In The Area 1 (Summer 2010)

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In The Area!A newsletter from AFA Ireland. Issue 1, Summer 2010.

At any time of heightened eco-

nomic strife and the steep rise of

unemployment, fascists always

attempt to raise their malignantheads above the parapet.

Attempting to redirect the legiti-mate concerns of the working

classes down the dead endsof racism and bigotry, fascists

seek to divide and enslave thisclass while claiming to speak inits name. Ultimately however,fascism emerges as the party ofattack on the working class inspite of its posturing as a revo-lutionary movement against the

bourgeoisie and on behalf of thewhole nation. Where they havegained power however, fascists

have attacked working classstruggles from breaking up strikesto the suppression of workingclass organisations.

AFA Ireland; An Introduction.

continued overleaf

Over 700 international guests

and locals enjoyed a weekend of

football, music and politics at the

fourth annual Anti-Racist World

Cup in Belfast City that took

place on the 16-18 June.

Friday night kicked off with awelcome session for internationalguests in the clubhouse of Done-gal Celtic followed by a lm

showing and talk on Charles Don-nelly, the Tyrone born poet andsocialist who gave his life ghting

Francos fascists in the SpanishCivil War. DJs from FC UnitedRadio, the fan-ran radio stationof F.C. United of Manchester(FCUM) provided the entertain-ment for the night, playing a solidmix of Ska, Reggae, Northern

Soul and 80s Madchester sounds.

The football tournament kickedoff at 10am on Saturday morningand saw teams from Palestine,Democratic Republic of Congo,Dusseldorf, Basque Country,

Catalonia, Hamburg, Glasgow,Birmingham and Manchester take

part. This was followed by a pub-lic talk on the situation in Gaza

by members of the Palestinian

team. The sun came out for thehighlight match of the weekend, afriendly between local side Clif-tonville and visitors F.C. Unitedof Mancheser, a club formed in2005 by Manchester United sup-

porters following the Glazers

controversial takeover which ledto hundreds of fans defecting.FCUM, only recently back froma friendly match with F.C. St.Paul in Hamburg, took an early

lead but the Reds of Cliftonvilleshowed their class in the secondhalf, scoring two goals and win-ning the inaugural SupportersCup.

After a long night of drinking anddancing to the musical delight ofDutch ska band The Roosterz,

players had to kit out on Sundaymorning and play the second

round of the football tournament.Beating 23 other teams, the over-all tournament was won by thePalestinian side, a heartening winfor all concerned as they sufferedsevere problems trying to acquireVisas for the trip to Belfast.

Football fans and political activ-ists have already started talk-

ing about next years ARWC asrumours y that the organisers are

planning to bring FC St Pauli orLivorno FC. See you in 2011!

Fight Racism - Fight Imperialism. One of the many banners on display.

www.antiracismworldcup.com

Fourth Annual Anti-Racist World Cup!


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AFA Ireland Visit

to Stockholm.

AFA Ireland members re-

cently travelled over to

Stockholm for a weekend of

politics and music.

On Friday evening, we joined a5,000 strong Palestinian solidar-ity demonstration and then latera trade union blockade of anupscale nightclub organised bythe SUF, the anarcho-syndicalistyouth federation. (The disputerelates to the nightclub trying toforce their cleaning staff to leavetheir trade union or risk havingtheir jobs subcontracted.)

On Saturday, we attended theannual anti-racist music festival,

Area Turns Red organised bySTRONG - the Stockholm Anti-Racist Culture Association.

As the festival was being set up,two dozen nazis from the SwedishResistance Movement (SRM) ar-rived at the site hoping to provokea ght. Around 30 anti-fascists

quickly armed themselves and

prepared to defend the festivalequipment from attack. The nazisretreated and were quickly es-corted away from the area by the

police.

This had the opposite effect ofscaring people off and over 700

people enjoyed the free festival,under the sun, in the center of thecity.

Heading the bill was the Swed-ish hip hop duo Mohammed Ali,Swedish electro act Centrals-

kolan and Canadian punk bandThe Class War Kids. Alongsidethe music there was political talks,discussions and bookstalls.

At this event, we were introducedto numerous members of AFASweden and the class struggle, anti- fascist group Revolutionra front-en (RF, the Revolutionary Front).We discussed and compared ourrelative neo - fascist movementsand were heartened to hear thatthe nazis in Stockholm, who wereonce a grave cause of concern,have effectively been beaten offthe streets. For the rst time in

severl years, they did not have apublic march through the city tomark the National Day of Sweden.

AFA Ireland would like to thankAFA Sweden and especially RF for

their hospitality and hope we can

return the favour to them soon.

In response to this, AFA embraces

the perspectives of militant work-ing-class resistance to fascism be-lieving that only through militantaction will fascists be put down.

Since its inception in Ireland,AFA has utilised a twin-track

policy of both ideological andphysical confrontation, both partsof this strategy being political inthat it is the defence of the in-terests of the working class. Theworking class at large; genuinely

put upon by an unjust system thatfavours big business has often

been encouraged to have theirrighteous anger deected onto the

strangers amongst us. In work-ing class communities however,these strangers are forced toadopt the same hardships that arefaced by the domestic popula-tion in working class areas and soAFA seeks unity along the lines ofclass not race.

In pursuit of this, AFA has alwayssought to harness the progres-sive political traditions withinelements of football supportersin League of Ireland clubs andalso those of Celtic, St Pauli etcin opposing fascism. AFA hasalso received much support fromwithin the punk scene, although

we are also interested in thosethat follow the electronic, hip hopand metal scenes and it is becauseof this that we often distribute our

propaganda at both music gigsand football grounds.-----------------------------------------

from front page.

It is with this in mind that wehave decided to publish this newnewsletter, entitled In The Area

in order to keep our supporters upto date with our regular activity.Welcome to our rst issue.

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The scene at Area Turns Red- the Swedish anti-racist music festival.

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In The Area / 3

On the weekend of 25/26

June, AFA attended the 3rd

annual George Brown com-

memoration in the pictur-

esque village of Inistioge Co.Kilkenny.

George Brown was born inInistioge in 1906 and died atthe Battle of Brunete during theSpanish Civil War in July 1937.He was one of four Kilkenny menwho served with the InternationalBrigade in the ght against Fran-co. Following on from the successof the 2 previous weekends whichsaw former Brigadista Bob Doyle(R.I.P.) in attendance the GeorgeBrown Memorial Committee(GBMC) again put together animpressive line up of speakers.

Friday nights proceedings startedwith a wreath laying by TomKnow, relative of Brown in St.

We then moved intoSt. Marys churchwhere guest speakersMichael Lanigan, thePresident of Irish

Medical Aid forPalestine, Dr HikmatAjjuri, the PalestinianAmbassador to Irelandand Senator Dr David

Norris gave verypassionate andinformative speeches on the ThePalestinian Question. The nightconcluded with Amanda Rich-

ards (GBMC) reciting poetry andspeaking on the 100th anniversaryof International Womens Day.We left the church to the sound ofthe Labi Siffres Something In-side So Strong and moved ontothe local pub ODonnells.

Saturday saw another busy day.Jack OConnor (SIPTU and ICTU

president) spoke on the

legacy of George Brown whileHarry Owens, historian gave afascinating lecture on the after-

math of the Civil War in Spain.Following the talk, there was anoutdoor concert by The HatcheryFolk group at The InternationalBrigade Memorial at the OliveGrove and the planting of a treePdraig Murch (Chairperson,GBMC).

Were looking forward to nextyear already.

George Brown Commemoration.

Galway Anti- Fascists

Remove Grafti.A spate of racist grafti in

Salthill, Co. Galway has

been repeatedly cleaned up

by a group of anti- fascists

attached to the punk scene

in the city.The grafti, which included the

phrase ein volk, ein reich, einfuhrer accompanied by swas-tikas, was rst spotted on a bus

shelter on Father Grifn Road in

April 2009. Over the course of thenext months, the neo-nazi grafti

reappeared again and again butwas removed quickly each time

by anti-fascists.

Finally, the racists decided to giveup and the hasnt been seen since.

1. Take a picture of the grafti.

2. Note down what it says and

its location

3. Paint over the grafti safely

i.e. in a group of two or three.4. Send the pictures and details

onto AFA Ireland so we can add

it to our database.

When hate slogans stay in placefor a long time it gives the im-

pression that nobody in the areacares. This makes racists feelmore condent and foreigners

more isolated. When they getremoved quickly the oppositemesssage is sent out.

AFA Ireland would like to thankour Galway comrades for their

consistent work in removing rac-

ist grafti and stickers from the

city.

Bob Doyle at the Commemoration in 2008.

It is importantfor anti-fascistsno matterwhere they arein the countryto remove and

monitor racistgrafti. We

would appeal to supportersaround the country to do the fol-lowing if they see any:


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4 / In The Area!

The Twelfth of

July and the EDL.

The Twelfth of July annually

brings out the worst in loyalism. It

also attracts its fair share of Brit-

ish fascists.

Members of Combat 18 have inthe past attended loyalist marchesduring the mid-1990s and also the

unveiling of a memorial to sectar-ian killer and LVF founder BillyWright. The weekend of the 12thhas also seen the staging of Brit-ish neo-Nazi Blood and Honour

bands in loyalist areas of Portad-own.

It is interesting therefore to notethat the recent incarnation of far-

right street politics in Britain, theEnglish Defence League (EDL)did not send any ofcial public

delegation to any Twelfth of Julymarches. A spontaneous rollingorganisation, the EDL say thatthey are not fascist and are purelyanti-Islamic extremist. But theorganisation have a number ofwell known fascist and loyalist

members.Although a different politicalanimal to Combat 18, its ties tothe concept of loyalism are visible.This is demonstrated by the emer-gence of the paper organisation theUlster Defence League to compli-ment the Scottish and Welsh divi-sions. Since the mid 1990s, loyal-ism became the common theme

for British fascists, as distinctfrom racism and those who remaininvolved in street activity are stillinuenced by loyalist paramilitary

and Orange Order organisations.

AFA Contact Information:Please be sure to pass on any details of fascist activity in your area.You can contact us by any of the means listed below. As well as this

newsletter, we produce a magazine, No Quarter which can be

purchased for 2.50 also by mailing the address below.

Homepage: www.afaireland.yolasite.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/afairelandE- Mail: [email protected]: Anti- Fascist Action,

PO Box 3355,

Dublin,Ireland,

St. Pauli Gegen Rechts!

Mention the name St. Pauli to any

self discerning football fan and

you can be sure theyll know who

youre talking about.

For any of you reading this whoarent football fans, St. Pauli are ateam that until recently have pliedtheir trade in the lower divisionsof German football. Theywere promoted to theBundesliga I in 2010.While their success onthe eld has rarely been

spectacular (althoughthey have pulled offsome fantastic results,including a victoryoverBayern Munich in 2001,)their infamy comes fromthe cult status attached tothe club, their supportersand their philosophy, bothon and off the pitch.

For the club has, embodied in itsconstitution an outspoken stanceon racism, sexism, homophobiaand fascism. St. Paulis fan-base,see themselves as anti-racist,anti- fascist and anti- sexist, asentiment visible in the supportersdisplays, and from a look at their

New St. Pauli Supporters Club in Dublin.support, amongst punks andanti-fascists worldwide. The clubhave an estimated 200 registeredfan clubs around the world, and

as of last season, we have a newSt. Pauli Supporters Club inDublin, based in Murrays Bar onOConnell Street where matches,home and away are shown.

Going from strength tostrength, the supportersclub started with small

numbers in March, bythe end of the season,

the numbers attendinggames were in theirdozens, culminating ina great night when St.Pauli beat Greuther

Frth to gain promotionto the Bundesliga I forthe rst time since 2001.

The rst game of the 2010/11

season kicks off on the 21stAugust away to SC Freiburg at14:30. Im sure a number of AFAIreland shall be in attendanceto show our support for a greatendeavour.For more information, you can

nd the St. Pauli Dublin Sup-

porters club on Facebook.

Feel free to take extra copies and

distribute them in your area.

Documents

In The Area 1 (Summer 2010)