Taking Down Columbus: Three New Poems

I explain about my poetry here. The second is based on a song I agree with. The other two are not. The third one is about anti-racist skinheads. You might want to read the notes about that kind of poem here.

All the poems are available by clicking on the "lyrics" label at the bottom.

1. Indigenous Peoples Day. Opposition to Columbus Day Parades.
2. A Letter From Ardoyne To British Labour. An appeal by a Northern Ireland Catholic to the British Labour Party.
3. Taking Down the Boneheads. Anti-racist skinheads.

“Indigenous Peoples Day” based on “Freedom” by Brutal Attack. Original lyrics are here.

1. This is about opposition to Columbus Day parades, from the perspective of a white ally, but not me (frankly, I LOVE those parades- just joking; the thing is, I practically never or never write from my perspective when I use the first person in my poems; in this case, the last line of the first verse is not something I have done)). For multiple reasons, you should read several paragraphs here, beginning a little more than 1/2 way down, starting with the paragraph “For many reasons…” and ending with the paragraph “For whatever it’s worth….” You should definitely read some of the material here.
2. Although this is about such parades nation-wide, in Denver at least, the group organizing the parade is or has been the Sons of Columbus (there seem to be groups using that phrase throughout the country) (UPDATE 3/27/20 It's been 15-20 years and I was wrong- in Denver it was the Sons of Italy, but the other phrase, in connection with the word parade, IS found all over the internet).
3. When Columbus was governor of Hispanola (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic), at least 99% of the indigenous population was killed.
4. I mentioned Irish-Americans for three reasons:

A: We’re awesome.

B: In the last 20 years or so, frequently local organizations of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (an exclusively male, Catholic and Irish-American group) have marched in Columbus Day Parades (see the very end of an article here). They’re more or less conservative (some are economically progressive) and this just pisses me off even more.

C: I think that sometimes Sinn Fein should intervene in American political fights considering A) how internationalist they are and B) how much time they spend here. Considering how Columbus Day parades stand for something worse than Orange Order parades, and the fact that many of their supporters are MARCHING in Columbus Day parades, I think it’s one of the few times that SF should speak out, IN AMERICA, about injustice here.

5. This isn’t written from MY perspective. But here’s a little story relevant to the last line of the first verse. After the controversy about Ward Churchill broke, I attended a rally and/or protest in support of him. I was wearing an anti-Columbus t-shirt and some College Republican said that Columbus was his hero. I explained what I mentioned above about Hispanola and the GOPer said that when he moved into his apartment he wiped out the “indigenous population of spiders.” I should have explained how offensive it is to compare that with killing brown-skinned people, but I just called him a motherfucker. He asked if I wanted to fight and then speculated that I don’t believe in fighting (I’m not a pacifist). I just stood there looking at the rest of the crowd until he’d been silent for 2-3 minutes and then I walked away.
6. As far as the FBI, in the 1970s the American Indian Movement was targeted for destruction by the FBI (exclusively or almost exclusively on Pine Ridge). On the Pine Ridge reservation, 1973-1976, the US government and its corrupt reservation allies were responsible for the murder of at least 69 AIM members and supporters (according to the chapter “AIM Casualties on Pine Ridge” in Ward Churchill’s 1994 book “Indians Are Us?”). The population of that reservation I would estimate was, at the time, about 20,000 (I can’t find anything for that, and according to the US Census Bureau via Wikipedia, in 2017 there were almost 20,000 people there, and between the fact that it was likely 1/2 of 1/3 that in 1975 and the fact that I have found some confusing facts indicating that it may be higher than 20,000 today, I’m just going to go with 20,000). In The Troubles, five years that saw 200+ deaths each year were 1972-1976 and since 1972 saw 480 deaths in the conflict, I looked at the years 1972-1975. During that time, almost exactly 422 members of the Nationalist community, including members of republican paramilitaries (including three from the South who were killed in the North; I mention that because I’m sure some AIM members on Pine Ridge were not locals), were killed by either the security forces or loyalist paramilitaries. Now, when considering population figures, if things were equal in terms of these sorts of deaths, the figure for N. Ireland would have been 1,725 (for good reason, I looked at just Pine Ridge and on the other hand, all of N. Ireland). I should also point out that AIM was not as militant as the IRA, and as far as I know, killed none or almost none of their opponents and probably ZERO civilians, and were not blowing up buildings. If they had been more aggressive and/or had killed civilians, I can only imagine how many of them and their supporters would have been killed (there’s evidence that around 90% of the Nationalist community, including republicans, supported republican paramilitaries TO ONE DEGREE OR ANOTHER, see the middle third of this for support of internees in the 1970s and hunger-strikers in 1981). UPDATE 12/19/20 I just got an email from Churchill saying that the population of Pine ridge at the time was about 10,000, so instead of 1,725 the hypothetical figure for N. Ireland is 3, 450.
7. In the last 25 years I celebrated the 4th 3-6 times. A) I have some slightly patriotic tendencies and B) I was hanging out with friends who were more or less liberal or my Mom who was (overall) fairly liberal. But I’m sure that most white allies who oppose these parades don’t celebrate the 4th and I agree that some of what it is symbolic of is fucked up shit.
8. Columbus may have been Italian, although according to Ward Churchill there’s some disagreement about that. MANY Italian-Americans (around 60-90 years ago), in response to bigotry against them, started talking up the idea that Columbus was Italian and began celebrating him. At a 2000 talk in support of a protest of the Denver Columbus Day parade, Ward Churchill said that there SHOULD be a celebration of Italian-America, but based on pasta, not Columbus. Sacco and Vanzetti were Italian immigrants and anarchists convicted of murder in 1921 during a wave of anti-immigrant, anti-Italian, and anti-anarchist hysteria in America. It’s widely agreed that there’s plenty of reason to believe they were innocent.
9. Police body cams make it less likely that they’ll do fucked up shit. There should be some kind of serious penalty for the officers and/or department if they claim that the footage isn’t available (it wasn’t turned on, it broke, the computer doesn’t work, whatever their excuse is).
10. **80% of this version is me, 20% is the original.
11. This is dedicated to my late friend Chris O’Laughlin, who died of cancer in 2002. He was very progressive, and an opponent of these parades, and was Irish-American and Italian-American (and probably proud of both- I know he was an Irish Republican). RIP Chris.
12. UPDATE 3/27/20 I'm not real familiar with to what degree American Indians live communally today, especially those who live off the reservation, but A) I think that continues to one degree or another today and B) only about 150 years ago around 1/3-1/2 DEFINITELY lived communally and C) 300 years before that, they all definitely did and D) it's something that many Indians, to one degree or another, aspire to.
13. UPDATE 3/28/20 In case I need to clarify this, here it is. I have said, explicitly, in at least two other places on my blog, that I would feel better if there hadn't been any European settlement here at all. I mentioned westward expansion  for two reasons: A) A LOT of the time people focus on criticizing "Manifest Destiny" (the idea behind westward expansion) and B) the settlement of the 13 colonies was not something done by the government I recognize as mine, it was done by the British. But I DO feel bad about the settlement of the 13 colonies.
14. UPDATE 4/9/20 I imply in the poem that all American Indians want the parades banned. I'm not sure that's totally true. About 10 years ago an Indian I was friends with said she wasn't into the idea of blocking the parade. That might extend to getting it banned. But among Indians who oppose blocking it, there might be some or many who are sort of okay with it being banned by the city. In Denver I had been to a few other protests organized by the group (or the main group) that organized the protest of the parade (Colorado AIM) and was slightly familiar with the Denver American Indian community and I think that maybe around 1/3 or 1/2 of Indians in that area identified with them (most of the others hated them). It's possible that if the others opposed blocking the parade, for some of them it was because CO-AIM got in front of opposition to the parade at the very beginning, and like I said, a lot of Indians in Denver really don't like them (that might be because they’re fairly comfortable, in theory and at least once in practice, with militancy, and without being Marxist or social-democratic or anarchist, CO-AIM could be described, to one degree or another, as leftist). And if some people would say that the issue of freedom of assembly would indicate opposition to the parade being banned, I would say that it seems pretty popular among Indians to tell sports teams what they can do with their “Indian” mascots. The Native American Rights Fund, a group more moderate than CO-AIM, supported at least one lawsuit and supports creating a legislatively created and empowered committee in CO that would have the power of the law to approve or reject the mascots of public schools (including higher education). The streets are public, and Columbus Day is probably more offensive to American Indians than “Indian” mascots are. In any case, something like 99% of American Indians don't like the parades.

When the Sons of Italy want to march the city won’t ban it
But take a look at the genocide, Columbus began it
Now they’re afraid of us because we tell the truth
To the masses of white people, including the Irish-American youth
When I think about America’s westward expansion I feel some shame
But when I stand to make a speech the police ask me for my name

Chorus
Freedom from genocide is the very least they deserve
Capitalism and Imperialism joined forces, two things we should not conserve
The White man can try to suppress Indians with their police and the FBI
Indians will emerge victors- and fuck the 4th of July!

Communal Nations with a lot of respect for the land       
They’ll keep working until Columbus Day parades are banned
We don’t hate Italians-Americans and remember Sacco and Vanzetti
As Ward said, let’s celebrate Italian-America with a ton of spaghetti

So, let’s help promote the next protest against those parades
If we have to, we’ll keep doing this for many decades
We want a country free of bigotry, and based on community
We believe in police body cams and equal opportunity

**********

“A Letter From Ardoyne To British Labour” based on “Body Count” by Body Count (Ice-T’s heavy metal band). Original lyrics are here.

1. I removed a lot of Ice-T’s non lyrical talk, except for the very beginning.
2. Ardoyne is a nationalist/republican neighborhood in North Belfast.
3. This is basically in late 1970 and 1971, after British Labour were removed from power by the voters and yet, close enough to the beginning of the conflict that you could say the republican struggle was still growing, and when Orange is definitely the right word because Stormont, the Unionist-dominated regional devolved Parliament and Government, still existed.
4. As far as I can tell, there are some pro-unionist tendencies in BL, some pro-republican tendencies, some pro-SDLP tendencies (although officially they’re sister organizations, the SDLP doesn’t belong in the Socialist International and I think a lot of people in BL know that (that post also explains how, setting aside the question of the IRA’s campaign, getting behind the SDLP was not getting behind an effective path to equality, justice and freedom for the Nationalist population)), and some other tendencies (i.e. some wanted Labour to organize in the North, but British Labour, not Irish Labour).
5. The red, white and blue, in this poem and not the original lyrics, refers to the BRITISH flag.
6. Partition is the division of Ireland.
7. Orange is the color of anti-Catholic bigotry in the Anglo-Irish context.
8. The BA is the British Army.
9. AKs are AK-47s which are automatic rifles.
10. RA stands for “Republican Army” and is pronounced “raw.”
11. Loyalist refers to the paramilitaries that focused mostly on killing Catholic civilians because they were Catholic.
12. Squaddie is a British soldier.
13. I choose North Belfast because, behind West Belfast, it saw the most deaths in the conflict (compared to the other 3 quarters of Belfast, Derry, and Counties Armagh, Down, Antrim, Derry, Fermanagh, and Tyrone). But I think it was worse for Catholics in North Belfast than those in West Belfast because it was a mixture of Nationalist and Unionist areas, whereas the Nationalist areas of West Belfast were all grouped together.
14. **25% of this version is me, 75% is the original.
15. I have calculated that only about .3% of the IRA's operations resulted in civilian death.

You know, sometimes I sit at home, you know, and I watch the BBC
And I wonder what it would be like to live in some place like
You know, Manchester, Liverpool
You know, where the peelers come and got your cat outta the tree
All your friends die of old age
But you see.. I live in North Belfast
And unfortunately... SHIT AIN'T LIKE THAT!!
It's real fucked up!

God damn, what brothers and sisters gotta do
To get a message through
To the red and white and blue
What? I gotta die, before you realize
I was a person with open eyes?
Partition’s insane, while you drink champagne
And I'm living under Orange reign
The BA fears Irish people with AKs
Here the ‘RA's got ten stashed With a case of hand grenades

You'd know what to do
If loyalists killed your kid on the way to school
Or a BA sniper shot your kid in a rural barnyard
Shit would hit the fan motherfucker and it would hit real hard
I hear it every night, another gun fight
The struggle mounts,
on with the IRA’s squaddie Body Count

God damn what the Irish gotta do
To get a message through
To the red and white and you?
What? I gotta die before you realize
I was a Catholic with open eyes?
Orange society’s insane, while you drink champagne
And I'm living under Imperialistic reign
Don't you hear the loyalist guns?
You stupid, dumb British Labour politicians!!

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

“Taking on the Boneheads” based on “Tearing Down the Flags” by Razor’s Edge. Original lyrics are here.

1.  This is about anti-racist skinheads. They might not exist anymore, but that’s not going to stop me from doing poems like this.
2. Bonehead is an anti-racist term for nazi skinhead.
3. Cardiff (Wales) is the home of Roddy Moreno and the Oi! band The Oppressed are based there. Moreno is the most popular anti-racist skinhead in the world.
4. Las Vegas is where in 1998, two anti-racist skinheads were killed by Nazis.
5. A large town in the Czech Republic is where, in 2008, an anti-racist skinhead was killed by a Nazi Skinhead.
6. Perth (Australia) rhymes with Earth.
7. Anti-racist skinheads are embarrassed (or something like that) by the existence of Nazis in their culture.
8. SHARP stands for “SkinHead Against Racial Prejudice.”
9. Fash is short for fascists.
10. Suss is a skinhead/British word for intelligence (or something close to that).
11. Around 95% of skinheads are working-class and even when it’s warped by fascism, have a strong sense of working-class pride.
12. The idea is that, since the skinhead culture started in connection with Black English people, if you’re a racist you can’t be a skinhead.
13. Bread is a term for economic justice. Although the average SHARP is only sort of political and only sort of progressive, Nazi skinheads are, for better or worse, very political and have a (racially narrow) belief in economic justice.
14. Ian Stuart was the opposite of Moreno, and died in 1993 in a hilarious car accident.
15. I think the fash (and, sort of separately, the Christian Right) try to ignore the way they have a lot in common with the Muslim fundamentalist Right (if you think I have a racist double standard, see the first third of this).
16. I don’t believe in Hell, but if it does exist Ian Stuart and Al-Qaeda members are there.
17. A patch on, for example, a bomber jacket (popular with skinheads).
18. Docs are Doc Martens, boots that almost all skinheads (and some non-skinhead fans of music that inspires moshing) wear (it’s possible that in the last 20 years, a LOT of other people are wearing them, too).
19. **63% of this poem is me, 37% is the original.

They wear their swastika patches, their symbols full of hate
Don't they f*cking realize, that their defeat awaits
We're taking on the boneheads, all across the Earth
In Cardiff, Las Vegas, the Czech Republic and Perth

(Chorus)
We're taking down the boneheads- we'll banish Skinhead’s shame.
We're taking down the boneheads- SHARP is our name.
We're taking down the boneheads- we’re never giving in.
We're taking down the boneheads- we’re gonna f*cking win.

Fash still marching on our streets, they haven't learned a thing.
Don't they f*cking realize, our fists will swing and they’ll swing and they’ll swing
They're just a bunch of wankers, who haven’t got the suss
To the skinhead culture and the working-class they’re treasonous

They shave their heads and wear Docs but they aren’t real skinheads
They don’t realize you can’t promote hate and successfully push for bread
We're taking down the boneheads, and we hate Ian Stuart real well.
So they can join Al-Qaeda, in the fascist motherfuckers hell

Sinn Fein and anti-Semitism

Recently I spent a day typing a lot of updates on this blog relevant to Sinn Fein and anti-semitism. Then, about 8 hours later when I woke up, one of the first things I saw on the Web was a story about a SF TD (MP in the South) being accused of anti-Semitism. I couldn’t fucking believe it. First, there are two more stories you might want to read (if you feel like subbing to the Irish-Times) here and here.

I was of course curious what exactly the tweets had said. Even though SF (and possibly Cronin as an individual) seems to be admitting that they were anti-semitic, I wanted to know because supporters of the Palestinians are often falsely accused of being anti-Semitic but even some of the progressive ones ARE anti-Semitic. So I found the Irish news site that broke the story. An update to their original story is here. The story that has the details of the controversial tweets is here.

First, the first article linked to says:


“She had previously made the news this past weekend when the Sunday Times reported that she had accused Israeli intelligence of interfering in the recent UK election to prevent the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister. Mr. Corbyn himself had been accused of anti-semitism in the run-in to that election.”

I haven’t followed the anti-Semitism controversy in the Labour Party very much. I DO know that one of the most outspoken critics (in terms of how big they think the problem is) of anti-Semitism in the party is also VERY supportive of the Palestinians. On the other hand, a friend who is a very solid opponent of anti-Semitism says that the accusations are pro-Israel nonsense. I wouldn’t be surprised if Israel IS involved, but at the same time the allegation about the Mossad mentioned above comes from someone who I think IS or WAS an anti-Semite.

Why do I think she is or was an anti-Semite? Let me quote and discuss each of the actually or allegedly anti-Semitic tweets.


“Israel have taken Nazism to a new level, by showing they can get away with it.”

This is the most solidly anti-Semitic of the tweets. Calling Israel Nazi is anti-Semitic. First, a friend points out that some Jews do that. That’s different. It’s fairly comparable to black people in America using the n-word. Here are my thoughts about this:

1. It's not too different from calling people of color in America racist.
2. You can call Jewish people fascists, but not Nazis.
3. If you want to say that Israeli policy towards the Palestinians could shift towards the genocidal, fine, but don't call them Nazis (for info about how horrible Israeli policy towards the Palestinians is, see this and many of the articles you’ll find here).
4. If you absolutely insist on comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, write a detailed, argumentative, well-documented 10,000 word essay, not a tweet.

From the Gript story: “Deputy Cronin once responded to a message containing an image of a large number of monkeys sitting at computers by saying that she had thought it was an image of the inside of the Israeli embassy.”

The Israeli embassy represents a fairly democratic state and the tweet was four years before the controversial “Jewish Nation State” law was adopted. Although this fairly democratic state is also engaged in something colonial, it, for better or worse is defined as the Jewish State. Many would say that’s the problem and I kind of agree (I will soon do a post about that and related matters (UPDATE 3/8/20 That post is here) and for those of you who think I am a hypocrite because I’m an Irish republican, see the brief essay at the bottom of this post), but it is 80% Jewish and although, yes this is also a problem, the State is politically even more Jewish in terms of who has power. The Jewish population in Israel is roughly between 35% and 44% of the world’s Jewish population and probably another 30%-38% (that is, a large majority of Jewish-Americans) identify with Israel (and probably 50-75% of the rest of the world’s Jewish population identify with Israel). And the best Cronin can do is the tweet described above. It shows a complete lack of willingness to take the Jewish population seriously and treat their representatives with some respect. An embassy is more a representative of a State (in the European sense) than a Government. So it’s not Netanyahu she’s making fun of. I am saying something similar to what I said in item #4 when I discussed calling Israel Nazi, but I certainly find substantive criticism of Israel much more acceptable than calling it Nazi, it's just that this tweet was not substantive criticism.

The next example of anti-Semitism is something she  re-tweeted that I almost dismissed as misunderstood by her critics- I thought it couldn’t have been anti-Semitic because it criticized Hitler. It said, according to Gript, that Hitler was a pawn of the Jewish-founded Rothschild bank. Not only was the bank owned by a Jewish family, it is frequently referred to by people who are definitely anti-semites. The thing is, this claim is saying that Jews were responsible for the Holocaust or POSSIBLY is saying that the Holocaust didn’t happen.

According to Gript.ie and some of the screen shots they show in their article, she believes strongly that banks control the world and at least once mentions a bank owned by the Rothschild family. She also tweeted that “those wars were instigated and funded by banks.” There is an anti-Semitic stereotype of bankers as Jewish and Jews as bankers. I don’t know what the stats are about religion and bankers, but if you look at a 2016 Pew Research Center poll, only 44% of Jewish-American households had a yearly income of $100,000 or more. Yes, that is higher than other religious groups, but how many bankers don’t earn A LOT more than that? I mean, if a banker’s household is earning $100,000 a year, they must be a a horrible banker. And even if we focus on those Jews earning as much as successful bankers earn, what about all of them who get rich from various other businesses such as retail, manufacturing, real estate, Hollywood, the media, etc? Also, you need a college degree to be a banker, and to one extent or another (depending on the bank and how senior the position is) you need a graduate degree, and I’m sure many people at the very top have a Ph.D. According to the PRC, in 2016, 59% of Jewish-Americans had a college degree. Ahead of them were Hindus at 77%, and Unitarian Universalists at 67%; tied with Jews were Anglicans at 59% and right below them were Episcopalians at 56%, and of course all the other religious groups and Atheists were below that. First, like I said, to one extent or another you need a graduate degree to be a banker. Second, finance is only one of roughly 100-150 degrees available in America. Anti-Semites would say that there is some kind of strong integration among Jewish people that connects the bankers and the non-banker (ridicuously vast) majority. Even during the Nazi era there was division among Jews. A minority wanted to fight, another minority collaborated or supported collaboration or advocated for it, and most were passive. Look at voting in America. In recent decades about 2/3 of those who vote vote Democratic, about 1/3 vote Republican, and although Jewish voter turnout is a little higher than it is with the general population, that still leaves a lot of Jews staying home. And on Israel there are similar divisions. In 2013 (according to the PRC), only 70% said they feel “very” or “somewhat” attached to Israel. According to a 2020 poll of Jewish-Americans (described in an article here (the Times of Israel is only slightly pro-Israel and publishes so many articles that expose what I call Israeli Apartheid that about half the articles I link to from my post about that are in the TI)) commissioned by the Jewish Electoral Institute:

Only 32% of Jewish voters characterized Israel as “one of the most important” issues to them in the upcoming election. Of far greater concern to Jews are healthcare, medicare and social security, and gun safety.

Although 91% said they were generally pro-Israel, 56% identified themselves as “critical” of the Netanyahu government, a government which had the support until recently of a majority of MKs (MPs) and which might possibly be returned to power with a similar majority of MKs.

The article describes some more results of the poll, in reference to Trump:

Fifty-one percent said they supported his Israel policies; 39% said they didn’t. A slightly larger majority (52%) said they approved of his decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty of the Golan Heights.

The US Jewish community appeared much more divided on Trump’s decision to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which roiled the White House’s relations with the Palestinians. Whereas 45% approved of the move, 42% said they were opposed to it.

American Jews are similarly split on a dimension of the president’s peace plan that would allow Israel to annex the existing West Bank settlements: 44% approve of that policy and 40% disapprove of it.

Although this is anecdotal, I’d like to address the idea that Jews with a lower income somehow benefit from the wealth of those bankers who ARE Jewish. I have lived in Boulder, CO my entire life. As you may know, Boulder is an expensive place to live, it has always been more expensive than the county that surrounds it, and recently it has gotten very expensive and the supply of affordable housing is insufficient. I think that most of the Jewish people I have known who either work in Boulder or who I went to high school with, live/lived outside Boulder and I’m pretty sure it’s for financial reasons. 

I’m not sure if I just addressed some of what leads people to become anti-Semitic, but I think I may have.

Crucially, an aspect of this is the idea that bankers are central to capitalism. I’m not an economist or business school graduate, but I think the role of bankers in capitalism is slightly if not significantly exaggerated by people who generally like capitalism but (probably) don’t like Jews. The bankers are coordinating capitalism and the flow of capital, but are not making decisions about wages, benefits, working conditions, unions, etc. They don’t make decisions about whether or not to shift production to low-wage areas. They don’t make decisions about what to produce. I’m not saying that it’s impossible for them to make decisions about loans based on their agenda (and apparently they play a major role in urban development), but I think this is exaggerated. They want to make the loan so they can make money on it by collecting interest, and once the loan is made I seriously doubt they’ll make a negative decision if the company recognizes a union, for example- I’ve never heard of that happening and I have been a socialist for 25 years (and I doubt that hardly any businesses would take a loan whose terms involve the absence of a union because if they lose a certification election, they default on the loan). Investors do that sort of thing, and although banks are to one degree or another part of that community, they are not all of it. Unions invest, individuals invest, corporations invest, pension plans invest, non-profits invest, etc. This hostility towards banks also implies that they are inherently capitalist and do nothing good for society, communities and individuals. I have tried to find out if anti-Semites are known to also attack credit unions, an institution which I have no problem with at all. If they ARE hostile to credit unions because they extend their stereotype about Jews and bankers to them as well, that just proves beyond any doubt that they are motivated not by any hostility towards capitalism, but simply bigotry. And, although this might fuel anti-Semitic hostility towards credit unions, here and there and maybe more often than that, Jews have organized credit unions.

The actor Mel Gibson, clearly an anti-Semite, once said that all wars were the fault of Jews. Even IF there was more than the tiniest amount of truth to the stereotype about Jews and bankers, I would have to say, even as a socialist, that wars are not always solely the result of economics (and as I said, there are more components to capitalism besides banks). Imperialism is of course almost always present and there is an economic dimension to that, but there is also right-wing nationalism, racism or some other kind of bigotry. There is often support for war among the military (who often have great influence while a decision to GO TO war is being made), and that is almost always independent of capitalist beliefs and/or the defense industry. I won’t go anywhere near an exhaustive survey of war, but here are my thoughts on some wars.

1. The “American Revolution.” Although I’m not happy with the European settlement that preceded it or the westward expansion that followed it, the colonists had legitimate, non-capitalist complaints against London. I suppose some would say that the British effort in that conflict was for the benefit of banks, and there’s probably some truth to that.
2. The American Civil War. Yes there was an economic dimension, but there was also a great deal of principled opposition to slavery on one side and racist support for it on the other (yes that racism was encouraged by capitalists, but the most direct explanation for popular opposition to abolition was racism).
3. World War I. This was incredibly imperialistic and nationalistic, although I think the racist nature of that nationalism was almost nil. There was militarism. This may have been a war that could be largely attributed to bankers.
4. World War II in the Pacific. I’m not real familiar with what I call Japanese Imperialism (you could also call it Japanese Fascism). There was an economic dimension, although I’m not sure to what degree it was for the benefit of capitalists. There was undoubtedly militarism, possibly even more so than was the case with the Nazis (these Imperialists believed in what you might call a ridiculously negative and fascist warrior code that included killing prisoners or treating them much worse than the Nazis treated POWs of WESTERN Allied states). There was incredible racism towards other Asians (remember that race is socially constructed; I did a few google searches and it seems that at least MANY Japanese have light skin; Apartheid South Africa, for economic reasons, classified Japanese as White and I don’t think it was JUST economic; they were allied with Nazi Germany; I read about how an American white supremacist music label would receive a lot of orders for CDs from Japanese people who considered themselves the “white men of the East”). Although some powerful people in the United States may have primarily been worried about Japan as an imperialist rival, and FDR pursued a foreign policy that put us on a collision course with Japan, A) Japan WAS doing bad stuff, B) FDR was NOT a solid capitalist, C) Pearl Harbor was attacked, D) FDR may have allowed it to happen so that he could go to war with Germany (see below).
5. World War II in Europe. Although the Nazis were sort of capitalist and capitalists supported them, they were driven much more by bigotry, militarism, imperialism, (a crude, populist) anti-Communism and a reverence for power and strength and violence. I’d say roughly the same thing about Italian fascists, with less anti-Semitism and perhaps a little closer to socialist instead of NATIONAL socialist. The Soviet Union fought largely because they were going to be destroyed, although there were certainly some genuinely anti-fascist tendencies in Moscow (if you believe they were more than tendencies, what about the non-aggression pact between Moscow and Berlin that lasted until Germany invaded?). The British were certainly an imperialist and capitalist power at the time, but they were also a liberal democracy and recognized Nazi Germany for what it was in terms of authoritarianism and expansionism. And shortly after the war the British Left/Center-Left won a massive electoral victory, so I think most of the people at every level were motivated by a left-wing opposition to fascism. The United States quite possibly allowed a situation to develop where they would go to war with Nazi Germany. Yes, America was a capitalist and imperialist country, but once again, it was also a liberal democracy, and there seemed to be a massive center-left/left minority in the years leading up to the war and during the war, and FDR was just to the right of that (although as President he was fairly disappointing when it came to racial justice and equality, his wife was not and that’s not totally irrelevant).
6. Vietnam. The Vietnamese had been fighting for independence from the French (and briefly the Japanese) for decades and wanted a united, communist nation-state. I’m not real familiar with Vietnamese communism but banks are not inherently capitalist, and I just did some searches and apparently, for better or worse, there are almost zero Jewish people there. The United States was certainly motivated in part by capitalism. JFK and LBJ were economically to the right of FDR and Nixon certainly was. But there was also a conflict between a block of liberal (and often social) democracies and a block of communist countries that, whatever the progressive value of their social, economic and foreign policies, were authoritarian. Although the US introduced the nuclear weapon to the world, and aimed missiles at the USSR, there were a bunch of them aimed at the US.
7. Israel. Conflicts involving Israel are not anywhere near as much the fault of Jews as many people think. First, although Zionism is very flawed in multiple ways (See this) and I have serious problems with what happened to the Palestinians, the seizing and settlement of lands beyond the pre-1967 borders and states defined by ethnicity and/or religion, Israel’s Arab neighbors wanted in the past to DESTROY Israel- not in the sense that a one-state solution would “destroy” Israel, but in the sense that Jews would be driven into the sea. And this was just decades after the very flawed pacifistic response of European Jews to the Nazis contributed to 2/3 of that population being killed. As far as American fuel for Israel’s behavior towards its neighbors, see some of the material in this post. As far as an alleged Jewish role in the Bush administration’s decision to invade and occupy Iraq, see what I’ve said about support in America for Israel, and consider what I wrote elsewhere on this blog:

Bush's reasons for invading Iraq were many, Israel was a small part of it. There was the opportunity to give lots of money to corporations in multiple ways, the strong desire for using the US military that most GOPers have, the desire to teach the world a lesson in terms of what the US will do to them if they piss off D.C., the desire for oil, the idea of democratizing the Middle-East. I also heard something about it being connected to countering the growing strength of the Euro. It's possible they half believed that stuff about WMDs and Al-Qaeda. Israel was a small part of it.

I’m going to end my discussion of war there.

I believe that TD Raeda Cronin was an anti-Semite. The relevant tweets were made about 6 years ago, and she has apologized. In connection with what I write here (the first article I link to in that post is not relevant, but the rest of that post is) I’m not against the idea that SF should expel her or at least have her stand down as a TD, but I’ll continue to support SF even if they don’t. As I sort of prove here, SF is against anti-Semitism. I did this post largely because the controversy gave me a chance to discuss anti-Semitism among progressive supporters of the Palestinians, and to combine the anti-bigot part of this blog with the Ireland/N. Ireland part of the blog.

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

I’ve referred twice to my concern about Israel being officially called The Jewish State and being defined by ethnicity and/or religion. Some would call me a hypocrite because I’m an Irish republican. So let me explain this. Don’t call me a hypocrite. You will lose every time you try that.

After the War of Independence in Ireland, in 1920-1925 the South became what was called a “Free State.” Its independence from the UK was limited. For example, members of Parliament had to swear an oath to Queen. The 1937 Constitution created the position of President and the first President was a Protestant. Presidential terms are normally seven years and someone can serve two terms. In the 1970s there was another Protestant President for about 2 years before he died. So out of nine Presidents, two were Protestant. As far as the 1937 Constitution and Catholicism, it’s true that early drafts emphasized Catholicism and the Catholic Church, but there was GREAT opposition to that. The final draft of the relevant section recognized the existence of the main Protestant churches in Ireland, as well as the Jewish religion, and it recognized “the special position” of the Roman Catholic Church “as the guardian of the faith professed by the great majority of the citizens.” This special place for the Catholic Church was done away with in 1972. The ban on divorce was done away with in 1995. There were of course homophobic laws (only in 1993 was homosexuality decriminalized) and the constitution had to be amended in 2015 to allow for gay marriage (there wasn’t anything in the document about “a man and a woman,” but still, only in 2015 was it amended to solidly legalize gay marriage in a country where a law could be more easily overturned by politicians if the country drifted to the right) and abortion is 99% illegal there, but there is plenty of homophobia and pro-life politics among Protestants, Jews, Muslims, etc. (also, although the Catholic Church is in two ways sexist, that can be exaggerated, and in recent decades, FREQUENTLY the Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) has been a woman and between 1990 and 2011 the slightly powerful position of President of Ireland was held by women, one of whom went on to be the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights)

Is Ireland defined by ethnicity? Until about 20 years ago the South was almost literally 100% white, and there weren’t many non-Irish white people (in the last 20 years there has been bigotry that sort of resembles racism towards, for example, Poles). In 2004 there was an Amendment to the constitution that eliminates birthright citizenship for people born to parents who are not both citizens of Ireland. But if one parent is a citizen, they get citizenship. Also, although naturalization has been restricted, it’s still possible and it’s still fairly easy for citizens of the European Community, although that could be interpreted as racist, but I don’t think they had much of a choice as a member of the EU. First, the parties in Ireland I primarily support (SF and Irish Labour) opposed it as racist (and also as being in conflict with the Good Friday Agreement). Second, although I couldn’t have said this until recently, the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland for the last few years was a man named Leo Varadkar, whose father is Indian. Also, he’s an openly gay man. I don’t like him or his party (Fine Gael, who are sort of socially liberal but sort of pro-British and in love with capitalism). According to wikipedia, he was a government minister between 2011 and 2017 when he became Taoiseach. Between 2007 and 2011, when FG were in Opposition, he was a  Spokesperson (shadow minister?). The Irish language is recognized by the Constitution as the first official language and English is recognized as the second. A lot is done to promote the former, but practically everyone practically always speak the latter and everything official is available in both languages. The British came very close to stamping out the Irish language (and they WERE trying to).

The South is not comparable to the Jewish State. And SF doesn’t want a United Ireland to be any more Catholic or Irish than the South is now. The second half of this (starting with the sentence “A lot of people…”) talks about the former, and most of this deals with the latter.

Fox News Rejected an anti-Nazi ad

I just found something, it's only a year old and probably still relevant. In one of my poems (Republicans in Congress) I wrote:

Racists and anti-semites in the GOP and on Fox News
Face it, some of you are fascists, democracy you abuse

I just found a article which indicates I wasn't being more than slightly obnoxious suggesting that Fox News is fascist.

Two New Poems: "Black and White, Unite and Fight," and "Surf the Volga"

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. The second poem below is not based on offensive lyrics, I just changed the subject of a progressive song.

“Black and White, Unite and Fight” based on “Unity is Power” by Kill, Baby Kill. Original lyrics can be found here.

1. The first half of the third verse is about the split in the AFL-CIO that produced Change to Win. Although I've practically never had any official connection to the labor movement and am not incredibly familiar with labor issues, I wrote those lines after reading "Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice" by Bill Fletcher Jr. and Fernado Gapasin. It is partly about why Change to Win was wrong to leave and after reading it I briefly discussed it with Fletcher Jr. to make sure he hadn't changed his mind.
2. I got the name from a fairly creative and inspirational t-shirt promoting a far-left socialist group, but I’m not saying which one because some people would get the wrong idea about my beliefs.
**3. 26% of this version is me, 74% is the original.
4. I give this poem four stars out of five.

So much wrong in our country today, the worker’s being oppressed.
What’s the point of fighting each other, when our country’s in a mess?
Killer cops on every corner, Chambers of Commerce in every town.
The Republicans are always wrong, they’re trying to bring our country down.

This is the voice of the socialists, a voice against white pride
calling out with a message now to stick together and not divide
So listen workers, listen well, unity’s a must.
If we can’t achieve to unite as one our efforts will go bust

Chorus
Unity is power to defend our class. Unity’s the weapon as we struggle en masse.
Unity’s the answer to the worker’s call.
Unity will set our brothers and sisters free. Unity will bring us final victory.
If we stand united, we will never fall.

That senseless split only makes the bosses thrilled.
union workers we must be reconciled and rebuild
Shoulder to shoulder, brothers and sisters, make sure we’ll never fail.
So stick together and act as one, united we’ll prevail.

Chorus

To all of those who share our beliefs: United we will win
Unity, brings victory, it's the power from within
So join our ranks on the battlefield, together side by side
To fight the people's enemies and crush ‘em nationwide

 **********

“Surf the Volga” based on “Surf Nicaragua” by Sacred Reich (despite their name, their politics are very progressive- I'm fairly familiar with all of their music and at least some of it is more or less socially liberal and it's also economically progressive and it's anti-war). Original Lyrics are here.

1. This is about the battle of Stalingrad  in WWII. It’s from the perspective of a dissident German.
2. The Volga is a large river going through Stalingrad.
3. The “May” reference is about May Day.
4. **65% of this version is me, 35% is the original.
5. I give this poem four stars out of five.
6. UPDATE 3/13/19 The "giants" part of the very last line is based on a comment a senior Japanese Admiral made about the effect (on America) of attacking Pearl Harbor.

7. UPDATE 3/11/20 I changed "in may" to "on the 1st of May."

I know a place Where you're all going to go
They'll pay you to kill If You're eighteen years old
First You'll need a haircut And then some new clothes
They'll stick you on the Eastern Front where the blood flows

CHORUS:
You fight for the fuhrer and the Fatherland
You ask “what am I doing here?” it’s not your homeland
But now it's too late, You're entering Stalingrad
You’re fighting Soviet workers at the gate, those you should call comrade

What is this we’re fighting for, What's the ultimate goal?
Empire and genocide, at the price of Germany’s soul
The mass graves are deeper Every single day
Full of Jews, communists, and those who are gay

CHORUS:

invading nation after nation, in the east and the west
We thought that we couldn’t lose, we thought we were the best
But we underrated the US and the Soviets that celebrate on the 1st of May
We have awoken two giants, and our defeat is on it’s way

Tearing Down the Swastikas- A New Poem!

I almost never publish just one poem at a time, but this might be my very best poem and I want to publish it, so here it is. For an explanation of how I write these poems 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.

“Tearing Down the Swastikas,” based on “Tearing Down Red Flags” (or something like that) by Razor’s Edge. Original lyrics are here.

1. It’s set roughly during the last 5 or so months of the war in Europe.

2. I get the impression that the plotters of the 1944 attempted coup by part of the German military were far from ideal. They were happy to fight the Soviets and wanted an alliance with the West in doing that. And the coup’s leader was not as politically attractive as they make him look in the Tom Cruise movie, but I imagine he and the others would have called off the Final Solution if they had succeeded.

3. Himmler was head of the SS. UPDATE 4/22/18 I changed Himmler to Eichmann. although Himmler was head of the SS, I have gotten the impression that he didn't have much to do with the Final Solution, so it now refers to Adolf Eichman, who was the main person responsible for the Final Solution.

4. Davis was Jefferson Davis, head of the Confederacy during the American Civil War.

5. I don’t believe in Hell, but the way I mention  it here I think  creatively makes a good point- if there IS a hell, I’m sure people like Hitler and Davis are there.

6. It’s a little more about the Western Allies than it is about the Soviets (that is, the 4th line of the 1st verse isn’t about the Soviets). I guess that line also is just about the campaign inside Germany (and maybe Italy and maybe some of the western countries that briefly had fascist puppet regimes and were liberated by the British and Americans (and maybe towards the very end, by the French)). 

7. Everything except 1st person statements is about the Nazis.

8. The half a line about the red, white, and blue (the American flag). It exaggerates how patriotic I am (in another poem (Oh, No, Here Comes a Republican) I attacked about 5-20% of the US population partly in connection with them displaying the flag (I tried coming up with something better that rhymed, but that line was the best I could come up with)). In general I have mixed feelings about the flag. I am fairly proud of the role that the US played in the defeat of Nazi Germany (in another poem I write: "And although the Allied leaders are not consistent/Defeating the fascist states is important.”). In this poem I am saying something nice about the flag in connection with the defeat of Nazi Germany, not in general.

9. The line about wankers. Obviously the US wasn’t tons better than Nazi Germany when it came to gay people, but there was some difference. There was a bigger difference when it came people of color but still not a huge difference, and I’d probably say there was an almost huge difference when it came to Jewish people.

**10. 57% of this version is me, and 43% is the original.

11. I give this poem 5 stars out of 5.
UPDATE 5/27/17 I added "attempted" to the second line of the 3rd verse. 
UPDATE 5/21/18 I think that "breaking" is rarely defined the way I'm using it without adding the word "down," but I think you know what I mean.

You fly your swastika flags, your symbols of war-making.

Don't you f*cking realize, that Nazism is breaking

We're tearing down swastikas, all the way to Berlin.

In their place the transformation to democracy will begin

 (Chorus)

We're tearing down the swastikas- we'll banish Europe's shame.

We're tearing down the swastikas - we’re kicking ass and taking names

We're tearing down the swastikas - we're never giving in.

We're tearing down the swastikas - we're gonna f*cking win.

German soldiers still fighting back, they haven't learned at all.

Don't they f*cking realize, it’s an anti-fascist free-for-all

They're just a bunch of wankers, who hate jews, blacks and gays

Well here's some headlines for you, "your defeat is on it's way".

 (Chorus)

You fly your red, white and black, we fly the red white and blue

It’s too bad Hitler survived the 1944 attempted coup

We're tearing down the swastikas, and we'll tear Eichmann up as well.

And all the Nazis can join Davis in the bigot’s fiery hell.

3 New Poems: Irish Tet, We Are All Republicans, and Six Million Died

Below are three new poems. For an explanation of how I do these poems, see this. The last poem, "We Are All Republicans," is based on a non-political skinhead song by an anti-fascist skinhead band, so that's different than most of my poems.

1. Six Million Died. About Holocaust Denial.
2. Irish Tet. About the IRA
3. We Are All Republicans. About the IRA.

The rest of the poems can be found by clicking on the "lyrics" label at the bottom. There are about five pages worth so click on the "older posts" link at the bottom of each page.

“Six Million Died” based on “Six Million Lies” by No Remorse, original lyrics are here.

1. This is about the Holocaust. About six million Jews died.
2. With the last line of the first verse, I don’t mean to say there aren’t large differences between anti-Semitic extremism/violence and anti-fascist extremism/violence.
3. “Living Space” is English for a Nazi German term for what they wanted in central and eastern Europe- space for German settlers. I think this was largely but not totally separate from the Final Solution, since that part of Europe had a lot of Jewish people. I think it makes enough sense.
4. Zyklon B was the gas they used.
5. In EUROPE (and kind of in the Pacific), the Allies or at least the US, waged a fairly honorable war against the Axis.
**6. 60% of this version is me, 40% is the original.
7. I give this poem three stars out of five.
8. Occasionally I use words like"fight" and actually mean non-violent "fighting"; in this poem I was thinking of a response to to holocaust denial and fascism generally where the response is PROBABLY about 99% non-violent.
9. UPDATE 2/17/16 I replaced "in case" with "that" in the 5th line of the first verse.

Six million lies?
No, that’s how many died
Torture by the Nazis, we have the proof
Why did they try to cover up the truth?
Scared that they would all hang
yeah, their extremism and violence would boomerang

Chorus:
Six million of the human race
Partly to get more “living space”
Genocidal use of Zyklon B
By the fucking Nazis, of Germany

One of the worst genocides in history
They wanted Europe Jewish free
A cover-up is what nazis have tried
To hide the lies of their white pride
Well anti-fascism didn't die
The truth will break through all the Nazi lies

Chorus

So let's make the world Nazi free
We all want a diverse society
Nazism is rotten to the core
We’re fighting for truth and justice in this war
With honour and respect we'll surely win
Just like we did when we took on Berlin

*********

"Irish Tet" based on "Final Attack" by Final War, original lyrics are here.

1. In the 1980s the IRA had planned and partly armed themselves for what might be called an Irish version of the Tet offensive of the Vietnam War. Partly because some of their arms were lost or intercepted, they called it off. This poem is sort of a “what-if” about those plans.
2. I deleted the chorus and the last two lines of the last verse.
3. The BA is the British Army.
4. In such a situation I’m not sure if their mission would have been to maintain that level of activity until the British agreed to leave- it probably would have been to do that for as long as possible (and liberate as much territory as they could for as long as they could). Such a campaign would have contributed to a later agreement by the British to leave, especially as it would have drawn a LOT of global attention to their cause.
5. The 3rd line of the second verse is a reference to historical events centuries ago.
6. With the last line of the 3rd verse I probably greatly exaggerate how much revenge motivated them. But the British Army and the RUC did horrible things to the nationalist community.
7. The last line refers to the WWII (brown is the color of fascism). I just learned that apparently sometimes the French Resistance DID take and hold objectives for a short period of time. (this creates the necessary minimum conflict between my poem and the beliefs of the (AMERICAN and possibly Irish-American) authors of the original lyrics (more here))
**8. 58% of this version is me, 42% is the original.
9. I give this poem four stars out of five.
10. UPDATE 2/17/16  Based on what might be called a fairly scientific look, only about .2% of the IRA's operations intentionally resulted in civilian death.
11. UPDATE 7/5/16 I replaced "unleash" with "release."


The day is approaching, the day we release
All hell on the BA and the RUC police
gonna fight back, gonna knock em dead
Like fire the revolution will be spread

gonna use RPGs and heavy machine guns
won't stop till our mission is done
they invaded and took our land
now we’re gonna smash them with an iron hand

we've got our sights set on BA choppers and watch towers
corporate buildings, we’ll show them this country is ours
we're on a rampage, we just let loose
We’re gonna make them pay for all their abuse

we’re seizing mills, bridges and towns
We’re inspired by those French that fought against the brown


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

“We Are All Republicans” based on “We’re The Oppressed” by The Oppressed original lyrics here.

1. This is basically about the IRA although some of it could apply to other mainstream republicans as well depending on how we define words like "fight" for this poem. It’s set sometime before the 1997 cease-fire, I guess at least about 4 years before.
2. Orange is the color of anti-Catholic bigotry in the Irish-British context.
3. The BA is the British Army.
4. They were forcing the British elite to move towards a united Ireland, and to some small degree they succeeded (my thoughts about the compromise of the Good Friday Agreement are here).
5. At some point in the past for at least a year or two and probably a decade or two, Sinn Fein called for a constitutional convention to be part of a future unification of Ireland. I think it’s a great idea that should be revived for two reasons: 1) it would probably shift Ireland towards the left and even more importantly, 2) it would give the northern Protestants a very big say in what kind of Ireland they’re being added to (they’d be on the same level as everyone else). (more of my thoughts on how to ease Protestants and unionists into a united Ireland are found here)
7. The second half of the first line of the second verse is a little strange, but that was already there and for the time being I have decided to keep it (and I wouldn’t be surprised if BA soldiers saw the Nationalist community as being the “other”).
**8. 79% of this version is me, 21% is the original.
9. I give this poem five stars out of five.
10. The second line of the last verse refers to the NORTHERN Catholic working-class.
11. Armalites are rifles, RPGs are Rocket Propelled Grenades.

Born to fight, born to win
We are all republicans.
Born into this sectarian Orange state
Fighting for Irish freedom, we won’t wait

The BA fears us, thinks we're strange
Armalites and RPGs, we fight for change
We will never, ever be beat
As we force the British elite

We are Volunteers, of the Irish masses
Fighting for the Catholic working-classes
Advancing freedom and revolution
A new Ireland and a new constitution

British Fools: Three more poems

I have three new poems ready to publish, and might have another 2-3 ready in about a week.

For more about my poems, see this. For the rest of the poems, click the "lyrics" label at the bottom of this post- there are several pages worth, so use the "older posts" link at the bottom.

1. Fash Are Fools. About fascists in America.
2. Troops Out. About dissent among British soldiers in N. Ireland.
3. Hitler's A Fool. About WWII.

“Fash Are Fools” based on “Reds Are Fools” by Kill, Baby, Kill original lyrics are here.

1. Brown is the color of fascism.
2. Partitioned basically means divided.
3. I give this poem 4 stars out of 5.
**4. 36% of this version is me, 64% is the original.
5. This is about the broad struggle against fascism and would be about 99% non-violent.
6. UPDATE 8/9/15 I made a HUGE mistake with the second line of the last verse but have now corrected it.

The struggle’s far from over, we’ve got a long, long way to go.
We haven’t won the fight yet, that's a fact that we all know.
Still too many people are supporting the brown lie,
but soon the truth will set 'em free and fascism will die.

The swastika’s a symbol for division and hate
A worthless, sick, corrupt nation is their ideal state
Like Apartheid, they want the working-class partitioned
And like Hitler, want the Left  dead or imprisoned

We’ll never fly the swastika, no matter what they try
cause we all know that fash are fools, their ideology’s just a lie.
They hail the wrong ideals, a choice they will regret.
We’ll always keep on working till fascism is dead.

Nazism is genocidal, we’ve seen it once before.
The Jews were almost wiped out, a fact we can’t ignore.
Why are the Nazis still trying? They will never win
America belongs to the workers of all peoples, we are all each other’s kin


***********

“Troops Out” based on “Fools No More” by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. The first 2-4 lines are about an IRA bmb attack at Narrow Water that resulted in 18 British soldiers being killed.
2. The red white and blue refers to the British flag.
3. One example of the lying to British soldiers is that  they were told while training for deployment to the Six-Counties that the IRA would attack Protestant funerals.
4. The reasons why it shouldn’t matter that there’s a pro-British majority are described towards the top of this post.
5. Another part is the question of imperialism. Along with what I refer to in #4, I would also add that in multiple ways, the population in the South has to one degree or another since partition claimed the north as politically part of the Irish nation. For example, two of the three most recent Presidential terms have been filled by a woman from the North- without changing her nationality or anything like that, she was voted in as President of Ireland.
6. The original first line of the 3rd verse actually says “always” instead of “rarely.” But I can imagine a LOT of chickenhawks (in general, not just in Britain) waving the flag and a lot of veterans being less enthusiastic about that.
7. I believe that one factor behind the British presence is that N. Ireland does offer a well-educated but low-paid and politically weak working-class which are more or less divided by sectarian bigotry (almost all of which is aimed at Catholics and those who identify as Irish). More evidence for this is found in the following facts taken from the book Northern Ireland: the Orange State by Michael Farrell:

“In 1974 45% of all firms in Northern Ireland employing 500 or more workers were controlled from Britain, as were 28 out of 51 firms employing between 250 and 500 workers” p. 326

(See the 4th note for the poem here)

*8. 58% of this version is me, 42% is the original. (after I changed the chorus)
9. I give this poem 3 out of 5 stars.
10. UPDATE 8/16/15 Skrewdriver were British and supporters of the British and unionist causes in N. Ireland.
10. UPDATE 3/20/20 I realized that the chorus was written in the first person, not the second person, so I almost completely changed it.
11. UPDATE 3/20/20 The Troops Out Movement was a British anti-Partition group.
12. UPDATE 3/29/20 When I say thousands, that's an estimate for people from Britian who were more or less in a military or paramilitary group, the last 220-250 years of the six-county area that is now N. Ireland, and it's probably about 1,200, no more, so maybe hundreds would have been more accurate, but not much more.


Fire fills the air, there’s smoke in the sky
you’re knocked down, and 18 die
You're looking around, with fear in your eyes
Looking for the enemy and you still wonder why
Obey all your orders, British pride aflame
But in truth you’re a pawn in their imperialistic game
And your leaders are not honest with you
they lie, as they fly, the red white and blue

(chorus)
Don't  be a fool anymore
Talk to the Troops Out Movement and learn the score

Thousands of Brits have died in this land
And it's never been for the good of the British working-woman or man
Many died for profit and political greed
But it's always the soldiers not the leaders who bleed
Without exception the tories are scum
Who lie to the people whilst they beat on their drums
And they claim it’s because there’s a Unionist majority
But it’s imperialism, capitalism, and just plain bigotry

(chorus)

It's rarely been those with the flags in their hands
Who have fought and have died in N. Ireland
Yeah, while the leaders stay home with their massive cigars
you were lucky if you were traveling in armored cars
They take all the fame, the businesses take all the pounds
By exploiting labor in British factories on Irish ground
And if you dare to object and ask them to cease
You'll get a visit from their political police

********

“Hitler’s A Fool” based on “Reds are Fools” by Kill, Baby Kill, original lyrics are here.

1. This is about the period shortly after D-Day in WWII.
2. Obviously it wasn’t the Nazis that committed genocide against the Indians, but what happened was roughly as genocidal as what the Nazis planned for (and almost succeeded at) in Eastern Europe. That rhyming couplet was inspired by the title of a hardcore punk song called “John Wayne was a Nazi.”
3. The second to last line of the last verse kind of exaggerates what the Allies were doing to stop the Holocaust.
3. I give this poem four stars out of five.
**4. 51% of this version is me, 49% is the original.
5. UPDATE 8/9/15 As I was preparing this for publication, I knew there was some explanation I was forgetting to make. I exaggerate some how aware the Allies were about the Final Solution and A LOT how concerned white Americans were about American Indians and I probably exaggerate a little how concerned the Allies were about European Jews. But, having acknowledged that, I think it is a good poem.
6. UPDATE 1/24/16 I know that probably no more than half of the US military in WWII could have been called anti-fascist, but at the same time, as I say in another WWII poem, "although the Allied leaders are not consistent/Defeating the fascist states is important."

The war’s far from over, we got a long, long way to go.
We haven’t won the fight yet, that's a fact that we all know.
Still too many German soldiers are supporting the brown lie,
but soon our armor will take them down and the Nazi state will die.

The hammer and the sickle is a symbol of our allies
They beat back the nazis on land and in the skies
With bullshit propaganda Hitler pushes Germans to fight.
Fascism has taken Europe into a long night

We’ll never give them quarter, unless the white flag they fly
cause we all know that fash are fools, that their ideas are just a lie.
They started this fucking war, a choice they will regret.
‘cause we’ll always keep on fighting till they’re no longer a threat

Nazism is genocidal, we’ve seen it once before.
The American Indians are still recovering, a fact we can’t ignore.
Why is the SS still trying? We’re gonna smash those anti-Semites
Europe belongs to free peoples, and their democracy, and their human rights

Nazis Were and Are on the Right

There are a lot of people who believe that the Nazis were on the Left or that they were half on the Left and half on the Right. This is because the other way to refer to fascists is: “national socialist.” Here are some reasons why the Nazis were much more on the Right than on the Left:

* That Hitler guy was a total ass-hole- NO WAY was he on the Left : ).

(seriously though, here are some reasons)

* I can’t remember exactly what the details were, but Hitler’s regime had a mixed attitude towards capital- some good, some bad (for capital). I believe it was lower taxes on business, but more government intervention (overwhelmingly not for the workers or consumers or for other progressive goals, but for things like the re-arming of Germany). UPDATE 6/18/12 The Nazis also provided some companies with slave and/or conscripted labor.

A: One very good source says that Hjalmar Schacht, "was a staunch defender of capitalism." Although never a member of the Nazi Party, Hitler appointed him head of the Reichsbank in 1933. ++ p. 90

B: Hitler's first economic plan (the Reinhardt Plan) included tax breaks for businesses. ++ p. 91



* They simply got rid of the unions.

* They killed some communists and social-democrats and sent many to concentration camps.

* They elevated race and nation above class and tried to cover up class conflict without doing anything to erase or minimize income inequality.

A: In power the Nazis destroyed the trade-unions on May 2nd 1933. They were replaced by a Nazi employee organization which by the Fall of 1933 included “all working people regardless of economic or social position” including employers. It did two things which were sort of pro-worker: A) they improved some of the conditions that workers labored under- this included things like the playing of music, plants, good lighting, etc.; and B) made it easier for workers to go on relatively cheap vacations or attend concerts, etc.. ++ pp. 96-97
(But, it didn’t do anything to empower workers in labor conflict and did very little or nothing to narrow the financial gap between rich and poor)

* Probably the most important thing is to look at who allowed the Nazis into government. They were centrists and mostly conservatives (i.e. President Paul von Hinderburg). Even after Hitler created a dictatorship, many such politicians continued to be part of Hitler’s government.

* They got a lot of financial support from very successful, mainstream businessmen, especially in the last 2-3 years before they took power.

* A major leader of the Nazi’s left-wing, Otto Strasser left the party in 1930. His brother, Gregor, who had similar beliefs and was also a major leader of the Nazi left, was killed by Hitler’s men in 1934.

*They supported the right-wing side in the Spanish Civil War.

* Today’s neo-Nazis generally place themselves on the Right and in conflict with the left. This is found in the lyrics of Nazi Skinhead bands, and while they occasionally say something anti-capitalist, they much more frequently make anti-communist and anti-Left statements and pro-Right statements. American white supremacists spend much more time trying to work within the GOP than they do trying to work within the Democratic Party.


++ Jackson J. Spielvogel Hitler and Nazi Germany: A History Prentice Hall, 1996


In a blog discussion here another poster named "Ian" added three more facts:

* “They were ferociously anti-gay, imprisoning and killing thousands of gay men.”

* “They reintroduced Christian prayer into schools.”

* “They were anti-abortion, at least when it came to gentile Germans.”


UPDATE 8/9/12 The Southern Poverty Law Center published a good article about this, here.

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews J

This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST.

I have been more or less ignoring this- the need for me to become familiar with The Original Series. In general I don’t like much of what I’ve seen. In any case, I am now watching it and will be doing reviews of those episodes. I will be giving pretty low scores, probably no higher than three stars out of five- I just don’t like TOS.

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

“Return to Tomorrow” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.

“Patterns of Force” See this for a plot summary.

I could probably type thousands of words about this, but I’ll keep it pretty brief. There are two major political aspects to this episode.

1. The pacifist response of most of Europe’s Jews living in either camps or more generally Nazi-occupied areas. Obviously this is stating the obvious and is kind of using hind-sight, but pacifism wasn’t a good response to Nazi persecution of the Jews. Also, I believe that that could have been said WITHOUT hindsight, as I explain about 1/4 the way down a post here where I seriously attack the Irish government and the IRA about their separate responses to Nazi Germany. (I have heard that at some point non-Jewish anti-Nazi elements, including those quite prepared to fight, didn’t engage in armed resistance either (because their leadership failed to give them orders), which might have discouraged European Jews from resisting)

2. Kirk at one point says something about how they need to help the Zeons, but also need to help the Ekosians. I’m not sure if he was talking about the lack of freedom that Ekosians had under a dictatorship, or the way that bigotry does a fair amount of damage to the group oppressing another group through hate. I go into more details about that here while discussing the episode “Duet.”

I give it three stars out of five stars.

“By Any Other Name” See this for a plot summary.

At first I thought this was pretty non-political. But there is the issue of outsiders colonizing empty planets in the Federation. It reminds me of the settling of the area now known as the US by Europeans and European-Americans. It’s embarrassing for me to say this, but I’m not sure if the question I’m raising came up at any point in my studies; if it did I have forgotten it (some of my Ethnic Studies knowledge has disappeared).

Let’s say European governments and European people had been very different (you could call it “bizzaro Europe”) and had been interested in peace-full co-existance with the indigenous people of this hemisphere who, DID sort of welcome them. Would that have worked? I’m not sure. How much of what is now America was available for settlement? I’ don’t know. But it’s an interesting question. Of course another more positive scenario would have been no settlement at all. Anyway, it's something that this episode got me thinking about some.

I give it two stars out of five.

“The Omega Glory” See this for a plot summary.

This is a weird episode. Part of it is the idea that in the last years of the 20th Century, Chinese Communists (apparently joined or followed by free-market, democratic Americans) left Earth to colonize some far away planet. Apparently, long before StarFleet came to the planet, there had been a large scale war between the two sides that involved Weapons of Mass Destruction. There’s a few lines or so with good comments about bio-weapons and about democratic rights for everyone. On the other hand there is little said about the negative aspects of American democracy.

I give it two stars out of five.

The Reagan/Nixon Brigade

(the title is a reference to how units of foreigners fighting fascism during the Spanish Civil War would name their units after historical figures they admired)
There was an interesting article in the NY Times a few days ago. It's here (you may have to register).

It's about how some people in the GOP and the conservative parts of the media are going to start talking about how Obama's plans are "economic fascism." The main proponent of this approach is Saul Anuzis.

Anuzis talking about fascism got my attention. You should read the following link. It's from a site that monitors the MSU-Young Americans for freedom, the only college group to be declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law center.
Anuzis on MSU-YAF's Fuhrer (Anuzis defended the leader of the group (Kyle Bristow) from attacks) UPDATE 1/25/11 Since the YAFWatch blog is still down, you should look at this instead.

For more on Bristow's fascism, besides the entirety of the YAFWatch blog,
specifically see
British National Party
Runes and Leftists (actually the main thing here is actually a link to another part of YAFwatch about the Norse rune Bristow likes)
Democracy

UPDATE11/30/10 For some reason the YAFWATCH blog is now open only to invited guests. Hopefully this will change soon, at least one person is looking into it.

UPDATE 10/7/10 SOLID PROOF!! UPDATE 1/25/11 Since the YAFWatch blog is still unavailable, you should look at this instead.

Yeah, Anuzis is a real anti-fascist warrior alright.

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.