2009 Spring Fourthwrite

              Issue No. 35 Spring 2009 Price £1.50/€2
A
SIMPLE SPARK
The best way there?
Fourthwrite
For a Democratic Socialist Republic
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
2
Since the Provisional IRA
announced its 1994 ceasefire,
building a viable and robust
republican alternative to the Sinn
Fein party and its policies has been
incredibly difficult. This should come
as no surprise to any informed
observer. There were and remain
very real, concrete reasons why
Sinn Fein enjoys the overwhelming
support of the northern republican
constituency.
More than two decades ago,
Gerry Adams and his closest advis-ers
identified that the
republican/nationalist community
had, understandably, grown
exhausted by their exertions during
the years of struggle and would wel-come
the ending of hostilities. This
outlook had come in the wake of a
long insurgency where the balance
of forces alone, worked against pro-longing
the IRA campaign indefinite-ly.
The long war had largely been
fought by the northern Catholic
working class with a population of lit-tle
more than a quarter of a million
fighting a grim, decades long strug-gle
with the British state.
When a ceasefire was
announced it was welcomed with
more relief than exaltation.
Nevertheless, so deep was the
republican population’s antipathy to
a resumption of the armed struggle
that they voted overwhelmingly in
1998 to endorse the Good Friday
Agreement - an arrangement that
fell far short of the socialist republic
that had once been the primary
republican objective. After a quarter
century of sacrifice and suffering the
republican population has no desire
however, to return to a brutal conflict
and any attempt to re-launch it
meets with deep running resistance
from the very people who supported
the insurrection so loyally in the
past.
Although the Good Friday
Agreement failed to deliver a
socialist republic, it signalled an end
to the Orange state. Seventy-eight
years after the Government of
Ireland Act, Unionism agreed to
share the administration of Northern
Ireland with republicans and thus
gave working class Catholics access
to the region’s administrative
bureaucracy. Coming as it did after
other reforms in the field of employ-ment,
housing and cultural equality
had been introduced during the pre-vious
twenty years, an overwhelm-ing
majority of republicans were pre-pared
to accept this package as
preferable to endless war and suffer-ing.
There are, nonetheless,
serious inadequacies in the
Agreement. It not only fails to
address the issue of a socialist
republic but is also incapable of
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Fourthwrite Spring 2009
3
dealing with issues of poverty,
unemployment and other impacts of
neo-liberalism. Possibly most seri-ous
of all, by making the parties to
the Agreement designate them-selves
as nationalist or unionist, it
entirely fails to deal with the sectari-an
division of the 6-Counties -
something that also facilitates the
ongoing union between Britain and
the North.
For a brief period after the
signing of the Agreement, a healthy
critique of the deal began to emerge
from among former members of
Sinn Fein and the Provisional IRA.
At one stage, Sinn Fein in Belfast
estimated that up to 20% of its elec-toral
base in West Belfast was vul-nerable
to an agreed anti-agreement
candidate.
This development was halt-ed
entirely and abruptly in the fallout
from the Real IRA’s bombing of
Omagh in August 1998. It became
almost impossible for years there-after
to argue against the Good
Friday Agreement without being
labelled a supporter of ‘Dissident
Republicanism’ and by extension
someone indulgent of its actions.
With the weight of public opinion
totally hostile to the Real IRA and its
bombing of Omagh, most of those
who had once been willing to
oppose the outworking of the
Agreement and build political oppo-sition
to its shortcomings, quietly
dropped out of political activism.
Militarist anti-agreement
republicans had no alternative politi-cal
strategy with which to contest
the ground with Adams’ party and
the ‘Peace Process’. In time, they
could hope that Sinn Fein would
self-destruct under the weight of its
contradictions. They waited to see if
support for policing, decommission-ing
weapons, disbanding the
Provos, coalition with the DUP
would cause Sinn Fein to fall apart.
Nothing of the sort happened and
the full extent of the futility of their
position became obvious after the
2007 Assembly election. Just how
inconsequential their situation had
grown was starkly illustrated when
its candidates received approximate-ly
1% of the total vote. Nor was
there anything to suggest that this
derisive vote was an aberration or
that it might improve to any mean-ingful
extent in the future. To fully
understand the extent of the defeat
one has only to contrast the per-formance
of an abstentionist Sinn
Fein candidate in the 1966 general
election in Fermanagh/South Tyrone
with that of all the republican
abstentionists in 2007. Ruairi
O’Bradaigh gained over 10,000
votes in 1966, in the aftermath of the
IRA’s failed 1956 Border campaign.
In 2007 the total vote for all absten-tionists
across the 6-Counties
amounted to less that 2,000 in total.
Promoting an armed strate-gy
was clearly not winning any sub-stantial
section of the republican
community to its cause. On the con-trary,
an intelligent observer could
see that bringing the IRA campaign
to an end was the one issue Gerry
Adams and his party colleagues
could depend on for unqualified sup-port
from republicans in the North.
Sinn Fein spokespersons were
happy to speak all day and every
day on the benefits of the ‘Peace
Process’ – it was their strongest
hand by a long mile.
The Sinn Fein party was not,
however, nearly as comfortable
when confronted with its record on
economic and social issues. From
its first participation in the Stromont
Executive, its ministers had rolled
out Private Finance Initiatives (PFI),
presided over the closure of hospi-tals
in rural areas and failed to make
any improvement to the daily living
conditions of the poorer section of
society. Participating in an adminis-tration
without powers of taxation
had obvious limitations but Sinn Fein
was content to stay in and make the
system work and working class peo-ple
began to notice their inability to
make meaningful socioeconomic
change.
The extent of dissatisfaction
with the party’s inept performance in
this arena first became obvious with
its poor performance in the
Republic’s 2007 general election.
The Andersonstown News also post-ed
a clear signal last year when it
pointed to the Sinn Fein president’s
failure to address social and eco-nomic
deprivation in his own con-stituency.
The party acknowledged
this weakness at its ard-fheis earlier
this year when it made a desperate
attempt to pretend that it is a gen-uinely
left-wing organisation. There
was too, been the recent publication
of Sinn Fein member Eoin O’Broin’s
book advocating a move to the left
by Sinn Fein.
It has become clear, conse-quently,
that any viable republican
alternative to Sinn Fein has to come
from the left. There has been some
evidence of this taking place over
the past few years with the emer-gence
of the Eirigi group with its
unambiguous advocacy of a left-wing
economic strategy and
demands for a new policy vis-a-vis
Ireland’s natural resources.
Interestingly, Eirigi has been
subjected to intense media attention
since the recent shootings, with
efforts being made to link the group
to events in Antrim and Craigavon.
The party’s chairperson, Brian
Leeson, has firmly refuted these
allegations (see page 8) but the fact
that an organisation has to go public
in order to defend itself against
such accusations can be damaging
and debilitating as it deflects it away
from productive activities.
Ultimately, this is the real
damage that the unthinking adher-ents
of ‘physical force republicanism’
are doing. They risk creating a vehi-cle
that is incapable of either accom-plishing
its limited objective of end-ing
partition or restoring vibrancy to
Irish republicanism and by exten-sion,
undermining the cause they
believe they serve.
Irish republicanism must not
be reduced to mere anti-partitionism
nor can it allow itself to be defined
as militaristic nationalism devoid of
any concept of a democratic
endorsement. It must strive to, as
the originators of the philosophy on
this island did, become a vehicle for
the improvement of governance and
betterment of the population’s condi-tion.
In the modern era this can only
be achieved by addressing the
socioeconomic needs of working
people through mobilising their num-bers
into a force for change.
Building this type of movement
requires convincing people of its
benefits and thereafter motivating
them to support it. Isolation from the
population gains nothing and loses
everything.
With the established order
currently in disarray, there has rarely
been a better opportunity to make
unprecedented change on this
island. We cannot allow imbecilic,
counter-productive actions take this
opportunity from us.
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
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The sequence of events began
some weeks ago. ‘security
sources’ insisting the ‘dissi-dent’
republican threat was increas-ing.
Stop and search was re-intro-duced
and no one seemed to notice,
there were no objections from politi-cians.
Republicans have bad mem-ories
of the stop and search policy. It
was specifically put in place for them
and many recall terrible harassment
and detentions on lonely country
roads and city streets.
A few weeks later, Hugh
Orde’s announcement that British
Special Forces were being brought
back to combat the dissident threat
prompted objections from the two
main nationalists parties. Sinn Fein
took particular issue with the fact
that Orde didn’t inform them about
his plans. Apart from what could be
construed as Orde’s contempt for
the locals there was also an element
of humiliation for Sinn Fein because
it highlighted the fact that they’re not
really partners in the new policing
arrangement nor do they have any
say in decision making. Britain con-tinue
to call the shots, contrary to
what Sinn Fein told the nationalist
and republican community in order
to gain support for the new policing
arrangements.
Sinn Fein is acutely aware
that republicans have an adversity to
dirty tricks and manipulations by
British Special Forces. Yet did
nationalist politicians or anyone else
really believe that British Special
Forces had ever really gone away?
If they were intending to leave why
did the British recently invest mil-lions
in a new MI5 base just outside
Belfast?
The day after Sinn Fein and
the SDLP objected to Orde’s
announcement, two British soldiers
on route to war torn Afghanistan
were about to taste their last bite of
freedom. They ordered a pizza and
when they came to the gates of the
Co Antrim Military base to collect it
they were shot dead by the Real
IRA, a group still dedicated to ‘physi-cal
force republicanism’. As tensions
grew, a PSNI Officer was shot dead
two days later by the Continuity IRA
in Craigavon. News of his death was
broadcast as politicians and political
commentators debated the first
shootings on a special edition of a
BBC TV programme, Spotlight.
In spite of Britain’s underhand
manoeuvre, a majority of republi-cans
simply do not want a return to
the ‘bad old days’. This was clearly
demonstrated by the public
response to the trade union led
marches across cities and towns a
few days later. Thousands took to
the streets to protest against the
shootings, distancing themselves
from those involved in ‘physical
force’ republicanism. And those
practising this form of republicanism
can have no doubt now that the sup-port
once enjoyed by their former
comrades for a previous campaign
no longer exists.
Nothing could be more evi-dent
from the performance of former
IRA chief and Deputy Minister of the
Northern Ireland Assembly,
McGuinness, who branded his for-mer
comrades as “traitors to the
island of Ireland”. McGuinness stood
on the steps of Stormont shoulder to
shoulder with the Chief constable of
the PSNI and DUP minister, Peter
Robinson. The body language of
Orde and Robison spoke louder
than McGuinness’s unprecedented
words. Leaving McGuinness to con-tinue
speaking to the media on his
Shootings have made Stormont more secure
by Patricia Campbell
Above: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown meets Northern Ireland Executive ministers Robinson and McGuinness
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
5
own, Orde and Robinson strode
confidently up the steps of Stormont,
sure that their position was more
secure than before the shootings.
While the vast majority of republi-cans
do not support the re-launch of
a physical force campaign,
McGuinness’s show of solidarity with
his former enemies and his appeal
for people to come forward with
information to the PSNI will not sit
easy with many republicans.
Nevertheless, with no signifi-cant
support and no prospect of suc-cess,
physical force republicanism at
this period in time is ‘blind mili-tarism’.
The last thirty years has
been the longest period of military
resistance to British rule in many
centuries. The duration of the 30
year war gave British Special Forces
the opportunity to infiltrate the
republican movement and even
direct operations in Northern
Ireland’s dirty war. We are left with
memories of violence and destruc-tion.
Many families are still picking
up the pieces and huge numbers
remain traumatised and brutalised.
Having experienced relative
peace in the last decade, many
have also had a taste of affluence,
albeit in the form of credit and bor-rowing.
The thought of returning to
the dark days of war would be
unthinkable. Now that we are facing
the worse economic recession in liv-ing
memory, people will not relish
the darkness that a return to conflict
would also bring.
The new Assembly has
failed to deliver meaningful social
and economic changes for the work-ing
class and especially in the mar-ginalised,
socially deprived commu-nities
where Sinn Fein secures
much support. It is in these commu-nities
that recession will impact
most. The working class has already
demonstrated its anger against ris-ing
unemployment and poverty, a
shoddy health care service and fur-ther
cuts in public services.
Thousands have already taken to
the streets across Ireland to protest
at proposals that will only make
working class people pay for mis-takes
of the ruling class. Given that
election promises have not been
delivered to the people of Northern
Ireland’s most deprived communi-ties,
it may only be a matter of time
before people rebel.
One must ask, is the ‘stop
and search policy’ and Special
Force activity to curb republican dis-sidents
or to anticipate working class
resistance? In the last week there
has been news of sectarian beatings
which has gone unreported in the
main stream press. Check points are
back in operation and the familiar
sight of Northern Ireland’s police
force bringing traffic to a halt with
the circular movement of a red torch
in the dark of night, selecting mainly
young men for attention. House
raids, rioting and arrests induce feel-ings
of unease. We thought we’d
seen the last of this.
We’ve lived through this all
before and people don’t want to live
through the repetition of past history.
It’s time to break the cycle. All over
the world, the capitalist class uses
divide and rule to maintain control
over the majority. When jobs get
scarce, the bosses stoke racism or
sectarianism so we will blame each
other instead of them. We must be
vigilant to the undercurrents of
manipulation.
We can’t depend on mainstream
politicians. They continue to fail us
as elected Assembly representatives
demonstrate this by asking public
sector bodies to save 3% of their
budgets every year for the next
three years. The current
situation only serves to divide us
and divert us from the real social
and economic issues. We must not
let them take advantage of sectari-anism
and continue to divide and
rule us. It is essential to learn from
past mistakes and build a united
working-class fight against the cuts
and the capitalist agenda of making
all workers; Catholic, Protestant and
migrant pay for the economic crisis.
It is time to build an alternative. We
can and must do it.
Website
www.fourthwrite.ie
Contact us at:
webmaster@fourthwrite.ie
or
PO Box 39
An Post
Monaghan Town
Ireland occupies a position among the
nations of the earth unique in a great
variety of its aspects, but in no one
particular is this singularity more marked
than in the possession of what is known
as a ‘physical force party’ – a party, that
is to say, whose members are united
upon no one point, and agree upon no
single principle, except upon the use of
physical force as the sole means of set-tling
the dispute between the people of
this country and the governing power of
Great Britain.
Other countries and other peo-ples
have, from time to time, appealed to
what the first French Revolutionists pic-turesquely
described as the “sacred right
of insurrection,” but in so appealing they
acted under the inspiration of, and com-bated
for, some great governing principle
of political or social life upon which they,
to a man, were in absolute agreement.
The latter-day high falutin ‘hillside’ man,
on the other hand, exalts into a principle
that which the revolutionsists of other
countries have looked upon as a
weapon, and in his gatherings prohibits
all discussion of those principles which
formed the main strength of his proto-types
elsewhere and made the success-ful
use of that weapon possible. Our
people have glided at different periods of
the past century from moral force agita-tion,
so-called, into physical force rebel-lion,
from constitutionalism into insurrec-tionism,
meeting in each the same fail-ure
and the same disaster and yet seem
as far as ever from learning the great
truth that neither method is ever likely to
be successful until they first insist that a
perfect agreement upon the end to be
attained should be arrived at as a start-ing-
point of all our efforts.
To the reader unfamiliar with
Irish political history such a remark
seems to savour almost of foolishness,
its truth is so apparent; but to the reader
acquainted with the inner workings of
the political movements of this country
the remark is pregnant with meaning.
Physical Force in Irish Politics...
Workers’ Republic, 22 July 1899
Connolly
and
Physical Force
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
6
It seems they have made an
‘eames’ of it. Not that it had to be
that way. The legacy report put
together by Robin Eames and Denis
Bradley might in different circum-stances
have served as the first
stitch in a process of knitting togeth-er
diverse, often irreconcilable, per-spectives
were it not for a brace of
built-in self destruct mechanisms.
Rather than knitting together, we
were delivered a stitch up courtesy
of a crude attempt to buy 12 000
quid's worth of acquiescence from
the families of people who were the
‘lost lives’ of the North's bloody con-flict.
In one of life’s strange para-doxes
the sole act of reconciliation
to have emerged from
Eames/Bradley is that by annoying
almost everyone the bulk of people
now seem reconciled to scowling at
the authors of the report. In a rare
display of unity most in the North
appeared to have been upset at the
same time about the same thing.
Their indecent haste to
begin finger pointing could not even
wait until they had stepped outside
the venue where the report was
being launched. In what could only
be described as an undignified bout
of shroud waving some took almost
gleefully to screaming at each other
‘our shroud is more sacred than
yours.’
Typical for the North where
each seeks to out-howl the other
with anguished cries of ‘my hurt is
greater than yours and we stand
ready to hurt you badly if you dis-agree.’
TV producers watching it all
might yet be tempted to screen
Ireland’s Top Victim in a parody of
the Tyra Banks hosted US model
show.
Eames/Bradley recom-mends
a Legacy Commission of
three to replace the effectively
redundant PSNI Historical Enquiries
Team. Whatever else the
Commission might produce reconcil-iation
hardly figures. It cannot recon-cile
precisely because in its remit it
can only reproduce the one mecha-nism
that bedevils and blocks any
reconciliation process. Broadly
speaking this amounts to a unionist
belief that there is no one size fits all
model. For unionists the people
killed by republicans were innocent
and republicans the guilty perps. For
nationalists the problem with this is
Truth & Recrimination
by Anthony McIntyre
People are always shouting they want to create a better future. It is
not true. The future is an apathetic void of no interest to anyone. The
past is full of life, eager to irritate us, provoke and insult us, tempt us
to destroy or repaint it. The only reason people want to be masters of
the future is to change the past - Milan Kundera
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
7
that it absolves the state and
unionist politicians of their role in the
conflict. Nationalists want equiva-lence
based on the professed oppo-sition
to a hierarchy of victims. From
a unionist point of view even if there
were to be some equivalence it
would be a biased equivalence evi-denced
by the inability of the sug-gested
future commission to compel
non state actors to release informa-tion
but paradoxically to have the
power to obtain such information
from state bodies.
This is supposedly to be
redressed by eliciting for individuals,
through inducements of promises of
immunity from prosecution, informa-tion
about cases unlikely ever to
result in prosecutions to begin with.
Information is to be bought with a
completely worthless currency.
Ultimately it takes on the appear-ance
of a one side bares all
model. Reconciliation does not
emerge from one party feeling it was
shafted. Nor can it be purchased
with ‘blood money.’ A deadly brace
that truthfully sinks the good ship
Reconciliation before it can even
leave port.
The Brits as usual, courtesy
of the internal solution they were
able to secure in the North, have
effectively narrated a neat little fic-tion.
They have managed to stand
back, waiting to consider the recom-mendations
made for two warring
tribes to whom their stance was
neutral over the years of conflict.
The entire process from the
British perspective was designed to
project an image of a religious
divide. That was the unmistakable
message sent out. The report was
even prefaced with a quote from a
Christian writer. A cleric from the
Protestant tradition and a former
cleric from its Catholic counterpart
and hey presto the model of two
sides involved in a sectarian squab-ble
took shape. The Brits them-selves
cleverly thought not to send
one of their own military chaplains to
take part despite having lost about
700 of their own troops not to men-tion
hundreds more of their indige-nous
allies. But to send their cleric
would have brought them down from
their plateau of moral haughtiness to
the level of the tribes.
So, the calculating old Brits,
given that they had won the war,
decided that they would wax mag-nanimous
and forego victim status.
Just let the tribes carry on with their
sectarian squabble. Besides in the
melee of the howlers shaking their
fists at each other while they profess
their devotion to peace all Brit culpa-bility
will be lost.
Truth is there is no real
appetite in the North for truth as rec-onciliation.
It is invariably sought for
recrimination. The type of truth that
is required is ‘our truth’, one that we
can poke you in the eye with for the
purposes of tarnishing you; hoping
that you will be provoked into parox-ysms
of rage which we will use as
evidence that you hate our hand of
friendship. We want the revealed
truth about what you did to us and
as little truth as possible about what
we did to you. When hurt is used to
inflict even more wounds for the pur-poses
of political advantage then the
chasm between truth and reconcilia-tion
grows even wider.
So why do committees,
commissions and interest groups
persist in linking truth to reconcilia-tion?
In sectarian Belfast ‘East is
East, and West is West, and never
the twain shall meet.’ There is no pot
of truth and reconciliation at the end
of this orange and green rainbow
that Britain from the splendour of its
benign neutral has projected onto
the screen of our collective con-sciousness.
That is the one truth
that society sorely needs to
reconcile itself to.
For unionists
the people killed by
republicans were
innocent and
republicans the guilty
perps.
For nationalists the
problem with this is that
it absolves the state and
unionist politicians of
their role in the
conflict
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
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When the inquest into the
shooting dead of Jean
Charles de Menezes, an
innocent Brazilian, supposedly a vic-tim
of mistaken identity, in the hys-teria
that followed the bombing of
London, reached its verdict a few
weeks ago, many hoped justice
would finally be done. In the end,
the open verdict, which acknowl-edged
wrong doing but refused to
call the shooting unlawful, raised
more questions than answers.
Looking away, for a moment
from the verdict, the shooting of Mr
de Menezes, although it took place
in a different context, is eerily similar
to the Killing on Holy Thursday
2000, of John Carthy from Abbeylara
co., Longford. Like the innocent
Brazilian gunned down in London,
Mr Carthy was also slain by the bul-lets
of armed police.
In the case of Mr Carthy, his
death had nothing to do with any
supposed anti-terrorist operation.
After Rose Carthy, John’s mother,
raised alarm as to the behaviour of
her son, who was bipolar and hence
prone to extreme highs and lows,
Gardaí arrived at the scene, ostensi-bly
to ‘help’ John. What Rose carthy
could not possibly have known is
that by the end of the day, far from
having received help, her son would
in fact be dead, shot dead by a
member of the Emergency response
Unit.
The Gardaí and the ERU in
particular were widely criticised for
using excessive force. Stories
abound of huge faults in the Garda
operation at Abbeylara, from failure
to offer Mr Carthy a Cigarette and
contact his psychiatrist to refusing
his sister Marie the right to speak
with him at the scene. The basis of
the problem seems to be a funda-mental
lack of training in dealing
with individuals with mental health
difficulties.
In the case of Mr de
Menezes, he was targeted simply
because he was assumed to be
Islamic because of his skin tone.
Unfortunately even being mistaken
for being Islamic in London in the
aftermath of July 7th was enough to
make one a suspect. Photos
released to the public of Mr de
Menezes in the aftermath of the
shooting, make the assumption that
he was Islamic, difficult to fathom,
but without doubt the most worrying
Øirígí
éirígí statement
“...In addition to the despicable trial by media a farcical attempt has been
made by some journalists to link éirígí to the recent armed attacks upon
British military and paramilitary personnel. They have wrongly reported that
one, or more, members of éirígí have been arrested over the course of the
last seventy-two hours.
In reality no members of éirígí have been arrested in recent days - a
fact that could have been easily established by contacting éirígí.
In another false claim a well known so-called ‘security correspon-dent’
has stated that pickets were held in recent days outside of the homes
of éirígí supporters in West Belfast. I challenge this individual to print where
and when these alleged pickets took place. The reality is that he cannot
because no such pickets ever happened.
I want to once again state that éirígí is an open, independent, demo-cratic
political party which is not aligned to, or supportive of, any armed
organisation. We in éirígí do not believe that the conditions exist at this time
for a successful armed struggle against the British occupation.
When éirígí was founded three years ago we asserted that our
objective of a Democratic Socialist Republic can only be established through
a new progressive social movement incorporating local communities, organ-ised
labour, cultural organisations, campaigns groups and political parties.
We still hold that the creation of such a popular movement repre-sents
the best potential to create the conditions which will make British rule
and capitalist exploitation in Ireland untenable.
As much as our enemies may wish that republicans have only two
options to choose from – that of accepting Stormont or that of a renewed
armed campaign – we in éirígí are determined to offer another option for
those who wish to see an end to British rule....”
Since the recent Northern shootings, socialist republican party éirígí has
been targeted by media outlets attempting to link it to armed ‘physical
force’ republicanism. While some of those arrested have certainly had
connections with the party in the past, the group’s chairperson Brian
Leeson has issued a clear statement (see below) denying any involve-ment
in recent events and stating that his party sees no value in such
actions under present circumstances. For those familiar with the lan-guage
of republican politics the words “We in éirígí do not believe that
the conditions exist at this time for a successful armed struggle” are of
real significance and should be read as such. éirígí has taken a firm
position on the economic crisis and it is one that gives solid support to
working class people and their demands. This is a welcome move within
Irish republicanism and we should not allow mischief making right wing
periodicals destroy a development of this nature.
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
9
aspect of this case was easy it was
to arouse suspicion amid the fear
and hysteria. When the bullets had
hit Mr de Menezes of course, it was
too late to ask questions or to apolo-gise
for mistaken identity.
The actions of the metropoli-tan
police on that fateful day owed
more to fear and ignorance than
they did to a genuine concern for
public welfare.
In the same way that the
Abbeylara shooting highlighted a
lack of understanding in how to deal
with incidents involving people with
mental health problems, the shoot-ing
of this innocent Brazilian going
about his business showed the inad-equacy
of the police in England in
their dealings with ethnic minorities.
What it highlights is a worrying ‘them
and us’ mentality (well known to Irish
immigrants in Britain over the years)
where anyone who doesn’t fall into
the ‘us’ category is already regarded
as one of ‘them’ and automatically
an enemy.
At their root, what both inci-dents
showed, to an alarming
degree is the extent to which police
forces use their power against those
who do not fit into the norms of soci-ety.
In healthy societies, John Carthy
and Jean Charles de Menezes
would both still be alive today. In a
healthy society, the Gardaí would
have been sufficiently trained in the
area of mental health to know the
best way to contain the situation.
John Carthy was not a criminal, just
a man who had reached rock bottom
and struggling to cope. One of the
Gardai’s major flaws was to treat
him like a criminal and act as if it
were a ‘standard’ hostage situation.
In a healthy society, the
metropolitan police would have been
sufficiently rational and culturally
sensitive to not assume that the first
dark skinned person they saw run-ning,
was a terrorist.
What these cases both
show is that Britain and Ireland are
still in many ways, sick ‘societies’. In
the case of Abbeylara, we have now
had almost nine years to assess and
learn its lessons. The Barr Tribunal
into Abbeylara gave some justice
for the Carthy family, acknowledging
the huge failings of the Garda oper-ation
and openly criticising the
approach of scene commander
Michael Jackson.
The inquest into the death of
Two Cases -Same sickness
by Donal O’Driscoll
Jean Charles de menezes, with its
open verdict, may have concluded
that the killing was not lawful and
dismissed the claim that Mr de
Menezes’ actions aroused valid sus-picion.
However in refusing to
declare the killing as unlawful, the
verdict put serious question marks
over how willing the authorities are
in Britain to take their law enforce-ment
officers to task for any murder-ous
‘mistakes’ they make, especially
in the midst of their preposterous
‘war on terror’.
Nine years after Abbeylara
and three after the killing of Mr de
menezes, we of course hope such
police operations are not called for
but also hope that if they do, that the
police can now show more restraint
and asses the situation better. As for
whether that can be achieved, well,
like Mr de Menezes, the best we can
give the police is an open verdict.
...At their root,
what both incidents
showed,
to an alarming degree
is the extent to which police
forces
use their power
against those who do not fit
into the
norms of society...
‘
John Carthy and Jean Charles de
Menezes, both of whom were shot
dead by police under dubious cir-cumstances
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
10
The Present Crisis (February 2009)
springs from poor and irresponsible
management by Banks locally and
internationally, in their policy of lend-ing
enormous sums of money, way
beyond the reserves, which they
were required to retain.
In Ireland, huge sums were
leant, primarily to finance an artificial-ly
high priced property market. As it
became clear that a run on the banks
(investors/savers wanting to with-draw
their deposits) would see these
institutions crashing (going broke),
there was a need for Government
intervention. It is now clear – that
something as important as the
National Banking System cannot be
left in the hands of private individuals.
Private Banks continued to oper-ate
with the foundation of the
State. These institutions were hand-somely
profitable, to such a degree
that it was once a populist call, to see
the institutions nationalised in order
to utilise their surpluses for the
exchequer and subsequent National
development.
The State had its own Banks,
ACC, ICC and the Post Office
Savings Bank. In addition to these
were the “Peoples Banks”; these
were the various Savings Banks,
Credit Unions and Building Societies.
The State institutions were
never developed, as a deliberate pol-icy
of State. They were not allowed to
compete with the principal institutions
of Finance Capitalism, Bank of
Ireland and Allied Irish Bank.
Trade Unions, suggested
that as an alternative to
Nationalisation of the Private Banks
that we could have one State Bank
competing on the market. The pro-posal
was to merge ICC, ACC and
the Trustee Savings Banks. This
never got off the ground and instead
the philosophy of privatisation won
out, with ACC and ICC being sold off
and the TSB status as Peoples
Banks run by honourary trustees
being altered to one private Bank
which when merged with a leading
Building Society became the present
day Permanent TSB.
Because of the careless
manner in which Banks were operat-ed,
particularly in the past 10 years, a
credit crunch (cash shortage) has
developed. This means that many
businesses cannot borrow, to expand
or to meet day to day cash flow
requirements. The consequence of
this is workers being laid off.
There is also an international
dimension to the credit crunch, which
cannot be ignored. Ireland’s principal
trading partner is still Britain, whose
currency is weak in relation to the
Euro. We cannot devalue our curren-cy
as we have given away this power
to the European Central Bank.
We are conscious that Bank
of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank are
responsible for the maintenance of
several pension schemes and there-fore
cannot be left to go bankrupt.
We welcome the present part
nationalisation with a view to com-plete
nationalisation in due
course.However, the Guarantee to
other Banks should be withdrawn
with a policy of swim or sink being
applicable.
There is now a need for a
National Bank. We suggest that the
present Network of Post Offices
should become the National Bank
and that the Patriotic Appeal to the
Nation should be to ask the People to
invest in this bank. An injection of
Peoples Money in the new National
Bank would be in a position to pro-vide
the finance necessary to get
industry operating again.
In order for the Irish
Economy to function it needs invest-ment.
However, given that invest-ment
money from abroad is now hard
(and expensive) to acquire, the State
has to consider an economic pro-gramme,
which sees a marked
decline in the need to secure foreign
money.
Afallout from our banking crisis is
that ordinary people found them-selves,
paying exaggerated prices,
for housing. With job losses, many
people can no longer afford to pay for
their homes. Along with this, we have
a surplus of around 90,000 housing
units, while 40,000 people remain on
the housing lists. Having considered
the problem the Independent
Workers Union is of the view that
Housing should be de-commoditised
by removing it from the market place.
All unsold and vacant hous-ing
property, houses, apartments and
flats, should without compensation
be taken into State ownership. Those
who seek to purchase a home, could
do so in the normal way, but instead
of seeking a mortgage from a private
financial institution, they should be
given the necessary finance and
repay the State at fixed interest in a
manner than no more than 10% of
income ever has to be paid on a
weekly/monthly basis. For those
wishing to lease or rent the same
principle of 10% should apply. No
person should have to pay more than
10% of income for housing.
The Government response to the
Crisis, to date is to impose levies
on all workers and to impose addi-tional
taxes on Public Workers. It is
the view of the IWU that an equitable
policy should be applied and that a
“Maximum Wages Order” setting a
maximum annual income/wage at
€100,000 per annum. Any income
surplus to this should be comman-
Could we appeal
to the patriotism of
those who earn in
excess
of €100,000
per annum, to pay
the surplus to the
exchequer, even as a
once-off in order
to take
the nation out of this
present crisis?
Wealth Re-Distribution
Independent Workers Union’s Alternative Economic Proposal
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
11
deered by the exchequer for the ben-efit
of the Nation.
On figures available, a tax increase
from 41% to 51% on all income over
€100,000 per annum would given an
extra €1.4 billion to the exchequer.
A 75% tax on income in
excess of €100,000 per annum would
give the exchequer an extra €3.36
billion. A 100% tax on all income over
€100,000 per annum would yield €7
billion extra.
Should our immediate fiscal difficul-ties
be resolved, by the Radical
measures proposed above, the
Government can now concentrate on
Job Creation, which in itself, is bene-ficial
to the populace but which will
also secure revenue through income
tax and savings on Social Welfare
Payments.
The present jobs policy was
over dependant on two sectors,
Building and Foreign Direct
Investment. As the housing supply is
effectively fulfiled for the next two
years, Building will have to take the
form of infrastructural projects.
Projects already begun should be
completed and consideration would
have to be given to complete the
Plans of the National Roads
Authority. It is also time, to take chil-dren
out of the pre-fabricated build-ings
that act as schoolrooms
throughout the State, by building
proper schools once and for all.
While, Foreign Direct Investment, is
welcome, and served a purpose for a
period, it is now a fact, that Ireland as
a location, for FDI is losing its attrac-tiveness.
The New European Union
Countries are nearer and/or have
easier access to the big
German/French/Italian Markets.
Wages are about a quarter
the price, the educational standards
of the workforce are as good (or bet-ter),
Corporation Taxes are low and
language barriers are being eroded.
Already, industries have left Ireland
to re-locate in Central and Eastern
EU States. We therefore have to
reduce our dependency on this sec-tor.
The IWU advocated that we
look to our Natural Resources, as the
primary source of manufacture, for
home consumption and export.
In this regard, the primary focus
should be the produce of the land,
the Food Industry. There is no rea-
INDEPENDENT
WORKERS UNION
for advice on worker’s rights
concerning: pay, holidays, redundancies,
pensions, dismissals,etc. contact the IWU
Head Office: 55 North Main Street, Cork City
Tel:021 4277151
www.union.ie
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Dublin office:01 8197731
Northern office: 047 71600
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
12
oped with some of the North African
oil producing states. This would help
to eliminate price instability.
The IWU believes that the
resources of Ireland belong to the
People of Ireland and we demand the
immediate Nationalisation of our Gas
Resources, in particular the Corrib
Field.
This policy along with a
barter system for Oil Importation
would have a huge impact on
National Expenditure, ensuring a
positive balance of payments. A sys-tem
of oil for water could favour both
Ireland and some of the North African
Oil Producers.
As employment increases as out-lined
above, the sectors, which
benefit from manufacture, will begin
to re-employ again. The retail sector
will be the obvious beneficiary. This
sector tends to have the worst record
regarding workers’ rights. Laws,
which protect workers, have to be
strengthened. The IWU sees need
for immediate improvement as fol-lows:
* A Right to take a case for Unfair
Dismissal
after 3 months in Employment.
* Legislation to ensure payment of
time + 50%
for hours worked in excess of 39
per week
* Statutory paid Sick Pay
* Double time for work performed on
a Sunday.
With New Employment Policies as
outlined above, exchequer revenues
will improve thus providing finances
for vital service areas such as Health,
Education. Local Government and
Transport. However, we would cau-tion,
that many of these areas are
overburdened with unnecessary
waste or resources, human and
material. There is need to streamline
these areas, in a manner which sees
emphasis on Frontline Staff taking
priority over administrative functions.
Finally, we would suggest
that legislation is introduced which
would see heavy fines and/or prison
sentences being imposed on those
who are found guilty of abusing pub-lic
property or of behaving through
reckless business practice, in a man-ner
not in the interest of the common
good.
European Economic Area.
One of the greatest blunders ever
made by a Government was the pri-vatisation
of Eircom. Before privatisa-tion,
we had the most advanced
telecommunications company in the
world. Since privatisation, the com-pany
has had no investment but
keeps getting sold by speculator to
speculator, none of whom have
shown any interest in developing the
top class Telecommunications sys-tem
needed by the Irish State.
This company has to be
taken back into public ownership in
order to develop the national commu-nications
infrastructure required of
the State. Once this has occurred,
the state company should be encour-aged
to collaborate with out technical
educational institutions, to develop
the world’s leading telecommunica-tions
system and to begin to manu-facture
the products needed to devel-op
this industry at home and abroad.
In order to expand its industry the
Nation must be able to guarantee
its energy supply. In the regard, the
State Energy companies ESB, Bórd
Gáis and Bórd Na Móna must be
allowed to develop new, cheap, effi-cient,
environmentally friendly sup-plies.
Smaller companies adding to
the National Grid would be encour-aged
and prices paid at set rates, to
ensure the elimination of energy
price fluctuation. An energy policy
operating on an all-Ireland basis
would be more cost-effective, than
the present position of having two
major players (one North and one
South), with smaller ancillary compa-nies
adding to the Electrical grid.
Serious consideration would have to
be given to this prospect. Profits gen-erated
by the State Energy compa-nies,
can be used to develop new
renewable sources of power, particu-larly
in the Hydro, Sea and Wind
areas.
Emphasis would have to be
on reducing the importation of carbon
fuels, with a view to complete elimi-nation
of the need for such fuels in
the long-term. Such fuels add to the
global warming crisis with high CO2
emissions and can add to our finan-cial
problems because of price insta-bility.
As an interim measure, a barter sys-tem
of Water for Oil, should be devel-son,
why a planned food production
policy cannot be put in place which
would see Ireland as the Organic
Farm of Europe commanding premi-um
prices for premium products.
Presently the agriculture and food
sectors account for around 10 % of
GDP and 12% of employment.
Organic production could see
employment rise to 20% and GDP to
an even greater proportion than at
present.
This new type of develop-ment
would mean that the constant
harping about “competitiveness
becomes redundant”, as Irish Food
Produce, plays on the image of High
Quality, on a par with German
Engineering or Japanese innovation.
Dealing with our resources, would
encourage continued development of
natural forestry on rough lands.
A new approach will be
required for our fisheries and mar-itime
sector. It is fair to say that any
monetary benefits that we have
received from the European Union,
have been well paid for, mostly in fish
quota given to our fellow member
states. However, the deal at this
stage has become one sided, with
Ireland giving away much more than
it receives.
A re-negotiation of our fish-eries
resources at EU level is
required. The aim of the re-negotia-tion,
would be to give Ireland greater
access to our own fishery reserves.
Increased catches for Ireland, would
inevitably lead to increased exports
to the greater EU market. It would
also give the nation, particularly in
our Gaeltacht areas (which are most-ly
coastal), the opportunity to develop
industries based on fish, shell-fish
and other marine products.
Such re-negotiation, would
have a knock-on effect on the Irish
Navy, which would have to expand in
order to protect our returned
resources from piracy. The present
fleet of 7 ships would be inadequate
and a building programme producing
two ships per annum, in Cork and
Belfast over a could re-open a tradi-tional
sector of industry. At the same
time, naval recruitment would have to
expand.
Failure by the EU to accept
our demands in this area, might well
lead to a Norwegianisation pro-gramme,
whereby, we would with-draw
from full EU membership in
favour of membership of the
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
13
Independent Cllr. Thomas Pringle
has today called on the govern-ment
to implement a National
Bond to kick-start a recovery in the
country. There is a precedent for this
already, when the first dail issued
the republican loan in 1919 which
was massively subscribed to.
The recovery bond would be
compulsory for the wealthy, who
have benefited from the Celtic Tiger,
with a set level of contribution.
Workers could then participate in an
equal manner and benefit from the
recovery when it comes. With the
government paying 6% interest on
money borrowed from abroad surely
that interest could be paid to Irish
people and the benefits will stay in
the country.
National Bonds could issue
as a means of raising sufficient
finance to resolve the present eco-nomic
difficulties. Properly launched
and packaged as an offer to the
people to participate in a transpar-ent,
equal and accountable pro-gramme
towards economic recovery
could bring all sections of the
Councillor Pringle calls for a Recovery Bond
population together in a positive and
cohesive way. It would also show
the world that Ireland is capable of
standing on its own collective feet
and be a source of national pride.
Bonds could also be offered
as a means of generating finance
from our people abroad giving them
an opportunity to express their will-ingness
to participate in what would
be an Irish solution to an Irish prob-lem.
Although the problem was
created by the unfettered greed of
the financial world within and outside
our borders we, the Irish People are
left to deal with the Irish economy
ourselves.
Interest earned on Bonds should be
at a level of interest, which would
have to be paid if finance was bor-rowed
from abroad. A further advan-tage
of raising finance from the Irish
People would be that monies raised
would remain within Ireland or with
Irish people abroad, as would inter-est
paid on such raised monies.
International borrowing
drains our assets and leaves us in
prolonged and continuing debt out-side
the country. Internal borrowing
would keep our monies within the
country to the greater benefit of the
country and the people.
There have been calls for a
bond to issue particularly by the Irish
Congress of Trade Unions but it
should be a bottom line and not a
negotiating position according to
Pringle.
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Fourthwrite Spring 2009
14
‘We imported the structure of the
state without first considering our
own context, unaware that super-imposed
solutions doom us to
failure’ (Freire, 1974, p. 28 Brazil).
There were a few blushes the
last time former Secretary of
State for the North of Ireland
Peter Mandelson visited the working
people of his constituency in Hull.
On being offered dinner he had to
be informed that the guacamole he
had ordered was actually mushy
peas. I wonder if he thought his
preferred dish was finally arriving
when Heathrow protestor found its
mark last week. In 1997 Mandelson
launched the Social Inclusion Unit
stating that redistribution of wealth
was, ‘only a limited definition of
egalitarianism’. A dedicated egalitar-ian
like he must have been appalled
then that under his vigilance the
national income shared by the poor-est
20% of British society in 2002
dropped to 6%. In contrast the rich-est
20% controlled 46% of all
Britain’s wealth.
Thatcher made very sure
that the way in which money was
taken from the rich and given to the
poor created huge divisions in socie-ty.
Children were the most vulnera-ble.
From 1980s to 1990s people in
poverty increased by almost 50%
(Gordon and Pantazis, 1997). As
many as one in three children (over
4.3 million) were living in households
with less than half the average
income in 1995/96 compared with
one in ten in 1968. A study by
researchers at the Centre for
Economic Performance at the
London School of Economics,
shows how the number of children
living in homes that are relatively
poor is dramatically higher than 30
years ago. The impacts of this are
severe.Children in the poorest social
class, for example, are five times
more likely to die from accidents and
15 times more likely to die from a
house fire than those of the upper
classes (Flaherty et al, 2004).
Mandelson’s flagship Social
Inclusion Unit identified 3,000 neigh-bourhoods
with high poverty levels,
high unemployment and poor health.
This set the way for the year 2000
‘National Strategy for
Neighbourhood Renewal’ that
claimed that within 10-20 years no
one should be seriously disadvan-taged
where they live the ‘area-based
projects’ and created a whole
new language, ‘social exclusion,
social enterprise, regeneration,
neighbourhood renewal, citizenship,
anti-social behaviour, multicultural-ism,
cohesion and social partner-ship’.
It may have only fooled
some of us some of the time, for as
a second generation Irishman in
Sheffield remarked, “Socially exclud-ed?
We socialise. We’ve got
mates. We go loads of places
together. We’re just f***ing poor”.
So the honest language of pover-ty
and oppression has been
replaced by the ambiguous term
‘social exclusion’ which stresses the
‘importance of an individual’s social
obligations and responsibilities
rather than his or her political rights’
(Cultural Policy Collective). Hence
New Labour has gone even further
than Tory governments in placing
the blame for poverty squarely on
the shoulders which serves to set
Poverty in New Labour’s Britain
by Brian Garvey
Guacamole Street again!
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
15
people against each other.
The poverty of partnership
In the experience of Glasgow work-ers
of the Cultural Democracy
Project, the neoliberal policies that
drive this ‘urban regeneration and
neighbourhood renewal’ do not con-front
growing inequality and the
break up of communities, but focus
on small-scale, short term, tokenistic
and quick fix projects that demon-strate
‘inclusion’ or ‘diversity’. These
co-opt our community activists into
work that actually distracts us from
fighting the political measures that
cause poverty.
“It has been a policy used to
accompany rather than counteract
the collapse of full employment and
abandonment of universal welfare
provision over the last three
decades”.
In the face of collapsing
industry this has led to widespread
social dislocation and local authority
agencies have invested in regenera-tion
projects, bringing together the
public sector and marketplace to
enhance competitiveness under a
‘partnership’, “boosting market solu-tions
over collective provision and
reduces the capacity of workers to
fight for the redistribution of
resources”.
Yet levels of inequality make
a mockery of such projects (a key
indication of exclusion is prison pop-ulation
– in Britain rates of incarcer-ation
are now greater than those of
Burma, Turkey, Malaysia and Libya).
Even Peter Townsend of UNICEF
said in relation to child poverty,
“a neglect-filled Anglo-American
model which unless there is a mas-sive
investment in children will head
for economic catastrophe”
(Townsend, 1995 p. 10-12).
The first study to statistically
match poverty in the north with that
of Britain and the Republic of Ireland
showed the following:
1. there are more than 185,000 poor
households
2. more than half a million people
live in poverty
3. youngest households are twice as
likely to be in poverty than oldest
4. women poorer than men
5. Well over a third (37%) of our
society’s children are brought up in
poverty.
Even the rather timid conclu-sion
of this study calls for a ‘sub-stantial
redistribution of resources’.
So why do we on the north
follow pre-fabricated, second hand
solutions that have proven to fail
elsewhere? In our brief experience
of partnership we see that the area
based schemes on offer are attrac-tive
only to the most visible and will-ing
participants who become
involved in short term projects with
no potential to produce any longer
term benefits to the community.
A couple of people may
progress individually to do other
things, leaving the rest behind. If it is
recognised that any one of the prob-lems
brought to the attention of a
residents association, printed in
local papers that blame our ills on
‘welfare scroungers’, ‘glue bags’ and
‘scum bags’, is found in the next
estate, and the next one, and the
next, then surely we have to explore
some causes.
For it is only by sustaining
the inequality and injustice of their
social order that our governments
through various ‘trusts’, ‘schemes’,
‘grants’, ‘initiatives’, ‘task forces’ and
funding bodies can express their
generosity, their concern, their deter-mination
to help ‘the poor’.
Experience is showing that, even in
an economic crisis like this, they will
do everything but change that order.
As we continue to react to
our situation, and hold our hands out
to get some assistance with teenage
pregnancy this week, interface vio-lence
next week, drug and alcohol
abuse next week, the death of our
children the following one.
We have less time to use
them for moulding a new society, to
transform our situation we have
inherited and merely try and cope
with it.
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
16
Credited with being some kind
of ‘non-Bush’, the inaugura-tion
of Barack Obama has
been heralded as some kind of har-binger
of change. Amidst this eupho-ria
of the supposed new times, the
latest president has announced that
he is planning rapid escalation of the
US occupation of Afghanistan.
Labelled “Operation Enduring
Freedom”, and launched under the
pretext of a "war on terror"
Afghanistan is now portrayed as "the
good war" in contrast to the "bad” or
unjustified war in Iraq. While still
President-elect, Obama had
declared that he would redouble
Washington's efforts to win the war
in Afghanistan, having long argued
that Afghanistan, not Iraq, is the
strategic centre of US interests in
the region.
All imperialist countries
whether openly right-wing or social
democratic in character, obey only
one logic, and Obama is no excep-tion
to this, the logic and interests
of monopoly capital and imperialist
power relations. Furthermore, for-eign
imperialist invaders who
deprive a country of its sovereignty
cannot bring democracy despite the
imperialists striving to create the
myth that the people have a voice in
determining both their and their
country’s future.
Instead of the promised eco-nomic
reconstruction, the country's
economy has become dependent on
the drug trade, some 40 percent of
the people suffering absolute pover-ty,
and 20 million living under the
poverty line. The occupation has fur-ther
entrusted the government to the
most corrupt and brutal reactionaries
that the people have known and
hated for the last 30 years. As the
imperialists sense a failing invest-ment,
even the future of the puppet
regime and in particular Karzai him-self
are under serious consideration,
fuelling speculation that it would be
more realistic to the imperialists to
try to cut a deal with the Taliban in
some way drawing them into the
puppet regime.
Since the beginning of the
occupation there had been a marked
increase in the role of NATO in com-manding
the occupation forces, at a
time when the US was preoccupied
with its occupation of Iraq. As the sit-uation
in Afghanistan has deteriorat-ed,
the US has tried to bring more
European forces and soldiers under
NATO command from other parts of
the world. This has led to the leader-ship
of NATO and US forces being
brought under General McKiernan.
This move to re-establish full US
control of all occupation troops in
Afghanistan at the same time unify-ing
them under a single command
reflects the imperialists understand-ing
that Afghanistan must be shifted
more to the centre of the US's
strategic concerns.
General David Patraeus, the
top American commander in Iraq,
famous for his "surge" strategy there
and credited with the US's recent
successes in splitting and at least
temporarily neutralising some of the
forces fighting the occupiers there,
has been put in charge of the whole
region. His appointment has raised
some suspicion that Afghanistan will
now also see a "surge" in the coun-try’s
occupation forces.
A NATO meeting held in
Bucharest last April included an
expanded conference on the military
situation in Afghanistan attended by
the heads of state and government.
At this summit the US, UK, Holland
and Canada demanded that
Germany, France and Italy send
more troops to Afghanistan and lift
the restrictions now keeping their
forces already stationed there out of
combat. Despite resistance from
some countries, those attending
agreed to send more soldiers
although the summit was unable to
settle the deeper differences.
A senior British commander,
Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, told
the London Times in October that
"he believes the Taleban will never
be defeated. A military victory over
the Taleban was 'neither feasible nor
supportable….'” Such criticisms
however, are not limited to the
British, as the other powers see the
situation go from bad to worse, and
under pressure from Washington to
send more combat troops into the
breach, they, too are raising their
voices against the strategy that has
been imposed by the US
This US strategy of increas-ing
its own forces will send 8,000
more troops early this year. These
troops however, are to help protect
Kabul and not to conduct an offen-sive;
General McKiernan calling for
another three battalions. In late
December the US armed forces
chief of staff Mike Mullen indicated
that the total number of new forces
could reach 30,000 troops. At pres-ent
40 countries have troops in
Afghanistan and there are now
about 60,000 troops under NATO
command. The total number of
American soldiers in Afghanistan at
present is said to be about 36,000.
The US, as the aspiring "sole super-power",
has a number of different
strategic goals and has sought to
secure for itself long-term military
and political control over the world's
most strategic resources, especially
oil and natural gas in the Persian
Imperialist Escalation Fourthwrite Spring 2009
17
Gulf and the Caspian Sea region. By
controlling such resources, the US
seeks to prevent the rise of a new
rival bloc of states as control of oil
means control of those who need
that lifeblood of modern empire.
Exploiting the people and resources
of the Caspian region takes huge
pipelines that would travel hundreds
of miles over mountains and
deserts.
In 1994, the Taliban had
emerged among the Pashtun people
in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and,
with the backing of the Pakistani
secret police, the ISI, made a bid to
take over Afghanistan. The US,
which had remained officially neutral
in the civil war of the 1990s, contin-ued
to operate through its allies,
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and
through US oil companies, who, in
turn, were also supporting the
Taliban.
The Taliban promoted a bru-tal,
intolerant fusion of Islam and
Pashtun feudal traditions that many
in Afghanistan hoped would end the
murder, rape and theft by competing
warlords. However, the Taliban faced
armed opposition among the non-
Pashtun peoples, led by the
Northern Alliance that had support
from both Russia and Iran as these
could only gain if continuing war
sabotaged plans for a southern oil
pipeline.
The Taliban today however
are not the main model of Islamism
in Afghanistan. Rather, the reac-tionary
Islamic forces are consolidat-ed
in the Islamic Republic of
Afghanistan as a puppet regime of
the US imperialists and their allies.
In this aspect, the main difference
between the current Islamic
Republic regime and the Islamic
Emirates regime of the Taleban is
that the current regime is a multi-party
Islamic regime, while the
Taliban was a single-party Islamic
regime.
A spokesman for the
Communist (Maoist) Party of
Afghanistan, in an interview, points
out: “From a military point of view,
the war has been continued by a
small part of the original Taliban.
They suffered major losses during
the US invasion. Some were scat-tered
and disappeared. One section
of those who fought the US at first
left the Taliban and joined the gov-ernment
and became part of
Karzai’s armed forces. So militarily
and politically today’s Taliban is only
one small piece of their original con-figuration.”
While German politicians
have carefully avoided public discus-sion
of the military escalation, the
country’s press has been debating
the increase in German forces.
Among these, the Seuddeutsche
Zeiteung said, "The security situa-tion
is becoming more disastrous,
non-military aid for reconstruction is
not working, and as a result morale
in general is deteriorating. The ques-tion
is: what is the solution? No one
wants to hear about NATO's defeat,
because that means a declaration of
defeat by the most powerful coun-tries
in the world."
Given the importance to the
world masses of such victories as
the Russian and Chinese
Revolutions and the anti-imperialist
victories in Cuba and Vietnam, the
general secretary of the Communist
(Maoist) Party of Afghanistan, in a
recent interview points out that, “The
Taliban Islamists, who are fighting
against the Americans and the
Karzai regime, are yesterdays US
men… It is in this context that our
Party raises the banner of the revo-lutionary
war of resistance against
the imperialist occupiers and their
hand-picked regime… At the present
time we are preparing for such a
war. Our hope is to complete the
preparation stage successfully and
as quickly as possible. With the sup-port
of the international communist
movement … Afghanistan Maoists
will step forward with their independ-ent
banner.”
Alarm over Afghan civilian deaths
Civilian deaths have caused friction between the US and President Karzai
The number of civilians killed in the conflict in Afghanistan rose 39% last
year, the United Nations says.
Militants were to blame for 55% of the 2,118 civilian deaths, while US, Nato
and Afghan forces were responsible for 39%, the UN report said.
"The 2008 civilian death toll is the highest of any year" since the Taleban
were ousted in 2001, it said.
The big increase in civilian casualties comes despite repeated pledges by
US-led forces to reduce civilian deaths.
The UN said insurgents had inflicted the overwhelming majority of deaths in
bombings, often carried out "with apparent disregard for the extensive dam-age
they cause to civilians".
The researchers estimate that two-thirds of the 828 Afghans killed by the
pro-government forces died in air strikes targeting militants, sometimes at
night.
Nato rejected the UN figures, saying its forces had caused 237 civilian
deaths.
in Afghanistan
by Alex Robson
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
18
PC: It is beyond our com-prehension
what it must have been
like living with constant threat,
death, destruction and bombings.
Mahmoud: When I used to write
about victims of Israeli crimes, I
never imagined that one day I’d be
writing about the unbearable misery
of my own family. In the first days of
Israel’s war against Gaza, we
received a phone call from friends
about the bombing of my cousin’s
home. I was in shock. I couldn’t
believe it. Fifteen minutes later,
another phone call came from rela-tives
asking whether we had heard
this news and was it true.When we
arrived, at my cousin’s house we
found the civil defence and ambu-lances
there, collecting the severed
limbs of the children and their par-ents.
We found the father’s corpse
laying on the ground, about 50
meters away from the home, with
severe injuries and burns. One of
the mothers, (we couldn’t distinguish
which one), was found with the head
and shoulder amputated from her
body.
The fate of the children was
even more heart-wrenching. I was
weeping while collecting their limbs
and shredded bodies. The three chil-dren
were Mohamad, 4 years,
Ghaida, 7 years, and Sayed, 10
years. I am still traumatized from
seeing their fingers, flesh and guts
spread everywhere.
Only Dalal, 12 years old,
survived. She had gone to sleep
with her aunt the day before, as she
was afraid of the shelling. When she
discovered that she had lost her
entire family, she slumped over in
shock. She was inconsolable, cry-ing,
"I am an orphan… what is my
sin?... Nothing remains for me…
Dalal is consumed with grief by the
loss of her family, and she cries con-stantly.
The only things left in her
home were her school uniform, her
cat and some photos of her brothers
and sister.
No safe place
We have lived through difficult times
during the Israeli war. We were sub-ject
to indiscriminate missile attack
that target everything, yes every-thing.
Neither stones, nor trees, nor
humans were safe. Everyday, every
moment, we experienced death and
destruction. We didn’t feel safe even
in our homes. The Israelis threat-ened
people by making phone calls
to their homes. Many of the threats
were real and others were to spread
fear and terror among civilians. All in
all, it was a form of psychological
warfare. Many people left their
homes in pursuit of safe places, but
nowhere was safe, everywhere was
attacked. Israeli jets and artillery
shelled civilian homes causing
Death in Gaza
Mahmoud Abu Aisha is 23 years old and based in Gaza. He is active in mental health issues, lobbying and
advocy on the Palestinian issue in medical and academic forums worldwide. Mahmoud works for Gaza
Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) as Project Officer of the Crisis Intervention for Victims of
Israeli War. He was the coordinator for the GCMHP’s 5th International Conference “Siege and Mental Health…
Walls vs. Bridges” which took place on 26-28 October, 2008. The conference was co sponsored by the World Health
Organisation (WHO). Patricia Campbell from Northern Ireland, participated in the conference and has maintained
contact with Mahmoud since the conference and through out the war. She interviewed him for Fourthwrite magazine,
Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) and Rustbelt radical website.
Mahmoud Abu Aisha
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
19
calamities for almost every family in
the Gaza Strip. I personally was
close to death on many occasions.
One day, I was walking with my
friend when suddenly a huge explo-sions
occurred around 30 meters in
front of us spraying dust and stones
and shrapnel everywhere. My friend
fell down screaming. He sustained
a chest injury with deep wounds and
burns to his body. Other people
were injured in their homes in the
surrounding area.
Tanks and bulldozers
One day, we received news that the
military tanks and bulldozers were
coming closer to our homes. We
had to leave our home in a hurry. I
went with my sister in law and her
three sons (3, 5, 7 years) at sunset
as bullets flew everywhere. You can
imagine our fear, panic and anxiety,
especially from my inability to pro-tect
my nephews crying and clinging
to me. Despite the high risk, we had
to go ahead. On our way, we
entered a cemetery that was shelled
two days before. We crept along
until we reached another populated
area where we stayed in our rela-tives’
home, although it was not safe
there either. We endured a 22 day
struggling for survival. During this
time we were without electricity or
water or communication. All the net-works
were destroyed.
When the bombing stopped
I couldn’t bear to witness the scenes
of destruction everywhere as the
barbarity became still more appar-ent.
I went to destroyed areas and
realised how much destruction had
happened.
PC There is reports that suggest the
conduct of Israeli ground troops
were ruthless and barbaric. Can you
tell us more about that?
Mahmoud. Actually, words cannot
describe the Israeli ground troops
behaviour. The behaviour reflected a
kind of personal or group revenge.
They targeted civilians and innocent
people in an aggressive, inhumane,
and cruel way. When I saw what had
happened to the invaded areas, I
couldn’t recognise the original sites
or buildings. The destruction was
very horrible. Even animals were
killed. Dead cows were thrown away
and decayed, causing dangerous
diseases to those people sheltering
in UNESCO tents. High buildings
were targeted and shelled, damag-ing
all surrounding houses. Every
single individual was affected direct-ly
or indirectly. Detention was used
against innocent civilians who could-n’t
escape. The scene was inde-scribable.
PC: Are tensions still high in Gaza?
Mahmoud. Tensions are still high
and increasing with the Israeli
threats of more invasions. There
were reports of invasion in the east-ern
boarders, not far from our area
in Gaza. We live with anxiety, panic
and fear all the time. Children have
shown new critical symptoms like
intrusive obsessive behaviours, bed-witting,
stuttering, fear of death,
nightmares, depression, and PTSD.
A few days ago, we were asked to
evacuate our offices as there were
Israeli threats to resume the air
strikes against the remaining gov-ernmental
building and the banks.
All civil society organisations were
asked to evacuate. The headquar-ters
of Gaza Community Mental
Health organisation was partially
destroyed by the Israeli shelling.
PC: While Gaza was burning gov-ernments
abroad ignored the plight
of Palestinians but thousands of pro-testers
took to the streets in cities
across the world. Here in Northern
Ireland the people of Derry carried
Palestinian flags in solidarity with the
people of Gaza when they com-memorated
13 people from Derry,
shot dead by British Paratroops in
1972 and they changed the histori-cal
and famous wall mural of ‘Free
Derry’ corner to ‘Free Gaza’ Does
this type of International solidarity
reach the people of Gaza and does
it encourage you?
Mahmoud: In fact, yes. We know
about these solidarity actions by
people all over the world like
Northern Ireland and United
Kingdom and Boston and so many
free cities in the western world that
inspire us with the soul of resistance
and steadfastness. We acknowledge
and recognise the important role of
all nations and their solidarity with
us and their positions against the
injustice and crimes of Israel.
PC: Finally, despite all you have
been through you told me in an
email that the people of Gaza are
strong and determined. In some
ways this is reflected in the colourful
picture you captured of little children
playing in the middle of the rubble
and destruction. How are people
dealing with the aftermath of the
Israeli onslaught?
Mahmoud:People of Gaza have
drawn power from the long history of
trauma they have experienced and
that equipped people and strength-ened
them to cope with new trau-matic
events. Additionally, the strong
social ties, family support and reli-gious
belifes have promoted their
psychological resilience. Though,
some vulnerable groups like children
still face psychological problems and
need our help.
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
20
Ididn’t wander in by accident.
No….I did intend to go there,
though when I got there I thought
I wasn’t there, that it was some mis-take
and I was in a time warp….but
then the fellow with the Gold chain
round his neck came on the scene
and I knew it was now. The gold
chain was a giveaway, of course, as
the mohair suits and shiny shoes
were before.
I was the alien in the garden
–but not yet perceived as a serpent
– and if I managed to behave myself
I would remain non-toxic. In my
jeans and anorak and working boots
I was ignored by the brushed heads
and waxed facial hair of the strutting
males and the mutely tweeded dis-creetly
smiling females – no noise,
no chatting, no loud laughs from
these women. Christ, no! Not all of
them were silver haired either –
some were quite fresh in their 30s
and 40s but equally decorous – and
yes, surprisingly, it appeared they
were here for the same reason I was
- well, kind of. I was there to admire
the wildflower garden. A garden
which I now read in the colour
brochure had been created to pre-serve
the scarce seeds and remind
us of times past before the EU and
the Direct Payments and the regula-tions
ruling where the cows could
shit and the sheep could graze and
the hens could roost. They were
there for the official opening.
The garden really was
grand, lovely stone walls surround-ing
the plantings, a few seats in
secluded corners – a feeling of quiet
and calm amongst the lively explo-sions
of Nature’s offerings. What
might I have done if I had found
such an oasis in my adopted city
across the Ocean? Maybe more
than just make money…..money that
I minded well as the years went by
and which meant I could return at
will to see the Spring or the Autumn
colours in the hills of the Atlantic and
monitor the change to now. And
now was not what I ever dreamed of
before I left. And dream I did…like
the many before me who left to work
for the dream to be a reality sending
what they now called ‘remittances’
home in the bad days before.
A mild genteel stir in the
gathering brought me back to
now….a little old lady….surely Maud
Gonne’s reincarnation…..in theatri-cal
flowing green skirt, whiter than
white shirt, circled with green ban-danna
topped by whiter than white
face and hair, approached the micro-phone.
Well, sort of approached,
as maturity in years required the
guidance of younger hands to the
required position. Truth be told, it
was a little scary, even after all my
years in the US of A……but the
scariness of before had not abated
and was still present now, the one
thing that hadn’t changed….I would
wonder about that later….didn’t want
to miss anything now. A silent cir-cle
engulfed Maud Gonne’s ghost,
leaving me on the periphery, still the
outsider. I grinned, listening hard
but barely able to distinguish the
eloquence of this eulogy to Nature,
its generosity in creating colour and
pleasure from the dawn of time and
the responsibility and honour repos-ing
in us to maintain and preserve
the wilderness – the bees, butter-flies,
bluebells et all – not just for us,
now, but for those coming after us,
the future.
Occasional mumbles of
‘wonderful’ murmured through the
crowd reminding me a bit of the
‘rhubarbs’ rumbling before at times
of public prayer in memory of those
who had gone before us in fatal fail-ure.
But there were no feelings of
failure here – they had succeeded in
preserving the wild plants against all
the odds. Mind, no mention that the
seeds only bloomed with the protec-tion
of the living beauty of the inani-mate
stones skillfully laid by the
invisible workers in the tradition of
thousands of years before.
I couldn’t figure who Maud
Gonne’s Impersonator was but
enjoyed the experience of hearing
her. There had never been an
opportunity for this kind of thing
before and I had always felt I was
missing out on something. Now I
knew what I had been missing. The
mellifluous tones strained on the
high notes of the grand finale as she
introduced Mr. Clean from the
Reformed Church who would give
thanks……Well, now, was not this
wonderful, altogether? No other
Man of the Cloth was lined up and
certainly Mr. Clean in his pure white
shirt and teeth, open necked, shiny
hairless chin and wonderful blue
eyes didn’t need any ecumenical
support. No, sir.
With a booming voice bely-ing
his less than thirty years he
entreated us to join him in giving
thanks to God for all things bright
and wonderful before bowing his
head and loudly declaiming his per-sonal
delight and gratitude for the
garden. An enthusiastic Amen fol-lowed
before a slow procession to
cut the ribbon…..and then the fellow
with the gold (or was it brass?) chain
came in to play. He had indeed
been elected by the people and rep-resented
them at the Local Authority
– but was aware of his status here
so he had the sense to briefly
declare the garden Open! And
immediately invited everyone to
wine and food in the Centre. No
mad rush for the free wine followed
but a soft drifting indoors heralded
the appearance of half a dozen burly
men round the corner, casually
sauntering, pocketed hands and big
grins…looking as though they
owned the now empty space.
Recognising one of their
own I got a ‘hows it goin, there’ from
one and nods from the rest….”Hey,
lads, your’re late for the opening,
The Flower Garden
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
21
you missed the speeches” I offered.
“arrah, not at all, we heard them all
right” was the response “but we did-n’t
come for that…we’re here to
have a look at the stone work…a
few of our mates did it but they
weren’t on the Guest list” looking at
the others and grinning. “Oh, right.
I wondered had it been touched by
human hand at all……it looks
good….local stone?” “Aye, from the
quarry out the road.” We walked
slowly through the wall guarded gar-den,
dotted discreetly with huge sit-ting
slabs. Two of us tried the seats
for comfort and approved. “Jasus,
but the flowers are great….they look
different inside the garden.” “Who’d
have thought some one would plonk
them down in straight rows and little
round circles? They don’t look like
themselves at all.” “I didn’t know
they were an endangered species,
I’ve been away…..but they say they
are not in the hedgerows or the
fields any more…something about
the chemicals in the fertilisers killing
them off.” A loud roar of laughter
greeted this “maybe over on the
East Coast where the Big Farmers
have the big fields and big herds
and big cheques” says one “and no
meas for the wild flowers that might
flavour the milk”…”aye, surely” said
another “and that’d be against the
EU rules”…
.I was amused listening to
them and watching as they rubbed
this stone and patted that one. “Who
were the people here for the open-ing?”
I asked. “Grand respectable
people, very old families” from one.
“Oh, yes, they were the environmen-talists…
green Pee Dees we call
them.” “That’s right, you know, the
ones with the red wellies with white
daisies and the grand clean yellow
rain gear….but, mind, they don’t do
the fields and the hills here so they
don’t know about the wild flowers we
have…” I bent to examine the yel-low
flagstones, surprised they were
local, and asked whose quarry?
“God, no” said one “that was import-ed
from India for the garden.”
“India?” “I hear they didn’t like the
colour of the local flags…..and the
stones for the wall were free, re-cycled
from the estate walls of one
of the Committee.” “You mean,
famine walls?” They shifted uncom-fortably
“well, probably, yeh, but we
don’t call them that now.” One of the
men laughed “they saved so much
carbon with the recycled stone they
decided it was okay to leave their
footprint all the way from India with
the yellow flags.” “Aye” added the
older one “the Government is doing
the same now for Newgrange, we
hear.” “For Newgrange? You mean
down in Meath, Knowth and Dowth
and down there?” “Aye” they nod-ded
“sure haven’t they got the
money now with the Celtic tiger, they
can afford it, they’re doing up all the
ould places.” Jay, but I was gobs-macked…..”
Do you think I’m a Yank,
or what? That I’d believe that shit?”
To tell the truth I felt a bit
insulted that they would try to have
me on like that….The older one took
the fag out of his mouth and doused
it “Tis true, tis true, we’re not kidding
you – the Government’s floatin in
money, sure haven’t they millins in
minding machines stashed for the
voting? No more pencils and paper,
all buttons….” “Aye” they all agreed,
heads nodding “Millions flying round
all over the place, tunnels, roads to
places never heard of – and ye have
to pay now to travel on the new
roads.” Tolls? Well, well…times do
change.
After a few more minutes of
chat I bid them farewell….half sorry I
had taken the trouble to visit the but-terflies
whose surroundings were far
more salubrious than the streets in
the town where the kids played….
The butterflies were definitely now,
Green and Tigerish, the kids were
still before…. 1564
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
22
Anew book on the history of Na
Fianna Éireann entitled 'Na
FiannaÉireann and the Irish
Revolution- 1909 to 1923' written by
Damian Lawlor will be in shops in
about two weeks. As the book pub-lisher
is independent it may be just
as easy to get it from the author -
just email jflalor@gmail.com It costs
ten euro plus postage and packag-ing
which costs four euro fifty cent in
Ireland and five euro fifty for all other
locations.N
a Fianna Éireann was
founded on August 16th 1909 in an
old run down hall at 34 Lower
Camden Street. A committee which
included Countess Markievicz and
Bulmer Hobson had called the meet-ing
in order to recruit boys in Dublin
to a new nationalist body. The hun-dred
or so boys who attended deter-mined
to create an organisation
which would offer a suitable alterna-tive
to the growing Baden-Powell
‘Boy Scout’ movement. What devel-oped
over the next fourteen years
was a veritable boy’s army which
played a crucial role in the Irish
Revolution.
This book is unique in telling
the history of Na Fianna Éireann. It
charts its growth and development
from 1909 to 1923, giving for the
first time access to the stories of
individual members. The book also
analyses its expansion into a truly
national organisation with over
30,000 members spread throughout
Ireland’s 32 counties. Significantly
the involvement of the Fianna Éire-ann
in the following events is
described in detail:
• The development of Na Fianna
Éireann in its early years
• A history of the flag, badge, uni-form
and song of Na Fianna Éireann
• The launch and growth of the Irish
Volunteers
• The Howth and Kilcoole gun run-ning
operations
• The Fianna circle of the IRB
• The Fianna involvement in 1916
Rising
• The reorganisation of the Fianna in
the aftermath of 1916
• The Fianna participation in the ‘Tan
War’
Irish Socialist Network
series of booklets
The Irish Socialist Network has
produceda series of booklets
dealing with a range of issues
from the northern question to the
current crisis in neo-liberal eco-nomics.
These booklets include a
number of essays by different
authors and give a fresh insight
into these issues. The network
(see their own description below)
advocates greater cooperation
between socialist and left leand-ing
groups.
Irish Socialist Network
The Irish Socialist Network (ISN)
is a radical democratic socialist
organisation committed to the
complete abolition of capitalism
and its replacement by a socialist
society.
ISN understands socialist
society to mean:
- a transformation of power rela-tionships,
leading to democratice
control of all aspects of society
and an end to elite rule
- collective owenership and dem-ocratic
control of all economic
structures, wealth and resources
by the working class
-equality of all people and an end
to all forms of privilege and dis-crimination
-vindication of all human rights:
social, political and individual
- sustainable society, developing
in harmony with the natural envi-ronment
ISN can be contacted at:
irishsocialistnetwork@dublin.ie
Fourthwrite Spring 2009
23
Dirty tricks department
The British government’s dirty tricks department
does not confine its activities to Irish and other
foreign nationals.It actively targets any person
or group that causes embarrassment or difficulty to
government policy, especially when that policy is
wrong.
Rachel Reid, a British human rights worker’s
name was leaked in connection with an Official
Secrets Act inquiry. Lt Col McNally was supposed to
have given a human rights group details of civilian
casualties caused by Nato forces in Afghanistan. It
was the allegation that he had given them to a
woman with whom he had become "close" that was
the story. It broke on Wednesday 4 February in The
Sun under the headline "Colonel 'leaked war secrets
to woman'". By the next day she had been named as
Ms Reid, who represents the US-based group Human
Rights Watch in Afghanistan.
The British MoD has denied leaking Ms
Reid's name, but its credibility in this area has been
suspect ever since it disclosed the identity of Dr
David Kelly, the weapons scientist who later commit-ted
suicide, as the man who had denounced the
Government's notorious Iraq WMD dossier as a
sham. A friend of Ms Reid said: "This is all a smoke-screen
to deflect attention from civilian casualties in
Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defence need to be
exposed for the liars they are."
Rachel Reid
its ongoing critique of political, eco-nomic
and social arrangements in
Ireland and the world. As well as cri-tique
and analysis, The Citizen will
also try to look to the future and
suggest ways forward towards a bet-ter
society. Throughout all of this
work, republican ideas about active
citizenship and common good, free-dom,
equality and solidarity will
inform the argument and the discus-sion.”
The editorial team of Mary
Cullen, Robert Ballagh and Finbarr
Cullen has managed to attract a
very talented list of writers to con-tribute
to the first issue. Eugene
McCartan, Sean Edwards, Andy
Storey and Joseph Cleary make
interesting and thought provoking
comment on the current situation in
Ireland and abroad. This magazine
is worth accessing and can be
obtained through the Institute at;
The Pearse Centre, 27 Pearse
Street, Dublin 2 or by emailing the
Institute at,
irelandintitute@eircom.net. The pub-lication
costs €3:00 and is well worth
the price.
The Ireland Institute has
launched a publication ‘The
Citizen’ with a fine range of
articles dealing with issues of rele-vance
to contemporary Ireland. As
an underlying theme the Citizen
focuses on civic republicanism, a
necessary and important subject
given the attempt by various shades
of opinion in this country to impose
narrow and/or sectarian definitions
on republicanism. The publication
describes its aims thus:
“The Citizen is the new peri-odical
of the Ireland Institute. Based
in the Pearse Centre in Dublin, the
Ireland Institute had been promoting
the of democratic republicanism
through its lecture programmes and
publications for a number of years.
The Citizen is intended to provide a
forum for analysis and debate of the
issues facing irish society today, and
ti will enable the Institute to develop
The Citizen
24
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Use of a 28-day detention order to hold on to those arrested recently in relation to shootings in Antrim and
Craigavon must giver rise to concerns as highlighted by the CAJ director Mike Ritchie when he said that his organ-isation
was monitoring the situation with regard to the continued detention of two people, one a 17-year-old minor.
Ritchie said: “We would be concerned about holding anyone for this length of time and the fact that one of them is
a minor is an additional concern that aggravates the situation.”
28-day detention is unacceptable