Tribunal Hearing Against Israel and Yaron Begins

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Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise WarPress Release from the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War

KUALA LUMPUR, 20 November 2013 – The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCT) commenced hearing of genocide and war crimes charges against the State of Israel and Amos Yaron, a retired Israeli army general today.

In the prosecution’s opening statement by Prof Gurdial S. Nijar, he stated that this trial is significant as it charges a nation that thumbs its nose at UN resolutions; decisions of the ICJ and shakes our confidence in the meaning of civilisation.

Prof Gurdial stated, that the prosecution intends to give incontrovertible proof of the incredible crimes conceived since 1945 and which still continues until today. He stressed in his statement that for the Palestinians, it is a continuing tragic saga of huge proportions. What they term as Nakba or ‘catastrophe’ which started in 1948 with their forced dispossession and eviction from their homeland is a history of the present: an on-going dispossession, dislocation, massacres, ethnic cleansing and all else. In short, the continuity of the trauma is not just the result of 1948 but an on-going process, and continuing into the present and linked to current Israeli policies and practices. Continue reading “Tribunal Hearing Against Israel and Yaron Begins” →

An Evening for Private Manning

Afri

An Evening for Private Manning

With members of Manning’s family in attendance.

 

Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four to speak.

Human Rights Lawyer Gareth Peirce also invited.

 

Friday 29th November

7pm sharp

Edmund Burke Theatre, Trinity College Dublin.

 

Entrance by donation.

More information: Afri, 01 8827563

Meeting co-sponsored by ISE, Trinity College Dublin

 

Link to Manning’s 28th February statement: http://wiseupaction.info/about-2/full-transcript-with-leaked-audio-of-brads-feb-23-statement/

Afri Hedge School 2013: Resources, Conflict & Climate Change: The Links

Afri
From L-R: William Hederman (Journalist), Liam McGlynn (Lecturer in ITB) and David Horgan (Petrel Resources) participate in a debate: “Natural Resources: Whose Gain, Whose Pain? From Ireland to the Wider World”. Photo: Derek Speirs

In our history, Hedge Schools were places of learning, continuity and resistance, emerging out of the draconian Penal Laws that forbade formal education to most Irish people. Learning about and resisting the causes of poverty is at the heart of Afri’s work and the Hedge School symbolizes the kind of resilience and creativity needed to address the crisis facing our world as a result of climate change and the obscenity of the war industry.

As Joe Murray (Afri’s Co-ordinator) noted in his opening address the crisis facing our world today cannot be over estimated but it also represents an opportunity to bring about the kind of change that is urgently needed. Justine Nantale spoke about the effects of climate change in her country, Uganda. She noted that most people in Uganda are dependent on farming and when the rains don’t come they are very badly affected. For them, climate change is not something to be debated, but a living reality. Continue reading “Afri Hedge School 2013: Resources, Conflict & Climate Change: The Links” →

Hedge School 2013 – Resources, Conflict & Climate Change: The Links

Afri

Just a SecondAfri 2013 Hedge School organised in partnership with I.T. Blanchardstown

 

Tuesday 5th November 2013

9.30 am – 4.30 pm

Room A57, A Block, I.T. Blanchardstown (for directions click here)

 

Programme for the day

 9.30 am Registration

10 am Opening

10.15 am Natural Resources: Whose Gain, Whose Pain? From Ireland to the Wider World

Debate between David Horgan (Petrel Resources) and William Hederman (Journalist) with Q&A

11.15 am Panel Discussion with Justine Nantale (Uganda), Kevin Murphy (ITB) and a speaker from Shannonwatch

12.30 pm End of Art is Peace

Music and dance by I.T. Blanchardstown students

12.45 pm Gary White Deer (Choctaw Artist): The Art of Campaigning

1pm Lunch

1.45pm Donal O’Kelly’s play “Fionnuala”

2.35pm World cafe

4.30pm Finish

To book a place, call the Afri office 01 8827563 or email admin@afri.ie

Afri gratefully acknowledges the support of Irish Aid and Trócaire

Use of Shannon Airport by U.S. Military Implicates Ireland in Iraqi/Afghan Slaughter

Afri

Press Release

From left to right: Donal O’Kelly as an Irish politician, Dylan Tighe as a Guantanamo Bay prisoner and Raymond Keane as a US marine in a protest action to highlight the use of Shannon airport by the US military on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq war earlier this year. Photo: Derek Speirs

The human rights group Afri has said it is dismayed but not surprised by the revelation, given in response to a Dáil question, that a US military aircraft “armed with a fixed weapon” stopped at Shannon airport early last month. Afri opposes the use of Shannon by US military because of the way it implicates Ireland in the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent people in the US’s disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Afri believes, as confirmed by groups such as Shannon Watch, that weapons are regularly transported through Shannon, the only difference being that on this occasion the weapon was visible. The ongoing arrogance of the US was again in evidence in the failure by the Embassy even to answer questions about the type of aircraft or weapon where the aircraft had flown from or its destination.

Afri is appalled by the craven attitude of the Irish Government and by Mr Gilmore’s bending over backwards in an embarrassing attempt to explain and excuse this ‘administrative error’.

Afri once again calls on the Government to end this practice of participating in proxy war by handing our airports over to the US war machine.

Pay a Living Wage Campaign: Consumers Call for an End to Poverty Pay

Afri

The Clean Clothes Campaign Ireland is joining its European partners in launching a new campaign calling on clothing companies to Pay a Living Wage to garment workers. The Pay a Living Wage campaign begins on 21st October with a week of action in 15 European countries.

The campaign launch comes exactly six months after the devastating collapse of Rana Plaza, in which 1,133 Bangladeshi workers were killed. Six months on from the largest industrial accident to hit the garment industry, millions of workers continue to have no choice but to risk their lives in order to afford a decent life. Continue reading “Pay a Living Wage Campaign: Consumers Call for an End to Poverty Pay” →

Date for your Diary: Afri Hedge School 2013

Afri

Hedge School 2013The 2013 Hedge School will take place in Institute of Technology Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, on the themes of militarisation, conflict and the environment on Tuesday 5th November from 10am to 4.30pm in Room A57.

Registration takes place from 9.30am.

The Hedge School is being organised in partnership with the students from I.T. Blanchardstown .  All are welcome.

For details on how to get to I.T. Blanchardstown, go here.

Further details will be posted closer to the event.

To book: contact the Afri office on 01 8827563 or by email at admin@afri.ie

‘Hairy Jaysus’ in the Viking Theatre

Afri

Hairy JaysusHairy Jaysus, Donal O’Kelly’s solo show inspired by Frank Sheehy Skeffington, will have its world premiere in the Viking Theatre @ Connollys’ The Sheds, Clontarf, Dublin, at 8pm for five nights from Monday 14th October until Friday 18th October.

Frank Sheehy Skeffington was James Joyce’s friend in UCD. When he professed to be an atheist, Joyce dubbed him ‘Hairy Jaysus’. He married Hanna Sheehy, they shared each other’s surnames, and campaigned for votes for women. He was a pacifist and a socialist. Close to James Connolly, he was active in support of the locked-out workers of Dublin in 1913. He served time in Mountjoy Jail for opposing recruitment for the First World War. He was summarily executed in Portobello Barracks Rathmines, on Wednesday of Easter Week 1916. He is rarely remembered among those executed.

Donal O’Kelly recently won a Fringe First in Edinburgh with his solo show about the Shell Corrib gas project, Fionnuala, also nominated for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression award, and The Stage Best Solo Performer award. His 3-part musicdrama radio series, Francisco, which he wrote and directed, is nominated for Best Radio Fiction Series in the Prix Europa. Fishamble: The New Play Company will present his play, Little Thing Big Thing, on tour in Ireland early next year.

Hairy Jaysus will be broadcast on RTE Radio at 8pm on Sunday 1st December.

To book tickets (€10) contact The Viking Theatre: 087 1129970.

Putting an End to Militarism

Afri

Resistance is GrowingStatement from the Triennial Conference of the International Peace Bureau

September 13th – 15th 2013, Stockholm , Sweden

“The World is Over-armed and Peace is Under-funded”

– Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General

There was a new hope expressed at the IPB Triennial Conference, welcoming the agreement between Russia and the USA on chemical weapons in Syria. Hopefully this will lead to negotiations to put an end to the terrible civil war.

The forming of international coalitions for military intervention is now much more difficult as public opinion against war has become so strong. People are weary of war and the deceit and rhetoric that go with it. They are suspicious of double speak and are tired of ‘humanitarian’ statements which end with actions that simply generate more human suffering. Continue reading “Putting an End to Militarism” →

Updated Version of Famine Graveyard Report Available

Afri

They All Had NamesAfri has recently revised and re-published the Workhouses & Famine Graveyards Report. “They All Had Names: A Survey of Tithe na mBocht and Famine Graveyards in Ireland” was re-published this year to include further information.

 

The report aims to compile a comprehensive record of all famine related sites in Ireland, province by province.

 

Copies of this publication are available from the Afri office. If you would like to buy a copy please contact the Afri office: 01 8827563/ 8827581 or by email – admin@afri.ie