Giordan
Thirty years after his death, Bobby Sands' MUGGING "FROM THE RIGHT?
Spooky those of Belfast and Derry in the second half of last century, raids, arbitrary arrests, discrimination apartheid, extrajudicial executions and death squads. With "The Diary of Bobby Sands - the story of an Irish boy (Castelvecchi ed) it fills a gap. With three authors, Silvia Calamati writer, Laurence McKeown Former prisoner and the journalist Denis O'Hearn, icons of revolutionary Hunger Strikers meet their human dimension, historical and social. Products emerge from a common proletarian condition. Young workers, often unemployed, forced to leave school in their teens, victims increasingly aware of an economic system in Ireland which was manifested in its colonial form . For them, the British government moved with the logic of annihilation. The goal, far beyond law enforcement, was to break the spirit of the prisoners. Subdue, them fall into line. Political and social isolation if they did not give up. No alternative for the prisoners. Capitulate or resist. Sands and others chose a form of resistance that derives from the traditions Gaelic, a hunger strike to the bitter end. Although, as explained to me many years ago Domhnall De Brun, who teaches Gaelic in Derry (the son of a libertarian and internationalist Irish volunteers in Spain against Franco's regime), one of the prisoners of Block H "rather than a traditional reference to the law, is a political act in a collective process of liberation. " The introduction of internment without a time limit in 1971, and in 1976 was withdrawn from the status of political prisoners. Since then the Republicans were arrested in segregated blocks H. In 1978, seeing the state of degradation in which they lived, the archbishop Tomas O'Fiaich declared that " leaving aside the human being, it is difficult to leave an animal to live in such conditions." On October 27, 1980 began a hunger strike, after a break in December, will resume in March 1981.
Bobby Sands died on May 5. After a week, May 12, is the time of Francis Hughes. Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara died May 21. Between July and August of 1981, the same fate will befall other six prisoners: Joe Mc Donnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McIlwee, Mick Devine. seven hunger strikers belonged all'Irish Republican Army (IRA), the other three all'Irish Liberat National Army (INLA).
One of the three authors of the book "The Diary of Bobby Sands " Laurence Mc Keown, was a prisoner in hell for sixteen years in Long Kesh. Destined to become the eleventh victim, his hunger strike stopped the seventieth day, when it was already in coma. The family agreed to do it artificially food because the British government had hinted that the prisoners' demands were accepted.
In 1994 I interviewed him during a meeting held in Vicenza from the "International League the Rights and Liberation of Peoples "(Fondazione Lelio Basso). had explained that "it would be virtually impossible to understand why we have come to this decision without knowing what had happened in Long Kesh in the previous five years. The conditions of the prisoners were brutal, and no form of protest seemed to be able to modify them. See with our own eyes the harsh repression suffered by the prisoners did nothing but reinforce our beliefs. Since the British government tried in every way to criminalize them, make them look like common criminals " had to rebel to prove that our choices and our actions were political, not criminal." A decision that was certainly not taken lightly. "As for me - had concluded - I was well aware that this strike would be carried to extremes. Putting our name on the list of volunteers did not know when our turn would come, who would die and who would survive ...".
As for Jan Palach Prague (1968) and Barcelona for Salvador Puig Antich (1974), so the Catholic neighborhoods of Belfast more than usual livid with anger greeted the news of the death of Bobby Sands. The indignation was manifested in many parts of Europe and the world, from Bilbao to Beirut, from Barcelona to Rome. In Italy to protest outside the British embassy was especially the extra-parliamentary left, the "autonomous" continuous struggle for communism ...
But who remembers the time her eyes were also letters and posters Third Position (TP), praising the example of Ireland and signed with the rune "wolf tooth" (or "node runes"). An attempt of the "new right" to appropriate the national liberation struggle of the Irish people. Some neo-fascists were arrested in house posters and newspapers Republicans ("An Phoblacth " ) and books about Bobby Sands. If you do not schizophrenia, was at least ideological confusion, since in hiding British were aided by elements of National Front (far-right racist party) known to be deployed with the teams "loyalist" Protestant-filoinglesi, the ones that are periodically made responsible for sectarian killings (Catholics murdered as such, regardless of their politics). In a good relationship with the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary , local police) which provided lists of suspected militants to kill Republicans. The links between the far-right British (as well as Nf, the British National Party , Greater the British Movement, the League of St. George and the infamous C18) and the right of Ulster Protestant emerged dramatically in Dublin February 15, 1995 during a friendly between the national soccer in England and Ireland. The match took place between Nazi salutes, slogans against the IRA and chants against the peace agreements, throwing of objects at the Irish public and violent clashes. Budget: fifty wounded and the death of an Irish fan. It turned out that many hooligans , the British fans more frantic, they were part of the neo-Nazi organizations (in particular C18, where C stands for Combat while the number indicates the first and eighth letter of the alphabet, the initials of Adolf Hitler). On the same occasion were confirmed links between these organizations and the extreme right-wing Protestant Northern Ireland. Groups such as the 'Ulster Volunteer Force who was photographing the celebrations with Flemish and French neo-Nazis, those Ordre Nouveau. recognizable because they used the so-called (three times when the approach of the so-called bundles) "Celtic cross". In reality, the symbol (referred to as "Celtic" only in recent times, not at the origin) is reminiscent of a rune (though the neo-fascist rule it out) and was used by French collaborators during World War II. Perhaps it would be more correct to call it "cross circled SS French." When it was
adopted by the youth Front (FDG) in the seventies, knowing full well what was the reference, came the "scolded" by Almirante. Evidently the author of "Memoirs of a gun" had caught the call neo-Nazi, and feared for his policy of politically correct double-breasted. Nothing to do anyway with the true Celtic cross towering over the ancient tombs in Ireland (the historical ones that express a Gaelic syncretism between Christianity and religion) and also on the graves of many IRA and INLA volunteers who died in combat.
willing to learn, in Italy the "cross circled the SS France" had already been adopted in the early sixties by Young Europe (formerly Young Nation), the Italian branch of the movement Jeune Europe (formerly Jeune Nation ) founded by Jean Thiriart who had fought in the Waffen-SS (and who said he had chosen this symbol of recognition because "it was easy to draw on the walls "). This movement, in 1963, joined a group of Florentine MSI (including: Attilio Mordini, Franco Cardini, Marco Bersacchi, Amerino Griffin ...) and some ex-ordinovista (Massimo Marletta ...). In what seems a fit of self-review, one of the founders claimed that it was to "get away from the gloomy neo-fascist and neo-Nazi symbols and bellicose" (... and thus we take a symbol of waffen.ss ?!?). It 'much more likely to be a way to reclaim those origins, that they belong, without suspicious public opinion ( camouflage) and at the same time wink to the initiated. From young to remember that Europe was characterized by an ambiguous "equidistance" between the U.S. and the USSR (third?) Who knew a lot of "intoxication." Among the scholars of the symbol must also be underlined Claudio Mutti and Adriano Romualdi. For Amerino Griffin was hoisted above the symbol from the National Youth Training Italic, always right, ca va sans dire . Around 1975 was adopted by youth organizations hagfishes (FDG Fuan) while a few years earlier (apparently in 1970) had proposed the rautiani within the MSI with the addition of a tricolor flame in the background. Say, how does Alemanno, is a reminder that Christian love seems a little risky.
Cardini suggested a link with the "France" stylized Parties populaire francais (PPF) by Jacques Doriot. By the dumb, the historian pretends to ignore that Francisque version ax, blades and handles made from tricolor baton of marshal (Petain to, of course) was chosen as the emblem of the collaborationist Vichy regime. The intention, perhaps, should have recalled the iconography of Mussolini's fasces. And it certainly was not adopted as the logo for the event by the New Order, the Italian, while their French counterparts ( Ordre Nouveau ) used, as mentioned above, the "cross circled the SS France." For lovers of history, it should be noted that the "France" was dark by the launch of West Germany (basically a big tomahawk ), introduced in Gaul by the Franks (so named, apparently, by the name of the weapon and not vice versa), hence the name of France. Notwithstanding that the Franks were "Germans" and not "Celts", as the roosters. While, as is historically proven, the true Celtic crosses are a witness to the peaceful spread of Christianity among the Irish population, the Charlemagne is remembered for having wiped out the Saxons in order not to want to convert to Christianity. And that was an overlook on Roncesvalles sacrosanct retaliation to the looting of the Basques of Pamplona operated by the Franks. Other than "defenders" of Christianity against the Muslims (who were just not at Roncesvalles). But that's another story.
Coming Cardini, the historian of Florence, his goodness, he admits, "a sentimental bond with the French literary fascism, but - minimize - this is one to which he joined Pierre Drieu la Rochelle , very close to the extreme Left (emphasis added, author's note). Surely maquisards would think otherwise. In October 1941, together with Brasillach, Chardonne, Jouhandeau and other French writers, Drieu la Rochelle accepted the invitation of Goebbels and took part in a "Congress of the European intellectuals" in Germany. The trip and the conference was an opportunity to visit the Reich Chancellery and start that journey of collaboration that ultimately cost him dear.
To stay in the land of Vercingétorix, Saint-Just, Marius Jacob Alexander ... and thinking of the period of French history mentioned by Cardini, my references would be others. For example, " 50 Otages ", shot on October 22, 1941 (after refusing to be blindfolded) to " champ de tir du Bele " (Nantes), in the hollow of the Sable and the Mont-Valerian (Paris), in retaliation for 'killing of the German Karl Hotz Feldkommandant in Nantes. Also on the Mont-Valerian April 17, 1942 were shot 23 more resistant than "bataillons de la Jeunesse, all young communists. Their partner, Simone Schloss , as a woman was beheaded instead. And I also remember Victor Basch, president of "Ligue des droits de l'homme", President the "Comité pour le Rassemblement populaire" ( that gave rise to the "Front Populaire" ), jew and "franc-macon". A summary of all that the servants of the Nazis hated the most. He was assassinated with his wife Jan. 10, 1944 by a collaborationist militia, Lécussan.
Historically discussed symbol (the "cross circled the SS France) was used in 1944 as a show special for French volunteers in the Waffen-SS division of the future Charlemagne. Chosen, apparently, as "imperial symbol, first used by Constantine and later by Charlemagne. So source or Roman or Germanic (Not Celtic), however good for the Third Reich!
was adopted by the "Flak Company, a unit of Charlemagne when it was still a brigade. The Flack was used in Monaco and in the air defense Charlemagne fought in Berlin around Hitler's bunker. A want to be picky in this case is not the symbol as such to be robbed, but his name. Calling it "Celtic" is a disguise its true origin, as well as an offense in respect of the Celts. Good people, all things considered (taking account of the historical epoch), however, that opposed Roman imperialism. It is not their fault then if four idiots in green shirt have exhumed them for a project that you can say everything, but not sure that has something to do with self-determination of peoples. Much less with the release.
Who chose that symbol (the "cross circled the SS France, mistakenly called" Celtic ") knew what it represented! With the historical precedent of Charlemagne, appears immediately after the war became clear why the preferred emblem of French neo-Nazi and neo-fascist organizations. A former member of the Charlemagne, René Binet (publisher of The Bulletin combattant européen that referred explicitly to that of French volunteers in SS and overtly racist texts as Théorie du racisme and Contribution à une éthique Racist ) the exhumed to identify some of the movements gradually founded. In 1946, the Parties Republicain d'union populaire and then the ambiguous (in the name) Mouvement Socialist francaise d'unité dissolved in 1949 for "incitement to racist violence." In the same year became the logo of Jeune Nation. Founded by brothers Sidos, JN advocated a totalitarian state inspired fascism and was known for his expeditions squads against the premises of the Left parties. In the fifties represented the culmination of many veterans of the war Indochina. Was dissolved by the government in 1958 after an attack on the National Assembly. The symbol was also used in Belgium by the PNF. In France it was taken over by the Parties Nationality formed in 1958 by veterans of JN and later by the Front de l'Algerie francaise and the Front National pour l'Algerie francaise under the guidance of Jean-Marie Le Pen. Most members will come later in the 'Organisation de l'Armee secrète (OAS), the organization of the pieds-noirs , the French settlers in Algeria. The terrorist group opposed to decolonization, was founded in Madrid in 1961 by Jean-Jacques and Pierre Lagaillarde Plums. Will go down in history, among other misdeeds, the of Algiers putsch (see General Salan). Each path from the oasis slogan on the walls of Algiers was regularly accompanied by the "cross circled the SS France." Because of the attacks Oasis, between May and September 1961 and September 1962, about 2,700 people were killed, of which 2400 were Algerians. From a rib was born in Lisbon on Oasis' Aginter Press who worked mainly in Africa by sending mercenaries, fascists (French, Belgian, Italian ...) and secret agents (Portuguese and U.S.) in Congo, Angola and Namibia ( where South Africa had introduced apartheid) against the liberation struggles. L ' Aginter Press then played a significant role in the "strategy of tension" that has bloodied Italy, Piazza Fontana on. Meanwhile, the controversial hex symbol was inherited from Ordre Nouveau.
be noted that sometimes in the manifestations of Fn have reappeared other symbols included in the white circle of the red flag (the same as the Nazi swastika in part, and that of the racist South African swastika with three arms). In addition to the so-called (three times so-called) "Celtic cross" were exhumed the rune "wolf teeth" (wolf sangel ) already used by Tp and the one adopted by National Vanguard (organization Stefano Delle Chiaie). A rune identical to that of AN, but reversed with the points upward, identified Rassemblement national populaire (RNP) of Marcel Deat (shot after the Liberation), which, together with francais populist party of Jacques Doriot ( see hinges on the observation of "France"), formed in August 1941, Légion des volontaires francais contre le bolchevisme to send French soldiers on the Eastern Front alongside the Nazis. As I mentioned, the double ax taken from our "New Order" (to Rauti, Signorelli, Concutelli, ...) was a symbol of French collaboration, although ordinovisti tried to ennoble it with references to the ancient civilization of Crete. Virtually identical to that of Marshal Petain and the Vichy collaborators. Probably prohibited the use of the swastika and the beam, the nostalgic nostrani resorted to a form of mimicry, borrowing the symbolism of their comrades across the Alps. The origin of this import should be sought precisely in the relationship between Italian fascism and certain groups of the French right (as well as Jeune Europe also Lutte du Peuple ) specializing in the work of "intoxication" to the left of using the card 'anti-imperialism and national liberation (not bad for people who had collaborated with the OAS!). According to write concerned, members of Jeune Europe would go to Lebanon to fight with the PLO. Instead, as we know, the Italian fascists (not just those of the NAR) sided with al-Kataeb (the Falange), the party of the right-wing Maronite, founded in 1936 by Pierre Gemayel after his return from a trip in Germany Nazi. According to Stuart Christie (Chiaia Stefano - Portrait of a black terrorist ") would take part in actions against the Palestinians (it is said Walter Sordi). In the chapter dedicated to Alessandro Alibrandi, Mario Caprara and Gianluca Semprini ( extreme Right and criminal " 2009) reported an interview with Panorama Signorelli, who died recently. According to Signorelli, "the brave Italian comrades helped Gemayel's militia fighting alongside them in the battle of Tel Znatar.
It 'possible that the two authors have done a bit' of confusion. This is probably the events in Tel al-Zaatar ( in Christian sector of Beirut) that date back to August 12, 1976. At the time of Syria's military intervention in Lebanon (in favor of the Falange) Alibrandi was still in Italy. However, more of a battle that we should speak of the siege (which lasted 52 days) and a brutal massacre. Even in against the wounded, despite the intervention of the Red Cross. Tel al-Zaatar in the Syrian army (entered Lebanon in June 1976) he behaved exactly like the Israeli Sabra and Shatila, with a role in coverage and support for the Maronite militia which touched the dirty work: slaughter unarmed refugees fleeing . Remains uncertainty about the exact number of victims, from 1500 to 3000.
Together with the Italian neo-fascists, the French Gaj ( Groupes d'Action Jeunesse ), Spain's Fuerza Joven , the Flemish Vlaams Militantenorde (VMO) and the German extreme right-wing organization of Karl Heinz Hoffman. From the Palestinians, militants Basque and Irish, presumably linked to ETA and IRA. Some were captured during Operation Peace for Galilee, and delivered to the Crown. It 'is well known that many Irish republicans had fought in the International Brigades during the English Civil War. Some of them are commemorated in the plaque for the fallen of the Battle of Brunete (8-9 July 1938). Others at the memorial on the island of Achill, Ireland. There is also a plaque to Tommy Patten, who died in Madrid in late 1936 near the place where a few days before, had been killed Buenaventura Durruti.
few Irish would have been eliminated by the Stalinists. In May 1937, for denouncing the interference of GPU, Verschoyle Gould was kidnapped and transported by sea to Leningrad. He would die in 1945 in Karaganda, where he had been deported during an escape attempt. Less well known that at the end of World War II, the Irish Republican Army has trained militarily against the British Jews came to Palestine after having escaped the Holocaust.
This must be said to resize an entity, oversized from the right, on the relationship (in key anti-British) conversations between Republicans and some elements of the German secret service during the Second World War. Two militants of the IRA who fought with the International Brigades, after being captured by Franco, would have been returned thanks to the German (perhaps with a submarine). Some actions of the IRA in London during the "Battle of Britain" have fueled speculation of a possible collaboration with Germany.
That in some way to apply for accreditation against national liberation struggles for self-determination and was, periodically, an obsession of the far right (from On a Tp, to "new force"). But generally poorly paid. Interviewed again in 1985 Bernadette Devlin , I asked what he thought of the sympathy shown by so-called "radical right" for the Irish cause. Lapidary response: "Sure sympathies are one-way. " All this is past tense now, purely academic to the survivors, if he did not return current at the time of the official presentation of the book of Calama, and O'Hearn McKeawn under the banner, indeed, the European Parliament. To do the honors, the current vice-president of the European Parliament, Roberta Angelilli , an early supporter of youth in Tp, then secretary of the Youth Front , MEP An since 1994. But, also, a friend of quell'Andrea Insabato in December 2000 was wounded in the explosion of his bomb in front of the editorial staff of the Manifesto, on the steps of former headquarters in Via Tomacelli.
the older comrades remembered a similar episode dell'aprile1973. In the toilet of the train, the sanbabilino Nico Azzi (double militancy, MSI and "La Fenice" Rognoni, a subsidiary of Milan On) detonated a bomb between his legs. Not until they have made extensive note with Fighting continues in hand in the various compartments. At his funeral in 2007 in St. Ambrose of Milan, the delegation of Forza Nuova and the family Larussa.
In his biography (written between Regina Coeli and the Gemelli Hospital after the attack) Insabato Roberta Angelilli remembered as his "biggest fan of all hearings " in the processes that saw him charged as an exponent of Tp. The Angelilli
is known to have attacked the heavily partisan calling them "murderers", in particular those belonging to the Gap of Rome Carla Capponi and Rosario Bentivegna. As is clear from the book of Caldiron "The right plural" , also Angelilli (not just Alemanno) is wearing the "cross circled the SS France", but silver. Noblesse oblige. All'Angelilli addition, in his memorial Insabato quoted his friends Morse (co-founder of Forza Nuova) Rauti, Gasparri, Bontempo ...
A curious coincidence (just a coincidence, nothing "synchronic"). The attack on the poster was directed in particular against Stefano Chiarini who took care of the Palestinian issue and with whom Insabato had tried to get in touch. Previously Chiarini had devoted himself to Ireland, both as editor and as a journalist. The Publishing House has published his Shrimp " Streets of Belfast" Gerry Adams and a few novels ("The second prison ) by Ronan Bennett, a former Republican political prisoner.
addition to having published the "Communist daily" dozens of articles on the Irish question, he had collaborated on a file ("The truth first victim," Supplement No. 1 of "The Rights of Peoples", 1985) on violations of human rights in Northern Ireland. Together with John Palumbo, and John Silvia Bianconi Calamati, author of Diary of Bobby Sands - the story of an Irish boy .
After careful investigation, he also had to recognize that many leftists (especially anarchists and trotzchisti) of the Irish question do not give much. Someone claimed that we are facing a further confirmation of the nature "objectively reactionary nationalism." Even when it comes to national liberation.
The fact remains that the story of Sands has assumed a larger value, in time becoming a witness against the special prisons, against torture, against the emergency legislation. A "cry against injustice," as well as popular resistance, in all its various forms, in class neighborhoods of Belfast and Derry, the Bogside in Falls Road, between the sixties and nineties. Some national liberation struggles (Ireland, Basque, Catalans Paisos ... just to stay in Europe) expressed, for better or worse, a strong desire for social liberation, sometimes radical environmental defense (in Corsica).
The right has tried to appropriate (see ordinovista former case, now the League, through its interventions Borghezio, unsolicited, on the Basque issue) as well as they did with the struggles against nuclear power and against globalization, ecology and, more recently, with the liberation Animal and Isa. Legitimate want to "keep their distance from these Catholic nationalists and a bit 'bigots' (as I said a companion.) However, in my opinion, should also be able to recognize, in addition to folklore, a method (style?) infiltration reminiscent of the sixties. O above the "free corps" in Germany after the war.
Today it's up to Bobby Sands, Alemanno as he tries again with Che Guevara. Tomorrow someone could groped to "recover" from the right Barry Horne (and perhaps in the north-east are already doing), animal rights and anarchist, who died ten years ago in prison for the consequences of certain hunger strikes against vivisection . He, like Bobby Sands and Patsy O'Hara "died because others were free."
Let me be clear. We are in a democracy (although certainly not on the fascists) and, as I'm concerned, everyone is free to use the symbols they want. But without ambiguity and calling a spade a spade. Bobby Sands was still one left, a companion. His references, in addition to Connolly and Pearse were Che Guevara, Malcolm X and George Jackson (one of the Soledad Brothers ), the anti-Franco Basque, like Txiki and Otaegi shot in 1975. Certainly not Codreanu or Degrelle. I will say more. I can not rule out that someone in good faith when he expresses admiration for the hunger strikers . If that really moves some militant anti-imperialism was right, love for justice and freedom, respect for the liberation struggles of the oppressed (of all the oppressed, of course) could make an examination of conscience , free from the ideas of totalitarian and authoritarian (which, for heaven's sake, there also were left, Stalin docet and is not the only) way to find out then maybe it can not be fascists.
In 2011 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the death of the ten hunger strikers . I would not have to witness the participation of neo-fascists and neo-Nazi march planned for commemorations to Belfast to remember. After the official presentation of the book " The Diary of Bobby Sands - the story of an Irish boy " (which is still an excellent book) by Roberta Angelilli, anything is possible. No doubt the good faith of the three authors, but perhaps someone should inform the Irish left.
Gianni Sartori
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