„Jeder Tod besser als Treblinka“

This article marks the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. It is a tribute tot he brave men and women who stood up tot the nazi enemy and showed the world that it is possible to fight back.

Vor 70 Jahren brach am 19. April 1943 der Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto aus. Der erste Aufstand der Zivilbevölkerung im besetzten Europa.

Am Anfang gaben zwei Flaggen an einem Mietshaus Signal – ganz oben und weit sichtbar: die jüdische mit dem Davidstern und die weiß-rote polnische. Bekenntnis für das okkupierte Land und das eigene Volk. Unten in den Straßen des Warschauer Ghettos kämpften einige Hundert meist junge Menschen – überzeugte Zionisten neben überzeugten Bundisten, also Antizionisten, was nach den Treblinka-Transporten im Sommer 1942 keinen Unterschied mehr machte. Das Ghetto war nicht mehr abgeriegelte Großstadt für mehrere Hunderttausend zusammengepferchte Bewohner, es war nur noch Kleinstadt.

Der Kampf hatte eine Vorgeschichte. Am 9. Januar 1943 besuchte Heinrich Himmler das Ghetto, in dem offiziell nur noch 35.000 Menschen hausen sollten. Tatsächlich waren es aber nahezu doppelt so viele, jedenfalls erging der Befehl, weitere 8.000 Menschen abzutransportieren. Als dieser Befehl am 18. Januar 1943 vollzogen werden sollte, kam es erstmals zum Widerstand, bei dem ein Dutzend Deutsche getötet werden konnten. Die Transportaktion musste vorzeitig abgebrochen werden, was einigen Tausend Menschen für diesen Tag das Leben rettete. Der Zusammenhalt zwischen den jungen Kampfeinheiten und der übrig gebliebenen Ghettobevölkerung wurde zur wichtigen Voraussetzung für den 19. April 1943.

Ein Netz von mehr als 600 Bunkern unter den Wohnhäusern wurde ausgebaut. Die Deutschen brauchten, weil sie das Warschauer Ghetto restlos auszulöschen suchten, drei Wochen, um diese Widerstandswelt zu erobern. Hitlers General Jürgen Stroop berichtete am 16. Mai 1943 nach Berlin: „Nur durch den ununterbrochenen und unermüdlichen Einsatz sämtlicher Kräfte ist es gelungen, insgesamt 56.065 Juden zu erfassen bzw. nachweislich zu vernichten. Dieser Zahl hinzuzusetzen sind noch die Juden, die durch Sprengungen, Brände usw. ums Leben gekommen, zahlenmäßig aber nicht erfasst werden konnten.“

Der Aufstand im Ghetto war der erste jüdische Massenaufstand seit Jahrhunderten, zugleich der erste Aufstand städtischer Zivilbevölkerung im besetzten Europa. Überlebende Ghetto-Kämpfer betonten später, dass auch die Nachricht aus Stalingrad, der Sieg der Roten Armee allgemeiner Hoffnung Nahrung gab – der gemeinsame Feind, der schlimmste Feind der Menschheit wird geschlagen werden.

Vor allem aber war der Kampf letzter, entschiedener Schrei nach Vergeltung für die Greuel, die die Vollstrecker eines gnadenlosen Okkupationsregimes den unschuldigen Menschen millionenfach bereitet hatten. Für die unbeschreiblichen Zumutungen der offenen und geschlossenen, der kleinen und großen Ghettos, für den halben Preis, der den „Judenräten“ für die Transporte in die Vernichtungslager bei Kindern bürokratisch-pflichtgemäß abverlangt wurde, für Bełżec und Treblinka, Vernichtungsstätten, wie sie die Welt bis dahin nicht gesehen hatte, und in denen 1942/43 zusammen alleine über 1,3 Millionen Menschen einen barbarisch-industriemäßigen Tod fanden.

Mit jedem Jahr, das seit dem 19. April 1943 vergeht, wird der Schatten länger, der Schrei vernehmlicher. Der Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto zählt zu den wichtigen Freiheitsschlachten in der Menschheitsgeschichte, ist der erschütternste Waffengang für Freiheit und Menschlichkeit des Zweiten Weltkrieges – auch wenn er in kaum einer Militärgeschichte vorkommen wird.

Am 19. April fällt es schwer, in Warschau ein Wort in der Sprache Goethes und Heines über die Lippen zu bringen.

Stellvertretend für die Kämpfer und die Menschen des Warschauer Ghettos:

Mordechaj Anielewicz

Tosia Altan

Tuwia Borzykowski

Marek Edelman

Eliezer Geller

Izrael Kanał

Rotblat Lejb

Cywia Lubetkin

Symcha Ratajzer-Rotem

Izrael Chaim Wilnem

Source: Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung 20-04-2013

Thatcher dies: memory of Hunger Strikers lives on

THE announcement of the death of the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on April 8 immediately brought to mind all of those who were victims of her policies and unrelenting right-wing ideology. It affects us here in Ireland as well but around the world both directly and indirectly by her unstinting support for fascist regimes such as that of Augusto Pinochet in Chile.

In Ireland we of course think at once of the 1981 hunger strikes and the stonehearted response of Thatcher’s government to any appeal to a common humanity. The Patron of Republican Sinn Féin Ruairí Ó Brádaigh says that one of his abiding memories of the 1981 election campaign in support of the prisoner candidates is that at the very mention of the name Bobby Sands people would raise their heads whereas when Margaret Thatcher’s name was uttered people’s heads would drop.

Speaking on RTÉ radio’s News At One programme on April 8 the former deputy-leader of the SDLP Séamus Mallon stated that Thatcher viewed the 26-County State as merely a colony of Britain. Under Thatcher a vicious war of terror was waged on the nationalist people of the Six Counties, which included a stepping up of the collusion between British State forces and loyalist death squads. Human rights lawyers such as Pat Finucane, assassinated by a British-backed loyalist death squad in 1988, became prime targets of a British State determined to crush all opposition to its hold on Ireland.

To understand Thatcher you must grasp that she was an unreconstructed colonialist who could not imagine the sun ever setting on a fast-diminishing British world dominance. Her imperialist adventure to wrest Las Malvinas back from Argentina in 1982 seemed more like something from 1882 but was very much part of the image she wished to cultivate. Cloaking herself in jingoism and intolerance she was prepared to murder over 323 young Argentinean sailors on the Belgrano in order to bolster her grip on power in Britain.

Within her own State she had no scruples about waging war on entire communities and almost the entire trade union movement, openly declaring that the miners were “the enemy within”. The scars of the social upheaval caused by Thatcherism are all too evident in the Britain of 2013. As one commentator noted she was prepared to sacrifice two-thirds of her people in order to satisfy one-third. Her legacy was one of polarisation and increased inequality.

From an Irish perspective she epitomised a British political establishment that had failed to learn from its experience by continuing to implement the same polices of coercion and oppression in response to the Irish people’s demand for national freedom. Sadly her successors seem as blinkered in their approach to Ireland. The continued repression directed against Irish Republicans simply prolongs the conflict while internationally Thatcher’s faith in an unregulated market helped sow the seeds of the present world economic collapse with its dire consequences for working people throughout Europe and around the world.

So on this day we do not mourn her passing but here in Ireland we proudly remember those who died in defiance of her attacks on freedom and democracy.

ENDS

Source: Republican Sinn Fein 10-04-2013

Bayık (PKK): Legal assurance needed for withdrawal

Speaking to Nuçe TV on Monday, Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council member Cemil Bayık said that ceasefire and withdrawal of guerrilla forces were part of a democratic political solution to the Kurdish question.

Bayık said that the message Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan gave on Newroz on 21 March needed to be understood and evaluated correctly, and noted that Öcalan's message was a kind of referendum that has been agreed on by the Kurdish people. Bayık noted that in his message Öcalan asked the whole world if they asked for a democratic political solution to the Kurdish question and to the question of freedom and democracy in Kurdistan, Turkey and the Middle East.

Bayık criticized debates and statements that indicate the withdrawal of PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) forces as the solution of the issue. "The ceasefire and withdrawal of our forces - he said - will have a meaning only if they serve for the development of democratization in Turkey and the Middle East".

Reminding of the previous guerrillas withdrawal in 1999 when guerrilla forces suffered attacks, deaths and arrests, Bayık pointed out that the withdrawal of guerillas will not take place unless the state ensures a legal ground for it. He warned that it was wrong and dangerous to defend that the withdrawal could be enabled by means of administrative measures. Noting that the Turkish parliament should also decide on the withdrawal and make a call for it, Bayık said that the present laws which authorize the Turkish army for operations against guerrilla forces needed to be changed to guarantee the withdrawal. Bayık evaluated the statements of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and some other AKP executives as an indication of their persistence on not coming up with a solution to the Kurdish question.

Bayık stated that the government should both take legal measures and establish a committee of wise people to prove their sincerity about finding a solution. He noted that this committee should be independent from all parties and circles and serve to arbitrate between the state and guerrilla forces. The committee should be made up of people who represent all circles and social groups in the society. Bayık noted that women should make up the majority of this committee to ensure an advancement in the process with their perspective siding with justice and peace against war and cruelty.

Bayık said the debates which put emphasis on the sensitivities of the Turkish side in this process were a consequence of the dominant mentality which refused to see Kurds as a people and to take their sensitivities into consideration. This approach is based on the exploitative mindset and the attitude of dominant nations on the oppressed, he said and added that the solution of the Kurdish question should be grounded on the recognition of the will of the Kurdish people.

“Kurds are ready to show solidarity, to listen to all circles and to exchange opinions but they refuse to agree on the solution that the AKP government imposes on them and their organization, the PKK. A solution cannot be achieved by means of threats, as we have experienced in the last 30 years. It requires dialogue, negotiation and mutual agreement”, he added.

Bayık noted that Kurdish leader Öcalan needed to be granted equal opportunities as the state so that the negotiations can take place on equal terms between both sides. He noted that the current process, in which Öcalan had to act alone and under unfavorable conditions, could not bring along a democratic solution. Bayık underlined that “In order to make a decision and exchange opinions on the process, Öcalan needs to hold talks with the BDP (Peace and Democracy Party), PKK, socialist and democratic circles, Alewis, Armenians, the oppressed and women who all face a problem of democracy and freedom and an obstacle to express themselves”.

Bayık pointed out that Öcalan aimed to come up with a solution to the Kurdish question in all parts of Kurdistan without affecting the borders. “Our previous paradigm had an intention of removing these borders on the basis of establishing a state by exercising the right to national self determination. However, our new paradigm, which is democratic confederalism, bases on the democratization of peoples in Turkey and the Middle East and coming up with a solution to their problem of freedom, equality and justice”.

Bayık warned that should the current process fail, this could lead to a dangerous time not only for PKK and north Kurdistan but also for all Kurds and the peoples in the region. "This is why it is necessary to lead the step for democratic liberation and construction of a free life to success" he added.

Source:  ANF - Behdinan 02.04.2013

 

Easter Statement from the Leadership of the Republican Movement

On the occasion of the 97th anniversary of the 1916 Rising the Leadership of the Republican Movement sends greetings to all assembled at Irish patriot graves and at monuments to the memory of our Republican dead.

Once again we issue a reminder that the centenary of that momentous Easter Week is a bare three years away and we ask who has the credentials to honour that 100th commemoration? Surely not those who accept the British and Unionist Veto on the future of Ireland or those who collaborate with English rule in our country. Their political surrender to imperialism is a contradiction of the 1916 Proclamation and all that it stands for. Preparations for 2016 need to continue.
We accept the statement of the Continuity IRA that they abhor drug-dealing and gangsterism and that they have nothing to do with either. We acknowledge their declaration that they remain intact and that their objective is to drive out the British Occupation Forces from the Six Counties just as they were evicted from the 26 Counties by an earlier generation. In short that aim is to complete the work of 1916.

We respond to and reject the untrue claim made without contradiction on RTÉ radio recently that there were “no British soldiers in the North”. The insinuation is that English rule no longer obtains there. The reality is otherwise. And it is accepted widely that the politically biased policing of the so-called PSNI is nothing but a return to that of the pre-1968 RUC simply dressed up with new badges on their head-gear.

We note that the title of Republican Sinn Féin has been misappropriated from it by a tiny splinter group in Limerick. Politicians and a hostile media have given credence to this action by highlighting its misdeeds and then placing the blame on the true Republican Movement. We take advantage of this occasion to clear the air and assert once more Republican Sinn Féin’s integrity and good name.

Similarly, even the name of our country, Ireland, is denied in official circles. The 26 Counties are called “Ireland”, the Six Counties “Northern Ireland” and out native land is dubbed “the island”, thus denying the historic entity which has called forth such service and sacrifice down the years. In this way they seek to deny the very concept of Ireland as our people have known it. They would have us consent to partition and British rule for all time. We say “Never”.

Next year, 2014, will see local elections again in the 26 Counties. Republicans need to make ready and take advantage of openings in this regard. With the abolition of town councils as part of the present administration’s policy of centralisation, elections to Údarás na Gaeltachta were likewise terminated. Gaeltacht self-government was an integral part of our ÉIRE NUA proposals of 1971 making for much stronger local bodies in Irish-speaking areas. Republican Sinn Féin welcomed the limited devolution provided, however, and contested all elections to the Údarás. We see its abolition as a step backwards and deplore its passing.

Meanwhile, the new imperialism through a combination of the Euro currency and lack of regulation of banks has brought a seemingly-endless austerity to the ordinary people. The rich get richer and the poor poorer. This process must be resisted at all costs.

All the while Republican prisoners in Maghaberry, Co Antrim endure as they seek an end to controlled movement and to strip-searching. Following four months of protest, in August 2010 an agreement was reached. It was reneged on by the prison and resulted in another 15 months of a no-wash protest. Nonetheless pressure has continued on the prisoners and the official prisoner ombudsman has admitted publicly that the Republican wing in Maghaberry is the only drug-free wing in the prison. Internment has been reintroduced as Martin Corey of Lurgan, who had served 19 years and was released, was brought back and has been held again for three years without trial. He is still in Maghaberry jail.

At these Easter commemoration ceremonies we are mindful of the prisoners’ struggle and salute their sacrifice.

An Phoblacht Abú! Long live the Irish Republic!

Source: Republican Sinn Fein 05-04-2013