Brekend Nieuws | Forum | Brits Nieuws | Het Nieuws van de V.S. | Het Nieuws van de wereld | Politiek Nieuws | Nieuws sc.i-technologie | Het Nieuws van de oorlog & van het Terrorisme | Het Nieuws van sporten | Multimedia | Vastgestelde Homepage

Maandag, 2 Juni, 2008

Door Socialistische Arbeider | Eamonn McCann is een stichter van de beweging van jaren '60 burgerrechten in Noord-Ierland, een veteraansocialist en een vakbondslid, en één van de gelezen journalisten van Ierland wijdst. Hij is de auteur van Oorlog en een Ierse Stad, Bloedige Zondag in Derry: Wat werkelijk gebeurde en andere boeken.

In 2006, als reactie op de primitieve oorlog van Israël op Libanon, organiseerden Eamonn en andere leden van de Antiwar Coalitie Derry een beroep van een lokale faciliteit van Raytheon, de V.S. - gebaseerde wapensmaker en de grootste producent van de wereld van geleide raketten. Negen activisten werden gearresteerd en werden belast met het vandalizing van het gebouw. Zij zijn nu op proef, en konden tijd in gevangenis onder ogen zien indien veroordeeld.

In Juli 2006, organiseerden de leden van de Antiwar Coalitie Derry een protest, een beroep en het opleggen daar van de lokale faciliteit Raytheon. Waarom besliste u actie te voeren?

Onze motivatie moest oorlogsmisdaden verhinderen. Bombardement van Israël veroorzaakte carnage en vernietiging in Libanon, en wij wisten zij Raytheon vervaardigden bommen gebruikten.

Wij werden in het bijzonder geweld aangedaan door van de stad van Qana te bombarderen. Israël liet vallen een bom op complexe één daar, die 28 mensen, de meerderheid doodt van hen vrouwen en kinderen, die onder het puin wordt verpletterd en wordt verstikt.

Wij geloofden dit een directe reactie vereiste. Wij beslisten actie te voeren om de capaciteit van Raytheon, op de manier te onderbreken te vertragen en te belemmeren mogelijk, om wapens van massavernietiging te leveren aan Israël en aan oorlogsmisdaden deel te nemen.

Aangezien het aantal doden en verminkt in het Midden-Oosten opzet, kondigde Raytheon onlangs de verdere groei van opbrengsten en winsten aan. Hoe bekijkt u de verhouding van Raytheon aan oorlogsmisdaden?

Raytheon, zoals alle wapensbedrijven, winsten van bloedvergieten. En toch als zou er geen oorlogen waren, overheden niet de behoefte voelen om de high-tech munities te kopen die Raytheon vervaardigt.

Raytheon is één van de vele bedrijven die oorlog voor winst van brandstof voorziet. Maar het bedrijf Raytheon heeft ook een politiek programma. Adam Cherill, de bedrijfsmanager van Raytheon, als mijn geheugen correct is, heeft gezegd dat de Palestijnse mensen geen verbinding aan het land van Palestina-Dat hebben zij geen cultuur, geen maatschappij en geen historische banden aan het land hebben. Nu, is dat geen commerciële verklaring. That is a political statement.

The Raytheon company is closely tied to the top brass of the Pentagon. So they are complicit in everything that happens in the Middle East. In particular, they are complicit in war crimes committed through the use of Raytheon munitions.

We know that towards the end of the Israeli-Lebanon conflict in the summer of 2006, Raytheon rushed so-called bunker-buster bombs. They delivered a rush-order, of these bombs just a short time before the war ended so that Israel could continue bombing.

Israel had dropped so many bombs over southern Lebanon, south Beirut and elsewhere that they were actually running out of supplies. Raytheon rushed two Airbus transport planes from the United States to Israel in order to replenish supplies, even though, at that point, it was known that their munitions were being used to bomb civilians, to target ambulances and civilian infrastructure. So this is a company which is knowingly involved in war crimes.

The trial of the Raytheon 9 began last week in Belfast. The trial was moved from Derry, and the presiding judge imposed a media gag on all discussion of the case. Why?

The trial was moved to Belfast because the judge reckoned that there would be sympathy for the Raytheon 9 in Derry, because the defendants were well known to a wide range of people in Derry.

Now, there also could have been hostility to the defendants in Derry. I wouldn’t rule this out, because all the main parties in Derry and in the local area were all sharply condemnatory of the Raytheon 9.

But anyway, the judge transferred it to Belfast and imposed a media gag because, he said, the coverage of the case would in itself have the potential to prejudice the jury’s decisions.

This was complete nonsense. Cases trialed in Northern Ireland are regularly covered in advance of the actual trial. It was completely out of order. So it was an absolutely meaningless reason for imposing the media gag. What it did was take the issue of the Raytheon 9 and anything controversial for the Raytheon company itself out of the public arena. And it meant that the media didn’t even report on developments at the Raytheon plant, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the case.

The Raytheon 9 has received tremendous support in Ireland and around the world. Among the many who have spoken out in your defense are Noam Chomsky, George Galloway, Tony Benn, Christy Moore and George Monbiot. Yet none of the local political parties or their representatives have come to your defense. This is no surprise from the right-wing parties, but Sinn Fein, especially during the 1980s, prided itself on support for national liberation struggles in Central America and the Middle East, viewing itself in solidarity with all anti-imperialist struggles.

None of the mainstream parties—none of the four parties which form the new executive of Northern Ireland—has supported the Raytheon 9. And this is despite the fact that Sinn Fein, in particular, has always presented itself as a socialist organization, as an anti-imperialist organization.

But the truth is that the closer Sinn Fein got to power, the more they ditched their supposed socialist principles that would involve any anti-American activity.

Sinn Fein is determined to maintain the friendship of the Bush administration. Indeed, Martin McGuiness, the vice president of Sinn Fein, personally invited George Bush to visit Northern Ireland in June this year, in a couple weeks’ time. And he has publicly described George Bush as a “friend of Ireland” and “a man of peace.”

So the Sinn Fein party is not just compromised on its supposed anti-imperialist, socialist credentials, but it seems to have moved to the other side. Not really an uncommon thing for a nationalist organization once achieving office.

In 1968, you helped spark the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland and resistance to the British-supported sectarian state. Today, you are still fighting against injustice.

There’s a straight line from 40 years ago to what is happening today. In 1968, we were outraged by the U.S. war in Vietnam and inspired by the Black struggle for civil rights. We were moved by this. In Ireland, we were fighting against local injustices, but we viewed ourselves and our struggles as part of an international struggle.

Today, we continue to fight against local injustices in Ireland, but we also see it as connected to a global struggle. There’s never been a contradiction between fighting local injustices and fighting injustice in the world.

The U.S. is attempting to violently dominate the Middle East and control the oil there. Iraq and Lebanon, as well as Palestine, are at the frontline of this struggle. The location of struggle may have changed, but the struggle for liberation and justice continues.

For information on how to support the Raytheon 9 and for daily updates on the trial, visit the Support the Raytheon 9 Web site.

Eamonn McCann’s article “Qana, Derry: The dead lie in familiar shapes” describes the activists’ trip to Lebanon and the action against Raytheon the visit motivated. He also talked about the case in a You Tube video.

See More:UK News Warfare 

Have Your Say: On Trial for Protesting a Weapons Maker
Please note, only selected comments will be published.

Or discuss this report in our new forums

RSS TrackBack URL

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 7:45 am and is filed under Activism News, General . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Loading ...

ADVERTISEMENTS

SITE MAPS

7/7 Afghanistan Alternative Energy Art BBC Big Brother Bilderberg Biometrics Bush CIA Climate Change Cover Up Cults Culture Database State David Hicks David Ray Griffin Democrats Demos Drugs Education EU False Flag FBI Fraud Free Speech Freemasons G8 Globalization Guantanamo Health News History ID Cards Internet Iran Iraq Israel Law Marches MI5 MI6 Microsoft Military MoD Money Music NASA Neocons NSA Oil Pakistan Podcast Police State Propaganda RFID RINF Rumsfeld Science Secrecy Security Space Sports Spying Stephen Lendman Technology Terrorism Tony Blair Torture TV UK News UN USA News Video Voting Warfare White House Wolfowitz World News Yahoo
2003 - 2005 Archives | 2005 - 2007 Archives | 2007 - 2008 Archives | Current Archives | Past Version