Ceasefires Now Should we have been surprised by the decision of the US President Donald Trump to attack Iran? No. Shocked maybe but not surprised. The weapons of mass destruction spin, that was used to justify the invasion of Iraq two decades ago, was already in wide usage by some western governments and sections of the media before B 2’s dropped so-called ‘bunker buster’ bombs on Iran. And we all remember what a disaster the Iraq war was for the people of that nation and for world politics. An estimated million Iraqi citizens died. The attack on Iran was an act of aggression against a state that had not attacked the USA. It was in clear breach of international law and it almost certainly broke US domestic and constitutional law. Moreover, two nuclear powers – Israel and the USA – have attacked a nation that does not have nuclear weapons. And applauding in the wings are Britain, France and Germany and others who are colluding in the genocide of the Palestinian people. Presi...
Stand-Up to Racism In 1972 Catholic families – who had endured three years of sustained sectarian attacks on their homes – fled Annalee St in North Belfast. Last month - fifty-three years later - Catholic homes in Annalee St. were again the target of sectarian attack and families were forced to flee. In the last fortnight we have also witnessed the firebombing of homes in Ballymena, the Larne Leisure Centre and racist attacks in other parts of the North. The images of homes in flames in Ballymena reminded me of similar scenes I first witnessed in Belfast in August 1969. The film footage of that period is of streets ablaze, frightened families hurriedly stacking furniture on lorries or carrying their most precious possessions on their backs. Then it was the racism and sectarianism of the apartheid unionist state attacking nationalist and republican families, killing residents, destroying hundreds of homes and forcing thousands to become refugees in our...