I spent almost all of this day on the bus because I wanted to see more of the North and so took an indirect route to Galway, in the Republic, where the SF Youth conference was to take place.
The first event of the conference (the first half of which was public) was that night. I got there early and introduced myself to some of the SFY activists and explained who I was representing. They asked me if I would say who I was representing if I asked a question at the end of the event, which I pretty much planned on doing anyway. The event was titled "Nations Without States" and featured: the Palestinian Ambassador to Ireland; a Kurdish person; A Basque person; the local SF candidate in the upcoming general election; and the previous SF Youth National Organizer, who had been elected in 2001 to the Belfast City Council. I don't remember much of the content of their comments, but can report on a few other things:
1) During the Q&A period there was some criticism of SF's luke-warm acceptance of partial privatization in both parts of Ireland. The Belfast Councilor, who I know is on the left of the organization, said something along the lines of, there is debate in the party on this issue (and also the issue of cannabis decriminalization, which unfortunately SF opposes).
2) I couldn't think of a good question that would give me a good excuse to mention the Anti-Racism Commission, so I simply said who I was, mentioned the Commission, and suggested that instead of focusing so much in their American work on Irish-America that they should engage people of color whose experiences are similar to those of nationalists, and also they should engage the support of social justice and peace and justice groups.
3) The event seemed very well attended for a Friday night. About 150 people, probably half of them non-SF folks. Several Arab people were there.
4) Afterwards I gave the Palestinian Ambassador a copy of the YDS statement on that conflict. The Belfast Councilor had been involved in July in bringing a Colombian trade-unionist to Belfast, so I gave him a copy of the YDS statement on that.
Afterwards I was invited to a bar by the SFY people. I was talking with some non-SF people (one of them with the Socialist Workers Party) and I got a ride with them. I think we mostly talked about SF's politics, which the SWP guy and I agreed on (SWP is critically supportive of SF). SWP guy went home and the other guy went to the bar with me. He was pretty new to politics and seems to have gotten into it and attended the event because he's concerned about the Palestinians. At the bar we only hung out a little bit (I was going between him and the SFY kids), but he said something that I think was notable. The next day there were two workshops at the same time, one on globalization and one on the EU. I said I was probably going to the former because I'm not familiar with the EU or SF's position on it, but have a feeling that I'm a lot more pro-Europe than SF is, and if I went I'd feel like saying something but wouldn't have the knowledge to. This guy suggested an argument in favor of Europe that I hadn't considered and which made me even more inclined towards Europe than I had been- that a strong EU was necessary to hold America in check. I gave him and another kid who was really interested in Israel/Palestine copies of the YDS statement.
I didn't talk much with the SFY kids very much that night and don't remember anything else.
3/2 Galway
I got to the conference a bit late and missed about 1/4 of the workshop on globalization. There were about 150 people in the audience (there was also the EU program, probably had about the same number). I don't remember a lot of details about the talk, but I do remember feeling it was pretty simplistic. The speaker's suggestion for people who wanted to learn more was to do an internet search for "chomsky." It also put too much responsibility for globalization on the US.
The question and answer part saw a lot of left-wing criticisms, and we heard from another American leftist who like myself, wanted to see SF engage the American left more. Unfortunately for some reason we only spoke briefly and I got the impression he wasn't too impressed with DSA (I was wearing my DSA shirt that day). One of the critics mentioned how SF acts differently in America, and although it had nothing to do with globalization, I took this opportunity to ask something I was determined to bring up at the conference. I asked, if SF supports LGBT liberation in Ireland, why do they march in the NYC St. Patrick's Day parade which the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization (a NYC group) has called for a boycott of since they are banned from participating. The speaker didn't have an answer, which was fine, I wasn't expecting one, but it seemed like a lot of the audience agreed with what I was saying. At the lunch they had a little bit later, a couple of SFY kids told me that they hadn't heard about that, which surprised me, but that they agreed with me, which I expected. I talked with them about how even if SF wouldn't boycott the parade they could at least call for ILGO to be allowed to participate, and they could also send a delegation to participate in the inclusive (and leftist) alternative parade in Queens.
The next event was actually a surprise. It was a speech by the Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army. The main thrust of his speech was about the need for mass struggle alongside of armed struggle, the need to listen to the community and seek the community's active support. This is something that I believe the republican movement has a bad record on and still needs some work on, but at least they are aware of the need for it. He said that he had been a union organizer in the 50's and had been blacklisted by the union because he organized a lot of wildcat strikes. He constantly mentioned democratic socialism, but I don't remember him going into much detail. Whenever he mentioned the state he said that he doesn't necessarily believe in the state, but didn't say anything on the subject beyond that- I doubt he's an anarchist, but it's possible.
It was an incredibly moving and inspiring speech, and he was quite happy to take questions from the audience.
The next workshop was on multi-culturalism in Ireland. The panel had a refugee from Africa, an activist from the Irish language community, a Black-Irish woman (actually a musician who played in Boulder a few years ago and I did a little bit of work to publicize her show), and a senior SF figure who's father is Spanish (perhaps from Morocco). I don't remember many specifics, but it confirmed my belief that SF is an anti-racist party- probably imperfect, but nonetheless very committed to a multi-cultural Ireland.
I had asked if I could also attend the internal part of the conference and was allowed to. When we all got together for this one of the first things the National Organizer did was to remind people that SF is an anti-drugs party and that he had smelled pot in the rooms they were staying in, and although he didn't care what they did on their own, that wasn't allowed at an SF conference. But as I said, there is a debate in the party on decriminalization of cannabis.
John Reid, the British minister responsible for NI, apparently isn't too smart. He scheduled a public appearance in Galway (where we were) for Sat. night. SFY found out and about 100 of us greeted him with posters calling for demilitarization as part of the peace process. Demilitarization is required by the Good Friday Agreement. In addition to personnel, the British security forces have a huge number of installations in N. Ireland- everything from huge bases to watch-towers, to permanent vehicle check-points. Some (perhaps most) of the check-points have been removed; a handful of bases (perhaps 10%) have been closed; two watch-towers have been dismantled, but about 10 remain, most in a rural republican strong-hold with almost no Unionists, called south Armagh. S. Armagh is also home to the busiest heli-port in Europe, since, before the IRA cease-fire, the BA had trouble operating ground vehicles in the area. Nationalists in this area feel intimidated and harassed by the overwhelming military presence. The point is, especially since the IRA has begun decommissioning, the British government needs to step up demilitarization.
Continued...