Today's 5 Topics:
1. wsm.ie: Fire in the Minds of Irish Men and Irish Women -
notes on the meaning of 1916 today by Tom Murray
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. Greece, Video: Anarchists taking up arms against drug
traffickers (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. The criminalization of BDS at the Autonomous University of
Madrid By harrison (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Britain, classwar party: Dear Middle-Class Cunts… --- A
text circulated recently by a Londoner as a critique on the
Dalston ‘Vibe’ development: (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. afed.cz: Anarchism and global insurgency [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
What ideas inspired the men and women who rose up in 1916? How did those ideas fare in the
Irish Free State founded in 1922? ---- In his book, ‘Fire in the Minds of Men’, the
historian James Billington traces an almost invisible thread of incendiary ideas that
inspired faith in revolutionary social transformation across Europe from the 1700s to the
early 1900s. All had a common genesis in the motto of the French Revolution, ‘Liberty,
Equality, Fraternity’. In Ireland too, the 1916 rebels shared common ideological roots in
the Enlightenment-era republicanism of the United Irishmen, and the romantic nationalism
of Young Ireland. In particular, the alliance of nationalists and socialists, notably
Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, found common ground in the writings of the mid-19th
century agrarian agitator, James Fintan Lalor. At the height of the Great Famine in
Ireland and the 1848 Revolutions in Europe, Lalor advanced a dangerous idea: the principle
‘that the entire ownership of Ireland, moral and material, up to the sun and down to the
centre, is vested of right in the people of Ireland; that they, and none but they, are the
landowners and lawmakers of this island’.
Of course, the men and women of 1916 had different understandings of who exactly should
own Ireland in the event of their success. In a curious inversion of the European
Enlightenment tradition, Irish republicanism in the early 1900s accentuated the role of
Catholicism in defining ‘the people’. Mother Church’s self-appointed role as mediator
between peasant and landlord, nation and empire, had all but ensured this anomaly.
Republicanism thus involved the spiritual work of undoing Holy Ireland’s confiscation and
anglicisation by a materialist superpower. Conversely, the Irish Citizen Army, admittedly
a much smaller grouping in the GPO, drew inspiration from the recent upsurge in labour
movements internationally. Advocating syndicalism (or ‘Larkin-ism’ in a Dublin accent),
the ICA claimed that the fields and factories belonged to those who worked them, a right
that could be realised through forming one big union and mounting a general strike of all
workers. Naturally, the owners of those fields and factories, the Catholic hierarchy and
Arthur Griffith’s Sinn Féin party were staunchly opposed to socialist ideas of
redistribution as ‘godless’, ‘alien’, and even ‘anti-national’.
Remarkably, for a brief period after the Rising, ordinary men and women made the principle
of the popular ownership a living reality. A mass boycott campaign broke the threat of
conscription in 1918. Organised labour was notably resurgent thereafter. Between 1918 and
1923, five general strikes and eighteen local strikes occurred. Irish workers refused to
handle weapons for the British military, a factor crucial to the IRA’s success. Workers
also took over the running of more than eighty workplaces and established soviets at the
Cleeves factory in Limerick, at the foundry in Drogheda, Co. Louth and in the coal mines
of Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny. The West was particularly awake. Farmers and labourers
revived midnight campaigns of intimidation to expropriate and redistribute land. A network
of popularly elected, local arbitration courts sprung up, sometimes to decide the terms of
land redistribution. For the first time in Ireland, landlords were forcibly ousted from
their homes. In these circumstances, the country’s wealthier land owners eventually turned
from Westminster to the Sinn Féin party to put an end to ‘agrarian Bolshevism’ and restore
law and order.
THE HOUR OF THE LAWYERS
The making of the 1922 Irish Free State Constitution shows how nationalist leaders were
already retreating from dangerous ideas of popular ownership. As the Anglo-Irish Treaty
split the anti-colonial movement, Hugh Kennedy, the Provisional Government’s senior law
officer, argued that popular disorder would have to be overcome by ‘utterly ruthless
action’ such as that used by the Reichswehr-Freikorps in crushing the recent Spartacist
uprising in Weimar Germany. Unsurprisingly, the 1922 Constitution was a conservative
instrument. It established a Westminster-style parliamentary system of government under a
type of constitutional monarchy. Although it contained guarantees of civil and political
rights, substantive judicial review would remain inoperative for a generation. There were
some changes. Provisions for direct democracy notably facilitated a citizen’s initiative
process to amend the constitution and to draft legislation. Interestingly, Kennedy
believed such provisions would have a ‘chilling’ effect on revolutionary movements.
Subsequent governments, however, amended the Constitution to stop these provisions coming
into effect. This ultimately conservative Constitution belies the radical proposals
advanced during its drafting.
In fact, ideas of popular ownership featured prominently during the early drafting stage
at the Shelbourne Hotel and later Constituent Assembly debates at Dáil Éireann. In the
spring of 1922, drafters such as James Douglas and Darrell Figgis initially included what
they called ‘the Pearse statement’ in the opening articles, explicitly providing for ‘the
right of every citizen to an adequate share of the produce of the nation’s labour’.
Clement France, a visiting US lawyer, similarly claimed that the private control of
natural resources and public utilities ‘would be subversive of the welfare of the general
public’. He explained: ‘The persons who control and own the great Natural Resources of the
Country also control the freedom and wellbeing of the people…The result has been in
America that notwithstanding a Republican and Democratic Government, an economic autocracy
has developed which controls the Government of the Country and the personal liberties of
the people almost as effectively as was ever done by an absolute monarchy’. Later that
autumn, Labour party TDs such as T.J. O’Connell proposed provisions such as children’s
rights and welfare supports for citizens.
‘OF COMMUNISTIC TENDENCY’
Proposals associating the popular ownership of Ireland with wealth redistribution soon
suffered ignominious erasure. Laissez-faire economist and government advisor, George
O’Brien rejected claims that citizens should receive ‘an adequate share’ of the nation’s
wealth, claiming ‘I do not know what the last sentence of the present article means’. At
Westminster, British Law Officers disliked the ‘Soviet character’ of the opening articles
and claimed they were ‘of communistic tendency’. Hugh Kennedy, negotiating on behalf of
the Provisional Government, agreed that it was ‘an unnecessary declaration’ and acquiesced
in the offending provision’s removal. During the Constituent Assembly debates that autumn,
W.T. Cosgrave claimed the principle of economic sovereignty was unnecessary
window-dressing. Echoing the British Law Officers, Kevin O’Higgins similarly declared it
would be unwise ‘to embody in the constitution what certainly looks very much like a
Communistic doctrine’. Buoyed by its recent electoral victory, the Provisional Government
only secured its capacity to enforce these decisions in late 1922. Having effectively
ended the civil war as a military contest, it thereafter quashed or conciliated residual
outbreaks of agrarian or labour militancy.
Today, recent experiences of ‘democratic deficits’ and popularly unaccountable market
forces prompt us to return to the question posed by the 1916 rebels: who owns Ireland?
Recent anti-austerity protests renew long-standing claims for rights to ‘an adequate
share’ of the nation’s wealth. Similarly, as evidenced by recent water charges
demonstrations, the private control of natural resources and public utilities is not
infrequently perceived to be ‘subversive of the welfare of the general public’. No doubt
the idea of the popular ownership of society remains a dangerous one for the powerful and
wealthy. In such circumstances, whether celebrated or commemorated, the 1916 Rising is
likely to be remembered so long as the people who live here believe that Ireland and its
future belong to them.
Tom Murray
http://www.wsm.ie/c/fire-minds-irish-men-women-1916-today
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Message: 2
In a massive show of force, anarchists, antifascists and libertarians took to the streets
of Exarchia [central district of Athens] against drugs, dealing with gangs and with the
police. ---- The demonstration was guarded by visibly armed companions (which can be seen
in the video from 01:53), something that has not been seen in recent demonstrations, but
was considered necessary because of the serious threat posed by the mafias and heavily
armed traffickers working together with the police. ---- This show of armed force and
solidarity was in response to the continuing tensions in the area with drug traffickers,
including a recent incident in which three anarchist comrades were violently attacked by a
drug dealer.
Video: https://vimeo.com/158636834
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Message: 3
Dear Mr. Rector and members of the university community: ---- On February 25 was planned
at the Autonomous University of Madrid a lecture by Professor Haim Eshach. Varixs students
did a nonviolent boycott the ceremony raising a Palestinian flag and chanting slogans
against Israeli apartheid. Professor Eshach not come in their own right but as a member of
the Ben-Gurion University denounced by his overt racism . ---- The event is part of the
international campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) to the State of Israel,
which claims: ---- 1. The end of the occupation and colonization of Israel in Palestine
and destruction of the illegal wall in the West Bank. ---- ( + Info on Israeli settlements
by clicking here ) ---- 2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian
citizens of Israel.
3. The respect, protection and promotion of the right of return of refugees, as stipulated
in UN resolution 194.
To bring to an end these three goals, arise, among others, actions boycott of Israeli
academic institutions for their active participation in the construction and maintenance
of the system of colonization and apartheid, including educational discrimination of
Palestinians with Israeli citizenship and the hindering of academic freedom in the
Palestinian institutions. This boycott, therefore, is not addressed to individual
academics or comes to value their opinions. It is intended, always peacefully, ending the
accomplice collaboration of our institutions with those of the State of Israel
participating in such policies violate human rights and international law. As more than
1200 academics in Spain and a growing number of academic institutions in the world have
joined this campaign, maintaining academic relations with these institutions say only
contribute to present as normal situation of occupation and apartheid imposed by Israel in
Palestine . You can find more information at the following links:
- Web BDS
- Article BDS
Thus, contrary to the contentions of the accusations of anti-Semitism and fascism
received, had an anti-racist protest and denunciation of academic complicity with the
state of affairs described motivation.
Therefore, in solidarity with the Palestinian people and against the systematic violation
of human rights by Israel, the undersigned declare ourselves in favor of BDS and reject
the threats of sanctions by the UAM expressed in some media.
- Article abc what happened at UAM
Association Culture Review
Student Federation Libertarian
Student Association Noam Chomsky
Assembly Psychology
Autonomous Palestine
Assembly of Philosophy and Letters
Red Current UAM AE Habeas Corpus
List Cloister "By public"
Student Association Double Sciences Helix
Platform Refugiadxs college
Association Science students Manuela Malasaña
student Association Malayerba
http://www.alasbarricadas.org/noticias/node/35963
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Message: 4
Dear Middle-Class Cunts… ---- A lot of you are genuinely non-plussed at the hostility you
face when you move into a working-class neighbourhood. ---- ‘But we bring much-needed
investment, contribute to the economy, employ local labour, and diversify the community!’
– you cry as you move into your new Georgian conversion, buy-to-let another council flat
for your kids, or invest in a shiny new development built on the demolished housing estate
of people you’ve never met. ---- Well, this video might give you a clue why. It’s the
blonde blandness with which you whitewash London’s streets for investors in homes no-one
else can afford to buy. ---- [the cuntish video promoting Dalston Vibe…] ---- The
corporate chain stores that follow your insatiable desire for the consumption of luxury
goods that is the only reward for your meaningless jobs. The rip-off hairdressing salons
and vintage clothes shops that satisfy your long-awaited conversion to East End hipsterdom.
The artisanal bakers, ethically-sourced wholefood stores and upmarket supermarket chains
that price out the street markets on which the local community relies to feed and clothe
their kids. The luxury flats that leap up overnight to accommodate the latest brood of
future hedge-fund managers you keep inflicting on this world.
The estate agents that spring up like poppies on graves around the homes of people evicted
to make way for you. The crap music with which you pollute the air to advertise the latest
bit of useless technology making your lives even more vacuous.
The home-county tourist’s vision of London to which every pub, shop, park, music venue and
street market within reach of your bulging wallets must conform. The commercialisation and
banality that follows in your wake like a fucking virus, killing everything it touches.
The unthinking, unblinking, money-worshipping sense of entitlement with which your braying
voices transform a community you could never begin to understand into a knocking shop for
the highest bidder – which is always you you you.
Fuck off, you’re not welcome, and one day the streets you bought will run with the blood
of your children.
Plus: latest on the Dalston Vibe backlash
http://www.classwarparty.org.uk/dear-middle-class-cunts/#more-1215
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Message: 5
One of the two Brno lectures within the European tour of American queer anarcho-feminists
collective CrimethInc. ---- Anarchism and global revolt - from the Arab Spring to today
---- From Brazil, via Ukraine, Bosnia Syria uprising to expand both exciting and ferocious
directions. What common themes linking the occupied square and police cars on fire?
Workers from CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective returns to Europe with Pet reflection of
anarchy in a new era of global revolution! Dynamic lecture examines today's global
insurrection in relation to the police function, citizenship and democracy. What
opportunities created revolution in the economic crisis, which is not possible without
pervasive controls and spy? How can we confront nationalism and (neo) liberal access to
citizenship, at a time when intensifying koflikty between nationality and migration? What
kind of vision for the limits of democracy can anarchists and anarchists offer in times of
growing distrust of governments? It is important that our struggle to spread stories and
tactics that challenge the legitimacy of these forces - a future of freedom hangs in the
balance.
FB event: facebook.com/events/193586914352579
Date & Time:
Wednesday, 23 March, 2016 - 18:00
Category: discussion/presentation
Price: by donation
Cafe Three ocásci
Gorky
37
Brno
Czech Republic
http://www.afed.cz
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