In reaction to press reports of violence during the protests at the Labour Party conference at NUI Galway, Galway’s local peace group, the Galway Alliance Against War, has issued the following statement. ... read full story / add a comment

Its not just a rogue attack from the Israeli Terrorist State thats on the agenda: Obama and his minions are deliberately psyching up the US people with their bellicose statements. Preconditions which cannot be met are being set for negotiations. Israel is being supplied with enhanced missile capability. Yassamine Mather deals with these points in the article below. Full text at link.

On Saturday April 14 Iran will attend talks with six world powers. The US has indicated this is Iran’s “last chance” to avoid military intervention and the Obama administration is taking very specific demands to the talks as preconditions for further negotiations: for example, Iran “must immediately close” a large nuclear facility allegedly built underneath a mountain if it wants to avoid a devastating strike. ... read full story / add a comment

For the past six months and longer once Libya had fallen to the NATO sponsored 'rebels', we have faced a continuous media onslaught about Syria with reports of protests, shootings, killings, attacks, bombing and so forth. The backdrop to the narrative is that this is part of the Arab Spring which started last year and it is a good thing overall. So many people are probably wondering what really has been happening, given that this is the same media that was cheer leading the Iraq war almost 10 years ago even though at least a million+ are now dead as a result. And yet somehow they want to imply that they are doing the right thing now. We should also recall that this is the same media that is promoting austerity and encouraging us to accept the blame for the mad years of the bubble and as a consequence we should pay up the €90 billion bailout and in the process see all the state services stripped to the bone. They are presenting the uncomplicated truth surely ... read full story / add a comment

There is an eerie sense of deja vu as the rhetoric used by the Imperialist leaders echoes that used in 2003 prior to the invasion of Iraq. Ben Lewis reports on debates in Westminster , international developments and the ever present danger of an Israeli attack on Iran. Full text at link.

The debate was initiated by Conservative MP John Baron, perhaps the only Tory MP who opposes an attack on Iran. His motion was simple and straightforward: “This house believes that the use of force against Iran would be wholly counterproductive and would serve only to encourage any development of nuclear weapons; and calls upon the government to rule out the use of force against Iran and reduce tensions by redoubling diplomatic efforts.” Malcolm Rifkind, Tory chairman of the intelligence and security committee, moved an amendment that completely changed its content. The amendment deleted everything except “This house” and replaced the rest of Baron’s motion with: “… supports the government’s efforts to reach a peaceful, negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear issue through a combination of pressure in the form of robust sanctions, and engagement led by the E3+3 comprising the UK, US, France, Germany, China and Russia; and recognises the value of making clear to Iran that all options for addressing the issue remain on the table”.

The Rifkind amendment, which was passed by an overwhelming majority of 285 to 6. Those who voted against the amendment were Labour MPs John McDonnell, Paul Flynn and Dennis Skinner; Jonathan Edwards of Plaid Cymru; Mark Durkan of the Social Democratic and Labour Party; and Baron himself. ... read full story / add a comment

A national organization representing thousands of military veterans is calling on the US Army to abandon court martial proceedings against Private Bradley Manning, the accused Wikileaks whistleblower. The young soldier, who has been imprisoned for 21 months, will be formally arraigned today (Thursday, Feb. 23) at Fort Meade, Maryland. Army prosecutors say they will file 22 charges against PFC Manning, including “aiding the enemy,” a crime that can be punished by the death penalty or life in prison. ... read full story / add a comment

I was present in the Commons on January 24, when foreign secretary William Hague made a statement on European Union sanctions against Iran. In response to a question, he said that, while the UK was “not calling for, or advocating, military action”, it is “the job of our armed forces to prepare for many contingencies” and “all options remain on the table”. This was reflected on the Labour front bench by shadow foreign secretary John Spellar, that well known progressive politician (there’s no irony in Hansard, but I hope it’s not the same in this meeting). Spellar reflects the same attitude - that we should be ready for military action ... read full story / add a comment

Make your voice heard against war and repression, urges Hands Off the People of Iran chair, Yassamine Mather

The war drums against Iran are beating ever louder. The new embargo on Iranian oil, to come into force on July 1, is only the latest in a long list of measures imposed by US and EU imperialism. It bans all new oil contracts with Iran, and cuts off all existing deals. Also, all of the Iranian central bank’s European assets are to be frozen.

We are told that the sanctions are designed to weaken the regime and “force Iran back to the negotiating table” over its nuclear programme. This is clearly nonsense:

In reality, the ‘nuclear danger’ is used by imperialism as an excuse to deal with an increasingly unstable situation in the Middle East. Imperialism has recently lost a number of friendly regimes in the region (like Egypt) and needs to reassert control in this oil-rich area. War is also a useful distraction from economic misery and the current crisis of capitalism. ... read full story / add a comment

Let's start with red lines. Here it is, Washington’s ultimate red line, straight from the lion’s mouth. Only last week Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said of the Iranians, “Are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No. But we know that they're trying to develop a nuclear capability. And that's what concerns us. And our red line to Iran is do not develop a nuclear weapon. That's a red line for us.”

How strange, the way those red lines continue to retreat. Once upon a time, the red line for Washington was “enrichment” of uranium. Now, it’s evidently an actual nuclear weapon that can be brandished. Keep in mind that, since 2005, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has stressed that his country is not seeking to build a nuclear weapon. The most recent National Intelligence Estimate on Iran from the U.S. Intelligence Community has similarly stressed that Iran is not, in fact, developing a nuclear weapon (as opposed to the breakout capacity to build one someday). ... read full story / add a comment

Twenty five peace activists were again far outnumbered by security forces at Shannon airport at the January peace vigil. Inside the airport three OMNI Air Troop carriers were under army and garda protection, at taxpayers expense. Garda and army personnel were not complaining of course, with their Garda overtime and army security allowances. The taxpayer may wish to question however, why Ireland is incurring such expenditure, in addition to waving many of the air navigation fees due to US military traffic over and through Ireland. This military air traffic is also breaching Irish neutrality on a daily basis. ... read full story / add a comment

The monstrous crimes committed by President George W Bush (US) and Prime MInister Anthony Blair in their unjustified invasion of Iraq has not resulted in any action against them in the Hague. In a tribunal in Malaysia, however, they have not been so lucky. ... read full story / add a comment

PHOTOS:
Link http://www.flickr.com/photos/69766931@N05/sets/72157628623607465/ ... read full story / add a comment

Three OMNI air troop carrying warplanes at Shannon on 30 Dec 2011, are now under heavy guard by a combination of Shannon airport security, Gardai and the Irish Defence Forces. ... read full story / add a comment

16 Catholic Workers closed and occupied the Main Entrance of Northwood Military Headquarters. Scott and Maria Albrecht, Henrietta Cullinan, John Lynes and Rachel Wood pitched tents, knelt and prayed in front of the main gate for 2 hour while others vigiled holding signs. ... read full story / add a comment

The Irish government has been complicted in the murder of innocent people for almost a decade now via the wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are completely hypocritical when for so many years they condenmed the acts of murder in the North, but now not only remain slient about these mass murders in far off lands but actively support it through the apparatus of the state in the form of providing resources -Shannon Airport, policing to go with it and of course welcoming back in 2004 the war criminal Bush and more recently Obama. We are supposed to cheer when the US and NATO drop daisy-cutter 4,000 lb bombs or when drones fire missles and say oops! when innocent civilians get killed.

And to counter the propaganda spewed a few weeks ago about the so-called ending of the war in Iraq. It is not over. There are still troops there. And contary to statements at the time of only 64,000 killed as if that was just a few, the figure is well over one million people, as estimated by internationally peer reviewed Lancet study that was done twice to confirm the initial findings.

We are so immersed in the propaganda that we have all forgotten our true values and the difference between right and wrong. Fortunately there are a few individuals willing to stick by their convinctions.

Below we reproduce a handwritten communication we received from one of the members of the Peace Team that sabotaged a US troop transporter at Shannon warport last Tuesday morning, 20th December 2011. We have verified that this person participated in this action. ... read full story / add a comment

A sketchy report on the Irish Anti-War Movement website states that a U.S. troop carrier plane was attacked and sabotaged at Shannon airport. From other sources I understand that that Omni used this aircraft as a spare and that was parked in a relatively remote area of the airport when disarmed a day or so ago by having its hydraulic or fuel lines severed. ... read full story / add a comment

Christopher Hitchens has departed the mortal coil. He used to to be a true anti-imperialist but ended as a supporter of Imperialism. Unlike other ex leftists however Hitch held on to a lot of his radical views and didn't disown his past (like Martin Amis did). But does this balance out his support for the slaughter in Iraq? Sean Fenley pens a critical obituary. ... read full story / add a comment

David Douglass reports on how some English Anarchists slid down a slippery slope with their support for Islamic rebels in Libya. Full text at link.

On Sunday November 6 I was confronted out of the blue by a political development in anarchism which knocked me off my feet. Surrounded by comrades in a fairly well attended meeting of the Northern Anarchist Network and the North East Anarchists at the Bridge Hotel in Newcastle, I listened with jaw dropping to the item on the agenda marked ‘Libyan Solidarity Campaign’.

The ‘Support Nato bombing tendency’ is how I would roughly designate it. I subsequently traced back this disturbing development to Ian Bone’s blog. Ian, a long standing comrade of mine, founder of Class War and many great initiatives, surely could not be the origin of this absurd and reactionary viewpoint? ... read full story / add a comment

Sat 28th Jan 2012 4-6pm - Public Forum The Arab Spring One Year On - Liberty Hall Dublin ... read full story / add a comment

Cartoons have become explosive, underlining deep political fault lines in the new world order and more often than not, concealing bigotry and diverting debate from racism and imperialism to the much abused concept of “freedom of expression”. The latest episode was started by a cartoon published in Ha’aretz in which the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Minister of Defence Ehud Barak, say farewell to troops on the way to bomb Iran, while asking them to bomb the UNESCO offices in Ramallah on the way back. ... read full story / add a comment

Hands Off the People of Iran unequivocally condemns the ratcheting up of sanctions on Iran in the aftermath of the much-heralded report of the International Atomic Energy Agency on that country’s nuclear capability on November 8. The report did little more than confirm the assessment that Hopi arrived at some time ago: that at worst Iran may be interested in the so-called ‘Japanese’ option. This is nuclear development that stops just short of the capacity to produce a nuclear weapon - but only by a month or so. But this is something that has been commented on many times before.

Despite the fact that this report contained little or nothing that was new (it was little more than a compilation of UK satellite pictures and the pre-existing reports of the CIA and other western intelligence agencies), imperialist leaders have fallen over themselves to express horror and outrage at these ‘new’ findings: ... read full story / add a comment