PFLP issue statement on Gaza massacre

PFLP issue statement as reported on website

Over 270 killed in Gaza and hundreds have been wounded in a series of massacres and crimes committed by the Zionist occupier against the Palestinian people in Gaza on December 27, 2008. The occupier shot dozens of missiles from Apache helicopters and F-16 planes at dozens of Gaza government buildings, directly in the middle of heavily populated residential neighborhoods and simultaneously with teachers and students returning to school.

Demonstrations have broken out throughout the West Bank and the Arab world in protest and outrage at the brutality and the nature of these massive crimes.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine issued a statement calling for the broadest resistance to meet and confront this aggression against the Palestinian people and to respond to these massacres, and for the unity of the resistance, and the unity of the Palestinian people, to greet the occupier with resistance, strength and steadfastness despite his brutal crimes. The statement stressed the urgent need for national unity immediately to confront the crimes against our people and to greet the occupier and its brutality with tremendous and unified resistance that is capable of shaking its foundations.

The PFLP statement further called upon all resistance forces to come together now and establish unified resistance front to coordinate and take up the challenge of these attacks against our people. It pointed to the responsibility of the United States for these attacks, as a strategic partner of the occupier, working hand in hand with its massacres and crimes against the Palestinian people, and as the source of the arms used by the occupier against our people. It also pointed to the complicity of the Arab regimes in these crimes, particularly the Egyptian regime, for its ongoing and active participation in the blockade and siege of the Palestinian people in Gaza and its meetings and discussions with the occupier about its plans for Gaza. These massacres are taking place because of Arab and international silence and active complicity.

The PFLP further called for the immediate end to any and all negotiations with this brutal occupier who plans massacres against our people and stated that if he will not end the negotiations immediately, Abu Mazen must resign now. The nature of the Zionist enemy and its dedication to the eradication of the Palestinian people is laid bare and clear by this series of attacks, calculated to cause maximum damage and human cost. For the past sixty years, there is an unbroken history of massacres and crimes against our people and this massacre today is yet one more expression of the nature of the illegitimate colonial state that has implanted itself on Palestinian land and continues to live on U.S. support through massacres and crimes against the Palestinian people.

The statement concluded by calling upon all of its fighters and military branches to take the strongest actions and to resist the occupation and its massacres by all methods and forms of action and resistance, and by calling for the broadest solidarity on Arab and international levels, for people to come into the streets, demonstrate, march, and take action to declare that these massacres and crimes are unacceptable, that the Arab people and the world are with Palestine and the Palestinian people, and that they will not allow these crimes to continue nor for the Arab regimes and international regimes to be silently complicity or actively involved in the occupation's crimes.

The Palestinian people will greet these massacres with steadfastness, strength, unity and resistance and all of the crimes, massacres, targeting of civilians, residential neighborhoods, and schoolchildren and teachers will do nothing to crush the resistance of our people, the statement said, it will only ensure Palestinian unity in the face of this brutality which makes clear the true face of the occupier to the world.

Eirigi - x factor heroes?

In response to the release of the X Factor’s ‘Hero’ in support of Britain’s occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq éirígí has compiled an alternative video highlighting the true nature of modern day imperialism.

Click here for éirígí website

News report on the Cuban Five

ABC News on the Cuban Five

Cornish Nationalism debate - Radio Cornwall

John Angarrack, Director of Cornwall 2000, Historian and author of Breaking the chains, Our future is history and more recently Scat t’Larrups? Mebyon Kernow leader Dick Cole. Philip Payton Institute of Cornish Studies.

Click here to listen to Radio Cornwall debate

Forum for Scottish Democracy

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Group for Scottish Republican Socialist news and debate. Members are welcome who wish to debate Scottish independence, general Scottish politics and culture . Also there should be support for an independence referendum.

This group welcomes independence as a means to a Scottish Workers Republic.

To join you must provide your real name, trade union organisation if any and political affiliation or belief.

Note this is a broad based and non-sectarian forum.

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Forum for Scottish Democracy

Scottish Political Prisoner John Bowden

From Indymedia UK

On the 25th of November 2008 at Forfar Sheriff's Court in Scotland I was placed on trial for “Perverting The Course of Justice by absconding from lawful custody”. Despite my already serving a life sentence with no foreseeable time of release, the prison and prosecuting authorities in Scotland were determined to make an example of me following a high-profile manhunt for me last summer that ended with a massive armed police operation to re-capture me that was completely unprecedented in the apprehension of an absconder from an open jail.


The decision to place me on trial though clearly motivated by sheer vindictiveness nevertheless provided me with a valuable opportunity to publicly highlight what had actually motivated me to go on the run last May: a blatant attempt by the Scottish Prison Service to criminalize prisoner support organizations like Anarchist Black Cross and accuse any prisoner associated with them of being sympathetic to “terrorism” and therefore too dangerous to be released. The role of a prison social worker, Matthew Stillman, in manufacturing the lie in an important parole report that I was associated with a “terroristic anarchist group” (Brighton ABC) and had been visited by “terrorists” whilst in jail was also publicly exposed during the Forfar trial.

It also emerged during the trial that following an official investigation last December that found Stillman to have deliberately lied about the nature of ABC and the prison authorities being forced to return me to an open jail (following Stillman's initial report the prison authorities had buried me in Maximum-Security conditions for almost a year) on at least two separate occasions drug test results had been falsified against me in an obvious attempt to further sabotage my chances of parole. In court I argued that as a means of defending myself from repeated attempts by the prison system to prolong my imprisonment into perpetuity I decided to abscond, which under the Scottish Law of Necessity is a perfectly legitimate defense. Considering that Matthew Stillman's lies against Brighton ABC and myself were an absolutely central part of that defense, his absence at the trial was very conspicuous. In fact, his former employers at Perth and Kinross Council claimed they had absolutely no information concerning his current whereabouts and were unable to trace him. Finally tracked down by Tayside Police Stillman adamantly refused to co-operate with either my solicitors or the Procurator Fiscal (the Scottish equivalent of England's Director of Public Prosecutions) and claimed he would only agree to provide a statement through his lawyer. Considering that I was on trial for allegedly trying to defeat the ends of justice, Stillman's attempt to do the same was treated amazingly sympathetically by the Police who by way of a response said that as an American he probably didn't fully understand the Scottish legal system!

Denied Stillman's presence and evidence the State Prosecutor did not challenge or even question my assertion that Stillman, in collusion with senior prison officials, had deliberately attempted to prolong my imprisonment indefinitely by lying about my association with a so-called “terrorist organization”, and yet in his final summing up the judge made the ridiculous statement that instead of “committing an offense” I should have merely raised my grievance with the very people who had conspired to keep me buried in prison with lies and inventions. In fact, true to his role as an enforcer of an intrinsically biased and viciously anti-working class legal system the judge, Kevin Veal, showed not the slightest interest in my claims of victimization and simply responded with the declaration that nothing I'd offered by way of a defense justified my action in absconding - “Far too much of this sort of thing going on” he blithely muttered. He then imposed a six month prison sentence.

In fact, the true cost of my having the temerity to abscond as a life sentence prisoner will be measured in additional years behind bars; when this was pointed out by my lawyer, the judge simply replied “Well Mr Bowden has only himself to blame for that”. Meanwhile, Matthew Stillman, who was allowed to hide from the trial remains employed by Fife Social Services despite an official investigation finding him guilty of telling lies and behaving in a thoroughly unprofessional manner. So much for bourgeois justice.

John Bowden.
6729
HM Prison Glenochil
King O'Muir Road
Tullibody
Clackmannanshire
FK10 3AD

Republican Socialism in an International context

Certainly any Republican Socialist agenda in this part of the world and on these islands has to include the need for unity of socialists and maximising opportunities to compare experiences and work together. At least some credit can be given to the Scottish Socialist Party individuals who organised a Republican Socialist Convention on the anniversary of Scottish revolutionary John MacLean's death.

Mike Davies, calling himself a socialist republican and Welsh internationalist, outlined the problems faced by the Left in Wales, trying to deal with the sectarian manoeuvring of the British Left, which had sabotaged every unity project. He pointed out that there would be a referendum in Wales seeking more powers for the devolved Welsh Assembly.

Dan Finn, from the Irish Socialist Network, outlined the difficulties faced in trying to unite the Left, in the face of the sectarianism of the co-thinkers of the British Left. Nevertheless, some real unity had been achieved in the referendum to defeat the neo-liberal Lisbon Treaty. The ISN is an all-Ireland organisation producing its own news sheet, Resistance.

Tommy McKearney, a former republican prisoner in the Maze, now an activist in the Independent Workers Union and editor of Fourthwrite, outlined the situation in the Six Counties, after the Good Friday Agreement. This had copper fastened partition and entrenched sectarian divisions. Yet, most of the earlier economic underpinning of state-backed sectarian had disappeared. Objectively, there were grounds for overcoming past divisions, but this would mean opposing communitarian politics and challenging the current divided political set-up on class grounds.

The platform speakers briefly outlined what they had got from the day, and the possibilities for future joint activities. There was common agreement that despite differences of viewpoint, the whole day was conducted in a very comradely manner, in marked contrast to the participants’ experiences in gatherings dominated by the British Left and their co-thinkers in Ireland. Their methods seemed to duplicate some of those used by the UK state, to ensure its continued domination over the working class and peoples of these islands. Participants were optimistic that there was a real basis for organising by uniting on socialists in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England on ‘internationalism from below’ principles.

See more on a talk prepared by Allan Armstrong for the Republican Socialist Convention by clicking here

Well I don't disagree with what individuals in the SSP have been attempting to achieve but in the absence of a Republican Socialist Party in Scotland we also have to learn about Republican Socialist unity in Scotland to assist others in working class struggle and the break up the British state. What genuine Republican Socialists will realise that some of the worst obstacles to unity come from within. However Internationalism from below is a sentiment worth echoing. And the platform for Republican Socialists must be broad based.

Also theoretical analysis is all very well but follow up on the Convention proposals or a co-ordinated plan is needed which would be better in the longer term.

Republican Socialists must always follow up ideas which precede with action.

Join reds4justice forum

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This group is an Independent Republican Socialist news and debate forum. We support a 32 County Irish Socialist Republic and Scottish Socialist Workers Republic. Support for national liberation struggles for small nations to include all Celts, Basques and Breton peoples to secure Independence.

This forum is in Solidarity with the IRSM, Irish Rights Watch, while also being supported by Civil Rights Vets and the Irish Political Status Committee. We urge immediate active support for the Capt.Kelly Justice Campaign, and the urgent repatriation of Irish citizen Noel Maguire to Ireland from Whitemoor Gaol.

We also support human rights and assistance for political prisoners and their dependants particularly those presently detained in Irish, British and US Jails.

To join please provide your real name, location eg: Scotland, Ireland or USA etc..And political affiliations and or beliefs.

Noel Maguire Update

a cairde

Last week we sent emails to each and every TD in the Dail drawing their attention to Noels case and asking them to intervene to bring Noel home, We have had a lot of favorable results a few members have tabled parliamentary questions to Minister For Justice regarding Ministerial action in this case. We have followed up on the responses by email and phone; we thank our members and friends who wrote on Noels behalf.

Last week Noel was visited by embassy official Tony McCullagh, McCullagh told Noel the Justice Ministry were not likely to repatriate him because he is separated from Sharon (His Wife) she is not considered to be his next of kin - and as both his children are under eighteen she is looked on as their custodian. This is an absurd viewpoint and seems to now strip Noel of his fatherhood as well as his rights as an Irish citizen to be moved closer to his family, we will be contacting Fathers Rights groups and seek their help in challenging this view held by the Irish Government.

But what it does mean now is Noel is not likely to see his two children until he is eventually released - and that's years away why are the children being punished by this persistant refusal to repatriate Noel to within easy visiting distance of them.

It is a sad reflection on a Government that have lost any sense of doing the right thing as the humane and morally correct decision would be think of Noels children and not punish them. His children have a father; the Minister is standing in the way of allowing any relationship to be built and his reasoning is flawed.

This week we are targeting the Media who are conspicuous in their absence on Noels case despite the humanitarian aspect of the case, a father who is being denied the opportunity to be closer to his children and not having seen them for 9 years. We have sent the following to every media outlet we were able to find in Ireland, Europe, US, Canada and Australia, we ask that our members and friends write their own letters to their local papers pointing out the facts of Noels case.

We are also putting out Noels story and the facts on the case to Indy media around the world. Please take a few moments to write to your local media and express disgust at the way he is being treated.

Need help with this or any questions please contact friendsofnoelmaguire@live.com

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TO MEDIA

We are drawing the media’s attention to the fact that the Irish Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform Dermot Ahern has once again denied an Irish citizen the ability to return home to serve his sentence in an Irish Jail which is allowed for under a European directive. The friends of Noel Maguire are a group of concerned people who have came together to right this wrong. Noel is being denied repatriation on the basis of a lie, that being he has closer ties to the Britain than to Ireland. Noel’s immediate kin live in Carlow. All the information is available on our website: http://friendsofnoelmaguire.webnode.com/

Last week, our members and supporters wrote to each and every TD of the 30th Dail asking them to intervene in Noel Maguire's case - if not for Noel, then for the sake of his children who have not seen their father in over 9 years. We have received some favorable responses. This is a humanitarian story - the politics are of little or no relevance. It is about allowing an Irish citizen the opportunity to return to Ireland and attempt to build a relationship with his children. Please allow us to address your readers with the following letter.

Yours Sincerely,


Friends of Noel Maguire

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Dear Editor:

Through your paper, may we draw your reader’s attention to the case of Noel Maguire? Noel Maguire has been refused again for repatriation (The ability to be repatriated to the country of your citizenship to serve a prison sentence on humanitarian grounds as laid down by the European Directive). He has been fighting to be returned home for over 5 years; all his co-accused have already been repatriated to Ireland.

The Irish authorities claim wrongly that Noel has closer ties to the United Kingdom than to an Irish jurisdiction despite Noel’s having a wife, and a son and daughter, living in County Carlow. This is Noel’s immediate kith and kin.

The lack of compassion shown by the Minister responsible in refusing Noel’s request to be closer to his wife and 2 children is disconcerting and very cavalier. For a Minister elected to look out for the well being of all Irish citizens, in this case he has abandoned the opportunity to reunite a family and allow them some chance at rebuilding their lives, as is the purpose of the European Repatriation directive.

Noel should be repatriated on the following grounds:

He is an Irish citizen and holds a current Irish passport, issued in Dublin.

He easily qualifies for repatriation under the European directive, which allows prisoners to be moved back to their own country to serve their sentence closer to their family for purely humanitarian reasons.

There was an attempt to murder Noel in 2006 in which he received serious knife wounds. If left alone and isolated his life would be constantly under threat! His physical and mental well being is in jeopardy if the Irish Government refuses him the right to be brought home to serve his sentence in an Irish Jail.

He has not seen his children in 9 years.

Friends of Noel Maguire

24 Queens Square
Hemel Hempstead
HP2 4NU
ENGLAND. TEL: 00 44 1442 244104.
US TEL: 414-378-2384
Visit Friends of Noel Maguire's Web Site

Send a letter to the media for Noel Maguire

FRIENDS OF NOEL MAGUIRE TO MEDIA

We are drawing the media’s attention to the fact that the Irish Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform Dermot Ahern has once again denied an Irish citizen the ability to return home to serve his sentence in an Irish Jail which is allowed for under a European directive. The friends of Noel Maguire are a group of concerned people who have came together to right this wrong. Noel is being denied repatriation on the basis of a lie, that being he has closer ties to the Britain than to Ireland. Noel’s immediate kin live in Carlow. All the information is available on Friends Of Noel Maguire website

Last week, our members and supporters wrote to each and every TD of the 30th Dail asking them to intervene in Noel Maguire's case - if not for Noel, then for the sake of his children who have not seen their father in over 9 years. We have received some favorable responses. This is a humanitarian story - the politics are of little or no relevance. It is about allowing an Irish citizen the opportunity to return to Ireland and attempt to build a relationship with his children. Please allow us to address your readers with the following letter.

Yours Sincerely,

Friends of Noel Maguire
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Editor:

Through your paper, may we draw your reader’s attention to the case of Noel Maguire? Noel Maguire has been refused again for repatriation (The ability to be repatriated to the country of your citizenship to serve a prison sentence on humanitarian grounds as laid down by the European Directive). He has been fighting to be returned home for over 5 years; all his co-accused have already been repatriated to Ireland .

The Irish authorities claim wrongly that Noel has closer ties to the United Kingdom than to an Irish jurisdiction despite Noel’s having a wife, and a son and daughter, living in County Carlow. This is Noel’s immediate kith and kin.

The lack of compassion shown by the Minister responsible in refusing Noel’s request to be closer to his wife and 2 children is disconcerting and very cavalier. For a Minister elected to look out for the well being of all Irish citizens, in this case he has abandoned the opportunity to reunite a family and allow them some chance at rebuilding their lives, as is the purpose of the European Repatriation directive.

Noel should be repatriated on the following grounds:

He is an Irish citizen and holds a current Irish passport, issued in Dublin .

He easily qualifies for repatriation under the European directive, which allows prisoners to be moved back to their own country to serve their sentence closer to their family for purely humanitarian reasons.

There was an attempt to murder Noel in 2006 in which he received serious knife wounds. If left alone and isolated his life would be constantly under threat! His physical and mental well being is in jeopardy if the Irish Government refuses him the right to be brought home to serve his sentence in an Irish Jail.

He has not seen his children in 9 years.

Friends of Noel Maguire
24 Queens Square
Hemel Hempstead
HP2 4NU
ENGLAND. TEL: 00 44 1442 244104.
US TEL: 414-378-2384