Mick Gilgunn, Islington Trades Union Council, reports following this year’s Jim Connell weekend in Crossakiel, Kells, Ireland on 5th and 6th May.

Jim Connell was a blacklisted docker who was very much a part of the trade union movement here in Britain as well as Ireland. He is remembered every year during the May Bank Holiday weekend at his birth place near Kells. Since 1997 a memorial has stood in Crossakiel as a testament to the man who wrote The Red Flag, which is now sung throughout the world in celebration of our progressive movement. Inspired by a Social Democratic meeting in London, Connell wrote the poem on the back of scrap paper while he was on a train from Charing Cross to New Cross.

The weekend was an uplifting experience. On Saturday a conference took place on the recession in Ireland, the austerity measures and how unions can fight back. A packed meeting in a community hall in Kells was welcomed by the Labour mayor Brian Collins, who organised the weekend alongside the Jim Connell Society. Contributions both from the platform and the floor reported on youth unemployment and workfare both in Ireland and Britain. The recession has hit Ireland hard, and just as in Britain it is the working class that are paying the price.

There were guest speakers from Britain and Ireland, and delegations from the Durham Miners Association, the RMT, the RMT Youth Committee, Greater London Association of Trades Union Councils and Justice for Shrewsbury Pickets. From Ireland, the Workers Party, Labour Party and Sinn Fein all had a presence.

David Hopper, Secretary of the Durham Miners Association, spoke powerfully of the Thatcher years and how the 1984-85 strike had destroyed the mining communities – but the spirit and courage lives on in the Durham Miners Gala, where 100,000 people gather each year in defiance and to uphold the spirit of working class solidarity. He also spoke of the significance of The Red Flag, Jim Connell and the international struggle for peace and socialism.  Terrista Trujillo, Cuban Ambassador to Ireland, brought greetings to the event and paid tribute to the international support from Ireland and around the world to the people of Cuba.

Carmel Pollen from Battersea and Wandswoth Trades Council spoke about ethical threads, and Ashley Farrent, RMT youth section, spoke about the results of the London Mayoral election, the legacy of the Olympic games and relations with the London Mayor post-Olympics.

Patricia King from Ireland’s largest union SIPTU spoke about youth unemployment, the desperate need for training and education, and the disappointment in seeing once again a whole generation leave Ireland’s shores. During this session representatives from Irish trade unions MANDATE and IMPACT also spoke. Tom Geraghty, from the Irish Fire Brigades Union spoke on how Dublin Fire service was one of the first in the world to be municipalised and went into some fascinating history and arguments against privatisation.

On Sunday a march through Crossakiel was led by an RMT brass band. Bob Crow gave a rousing speech in a rally at the monument about the solidarity between the two islands and gave the event a class perspective on the fight against cutbacks and job loses. Among the banners were those of SIPTU’s construction section and Lagan Brick workers, who are facing redundancy. One of their stewards spoke on their plight and how they are fighting back. Irish trade unionists, TDs and local historians also spoke, and Councillor Brian Collins chaired the proceedings.

The proceedings ended with The Red Flag and a reception in a local bar with an Irish band with a radical flavour. Those of us who stayed on the next night continued with a good singing session and pledged to promote this annual event.

Next year will focus on the 100th anniversary of the Dublin lockout and the legendary trade union leader Jim Larkin who, along with James Connolly, forms the backbone of socialism in Ireland. What they have in common with Jim Connell is the link between two nations and their part in shaping working class history.

I would encourage socialists and trade unionists to attend next year’s event in Kells, just as we attend events here in England such as the Tolpuddle festival and the Durham Miners Gala. We should double our efforts for the Dublin lockout centenary event next year, which many regions in Britain’s TUC and the London Association of Trades Union Council wish to highlight in the coming year. Remember our past; organise our future.

They thought it was all over ... Richard Price, Leyton & Wanstead CLP, reports on a dramatic revival.

The big story of the French presidential election campaign has been the campaign waged by former Socialist minister, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the candidate of the Left Front. Although nobody expects him to reach the second round run-off on 6th May, Mélenchon’s rise in the polls from 5% last October to about 15% by mid-April has taken the entire political establishment by surprise.

The tipping point came on 18th March when up to 100,000 took part in a rally in the Place de la Bastille – the largest held by any of the ten candidates.  On 4th April Mélenchon addressed 9,000 in Limoges and the following evening saw a huge rally of 70,000 filling Toulouse’s huge central square, the Capitole, and the side streets around it. By then, having overtaken the Front National’s Marine Le Pen, Mélenchon was being referred to everywhere in the media as “the third man”, while Le Monde devoted its front page to the “Mélenchon phenomenon”.

While much of the British press has portrayed Mélenchon as a combination of dinosaur and demagogue, it is clear that he has galvanized support well beyond the ageing ranks of the Left Front’s main constituent, the Communist Party (PCF), and attracted tens of thousands of young people. In a campaign fought largely through television and mass rallies Mélenchon is both an inspiring speaker and a formidable debater.

His speeches call for a “citizens’ insurrection”, a new 6th Republic, a break from the Anglo-Saxon neo-liberal model, steeply graduated taxation and the defence of social gains. His posters simply say: “Take power!” All of this is mixed with a Jacobin-style anti-clericalism and talk of France as the first universal nation that should once again export its “revolution” to Europe.

Mélenchon’s campaign has pulled the Socialist Party’s François Hollande to the left, at least at a rhetorical level, forcing him to adopt higher taxation for the rich as a means to balance the budget. At the same time, by focussing attention on his proposals for a fundamental revision of the EU and punitive taxation for the wealthiest, Mélenchon has undercut Marine Le Pen’s pitch for working class support as the supposed champion of France’s “little people” against the political elite. On 14th April, Mélenchon took the fight on to Le Pen’s home turf with a rally of between 50,000 and 100,000 on the beach of France’s second city, Marseille, and called for aid for Tunisia by offering a moratorium on its French debts.

Mélenchon told the Marseille rally: “We are writing a page in the history of the left. We are the renaissance of the left.” He is not exaggerating. For the PCF to put itself at the head of an inclusive left, in support of a former Trotskyist, would have been unthinkable not long ago. When it was founded in February 2009, the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA) was touted as the next big thing on the left. Today, former leading members of the NPA are campaigning for Mélenchon.

If the Left Front maintains its momentum it can expect to play a significant role in the legislative elections that follow in June. At the same time, Mélenchon has avoided past pitfalls by pledging his supporters backing for Hollande against Sarkozy in the second round, while continuing to attack Hollande’s timidity towards the financial elite skewering him as “Hollandreou” – a French version of George Papandreou. Hollande, whose instinct would have been to lean towards the supporters of centre right candidate François Bayrou, now has to reckon with a powerful force to his left.

Nicholas Sarkozy’s campaign received a short-lived bounce courtesy of the murders in Toulouse and Montauban, and Sarkozy attempted to whip up an atmosphere of national emergency with heightened security at transport links and high profile dawn raids on suspected Islamists by Special Forces. This was in marked contrast to the coverage of a suspected serial killer operating in a Paris suburb.

Combined with upping anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric, Sarkozy managed to pull some votes back from the Front National, but succeeded in alienating the middle ground, whose second round’s votes could decide the contest. The rise of Mélenchon, while it has eaten into Hollande’s vote, does not appear to have affected the second round result. While most polls put Sarkozy only 1-2% behind Hollande in the first round on 22nd April, they also suggest that Hollande will win the second round by a margin of just over 10%.

French voters are traditionally said to vote with their heart in the first round and their head in the second. For the first time in a generation it looks as if they are about to do both at the same time.

Abdul Rahman & Shafiul Amin from Human Aid & Students4Syria report from Turkey, where they volunteered to help refugees from the Syrian Government’s recent crackdown.

It was just after one in the afternoon and our large group of Human Aid volunteers was scattered throughout the hotel; I was sitting with some of them on the ground floor near the hotel entrance. A slim man approached me. He had the look of a man that had seen a lot and gone through much hardship; he smiled as he approached me. It was Mustafa, a man I had spoken to over the phone for several days, who was sent as a contact in our quest to seek an orphanage where we would be able to help. I recognised his voice when he greeted me and I immediately knew who he was.

We took Mustafa to the first floor and led him to the dining area which was quiet  at the time and ideal for us to speak with him. The rest of the group had heard of his arrival and began to join us one by one until the table was full. Mustafa gave us a brief outline of the situation in Syria before his truly horrific story.

“On the 10th of Ramadan 2011, we had finished breakfast and dawn prayers. My father was on his way back from the mosque and my brother and I were outside our house talking. We then noticed in the distance a large group of people approaching us and we couldn’t make them out. Suddenly we heard gun fire. It was the Syrian security forces – over 100 of them – so we rushed inside our house.

“Our house had three floors, on the first floor were my parents, I told them about security forces approaching our home and went up to the second floor to warn my family. My brother did the same with his family on the third floor. I then heard a loud smashing sound as the door was struck down. They surrounded the house and some situated themselves on the roof to prevent us from escaping. My father, my brother and I were dragged to the ground floor. My father was shot dead from point blank range in front of my eyes. My brother was made to suffer, he was shot on the arm followed by a shrieking of laughter and mockery from those repugnant security forces. I was made to watch all of this. They then threw tear gas in a second floor room full of children.

“My wife and my sister-in-law were in a separate room. The security forces went in search of them and I was dragged along, until they found them…” Mustafa paused and took a deep breath, choking on his words and tears running down his face. He continued, “I was made to watch for two hours as my wife and sister in law were gang raped by 15 men…” Not just Mustafa but many of our group were now in tears. The pain of listening to such a story was just too overbearing.
After a longer pause, Mustafa continued a second time, “Had this been two male dogs forcing themselves on a female dog a whole village would have been in uproar. How is it then for us, are we not human?

“My brother was taken by the security forces and I was left at the house. By the decree of Allah I was made to live. However, news filtered through the next day that my brother had been shot dead”. Mustafa began wiping away his tears along with the rest of the Human Aid volunteers. His story had broken all our hearts.
We hear of many tragic crimes happening in Syria and sometimes we become desensitised to them. To sit with this man and see the pain in his eyes reminds us that those affected by this repugnant regime are scarred for life. I hope that stories like this are never repeated again and I also hope that this man and his people enjoy the victory they long for. Freedom shall be theirs and justice shall be given to those oppressed. As they say in Arabic: “Nahnu la nansa” – we shall never forget.

As Mustafa said, “The world has reported 10,000 killed. We believe it to be at least 30,000. But what about the 50,000 orphaned? The 20,000 widowed and the 80,000 being tortured in these horrific prisons today?”

• You can read more eyewitness reports from Syrian refugees and find information on donating via Human Aid on http://human-aid.co.uk.

Mick Woods reports from Denmark: After the English Defence League (EDL) announced they were going to found a European Defence League (Euro-DL) at a rally in Århus in Denmark, the left started to mobilise to isolate them. The papers began to ramp up the talk of mass demonstrations and violence, businesses threatened to close on the day to avoid being trashed, and the police began to say that violence and mass arrests were “inevitable”. Århus for Mangfoldighed (Århus for Diversity), which played the central role in organising the counterdemonstration on 31st March, called for a peaceful mass demonstration from the Town Hall Square through the town to a rally.

The Euro-DL were limited to a static rally in a small park by the Municipal Library. Given that only 150 to 160 people turned up, this was probably a good thing for them – since 4,000 to 5,000 anti-fascists turned out and totally eclipsed them. They even forgot their megaphone on the day, which delayed their rally.

Among them were a coachful from Munich, a rumoured group of Germans from Rhein Neckar, 15 or so EDL, about the same number from Norway and odds and sods from Sweden, Finland and (allegedly) Bulgaria and Poland. If you add up all the visitors there isn’t much space for Danes among the 150. The Danish Defence League (DDL) exists in as much as it has a Facebook site, but it has recently split and chucked out its old leadership and is simply irrelevant on a day to day level.

the anti-racist march a group of 50 young Palestinian immigrants left the rally to confront the fascists, and a group of about 200 young anarchists joined in. Despite the biggest ever police operation, they actually got to the EDL rally and started mixing it with them. Unfortunately this led to over 80 arrests, although most were either released without charge or charged with minor public order offences.

While this physical confrontation is understandable, it was a bit unfortunate on the day given that the basis of the counter-demo was not to confront the Euro-DL physically. The vast majority of participants respected this (even, surprisingly, the very militant Anti Fascist Action). Had the demo, or even a significant minority of it, chosen to confront the fascists, they and the police wouldn’t have had a chance. The DDL are simply not worth the effort as yet, and the violence distracted attention from the massive peaceful mobilisation.

There has been a deal of nonsense written in the English press about Århus being a fascist stronghold. True, the far right is stronger in Århus than Copenhagen – but they simply don’t exist any more in Copenhagen. The Danish far right are just as factional and divided as the their British fellow patriots – and much smaller. The main strength of the far right in Århus is “White Pride”, a bunch of violent racist football casuals – the UKIP-like Danish Peoples Party polls very poorly in the city.

How the Euro-DL and DDL will go forward from this rally is anybody’s guess. It certainly wasn’t a great day for them and I doubt the DDL will gain much momentum from it beyond a few “Like” clicks on Facebook. It probably won’t stop them trying – but neither did getting a beating in Amsterdam from leftists and Ajax supporters last time they rode out to save Europe.