Solidarity!

 http://www.randzone-online.de/?p=19101 //  http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/fluechtiger-prism-enthueller-edward-snowden-beantragt-asyl-in-ecuador-1.1703937

Think these links belong on the above post, on the newswire.

A post on South London AF's Facebook is entitled "Lest we forget anti-fascists of yesteryear" (and it's worth reading the whole post, even though it's a bit long-winded) -

"Today we mark the anniversary of Frank Ryan (1902-1944) – A journalist and member of the Irish Republican Army, Frank Ryan led Irish Volunteers against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Frank Ryan was born in County Limerick, in 1902. After leaving university he became an active member of the Irish Republican Army and fought in the Irish Civil War. In 1929 Ryan was appointed editor of An Phoblacht, the IRA newspaper. He was imprisoned several times over the following years for publishing seditious articles and for contempt of court. In 1931 Ryan helped to organise the radical Saor-Eire (Free Ireland) movement. He was aware of the growing wave of fascism in Europe and wanted to build up a united front in Ireland against it. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Frank Ryan devoted himself to publicising the Spanish Republican cause in their fight against Fascism and its leader in Spain, General Franco. Ryan led a contingent of almost 200 Irishmen to Spain to fight in the 15th International Brigade for the Republic against Franco. He was captured by Italian forces fighting for the nationalists in March 1938 and was sentenced to death. In July 1940, following negotiations between the Spanish and German governments Ryan was released and brought to Berlin. Frank Ryan died on the 10th June 1944 in Germany. In 1979 he remains were repatriated to Ireland and buried in Glasnevin cemetery."

 https://www.facebook.com/SouthLondonAF

It's wonderful that Frank Ryan fought that murdering scumbag General Franco, but let's emphasise the point whose significance South London AF seem to have overlooked - FRANK RYAN WAS BROUGHT TO BERLIN IN 1940... BERLIN IN 1940 WAS PART OF NAZI GERMANY. The reason Ryan was brought to Berlin in 1940 was because of the deals the IRA struck with HITLER'S NAZIS, and when Ryan arrived in Berlin his main contact was SS Colonel Edmund Veesenmayer...

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Ryan_(Irish_republican)

What Frank Ryan organising for Saor Eire during the Irish Civil War means is that he was involved an brutal feud within Irish Republicanism which involved killing fellow Irish Nationalists, but what's most relevant to the politics of Lee Rigby's murder is that on the 7th Nov 1974 the IRA blew up The Kings Arms pub in WOOLWICH, killing Gunner Richard Dunne of the Royal Artillery and murdering a 20 year old civilian sales-clerk called Alan Horsley.

The following was a complex debate, and to understand it you'll have to read all the comments on several different Indymedia threads, but it's well-documented on Indymedia how Liverpool AF damaged not just the Anti-Fascist movement, but the entire cause of radical politics in Liverpool, with the ill-informed, naive, reckless and dishonest bullshit they came out with about their relationship with terrorist sympathisers, and South London AF seem to have learned nothing from that shameful episode -

 https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/07/498142.html?c=on
 https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/07/497944.html?c=on

By way of context, if you want a genuinely Anti-Fascist perspective on the question of whether or not, overall, the IRA were or are a mostly left-wing (as opposed to mostly Catholic and Nationalist) movement, read the article "A Second Chance" by Gary Otterburn in Red Action magazine (issue 38, Jan 1988). Despite Red Action being militantly Anti-Fascist and (sadly) pro-IRA, Red Action freely admits to the "rejection of the socialistic element" by the majority in Irish Republicanism, admits the IRA were "politically conservative", that the majority opposed what was seen as "alien and Godless communism", and that (according to Red Action) even Provisional IRA prisoners burned copies of Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto in Long Kesh prison in the 1970s. As the Red Action article says "Irish history is littered with the skeletons of organisations and programmes, like Saor Eire... which sought to unite the Labour and Republican movements, and... the Nationalist and Loyalist working class, under an anti-capitalist banner. With just one plaintive wail of "Godless Communism" and the pointing of an accusatory figure by the Bishops, these embryonic organisations were effortlessly crushed" [*], the awful irony being that even some elements in the IRA who considered themselves to be genuinely left-wing weren't averse to collaborating with Hitler's SS.

*  http://www.redactionarchive.org/2012/03/red-action-bulletin-volumes-one-and-two.html

Frank Ryan (1902-1944). One of the best-known and most controversial revolutionaries of Irish history, Frank Ryan fought in the War of Independence and Irish Civil War, becoming a leader of the Irish Republican Army by the late 1920s. Embracing socialist republicanism in the 1930s, Ryan became a founding leader of the short-lived but influential Republican Congress, and led the Irish contingent within the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. Following his capture by Franco’s forces, his release was eventually secured by the efforts of German military intelligence which sought to use Ryan to further its wartime alliance with the IRA. Despite his anti-fascist background, he spent the final years of his life in Hitler’s Germany AS AN ADVISER TO THE NAZI REGIME.

 http://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/frankryan/InterpretativeResources/HistoricalContext/Figuresdepictedinthefilm/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Ryan_(Irish_republican)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Veesenmayer

.

read a friggin map.

That's cool, if it means Portsmouth AF won't repeat the fuck-ups made by Liverpool AF and by South London AF, then that's very good

Bearing in mind that those 2 "groups" are probably however basically 2 people, Liverpool AF responded to allegations about and criticisms of their actions by publicly linking to Real IRA supporters on Facebook, and that SL-AF havn't removed the offending post from their Facebook, this is an issue that it's legitimate and necessary to remind other and new AF groups about for as long as it takes ;)

At a time when even Sinn Fein are desperately embarrassed about their historic links to terrorism and to the IRA, there's been a sustained campaign - by a tiny number of self-styled "militant" anti-fascists - to try to link anti-fascism to terrorism, even (as documented in the discussions on Urban 75 and Indymedia that you can access via the following links) in the face of direct opposition from even AFA/Squad veterans, who have very strong Republican connections and sympathies! With a so-called "anti-fascist" group now stooping to publicly celebrating an SS collaborator, in active preference to celebrating the 10,000's of anti-fascists whose legacies they could have chosen to celebrate if they wanted, the provocateur / troll activity descends into total self-parody. Here are some examples of the criticisms leveled by AFA / squad members -

"To try to force a march like that, which did nothing for community relations in Liverpool, through the city centre in the same period as the fascists were regularly picketing the Rochdale Nonces Trial was ABSOLUTELY STUPID"

"It was only the representations... made to the Cairde organiser in Scotland and the direct intervention of myself and a couple of former AFA/Squad members from Manchester that prevented this same group from Liverpool applying for permission to relaunch the Manchester Martyrs Commemoration by means of a route that would have been SUICIDAL FOR REPUBLICANS AND ANTI-FASCISTS"

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/10/501278.html?c=on (read ALL the comments)

 http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/beating-the-fascists-the-authorised-history-of-anti-fascist-action.251690/page-99

Assuming the people responsible for this IRA crap aren't just undercover Fascists or police trolls, the point that some AFA wannabees and post-hoc fan-boys seem oblivious to, is not the entry-level "insight" that AFA proved a case for physical opposition to Fascism, but that AFA argued (and proved) a case for INTELLIGENT opposition to Fascism.

You can "militantly" oppose Fascism in a way that's intelligent

You can "militantly" oppose Fascism in a way that's stupid

Both styles are "MILITANT"

The former succeeds, the latter fails.......

Sorry your thread happened to be the one this info was posted on - that, unfortunately, was an accident of timing - it's better the grasp the nettle now however than to see militant antifascism destroyed after the rot's had a chance to take hold

The negotiations to have Ryan's death sentance rescinded and for his release from Franco's jails were undertaken by a representative of the Irish government not by the IRA. The appointed lawyer tried and failed to have him released to Ireland. Ryan was brought (that word is important) to Germany, to suggest he went there out of choice is simply ridiculous, do you seriously think after years fighting and nearly dieing in the fight against fascism that he suddenly converted to Nazism?

Whilst being stuck in Nazi Germany, with his health rapidly deteriorating, clearly his only desire must have been to get home, the writer of this post seems a little short on imagintaion and may find it difficult to understand but Ryan found himself in a bit of a difficult situation, hopping on an Aer Lingus flight would not have been an option,

The son of Jeff Stabby Marsh (who has surrendered and ran off to spain) is posting on twitter as @sonofstabby and is threatening to graffiti mosques

Your statement explains, of course, why Frank Ryan actively worked with SS Colonel Edmund Veesenmayer!?

"On his arrival in Berlin Ryan was introduced to SS Colonel Dr. Edmund Veesenmayer. Veesenmayer, as part of his roving SS and German Foreign Ministry brief, was intimately involved in the planning of all Abwehr operations in Ireland"

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Ryan_(Irish_republican)#Activities_in_Germany_1940_.E2.80.93_1944