IRISH RISE FROM THEIR KNEES Don't Let the Sinners Divide

The great appear great because we are on 

our knees: Let us rise! - Jim Larkin

THE AUTHOR AND former presidential speechwriter Peggy Noonan once said: “A speech is poetry: cadence, rhythm, imagery, sweep! A speech reminds us that words, like children, have the power to make dance the dullest beanbag of a heart.”

One can not underestimate the power of a good speech or the effectiveness of a speech’s key line.

With that in mind, over the course of the summer TheJournal.ie is asking some of the most prominent figures in Irish society from politicians to sports stars to nominate their favourite speech of all time and tell us why they like it so much.

journal.ie: Socialist Party TD for Dublin North Clare Daly. She writes:

Larkin’s speech outside the gates of Mountjoy before beginning a sentence during the lock-out in 1913 stands out for me because of its total contrast with the approach of modern trade union leaders.

The call to continued action and defence of the class struggle, the goal of a better future for all, the spirit of self-sacrifice and the absolute resolve to ensure that workers only trust their own and don’t allow themselves to be sold out.

After seven years of struggle, his aspirations and concerns are for the movement generally and workers individually, a call of encouragement and hope.

Jim Larkin, (Photo via YouTube/ogiepanther)

James Larkin (Big Jim) was a major figure in the Irish labour movement. Born in England to Irish parents, he is best known for his role in the 1913 Dublin Lockout and for being a profound orator that captured the crowds. On 28 October 1913, Larkin was tried and sentenced to seven months’ imprisonment for using seditious language. From the gates of Mountjoy Prison Larkin made this speech:

At the entrance to Mountjoy Gaol I desire to address a few words of encouragement and hope to you. We have now been associated together for the past seven years. Throughout that period of time we were in a chronic state of sturm-und-drang, always and ever advancing from position to position. Attacks on us have been made in front and flank and we have always proved unconquerable. The fort is as impregnable to-day as in the past days when we hoisted the flag.

This great fight of ours is not simply a question of shorter hours or better wages. It is a great fight for human liberty of action, liberty to live as human beings should live, exercising their God-given faculties and powers over nature; always aiming to reach out for a higher betterment and development, trying to achieve in our own time the dreams of great thinkers and poets of this nation – not as some do, working for their own individual betterment and aggrandisement.

It has always been in our mind the building up of this nation not that we ourselves might enjoy the fulfilment of our own work, but that those who come after us may enter into the promised land. This work requires the right not only to combine, but to use that combination for our own economic and industrial emancipation.

Now, I will be away from you in the body, but I will be with you in spirit. I have faith that those men who are honoured by being left to bear the standard will get your heartiest, honest and sustained support, that there will be no compromise. Trust no one but yourselves; have faith in the men you have elected and will elect; they must be the men who will decide what settlement shall be arrived at in our present conflict.

Without wishing to cast any reflection upon our friends across the Channel, this fight must be settled by the men here at home in our own Union. Without in any way disparaging any order or section of the organised working-class, we of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union cannot only claim but can make good our claim of being the pioneers in this grand class war.

History speaks in no uncertain way; it tells us that thew pioneers must suffer, but suffering brings satisfaction and to us who have been pioneers, we must during the period of this class struggle which we have entered into depend upon loyalty, the faithfulness and the determination of what is known industrially as the unskilled workers. Sometimes compelled to retreat, we have come back again into battle with renewed strength and courage.

Men such as Daly Partridge, McKeown and Connolly – any of these may be liberty. These and these only must allow and authorise to act for you. There will  be an attempt to seduce you from your allegiance, but no one can mislead truth. Everyone hopes such deeps and just cause as that in which you and I are engaged must win out. Don’t forget the RED HAND that struck terror in the hearts of the sweaters and slum property owners, the publicans and all who may be out to destroy life.

We live to give life, hope and joy. And now for the sake of your children and children’s children, be true to yourselves; and, moreover, may you by the stress of the attack of this struggle learn anew; stand by the Union and live out the motto of your Union – ‘Each for All, and All for Each.’ I enjoin, even to the humblest and I so convey to all good luck till the prison gates are open.

(disambiguation).
James Larkin

Teachta Dála
In office
June 1943 – May 1944
In office
July 1937 – June 1938
Constituency Dublin North–East
In office
September 1927 – September 1927
Constituency Dublin North
Personal details
Born 21 January 1876
Liverpool, England
Died 30 January 1947(aged 72)
Dublin, Ireland
Resting place Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin
Nationality Irish
Political party Independent Labour Party (from 1893)
Labour Party (1912–23; 1941–47)
Socialist Party of America (1914–19)
Irish Worker League(1923–27)
Spouse(s) Elizabeth Brown
Children James Larkin, Jnr
Denis Larkin
Occupation Docker, trade union leader
Religion Roman Catholicism[1][2]


James (Jim) Larkin (21 January 1876 – 30 January 1947) was a British and Irish trade union leader and socialist activist, born to Irish parents inLiverpool, England. He and his family later moved to a small cottage in Burren, southernCounty Down. Growing up in poverty, he received little formal education and began working in a variety of jobs while still a child. He became a full-time trade union organiser in 1905.

Larkin moved to Belfast in 1907 and founded the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, the Irish Labour Party, and later the Workers' Union of Ireland. Perhaps best known for his role in the 1913 Dublin Lockout, "Big Jim" continues to occupy a significant place inDublin's collective memory.



Contents [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Early years
1.2 Organising the Irish labour movement (1907–14)
1.3 Dublin Lockout 1913
1.4 Larkin in the US (1914–23)
1.5 Return to Ireland and communist activism
1.6 Return to the Labour Party
2 Commemoration
2.1 Literature
2.2 Songs
2.3 Monument
2.4 James Larkin Way
2.5 Liverpool Irish Festival 2008
2.6 People
3 See also
4 References
5 Other sources consulted
6 Further reading


Biography[edit]
Early years[edit]

Larkin was born on 21 January 1876 the second eldest son of Irish immigrants, James Larkin and Mary Ann McNulty, both natives of County Armagh. The impoverished Larkin family lived in the slums of Liverpool during the early years of his life. From the age of seven, he attended school in the mornings and worked in the afternoons to supplement the family income—a common arrangement in working class families at the time. At the age of fourteen, after the death of his father, he was apprenticed to the firm his father had worked for but was dismissed after two years. He was unemployed for a time and then worked as a sailor and docker. By 1903, he was a dock foreman, and on 8 September of that year, he married Elizabeth Brown.

From 1893, Larkin developed an interest in socialism and became a member of the Independent Labour Party. In 1905, he was one of the few foremen to take part in a strike on the Liverpool docks. He was elected to the strike committee, and although he lost his foreman's job as a result, his performance so impressed the National Union of Dock Labourers (NUDL) that he was appointed a temporary organiser. He later gained a permanent position with the union, which, in 1906, sent him toScotland, where he successfully organised workers in Prestonand Glasgow.
Organising the Irish labour movement (1907–14)[edit]

In January 1907, Larkin undertook his first task on behalf of the trade union movement in Ireland, when he arrived inBelfast to organise the city's dock workers for the NUDL. He succeeded in unionising the workforce and, as employers refused to meet the wage demands, he called the dockers out on strike in June. Carters and coal men soon joined in, the latter settling their dispute after a month. Larkin succeeded in uniting Protestant and Catholic workers and even persuaded the local Royal Irish Constabulary to strike at one point, but the strike ended by November without having achieved significant success. Tensions regarding leadership arose between Larkin and NUDL general secretary James Sexton. The latter's handling of negotiations and agreement to a disastrous settlement for the last of the strikers resulted in a lasting rift between Sexton and Larkin.

In 1908, Larkin moved south and organised workers in Dublin,Cork and Waterford, with considerable success. His involvement, against union instructions, in a dispute in Dublin resulted in his expulsion from the NUDL. The union later prosecuted him for diverting union funds to give strike pay to Cork workers engaged in an unofficial dispute. After trial and conviction for embezzlement in 1910, he was sentenced to prison for a year.[3] This was widely regarded as unjust, and the then Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Aberdeen, pardoned him after he had served three months in prison.

After his expulsion from the NUDL, Larkin founded the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU) at the end of December 1908. The organisation exists today as the Services Industrial Professional & Technical Union (SIPTU). It quickly gained the affiliation of the NUDL branches in Dublin, Cork,Dundalk and Waterford. The Derry and Drogheda NUDL branches stayed with the British union, and Belfast split along sectarian lines. Early in the new year, 1909, Larkin moved to Dublin, which became the main base of the ITGWU and the focus of all his future union activity in Ireland.

In June 1911, Larkin established a newspaper, The Irish Worker and People's Advocate, as a pro-labour alternative to the capitalist-owned press. This organ was characterised by a campaigning approach and the harsh denunciation of unfair employers and of Larkin's political enemies. Its columns also included pieces by intellectuals. The paper was produced until its suppression by the authorities in 1915. Afterwards, theWorker metamorphosed into the new Ireland Echo.

In partnership with James Connolly, Larkin helped form theIrish Labour Party in 1912. Later that year, he was elected to the Dublin Corporation. He did not hold his seat long, as a month later he was removed as he had a criminal record since his conviction in 1910.
Dublin Lockout 1913[edit]
Main article: Dublin Lockout

In early 1913, Larkin achieved some notable successes in industrial disputes in Dublin; these involved frequent recourse to sympathetic strikes and blacking (boycotting) of goods. Two major employers, Guinness and the Dublin United Tramway Company, were the main targets of Larkin's organising ambitions. Both had craft unions for skilled workers, but Larkin's main aim was to unionise the unskilled workers as well. He coined the slogan "A fair day's work for a fair day's pay'.[4]

Guinness staff were relatively well-paid, and enjoyed generous benefits from a paternalistic management that refused to join Murphy's lock-out.[5] This was far from the case on the tramways. The chairman of the Dublin United Tramway Company, industrialist and newspaper proprietor William Martin Murphy, was determined not to allow the ITGWU to unionise his workforce. On 15 August, he dismissed forty workers he suspected of ITGWU membership, followed by another 300 over the next week. On 26 August, the tramway workers officially went on strike. Led by Murphy, over four hundred of the city's employers retaliated by requiring their workers to sign a pledge not to be a member of the ITGWU and not to engage in sympathetic strikes.

The resulting industrial dispute was the most severe in Ireland's history. Employers in Dublin engaged in a sympatheticlock-out of their workers when the latter refused to sign the pledge, employing blackleg labour from Great Britain and elsewhere in Ireland. Guinness, the largest employer in Dublin, refused the employers' call to lock out its workers but it sacked 15 workers who struck in sympathy. Dublin's workers, amongst the poorest in the whole of Great Britain and Ireland, were forced to survive on generous but inadequate donations from the British Trades Union Congress (TUC) and other sources in Ireland, distributed by the ITGWU.

For seven months the lock-out affected tens of thousands of Dublin's workers and employers, with Larkin portrayed as the villain by Murphy's three main newspapers, the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent and the Evening Herald. Other leaders in the ITGWU at the time were James Connollyand William X. O'Brien, while influential figures such as Patrick Pearse, Constance Markievicz and William Butler Yeatssupported the workers in the generally anti-Larkin Irish press.The Irish Worker published the names and addresses of strike breakers, Irish Independent published the names and addresses of men and women who attempted to send their children out of the city to be cared for in foster homes in Belfast and Britain.[4][6] But Larkin never resorted to violence. He knew it would play into the hands of the anti-union companies and knew he could not build a mass trade union by wrecking the firms where his members worked.[4]

The lock-out eventually concluded in early 1914 when the calls for a sympathetic strike in Britain from Larkin and Connolly were rejected by the British TUC. Larkin's attacks on the TUC leadership for this stance also led to the cessation of financial aid to the ITGWU, which in any case was not affiliated to the TUC. Although the actions of the ITGWU and the smaller UBLU were unsuccessful in achieving substantially better pay and conditions for the workers, they marked a watershed in Irish labour history. The principle of union action and workers' solidarity had been firmly established. Perhaps even more importantly, Larkin's rhetoric, condemning poverty and injustice and calling for the oppressed to stand up for themselves, made a lasting impression.
Larkin in the US (1914–23)[edit]

Jim Larkin at his 8 November 1919 booking for "criminal anarchism" in the state of New York.

Some months after the lock-out ended, Larkin left for the United States. He intended to recuperate from the strain of the lock-out and raise funds for the union. His decision to leave dismayed many union activists. Once there he became a member of the Socialist Party of America, and was involved in the Industrial Workers of the World union. He became an enthusiastic supporter of the Soviet Union and was expelled from the Socialist Party of America in 1919 along with numerous other sympathisers of the Bolsheviks.

Larkin was reported as having helped disrupt Allied munitions shipments in New York City during World War I. In 1937, he voluntarily assisted US lawyers investigating the Black Tom explosion by providing an affidavit from his home in Dublin. According to British Army Intelligence officer, Henry Landau:


Larkin testified that he himself never took part in the actual sabotage campaign but, rather, confined himself to the organising of strikes to secure both higher pay and shorter hours for workmen and to prevent the shipment of munitions to the Allies.[7]

Larkin's speeches in support of the Soviet Union, his association with founding members of the American Communist Party, and his radical publications made him a target of the "First Red Scare" that was sweeping the US; he was jailed in 1920 for 'criminal anarchy' and was sentenced to five to ten years in Sing Sing prison. In 1923, he was pardoned and later deported by Al Smith, Governor of New York.
Return to Ireland and communist activism[edit]

Upon his return to Ireland in April 1923, Larkin received a hero's welcome, and immediately set about touring the country meeting trade union members and appealing for an end to theIrish Civil War. However, he soon found himself at variance with William O'Brien, who in his absence had become the leading figure in the ITGWU and the Irish Labour Party and Trade Union Congress. Larkin was still officially general secretary of the ITGWU. The ITGWU leaders – Thomas Foran, William O'Brien, Thomas Kennedy: all colleagues of Larkin during the Lockout – sued him. Their counsel told the court that Larkin had justified the occupation by false and malicious attacks on their characters, to oust them and to gain sole control of the union. The Master of the Rolls, presiding, declared: "It is surprising that a man of Mr Larkin's intelligence should launch so desperate an invective against these people for irregularities, in the misapplication of funds and the falsification of documents, when I have before me a document which bears the name of James Larkin, which has been proved to be a mis-statement." Larkin's "mis-statement" asserted that the Transport Union had £1,746.69 in the Hibernian Bank in December 1913, whereas the union account was completely empty. Moreover, since all relevant union account books had mysteriously been destroyed, no explanation for the missing money was possible. The court duly found against Larkin, ordering him to pay the costs of both sides. The bitterness of the court case between the former organisers of the 1913 Lockout would last over twenty years.[6]

In September 1923 Larkin formed the Irish Worker League(IWL), which was soon afterwards recognised by the Cominternas the Irish section of the world communist movement. In 1924 Larkin attended the Comintern congress in Moscow and was elected to its executive committee. On his return Larkin announced that he had addressed some 20 million Russians, having been elected as one of "the 25 men to govern the world" and boasted that he had been appointed a Chief of Battalion of the Red Army, whose 2.5 million men had "pledged to come to the assistance of Irish workers". However, the League was not organised as a political party, never held a general congress and never succeeded in being politically effective. Its most prominent activity in its first year was to raise funds for imprisoned members of the Anti-Treaty IRA.

During Larkin's absence at the 1924 Comintern congress (and apparently against his instructions), his brother Peter took his supporters out of the ITGWU, forming the Workers' Union of Ireland (WUI). The new union quickly grew, gaining the allegiance of about two-thirds of the Dublin membership of the ITGWU and of a smaller number of rural members. It affiliated to the pro-Soviet Red International of Labour Unions.

Larkin launched a vicious attack on the Labour leader, Tom Johnston, who like Larkin, was Liverpool-born. But whereas Johnston had spent most of his life in Ireland, Larkin had been as long in the US as he had in Ireland. "It's time that Labour dealt with this English traitor," Larkin trumpeted. "If they don't get rid of this scoundrel, they'll get the bullet and the bayonet in reward. There's nothing for it, but a dose of the lead which Johnson promises to those who look for work." This incitement to murder Johnston in a still-violent post-Civil War country cost Larkin £1,000 in libel damages.[6]

In January 1925, the Comintern sent Communist Party of Great Britain activist Bob Stewart to Ireland to establish a communist party in co-operation with Larkin. A formal founding conference of the Irish Worker League, which was to take up this role, was set for May 1925. A fiasco ensued when the organisers discovered at the last minute that Larkin did not intend to attend. Feeling that the proposed party could not succeed without him, they called the conference off as it was due to start in a packed room in the Mansion House in Dublin.

At the September 1927 general election, Larkin ran (a huge surprise for all) in Dublin North and was elected.[8] However, as a result of a libel award against him won by William O'Brien, which he had refused to pay, he was an undischarged bankrupt and could not take up his seat.

Larkin was unsuccessful in his attempts in the following years to gain a position as a commercial agent in Ireland for theSoviet Union, and this may have contributed to his disenchantment with Stalinism. The Soviets, for their part, were increasingly impatient with what they saw as his ineffective leadership. From the early 1930s Larkin drew away from the Soviet Union. While in the 1932 general election he stood without success as a communist, in 1933 and subsequently he ran as "Independent Labour". In 1934 he gave important evidence on the 1916 Black Tom explosion to John J. McCloy,[9]allowing a case for damages against Germany to be reopened; presumably because of Germany's new Nazi government.[10]

During this period he also engaged in a rapprochement with the Catholic Church. In 1936 he regained his seat on Dublin Corporation. He then regained his Dáil seat at the 1937 general election but lost it again the following year.[11] In this period the Workers' Union of Ireland also entered the mainstream of the trade union movement, being admitted to the Dublin Trades Council in 1936, although the Irish Trade Union Congress would not accept its membership application until 1945.
Return to the Labour Party[edit]

Larkin's gravestone in Glasnevin Cemetery

In 1941 a new trade union bill was published by the Government. Inspired by an internal trade union restructuring proposal by William O'Brien, it was viewed as a threat by the smaller general unions and the Irish branches of British unions (known as the 'amalgamated unions'). Larkin and the WUI played a leading role in the unsuccessful campaign against the bill. After its passage into law he and his supporters successfully applied for admission to the Labour Party, where they were now regarded with more sympathy by many members. O'Brien in response disaffiliated the ITGWU from the party, forming the rivalNational Labour Party and denouncing what he claimed was communist influence in Labour. Larkin later served as a Labour Party deputy in Dáil Éireann from 1943–44.[11]

James Larkin died in his sleep on 30 January 1947. His funeral mass was celebrated by the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, and thousands lined the streets of the city as the hearse passed through on the way to Glasnevin Cemetery.
Commemoration[edit]
Literature[edit]

Larkin has been the subject of poems by Brendan Behan,[12]Patrick Kavanagh,[13] Frank O'Connor and Lola Ridge; his character has been central in plays by Daniel Corkery, George Russell (Æ), and Sean O'Casey;[14] and he is a heroic figure in the background of James Plunkett's novel Strumpet City.[15]
Songs[edit]

James Larkin was memorialised by the New York Irish rock band Black 47, in their song The Day They Set Jim Larkin Freeand The Ballad of James Larkin was recorded by Christy Mooreand also the Dubliners. Paddy Reilly sings a song simply entitled Jim Larkin that describes the lot of the worker and their appreciation of the changes made by Larkin and Connolly .
Monument[edit]

Statue of James Larkin on O'Connell Street, Dublin (Oisín Kelly 1977)

Today a statue of "Big Jim" stands onO'Connell Street in Dublin. The inscription on the front of the monument is an extract in French, Irish and English from one of his famous speeches:


Les grands ne sont grands que parce que nous sommes à genoux: Levons-nous.
Ní uasal aon uasal ach sinne bheith íseal: Éirímis.
The great appear great because we are on our knees: Let us rise.

The slogan, first used on the 18th century French radical paper Révolutions de Paris,[16] also appeared on the masthead of the Workers' Republic, founded by James Connolly in Dublin in August 1898. Originally the organ of the Irish Socialist Republican Party, this periodical later became the official organ of the Communist Party of Ireland, which was founded in 1921. The original slogan is usually attributed to Camille Desmoulins (1760–1794), theFrench revolutionary;[citation needed] but it appears, only slightly modified, in an essay written by Étienne de La Boétie(1530–1563) and first published in 1576.[17]

On the west side of the base of the Larkin monument is a quotation from the poem Jim Larkin by Patrick Kavanagh:


And Tyranny trampled them in Dublin's gutter
Until Jim Larkin came along and cried
The call of Freedom and the call of Pride
And Slavery crept to its hands and knees
And Nineteen Thirteen cheered from out the utter
Degradation of their miseries.

On the east side of the monument there is a quotation fromDrums under the Windows by Seán O'Casey:


...He talked to the workers, spoke as only Jim Larkin could speak, not for an assignation with peace, dark obedience, or placid resignation, but trumpet-tongued of resistance to wrong, discontent with leering poverty, and defiance of any power strutting out to stand in the way of their march onward.

A road in Clontarf, North Dublin, is named after him.
James Larkin Way[edit]

A road in L4 1YQ, Kirkdale, in his home city of Liverpool, just off Scotland Road, is called James Larkin Way.
Liverpool Irish Festival 2008[edit]

To celebrate Liverpool's capital of culture, the Liverpool Irish Festival held a 'James Larkin Evening' at the 'Casa' bar-the Dockers pub in central Liverpool. This was attended by Francis Devine who wrote the general history of the Trade Union movement in Dublin and the formation of SIPTU, it was introduced by Liverpool/ Irish, Marcus Maher, who came over from Dublin to present a special commissioned painting by Finbar Coyle to James Larkin's last remaining Liverpool nephew, Tom Larkin. The painting reflects both Dublin, where Larkin would spend his remaining political career, and on the other side the 'Liver Birds' and his home city of Liverpool.
People[edit]

The Transport and General Workers' Union activist Jack Jones, whose full name was James Larkin Jones, was named in honour of his fellow Liverpudlian.

MARTIN COREY DEBATE ; Peace Process or Unconditional Surrender - Indymedia Ireland

Political Internment is Not Peace Process its Unconditional Surrender - Indymedia Ireland:

'via Blog this'

MI5 MONEY POWER RACKET

I Hereby Resign in Protest Effective Immediately
By Brandon Toy July 16, 2013 "Information Clearing House - I hereby resign in protest effective immediately.

I have served the post-911 Military Industrial complex for 10 years, first as a soldier in Baghdad, and now as a defense contractor.

At the time of my enlistment, I believed in the cause. I was ignorant, naïve, and misled. The narrative, professed by the state, and echoed by the mainstream press, has proven false and criminal. We have become what I thought we were fighting against.

Recent revelations by fearless journalists of war crimes including counterinsurgency “dirty” wars, drone terrorism, the suspension of due process, torture, mass surveillance, and widespread regulatory capture have shed light on the true nature of the current US Government. I encourage you to read more about these topics at the links I have provided below.

Some will say that I am being irresponsible, impractical, and irrational. Others will insist that I am crazy. I have come to believe that the true insanity is doing nothing. As long as we sit in comfort, turning a blind eye to the injustices of the world, nothing will change. It is even worse to play an active part, protesting all along that I am not the true criminal.

I was only a foot soldier, and am now a low level clerk. However, I have always believed that if every foot soldier threw down his rifle war would end. I hereby throw mine down.

Sincerely,

Brandon M. Toy
Stryker Engineering Project Management
General Dynamics Land Systems
Sterling Heights, Michigan

* * *

The crux of the NSA story in one phrase: 'collect it all'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/15/crux-nsa-collect-it-all

How the NSA is still harvesting your online data
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/27/nsa-online-metadata-collection

Inside America's Dirty Wars
http://www.nationinstitute.org/featuredwork/fellows/3260/inside_america%27s_dirty_wars/

Revealed: Pentagon's link to Iraqi torture centres
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/06/pentagon-iraqi-torture-centres-link

The Global Intelligence Files
http://wikileaks.org/the-gifiles.html

Leaked HBGary Documents Show Plan To Spread Wikileaks Propaganda For BofA... And 'Attack' Glenn Greenwald
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110209/22340513034/leaked-hbgary-documents-show-plan-to-spread-wikileaks-propaganda-bofa-attack-glenn-greenwald.shtml

Guantanamo Detainee Begs to Be Charged as Legal Limbo Worsens 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324069104578527012686080732.html

Collateral Murder
http://www.collateralmurder.com

Brandon Toy works for US defense contractor General Dynamics as an Engineering Project Manager building Stryker armored fighting vehicles. Previously, Brandon served in the Michigan Army National Guard as a Multiple Launch Rocket System Fire Direction Specialist, Team Leader and Vehicle Commander. He was deployed as a military policeman to Baghdad, Iraq in 2004 - 2005.

How to Be a Rogue Superpower
A Manual for the Twenty-First Century

By Tom Engelhardt

It’s hard even to know how to take it in.  I mean, what’s really happening?  An employee of a private contractor working for the National Security Agency makes off with unknown numbers of files about America’s developing global security state on a thumb drive and four laptop computers, and jumps the nearest plane to Hong Kong.  His goal: to expose a vast surveillance structure built in the shadows in the post-9/11 years and significantly aimed at Americans.  He leaks some of the documents to a columnist at the British Guardian and to the Washington Post.  The response is unprecedented: an “international manhunt” (or more politely but less accurately, “a diplomatic full court press”) conducted not by Interpol or the United Nations but by the planet’s sole superpower, the very government whose practices the leaker was so intent on exposing.

And that’s just for starters.  Let’s add another factor.  The leaker, a young man with great techno-savvy, lets the world know that he’s picked and chosen among the NSA files in his possession.  He’s releasing only those he thinks the American public needs in order to start a full-scale debate about the unprecedented secret world of surveillance that their taxpayer dollars have created.  In other words, this is no “document dump.”  He wants to spark change without doing harm.

But here’s the kicker: he couldn’t be more aware of previous whistleblower cases, the punitive reaction of his government to them, and the fate that might be his.  As a result, we now know, he has encrypted the full set of files in his possession and left them in one or more safe places for unknown individuals -- that is, we don’t know who they are -- to access, should he be taken by the U.S.

In other words, from the time Edward Snowden’s first leaked documents came out, it was obvious that he was in control of how much of the NSA’s secret world would be seen.  It would be hard then not to conclude that capturing him, imprisoning him, trying him, and throwing away the key is likely to increase, not decrease, the flow of those documents.  Knowing that, the Obama administration and the representatives of our secret world went after him anyway -- after one man on a global scale and in a way that may not have a precedent.  No thought of future embarrassment stopped them, nor, it seems, did they hesitate because of possible resentments engendered by their heavy-handed pressure on numerous foreign governments.

The result has been a global spectacle, as well as a worldwide debate about the spying practices of the U.S. (and its allies).  In these weeks, Washington has proven determined, vengeful, implacable.  It has strong-armed, threatened, and elbowed powers large and small.  It has essentially pledged that the leaker, former Booz Allen employee Edward Snowden, will never be safe on this planet in his lifetime. And yet, to mention the obvious, the greatest power on Earth has, as yet, failed to get its man and is losing the public opinion battle globally.

An Asylum-less World

Highlighted in all this has been a curious fact of our twenty-first-century world.  In the Cold War years, asylum was always potentially available.  If you opposed one of the two superpowers or its allies, the other was usually ready to open its arms to you, as the U.S. famously did for what were once called “Soviet dissidents” in great numbers.  The Soviets did the same for Americans, Brits, and others, often secret communists, sometimes actual spies, who opposed the leading capitalist power and its global order.

Today, if you are a twenty-first-century “dissident” and need asylum/protection from the only superpower left, there is essentially none to be had.  Even after three Latin American countries, enraged at Washington's actions, extended offers of protection to Snowden, these should be treated as a new category of limited asylum.  After all, the greatest power on the planet has, since 9/11, shown itself perfectly willing to do almost anything in pursuit of its definition of “security” or the security of its security system.  Torture, abuse, the setting up of secret prisons or “black sites,” the kidnapping of terrorist suspects (including perfectly innocent people) off the streets of global cities and in the backlands of the planet, as well as their “rendition” to the torture chambers of complicit allied regimes, and the secret surveillance of anyone anywhere would only start a far longer list.

Nothing about the “international manhunt” for Snowden indicates that the Obama administration would be unwilling to send in the CIA or special operations types to “render” him from Venezuela, Bolivia, or Nicaragua, no matter the cost to hemispheric relations.  Snowden himself brought up this possibility in his first interview with Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald.  “I could,” he said bluntly, “be rendered by the CIA.” This assumes that he can even make it to a land of exile from somewhere in the bowels of the international terminal of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport without being intercepted by Washington.

It’s true that there remain some modest limits on the actions even of a rogue superpower.  It’s hard to imagine Washington dropping its kidnappers into Russia or China to take Snowden, which is perhaps why it has put such pressure on both countries to turn him in or hustle him along.  With smaller, weaker lands, however, non-nuclear allies or enemies or frenemies, don’t doubt the possibility for a second.

If Edward Snowden is proving one thing, it’s this: in 2013, Planet Earth isn’t big enough to protect the American version of “dissidents.”  Instead, it looks ever more like a giant prison with a single implacable policeman, judge, jury, and jailer.

Deterrence Theory the Second Time Around

In the Cold War years, the two nuclear-armed superpowers practiced what was called “deterrence theory,” or more aptly MAD, short for “mutually assured destruction.”  Think of it as the particularly grim underside of what might have been but wasn’t called MAA (mutually assured asylum).  The knowledge that no nuclear first strike by one superpower could succeed in preventing the other from striking back with overwhelming force, destroying them both (and possibly the planet) seemed, however barely, to hold their enmity and weaponry at bay.  It forced them to fight their wars, often by proxy, on the global frontiers of empire.

Now, with but one superpower left, another kind of deterrence theory has come into play.  Crucial to our era is the ongoing creation of the first global surveillance state.  In the Obama years, the sole superpower has put special effort into deterring anyone in its labyrinthine bureaucracy who shows a desire to let us know what “our” government is doing in our name.

The Obama administration’s efforts to stop whistleblowers are becoming legendary.  It has launched anunprecedented program to specially train millions of employees and contractors to profile coworkers for “indicators of insider threat behavior.” They are being encouraged to inform on any “high-risk persons” they suspect might be planning to go public.  Administration officials have also put much punitive energyinto making examples out of whistleblowers who have tried to reveal anything of the inner workings of the national security complex.

In this way, the Obama administration has more than doubled the total whistleblower prosecutions of all previous administrations combined under the draconian World War I-era Espionage Act.  It has also gone after Army Private Bradley Manning for releasing secret military and State Department files to WikiLeaks, not only attempting to put him away for life for “aiding the enemy,” but subjecting him to particularly vindictive and abusive treatment while in military prison. In addition, it has threatened journalists who have written on or published leaked material and gone on expeditions into the telephone and email recordsof major media organizations.

All of this adds up to a new version of deterrence thinking in which a potential whistleblower should know that he or she will experience a lifetime of suffering for leaking anything; in which those, even in the highest reaches of government, who consider speaking to journalists on classified subjects should know that their calls could be monitored and their whispers criminalized; and in which the media should know that reporting on such subjects is not a healthy activity.

This sort of deterrence already seemed increasingly extreme in nature; the response to Snowden's revelations took it to a new level.  Though the U.S. government pursued WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange abroad (while reportedly preparing to indict him at home), the other whistleblower cases might all be considered national security ones.  The manhunt against Snowden is something new.  Through it, Washington is now punitively expanding twenty-first century deterrence theory to the world.

The message is this: nowhere will you be safe from us if you breach U.S. secrecy.  Snowden’s will surely be a case study in how far the new global security state is willing to go.  And the answer is already in: far indeed.  We just don’t yet know exactly how far.

How to Down a Plane to (Not) Catch a Whistleblower

In this light, no incident has been more revealing than the downing of the plane of Bolivian President Evo Morales, the democratically elected head of a sovereign Latin American nation, and not an official enemy of the United States.  Angry Bolivian authorities termed it a "kidnapping" or "imperialist hijack."  It was, at the least, an act for which it’s hard to imagine a precedent.

Evidently officials in Washington believed that the plane bringing the Bolivian president back from Moscow was also carrying Snowden.  As a result, the U.S. seems to have put enough pressure on four European countries (France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy) to force that plane to land for refueling in a fifth country (Austria).  There -- again, U.S. pressure seems to have been the crucial factor -- it was searched under disputed circumstances and Snowden not found.

So much is not known about what happened, in part because there has been no serious reporting from Washington on the subject.  The U.S. media has largely ignored the American role in the downing of the plane, an incident regularly described here as if the obvious hadn’t happened.  This may, at least in part, be the result of the Obama administration’s implacable pursuit of whistleblowers and leakers right into the phone records of reporters.  The government has made such a point of its willingness to pursue whistleblowers via journalists that, as Associated Press President Gary Pruitt recently pointed out, national security sources are drying up.  Key figures in Washington are scared to talk even off the record (now that “off” turns out to be potentially very “on”).  And the Justice Department’s new "tighter" guildelines for accessing reporters’ records are clearly filled with loopholes and undoubtedly little more than window dressing.

Still, it’s reasonable to imagine that when Morales's plane took off from Moscow there were top U.S. officials gathered in a situation room (à la the bin Laden affair), that the president was in the loop, and that the intelligence people said something like: we have an 85% certainty that Snowden is on that plane.  Obviously, the decision was made to bring it down and enough pressure was placed on key officials in those five countries to cause them to bow to Washington's will.

One can certainly imagine that, but know it?  At the moment, not a chance and, unlike in the raid that killed bin Laden, a triumphant situation-room photo hasn't been released, since there was, of course, no triumph.  Many questions arise.  Why, to mention just one, did Washington not allow Morales’s plane to land for refueling in Portugal, as originally planned, and simply strong-arm the Portuguese into searching it?  As with so much else, we don’t know.

We only know that, to bring five countries into line that way, the pressure from Washington (or its local representatives) must have been intense.  Put another way: key officials in those countries must have realized quickly that they stood in the way of a truly powerful urge by the planet's superpower to get one fugitive.  It was an urge so strong that it overrode any other tactical considerations, and so opened the way for Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua to offer asylum to Snowden with the support of much of the rest of Latin America.

Imagine for a moment that an American president’s plane had been brought down in a similar fashion.  Imagine that a consortium of nations pressured by, say, China or Russia, did it and that, with the president aboard, it was then searched for a Chinese or Soviet “dissident.”  Imagine the reaction here.  Imagine the shock.  Imagine the accusations of “illegality,” of "skyjacking," of “international terrorism.”  Imagine the 24/7 media coverage.  Imagine the information pouring out of Washington about what would no doubt have been termed "an act of war."

Of course, such a scenario is inconceivable on this one-way planet.  So instead, just think about the silence here over the Morales incident, the lack of coverage, the lack of reporting, the lack of outrage, the lack of shock, the lack of... well, just about anything at all.

Instead, the twenty-first-century version of deterrence theory ruled the day, even though Snowden is the proof that deterrence via manhunts, prosecution, imprisonment, and the like has proven ineffective when it comes to leaks.  It’s worth pointing out that what may be the two largest leaks of official documents in history -- Bradley Manning’s and Snowden’s -- happened in a country increasingly under the sway of deterrence theory.

Slouching Toward Washington to Be Born

And yet don’t think that no one has been affected, no one intimidated.  Consider, for instance, a superior piece of recent reporting by Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times.  His front-page story, “In Secret, Court Vastly Broadens Powers of NSA,” might once have sent shock waves through Washington and perhaps the country as well.  It did, after all, reveal how, in “more than a dozen classified rulings,” a secret FISA court, which oversees the American surveillance state, “has created a secret body of law” giving the NSA sweeping new powers.

Here’s the paragraph that should have had Americans jumping out of their skins (my italics added): “The 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court, was once mostly focused on approving case-by-case wiretapping orders. But since major changes in legislation and greater judicial oversight of intelligence operations were instituted six years ago, it has quietly become almost a parallel Supreme Court, serving as the ultimate arbiter on surveillance issues and delivering opinions that will most likely shape intelligence practices for years to come, the officials said.”

At most moments in American history, the revelation that such a secret court, which never turns downgovernment requests, is making law “almost” at the level of the Supreme Court would surely have caused an outcry in Congress and elsewhere.  However, there was none, a sign either of how powerful and intimidating the secret world has become or of how much Congress and the rest of Washington have already been absorbed into it.

No less strikingly -- and again, we know so little that it’s necessary to read between the lines -- Lichtblau indicates that more than six “current and former national security officials,” perhaps disturbed by the expanding powers of the FISA court, discussed its classified rulings "on the condition of anonymity.”  Assumedly, at least one of them (or someone else) leaked the classified information about that court to him.

Fittingly enough, Lichtblau wrote a remarkably anonymous piece.  Given that sources no longer have any assurance that phone and email records aren’t being or won't be monitored, we have no idea how these shadowy figures got in touch with him or vice versa.  All we know is that, even when shining a powerful light into the darkness of the surveillance universe, American journalism now finds itself plunging into the shadows as well.

What both the Morales incident and the Lichtblau article tell us, and what we’ve barely taken in, is how our American world is changing.  In the Cold War years, faced with a MAD world, both superpowers ventured “into the shadows” to duke it out in their global struggle.  As in so many wars, sooner or later the methods used in distant lands came home to haunt us.  In the twenty-first century, without another major power in sight, the remaining superpower has made those “shadows” its own in a big way.  Just beyond the view of the rest of us, it began recreating its famed tripartite, checks-and-balances government, now more than two centuries old, in a new form.  There, in those shadows, the executive, judicial, and legislative branches began to meld into a unicameral shadow government, part of a new architecture of control that has nothing to do with “of the people, by the people, for the people.”

Such a shadow government placing its trust in secret courts and the large-scale surveillance of populations, its own included, while pursuing its secret desires globally was just the sort of thing that the country’s founding fathers feared.  In the end, it hardly matters under what label -- including American “safety” and “security” -- such a governing power is built; sooner or later, the architecture will determine the acts, and it will become more tyrannical at home and more extreme abroad.  Welcome to the world of the single rogue superpower, and thank your lucky stars that Edward Snowden made the choices he did.

It’s eerie that some aspects of the totalitarian governments that went down for the count in the twentieth century are now being recreated in those shadows.  There, an increasingly “totalistic” if not yet totalitarian beast, its hour come round at last, is slouching toward Washington to be born, while those who cared to shine a little light on the birth process are in jail or being hounded across this planet.

We have now experienced deterrence theory in two centuries.  Once it was brought to bear to stop the wholesale destruction of the planet; once -- and they do say that if the first time is tragedy, the second is farce -- to deter a small number of whistleblowers from revealing the innards of our new global security state.  We came close enough to total tragedy once.  If only we could be assured that the second time around it would indeed be total farce, but at the moment, as far as I can tell, no one’s laughing.

Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project and author of The United States of Fear as well as a history of the Cold War, The End of Victory Culture (just published in a Kindle edition), runs the Nation Institute's TomDispatch.com. His latest book, co-authored with Nick Turse, is Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050.

[Note: Special thanks go to Irena Gross who sparked my thinking about American "dissidents" and this prison planet of ours.]

Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook or Tumblr. Check out the newest Dispatch book, Nick Turse’s The Changing Face of Empire: Special Ops, Drones, Proxy Fighters, Secret Bases, and Cyberwarfare.

Copyright 2013 Tom Engelhardt

GERRY ADAMS AWOL IN VIDEO DEBATE CLARE DALY INTERNMENT MARTIN COREY

Above is a video of Clare Daly raising the internment of Martin Corey, with the Irish government. It is difficult to accept that these highly paid parliamentarians, couldn't even be bothered to attend, bearing in mind all of the state cars and subsidies they are given.

What is even more shocking, is non attendance by the nominally republican party of provisional Sinn Fein and more particularly Gerry Adams. This is a disgrace and the type of lazy parliamentry oversight, that allowed the banks to rob the Irish people. It gives me no pleasure and makes me particularly sad, as a former chairperson of provsional Sinn Fein, to say these people have absolutely nothing progressive to offer Ireland, other than more of the same old Fianna Fail.version of Irish republican ideals.

Clare Daly on the other hand is a good example, of what a real parliamentarian of the people is like and Ireland desperately needs this type of politician, to take it out of the utter mess it is in.Provisional Sinn fein are the biggest political party on the island of Ireland and part of the British administration in British Occupied Ireland. It is simply not good enough for them at this stage, to pick and choose what part they play in the administration of policing and injustice after the lengthy peace processing.The process was sold to families who lost loved ones,volunteers, activists, the Republican Movement on the basis of power sharing. The internment without trial of innocent traditional Irish republicans is the antithesis of the most basic form of republicanism, there is grey area in this matter.

They cannot hoodwink the people of Ireland any longer on this issue. If they believe that the Irish people accept that their 'negotiators' gave up the armed struggle and all of the arms dumps in return for no say or input in policing and injustice they must think we all came down the Boyne in a bubble. They cannot hunt with the British hounds and run with the fox any longer. You are either with us or against us, we demand the immediate release, of the interned, political, prisoner of conscience, Martin Corey immediately or your withdrawal from Stormont, like the SDLP previously did 40 years ago, as a matter of democratic principle.

A Few Good Irish Gonads Greater Than All Gombeen Testes

Clare Daly has already had more than a quarter million hits on YouTube, while it is just a one day wonder with the local Irish media.Here is just a small sample of the international response to Clare Daly. I suppose she can expect more harassment in her car, like the Farrell family from Zionist Blueshirts with more prompting from the SS.

Willard Duke

Clare Daly has more gonads than all the male members of that parliament.

maricia· 1 day ago

I congratulate on her courage to speak TRUTH! Too bad that there are not more people like her!! God bless her and to those who believe jn her.

voxpopbc· 1 day ago

Clare Daly for Irish PM.

Steve Anderson· 1 day ago

Daly certainlly has called a spade a spade here. I wonder if she will back her talk up with action. A war criminal is waiting for his cell number, will she have him arrested?

I think not 

bobo· 1 day ago

That was a full-blown Richard NIxon response. Hilarious to see that guy pull it off without addressing a single point that Daly raised.

Flummoxed· 1 day ago

The lady wins! The man in the ( coward) yellow tie......lies and loses.

The G8...wow, yes, meeting and seeing all the painted doors and windows of those business that aren't there. Hey, maybe Detroit's privatized managers will run with that meme.

Never Forget! Ireland was NEUTRAL in WW II. De Valera and the real way to demonstrate a nation's INDEPENDENCE. : )

Shell· 1 day ago

Clare Daly sure knows how to use a broom, she swept the floor with him.

rpdiplock· 1 day ago

Well done Ms Daly ... A woman after my own heart. Give the trolls heaps.Report

Guest-htfd· 1 day ago

Makes me very proud to be Irish. Obama have a lot never saying he speaks for the Irish-Ameircans in the US, he doesn't even come close.

t

fascistsloveplunder· 1 day ago

"LET'S CALL THINGS BY THEIR CORRECT WORDS", SHE SAID.

THAT RIGHT THERE IS A HELLUVA IDEA!

OBAMA SAYS, PEACE, HE MEANS WAR. ETC.
NOT JUST OBAMA, BUT ALL OF OUR SO-CALLED "LEADERS".
THEY'RE ACTUALLY "FOLLOWERS". NO ONE'S LEADING.

SHE, MS DALY , WAS GREAT.
AND I LOVE HOW SHE LOOKED HIM IN THE EYE WAITING
FOR A PROPER ANSWER AND TOLD HIM OUTRIGHT THAT HE GAVE NONE.
AS IF OBAMA IS PROTECTING NORTHERN IRELAND!! LOL.

ONE MORE THING, THE CHAMBER LOOKED QUITE EMPTY.
LIKE THE U.S. CHAMBERS DO WHENEVER ONE CONGRESSMAN SPEAKS... TO AN EMPTY HALL, PATHETICALLY.
AT LEAST THEY HAVE A PUBLIC BACK AND FORTH THERE.

BUT THESE EMPTY CHAMBERS... IT SYMBOLIZES HOW "EMPTY"
OUR SOVEREIGN GOVERNMENTS HAVE BECOME.
BECAUSE BANKERS, BIG CORPORATE INTERNATIONALISTS/NWO BOSSES ARE ACTUALLY IN CHARGE. THEY'RE ELSEWHERE!...SOME BOARDROOM OR LUXURY OFFICE OR TRAVELING OR WHATEVER AND
COUNTING MONEY, NO DOUBT.

Leo Kurtrenbach· 1 day ago

Clare Daly is an exceedingly articulate lady with great courage. As a Canadian I would love to have her replace at least a dozen of the leaders in our present government. Or better still have her replace the whole government.-- This is a lady who has a real grasp of this planet's basic problems. She's obviously is not seeking favors to benefit herself.

rpdiplock· 1 day ago

Wow! So, there still are genuine politicians - with the intestinal fortitude to be honest. What a 'gal.'

I would leave my mother's home ... for Ms Daly.

proletariatprincess· 1 day ago

I think this is my first view of the Irish Parliament in session. I have seen the Brits lots of times, but this was outstanding....almost like Galloway addressing Congress. It really demonstrates how badly broken is the US system of government. The Toasheach is the Prime Minister of Ireland and he must answer questions just like in Britain. It may be my bias as an Irish American, but the Irish seem to have better command of the English language than the English themselves. The Irish are also amazingly good at debate which is why this clip is so impressive. I hope that Ms Daly grabs the attention of the world like she did here in this clip. Well done.

DrS· 1 day ago

Speaking the TRUTH IS A DANGEROUS ACTIVITY these days.

Bring on ALL THE WHISTLE BLOWERS as we need you.

Shed more light on these CRIMINALS NOW.

Max· 1 day ago

Ohhh Nooo!!!! That's sooo racist!!!

Alec· 1 day ago

If only we in the UK had such a politician of Clare Daly's courage, all we have is Ed Miliband who today announced he has promoted Rachel Reeves......... well surprise surprise:

The Jewish Chronicle - Marcus Dysch, October 19, 2011

Labour Friends of Israel has led its first delegation to the country for two years, with seven MPs meeting political and business leaders.

On the delegation were MPs Rachel Reeves, Anne McGuire, Jonathan Reynolds, Dan Jarvis, Michael McCann and Pamela Nash. New LFI chairman John Woodcock MP led the visit.

So Rachel has got her reward already.

Andrew P Nichols· 1 day ago

Michelle Obama's glad to be home??? I hadn't realised it was O'Bama....LOL

zero· 1 day ago

She deserves Obama Noble Peace Prize ASAP...the Noble Organization should be shamed for their degrading judgement.

canadianjoe· 1 day ago

Don't be fooled by this. She is exactly what her comments indicated. prostitutes and pimps! this is merely another well rehearsed performance by politicians, to give people the illusion there is someone looking out for them. I guess she must have drawn the short straw on this occasion. all this proves is that politicians all over the world, from the lowest councillor to presidents and prime ministers, are controlled by the same people. They are ALL I repeat ALL self serving psychopaths, interested only in personal gain.

Guy· 1 day ago

What a statement ! Where are the elected officials like her in our country?Grovelling for status to the corporate machinery that is destroying freedom and democracy I submit.
Go Clare go.She has more balls than most men.

camelien· 22 hours ago

Quickly, get that Taoiseach, [pronounced: "TEE-shock" - head of the government in Ireland.] .more cliche 'cool-aid;' he must have exhausted his heretofore controlled grandiloquence from dancing around the issues using his stash of rehearsed rhetoric laced with diversions in lieu of answering legitimate questions in the Irish Parliament. His posture & voice struggled to find real argument to sufficiently disarm Mz Clare Daly's reality based queries. Her rebuttal of mr T's comments at 7:02 into the video aught to be heard by folk across the pond. Mr T seemed like he couldn't wait to take his seat ...each time.

Folk, [especially Americans] aught to laud that courageous Irish TD representing Dublin North, she's a very brave politician, in deed; one who dares to blow a whistle and point focus on poignant revelations and confirmations of skulduggery already afoot in 'corporate NI; as well as, her citing of compelling statements confirming the stretched arms of Empirical corporatism found everywhere; and its arsenal flown on civilian airbuses passing through Shannon airport have been breaking its own nation's laws, or so she says. Well worthy of a peek this video. Thanks for sharing.

WhuThe?!?· 22 hours ago

Wow that response was so predictable, changing what she said and accusing her of basically, treason, and trying to break up their fragile peace, when she wasn't even talking about that. He knows that is a sensitive spot, an emotional spot for the citizenry. Very clever, and unfortunately, works all too well in most societies. Feed on people's emotions to destroy the messenger. Perhaps everybody has learned from the Jewish model, anybody who dares criticize their unjust behavior is automatically labelled 'anti-semitic'. And in this analogous situation, he labels the messenger as unloyal and unpatriotic, and she apparently is neither.

Clare For President· 22 hours ago

ringo· 21 hours ago

HAS THIS WOMAN GOT BALLS, her fellow parliamentarians, don't have any.

augus· 21 hours ago

Now that is a lady with balls of steel!

Eve· 20 hours ago

At long last an honest and brave politician.
If only the Usraeli puppet "states" of the EU and Australia would have just one like her.

Donna Mayes· 18 hours ago

Truth is spoken out loud
Ms. Daly has vocalised the words in many hearts today.

Allow Deputy Clare Daly to come to Canada and show PM Stephen Harper how to give a sovereign speech unadulterated by zionist rhetoric. A standing ovation for Deputy Daly !

ours ago

Haaahhhh! Haaahhh! Hah! Michelle Obama "Glad to be h-o-m-e?" I beg your pardon, what does she take the Irish for?

Diplock

Who writes these people's horsedung?

Whiteout Press· 2 hours ago

Here's a version with the full transcript, video and a link to Clare Daly's website:
http://www.whiteoutpress.com/articles/q22013/vide...

Richard· 1 hour ago

THAT is what I am talking about! Thanks to the lady from the Emeral Isle.

· rich 1 hour ago

Oops. That's Emerald