Anthony McIntyre ☠ Today there will be two vigils, back to back at the same West Street location.
Drogheda Stands With Palestine will gather at 1200 which will be followed by a vigil in solidarity with the victims of last week's racist murder attempt on defenceless people a few hundred yards from where we gather. Along with my daughter I plan to attend both.
It has not gone unnoticed that the self proclaimed warriors for women chose not to confront the so called men of miliary age they incessantly fulminate against. Instead, they targeted women and children. Something of the Zionist about them. These people claim to be promoting the tradition of Irish republicanism but it seems if they are motivated by the national flag at all it is only for the purpose of being Irish drug dealers rather than British ones.
If there are foreign nationals coming to this country only to cause strife and inflict violence then the Garda arrest of a foreign suspect in Portlaoise on charges pertaining to intent to destroy mosques and Ipas centres is a positive step. We still await the query from the hatemongers about the vetting procedure undergone by this man of military age.
While the focus of the Drogheda Stands With Palestine vigil is always on the genocide Israel is carrying out in Gaza, the ripple effect is against all forms of hatred, racism and every attempt to place people in queues for the purpose of separating out the chosen people from the Untermensch.
This is what makes our weekly vigil symbolically and ideationally beneficial. We value our right to assemble in defence of the targets of racist hatred and in opposition to those who hate them. It is a right won by earlier generations of concerned citizens, both nationally and further afield, many of whom were battered into the ground by the cops, military or fascists eager to ensure that the voices from below never emerged to be heard. In this sense when we stand here, we do so on the shoulders of the giants who have trodden this path before.
In valuing the right to protest we should never take it for granted or assume it is a right that cannot be eroded or denied altogether. In Britain, the government led by the anti-human rights lawyer, Der Starmer, seems intent on smothering the right to assemble against atrocity. Armed with new draconian powers the Labour government hopes to suppress opposition to genocide. It claims that the powers are needed because protests against genocide are frightening the Jewish community. The fright effect, if any, is nowhere near as intense or nerve wrecking for UK Jews as it is for the Gazans who experience the horrific effects of the military hardware Der Starmer's government has provided throughout the genocide to Israel's murderous regime. Terrified Palestinian children dreading the bomb that will end their lives or maim them seem not to matter to Der Starmer. He has chosen people to promote and others to abandon
If there are foreign nationals coming to this country only to cause strife and inflict violence then the Garda arrest of a foreign suspect in Portlaoise on charges pertaining to intent to destroy mosques and Ipas centres is a positive step. We still await the query from the hatemongers about the vetting procedure undergone by this man of military age.
While the focus of the Drogheda Stands With Palestine vigil is always on the genocide Israel is carrying out in Gaza, the ripple effect is against all forms of hatred, racism and every attempt to place people in queues for the purpose of separating out the chosen people from the Untermensch.
This is what makes our weekly vigil symbolically and ideationally beneficial. We value our right to assemble in defence of the targets of racist hatred and in opposition to those who hate them. It is a right won by earlier generations of concerned citizens, both nationally and further afield, many of whom were battered into the ground by the cops, military or fascists eager to ensure that the voices from below never emerged to be heard. In this sense when we stand here, we do so on the shoulders of the giants who have trodden this path before.
In valuing the right to protest we should never take it for granted or assume it is a right that cannot be eroded or denied altogether. In Britain, the government led by the anti-human rights lawyer, Der Starmer, seems intent on smothering the right to assemble against atrocity. Armed with new draconian powers the Labour government hopes to suppress opposition to genocide. It claims that the powers are needed because protests against genocide are frightening the Jewish community. The fright effect, if any, is nowhere near as intense or nerve wrecking for UK Jews as it is for the Gazans who experience the horrific effects of the military hardware Der Starmer's government has provided throughout the genocide to Israel's murderous regime. Terrified Palestinian children dreading the bomb that will end their lives or maim them seem not to matter to Der Starmer. He has chosen people to promote and others to abandon
The Guardian Columnist, Owen Jones, perhaps expressed it best:
People like ourselves who gather weekly to protest should remain vigilant against this creeping authoritarianism. Our instinct tells us that our own government, given half a chance, would implement an open borders policy that would welcome repressive tactics from abroad to be used on our streets against people of conscience.
In today’s upside-down world, here’s what is actually going on. Israel – a foreign state – is committing genocide. Its war crimes have led the international criminal court to issue arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister. Public opinion in the west has turned sharply against Israel’s violence. In Britain, a large majority of people believe Israel has likely committed war crimes. Most people would back a total ban on arms sales to the state, and support the arrest of Netanyahu.
Having long since lost the argument, Israel’s cheerleaders are now seizing on a vile antisemitic crime to try to silence a mass movement against a moral catastrophe. The British government are included in this. Ministers have failed to impose large-scale sanctions on Israel, and have allowed arms exports to continue. As the US author Ta-Nehisi Coates recently said of the Democrats, “if you can’t draw the line at genocide, you probably can’t draw the line at democracy”. The same applies to the Labour government.
People like ourselves who gather weekly to protest should remain vigilant against this creeping authoritarianism. Our instinct tells us that our own government, given half a chance, would implement an open borders policy that would welcome repressive tactics from abroad to be used on our streets against people of conscience.
So whether at one vigil or both in West Street today, appreciate the right to gather in protest while being be prepared to mobilise if politicians start suggesting a Great Replacement Theory that is real and not mere conspiracy fiction; one that would see our more lax right to assembly laws replaced with those of Der Starmer and his modern version of the Brown shirts. In the words of Owen Jones:
Our ancestors struggled, suffered and died to secure our freedoms. We will come to rue how casually we let them go.
 |
| ⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre. |
No comments