Demonstrations are beginning in the US. Last week ‘50 Protests in 50 States’ were organised and received widespread state media coverage.
Here in Ireland, one Cork resident and US citizen gave a speech at the US Embassy calling out not just Trump’s blaming, bigotry, and bullying, but Western imperialism spearheaded by the US .*
Workers in public service in the US and corporations are coming under increasing attack as Trump wrecks legal and regulatory protections for students, workers, the elderly, minorities, and immigrants.
Protests are needed here too. This weekend the IPSC will direct their march on the US Embassy in Ballsbridge in response to Trump’s declaration of his intent to colonise Gaza.
----
*Full Text
On January 20th Trump became the 47th president of the United States. For his second time he joined a long and bloody line of war criminals from both Republican and Democrat administrations, all of whom pose a grave danger to the rest of the world and to the Middle East. Trump is unique in that he is the first convicted felon to become president. By law this means he is not allowed to own a gun. Instead he is allowed to use the most lethal organization the world has ever known, the US military and its nuclear arsenal.
Trump should not be unique though in his criminal conviction. Every US president should be convicted, because every US president is a war criminal, including the recently deceased Jimmy Carter, who supported and funded the genocide in East Timor. Every US citizen, and I am one of them, should realize, with a deep sense of shame, that America has killed more men, women, and children than any empire on Earth. Since WWII America has killed directly or by proxy over 20 million people in 37 different countries. With 750 military bases around the world, like all colonizers, it has remained in a constant state of war since its inception. So despite how America likes to portray its origin story to the world, the truth is the United States was not a nation founded on freedom and opportunity. It was founded on the slavery of Africans. It was not founded on liberty. It was founded on the exploitation of workers. It was not founded on equality. America was founded on the genocide of Native Americans.
So when America looks in the mirror, it sees Israel in itself. Like Israel, America believes it is exceptional and superior to other nations. It's the same arrogance of every racist colonising bully throughout history. In reality they are just thieves, thieves who think they can take by force what does not belong to them. Trump’s new ambassador to the United Nations, Elise Stefanik, says that Israel has 'biblical' dominion over the occupied West Bank, proving once again how that book has been used throughout history to murder and steal. The consequences for Palestine and the Middle East are dire if Trump combines Christian Nationalist extremism with the current corporate oligarchy. Some of his supporters see Israeli expansion as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy, and some see Israeli expansion as a fulfillment of their bank accounts, through a massive increase in profits from the weapons industry. For both groups during Trump’s first term there was a huge surge in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. This looks set to increase in his second term, as Trump issued an executive order on Monday lifting sanctions against violent Israeli settlers. Even worse than his supporters is his new ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who denies that Palestine even exists. Trump only sees Gaza as profitable beachfront property, ethnically cleansed of its people and its history.
In the United Nations assembly, only Israel and America repeatedly vote against basic rights of the Palestinian people, opposing the entire will of the world. But the more isolated the US and Israel become internationally, the more their propaganda machine starts to crack, and it offers us opportunities to resist empire, because as we know from history, our rights are never granted from above, they are hard won and taken when we organize from below.
We remember how Ireland struck for freedom at a time of resistance to conscription to WWI. We recall how America as well experienced a massive anti-government uprising against its war on Vietnam. Everytime the empire over stretches itself, that is an opportunity for freedom. This is one of those times, and Ireland stands uniquely placed geopolitically to make a difference.
But Ireland cannot serve two masters. It can't pretend to be a friend of Palestine while it enables the free flow of American weapons to Israel. We have to ask ourselves, does Ireland want to stand with Palestine and human rights, or does Ireland want to stand with American big business and genocide? If you want to stand with Palestine you cannot bow down and capitulate to America.
I think we can learn a lesson from our friends in the North, our friends in the North who know what occupation means. In 2006, nine activists gave us a remarkable example of people power by occupying the American weapons factory, Raytheon, in Derry City. They broke into the factory and hurled computers out the window, causing £350,000 worth of damage. Two years later a judge acquitted them of all charges, as the jury decided that they had occupied the factory to prevent a greater crime — the mass murder of civilians. As a direct result of their campaign Raytheon shut down the factory in 2010. One of the activists Eamonn McCann said, 'There will be a time, when we look back on the arms trade the same way we look back at the slave trade.' I agree with Eamonn but I think that time is now. In Cork City we have a Raytheon subsidiary Collins Aerospace that's been operating there for over 35 years. Their stock market share value has seen billions of dollars in market growth since the Israeli destruction of Gaza. In 2018 the profits from Irish-made exports of military equipment rose by 29% to €37.3 million through the sale of military components, software and technology. We should follow the brave example of those nine activists in Derry and escalate our direct actions at Collins Aerospace. We should expel all corporations in Ireland that profit from war. If the Irish government had any moral backbone at all they would listen to the unified voice of the youth and workers of the world. No one should get rich from murder. We do not need or want the jobs the warmongers provide, or the taxes they pay. The taxes they pay and the jobs they provide are soaked in blood.
Sadly the Irish government is completely wedded to the capitalist system. A system that psychopathically maximizes profit no matter the cruelty or cost, no matter the death and destruction, no matter the genocide. Capitalists don't want to make the world a better place. They just want to make a ton of money and that's why the profits of war and exploitation are too tempting for them to resist, even if children must die for them to get rich. Think about this. The Irish government allows weapons transported through Shannon to commit genocide. Those same weapons were also fired at Irish peacekeepers in Camp Shamrock in Lebanon. If they're willing to do that to Irish peacekeepers and Palestinians and children, think about what the government is willing to do to you and me and our community, all for the sake of profit. All the empty promises and false sympathy from Dail Eireann for us and Palestine must end and an era of direct action with us on the streets must begin.
Because Ireland could achieve three great victories, if we expel weapons tech corporations, expel the American military, and if we ban all Irish military exports. Apartheid Israel cannot function without the American weapons that flow through Ireland and it cannot function without American economic support. Enacting the Occupied Territories Bill would be just the start. Once again Ireland has the opportunity to take the lead in the world, as it did in divestment from Apartheid South Africa, and stand on the right side of history, standing for humanity, standing against imperialism, standing for liberation.
All empires eventually must fall and that is why we should not lose our hope. The empire always believes they will triumph and that 'might makes right', but they are wrong. As Terence MacSwiney once taught us: “It is not those who can inflict the most but those who can endure the most who will conquer.” Until we see a free Palestine with equal rights for all from the river to the sea, we continue the resistance.
And the solidarity that we foster here at every protest and rally helps us carry on. Together we will not lose hope. Because when we are hungry, homeless, hopeless, illegal, unemployed, occupied and oppressed, we have learnt to boycott, march, protest, shout, sing, organize, agitate, educate, communicate, donate, feed, share, love and unionize. Practicing these actions everyday fosters hope. A precious contagious hope that passes down the generations. Who are we to give up hope when so many others who have suffered far more still carry on? Refugees who became refugees again, who gave birth to another generation of refugees, displaced survivors who never give up on the right to return, a free Palestine, and an end to occupation. Because the struggle carries on, for as long as it takes, even beyond our lifetime. We are all the inheritors of a struggle that should live on. Even if we never see the day of liberation we must keep the flame of hope alive. I'd like to finish with lyrics about that legacy of hope called 'The Little Flame' by Carsie Blanton:
"A cotton field, a silver mine,
Johannesburg to Palestine
broken treaties, dreams deprived
We kept the little flame alive
Bobby Seale to Bobby Sands
A picket held in frozen hands
We sat down on I-95
to keep the little flame alive
A hundred years, a hundred more
We throw our weight against the door
Even if we don't survive
we keep the little flame alive
ford the river, cross the sea
a slave, a rat, a refugee
strap the child to your side
keep the little flame alive
Oh, Guevara, Connolly
we hid them in the scullery
a secret whispered by the wives
kept the little flame alive
A hundred years, a hundred more
We throw our weight against the door
Even if we don't survive
we keep the little flame alive
Faye, Dolores, Bernadine
table grapes and gasoline
homemade rifles, kitchen knives
kept the little flame alive
Warsaw, Tulsa, Wounded Knee
They buried us, but we were seeds
and singing from the grave, we rise
to keep the little flame alive
A hundred years, a hundred more
We throw our weight against the door
Even if we don't survive
we keep the little flame alive
remember when they shot Joe Hill?
he spoke his last and final will
good luck to all of you, don't cry
but keep the little flame alive"