Laying the Table.
international |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report 
Thursday May 19, 2005 14:51
by iosaf
Pray tell is it that time again? why its only 7 years.
1998 was a pivotal year in European politics, it saw the governments of Ireland and the UK negotiate with armed factions on areas of joint constitutional concern. We call this the "power sharing agreement" in the ·"peace process".
1998 also saw the government of Spain under Aznar authorise contact with an armed faction to discuss areas of joint constitutional concern. We call this "one of the ETA ceasefires".
As you will no doubt have noticed there has been a lot of water under the bridge since then and clichés have been minted, forged and inevitably gone out of currency.
Government regimes have come and some have gone and one suspects the same shrouded mysterious characters are still there, like Clotho Lachysis & Atropo in today's illustration, playing with us all.
Today Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley meet Blair in Downing street, to see what hope there lies for power sharing, geography, the doomsday cult and lasting peace. (Of these three men incidently, only one will ever get a peerage, Tony Blair someday indeed will bring his skewed eye and mantilla to the Lords, where as will we never ever see either Lord Adams of the Falls or Lord Paisley of the Shankill. Coz that's not how things work).
here are the links "irish side"-
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=143440844&p=y4344y55x
http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0519/northpolitics.html
http://www.4ni.co.uk/industrynews.asp?id=40640
and because there is now a wider pool of information and consultation, analysis and opinion than in 1998 here's an infoshop link-
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20050516132829236
and our pals up north news/blog site-
http://www.sluggerotoole.com/archives/2005/05/paisley_sinn_fe.php#more
and here are "the british links"-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4560215.stm
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=639613
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/northernirelandassembly/story/0,9061,1487559,00.html
And because thanks to indymedia, and the neo-Zapatistas everyone speaks at least a few words of spanish these days, and the son of a mexican "sin papales" can be elected mayor of Los angeles (the 2nd most populous city of the USA) despite a participation of only 38% of the electorate, here is what Gerry Adams of the Irish geography party said this morning-
'Nuestra opinión es que existe una oportunidad para avanzar, pues así lo demuestra el resultado de la votación del Parlamento español y los resultados de las recientes elecciones (autonómicas) en el País Vasco',
¿¿¿¿You see???
-perhaps you don't. (=our opinion is that an opportunity exists to advance, and that that is demonstrated by the results of the Sanish parliament's vote and in the recent autonomy elections in the Basque country"
He's making a link with the decision by the Spanish congress yesterday to authorise discussions (for the first time since 1998) with ETA. The PP are vehemently opposed to such contact. And increasingly are vehemently opposed to the whole program of government of the PSOE and her allies in the regional parliaments of the Basque and Catalonia. Which is sort of the hole they dug for themselves steadily through the last four years of Mr Aznar's regime.
But at the moment ZP is riding the highest in the opinion polls, and in the absence of basque related terrorist deaths, that mutable variable, "public opinion" (which many seem to think flows through history in seven year periods) is on his side for "reducing confrontation".
And indeed since Oct3rd 2004, it does seem to appear that those with most authority in ETA are under lock and key which prompts some newspapers to ask, "with whom will the government negotiate"?.
And indeed the recent elections in the Basque autonomous region, leaving no clear majority have given the Spanish socialists a lot of space and time to push their agenda, which is one of "inclusion, diversity, concensus and dialogue".
(i can type that in sixteen languages with my eyes closed, coz it's what i do, every day as a therepeutic exercise).
And here's what the spokesperson for ETA said:
“the Basque Stormont is an agreement to be achieved among the players of the Basque Country"
¿¿¿See??? there's a link.
“What is more important is the task that lies ahead of all of us in the Basque political parties; only that can produce a broad-based, democratic accord without excluding anyone.” : "Batasuna believes the political forces will need to state now" : “whether they are prepared, in a way that can be agreed on, to address the sticky issues of the right to decide and territoriality, which have been the sources of the conflict”.
read loads in english at Berria a basque news-site-
http://www.berria.info/english/ikusi.php?id=1464
http://www.berria.info/english/ikusi.php?id=1463
and if you're security minded you could read this-
"the international security and relations network"
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=11303
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Background information (in case you're slow, or are new to this, or have other things on your mind)
How the Irish and "non-Irish" voted and "not voted" in the Westminster Election :-
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69724
How the Basques voted and not voted:-
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69442
Basque election day. (explains who all the parties are)
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69431
Prime Minister of Her Majesty's Govurnmunt of Engurland, Cymru, Scoaturlund and wee Ulster.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69698
Peace comes dripping slow.
Síocháin = Peace = Paz = Bake = Paix.