Workers Solidarity Movement

The murder of one and stabbings of two other people in Dundalk recently was a horrible incident which was terrifying for those caught up in it and has left one family grieving for a loved one. Carried out by someone who was clearly disturbed - why or what caused that remains to be seen.

Some have reacted by letting anger or fear take over and jumping to unproven conclusions about Islamist terrorism, even after the gardaí have announced that they have investigated that possibility and found no link whatsoever. Fascist and far-right elements are drooling at the opportunity to smear all refugees, all Muslims, all people from the Middle East, and to a large extent all migrants. Social media, and Twitter in particular, has been buzzing with anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim hysteria for the past 24 hours.

Will the Irish state offer asylum to queer men in Chechnya (and, in fact, all queer people there) who are enduring a state-lead campaign of terror and persecution of the gravest nature, or are queer people's lives another vote-catcher?

We described both what is happening in Chechnya and the Dublin counter-demo in detail here, as well as warning against these atrocities being seized upon for an anti-Muslim agenda.

On April 20th, a crowd gathered from 4-7pm outside the Russian Embassy in Rathgar, Dublin, to protest the recent campaign of violence against queer men in Chechnya and show solidarity with those under attack and all queer people across the planet (#chechnya100ireland). Gardaí reported that it was the largest ever protest outside the embassy.

Several placards included the (downwards) pink triangle, a reference to queer men being condemned to Nazi concentration camps. Others read ‘LGBT People Exist Everywhere’, ‘You Can’t Imprison My Sexuality’, and ‘Queer Solidarity Means Migrant Rights’. Demonstrations have also taken place in Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Paris, and Vienna. The demo was called by a couple concerned queer women who decided something had to be done - a lesson to us that we don't need to wait for 'Someone Else', a tendency we all have in this passive society.
 

Yes Duplicity: Irish State, Give Queer Chechens Asylum Now

Geo-strategically the Al Qa’ida leadership (Azzam, bin Laden, Zawahiri) are products of the Cold War, specifically the Afghan Mujahidin war against the USSR. Rather like their American neo-con previous employers, Al Qa’ida view the end of the Cold War as a victory over the USSR by their own side. The Al Qa’ida perspective is that, having “defeated” one superpower, the global jihad now needs to turn its offensive against the remaining superpower.  Al Qa’ida worry that the Zarqawists of ISIS may be restricting the struggle to a parochial Mesopotamian sectarian struggle that could fail to engage Muslim jihadists around the world, outside the MENA region, say in West Africa or Indonesia and the Philippines  where the US is a more credible #1 enemy than Iran.

Following on from the rapid spread of Isis in Iraq & Syria Paul Bowman presented an update intended to inform on the contemporary politics of Jihadism and its entanglement with regional and global imperialist power plays.

He starts by looking in detail at the ideological / religious background of the Salafist movements including ISIS and how such movements differ from those of the Muslim Brotherhood / Ikwanite.

The recent racist attacks in Northern Ireland against migrant workers are an indictment of the Stormont status-quo which thrives on blaming minorities for the problems inherent in capitalism. It is the political class and sections of the tabloid press who constantly provide the ammunition for racist attacks.

In November 2011, the Fine Gael mayor of Naas, Darren Scully sparked controversy when he announced on national radio that he would no longer represent “Black Africans”, due to their “aggressiveness and bad manners” and their tendency to “play the race card”. Ultimately, the controversy caused by Scully’s blatant and unambiguous racism forced his resignation as mayor.