Red and Black Telly roundup.

Ballymurphy: State Massacre

Anarchist Communist Group

After fifty years the truth is beginning to emerge about the massacre of eleven people in West Belfast by the Parachute Regiment of the British Army.

A coroner has found that nine of the ten had been shot by them, whilst in the case of the tenth, John McKerr, there was doubt as to who had killed him, it either being a Loyalist paramilitary or more probably a British soldier. The coroner found that there was a distinct lack of evidence volunteered by the authorities as regards his death, hinting at the cover-up that had taken place over a span of fifty years.

The families of those murdered have had to wait a half century for this. John Teggart, the son of one of those murdered, Daniel Teggart, went on record to state, “It has taken us 50 years to get to this point. We are just ordinary families from Ballymurphy but we have held the British government and Ministry of Defence to account. We hope today will give strength to all other families. It can be done, don’t give up, you will succeed. These lies end today. We have corrected history today. The inquest confirmed that the soldiers who came to the area, supposedly to protect us, turned their guns on us.”

The massacre took place on 9th August 1971 when six hundred paratroopers surrounded and entered the Ballymurphy estate, smashing down doors at 5am and dragging people from their beds. This coincided with a Loyalist attack on homes in nearby Springfield Park, causing families to flee into the streets.

The paratroopers shot Joan Connolly repeatedly, totally disfiguring her face. She lay on waste ground for six hours, bleeding to death. Another victim of the paratroopers, Noel Phillips, was wounded and then finished off with a shot behind each ear. A local priest, Father Hugh Mullan, was shot at least twice whilst giving last rites to another dying man. Another, Pat MacCarthy, suffered a mock execution, with an unloaded gun shoved in his mouth and fired, resulting in his death by a heart attack.

The paratrooper commanders tried to cover up the massacre by stating that the IRA were firing on soldiers at the time and that those killed were IRA volunteers, when in fact none of those massacred were paramilitaries.

Over the years, a massive cover-up has obscured details of what happened. The original inquest in 1972 returned open verdicts. As a result of families of those murdered getting together in a campaign, the Attorney General in Northern Ireland okayed a request for a new inquest in 2011. These finally opened in late 2018 and finished this March.

One officer implicated in the massacre is now a retired British Army general, Sir Mike Jackson. Five months after the Ballymurphy massacre he was second in command of the Parachute Regiment when it shot dead fourteen unarmed civilians on Bloody Sunday in Derry. Chief of General Staff of the British Army until his retirement in 2006, Jackson was commander of the British Army that invaded Iraq in 2003. At the inquest he gave a grudging, mealy-mouthed apology: “Let me say to the families who so long ago lost their loved ones: for me it’s a tragedy. It’s a tragedy which is hugely regrettable, but I would also say that anybody who loses their lives as a result of violent conflict is also a tragedy. I too have lost friends, so be it. My sympathies to you and I’m sorry that it is only now after so long that you feel you can come to terms.”

Boris Johnson failed to make an apology in Parliament after the findings of the inquest, leaving it to the Northern Ireland Secretary, Brandon Lewis, to do this. Johnson sent a letter to the bereaved families just a few minutes before the announcement in Parliament. The families described this as unacceptable. One of them, Carmel Quinn, saying that Johnson’s description of the massacre as an “event” was appalling. “It wasn’t an event, it was mass murder of a civilian population.” John Teggart went on to say, “General Mike Jackson is considered a hero in Britain, but he was the one who told you that our loved ones were gunmen and gunwomen. The inquest confirmed that the soldiers who came to the North, supposedly to protect us… turned their guns on us. The British government now wants to deny us the chance for justice by introducing an amnesty for these murders.I want to speak directly to the people of Britain at this moment. Can you imagine what would have happened if soldiers murdered 10 unarmed civilians on the streets of London, Liverpool or Birmingham? What would you expect of an investigation? Would you expect justice? Or would you be happy for them to get an amnesty?”

The apologies made by the present government are particularly nauseating and insulting, as we know they are being made by the same establishment that was responsible for the original acts and the subsequent cover ups. And the same State that would do it all again if they needed to.

The Ballymurphy massacre, which happened over two days, is less well known than Bloody Sunday, not least as there was minimal media attention, yet it set the scene for the continued brutality of the Parachute Regiment. As the truth of the British State’s activity in the Six Counties, its collusion with Loyalist paramilitaries and its willingness to lie and obfuscate, is slowly being admitted to, we see revealed the state dripping head to foot in blood.

Late May events listing: Palestine, free Siyanda, sparks and more

Cautiously pessimistic

A quick listing of a few upcoming events:

Although there now seems to be some kind of a ceasefire, there’s still an impressive number of events organised for this weekend in solidarity with Palestine and against the latest round of bombings. There’s a map listing 60, which are also collected in a twitter thread. From Samidoun’s global calendar of resistance:

United Kingdom

• Ilford – Friday, 21 May, 6:30 pm, Redbridge Town Hall. Info: https://twitter.com/JazzBee23/status/1395490750306177026/photo/1
• Nottingham – Friday, 21 May, 7 pm, Old Market Square. Info: https://www.instagram.com/p/CPDw_nuFP7O/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
• Portsmouth – Friday, 21 May, 5 pm, Guildhall, Portsmouth. Info: https://www.instagram.com/p/CPEWfzhpk55/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
• Sheffield – Friday, 21 May, 5 pm, Sheffield Train Station. Info: https://www.instagram.com/p/CPBxSRKpWeR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
• Warwick – Friday 21 May, 2 pm, Piazza, University of Warwick. Info: https://twitter.com/uwarsoc/status/1394707222974844928/photo/1w

• Bangor, Gwynedd – Saturday, 22 May, 11 am, Pontio by memorials, Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/328890178605492/
• Birmingham – Saturday, 22 May, 2 pm, Victoria Square…

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Red and Black Telly roundup.

No new oil and gas projects if world is to reach climate goals – IEA report

DRILL OR DROP?

Development of new oil and gas fields must stop this year if the world is to meet its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, the leading energy organisation has said.

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Network of Pasig Community Pantry Organizer

Etniko Bandido Infoshop

In one month of Community Pantry Mutual Aid initiatives, we proudly created a bond and a network of community Pantry organizer here in the municipality of Pasig dedicated to support their communities in this time of Pandemic crisis. A friendship bloom in times of despair. Love, compassion and empathy became a common ground element to connect diverse individuals.

A network of selfless individuals organizing themselves autonomously and critical with the government interference. A people who believe that taking care of each other is a necessity.Community Pantry created a movement that showed different possibilities for a future imagined communities. A community that will take matters with their own hands rather than waiting for someone to help them. This will be an opening for a much more community-centered project that is plan, initiated, facilitate, organize by the community themselves.

Power to the community. Decentralized. Direct Democracy. Politics from below.

No to opportunist.

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INTERNATIONALIST SOLIDARITY – THE DIVIDING LINE BETWEEN THE PEOPLE AND OUR RULERS

rebelbreeze

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 12 mins.)

The oppression of the Palestinians led to an outbreak of active resistance recently in Jerusalem, to which the Israeli Army reacted with increased repression, timed to harass Palestinian Muslims during the period of Ramadan and the height of devotees attending the Al-Aqsa mosque, escalating into attacks on worshippers within the temple itself. At the same time, Israeli Zionist settlers threatened dozens of Palestinian families with eviction from their homes in East Jerusalem. Reacting to these events, one of the Palestinian organisations fired home-made rockets into officially Israeli territory, to which the Israeli armed forces responded in turn with drone missiles and missiles from its air force jets on Gaza. As Palestinians in the West Bank came out on to the streets to protest, they were fired on with live ammunition by Israeli soldiers. The death toll has climbed to 200 Palestinians, according to…

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A time for us to follow on their footsteps…

Kurdistan Solidarity Network

Palestine, Kurdistan and the martyrs of May

The Kurdistan Freedom Movement honours fallen comrades by never forgetting their legacy and fighting in their names for the world we want to live in. Today, 18th May, marks the anniversary of the martyrdom of several internationalist comrades: Deniz Gezmis, Haki Karer and Ibrahim Kaypakkaya.We remember them for the influence they had on the founding members of our movement.We remember with added revolutionary meaning as thousands of Palestinians are on a general strike against Israeli-state apartheid.

All three of these revolutionaries were of Turkish origin but each took their place in the internationalist struggle for socialism and a free life everywhere. They recognised that the freedom of the Turkish people was inextricably tied to the freedom of Kurds, Armenians and all other colonised nations that had been scooped up with the founding of the Turkish state in 1923.

Our struggle is their struggle

With the attacks…

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Colombia: Social movement organizing against neoliberal policies

Voices in Movement

Orginally published by Noticias de Abajo on May 4, 2021, translated by Shantal Montserrat Lopez Victoria.

In Colombia, Indigenous Minga along with unions, students, peasants and environmental organizations, are calling for a historic strike against the National Development Plan of the ultra-right-wing president Ivan Duque, which proposes a rollback of social rights.

Since April 28th, several cities and states in Colombia have been flooded by tens of thousands of protesters who are demanding the reversal of measures that go against the welfare of Colombian society. Among these measures are economic programs that propose the privatization of health and education, a lack of peace agreements as well as rollbacks for labor rights.

Thousands of protesters were met with repression and brutality by State forces and as a result there are cases involving people losing eyesight, physical and sexual violence, and protestors being killed. According to the Temblores Human Rights platform, figures are as follows: 13 murders inflicted by police, 68 physical attacks, 655 arbitrary detentions, 4 cases of sexual violence, not including unregistered events by human rights organizations who have also been stripped of their rights and harassed while documentation cases.

In an attempt to stop the marches and “contain these terrorists”, as Senator Alvaro Uribe refers to the demonstrators, the government began to deploy military troops and tanks in cities such as Cali and Bogota, contrary to the local governments’ decision to not use force. This confirms the fascist and dictatorial nature of the government which the corporate media does not accept.

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA – MAY 01: Protesters are seen during the national strike against the tax reform as they gather on the International Workers’ Day on May 01, 2021, Bogota, Colombia, 2021. Unions joined to call a national strike and demonstrations in major cities, urging participants to follow COVID-19 protocols as the heavy protest continues in the biggest cities of the country in Cali, Medellin, and Bogota. (Photo by Juancho Torres/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Despite the militarization of the country, protesters continue fighting to make the government of Ivan Duque respond to the serious human rights violations. Thus, the Indigenous Minga, transportation and freight companies and other organizations are calling to maintain the national strike until we see measures that will benefit society.

Protesters achieved their main objective of withdrawing the tax reform, but the harsh economic crisis that the country is going through due to poor government management and the rejection of social welfare policies has made it imperative to change the course of Ivan Duque’s economic project in his National Development Plan. This initiative that has hit the most impoverished social sectors the hardest while favoring private entities close to the government.

If the people are demonstrating it is because “The government is more dangerous than the virus” yet the government continues with fascist proposals that are plundering the earth. The aristocratic government is trying to dispose of environmentalists, workers and students in a national project but no economic policy can be built on the suffering of the people.

The fall of the ultra-right government is imminent. Now, the only remaining question is if it will be through resignation or elections?

Protection as Prefiguration

Outside the Circle

While this banner’s symbol only hints at the anarchistic Jews (and accomplices) who created it for this past Friday’s #FreePalestine solidarity demo that we circled up for with about 200-300 other people on the stolen lands of so-called Pittsburgh, the hamsa has long been used by various peoples and faiths across the Middle East and elsewhere to signal, among other things, “protection.”

I like to think, at yet another moment when many of us feel both helpless to stop the bloodshed of settler colonialism and heartened by the collective strength of our struggle against it, that our forms of resistance are at the same time forms of prefiguring the world to come.

We protect each other—even if only by holding huge #SolidarityWithPalestine gatherings in countless cities around the world—in ways that are utterly at odds with how states and cops, say, “protect.”

We protect in ways that are reciprocal, mutualistic…

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