Connecting the Struggles

international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Friday January 20, 2006 02:05 by Wanbli Watakpe and DJ Tanya - Tashunka Witko Brigade cheruss at hotmail dot com

Ties and Solidarity between the Irish and the Native struggles

Tashunka Witko Brigade co-host Wanbli Watakpe interviews Irish socialist feminist historian Ruth Taillon who is also a long time ally of the indigenous struggle in North America. Ruth talks about issues parallel to both the Irish and Indigenous struggle, Leonard Peltier, and Bobby Sands.

Ruth Taillon's over 30 years of struggle for political, economic and social justice, and women's rights, started around the time she joined the indigenous fight against the extradition of Leonard Peltier in Canada, before she moved to Ireland. Since then she has researched and written extensively on social policy and gender equality issues and the women's movement in Northern Ireland. She has a strong interest in women's history, and is a founding member of the Mary Ann McCracken Historical Society and author of When History Was Made: The Women of 1916. She works tirelessly to make community-based peacebuilding in Ireland a reality and to ensure economic disadvantage, social exclusion and marginalization of the Irish people are addressed as part of the peace process.

In this interview, Ruth talks with co-host Wanbli Watakpe about many issues parallel to both the Irish and Indigenous struggles for self-determination: protection of sacred sites (the ancient site of the Hill of Tara and Skryne Valley at the very center of Ireland, and sacred Bear Butte in South Dakota are both threatened by urban development), environmental oppression (Shell Oil’s plan to build a high pressure gas line through the Rossport community in Ireland), threats to traditional culture, and informers in the movements. In addition, she gives a unique look at Leonard Peltier’s struggle for freedom by talking about the rarely mentioned year he spent behind bars in Canada prior to his extradition, and how that struggle ignited the Native movement in Canada and raised many people’s consciousness. She ends by recalling Bobby Sands, the hunger strike that ended his life and the life of nine other heroes of the Irish struggle, and how that sacrifice laid the groundwork for the current peace process.


To listen to this show click on the following link: http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/01/8223.php


For more information on the movement to protect the ancient site of the Hill of Tara and Skryne Valley visit http://www.sacredireland.org . To find out about the Shell Oil high pressure pipeline through Rossport and the five men imprisoned for fighting it visit http://www.freetherossportfive.com

For more information on the Gathering of Nations to Defend Bear Butte or the Inter-Tribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte visit http://www.bringbacktheway.com or contact: Carter Camp at cartercamp@yahoo.com, Debra White Plume at 605-455-2155, or Vic Camp at 605-455-1122.

The 2 songs featured in this program are: "Fields of Athenry" by Hollie Smith, and "Bobby Sands MP" by Black 47.


The Tashunka Witko Brigade (TWB) focuses on indigenous liberation and gives voice to the indigenous people, the elders, grandmas and warriors on the ground in this our continent. TWB airs on Free Radio Olympia (Olympia, Washington, US) on Tuesdays 3-5 PM PST (with live webstream at www.frolympia.org) and on Berkeley Liberation Radio and Free radio Santa Cruz anytime without warning.



If you would like to listen to any of our previous shows write us at cheruss@hotmail.com to request link or CD:

v Elders of Pine Ridge: Philomine Blacksmith-Lakota and Roselyn Jumping Bull

v An indigenous look at the Bolivarian Revolution: Omar Sierra, 1st Consul, Chicago Consulate of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

v The Victory of Evo Morales in Bolivia: Pio Celestino, (of the Refugio del Rio Grande), Mochica of Peru, in and Fernando Rada Arteaga (of the 21 de junio Aymara/Quechua Community in La Paz, Bolivia)

v 2005 Indigenous Revolutionary Overview: Prof. J of Clajadep-La Haine, Santiago, Chile.

v Protection of Sacred sites: A conversation with Carter Camp, Inter-Tribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte.