JOHN REES replies to Claudia Webbe
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The 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement
Far from being an unchallengeably successful pact, the experience of the GFA has been one of the consolidation of imperialist control and influence, writes JIMMY CORCORAN
TENSE: IRA letters painted below existing graffiti in republican West
Belfast. The writing refers to a ongoing decommissioning row in the
run-up to the Good Friday Agreement, 1999
There is no justification for spending colossal amounts of money on so-called defence — sacrificing our education, health and transport while they’re at it, says BERT SCHOUWENBURG
GEOFFREY BELL looks at the curiously unsupportive stance of British progressives of the Easter Rising
On the eve of the Communist Party of Ireland’s 27th congress JIMMY CORCORAN reiterates the principles that guided James Connolly
But that’s OK, says MATT KERR, as talking is what will help us get things done
Why a defeat of the miners still haunts Britain’s rulers, says PHIL KATZ
THE Belfast/Good Friday Agreement (GFA), signed a quarter of a century ago in April 1998, was promoted then and is being celebrated now as a peace agreement to end the 30-year armed conflict between Irish republicans and the British state assisted by its local militia allies within unionism.
Prepare to hear the usual empty political rhetoric as an ageing generation of “international peacemakers” (Blair, Clinton, Ahern et al) return to the world stage this month, with a new generation of acolytes, for a glitzy showbiz encore focusing on the success of the imperialist alliance of the US, Britain and the EU in “solving the Irish problem.”
The GFA is predicated on the fallacious denial of the role of British imperialism in Ireland, ie, that it is an “honest broker” keeping the peace between Catholics and Protestants, while ignoring the fact that these divisions were fostered by British imperialism to safeguard its position in Ireland.
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