The Blanket

The Blanket - A Journal of Protest & Dissent

By Their Friends You Shall Know Them

 

Mick Hall • 25 July 2006

The most basic of principles, thus revolutionary duties of any radical political activist, is to show solidarity with those who are engaged in struggle against our common enemy. This duty is not negotiable, the more so when it involves challenging one's own government or governmental administrations who have in the past, or may in the future, be beneficial to our struggle. That is why communists who stood out against the USSR's invasion and suppression of the Hungarian revolution in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 are to this day rightly regarded with respect, despite being pilloried at the time. The same goes for those English and French socialists who opposed their nations' Empire building, and stood alongside the Liberation Movements who were struggling for their freedom and independence. This is especially true of those French and English nationals who gave support to the Irish Republican Movement and the FLN during their years of armed conflict. In the USA it is those who organized and demonstrated against the Vietnamese war on the streets of US cities who were the true US patriots, not those who supported all out war against that small south-east Asian country and its immediate neighbors by sending other people's sons to war.

Nelson Mandela understood this duty clearly when, soon after his release from prison, he refused to join with the USA in condemning Fidel Castro's Cuba, Libya and the PLO, along with other nations who had given the ANC shelter and material support during their long struggle against the South African apartheid State.

Contrast this behavior with that of Gerry Adams today, who, far from following in this tradition and doing his duty as an Irish Republican revolutionary by showing solidarity with Hizbullah and the dispossessed it represents, issued a statement via the SF web site in which he refuses to squarely place the blame for the bloodshed in Lebanon where it belongs, with the government of Israel and that nations benefactor, armorer and financier, the US administration of GW Bush. Instead, Adams issues a statement worthy of a flimflam G8 politico who is ever on the look-out for the main chance to ingratiate himself with Bush and his doormat Blair.

Adams, in his statement, drivels on about the need for the United Nations to come to the aid of Lebanon, when he is well aware there is not a hope in hell of this happening as the USA and UK would veto it at the Security Council of the UN, preferring to send Nato troops into the region, their purpose being to police the border on behalf of Israel and pressurize Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Iran to accept US hegemony in the middle east.

Instead of recognizing that the actions of Hizbullah were designed to take the pressure off the democratically elected Palestinian government and the people of Gaza, Adams uses the exact same language as Bush and his moron doormat Tony Blair, and talks about Hizbullah kidnapping members of the IDF (nevermind Israel holds hundreds of Lebanese prisoners some of which have been in Israeli prisons for over 20 years). Adams' implication is clear to all; like the Thief in Chief in the White House, Adams is telling his US supporters that if Hizbullah had not 'kidnaped' the two Israeli soldiers, the IDF would not at this very moment be murdering innocent civilians within Lebanon. Which is nonsense, as even the Israelis are now admitting their true purpose is to destroy Lebanon's infrastructure in an attempt to annihilate from the face of the earth the Hizballah organization, its militants and leadership. Indeed, in his statement nowhere does Adams condemn this act of attempted annihilation; his only comment is that it may not succeed. For someone who claims to be an Irish Republican to make such a statement is not only shameful but denies the whole history of Republicanism.

Compare Gerry Adams' behavior with that of Hizbullah's comrades in Iran during the IRA prisoners hunger strikes of 1981, which was led by Bobby Sands. They immediately recognized a commonality between the two struggles despite having both political and religious differences with the PRM. They understood revolutionary solidarity and renamed the street in which the British Embassy in Tehran is situated from Winston Churchill Street to that of Bobby Sands Street. This name change reverberated around the Islamic world and beyond, resulting in mass demonstrations, etc., in support of the Republican prisoners and their struggle. Plus it was a tonic and fillip to the Republican prisoners suffering in the cages of Long Kesh prison.

These militants in Tehran understood their revolutionary duty, and it was not to cosy up to the exploiters by not offending them, but to use the opportunity to appeal to the masses over their heads in an attempt to gain support for the Republican prisoners and their struggle against the British State. A lesson Mr Adams clearly needs to re-learn if he is to play any constructive role in the future in building an Ireland of equals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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The Blanket - A Journal of Protest & Dissent

 

 

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Index: Current Articles



25 July 2006

Other Articles From This Issue:

Religious Rednecks of Doom
Dr John Coulter

Cut-Throat Politics
John Kennedy

A Poem About Our Children
Mary La Rosa

Israeli Blitzkrieg
Anthony McIntyre

When Leaders Serve Foreign Interests, Everyone Loses
Mazin Qumsiyeh

By Their Friends You Shall Know Them
Mick Hall

Mission Impossible
Anthony McIntyre

Lit Crit Well Writ
Seaghán Ó Murchú

Revisiting A Literary Genius
David Adams

'The Film That Shakes A Lot More Than the Barley'
Eamon Sweeney

The Framing of Michael McKevitt: Conclusion
Marcella Sands

The Framing of Michael McKevitt: Additional Information
Marcella Sands

The Framing of Michael McKevitt: Letter of Thanks
Michael McKevitt

Pull the Other One
John Kennedy

Ex-Noraid Boss Still Gloomy on Peace Process
Jim Dee

An Honour to Have Been Part of the Blanket Protest
Anthony McIntyre

The Letters page has been updated.


19 July 2006

Dupe Process
Anthony McIntyre

Heatwave Won't Affect Cold Storage
Dr John Coulter

Hanson's Handouts
John Kennedy

Israeli State Terror
Anthony McIntyre

Judgement Day
John Kennedy

Israel, US and the New Orientalism
M. Shahid Alam

The Right, the Need to Resist
Mick Hall

An Invitation to My Neighborhood
Fred A Wilcox

Prison Fast
RPAG

Death Brings Fr Faul
Anthony McIntyre

Risking the Death of Volunteers is Not the IRA Way
Brendan Hughes

Principles and Tactics
Liam O Ruairc

The Framing of Michael McKevitt: Preliminary Hearings Cont'd.
Marcella Sands

The Framing of Michael McKevitt: Rupert's Reward
Marcella Sands

The Framing of Michael McKevitt: Rupert's Inconsistencies
Marcella Sands

Blast from the Past
John Kennedy

An Elegant End
Seaghán Ó Murchú

West Belfast - The Past, the Present and the Future
Davy Carlin

 

 

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