UPDATE: ALL CHARGES DROPPED IN COURT TODAY 27/1/05

"Our politicians should be reminded that the killing of one Iraqi person is as much a crime as the killing of Jean McConville"

The 27th January 2005 is the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. A minority of German people, and others, perpetrated the Holocaust but the majority contributed indirectly by their silence. Since 20 March 2004, over 100,000 innocent Iraqis have been killed in an illegal war. The people of Ireland have been complicit in these deaths because we allowed the US military to use Shannon Airport, as a vital part of its war logistics.

On the 27th January 2005, the Shannon boat people, Edward Horgan, Aron Baker and Eibhlin ni Hir, go on trial in Ennis Co Clare, for protesting against this illegal use of Shannon airport. They were arrested during the Bush visit in June 2004, in a small rowing-boat, while peacefully protesting on the river Shannon. They could face a large fine or imprisonment. It took the combined forces of the Irish Navy, the Gardai, the Irish Air Corps, the Shannon Foynes Harbour Authority, with a US warship standing off Irish territorial waters, to arrest this fearsome trio, who were armed with a protest sign saying "Bush Go Home".

This protest was their way of breaking the silence of complicity. Please help publicise the ongoing abuse of Shannon airport, and the killing of innocents in Iraq, by contacting your local media, politicians, and other contacts. During 2004, 158,549 heavily armed US troops passed through Shannon airport, on their way to the war and occupation of Iraq, and we allowed this to happen. It was the likes of this that made the Holocaust possible.

We three appreciate your support, but it is not we who need support, it is the people of Iraq. They also need your peaceful actions to deny Shannon Airport to US troops and munitions. Our politicians should be reminded that the killing of one Iraqi person is as much a crime as the killing of Jean McConville. The killing of 100,000 Iraqis is 100,000 crimes against humanity.

Edward Horgan.

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Funding for the Community Workers Co-Operative (CWC) has been withdrawn. In a brazen and cynical move by Ministers Eamonmn O Cuiv and Noel Ahern, the coalition government have moved into an even more extreme right wing position by silencing this alternative voice which has distinguished itself with its honest and direct analysis of Irish social and economic issues, from a community development perspective.

The Community Workers Co-Operative was founded in the early 1980s by a group of community activists supported by academics who were committed to social change, and who saw little evidence of government commitment to tackle poverty and inequality. This writer joined the organisation at a time when Ireland's action against poverty and inequality had been marked by the first Combat Poverty Programme. Older readers will remember how these projects were dotted around Ireland, and how they challenged local and national structures and practices which perpetuated powerlessness.