Irlande du Nord

[un chien ardent]

Comme chaque année, les très réactionnaires petits blancs du KKK d'Ulster paradent... comme chaque année, les habitants républicains des quartiers "catholiques" résistent.
Et la PSNI reste la RUC... ça se passe à Ardoyne



vu à la TV
et du ciel

[sylvestre]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hb5O0j1GXNmxSd-v_oNHtCCtyCiQ

Violentes émeutes à Belfast en marge des parades orangistes

De Eamonn MALLIE (AFP) – 13 juil. 2010

BELFAST (Royaume-Uni) — Des émeutes survenues lors des marches orangistes protestantes à Belfast, qui sont régulièrement l'occasion de protestations de la part de la communauté catholique, ont fait 55 blessés dans les rangs de la police, en 48 heures.

Après des premiers incidents dimanche, qui ont blessé 27 policiers, 28 autres ont été blessés lundi soir au cours de violences dans le nord de Belfast, dont une policière grièvement.

Des militants catholiques, accompagnés de nombreux jeunes, ont jeté des cocktails molotov, des morceaux de parpaings en béton et des bouteilles vers les protestants membres des ordres orangistes qui défilaient accompagnés d'une escorte de police dans le quartier d'Ardoyne, au nord de Belfast.

La police nord-irlandaise, qui a dénoncé des "violences récréatives" de la part de groupes de jeunes, a diffusé des images de caméras de surveillance montrant des manifestants frappant les boucliers des policiers à coup de barre de fer, tandis que des véhicules ont été brûlés.

La police a riposté par des balles en caoutchouc et des canons à eau. Les policiers avaient délogé plus tôt des manifestants assis sur la route en protestation contre la marche.

Une policière, victime selon des témoins d'une "agression brutale", a été hospitalisée, souffrant d'"importantes blessures", selon la police.

Une journaliste de la télévision locale UTV, Sharon O'Neill, a raconté qu'une grosse pierre avait été lâchée sur la tête de la policière: "Tandis qu'elle gisait à terre et que ses collègues arrivaient pour l'aider, les émeutiers jetaient tout ce qu'ils pouvaient trouver".

"Les dernières 24 heures ont été très difficiles pour la police en Irlande du Nord", a déclaré Alistair Finlay, commissaire adjoint de la PSNI mardi sur la radio BBC Four.

Il a critiqué lors de cette interview le silence des responsables politiques de la province britannique, le Premier ministre nord-irlandais protestant Peter Robinson et le numéro deux de l'exécutif, le catholique Martin McGuinness.

"Je n'ai pas eu d'appel de leur part avant les évènements, et où sont-ils aujourd'hui pour évoquer ensemble de ce qui s'est passé?", a-t-il demandé.

Un avocat membre du Sinn Fein, parti républicain catholique rallié au processus de paix, Gerry Kelly a condamné ces violences. "Les émeutes dont nous avons été témoins ce soir sont une erreur, elles sont contre-productives et n'auraient pas dû avoir lieu", a-t-il estimé, accusant des militants républicains dissidents de vouloir torpiller le processus de paix.

Le député local Jimmy Spratt, membre du parti protestant DUP, a souligné que ces violences avaient été "orchestrées par un petit nombre de personnes".

"Je pense que beaucoup de progrès ont été réalisés, par rapport aux violences constatées ces dernières années", a-t-il nuancé.

Le 12 juillet marque le point culminant des marches annuelles en Irlande du Nord. A cette occasion, les protestants des ordres orangistes défilent pour commémorer la bataille de la Boyne de 1690, qui consacre la victoire du roi protestant Guillaume d'Orange sur le catholique Jacques II.

Ces parades sont régulièrement l'occasion de tensions entre les communautés protestantes et catholiques et dégénèrent parfois.

La province britannique d'Ulster a connu une trentaine d'années de violences entre séparatistes catholiques et loyalistes protestants, qui ont fait plus de 3.500 morts et ont pris fin avec l'accord dit du vendredi saint d'avril 1998.

Ultime étape de l'application totale de l'accord, les pouvoirs de justice et de police ont été transférés de Londres à Belfast le 12 avril. La province nord-irlandaise connaît néanmoins encore des violences sporadiques.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. Tous droits réservés. Plus »

Related articles

• Violentes émeutes à Belfast en marge des parades orangistes
  AFP - 13 juil. 2010
• Irlande du Nord : une parade orangiste tourne à l'émeute à Belfast
  Guide Irlande.com - 13 juil. 2010
• Emeutes à Belfast
  euronews - 12 juil. 2010

[un chien ardent]

http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest160710.html

16/07/10

Since Monday night’s Orange Order incursion, the residents of
Ardoyne and those who support their right to live free from sectarian
harassment have come under sustained attack from the British government,
the PSNI, organs of the Six County state, the corporate media and some
political parties who should know better.

According to the narrative constructed by these bodies, what
happened in Ardoyne was an orgy of violence ignited by irresponsible
outsiders who called people onto the streets to suit their own twisted
ends. The narrative is a familiar one: it is one that was used against
the residents of the Ormeau and Garvaghy roads, Derry and elsewhere in
the 1990s, it is a tactic that has been used against the people of
Ardoyne for over a decade.

What the people purveying this propaganda in an attempt to
obscure the truth from the wider population ignore are some very simple
facts:

1. In the run up to this
   year’s sectarian march, the Greater Ardoyne Residents Collective
   conducted a survey which found that 1,100 households objected to the
   Orange Order incursion on their community.
   
2. éirígí responded to the call from Ardoyne
   residents to extend solidarity to their besieged community. éirígí did
   not call people onto the streets.
   
3. The first act of violence on Monday was the PSNI attack on a peaceful sit-down protest by residents and supporters.
   
4. By its own admission, the PSNI fired at least 70 plastic bullets in Ardoyne on Monday, injuring a number of people.
   
5. The resolution to the annual conflict in Ardoyne
   is a simple one: Reroute the Orange Order from the area and accept the
   residents’ right to live from sectarian harassment and intimidation.
   When the Orange Order’s ‘Tour of the North’ was rerouted from Ardoyne
   earlier this summer, there was no violence. Likewise, the Garvaghy and
   Ormeau roads and other nationalist areas of the Six Counties have been
   largely quiet since the Orange Order was stopped from imposing itself
   upon them.
   

The Six County establishment may wish to bury its head in the
sand on this issue but they should remember one thing: Monday’s
dignified peaceful protest was a message from the people of Ardoyne that
they will not be treated as second class citizens, they will not be
intimidated and they will not be demonised.

éirígí’s activists and supporters were proud to stand, and sit,
beside the people of Ardoyne on Monday and they will do so again if the
call is put out.

-----------------------------------
http://www.socialistdemocracy.org/RecentArticles/RecentNorthernRiots.html

Northern riots – Sinn
Fein grip on the ghettoes loosens

John McAnulty

19 July 2010

A number of explanations have been put
forward for the sustained outbreak of rioting across the North of Ireland
following the Orange marches. It was caused by republican dissidents, by
"outsiders" or was a form of recreation among youth.

All these explanations are linked by their
implausibility. The nearest thing to an explanation came from a police
chief, who criticised the long term political inaction of the DUP-Sinn
Fein administration in the run up to the "12th" and was promptly silenced.

The most hysterical commentaries have spoken
of political collapse and a return to open conflict. This is clearly not
the case. Only months ago the nationalist electorate voted support for
the settlement, even against a background of conflict and corruption within
the local administration.

Two things have changed. A minority of
working class nationalist youth are rejecting the settlement. At the same
time support for Sinn Fein, while still widespread, has become a great
deal fainter and more reluctant and the movement no longer has the firm
control of the streets they once had.

As with many things, to understand it we
must take the TV cameras and swing them around. What we saw in the initial
Belfast riot was a mob attacking the police (it had initially been a confrontation
between unionist and nationalist youth but, as is traditional in the North,
the loyalists melt away leaving the police as surrogates).

The view behind the camera shows a bonfire
towering into the sky. It is decorated with taunts aimed at a local gang
of nationalist youths. It taunts a named young nationalist seriously injured
by a plastic bullet (a standard feature of loyalist interface bonfires
is to celebrate death or injury to individual named Catholics). An Irish
tricolour and a papal flag are perched on the top for burning. To one side
flies the flag of the UVF, guilty of countless sectarian murders.

The loyalists spark the conflict but the
battle is fought out between the state and the nationalist establishment
on one hand and the nationalist youth and remaining small republican groups
on the other. The youth reject a new society that has delivered nothing
to the working class and which requires an annual ritual involving intimidation
and humiliation. As one young Ardoyne nationalist remarked bitterly: "nothing
has changed. We are still second class citizens in our own country."

In response Sinn Fein and the state offer
a reformism all the more contaminated by being empty of content. They cannot
promise a future free of sectarianism - after all, the whole basis of the
new society is the continuation of sectarianism. Rather they offer a future
where the more blatant manifestations of sectarianism are given a facelift
and airbrushed into the background.

One element of the revolt is the continuing
failure of that strategy. A good example is the Broadway bonfire at the
centre of the riot and a sister bonfire which, unbelievably, is built alongside
the entrance to a major hospital. The loyalist groups involved were in
receipt of public money. The money paid for boozy parties and for loyalist
bunting. In return the loyalists agreed to join a community makeover that
would gradually see them remove all the paraphernalia of direct sectarian
jibes and change bonfires to smaller and more sedate beacons. Having collected
the money the loyalists withdrew from the scheme. In any case the plan
would have had no effect on other traditional activities such as the mini-pogrom
in the preceding weeks that saw a Catholic woman and a number of foreign
nationals assaulted and forced out of their homes in the village area.

If the rebranding of the festival of hate
as Orangefest is going badly at local level, things are no better on a
wider scale. Re-establishing the local administration at the Hillsborough
talks in February involved further concessions by Sinn Fein on marches.
The deal, hammered out with leading DUP figures who were also leading Orangemen,
involved the abolition of the discredited Parades Commission and draconian
laws that would have effectively abolished the right to demonstrate for
trade union and civil rights organisations. The Orangemen would have been
free to march, with a consultation mechanism that would have involved nationalist
residents but not have given them a power of veto. The Orange Order have
now said no to a deal their own leaders negotiated, bringing the deal crashing
down.

Understanding why they said no brings us
to the heart of the contradiction in the drive to construct a cosmetic
Orangeism. The 12th is a reactionary saturnalia designed to proclaim
sectarian rule. For one day the lower orders in the unionist hierarchy,
supervised by their betters, rule the roost. The direct provocation of
Catholics that occurs is well known. What is less well known is the minor
elements. Anyone who walks across the road in a gap in the main parades
is taking their life in their hands. None of the local laws or bylaws apply
to the siting or construction of bonfires. The police do not remove sectarian
emblems even when clearly designed as intimidation. When homes are put
at risk by bonfires the fire brigade hose the homes, not the bonfires.

This is the background to the Orange rejection
of the latest plan. The 12th is the day they declare themselves master.
A requirement that they address the underpeople they are marching over
reduces the absolute declaration of supremacy. At heart the 12th remains
the 12th, not the illusion of a folksy Orangefest.

There is no doubt that the present crisis
can be overcome, but it will be overcome by Sinn Fein making further
concessions to Orangeism - a leading spokesman has already indicated their
willingness to do so. If their ability to moderate demonstrations of sectarian
triumphalism is limited there is only one road to stability. The nationalist
workers must apathetically concede and kow-tow to Orangeism. The role of
Sinn Fein then becomes clear. Their role is to police the nationalists
and suppress demonstrations of opposition.

In the Ardoyne Sinn Fein has for years
played the card of hypocrisy. Their activists staged quiet and ineffectual
protests while at the same time collaborating with the police and loyalist
groups and attempting to force nationalist youth off the streets. Now local
militants have taken things into their own hands and Sinn Fein were then
forced to mobilize their own activists to physically force the youth from
the streets.

There has been a wave of condemnation of
the rioters, with claims that they are drawing the North back into full-scale
conflict. Yet the current pattern of rioting belongs, not to the troubles,
but to the "normal" sectarian society that went before, when periodic outbreaks
of rioting around the 12th were commonplace.

When the initial peace deal was introduced
it had mass support. It still has mass acceptance, but popular belief that
it would lead to the decay of sectarianism have proved false. The opposite
has been the case, with a steady rise in sectarian and racist incidents
and growing evidence of the impunity of the loyalist groups. The great
danger now is a mass apathy that accepts this poisonous society as fixed
in stone.

From that perspective the anger of the
rioters is entirely justified, but the rioting offers no way out.
The first steps in building a resistance is to put forward an alternative.
We must demand a secular, non-sectarian and democratic society. That society
will inevitably be a socialist society. The instrument for building that
society will be the Irish working class and it is in the name of the working
class that we should assert our hatred of sectarianism and target not just
the Loyal Orders and the police, but all the clerical, political and trade
union leaderships willing to quietly endorse the carnival of reaction in
the North.

The greatest target of all, of course,
is the power that set out in its own interests deliberately to construct
and maintain the current society - the power of the British state, of British
imperialism.

[un chien ardent]

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/07/06/10/pinoys-belfast-fear-new-wave-orange-day-racist-attacks

Pinoys in Belfast fear new wave of Orange Day racist attacks

by Danny Buenafe, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau Chief

Posted at 07/06/2010 12:01 PM | Updated as of 07/07/2010 4:27 PM

BELFAST, Ireland – Filipinos in Northern Ireland fear there
could be renewed racist attacks against them on July 12 to commemorate
so-called Orange Reformation Day.
It is a grand annual celebration held by Irish Protestants, where
they hold colorful marches and parades. The event culminates with
simultaneous bonfires all over the country.
The yearly event has often been marred by street violence involving mostly the youth.
The June 22 racist attack against 2 Filipinos and an Indian worker is still a hot news item in Northern Ireland.
The families of Ishis Calungsod and Arnel Verzonilla could not
believe they could fall victims in what police claim as a clear case of
racially-motivated hate crimes allegedly instigated by Irish youngsters.
The SUV car of Verzonilla was set on fire and the blaze spread
quickly, partially damaging the front section of Calungsod’s house.
Migrant workers in Northern Ireland, including Filipinos, usually end
up as racist attack victims because many of them are Christians.
Historically, there is still a brewing conflict between Protestants
and Christians in Northern Ireland which stemmed in 1690 in what was
called “Battle of the Boyne” that was won by the Protestant group.
Northern Ireland is dominated by Protestants.
But apart from the religious conflict, some Filipinos see it differently.
For the family of Verzonilla, they have decided not to go out of
their house on July 12 when Irish Protestants celebrate Orange Day.
The city council and several Irish Members of Parliament (MPs) have
already apologized to both Verzonilla and Calungsod, saying it was an
absolute disgrace.
For his part, Ambassador Ariel Abadilla advised Filipinos in Belfast not to be intimidated by such isolated radical acts.
There are about 7,000 Filipinos in Northern Ireland mostly working in hospitals and caring homes.

[sylvestre]

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=21864

Issue: 2211 dated: 24 July 2010 Comment
posted: 6.40pm Tue 20 Jul 2010

Roots of riots in Northern Ireland

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by Simon Basketter

Four nights of rioting in Northern Ireland saw much media talk of “men of violence” orchestrating trouble.

What was neglected was the main spark of the violence – a brutal police attack on a peaceful protest against a march by the anti-Catholic Orange Order.

The Orange Order wanted to pass through the mainly nationalist Ardoyne area of North Belfast.

Riot police waded in as the protesters sat in the road chanting “peaceful protest” and wearing T-shirts proclaiming “Residents Not Dissidents”. Police fired 70 baton rounds and used water cannon.

It is worth noting the Northern Ireland state’s commitment to the right to march only goes one way. In 2001, primary school children saw their Catholic school, Holy Cross Primary, become the target of Loyalist bomb attacks and pickets purely because the route the children walked to school passed through a Loyalist area.

The school is in the Ardoyne. The pupils of 2001 are old enough to riot now.

Across Northern Ireland the rioting was concentrated in the areas that had seen the highest fatality rates during Britain’s war in Northern Ireland. These are also the areas that have gained the least from the peace, and they are all areas of severe poverty.

The Orange Order took to the streets across the North with the anti-Catholic triumphalism and sectarianism that has been its hallmark since its inception. This bigoted organisation should not be welcomed in Catholic or Protestant areas.

There has been an attempt to re-brand the marching season as “Orangefest”. Sashes and bowler hats have been joined by “Diamond Dan”, the Orange Order’s very own comic superhero.

Orangefest is marketed by Belfast businesses as “parades and shopping”.

But the reality is that the Orange Order promotes the idea of Protestant supremacy. There are hundreds of Orange parades during the marching season. On 12 July they light enormous bonfires, larger than houses, with Irish flags and similar symbols on the top.

This year in the Village area of Belfast a Palestinian flag was added to the bonfire – sectarianism with an international aspect.

Orangeism has supporters at the centre of the state. While only 3 percent of the population belongs to an Orange Lodge, 66 percent of all the Unionist members of the Northern Ireland Assembly are members.

Vulnerable

Rather than oppose the Orange Order, the Nationalist party Sinn Fein wants to accommodate it within “community politics”. In the past, Sinn Fein organised protests against Orange marches.

Today it labels those protesting against the marches as “Republican dissidents” or “hoods”.

The history of Irish Republicanism shows that those who promote the armed struggle will tend to become establishment politicians by the end of their careers. All the dissidents offer is a re-run of that dead-end strategy.

But the roots of the riots are not dissident Republicans but poverty and sectarianism.

Some 90 percent of social housing estates in Northern Ireland are segregated. The peace process has done nothing to change this.

The number of “peace lines” (a euphemism for segregation walls) and “interface areas” (neighbourhoods where sectarian tensions and violence are high) has grown since 1998. Some 40 “peace lines” now separate communities.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Fein will not address the question of sectarianism because they are wedded to communalism on both sides. As the Tory cuts are implemented, they will play both communities against each other.

But there is also the possibility of united fights against cuts and sectarianism.

That’s why Sinn Fein and the bigots of the DUP are proposing the Public Assemblies Bill legislation on parades. It will require anyone planning a demonstration of more than 50 people to give 37 days notice, with failure to comply potentially leading to a prison sentence.

It won’t stop Orange marches but it is an attempt to stop protests against poverty.

[sylvestre]

[un chien ardent]

La saison des marches orangistes reprend avec ses provocations, l'indignation des habitants des quartiers "catholiques" traversés, les provocations, les jeunes dans la rue, les cocktails molotov et les caillasses sur la PSNI (=RUC).

Déjà, fin juin, une enclave "catholique" de Belfast, Short Strand était attaquée par de jeunes loyalistes.
Les analyses:
*de Socialist Democraty
*du SWP et là
*le communiqué de l'iRSP:

Following a meeting of residents in Ardoyne today(Friday) the IRSP issue the following statement through North Belfast representative Paul Little.

‘Once again the dark forces of Orangeism are at play across the north, whether its in Ardoyne, Short Strand or Newtonbutler they have taken the decision to inflict triumphalist and sectarian marches where they are clearly not wanted.

In 2011 as in previous years the Orange Order has the option of not antagonising the residents of these areas, such a decision would be brave decision, it would display maturity and a willingness to accommodate their neighbours in Ardoyne.

The IRSP believe that dialogue is the only solution to contentious parades but the current talks are flawed as the main protagonist the Orange Order is not at the table. This situation cannot be covered up, The Orange Order are not talking.

The IRSP support local residents in their campaigns to confront sectarianism and oppose contentious parades, we are calling for the current situation to be reversed and such sectarian marches banned until such time as the Orange Order engage in direct dialogue. As Republican Socialists we support the rights of communities to live free from sectarian intimidation and threat.’

[sylvestre]

A propos des récentes "émeutes du drapeau" et de la classe ouvrière protestante : Goretti Horgan, Loyal to the flag

[sylvestre]

Article de fond sur les dissidences de l'IRA : Back to the armed struggle ?

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