Ógra Shinn Féin Travel to Basque Country to Call For End to Basque Youth Oppression

by Internationale - Ógra Shinn Féin Thu Feb 15, 2007 21:12

continued.

Basque Youth House

"Free the people"

Inaki de Juna - over 100 days on Hungerstrike

Protest for Inaki

'Through the grapevine' thousands demand end to Segi repression

by Internationale - Ógra Shinn Féin Thu Feb 15, 2007 21:14

Freedom!

Freedom for the Basque Country!

by % Fri Feb 16, 2007 17:50

From the pictures of the protest which was illegalised - it's clear isn't it - that an awful lot of basque people young and not so young - want the oppression to stop. They may all belong to the same movement or fellow travel. But somewhere within that - an average of 2 arson attacks occurs a day. No-one is fool enough to think an arson attack in a mobilisation of thousands of other leftist groups & ideologies is representative of the whole movement. Criminalisation polarises the communities which need youth parties and organisation structures to sustain development of - identity, political strategy, inter-community relations. In the last weeks ogra sinn fein one of the most interesting youth groups or parties to develop in the EU - has visited engurland to make solidarity links - the basque to make solidarity links - armagh to say "brits out!" to a tower. What an interesting youth group that can sustain the development not only of it's mother party but dialogue within the movement and community it serves. How notable that when these young people (who hate being called kids) were toddlers - an alien army was on the street or up the tower and their simple words were criminalised. Not much talk of having cups of tea with youth groups in england back then. Of course ken livingstone kept a door open, but he expected more mature types to come.
Criminalisation works both ways
Youth groups are often more radical than the mother groups - many a petulant fine gael ogra has called for the opening of the O'Duffy files. But at end we look at "%". if all the young people in the photos above were following anti-system strategies of co-ordinated violence against political and other foes or rivals - then the whole of the Basque would have been in smoke. Would OSF mind telling the readers how their contemporaries are gelling the continued "kale borraka" with their long term strategies of self-determination? Because surely OSF didn't just go over there to say "we're on your side" "joe tack ee" and not say - "well chairde this is where we came from & are going - lots happened last while - this is what we think about it - voted our resolution against it - no surrender to the PSNI - but as of yet we haven't split from SF we're happy in our party - we know where we want to go - on holidays - its great - respect to ye."

by sun tan lotion factor 60+ for extra-sensitive skin Sun Feb 18, 2007 17:16

Just like the IRA before, armed struggle occupies a fluid place in any movement as large as one in the photo. This week a subtle little change occurred from Tuesday onwards - El Pais described the last arson attacks as the work of "radicales". "Radicales" is one of those false friends "amigos falsos". You can be radical in English and it just means you like surfbabes or are firmly opposed to Gladstone's reforms and will fight him all the way tooth and nail. But in Castilian "radicale" means you're out there - a proper masked up extremist who likely as not in expressing a widely held emotion but in a way which though (not to be collectively condemned or even referred to) provokes more problems for the parent movement than solves. This is easy to understand - the parent movement must remain attentive to its prisoners whilst holding common ground between all other sectors of "non-imprisoned" members. If the movement is subject to political restriction - "section 28", curfew, illegalisation, criminalisation, oppression - system wide peer rejection - then the characteristic of "maintaining a united front" stifles debate or internal criticism. Especially in the run-up to an electoral process which is so important to all groups. The peer "Smaller fringe variations" parties who have dropped armed struggle seeing their opportunity to fill representational space. This is the problem of "armalite" and "Ballot box" strategies. For they both require different conditions. As every OSF member knows you do not hold the conditions of armed struggle as existing now in the Irish problem - you have moved to political processes - oppression and criminalisation are what you don't need - and thankfully suffer much less of now (if at all). But if you are going the other way with that armalite then oppression and criminalisation are exactly what you do need.

So this week's arson is the work of extremists within the movement which is illegalised which is within the party which is illegalised - nestling in that fluid space where no-one wants to say it is "representative" of the political situation it was caused by. The same molotov cocktails are thrown at the same targets quite probably by the same people leaving the same political messages and graffiti tags as calling card...... "not every kid who burnt clichy sous bois was representative of the tradition of nihilism or the struggle of migrants against the state".......a burnt bus is a burnt bus. But for a time if it is useful to contemplate a "quarantine" man be afforded to those "radicales", but it is a luxury which might be very expensive. So even though they may be the newspaper of the occupying imperialist force- El Pais has sent a message more to its non-readers than its readers. I'd suggest keeping that in mind : It's what I've been trying to suggest.

There has never been too much time attached to staying a freelance operative "radicale" in that space where armed struggle comes from. There extremists go three ways- into the hands of the state lacking an umbrella to protect them - "they are quietly neutralised" (which is horribly euphemistic) - or into the structures of para militarism and proper fully qualified terrorist activity. This is what is meant when people say ETA uses its ceasefires to recruit new members and replenish cells from the Kale Borraka. They say this all the more when the last time since Barajas has seen kale borraka hit as much as in the 9 previous months of ceasefire. They look at this rising mercury & experience tells them - we're in for a storm & a bomb soon - stay by the telephone with the updated lists of code words.

Inaki most definitely fits into the armed struggle space. He is the face of that space. In Ireland belatedly what was begun by saoirse and the other group's prisoner campaigns - saw what was in fact a move to house or community arrest for certain individuals. If not for their community's direct benefit at least it took oxygen from the thorny prisoner's provocations. Instead of citing a IRA "POW"example maybe we could remember that "mad dog" person. He's worth remembering because of the death toll his involvement in armed struggle (or perhaps considering he was on the oppenents' side) his involvement in terrorism as a loyalist and proxy of the British state. Ireland produced more dead than any comparative conflict. Ireland also provoked full time foreign army deployment. But Ireland didn't produce such prolific killers. & If she had she might not have found it comfortable to see put the most prolific killers at the top of their list of "prisoner issues" especially if there were many hundreds of others on the list. One of the final aims of any movement engaged in conflict resolution is reconciliation. But even in Ireland that aim is still far off. No-one at a the table ever really wants to touch it. Yes, the Irish republican movement attempted very early on to score that point (exhumation of disappeared)- it backfired. Addressing state or non state violence against certain individuals of either state or group - takes a long time. Thus the armed group can justify murder of an individual notoriously connected to torture, assassination - as the state can justify a shoot to kill or ambush that went wrong which regrettably didn't bring Mr mcG---- to trial.

Being in OSF must be fun as well as a challenge. You've to learn about it all as seen from your own - & then learn about it all as seen by others. & no doubt you realise how many others there are - and that way you help move your agenda to achievement. But just because you're in OSF doesn't mean you can go as "experts" to sort out others. You're still on a very long learning curve which has been bent and twisted a lot by the very heavy and stupid people who didn't learn but tried before you, failed and fell off . It will not encourage you to say where they fell to. Someday the whole learning curve structure which now resembles a roller coaster must be taken down and over-hauled completely. You will be old then.

When are ye off to Sardinia and Corsica?