Brexit, A Hard Border, and Irish Unity

You should read this. It's about the Northern Ireland aspect of Brexit, the departure from the EU of the UK. While reading my thoughts below, you should also read this. It's about how a "hard border" between the two parts of Ireland might violate the letter and certainly violates the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement. It doesn't mention that much of the business community, probably the vast majority, in both parts of Ireland oppose a hard border

I might be over-reacting, but there might be a new push for Irish unity soon. Besides Sinn Fein's success in the South, and the growth of Nationalist political strength in the North, there's also Brexit, and since a majority of N. Ireland voters voted to remain in the EU, there were definitely some Unionists who voted to remain (of 11 unionst MPs at the time, one opposed Brexit). Although the SF Deputy First Minister did at one point express opposition to a border between GB and NI, I think that might be because it was difficult for her to avoid since the First Minister and a large chunk, probably a majority of NI's business community oppose a border in the Irish sea (I've read that SF opposes it for different reasons than the DUP have for opposing it, but I just found something on the SF web-site indicating they might be sort of in favor of it) but SF definitely opposes a hard border in Ireland and and I think they probably realize that the EU will not accept a soft border in Ireland without a border in the Irish Sea. SF and the Social Democratic and Labour Party opposed Brexit. And the EU seems pissed about what London might be intending to do, and might strongly suggest that the situation be resolved by uniting Ireland (I believe it should be a 30 year process, but it should start ASAP).

UPDATE 3/5/20 I could swear I read somewhere that a senior DUP politician, perhaps Arlene Foster (leader of the DUP) said that a border in the Irish Sea would be the end of the Good Friday Agreement. I just found an article where a senior DUP politician says that the spirit of the GFA would be threatened by such a border. And I also just found an article where Foster said that there is so much opposition to such a border in the unionist community that there could be violence from that community, and although she didn't specify this, she's probably talking about loyalist paramilitaries. IF the DUP do walk away from the GFA because of a border in the Irish Sea, that could easily see a resumption of republican violence. There is a chance that a "hard border" in Ireland would see a small increase in republican violence, which would probably result in loyalist violence and/or repressive activity by the security forces. Hopefully the EU and America can put enough pressure on the British to resolve this by uniting Ireland. Unfortunately, as I write here, it's possible that Trump won't give a shit what SF wants (UPDATE 3/7/20 also, it was just reported that he made his now former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney his envoy to N. Ireland, and as far as I can tell, he doesn't like Mulvaney, and that makes me think that as flawed as his approach to the conflict would probably be, he also just doesn't care).

UPDATE 3/5/20 I stumbled across an Irish Times article about a December 2019 opinion poll of people in N. Ireland by the University of Liverpool, . The first relevant paragraph is:

In the 2016 Brexit vote Northern Ireland voted by 56 per cent to stay in the European Union. Excluding don’t knows, those who refused to say and those who would not vote, the survey found that now 63 per cent would vote to stay in the EU compared with 37 per cent who would vote to leave.

The second relevant paragraph is:

On checks on goods travelling between Britain and Northern Ireland, and between the North and the Republic, 68.5 per cent of those who stated an opinion believed they would be unacceptable.

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

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.

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).

1. Nightmare on Bombay Street. About the anti-Catholic pogroms in 1969 that triggered The Troubles.
2. Take on the Klan. Guess what it's about.
3. Revolution with Honor. Republican struggle in N. Ireland.

“Nightmare on Bombay Street” based on “Stop Immigration” by No Remorse. Original lyrics are here.

1. Bombay St. was one of the main sites of the Aug. 1969 anti-Catholic pogroms (and one attempted pogrom) which are usually seen as the beginning of the conflict. In July, Aug, and September, and mostly during a period of 2-3 days, in Belfast, 1,505 Catholic families fled their homes (probably something like 18% of Belfast’s Catholic population, probably something like 1.8% of the North’s Catholic population). In one night alone 650 families were burnt or at least forced, out f their homes. For more, see this.
2. The security forces largely worked with the loyalist mobs to invade Catholic areas.
3. Fenian is bigoted term for Catholic and also for republican, although republicans have adopted it as their own term.
4. Even moderate sources have compared aspects of the North with aspects of Nazi Germany. For example, about 6 years ago the President of Ireland compared the transmission of hatred of Catholics from one generation to another with the same regarding anti-semitism in Europe. She retracted it under pressure, but is basically right.
5. The first two lines of the 2nd verse were difficult for me to alter. I came up with two versions of that. The one that is in the body of the poem probably makes the most sense. Immediately below is the 2nd version. I can’t nail down to what extent this happened, but I'm pretty sure that before, during, or shortly after the pogrom some Protestants who had been supporting the civil rights movement sort of abandoned the nationalist community. Those two lines are:

“Do you remember When many Protestants were our allies?
If only Ian Paisley hadn’t come around, spreading his hateful lies”

Let me know if you think the couplet above is better than the one below.
6. The Unionist government was very upper-class and completely Protestant. As far as the civil rights movement, some good material is here.
7. A no-go was an area where the security forces could not easily enter.
8. **78% of this version is me, 22 is the original.
9. I give this poem four stars out of five.
10. because I focused on West Belfast, it makes sense to kind of conflate that community with IRA supporters, since somewhere around 60% of that community supported the IRA and probably around 40% sort of supported the IRA. 
11. UPDATE 6/19/11 The state compared to Nazi Germany is basically the unionists/Protestants state; the nationalists/Catholics were the ones being denied their rights.
12. UPDATE 6/27/11 This poem is not meant as an endorsement of armed struggle since 1997.
13. UPDATE 4/2/12 I made a tiny change to the 1st line of the 3rd verse.
14. No Remorse were British and supported the British and Unionist causes.


They flooded into our streets in Aug. ‘69
The state and the loyalists actively combined
Swarmed into west Belfast because they hate fenians
Their state reminded many of Adolf Hitler’s in Berlin

Chorus
Stop the hate
We want truth and reconciliation
Stop the hate
We want a united working-class and nation

Do you remember When they won in the South and we thought we were free?
If only it could be that way How happy we would be
We had a Government of bigots, Puppets of the Protestant upper-class
They rejected our civil and human rights, so in ‘68 we arose en masse

chorus

So we built barricades, and created a no-go
Like a phoenix, from the ashes the Provisionals arose
British imperialism and Orange society created this mess
But we’ll win in the end, because the Provisionals are the best

Chorus

*******

“Take on the Klan” based on “Join the Klan” by “The Klansmen” original lyrics are here.

1. I’m not sure if “one nation” is the best way to put it, but I got it from a very progressive and anti-racist song by Sacred Reich (don’t read anything into their name) called “One Nation.” And the flame I refer to is supposed to be the flame of anti-racism, of unity.
2. The last two lines of the 2nd verse (I deleted the chorus) are about the “Battle of Hayes Pond.” I did one whole poem about that, with a lot of the background- you can find it here (it’s the third poem from the top).
3. Manning Marable was one of America’s very top scholars in African-American Studies. He passed away recently. There’s more of my thoughts on him, and links to some background here.
4. MLK is Martin Luther King.
5. I think I need to make this clear- this poem is about anti-racism in general, and you might say it leans away from violence (in a lot of cases I support anti-racist violence and have written poems about that, but this poem is different (as are a lot of others that use, for example, the word “fight”)).
6. I give this poem five stars out of five.
7. **44% of this version is me, 66% is the original.
8. UPDATE 6/19/11 Obviously there isn't a real Fourth Reich, but I know that a lot of fascists use that term when referring to their organization- and they have a VISION of the Fourth Reich, and that's being attacked, through education, dialogue, and public demonstrations. (12/11/11- Earlier I thought there was a problem with me conflating the KKK and the Nazis, but I'm pretty sure that's fine in this case)
9. UPDATE 6/19/11 As far as violence and non-violence, I almost forgot that the stuff about the Lumbee IS referring to a use of violence. But it was probably more acceptable to most anti-racists who stress non-violence then is the case with my SHARP poems. Anyway, the rest of the poem is about non-violence.
10. Skrewdriver were British and supported the British and Unionist causes.

Be an anti-racist, fight for what is right
taking down the Nazis and their “Fourth Reich”
Looking for a day, when there will be no KKK
Battles fought all across the U.S of A.

One Nation, the people's flame
Saving the country is the final aim
The racist terror tried to make a stand
The Lumbee men took down the klan

Anti-Racist banners held up high
Manning Marable’s spirit will never die
The sun is rising in the blue sky
Join the MLK Jr. march as it passes by

*****

“Revolution with Honor” based on “Blood and Honour” by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. For some reason I took a huge amount of time to try and make this one perfect. I think it’s pretty good.
2. This is about resistaance in general by the nationalist community, including a few lines about those who resisted with force.
3. As a community, the nationalists kind of were alone in the sense that they didn’t have a fraction of the global support they should have had, but they had some, especially from America.
4. This takes place in the very early 1970s. At that time it was fairly accurate to talk about second-class citizenship. Some of the civil rights demands hadn’t yet been fully realized, the Stormont government was still unwilling to share power with Catholics, Sinn Fein was still an illegal party, internment was used exclusively against Catholics and left-wing and/or republican Protestants, etc.
5. To a very large degree, the nationalists were honorable in their different forms of struggle. There was very little that could be called anti-Protestant and to a very large degree civilians were not targeted by the republican paramilitaries (only about .2% of the IRA’s operations intentionally resulted in civilian death (most or all of the civilians they intentionally killed were less than completely innocent (see this for more))).
6. It probably goes without saying, but Irish pride within N. Ireland is different from white pride, although I have mixed info on how many nationalists in the North would say they have Irish pride.
7. During the conflict, the African National Congress had a good relationship with republicans and I readily assume, other nationalists. As far as the Sinn Fein and IRA part of that, see this.
8. I believe that the North, as it usually had low wages and a weak and divided labor movement, was (at least until mass violence broke out around 1970) an attractive place for investments.
9. The political centre of the nationalist community is, and probably sort of was back then, centre-left, and most believe/d in a secular state.
10. **76% of this version is me, 24% is the original.
11. I give this poem four stars out of five.

Achieveing freedom in the North of Ireland
Means marching and fighting for our demands
Even though we stand alone we will resist the Brits
For we won’t accept no second-class citizenship

(chorus)
For the revolution with honour
For our people and our pride
For the revolution with honour
British rule we will always defy

We look for inspiration to the ANC
When it comes to national liberation, we can all agree
Thousands have been killed at London’s hands
We will struggle and die to unite our Irish land

British imperialist hands around our community’s throat
Capitalists exploiting the North and sitting back to gloat
A democratic socialist Ireland, we will create
It won’t be no fucking Catholic state

Anti-Fascist Republicanism: Four New Poems

Here are four more new poems. The first three are based on lyrics I find politically offensive- I explain some more about that here.

The last one is probably my best and probably my last poem about anti-racist skinheads. There are some notes about those poems here that you might want to read.

1. In the Spirit of Connie Green. About Ireland and WWII.
2. Proclamation of the Republic. About the 1916 Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence.
3. Irish Republican Socialist. Guess what it's about.
4. Frank Ryan Brigade. The anti-racist skinhead poem.

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).

“In the Spirit of Connie Green” based on “European Unity” by Brutal Attack, original lyrics are here.

1. Connie Green was a republican Volunteer killed on active service in 1955. During World War II he was a British commando (he didn’t fight in Spain). It’s more or less sort of about those republicans who fought in Spain (most of the Irish people who fought fascism in Spain's Civil War were republicans) and certainly about those who supported the Allies.
2. At first I had so much trouble trying to alter the original lyrics. Then I got the idea of making it about Ireland and World War II.
3. It’s almost the soundtrack for one of my posts.
4. During WWII internment without charge or trial was used by the Fianna Fail government in Dublin against republicans. The government was very conservative, economically and socially. Republicans had done a lot to get FF into power when it seemed like a left-leaning republican party.
5. The South leaned a bit towards the Allies but were basically neutral.
6. The British Prime Minister, Churchill, tried to get the South to join the Allies, and at one point suggested that in return he would let Ireland be united. There’s some reason to believe he didn’t mean it. I believe that if Ireland HAD joined the Allies, the cause of Irish unity would have had a lot of support internationally after the war, and that might have resulted in Ireland being united even if London tried to renege on the deal.
7. Dev was the informal name for the Irish Prime Minister at the time.
8. “No Pasaran’ is a spanish anti-fascist slogan.
9. **76% of this version is me, 24% is the original.
10. I give this poem four out of five stars.
11. UPDATE 7/9/11 I just realized that some of this poem suggests that all anti-fascists want socialism. Obviously that's not true and I might change those lines.
12. UPDATE 3/18/15  I added "and mothers."

You know the South’s been put in the hands of fools,
Mis-using their power, internment their No1 tool.
We're partly to blame for helping them get power
And now they’re neutral, in democracy’s darkest hour

Chorus 1:
Anti-fascist unity,
we want socialism and democracy
Unity of the Irish nation
Europe free from Nazi occupations

Our fathers and mothers fought for the South’s freedom you see,
We’re prepared to fight and die, for Irish Unity
We fought for democracy in Spain
But dev passed up a chance for us to attain...

Chorus 2:
Irish Unity
We want socialism and democracy
“No Pasaran,” that is our stance
In Berlin, Belfast, Spain, or France

Chorus 1

Chorus 2

So listen dev, listen very carefully,
You should take London’s offer and help defeat the Nazis
In return our island will be united
If the Allies stick together, Nazi Germany will be smited

It wont be easy, it'll be a long hard undertaking,
The Nazi german war machine, we’ll be breaking
And we'll win- we have the might, and we know we’re right
So on the eve of Irish unity let us join this important fight

****

“Proclamation of the Republic” based on “New Nation” by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. Lately I’ve been putting a lot of time, more so than usual, into trying to perfect these poems I do. This one, the last verse is not very impressive to me, but I have spent a lot of time on that and I don’t think I can make it any better.
2. The first verse is about the immediate aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising. A description of the Rising can be found here. Almost immediately, support for republicans exploded, and in late 1918 Sinn Fein won the vast majority of Irish seats in a general election.
3. I believe that during the period 1916 to about 1922 that acting like there was a 32-county Republic made sense. I believe that changed gradually after the new borders of the South and the North were settled. The Northern statelet had no legitimacy. But I believe that with each election in the South, the Dublin state became more and more legitimate.
4. The reference to a war sort of makes sense with hind-sight- it’s kind of fairly accurate to say that the Easter Rising was the beginning of the War of Independence (“war” was the best option).
5. The 2nd verse is about the War of Independence (or the vast bulk of it, considering what I said in the preceeding note). When the 1916 Easter Rising took place, and until the leaders were executed, there wasn’t much support for the republican militants.
6. The Union Jack is the British flag.
7. Why do I think truth and reconciliation will happen as the British leave? As far as truth is concerned, I think there’s a good chance that will happen, partly because of the reconciliation part of this. Whatever sectarianism is experienced by the Protestant community will be a tiny fraction of what Catholics under British rule in Ireland have experienced for centuries. I offer some evidence for this here. As the Protestant community gradually learns that it has nothing to fear from living in a united, independent Ireland, they’ll probably be more receptive to a description of what Catholics went through. There are some more of my thoughts on sectarian divisions here.
8. The 3rd line of the last verse is about more southerners and more northern nationalists embracing republicanism, which goes beyond a general desire for a United Ireland (which close to all of those people support).
9. **53% of this version is me, 47% is the original.
10. I give this poem three stars out of five.
11. Skrewdriver were British and supported the British and Unionist causes.
12. About the War of Independence, when the IRA had the support of something like 90% of the non-unionist population.
13 UPDATE 2/20/20 In the last line I replaced "as" with "when."

The Tories are thrilled, as our leaders are being killed
The Brits are celebrating, they think they've won the war
They can stop their jeering, 'cos soon we'll be cheering
They think they have beaten us, but we have esprit de corps

(chorus)
Irish Republic free and true, I pledge my life to you
Now the situation is so tense
Irish Republic free and true, I pledge my life to you
If you fall, we'll fall in your defense

Our attacks are stunning, now the Brits are running
And people who weren’t on our side, now support the IRA
State money is always available, to pay those with info that’s salable
They may buy some traitors, but we will have our day

Chorus

They think they have won, but one day our time will come
They'll regret their ignorance, their bigotry, and partition
When our people come around, the Union Jacks will be torn down
When British rule fades truth and reconciliation will begin

*******

“Irish Republican Socialist” based on “White National Socialist” by No Remorse, original lyrics can be found here.

1. James Connolly was the greatest socialist/republican in Irish history.
2. A “stoop” is a member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. They are the main rival to Sinn Fein (among the nationalist community). I describe why they’re so bad here.
3. The RUC was, between the statelet’s creation and late 2001, the police for N. Ireland.
4. There are 32 counties in Ireland.
5. I give this poem 4 stars out of five.
6. **83% of this version is me, 17% is the original.
7. This poem is not meant as an endorsement of armed struggle since 1997.
8. About a socialist republican.
9. No Remorse were British and supported the British and Unionist causes.

I live my life inspired by James Connolly
I pride my self on working-class solidarity
without these things I’d be nothing but a “Stoop”
But I support attacking, the RUC and the Britsh troops

Chorus
Irish Republican Socialst
proud to be and your can be- a
Irish Republican Socialst
Against capital and the RUC

x2

We need to seperate the North from the UK
And scare the bosses with our numbers on the first of May
By whatever means necessary, including the gun
Ireland, north and south should be united as one

chorus

we’re fighting for a 32-county socialist state
won’t stand for any injustice, inequality or any hate
Let’s drive out the British Army and unite our Irish land
We’ll vote out all the Tories and the unions will expand

Chorus

*******

"Frank Ryan Brigade" based on "Belfast Brigade," author unknown, multiple versions, mine is a combination of two I found on the Internet (plus 3 tiny changes I made), and thus there's no URL, the original is below the altered one.

1. The Hammerskins, or the Hammerskin Nation, most of the last 20 years have been America's and the world's leading Nazi skinhead organization.
2. Frank Ryan was an Irish republican leader of the International brigades on the anti-fascist side of the Spanish Civil War. (THERE IS NO SUCH GROUP, I MADE UP THE NAME “FRANK RYAN BRIGADE” FOR A FICTIONAL SHARP CREW)
3. SHARP is SkinHeads Against Racial Prejudice. Since the song implies left-wing politics, I should say that I am going to write the SHARP poems as a leftist, even though probably some small majority of anti-racist skinheads are not leftists.
4. Docs refers to Doc Martens, boots that something like 99% of skinheads wear.
5. "No Pasaran" means "They shall not pass" and is an anti-fascist slogan originating with the Spanish Civil War.
6. The Hammerskins started in Dallas, TX.
7. Although in America Nazi skinheads probably have an average of 2 guns each (that's based on anecdotal evidence) and often use them, I get the impression it's much less common for anti-racist skinheads to have or use guns. In any case, it was the best substitute and almost definitely makes sense to some degree.
8. CEO might be a stretch as it implies a large corporation, but there are wealthy people who support white supremacist organizations, and companies outside the Fortune 500 have CEOs, and it's possible a small % of the top people at Fortune 500 corporations give money to White Supremacist organizations. (it pretty much makes sense and rhymed)
9. Elements of the GOP, including Saul Anuzis (see this) support White Supremacist or at least sort of White Supremacist organizations. (it pretty much makes sense). (UPDATE 3/1/20 it makes a ton of sense now with Trump)
10. Skinheads indicate their politics or lack thereof with the color of their laces. White always/almost always indicates racism, red in America is often worn by racists, although it is also worn by leftists. Except for a few reports of white being worn by anti-racists, they wear colored laces (I'm pretty sure black is worn almost only by non-political skinheads and by those in the process of joining a racist organization (and occassionally, anti-racists)). So, it makes sense and rhymes.
11. **48% of this version is me, 52% of it is the original.
12. I give this version five out of five stars.
13. SHARPs are partly but far from completely about violence.

The Hammerskins went out to beat the people down
They thought that SHARP was dead in our cities and our towns
But they got a rude awakening, when with fists and with Docs
They met the anti-racists who will fight them block by block

Glory, glory to the working-class
Glory, Glory to those who struggle en masse
Glory to the memory
Of those who fought and died
"No Pasaran" is the war cry, of the Frank Ryan Brigade

Hammerskins came from Dallas, equipped with fascist hate
Men by the hundred, spreading state to state
But when they met the SHARPs they were seriously delayed
By true skinheads of the anti-fascist Frank Ryan Brigade

Chorus

We have no guns or backing from the GOP or right-wing CEOs
We're ready to defend ourselves no matter where we go
We're fighting for our democracy and to hell with your fascist state
"No Pasaran" is the war cry of those opposed to hate

Chorus

So come all you gallant young people, and get your colored laces
We’ll strike a blow for freedom, equality, unity of all the races
You know our movement's history and the sacrifice it made
Come join the SHARPs of the Frank Ryan Brigade

Chorus


original lyrics:

Craigavon sent the Specials out to shoot the people down
He thought the IRA were dead in dear old Belfast town
But he got a rude awakening, when with rifle and grenade
He met the first battalion of the Belfast Brigade

Glory, glory to old Ireland
Glory, Glory to this island
Glory to the memory
Of those who fought and died
"No Surrender" is the war cry of the Belfast Brigade

Specials came from Holywood, equipped with English guns
Men by the thousand, ammunition by the ton
But when they got to Seaford St. they were seriously delayed
By the fighting 1st battalion of the Belfast Brigade

Chorus

We have no armored cars or tenders for to show
We're ready to defend ourselves no matter where we go
We're out for our Republic and to hell with your Orange state
"No Surrender" is the war cry of the Belfast Brigade

Chorus

So come all you gallant Irish people and join the IRA
To strike a blow for freedom, when there comes our certain day
You know our country's history and the sacrifice it made
Come join the 1st battalion of the Belfast Brigade

Six new songs

I have six more songs. They're all "Those Lyrics," for an explanation see this. I might have a new source of non-offensive material for altering, but if not from now on it'll probably be something like 90% "Those Lyrics."
Also, two of these songs are SHARP/RASH songs, you might want to read the introductory portion of the first post I did with that sort of song/poem.

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

The ones towards the top are okay, the ones towards the bottom are good.

1. We Fly the Starry Plough. Republican Socialists in Ireland.
2. The Hate Froze. The Eastern European part of WWII.
3. When Partition Falls. Partly about a vision for a United Ireland.
4. SHARP Skinheads. Anti-racist skinheads.
5. Slan Abhaile. N. Ireland.

“We fly the Starry Plough” based on “we fly the swastika” by No Remorse. Original lyrics are here.

1. The Starry Plough is the flag of republican socialism.
2. Considering the source of the original, I feel like I have to point out what is probably obvious: as long as it doesn't cross a certain line (and in N. Ireland I imagine it rarely does) Irish pride is very different from White pride. (I just heard something making me think that it's probably a small minority of northern nationalists that would talk about "Irish pride"; I still feel odd completely re-writing that line, so I'm going to keep it)
3. Volunteers are members of republican paramilitaries.
**4. 25% of this version is me, 75% is the original.
5. I give this song/poem three stars out of five.
6. I'm not sure if I should have retained the bit about an era of darkness in my version. But "era of darkness" is basically in the right neighborhood- even today, with the economic situation and the continuation of British rule (albeit less so than before).
7. This poem is not meant as an endorsement of armed struggle since 1997.
8. No Remorse was supportive of the Unionist and British causes in N. Ireland.
9. This is about republican socialists, but only 1-2 lines are about those who use arms.

it’s a symbol of power, it’s a symbol of pride
in the hands of the Irish republican it evokes something deep inside

Chorus
we fly the starry plough, to London we won’t submit
we ain’t never going to take it down for no unionist or Brit

in this era of darkness, it’s a symbol of light
it’ll make a thousand strong Volunteers raise their fists and fight

Chorus

when you see our banners high, rally ‘round and cheer
only the crown forces have something to fear

Chorus

*****
There used to be  a poem here called "Real Skinhead." It might be back soon.

*****

“The Hate Froze” based on “The Snow Fell” by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. The original is about, from a pro-Nazi perspective, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union which was dealt a fatal blow early on by the Russian Winter.
2. I skipped the first verse, which was about Stalin. I don’t like him, which is why I couldn’t flip it and I wasn’t going to leave it, so I’m ignoring it.
3. As the war went bad for the Nazis, there were more and more plots against Hitler.
4. The red flag in Berlin warms my heart because it represents the defeat of Nazi Germany.
**5. 15% of this version is me, 85% is the original.
6. I give this song/poem three stars out of five.
7. I inspired someone on the Southern Poverty Law Center's blog to alter this song, and he did an even better job than I did. You can see his song in the comments.
UPDATE 11/27/10 8. I just realized that I'm pretty sure almost no one points to the Winter just outside Moscow as the moment when the defeat of the Nazis began. I might change that line.
8. UPDATE 12/24/10 I just added "there" to the 2nd line of the 2nd verse.
9. UPDATE 1/28/11 I am not a fan of the Soviet Union, but considering what they went through during the War, it's appropriate here and there to remember their contribution to the Allied victory.

They took the old roads that Napoleon had taken before.
They fought as a force of hate against the world in a fascist war.
One day they were looking around and the sun was shining on the cold flowers.
The next day they were freezing to death in the sleet and the ice cold showers.

(chorus)
And the snow fell
covering the hate of their ideals.
And the snow fell
freezing the blood and the wheels.
And the snow fell
it was the beginning of their defeat
And the snow fell
soon it would be complete

Then came the deadly roads back from the steppes of their retreat.
The cold racked their bodies but even better, there was the pain of defeat.
Many people who had hailed them once now turned and looked away.
These people now knew that Berlin’s defeat was on it's way.

(chorus)

they were finally pushed back to the borders of their fatherland.
Now assassins came heroes everywhere at hand.
Many Soviets had fought and died knowing that they had to win.
It still warms my heart to see the picture of the red flag in Berlin.

(chorus)

****

“When Partition Falls” based on “When The Hammer Falls” by Bound for Glory, original lyrics are here.


0. Partition is the division of Ireland.
1. The SDLP are the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Sinn Fein’s moderate rival in the nationalist community. I explain what’s wrong with them here.
2. Chinooks are UK military helicopters and are used here as a symbol of the British military.
3. The crooked cross is the swastika.
4. The red, white and blue are the colors of the British flag.
5. The ending of partition will strengthen various left, progressive, liberal and working-class movements in Ireland. I go into that more in the last 1/5 of this post.
6. There’s not a bad chance that when Ireland is united, a republican organization will be in a government with other parties of the Left.
7. There’s some large minority of republicans who support legalizing marijuana (dope is meant as a reference to marijuana, not drugs in general) (you could say this song is about that minority). (there's also a similar situation regarding abortion)
**7. 71% of this version is me, 29% is the original (a new record).
8. I give this song/poem three stars out of five.
9. Since the original is American, I DID include some anti-hate stuff, see this for why that's important.
10. Initially this poem had some problems because it was kind of about Sinn Fein. I have now corrected that, and it is about a left-wing element of the republican family overall.
11. UPDATE 1/28/11 As far as I can tell, there's probably some small minority of republicans who are VERY Catholic, probably another small minority who are fairly Catholic, and probably a large minority who are atheist. And this poem is about the left-wingers, so it makes even more sense since there's probably not many republicans who are both very Catholic and left-wing.
12. UPDATE 1/28/11 Obviously republicans have been marching on the street for a long time, but more mass struggle will probably-definitely be part of republicans uniting Ireland and/or forming a republican-left government.
13 UPDATE 5/9/20 I deleted the last two "the" in the last line of the first verse.

SDLP fools and Unionist tools
We all live by London’s rules
Take a better look, up at the Chinooks
how many lives have they took?
Those of the crooked cross, in 1945 they lost
We’ll defeat them at any cost
we’re turning the screws, and we do refuse
to submit to the red, white and blue

Chorus:
From the visions that we saw, there will come new laws
When partition falls
With the power of pride, she’ll take a bride
When partition falls
for the women of Ireland, abortion on demand
When partition falls
For the working-class, justice at last
When partition falls

The future looks bleak, for those who think we are weak
the truth we will always speak
We have hope but no not from the Pope
We do support legalizing dope
we won’t Surrender, retreat, or cower in defeat
What will you do when we march on the streets?
We are what’s coming, our victory will be stunning
in a left coalition, the government we’ll be running

******

“SHARP Skinheads” based on “OC Skinhead” by Final War original lyrics are here.

1. Lincoln Brigade refers to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the group of American volunteers who fought fascism in Spain’s Civil War.
2. SHARP is SkinHeads Against Racial Prejudice.
**3. 39% of this version is me, 61% is the original.
4. I give this song/poem four stars out of five.
5. The class I refer to is the working-class.
6. 10/31/10 I just replaced the word "march" with the word "live" in the 5th line of the first verse.

We were born for anti-fash crusades
to follow the steps of the Lincoln brigade
born to fight and born to win,
we are all anti-racist Skins
we are the ones who live on the streets
our voices loud and never discreet
it's our battle in a people’s war
we are stronger than before

SHARP....Skinheads

Steel capped boots, fisted hands
an anti-racist scene and anti-racist bands
carry our banners hold ‘em above,
we'll fight for the class that we all love
drink some beer and hit the town,
find some Nazis and beat them down
comrades united across the states
we fight together against the hate

SHARP...Skinheads

yeah, We were born for anti-fash crusades
we all remember the Lincoln brigade
we've said it before let the battle begin
victory is ours you know we'll win
Fists and boots and our brains
we’ll defeat those who want fascist reign
shaven heads and opposition to hate
nazis better fuck off before it's too late

SHARP ...Skinheads

****

“Slan Abhaile” based on “When the Boat comes in” by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. The title is an Irish farewell to someone traveling home. There’s a republican mural that shows a British army soldier walking away towards (I think) the sunset (there's a sign saying that England is that way), with those words at the top. It’s sort of a friendlier spin on the slogan “Brits out.” My version of this song is a bit less friendly, but I like that republican mural and wanted to use that phrase.
2. Historically there’s been a left-wing analysis that British business operating in Ireland benefit from the way that partition (and in the North the sectarianism that goes with partition) weakens organized labor and the left.
3. This is set in the 1980s and 1990s when the republican strategy of the “Ballot and the armalite (rifle)” was being used.
4. Squaddie is a term for British Army soldier.
5. Special Branch is a part of the police in Britain and Ireland, sort of comparable to the FBI. The SB of the N. Ireland police during the conflict was involved in collusion with loyalist paramilitaries. I explain that more around 2/5 the way through this post.
6. The Red Hand is a loyalist symbol.
**7. 56% of this version is me and 44% is the original.
8. I give this song/poem three stars out of five.
9. Skrewdriver was supportive of the Unionist and British causes in N. Ireland.
10. Except for the last five lines, this could include nationalists and of course unarmed republicans, but those last 5 lines are about the IRA.

we won’t take shit, from the Brits, cause Ireland does rule
We will fight the tories, 'cos tories are all fools
Try to run our nation, and give it to fat cats
We won't take it anymore, we're taking our nation back

(Chorus)
Squaddie, Squaddie, get on that boat
Squaddie, Squaddie, row
Squaddie, Squaddie, get out of here
Squaddie, Squaddie, go, go, go...

They patrol the Irish streets, they're dividing our Irish land
And the bigots in Special Branch give aid to the Red Hand
Give them guns, give them info, ignore our human rights
We won't stand and watch our people be slaughtered without a fight

Chorus

We've got to love this land of ours, and fight to make it free
One day we’ll win just like our comrades in the ANC
And if we have to we will fight all the way to the end
between the ballot and the armalite we’ll make them comprehand

One last note: Even with the songs that are only about 10% me (and at the upper end, one is 75% me), I have a request, although I don't have strong feelings or expectations about this. First, I want credit for these songs. Second, I'd appreciate it if the notes follow the lyrics around the internet. If you modify the lyrics further, please either make some notes for the changes if you leave some of my changes, or just provide a link to this URL so people can see my version. Although I'm not sure how many people will like what I'm doing with the lyrics, to one degree or another (depending on how much I changed them) I'm proud of these songs- and at the risk of getting a little personal, if people like the songs, I could really use the extra boost of getting credit for them right now (or if you don't like them, they were all written by Sarah Palin- that fascist, what kind of sick person enjoys altering racist lyrics?).

Revolutionary Dreams

I've got six more songs/poems (I'm in transition to using the word "poem" which is more accurate for what I've been calling "song"). They're all "Those Lyrics" see this for an explanation. I'm not sure how many more songs I'll be doing that aren't "Those lyrics" since I think I have altered all the songs that I can work with from one of the two main sources I have for non-offensive material to alter.

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

Anyway, these are roughly in order from okay to good, although I'm not sure I would call any of them very good.

1. 65 Days. IRA Hunger-Striker Bobby Sands.
2.  Victory or Death. The IRA in N. Ireland.
3. The Left Sat. The American Left and N. Ireland.
4. Socialist Dream. Progressives in America.
5. People's Dream. About People's Democracy, the left-wing/civil rights/anti-partition group in N. Ireland that existed from 1968 until sometime in the 1980s.
6. 32-County Republic. Republican struggle in N. Ireland.


“65 days” based on “forty-six years” by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. The song is about Bobby Sands, the first Irish republican hunger-striker to die in 1981. The hunger-strikers were demanding that republican prisoners be treated as prisoners of war instead of as criminals. He was on strike for 65 days before he died. See this and this for more info; see most of the second half of this for a description of how much support they had. He was 27 years old when he died.
2. The hope refers to how inspirational his sacrifice was.
**3. 40% of the lyrics are me, 60% is the original.
4. I give this song/poem three stars out of five.
5. Skrewdriver was supportive of the Unionist and British causes in N. Ireland.

Twenty-seven was his final year
his memory brings hope and tears
A man whose courage, it was unsurpassed
No surrender until the very last

(chorus)
65 days, 65 days
65 days, he stayed true to his cause

They tried to break him with their corrupt ways
tried criminalization until the end of his days
They wanted to see his spirit subdued
But his commitment was always true

Chorus

And now he's dead, they couldn’t break him
The London fools thought they could take him
a soldier who paid the ultimate price
We won't forget his sacrifice

****

“Victory or Death” based on “Win or die” by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. The title is a republican slogan (at least, it's on a republican t-shirt I have). The song is more or less focused on members of republican paramilitaries, although there’s one bit about republicans who fought through mass struggle.
2. This is set in the first 1-2 years of The Troubles (starting in Aug. 1969).
3. the Nationalist community had some very large majority that was working-class or small farmers, and that was even more so for republicans.
4. Armalites are a kind of automatic rifle.
5. The Catholic Church was pretty consistent in being hostile to republicans.
6.Orange is the color of anti-Catholic bigotry.
7. Connolly is James Connolly, Ireland’s greatest republican and greatest socialist.
8. Valhalla is part of Norse mythology, it's a place where warriors go after they die, although there seems to be some debate about exactly who gets in- only people who die in combat? Anyway, the fascists love it and have sort of taken over the concept, but a friend told me that he likes the idea of the left claiming it and specifically said that if such a place exists, Che and others like him are probably there. (Do I believe in Valhalla? You could say I’m sort of an agnostic on that question and am sort of solidly a Christian. The way I see it, this is pretty flexible, don't take it too seriously, and one way to think about it is that if you believe in Heaven and would rather these people went there instead of Valhalla, maybe they can do both, spend some time in Valhalla and some time in Heaven; but my friend and I do like the idea of reclaiming it from the fash)
**9. 27% of this version is me, 73% is the original.
10. Considering the source of the original, I feel like I have to point out what is probably obvious: as long as it doesn't cross a certain line (and I imagine it rarely does) Irish pride is very different from White pride. (I just heard something making me think that it's probably a small minority of northern nationalists that would talk about "Irish pride"; I still feel odd completely re-writing that line, so I'm going to keep it)
11. I give this song/poem three stars out of five.
12. Skrewdriver was supportive of the Unionist and British causes in N. Ireland.

As we look 'round at our nation, the resistance starts to settle in
Our once united Irish land, as the revolution starts to begin
Arrests on the streets are often, house raids happen every single day
loyalists stalk the darkened streets, looking for defenceless prey

(chorus)
Fight for your country, fight for your class
Fight for your nation, with armalites or en masse

As the people stand up against it, the Brit propaganda begins
To oppose the northern occcupation, is counted as a sin
We're proud of being Irish, and we want to show the world
Against the Orange and reaction, we stand with flags unfurled

As we stand and face the future, our eyes raised to the sky
We pledge ourselves to struggle, we'll either win or we’ll die
We won't lose ground, and be knocked down, we've got a history
In Valhalla Connolly looks down on us, and prays for victory

*******

“The Left Sat” based on “The Snow Fell” by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. In general it is based on the earlier post I did about how the world (overall, but the problem is focused in small number of countries and varies from country to country) and especially the left, didn’t do what it should have done on N. Ireland between 1968 and today, although it also varies from time period to time period, and the worst would be 1994 (when S. Africa was democratized) until 9/11 and crucially between 1994 and the Good Firday Agreement in 1998. I won’t bother going into it anymore than that, but you should read that post before you judge this song (since it was published in March, that post has gradually gotten even better and is now about 10% different than it was when originally published).
2. The first verse refers to Margaret Thatcher.
3. I don’t know if Thatcher had a desire to rule all of Ireland, but it’s possible, and if it wasn’t for republicans (during the War of Independence) London would still rule all of Ireland.
4. The reference to unions is sort of a tangent from the main thrust of the song, but is relevant as republicans are overwhelmingly pro-labor and concerned about British workers and it worked with keeping the word “power.”
5. The second half of the second verse refers to the period of the early 1970s when I’m pretty sure the world was probably doing a fair amount, although probably still not what they should have been doing considering the nationalist community was going through the worst of their 30-40 year nightmare. I assume that at some point, as the situation in Apartheid S. Africa got worse in the mid-1970s, that attention was shifted to that until 1994. That’s reasonable, but there are two problems. Strongly worded resolutions weren’t being passed and when S. Africa was democratized, none of that energy seems to have been shifted into N. Ireland work.
6. I believe that this failure on the part of the world and the left is what made the armed struggle go nowhere, and contributed greatly to Sinn Fein compromising via acceptance of the Good Friday Agreement. Another factor was that their nationalist constituents who had experienced the bulk of the violence aimed at civilians in the conflict were tired of the war and being terrorized by loyalist paramilitaries and the security forces.
7. The Union Jack is the British flag, Belfast is the main city in N. Ireland.
**8. 73% of it is me, 27% is the original.
9. I give this song/poem three stars out of five.
10. Skrewdriver was supportive of the Unionist and British causes in N. Ireland.
11. The second and fourth verses are about mainstream republicans including the IRA.
12. UPDATE 9/8/11 In the third line of the second verse, I'm actually not sure to what degree the left WAS concerned about the North in the early years of the Troubles. I might change that.
13. UPDATE 11/22/15 I added TRADE- to the last line of the first verse.
14. UPDATE 6/14/16 I changed THEY to YOU in the second verse Same with the chorus.

She stood in a room in a home at number ten
She'd rule all Ireland if it wasn’t for the republicans
She'd stand and she’d stare at the city skyscrappers and towers.
for she was a beast as she hatched plans to break trade-union power.

(chorus)
as the left sat
abandoning it’s vision and ideals.
And the left sat
ignoring the Irish revolutionary appeal
And the left sat
You had to compromise in your people’s interests
And the left sat
and the revolution was so much less

You used the old methods that revolutionaries had used before.
You fought as the forces of light against the darkness in an insurgent war.
One day you were looking around and the left was concerned about the North
The next day the left went back to Apartheid and focused on that till 1994

(chorus)

But they weren’t even passing strongly worded resolutions
They had abandoned the nationalists and the Irish revolution
Then, after 1994, they were distracted by the environment and globalization
And did nothing to help the oppressed of the divided Irish nation

(chorus)

You finally came to the point where you decided to compromise
You had to, while the left sat your people were terrorized
Many people had fought and died their courage was unsurpassed
It still sickens my heart to see the Union jack flying in Belfast

(chorus)

****

“Socialist Dream” based on “European Dream” by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. It’s about the US.
2. Depending on the circumstances, I’m quite comfortable with white supremacists being banned from marching on the public streets.
3. I have had this idea that the left could flip the right-wing slogan “Better Dead Than Red” since socialism would make- fatal accidents on the job less likely; fatal health problems connected to the environment or having poor or no health insurance less likely; and murders less likely.
4. Brown is the color of fascism.
5. In general, when I said liberal, I had trouble thinking of a word that would fit better, but I think the way it is now works. there are some liberals who, based on their beliefs should be friendlier to the left and less friendly to cops and capitalists. (see this for my thoughts about liberals)
6. The line about shooting cops is a reference to recent spate of cop-killings carried out by white supremacists.
7. By capitalist, in this case I meant those who have a lot of capital.
8. As far as cops helping Nazis, there's evidence that some do. My theory is that some very tiny minority are in bed with white supremacists and a tiny minority would drag their feet on going after them. There was a state trooper in, I think, Nebraska who turned out to be a Klansmen, and according to a Southern Poverty Law Center interview with a former Nazi skinhead, some cops would hang out with his Nazi skinhead group. I read a bunch of other stuff about white supremacists in the police in a mid-1990s book called "White Lies, White Power" by Michael Novick, plus some other sources.
**7. 56% of the lyrics are me, 44% is the original.
8. I give this song/poem four stars out of five.
9. I'm not sure I should have left the 2nd line of the 2nd verse the way it is- I might change it to something. In the meantime, I think it is possible to have some kind of progressive patriotism.
10. This is supposed to be at least 99% non-violent.
3/14/11 UPDATE 11. I can't remember what I was thinking when I referred to our land as democratic- I mean, to some degree it is, but I might change that line. (UPDATE 6/1/11 I just changed it to "western")

Brothers and sisters across the states
we have to end this fascist hate
I want to know just where we stand
we fight the nazis in this western land
They try to divide the workers- try to bring us down
spread their poison in all our towns
Police protect them as they march
and arrest those whose skin is dark

(chorus)
socialist dream, there's things that should be said
socialist dream, better red than dead
socialist dream, for freedom and for bread
socialist dream, better red than dead

It's the workers' country, we want it back,
love for our nation we do not lack
Why do some liberals put us down,
when the real enemy is the brown
It's not us who is shooting cops,
this right-wing hatred has got to stop
Racist cops and capitalists help them,
I hope all liberals realize before the end

****

“People’s Dream” based on “European Dream” by Skrewdriver original lyrics are here.

1. This is my second song about People’s Democracy, somehow towards the beggining of the process it just seemed like it would work best that way. PD was a militant, left-wing, and initially student part of the Civil Rights movement in N. Ireland starting in Oct. 1968 (it later became a political party and then around 1980 declined, and many members joined Sinn Fein and then it adopted another name). There’s more about them here and the first 1/3 of this. PD doesn’t exist anymore, so this doesn’t violate my rules on publishing songs about actual organizations.
2. There are six-counties in N. Ireland. I’m pretty sure that in the very early years of the PD it was organized just in N. Ireland, and in any case, it makes sense for the song to be about the northern members.
3. It takes place 1970 to early 1972, the time when republicans were engaging in armed struggle and the civil rights movement was still marching.
4. An explanation of why it’s wrong for the police to force Orange Order marches through Catholic areas is found here.
5. I have had this idea that the left could flip the right-wing slogan “Better Dead Than Red” since socialism would make- fatal accidents on the job less likely; fatal health problems connected to the environment or having poor or no health insurance less likely; and murders less likely.
6. The Dail is the parliament of the South of Ireland, which has pretty much always been hostile to the IRA.
7. PD offered critical support to the Provisional IRA (now known simply as the IRA).
8.The RUC were the police in N. Ireland until late 2001 and there’s evidence that to one degree or another they were sympathetic to loyalist paramilitaries. I explain that around 2/5 the way through the post here. The RUC also did quite a number on the Catholic population directly.
**9. The poem is 57% me, 43% the original.
10. I give this song/poem four stars out of five.
11. Skrewdriver was supportive of the Unionist and British causes in N. Ireland.

Brothers and sisters across the six
in the cities and out in the sticks
I want to know just where we stand
we resist the Brits in our Irish land
They try and crush us- try to keep us down
occupy our cities and our towns
Police protect Orangemen as they parade
it’s been that way for all these decades

(chorus)
people’s dream, there's things that should be said
people’s dream, better red than dead
people’s dream, for freedom and for bread
people’s dream, better red than dead

It's our country- we want it united
british imperialism will be smited
Why does the Dail put the IRA down
when the British Army’s on Irish ground
we support the ones planting bombs
and we’re the reds who are marching on
The RUC helps loyalists
they’re just public sector terrorists

*****

“32-County Republic” based “Aryan Nations” by Bound For Glory, original lyrics are here.

1. There are 32 counties in Ireland.
2. People claim that the British presence in N. Ireland isn’t imperialistic. I explain why that’s not true here (it’s about 43% the way down in a large paragraph, half of which is numbered points).
3. Squaddies is a term for British army soldiers. Volunteers are members of republican paramilitaries.
4. Belfast is the capitol of N. Ireland.
5. Stoops are the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Sinn Fein’s moderate rival in the Nationalist community. I describe what’s wrong with them here.
6. To one degree or another, what the vast majority of republicans envision is revolutionary change for Ireland.
7. This is set in the period 1970 till about 1990, before the Peace Process got going; when republicans were not interested in the compromises being offered by the British and/or unionists.
8. Republicans get a lot of inspiration from other struggles elsewhere, such as S. Africa and Palestine.
9. Since the original is American I made sure to include certain elements, see this.
**10. 54% of this song/poem is me, 46% is the original lyrics, although you could say it’s 60% me since I switched the third and fourth lines of the first verse.
11. Considering the source of the original, I feel like I have to point out what is probably obvious: as long as it doesn't cross a certain line (and I imagine that in N. Ireland it rarely does) Irish pride is very different from White pride. (I just heard something making me think that it's probably a small minority of northern nationalists that would talk about "Irish pride"; I still feel odd completely re-writing that line, so I'm going to keep it)
12. I give this song/poem four stars out of five.
13. In the 4th line of the second verse, I am talking about the dream of a 32-County Republic, which is alive in our minds.
14. This is about republicans, and a republican appeal to nationalists unhappy with the SDLP.
UPDATE 5/19/16 15. The third and fourth lines from the end are not meant as an endorsement of the traditional republican view that the 1916 republic still exists- they're meant as referring to what you might call a dream or vision, possibly in the hearts of republicans? (to be a little poetic about it). Something like that.

In the midst of our struggle, that we will sustain
I see through the lies and see the imperialistic reign
I can see oppression, 'cos there's squaddies all around
Volunteers are fighting soliders, every day in Belfast town
Now tell me would you work and vote for the stoops and their creed?
Are you willing to vote for their lies when revolution is what you need?

Chrous:
the 32-County republic is rising (rising) to make a brand new start
There is no disguising (disguising) the pride that's in our hearts
the 32-County republic is rising (rising) and we will never fall
the 32-County republic is rising (rising) to answer our people's call

we're too smart to play these reformist compromise games
We've got our own thing going now and revolution is it’s name
From the gay pride marches in Dublin to the workers with raised fists
The 32-County republic is still alive as long as the dream exists
Across the mighty oceans there lies our inspiration
we stand in soldiarity with those fighting to free their nation


One last note: Even with the songs that are only about 10% me (and at the upper end, one is 75% me), I have a request, although I don't have strong feelings or expectations about this. First, I want credit for these songs. Second, I'd appreciate it if the notes follow the lyrics around the internet. If you modify the lyrics further, please either make some notes for the changes if you leave some of my changes, or just provide a link to this URL so people can see my version. Although I'm not sure how many people will like what I'm doing with the lyrics, to one degree or another (depending on how much I changed them) I'm proud of these songs- and at the risk of getting a little personal, if people like the songs, I could really use the extra boost of getting credit for them right now (or if you don't like them, they were all written by Sarah Palin- that fascist, what kind of sick person enjoys altering racist lyrics?).

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reviews A

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’m not very familiar with The Original Series and there might be some small amount of material there that would affect what I say about Star Trek (i.e. how often religion is mentioned)

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).

“Emissary” Parts 1 and 2. For plot summaries, see this and this.

Although DS9 is one of my two favorite series, I was never a big fan Sisko being the Emissary, especially considering how towards the end of the series it turns out he’s not completely human- and it’s not like he’s part alien, he’s more supernatural (at least that’s how it seems to me). I’m also not interested in the lengthy effort at explaining to the wormhole aliens about linear existence.

On that note I should say that I generally like the religious/spiritual aspect of DS9. ST has generally suggested that jettisoning religion is part of the development of humanity along with world government, universal acceptance of multiculturalism, a shift from militarism to exploration with Starfleet, and some kind of democratic socialism. The only (or at least almost only) religious people in ST are aliens, but with the exception of the Klingons it wasn’t discussed much. It was nice to see a people like the Bajorans who are friendly to the Federation with some religion and spirituality, especially considering how those beliefs are often referred to as having helped them deal with and throw off the Cardassian Occupation.

So, I have mixed feelings about that part of Emissary. It of course sees the discovery of the wormhole, without which DS9 would be about 1/3 as interesting as it is. Considering how the station is stuck in one place, without the wormhole they’d either have to use the same setting more and more often, or they’d have to spend a lot more time traveling to places further away, which probably wouldn’t have worked. Also, of course, the wormhole brings the Dominion, which is a great part of the overall ST story.

They briefly introduce Nog, one of my favorite secondary characters on DS9. They also introduce what I find very interesting and often humorous, how Sisko was friends with the Dax symbiant when the symbiant had an old man as a host, and now the host is a young woman. Of course all the other characters are introduced.

I think that’s about it. It’s a good episode- far from one of my favorites but very necessary to get the series going. I give the two parts together two out of five stars.


“Past Prologue” For the plot summary, see this.

This episode raises issues about how guerrillas respond to the end of the foreign occupations they’re fighting.

1) The Cardassians, although they kept many objects sacred to the Bajoran people and made clear in several ways that they still didn’t respect the Bajorans, did end their occupation of Bajor and Bajor had a new government. But a small faction of the resistance (the Khon-Ma) continue attacks on Cardassia, to “punish” them for half a century of occupation. Now, horrible things WERE done to the Bajorans, but punishment isn’t appropriate in that situation. And that’s not a common reaction. Looking at post-Apartheid South Africa, there seems to have been VERY little turning of the tables, probably close to ZERO. Based on their record during The Troubles of almost NEVER intentionally killing civilians and based on how little support there is since 1997 for continuing armed struggle even while British rule more or less (less) continues, it seems very unlikely that Irish republicans will engage in that sort of behavior when the British leave. There will probably be a VERY small amount such behavior, or more likely, NONE. (the impression given in this episode is that the Khon-Ma had done A LOT to inflict punishment on Cardassia)

2) At one point the main Khon-Ma character says that he wants “Bajor for Bajorans.” To some degree this is fine in general, although depending on what is meant, there’s possibly a problem. For one thing, there are people left on Bajor who are either half Cardassian/half Bajoran, or in some cases, completely Cardassian. Also, although this would be a matter for the Bajorans, I think it would be good for them to join the Federation (at one point they almost joined, but when Sisko had a vision and advised them not to at that point, they decided not to). Federation membership is probably incompatible with “Bajor for Bajorans” as Federation citizens from elsewhere would have to be welcomed, not to mention, their independence would be limited. As I’ve explained here, Sinn Fein and the nationalist community have good anti-racist records and welcome people from outside Ireland (except of course people trying to police and run part of Ireland). They welcome people who come for brief periods of work and also probably consider people who immigrate to become Irish to some degree. Unless it’s made clear that it’s not excluding people who should be made to feel welcome, I’m not a big fan of phrases like “Bajor for Bajorans”

3) It also raises the issue of third party intervention. It seems like it was a good idea for the Bajoran provisional government to invite Starfleet to establish a presence after the Cardassians left. Cardassia might have continued seriously hurting Bajor if given a free-hand, implementing some kind of neo-colonialism, occasionally attacking, that sort of thing. Bajor also got some technical assistance with reconstruction and some advice on political development. And those are the benefits before the wormhole was discovered, which, without the Federation presence, would have resulted in Cardassia re-occupying Bajor as a base from which to control the wormhole. And, although it’s complicated by his role as the emissary and there’s at least one debatable kind of exception, Sisko (throughout the series) does a good job of respecting Bajoran independence. This reminds me of what I wrote about the role of the international community as Ireland is united, as it will be someday. My thoughts on that are here.

Overall a good episode, I give it three out of five stars.


“A Man Alone” For the plot summary, see this.

This episode is significantly about character development, plus the main plot story about a murder. It’s when the friendship between Jake and Nog starts, and that’s a good part of the series. It’s mostly just a mystery story, besides the character development and the establishment of a school for children on DS9. There’s three political issues that come up:

1) Odo, not trained in the human rights culture of the Federation, and having learned his job under the Cardassians, feels that he can throw anyone off the station if he wants to, and Sisko has to explain that that’s not how it works.

2) When Keiko starts up a school, we hear more about how the Ferengi believe in something that’s more or less a pure market system of economics and business, and that it’s a very important part of their culture. As you would guess, I don’t like that much, but I like to interpret this part of the role that Ferengis have in ST series as meaning “capitalism would look something like this if it weren’t for various forces like organized labor, the left, progressives, and most liberals.” I mean, American capitalism could be worse, our society could be even more capitalist.

3) We also hear, perhaps for the first time in ST, that the Ferengi are ridiculously sexist, although we learn more about that later. You could say something similar about this that I said about capitalism above. It also sets the scene for some later episodes where that sexism is seriously challenged.


The mystery is good, although probably better the first 1-2 times I saw this episode. Overall a good episode, I give it two out of five stars.