Tag: political analysis

SUPPORT THE RESISTANCE, CONDEMN THE COLLABORATORS

On By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Genocide, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, irish history, Journalism, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Police Violence, Political Analysis, Political PrisonersLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

Not only our internationalist duty but also our longer-term practical interests are with supporting the Resistance. If so, then it is surely even more required of us that we condemn the collusion of the collaborators.

This is based on the fact of the Resistance opposing colonialism, occupation, imperialism, fascism, exploitation and so on. It is not based on whether the Resistance embraces all of our particular ideology or objectives. But that also means that we do not necessarily offer unconditional support.

Karl Marx, who from Britain not only went to some lengths to support the Irish Resistance to colonialism1 but advised the working class in Britain to do likewise,2 also remarked that it was not to be expected that British workers would support themselves being blown up for Irish freedom.3

I say that internationalist solidarity is not only a question of a kind of moral duty, but also a practical one. If we examine our own situation here in Ireland and our hopes for a united independent and socialist republic, we must also look to what happens when we achieve it.

The lessons of struggles in the world have surely taught us that we cannot hope that the imperialist countries around us will allow us to nationalise our resources and infrastructures which they’ve appropriated in full or in part, close their military bases and wish us good fortune!

Or that they will allow a positive example of the potential of socialist society to exist for the encouragement of their own working classes or for those they exploit elsewhere.

No, we will need movements of solidarity, especially in the states which will be the quickest to threaten us, i.e the western imperialist states. And, whether by coincidence or not, those are in great part the very states that are at this moment attacking Palestine and independence in the Middle East.

We think in that respect first of the United States, UK, Germany but also France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden (even Switzerland4). Of course, we’ll be dealing with their interventions of various kinds before we even reach our independent, united socialist republic.

PA Security Forces attacking a demonstrator (Photo cred: Getty Images)

COLLABORATORS AND COLLUSION

Naturally, if we support the Resistance, we must have a corresponding attitude to those who collaborate and collude with colonialism, occupation, imperialism, fascism, exploitation and so on, not only in our own immediate struggle but also in those we support internationally.

The genocidal attacks of the ‘Israeli’ Zionist state could not last a week without the financial, military and material support in particular of the USA, but also without those from Germany, the UK and France, nor in turn without the collusion of many Arab states of the Middle East.

That is a collusion in many cases of the regimes and not supported by most of their own populations. Most dangerous of all of course are those agencies of collusion among the oppressed people themselves and we have experienced those throughout our history of anti-colonial struggle.

Our historical culture is full of contemptuous references to them, even to terms such as “Castle Catholics”; Marx too was scathing in reference to Daniel O’Connell, who sought only Irish autonomy within the British Empire, as did John Redmond, later rejected by the population.5

Many other struggles around the world have had such temporisers and actual collaborators in their midst. Indeed after liberation from fascism in countries in WWII, many of them were executed, some such as “Quisling” and “Vichy” becoming bywords in treachery and collusion.6

Palestinians hold posters depicting human rights activist Nizar Banat during a protest triggered by the violent arrest and death in custody of Banat, in his hometown of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, on June 27, 2021. [ Photo cred: Mosab Shawer/AFP]
Al Jazeera correspondent Laith Jaar, beaten up by PA officer while covering the Tulkarem massacre by the IOF, then jailed when he complained to the PA. [Photo sourced: Internet]

Well then, how is that we tolerate the presentation of the ‘Palestine Authority’ as a representation of the Palestinian people? This corrupt agency with its ‘security force’ beating up and jailing critics and freedom fighters, some of which it also shoots? And dismantling defensive anti-IOF bombs?

This agency which in the Oslo Accords gave up the struggle in exchange for corrupt control of 20% of Palestinian land, which has held no elections since 2006 because the Palestinian people across the political and religious spectrum rejected the Fatah party then and elected Hamas instead.

It is no surprise then that the western imperialist countries claim the PA to be the legitimate representation of the Palestinian people and that some of them fund it, that Palestine ‘embassies’ are PA-run and that Palestine ‘Ambassadors’ are employed by the PA.7

But how is that the PA is not publicly denounced by the wide Palestine solidarity movements in the Western countries? Why this conspiracy of silence and spreading of ignorance?

It is not easy in on-line searches to find how many political prisoners the PA has in its jails or wounded or shot dead – and of course the amount of information about the Resistance passed on to the Zionists and the US awaits some historical investigations in a free Palestine of the future.

What we do know is that the PA holds over 100 political prisoners, that it arrests freedom fighters (even invading hospitals to arrest wounded fighters), that it tortures prisoners, beats up critics and demonstrators and clears the way of explosives for IOF invasion of West Bank communities.

Very recently, Palestinian journalist Laith Jaar, after reporting on the Palestinian Resistance in Tulkarem, was beaten up while covering the massacre there by Ahmed Ghassan Qawzah, an officer of the PA’s security force. When the journalist went to complain to the PA, they threw him in jail.

The Palestinian Resistance periodically denounces the PA, calling on it to support the people, threatens it when the PA’s actions are particularly egregious but refrains from using arms against it. I admit that I cannot understand that degree of forbearance, even for temporary tactical reasons.

But what about us? How is that only one protest against the PA’s Ambassador to Ireland took place and that the protesters were ejected by alleged Irish supporters of the Palestinian people? How is that only one small protest to date has taken place outside the PA’s Dublin Embassy?

How can we stomach this collusion in what is effectively a conspiracy of silence?

End.

Palestinian Police – their firearms are for opposing the Palestinian Resistance (Photo cred: Issame Ravi/ Flash90)

FOOTNOTES

1Marx and Engels had led the International Workingmen’s Association (later known as the “First International”) in not only supporting the Fenian movement but also accepting Fenians in Britain into the organisation.

2Not out of altruism but in their own interest! “As to the Irish question….The way I shall put forward the matter next Tuesday is this: that quite apart from all phrases about “international” and “humane” justice for Ireland – which are to be taken for granted in the International Council – it is in the direct and absolute interest of the English working class to get rid of their present connection with Ireland.And this is my most complete conviction, and for reasons which in part I cannot tell the English workers themselves. For a long time I believed that it would be possible to overthrow the Irish regime by English working class ascendancy. I always expressed this point of view in the New York Tribune.Deeper study has now convinced me of the opposite. The English working class will never accomplish anythingbefore it has got rid of Ireland. The lever must be applied in Ireland. That is why the Irish question is so important for the social movement in general.”

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1869/letters/69_12_10-abs.htm

3Karl Marx, then living in London, observed: The London masses, who have shown great sympathy towards Ireland, will be made wild and driven into the arms of a reactionary government. One cannot expect the London proletarians to allow themselves to be blown up in honour of Fenian emissaries.Marx was commenting on the reaction to the disastrous explosion attempt to liberate Fenian prisoners from Clerkenwell Jail in London, on 13 December 1867, when 12 mostly working class people were unintentionally killed and around 120 injured.

https://marxists.architexturez.net/archive/marx/works/1867/letters/67_12_14.htm

4https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-07/swiss-arms-exports-jump-29-as-industry-laments-neutrality

5That was the essence of the O’Connell’s constitutional Repeal Movement objective of the 1840s and of the Home Rule promised by the UK ruling class to the Irish Parliamentary Party in 1914, against which the 1916 Rising took place. In the British General Election of 1918 in Ireland, Redmond’s party was all but annihilated.

6Nazi collaborator Prime Minister in occupied Norway and the French collaborator government under Petain and Lavalle.

7It should perhaps be a surprise that certain parties in Europe, including Ireland, also support the PA but then, perhaps not. Not a year has passed since a meeting hosting the ‘Palestine Ambassador’ for Ireland in Belfast was protested by Palestinians who were ejected among cheers by ‘Irish Republicans’.

SOURCES

Marx on need for the British workers to support the Irish struggle: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1869/letters/69_12_10-abs.htm

Broader discussion on Marx and need for solidarity to progress revolution in general: https://www.developmentresearch.eu/?p=1347

Marx’s brief comment on the problematic effect of the Clerkenwell Bombing on Irish solidarity in Britain: https://marxists.architexturez.net/archive/marx/works/1867/letters/67_12_14.htm

The ‘Palestine Authority’ prisoners:

(1999) https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/political-detainees-in-the-palestinian-authority

(also 1999) https://www.amnesty.org/es/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/mde210071999en.pdf

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/7/14/pa-security-forces-are-not-serving-the-palestinian-people

PA attacks on Resistance fighters:

PALESTINE AUTHORITY PREVENTED FROM ARRESTING RESISTANCE FIGHTER IN HOSPITAL
PA security forces assassinate resistance fighter in Tulkarem
PA arrests a resistance fighter wanted by the occupation

PA dismantling Resistance explosives for defence against IOF invasions:

Agreement between PA, occupation to dismantle explosives planted by West Bank resistance
PA agrees security deal with occupation regime amid Gaza genocide

Periodic reports also on Resistance News Network

IF YOU WANT PEACE, KENNEL YOUR DOG!

On By rebelbreezeIn Cartoon, Current Affairs Comment, Imperialism, Israeli Zionism, Middle East, Palestine, Political Analysis, US ImperialismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 6 mins.)

The whole western imperialist cabal is in full cry desperately seeking a 21-day ceasefire both sides of northern occupied-Palestine and the Lebanon ´border´, as the ´Israeli´ Occupation Forces allegedly prepare/ carry out a ground invasion.

The concern of the western imperialists is not about the slaughter of mostly civilians in Lebanon, climbing towards a thousand this month but rather about the strong possibility of all-out regional war which would endanger the various western military bases and economic interests in the region.

Projectiles above Jerusalem, on Oct. 1, 2024. Iran has launched a missile and drone attack on Israel’s military airports and some other targets. (Photo cred: MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images)

And also, if the Zionist leadership is serious, about an IOF ground invasion of Lebanon which the western powers fear will end not only in the defeat of the IOF as before in 2000 and 2006, but also in the collapse of the Zionist settler state itself, their most dependable ally in the region.

Fighting on two fronts is rarely recommended and the Zionists are engaged in Palestine mostly in genocide, it is true but also against the Palestinian resistance: the allied factions, Islamist and secular fighting a heroic struggle of defence.

Since the by far most aggressive phase of the Zionist genocide of Palestinians from October 8th last year, Hezbollah has been bombarding mostly military sites and movements and, to a much lesser degree, Zionist settler sites. In particular ´Israeli´ air defence and spying sites have been hit.

As a result, wide areas of occupied Palestine have been abandoned by settlers who are being accommodated at substantial cost to the Zionist state in hotels and even camps. On the Lebanon side, due to IOF barrages, the people have also abandoned their homes.

Hezbollah is a long-standing enemy of the Zionist state which in turn can be ´credited´with the creation of the organisation through its invasions of Lebanon and massacres both directly and through its proxy, the South Lebanese Army, for example in the Tel Al Zataar refugee camp.1

The only complete defeats of the IOF to date, with its European allies and superior level of armament, have been by Hezbollah on Lebanese soil. However Hezbollah´s bombardment of occupied Palestine from October 8th has been in support of the Gaza population against genocide.

Herzi Halevi, top commander of the IOF and Ori Gordin commanding their northern sector recently told their troops that they might soon be employed in a ground invasion of Lebanon in order to crush Hezbollah and two reserve Brigades of the IOF have been called up also.2

However a White House spokesperson recently stated that they did not believe that a ground invasion was imminent. In fact, they are probably hoping it is not because before even reaching Lebanon the infantry and armour will need to cross a large area covered by Hezbollah missiles.

While the IOF air force and artillery might hope to knock out their enemy´s launch sites their bombardments have so far failed to prevent the launching of Hezbollah missiles which have not only continued as before but reached further, including to the Mossad HQ near Haifa.

Upon entering Lebanon, should they reach that far, the infantry would need to confront confident, highly-motivated soldiers fighting in defence of their homeland against a hated enemy. In addition some Hezbollah have been battled-hardened in actual combat against western proxies in Syria.

This is unlike the IOF, mostly accustomed to attacking civilians and their support infrastructure, rarely engaging the Palestinian resistance at close quarters and, when they do, calling in air strikes. In Lebanon in the past, their superior military resources did not prevent their defeat – twice.

The various commentaries from the western powers have not promised any ceasefire in Gaza, only a resumption of talks. However these can go nowhere unless the Zionist leadership and in particular Netanyahu agrees to the terms broadcast in July and to which Hezbollah agreed.

These are the minimum required by Hezbollah: removal of all IOF forces from Gaza, opening of the Rafah gate and safe conduct for delivery of food, medicine and fuel supplies; exchange of prisoners; to be followed by reconstruction of the enormous damage to housing and infrastructure.

So far Netanyahu has refused to agree to complete removal of IOF forces from Gaza and whatever else he or anybody else says, without that there will be no peace or truce agreement in Gaza. And without that, Hezbollah will not cease their bombardment and there will be no ceasefire.

It may be that the Western powers are obliquely trying to pressure the Zionist leadership to agree to the realistic Gaza peace terms but without the removal of Netanyahu and his fascist support coalition this may be a false hope.

As I finished writing the above, the IOF announced a “limited ground offensive” on Lebanon despite the advice (if genuine) of the USA and of its western allies.

However, the Western Powers are not helpless in this, despite their public pronouncements; the closure of the supply chain of armaments and finance would force the Zionist ruling class to come to terms within days, certainly inside of a week.

This step they have refused so far to take and it remains to be seen whether they will take that action to avoid regional war, continue to risk it or indeed, enter that war regardless of the great danger for them and their future plunder of the region and strategic control of much of it.

If they truly want peace around Lebanon, they will need to have peace in Gaza, which means agreeing to the minimum and entirely reasonable terms of the Palestinian resistance.

If the Western Powers want a cessation of conflict around Lebanon and in Gaza, they will need to call off their attack dog. However, the dog is reluctant to acknowledge defeat and also fears that its days, in the longer term, are numbered.

Meanwhile, the Axis of Resistance have taken their own measures, Hezbollah bombarding deep into Zionist-occupied territory and all gatherings of IOF forces preparing to advance towards Lebanon, so far preventing them stepping on Lebanese soil, despite the fabrications of the Zionists.

And the long-awaited retaliation of Iran has arrived also, its missiles and drones hitting in particular the Zionist entity´s military airports, apparently with great success, destroying many of the US-made jets with which the IOF have bombed so many civilians and their infrastructures.

And there it rests while we await how the IOF and their allies will respond. Iran´s leadership have more or less told the Zionists: “Accept that as a just punishment for your attacks on our personnel and on our allies in our land. If you don´t, the next response will be a lot worse for you!”

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has promised, in the event of USA retaliation on Iran, to attack every USA base currently on their land (and long overdue to depart). And we add: “If it´s peace you want in Palestine, call off your dog and kennel it.”

end.

FOOTNOTES

1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_al-Zaatar_massacre

2https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/25/middleeast/israel-lebanon-hezbollah-ground-invasion-intl/index.html

SOURCES

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/us–france-call-for-temporary-ceasefire-in-lebanon

ENTITLEMENT, OPPORTUNITY & PROTECTION

On By rebelbreezeIn Capitalism, Current Affairs Comment, Gender Equality, Human Rights, Political Analysis, Socialist RevolutionLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

The news about the sexual predations of Mohammed Al Fayed, owner of Harrods and Chelsea Football Club, was not news to many. His predilections, we learn now, were well-known in his circles. Yet only after his death are these stories made public.

Again and again we learn these stories of sexual predators, even paedophiles, whose predations come to the attention of the public only after their deaths. Entertainers such as Rolf Harris and Jimmy Saville, for example, who preyed on children.

Fayed wasn´t an entertainer but he was very rich and preyed on young women – in this world in which we live, some entertainers are often very rich too. With wealth comes protection, not just of the privately-hired variety but of the public kind also – the police force.

Their victims, at least the adult ones, knew that their words would count less with the police than would those of the rich. In the end, the police know instinctively who are their employers. The government ministers and senior police officers mix in the same circles as some of the rich.

Mohamed Al-Fayed demonstrating his access to power and influence, posed next to the late British monarch, Queen Elizabeth. His son Dodi was friendly with Princess Diane and died in a car crash with her – at the time she was married to the former Prince Charles, now King of the UK. Jimmy Saville, paedophile, we may recall, was also close to the Royal Family as were the Epstein-Maxwell couple, who procured at least one underage female for Prince Andrew. (Photo sourced: Internet)

The victims are aware of how the vertical power structure in society is constructed. They know or are soon taught that the rich have not only direct protection but retribution for those who offend also. There are penalties beyond police harassment or lack of police response to complaints.

There is the jeopardising of employment for the employee, lacking of job reference, unfavourable comment in another employer´s ear … The employers also have a network of mutual interest.

HR managers of one company will wish to further their career progression through the capitalist network. Players know how the game is played.

WHY AND HOW

The predators do not do what they do merely because they like to – there are many temptations in people´s heads that are not acted upon, that remain in internal fantasy or perhaps acted out only with consensual partners.

The famous predators functioned out of a sense of entitlement – like their wealth which they felt they deserved,1 they believed also that they were entitled to do what they wanted to “lesser” beings because they themselves were famous and rich (like Harris and Saville) – or just rich, like Mayed.

Just as their wealth was the accumulation of the wealth created by the work of many others, with their sense of entitlement went also the reality of their ability to do what they wanted. They did it because they could.

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were eventually arrested and went to jail, Epstein dying there. Far from being a vindication of the justice of the system, their victims were initially ignored by the police and even harassed – and Epstein died in mysterious circumstances before trial.

All around the world people are suffering these kinds of abuses to one degree or another, have done so for centuries and will continue to do so. Yes, even with the occasional exposure of this or that person.

For as long as the system of status, wealth and privilege exists. Which means at least for as long as the capitalist system exists – and even beyond that, perhaps.

So in organising to overthrow the capitalist system we must ensure that we do not replace a system of unquestionable authority and power with another.

Yes, well, that´s for the future, right? No. It starts now. In our treatment of one another. In how we conduct ourselves. In ensuring we do not claim a special entitlement or the right not to be be questioned.

And when we err, individually or organisationally, to act to correct and remedy the ill.2

End.

FOOTNOTES

1Let us remember here too that no-one can get rich by their own work, no matter how hard – it requires the work of many others to make one person wealthy.

2Let us not forget the one example among many: the past history of the ostensibly revolutionary socialist organisation of the former Workers Revolutionary Party. Its General Secretary Gerry Healy was accused of the sexual abuse of 26 young female activists in the organisation. A painfully honest description of the replication of systems of unquestioned privilege in the former Party and the process of the expulsion of Gerry Healy and of his defence (for example by famous film actors Corin and Vanessa Redgrave) can be found here: https://libcom.org/article/break-wrp-horses-mouth-simon-pirani

No Welcome for Starmer Demonstration OConnell Bridge Dublin

On By rebelbreezeIn British imperialism, Current Event Report, Ireland, Massacres, Middle East, National Liberation, NATO, Palestine, ZionismLeave a comment

Clive Sulish

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

A number of demonstrations were held in Ireland to make it clear that Kier Starmer, Prime Minister of the UK and supporter of the Zionist state of ‘Israel’, has no céad míle fáilte in Ireland, or indeed any fáilte whatsoever for his Dublin visit.

After fourteen years of Conservative Party management of the UK, Starmer at the head of the Labour Party rode a change-seeking wave to win the General Election in July this year. But he soon revealed how little difference there is between the parties, including on Palestine.

Mostly of the east-facing section on the Bridge (Photo: R.Breeze)

Although the Labour Party on the Zionist State, its Government continues to support that state politically and economically, also militarily with supply of weapons components and RAF missions.1

Very recently the UK Labour Government temporarily suspended 30 military items which may (may!) be implicated in genocide. The UK, holder of one of the five Permanent seats of the UN Security Council is complicit in the ongoing Zionist colonial settler genocide of Palestinians.

In fact, the UK is responsible for settling Zionist Jews in Palestine and then for allocating much of Palestinian land to the settler who, as European settler colonists do, expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and continued extending their land-grabbing ever since.

West-facing section of protest (Photo: R.Breeze)

PROTEST ON O’CONNELL BRIDGE

The Saoirse Don Phalaistín and Anti-Imperialist Action groups organised a protest against Starmer’s visit to take place on O’Connell Bridge at 3pm on Saturday and took up position on the central pedestrian reservation, with one section facing eastward and the other towards the West.

The Bridge spans the River Liffey and is in the heart of the city centre, crossed by north and southbound traffic and in view of westbound and eastbound traffic along the quays also.

There was a heavy presence of uniformed police in the vicinity, with five Special Branch nearby and a Public Order Unit van driving by a number of times as did other Garda vans. A prisoner transport van was also parked on the Bridge for a period but no attack was forthcoming.

Collection of banners and flags in west-facing section of protest. (Photo: R.Breeze)

RECORD OF THE LABOUR PARTY

One of the speakers at the O’Connell Bridge event reminded people of the history Labour Governments vis-a-vis Ireland, having sent the troops to the Six County colony to quell the struggle for civil rights there and also targeting the Irish in Britain with the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

This 1974 PTA, the speaker said, was later extended into the current Terrorism Act of repression in Britain. He reminded people too of the innocent Birmingham Six, Guildford Four, Maguire Seven and Judith Ward who were framed and jailed for long years under a Labour Government.

A speaker at the protest giving some reasons why Keith Starmer is not welcome in Ireland. (Video cred: Social Action Ireland)

The speaker could have also mentioned the Labour Party’s participation in the WWI War Cabinet which had sentenced and executed 16 Irish leaders after the 1916 Rising and its bipartisanship with the Conservatives on the partition of Ireland in 1921 and instigation of the Civil War in 1922.

SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION

The attitude expressed by protest passers-by on foot, bicycle or in motorised transport was nearly uniformly supportive. One exception was a fascist who called the protesters ‘traitors’ and attempted to take closeup photos before being blocked by a participant with a flag and seen off.

(Photo: R.Breeze)

Another was a big man who in a UStates accent seemed to shout something derogatory about Ireland and then claimed to be Irish (he might have been part of the diaspora there since the Irish tricolour colours appeared on the back of his top).

For much of the two hours of the event, slogans were shouted in support of Palestine, against the Zionist State, against Starmer, against British occupation of Ireland, for Intifada revolution, and for the solidarity action of Yemen at sea regarding Zionist-collusive shipping companies.

End.

Another view of west-facing section of protest with newly-made ornate Starry Plough flag. (Photo: R.Breeze)

FOOTNOTE

1There have been a number of reports of special units of the British army in Palestine and on British Intelligence personnel assisting the ‘Israeli’ Occupation Force.

ORGANISERS CLAIM 25,000 ON PALESTINE SOLIDARITY MARCH IN DUBLIN

On By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Internationalist Solidarity, Israeli Zionism, Massacres, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 5 mins.)

The national demonstration called by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign for 31st August began at the Garden of Remembrance and, traversing the city’s main boulevard, crossed the river to rally across from Leinster House, the Irish Parliament.

Having a weekly Saturday commitment until 1.30 and the IPSC march start advertised for 1pm, I had to run to catch it up as it marched away up O’Connell Street. I hurried alongside it to try to reach the front but failed to do so before I had to stop and fly the flag with comrades.

Having to run to catch up with the demonstration after an earlier weekly commitment. (Photo: D.Breatnach)

Looking back southward from O’Connell Bridge I could see the march stretching back along part of O’Connell Street while ahead I could see the front of the march winding along the outside of the Trinity College entrance.

Since early October last year, the IPSC and others have organised Palestine solidarity marches at least every second week through different parts of the city, mostly to Government offices and the Parliament. Similar events have also taken place across the land.

There have also been pickets of Zionist-friendly businesses and motorway bridge flag and banner drops, weekly roadside pickets in addition to building occupations and university protest/solidarity encampments.

This community solidarity banner may be seen every Thursday evening in four different areas of North Dublin (but for some reason the IPSC does not include it in its weekly list of events). (Photo: D.Breatnach)

Meanwhile, in Palestine the Zionist genocide grinds on unabated through bombing, ground attack, starvation and disease, along with torture of prisoners, destruction of infrastructure, including buildings, while the Resistance fights back with their missile launchers, guns and explosives.

While the fluid tactics of the Resistance are appropriate to the genocidal and well-armoured enemy, we must ask ourselves whether ours are too. Marches are important in showing numbers and in increasing the feeling of wider participation among individuals and small groups of friends.

(Photo: D.Breatnach)
(Photo: D.Breatnach)

However the demonstrations are not moving the Government, much less the State, not even to bring forward the agreed Occupied Territories Bill, much less keeping Irish state airspace free of genocidal collusion.

Targeted direct action seems more likely to exert the necessary pressure, as was the case with Axa Insurance, where regular pickets and some occupations resulted in its divestment from ‘Israeli’ banks. University protest encampments also scored some successes.

But where are their trade unions? (Photo: D.Breatnach)
But where are their trade unions? (Photo: D.Breatnach)

There are other possibly suitable targets of protest in terms of assistance to the Resistance. Is the Irish Red Cross fulfilling its duty in seeking access to Palestinian prisoners being tortured and starved? Are ‘Israeli’ imports being blocked?

Quite possibly other kinds of organisation are necessary to discuss, plan and lead these kinds of processes and indeed it was such sprung-up organisations that led those direct action events. Perhaps it is wrong to expect and organisation like the IPSC to lead them.

But is it wrong to think that the IPSC should advertise or at the very least tolerate such actions and not discourage them? Or even more, not warn people off from supporting such groups?

(Photo: D.Breatnach)
(Photo: D.Breatnach)

Watching IPSC stewards shepherding people to clear the Molesworth Street from Dawson Street to the junction, even when they are packed solid from there to the rally across the road from Leinster House sometimes looks as though they see themselves as policing the march — and the movement.

Those who want that road cleared are the police but a) that is their concern and b) the demonstration is on the road which it has a right to be and traffic will just have to avoid it.

(Photo: D.Breatnach)
(Photo: D.Breatnach)

We don’t have to work against one another. If the IPSC doesn’t want to lead some kinds of actions, they don’t have to. And if others want to do things the IPSC doesn’t, then they can. But no-one has the right to be the police within the movement, much less restrict development.

End.

(Photo: D.Breatnach)
Aerial view of the march crossing O’Connell Bridge and the numbers all the way back to the Garden of Remembrance. (Photo sourced: IPSC Facebook)

INDEPENDENCE LESSON FOR THE IRISH RULING CLASS: WHAT THE YEMENI SPOKESPERSON SAID

On By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Israeli Zionism, National Liberation, PalestineLeave a comment

Clive Sulish

(Reading time: ONE minute.)

Yemeni Defense Minister Major General Mohammed Nasser Al-Atifi during a commemorative event held by the Ministry of Defence spoke a good lesson for the Irish ruling class:

Hesitation or retreat from Yemen’s supportive stance towards Gaza is impossible and not subject to negotiation or compromise.

Yemen’s powerful and resounding response to the Nazi entity is coming without hesitation or concern, and we will meet Zionist madness with Yemeni strength, which they have tasted in the seas.

We continue to develop our capabilities quantitatively and qualitatively, in accordance with the latest military building concepts we seek.

Major-General Mohamed Nasser Al-Atifi, Minister of Defence in Yemeni Government. (Photo sourced: Internet)

Yemen’s position is central in the Axis of jihad and resistance, in defense of the nation, its sanctities, values, lands, and our national security.

Yemen is on the path of liberation and independence, and will not accept any foreign subordination or domination. It will not be a backyard for any regional regime or subject to international guardianship.

National wealth is a sovereign resource, and we will not allow its waste, corruption, or neglect in its investment, in a way that serves the higher interests of all of Yemen.

We will not allow any threat to destabilize the security and stability of our country, and we will not accept the presence of any foreign forces on our land and islands.

Major-General Mohamed Nasser Al-Atifi in planning conference with senior Yemeni military officers, August 2024. (Image sourced: Internet)

Thanks for those words as an example of national independence from Major-General Mohamed Nasser Al-Atifi. The Irish government on the other hand, as a management committee of the Irish ruling class:

Allows the partition of the country and occupation of six counties by an invader; also our air space and sea to be flown and sailed by UK and US warplanes and warships and our foreign policy dictated by NATO & EU.

And our natural resources and infrastructure sold to foreign companies and our educated labour force to be exploited by foreign companies.

Also, our produce taken by foreign companies and food we used to grow ourselves imported and sold to us in foreign-owned supermarkets, even our national airline sold to another country.

What a contrast!

End.

Leaked files: Britain’s secret propaganda ops in Yemen

On By rebelbreezeIn British imperialism, Middle East, National Liberation, peace processes, Political Analysis, Popular Resistance, UncategorizedLeave a comment

April 2023: Leaked files reveal that British intel used local Yemeni NGOs and social media in a covert campaign to undermine the Sanaa government and influence the war-torn country’s peace process.

Kit Klarenberg

(Reading time: mins.)

The Cradle Editor’s note: All Yemeni NGO employees, journalists, and other private individuals named in this article appear in the ARK documents seen by The Cradle. These Yemenis may be unaware of the UK’s role and/or intent in funding their activities.

Yemen’s civil war, considered the world’s gravest humanitarian crisis, appears to be nearing its end due to a China-brokered detente between Iran and Saudi Arabia, who support opposing sides in the bitter conflict.

Early signs suggest that the rapprochement between Tehran and Riyadh may not only end hostilities in Yemen, but across the wider region.

The US, Israel, and Britain have the most to lose from a sudden onset of peace in West Asia. In the Yemeni context, London may be the biggest loser of all.

For years, it provided the Saudi-led coalition with weaponry used to target civilians and civilian infrastructure, with receipts running into billions of pounds sterling.

During the entirety of the war, Yemen was struck by British-made bombs, dropped by British-made planes, flown by British-trained pilots, which then flew back to Riyadh to be repaired and serviced by British contractors.

In 2019, a nameless BAE Systems executive estimated that if London pulled its backing for the proxy war, “in seven to 14 days, there wouldn’t be a jet in the sky.”

A Typhoon at RAF Akrotiri, near Limassol in Cyprus, after striking Houthi targets in Yemen (Photo cred: Sgt. Lee Goddard/ AFP)

In addition to supplying weapons, the war also presented a golden opportunity for Britain to establish a military base in Yemen, fulfilling long-held fantasies of recovering the Empire’s long-lost glory days “East of Suez.”

Al-Ghaydah airport in al-Mahrah, Yemen’s far eastern governorate, has for some time quietly housed “a fully-fledged force” of British soldiers, providing “military training and logistical support” to coalition forces and Saudi-backed militias.

There are even indications that this involvement could extend to torture methods, which is a troubling reflection of one of London’s leading exports.

The Cradle has obtained exclusive information about a previously undisclosed aspect of London’s role in the proxy war against Yemen’s Ansarallah-led resistance.

It has been revealed that a multi-channel propaganda campaign, led by the intelligence cut-out ARK and its founder Alistair Harris, a veteran MI6 operative, has been operating in complete secrecy throughout the nine-year-long conflict – one that specifically targeted Yemen’s civilian population.

Anti-Ansarallah ops

Leaked Foreign Office documents have revealed that ARK’s “multimedia” information warfare campaign was designed to undermine public sympathy for the Ansarallah movement and ensure that the conflict would only end on terms that aligned with London’s financial, ideological, and geopolitical interests.

For instance, public acceptance of the UN’s widely unpopular peace proposal required propaganda support from local NGOs and media organizations that “support UK objectives” to “communicate effectively with Yemeni citizens” and change their minds.

It was also necessary to counter “new actors” in the information space that were critical of the Saudi-led coalition’s brutal bombing campaigns and the illegitimate, US-backed puppet government that the aerial assaults sought to protect.

Considering the high rate of illiteracy in the local population, ARK conceived the creation of a suite of “visually rich” products extolling the virtues of a Riyadh-dominated peace plan.

These products would be disseminated on and offline and would “deliberately include different demographics, sects, and locations to ensure inclusivity,” informed by focus groups and polling of Yemenis.

ARK’s campaign even extended to convening “gender-segregated poetry competitions using peace as a theme” and “plays and town hall meetings.”

Publicly, many of these propaganda products appeared to be the work of Tadafur – Arabic for “work collectively and unite” – an astroturf network of NGOs and journalists constructed by ARK.

Its overt mission was to “resolve local level conflicts” and “unite local communities in their conflict resolution efforts.”

The campaign began initially at a “hyper-local level” across six Yemeni governorates, “before being amplified at the national level.” Activities “[in] all areas and at both levels” had unified messaging across “common macro themes,” such as the slogan “Our Yemen, Our Future.”

In each governorate, a “credible” local NGO was identified as a messenger, along with “well-known” and “respected and influential” journalists who served as “dedicated field officers” across the sextet, managed by ARK.

In Hajjah – “a site of strong Houthi influence” – the Al-Mustaqbal Institute for Development was ARK’s NGO of choice; in Ansarallah-governed Sanaa, it was the Faces Institution for Rights and Media; in Marib, the Marib Social Generations Club.

In Lahij, ARK’s choice was the Rouwad Institution for Development and Human Rights; in Hadhramaut, Ahed Institute for Rights and Freedom; in Taiz, Generations Without Qat.

These local NGOs were instrumental in promoting ARK’s agenda and advancing the narrative that aligned with Britain’s objectives in Yemen.

The company’s roster of “field officers” comprised of individuals with various backgrounds, such as:

“Human rights abuse” specialist Mansour Hassan Mohammad Abu Ali, TV producer Thy Yazen Hussain, Public Organisation to Protect Human Rights press official and “experienced journalist” Waleed Abdul Mutlab Mohammed al-Rajihi,

Also producer from Alhadramiah Documentary Institute Abdullah Amr Ramdan Mas’id, editorial secretary of Family and Development magazine and the Yemen Times’ Taiz news manager Rania Abdullah Saif al-Shara’bi, as well as journalist and activist Waheeb Qa’id Saleh Thiban.

A Trojan Horse

Once ARK’s field officers and NGOs “successfully designed and implemented hyper-local campaigns,” coverage of “information around the related activities will then be amplified at the national level.”

A key platform for this amplification was a Facebook page called “Bab,” launched in 2016 with tens of thousands of followers who were unaware that the page was created by ARK as a British intelligence asset.

Under the guise of a popular grassroots online community, ARK used the Bab page to broadcast slick propaganda “promoting the peace process,” including videos and images of “local peacebuilding initiatives” organized by its NGO and field officer nexus.

“Campaign content will highlight tangible, real-life examples of compelling peacebuilding efforts that all Yemenis, regardless of their political affiliation, can relate to,” ARK stated.

“These will offer inspirational examples for others to emulate, demonstrating practical ways to engage with the peace process at a local level. Taken together, these individual stories form the broader campaign with a national message: Yemenis share a collective desire for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.”

When “high engagement levels” with this content were secured, Bab users were invited to submit their own, which demonstrated “support for the peace process.” They were explicitly asked “to mirror content ARK has produced, such as voxpops, short videos, or infographics.”

This was then “shared by the project and field teams through influential WhatsApp messaging groups, a key way of reaching Yemeni youth.”

ARK’s “well-connected communications team” would then “strategically share packaged stories with broadcast media or key social influencers, or offer selected journalists exclusive access to stories.”

Creating a constant flow of content was a deliberate ploy to “collectively be as ‘loud’ as partisan national political and military actors.” In other words, to create a parallel communications structure to Ansarallah’s own, which would drown out the resistance movement’s pronouncements.

ARK’s role in Yemen’s peace process

While one might argue that the non-consensual recruitment of private citizens as information warriors by British intelligence was justified by the moral urgency of ending the Yemen war quickly, the exploitation of these individuals was cynical in the extreme.

It amounted to a Trojan Horse operation aimed at compelling Yemenis to embrace a peace deal that was wildly inequitable and contrary to their own interests.

Multiple passages in the leaked files refer to the paramount need to ensure no linkage between these propaganda initiatives and the UN’s peace efforts. One passage refers to how campaign “themes and activities” would at no point “directly promote the UN or the formal peace process.”

Another passage says concealing the operation’s agenda behind ostensibly independent civil society voices “minimizes the risk” that “outputs are perceived as institutional communications stemming from or directly promoting the UN.”

Yet, once ARK’s campaigns began “performing successfully at the national level,” the company’s field officers planned to “build a bridge” between its local foot soldiers and national “stakeholders” – and, resultantly, the UN.

In other words, the entire ruse served to entrench ARK’s central role in peace negotiations via the backdoor.

Diminished western influence

At that time, the ceasefire deal proposed by the UN required Ansarallah and its allied forces to virtually surrender before Riyadh’s military assaults and economic blockade of the country could be partially lifted, along with other stringent requirements that the Saudis refused to compromise on.

Newly recruited Houthi fighters gathered for training outside Sana, the capital of Yemen – they became the Ansarrallah Army. (Photo credit: Yahya Arhab/EPA, via Shutterstock)

The US aggressively encouraged such intransigence, viewing any Ansarallah influence in Yemen as strengthening Iran’s regional position.

However, these perspectives are no longer relevant to Yemen’s peace process. 

China has now encouraged Riyadh to offer significant concessions, and as a result, the end of the war is within sight, with critical supplies finally allowed to enter Yemen, prisoners returned, Sanaa’s airport reopened, and other positive developments.

Evidently, Washington’s offers of arms deals and security assurances are no longer sufficient to influence events overseas and convince its allies to carry out its agenda.

The failure of ARK’s anti-Ansarallah propaganda campaigns to coerce Yemenis to accept peace on the west’s terms also highlights Britain’s significantly reduced power in the modern era.

Whereas wars could once be won on the coat-tails of well-laid propaganda campaigns, the experiences of Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan show that the tide has turned. Subversive information campaigns can confuse and misdirect populations but, at best, can only prolong conflict – not win it.

End.

Republished with kind permission of the author Kit Klarenberg from https://thecradle.co/articles-id/685.

ZIONIST MONOLITH DISINTEGRATING

On By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Israeli Zionism, Middle East, Palestine, Political Analysis, Popular ResistanceLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

On Monday 2nd September the largest ‘Israeli’ trade union, along with a number of other organisations have called a strike in support of the ‘Hostages’ relatives’ organisation1 in order to force Netanyahu to stop blocking a ceasefire agreement.

Two months ago, the Palestinian Resistance leadership accepted the 3-stage terms for an end to the current war in Palestine proposed by then US President Joe Biden, which he claimed to have been agreed by the Zionist Government.2 However Netanyahu sabotaged the negotiations.

The Resistance is clear that a) no IOF can remain within the Gaza strip, b) there must be no impediment to the return of displaced people, d) the gates have to be opened to allow food, medication etc. to enter and those requiring special medical treatment to leave.

In addition, the Palestinian prisoners nominated for release in exchange of the ‘Israeli’ prisoners held in Gaza cannot be vetoed by Netanyahu, nor can the war resume once the ‘Israeli’ captives have been returned, two essentials with which the Zionist Prime Minister disagrees.

Netanyahu has also stipulated that it’s essential for State security that the IOF must remain in the ‘Netzarim Corridor’ in Gaza, which crosses a red line for the Resistance and which the IOF intelligence sector deny is necessary for security.

At the same time, Zionist government Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has called on military chiefs to resign and some high-rankers of the Intelligence sector of the military have indeed already done3 while another is reportedly about to do so.

Some ‘Israeli’ media commentators have reflected the dissension and openly criticised their government, not only because of the failure to prevent the October 7th Palestinian breakout but also to defeat the armed resistance and rescue the ‘hostages’.

The latter has been one of the major drivers of huge protest demonstrations, including some against Netanyahu himself and some against his more fascist cabinet supporters, such as Benny Gantz.

Also adding to the dissatisfaction are the many ‘Israeli’ settlers who are in hotels or camps at Government expense, having left the northwestern occupied region due to Hezbollah bombing (mostly) the military there in support of the Palestinians facing genocidal IOF attacks.4

Northwestern occupied Palestine was also the producer of significant amounts of food for the general ‘Israeli’ population which it must now do without.

Seen from Lebanon, Hezbollah rockets hit IOF installation 15 December 2023 but could be a scene from almost any day since October 8th. (Photo cred: AFP)

Then there’s the problem of replacing the numbers of dead and injured IOF, the true extent of which has been concealed by the Zionist state. This has led to the June removal of the exemption from military service of Haredi Jews , resulting in their protest demonstrations.5

One of the state’s main ports, ‘Eilat’ has declared bankruptcy6 due to radical reduction in shipping as a result of Yemeni targeting and Haifa is also suffering. In addition Zionist-friendly companies abroad are being boycotted and some have abandoned the Zionists as a result.7

This cannot be seen as any kind of opposition to Zionism within ‘Israeli’ society but rather as a reflection of deep divisions within Zionism itself; the state and the occupation project remains one of European settler colonialism, fundamentally expansionist and genocidal at its core.

Running alongside these elements is that of declining military confidence, both among the general population and in the IOF itself. This is a state that once felt itself invincible in the Middle East with its air force, intelligence services and ground forces – and of course huge US backing.

Despite all this, it has been unable to prevent the October 7th breakout or subsequently in 10 months of genocidal bombardment and military invasions to defeat the Palestinian resistance nor to curtail Hezbollah’s attacks on the northwestern region from Lebanon.

The settler population is aware its much-vaunted air defence systems were unable to prevent Iran’s retaliation8 on 13th April from hitting three military bases,9 or Hezbollah from hitting a number of military targets in its recent retaliation for the assassination of its senior officer Fouad.

Large numbers of ‘Israeli’ citizens, many of which hold dual citizenships are also leaving the Zionist state and reportedly the highest proportion of these are of Ashkenazi background, i.e eastern European rather than middle Eastern, African etc.

The monolith of Zionism in the Middle East is disintegrating but it will yet require some further pushing and blows to collapse it completely. This is the time for escalation of all kinds of activities to push the process to its logical and desired conclusion.

CAUSES OF THE EFFECT

What has brought about this state of affairs? Certainly a number of things but first and foremost we must applaud the Palestinian Resistance, comprising both its armed factions and the determination and resilience of a population in the midst of ten months of genocidal attacks.

The resilience of the population across the age and gender profiles, the resistance of the prisoners in the face of daily torture and slow starvation and the work of social and medical services have formed a solid background to fighters and development of effective weapons matching their targets.

To that has been added innovation in planning ambushes and in methods of attack, along with daring and sacrifice in carrying them out.

Secondly, the active support of the rest of the Axis of Resistance, first Hezbollah in Lebanon and the armed forces in Yemen, followed by the state of Iran and resistance groups in Iraq.

Next we must also acknowledge the solidarity front in particular in western states demonstrating, boycotting and sabotaging Zionist businesses and businesses and states colluding with Zionism.

In particular in the latter front stand the radical and revolutionary youth who have continued and even escalated their resistance in the face of state and Zionist violence, arrests and trials, fines and imprisonment, restrictions on and expulsions from their studies and loss of accommodation.

End.

FOOTNOTES

1The recent recovery by the IOF of the bodies of six of the Israeli prisoners taken by the Resistance on October 7th seems to have been the impulse to convert months of protest demonstrations into a general strike. The bodies were found in a tunnel and original reports said they had died from suffocation, assumed to be from IOF bombing. Later a Resistance statement said they had been shot by the IOF in a rescue attempt while the IOF said the prisoners had been executed by the Resistance. It seems now that the Resistance’s statement was a metaphor as they say that since the Nusserat Massacre when in order to rescue four ‘Israeli’ prisoners the IOF bombed and shot nearly 300 Palestinians, mostly civilians, the Resistance guards now have different instructions in the event of an IOF attempt to rescue the prisoners.

2On 2nd July.

3https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ5zjY6S-iQ and https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240702-israel-sees-800-senior-army-officers-resign-this-year/

4https://www.timesofisrael.com/6-months-on-70-of-evacuees-from-the-south-are-home-but-thousands-remain-in-hotels

5https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6p24expzd5o

6https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/ports/attacks-red-sea-shipping-bankrupt-israeli-port

7For example French Axa Insurance https://www.irishexaminer.com/business/companies/arid-41460304.htm

8For Israel’s air strike on the Iranian Consulate in Beirut, Lebanon. Another Iranian retaliation is expected daily, for the August 4th assassination of Hamas leader (and peace talks negotiator) Ismail Haniyeh on diplomatic visit to Iran.

9Including one close to ‘Tel Aviv’.

SOURCES & REFERENCES

General Strike: https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/israeli-union-demands-general-strike-after-hostages-deaths-1667504.html

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/mass-protests-erupt-in-tel-aviv-over-death-of-6-captives-in

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/sep/02/israel-gaza-war-national-strike-hostages-ceasefire-netanyahu

IOF resignations: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240702-israel-sees-800-senior-army-officers-resign-this-year/

Haredi Jews now eligible for conscription: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6p24expzd5o

Axa Insurance divests from ‘Israeli’ banks: https://www.irishexaminer.com/business/companies/arid-41460304.html

Bankruptcy major ‘Israeli’ port: https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/ports/attacks-red-sea-shipping-bankrupt-israeli-port

Hundreds of thousands of ‘Israelis’ in hotels and camps: https://www.timesofisrael.com/6-months-on-70-of-evacuees-from-the-south-are-home-but-thousands-remain-in-hotels

‘Israeli’ court orders strike to end while large USA union supports the strike: https://www.thejournal.ie/israel-strike-6477007-Sep2024/

CENSORSHIP OVER PALESTINE EXPOSES SHAM OF WESTERN ‘FREE PRESS’

On By rebelbreezeIn Civil Rights, Current Affairs Comment, Imperialism, Mass Media Criticism, Middle East, Palestine, Political AnalysisLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 2 mins.)

The image of freedom of the press in Western society has been undermined by the biased reporting of the corporate media and yet further by the wave of censorship of social media in recent years, including blocking media platforms.

Time and again readers have seen that the version of events reported is that which favours the western powers and if and when the latter’s enemies are reported it is done perfunctorily and often with an air of doubt.

In war zones, the reporters for western media tend to be embedded among western military and rarely among their opponents.

Media censorship was already rife on reporting the war in Ukraine but has spread higher and wider during the current ‘Israeli’ genocide in Palestine, causing increasing numbers of people to resort to social media news and commentary platforms. But these alternatives too are targeted in turn.

The Western powers have attacked social media platforms such as Telegram, arresting its founder a few days ago1 and this week blocking to subscribers throughout the European Union the Resistance News Network, which reported throughout the day on events in the ‘Israeli’ genocide on Telegram.

Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, currently under French State arrest. (Image sourced: Internet)

Earlier this month the FBI raided the homes of two US citizens, Scott Ritter and Dimitri K. Simes, journalists whose broadcasting has been hosted by Russian media,2 in alleged concern over possible Russian interference in the Presidential elections (!).

Both men have been critical of US foreign policy, which is likely the reason for intimidation through house searches, the same going for the UK police ‘welcome home’ upon Heathrow arrival of Richard Medhurst, an independent journalist and his arrest under ‘Anti-Terrorism’ law.3

Censorship in Reporting the War in Ukraine

Ukraine war news censorship has been running since 2014 but it really ramped up when Russia invaded in 2022. Any prominent individual or site, whether pro-Russia or just NATO-critical that challenged or did not follow the western imperialist line, was soon subjected to censorship.

Pablo González, a dual-nationality Basque reporter, was threatened by Ukrainian intelligence agents and then arrested and jailed in Poland, allegedly for spying for Russia. No evidence was produced during the 886 days he was jailed but now he’s released4 they claim they have a lot.

The Russia-based site RT America was closed down in the USA in 2022,5 as was RT UK in the UK.6

Oliver Stone’s documentary Ukraine On Fire was removed from YouTube7 and veteran conflict reporter and author Christopher Hedges, who left his post as Middle East reporter for the New York Times because of the paper’s censorship, was censored again by YouTube.8

Oliver Stone’s acclaimed documentary on Ukraine prior to Russian invasion was removed by Youtube.

The Grayzone electronic media outlet was characterised as a ‘pro-Russia’ site and veteran anti-imperialist and celebrated linguist Naom Chomsky was accused of being naive or also biased towards Russia.

To what would be their shame if they were capable of such a saving grace, much of the western Left and liberals, both reformist and revolutionary-claiming sections, rowed in behind the censors and labelled all who didn’t swallow their line, including Chomsky9 as “Putinistas”.

The reporting of the western mass media was accepted uncritically while any alternative reporting was attacked, some being characterised as Russian-backed media (in contrast with the corporate media, which of course is free of bias!).

Challenging journalists have also disappeared in Ukraine, where regime-critical journalist Gonzalo Lira died in Ukrainian jail,10 whereas in Palestine, the Israeli Occupation Force had killed at least 116 journalists as August drew to a close.11

In their acceptance of western censorship, those sections of the Left helped to ideologically prepare the ground for the wide-scale censorship around Palestine about which some of them complain bitterly now.

End.

(Image sourced: Internet)

Footnotes

1https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/telegram-messaging-app-ceo-pavel-durov-arrested-france-tf1-tv-says-2024-08-24/ Update: Durov’s arrest in custody had been extended (see References & Sources).

2https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fbi-searched-homes-two-americans-with-ties-russian-state-media-2024-08-22/

3Medhurst is currently out on bail.

4In a prisoner exchange https://elpais.com/espana/2024-08-01/el-periodista-espanol-pablo-gonzalez-liberado-en-un-intercambio-de-presos-entre-ee-uu-y-rusia.html

5https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202204/1258996.shtml

6‘The UK media regulator Ofcom has repeatedly found RT to have breached its rules on impartiality and on one occasion found it had broadcast “materially misleading” content.[3][4][5] On 18 March 2022, Ofcom cancelled RT’s UK broadcasting licence “with immediate effect” after concluding the outlet was not “fit and proper” or a “responsible broadcaster”’(Wikipedia). The unconscious irony is staggering.

7https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/03/13/678482/Video-sharing-giants-delete-documentary-Ukrainian-revolution

8Six years of his broadcasts for On Contact and Russia Today were removed from Youtube, prompting him to set up on Substack.

9For many years the darling of the western Left.

10https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/world-int/24744-the-tragic-end-of-gonzalo-lira-a-voice-silenced-in-ukraine.html

11https://cpj.org/2024/08/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict

References & Sources

59 news organisations protest ‘Israeli’ slaughter of journalists in Palestine: https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/media-groups-urge-eu-to-sanction–israel—suspend-treaty

Thoughtful piece on bias in reporting the Ukraine War: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/8/4/western-media-and-the-war-on-truth-in

Ukrainian state censorship on war reporting: https://theintercept.com/2023/06/22/ukraine-war-journalists-press-credentials/

French authorities’ arrest of Telegram founder: https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/french-police-custody-extended-after-arrest-of-telegram-chief-executive-durov-1665708.html

A Tale of Three Vessels: Submersibles, Yachts and Migrant Boats

On By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Human Rights, Mass Media Criticism, Political AnalysisLeave a comment

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

If one read and believed the international press, one would conclude that the only vessel to sink in the Mediterranean in recent times was the super-yacht, Bayesian, belonging to the magnate Mike Lynch.

The sinking of the yacht was not only international front-page news, but dominated the headlines in the major media outlines since going down on the 19th of August.

From the comments of those who have little to do in life except talk inanely about yachts, it seems to have been an impressive yacht in all senses of the word, and it is surprising that it sank so quickly, as just like the Titanic, it was considered unsinkable and could list up to 75 degrees without capsizing.1

But the super-yacht wasn’t a news item due to its technical characteristics, nor its value, estimated in the region of $40 million dollars, although both aspects were mentioned in the press, but rather for the characteristics and value of those who died (excluding crew of course).

Late tycoon Mike Lynch photographed at home (Source photo: Internet)

Mike Lynch was a software magnate, compared by some media to Bill Gates. He sold his software company Autonomy to Hewlett Packard for eleven billion dollars.2 Without this favourable bank balance his death in the African cemetery that the Mediterranean now is, would go unremarked.

It is not the first time the press went into overdrive on the sinking of a vessel belonging to a rich person.

In June 2023, the submersible Titan imploded near the wreck of the Titanic killing five people, all of them rich and the press dedicated extensive columns to the tragedy for some time, even enquiring about the details of life onboard the Titan.3

On both occasions large-scale and long search and rescue operations were deployed, something the Italian government has tried to criminalise in the case of Africans trying to reach Europe.

In April this year, a court in Sicily acquitted the crew of the Iuventa, who were brought to trial for rescuing migrants (officially for “human trafficking”, i.e. the survivors of a shipwreck).

The crew of the Iuventa rescue ship were on trial for saving lives (Photo sourced: Internet)

The Iuventa boat had by 2017, when Italian authorities impounded it, rescued not less than 14,000 people without favourable bank balances.4 It is not the only attempt to criminalise rescuing shipwrecked people in the Mediterranean. The contrast with Mike Lynch is noteworthy.

Many ships sink each year. The insurance industry reports that between 2013 and 2022, 807 ships with a gross tonnage in excess of 100 tonnes sank around the world, 32 of them in the Mediterranean, almost all of them commercial vessels of different sorts.5

However, according to the IOM, in 2023, 3,041 people died crossing the Mediterranean and 100 alone in the month of January 2024.6 Nobody rescued them, the press did not give over daily columns to their lives. Unlike Mike Lynch, they were not rich.

When the rich die, just like the poor they don’t take their bank balance with them. However, that balance is important.

When the press talk of the value of the person, eleven billion dollars buys words like ‘tragedy, disaster,’ obituaries in major media outlets and it buys a rescue attempt without any fear of those who do the rescuing being charged.

Now that all the survivors and bodies have been rescued, there comes another judicial persecution. The Italian authorities are going to investigate the crew for the accident, but not the deceased Lynch, as if it were possible for the crew to say no to a man with eleven billion in the bank.7

People that rich are all like Donald Trump, they do not take ‘no’ for an answer. Their wish is a command, that must be obeyed. So once again the Italian authorities are going after those who are least to blame for a shipwreck.

A boat carrying over 500 migrant people capsizing off the Libyan coast in 2013 (Photo cred: Italian Navy via AFP)

If they are African migrants, they were asking for it and do not deserve our sympathy or empathy. If they are billionaires, they are victims of the indolence of their employees and we should all mourn them. The world turned upside down.

End.

1 New York Times (22/08/2024) Lynch Yacht Sinking Off Sicily Proves as Baffling as It Is Tragic. Emma Bubola & Michael J. de la Merced. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/22/world/europe/sicily-yacht-mike-lynch.html

2 Ibíd.,

3 New York Times (04/07/2023) A Rubik’s Cube, Thick Socks and Giddy Anticipation: The Last Hours of the Titan. John Branch & Christina Goldbaum. https://web.archive.org/web/20240815162607/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/02/us/titan-submersible-passengers.html

4 The Guardian (19/04/2024) Crew of migrant rescue boat acquitted in Italy after seven-year ordeal. Lorenzo Tondo. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/19/italian-court-acquits-crew-of-migrant-refugee-rescue-boat-iuventa

5 See https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-marine-accidents

6 See https://www.iom.int/news/iom-chief-nearly-100-disappeared-or-dead-mediterranean-2024-underscoring-need-regular-pathways

7 The Guardian (23/087/2024) ‘I’ve never seen a vessel this size go down so quickly’: why did the Bayesian sink in 60 seconds? Lorenzo Tondo.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/23/ive-never-seen-a-vessel-this-size-go-down-so-quickly-why-did-the-bayesian-sink-in-60-seconds-mike-lynch