Urgent support needed for Irish POW Noel Maguire

Thanks, Na Claoimhte Solais !

From: Na Claoimhte Solais

Date: May 9, 2008 1:53 PM

A cairde

We have received word of yet another setback for Noel he had applied for transfer to another jail Whitemoor Prison in Cambridgeshire (much nearer London,and to his only visitor ) he was told he was granted the transfer and also told by an Irish embassy official he'd have his application 'fast-tracked' by them. Apparently this isn't happening. He has been informed now by the prison admin people in Full Sutton that his transfer could take up to a year. He's decided to go on protest and expects to be put in solitary next week as a punishment. Nothing is happening yet but next week seems to be when it's likely to be happening. I would ask that we all take a few miniutes to write to Noel at the address Noel Maguire, HMP Full Sutton, York. YO41-IPS, England. Expressing our support and letting him know that he is in our thoughts also below are ways of expressing your disgust at the treatment of this man.



We will keep everyone informed of developments but a thing to remember is Noel is isolated in an English jail being refused repatriation to his homeland, he is going through a really rough patch and feels he is being forced to fight back against the system that is constantly victimizing and putting him through untold mental anquish, so we must let him and those that are imprisoning him that he has some people that support him and will not stand by and let him be treated so inhumanly without a fight .



Write to Noel and show our support

Go raibh maith agaibh



Another Miscarriage of Justice by

Corrupt British System


Noel Maguire

At Noels Trial the Evidence against him ;

The prosecution declared today that there was no direct evidence that any of the three defendants had planted a bomb

Cell site information showed Maguire’s phone had been in the area of a yard in north London where the taxi used in the BBC bomb was bought.



His thumbprints were subsequently discovered on one of the bank notes handed over for the cab.




Repatriation

The right to be repatriated to the country of your citizenship to serve a prison sentence on humanitarian grounds as lay down by the European Directive.



A report by British Irish Rights Watch Committee on the Administration of Justice Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas concluded:

“Prisoners denied a transfer is deprived of contact with their families and their home communities, lessening their chances of successful reintegration on their release.

However, the people who suffer most from the failure to transfer prisoners are their families, who are prevented by the long distances involved, the cost of the journey,

And in some cases poor health, from visiting their relatives. Families visiting republican prisoners in England have sometimes arrived to find that their relative has been moved to another prison many miles away without their having been informed, a practice known as “ghosting”. Relatives have also been subjected to strip searches and been held under emergency laws when visiting their loved ones.

The UK government has consistently put its own political agenda before any humanitarian consideration or any notion of respect for fundamental human rights where the transfer of prisoners is concerned”

A knife attack on Noel last year by 2 inmates who have since been charged with attempted murder is an indication of the seriousness of the situation

Noel Maguire is the last remaining Irish political prisoner still incarcerated in an English jail.

All his co accused have been repatriated as was their rights as Irish Citizens

Reasons Noel should be repatriated:

• He is an Irish citizen and holds a valid Irish Passport, issued in
Dublin

• He easily qualifies for repatriation under the European directive,
Which allows prisoners to be moved back to their own country to
Serve their sentence closer to their family for purely humanitarian
Reasons. He has not seen his children in 6 Years.



• There was an attempt to murder Noel last year in which he received
Serious knife wounds.

If left alone and isolated his life would be
Constantly under threat!

• His physical and mental well being is in jeopardy if the Irish
Government refuses him the right to be brought home to serve his
Sentence in an Irish Jail

Contact this email Politicalstatus@AOL.com

Support Noel Maguire in his fight as an Irish Citizen to be repatriated on humanitarian ground

Noel is a native of Co Fermanagh although he has family and children who live in Ireland he is 36



====================================================================================================================



Urgent Appeal

A cairde

We are urging everyone, friends, members and concerned individuals to assist in our efforts to continue the pressure on the 26 County Government to Repatriate Noel Maguire from England to jails in the 26 counties as is his right.



The names and addresses and sample letter is below so you can use the sample letter provided, reword it or write your own.



Write or e-mail:


Brian Lenihan

Minister for Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform

Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform
94 St.

Stephen's Green
Dublin 2
Phone: + 353 1 602-8202

Email : pagemaster@justice.ie



Constituency Office

Laurel Lodge Shopping Centre
Dublin 15
Phone: + 353 1 822-0970



Addresses to send letters to Contact in USA


EMBASSY OF IRELAND, WASHINGTON DC

ADDRESS:
Embassy of Ireland
2234 Massachusetts Ave.

NW
Washington, DC 20008

TELEPHONE:
(202) 462 3939

FAX:
(202) 232 5993

==============================================================

CONSULATE GENERAL, NEW YORK

ADDRESS:
Consulate General of Ireland
Ireland House
345 Park Avenue
17th Floor
New York NY 10154-0037

TELEPHONE:
General Information - (212) 319 2555

FAX:
Consulate : - (212) 980 9475

E- MAIL:
congenny@AOL.com


==============================================================
CONSULATE GENERAL, CHICAGO
ADDRESS:
Consulate General of Ireland
400 N.

Michigan Avenue, Suite 911
Chicago, IL 60611

TELEPHONE:
(312) 337.

1868

FAX:
(312) 337 1954

E- MAIL:
irishconsulate@sbcglobal.net

==============================================================

CONSULATE GENERAL, SAN FRANCISCO

ADDRESS:
Consulate General of Ireland
100 Pine St.

, 33rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111

TELEPHONE:
(415) 392 4214

FAX:
(415) 392 0885

E- MAIL:
irishcgsf@earthlink.net


==============================================================

CONSULATE GENERAL OF IRELAND, BOSTON

ADDRESS:
Consulate General of Ireland
535 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116

TELEPHONE:
(617) 267 9330

FAX:
(617) 267 6375

E- MAIL:
irlcons@aol.com

==============================================================
Sample letter



Dear Sir

I write to you on behalf of the Noel Maguire as it concerns his repatriation back to Ireland from a British jail and your refusal to accept Noels application thus seemingly stripping him of his Irish Citizenship and the civil rights that are associated with it.



It is unconscionable that the Irish government continues to refuse to repatriate Noel. It is claimed that he has no close relatives living in the 26 counties, this is untrue as Noel's wife and their two children in fact live within an hour’s drive of Portlaoise Prison in Co Laois and are willing to visit him should he be repatriated. He also has two sisters and a brother in Ireland.



Noel Maguire - who is from Co Fermanagh but hold a valid 26 County passport more than qualifies for repatriation on the grounds of the European Directive as an Irish National.



His mental and physical health must be close to breaking point with the way he is being unfairly treated these continued delays which are tantamount to psychological torture.



On humanitarian grounds I ask that the decision to refuse repatriation be reconsidered and he can return home to serve his sentence and be closer to his family.



Please act now!

Thank you.



Is mise Le meas

"Your Name"

The 5th of May (from the Pensive Quill)

Go raibh maith agat, a TJ.

Aontaim leat a chara. Agus tá fáilte romhat.

The 5th of May is a solemn occasion in the republican calendar. Few republicans young or old would fail to instantly recognise it as the dateon which the leader of the H Blocks IRA, Bobby Sands, lost his life aftera 66 day hunger strike against the degenerate policies of a malign andmurderous British government. Those 66 days came back-to-back on a thousand plus days spent naked, locked in a cell as punishment forrefusing to wear prison uniform because to do so would have legitimised British state terror and criminalised republican opposition to it.

In the protest blocks brutality, every bit as much as boredom, was the tireless adversary endlessly gnawing away at the will to resist. The boredom Bobby Sands fought through prolific writing, and while he couldnever hope to halt it he also used his pen to highlight the brutality.

Apart from being, in the words of the late Denis Faul, the greatest prisonreformer of the last century, he was also one of the great bulwarks against censorship, flouting it with a pen refill and cigarette papers which he had to conceal inside a body cavity to foil the censors.

The lengths to which punitive vindictive thugs at all levels of the British penal administration exercised their minds in the search for new ways to inflict deprivation, has long forced me to ponder on what Hanna Arendt termed "the banality of evil."

Shortly before he died Bobby wrote:

There is a certain screw here who has taken it upon himself to harass me to the very end and in a very vindictive childish manner. It does not worry me, the harassment, but his attitude aggravates me occasionally. It is one thing to torture, but quite a different thing to exact enjoyment from it, that's his type.

That somebody as non-banal and prodigious in mind as this gifted and talented IRA leader should die surrounded by so many uniformed morons whose sole intellectual challenge consisted of agonising over whether to kick or punch a naked prisoner, is probably one of the greatest indictments of the British penal establishment in the last century.

Throughout the years of the blanket protest Bobby Sands played a pivotal role in leading the resistance. His day to day struggle on the blanket is finely documented in the biography by Denis O' Hearn. Also meticulously covered in that book is the death agony he underwent. One of the characters in "Gil Courtermanche" characters in Gil Courtermanche brill Kigali, philosophically mused that "dying was simply one of the things you did one day." Death on hunger strike was much less simple. Dying was not something to be done one day. In the case of Bobby Sands, the dying lasted for over two months. The narrative detailing the pain-wracked and prolonged dying does not make for pleasant reading.

Every year at this time those of us who were on the blanket protest, regardless of what political perspective we may hold today, reflect on the tremendous courage of Bobby and those who followed him to certain death.

This was not a death that came like a thief in the night, creeping up on the unsuspecting but one that was seen from a distance and met with an unwavering eye. Margaret Thatcher who displayed a venom all of her own when it came to republican prisoners challenging her writ admitted tohaving admiration for his courage.

Over the past three years there has been much public controversy about the hunger strike generated by the former republican prisoner Richard O'Rawe in his book Blanketmen. In spite of this, regardless of how the hunger strike was managed by the republican leadership, the fact that it evercame about was the direct consequence of an intransigent British government determined to criminalise a political armed struggle brought into being by its own criminal behaviour in the North. Had that government granted at the start of the hunger strike what it conceded at its end it is certain that the strike would never have taken place.

Today I took my children to a local park. On the way we stopped at amonument to all republican hunger strikers who died in the struggle against the British. My wife photographed us there. As they later laughed and played in the park, the words of Bobby Sands that our revenge wouldbe the laughter of our children played back and forth though my mind. 27 years ago it was all so different. Then there was nothing but suppressed tears and a hatred so burning there seemed nothing capable of dousing it. Time may have dulled the hatred but has done nothing to diminish the awesomeness of Bobby Sands epic victory over malevolence.
Is mise le meas,

Tj O Conchair

Irish Republican Socialist Movement

North American Coordinating Committee Member

Prison Welfare Officer

Larkin / Gallagher Cumann

PO Box 901479

Kansas City, Missouri

64190-1479 USA

Irish Republican Socialist Party

http://www.irsm.org/

The Starry Plough, newspaper of the IRSP

http://irsm.org/irsp/starryplough

Chicago Hunger Strike Commemoration Committee

http://www.wemustbeunited.com/

__._,_.___

May Day & The Palestinian Working Class Struggle(s)

From: AKTIVEYTOR

Date: May 7, 2008 9:03 AM

On May 1 (May Day) of every year, the Palestinian working class marches in its struggle for national liberation. Today, the Palestinian working class, an integral part of the working class of the world, stands steadfast in its struggle for freedom - despite living under siege and occupation, deprived of all rights, including the right to work and the right to seek employment.



(Young Palestinian woman dragged from her home, without warning, by Israeli troops, they had no warrant, and she had not committed any crime : her only crime was to be born a Palestinian on an occupied "territory". In this photo you'll notice that she is so distraught that she has urinated in her pants. But the Israeli troops don't care about this young Palestinian mother, they must punish this woman for being Palestinian ! And they call this "democracy" !! ??!! -- Rory Dubhdara)

The entire Palestinian people are subject to a collective punishment that not only deepens poverty and creates a crisis of unemployment but also continues the policy of the Zionist forces maintaining the Palestinian working class as a reserve army of labor.



Palestinian workers today are part of an ongoing and continuous struggle for liberation. This struggle, with Palestinian workers in the forefront, spans decades and centuries - from the factories in Haifa at the turn of the century and the early resistance to British colonialism, Palestinian workers have spurred the struggle for liberation onward. Palestinian workers in 1936 waged a historic general strike over a six-month period - the longest general strike in the world - as part of the revolt against British and Zionist colonialism.






Indeed, the Zionist movement has constantly attacked Palestinian labor and Palestinian workers, from the time of its inception. As Zionist colonialism spread in Palestine (in alliance with British colonialism) in the 1920s and 1930s, policies banning the hiring of Palestinian workers spread, at the same time that local Palestinian-owned small businesses were forced out of business by larger competitors, often Zionists - creating even more unemployment, in a deliberate attempt to impoverish and dispossess Palestinian workers in their own land. In addition, Palestinians under Jordanian rule were prevented from organizing labor unions by the Jordanian regime, and all attempts at labor organizing were ruthlessly suppressed.



These same types of attacks continue to this day, as siege and closure are used as weapons that first target Palestinian workers. Today, unemployment is once more a mechanism used against Palestinian workers in an attempt to separate them from their homeland. There is a 70% unemployment rate among university youth, and 50,000 unemployed university graduates, and 120,000 Palestinian workers without jobs. That number reached 200,000 after 3,900 factories were shut down out of the 4,000 factories operating, due to closure and siege.



At the same time that the oppression of Palestinian workers has always played a central role in Zionist colonialism and occupation, the Palestinian workers have always played a leading role in pushing the revolution forward and constantly building the resistance. Palestinian workers - and farmers and peasants - have always made up the main forces of the resistance, and Palestinian workers' and labor organizations have played a key role in resisting occupation. The role of the Palestinian working class in the first Intifada was key, as labor organizations and trade unions and worker-led committees played a key role in organizing and coordinating resistance and protest. General strikes and mass closures of stores and factories, among many other activities of the Intifada, were coordinated by the labor unions, with broad participation and leadership of Palestinian workers. The Palestinian labor movement has given dozens of martyrs and countless prisoners from its leadership, as Palestinian union leaders have always been targeted for assassination and imprisonment.





Within the occupied lands of 1948, the Histadrut, the Zionist so-called "trade union", played a key role as an agent of the zionist state rather than a workers' organization. The slogan of "Hebrew labor" has governed the activities of the Histadrut, which for decades excluded Palestinian and Arab workers from its membership. At its inception, the Histadrut placed as its key goal "conquering" Palestine for Jewish labor - away from Palestinian Arab labor. For years, the Histadrut collected dues from Palestinian workers while providing them with no services. When, in the Oslo period, the Histadrut finally agreed to pay the Palestinian union federation, the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, some compensation for the millions upon millions of dollars taken from Palestinian workers, the Histadrut soon abandoned its promise. The Histadrut has played an integral role as a part of the structure of the racist, colonial-settler state of Israel - rather than representing workers, it represents Zionist racism, and has, in fact, been an enemy of Palestinian workers. The role of the Histadrut has reflected that of the so called "Israeli left," a so-called left that is founded on the racist principles of Zionism and finds no accomodation, solidarity or space for the liberation of Palestinian workers.



In addition, the Palestinian trade union sector of today is corrupted. It must be rebuilt, fully and completely, on a democratic basis with full participation of all forces. Palestinian workers need a leadership and an organization that represents them and the valor and steadfastness of their struggle. In addition, the Palestinian Authority itself has deprived Palestinian workers of their rights - refusing to pay salaries and wages to many workers, including teachers, engineers and employees of the general public sector, in an attempt to exercise political control over the political activities of Palestinian workers. Indeed, the Prime Minister of the Ramallah government is none other than Salam Fayyad, a former representative of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. These organizations, known around the world for their anti-worker policies of forced corporatization and imposed "austerity," have, in Palestine, played the same role they have elsewhere, of fostering exploitation and imperialism. The World Bank has been key in developing a plan to create so-called "industrial zones," into which Palestinians, dispossessed of their land, would travel to work, in an environment geared toward foreign exploitation, rather than Palestinian economic development, and without trade unions or labor protection, in prison-like conditions, surrounded by the racist annexation wall.



Similar forces of repression have been arrayed against the Arab workers' movement on a national level. The rise of hunger and poverty in Egypt graphically illustrates the dreadful conditions of Arab workers. Iraqi workers, organizing under and against occupation, face the threat of military occupiers and a puppet government, and vast exploitation exists of international workers in the Gulf. At the same time, the movement of Egyptian workers for their rights, against hunger and poverty, is an inspirational symbol of the rise of a revitalized Arab workers' movement, as are the oil workers of Iraq, organizing and fighting despite occupation. Today, we salute all Arab workers in our common struggle against imperialism and exploitation. Arab wealth gained from oil resources can and should go to the workers who make such wealth possible, and to support the Palestinian cause - not to regimes and rulers who exploit Arab labor and seek to use the people's resources for their individual interests.



On an international level, there have been tremendous victories for the working class in recent years, despite the international balance of power heavily favoring U.S. imperialism. Throughout Latin America, for example, workers' and people's movements have moved towards throwing off the shackles of imperialism and exploitation.



This May Day, we call upon the workers of the world and the international labor movement to support Palestinian workers in our struggle for liberation. The solidarity of working class forces around the world, particularly the workers of the United States, is needed. The Histadrut, a racist arm of the Zionist state that has done nothing but aid in the exploitation of Palestinian workers, should be boycotted and unwelcome at all labor functions. Israel Bonds are not a fit investment for a labor organization - they are an investment in a racist, colonial state. The U.S. labor unions hold billions of dollars in such bonds; now is the time to divest from Israel Bonds and make it clear that racism is the common enemy of all workers, around the world.



In addition, the labor unions of Europe have key roles to play in fostering solidarity with Palestinian workers. The ruling class in Europe, the U.S. and Canada support Israel - the organizations of workers can and should take their role in supporting the struggle of Palestinian workers for liberation and against racism and colonialism. Indeed, there have been promising and important developments, and we salute the workers and workers organizations that have taken part in the growing movement to demand the full international isolation of Israel, including economic boycott. Most recently, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers passed an important resolution at their most recent conference urging boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel because of its denial of Palestinian rights, including the right of Palestinian refugees to return, and including its repression against Palestinian workers, including postal workers who daily must brave numerous checkpoints merely to deliver the mail. Such initiatives are important and should be widely replicated by the international labor movement.



Today, the PFLP is calling upon the Palestinian left and Arab left to unify our forces into one working-class front. This is a historical moment for the left, and it is critical that we rise to our responsibility in defending the working class, and we are committed to working toward that end. Any victory for the Arab working class - and the international working class - shall immediately impact the Palestinian working class.





On May Day 2008, one hundred and twenty-two years after the first workers marched on May 1 through the streets of Chicago to demand an eight-hour workday and justice for our class, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine salutes the workers of Palestine, the Arab nation, and the world, in our common struggle against exploitation and oppression, to break the chains of Zionism and imperialism.



Victory to the workers of the world!

Por El Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

Who's Uncle is Really Crazy ? Political Prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal Answers the International Question

Who's Uncle is Really Crazy?
[col. writ. 5/1/08 (c) '08 Mumia Abu-Jamal



When conservative hit-shows first began raising questions about Barack Obama's former pastor, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, the Democratic candidate essentially played down the relationship, suggesting that Wright was like the 'crazy uncle' common to many families.

Due to the pressure of the 24 hour news cycle, we have come a long way from there, to here.

While Sen. Obama no longer refers to him in this way, it's more than worthwhile to examine just what the Rev. Wright did say, which set off the belfry of mad bats who hold forth from the dark universe of right wing radio and TV commentators.

Among the Rev. Wright's "controversial" comments were these:

"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye... and now we are indignant, because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own front yards. America's chickens have come home to roost... Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred. And terrorism begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that y'all, not a black militant... An ambassador whose eyes are wide open and who is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised..."

Rev. Wright's words on how America has treated her darker citizens were also termed "controversial. " These are some of them:

"And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her citizens of Indian descent fairly, she failed. She put them on reservations. when it came to treating her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, she failed. She put them in internment prison camps. When it came to treating her citizens of African descent fairly, America failed. She put them in chains, the government put them on auction blocks, put them in cotton fields, put them in inferior schools, put them in substandard housing, put them in scientific experiments, put them in the lowest paying jobs, and put them outside the equal protection of the law, kept them out of their racist bastions of higher education and locked them into positions of hopelessness and helplessness. The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, not God Bless America. God damn America-that' s in the Bible - for killing innocent people."

On the role of the U.S. government overseas, Wright preached the following:

"Governments lie. The government lied about the Tuskegee experiment.. . The government lied about bombing Cambodia...The government lied about the drugs for arms Contra scheme orchestrated by Oliver North... The government lied about a connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein and a connection between 9-11-01 and operation Iraqi Freedom. Governments lie."

I don't know about you, but I've not heard one statement that isn't categorically, historically, and absolutely true. As my good country buddy, Bro. Willie might ask, "What the problem is?"

Obama's response, served up to placate the fascistic right, sounded like an apology: "I reject outright statements by Reverend Wright that are at issue."

The problem isn't that Rev. Wright was crazy, but that he spoke the cold, sober truth. That's the problem.

The US nationalists demand that anyone who states such truths be 'denounced.'

When will a candidate emerge who will denounce imperialism, and the endless ruinous wars against much of the Third World, for the profit of corporations here?

If this election is any measure, no time soon.

Who's uncle is really crazy? Uncle Jeremiah or Uncle Sam?


--(c) '08 maj