Australians to vote on landmark Tamil Referendum

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE on 14 April 2010

Australians to vote on landmark Tamil Referendum

Thousands of Australians will convene on ballot boxes across the country this weekend to express their desire for an independent Tamil homeland.

Human rights advocates and political figures have thrown their support behind the initiative organised by the Tamil Referendum Council of Australia (TRCA) and based on the Vaddukoddai Resolution (VKR), a mandate for independence drafted in Sri Lanka in 1976 by Tamil leaders that was rejected by the Government and led to full scale civil war.

“The Australian government has done nothing to educate the public regarding the repression of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. The VKR referendum can help raise awareness of the situation that the Tamils have faced for decades” said Ian Rintoul, head of the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC).

Over 10,000 voters have registered to vote, with thousands more to enrol in the coming days, according to CPI Strategic spokesperson Stephen Newnhman, a consultancy firm hired by the TRCA to co-ordinate the voting process.

Polling booths will be set up in locations across NSW, Victoria and Queensland on April 17 and 18 with large numbers of voters from other states to submit postal votes.

Pip Hinman, federal election candidate for Grayndler in NSW, described the event as an opportunity to “add to the pressure on the Australian government, which is currently turning a blind eye to the ongoing repression of the Tamil people”.

“Together, we must use these polls to push the Rudd government to break completely from the former Howard government's racist refugee policy in which Tamils (and others) are being denied their basic human rights,” Miss Hinman urged citing the recent political furore surrounding Tamil asylum seekers.

The referendum will be the first of its kind in the Southern-hemisphere, following democratically held referenda across Europe and Canada that have established an overwhelming mandate supporting the formation of a sovereign Tamil homeland in the island of Sri Lanka.

The event takes place almost a year since the Sri Lankan government launched a brutal campaign in the island’s North East, slaughtering up to 40,000 Tamil civilians en-route to a crushing defeat against Tamil Tiger rebels.

Seran Sribalan: 0406 123 503 www.vkr1976.com.au

“Aborigines from across the country will fight nuclear dumping”

Media Release

Goodooga, northwest NSW, 24 February 10 – Aboriginal people will be called from all over Australia to protest in the Northern Territory against any movement of nuclear waste across their traditional lands, an Aboriginal activist says.

Michael Anderson, chairman of an Aboriginal Summit Task Force recently elected in Canberra (pictured at right), says in a media release: “Nothing will move down the former American Vice-President Dick Cheney’s Halliburton railway line from Darwin to Alice Springs.”

Mr. Anderson was responding on behalf of a majority of traditional land owners to an announcement by Resources and Energy Minister, Martin Ferguson, that the Federal Government will pursue the first Australian radioactive waste repository at Muckaty Station, about 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek.

Mr. Anderson condemned the Bureau of Northern Land Council for “ignoring the majority of the traditional land owners who do not want their country, Muckaty Station, used for nuclear waste dumping”.

He said the general Australian public fails to understand how much influence the federal government has over organisations such as the Northern Land Council, whose CEO is appointed by government.

“Aboriginal people are under siege from the tyranny of a Labor government who have no consideration whatsoever for our rights,” Mr. Anderson charges.

“What we have here is a repeat of the Ranger uranium mine agreement fiasco. The arrangements that are being made are illegal and the government and the Northern Land Council know full well that the traditional owners have little to no chance of fighting against this dictatorship.

“But don’t underestimate our resolve as a resistance group. It is time the Australian government woke up and understands that they are pushing us into a corner and we will come out fighting with all that we have.

“Our communications thus far with the traditional owners suggest that a fight is looming, and maybe then the Australian public will get the picture.”

Mr Anderson, the last survivor of the four Black Power activists who set up the Aboriginal Embassy in Canberra in 1972, says he is pleased that the unions are offering support.

“The New Way Summit Task Force has been asked for their support to bring this matter to the attention of the public. The Task Force puts the Australian government on notice that like Noonkanber in Western Australia in 1979, we will call upon Aboriginal people to come from every part of this country and protest any movement of nuclear waste across our people’s traditional lands.”

“If the Europeans, Americans and China along with the rest of the world want to use nuclear power, then dump your rubbish on your own soil. You take it from us against our will and you now want to return it against our wishes.”

Muckaty Station is the country of the mother of Barbara Shaw (pictured left), Alice Springs camps activist and a member of the Summit Task Force. Ms Shaw commented on uranium mining in the Northern Territory at the Canberra summit from 30 January to 1 February.

She said only some people agreed to the dump “because they saw the dollar sign”. Although Elders had long warned that the radiation is dangerous, a lot more awareness needed to be created in the area. Listen to the extract at http://www.4shared. com/file/ 228500371/ e1144837/ Barbara_Shaw_ MINING.html.

The Taskforce can be contacted through Michael Anderson at 02 68296355 landline, 04272 92 492 mobile, 02 68296375 fax, ngurampaa@bigpond. com.au

-o-o-o-o-o-o- o-o-o-o-o- o-o-o-o-o- o-o-o-o-o- o-o-

Mr Anderson’s release in full:

As Chairman of the recently elected Aboriginal Summit Task Force, I condemn the Bureau of Northern Land Council for ignoring the majority of the traditional land owners who do not want their country, Muckaty Station, used for nuclear waste dumping.

What the general Australian public fails to understand is how much influence the Federal Government has over organizations such as the Northern Land Council. In the first instance the CEO of the Northern Land Council is a Government-appointe d person as per the Federal Northern Territory Land Rights Act. This does not fare very well for its perceived independence. Aboriginal people are under siege from the tyranny of a Labor Government who have no consideration whatsoever for our rights.

What we have here is a repeat of the Ranger uranium mine agreement fiasco. The arrangements that are being made are illegal and the Government and the Northern Land Council know full well that the traditional owners have little to no chance of fighting against this dictatorship. But don’t underestimate our resolve as a resistance group.

The public must now realize what this Labor Government are doing to Aboriginal people, blackmailing them to sign over their lands for infra-structure development and housing, but the real issues are now coming to a head and this is just one example of what is coming.

We do have rights and freedoms and it is time the Australian Government woke up and understands that they are pushing us into a corner and we will come out fighting with all that we have.

It is pleasing to see that the unions are offering support and our communications thus far with the traditional owners suggest that a fight is looming and maybe then the Australian public will get the picture.

The New Way Summit Task Force has been asked for their support to bring this matter to the attention of the public. The task force puts the Australian Government on notice that like Noonkanber in Western Australia in 1979, we will call upon Aboriginal people to come from every part of this country and protest any movement of nuclear waste across our people’s traditional lands. Nothing will move down the former American Vice-President Dick Cheney’s Halliburton railway line from Darwin to Alice Springs.

“If the Europeans, Americans and China along with the rest of the world want to use nuclear power, then dump your rubbish on your own soil. You take it from us against our will and you now want to return it against our wishes. No, the energy-hungry consumers need to look to a better way of doing business, and in this case bury your own nuclear waste in your own back yards; if you believe what you are told by your leaders that it is safe then you have no fears.

"Talk to us or expect a tsunami"

“Talk to us or expect a tsunami”

Goodooga, northwest NSW, 23 January 10 - - In this year of a federal election, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Labor Party had better be prepared to talk to the Aboriginal Nations, or face a tsunami-type backlash, says the convenor of an Aboriginal summit in Canberra from the 30th of January to the 1^st of February.

“We will not lie down and take it anymore,” Michael Anderson writes in a media release.

Delegates are coming from all over Australia, notably Perth, Kalgoorlie, Darwin, Sydney, Melbourne, north Queensland and the bush, he says. “They’re telling me they’re tired of government controls.”

The summit is open to the media and Mr Anderson says SBS Radio, the National Indigenous Radio Network and national Aboriginal TV have indicated they’ll cover it. Proceedings will also be streamed live on the internet.

Mr Anderson calls on elders and youth to find solutions to problems created by Great Britain and “maintained by the colonial state of Australia”.

“If the Australian public truly wants us to bridge the gap and address the disadvantages, then I call upon and urge all people who call themselves Aussies to stand behind us and help us get the message across to those whom you elect to give us a voice and let us deal with the issues that state and federal governments know are of their doing.”

The release lists the issues troubling Aboriginal people:

· rise of racism;

· attacking the poor through Minister Jenny Macklin’s welfare quarantining;

· using children as a way of winning the hearts and minds of the Australian public so as to justify their assimilation policy of forcibly removing children from their families;

· shutting down most of the self-determined Aboriginal programs;

· using government-nominate d and -approved Aboriginal collaborators to impose their will through the so-called Aboriginal advisory panels represents the work of troubled and desperate administrators;

· to continue to use police to daily terrorise our children on the streets is a criminal act of the state;

· to police Aboriginal communities through a programme to make Aborigines fear authority are the actions of a dictator state;

· to maintain an operation of welfarism to control the lives of the Aboriginal people is the also the act of a dictatorship;

· removing children and giving them to non-Indigenous people to raise without their Aboriginal heritage and language is an act of genocide by the state;

· to deny Aboriginal land rights is a continuation of British colonialism

- and the list goes on.

“We are and continue to be sovereign independent Aboriginal nations; the land is ours and always will be. The wealth that has been extracted from the land does not help Australia and we, the traditional owners, get poorer and are forced to live on the state’s welfare system.

“The Australian public have always trusted in the words of the governments that what they were doing was in the best interest of the Aborigines, but the public have no idea of the pain and suffering that we have to continue to endure. The dysfunctionalism that permeates through our communities cannot be dealt with through bricks and mortar alone.”

Mr Anderson, the last remaining founder of the Aboriginal Embassy in Canberra in 1972, writes, “We know who we are and from this day forth there will be no words such as Aboriginal or Indigenous, for I am a Euahlayi Dthane, a Black man of the Euahlayi Nation through my mother. Through my father I am a Gumilaroi Murri. This is what we now need to tell the state leaders of this country and we need to demand that when they talk of our issue and our nations they need to identify who and what nation they talk of. This must be a demand that we stand by.”

Mr Anderson’s release in full:

In this year of a federal election Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Labor Party had better be prepared to talk to us, the Aboriginal Nations, or face a tsunami-type backlash.

The rise of racism; attacking the poor through Minister Jenny Macklin’s welfare quarantining; using children as a way of winning the hearts and minds of the Australian public so as to justify their assimilation policy of forcibly removing children from their families; shutting down most of the self-determined Aboriginal programs; using government-nominate d and -approved Aboriginal collaborators to impose their will through the so-called Aboriginal advisory panels represents the work of troubled and desperate administrators; to continue to use police to daily terrorise our children on the streets is a criminal act of the state; to police Aboriginal communities through a programme to make Aborigines fear authority are the actions of a dictator state; to maintain an operation of welfarism to control the lives of the Aboriginal people is the also the act of a dictatorship; removing children and giving them to non-Indigenous people to raise without their Aboriginal heritage and language is an act of genocide by the state; to deny Aboriginal land rights is a continuation of British colonialism - and the list goes on.

We are and continue to be sovereign independent Aboriginal nations; the land is ours and always will be. The wealth that has been extracted from the land does not help Australia and we, the traditional owners, get poorer and are forced to live on the state’s welfare system.

The ‘New Way’ summit I have convened to Canberra from the 30th of January to the 1^st of February is a call to our elders and youth to find solutions to problems that have been created by the foreign state of Great Britain and are maintained by the colonial state of Australia.

If the Australian public truly wants us to bridge the gap and address the disadvantages, then I call upon and urge all people who call themselves Aussies to stand behind us and help us get the message across to those whom you elect to give us a voice and let us deal with the issues that state and federal governments know are of their doing. The Australian public have always trusted in the words of the governments that what they were doing was in the best interest of the Aborigines, but the public have no idea of the pain and suffering that we have to continue to endure. The dysfunctionalism that permeates through our communities cannot be dealt with through bricks and mortar alone.

We know who we are and from this day forth there will be no words such as Aboriginal or Indigenous, for I am a Euahlayi Dthane, a Black man of the Euahlayi Nation through my mother. Through my father I am a Gumilaroi Murri. This is what we now need to tell the state leaders of this country and we need to demand that when they talk of our issue and our nations they need to identify who and what nation they talk of. This must be a demand that we stand by.

As the leader of my nation, the Euahlayi of north-western New South Wales and southern central Queensland, and as the convener of this New Way Summit, I call upon the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, once again to take notice to this summit, for it will lay the foundation for the confrontation that Australians constantly say they never.

The spirits of our ancestors, who fought the white man, are always with us as we have gone from one fight to the other. They are always reminding us that blood was shed every year since the British invasion of our ancestral lands. No Australian history wants to talk of this but we will now remind them that we have survived and we will fight and Australia needs to be aware of the anger that is inside many of our pre-existing diverse nations.

Using the divide of full-blooded Aborigines against the Aboriginal castes has been the backdrop for division as was devised by the governments and their advisors, but do not count on this anymore, for we all share the same shocking history of white oppression and rule over our lives and the way we have done business since the coming of the white man. This will end at this New Way Summit.

We will not lie down and take it anymore.

Outcomes of all discussions at the summit will be available for perusal and comment every day atwww.wgar.info. Live streaming will be accessible at http://www.ustream. tv/channel/ wgar.

Michael Anderson can be contacted at 02 68296355 landline, 04272 92 492 mobile, 02 68296375 fax,ngurampaa@bigpond. com.au.

From Tortuga to Somalia - Piracy and Anti-Imperialism

Via Duroyan Fertl at Hintadupfing

There is a delicious irony in the recent news - reported by Aporrea.org - that the Somali "pirates" have offered to donate a significant proportion of their booty to the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Claiming to have connections all over the world, the Somalis promise to deliver the money undetected by Western "enemy" governments.

But why have they made this offer? The first connection that springs to mind is, perhaps, the piracy itself.

While the Somali youth based out of Eyl and other small towns in coastal Somalia are the modern face of seafaring piracy, Haiti is the traditional stomping ground of the swaggering buccaneers of legend (if we ignore, of course, the tame pets of the major capitalist powers such as Sir Francis Drake).

It was - at one point - the pirate capital of its age par excellence. The Île de la Tortue (Tortuga) which lies just north of the larger island of Hispaniola - of which Haiti is the western half - was used as a base for French, British and Dutch-hired "privateers" to disrupt and loot Spanish shipping form the Americas. While the British moved to Jamaica, and the Dutch moved elsewhere, the French remained active in the area.

In their off-season, these pirates wandered into the largely uninhabited western end of the Hispaniola to hunt and barbeque - earning them the name boucanier ("the open fire men"). Gradually French settlements were set up in the region, the area was ceded by Spain to France in the Treaty of Rystwik in 1697, and the country's history as a slave colony began.

But the pirates had little do with the slave revolution led by Toussaint l'Ouverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines in 1803 that made Haiti the first and only successful slave rebellion in history, even if they were the pioneers of the nation that later became Haiti.

More pertinent and important than the pirate connection is the sisyphean struggle that Haiti has fought ever since. Like so many African and "Third World" countries, Haiti has borne the brunt of centuries of Western oppression - through economic, political, and occasionally military imperialism.

Such was the resentment of their former French masters that they ganged up with the US to starve Haiti into paying "reparations" - a bankrupting 90% of the country's budget, payable for the forseeable future. When Haiti failed to pay, the City Bank offered to "swap" the debt for a long term loan that kept the country on its knees and was only paid off in 1947.

Haiti in the Twentieth Century has seen little more than starvation, poverty, and a series of invasions (including the US occupation of 1915 which used locals for target practice training, as well as more recent "peace-keeping" forces), dictatorships,coups d'état, and the forceful imposition of "Shock Doctrine" neoliberal economic policies.

As a result, Haiti has remained at the bottom of the pile - the poorest nation in the Americas, where children don't just make mud pies, they eat them out of desperation and hunger.

It is perhaps only partially coincidental, but the main Somali pirate town of Eyl - lying on an isolated and mountainous part of the Somali coast - was a centre of Dervish anti-colonial organising in the early Twentieth Century.

There certainly are parallels between the piracy of Somalia, and that of Tortuga. Most importantly, both are responses to the effects of capitalist exploitation.

The present-day Somali pirates are largely young men - aged between 20 and 35 - looking for an alternative to the war-torn, lawless and impoverished reality of a Somalia which has borne the brunt of the same Imperialist, colonial and economic forces for decade after decade, destroying the hopes of independence, and ruining the dreams of everyday Somalis.

The pirates are popular with much of the local population - not only for redistributing much of their booty, but for bringing a sense of order, almost of law, in a country where both these terms have no meaning.

Their presence prevents the further contamination of formerly pristine coasts (Somali seas have been widely used as dumping grounds for toxic waste), the looting of the area's rare reefs and the corrosion of local living standards caused by the massive destruction of local fisheries by illegal European and Asian trawlers. In fact, Somali "piracy" began as small defensive raids by impoverished fishermen against the despoiling of their waters by these fishing fleets.

So it is especially refreshing to see the piratic internationalism expressed by the Somali buccaneers, who typically redistribute their loot amongst relatives and the local population.

As a pirate spokesman said in making the offer to the Haitian people:

"The humanitarian aid to Haiti must not be controlled by the U.S. and European countries - they don't have the moral authority. They are the ones who have been pirating humanity for years."

*******************

Also:

* Haiti needs emergency relief, not military intervention — add your name to open letter

* Who are the real pirates in Africa's waters?

* Updates on the Haiti disaster and struggle at LINKS

Protest Feb 13 - Stop the NT Intervention

Stop the NT Intervention - Sorry means you won't do it again.

Protest: Saturday, February 13, 2010

9 am LaPerouse point, Bunnerong Rd for the walk against racism to join the Redfern rally.

1pm rally at The Block, Redfern

Speakers include:
Irene Fisher, Sunrise Health (NT)
Pastor Ray Minniecon
Mal Tulloch, CFMEU
Angeline Penrith
Jeff McMullen

Performers:
The Black Turtles
Nadeena Dixon
Michael Donovan
More tba

Supporters include:
NSW Aboriginal Land Council, NSW Reconciliation Council, ANTaR NSW, CFMEU, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning Research, Mudgin-Gal, Babana, Reconciliation for Western Sydney, Guriwal Aboriginal Corp., FBEU, MUA, Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Councils, Illawarra LALC, Bahtabah LALC, Narromine LALC, La Perouse LALC

Stop the NT Intervention
End the income quarantine - stop the national expansion
Land rights, not leases
Self-determination, not assimilation
Aboriginal controlled housing, jobs and services for all communities

On February 13, 2010 there will be a national day of action against the NT Intervention and for Aboriginal rights.

This will mark the 2nd anniversary of the Apology to the Stolen Generations, when Prime Minister Rudd committed the government to, "a future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again".

But ongoing NT Intervention policies reek of the same paternalism and commitment to assimilation that created the Stolen Generations.

The Intervention has been a $1.5 billion disaster. The government has taken control of Aboriginal lives and land - but has not yet built a single house. Shamefully, communities will not receive housing until they sign 40-year leases over their land. This policy is expanding nationally.

The income quarantine is leading to greater poverty and social dislocation. Government statistics show reports of domestic violence are up 61%, substance abuse up 77% and 13% more infants have been hospitalised for malnutrition.

Minister Macklin has said the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act has "denied dignity" to Aboriginal people. But her changes to Intervention legislation will see the RDA suspended until December 31, 2010.

Rather than do away with failing policy, new legislation will allow the compulsory welfare quarantining to be extended to "areas of disadvantage" around the country. This will start across the NT from July 2010. Draconian measures such as compulsory acquisition of Aboriginal land and extreme police powers have been rebadged "special measures" under the RDA.

Racism is not a special measure.

The demonisation of Aboriginal people at the core of the Intervention is leading to increased racism across Australia. Indigenous incarceration rates have risen 10% in the past year. Juvenile detention now stands at 30 times the national average. Aboriginal organisations everywhere face aggressive mainstreaming.

Aboriginal people have consistently demanded an end to the NT Intervention measures and resistance is growing.

Turning around the unacceptable disadvantage facing Aboriginal people requires massive increases in resourcing of community controlled organisations - not more racist laws.

No more broken promises - its time to break the intervention

Organised by Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney

Contact: Jean 0449646593 or Mon 0415410558

For the poster of the protest: please click here

For the leaflet of the protest for downloading, printing, distribution: please click here

For STICS' Fact Sheet about the new Legislation: please click here

For STICS' Fact Sheet about the Government's "Consultation" Process: please click here

National Actions in other cities on 13 Feb 2010

Adelaide: 1 pm, at the steps of Parliament House, Speakers: Donna Jackson of Larrakia/Wulna descent, local Kaurna and Ngarrendjeri people. Launch of book "This is what we said". Contact Alitja 0431112898, organized by STICSA

Alice Springs: 10 am Gathering on Church Lawns in the Mall, Speakers on Key Issues. Launch of book: "This Is What They Said", Followed by a March through the CBD, Contact Barbara 0401 291 166 or Marlene (08) 8952 5032, for further info: http://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/

Melbourne: 2pm Maysar,184-186 Gertrude St Fitzroy, March to Parliament House, for further infohttp://www.maicollective.blogspot.com/, for the poster: please click here

Perth: 12 noon, Wesley Church (cnr. William & Hay Sts), contact Natasha 0434 303 248 or Sanna 0417 852 628

Palestine, Beer and Oktoberfest Under Occupation TRAILER

This is even more apt, if you remember that bread evolved from beer (not the other way round). So, before people "broke bread", they were brewing beer (and breaking wind instead of heads).

A wonderful vision of the future in Palestine - one single secular state, with christians, jews, muslims and druze, all living under the one big beer tent.



Remember: World Peace - brought to you during Wiezn by beer-lovers everywhere under the Bayerische Reinheitsgebot of 1516.

Winning hearts and minds...

Via BoRev, a painful and distressing example of WTF?!! I can't even laugh...

In Afghanistan today a young girl was killed when the British government literally dropped a box of propaganda on her head.

"According to the BBC, the leaflet box was supposed to open in mid-air, spreading pro-coalition propaganda over rural Helmand province. But the container failed to break apart, landing on top of the girl, who died later in the hospital."

So off-topic and yet so...not.

Cricket & Class Struggle?

The wombats, having grown up in the thick of rural Australian cricket, have long been considering a foray into the question of cricket and class struggle. However, having neither the time nor total dedication (nor, perhaps, the skill) of C.L.R. James, we have failed to produce such a piece.

The game is afoot, however. John Passant has written a small piece post-Ashes, declaring England's defeat of Australia victory for the class struggle, and a defeat of "cricket's imperialist masters" (ie Australia), and the right-wing troglodyte Andrew Bolt has picked up on John Passant's piece, applying the usual finesse (equvialent to passing a nuclear weapon through a key-hole) that passes for "analysis" in his work. So, perhaps now is the time...

Firstly, the wombats disagree with John Passant's proposition, and we believe it to be a fundamentally flawed approach to the question of class and cricket (although we assume John's eye was primarily on the ball of racism in cricket, and there are valuable points to be made there).

In fact, however, cricket and class struggle, cricket and national liberation (sometimes called "liberation cricket"), cricket and racism, and cricket and the development of capitalism, its grave-diggers and its silly-mid-off have a far more interesting connectivity.

While we are no James, the wombats have decided that - after the disaster of the recent Ashes tour - we'll have a go, over a number of posts, at sketching a brief "People's History of Cricket".

Can Éirigí replace Sinn Fein as Ireland's main Republican party

Nicked mercilessly from Mick Hall's Organized Rage. Please direct any comments you have there.

---

By Mick Hall

I have published below in full an article about Éirigí, (Arise) a comparatively new Socialist Irish Republican organization that first emerged in April 2006, after a number of Sinn Fein's leading members in the Dublin City area resigned from the party. At first they concentrated on building a core leadership base in both political jurisdictions on the island of Ireland. Then gradually began organizing against partition, the Afghan war, support for the Shell to Sea campaign and various other progressive causes.

Éirigí is now in the process of registering as a political party after its Ard Fheis [Conference) last May agreed by democratic vote to go in this direction. There is little doubt that Éirigí has steadily recruited experienced Republicans, many of whom first cut their political teeth, helping to build SF in the post Hunger Strike period. Éirigí has also managed to attract a younger generation of Republicans, something that SF is finding difficult to achieve these days.

Éirigí has made it clear it is opposed to armed struggle, claiming at this time there is no mass popular support for it. It’s main strategy seems to be, to replicate the manner in which SF in the 1980s-90s gradually built its support base by patiently building political support at a local level within working class communities in both rural and urban areas, before moving forward electorally.

After I recently wrote it is imperative for Éirigí to challenge SF at the polls if it is to gain ground, I was told by an Éirigí member I must have patience as the party has no intention of entering the electoral fray, before it has prepared its support base on the ground, as it intends taking its membership and any potential voters with it every step of the way. Which was something I found encouraging as it means without a solid presence in a constituency or ward, it has no intention of parachuting in candidates etc...

MH.

* Photo above of leading Belfast republican and Éirigí member Brendan Mac Cionnaith.

--------------------------------------------

Éirigí: New kids on the Republican block.

By Conor McMorrow.

Slowly, but steadily and obviously, a new political group has started to make its presence felt. It was present last weekend when workers from the Thomas Cook travel agent locked themselves in their Dublin office to protest at inadequate redundancy terms. It has been a regular at the Shell to Sea protests in Mayo. Staff at the Israeli embassy in Dublin have become very familiar with its protests. It expects to play a prominent part in the campaign to oppose the Lisbon treaty, and soon it will apply to be registered as a political party. Already, two Sinn Féin councillors have resigned to join the new grouping.

So who is behind this organisation, éirigí, whose name translates as 'Arise'? What defines éirigí's politics? And is this dissident group in support of or opposed to violence?

Dissenting voice.

The group was formed in April 2006, on the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Rising, as a dissenting voice against the status-quo republicanism of Sinn Féin. It barely registered on the Irish political radar at first but it has recently become more prominent. éirigí protestors have been particularly noticeable at the Shell to Sea protests in Co Mayo.

Other activities have included distributing leaflets calling for a boycott of Israeli goods at shops in Belfast, organising a protest at an RIR (local British army unit) homecoming parade for soldiers returning from Afghanistan and picketing Stormont when former British prime minister Tony Blair visited, to oppose British foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The group is thought to have around 200 activists in the North and a few hundred in the south, with the highest concentration in working-class areas of Dublin.

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune, the organisation's chairperson Brian Leeson said, "We are in the process of registering as a political party after our ardfheis in May gave us a mandate to contest elections." So how does Leeson define éirigí's politics?

"We are socialist republican. We would define our politics relative to all other parties and not just by comparing ourselves to Sinn Féin. Over the last three years, we have succeeded in attracting people who were never involved in politics at all so it is wrong to assume that our members are all from Sinn Féin.

"We see the Good Friday Agreement as more likely to reinforce partition than get rid of it. We favour building a mass movement in support of Irish freedom and British withdrawal.

"We started in Dublin and now have a good foothold across the six counties and a more scattered membership across the south."

A republican source, who defected from Sinn Féin some years ago, said, "It was started by people who had been in Sinn Féin but grew disillusioned with the progress and development of the party three or four years ago.

"They were not particularly pleased with the way Sinn Féin was moving within the establishment in the six counties and they were concerned about Sinn Féin's social and economic policies in the south. Sinn Féin's position in the 2007 general election would have confirmed their outlook that Sinn Féin moved away from being a republican socialist party."

Mary Lou McDonald's sister Joanne is one of a number of Sinn Féin activists that left to join éirigí around that time.

"éirigí has accepted the IRA ceasefires and it has non-insurrectionist policies," the republican source continued. "It is not planning an insurrection and there is no armed wing in the undergrowth. It is not a younger version of the Continuity IRA."

Sources in the North view éirigí as having a militant profile in the south but it is not seen as "serious" about national sovereignty issues by militant republicans, who view it as just a "more active Sinn Féin".

Militant republican Dominic Óg McGlinchey was formerly a member of éirigí, and two men (Brian Shivers and Colin Duffy) charged with the killing of two British soldiers at Massereene army barracks in Co Antrim last March had been members, but they left éirigí before Massereene.

Sources claim the organisation genuinely does not want a return to violence in the North; it just initially attracted people who thought otherwise. One republican source said, "éirigí doesn't want to be within spitting distance of those involved in armed struggle against British soldiers or police."

Protests.

Informed sources say there have been a number of events in recent weeks that prove éirigí is not a violent organisation. Firstly, it had several members present at anti-Orange Order protests in Ardoyne in north Belfast last month but none were involved in the violence that ensued.

Secondly, the North's First Minister Peter Robinson held talks with Brendan Mac Cionnaith, spokesperson for the Garvaghy Road residents, last month. The talks were aimed at finding an end to the protracted dispute between the Orange Order and residents over the annual Drumcree march.

A republican source explained, "Mac Cionnaith left Sinn Féin some time ago and he is now in éirigí. It is significant that Robinson met him. As First Minister, he would be well briefed by the PSNI chief constable so I would be very surprised that if Robinson had the slightest suspicion about éirigí having an armed wing those talks would have gone ahead.

"The UUP was decimated by the DUP for doing business with Sinn Féin. If Robinson was willing to meet éirigí there must be no lingering doubt that it has a military wing."

When asked about éirigí's position on the use of violence, Leeson, who is from Lucan in west Dublin, replied, "We are not in support of or aligned to any armed organisation as we don't believe the conditions exist for a successful armed struggle and we believe there are more constructive ways for republicans to channel their energies."

So who is joining éirigí? Sources claim it is attracting a demographic of people in their 30s, mainly from working-class areas of Dublin.

"They are people who joined Sinn Féin as teenagers and are now a generation of republicans that have become disenchanted with the direction Sinn Féin is taking. They are fairly solidly working-class Dublin and they seem to have a good grip on social and economic issues in the capital.

"Éirigí has no grip in areas like Cork and Kerry so, apart from its supporters in the North, it is pretty much a Dublin phenomenon. It had no candidates in the local elections and that is probably because it doesn't have the resources, capacity or manpower to contest elections yet.

"I don't think it is a massive organisation but it could pose a real threat to Sinn Féin as it has some very articulate, intelligent people in their 30s involved and these people are hard working and full of energy."

One republican, who has closely watched the emergence of éirigí, drew an interesting analogy between the new movement and the politics of former Official IRA chief of staff Cathal Goulding.

He said, "éirigí seems to be very interested in the nationalisation of natural resources. It won't like this comparison but its politics sound a bit like the republican movement of Cathal Goulding. There are certain similarities as it is aiming at building a party on a base of Dublin working-class socialists."

Opinion is mixed on whether or not éirigí poses a realistic threat to Sinn Féin. While some observers say Sinn Féin is concerned, others say it is not, as éirigí doesn't pose an electoral challenge.

Embarrassment.

Éirigí has caused Sinn Féin some embarrassment in the last fortnight when councillor Louise Minihan left the party to join the new organisation, claiming Sinn Féin had "steadily moved away from the core values of Irish socialist republicanism".

The reality is the beneficiaries of Sinn Féin's mediocre electoral performance in the June elections were the Socialist Party's Joe Higgins, in taking McDonald's Dublin EU seat, and People Before Profit, which capitalised on a move to the left by gaining council seats.

One observer said, "éirigí is pointing out the inconsistencies in Sinn Féin to a younger generation. Its critique is intellectual rather than on the street in gunfire. Unlike other breakaway groups in the last decade, it cannot be written off as the people who are responsible for Omagh."

A republican source told the Sunday Tribune Brendan Mac Cionnaith provided a significant insight into éirigí's modus operandi at a meeting in Belfast shortly after the two British soldiers were killed at Massereene barracks.

"At that meeting, Mac Cionnaith went to some lengths to point out the importance of a point made in the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) constitution drawn up in 1873," said the source. "That constitution stated that the IRB would not stage an armed insurrection without the will of the people.

"Bulmer Hobson, a key figure in the IRB, was opposed to the 1916 Rising, as it was contrary to the 1873 document. It was significant that Mac Cionnaith highlighted this at a meeting in Belfast as he was showing that it is opposed to arms."

In some quarters, éirigí is seen as a trendy left-wing group. Its emphasis on becoming a party of protest is not incompatible with Sinn Féin membership except that Sinn Féin has admitted itself that it has drifted away from grassroots activism.

In her controversial article in An Phoblacht last month, Toireasa Ferris said the party was "suffering from an identity crisis" and needed "to get back to the basics of representing people on the ground and building republicanism from the ground up".

Hardliners in the North believe éirigí's efforts are tokenistic and do not challenge British rule. Some even suspect a conspiracy theory behind the group's motives. There is some suspicion among hardline republican dissidents that while many éirigí activists are 100% genuine, Sinn Féin had a hand in the organisation's formation and some of its main figures' loyalties lie with Sinn Féin.

The conspiracy theory goes that Sinn Féin knew it would lose people, so it decided to set up a "tame opposition" that would engage in left-wing activities rather than have members defect to dissident paramilitary organisations.

The IRB framed a constitution in 1873 and Hobson opposed the 1916 Easter Rising because it contravened that document.

Éirigí's recent reference to that 1873 constitution is part of the latest chapter in the kaleidoscopic history of Irish republicanism. Just three years into its existence, it is still unclear to what degree éirigí will feature in future chapters of that troubled history.

Additional reporting by Suzanne Breen.