How To Address Tension Between Jews and Muslims, Zionists and Palestinians In America?

Below is something I am very fond of. It's not flawless but I believe it's pretty good. The joke about McMahon might not be as funny as I thought. Also, if the reference to Nazi skinheads seemed odd- A) I believe that they pose a very serious threat to our society and B) reminding Muslim Americans and Jewish Americans that they share or shared or will share a common enemy might be helpful.

 

With some small editing my essay was published as a Guest Opinion in Boulder's main paper a few days after the incident. Below is what I submitted to them. (The quote at the bottom is something written by Sonia Scherr)

 

Tom

 

********** 

 

I saw the headline around 4 PM Sunday afternoon. For the most part I wasn’t too surprised. Although at this point it seems likely there was no Boulder dimension to the planning and execution of the attack, I had encountered Israel-connected anti-Semitism, to a small but significant degree, on a discussion and organizing list associated with the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center shortly after Oct. 7th- at one point concerned City of Boulder officials were briefly involved. Although this attack is suspiciously convenient for the Trump Administration, I am inclined to usually take accusations of anti-Semitism seriously. I didn’t know it was too soon after the attack for some kind of unifying rally near the crime scene, so when I went to Pearl Street about 6:30 PM there were just cops there.

More so than with any other opinion piece I’ve submitted to local media in the last 5 years, I wish I could include links to my blog. Fighting anti-Semitism is a major part of my blog, about 15% of the total, and supporting the Palestinians is about 10% of my blog (those two parts overlap a lot). I am a very passionate supporter of the Palestinians (I was happy to cover my face with a keffiyeh I was given when I was standing next to working-class Catholics fighting the British Army in Belfast in 2002 (fortunately for all of us in the street that day, Education Secretary Linda McMahon wasn’t around enforcing her anti-mask rule!)). On the other hand my response to Oct. 7th was so hostile to Hamas that two people associated with the RMPJC accused me of being a Zionist and almost no one on that list disagreed with them.

The Peace Process in Israel/Palestine is in serious trouble. In recent years I have leaned towards supporting a one state solution, but after Oct. 7th and Israel’s response, maybe a two state solution is more realistic.

Until there is some massive progress towards peace, what can we do in America to prevent more attacks that target people because they are Muslim-American or because they are Jewish-American? With Trump in office, I don’t have high hopes. Here are some thoughts (not an exhaustive list):

1) Critics of Israel need to abandon two ideas I have encountered. The first is that because the conflict is asymetrical it’s okay for the military wing of Hamas to target civilians. The other idea is that Palestinians are so powerless that they have the power to make war, but not the power to make peace.
2) It’s been about 15 years since I read huge amounts of information from the Southern Poverty Law Center, but if we DO see a resurgence of the Nazi skinhead movement, we should, as united communities, counter them by ANY AND EVERY means available.
3) It’s possible that events in the near future will lead me to use this word without hesitation, but I think that until Trump talked about a Gaza Riviera, critics of Israel were a little trigger-happy with the word “genocide.”
4) I think that a lot of American progressives fail to express enthusiasm, when looking at history, for the Allied cause in World War II. I’m thinking of people who are not anti-Semitic but who might be giving other people the wrong idea about the Holocaust, simply because they take their usually solid criticism of America too far.
5) Critics of Israel need to remember that although a majority of Jewish-Americans support Israel, that majority is a VERY SMALL minority of American Zionists.

I am concluding with a quote from the hard-working opponents of organized hate, right-wing politics and economic injustice at the Southern Poverty Law Center. In one of the articles in the Fall 2008 issue of their publication, they wrote the following (it’s a statement by the author of that article):
 
“Although criticism of Israel does not typically amount to anti-Semitism — and many critics of the Jewish state are unfairly accused of bigotry — in some cases those who denounce Israel also cross the line into denigration of Jews as a group.” 

Babylon 5 Reviews E

Years ago I did what you might call “reviews” of Star Trek episodes. I mostly just briefly noted what progressive politics were involved and sometimes used that as an excuse to talk about similar situations in reality.

Last year I finally watched all five seasons of Babylon 5, another sci-fi show, one I had thought of watching once in a while stretching back a couple decades. It isn’t as political or as progressive as ST but there’s some good stuff there- in fact, on one issue, a progressive take on the working-class and/or labor movement, B5 is better than ST. Because there is so little progressive material, I’m going to do one post for every four episodes reviewed, and only mention the episodes that have some progressive political stuff. I might ignore some of the more minor and/or less unique stuff about conflict resolution because from what I remember, it’s very common in this series. Also, although less so than is the case with Star Trek, multiculturalism is a big part of Babylon Five and I will also only be commenting on that when it is more significant than usual. There are issues raised about telepaths- I’m going to completely ignore stuff about telepaths when reviewing these episodes. I also will probably say nothing about the conflict with the evil race the Shadows- sure, I could say Trump is as evil as they are or compare them to Nazi Germany, but that’s kind of silly (I’m sure there is nothing political about the Shadows, they’re just evil, like the Borg or the Empire). And I might skip most of the stuff about the conflict between B5 and the Earth government- I don’t remember it involving stuff like a strong capitalist agenda or racism or something.

**Season 2 Episode 6 “A Spider in the Web”** See this for a plot summary.

There is one political aspect that definitely needs to be mentioned and a couple others that are also worth mentioning.

First, an Earth businessman comes to B5 to do some negotiating for a business effort on the Earth colony of Mars. Captain Sheridan is asked by an Earth Senator to spy on him. Their conversation I think is worth quoting in full (at the very least SOME of what was said is important enough to be quoted):

Senator Voudreau: Captain Sheridan.

Sheridan: Senator, what can I do for you?

Senator: Taro Isogi, chief executive of FutureCorp. has arranged a meeting on Babylon 5 with Amanda Carter, a representative of the Mars Provisional Government. Carter is an outspoken advocate of mars independence and we suspect FutureCorp. is conspiring with her to finance another rebellion on Mars Colony.

Sheridan: Do you have any proof?

Senator: We know FutureCorp desperately wants a foot-hold in space. An exclusive trade and services agreement with Mars would give it to them, if they could move the current Mars conglomerate out. Many of the members wanted to pull out after the last rebellion. Another would have them running like river rats.

Sheridan: I understand your concern. But there’s not much I can do about it. I have no authority over corporate negotiations. Babylon 5 is neutral territory. Any race can negotiate here without interference, even our own.

Senator: This is a possible threat to Earth Alliance security Captain and as such we are asking you to check it out. nothing official. just keep an eye peeled and an ear open. and report anything of interest to me.

Sheridan: with all due respect senator my duties as commander of B5 don’t include spying on civilians.

Senator: these are volatile times, Captain. practicalities are more important than principles if lives are to saved. I’ll expect to hear from you soon.


I think this illustrates that the Earth Alliance is imperialist towards Mars, although I believe the conflict and background to the conflict is probably similar to what happened with Britain and the 13 American colonies. It also may be a sign that the Earth Alliance was becoming openly undemocratic after the coup that happened at the end of the first season (that is, they might be behaving less democratically than they were before the coup (that might seem like a stupid statement, but as some readers might not know, the coup took place when the President was killed in an APPARENTLY accidental explosion- it wasn't SEEN  as a coup by hardly anyone, but viewers know that the then-Vice President was responsible)). It seems like security must be spying in some of their investigations, which if done when a judge with very high standards for that sort of thing says they can, would almost definitely be okay with me. In general, and in this specific case, I like what Sheridan has to say about neutrality and civil liberties on B5. The Senator seems willing to spin ridiculous conspiracy theories about Mars if they help Earth retain control of that planet.

There is also some other talk about the cause of Martian independence. The Earth businessman believes that his plans will make Mars self-sufficient and that will lead to independence non-violently. I’m not sure how true that sort of thing is (in reality or on this show). I guess it would make Mars less dependent on Earth, but I haven’t gotten the impression that Earth opposes Martian independence because Mars is not self-suffient (although if the problem is partly about convincing more residents of Mars to support independence, than I guess less economic and developmental dependence on Earth would help). And economic development might possibly make Earth less willing to leave Mars, if that development would mean more tax revenue, for example.

Some relevant facts about the North of Ireland:

1. I read once or twice that one reason the British and Unionists retained Counties Fermanagh and Tyrone when N. Ireland was formed is that a four county statelet wouldn’t be economically viable.

2. On a related note, a lot of people in the 1960s believed that new economic developments in the North would result in equality and a decline in sectarianism but it got worse. Part of what led to that is that the old NI-based and Unionist-owned companies were being replaced by foreign firms who didn’t care what someone’s religion was. Which meant that Protestant workers benefited from discrimination and sectarian attitudes in general less than they used to. They did not take that change lying down.

3. Lastly, some of the government actions of the Unionists in the 1960s (those which were in conflict with the modicum of movement towards equality) involved shifting development away from equality for Catholics. They cut a railroad to Derry; when they wanted to place a new university in the West they choose largely Protestant Coleraine instead of largely Catholic Derry (Coleraine is also pretty close to the East); and when an expert on development suggested a new city in the West they instead developed one just outside the Belfast area.


**Season 2 Episode 9 “The Coming of Shadows”** See this for a plot summary.

When the leader of the Centauri (Emperor Turhan) comes to B5, G’Kar (the Narn Ambassador) tries to get him banned by Sheridan. We hear that the Centauri occupation of Narn (which lasted about 100 years and ended about 15-30 years earlier) involved the strip-mining of the planet and the death of 100,000 Narn (and that may have been just one incident). Sheridan points out that while Turhan’s FATHER was responsible for that occupation, the Emperor was trying to make amends with the Narn. Sherdian seems to understand that what happened to the Narn was horrible, but encouraged G’Kar to start a dialogue with Turhan. When Sheridan refuses to ban the Centauri leader, G’Kar plans to assassinate Turhan. Before he has the chance, the Centauri is taken to the med lab and within hours is dead. G’Kar learns that he came to B5 to apologize to a Narn (specifically G-Kar, a governmental official) for everything his people did to the Narn. Specifically he said: “We were wrong. The hatred between our people can never end until someone is willing to say 'I’m sorry' and try and find a way to make things right again. To atone for our actions.”

In response to a set-back for his political associates in a domestic Centauri political battle, Molari has his allies the Shadows attack and defeat a Narn colony which is subsequently occupied by the Centauris. Right before he learns that the Centauri were responsible for the attack, G’Kar does try some dialogue with Molari. G’Kar forsees another genocidal occupation of Narn planets by the Centauri. The likelihood of it being genocidal is confirmed when the latter initially refuse to allow the civilian population to leave the colony. Molari actually says they’ll be kept busy, and when the Minbari ambassador suggests that means labor camps, Molari actually responds by saying they’ll just be getting re-training! That’s practically an admission that they were planning the creation of labor camps (Molari agrees to let the civilians leave when Earth threatens to send in observers who will investigate what is happening to them and exactly what happened with the initial attack). At roughly the same time, the Narn declare war against the Centauri.

Lastly, there’s one bit of civil liberties when Sheridan expresses alarm at the possibility that his staff eavesdropped on diplomatic communications. I can only imagine how he’d respond to what the American NSA has done.

Even without hindsight knowledge of Turhan’s intentions, I think Sheridan had a good idea encouraging G’Kar to attempt a dialogue with him. Assuming Turhan didn’t believe that the Centauri deserved an apology from the Narn, what he said about reconciliation between the two races was good. At the end, I think that the Narn were not only justified but correct in declaring war on the Centauri- as they explained in G’Kar’s statement, they won’t allow another 100 years of genocide. It’s an even better statement when seen in the context of Molari’s admission that Narn civilians would be used as forced labor.


**Season 2, Episode 10 “GROPOS”** See this for a plot summary.

There are about seven political aspects to this episode. It’s set against the background of an Earth military force waiting on B5 for orders to help one side of an alien civil war.

1. As part of the preparations for the attack, B5 is given a major weapons systems upgrade. Sheridan sees conflict between that and B5 being a place for peace-making. It reminds me of a quote of Einstein’s that you can’t simultaneously prepare for and prevent war. I don’t embrace it whole-heartedly (I’m not a pacifist and believe that as horrible as I’m sure it is, war is sometimes necessary, and/or helpful, and/or justified) but I think there’s a fair amount of truth to it. As I’ve said elsewhere on this blog the “posture” of the US military is sort of saying “don’t fuck with us” to most of the world. The thing is I think in that situation some people will WANT to fuck with us (I know there are other reasons for hostility to the US, but I think that’s part of it).

2. Sheridan learns that Earth is helping one side of the alien civil war so that they can have a presence in that part of space, a part that is strategically close to the front line of the war between the Centauri and the Narn. In an earlier conversation the assault force commander says that with the Narn-Centauri war going on the other alien races will get more aggressive. This seems fairly militaristic on the part of Earth. I also wonder if you could call it racist towards the other alien races that will allegedly get more aggressive because of the Narn and the Centauri. It SOUNDS like it MIGHT be a legitimate concern considering what I’ve seen in movies about bar brawls starting. On the other hand, I believe it’s been established that Earth is xenophobic.

3. We are reminded that B5’s doctor refuses to do exobiology work for the military when what they want are better ways to biologically or genetically wipe out alien life. In fact most of the conversation in which he explains that to his Marine father in this episode is a good example of human racism- from his father. He doesn’t pull any punches when he lets his dad know how offended he is by that.

4. There is a minor hate crime committed by a few Marines against the Minbari ambassador. They harass her for appearing part-human, surround her with her back against a wall and threaten her before another Marine intervenes.

5. The arrival of six large transports for the Marines required the dock workers to work a lot more than usual, and Sheridan has Ivanova arrange for paid time off for them as compensation for their extra work.


**Season 2, Episode 11 “All Alone in the Night”** See this for a plot summary.

There are two political issues here that are basically about the role of the military in politics.

We learn that traditionally the 9-member governing body of the Minbarri is divided between the three castes on Minbar, with the warrior, religious, and worker castes each getting 3 seats. When Delenn is replaced (because they disapprove of the transformation she went through), it is by a member of the warrior caste instead of someone from her own religious caste, thus giving the warriors 4 seats out of nine. She expresses serious concern about this. The new member from the warrior caste argues that since they are the ones who fight the wars, they should have greater representation than the workers or the religious caste.

I certainly don’t think there should be any formal expansion of power that the military have in relationship to government policy. To a large degree I think influence by the military here in the US depends on who the elected civilian leaders are and how THEY feel about the military- do they unquestioningly agree with whatever the military says about foreign policy and war? And for better or worse, the fact is that when vets run for office a certain section of the population give them a few extra points for being vets (and sometimes that involves some votes for PROGRESSIVE, anti-war vets). Although I would love to see free college education for everyone who gets accepted to a college in this country, for now people in the military get a lot of help paying for college. And then there are other things like veterans’ medical benefits, Memorial Day, etc. So it’s not like our society doesn’t recognize, for better or worse, the sacrifices made by service men and women (sometimes for a good cause but usually not (that statement is referring to ALL of the history of the US)).

There was an interesting episode on the TV show “The West Wing” in, I think, the first season. There is a violent incident involving people who are Arab and/or Muslim and might be called terrorists. The President’s personal physician, a Navy doctor, is killed. In the Situation Room the military propose some kind of minimal armed response against a state that might be partly responsible (I think it may have been Syria). The President demands something more aggressive, so the senior military officers leave and then return to the White House with a proposal that would be very bad for the civilian population of part of Syria (much worse than it would have been under their earlier proposal) and get the President to accept the earlier proposal. (I can’t remember if this was before or after the President started acting in line with his very liberal-progressive principles, but in any case it was weird because he had those principles)

The second issue is the existence of people in the military who are either progressives and/or believe very strongly in democracy in the face of some degree of authoritarianism. We learn that since Earth President Santiago was assassinated (the official line is that it was an accident) a resistance has developed in the military and Sheridan is part of it and brings his Executive Officer Ivanova, security chief, and B5’s head doctor into the conspiracy. It’s said that Santiago was a friend of B5, but we also know that he was budget-cutting, xenophobic, and isolationist which might have meant anti-war although I don’t think we can be sure of that (he was also possibly anti-labor). But apparently his replacement is worse- after the Narn-Centuari war starts he is quite ready to get into inter-stellar fights without any apparent progressive ideas guiding that (although I lean heavily towards non-violence, it IS possible for force to be used for progressive goals and as I watch the show I would be less concerned about the new President of Earth if he were guided by progressive values); we can probably assume he is continuing the budget-cutting, that he is probably an opponent of Martian Independence, and that he is xenophobic. As we see in the 3rd and 4th seasons, there is a Civil War on Earth over the legitimacy of Santiago’s successor.

I’m not going to cover more than .001% of this subject, but I think there are progressives in state military organizations (i.e. the US Army). I knew a democratic socialist who joined the military to pay for school. In the mid-1970s a fascist dictatorship in Portugal was overthrown by elements of the military who then gave up power and a democracy was created.

Babylon 5 Reviews C

Years ago I did what you might call “reviews” of Star Trek episodes. I mostly just briefly noted what progressive politics were involved and sometimes used that as an excuse to talk about similar situations in reality.

Last year I finally watched all five seasons of Babylon 5, another sci-fi show, one I had thought of watching once in a while stretching back a couple decades. It isn’t as political or as progressive as ST but there’s some good stuff there- in fact, on one issue, a progressive take on the working-class and/or labor movement, B5 is better than ST. Because there is so little progressive material, I’m going to do one post for every four episodes reviewed, and only mention the episodes that have some progressive political stuff. I might ignore some of the more minor and/or less unique stuff about conflict resolution because from what I remember, it’s very common in this series. Also, although less so than is the case with Star Trek, multiculturalism is a big part of Babylon Five and I will also only be commenting on that when it is more significant than usual. Lastly, there are issues raised about telepaths- I’m going to completely ignore stuff about telepaths when reviewing these episodes.


**Season 1 Episode 15 “Grail”** See this for a plot summary.

After some serious criminal activity, the stations’ security chief wants to do a sweep through a high-crime area that, of course, is also a very poor area (A: Earth and B5 aren’t utopias like the Federation  is on Star Trek, and B: the security chief seems to be a mixture of different political tendencies whereas the commander is  more consistently progressive (the doctor, and, maybe, the second-in-command are also progressive)). The Commander rejects that request and says: “most of them are just people with no where else to go. They come here looking for a new life, a new job and when they don’t find it they can’t afford transport back.”


**Season 1 Episode 16 “Eyes”** See this for a plot summary.

At one point the chief of security, a male, refers to God with a female pronoun.


**Season 1 Episode 17 “Legacies”** See this for a plot summary.

Commander Sinclair agrees to take part in a memorial service sort of thing for a late military leader of the Minbari who was a hero of the Earth-Minbari war Sinclair had fought in. He says that it would help with the reconciliation between the two alien races. I think that sort of approach is often a good idea. Possibly not when it comes to WWII (I think that had it been tried after WWII it might have made de-Nazification less successful, and it might have contradicted the message that Hitler’s wars of aggression were war crimes). On the other hand, I think that it would have been acceptable and helpful after the American Revolution and the American Civil War, for example; and I am fairly okay with the actions taken by mainstream republican leaders to advance the N. Ireland Peace Process by meeting with people like the Queen, or Prince Charles, or (on a similar note) by marking the Battle of the Somme (something important to Unionists), etc. etc.


**Season 1 Episode 21 “The Quality of Mercy”** See this for a plot summary.

There are about four issues raised by this episode:

1. I can’t remember what we learned about this in earlier episodes, but it seems that B5 doesn’t believe in juries. On the other hand, a judge refuses to allow the sometimes right-wing security chief to go on a “fishing expedition” in relation to a criminal who may have committed more murders than he was charged with and convicted of.

2. Aside from mutiny and treason, the death penalty is not used anymore (well, they CAN sentence someone to having their mind wiped, which seems at best a little bit less offensive than killing someone, but the show still makes a good statement against the death penalty as we know it today)

3. Although this is unclear, we might learn in this episode that one of the main characters is both male and female. This positive statement is slightly diluted by the fact that A) he’s a “bad guy” for the most part; B) he’s an alien; and C) the character he outs himself to is at least a little uncomfortable with it.

4. The very best thing about this episode is that it promotes free health-care. As I’ve said, Earth and B5 aren’t utopias like the Federation on Star Trek. There’s a lot of poverty on B5 and the head doctor there spends some of his time running a free clinic in the poor area of the station. He even gets the second-in-command, Ivanova, to help him with it. UPDATE 5/17/17 In the season 2 episode "A Race Through Dark Places" the doctor says that he was using the free clinic to help telepaths who were on the run. So, I guess it's not nearly as impressive a political statement as I thought it was (on the other hand Ivanova DOES agree to help him, thinking that it's a free clinic for "normals.")

Eyes On The Prize: Three More Poems

Below are three more poems. For an explanation of how and why I "write" the poems, see this.

For the rest of the poems click on the "lyrics" label at the bottom (there are at least four pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).

“Internment Night” based on “Fiery Cross” by Hate Society, original lyrics are here.

1. This is about the annual rioting on “Internment Night” in N. Ireland during the earlier years of the conflict (I'm not sure how much that has happened in the last 1-2 decades) (the rioting for some number of years was accompanied by creating bonfires (at least in 1988) in republican areas). I read that at some point, probably 15-20 years ago, a community festival in west Belfast was started partly to give teenagers something else to do instead of rioting. Is this poem meant as a criticism of the organizers of that festival? NOT AT ALL- as far as I can tell, that festival was/is a great idea, and of course it is/was anti-Unionist and anti-Imperialist and was therefore a form of resistance (considering the progress made so far with the Peace Process, I’m not sure if “resistance” is the right word for today). But I also believe that during the conflict, rioting was generally a good thing- it was closer to mass struggle than the IRA’s campaign. It was just one more way of resisting along with rallies, marches, the IRA, elections, etc.
2. The phrase, referring to POWs is usually “men behind the wire” but “fence” rhymed and made sense. 1971 was the first year of internment. There’s a good, academic summary about internment here.
3. Squaddies is a word for British soldier, peeler is a word for the police.
4. Provos are the Sinn Fein and the IRA that in recent decades have been called simply Sinn Fein and the IRA. I haven’t really nailed down when this takes place, so I’m not sure what to say about them being “on the rise.” It’s a bad line in what is a bad poem.
5. BA is the British Army, and they didn’t defeat the IRA.
6. The phrase “freedom’s seeds” is based on a republican song called “Your Daughters and Your Sons” (it's my favorite song). The idea is that the children of (for example) Catholics in N. Ireland were the seeds of freedom in the future.
7. The idea behind the 2nd line of the 2nd verse is that the rioting of youth could possibly be seen as a small taste of what the security forces would get from the IRA (there’s more than that, the rioting also was to some degree mass struggle).
8. Normalization was a part of Thatcher’s N. Ireland policy where they tried to convince people the war wasn’t having much of an effect on N. Ireland society. Although they were rioting very frequently for years before that, nationalist youth rioting could be seen as doing a pretty good job of undermining normalization.
9. I deleted the last verse for various reasons.
10. I give this poem two stars of five.
11. **71% of this version is me, 29% is the original.
12. The reference to fascism towards the very end. For the most part, you’re right- their enemy was not fascist. But they were anti-fascist youth.
13. The original is by an American band, and so I made a point of including some anti-fascist/right/bigot or pro-left (I explain that a bit more here). With this one, it’s the term “anti-fascist” (Overwhelmingly, the enemy in the N. Ireland conflict is/was not fascists- that part of that line is simply an anti-fascist statement).

They’ve been lighting their bon-fires for years as resistance
And remembering those in ‘71 taken behind the fence
Already rioted a hundred times and never were arrested,
the squaddies and peelers presence would not go uncontested

Chorus:
Fiery resistance still burning - lighting up the land!
Better watch out squaddie - the ‘RA will shoot you where you stand!
Fiery resistance still burning - lighting up the skies!
Better watch out peeler - the Provos are on the rise!

Another army the BA couldn’t defeat, they are freedom’s seeds
They will let the crown forces know, a warning they should heed
Anti-fascist youth in one struggle - an army of the poor
Rejecting normalization, it’s their battle in a people’s war

chorus

****

“We Are Standing” based on “They Stand Alone” by No Remorse, lyrics are here (not exactly what I used, but close).

1. The first verse is about “Operation Motorman,” a British offensive against no-go areas (Nationalist areas where the security forces couldn’t easily enter because of barricades and armed Volunteers (members of republican paramilitaries)) For more info, see this. At that point, in 1972, the British Army (BA) were in complete conflict with the nationalist community. I’m not sure if that means they were there to support the status quo since the regional government in Belfast had been suspended, and the BA wasn’t in complete lock-step with the Unionists. But they were continuing the oppression of the nationalist community. And a year earlier, they had carried out the internment operations demanded by the Unionists. And in 1974 they allowed the Unionists to bring down the power-sharing government. So it largely makes sense.
2. “Orange Jim Crow” is my way of referring to the anti-Catholic environment of N. Ireland back then (orange is the color of anti-Catholic bigotry in N. Ireland). In the period around 1972, there were still some Jim Crow-type laws, and certainly four years earlier they had them. You could also say that in some ways it continued up until somewhere around 10 years ago.
3. The second verse is about the formation of the state of Northern Ireland. The USC was the Ulster Special Constabulary, a kind of state militia to help the police, but they were worse than the police in terms of sectarianism. Britain paid a lot for the various efforts of establishing and securing N. Ireland- they turned the Six Counties (a republican term for N. Ireland) into an armed camp.
4. As I have explained in the last 1/3 of this, I believe the Left in many countries dropped the ball in terms of doing work on N. Ireland. The media didn’t help with that problem.
5. The line about Soldiers of Empire refers to the build up in the early 1970s.
6. I give this poem three stars out of five.
7. The Ulster Unionist Party was the main unionist political force in N. Ireland for decades until about 7 years ago. It’s leadership was overwhelmingly upper-class and the rich benefited greatly from UUP governments.
8. No Remorse was British and supported the unionist and/or British causes in N. Ireland.
9. **70% of this version is me, 30% is the original.
10. UPDATE 5/15/12 The last line of the first verse could be seen as conflating those who supported the IRA with the nationalist population in general. That's not my intent, although I could almost do that without it being more than sort of inaccurate- beyond the 40% who definitely supported the IRA, there's evidence that something like another 40% sort of supported the IRA. You could say it's a look at N. Ireland that could be shared with non-IRA supporters, but in this poem it's coming form IRA supporters.

A tank rolls up the Creggan Rd.
The BA’s here to support the status quo
The Volunteers escaped, to fight another day
Our day will come- victory to the IRA

Chorus
British Army man, you must go.
We’ll defeat you and Orange Jim Crow.
Northern Catholics, now we are standing
Freedom and justice, we are demanding

A State built on sectarian violence of the USC
An Orange system for the rich of the UUP
Propped up by pillars, of British pounds
Thousands of guns, to occupy Irish ground

Chorus

Oh! Northern Catholics, No-one on your side
Hopes are nearly fading. Freedom’s nearly died
come on

Chorus

Silence from the Left, while Nationalists die.
World-wide news media won’t ask why.
Soldiers of the Empire, build up in Six Counties.
It's an imperialist creation, they want us on our knees

Chorus

Take back your land...

*****

“Eyes On The Prize” based on “Final Attack” by Final War, original lyrics are here.

1. This is about Ireland, close to the day when Ireland is unified. UPDATE 4/27/12 I just realized, I was a little lazy with part of writing this poem- I'm kind of conflating the northern Catholic population with the Irish population in general; in the next week or so, I'll fix that (same thing with supporters of the armed struggle and those who didn't support it).
UPDATE 4/29/12 It’s overwhelmingly about the nationalist population in the North. I don’t know if this is really a good idea, this will probably be the only poem I do this with, but I am going to use asterisks to indicate which lines mean this or that. * Just nationalists; ** Nationalists and the South; *** Largely pre-N. Ireland and more general; **** Northern Protestants. And there is only one line that refers to the use of force as part of a wide variety of efforts to unite the island and/or work for equality for the nationalist and Catholic populations; that doesn't mean that it was supported by the entire nationalist community (about 40% strongly supported the IRA and somewhere around 40% sort of supported the IRA).

2. The Dail is the parliament in Dublin. There’s a good chance that unification will begin shifting Ireland towards the Left. There’s some more about that towards the bottom of this post.
4. As far as I can tell, with Ireland united and free, there would be very little left of British imperialism.
5. As far as dialogue and reconciliation and helping the unionist bigots move beyond the end of N. Ireland, there is some info about that here and (as far as my record on supporting dialogue and reconciliation), here. You might also want to read this.
6. The red, white and blue are the colors of the British flag.
7. The Republic is already much more secular than it was decades ago (gay rights are fairly advanced) and even decades ago, Catholic fundamentalism rarely took the form of anti-Protestantism.
8. Anti-Catholic bigotry in Ireland was largely encouraged by the British.
9. It’s difficult to say when The Troubles ended. It was a gradual process, probably beginning with the Good Friday Agreement, and ending with Sinn Fein accepting the new police force.
10. “Eyes on the prize” was the name of a documentary made in the 1980s about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (and the years between that era and 1985). I’m not sure if it’s a perfect fit, but the last line in this poem, I believe, works very well.
11. In the last line, “we’ve all” refers to about 90% of the Northern Catholic population and what would be a growing minority of Northern Protestsants.
12. I give this poem four stars out of five.
13. **80% this version is mine, 20% is the original.
14. The original is by an American band, and so I made a point of including some anti-fascist/right/bigot or pro-left (I explain that a bit more here). With this one it’s the title of the poem.
15. Orange is the color of anti-Catholic bigotry in the Irish-British context.
16. UPDATE 4/21/16 I replaced the word "enslaved" with "killed" in the 3rd line of the 2nd verse.
17. UPDATE 11/8/16 In the 3rd line of the last verse, I changed "many" to "hundreds of thousands" because "many" would probably be interpreted as MUCH less than "hundreds of thousands." At this point there's about 1.1 million Protestants in the North and although "hundreds of thousands" is kind of a mouthful, I think that TODAY there might be about 75,000-100,000 adult anti-sectarian Protestants there and this poem is about a possible near future where a lot more progress has been made.

The day is approaching, the day of unity n/a
for you and your family, will finally be free *
gonna celebrate, and remember the dead **
gonna paint the Dail a light shade of red **

We’ll have equality and justice, with our liberation *
we’re also gonna have truth and reconciliation *
the Brits took our land, and killed many of us ***
Now British imperialism has been turned to dust n/a

Chorus:
Oh no, what are the bigots gonna do ****
when the Brits lower the red, white and blue n/a
We need to talk with them, make them understand- **
We’re all gonna share this island **

the Brits introduced sectarianism and kept the Nationalists down ***
Occupied all our cities and all our towns ***
explosions and gunfire had been part of our struggle *
As well as voting and marching, during and after the Troubles *

Chorus

We've got our sights set on a new democracy **
We guarantee, it won’t be, a Catholic theocracy **
Hundreds of thousands have broken free from the orange lies ****
And we’ve all got our eyes, yeah, eyes on the prize **

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews M

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).

“Is There in Truth no Beauty?” See this for a plot summary.

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

“Spectre of the Gun” See this for a plot summary.

There are basically three political aspects to this episode:

1) The Enterprise is ordered to make contact with an alien race “at all costs.” When they encounter some kind of space buoy and are told to turn around and not enter the aliens’ space, Kirk acknowledges the buoys message and explains his mission to the aliens. He then takes a small landing party and transports down to the planet.

It reminds me of the United States forcing Japan to open itself to the US. In general, that sort of thing is wrong.

2) There is some talk about how humanity “overcame” it’s “instinct for violence.”

3) At the end, it turns out it’s another episode where an alien race wants to test the Federation citizens to see if they take life when it’s not totally necessary, and then the aliens move towards friendship with the Federation. Some times Kirk goes a bit far in proclaiming the Federation’s commitment to non-violence, but over all it’s fairly true.

I give it three stars out of five.

“Day of the dove” See this for a plot summary.

There are two minor political points made- 1) there’s an incident of sexual assault (or at least attempted sexual assault), which in the context of ST can be seen as a feminist statement (when Chekhov did that, he was under the influence of an alien); and 2) some incidents of racial hostility, which lead to statements against racism.

The political aspect that really deserves some attention comes from Spock: “Those who hate and fight must stop themselves, otherwise it is not stopped.” This presents a problem for me, although I feel comfortable disagreeing with ST on some stuff here and there. But I have gotten the idea that, for example, UN Peacekeepers usually are doing something good that helps with ending conflicts. I also believe in something similar with the non-armed aspects of conflict resolution- for example, I believe that it was a good idea that the International Decommissioning Commission in N. Ireland was led by people from third party countries. In a mid-1990s publication of the Pat Finucane Center in Derry, they called for the police patrolling nationalist areas to be replaced by officers from European Union nations. Partly inspired by those last two items, I wrote up a proposal for resolving the conflict, one that would involve such international elements.

I still believe in such an approach (there’s a possibility that Spock’s theory doesn’t apply to the North, since there is really not much anti-Protetsant bigotry coming from the Catholics) (the Peace-Keepers should come from countries that don't have any selfish interests in the conflict, and civilian 3rd party personel should meet similar criteria). The thing is, when Ireland is close to being united, there will be some degree of loyalist backlash, and I think a UN force dealing with that would be better than either the British Army or the Irish Army would be. That’s because if it were the BA, some soldiers would be sympathetic to the loyalists and hostile to the nationalists, and their presence on the streets might attract attacks by republicans. If it were the Irish Army, that might increase the backlash if they’re suspected of being sympathetic to the nationalists. Third party peace-keepers (who would also have to be conducting raids when necessary) would probably be at least a little better.

I give this episode one star out of five.

“For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” See this for a plot summary.

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

Anti-Sectarian

Immediately below is a poem I’ve “written.” For more information on my poetry, see this. It’s about anti-sectarianism in the North of Ireland, against both the anti-Catholic kind of bigotry and the anti-Protestant kind of bigotry. Below IT are some notes on that subject.

For the rest of the poems click on the "lyrics" label at the bottom (there are at least four pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).

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

1. At first I thought of doing a small alteration of this- making it about the Union Jack and unionism and/or British imperialism. But then I decided to go a bit further and in a slightly different direction, and make it about sectarianism in the North.
2. The Union Jack is the British flag.
3. There are six counties in N. Ireland and Orange is the color of anti-Catholic bigotry in the Irish-British context.
4. Fermanagh is in the south-west of N. Ireland, Belfast is in the east and mid-way between north and south of N. Ireland (so, it's not perfect, but I think it works pretty well).
5. For info about Orangemen marching through Catholic areas and why that’s wrong, see this.
6. The BA is the British Army.
7. This is set somewhere around 2000. From what I remember, it was around then that Sinn Fein (I'm not sure if that means this is about SF, and is that appropriate???) stepped up their effort to reach out to Protestant Unionists, and the BA were usually still involved with forcing Orange marches through Catholic areas. (SF is very anti-sectarian with both kinds of sectarianism)
9. The red, white and black are the colors of the Nazi flag. Once again, what the Union Jack stands for in the Irish-British relationship isn’t as bad as what the Nazi flag stands for, but there are many points in Irish history when it was close.
10. As far as republican sectarianism towards Protestants, see the second half of this post, beginning with the paragraph "a lot of people..."
11. As far as “republican revolution” this is the second poem which requires me to explain why I believe that Sinn Fein (and most of the rest of the republican family) can be called revolutionaries. I’ll do that soon, for now just take my word for it : ).
12. I give this poem five stars out of five.
13. **57% of this version is me, 43% is the original.
14. As far as the second line of the first verse, I believe that the Orange nature of the statelet was slowly, more or less decreasing, although it has certainly been a slow process and there is still a lot of room for improvement. As far as the end of the statelet itself, even today I’m not sure if we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
15. The last line is about tearing down the structures of Orangeism, unionism and British imperialism (reforming the police, more movement towards a United Ireland, a ban on Orange marches through Catholic areas without the consent of the residents, starting an international and independent process of looking at the past that will make it clear to everyone what the nationalist and Catholic communities went through during the Troubles, and the decades before that, etc.).
16. Definitely about non-violence with the possible exception of sort of violent rioting in response to OO marches forced through Catholic areas.
17. UPDATE 5/4/11 I just realized there is a small conflict between the 3rd line of 2nd verse and the 3rd line of the last verse. I might change that soon.
18. UPDATE 5/3/12 I put Orange in the 2nd line of the 2nd verse; it used to say Northern. As I mentioned in another post, I don’t think the Orange Order is 100% as bad as the KKK, but even today they’re close and in the recent past, they were definitely close.
19. Razor's Edge were British and supported the British and Unionist causes.


You fly your Union Jacks and your symbols full of hate
Don't you see the end of your six-county Orange state?
We're tearing down sectarian divisions from Fermanagh to Belfast
and in their place we create solidarity of the working-class

Chorus:
We're tearing down sectarianism - we'll banish the North’s shame!
We're tearing down sectarianism - we’ll all oppose the British claim
We're tearing down sectarianism - we're never giving in!
We're tearing down sectarianism - and we're gonna fucking win!

Orangemen still marching on our streets, supported by the BA
Don't they fucking realise, we won’t surrender to the Orange KKK
They're just a bunch of wankers, with nothing new to say.
Well here's some headlines for ya- “republican revolution’s on its way.”

Chorus

You display your orange bunting and your union jacks
In the North it’s almost as bad as flying the red, white and black
We're tearing down sectarian divisions and we'll talk with you as well.
So you can join us in tearing down this Orange capitalist hell

Chorus

******

If you look at figures for unemployment and income, and sectarian murders, homes attacked, and Orange marches through Catholic areas, in recent decades (and certainly before that) it’s clear that Catholics have been targets of the overwhelmingly vast bulk of sectarianism in the North.

And here are some things I want to mention about sectarianism going the other way, and about sectarian DIVISIONS. Some of the stuff below I wrote partly as a pre-emptive response to people who might say that as a republican I can't be against anti-Protestant bigotry. (my attitude about sectarianism is completely compatible with republicanism, or at least the republicanism of the overwhelmingly vast majority of republicans- SF is VERY good at trying to break-down divisions and have dialogue with Protestant unionists)

1) The Speedwell Trust is a great organization in the North. They bring Catholic and Protestant kids together through environmental education and community relations programs. It’s doing very important work. In late 2002 I read an article in the Irish News about how they needed funding from the government immediately or they might have to close down. At the time the group I organized on the CU-Boulder campus, Students for Justice in N. Ireland, was active, and we tried to help Speedwell by contacting the N. Ireland Office and getting others (largely via environmentalist groups on campus) to do the same.

The Speedwell Trust’s web-site is here.

2) In 2002 I made two trips to Ireland. The second one was during the marching season (when anti-Catholic organizations have marches , including some in Catholic areas with the police and/or Army forcing the march through (For info about Orangemen marching through Catholic areas and why that’s wrong, see this)). Often the ones through Catholic areas result in riots. I was at two such protests and (at both) at one point a small number of the kids rioting threw some rocks over the Peace Line fence into a Protestant area. Several people, (including myself, the second time this happened), yelled at them to stop. Although I was fine with them throwing stuff at the police and Army, throwing rocks into Protestant areas is very unhelpful and just increases tension and hate and I'm pretty sure is almost never a good idea (the one possible exception in recent years I can think of is when an isolated nationalist enclave in east Belfast was under siege for weeks in 2002).

About a week before that, I went to Ardoyne in north Belfast. I had been there 1-2 days earlier and the local nationalist kids surrounded me with questions- I was pretty popular. So the next time I was there a couple of boys, probably 10-12 years old, talked with me when I was waiting for a bus back to the city center. The street we were on was one of the main roads in north Belfast and was one of the boundaries for the nationalist Ardoyne area. At one point a taxi drives by and one of the boys says he wished he had a rock to throw at it. It was a taxi from a business with links to a loyalist paramilitary. I could understand wanting to throw a rock at such a taxi, but realized that there would very likely be passengers who did not deserve to be attacked like that. I explained that to the boys and they sort of understood.

3) The Pat Finucane Centre for Human Rights and Truth Recovery is a very important organization in N. Ireland. For some number of years they organized what you might call "official" events around the annual commemoration of Bloody Sunday (as far as I can tell there was little or no competition with other political forces hostile to the PFC). Another thing they do is facilitate dialogue between the two communities (I’m sure overwhelmingly at the working-class level) in different ways. They’re generally very progressive. Although it ended up being only slightly successful, I worked with some others to organize a benefit show for the PFC, I think we got them about $50 (the two groups that organized it together were Students for Justice in N. Ireland (my group) and the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center).

Their web-site is here.

4) There is, of course the issue of integrated education. For most of my thoughts on that, see this review of Star Trek episodes, when I discuss the episode “In the Hands of the Prophets” (the relevant part is about half-way down from the top of that episode review).

5) About two and a half years ago I found a fan-made music video on YouTube for the song “There Were Roses (Cara Dillon version)” There’s two crucial facts about the lyrics that I couldn’t find, and in general I don’t agree with all of it. But there’s one thing it’s about that I like- celebrating friendships that cross the sectarian divide (there are some other elements I like, such as the description of Catholic fear about loyalist retaliation).

The missing facts are, who killed the Protestant, and why (I found something saying that it’s based on a true story but I couldn’t find their names in a data-base of all the people killed during the conflict). Also I’m not crazy about the last verse. But the anti-sectarianism of most of the lyrics is great. The YouTube music video is here. (the fan-made video is not viewable in America, but the song can be heard here).

6) There's some info about Irish Republicans and sectarianism towards Protestant about 2/3 down this post, starting with the paragraph "a lot of people..."

7) Lastly, in case someone thinks there is no anti-Protestant bigotry in the North, I have absolutely no doubt- you could almost say I experienced it myself. On the night July 11th/12th 2002 I was walking in a republican part of west Belfast. Each year that night sees some large degree of tension and fear in nationalist areas that there will be loyalist attacks. That doesn’t justify what happened, but I think it might partly explain it. So, what happened was that I passed a bar as two guys came out of it and they asked me if I was Catholic (I think I stood out like a sore thumb with the haircut I had then). I said yes. But I can only imagine what would have happened if I were a N. Ireland Protestant and had admitted it.