John Lacny, whose post was more polite and literate, is right to suggest that I probably should have been nicer about the intentions of the Irish-Americans funding the IRA. I do think their intentions were way, way more noble than the folks funding anti-Muslim Hindus, but I also think people who aren't willing to live in a place may well be more willing to inflict more violence upon it -- who wouldn't prefer that train stations were exploding elsewhere? And that these kinds of relationships raise questions about the many nostalgic nationalisms that afflict the American immigrant middle-class. And OK, leaving aside the IRA, isn't it interesting that most of the foreign struggles the middle-class is attracted to are reactionary and racist?
Liza
> From: "Lance Murdoch" <lancemurdoch at lycos.com>
> Organization: Lycos Mail (http://www.mail.lycos.com:80)
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 15:46:11 -0500
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] IRA & ETA?
>
> How dare someone compare 800 years of a British military presence in Ireland,
> Oliver Cromwell's devastation of Ireland, the havoc wrought by the Orangemen,
> Britain's exporting of grain during the 1840's Malthusian famine/genocide, the
> execution of the Easter 1916 martyrs, the Blacks and Tans rampaging through
> the Irish countryside, the 1960s pogroms on republican communities when they
> were demanding civil rights like one man one vote, the murder of 13 unarmed
> civilians marching against internment in 1972, as well as the tight
> connections between British security forces and anti-republican supposedly
> illegal paramilitaries; with Israeli settlements or Indian anti-Muslim
> nationalism. Irish immigration to the United States began with people fleeing
> starvation at British hands (who were exporting grain from Ireland during the
> famine) in the 1840's, and fleeing economic ruin and political persecution
> after that. Thank God someone was extending a hand back to the Irish working
> p!
> eop
> le, the only misfortune is they did not foresee the violent reaction there
> would be to the 1960's civil rights campaign, and the IRA only had a handful
> of dusty old rifles to protect the republican community from the orange pogrom
> (backed by the police of course). I'm sure 80 years ago you'd be complaining
> how Irish-Americans helped De Valera establish the Free State in the 26
> counties and had removed part of England's colony from their hands.
>
> -- Lance
>
>
>
> From: Liza Featherstone <lfeather at panix.com>
>
>> Don't know anything about the IRA and ETA but this reminds me of something
>> else that's been on my mind...there WAS a lot of financial support for the
>> IRA coming from the U.S. When I was growing up in Boston, middle-class
>> housewives would have fundraising parties for the IRA. The whole phenomenon
>> of comfortable middle-class Americans' considerable financial support for
>> violence elsewhere is a fascinating one that I would love to explore
>> further. Indian-Americans in suburban New Jersey are sending tons of $$ to
>> far-right Hindu nationalists in India. Then there's the cash from many
>> American Jews supporting the settlements. It seems people feel this
>> sentimental attachment to nationalism but they don't want to put their own
>> bodies on the line for it...so they send money, and never have to live in
>> the hellish war zone that they're paying for! If people have other
>> examples, please share.
>>
>> Liza
>>
>
>
> ____________________________________________________________
> Find what you are looking for with the Lycos Yellow Pages
> http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?S
> RC=lycos10
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk