Stand With Palestine Events and Workplace Day of Action on Naksa Day

G.I. dissenters in David Zeiger's documentary "Sir! No Sir!"

Some weeks ago, with last weekend's Winter Soldier event on the horizon, I talked to David Zeiger, through the freebie magic of Skype. He's the directer of the documentary Sir, No Sir. It's a Displaced Films and BBC production that came out about two years ago, and focused on the GI movement to end the war in Vietnam.

It consists in part, of interviews with veterans explaining why they resisted the war, and in some cases went as far as to defect. Hundreds went to prison and thousands into exile, by 1971 it was a movement that in the words of one colonel had “infested the entire armed services” - yet few people today are aware of this soldiers movement against the war in Vietnam.

Related Links: Winter Solider on indy.ie WinterSoldier.com Articles by James R

Nothing to be ashamed of

The Council of Europe has called on Ireland to decriminalise abortion.

This week , the Council of Europe's Committee on Equal Opportunities issued a report saying all member states should guarantee women the right to a safe termination of pregnancy.

The report states quite clearly: “the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men considers that a ban on abortions does not result in fewer abortions, but mainly leads to clandestine abortions, which are more traumatic and more dangerous.”

Some people estimate that the number of Irish women who travel to England every year is about 7,000. Since some women obviously use false British addresses, or disguise their origins in other ways, the true figure can never be known.

Related Links: Choice Ireland — Irish Family Planning Association — Safe and Legal Abortion Rights Campaign I had an abortion

Townsend's interpretation of the famous Battle in Seattle, where the World Trade Organisation was shut down due to the emergence of what the media labelled the anti-globalisation movement has finally hit the big screen, and it doesn't get much bigger (in Dublin) than the prestigous Savoy Screen Number 1!

The whirlwind fictional interpretation of the event which launched the global phenomenon of Anti-capitalism has finally hit the big screen Stuart Townsend a famous actor from Howth (I don't think i've seen anything he's in!) has given what has been a fundamental part of our collective experience a fictionalised treatment and presented it to us in the cinema. This is important as he has given the whole issue a very sympathetic treatment even though he wasn't part of the protests back in 1999 in Seattle. The film gives a rapid history of who what where when and why of the WTO and the 5 W's of the movement which emerged to tackle it.

An anarchist dismisses religious belief as a means of understanding the world that has been "superceded by science", sparking a lively debate. Is this argument simply showing disrespect to believers, talking down to the proles, or is it really the case that religion is "a dangerous drug" which means "handing over your brain to a priest, rabbi, or imam"? Read the arguments and make your own mind up.

Local PhD Student Bites Back

This exclusive comes in a tradition of Indymedia exclusives that brought you the British Ambassador’s letter in 1969, when the then Managing Director of the Irish Times, called his Editor and fellow Protestant, Douglas Gageby, “a renegade or white nigger” for his coverage of Northern Ireland.

RTE broadcast a 'Hidden History' programme on 23 October 2007, about the IRA shooting of Richard and Abraham Pearson of Coolacrease, near Cadamstown, Co. Offaly, in June 1921, during the War of Independence. It was made by Niamh Sammon and featured (unelected) Senator Eoghan Harris of the Sunday Independent.

The programme was accused of editing interviews to encourage a view that the IRA in Offaly were sectarian, land grabbing and Catholic peasants. Back in early October Indymedia users played with the title of the documentary strand and began to ask was history being bent to the will of a hidden agenda?

Now a researcher, PhD student Philip McConway, has accused the programme of distorting his views. Local historian, Paddy Heaney, related to an IRA volunteer who died from stomach wounds inflicted by the Pearsons, said the programme left the guts of his interview on the cutting room floor. Another interview, with Pat Muldowney, never made it at all, not one second. His interview with Niamh Sammon of Reel Story Productions, has never been heard by the public. Until now that is...

Related Links: Indymedia asks Hidden History or Hidden Agenda? | The Story Starts Here | The Hidden History documentary strand returns to RTÉ | Review of I Met Murder On The Way | War Of Independence Debate On Sectarianism Descends On Unassuming Offaly | Cedar Lounge Revolution Bloggers on Coolacrease |