News Round-UpFri Jan 24, 2025 01:20 | Will Jones A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
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One in 12 in London is an Illegal MigrantThu Jan 23, 2025 19:30 | Will Jones London is home to as many as 585,000 illegal migrants, equivalent to one in 12 of the city?s population, according to a previously confidential report.
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Illegal Afghan Migrant Kills Two and Wounds Three in Latest Knife Violence to Afflict Open-Borders G...Thu Jan 23, 2025 17:55 | Eugyppius An illegal Afghan migrant has killed two and wounded three in the latest knife violence to afflict open-borders Germany. In response, Leftist organisations will light candles to demonstrate "solidarity and cohesion".
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Should Oxford Be Trusted to Assess the Safety of its Own Vaccine?Thu Jan 23, 2025 15:50 | Mark Walker The Covid Inquiry was reassured by a scientist from Oxford University that the Covid vaccines were safe. But should Oxford, which received ?143m in royalties from its Covid vaccine, be trusted on this, asks Mark Walker.
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Does Starmer Know What He?s Talking About on AI?Thu Jan 23, 2025 13:28 | James Alexander Why was Keir Starmer's recent speech on AI written like a Mr Men book? Prof James Alexander wonders if the Prime Minister knows what he's talking about. Is AI really "the ultimate force for national renewal"?
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The death has occurred in London of Bob Doyle, the last surviving Irish soldier of the XV International Brigade of the Spanish Republican Army. Bob, whose health had been failing for some time had survived a recent double heart attack, before passing peacefully last night surrounded by his family. He was a few weeks short of his 93rd birthday.
Bob's career as an political activist has been recorded in his book Brigadista, which recounted his early life in Dublin as a Republican volunteer and later as a member of the Republican Congress, prior to his abortive first attempt to fight against Franco in July 1937, which saw him stow away on a ship to Valencia.
On his return to London (which he was to make his home for the remainder of his life) Bob contacted the CP and arrived in Spain by the more usual route, walking over the Pyrenees in a group of 15 volunteers, including the writer Laurie Lee. Bob was given basic military training and promoted quickly due to his aptitude and experience. Assigned to a training base behind the lines, Bob disobeyed orders and left with a detachment of British volunteers to take part in the second battle of Belchite in February 1938. He was captured at Calaciete with Frank Ryan and survived the concentration camp of San Pedro, before being released in a prisoner exchange in February 1939.
Bob joined the merchant navy on the outbreak of the second world war, where he received a medical discharge for an ulcer. He spent the remainder of the war as a firewatcher on the roof of the CP offices in central London.
He threw himself into political activity after the war and was one of the Communist leaders of a major printworkers' strike in 1959 and the fight for a 40 hour week. Bob was also undertaking more dangerous work, frequently travelling to Franco's Spain helping to organise the underground unions there.
Bob was an unusual Communist. This writer first encountered him in London during a Poll Tax demonstration, dressed in a top hat and tails. Bob was to be seen on many demonstrations in London throughout this period for a variety of causes and was not shy of confrontation with the bosses or the police. Bob was also a firm advocate of the legalisation of cannabis and was an enthusiastic grower of the herb in his north London greenhouse.
More recently, Bob has been in involved with Spanish Civil War commemorations both here in Ireland and in Spain and he was due to accept honorary Spanish citizenship in the coming months. He hadn't taken up an offer extended several years ago from the Zapatero government as it would have required giving up his Irish citizenship in exchange. Under a new law, however, non-Spaniards are entitled to retain their original citizenship.
Bob attended his last commemoration at Jarama last February where he delivered a a speech fired with passion and anger attacking global capital and the hold it still has on the world.
Bob's funeral arrangements are to be announced next week.
Some History of Irish Involvement in the International Brigades is Here.
Previous Indymedia Obituary of International Brigades Veteran James Maley.
Homage to an Anti-Fascist: Michael O'Riordan RIP.
Indymedia Article Marking 70th Anniversary of the Connolly Column
NOTE: Indymedia Ireland invite those with memories of, or reminiscences about, Bob Doyle to use this page as a virtual tribute. We will endeavour to, after a period, print the page out and present it to his family.
The recent attacks on Gaza by the Israeli state have brought some strange bedfellows out of the Irish woodwork, marching together in lock-step. Almost to a man, and woman, those who were vitriolic in opposition to the Irish Peace Process have been four-square behind the slaughter in Gaza. Eoghan Harris, Kevin Myers, Tom Carew, and Ruth Dudley Edwards - please take a bow.
For Edwards, Myers, Harris and Carew - Sinn Féin equals Hamas (or previously, Sinn Féin equals PLO, when the PLO were the international right’s bad guys) . It is good copy for right wing politics. Unfortunately for the Gaza warmongers, ignorance of strange sounding foreigners in far away places has been replaced by pictures of slaughter in every living room in the country. We can see who is suffering and who is killing. Israel’s Irish friends would like us to focus on Hamas rockets, the ones Hamas started firing again when Israel deliberately broke a ceasefire that was working, in order to provoke the rocket firing, in order to provoke an excuse for the slaughter. It’s not rocket science.
Below is a short but sharp report on the recent role they played in support of the Israeli Defence Forces, and how that role relates to their Irish politics.
Yesterday (January 22nd), Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin stated that it is "extraordinary" that gas from the Corrib field has not yet been brought onshore. Shell to Sea feels that what is really "extraordinary" is that the Government is still trying to force this experimental project through given the local community concerns regarding their health, safety and local environment.
Shell to Sea feel that the only way that this situation can be moved forward positively, is for Shell to halt their current operations in the area so that the Corrib debacle can be settled for once and for all. It is high time that the Government started taking the concerns of communities seriously and stops acting just in the interest of big business and banks.
In referring to the recent gas dispute between Russia and the Ukraine, Minister Martin failed to raise the most crucial point that this episode highlighted, which is that Russia has control of its gas supply, Ireland on the other hand doesn't and won't under the current terms.
Responding to Minister Martin's comments, Shell to Sea spokesperson Maura Harrington stated "Micheál Martin spoke of our need for energy security, but seeing as we will have to buy our own gas back from Shell, the real question is, in these dark economic times where is the 'security of finance' going to come from so that we can get 'security of supply'?".
Irish Artists Fire Back At The Israeli Embassy: 'World War III will be a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation."
- Marshall McLuhan
This video is made up of a list of the signatories of an open letter compiled to support the demand that the Israeli ambassador to Ireland be expelled 'until such time as there is a complete end to Israel's war on Gaza and its continued slaughter of the Palestinian people.'
The list is combined with Creative Commons footage from Gaza released onto the web by Al Jazeera. The Al Jazeera TV channel continues to update their Creative Commons page with more recent footage from Gaza.
It was projected onto the exterior of the Israeli embassy in Dublin on the evening of the 19th of January as a response to a 'PR attack' on Ireland by an Israeli Minister fresh over here from overseeing the slaughter in Gaza.
Those involved in the collection of signatories, the action at the Israeli embassy, and the production of the video would appreciate any efforts made by others who support this action to spread this video through their blogs, websites and online social networks.
Text of Letter
12-18 January 2009
We, the undersigned, are united in seeking the immediate expulsion of
the Israeli ambassador to Ireland, Dr Zion Evrony. We believe the
ambassador must leave Ireland until such time as there is a complete
end to Israel's war on Gaza and its continued slaughter of the
Palestinian people.
A New Strategy for the Irish Anti-War Movement? (upper and lower case.)
The Irish Peace and Neutrality Alliance has called on the newly inaugurated 44th President of the United States to respect international law with regard to Irish neutrality by taking steps to terminate the transit through Shannon airport of US troops, military material and CIA associated aircraft engaged in extraordinary rendition with immediate effect.
I was invited to Washington by the Cape Cod support group for Barack Obama, and through the good offices of Congressman William Delahunt of Massachusetts, to attend the celebrations surrounding the inauguration of Barack Obama as 44th President of the United States. Given the historic change of direction that this President is likely to initiate in many policy areas especially in the area of international peace, I decided to accept this invitation. However, my initial attempts to enter the US were frustrated by the US Homeland Security Department, who refused me permission to enter the US under the electronic system now being enforced since 12 Jan 2009.
While I received no explanation for this refusal, it became clear later that I am on a special list in Homeland Security due to my peace activist activities, particularly the fact that I played a role in exposing the CIA torture rendition programme that includes the use of Shannon airport by CIA rendition planes. I then had to apply for a visa, which is an expensive process, involving a visa application fee of €104, which in non-returnable even if the a visa is refused, and also requires a visit to the US embassy in Dublin for an interview. Even this visa application was initially unsuccessful as the US embassy in Dublin could not issue the visa on their own authority and had to refer the matter to the US State Department in Washington.....
35 comments (last - wednesday april 01, 2009 22:48)
