For about 10 years now I have been linking from this blog to a group called the Irish American Unity Conference. I was vaguely or fairly familiar with them about 20-23 years ago when I believe they were a moderate version of Irish Northern Aid, who were basically supporters of Sinn Fein and the IRA. Now they seem to primarily support SF. Although their links list contains nothing radical that isn’t also Irish (i.e. SF’s web-site), they surprised me when I found a June statement in response to Black Lives Matter activism that was taking place at the time. I am reproducing their statement below but you can find it here.
“We, the Officers of the Irish American Unity Conference, express our outrage at the ongoing, deep-seated, brutal racism that is destroying the fabric of our country. We condemn in particular the recent cold-blooded murders of African-American fellow citizens, including children, in Minnesota, Georgia, Texas, Florida, New York City, Cleveland, Chicago, Baltimore, East St. Louis, and Louisville. We stand in solidarity with our African-American sisters and brothers not only in this time of crisis but at all times. There are disturbing parallels between America’s racism and the state-sponsored political and religious discrimination and violence imposed for over eight hundred years on native Irish people in the north of Ireland. It is not a coincidence that the Northern Ireland Civil Rights movement took its inspiration and strategies from the Civil Rights movement in the United States to fight for justice and an end to oppression. We are painfully aware that recent racist events in this country are not an anomaly or aberration, but rather are a continuation of the violence perpetrated against people of color for hundreds of years, often state-sanctioned, to intimidate and deny equal citizenship to a significant segment of our society. We declare our resolve that the United States must once and for all acknowledge and stop its endemic racism or fail its founding principles of equality and justice for all. None of us can be silent, for if we are not part of the solution then we are part of the problem."
Peter Kissel, President
George Trainor, Vice-President
Kevin Barry, Treasurer
Sarah McAuliffe-Bellin, Secretary
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It’s really good. Although it’s common for SF supporters to refer to how Black Americans inspired the N. Ireland Civil Rights Movement and we get something out of that, it’s still worth pointing out that every time it’s mentioned, there’s potential for it to get some racist or semi-racist Irish-Americans who care about N. Ireland to change their thinking about race. And this statement goes well beyond simply mentioning the two Civil Rights Movements. I have occasionally suggested to SF members and leaders that they should be in solidarity more with people of color in America and although I have no reason to believe it’s connected to my work, I’m really glad to see that the leadership of the IAUC have done that.
My blog is largely dedicated to the intersection of N. Ireland and fighting racism in America. One of the top three individuals who represent that intersection (along with Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey and Angela Y. Davis) is Bill Fletcher Jr. Bill is a long-time advocate for Justice and Equality on a range of topics. He has held MANY positions, some very senior, in America’s Labor Movement. From about 1995 to about 2001 he was Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO (John Sweeney). He was "national organizer" for the Black Radical Congress and part of the coordinating committee from 1998-2003., a coalition of Black people and organizations on the broad Left in America. For about two years starting in 2001 he was the President of TransAfrica Forum. An example of his Irish Republican activity is here.
After reading the IAUC statement he commented on the similarities between British Imperialism in Ireland and white supremacy in America: “When the English conquered Ireland they instituted a racial-colonial domination over the indigenous population. They, in fact, constructed a settler state, the legacy of which is Northern Ireland. The English introduced this system when they invaded the Western Hemisphere, constructed racial slavery for Africans and succeeded in beginning the expulsion of the First Nations."
The posts on my blog that are at least partly about that intersection, what some call “the black and the green,” are here.
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