Irish Republican News - Statement by 'IRA Army Council' on Eve of Olympics 2012

by prisoner supporter. Fri Jul 27, 2012 20:20

This statement lacks political content, no mention of social struggles of the people in the 26 counties
no mention of the IMF, only the same old tired rant about "principles enshrined in the 1916 proclamation".

Socialism is being left outside, by a group that claims to have as its objective a democratic socialist republic.

No political programe, only militarism.

No one seems to know much about RAAD other than the fact that they shoot teenagers by appointment in Derry. They were a provo child.......not anymore..

As for 'the reals' , they've given plenty of statements to the media in recent years which amounted to nothing.

Their militarism failed a good while back, yet here they are again with a another statement.
on the eve of the olympics, what a surprise.....

Maybe we should be thankful that they are not pretending to be socialist.

by BrianClarkeNUJ - AllVoices Fri Jul 27, 2012 22:22

I generally agree with your comment and I can only suppose that is simply a statement of military fact, without political explanation. Perhaps it can be elaborated on but the militant aspect of Irish republicanism, has always tended to be rather terse, concise and matter of fact. I do agree with you about the socialist base and nature of successful resistance to occupation. As an international socialist, a nationalist base on its own, does not in my opinion justify a call to arms at this particular time, despite the considerable provocation by the agents of the British industrial war complex headed by the Tories.

Leon Trotzky

by Des Fri Jul 27, 2012 22:27

So RAAD are joining forces with some of the most notorious drug pushers in the country.
It kind of says it all about these people and their mentality.
I fear for the people of the North. The chances of another Omagh just got higher, given the fact that some of the biggest morons on our Island have access to guns and explosives and don't give a damn about who they kill with them.
Anything to turn a profit and have something to talk about in the pub on saturday night. And pretend its all about Irish unity. The same people would crap themselves if the North had to leave the UK. They'd loose their broo, their DLA scams, their housing benefit scams and their working tax benefit scams. Brits out of Ireland......ohhhh please don't go. Fcukwits.

by prisoner supporter. Sat Jul 28, 2012 00:55

Des,

to say "So RAAD are joining forces with some of the most notorious drug pushers in the country."
is nonesense.

If republicans groups were to become "notorious drug pushers" in the ares where they currently enjoy support, areas known for very conservative views on even soft drugs they wouldnt last long.

So be a good boy, and dont talk shit.

Rather than actually deal with the statement as presented you'd rather focus on things like "their broo"
says a lot about you too.

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Sat Jul 28, 2012 10:19

Indeed, and not just on soft drugs. Politically, the equivalent of the Tories. A nail bomb in one hand and rosary beads in the other.

Kneecap some kid for a half ounce of weed, then head for the shebeen to get pissed and poison themselves with tobacco.

And that 'phoney peace' has been endorsed by majorities both north and south. You have less right to claim you represent even a decent minority on this island than I have.

If you think the Irish people want a return to the brainlessness of blowing our fellow Irish parents and their kids into early graves(or English for that matter)on your self-appointed authority...you're going to have to have a lot of fucking ammunition.

Has it occcurred to anyone that that might just be MI6 or one of their Force Research Units stirring more fascistic sectarian reaction to divide our people and maintain their conquest...oh, and their lifeline security budgets.

Pass the steak-knives. Gold medals all round, for exceptional stamina and marathon perseverance in refusing to learn.

by Socialist World - Make Imperialism history ! Sat Jul 28, 2012 10:50

Where is the programme ? Except the link to 1916 there is nothing. If it would be a "historical step" and a new IRA would constitute, there would be a programme, clearly defined in all its political socialist perspectives (economically, nationally and internationally).
Where is the class struggle ?

by BrianClarkeNUJ - AllVoices Sat Jul 28, 2012 13:38

This Republican News article and Trotsky's permanent revolution document may answer some of the points raised her but then how do you answer someone with a name like Opus Diablos satisfactorily ?

>>>>>> HISTORIC IRA REALIGNMENT

A regrouping of previously distinct breakaway IRA groups is being
described as the most significant development within physical-force
republicanism since the Provisional IRA split in 1997.

In a statement released yesterday [Thursday] evening, the new IRA
grouping said that following extensive consultation, the three
organisations "have come together within a united structure under a
single leadership subservient to the constitution of the Irish
Republican Army".

A completely new command structure and army council has been established
to oversee the running of the new organisation which will combine the
resources of all three former groups. It is believed members of the
three original groups have already been briefed on the merger.

The transition was helped by the fact that a majority of the new IRA's
leadership previously held senior roles within the Provisional IRA at
various stages of that organisation's existence.

The new organisation does not include the Continuity IRA. In addition,
one or two elements which operated under the name Oglaigh na hEireann
[the Irish synonym for IRA] may not have been brought into the new
group, particularly in Belfast.

In a statement issued by the regrouped organisation's army council, the
IRA said it remained "committed to the full realisation of the ideals
and principles enshrined in the proclamation of 1916".

"In recent years the establishment of a free and independent Ireland has
suffered set backs due to the failures among the leaders of Irish
nationalism and fractures within republicanism," it said.

"The root cause of conflict in our country is the subversion of the
nation's inalienable right to self determination and this has yet to be
addressed.

"Instead the Irish people have been sold a phony peace rubber stamped
by the token legislature in Stormont."

It said the continuing British denial of Irish self-determination
remained the source of the conflict.

"It is Britain, not the IRA that has chosen provocation and conflict,"
it said.

"The IRA's mandate for armed struggle derives from Britain's denial of
the fundamental right of the Irish people to national self-determination
and sovereignty.

"So long as Britain persists in its denial of national and democratic
rights in Ireland then the IRA will continue to assert those rights.

"The necessity of armed actions in pursuit of Irish freedom can be
avoided through the removal of the British military presence from our
country, the dismantling of their armed militia and declaration of an
internationally observed timescale that details the dismantling of
British political interference in our country."

It is unclear what motivated the new development, but the breakaway
organisations have reported a surge in support since Sinn Fein's Martin
McGuinness shook hands and greeted the English queen, Elizabeth Windsor,
as part of the British royal jubilee celebrations last month.

The increased size and relative unity within the organisation will
directly challenge long-standing efforts by the political establishment
in the North to portray republican militants as small or "micro" groups.

For the moment, there seems no possibility of an engagement between the
two, but in the future, the organisation's new combined structure could
allow a single, coherent channel of communication.

North Belfast Sinn Fein assembly member Gerry Kelly recently described
the breakaway IRA groups as "small groupings" but insisted that his
party had sought to engage with them.

"They have no right to carry out armed actions, the vast majority of
which are directed against civilians in republican areas, in the name of
Irish republicanism," he said.

One of the group's involved in the merger, Republican Action Against
Drugs, has operated a controversial vigilante campaign against criminals
within the nationalist community in Derry. However, last month it
began to target the PSNI, triggering a wave of raids and searches in
which dozens of homes were ransacked, most recently that of the Sinn
Fein Mayor, Kevin Campbell.

Other units or groupings involved in the merger include one which
carried out an attack which killed a member of the PSNI in County Tyrone
last year, as well as others which have used the name Oglaigh na
hEireann, or simply 'the IRA'.

While the full extent of the regrouping has yet to be confirmed, it has
been reported that the new IRA has membership 'nationwide'.

Meanwhile, in an apparently separate development, the Continuity IRA
(CIRA) says it has expelled several members and has a new leadership.

A statement issued in Dublin said those acting in a criminal manner and
using the name of the CIRA would be subject to "military action".

The group said it remains determined to continue its armed campaign in
the north. The CIRA has claimed responsibility for several attacks in
recent years, including one in 2009 in which a member of the PSNI was
killed.

There has as yet been no direct response to the development by Sinn Fein
or other IRA groups.

_________________________

Leon Trotsky

The Permanent Revolution &
Results and Prospects

Transcribed and HTML markup for the Trotsky Internet Archive, a subarchive of the Marxist writers’ Internet Archive, by Sally Ryan in 1996. First publication of Results & Prospects was in St. Petersburg in 1906, shortly after the 1905 first Russian workers’ revolution, lead in large part by Trotsky himself. The first English translation was published by the Communist International in 1921. Permanent Revolution was first published by the Left Opposition in Russian in Berlin in 1930. First English and American editions of Permanent Revolution 1931, re-translated by John G. Wright, for Progress Publishers/Militant Publishing Association.

Introduction to the on-line version of
Permanent Revolution and Results & Prospects

Along with the theory of “combined and uneven development”, one of Leon Trotsky’s major contributions to Marxist thought was the theory of “permanent revolution”. The first is the idea that a backward country does not need to pass through the same sequence of stages already achieved by advanced countries. It can combine elements of both backward and advanced countries and leads to the idea of the permanent revolution. The expression “permanent revolution” was borrowed from the Address of the General Council to the Communist League, 1850, by Marx and Engels. Trotsky wrote: “The permanent revolution, in the sense which Marx attached to this concept, means a revolution which makes no compromise with any single form of class rule, which does not stop at the democratic stage, which goes over to socialist measures and to war against reaction from without; that is, a revolution whose every successive stage is rooted in the preceding one and which can end only in complete liquidation.”

The theory of permanent revolution was first formulated in the wake of the 1905 Russian Revolution as an attempt to explain what class would need to lead the coming revolution in Russia. Trotsky agreed with the other Russian Marxists that it would have to initially be bourgeois-democratic in character in order to accomplish such tasks as the overthrow of the Tsarist regime and the transformation of agrarian relations. In Results and Prospects, Trotsky took this idea a step further and analyzed how the conditions unique to Russia meant the working-class would need to join the peasantry to overthrow the capitalist class. Trotsky outlined the theory of permanent revolution from his cell while awaiting trial for his participation in the Petersburg Soviet of 1905. Some 24 years later, The Permanent Revolution (1929) was written in response to an attack on the the theory by Karl Radek, a Soviet journalist and former Left Opposition member who advocated Stalin’s theory of “socialism in one country”. It’s purpose was to clarify the relationship between Trotsky’s and Lenin’s perspectives on class relationships and objectives of the Russian revolution in the international arena.

Succinctly, Trotsky wrote: “The Perspective of permanent revolution may be summarized in the following way: the complete victory of the democratic revolution in Russia is conceivable only in the form of the dictatorship of the proletariat, leaning on the peasantry. The dictatorship of the proletariat, which would inevitably place on the order of the day not only democratic but socialistic tasks as well, would at the same time give a powerful impetus to the international socialist revolution. Only the victory of the proletariat in the West could protect Russia from bourgeois resoration and assure it the possibility of rounding out the establishment of socialism.” – Sally Ryan

Permanent Revolution Leon Trotzky

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Sat Jul 28, 2012 15:41

..answer someone with a name like Opus Diablos satisfactorily ?'

That is an easy one, Brian.

Just try addressing the issues he raises, rather than getting into dismissive diversionary mode regarding his pseudonym.

Permanent revolution sounds like something the neo-cons might use to justify their 'creative-destruction of capitalism' galloping across the Middle East at present in their escalating resource wars. I've been listening to the term since Mao's Little Red cathecism was the rage in sixties Dublin among the cognoscenti enamoured of polysyllabic terminology for their fantasised power-plans. They had a whole collection of such shibboleths to cling to when awkward questions about Soviet and Chinese realities were raised.

Funny how the Freidmanesque econometricians used the Leninist paradigm of an avant-garde elite cadre of 'enlightened' insiders to lead us proles into their utopian uber-capitalist PNAC, complete with their 'insider' economic jargon. Naomi Klein does an excellent job of deconstructing their methodologies. As did Orwell, by other means.

Ideological scelerosis of the cortical ganglia; a.k.a. intellectual laziness leading to formulaic thinking which diverges from evolving realities.
Sometimes called 'wishful thinking', as in the overt delusion of The American Dream, but not by any means confined to that blatant instance. We Irish provide many examples ourselves, not least in exotic crops of 'republican' self-justification, from FF/FG to whatever hits next year's menu.

I hope thats not too diabolical for digestion.

by BrianClarkeNUJ - AllVoices Sat Jul 28, 2012 21:50

Actually it is ! As all sorts of counter revolution attempts in places like Cuba, Venezuela, Libya, Syria, etc., etc, show, to achieve socialism and maintain it from covert and overt attack dos require a dictatorship of the proletariat. Something not ideal in the fight for freedom but necessaary ! Basic !

by BrianClarkeNUJ - AllVoices Sun Jul 29, 2012 02:59

The history of Trotsky and his experience is very valuable and relevant to this discussion and to Ireland at this point in time of our history. We can either learn from it and mistakes of failed revolutions or keep repeating the same mistakes over and over until we do. Opinions on the other hand are like arseholes, everyone has got one and we can debate them 'till the cows come home or try to impress each other until we have a fractured left like England. I am not here to impress anyone with hot air but experience is the most valuable thing we have. Perhaps you might enlighten us with some of it dating back to the sixties gurus of Dublin with some commonsense that would enable a unity of purpose.

Leon Trotsky

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Sun Jul 29, 2012 10:56

..might have a better chance of emerging if concrete realities were allowed impinge on abstract theorising, and ideological certitudes did not continue to trump all dissident alternative perspectives. And if dissidence on an ideational(opinion?)level did not constantly draw personalised reactionary reflex common ground might actually be negotiated and differences clarified.. If you think unity will be fashioned without heat and debate you need to reconsider your own groundings.
A start would be if we could learn to refine the language of debate and not fetishise the hoary phraseology of earlier centuries into mantras of false unification. Otherwise, post your trotskyist revolution, it will be icepicks drawn as 'relevant experience'(derivative from theory) runs into counter-opinion as to relevance. Hello, Stalin.

'Dictatorship of the proletariat'??...I suggest you go mingle a little more with the Irish proletariat...and test your dictatorial phraseology on them.
I think you'll find the topic of conversation returns to anal mode fairly pronto.

The phrase is oxymoronic. Unless you translate it as government of, by and for the people...which is less lapidary, but more useful; and open to diversity of interpretation allowing for optimal co-operative action. Fictive unities lead to totalitarian atrocities.
The notion of the population dictating is a cacophonous abstraction, whatever the possibility of some form of governance in the inclusive interests of your idealised proletarian masses.
If it is dictatorial in form do not be surprised if Paddy rebels.
No more than his republicanism, if he ever awakens to the advantages of a more lateral and egalitarian social structure, he will want a say in its realisation. If our 'republican' dictators would park their weaponised fantasies for a while and use the arsenal of our public libraries(while we still have the resource)they might find a little more public interest in their contribution...but then they might have a little more to actually contribute than militarised short-cuts to historically inherited divisions. Who knows, they might even realise that if they re-ran their insurrection tomorrow it would be Nato, not Britannia, was sending in the gunboats. But that will require a visit to the 21st century, and shedding some of the baggage of the 19th.

by Damien M - PW Sun Jul 29, 2012 17:31

"..to achieve socialism and maintain it from covert and overt attack dos require a dictatorship of the proletariat. Something not ideal in the fight for freedom but necessaary ! Basic !"

Then it's hardly freedom is it? No more than the fleeting glimpse of 'freedom' a few Cubans seen when the tanks first rolled into Havana.

by BrianClarkeNUJ - AllVoices Mon Jul 30, 2012 07:18

It's Better Than Not So Great Britain Isn't It ?

It's Better Than Not So Great Britain Isn't It ?

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Mon Jul 30, 2012 12:25

Freedom as an absolute is a concept...I'd say a lot of Haitians might swap their 'freedom' to live in anarchic squalor for the security of food, medicine and education, however limited, available to their neighbours. Not to mention the social organisation that allows for responses to hurricane and earthquake far moree efficiently. Many of Cuba's problems are created by its neighbour's exclusion from partication in economic development, lest a more egalitarian social system highlight the flaws of our rapacious market-worship.

Which island would you prefer to be born black and poor on?

by BrianClarkeNUJ - AllVoices Mon Jul 30, 2012 12:57

Personally I believe British Occupied Ireland is the worst being hungry and wet in Haiti is one thing butt being hungry, cold, wet and kneecapped is the pits of hell ! I wonder what Comrade Trotzky would do with the PSNI's vigilantes ?

"RAAD's campaign of terror must be brought to an end
451 2 463
By Eamonn McCann
Friday, 4 May 2012

People power: residents have started to stand up to Republican Action Against Drugs

'New IRA' ... publicity stunt or real cause for concern?
Newly-merged dissident republican groups in terrorism vow
On a Friday afternoon last month, members of the PSNI raided Ray Coyle's shop in Waterloo Street in Derry and took away a quantity of stock for testing.
"They told me they had information that I was selling illegal substances. I told them that they already had information about who had shot me and they didn't seem to have carried out any raids about that."

Ray had been shot in his shop in February 2010 by a three-man gang from Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD). Collapsed onto the floor with a bullet in each leg, Ray screamed "f***ing cowards" as the gang left. One turned in the doorway, stepped back into the shop and shot him again, in the thigh.

In hospital a few days later, Ray says, he gave the names of the three gunmen to the PSNI. "But as far as I know, that was the end of it.

"I haven't been selling anything which isn't as legal as Harp or Johnnie Walker. If anything I was selling was declared illegal, I would have it off the shelves in an instant."

RAAD seems unfazed by condemnation, or by a series of protest rallies. The organisation's latest victim has been a 29-year-old from Derry, shot four times at his home in St Johnston in Donegal on Tuesday.

One explanation commonly offered for RAAD's ability to continue to operate in spite of Ray Coyle and others having 'named names' is that the group, unlike 'dissident' republican organisations, does not target the security forces, or directly threaten the peace process. So, apparently, getting rid of RAAD isn't a high priority objective for law-enforcement agencies.

News reports which have lumped RAAD in with the Real IRA or Continuity IRA are wide of the mark and a source of confusion.

RAAD was founded in 2008 by members and recent ex-members of the Provisional IRA in Derry. It made its 'debut' in April the following year, admitting responsibility detonating a pipe bomb at a house in the city.

In its first 'authorised' interview, in the Derry Journal in August 2009, the group explained that, "There is absolutely no political agenda within our organisation". Confirming the group's provenance in the Provisional IRA, the representative claimed that "rank-and-file members" of Sinn Fein were "fully supportive" of it activities.

Widespread irrational attitudes to drugs are another factor helping sustain RAAD's activities. It was observed in the same Journal article that, "The organisation is now - rightly or wrongly - considered by many to be at the cutting edge of eradicating drug-dealing in the North West".

The leaders of mainstream republicanism who played midwife at the birth of RAAD will have seen it as a means of keeping order in the community by cracking down on criminality and 'anti-social behaviour', which the PSNI wasn't yet able to handle.

In this perspective, RAAD, far from being a challenge to the political settlement, has been an ancillary organisation helping prepare the way for the settlement to take hold.

Sinn Fein now seems set to adopt an altogether sharper line against RAAD. Over the past two years, the group has developed a momentum of its own and seemingly deepened that sense of entitlement to impose its will on the community, which has always been a hallmark of republican paramilitaries.

If it isn't challenging the peace process, RAAD now challenges Sinn Fein's status and standing in the community to an extent which has begun to alarm local party leaders.

The implication of failing to face down RAAD became clear following the killing of Andy Allen on February 9 last. At a protest rally at the Top of the Hill, near the family home in the Waterside, scores of young people gathered in rough formation wearing defiant T-shirts reading 'Andy RIP'.

Afterwards, some had to be dissuaded from proceeding to the home of a RAAD leader on the other side of the river to express their anger.

Andy's uncle, William Allen, editor of the Londonderry Sentinel, wrote last week: "My own feeling is that many disaffected young people were victimised over the years, because they would not tow the republican line and, as a result of their treatment at the hands of masked bullies ... were marginalised and alienated.

"RAAD's tactics will achieve the same as the Provos. It will alienate more young people. But they aren't so afraid of RAAD ... We could have a vicious tit-for-tat cycle."

These are the circumstances which have led some who were giving RAAD a nod and a wink to conclude that the organisation will have to be stopped - and soon.

A bit late for Andy Allen and others, of course."

RAAD Not in Our Name !

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Mon Jul 30, 2012 13:09

..smells like fascism, sounds like fascism...and acts like fascism...then it don't do rationality...

by speak out Tue Jul 31, 2012 20:06

for the last few years there has been an on going crisis in maghaberry among republican prisoners for political status. at first all prisoners were united in their struggle. then 'ex-provos' claiming to be 'independents' were permitted in. no sooner were they in the gaol, did they make it clear they were to be in charge. These 'independents', under the leadership of a lurgan man, made it clear they gave the orders in gaol. The rira prisoners fell in under them. on the outside a cult of personality was lunched around the man, with posters being put up with his face alone regards the prison issue.

His family set up an 'independent' prisoner support group called ' friends & family' which claimed to support all prisoners but only supported the select few who would bow to the grouping of independents/rira.

a member of his family joined a PSF owned and operated forum and just as quick became the moderator for the prisoner section. all prisoner news or discussions would have to be friends/family positive. No questions that it might be wrong to undermine the prison protest permitted.

it was claimed by the indendents that the 32csm should take a backseat, as more people would naturally support a prison protest organised by 'friends & familly' then the rira aligned 32csm. at the same time rumours were being spead on the outside about prisoners not under this new umbrella group. protests organised by others were continually undermined. one would announce a protest only for the independents to organise another, same time same date. any protest organised by either rnu/cogus or rsf/cabhair met the same fate.

the same people set up 'societies' which it was claimed was an independent way for republicans to come together. 'independent comemorations and meetings all a way for this circle to get people to fall in behind them. no more independent then the friends/family group. in the meantime those inside upped the ante against those prisoners who would submit to them. those under this leadership were told they could not even speak to the other prisoners. they refused all contact with them. one of their own lc was attacked by them for speaking up against this behaviour. cd saw this as a threat as so a republican who has given his life to the republican cause was thrown off the wing and abandoned. and the inevitable rumours spread about him. no one was to question the independents or their orders

suprise suprise the lurgan man got off (after laying blame at a derry republican) while his co accused was the fall guy. he comes out a 'leader'. then the undermining gets worse outside and inside. those inside now calling themselves rlc continue the blackguarding against other republican prisoners. they have been now threatening the others with beatings. they have attacked tommy maguire they have attacked martin corey . they are throwing threats around on a daily basis undermine and absorb is what is happening

what republicans support this carry on.who is attending f/f/society events. who is speaking at their meetings giving credence to the thugs. some who dont give a fiddlers about what they are doing but some who should know better then this why does pensive quill putting their propaganda on that site. why anthony? why are bernadette and tommy mck speaking at their meetings do eirigi support this as the newry section clearly does ask them what are they supporting, elderly republican prisoners being brutalised not by screws but by this gang of thugs. republican readers ask them ask anyone going to these meetings or commemorations if you go ask yourself do you support this carry on

and now raad and the rira have announced their long rumoured merger along with some 'ex' pira/indepentend members, mainly from the east tyrone area. What it is though, is brit intels complete takeover of the rira/32s. raad is an brit front. this is all linked republicans do not support this behaviour do not support the criminalisation of republican pows do not support the disgraceful abuse they are recieving do not support the real raads it is anti republican and they will not succeed in their agenda if we speak out

by Offended - waaambulance incorporated Mon Aug 20, 2012 15:37

What? Freedom would "require a dictatorship of the proletariat."?
Not on our watch boy. Thats a neocon arguement if I ever heard one.
Oh, and Marxism is dead :) -> http://waaambulance.tumblr.com/post/29771255240/marxism...-dead

by Red Jed Mon Aug 20, 2012 22:47

You will all be fine. The only people with anything to worry about are Brits, Peelers, people who work for them, shops who serve them, people who have fallouts with the members and young fella's who steal wood from their bonfires.
Because, of course, all of the the above are enemies of Irish freedom and unity.

by Hopeful Fri Jan 11, 2013 04:50

Change is a long hard road for everyone. Whichever way you choose it’s not easy. I don’t want to get caught up in a corner and become blinkered to what both sides imply. Our ancestors showed how strong they were. We can be the same. Irish proverbs come from good hard working people. I often use these Irish sayings and remember their roots. Whichever route you choose, take it carefully and with great thought.