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Anthony McIntyre  ⚑ In the matter of housing it is not always easy to be nicely sandwiched between two great sets of neighbours.

Geraldine Reynolds
In our case we could not have asked for better. There was never any friction, no arguments over kids or pets. Just harmony. Live and let live, and how people live is a matter for themselves. That has been the attitude of my neighbours since our family arrived here more than eighteen years ago.

So, when Geraldine Reynolds passed earlier this year, the gap she left was huge. I had got to know her gradually over the years, chatting at the front of the house when we met each other as each of us went about our day. She and her husband James were private people, so quiet in our first few years it was easy at times to think that the property was vacant. She had her own way about her, was nobody's fool, loved the jellied sweets I would bring her each time she did a sewing job for me. If she saw me leaving the house the same time as herself she would offer me a lift, usually dropping me at the train station or bus depot. One day Ronan seemed late for his school exam as the taxi firm had no drivers available - I simply asked Geraldine. She responded so quickly she got him to the school prior to the exam starting. She told me never to be stuck like that again.

She had the most dextrous fingers when it came to knitting, embroidering, sewing, crocheting. There seemed nothing she could not turn her hand to. On occasion I would go into her with a hole in one of the cardigans I had a particular fondness for. When it was returned minutes later I had difficulty finding where the damage had been, she was so adept at what she did. 

I have this Drogheda United beanie which my wife gave me as a Christmas present a couple of seasons ago. It is weighed down with badges which I have collected along the way including those of the ten H Block hunger strikers and Palestinian resistance fighters. In need of a minor repair I turned up at Geraldine's door asking her if she would put a stitch in in. Which she did, and then suggested to me that I get another beanie which she would sew inside the original one. This was to create a cushion effect so that the butterfly clutch backings on the inside of the Drogs beanie would not irritate my skull. The clutches that held the badges in place were now firmly positioned between two protective layers of material. Seemed ingenious to me but to Geraldine it was common sense. It worked a treat. My Drogs beanie is now my Geraldine Drogs beanie. No Drogheda United game this season will be without her handiwork in the stands. 

Geraldine was well known in the Drogheda area. She did a lot of voluntary work, took classes in crocheting and assisted several charities. Cars would often gather at the front of our home and along the street, their owners taking one of Geraldine's home classes. At her funeral mass many people turned up with crocheted shawls in tribute to her. At the front doors of the church stood some Muslim women who too had learned from the hands of Geraldine. 

With her husband James she would often go to Mullingar for a break. They loved the place and would regale me with tales of the hotel and their activities on their return. James is a great Bowie fan and I would jest with Geraldine that she could always knit a soundproof quilt to envelop his purpose built music room just to keep the Jean Genie locked in its bottle. That would send her off in a fit of laughing. 

On the day she died, my wife shouted to me to check on James, that something was wrong as there were ambulances at the house. I immediately headed next door. James was distraught as he explained her situation to the first responders. I stepped back as there was nothing I could do, little point adding to the congestion in the hallway. About an hour later James emerged to say 'she has gone.' It was a distressing moment. In a flash our wonderful neighbour was no longer with us. 

As each day passed, the street grew crowded as a procession of cars ferried friends and relatives to the family home. On the morning of her funeral, we gathered in the street to say our final farewell. Myself and my daughter travelled to the church on the North side of Drogheda for the packed service. 

In front of me, as I write, on the wall beside the computer screen hangs my daughter's framed Masters degree. Right at the bottom of it rests Geraldine's memory card. And remember her we shall for everything she brought to our lives. 

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.


Geraldine Reynolds

The Borowitz Report ★ Recommended by Christy Walsh.

In 2024, the acclaimed editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes quit The Washington Post after they censored her work. She moved to Substack, and this year won her second Pulitzer. Here are some of her greatest hits from 2025.
Continue @ The Borowitz Report.

The Best Political Cartoons of 2025

Christopher Owens 🔖 42 years. 32 studio albums. 24 John Peel sessions. Nearly 50 singles. Over 60 members. One constant: Mark E. Smith.

Since his death at the age of 60 years old in 2018, some of the veneer and mystery surrounding this cult institution/dictator has been removed thanks to various ex-members writing about their time in The Fall but, conversely, this has led to a greater insight into the music and the lyrics of one of the finest and most influential acts to come from Manchester.

This tome, written by ex-drummer Paul Hanley, is dedicated to the writing, recording and reception of my favourite Fall LP: Hex Enduction Hour.

Often regarded as the greatest record that Smith and co. recorded, Mick Middles sums up its appeal:

It was an oddity, even in 1982. Back then, the post-punk tumble had finally run dry, leaving a lightened thirst for the kind of colourful pop that would soon be cherished by both The Face and the NME — some of it excellent, but much of it the kind of fizzle that would give the decade a bad name. Typically perverse, The Fall chose this moment to unleash a dark if not difficult album. A slab of blackened rock — arguably the band’s most rocky outcrop to date — and yes, darker than the deepest sea. It really was no surprise when ‘Hip Priest’ found its way onto the soundtrack of Silence of the Lambs . . . What ensues is an album where mundanity and sizzling, disguised reportage (like a diary, indeed) were raggedly entwined.

Even Smith, in his hugely funny (albeit highly unreliable) memoir, had to admit that he knew how large a shadow the album cast over the Fall’s back catalogue. Hence why he did a 180 for the follow up, Room to Live.

Breaking down the state of the group, the live shows, the various recording sessions as well as how it was received at the time of release, its legacy and attempting to interpret some of Smith’s lyrics, Hanley has produced an absorbing work which gives proper credence to long term members Craig Scanlon, Steve Hanley, Marc Riley and Karl Burns and their role in writing and shaping the sound of the record.

What’s particularly heartening is that it’s never betrothed to the myth of ‘MES as genius’ but nor is it an embittered attempt to set the record straight. It’s utterly fair and concise.

One section which does raise an eyebrow is when discussing a particular line in the opening number ‘The Classical’ which is quite repugnant and hits harder because it comes out of nowhere and is difficult to contextualise. Although the band and other critics argue that Smith’s intentions were not racist, it is put down to “it was a different time” which, while I agree with, does feel a little self-imposed as if Hanley knew he would have to address the matter in some shape or form but doesn’t feel comfortable doing so.

Concluding by musing on why Hex Enduction Hour is placed at the centre of the Fall’s achievements does make even the most fervent Fall fan pause for thought to articulate why it means so much to them. For me, it has an intensity and single-minded focus that other Fall records lack, but it also has another worldliness in Smith’s lyrics which veer from hectoring, prosaic, self-congratulatory and utterly surreal.

By offering a look behind the making of the record as well as framing it in the context of the time and critically assessing why it’s so brilliant, Hanley has helped further cement its legacy as a game changing LP.

Would Mark E. Smith have appreciated it? Probably not. But he probably would have had a good laugh reminiscing while reading it.

Paul Hanley, 2020, Have A Bleedin Guess: The Story of Hex Enduction Hour. Route Publishing. ISBN-13: 978-1901927801.

⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist and is the author of A Vortex of Securocrats and “dethrone god”.

Have A Bleedin Guess 📚 The Story of Hex Enduction Hour

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Eight Hundred And Thirty Five

 

A Morning Thought @ 3015

Punk rock doyen, trade unionist, esoteric thinker, genealogist  
Carrie Twomey 🏴 remembers Robert Freeman 



Robert Freeman (O’Seery), southern Californian legend of the original north Orange County punk rock scene, died unexpectedly at his home in late May, 2025. He was preceded in death by his father William, his older brother Bill, and his mother, Bea.  He is survived by his brother Rick, his nephews, great-nephew, and his beloved aunt Margaret. 

Born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1961, Bob had a somewhat idyllic, Tom Sawyer-esque early childhood that left a strong impression on him. His relationship with his grandmothers and extended family led to a lifelong passion for genealogy and tracing family history and lore, alongside a deep respect for manners. He loved to share the stories he discovered and had a great gift for treating history – whether it be his own family’s history, or the Tudors (another passionate interest) – as gossip, imparting tidbits with salacious relish. Gossip for its own sake, too, was a favoured pastime of his. 

The young Freeman brothers at the Grand Canyon en route to California

His mother moved her sons to California at the close of the 60s, after leaving a tumultuous marriage, becoming one of the first single mothers to obtain a mortgage at a time when women’s rights were very restricted. Her life experiences and pioneering ways helped to form the basis for his radical political outlook. 


The Freeman brothers

His brothers's musical tastes and circle of friends contributed to his eventual exploration of the then nascent emergence of punk rock. 


He loved the Sex Pistols, Pogues, Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson, and Yoko Ono, at a time when few knew who they were and their music carried a real threat to society. Spiking his hair and dressing outrageously, he was often stopped and harassed by local cops and jocks. He hung out at an artists’ collective, Sherpa Studio, and was friends with many of the musicians, poets, and freaks that formed the underground scene of 80s southern California. 

With his dear friend Anna

He was also politically active and was a dedicated Communist – one of his talents was mastering the absurd language of the Soviet influenced vanguard left – cultivating a deep knowledge of the history of the Communist Party in America. Angela Davis was one of his heroes. He was a staunch Irish Republican; Bernadette Devlin was another hero of his. His activities led to the FBI tapping his phone and parking outside his mother’s house at one point. 

This political background led him to join the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union while working as a room service waiter at the Hilton. He became a shop steward and worked with Angela Keefe, a woman he deeply admired, who was then “the youngest head of a large union local in Southern California and one of the few women to hold such a job”.  This period of his life, working within the union to make it one of the strongest and most radical trade unions in the area, was an intense and magic time for him. He loved being on the political battlefield. 

With his former room service manager, Karl Denoth

He worked at the Hilton for decades, becoming an institution himself in food and beverage. He was infamous for his smoke breaks, and ability to clock out early at nearly every opportunity. He had a deep love for his co-workers which was evident in the way he made characters out of them in the stories of his life, and how many friends he left behind. 

He had an interest in the occult, belonged to a coven at one point, knew all the esoteric bookstores, could read tarot cards, and enjoyed his reputation as an effective practitioner of witchcraft preceding him in social situations. Some might wryly suggest he cultivated that perception. 

With all the interests he pursued, it was amazing he remained his whole life without a driver’s license. He took the bus daily to work, becoming friends with the various drivers on his route and the fellow passengers. From the bus window he watched the deterioration of society as neo-liberalism and the vestiges of Reaganism destroyed the middle class that once enabled his mother to purchase a home with a pool on her single salary, leaving more and more people homeless and without health care. 

He loved the BBC production of I, Claudius and often quoted Livia Drusilla – “Don’t eat the figs”. The Godfather movies were a lesson in strategic politics for him. The backroom, having secret knowledge and pulling strings, was his natural milieu. 

He was catty to a fault – Queen Kitty – and wielded a sharp tongue that could wound. But he loved deeply. Even if he didn’t come out and say it, it was demonstrated in his interest in the people he kept close. He was devoted to his family; the loss of his brother and mother hit him hard. He had a loyal circle of friendships that lasted decades. Each one of those people lived in his stories no matter how far or distant life made them. 

He was also very private, and proud, keeping what turned out to be a fatal illness secret from his confidants. It was sciatica, he said, a bad cold that kept recurring, he would go to the doctor on the following Monday, the next Tuesday, if it was still bad, tomorrow, maybe. He retreated into his apartment. He was a lifelong chain smoker; cigarettes were his one vice and part of his personality. He loved Oreos, Reeses peanut butter cups, and Ruffles potato chips. He was diabetic but hated going to the doctors. The bureaucracy of health insurance did not help his disposition towards them. 

He died of complications from pneumonia on May 22, 2025. He was 64. 

As much as Bob loved the people in his life, his family, friends, and coworkers, he was loved fiercely back. His loss is immense. 

 “We cannot possibly say goodbye –  we’ll just say, 'So long!'” 


⏩ Bob Freeman was Carrie Twomey’s lifelong best friend.

Bob Freeman

Jacobin ☭ Interview with Vivek Chibber.

Why was the revolutionary road out of capitalism abandoned for an evolutionary one? Vivek Chibber explores how socialist parties moved from revolution to reform, but why real progress will always mean a conflict with capital.

Social democratic politics have been part of the socialist movement for over a century. Some features, like the commitment to pursuing economic rights for the working class via the state, have remained consistent over time. But when did social democratic ambitions to overthrow capitalism turn into efforts to reform the system?

In this episode of the Jacobin Radio podcast Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber takes a broad look at the early agenda of social democratic parties. Through an examination of their views on the state, class, and socialism, he unpacks social democracy’s relationship to the Left’s politics today.

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy and published by Jacobin. You can listen to the full episode here. This transcript has been edited for clarity.

So, from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries, there have been many different parties and political figures labeled “social democratic.”

Continue @ Jacobin.

The Revolutionary Roots Of Social Democracy

Caoimhin O’Muraile  ☭ Race, racism, racialisation are long distinct though closely related subjects.

Race has undergone many definitions throughout history from skin colour to class and then again skin colour. Many early colonisers chiefly from Europe, Portugal, Britain, France and Spain raided sub-Saharan Africa stealing millions into slavery to their various colonies. The Belgium colonisers of the Congo used an unspecified number of slaves effectively enslaving the entire population. King Leopold ll between 1885 and 1908 used the Congo as his personal propertied land enslaving the entire population in effect within their own territory. 

It was the German Third Reich, 19333-45, who resurrected the race based on appearances theory, Jewish people had, according to the Nazis, larger noses than non-Jews, black people were inherently inferior to Germans. Black Prisoners of War (POWs) during the Second World War suffered very badly at the hands of their inherently racist Nazi captors. These soldiers were from the French colonies and were used to fight for the very country which had colonised them, stealing lands and people alike. The subjects are far too long to cover here as one cannot be examined here with any clarity due to the sub sections involving all three closely related topics.

‘Reverse racism’ is something that can be looked at here as the concept is often used and invented by would be white supremacists to justify their hate filled spite. Early anthropologists wrongly concluded black people to be closely related to apes basing their erroneous findings on skull shape and the appearance of some developed apes, chimpanzees, gorillas, and baboons which do bear some resemblance to human beings, all human beings not just black people and those of colour. Humans, again all humans not just non-whites, share a very large percentage of genes with great apes with around 98 per cent of their DNA with Chimpanzees. 

Of course this narrative does not suit the fascist/racist far-right agenda. They maintain or pretend to maintain that the similarities between apes and humans apply only to non-white peoples basing these false findings on such aspects as height, skin colour, hair, facial features etc. Many white people bear some similarities to apes as do some non-whites as we are genetically close. Yet racism is a predominantly white concept fuelled by far-right supposed politicians and some elements within the bourgeoisie to divide white workers from black employees thus preventing any solidarity within the working-class. Having whipped working-class people into a frenzy these street orators, like Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Christopher Yaxley Lennon) in Britian to the Justin Barrett types in Ireland are building support bases on these sick ideas. Barret would not deny being racist but others like Herman Kelly, a founder of the misleadingly titled Irish Freedom Party, would deny being racist. Kelly was once employed as a press officer for Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform UK party.

The concept of racism was once depicted, in the 19th century, by class. For example, the business classes perceived the working class as a different ‘race’ to themselves. Prior to 1832 the aristocracy in Britain saw themselves a superior ‘race’ to all others. This changed as the bourgeoisie began their rise through the Industrial Revolution to power, many receiving the vote in 1832. They too then saw themselves as a superior ‘race’ to those who grafted for long hours in their factories. The ideas of racialisation of black people are used by revisionist historians who revisit the days of colonialism proving those peoples of sub-Saharan Africa are an inferior ‘race’ to the whites. There is absolutely no evidence to support these erroneous claims. It is true that only black people were enslaved as chattel slaves while white people, many Irish, were indentured servants. 

The existence of the indentured servant was little better than a slave but they did have certain minimal legal rights which slaves did not. White indentured servants could be flogged but not to death or even within an inch of their lives whereas black slaves suffered regular floggings often being flogged to death. There are recordings of indentured servants taking their master to court because he took the whip to them too severely and winning their case with minimum compensation. Slaves who were considered ‘savages’ and ‘belonging up trees’ were not given these very basic legal rights. Domestic pets such as dogs received better treatment than did some slaves by their masters. Indentured Servants were as such for a temporary limited period whereas slaves would die as slaves, a life sentence. White people could not be seen as slaves and the status of indentured servant could be challenged in the courts if the length of servitude was considered too long.

The indentured servant would not live a happy life but they were not slaves as some right-wing revisionists would have us believe. Such revised history is a part of the ‘reverse racism’ concept: the ‘we had it as bad and worse than black people’ myth! Such racist remarks as n------ and savages referring to black people is blatant racism denied by some on the far-right. If a black person makes negative remark about white people suggesting whites are not as good in athletics particularly track and field as black athletes it cannot be put in the same league as the racist remarks describing black people as ‘monkeys’ who belong ‘up tree’s’. No comparison in the two remarks and though the comparison in sport may be considered ‘ethnocentric’ it is not racist. Those races who suffered historically through having first their lands then their peoples stolen by the white colonisers are those suffering from racism today. The fascist/racist right try to compare such remarks made by blacks about whites as ‘black anti-white racism’ which it is not. They use such arguments to justify their vile racist arguments which, alas, are gaining traction in Britain and Ireland among ordinary people who would not consider themselves racist. They follow and vote for such reactionaries as one time ‘Official Sinn Fein’ activist now arch right-wing preacher, Malachy Steenson, who has jumped across from a left-wing position to one of racist. He would argue against this, claiming not to be ‘racist’.

When a group of people or even individuals become ‘racialised’ because historically they had little or no power it is seen by some whites to be the case today explaining why white people are superior which is nonsense. Unfortunately more and more otherwise decent people are subscribing to such reactionary views. Such ideas have always been present but only among a tiny minority. In Dail Eireann, 1943, fine Gael TD Oliver J. Flanagan made his antisemitic speech about ‘Bees and Honey’ and ‘Jews and Money’ but very few paid him any attention. Twenty-five years later in the British Parliament Conservative right-wing MP, Enoch Powel, in 1968, made his famous racist ‘Rivers of Blood’ oration which, for a short time, did gather support as fascist groups like the National Front (NF) resurfaced. Anti-fascist groups during the seventies kicked them off the streets. Unfortunately, certainly in Ireland, such opposition does not appear to be present. Very concerning indeed!

Between the 1500s and early 1800s around 12 million slaves were stolen from sub-Saharan Africa into slavery by the Europeans. Portugal led the charge with 5.7 million to their colonies chiefly Brazil. Britain followed with 3.2 million to their colonies in the West Indies and North America. France then rowed in at 1.5 million with Spain not to be left out stealing around 1 million souls for slave labour. It is these colonising days which are the roots of racism against people of colour as their white colonisers, despite poorer health and fitness, were considered superior to these enslaved natives. In reality it was gun powder and fire arms which gave the colonisers the advantage and nothing to do with racial superiority. There is only one race on earth and that is the human race within which there are many ethnicities and cultures.

The far-right and fascist right use the non-existent ‘reverse racism’ argument to explain and justify their own remarks about race. This concept argues black people are as bad to white people and therefore it is perfectly alright to call the blacks ‘savages’. Of course this is certainly not the case and any remarks coming from non-whites about whites tends to be a reaction to the racism suffered by these people. ‘Reverse Racism’ is a myth pedalled by the fascists/racists, that is those intelligent enough to pronounce it, and only a myth. Like most myths it is easy to destroy using basic history let alone academic achievements made by non-white people. The unfortunate aspect about this myth is it is easy to orate and people alas do listen and believe simply because the arguments are simple! 

Racism exists in society as an accepted though nauseous concept. Reverse Racism is a figment of the imagination in the minds of some far-right activists and is not a recognised analytical concept and is not accepted as a formal sociological or political term in academic fields. A myth is what it is and a myth is what it will remain existing only in the minds of the committed racists!
 
Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

The Myth Of Reverse Racism

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Eight Hundred And Thirty Four

 

A Morning Thought @ 3014

Anthony McIntyre  ⚑ He had been ill for a while, then was said to be recovering. 

Brendan Bik McFarlane
Which I doubted. Stage 4 cancer is usually a one-way street with a literal dead end at the bottom. I tried as best I could to keep abreast of his condition before word came through from a former blanketman in Belfast that he was on the driver. When the end came, I took a solitary walk along the roads of Drogheda to reflect on his passing.

From I first met him in Crumlin Road jail in March 1976, I always liked Bik. Everybody did. At 23, he had that magnetic charismatic personality and pop star looks that put me in mind of David Essex who from 1973 had been having huge chart success.

When he was sentenced to life with a stipulation that he serve twenty-five years before being considered for release, I bristled at the prospect. At 18 years of age a quarter of a century in jail seemed incomprehensible to me. Eight months later the same sentence was handed down to myself, but it didn’t look so daunting by that point. There was the additional factor of being youthful enough to still believe Provisional propaganda which forecast both victories and amnesties, neither of which came to pass.

Bik along with the late Skeet Hamilton and Seamus Clarke had been convicted of launching an attack in August 1975 on a Shankill Road bar believed by the IRA to be a UVF meeting place where its headquarters staff regularly convened and drank. The bar had been previously attacked in June when a bomb was hurled into it from a pillion passenger on a motorcycle. If memory is reliable the earlier attack which resulted in no fatalities was claimed by the IRA, although Shane Paul Doherty argues otherwise, feeling that a cover name was used.

It was an attack that earned Bik the tag of a brutal mass sectarian killer. He would always insist in conversation with me in the H Blocks that he wasn’t sectarian. I think that was true attitudinally; he harboured no animosity towards Protestants, and I never heard him brag about the attack. It wasn’t his form.

Yet it is undeniable that for a two-year period beginning in November 1974, the IRA did prosecute a sectarian campaign against the unionist community, with many people being killed for no reason other than they were Protestants. The worst atrocity came in January 1976 when the Kingsmill massacre occurred. In Belfast the Ardoyne IRA was particularly active when it came to waging the sectarian war. While in the Crum’s A Wing, in 1976, a chant that would often echo around the landings was ‘up the sectarian assassins.’ It never came from Bik.

When I arrived in Cage 10 Long Kesh after being sentenced, Bik was across the gap in Cage 11 but moved over to 10. I had many conversations with him before I moved to 11 - to walk the yard for hours each day with Pat McGeown, wise beyond his years - and he to 12 from where he launched an escape bid with Larry Marley and the same Pat McGeown, both now deceased. Pat too had moved to 12 for reasons that are now obvious. The plot failed and the three were deprived of their political status and sent to the H Blocks. I would end up in H4 with them a couple of months later, having also been accused of plotting to escape.

Bik went on to lead the prison protest during the hunger strikes. He was committed to the course. When our wing moved as one from H6 to H3 shortly after the election of Bobby Sands as MP for Fermanagh South Tyrone, the wing we moved to was adjacent to Bik’s own. We would see him at mass each Sunday. There was never time for more than a few passing words because he was totally absorbed in strategizing, frequently huddling with Richard O’Rawe and Jake Jackson and at times with the hunger strikers who happened to be on the wing before they were transferred to the prison hospital. I have vivid memories of Pat Sheehan and Pat McGeown looking incredibly frail and fragile, causing me to feel relieved that I was not in Bik’s position. It took enormous reserves of mental strength to be able to deal with that.

On one occasion there was a furious row between Bik and Denis Faul, which others claimed resulted from Denis accusing Bik of being responsible for the death of Martin Hurson. Bik was livid with rage.

There is no doubt in my mind that the account put forward by Richard O’Rawe of how external leadership figures, operating outside the structures of the army council, effectively sabotaged an outcome that would have resulted in six fewer deaths. While Bik denied this, I found his account unpersuasive.

I have never held him responsible for the six deaths, feeling that within the crucible that was the H Blocks protest at that particular juncture, most leaders (with the likely exception of the Dark) would have placed their trust in the outside leadership, believing that it had a more panoramic view of the wider battlefield, and therefore better placed to make difficult strategic decisions. However, I feel as strongly that where Bik failed was in not endorsing the account of Richard O’Rawe in 2005 when Blanketmen was published to critical acclaim, seriously shifting the course of the hunger strike narrative.  Rather he responded unsteadily, on occasion shifting his position, and ultimately rendering a counter to O’Rawe that was implausible. He opted to hold the line which in the hands of the Adams leadership was incapable of running a straight course.

We shared the same dinner table for almost a year in the canteen throughout 1982, and were in adjacent cells for the same period. I even managed to do his ligaments in with a tackle in the yard during soccer, for which he held not the slightest grudge. So, I got to know him quite well. While Bik was to the fore in all IRA activity within the prisons I was never convinced that the IRA was the type of life he envisaged for himself or one which he felt comfortable with. It always struck me that he had so many interests outside of the IRA, that being in the organisation was a chore which he performed out of a sense of duty. Behind the steely façade of an unyielding and ruthless IRA leader, there was a compassion and empathy, which I was the beneficiary of in difficult times. 

I always liked to see Bik except for the time when he was retuned to the jail having been extradited from the Netherlands. Despite my many clashes with the Sinn Fein and IRA leadership he never failed to speak to me when our paths crossed. At the funeral of Jimmy Drumm he was the only person who did speak. The anonymous pressure of the group weighed heavily on others who would normally pass themselves. On another occasion when we stopped to chat in Belfast city centre, I declined his invitation for lunch only because I had another schedule which could not be shelved.

Bik was an outstanding jail leader, on a par with The Dark and Bobby Sands.  Measured but thorough in all matters, for a time at the end of 1982 we corresponded daily. His advice never lacked gravitas, his scrutiny of my contribution, forensic. When he escaped the following year, my first thought was the IRA on the outside had acquired an asset but the IRA on the inside had lost one.

Bik, I felt, was one of those republican activists who for all his loyalty to it, was quite distinct from the leadership cabal. He had something none of them had - enough.

Eternal Dreamless Sleep, Bik.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Brendan McFarlane

Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières ★Written by
Adam Hunerven 

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the systematic repression of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Northwest China. 

Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2014 and 2017, the author documents how China’s “People’s War on Terror,” declared in May 2014, has transformed the Uyghur homeland into an open-air prison. 

The article traces the historical roots of Han Chinese settler colonialism in the region, examining how socialist-era multiculturalism gave way to capitalist development and eventually to a comprehensive system of racialized policing and mass detention.

The author argues that the crisis facing Uyghurs cannot be understood simply as “ethnic conflict” or “counter-terrorism” but rather as a process of social elimination that combines capitalist dispossession with terror rhetoric. By 2017, an estimated one million Uyghurs had been detained in “transformation through education” centres, where they face forced political indoctrination, linguistic assimilation, and systematic efforts to destroy their religious and cultural identity. Through first-hand testimony from Uyghur interlocutors, the article reveals the profound psychological trauma—what Uyghurs themselves describe as “spirit breaking”—inflicted upon an entire people. [MJ]

Continue @ ESSF.

Terror Capitalism 🪶The Uyghur Experience Under Chinese Settler Colonialism

Anthony McIntyre  ☠  When we gather at noon today in West Street, the activists of Drogheda Stands With Palestine can derive some consolation from living in Ireland rather than the UK. 

While the Irish government has unpardonably not yet enacted the Occupied Territories Bill, at the same time it has not sought to introduce the Starmer-type legislation which saw Greta Thunberg arrested last week in London outside the offices of Aspen Insurance. The company is subject to ethical action because the people protesting claim it:

provides financial services to Elbit Systems. Elbit is known as Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer and has several operations within the United Kingdom.

Ms Thunberg has since been released on police bail until March.

Her 'act of terrorism' which prompted the police to grip her was to hold up a placard proclaiming "I support the Palestine Action prisoners" and "I oppose genocide". I doubt there is anyone who has been turning up on West Street every Saturday since the onset of the genocide who does not support the hunger strikers who belong to Palestine Action. Yet, we would end up in the Joy were the Starmer legislation to apply here. 

While that type of draconian repression remains unleashed in Ireland, it is incumbent to use the space currently available to fill it with noise of support for people who are in prison because of their opposition to genocide and who have felt compelled to resort to hunger strike over their incarceration. 

Not only that, it is vital to protect the right to simply mobilise against genocide even in circumstances where no support for groups like Palestine Action is expressed. Der Starmer and Despicable Dave Lammy are intent on not just suffocating expressions of support for Palestine Action, they are also determined to smother any fair and accurate coverage of the genocide. Jonathan Cook warns that reporting facts under the Starmer regime could lead to a fourteen year jail sentence. 

Asking government if it wishes for more repressive legislation is like asking a child if it would like more sweets. If on offer it will be grabbed. Which makes the task of remaining vigilant here in Ireland all the more of imperative in order to prevent any slide which sees the rule of law further becoming the rule of law enforcement, causing the fog of hush to envelop protestors and media outlets alike. 

There has not been a hunger strike this large within the British penal system since the 1981 H Block hunger strike. Yet for the most of the prison protest, that fog of hush has cultivated a media blackout. BBC News At Ten only covered it as the strike entered its seventh week. Although it would be a stretch to claim that the BBC is not complicit in stifling the news, and is the mere victim of an authoritarian government policy. Jonathan Cook has argued that:

There are clear political reasons why the BBC had avoided this topic for so long. It prefers not to deal with matters that directly confront the legitimacy of the government, which funds it. The BBC is effectively the British state broadcaster.

The BBC will not address the fact that Greta Thunberg has been wilfully targeted by the Starmer legislation. A police statement said:

She has been arrested for displaying an item [in this case ‍a placard] in support of a proscribed organization [in this case Palestine Action] contrary ​to Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Her placard did not express support for the activities of Palestine Action. She merely supported their prisoners on hunger strike. The British state is now trying to label the act of hunger striking - one of the most passive forms of resistance known - as terrorism. In Ireland where it has become a cultural pastime for the political class to behave as mimic men, bowing and scraping to British monarchy, one task of activists is to prevent that class going further and mimicking the Starmer silencing strategy. 

In this country I am free to fully support Greta Thunberg in her protest and the Palestine Action prisoners in their hunger strike without being jailed for terrorism.  Let us strive to ensure it stays that way. 

Hail, Hail Palestine Action.

Jail, Jail the IDF.

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Greta Gripped

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