June 24 – Quebec’s National Day

June 24 is celebrated as Quebec’s National Day. The Quebec people’s National Day celebrates the Patriots who fought for independence from Britain in the mid-19th century: Nelson, De Lorimier, Côté, Chénier, Duvernay, O’Callaghan and many others. They fought to establish an independent homeland and republic that vests sovereignty in the people. It includes celebrating all those who have espoused and those who continue to espouse the cause of the Quebec Patriots, in particular all those committed to elaborating a nation-building project commensurate with the needs of the times.

Palestinians ‘are not animals in a zoo’

A Palestinian refugee stands next to graffiti depicting Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani with Arabic that reads his name and “I will not renounce before planting my paradise on earth,” while marking “Nakba” or Catastrophe day in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, May 15, 2016. Nasser Nasser / AP.

By Ramzy Baroud

Redefining the role of the ‘victim intellectual’

Years before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, U.S. media introduced many new characters, promoting them as “experts” who helped ratchet up propaganda, ultimately allowing the U.S. government to secure enough popular support for the war.

This Day. Vietnamese defeat French colonial forces

On this day, 7 May 1954, French colonial forces in Vietnam were soundly defeated by the pro-independence Viet Minh in the battle of Dien Bien Phu.

47th anniversary of Vietnamese people’s great victory over the US imperialists: The real American war in Viet Nam – ‘kill anything that moves’

By DOUGAL MACDONALD

Victory monument in Xuan Loc, Vietnam

Forty-seven years ago, the U.S. imperialists were resoundingly defeated by the heroic Vietnamese people, who had suffered greatly at the hands of the French colonialists and then the U.S. imperialists. Historic photos show the last of the U.S. invaders scrambling frantically to escape Viet Nam by helicopter, trying to save their worthless skins from the wrath of people’s war.

Burkina Faso: Justice for Thomas Sankara

In Burkina Faso, a historic trial is taking shape for the death of iconic leader Thomas Sankara in 1987. But the main defendant and former president, Blaise Compaore, will be absent | Katrin Ginsler

Thomas Sankara’s memory looms large over Burkina Faso

Palestine May 2021 in text and photos

The Electronic Intifada 3 June 2021

Palestinian demonstrators burn tires near the Israeli barrier surrounding Gaza in solidarity with Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem on 8 May | Mohammed Zaanoun ActiveStills

May 2021 marked a turning point in the Palestinian anti-colonial struggle for national liberation.

Israel, with its state-of-the-art military supplied and funded by Washington, was dealt a blow by the Palestinian armed resistance and unilaterally declared a ceasefire after 11 days of intense fire across the Gaza-Israel boundary.

73rd Anniversary of Al Nakba, May 15, 1948 – Resistance Until Liberation

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

May 15 is the day we commemorate Al Nakba — the Catastrophe — a day marking a “continuous journey of pain, loss and injustice” for the Palestinian people. It marks the day that some 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes during the 1948 war. Palestinians were forced from their lands and homes due to military attacks by Zionist forces, supported by the British and U.S. governments. The Israeli Zionist forces attacked 774 cities and villages, and occupied 80 per cent of the Palestinian soil after killing nearly 15,000 Muslim and Christian civilians. Those who survived were forced to migrate to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and neighbouring countries, such as Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.

Montreal Rally supports Palestinian Resistance

On Monday, May 10 at 5:00 pm in Montreal, in immediate response to the attempted eviction of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of Jerusalem and Israeli state police violence deployed against the Al-Aqsa mosque since May 7, Montreal’s Palestinian community and its allies held a protest rally in front of the Israeli consulate. Speaker after speaker condemned state terrorism and hailed the Palestinian people’s steadfast resistance to this barbarism. They defended the Palestinian people’s right to be, their right to resist, their right to live in peace and to recover their stolen lands. The youth were in the forefront at the action, in large numbers.

Bobby Sands

Bobby Sands died on 5 May, 1981, 40 years ago this week. This article recounts how he became inspired to join the Irish republican struggle and to lead the 1981 hunger strike against the criminalisation of political prisoners.

105th Anniversary of the Irish Rebellion, 1916: The Discussion on Self-Determination Summed Up

– V.I. Lenin –

Painting of the inside of the Dublin Post Office entitled “The Birth of the Irish Republic”

The following is an excerpt from the article by V. I. Lenin, “The Discussion on Self-Determination Summed Up,” first published in October 1916. Lenin wrote to clarify the issue of self-determination of nations including the significance of the Irish Rebellion in opposition to the opportunist and chauvinist theses put forward by Polish social-democrats and the so-called Zimmerwald Leftists. These theses dismissed the revolt of oppressed nations such as Ireland and the important role of their struggle for their right to self-determination in the proletarian revolution. In his conclusion, Lenin pointed out, “The epoch of imperialism has turned all the ‘great’ powers into the oppressors of a number of nations, and the development of imperialism will inevitably lead to a more definite division of trends in this question in international Social-Democracy as well.”

105th anniversary of the Irish Rebellion, 1916

Glorious uprising of the Irish people | Dougal MacDonald

Mural, Falls Road, Ireland, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising in 2016

The Easter Rising (Éirí Amach na Cásca), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed uprising in Ireland during Easter Week in 1916, from April 24-29. The Rising was part of the centuries-long ongoing struggle of the Irish people for independence from England, which began in 1169 with Henry II’s annexation of Ireland. The Rising was no isolated incident or “putsch” as some labeled it at the time to denigrate it. The Irish people have always resisted British rule without letup. Prior to the Rising, at least 20 other separate rebellions had taken place since the 16th century, including within Canada. The single-minded aim of the Irish people has always been to fight to win their independence by ending British colonial rule so as to be free to decide their own destiny. Today they are fighting to reunify Ireland. “A United Ireland Is an Idea Whose Time Has Come,” the leader of Sinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald said in 2021.

105th anniversary of the Easter Rising, Ireland

Republican organisations are issuing statements and making speeches to mark the 105th anniversary of the heroic Easter Rising in Dublin of 1916, affirming their commitment to the unification of Ireland.

Bobby Sands’ Hunger Strike Diary

Forty years ago today, Bobby Sands began his hunger strike. In order to fight Thatcher’s policy of criminalisation and secure their status as Irish political prisoners, he and his comrades were willing to fast until death. He died 66 days later, followed by nine of his comrades who made the ultimate sacrifice. In doing so, they changed the course of Irish history. 

He recorded his thoughts for the first seventeen days, setting them down for as long his mind was clear. This is his hunger strike diary.

Canada’s despicable role in opposing Palestinian human rights

Canada is playing games unworthy of any country which claims to stand for rights. For the past 20 years Canada’s voting record on Palestinian issues has moved consistently in a direction which defends Israel’s violation of its duties as an occupying power | YI NICHOLLS

February 1, 2020. Montreal demonstration stands with Palestinian people against U.S. so-called Deal of the Century.

On November 19, Canada voted along with 162 other countries in favour of a draft UN resolution affirming the Palestinian right to self-determination. The resolution emphasized “the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right to their independent State of Palestine” and “stressed the urgency of achieving without delay an end to the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace settlement between the Palestinian and Israeli sides,” based on a two-state solution.

This Day. Defeat of the Cairo Gang

One hundred years ago this week, the IRA carried out one of its most successful operations. The British secret service in Ireland was decimated when 13 senior intelligence officers were executed and many more fled into Dublin Castle. Behind the war against the British state in Ireland was a highly organised Intelligence Department operating in the main under Michael Collins’s direction. Former and serving British soldiers or RIC men, tradesmen, landladies, maids, taximen, businessmen, postmen, British agents and others supplied vital snippets of information on which the department depended.

Signs of Change in Ireland

By TONY SEED

Citizen’s committees are removing or renaming British imperialist figures and institutions throughout the United Kingdom as part of taking a stand against British colonialism.

We should never forget Bobby Sands, nor the brutality of the Thatcher government in Ireland

Today marks the 39th anniversary of the death of Bobby Sands ((Irish: Roibeárd Gearóid Ó Seachnasaigh; 9 March 1954 – 5 May 1981) ) inside the H-blocks of Long Kesh internment camp. On 5 May 1981, Sands laid down his life for his and his comrades’ right for recognition as political prisoners.

Embracing Palestine: How to combat Israel’s misuse of ‘antisemitism’

Palestinians head towards eastern border of Gaza strip to participate in weekly Great Return March protests under the slogan “Normalization with Israel is a crime and betrayal.”

By RAMZY BAROUD

I find it puzzling, indeed disturbing, that Israel, directly or otherwise, is able to determine the nature of any discussion on Palestine in the West, not only within typical mainstream platforms but within pro-Palestinian circles as well. 

At a talk I delivered in Northern England in March 2018, I proposed that the best response to falsified accusations of antisemitism, which are often lobbed against pro-Palestinian communities and intellectuals everywhere, is to draw even closer to the Palestinian narrative.

This Day. Quotes by Bobby Sands

Today is the 48th anniversary of the death of the heroic Irish patriot Bobby Sands (Irish: Roibeárd Gearóid Ó Seachnasaigh; 9 March 1954 – 5 May 1981) after 66 days on hunger strike at Long Kesh prison. We remember Bobby and his comrades and the blanket men and the women in Armagh. In his solemn memory, we publish a brief collection of quotes, some famous, some less well known. 

How imperial Britain promoted religion to stymie Palestinian nationalism

By SARAH IRVING*

Islam Under the Palestine Mandate: Colonialism and the Supreme Muslim Council, Nicholas E. Roberts, I.B.Tauris (2017)

In the dangerous and inaccurate popular narratives on Palestine, religion – a black-and-white tale of Islam versus Judaism – is often given priority of importance. Religious identities are taken as the simple, unquestioned driving force behind the actions of Palestinians throughout history.

A closer look, of course, reveals the flaws in this image. During the Ottoman period, the people of Palestine might have been more likely to identify themselves in terms of their family, neighbourhood, city or profession, depending on which identity the situation called for at a particular time.

Haiti: The price of liberation

“Should I not let it be known to later generations that Alexander Petion is the true liberator of my country?” said Simon Bolivar, the Venezuelan leader who liberated South America from Spanish rule, to Alexandre Petion, the first president of Haiti.

Book Review – Hakim Adi, Pan-Africanism and Communism: The Communist International, Africa and Diaspora, 1919-1939

(From our archives: originally published on May 25, 2014) – This ground-breaking book, based on research undertaken in the archives of the Comintern in Moscow as well as archives in France, Britain, the US and West Africa, documents the activities of the Communist International in relation to Africa and the African diaspora. It focuses on a period when the world was in flux, with inter-imperialist rivalry at its height, when African and Caribbean countries, amongst others, were under colonial domination. Black people in Africa, the Caribbean and other western countries were officially considered inferior, had few rights and racism was at the level of open state policy from so-called “Jim Crow” laws and lynching in the US, to pass laws and segregation in South Africa and the colour bar in Britain.

159th Anniversary of the First War of Indian Independence

By JASPAL SINGH, May 10, 2016

Engraving from the 1860s of scene from the First Indian War of Independence (Click to enlarge)

Today is the 159th anniversary of the great Ghadar or the first war of India’s independence. On May 10, 1857, soldiers in Meerut Cantonement revolted and marched to Delhi to overthrow the colonial rule. This spark from Meerut soon engulfed the whole country as a prairie fire with the slogan of Firangi Ko Maro. I have visited these sites in Meerut Cantonement many times and one can not help but be in awe of these fighters, listening to their tales of valour. The freedom fighters raised the slogan Hum Hain Iske Malik, Hindustan Hamara (we are the masters of India, it belongs to us). It expressed the demands and aspirations of farmers, artisans, intellectuals, patriotic Zamindars who vowed to throw the British in the sea and establish a new political power which would be people-centric.

Commemoration of the Easter Rising: Southern state is not the Republic declared in 1916

The full text of the keynote speech to mark the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, delivered by Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams at Milltown cemetery in Belfast.

A chairde agus a chomraidithe,

I want to welcome you all here today to this holy place on this historic date.

I want to especially welcome the families and friends of our patriot dead.

Ta muid fior buioch daoibhse go leir.

The Irish Rebellion of 1916 – The Discussion on Self-Determination Summed Up

Painting ‘Birth of the Irish Republic‘

The following is an excerpt from the article by V. I. Lenin, “The Discussion on Self-Determination Summed Up,” first published in October 1916. Lenin wrote to clarify the issue of self-determination of nations including the significance of the Irish Rebellion in opposition to the opportunist and chauvinist theses put forward by Polish social-democrats and the so-called Zimmerwald Leftists. These theses dismissed the revolt of oppressed nations such as Ireland and the important role of their struggle for their right to self-determination in the proletarian revolution. In his conclusion, Lenin pointed out, “The epoch of imperialism has turned all the ‘great’ powers into the oppressors of a number of nations, and the development of imperialism will inevitably lead to a more definite division of trends in this question in international Social-Democracy as well.” *

Commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising: Celebrate the glorious uprising of the Irish people!

1991 mural in Belfast marking the 75th anniversary of the Irish Rebellion. In foreground are the Republicans who signed the proclamation of independence.

By Dougal MacDonald

The Easter Rising (Éirí Amach na Cásca), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed uprising in Ireland during Easter Week in 1916, from April 24-29. The Rising was part of the centuries-long ongoing struggle of the Irish people for independence from England, which began in 1169 with Henry II’s annexation of Ireland. The Rising was no isolated incident or “putsch” as some labeled it at the time to denigrate it. The Irish people have always resisted British rule without letup. Prior to the Rising, at least 20 other separate rebellions had taken place since the 16th century, including within Canada. The single-minded aim of the Irish people has always been to fight to win their independence by ending British colonial rule so as to be free to decide their own destiny.

Commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising: The Irish Declaration of Independence, April 24, 1916

Poblacht na hÉireann – the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic, an original copy with its distinct fonts

Poblacht na hÉireann

The Provisional Government

of the Irish Republic

‘To the People of Ireland’

IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives the old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag, and strikes for her freedom.

Commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising: Turning point in the history of the Irish nation

Proclamation of the Irish Republic, signed on April 24, 1916 by seven leaders of the uprising, Thomas J. Clarke, Seán Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, Pádraig Pearse, Éamonn Ceannt, James Connolly and Joseph Plunkett. All were executed by the British after the rising was crushed.

April 24 marks the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising in Ireland, an armed uprising of the Irish people to win their independence by ending British colonial rule so as to be free to decide their own destiny. The 1916 Rising was the first major revolt against British rule in Ireland since the United Irishmen Rebellion of 1798. The rebellion lasted until April 29 when it was brutally crushed by the forces of the British Empire, after thousands of reinforcements were brought in from England and other parts of Ireland. It became the first stage in a war of independence that resulted in the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922 and, ultimately, the formal declaration of an Irish Republic in 1949. Britain still maintain a military presence in the north of Ireland, even if troops have been withdrawn from the streets for some years now – mainly to free them for other criminal interventions in the Middle East and elsewhere.

This day. Bobby Sands

Bobby Sands (9 March 1954 – 5 May 1981)

Today is the birthday of Bobby Sands (Irish: Roibeárd Gearóid Ó Seachnasaigh; 9 March 1954 – 5 May 1981) , an Irish independence fighter and Member of Parliament who died while on a heroic hunger strike along with other Irish Republican prisoners in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh prison in Northern Ireland in 1981. They were incarcerated for resisting both British rule and discrimination. Their hunger strike was in protest at the conditions they faced in jail, a brutal feature of colonial rule.

Sands joined the Provisional Irish Republican Army when he was 18. Shortly after he was arrested for the possession of four handguns found in the house where he was staying. He was tortured in the Castlereagh interrogation centre and sentenced to 14 years. After that he never saw a Christmas outside prison. He died at the age of 27.

This day in 1975: Vietnamese people’s victory over US imperialism

In war there are the two factors – human beings and weapons. Ultimately, though, human beings are the decisive factor. Human beings! Human beings!” – General Vo Nguyen Giap, People’s Army of Vietnam

Victory monument in Xuan Loc, Vietnam

This posting also includes:

• “Activities across Vietnam celebrate Liberation of Saigon and Reunification of Vietnam”;
• “Vietnam’s great economic achievements since liberation”

April 30, 2015 marks the 40th anniversary of the total victory of the Vietnamese people over U.S. military aggression and its division of the country.