Law and Order Reviews B

I have done reviews of many episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and published some more general thoughts about it here. In that post I offer a smaller number of general thoughts about the original Law and Order show (the one that went from 1990-2010). Although I do not like L&O as much as I like the SVU version, I do like it. There’s some liberal or even progressive stuff here and there and they’re good detective stories, and they’re homicide detectives- if they were narcotics, I’d probably be a lot less fond of the show.

Although I’m not sure I have done and will do this consistently, with the original Law and Order show I will make a note and maybe offer some comments when the issues that are at the core of Law and Order: SVU appear on this show.

“Life Choice” Season 1. See this for a plot summary.

Although it’s a little mixed, this episode leans heavily towards being pro-choice.

“A Death in the Family” Season 1. See this for a plot summary.

In this episode the detectives and the ADAs see things differently. The ADAs ask if the life of a cop is worth more than the life of a civilian. They find themselves investigating the death of a corrupt cop. Most damning of all, the senior ADA says that a lot of cops carry an untraceable gun that they can plant on someone if they shoot a suspect and it turns out the suspect was not armed.

“Mushrooms” Season 1. For a summary see this. 

The Black woman whose sons are killed or wounded doesn’t get along perfectly with the police. But that’s just realistic (MANY people of color don’t get along with cops) and I don’t think it dilutes what I’m about to say- she’s not seen as a suspect or an enemy of the police or something (you’re supposed to sympathize with her). She says at one point that her supervisor (she’s a janitor) wouldn’t allow her to go to the morgue and the hospital about her two sons. First, that’s just messed up in general. But people of color are more likely than white people to be in a financial situation where they cannot afford to lose their job in a crisis like that. Poverty is a more common problem among people of color than it is among white people. Part of this means that they are less likely than white people to know someone who can loan them some money until they get a new job after they lose their job (for leaving work during a family emergency). And, even more damning of some supervisors and employers, in some cases like this it’s a job that probably can be skipped for a day.

“The Troubles” Season 1. See this for a plot summary.

This is largely about N. Ireland. There are so many statements that are demanding I comment on them that this review would be about 3,000 words if I commented on all of them. The short version is that there’s a lot of nonsense.

There is one thing I’m going to comment on, something that, for some weird reason I haven’t really commented on before. One of the two cops buys the IRA member’s PR effort for America, and is sympathetic to him, basically because he (the cop) is Irish-American. Does law enforcement and the intelligence community in America go easy on the IRA because the vast majority of IRA supporters here are white Irish-Americans? First, as I explain here and here, the IRA was not a terrorist organization, and that has nothing to do with their skin color or their political goals. Second, the US government was largely on the side of the British, as I explain in note #17 of the poem here.                              

Are there or were there racist NYPD cops who supported the IRA but not the armed wing of the African National Congress? Yes, and there may have been a few FBI agents like that (although probably just a few- I imagine the FBI was less tolerant of IRA supporters than the NYPD were). Was there something racist about the fact that the IRA was never on any US list of terrorist organizations? Although I’m not real familiar with those lists, as I explaIn above, the IRA were, objectively, not terrorists.

If you look beyond the white privilege of most IRA supporters in America, globally their supporters were mostly what we would call in America “progressive.”

An Example of Irish-American Anti-Racism

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.

Irish-American White Allies, Multi-Culturalism, Northern Ireland, and Struggles for Justice, Equality, and Freedom

I identify not just as Irish-American, but strongly so. If it’s a contest between identifying as Irish-American or white (and although this post will reflect the fact that I don’t have a sociology degree, I believe those two are competing for the same space or something like that and add up to 100%) I identify largely as Irish-American and partly as white.

In my experience many white allies have a problem with how I identify and say it is in conflict with being a white ally. This article will explain why I identify that way. It will also touch on related issues like the anti-racist nature of my N. Ireland activism, my thoughts about ethnicity, the connection between my identity and my decision as an activist to often devote large amounts of time to the issue of N. Ireland, and my record as a white ally.

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(I primarily think of race in the sense that involves it being socially constructed. That is, the concept of race that involves power, privilege, and socialization. I haven’t, for about 16 years, had a great grasp on socialization (and can’t find anything about racial socialization in my two (more or less) introductory Ethnic Studies books) But I think I understand it enough. I think my grasp of white privilege has gone down a bit in recent years, but I believe that two good examples of what I DO know to be white privilege (to demonstrate that I at least largely understand it) are A) how the police treat you, and B) white people being comfortable dominating a conversation involving people of color (and being ALLOWED by the other white people in the conversation TO dominate the conversation). And I think I have studied the exercise of power over marginalized people enough to understand it)

(Because it makes discussing the subject technically problematic, I’m suspending the idea that all white people are racist)

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When I say that I identify partly as white that’s because of three things. My skin color, how I was I socialized, and the fact that I have white privilege. The thing is,  the white race exists only in the following ways:

1. In a VERY limited way connected with skin color and some other physical characteristics.
2. In our society it does if we focus on the concept of race that involves it being socially constructed and involves power and privilege, and it is of course necessary for white people who aren’t racist to acknowledge this reality (it makes a lot more sense to say white people instead of referring to the white race).

But the white race in other senses was invented to justify imperialism, exploitation and to divide the lower classes. Although I lack the sociological knowledge to explain this incredibly well, I see race in the second sense above as artificial. And I see ethnicity as organic (I'm only going to write this once in this post, but with American Indians, nationality might be a better word than ethnicity (also, if we ignore immigrants from Africa and the African diaspora, I'm not sure if ethnicity is the right word for Blacks, but I'm reluctant to say race or nation in the last two sentences of this paragraph, so I'm going with ethnicity)). Ethnicity is more about culture that developed naturally and is not inherently incompatible with equality.

At this point I want to further explain my thoughts on this and, specifically, identify what and who encouraged me to feel that identifying partly or largely based on my ethnicity was important.

One of the first things that encouraged me to go in the direction of identifying the way I do was a comment in a lecture by Angela Davis that I used to have on tape. The (probably host-created) title of her talk mentioned ethnicity in a way that assumed only people of color have ethnicity. She said something about white people needing to do something about their ethnicity (I think what she said was close to “explore” and/or “assert”). I believe that it was sometime in 1999 or 2000 when I heard that and I think the talk may have been sometime earlier in the 90s.

There was one thing that Ward Churchill said in a Native American Studies class he taught that I took that also got me thinking the way I have. It would have been 1998 or 1999 when I took that class. I asked some question more or less about my belief that the racial identity “White” is what you might call “artificial” and the ethnic identity, based on where the ancestors of European-Americans came from, is more “organic.” His response was to tell us a story about Stephen Biko, the anti-Apartheid martyr. Apparently when he was in court one day, before the proceedings began, the judge said something about how officially Biko was classified as “Black” but his skin is more of a “chocolate brown.” Biko responded by saying something like “well they call you “White” but you look more pink to me.”

On a minor but slightly relevant note, one day in 2000 when I bumped into Churchill, he greeted me by calling me “Irishman.”  Also, in 2000 he spoke about an upcoming Columbus Day Parade in Denver, sponsored of course by an Italian-American organization. He said something about how an alternative celebration of Italian-America, perhaps centered on pasta, should be organized and he would be thrilled to take part.

When I was taking Intro to Ethnic Studies in 1995, Professor Estevan Flores said that there should be two Ethnic Studies programs (or Departments): The traditional kind and one for Irish-America, Italian-America, German-America, etc.

The most critical quote I can give you about this is something the late black author James Baldwin  said. He said, ”as long as you think you are white, there is no hope for you.”

I don’t know if Davis, Churchill, Flores and the late James Baldwin would (or would have) agree(d) with me about identifying LARGELY as Irish-American and PARTLY as White (instead of the other way around). But I will shortly make a pretty good argument that it makes sense for me to do that. The thing is, I’m not saying that those four people agree with me (or would have agreed with me), although I think there’s a good chance that they would (or would have). I’m just saying that those comments are a big part of what inspired me to identify this way.

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One miscellaneous argument that I think I’ll put here is that white supremacists seem to identify more as white than as, for example, English-American (yes that’s a joke, I don’t think the WS community is any more English-American than the white population in general). That doesn’t seem to have any positive affect on how offensive their actions and thoughts on race are.

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How do I justify identifying more as Irish-American than as White? There are a couple minor things and two big things and they all add up to justifying my stance on this. First the minor things:

1. I am at least slightly interested in Irish culture. For example I listen to a fair amount of Irish republican music.

2. The last thing I want to do is suggest a connection between being Irish and being Catholic (or the other way around), but I was often told when I was young that we were “Irish Catholic” and my religion was fairly important to me as I grew up and still is slightly important to me. That earlier way of talking about it has had some lingering effect on my interest in Irish things.

The first of the two big things is simply my family tree. My paternal grandfather’s family was largely from Ireland and so was my maternal grandfather’s family. My Dad’s mother was partly Irish. On my Mom’s side, her mom was half Irish. Even if it were no more than a large minority of my family tree that’s Irish, I would probably still feel the same way about N. Ireland and would mention the Irish part along with whatever was the biggest part.

The second big thing is my participation in political activity around N. Ireland which largely meant among a chunk of the Irish-American population. I wasn’t involved with the more cultural or social aspects, but I was, in a political way, fairly active. I’ll describe that some more, looking at the first and second incarnations of the independent CU-Boulder group I organized (Students for Justice in N. Ireland (SJNI)) which were 1997-2000 and 2002-2004. (UPDATE 2/12/20 I keep forgetting that although we did almost nothing, the first year SJNI was called the Bobby Sands Association)

(What I said above doesn’t mean that I WANTED it to be mostly Irish-American (you can see this as evidence of that). Although I could have handled it more democratically, in 1999 when a fellow co-chair of SJNI made a flyer for our meetings that referred to us as an “Irish Student Organization” I just said no, as the more senior leader. As much as I wish I had had more of a conversation with him, I was passionately against what he was doing. But, unsurprisingly, at least 80% of the people involved at any point were Irish-American)

To a large degree my active interest in N. Ireland in general contributes greatly to the argument I’m making about my identity. But I’m going to focus more on the 1/2 of my N. Ireland activism that was also anti-racist or anti-homophobic.

I think the first thing we did that was anti-racist (in early 1998) involved organizing a panel discussion about the Good Friday Agreement. We had three white Irish-Americans, and one Irish-American person of color (Glenn Morris, a Poli-Sci professor at the University of Colorado (Denver) and (at least back then) one of the top people in the Colorado American Indian Movement). Inviting Morris was my idea- another progressive activist told me he was very interested in N. Ireland and followed it closely (at the event I learned that Morris is half Irish-American, but I think this still counts). (about 25-50 people showed up)

The next event we did partially on a multi-cultural theme was in Oct. 1998. A few months earlier I had read a book called “Black and Green: The Fight for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland and Black America.” It’s by an Irish man from Britain named Brian Dooley and is about the similarities and connections between the two sets of issues and movements looking back as far as Frederick Douglas and Daniel O’Connell (one chapter is about Irish-America). If you doubt that such connections exist, read that book and/or read this post. We got money from student government to do an event with Brian as the speaker. We did ask the Black Student Alliance to so-sponsor after we got the funding. They readily agreed but that was it. It could be I or SJNI in general screwed up by not involving them more- I’m not sure, but it may have been unavoidably limited to that. It was a one-speaker event plus a movie that I loved showing at events, partly to provide some of the background the speaker might skip over and partly because it’s incredibly inspirational. On one hand, we should have found some way for the BSA to meaningfully contribute beyond their name on the flyer. On the other hand (in my defense and at the very least), IF I had known of a BSA member interested in Ireland, I would have suggested that they introduce Brian (and make whatever comments or announcements that seemed relevant to them). It’s possible it was doomed to be limited and I’m done speculating about things I probably should have done. (I almost forgot that their co-sponsorship, as limited as it turned out to be, MAY have had an effect on the thoughts of some racist or near-racist Irish-American(s) who saw the flyer but didn't attend the event (the apparent and often actual absence of people of color on this issue does nothing to JUSTIFY racism among Irish-Americans, but my theory is that it might PARTLY EXPLAIN it in some cases and when people of color are visible on this issue, that might get racist or semi-racist Irish-Americans who care about NI to re-think their thoughts on race)). (about 75-100 people showed up)

The third thing we did on this theme was that when we brought SF’s Representative in America to speak on campus (in early 1999 and again with student government money) we had her introduced by a Chicano man, Leo Griep-Ruiz. He had, at some point in the late 1990s, a frequent column in the Colorado Daily (then, the main but not official campus paper). At that point he had done two N. Ireland-centered interviews on KGNU community radio and had told me that many Chicana/os don’t see it as a coincidence that Bobby Sands died on  Cinco de Mayo (he was the first to die on a hunger-strike by Irish republican prisoners demanding to be treated as POWs). So, at my suggestion, we had Leo introduce SF’s Representative in America and he spoke on some inter-connected themes for about 15 minutes. (about 75-100 people showed up)

During those years there were two things worth mentioning about homophobia. First, at a 1998 weekly meeting of SJNI, a gay woman asked about how SJNI felt about homophobia. I said that as far as I was concerned it was unacceptable and for better or worse there was no further discussion (I didn’t try to suppress it at all and there was no noticeable drop in attendance at the next meeting).

The second thing was that in 1998 or 1999 I learned of the controversy over the NY City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. There was a boycott of it because LGBTQ+ organization were banned. After the 1999 parade I (as an individual, not a representative of SJNI) wrote a letter-to-the-editor of the Irish News (the main NI paper read by Catholics) criticizing SF for marching in the parade despite the fact that they support gay rights. Although I was appealing to a foreign political party, I was doing so in support of LGBTQ+ Irish-Americans and Irish immigrants.

In the late 1990s I spent a lot of time on an online discussion forum created and moderated by Sinn Fein which was dominated by Irish-Americans. I some times did things comparable to what I just described doing in the previous 7 paragraphs). And I think there were a few other miscellaneous things I can’t think of right now.

In the second incarnation, we did 2-3 things that were anti-racist and one thing that was anti-homophobic.

In Nov. 2002, the Young Democratic Socialists CU-Boulder chapter (which I was also organizing) brought Bill Fletcher Jr. to speak on campus with student government money. He had a massive history of various senior and very senior positions in the labor movement and had spent a few years as a National Co-Chair of the Black Radical Congress (it was a coalition for black people and organizations on the Left). I had learned just by chance that he was interested in N. Ireland and had in the 1980s done a lot of work on the issue. I spoke with people in YDS-CU and SJNI and SJNI organized a panel discussion that he agreed to speak on for free. (about 25 people showed up)

Around the 2003 anniversary of Bloody Sunday, we did a panel discussion that was supposed to include Ward Churchill an American Indian Studies scholar (he’s interested, at least slightly knowledgeable, and could have spoken about the concept of national self-determination) but he didn’t show up. (about 75 people showed up)

In Nov. 2003 we did a panel discussion involving a Black Studies Prof. named George Junne. When we brought Brian Dooley to speak on campus Prof. Junne had Dooley speak in his class. So I asked if he was interested in speaking. He wasn’t familiar with N. Ireland but did know a lot about something fairly relevant, which is the relationship that Black abolitionist Frederick Douglas had with Ireland in the 1800s. So he spoke about that. (about 25 people showed up)

in 2003 or 2004 I also learned that an important anti-racist training I had attended in 2001 was going to be done on campus and encouraged SJNI members to attend.

As far as homophobia goes, we took an important position in support of the boycott of the NY City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. We made copies of our statement and put them out when we tabled at events or in the student center. I had a bunch of anti-homophobic buttons left over from my past involvement with the Young Democratic Socialists and although this may have been questionable, we put the buttons out, too.

With the anti-racist events I had hoped to do two things. The most relevant one is that I hoped our 5-6 efforts might have some effect on eroding racism among a certain section of the Irish-American community (the section that was racist and that also cared about N. Ireland). The less relevant one was to broaden our audience (which would have contributed to accomplishing the first goal) (as far as broadening the audience, I almost organized an event about environmentalism in N. Ireland for the same purpose). I’d say something similar about making the 2003 statement on the NY City St. Patrick’s Day parade.

I think that (in connection to my family tree) what I did trying to promote an anti-racist and anti-homophobic agenda among a large chunk of the Irish-American population while doing N. Ireland activism contributes to justifying my assertion of an identity that is more Irish-American than white.

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I would also like to briefly describe my work as a white ally. It’s a different approach to defending my desire to identify largely as Irish-American and still be taken seriously as a white ally; a different approach but one that I think complements the other arguments I’ve made. This is not an exhaustive list, but probably represents about 50% of what I did (most of the other 50% is probably less important and less successful than most of what I write below).

1. In 10th grade my very first bit of activism was when I walked out of my 3rd or 4th period class and joined other students marching around town in protest of the Rodney King verdict (in 1992). That evening I went to a CU-Boulder campus march and rally.

2. In the Fall semester of my freshman year at CU-Boulder I helped with a pro-immigration/immigrants rights event.

3. In the Fall 1995 semester I was one of the main people that organized an event defending Affirmative Action.

4. In the Spring 1996 semester I was a significant part of something similar but much more politically aggressive, and much more successful. It was with a large coalition of students and student groups. The issue was primarily affirmative action but immigration was part of it, too.

5. At the 2000 National Conference of the Young Democratic Socialists I got a statement opposing Columbus Day marches added to a general anti-racism document adopted at the conference (that had originally said nothing about American Indians).

6. In January 2001 I was a small part of organizing one event in Boulder about socialist anti-racism and a massive part of organizing another event on the same topic in Denver.

7. In February of 2002 I represented the Anti-Racism Commission of the Democratic Socialists of America at the National Conference of Sinn Fein Youth in Galway, Ireland (I publicly encouraged SF to reach out to people of color in America more).


I did some miscellaneous activities that I want to briefly mention (that are in the less important 50% I referred to above): tabling in the student center with some anti-racist materials; and joining what might be called “mass meetings” by students because of concerns about diversity and equality on campus; In the late 1990s I attended at least three protests or rallies in Denver about police brutality, and around the same time I attended about 5-6 actions or marches in Denver in support of Justice for Janitors. Around 2015 I went to two protest marches in support of Black Lives Matter.

For many reasons, including that it seems appropriate after listing a lot of the GOOD things I did as a white ally, I would like to briefly say some things about the biggest mistake I made as a white ally. There’s probably 5-10 other mistakes that are all much smaller than what I’ll describe in a moment (for example, what I wrote above about the Brian Dooley event and the involvement of the BSA).

In 2000 there was a Columbus Day Parade in Denver and a massive protest against it. I think it was organized more or less by CO-AIM and especially by Glenn Morris. During the early part of the protest I decided, without thinking of it in depth earlier, that I was willing to get arrested for sitting down in the road blocking the parade (it was non-violet civil disobedience). I actually asked Ward Churchill right before I was arrested how much trouble we would get in- years later I realized that sitting down and getting arrested was a big mistake. I am lucky in some or perhaps many ways and my Dad was a lawyer back then. He barely touched criminal law but offered to sort of be my lawyer in this case. At almost the exact same time he said he had heard some rumor that we were all going to go to jail. This was four months after my mom was killed in a car accident, and I think I was reluctant to get into an argument with my Dad- even more of a problem, I really didn’t want to be in Denver County Jail with all that emotional baggage. I took his advice and separated myself from the others in the court system and pleaded guilty to 1-2 minor charges and was not even put on probation (not long after that, the charges against the others were dropped). This is embarrassing and sounds lame, but I just went brain dead and didn’t consider how fucked up what I did was, not until about early 2013.

It might not sound horrible to many progressives, but it is, as you’ll soon agree. The argument in favor of blocking the parade is something like this- the parade is close enough to advocating genocide that it’s illegal under international law and therefore we were enforcing International law. In the early 1990s a Denver jury agreed with people who did the same thing back then. Me pleading guilty to two things was a problem.

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Another reason I felt comfortable blocking the parade is that I supported efforts to keep anti-Catholic Orange Order parades out of Catholic areas in N. Ireland (in the Summer of 2002 I was in two riots (with the security forces) in west Belfast triggered by such marches (in 2002 such rioting was popular in the nationalist community)). Although some would argue that downtown Denver is not an American Indian area, this whole continent used to be theirs, AND, what the Columbus Day parade stands for is worse. The worst the Orange parades stand for is what happened as a result of British policy before and during the Famine. 10-15% of the population died and and 10-15% emigrated otherwise they would have died. On page 31 of his 1995 book, “Since Predator Came” Ward Churchill writes about the results of European and European-American settlement in the area that is the United States and writes: “by 1890, fewer than 250,000 Indians remained alive within the United States, a degree of decimation extending into the upper 90th percentile.”

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Overall I’m not sure how much damage I did- maybe none, but if Glenn Morris were to tell me that I undermined the cause a lot I would feel bad. But they WERE able to say that X, not X minus 1, people were arrested. I got the Colorado Democratic Socialists of America to endorse the protest and as a leader of that group I did a little bit of publicity for the protest (we made some flyers for the CU-Boulder campus and we made it clear that CO-DSA were just helping a tiny bit with spreading the word). I also had done a handful of other things as an ally of Indians specifically (including getting a statement on Columbus Day into the YDS document I referred to above).

For whatever it’s worth, I prefer to end by repeating what I said above- I made a big mistake by sitting down to get arrested at that point in my life and I also want to apologize- in general and to Glenn Morris (I  have apologized by email but haven't heard back).

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Besides a brief conclusion this is the last component.

In 9th grade (90/91), 1-4 years before I was a progressive, I became kind of a supporter of the IRA, vaguely in connection with my religion and family tree and in connection with a good friend of my mom’s who was an IRA supporter. I was probably the least educated about the conflict among American supporters of the IRA and did practically nothing about it. That changed in early 1997. I had been a socialist and very active anti-racist for about two and 1/2 years at that point. That passion for justice is part of why it changed then.

I know this will, at least initially, sound like I’m a bad white ally, but even today my identity (Irish-American and Catholic) does play a significant role in my decision to focus more on that issue than most other issues (when you look at the years 1997-2001 and 1997-2004 or 1997-today).

Here are some of the reasons why I think American progressives should do work on this issue:

1. The Catholic community in N. Ireland experienced high levels of inequality in the first 50 years of NI ’s existence (for more on that see this (describes the undemocratic and sectarian creation of N. Ireland, the inequality Catholics experienced, and how the Troubles began)). Around 1970 the situation transformed. Although there were fewer laws that could be compared to Jim Crow, job discrimination continued or got worse (in 1971 Catholics were twice as likely to be unemployed as Protestants and in 1988 they were TWO AND A HALF times more likely to be unemployed as Protestants) repression got worse, and violence against the Catholic population skyrocketed like you wouldn’t believe. During the Troubles (roughly 1969-2005) they went through a nightmare. 856+ Catholic civilians were killed in the years 1969 to 2005 by either loyalist paramilitaries or the security forces (a comparable scenario in America would have meant around 67,000 unarmed people of color killed by cops or Nazi skinheads (etc.) in the same time period). (A: based on what I’ll describe below, I would guess that the actual number for that was probably somewhere around 7,000-8,000; B: I'm not saying the racist system in this country wasn't, ideologically or programmatically, capable of killing 67,000 people of color in those years if the "rebellion" among people of color here had been as militaristic as the one among Catholics in N. Ireland; but the reality is that as bad as it was for people of color here in those years, it was, in terms of deaths, MUCH worse for Catholics in N. Ireland). Between 1975 and 1998, with practically zero influence on law and policy beyond local government, they were ruled by a state they quite reasonably saw as both foreign and hostile.

2. The government most responsible for that nightmare (see this) is the most important ally of the US government in the entire world (in addition to some other relevant info, that post exposes the fact that the British were no more concerned by the sectarian slaughter of Catholic civilians (by organizations that did little else) than they were concerned by IRA attacks that almost never resulted in civilian death). I realize that we are not propping them up like we do with Israel, but who helped us patrol the “No Fly” zones over Iraq 1991-2003?; who contributed something like 20% of the military forces for the invasion of Iraq? And who made a similar contribution during the occupation of Iraq? I believe that the British have a problem- an Ireland problem, or an imperialism problem or whatever you would call it. They need an intervention and you get friends, not enemies or strangers for interventions. The US needs to convince the British to begin, ASAP, a decades-long process of getting out of Ireland.

3. It gives us a chance to do something important that won’t require hardly any extra effort beyond what we should be doing on N. Ireland anyway. The more people of color and visibly anti-racist white people get involved (at least to a small degree), the more we erode racism among a large chunk of Irish-Americans (I’m not saying that the apparent and often actual absence of people of color justifies that racism, but I think it partly explains it). Although I haven’t heard of a specific example of it happening, I believe it can and does happen. A friend of mine with a BA in Sociology, a BA in Psychology, and a Masters in Social Work (from Denver University (which means that she must have gotten good grades in her Psychology and Sociology classes) agrees with me.

(admittedly, the last 15 years or so the situation has improved greatly in terms of overall violence and inequality for Catholics. But Catholics still don’t experience anywhere near total equality, and I would say we should wait for 10 years of that before we talk seriously about it not being a problem anymore. Also, for 3 years until Jan. 2020 there was a pretty serious crisis in the peace process, there are still republican paramilitaries active, loyalist paramilitaries are still active, the British are not owning up fully to what they did during the conflict. Basically, even if there’s not much opportunity or need to do much now, at the very least progressives should educate themselves a little so that if things DO go downhill and they want to get involved to some degree, they’ll have already started educating themselves. I recommend Michael Farrell’s “Northern Ireland: The Orange State.”) (UPDATE 11/7/20 See this for relatively recent developments in the Peace Process (it might soon come to a halt))


I think that the 2nd-to last thing I need to say in defense of WHY I am so interested in N. Ireland is to refer to Prof. Angela Y. Davis. First, as I mentioned earlier, she does encourage white allies to do something with their ethnic identity (I think something like explore and/or assert). She also feels very strongly about the need for Black people to take N. Ireland seriously as an issue. Specifically, in 1994 (I think; and on a tape of a lecture she gave at a Black Studies conference), she compared African-Americans who are unconcerned about NI with those who are pro-life, homophobic, or anti-union. A slightly different version of this is found online here, in a paragraph towards the top that starts with the word "beware."

You combine these two thoughts and I can’t imagine her having a problem with Irish-American white allies working on the North partly because of their ethnicity.

Lastly, if American progressives have a problem with me doing this, I have to ask how they feel about Jewish-Americans being very interested in Israel and/or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Even if we set aside the fact that I’m supporting the oppressed and the Jewish-Americans we are talking about are probably more likely to be pro-Israel than pro-Palestinian, why is it okay for them, but not me, to be very interested in politics that are relevant to them/me because of their/my religion and/or ethnicity? Some would say that Jewish-Americans are oppressed and neither Catholics nor the Irish (in America) are. Are they really OPPRESSED? I have a bad history with this question, but let me just briefly say that even in the last 6 years during which we saw 14 Jewish people killed because they were Jewish, they are not oppressed (my timing could be much better and I might sound insensitive, but A) I am not going post-pone this post any longer, and B) although this doesn’t mean I am above criticism as a Christian ally, I think it’s reasonable for me to point out that a lot of the material on my blog is against anti-Semitism). What about widespread police brutality? Mass incarceration? Disproportionate unemployment? Jim Crow-type laws? A low rate of educational success? Where am I getting this? I’m not going to offer a flurry of sources, statistics or quotes. I doubt anyone will seriously say I’m wrong on the relatively specific points I just made. I have been observing American politics a lot the last 25 years. During that time I have probably read an average of 3000 words a day about America in different articles or books. It’s also relevant that while getting my BA in Ethnic Studies, I don’t think anyone ever said something like “that also happens a lot with Jewish-Americans.” (UPDATE 3/28/20 this is discussed further here)

***************

In conclusion, I believe that there is nothing about identifying mostly as Irish-American and partly as white that’s at all inherently in conflict with being a white ally. Although I haven’t said much about this because I think it might require more of the sociological training I clearly lack, I think that what I’ve written in some parts of this essay implies that it might even be BETTER if white allies would have some sense of their ethnic identity and maybe take it as far as I do when that makes sense (on the other hand Northern France doesn’t exist, and certainly isn’t occupied by anyone). Although this doesn’t require taking it as far as I do, identifying as Irish-American has given me another opportunity to do stuff that had the potential of lessening the racism (and homophobia) in this society. Also, ethnic pride among European-Americans (for example, Irish-American pride) is (in general) to one degree or another much less offensive than white pride. I’m not saying it’s crucial for the equality-based, multi-cultural society we want to build, but it can’t hurt either, for white people to have some degree of pride as, for example, Greek-American (as an alternative to white pride).

(UPDATE 4/30/20 Somewhere here I need to say something. Even if 99% of Irish-Americans were racists, it wouldn't be because they're Irish-American. If that were the case, no other white people would be racist. I could go through a list of all the other European-American ethnic groups and say the same thing. And with Irish-Americans, look at the colonial history of Ireland and how anti-racist the Nationalist community in N. Ireland is, and how abolitionist the Nationalist population in Ireland as a whole was in relation to America. Those white people who are racist are racist because they're white and various sociological and psychological and political factors HERE have contributed to them being racist)

*********

What makes me confident about my statement “probably somewhere around 7,000-8,000”?

1. Between 1996 and 2005 according to the FBI there were 38 racist murders. I have read that the Department of Justice officially estimates that for every hate crime reported to the FBI there might be 20-30 that aren’t reported because not all local law enforcement agencies report such crimes to the FBI. So I came up with 1,140 for those years.
2. I heard that in a 12 month period during a 2014 (apparent) surge in police murders of black people including those of Eric Garner in NY, Tamir Rice in OH, and Michael Brown in MO among other highly publicized such cases, that around 200 black people armed or unarmed, had been killed by cops in America. Although I’m very open-minded about accusations that cops plant guns, this country also has a ridiculous number of guns.
3. Bear in mind that decades ago the number of people of color and the number of cops in this country were both smaller or much smaller than they are today.
4. If it’s worth much, about 10 years ago I read a huge amount of what the Southern Poverty Law Center put on their web-site in the previous 10-15 years. I also got an Ethnic Studies degree if that’s worth much.
5. There was little or no talk about “Brown Lives Matter” so I get the impression that very few Latinos/Latinas/Chicanos/Chicanas have been killed by cops in recent years (as far as I know, even Arpaio’s sheriff’s department in AZ didn’t kill a single such person) and that might reflect the situation in earlier decades. I have practically never heard of Asian-Americans being killed by cops. And if Native Americans were being killed at a high rate in the 80s and 90s I would have heard (a massive chunk of my major was Native American Studies).

UPDATE 6/9/21 I just found a Democracy Now! story relevant to this. It's about the last 20 years, but there's a small overlap between that and the period I was looking at Catholics and people of color (1969-2005), and it's possible that what I said about this comparison is off a little. Bear in mind that the figure I refer to in item #2 above came from organizers of a Black Lives Matter protest.

Legalize Everyone!! Two new poems

These are two of my poems. For more on how I "write" them, see this. The rest of my poems can be found by clicking on the "lyrics" label at the bottom of this post. There's about seven pages so click on "older posts" at the bottom of the first lyrics page.

I came up with the title for this post since it captured the spirit of the second poem and kind of captured the spirit of  both combined. A few years ago when researching some comments I wanted to make about the need for Sinn Fein to support UNIVERSAL immigration and immigrant rights (in AMERICA) instead of focusing exclusively on Irish-America, I found a column about the differences between being undocumented and Irish on one hand and being undocumented and (for example) Mexican on the other. At the beginning the columnist points out that in 2007 Hilary Clinton held up a t-shirt that said "Legalize the Irish" at a rally. I have never heard of her holding up a t-shirt saying "Legalize the Mexicans" and I doubt she ever will do that.

Anyway, here are the two poems.

“Irish Unity” based on “European Unity” by Brutal Attack, original lyrics are here.

1. It’s about provisional republicans in the 1980s and I guess some of the 1990s (I kind of have a problem with writing poems that are about Sinn Fein- to a very large degree I haven’t done that. In this case at least one line (the last of the first verse) pretty much required me to make it PARTLY about SF (and although I like to think that since the 90s SF has continued to lean towards the left, this is not about TODAY’S SF). It’s about the various members and supporters of the Provisional republican movement.
2. The last line of he 1st verse is referring to the fact that they were using armed struggle, elections, local government battles, propaganda, rioting, and to a moderate or large degree, mass struggle. Lastly they also did a fair amount of work generating support globally but for various reasons, this didn’t reach it’s potential, largely through no fault of SF’s- I write more about that in the last 2/3 of a post here. 
3. The pride referred to in the chorus is, usually, very different from white pride. And It might be a minority of nationalists in the North who would talk about Irish pride, but at least some of them do.
4. The BA is the British Army, the RUC were the police until 2001.
5. I have a theory about one aspect of resolving the conflict there. Although I would gladly support uniting Ireland ASAP instead of waiting for a voting majority there to endorse that, winning Protestants over to the republican and/or nationalist causes (uniting Ireland and/or creating equality in the North) seems very important to me. I think if more of the Protestant  community had a better understanding of what Catholics went through while under British rule in Ireland (in recent decades, for example- INNOCENT civilians being shot by police or soldiers who go unpunished, etc.) and if they knew that often republicans and nationalists were smeared by British and Unionist elements, they would be more open-minded about what Catholics say regarding the need for a United Ireland. On a related note, if the monarchy were opened up to Catholics (they recently reformed it a bit and now allow SPOUSES of Catholics to become King or Queen, but it’s still closed to actual Catholics) I think that might have a similar effect on Protestants in the North. And the British are the ones best positioned to educate the Protestants of N. Ireland and to further reform the monarchy. Lastly, I think the British will move on those two things the more pressure is put on them by the rest of the world, especially the US and Western Europe. That last line in the poem means that via the British (and to some degree directly), supporters of justice and freedom in N. Ireland can educate the Protestants and as that process advances, more and more Protestants will be more open to being educated directly by Northern Catholics. 
(UPDATE 4/22/18 I just remembered that in the 1990 movie "Hidden Agenda" it's asserted that the British produced A LOT of black propaganda (often or always attributed to republican sources) in it's war with the IRA; Although my memory is a little fuzzy, I have read a fair amount about that from better sources than a semi-fictional movie, and I am certain it happened, probably on a large scale; it's likely at least some of that was aimed at the opinions of unionists and if so, some honesty from the British about this stuff could help and demanding it would be justified) (UPDATE 12/12/18 Even if the black propaganda was aimed at British public opinion, that could have indirectly affected the thinking of many unionists in N. Ireland- I'm sure a lot of unionists had friends and relatives in Britain who expressed support for the unionist position and encouraged their friends and relatives in NI to stick with it)
**6. 73% of this version is me, 27% is the original.
7. I give this poem 5 stars out of 5.
8. Besides the line about neanderthals, there’s also the fact that Brutal Attack were British and supported the unionist and British causes in the North of Ireland.
9. UPDATE 5/25/17 I removed the word "broad" from the fourth line of the poem, I think it may have implied that this poem is about what I call the "republican family," including the IRSP, etc. 
10. UPDATE 7/3//17 The third line of the poem- that line could seem a little off if you don't know what i'm thinking- they went on the offensive at some point in the early 1970s and "now" is something like 1972-1994/97 (I'm not sure how to write it better in the context of a poem) so they'd been on the offensive for a while, but the 4th line is 1982-1994/7.

Our movement has been put on the road to revolution
We fight against wealth and for its redistribution
We started with defending our areas, now we’re on the offensive
The republican struggle is strategically comprehensive

Chorus
Irish unity,
Socialism, pride and dignity
Working-class unity,
Protestants and Catholics- one proletarian community

Our grandparents fought for our freedom you see,
But they were successful only to a moderate degree
Ireland was partitioned at the barrel of a gun
By British imperialists and the Unionist scum.

So listen Irish people, listen very carefully,
We must continue to fight against the BA and the RUC
organized we'll win, come hear our patriotic call,
And we’re anti-fascist, they’re just a bunch of neanderthals

It wont be easy it'll be a long hard task,
With the pen, the ballot, and the ski-mask
But we'll pull through, cos truth wins in the end,
And our allies will help the Protestants comprehend

**************

“No Human Being is Illegal” based on “Muslims Out” by Kill, Baby, Kill original lyrics are here.

1. This is about America and kind of specifically the Trump administration.
2. As for the 1st line of the second verse, I don’t think that’s 100% true, but so very close to it that I typed that line like that (I think the only significant exception is that a small minority of the Muslim population practice Female Genital Mutilation and that is against the law here (UPDATE 5/26/17 apparently it's not just a minority of muslims, it's also found among some animists in Africa). That line is also meant to suggest that the danger of Sharia is vastly exaggerated by many people- as horrible as it is, it is nowhere near being implemented here and some expressions of concern about it can potentially fuel anti-Muslim bigotry.
3. To abominate means to find something repugnant.
**4. 80% of this version is me, and 20% is the original.
5. I give this poem 3 stars out of five.

Refugees and immigrants, they come over here.
They were unemployed and/or living in fear.
Raising families, living and enriching America are their only goals.
They deserve our standard of living, but nativism is out of control.

chorus
Bigots out! Bigots out!
Hear the people scream, hear the people shout.
Republicans out! Republicans out!
We’ll defeat you- there won’t be any doubt

Their religions they practice in line with our laws
And they’re guaranteed freedom of, in the first amendment clause
Mosques are opening in many of our cities and towns
ignorant right-wing scum oppose them on bigoted grounds

They aren’t responsible for job losses, that’s the bourgeoisie
And they aren’t voting illegally, they leave that to the GOP
When I think of what Trump’s done so far it makes me abominate
He’s turning America into a fascist state!

Black Lives Matter Is Not A Hate Group

There is an important article about the Black Lives Matter movement here. It's by Richard Cohen, President of the Southern Poverty Law Center, at least one of the top two organizations monitoring the radical right, hate groups in general and some other extremists in America. This article should hopefully convince people skeptical of or hostile towards BLM that the movement is not anti-white. The thing is, the SPLC are saying this because the issues being raised by BLM are legitimate issues of racial injustice and inequality, and I believe that motivation triumphs over the positive relationship that the SPLC has with lots of police departments- that is, the SPLC cannot be written off as anti-cop, because, for better or worse, they overwhelmingly AREN'T anti-cop. But they are very much against hate and inequality.

UPDATE 3/1/20 The Anti-Defamation League also says fairly or very positive things about BLM.

Tom

UPDATE 7/19/16 I almost forgot to include something. There's an article about support in Ireland for BLM. It's here. Although I'm not half as familiar with it as I should be, Irishcentral seems pretty mainstream in Irish-america, which makes the part of the article about the protests in Ireland a pleasant surprise.

Sinn Fein, Irish-Americans, and People of Color in America

Below is a letter I would have submitted to AP/RN (SF's old paper) in the past, but AP (their new one) doesn’t publish letters so I’m doing it here and also on a politics discussion board here (UPDATE 10/17/23 That discussion forum seems to be dead). It is addressed to SF but I would love to see everyone else also take part in the discussion. The web-site for Friends of SF in the US is here. A few very relevant posts are here. And one more where I talk about the bigger picture of SF and America is here.



Although I infrequently express some criticism of SF, I am mostly a supporter and since 1997 I have occasionally had a small to moderate degree of success supporting SF and/or the nationalist community in general. For example in 1999 I was fairly involved with bringing Rita O’Hare to speak on the CU-Boulder campus.

I have a suggestion about your work in America. On one hand, I am partly motivated to support republicanism because I’m Irish-American. However I know or know of a LOT of Americans who aren’t Irish and have done a fair amount or a lot to support SF and/or the nationalist community in general (for example, Bill Fletcher Jr. who has held senior positions in the labor movement and is the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum; or, the well-known professor, Angela Davis). With that in mind, I was disappointed to see that on the “About Us” page of the Friends of SF USA site, you refer only to Irish-America and the links page only links to SF or Irish-American groups. Because of this and some other similar things about your allies here in America I’m concerned it will deter at least some, probably most and maybe all, interested people of color from getting involved in one way or another (i.e. joining Irish Northern Aid) or even from just educating themselves about the conflict and the Peace Process. This focus I believe unintentionally denies the contributions made by people of color in the past and present and implies that in the present and future Irish-American contributions are more important than those of people of color.

I do know that in Ireland SF is INCREDIBLY anti-racist and that you and your American supporters have occasionally done things to reach out to people of color here, but on that you need to do more, or at least use more inclusive language.

Besides being the right thing to do, it will help in some other important ways:
1) With a good response from people of color, this may have an impact on racism among Irish-Americans. It might also work like that with nationalists and republicans in Ireland.
2) Greater diversity in, for example, INA will also probably attract more white allies, further affecting Irish-American racism.
3) There will be more supporters of SF and/or the nationalist community in general.

Although I believe that I’ve covered a fair amount of this subject, I’d be interested in discussing these issues further.

Sincerely,

Tom Shelley
Boulder, Colorado USA

P.S. I have a true story about this. In the late 1990s I was circulating a petition addressed to the US Government about the former Volunteers facing extradition or deportation. I took it one day to an anti-prisons protest and at one point went up to two men, one white, one black. I told them what the petition was about and the white guy said “I’m Irish-American, but I don’t support the IRA” and declined to sign it. The black guy said “I’ll sign it.”

Irish-Americans, N. Ireland, and YDS

I’m going to do one post here that’s a new sort of post for me, there might be some more on the same theme in the next weeks and/or months. To a small degree it’ll involve me getting a little personal (something I have overwhelmingly avoided while doing this blog), but will be mostly political and in-line with the themes of this blog. And for now I will provide only the most relevant information, I will give basically zero background and won’t mention other things related to the topic. I am doing this because I believe there are a lot of people out there who really don’t like me, mostly because of a failure on my part to explain things.

In June of 2001, I was a very active member of the Young Democratic Socialists, youth wing of the Democratic Socialists of America. I had been a member of DSA since 1994-1995 and was often active. During those first seven years I was involved to some degree with about 25 events. Not counting about five events (i.e. events in Denver, or in the dorms) there was an average of 65 people at each event I organized. (I resigned my membership in DSA in May of 2002) I think that is basically all the background you need.

In June 2001, Sinn Fein overtook the Social Democratic and Labour Party as the largest party of the nationalist community. This was in two elections on the same day- local elections using Single Transferable Vote and Proportional Representation and British parliamentary elections that are First Past the Post. I sent something about the results to the YDS-Discussion list. Someone responded and asked if YDS had a position on N. Ireland.

I’m going to skip some details at this point. I said I would type something up (I was a member of the leadership at that point). After a month, with a fair amount of discussion and a fairly (possibly very) good job done by me, I withdrew it. There were too many problems with it.

The main point of me typing this up is to explain one of the arguments I offered in support of YDS taking a position on N. Ireland (of course that position would have to be more or less (possibly very less) in support of Irish Republicanism for this to work). I felt like the good that could be done with such a resolution (encouraging people to work on that issue to one degree or another (from one person signing a petition that’s going around to a YDS chapter doing an event on this issue)) was obvious, so I unfortunately didn’t say much if anything at all about that (I said a lot about the background to the conflict, but not, “this will help...”). One of the reasons that I DID offer was that it would help us attract a certain part of the population- Irish-Americans (depending on what the resolution said, we’d probably be talking about people who are more or less Sinn Fein supporters). Without further explanation by me, this must have sounded questionable, and that’s probably what a lot of YDSers thought; or thought it was even worse than questionable. Here are some things I should have mentioned:

*I was thinking overwhelmingly about I-As who are already liberal (liberals who are in transition towards the left), progressive or left-wing. (UPDATE 11/8/20 My thoughts about the word "liberal" are here; my brief definition of a liberal is someone to the left of the Clintons and to the right of Sen. Elizabeth Warren)

*There’s a good minority of those Americans who work on this from the right perspective who are not Irish-American, and about 1/2 of such people are people of color. I was also thinking it would attract some of them. For more of my thoughts on that, see this, this, and this one is also relevant.

*Going back to attracting people interested in N. Ireland, which would at least often if not mostly mean Irish-Americans, I should explain that even with the latter group, I don’t see the harm, although I can sort of understand people thinking I’m an idiot or an ass-hole. But YDS and DSA wanted to attract more members (**which would include attracting people to an anti-racist agenda**) and I saw that as the icing on the cake of making an important statement on an important issue.

*On a related note, the issue of N. Ireland can be used to drag Irish-Americans towards the Left (talk with them about how N. Ireland is not the only place with bigotry, national oppression, etc.). That would be most successful if it involved a left-wing group that appreciated the importance of the N. Ireland issue ( I explain why it’s important for American political activists in this post (starting about 1/3 down with the paragraph starting "Was S. Africa much worse?").

I think that should clarify what I meant.

Tom

UPDATE 2/6/13 About a month after my proposed statement was discussed among YDSers online, I spoke briefly with two senior members of DSA about this. I didn't say much, certainly not everything i've typed above, but I said something that made my idea sound better than when I first mentioned it in that online YDS discussion. One of these senior members agreed with me, and maybe the other one too, at least to a small degree. 

UPDATE 11/6/20 A related and much higher-quality post about my interest in Irish-American activism is here.

The Brown and the Green Part II

I had a weird feeling with the last post when I said that I was twisting the lyrics, turning them on their head (see this for an explanation). The thing is, the original is racist (crucially, AMERICAN) and the altered version is Irish republican. Before I posted it, I had sent it out to someone, and although I actually made one tiny change, I was reluctant until now to make another change. First, I'm going to add the word "fascism," second I think I'll explain something about me taking racist songs and turning them into republican songs.

1. Almost all the stuff I've done that is racist turned republican is from British Nazis. They hate republicans.
2. I did one song by band from another part of Europe, I think they're Dutch, it contains an anti-right-wing line.
3. Almost all the stuff that's republican contains either anti-fascist or anti-right or left-wing or anti-bigotry stuff.
4. The only exception to that, which I'm going to fix right now, is the most recent song "Belfast Republican" based on a song by Final War. I just saw a picture of the band, and although it's probably non-political, one of them was wearing a shirt with a shamrock. Between that and their enthusiasm for violence, there's not a bad chance they are supporters of republicanism.
5. Final War are probably still very fond of British Nazis (they covered a Skrewdriver song). In general, I figure of those people on the American racist right who take an interest at all, I think it breaks down like this:
A: Some large minority support physical force republicanism. Probably all the Irish-Americans and some of their buddies. The odds are high that they don't support Sinn Fein if they have even the slightest idea of how SF feels about them, and they are probably unlikely to support the cease-fire (what kind of fascist supports a cease-fire when there are battles to be won?).
B: Some large minority take some kind of middle-ground position. In recent decades that movement has become very internationalist, in a twisted sense of the word. They have a concept called "no more brothers wars," meaning no more fighting between white nations (they'll fight/kill you if you're white but you disagree with them or look at them the wrong way). In that sense many of them just condemn the conflict. Some evidence for this is the song "Divided by Hatred" by the popular American White Power band Bound For Glory.
C: Some large minority support the British/Unionist position. What was for most of the last 25 years the largest American Nazi skinhead group, the Hammerskin Nation, has or has had a chapter in N. Ireland and I will have to see some good evidence to stop me from assuming that they're Unionists. At some point in the last 10 years, someone who it sounded like was one of the top 30 people in the American racist movement is from N. Ireland and used to be associated with the Ulster Defense Association. Tom Metzger, who in the last 30 years has been one of the top 3 people in that movement, was scheduled to speak at an anti-IRA rally in Britain but the authorities wouldn't let him in the country. They probably love Skrewdriver and Ian Stuart, and they loved the loyalist paramilitaries. Also, since I've done a couple poems based on stuff by No Remorse, I should say that they're British, too.

So, to a large degree, taking American racist songs and turning them into republican is turning them on their heads. Also, beyond certain countries (Ireland, America, Australia, Canada, possibly New Zealand) it's a safe bet fascists, even those who admire the tactics and organization of the IRA, do not support republicanism, as their links with British Nazis are probably stronger than their links with Irish Nazis.


On a related note... THE BROWN AND THE RED.

About 4/5 of them I take politically offensive lyrics and twist them into more or less the opposite of what they were originally. Almost all of those poems are based on white supremacist lyrics. Often I turn them into something very much in conflict with what the original was saying. Sometimes, not so much. The largest group of poems like that are those about N. Ireland and based on AMERICAN Nazi songs.. With the American ones, there is a decent chance that the band members are in support of Irish republicanism. I would say the same thing about other countries with a large Irish-descended population. As far as bands from countries that have no significant Irish population and that are not the UK, I imagine their white supremacists go with Ian Stuart’s position on N. Ireland, which was in support of the unionist and British causes.

The thing is, with the bands in countries with a lot of the Irish diaspora, I usually put something anti- racist/homophobic/anti-semitism/fascist in there to twist it. Sometimes all I do is put something pro-Left or anti-Right. The white supremacists overwhelmingly identify with the right, and the left is overwhelmingly against the bigotry of the white supremacists. So something pro-Left or anti-Right is twisting the lyrics.

UPDATE 4/5/12

I somehow forgot when I added the “The Red and The Brown” section, that a lot of people, including a lot of liberals and some progressives, need more information than I offered to understand that pro-Left stuff is hostile towards the Nazis. This is because the other way to refer to fascists is: “national socialist.” People frequently say the Nazis were on the Left, or that they were half on the Left and half on the Right. Some reasons why the Nazis were much more on the Right than on the Left are here.

Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey

This is my first blog. Not sure exactly what I 'll be doing, basically offering my thoughts on various political issues, some history, etc. I'm an American democratic socialist (democratic marxist/left-wing social-democratic), and more or less an Irish Republican (I largely support Sinn Fein).

I'm not sure it was the best idea to name the blog after a living person (thank god she's still with us!!) (it was originally named after Bernadette devlin-McAliskey) and I'll change it if she requessts it, but my ultimate favorite hero is Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey, whose politics largely (not totally) reflect what this blog will be about- socialism, republicanism, and opposition to bigotry (we disagree about SF and the GFA and I doubt she uses the term "social democrat" to describe herself and there's probably some more disagreements when you get into the details and/or look around the world).

the Wikipedia page about her is here.

She was a major leader of the Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland, and was with the Peoples' Democracy, a student, militant and left-wing section of the CRM. She took part in the 1969 Belfast-Derry march by PD (there's more about that in the first 3rd of this), which was based on the Selma-Montgomery march in the American South. Over 3-4 days they were repeatedly attacked by loyalist/unionist (Protestant/pro-British) militants and given a hero's welcome in Derry.

In April 1969, she was elected as a Unity candidate to the Westminster Parliament from Mid-Ulster. In Aug. of 1969, when the police, followed by a loyalist mob, tried invading the Catholic Bogside neighborhood in Derry, they were repulsed by local youth, with Devlin providing great encouragement. She ended up serving a brief jail sentence for her role.

She remained an active leader of the civil rights movement and was present at the Bloody Sunday shootings in Jan. 1972. The next day, in Parliament, when she wasn't allowed to speak despite having witnessed the event under discussion and a British Minister justified the shootings, she hit him.

She lost her seat in the 1974 Westmisnter election (she stood as an Independent Socialist) when the Social Democratic and Labour Party ran a candidate and split the anti-Unionist vote, allowing a Unionist to win.

In 1974 she helped found the Irish Republican Socialist Party with Seamus Costello. She left a year later when she felt that the armed wing, the Irish National Liberation Army, was being given priority. However she spoke fondly of Costello when he was killed in 1977.

In 1979 she ran for the European Parliament, largely as a supporter of IRA and INLA prisoners who were demanding status as prisoners of war. In 1981, largely because of her work in support of the prisoners, loyalist paramilitaries almost killed her and her husband (she was one of very top leaders of the movement to support the prisoners). For more on the prisoners issue, see the middle third of this.

In 1988, when a coalition of people who had been involved in the civil rights movement in the late sixties organized to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the civil rights movement, she wrote and narrated a documentary called "OFF OUR KNEES: 1968-1988 From Civil Rights to National Liberation."

More recently she has become fairly (or perhaps very) critical of Sinn Fein and is an opponent, on republican and socialist, not militarist grounds, of the Good Friday Agreement. She continues to be active in various efforts of republican, socialist, and generally progressive causes (anti-raccism, feminism, gay rights, etc.). (I largely support SF and the GFA, but she does not).

In addition to the above, what I also greatly admire about her is that when she first came to the United States (and on subsequent visits) she continued to support progressive causes. Most importantly, even though her first visit involved fund-raising (mostly) from Irish-Americans in 1969, she stood up against racism consistently. For example, when she was given the key to the city of New York, she passed it on to the Black Panther Party. On another trip here, in 1971, she met with Angela Davis in jail. In 2003 the Bush administration had her deported, because, as Anthony McIntyre put it, she knew too much and said it too well.

UPDATE 6/2/14 I left out two other examples: 1) at an event in Boston on her first trip here, there was some disturbance caused by opponents of integration in America and she made it clear how she felt about that, and 2) when speaking in Washington DC on her first trip, she pointed out to the audience that there was a huge disconnect between how black the district was and how white the audience was. (there are more examples on the wikipedia page, which is probably accurate)

Anyway, that's a good intro to one of Ireland's top 3 republican-socialists ever. Like I said, I named the blog after her because it will mostly reflect her politics.