When Columbus reached the Caribbean in 1492 he had little interest in the new plants and animals of this land. Instead he was confident that the Spanish crown could make the Arawaks and Caribs collect and give "what was needed".
Topic: Imperialism and war
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The 2001 bombings of Iraq
10 years after the Gulf War offically ended Britain and the US continue to bomb Iraq. It only occasionally gets into the headlines, normally when civilians are killed. It is ironic that it is the Western soldiers who carried out the mass killings in that war who have become its most prominent victims in the media.
A look at media coverage of the ending of the siege of the Japanese embassy in Lima in which the MRTA were executed. This article written at the time in 1997 also documents early attackes on radical news sites and archives on the internet.
We understand that we are not going to bring down the world order headed by the World Bank on Tuesday or by blockading any of their meetings. Instead we send out a clear message that there is an alternative. This alternative is not merely a question of policies but also of a new world in which for the first time the ordinary people of the world will take direct control over how our societies are run, not simply by occasionally choosing between professional politicians but by self management in the workplaces and the communities.
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Afghanistan: From Tragedy to Comedy
A review of the film Charlie Wilson’s War, discussing what the film did not mention and how the activities of the USA in Afghanistan started before the Soviet invasion and its unintended consequences.
IT HAS BECOME increasingly fashionable to use the term globalisation as a description of the international economy and international political relations. Globalisation is meant to have taken over from imperialism, when a handful of large states openly and directly ran most or the world.
In every country after February 15th 2003 the anti-war movement was faced with the question of what to do next. In Ireland almost all of the direct action protests were targeted on Shannon airport. More than half dozen successful actions took place, ranging from a large scale breach of the fence in October, to physical attacks on planes as the build up to war escalated. In response to these actions three out of the four airlines using the airport for troop transportation pulled out just before the start of the Iraq war.
From the summer of 2002 to the spring of 2003 there were numerous direct actions against war at Shannon airport in the west of Ireland. The airport is well located as a refueling stop for US troops being transported from the NE coast of America to the warzones in Afghanistan and Iraq.
This booklet brings together two articles published in Red & Black Revolution no7 (2004) that gave a history and analysis of the actions and the debate and conflict they caused within the anti-war movement in Ireland
George Bush may have declared major combat operations over in Iraq on May 1st but resistance to the US occupation forces goes on. The killing today of one more US soldier at a petrol station in Baghdad means 42 have been killed in combat since that date, almost one per day. And every week US soldiers coming to and from Iraq continue to fly through Shannon airport.
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Shannon – at the end of a long road
Report on the 12 April 2003 Shannon demonstration which was only attended by about 470 people, many of these being from the political parties that make up the IAWM. The movement that could mobilise 100,000 ends up leading 467 into a protest pen at Shannon as in the background military flights taxi for take off.