Anthony McIntyre's Blog, page 1231
April 10, 2017
Our Class Needs A Strong Labour Movement
Tommy McKearney,
writing in
Socialist Voice
makes the call for a strong labour movement.
Then consider a recent posting in the “situations vacant” columns of a rural newspaper. The advertisement read:
This employer is based in Co. Armagh but advertised for workers in Co. Monaghan—proof, if it were needed, that neo-liberalism and exploitation of the working class transcend partition.
As this advertisement was appearing, workers in the local Tesco branch in Monaghan were preparing to strike for one of the most basic of rights: to have a long-standing contract observed by the management.
Moreover, as Mandate members were getting ready to take action, the media were reporting Bus Éireann’s decision to cut its employees’ terms and conditions while also closing important bus services between rural Ireland and Dublin. And all the while the minister with responsibility, the otherwise stridently verbose Shane Ross, was insisting that public transport in the Republic should be regulated by purely commercial considerations.
It would appear that Ross’s only contribution to the provision of a public good is to remind us of James Connolly’s observation that governments in capitalist society are but committees of the rich to manage the affairs of the capitalist class. Because, while the actions of Tesco and Bus Éireann are at present in the public eye, they are merely examples of an overarching campaign, backed by the state, to push down workers’ wages and undermine their terms and conditions in the work-place. Similar practices are commonplace throughout the manufacturing, retail and service sectors, while this type of pressure is also being felt by middle-ranking professionals.
In spite of this, the Fine Gael-led coalition continues with its self-congratulatory line that, under the leadership of Enda Kenny and his accomplices, the Republic has experienced an economic recovery. They point to a recent report from the Central Statistics Office showing that the unemployment rate for January 2017 fell to 7.1 per cent from 7.2 per cent in December 2016.
What the government’s spin doctors failed to say, though, is that the CSO also reported that, despite growth in employment, more than 100,000 people are working part-time,¹ because they can’t find full-time jobs. And, ominously, Ireland’s rate of low-paid employment is among the highest in the European Union. Moreover, privatisation in industries such as housing, health and care for the elderly, and the less visible but still onerous costs to parents of educating children, have all undermined the social wage.
Against this backdrop, the balance of power on the shop floor has continued to move towards the employer. A striking member of Mandate told me that the Tesco management had threatened workers on short-term contracts that if they took part in the strike their contracts would not be renewed. Don’t forget either that many employers in the retail trade refuse union recognition altogether.
What we are experiencing in Ireland (and it is happening north and south) is part of a global phenomenon as capital responds to the 2008 financial crisis. As Socialist Voice has repeatedly stated, the ruling class is taking advantage of the situation to strengthen its grip over the economy and society through the imposition of what is euphemistically called “austerity.” Nor should we be so naïve as to believe that this is happening by accident. Well-funded and corporate-supported schools of business studies are everywhere producing management cadres indoctrinated with a philosophy that a writer in the Financial Times recently described as hyena capitalism.
To counteract this continuing offensive on the working class it is essential that organised labour is equipped with countervailing power. However, the capitalist ruling class everywhere has ruthlessly and indeed scientifically employed globalisation and contemporary technology to weaken the labour movement. The ease with which capital and labour can be migrated from country to country has intimidated many working people. As a result, trade union density in Ireland is falling in the private sector, and while it is still significant in the public sector all too often the struggle there is defensive.
Put bluntly, as organised labour is at present structured, it is experiencing increasing difficulty in finding the necessary leverage to hold its own, let alone win intensive industrial disputes; and, worst of all, the bosses know this.
Nevertheless, organised labour does have influence, and demonstrated this through the water tax protests, where it was the key in the mobilising of tens of thousands. Also worth noting is that falling sales in Tesco during the recent strike show that a sizeable section of the public supported the workers’ action and refused to pass the pickets.
The trade union movement has to bring this asset to bear on all situations; and therein lies an avenue that must surely be pursued. The working class needs a strong labour movement, just as organised labour needs the active support of communities outside the work-place. There has to be a recognition within working-class communities that issues such as that of Tesco and Bus Éireann workers are matters of concern to all and must be actively supported by all.
Achieving this will demand effort, and not just by trade union officials but by all left-wing activists. One suggestion would be to encourage a review of organised labour’s relationship with the wider community and how this can be improved and strengthened. There already exists a considerable body of research dealing with this issue and the concept of “community unionism” in general.² Such material could provide a basis for initial discussion, and indeed some of our unions have already made tentative steps in this direction.
However, more must be done to harness people-power in the struggle to ensure that the balance of power swings back towards organised labour; and it’s a responsibility that all on the left must share.
1. Employment Monitor (Social Justice Ireland), no. 3, January 2017, p. 2, at http://bit.ly/2lZXdtu.
2. Just one example among others: Jane Holgate, Trade Union Involvement in Broad-Based Community Organising: A Comparative Study of London, Sydney and Seattle (University of Leeds, Working Paper no. 14), at http://bit.ly/2mDmSVJ.
Then consider a recent posting in the “situations vacant” columns of a rural newspaper. The advertisement read:
. . . we currently require a pool of casual staff that may be called upon at short notice to work in various roles that arise within our health foods, bakery, dairy, and retail departments. It is important that applicants are flexible in their approach to their hours of work, as these roles will involve weekdays, evenings, weekend and night shifts.
This employer is based in Co. Armagh but advertised for workers in Co. Monaghan—proof, if it were needed, that neo-liberalism and exploitation of the working class transcend partition.
As this advertisement was appearing, workers in the local Tesco branch in Monaghan were preparing to strike for one of the most basic of rights: to have a long-standing contract observed by the management.
Moreover, as Mandate members were getting ready to take action, the media were reporting Bus Éireann’s decision to cut its employees’ terms and conditions while also closing important bus services between rural Ireland and Dublin. And all the while the minister with responsibility, the otherwise stridently verbose Shane Ross, was insisting that public transport in the Republic should be regulated by purely commercial considerations.
It would appear that Ross’s only contribution to the provision of a public good is to remind us of James Connolly’s observation that governments in capitalist society are but committees of the rich to manage the affairs of the capitalist class. Because, while the actions of Tesco and Bus Éireann are at present in the public eye, they are merely examples of an overarching campaign, backed by the state, to push down workers’ wages and undermine their terms and conditions in the work-place. Similar practices are commonplace throughout the manufacturing, retail and service sectors, while this type of pressure is also being felt by middle-ranking professionals.
In spite of this, the Fine Gael-led coalition continues with its self-congratulatory line that, under the leadership of Enda Kenny and his accomplices, the Republic has experienced an economic recovery. They point to a recent report from the Central Statistics Office showing that the unemployment rate for January 2017 fell to 7.1 per cent from 7.2 per cent in December 2016.
What the government’s spin doctors failed to say, though, is that the CSO also reported that, despite growth in employment, more than 100,000 people are working part-time,¹ because they can’t find full-time jobs. And, ominously, Ireland’s rate of low-paid employment is among the highest in the European Union. Moreover, privatisation in industries such as housing, health and care for the elderly, and the less visible but still onerous costs to parents of educating children, have all undermined the social wage.
Against this backdrop, the balance of power on the shop floor has continued to move towards the employer. A striking member of Mandate told me that the Tesco management had threatened workers on short-term contracts that if they took part in the strike their contracts would not be renewed. Don’t forget either that many employers in the retail trade refuse union recognition altogether.
What we are experiencing in Ireland (and it is happening north and south) is part of a global phenomenon as capital responds to the 2008 financial crisis. As Socialist Voice has repeatedly stated, the ruling class is taking advantage of the situation to strengthen its grip over the economy and society through the imposition of what is euphemistically called “austerity.” Nor should we be so naïve as to believe that this is happening by accident. Well-funded and corporate-supported schools of business studies are everywhere producing management cadres indoctrinated with a philosophy that a writer in the Financial Times recently described as hyena capitalism.
To counteract this continuing offensive on the working class it is essential that organised labour is equipped with countervailing power. However, the capitalist ruling class everywhere has ruthlessly and indeed scientifically employed globalisation and contemporary technology to weaken the labour movement. The ease with which capital and labour can be migrated from country to country has intimidated many working people. As a result, trade union density in Ireland is falling in the private sector, and while it is still significant in the public sector all too often the struggle there is defensive.
Put bluntly, as organised labour is at present structured, it is experiencing increasing difficulty in finding the necessary leverage to hold its own, let alone win intensive industrial disputes; and, worst of all, the bosses know this.
Nevertheless, organised labour does have influence, and demonstrated this through the water tax protests, where it was the key in the mobilising of tens of thousands. Also worth noting is that falling sales in Tesco during the recent strike show that a sizeable section of the public supported the workers’ action and refused to pass the pickets.
The trade union movement has to bring this asset to bear on all situations; and therein lies an avenue that must surely be pursued. The working class needs a strong labour movement, just as organised labour needs the active support of communities outside the work-place. There has to be a recognition within working-class communities that issues such as that of Tesco and Bus Éireann workers are matters of concern to all and must be actively supported by all.
Achieving this will demand effort, and not just by trade union officials but by all left-wing activists. One suggestion would be to encourage a review of organised labour’s relationship with the wider community and how this can be improved and strengthened. There already exists a considerable body of research dealing with this issue and the concept of “community unionism” in general.² Such material could provide a basis for initial discussion, and indeed some of our unions have already made tentative steps in this direction.
However, more must be done to harness people-power in the struggle to ensure that the balance of power swings back towards organised labour; and it’s a responsibility that all on the left must share.
1. Employment Monitor (Social Justice Ireland), no. 3, January 2017, p. 2, at http://bit.ly/2lZXdtu.
2. Just one example among others: Jane Holgate, Trade Union Involvement in Broad-Based Community Organising: A Comparative Study of London, Sydney and Seattle (University of Leeds, Working Paper no. 14), at http://bit.ly/2mDmSVJ.
From Brexit to Britzkrieg
Deaglán Ó Donghaile,
writing in
Irish Dissent
is concerned about the British war drums beating over Gibraltar.
For a short while, the Tories took a break from normalising their domestic war against the poor to propose another one, this time against Spain. Howard even invoked the spirit of Margaret Thatcher, the not long-dead Iron Lady who, he believes, has been reincarnated in the body of Theresa May. Thus the Conservatives addressed an imagined threat to British sovereignty that is being posed, in their minds, by a friendly neighbour, some of whose territory they seized and colonized in 1713, telling the world that Britain will do anything to protect its imperial interests in 2017.
The argument about the non-negotiability of Gibraltar’s Britishness is a familiar one to anyone who has had to endure the contradictions of partition: “We’re going to look after Gibraltar”, Fallon said. “Gibraltar is going to be protected all the way because the sovereignty cannot be changed without the agreement of the people of Gibraltar…”. The colony’s puppet First Minister, Fabian Picardo, went even further by declaring that “the United Kingdom goes to war over the principle of consent all over the world.” This is the political equivalent of last summer’s English football hooligans, and of the more frequent weekend spectacle of those steroid-addled morons who can’t have a drink without wanting to beat up passing teenagers for delivering perceived but non-existent insults. By declaring their resolution to go “all the way” with a nation that has tolerated centuries of British military and strategic presence within its own national territory, the British establishment revealed what it really thinks about the principle of peace within Europe.
But it’s not all thuggery, to be fair. The implication here is that, as with Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan, the Brits don’t really want to be in Gibraltar anyway, and they never did want to be there, either. They only want to start a war over it because they need to protect the democratic rights of the English people who live there, including the 96% of whom who voted to remain within the EU. Manufactured colonial consent, with its distortion of mandates, is the same justification given for the permanent, if secret, war footing that they assume in Ireland (even though they don’t think that publicly announcing this instance of low-visibility violence would be as acceptable as sending a spectacular military “taskforce” to sort out their new “Spanish-speaking” enemies, as Michael Howard described them). According to this long-standing imperial rationale, occupiers never want to occupy anywhere – they only want to help people, according to a very familiar, if rather worn-out, proposal that has been doing the rounds a lot lately, and especially since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
The principle of false consent has always been built into the practice of colonial land-grabbing once, of course, the occupying power has planted enough consenters and then terrorised, imprisoned, dispossessed or expelled anybody else who disagrees with it. What we are hearing now is the a minimally-adapted articulation of Britain’s geopolitical interest in Ireland, and the jingoization of Gibraltar expresses the equally self-contradictory claim that part of Spain is part of Britain, simply because they once planted enough colonists and troops there.
As with the occupation of Ireland, the British political and military presence in this part of Spain is central to the ideology and practice of the permanently-armed and forever war-ready imperial state. Portraying their rush to belligerence as a quaint, harmless and even amusing manifestation of a deluded sense of self-importance, as some have done, misses the key point that the military grasp of colonial territory has a very practical resonance: every empire, ultimately, depends on the acquisition and possession of land, and this is achieved through force. Occupation is power, and as Fallon keeps telling us, so too, in post-Brexit world, is a permanently poised, war-ready military complex. In Gibraltar and in Ireland, British occupation today means British control in the future.
“This isn’t a bargaining process”, Fallon reminded viewers of the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, because “we happen to have the biggest defence budget in Europe, we have the biggest navy in Europe.” He added that his government is sending 800 troops to Estonia, more to Poland and reminded the British public that they’ll be footing the bill for lacing Romania with heavily-armed Typhoon fighter planes, just in case they were curious about where the savings from all of those hospital ward closures, benefit cuts, student finance “savings” and bedroom taxes might be going (in 2016 alone, Britain spent £392 billion on weapons procurement).
The Gibraltarians will be sorely tested when they’re fenced in by the European border. Perhaps they’ll be forced to leave en masse, but if that happens, it’s unlikely that the local British military garrison, or “permanent regional operating base”, as it’s officially known, will follow them. In the meantime, like the Irish, they’ll have to get used to having an intensively policed boundary, all over again, and one that the vast majority of them voted against. And with its imposition, they’ll be reacquainted with the experience of having their vehicles and persons searched whenever they want to go out for a drive. As the Irish novelist, Eoin McNamee, recently warned, and as we’ve just seen this week on the Andrew Marr Show, there’s no such thing as a soft border.
For a short while, the Tories took a break from normalising their domestic war against the poor to propose another one, this time against Spain. Howard even invoked the spirit of Margaret Thatcher, the not long-dead Iron Lady who, he believes, has been reincarnated in the body of Theresa May. Thus the Conservatives addressed an imagined threat to British sovereignty that is being posed, in their minds, by a friendly neighbour, some of whose territory they seized and colonized in 1713, telling the world that Britain will do anything to protect its imperial interests in 2017.
The argument about the non-negotiability of Gibraltar’s Britishness is a familiar one to anyone who has had to endure the contradictions of partition: “We’re going to look after Gibraltar”, Fallon said. “Gibraltar is going to be protected all the way because the sovereignty cannot be changed without the agreement of the people of Gibraltar…”. The colony’s puppet First Minister, Fabian Picardo, went even further by declaring that “the United Kingdom goes to war over the principle of consent all over the world.” This is the political equivalent of last summer’s English football hooligans, and of the more frequent weekend spectacle of those steroid-addled morons who can’t have a drink without wanting to beat up passing teenagers for delivering perceived but non-existent insults. By declaring their resolution to go “all the way” with a nation that has tolerated centuries of British military and strategic presence within its own national territory, the British establishment revealed what it really thinks about the principle of peace within Europe.
But it’s not all thuggery, to be fair. The implication here is that, as with Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan, the Brits don’t really want to be in Gibraltar anyway, and they never did want to be there, either. They only want to start a war over it because they need to protect the democratic rights of the English people who live there, including the 96% of whom who voted to remain within the EU. Manufactured colonial consent, with its distortion of mandates, is the same justification given for the permanent, if secret, war footing that they assume in Ireland (even though they don’t think that publicly announcing this instance of low-visibility violence would be as acceptable as sending a spectacular military “taskforce” to sort out their new “Spanish-speaking” enemies, as Michael Howard described them). According to this long-standing imperial rationale, occupiers never want to occupy anywhere – they only want to help people, according to a very familiar, if rather worn-out, proposal that has been doing the rounds a lot lately, and especially since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
The principle of false consent has always been built into the practice of colonial land-grabbing once, of course, the occupying power has planted enough consenters and then terrorised, imprisoned, dispossessed or expelled anybody else who disagrees with it. What we are hearing now is the a minimally-adapted articulation of Britain’s geopolitical interest in Ireland, and the jingoization of Gibraltar expresses the equally self-contradictory claim that part of Spain is part of Britain, simply because they once planted enough colonists and troops there.
As with the occupation of Ireland, the British political and military presence in this part of Spain is central to the ideology and practice of the permanently-armed and forever war-ready imperial state. Portraying their rush to belligerence as a quaint, harmless and even amusing manifestation of a deluded sense of self-importance, as some have done, misses the key point that the military grasp of colonial territory has a very practical resonance: every empire, ultimately, depends on the acquisition and possession of land, and this is achieved through force. Occupation is power, and as Fallon keeps telling us, so too, in post-Brexit world, is a permanently poised, war-ready military complex. In Gibraltar and in Ireland, British occupation today means British control in the future.
“This isn’t a bargaining process”, Fallon reminded viewers of the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, because “we happen to have the biggest defence budget in Europe, we have the biggest navy in Europe.” He added that his government is sending 800 troops to Estonia, more to Poland and reminded the British public that they’ll be footing the bill for lacing Romania with heavily-armed Typhoon fighter planes, just in case they were curious about where the savings from all of those hospital ward closures, benefit cuts, student finance “savings” and bedroom taxes might be going (in 2016 alone, Britain spent £392 billion on weapons procurement).
The Gibraltarians will be sorely tested when they’re fenced in by the European border. Perhaps they’ll be forced to leave en masse, but if that happens, it’s unlikely that the local British military garrison, or “permanent regional operating base”, as it’s officially known, will follow them. In the meantime, like the Irish, they’ll have to get used to having an intensively policed boundary, all over again, and one that the vast majority of them voted against. And with its imposition, they’ll be reacquainted with the experience of having their vehicles and persons searched whenever they want to go out for a drive. As the Irish novelist, Eoin McNamee, recently warned, and as we’ve just seen this week on the Andrew Marr Show, there’s no such thing as a soft border.
April 9, 2017
Template For Defeat
Pádraic Mac Coitir,
a longtime republican activist and former prisoner, views what is happening with ETA as a victory for counter insurgency strategy.
Of course armed struggles and wars must come to an end some day and in many cases negotiations between the warring factions were initiated. However, the situation in Sri Lanka was different in that the Tamil Tigers were almost wiped out by the Sri Lankan government which was supported by many countries that continue to oppress others throughout the world. The Palestinian struggle continues with no sign of an end to it. The Zionists have no interest in sitting down with anyone bar the collaborators in the PA.
Tomorrow ETA decommission the last of their weapons and that will be the end of them. Many in that organisation were heavily influenced by Sinn Féin and indeed the ending of their struggle is very similar to what happened here with the final act of surrender by the IRA in July 2005. What has ETA achieved? Of course I don't know what is going on behind the scenes but if they had have looked closely at our situation they would have seen that SF and the IRA have got nothing from a long drawn out armed struggle. There are approximately 400 political Basque prisoners still in gaol, most of them scattered hundreds of miles from their homeland. The Spanish government wants to humiliate ETA and while that is happening they will drip feed some concessions.
Yesterday I listened to a client called Pádraig O'Malley on BBC radio talk about resolutions to conflicts. His voice went through me. And bad as that was, he sounded very patronising. He went on about how 'old foes' eventually came around to respecting each other.
I would argue that in recent conflicts the only ones to benefit were the oppressors. I'm not being judgemental about other struggles but I have an opinion and I despair at times when I see members of SF and Brit spooks try to lecture others and claim our struggle is a template for others. It's a template for defeat.
Of course armed struggles and wars must come to an end some day and in many cases negotiations between the warring factions were initiated. However, the situation in Sri Lanka was different in that the Tamil Tigers were almost wiped out by the Sri Lankan government which was supported by many countries that continue to oppress others throughout the world. The Palestinian struggle continues with no sign of an end to it. The Zionists have no interest in sitting down with anyone bar the collaborators in the PA.
Tomorrow ETA decommission the last of their weapons and that will be the end of them. Many in that organisation were heavily influenced by Sinn Féin and indeed the ending of their struggle is very similar to what happened here with the final act of surrender by the IRA in July 2005. What has ETA achieved? Of course I don't know what is going on behind the scenes but if they had have looked closely at our situation they would have seen that SF and the IRA have got nothing from a long drawn out armed struggle. There are approximately 400 political Basque prisoners still in gaol, most of them scattered hundreds of miles from their homeland. The Spanish government wants to humiliate ETA and while that is happening they will drip feed some concessions.
Yesterday I listened to a client called Pádraig O'Malley on BBC radio talk about resolutions to conflicts. His voice went through me. And bad as that was, he sounded very patronising. He went on about how 'old foes' eventually came around to respecting each other.
I would argue that in recent conflicts the only ones to benefit were the oppressors. I'm not being judgemental about other struggles but I have an opinion and I despair at times when I see members of SF and Brit spooks try to lecture others and claim our struggle is a template for others. It's a template for defeat.
If All Goes Well Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, (ETA) To Hand Over Weapons And Explosives
Writing yesterday
Mick Hall
reported that:
Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) the Basque separatist group, if all goes well will disarm later today, bringing to an end decades of war with the Spanish State.
ETA announces ceasefire back in 2010
In a letter addressed to the international community, ETA, which has waged a military campaign of bombings and shootings said it was giving up all of its weapons and explosives. "Disarmament day" is today and we want to warn that still the process can be attacked by the enemies of peace' the group said in the letter in English and Spanish published by the BBC and dated April 7th.
In the note, ETA, which is still considered a terrorist group by the EU, said it had abandoned "all its weaponry (arms and explosives) to Basque civil society representatives" and described itself as a "disarmed organization".
The group said Bayonne, a city in the French Basque region will be the focal point of the disarmament process where it's expected thousands of it's supporters will gather later today.
ETA's announcement comes after the head of the regional Basque government, Inigo Urkullu, said last month that the separatist group planned to fully lay down its weapons by April 8th.
Urkullu at the time called on the Spanish and French governments to "show ambitious vision and open direct lines of communication" with ETA.
But Madrid rebuffed the plea and instead demanded the group dissolve and never reappear.
In its newly-published letter, ETA said the process of disarming has been "a hard and difficult task", praising the Basque authorities while accusing Spain and France of being "stubborn".
Earlier Thursday doubts had been raised over the final handover of arms, with arrangements for the event remaining sketchy.
Peacemakers drawn from French civil society will hand over an inventory of the weapons on behalf of ETA on the sidelines of a "big popular gathering" in Bayonne.
But a source close to ETA said that negotiations were still under way with French authorities and that the actual handover of the arsenal which is said to consists of guns and two tonnes of explosives would take place outside Bayonne to ensure that it is "total and verifiable".
"This disarmament is essential to definitively turn the page on violence in the Basque Country, but must nevertheless be carried out in full respect of the rule of law", French Socialist party senator in the region Frederique Espagnac told AFP.
The rightwing Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said on Wednesday there "would be no negotiations nor concessions" to ETA members in exchange for disarmament.
Let's hope eventually wiser heads prevail.
The group was founded in 1959 and held their first assembly in Bayonne, France in 1962, hence the significance of that city for the movement.
It fought the Franco dictatorship ferociously. Its most significant success during those years was Operación Ogro, the December 1973 assassination in central Madrid of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, Franco's chosen successor. Planned meticulously for months and executed by placing a bomb in a tunnel dug below the street where Carrero Blanco's car passed every day. The bomb blew up beneath the facist's car and threw it five stories into the air and over the top of a nearby building onto a balcony in a nearby courtyard.
Carrero Blanco's assassination removed Franco's chosen successor, and was an instrumental step for the subsequent establishment of democracy in Spain.
In September 1975 just eight weeks before Franco's death two ETA members were brutally executed by being garrotted. This caused massive protest to erupt in Spain and internationally.
If ETA had stood down when the Franco dictatorship imploded the world would have regarded them as heroes. Sadly their war raged on for decades. Both their victims and the members of ETA suffered much pain.
While Spain's right wing government rejects the hand of peace, on the streets of Bilbao there was a more positive reaction to ETA decision to hand over their weaponry. "I really support the disarmament. I’m a sympathiser, not with ETA but with some of the political ideas. It is time to recognise that the people in this region deserve peace," one man said.
Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) the Basque separatist group, if all goes well will disarm later today, bringing to an end decades of war with the Spanish State.
ETA announces ceasefire back in 2010In a letter addressed to the international community, ETA, which has waged a military campaign of bombings and shootings said it was giving up all of its weapons and explosives. "Disarmament day" is today and we want to warn that still the process can be attacked by the enemies of peace' the group said in the letter in English and Spanish published by the BBC and dated April 7th.
In the note, ETA, which is still considered a terrorist group by the EU, said it had abandoned "all its weaponry (arms and explosives) to Basque civil society representatives" and described itself as a "disarmed organization".
The group said Bayonne, a city in the French Basque region will be the focal point of the disarmament process where it's expected thousands of it's supporters will gather later today.
ETA's announcement comes after the head of the regional Basque government, Inigo Urkullu, said last month that the separatist group planned to fully lay down its weapons by April 8th.
Urkullu at the time called on the Spanish and French governments to "show ambitious vision and open direct lines of communication" with ETA.
But Madrid rebuffed the plea and instead demanded the group dissolve and never reappear.
In its newly-published letter, ETA said the process of disarming has been "a hard and difficult task", praising the Basque authorities while accusing Spain and France of being "stubborn".
Earlier Thursday doubts had been raised over the final handover of arms, with arrangements for the event remaining sketchy.
Peacemakers drawn from French civil society will hand over an inventory of the weapons on behalf of ETA on the sidelines of a "big popular gathering" in Bayonne.
But a source close to ETA said that negotiations were still under way with French authorities and that the actual handover of the arsenal which is said to consists of guns and two tonnes of explosives would take place outside Bayonne to ensure that it is "total and verifiable".
"This disarmament is essential to definitively turn the page on violence in the Basque Country, but must nevertheless be carried out in full respect of the rule of law", French Socialist party senator in the region Frederique Espagnac told AFP.
The rightwing Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said on Wednesday there "would be no negotiations nor concessions" to ETA members in exchange for disarmament.
Let's hope eventually wiser heads prevail.
The group was founded in 1959 and held their first assembly in Bayonne, France in 1962, hence the significance of that city for the movement.
It fought the Franco dictatorship ferociously. Its most significant success during those years was Operación Ogro, the December 1973 assassination in central Madrid of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, Franco's chosen successor. Planned meticulously for months and executed by placing a bomb in a tunnel dug below the street where Carrero Blanco's car passed every day. The bomb blew up beneath the facist's car and threw it five stories into the air and over the top of a nearby building onto a balcony in a nearby courtyard.
Carrero Blanco's assassination removed Franco's chosen successor, and was an instrumental step for the subsequent establishment of democracy in Spain.
In September 1975 just eight weeks before Franco's death two ETA members were brutally executed by being garrotted. This caused massive protest to erupt in Spain and internationally.
If ETA had stood down when the Franco dictatorship imploded the world would have regarded them as heroes. Sadly their war raged on for decades. Both their victims and the members of ETA suffered much pain.
While Spain's right wing government rejects the hand of peace, on the streets of Bilbao there was a more positive reaction to ETA decision to hand over their weaponry. "I really support the disarmament. I’m a sympathiser, not with ETA but with some of the political ideas. It is time to recognise that the people in this region deserve peace," one man said.
American Atheists Sues For Forcible Baptism Of A Child
From
Atheist Republic
Lena M
reports on a case being brought before the courts alleging child cruelty through forced baptism.
Photo Credits:
Chain the Dogma
Ohio -- April Defibaugh and her husband Gregg filed a police report last September calling for criminal charges against everyone involved in unwanted baptism of their son. Their 11-year-old son was in the Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of Northeast Ohio program which is supposed to be educational and supportive program. According to BBBS website, the organization is dedicated to finding some great Big Brothers and Big Sisters who can bring stability and friendship to vulnerable children. Defibaugh’s son’s mentor took him to get baptized in order to somehow help him but after the pastor held him underwater, it resulted with recurring nightmares. Defibaugh said:
It seems that the parents got nowhere with planned lawsuit because American Atheists is now filing a lawsuit on behalf of April Defibaugh and her husband Gregg. They’re suing the local chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Big Brother assigned to their son (David Guarnera), his church, the pastor (Matthew Chesnes), the court-appointed guardian ad litem who proselytized to the family and assigned Guarnera to their son (Margaret Vaughan), and her organization.
The child, referred to as “V” in the court filing, was taken to a church picnic in August 2016 by the child’s mentor. During the picnic, the mentor and the church’s pastor subjected V to a full-immersion baptism, against the wishes of V’s parents. The forced baptism was the culmination of more than a year of religious harassment by V’s guardian ad litem and V’s mentor,” as explained in American Atheists’ statement. It remains to be seen whether the court will punish those responsible for the baptism.
Photo Credits:
Chain the Dogma
Ohio -- April Defibaugh and her husband Gregg filed a police report last September calling for criminal charges against everyone involved in unwanted baptism of their son. Their 11-year-old son was in the Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of Northeast Ohio program which is supposed to be educational and supportive program. According to BBBS website, the organization is dedicated to finding some great Big Brothers and Big Sisters who can bring stability and friendship to vulnerable children. Defibaugh’s son’s mentor took him to get baptized in order to somehow help him but after the pastor held him underwater, it resulted with recurring nightmares. Defibaugh said:
They held my son under water. It wasn’t like they sprinkled water on his head, it was like full immersion. He kicked; he screamed and told them beforehand that he was afraid. Every day since then he’s had nightmares, the same recurring dream, about being baptized over and over like he’s drowning.
It seems that the parents got nowhere with planned lawsuit because American Atheists is now filing a lawsuit on behalf of April Defibaugh and her husband Gregg. They’re suing the local chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Big Brother assigned to their son (David Guarnera), his church, the pastor (Matthew Chesnes), the court-appointed guardian ad litem who proselytized to the family and assigned Guarnera to their son (Margaret Vaughan), and her organization.
American Atheists today filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, alleging that a developmentally disabled child was forcibly baptized against the expressed wishes of his parents by a minister and a court-approved mentor,” they announced on their website on the 27th March.
The child, referred to as “V” in the court filing, was taken to a church picnic in August 2016 by the child’s mentor. During the picnic, the mentor and the church’s pastor subjected V to a full-immersion baptism, against the wishes of V’s parents. The forced baptism was the culmination of more than a year of religious harassment by V’s guardian ad litem and V’s mentor,” as explained in American Atheists’ statement. It remains to be seen whether the court will punish those responsible for the baptism.
April 8, 2017
It's Not That Deep ... Honest
Marty Flynn
thinks Mick Hall has been too generous in his appraisal of both
Martin McGuinness &
Gerry Adams.
I attempted to reply to a piece by Mick Hall earlier. So, apologies for the delay. My previous attempts have mysteriously disappeared. Is this a warning from beyond the grave perhaps? What I most definitely do know is that the signals up here in the hills above Falcarragh are like quisling $inn £eind promises: here one minute gone the next. But we endeavour to have our say come what may.
Mick Hall said in his post that Martin McGuinness was a fearless and resourceful soldier. Mick how do you know this? Were you a witness at first hand so to speak? After all a lot has been said on a few blogs re this man’s history i.e. tout agent, asset etc. Many have stated, including myself, that they believe that this man was a protected species. This comes from what they have suffered personally, witnessed or observed re this man. Also from taking onboard statements from former British soldiers and ex RUC who have stated as much.
In such circumstances it would be easy to act the hard man, as we say here, and come to the conclusion that he has been either or all of the above. People like Anthony and Simon argue that there is insufficient proof to lay such allegations. Taken this as so then that opinion of Mick Hall’s is no more valid than those of us who believe the opposite to him.
As for Martybroy’s history as a quisling micro minister, Mick Hall must be having a laugh. By his own admission and terminology, the DUP have made fools of him and his quisling cronies these last 10 years, and as such his leadership abilities must be called into account. They have been more than abysmal in their representation of their constituents. A united Ireland is further away than ever.
Jobs and job creation? Well, West Belfast, Strabane, Derry remain the industrial wastelands they have always been, The only employment created is that in "community jobs" for family and cronies.
As for education? Martin McGuinness scrapped the 11+ and the DUP have since brought it in through a back door. they also have been responsible for closing schools.
Health? Well the queues and waiting times speak for themselves.
Austerity? They ran away from that.
The Irish language Act? They made no mention of in their programme of government in January.
Yes, they in their love for the "peace process " filled their boots and a few graves. Other than that, they have been damn useless in any form of representation.
Also remember the RHI scandal? They were aware of that for over a year and yet said nothing: hypocrisy how are ye!
As for Gerry “It wasn’t me” being less vengeful, do you not recall Jean McConville and the Disappeared?
I suggested before to Mick Hall that he needs to take off those tinted glasses and look at these people in a proper light.
I attempted to reply to a piece by Mick Hall earlier. So, apologies for the delay. My previous attempts have mysteriously disappeared. Is this a warning from beyond the grave perhaps? What I most definitely do know is that the signals up here in the hills above Falcarragh are like quisling $inn £eind promises: here one minute gone the next. But we endeavour to have our say come what may.
Mick Hall said in his post that Martin McGuinness was a fearless and resourceful soldier. Mick how do you know this? Were you a witness at first hand so to speak? After all a lot has been said on a few blogs re this man’s history i.e. tout agent, asset etc. Many have stated, including myself, that they believe that this man was a protected species. This comes from what they have suffered personally, witnessed or observed re this man. Also from taking onboard statements from former British soldiers and ex RUC who have stated as much.
In such circumstances it would be easy to act the hard man, as we say here, and come to the conclusion that he has been either or all of the above. People like Anthony and Simon argue that there is insufficient proof to lay such allegations. Taken this as so then that opinion of Mick Hall’s is no more valid than those of us who believe the opposite to him.
As for Martybroy’s history as a quisling micro minister, Mick Hall must be having a laugh. By his own admission and terminology, the DUP have made fools of him and his quisling cronies these last 10 years, and as such his leadership abilities must be called into account. They have been more than abysmal in their representation of their constituents. A united Ireland is further away than ever.
Jobs and job creation? Well, West Belfast, Strabane, Derry remain the industrial wastelands they have always been, The only employment created is that in "community jobs" for family and cronies.
As for education? Martin McGuinness scrapped the 11+ and the DUP have since brought it in through a back door. they also have been responsible for closing schools.
Health? Well the queues and waiting times speak for themselves.
Austerity? They ran away from that.
The Irish language Act? They made no mention of in their programme of government in January.
Yes, they in their love for the "peace process " filled their boots and a few graves. Other than that, they have been damn useless in any form of representation.
Also remember the RHI scandal? They were aware of that for over a year and yet said nothing: hypocrisy how are ye!
As for Gerry “It wasn’t me” being less vengeful, do you not recall Jean McConville and the Disappeared?
I suggested before to Mick Hall that he needs to take off those tinted glasses and look at these people in a proper light.
Dangerous And Combative Strategy Could Well End In Failure
Anthony McIntyre writing in the
Belfast Telegraph
, shares his views on the Save Stormont talks.
Less that a fortnight ago the “great and the good” assembled in Derry to bury Martin McGuinness and eulogise him for having abandoned the politics of coercion in favour of consent as part of a search for a resolution of the long running Northern conflict.
Now they are faced with the task of resurrecting the political institutions of which, for many, McGuinness came to personify because of an almost ten-year tenure in the role of Deputy First Minister. There, he had joint responsibility for overseeing the type of internal power sharing solution favoured by the British state since Sunningdale in 1973. As they lowered him into the ground, they raised shoulder high the concept of power sharing within a partitioned Northern Ireland, under the unalloyed sovereignty of London.
As the last breath exhaled from the body of McGuinness, plans were already under way to breathe life back into the North’s power sharing executive. That the patricians turned out in such force at the funeral was indicative of the importance attached to not interring the institutions along with the institution’s man. That high-octane investment of political energy in the funerary rites comes with a political price: do not be held responsible for scuttling the ship that has brought you so far.
Despite the approach of Easter, even chiming as it will with the evangelical religious sentiment so at home in the DUP, the biblical myth of resurrection might seem redundant in the Northern context where it has long been quipped that no pessimist was ever proved wrong. Stormont is proving even harder to bring back to life than the Christian God. A feat that took only three days.
Sinn Fein, having already collapsed the institutions and subsequently calling a halt to the post-election negotiations – described by many as shambolic – risk overplaying their hand. George Mitchell once described the party as being addicted to over-negotiating. Discursively, they are sailing close to the wind of perceived negativity and risk losing the moral high ground accrued through the political deification of McGuinness.
The DUP thus far have resisted succumbing to the paroxysm of rage which the presence of Gerry Adams tends to bring out in unionism. The party free fall was halted to some extent by Arlene Foster’s strategic parachuting into the McGuinness funeral where she was applauded in church.
There has been a remarkable clawing back of the ground they had previously churned up and kicked in the face of nationalism. Its “give the people what they want” has a more positive inflection than Sinn Fein’s “the government must stop pandering to the DUP.”
The DUP has, against all odds and expectations, managed to sound conciliatory, leaving Sinn Fein to wax combative. It senses that the public will be more forgiving of a failure to strike a deal with Adams than it would be if Michelle O’Neill was seen as the preeminent Sinn Fein negotiator.
Adams, upping the stakes, is making the argument that in the wake of McGuinness, reaching a sustainable agreement is a hard ask. In a double-edged comment, he referred to the failure to have previous agreements honoured: “when you have somebody as big and as strong and formidable as Martin he could carry that to a certain degree for the rest of us.” Which hardly masks the obvious: McGuinness is being set up to carry the blame for the situation ever having been allowed to sink beneath the waterline. If Sinn Fein fails to have it resurface, all roads lead to London. James Brokenshire has all but confirmed as much.
With the re-emergence of the old peace process ruse of ultimate deadline by endless postponement, extra time is now on offer.
Will Sinn Fein risk squandering its enhanced political capital by failing to invest it in the only institutional bank in town? A resort to the status quo of Direct Rule, even in the uncharted waters of Brexit, will leave the party looking as if it sold a horse and bought a saddle.
Less that a fortnight ago the “great and the good” assembled in Derry to bury Martin McGuinness and eulogise him for having abandoned the politics of coercion in favour of consent as part of a search for a resolution of the long running Northern conflict.
Now they are faced with the task of resurrecting the political institutions of which, for many, McGuinness came to personify because of an almost ten-year tenure in the role of Deputy First Minister. There, he had joint responsibility for overseeing the type of internal power sharing solution favoured by the British state since Sunningdale in 1973. As they lowered him into the ground, they raised shoulder high the concept of power sharing within a partitioned Northern Ireland, under the unalloyed sovereignty of London.
As the last breath exhaled from the body of McGuinness, plans were already under way to breathe life back into the North’s power sharing executive. That the patricians turned out in such force at the funeral was indicative of the importance attached to not interring the institutions along with the institution’s man. That high-octane investment of political energy in the funerary rites comes with a political price: do not be held responsible for scuttling the ship that has brought you so far.
Despite the approach of Easter, even chiming as it will with the evangelical religious sentiment so at home in the DUP, the biblical myth of resurrection might seem redundant in the Northern context where it has long been quipped that no pessimist was ever proved wrong. Stormont is proving even harder to bring back to life than the Christian God. A feat that took only three days.
Sinn Fein, having already collapsed the institutions and subsequently calling a halt to the post-election negotiations – described by many as shambolic – risk overplaying their hand. George Mitchell once described the party as being addicted to over-negotiating. Discursively, they are sailing close to the wind of perceived negativity and risk losing the moral high ground accrued through the political deification of McGuinness.
The DUP thus far have resisted succumbing to the paroxysm of rage which the presence of Gerry Adams tends to bring out in unionism. The party free fall was halted to some extent by Arlene Foster’s strategic parachuting into the McGuinness funeral where she was applauded in church.
There has been a remarkable clawing back of the ground they had previously churned up and kicked in the face of nationalism. Its “give the people what they want” has a more positive inflection than Sinn Fein’s “the government must stop pandering to the DUP.”
The DUP has, against all odds and expectations, managed to sound conciliatory, leaving Sinn Fein to wax combative. It senses that the public will be more forgiving of a failure to strike a deal with Adams than it would be if Michelle O’Neill was seen as the preeminent Sinn Fein negotiator.
Adams, upping the stakes, is making the argument that in the wake of McGuinness, reaching a sustainable agreement is a hard ask. In a double-edged comment, he referred to the failure to have previous agreements honoured: “when you have somebody as big and as strong and formidable as Martin he could carry that to a certain degree for the rest of us.” Which hardly masks the obvious: McGuinness is being set up to carry the blame for the situation ever having been allowed to sink beneath the waterline. If Sinn Fein fails to have it resurface, all roads lead to London. James Brokenshire has all but confirmed as much.
With the re-emergence of the old peace process ruse of ultimate deadline by endless postponement, extra time is now on offer.
Will Sinn Fein risk squandering its enhanced political capital by failing to invest it in the only institutional bank in town? A resort to the status quo of Direct Rule, even in the uncharted waters of Brexit, will leave the party looking as if it sold a horse and bought a saddle.
April 7, 2017
Radio Free Eireann Broadcasting 8 April 2017
Martin Galvin
with a run down on this weekend's output from Radio Free Eireann.
Radio Free Eireann will broadcast this Saturday April 8th on WBAI 99.5 FM radio or wbai.org at 12noon New York time or 5 pm-6pm Irish time or listen any time after the broadcast on wbai.org/archives.
Ruan O'Donnell of the University of Limerick will discuss his speaking tour on the role of America's Irish Fenian exiles in spearheading the 1916 Easter Rising, 1916's unfinished business, and why some official Irish commemorations seem so concerned with not offending the British as they honor Irish patriots.
Investigative journalist Eileen Markey talks about her book, Radical Faith: The Assassination Of Sr. Maura - the life of Maura Clarke From the Rockaway Irish Community and daughter of an IRA Volunteer in the War of Independence to being murdered by an El Salvador death squad in 1980.
Go to Radio Free Eireann's web site rfe123.org where you can read written transcripts of some recent headline making interviews and get the latest programming information.
John McDonagh and Martin Galvin co- host.
Radio Free Eireann is heard Saturdays at 12 Noon New York time on wbai 99.5 FM and wbai.org.
It can be heard at wbai.org in Ireland from 5pm to 6pm or anytime after the program concludes on wbai.org/archives.
Check our website rfe123.org.
Radio Free Eireann will broadcast this Saturday April 8th on WBAI 99.5 FM radio or wbai.org at 12noon New York time or 5 pm-6pm Irish time or listen any time after the broadcast on wbai.org/archives.
Ruan O'Donnell of the University of Limerick will discuss his speaking tour on the role of America's Irish Fenian exiles in spearheading the 1916 Easter Rising, 1916's unfinished business, and why some official Irish commemorations seem so concerned with not offending the British as they honor Irish patriots.
Investigative journalist Eileen Markey talks about her book, Radical Faith: The Assassination Of Sr. Maura - the life of Maura Clarke From the Rockaway Irish Community and daughter of an IRA Volunteer in the War of Independence to being murdered by an El Salvador death squad in 1980.
Go to Radio Free Eireann's web site rfe123.org where you can read written transcripts of some recent headline making interviews and get the latest programming information.
John McDonagh and Martin Galvin co- host.
Radio Free Eireann is heard Saturdays at 12 Noon New York time on wbai 99.5 FM and wbai.org.
It can be heard at wbai.org in Ireland from 5pm to 6pm or anytime after the program concludes on wbai.org/archives.
Check our website rfe123.org.
Vengeful And Violent
Mick Hall writes that:
Unlike Gerry Adam's, Martin McGuinness could be vengeful and seek violent retribution upon those who crossed him.
Now Martin McGuinness is resting in his grave I have decided to reblog a piece we published here a few years ago. Why? Because I believe it's important we get a rounded view of imported people if we are to accurately assess their contribution. When this is not done you end up with someone like Clive of India being lorded in school books when in reality he was a psychopathic thief and killer.
Martin was undoubtedly a brave and resourceful solder and an extremely able politician and in the long term I have no doubt history will judge him kindly. However like all human beings he also had feet of clay.
I have often wondered why those Irish republicans who opposed their former comrades decision to sign the Good Friday Agreement concentrate their fire on Gerry Adams, while giving Martin McGuinness a free ride. Not least because whilst Adams may have his faults, he is not known for inflicting violent retribution upon those who cross him, or disagree with his strategic decisions. He has enough confidence in his own ability to win the argument by internal debate and bureaucratic manoeuvre to have to silence his critics in a violent way.
The same cannot be said for Mr McGuinness who was known for his unforgiving nature, and a history of using the ultimate sanction against anyone who threatens his reputation.
However it is more than this alone which made me decide to republish the article below, for unlike Gerry Adams, McGuinness seems to have relished being a senior figure in the Stormont six county government which no matter which way you come at it gives its allegiance to the British crown.
Something which would have been unthinkable to previous generations of Irish Republicans and to McGuinness himself in his younger days.
Whereas Gerry Adams always viewed participating in the north's regional administration as a necessary evil if Sinn Féin was to become a major player in the north and the 26 county Republic of Ireland, McGuinness seems to have relished being first deputy minister and the pomp and privileges that position bestowed on its holder.
The article linked below covers an attack on the family home of Derry Republicans Mickey and Martina Donnelly. Mickey was the man who recruited McGuinness into the (Provisional) IRA. He was also one of 'The 'Hooded Men' who were tortured in 1971 by the British army, and the last prisoner released after internment without trial was 'officially' ended in the 1970s.
He is no saint, in 1986 he was among those who walked out of Sinn Féin's Ard-Fheis after the party voted to end its policy of abstentionism in the Irish 'Republic.' Something I profoundly agreed with as ending abstention in the south was one of the best decisions the Adams leadership ever made as it was the first of many steps in ending their war.
Nevertheless one would have thought Donnelly's years of working alongside McGuinness in the IRA would have protected him from the vengeful attack he and his family experienced in 1998. But it seems not, and here the first deputy minister again differs from Adams. For the latter had no greater friend and comrade, and later no greater foe than the late Brendan Hughes, and while his underlings may have besmirched Brendan's reputation, all to no avail I might add as he was not the type of revolutionary who could be silenced, actual physical violence against a former comrade were not Gerry Adams style. And at Brendan's funeral he helped shoulder his coffin gloves and beret.
Up until his death, little happened within the working class nationalist communities of Derry without McGuinness's knowing about it. When members of the PIRA went to the home of the Donnelly's and their children in 1989 they were undoubtedly on an errand for Mr McGuinness.
A recent photo of the surviving members of The Hooded Men, Mickey Donnelly is on the far left with the bushy beard.
Martina Donnelly
Unlike Gerry Adam's, Martin McGuinness could be vengeful and seek violent retribution upon those who crossed him.
Now Martin McGuinness is resting in his grave I have decided to reblog a piece we published here a few years ago. Why? Because I believe it's important we get a rounded view of imported people if we are to accurately assess their contribution. When this is not done you end up with someone like Clive of India being lorded in school books when in reality he was a psychopathic thief and killer.
Martin was undoubtedly a brave and resourceful solder and an extremely able politician and in the long term I have no doubt history will judge him kindly. However like all human beings he also had feet of clay.
I have often wondered why those Irish republicans who opposed their former comrades decision to sign the Good Friday Agreement concentrate their fire on Gerry Adams, while giving Martin McGuinness a free ride. Not least because whilst Adams may have his faults, he is not known for inflicting violent retribution upon those who cross him, or disagree with his strategic decisions. He has enough confidence in his own ability to win the argument by internal debate and bureaucratic manoeuvre to have to silence his critics in a violent way.
The same cannot be said for Mr McGuinness who was known for his unforgiving nature, and a history of using the ultimate sanction against anyone who threatens his reputation.
However it is more than this alone which made me decide to republish the article below, for unlike Gerry Adams, McGuinness seems to have relished being a senior figure in the Stormont six county government which no matter which way you come at it gives its allegiance to the British crown.
Something which would have been unthinkable to previous generations of Irish Republicans and to McGuinness himself in his younger days.
Whereas Gerry Adams always viewed participating in the north's regional administration as a necessary evil if Sinn Féin was to become a major player in the north and the 26 county Republic of Ireland, McGuinness seems to have relished being first deputy minister and the pomp and privileges that position bestowed on its holder.
The article linked below covers an attack on the family home of Derry Republicans Mickey and Martina Donnelly. Mickey was the man who recruited McGuinness into the (Provisional) IRA. He was also one of 'The 'Hooded Men' who were tortured in 1971 by the British army, and the last prisoner released after internment without trial was 'officially' ended in the 1970s.
He is no saint, in 1986 he was among those who walked out of Sinn Féin's Ard-Fheis after the party voted to end its policy of abstentionism in the Irish 'Republic.' Something I profoundly agreed with as ending abstention in the south was one of the best decisions the Adams leadership ever made as it was the first of many steps in ending their war.
Nevertheless one would have thought Donnelly's years of working alongside McGuinness in the IRA would have protected him from the vengeful attack he and his family experienced in 1998. But it seems not, and here the first deputy minister again differs from Adams. For the latter had no greater friend and comrade, and later no greater foe than the late Brendan Hughes, and while his underlings may have besmirched Brendan's reputation, all to no avail I might add as he was not the type of revolutionary who could be silenced, actual physical violence against a former comrade were not Gerry Adams style. And at Brendan's funeral he helped shoulder his coffin gloves and beret.
Up until his death, little happened within the working class nationalist communities of Derry without McGuinness's knowing about it. When members of the PIRA went to the home of the Donnelly's and their children in 1989 they were undoubtedly on an errand for Mr McGuinness.
A recent photo of the surviving members of The Hooded Men, Mickey Donnelly is on the far left with the bushy beard.Martina Donnelly
The National Riddle
The
Uri Avnery Column
examines the efforts of Binyamin Netanyahu to suffocate dissent.
What Is the difference between a "corporation" and an "authority?
It's a national riddle. The whole country is absorbed by it. The Prime Minister announces that he will "go to the very end" to achieve his end. Which end? I don't know. I am not sure that he knows. Nobody I know knows.
The Prime Minister threatens the worst. If he does not get his way – whatever it is – he will do something absolutely awful: announce new elections. Let the people decide whether they want the authority or the corporation. Whatever they are.
What Is it all about? One thing is certain: it concerns the public media.
Binyamin Netanyahu wants to have them under his control. Completely. Totally. Radio. Television. The social media. The lot.
Seems it is not so easy to get a firm grip on them.
Long before there was Israel and long before there was television, the British Government of Palestine founded the Voice of Jerusalem, a radio station that provided us with the news throughout World War II. When the State of Israel came into being, this radio station changed into the Voice of Israel. The Broadcasting Authority remained. Formally it belongs to the government, but it enjoys considerable autonomy.
Then TV came along, and now there are several networks, one of them a public one. It belongs to the same authority.
Netanyahu is very sensitive. He does not like criticism. Neither does his wife, Sarah'le. The Royal couple wondered how to silence the impertinent voices and hit upon a remedy: abolish the authority and create a corporation. By this simple stratagem, they could get rid of all the old hands (and mouths) they detest.
So it was decided, laws were enacted, a budget was adopted, new personnel were hired.
But Then Netanyahu – or his wife – woke up one night and asked: Hey, what are we doing?
Who will tell all these good corporation people what to broadcast and what not?
The new corporation was modeled on the much admired BBC – the British Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC enjoys a lot of independence. Do we really want a corporation that ignores the wishes of the Prime Minister? Worse, the wishes of his wife?
Of course not. Stop everything!
So here we are today. The old authority has not yet been disbanded, its bloated personnel not yet dismissed. Its various TV and radio stations broadcast every day around the clock. And there is the new broadcasting corporation, full of new employees, slated to go on the air on April 30, just a month and five days away.
Who will be broadcasting on May 1? The authority? The corporation? Both? Neither? Only the Almighty knows. Perhaps not even He.
Who is Netanyahu's adversary in this fight? A quite unlikely enemy: Moshe Kahlon, the Minister of Finance. A mild, unassuming type, with a permanent smile, a former Likud member. The Almighty – the same – has turned this pussycat into a lion. Miracles do happen.
I happened this week to visit a radio studio. Broadcasting people all around me. I asked them, one by one, what the fight was about. They tried their best to explain it to me. In the end, I still had no idea, and I had the strong impression that they didn’t either.
This Week Netanyahu paid a state visit to China, to get away as far as possible. Between these two world powers – China and Israel, the elephant and the mouse – there are good relations.
The Prime Minister was shown around. He was taken to the Great Wall. Photos showed him surrounded by dark-suited men and one red-clad woman, his wife. He was just making a phone call, ignoring the unique landscape.
To whom? Those damn journalists soon found out: the Prime Minister was talking to his underlings in far-away Israel about dissolving the fledgling corporation and strengthening the old authority. His Minister of Finance announced that if that happens, he will bring the government crashing down, making new elections unavoidable if Netanyahu wants to stay in power,
Why? Without Kahlon and his Kulanu party, Netanyahu and his ultra-right coalition have no majority. The opposition, together with Kahlon, will constitute a new majority. In theory it could set up a new government. No need for elections. Simple arithmetic.
Eh… true. But arithmetic is not politics. Such a new coalition would have to include the Arab party, and that is too much both for Lapid and Herzog.
Throughout this whole ridiculous affair, the voice of the opposition was not heard at all. As if the Almighty – still the same - had struck them dumb. As if Yair Lapid, generally a prolific talker, who may lead the largest party in the Knesset after the next elections, was suddenly searching for words. Poor man.
Not quite as poor as Yitzhak Herzog, the leader of the Zionist Camp, a.k.a. the Labor Party. Not a word. Nothing to say – incredible as this may sound for a politician.
Why this sudden silence? Simple: on both sides of the conflict there are journalists. And what politician wants to quarrel with journalists? Who would dare, apart from Binyamin Netanyahu?
What Does he want? What is the purpose of this entire ruckus?
That is one riddle which is easy to answer: Netanyahu wants sole, direct control of all Israeli media. He wants to be able to tell every single broadcaster what to say and what not to say.
After the last election, he retained in his own hands not only the offices of Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, but also the Communication Ministry, quite a junior office – except that it controls all government subsidies for the media. For some technical reason, the Supreme Court compelled him to give up this position and turn it over to one of his yes-men.
Control of all the media is the dream of every democratic ruler. (Dictators don't dream about it, they have it.) Netanyahu already has absolute control over Israel's largest daily newspaper – a paper distributed for free. This is a gift from one of his most ardent admirers – the US Casino Mogul Sheldon Adelson. (I have invented the Hebrew term for such a give-away – something like "gratisette".)
The owner of a real daily paper of almost equal size was overheard offering Netanyahu preferential treatment in return for cutting back the circulation of this private paper.
Why The hell does Netanyahu need all these machinations?
His power is based on solid foundations. He has already realized a politician's dream: He has no successor. All possible heirs have been eliminated long ago. Ask any of his detesters whom they see as a possible replacement, and they will fall silent.
Many Israelis – myself included – believe that Netanyahu is leading the state towards an existential disaster. The man has no world view, except the nationalistic fanaticism of his late father, a historian of the Spanish inquisition. As an intellectual, he is a zero.
But he is a talented political practitioner, an expert in day-to-day political machinations, including relations with foreign powers. There seems to be no other practitioner around who could fill his place.
So, for the time being, we are stuck with him, his authority and/or his corporation.
What Is the difference between a "corporation" and an "authority?
It's a national riddle. The whole country is absorbed by it. The Prime Minister announces that he will "go to the very end" to achieve his end. Which end? I don't know. I am not sure that he knows. Nobody I know knows.
The Prime Minister threatens the worst. If he does not get his way – whatever it is – he will do something absolutely awful: announce new elections. Let the people decide whether they want the authority or the corporation. Whatever they are.
What Is it all about? One thing is certain: it concerns the public media.
Binyamin Netanyahu wants to have them under his control. Completely. Totally. Radio. Television. The social media. The lot.
Seems it is not so easy to get a firm grip on them.
Long before there was Israel and long before there was television, the British Government of Palestine founded the Voice of Jerusalem, a radio station that provided us with the news throughout World War II. When the State of Israel came into being, this radio station changed into the Voice of Israel. The Broadcasting Authority remained. Formally it belongs to the government, but it enjoys considerable autonomy.
Then TV came along, and now there are several networks, one of them a public one. It belongs to the same authority.
Netanyahu is very sensitive. He does not like criticism. Neither does his wife, Sarah'le. The Royal couple wondered how to silence the impertinent voices and hit upon a remedy: abolish the authority and create a corporation. By this simple stratagem, they could get rid of all the old hands (and mouths) they detest.
So it was decided, laws were enacted, a budget was adopted, new personnel were hired.
But Then Netanyahu – or his wife – woke up one night and asked: Hey, what are we doing?
Who will tell all these good corporation people what to broadcast and what not?
The new corporation was modeled on the much admired BBC – the British Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC enjoys a lot of independence. Do we really want a corporation that ignores the wishes of the Prime Minister? Worse, the wishes of his wife?
Of course not. Stop everything!
So here we are today. The old authority has not yet been disbanded, its bloated personnel not yet dismissed. Its various TV and radio stations broadcast every day around the clock. And there is the new broadcasting corporation, full of new employees, slated to go on the air on April 30, just a month and five days away.
Who will be broadcasting on May 1? The authority? The corporation? Both? Neither? Only the Almighty knows. Perhaps not even He.
Who is Netanyahu's adversary in this fight? A quite unlikely enemy: Moshe Kahlon, the Minister of Finance. A mild, unassuming type, with a permanent smile, a former Likud member. The Almighty – the same – has turned this pussycat into a lion. Miracles do happen.
I happened this week to visit a radio studio. Broadcasting people all around me. I asked them, one by one, what the fight was about. They tried their best to explain it to me. In the end, I still had no idea, and I had the strong impression that they didn’t either.
This Week Netanyahu paid a state visit to China, to get away as far as possible. Between these two world powers – China and Israel, the elephant and the mouse – there are good relations.
The Prime Minister was shown around. He was taken to the Great Wall. Photos showed him surrounded by dark-suited men and one red-clad woman, his wife. He was just making a phone call, ignoring the unique landscape.
To whom? Those damn journalists soon found out: the Prime Minister was talking to his underlings in far-away Israel about dissolving the fledgling corporation and strengthening the old authority. His Minister of Finance announced that if that happens, he will bring the government crashing down, making new elections unavoidable if Netanyahu wants to stay in power,
Why? Without Kahlon and his Kulanu party, Netanyahu and his ultra-right coalition have no majority. The opposition, together with Kahlon, will constitute a new majority. In theory it could set up a new government. No need for elections. Simple arithmetic.
Eh… true. But arithmetic is not politics. Such a new coalition would have to include the Arab party, and that is too much both for Lapid and Herzog.
Throughout this whole ridiculous affair, the voice of the opposition was not heard at all. As if the Almighty – still the same - had struck them dumb. As if Yair Lapid, generally a prolific talker, who may lead the largest party in the Knesset after the next elections, was suddenly searching for words. Poor man.
Not quite as poor as Yitzhak Herzog, the leader of the Zionist Camp, a.k.a. the Labor Party. Not a word. Nothing to say – incredible as this may sound for a politician.
Why this sudden silence? Simple: on both sides of the conflict there are journalists. And what politician wants to quarrel with journalists? Who would dare, apart from Binyamin Netanyahu?
What Does he want? What is the purpose of this entire ruckus?
That is one riddle which is easy to answer: Netanyahu wants sole, direct control of all Israeli media. He wants to be able to tell every single broadcaster what to say and what not to say.
After the last election, he retained in his own hands not only the offices of Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, but also the Communication Ministry, quite a junior office – except that it controls all government subsidies for the media. For some technical reason, the Supreme Court compelled him to give up this position and turn it over to one of his yes-men.
Control of all the media is the dream of every democratic ruler. (Dictators don't dream about it, they have it.) Netanyahu already has absolute control over Israel's largest daily newspaper – a paper distributed for free. This is a gift from one of his most ardent admirers – the US Casino Mogul Sheldon Adelson. (I have invented the Hebrew term for such a give-away – something like "gratisette".)
The owner of a real daily paper of almost equal size was overheard offering Netanyahu preferential treatment in return for cutting back the circulation of this private paper.
Why The hell does Netanyahu need all these machinations?
His power is based on solid foundations. He has already realized a politician's dream: He has no successor. All possible heirs have been eliminated long ago. Ask any of his detesters whom they see as a possible replacement, and they will fall silent.
Many Israelis – myself included – believe that Netanyahu is leading the state towards an existential disaster. The man has no world view, except the nationalistic fanaticism of his late father, a historian of the Spanish inquisition. As an intellectual, he is a zero.
But he is a talented political practitioner, an expert in day-to-day political machinations, including relations with foreign powers. There seems to be no other practitioner around who could fill his place.
So, for the time being, we are stuck with him, his authority and/or his corporation.
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