I spent a month of my life in Spain in 1994 over two fortnight long holidays. The girl I was staying with claimed sheād never been abroad. I spotted a souvenir from Portugal, so queried that claim.
āOh, Portugal is not abroadā
This is fucking disgraceful. An unwanted demonstration of what happens when push comes to shove.
How were Ulster views ever suppressed? The comedy of a voiceover of Adams was priceless comedy, donāt just say the miners what example of the miners?
Political suppression? Quite possibly there has been some but ALL do that and weāre far far far better than nearly all, not perfect but better than most.
Jesus for political comment and protest weāre a very good place for having a pop at the state.
The liberals wonāt like that but name better?
You might like to check out āThe battle of the bean fieldsā, and some of the footage of the UK police terrorizing women and children, smashing up their homes etc. Made the Spanish police look like choirboys. Also, as CS pointed out, the treatment meted out to the Miners in the 80s, squaddies masquerading as police, It doesnāt get much more fascist than that. This countryās hands are far from clean when it comes to agents of the state acting in a fascistic manner towards dissenters.
And i would maintain that the behaviour of the police at the battle of the bean field shows beyond doubt that we are certainly not better than most. A heavily pregnant woman being beaten to the ground with a baton wielded by a policeman with his features obscured by a full face helmet when she tried to stop them smashing her home up. Surrounded by her screaming children. When push comes to shove we would give the squads in South and latin America a run for their money. Perhaps we are marginally better than them. But it would be a close call.
How many occasions it has happened is totally irelevant Barry, the only relevant point is that it has happened. Iām not talking about general everyday policing, iām talking about groups of people, be they miners, hippy travellers etc, who are deemed by the powers that be to be a serious challenge to the accepted order of things, being met by the full force of the state acting in a clearly fascistic manner. Military cavalry charges at Orgreave, unidentifiable police smashing up these dissidentās homes, pregnant women being beaten with nightsticks in front of their screaming children. In the case of Orgreave, mass forgery of police notes, co-ordinated mass perjury by police, which was so inept that it was torn to shreds and laughed out of court. The BBC, as has now been admitted, reversing the footage of the Orgreave military cavalry charge to give the totally false impression that they were reacting to a charge by rock throwing miners, when the opposite was the case. All fed to the masses on the 6-o clock news, and repeated ad infinitum for weeks. I would call that fascism Barry, regardless of how often it happens. What would you call it?
I will admit to a touch of hyperbole in my remarks about South and Latin America, i should have said some South and Latin American countries, as of course some are far worse than others. Of course we donāt round people up in football stadiums never to be seen again,. Yet. (hyperbolic joke)! But neither do a lot of them. Of course all of them are ārobustā in their policing of demonstrations, dealing with public displays of dissent, some more robust than others. I would maintain that the documented, fascistic behaviour of the establishment in this country, and their willingness to order our āforces of law and orderā to collude in this behaviour by doing their bidding, puts us right up there in terms of robustness. There are absolutely no grounds for any smugness on our part regarding the situation in Spain.
As long as you admit you were talking shit in comparing Latin American deathsquads openly sponsored by the state to kill men, women and children against a section of brutal out of control bent policemen I am happy.