USA.

Why is the diaspora in the USA so important to Sinn Féin but not the diaspora in Britain or in Australia? It must be because the USA is the “boss of the world” and pathetic Irish gombeen politicians think their diaspora gives them them some kind of weight with the imperialists.

What would really help with the Irish diaspora would be if SF were to address the Irish-Americans and ask them to push their political representatives to call for the USA to stop supporting genocide in Palestine.

But of course there is no chance of them doing that because 1) some Irish Americans oppose imperialism from Britain but support it from the USA; also 2) because Irish gombeens, the political class to which SF aspire, are pro-western imperialism.

INTERNATIONALIST SOLIDARITY AND THE HOME STRUGGLE

I have commented in the past that the level of commitment to internationalist solidarity is one of the indicators as to whether an organisation is going to carry through its own revolution or instead is going to finish up in liberalism and abandon its struggle, ending in actual collusion.

It seems some others have the same idea.

As she was being evicted, the Palestinian woman called out for SF not to attend Washington on St. Patrick’s Day and also shouted, though she may have meant it the other way around: “There will not be a free Palestine without a united Ireland!”

Electronic Intifada co-founder Ali Abunimah put it quite succintly: “If you can’t say NO to the White House in the middle of a genocide, then you’d never be able to stand up, not even for Ireland.”

end.

FOOTNOTES

1 https://vote.sinnfein.ie/solidarity-rally-for-palestine-to-take-place-in-belfast/

2“The PA has actively helped Israel to keep tight control over the Palestinian population. Many perceive the body as a tool of the Israeli security apparatus, its US-trained forces not only targeting those suspected of planning attacks on Israelis, but also arresting union figures, journalists and critics on social media.” (Al Jazeera – see Sources)

3Hence the USA’s post-war plan for Gaza, as expressed by Blinken, is to have it run by a “revamped PA”, i.e one that might have some credibility among Palestinians.

4“Today, a staggering 87 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza believe that the PA is corrupt, 78 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombingpercent want Abbas to resign, and 62 percent believe that the PA is a liability.” (Washington Institute — see Sources).

5On 22 July 1946, Zionist militias bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, in which the British Mandate administration had offices including its police intelligence department, killing 91: “49 were second-rank clerks, typists and messengers, junior members of the Secretariat, employees of the hotel and canteen workers; 13 were soldiers; 3 policemen; and 5 were bystanders. By nationality, there were 41 Arabs, 28 British citizens ….” Forty-six were injured. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombing

6The same kind of pressure from the support base that caused the SF leadership recently to reestablish their ‘expel the Israeli Ambassador’ position that Mary Lou had announced they were abandoning.

7In 1977 a consignment of arms allegedly from the PLO bound for Ireland was seized by the authorities at Antwerp.

8To the Basque Country, Kurdish Turkey, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Philippines etc.

SOURCES

https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/palestinian-activists-thrown-out-of-sinn-fein-solidarity-rally-in-belfast-hotel/a1343153914.html

Criticism of the PA’s corruption and unpopularity
a) from a pro-imperialist source: https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/how-palestinian-authority-failed-its-people and
b) from Al Jazeera (pro-Palestinian but not pro-Hamas): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/11/what-is-the-palestinian-authority-and-how-is-it-viewed-by-palestinians

“ISRAELI MILITARY DELIBERATELY KILLED HOSTAGES ON 7th OCTOBER”

On February 3, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Guerrilla Action, Indigenous or Original People, Israeli Zionism, Mass Media Criticism, Massacres, National Liberation, Palestine, Political AnalysisLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time main text: 3 mins.)

Israeli journalists have been accusing the Israeli military command of re-activating their infamous “Hannibal Doctrine” to prevent Palestinians capturing Israelis “by any means necessary” – including killing the prisoners.

The Doctrine takes its name from a Carthaginian general and statesman famous in history for his early successes against the Roman Empire. In his declining days, unable to escape Romans coming to take him prisoner, Hannibal swallowed poison and took his own life.

After 2006, the Israeli armed forces were informed verbally that in the case of the Palestinian resistance capturing a member of their forces alive, they would kill him rather than be obliged to release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the Israeli soldiers’ release.¹

Photo of ruined building post-7th October in the kibbutz. Would raiders on an in-and-out mission taking captives have reason or time to cause this level of damage? Or is an Israel tank shell the more likely cause? (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

The military claimed to have abandoned the Hannibal Doctrine afterwards but within a couple of days of October 7^th, people monitoring Israeli printed media and radio found references to an Israeli commander calling a strike on their own base and helicopters shooting cars heading to Gaza.

Some if not all of these would have likely contained Israeli prisoners taken by the Palestinian fighters and explains the torched wrecks containing incinerated bodies, the victims of Hellfire missiles from the helicopters – the kind of weapons not carried by the fighters.

There were also the statements of Israeli survivors in the kibbutz about an Israeli tank firing a shell into a house containing Palestinian fighters and their prisoners, in addition to a crossfire between the Israeli military and the Palestinian fighters in general.

*Photo of interior of burned-out building post-7th October in the kibbutz. Would raiders on an in-and-out mission taking captives have reason or time to cause this level of damage?* (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

Although these accounts were taken from Israeli sources, with quotations of named individuals and even audio record of a radio interview and shared on line, the western mass media chose to ignore them.

Now, the allegation that the “Hannibal Directive” was reactivated (if it was ever abandoned) is being widely discussed in Israeli media with calls for an investigation and for the military to come clean. They in turn have promised an investigation but only once this particular war is over.

But once again, the western mass media is not covering the discussion and continues to repeat the number of 1,200 Israelis killed by the Palestinian fighters on 7^th October,² which is clearly not the case. This is the ‘free press’ which we are told to value so much!

At some point in the future the facts will emerge and the western mass media will probably do a lot of reporting on the various admissions and theories, without once having the grace to even apologise for keeping all this from their readers for so long.

However, medical staff have been warned by Israeli authorities not to speak to journalists or to the United nations commission investigating the events of October 7^th on Israeli-held territory.³

Meanwhile, relatives of the Israelis captured by the Palestinian fighters are demanding that the return of the prisoners be prioritised, even breaking into a Government meeting and shouting at Israeli government ministers,⁴ painting red the road outside Netanyahu’s home, etc etc.

Those in command at political and military level seem, by their actions rather than their words, ready to sacrifice the captives in order to wreak as heavy and long-lasting destruction and death as possible upon the Palestinian population of Gaza.

*Photos of burned-out buildings post-7th October in the kibbutz. Would raiders on an in-and-out mission taking captives have reason or time to cause this level of damage?* (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

Even medium-ranking military commanders (and some higher) are reported saying that Netanyahu’s purported twin strategic aims of wiping out Hamas and “freeing the hostages” are not doable and are even mutually exclusive.

This must have an impact on the morale of commanders and lower rank Israeli military who have also found the fighting much harder than they expected and were unable to occupy the whole of northern Gaza in the face of fierce united Palestinian resistance.

Indeed, the numbers of IOF dead announced by the Israeli military do not seem to match the losses of their armoured vehicles alone, given that the tanks have a crew of five and even a tank disabled by rocket and repairable later is likely to have a dead crew.

Their losses in battle commanders is also high; these have their command stations inside tanks.

The injuries of wounded Israeli soldiers are likely to be of a serious physical nature and to that one must add mental trauma. Indeed, for all their much-vaunted equipment and total control of the air, the military performance of the Israeli ground military is widely reckoned poorly.

The public jeers of the Palestinian resistance that the Israeli military is at its best when it comes to fighting civilians, women and children but that confronted with armed resistance, they are not much, seems more than just propaganda to boost the morale of the Palestinians.

End.

A graveyard of burned-out cars post-7th October 2024. Clearly the Palestinian raiders had no reason to be burning cars in a raid to get in to kill enemy soldiers and to take prisoners and then out again as quickly as possible, nor the type of weapons to be causing this kind of damage. Israeli helicopters do, however: US-supplied Hellfire missiles. (Photo sourced: *Online*)

FOOTNOTES

1Invoked in 2014 at least, leading to the death of a captured Israeli soldier https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/3/whats-the-hannibal-directive-a-former-israeli-soldier-tells-all

2 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/10/israel-revises-death-toll-from-october-7-hamas-attack-to-1200-people

3 https://www.timesofisrael.com/government-forbids-doctors-from-speaking-to-un-group-investigating-oct-7-atrocities/

4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=956PmusMABk

SOURCES

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

Israeli media discussion on whether their armed forces killed Israelis: https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-12-13/ty-article-opinion/.premium/if-israel-used-a-procedure-against-its-citizens-we-need-to-talk-about-it-now/0000018c-6383-de43-affd-f783212e0000

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-17/ty-article/.premium/unlawful-unethical-horrifying-idf-ethics-expert-on-controversial-hannibal-directive/0000018d-186c-dd75-addd-faedd2b80000

External media with Israeli testimonies on the Doctrine:

Electronic Intifada re the Doctrine: https://youtu.be/-yxEMYRoYBc

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/3/whats-the-hannibal-directive-a-former-israeli-soldier-tells-all

https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1358197/a-dead-soldier-is-better-than-a-living-captive-israels-hannibal-directive.html

https://www.trtworld.com/middle-east/hannibal-directive-did-israel-kill-its-own-15574953

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/10/israel-revises-death-toll-from-october-7-hamas-attack-to-1200-people

Reiterating the incorrect numbers: https://www.csis.org/analysis/hamass-october-7-attack-visualizing-data

Israeli relatives of prisoners held by Palestinians demonstrate against Israeli Government and storm cabinet meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=956PmusMABk

Relatives https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/israel-s-netanyahu-rejects-any-palestinian-sovereignty-in-post-war-gaza-rebuffing-biden-1.6734919

ISRAELI EMBASSY BLOCKADED AGAIN: “ZIONIST AMBASSADOR OUT!”

On February 3, 2024February 3, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn Current Event Report, Genocide, Human Rights, Imperialism, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, Israeli Zionism, Mass Media Criticism, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis, US Imperialism1 Comment

Clive Sulish
(Reading time: 2 mins.)

Palestinian solidarity supporters demonstrated outside the Israeli Embassy in Dublin again this afternoon, calling for the expulsion of the legation and the Israeli Ambassador. The protest was maintained from around 3pm to after 6pm today.

Organised by Saoirse Don Phalaistín and Action for Palestine, supported by Anti-Imperialist Action and independent activists, the protest kept up an almost endless chorus of slogans in English, Irish and Arabic languages, calling for a free Palestine and an end to genocide.

Slogans were shouted denouncing the genocide being committed by the USA, the EU, the “Western Powers” and the “western media”, along with the collusion of the Irish Government. As large numbers of Gardaí arrived their collusion with zionism was called out also.

The latest figures of the Zionist genocide have now passed 27,000 dead in four months, more than two-thirds of them women and children, 66,287 injured, with 70% of Gaza housing destroyed and over 85% of its population displaced, a quarter starving and without clean drinking water.

17,000 children are without parents or separated, according to UNICEF. And now evidence is mounting of Israeli ‘field executions’ and random sniper killing of Palestinian civilians and an Israeli military murder squad shooting three young Palestinian men sleeping in a hospital.

Meanwhile, outside the Zionist Embassy in Dublin …

No less than three van-loads of the POU Gardaí (riot police) and many uniformed officers were there eventually. Later one of the latter threatened all those sitting in front of the entrance as a group with arrest under the Public Order Act, though no public disorder was taking place.

For the rest of their time there, the protesters separated to each side of the Embassy building entrance and the event concluded without any arrests.

Every few minutes car horns could be heard as passing drivers indicated their support, often with a clenched fist or thumbs-up sign out the window. Only two objected: a man walking his dog who said he only cares about Ireland and a woman who shouted from across the road.

It has often been remarked by activists that those who “only care about Ireland” and object to Palestinian solidarity are not seen on the many demonstrations in Ireland protesting lack of housing, health service in tatters or British occupation of the Six Counties.

The Israeli Embassy is in an upper floor of a building rented to the zionist entity by a foreign property company with Irish directors, Quanta Capital at 15 Merrion Square North, a location which has also been the subject of protests.

Other tenants in the building say they have complained about the Embassy tenancy to the company but “they don’t care.”

No doubt protesters will return and the pressure on the Embassy (and on the Irish Government protecting it) will be maintained. Some TD should surely ask in Leinster House how much the taxpayers are being charged for maintaining an official zionist presence in Dublin.

End.

SOURCES

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/2/2/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-downplays-settler-violence-in-west-bank

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

On January 31, 2024February 1, 2024 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 50^th 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 7^th 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

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

On January 21, 2024 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