No Quarter, No. 2
| Date: | 2005 |
|---|---|
| Organisation: | Anti-Fascist Action |
| Publication: | No Quarter |
| Issue: | Number 2 |
| Type: | Publication Issue |
| View: | View Document |
| Discuss: | Comments on this document |
| Subjects: |
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Commentary From The Cedar Lounge Revolution
21st March 2011
Issued by Anti-Fascist Action in 2005 this reasonably well produced magazine has a broad range of material. Articles range from one remembering Kit Conway, Spanish Civil War veteran to interviews with Residents Against Racism and pieces on the situation at Irish Ferries. This is indicative of a strongly left wing emphasis to the document, and also indicative of the broader political stance of those involved in AFA.
That the identity of the organisation itself is somewhat opaque, with the only contact details being a PO box, and the AFA website , perhaps indicates the sensitivity of activism in this area.
The editorial which was written during a period following the 2002 election and during which there appeared to be some political instability suggests that:
Since we last went to print, the political landscape has altered quite dramatically. While huge changes have taken place in the nature and scale of inward migration, for example, many of the same challenges that existed for anti-racists and anti-fascists in 2002 persist today. Deportations and state harassment of non-EU citizens have, if anything, become more widespread and vicious in the intervening period. Dawn raids on the homes of immigrants by the Gardai and our own brand of ‘rendition flights’ of these immigrants back to their own countries of origin are now more commonplace than ever.
It notes that:
The macroeconomic arguments about our country’s labour needs into the future lie beyond AFA’s remit and in any case cannot be predicted with any degree of accuracy. However, what does concern us is the degree of opportunism being displayed at present in relation to theories of ‘displacement’ of Irish workers by foreign ones. Apart from the fact that the statistics don’t bear this out, certain politicians hope to gain mileage by playing to the gallery with misleading anecdotes of occasions when this has happened.
It also notes that:
It is clear that the pro-establishment parties are on an election footing. While AFA has never been under any illusion that the Labour Party especially represents working class interests, it is still telling when even they are flagging the canard of future threat of foreign displacement. With the prodding of their paymasters in ICTU and the main pro-establishment unions, Labour are now cynically and for their own ends hoping to appeal to their ‘Old Labour’ base while relentlessly pursuing ‘New Labour’ policies.
There’s an overview of John Tyndall, the British fascist which is entitled ‘A Lifetime of Failure’ and other pieces on Russian Nazis and Frank Ryan.
A useful addition to the Archive.
More from Anti-Fascist Action
Anti-Fascist Action in the archive
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By: Mark P Mon, 21 Mar 2011 17:00:58
Some interesting articles in this, as there are in most issues.
I will confess though to never having quite worked out what the purpose of an anti-fascist group and magazine is in a part of the world with no fascist movement.
Reply on the CLR
By: Budapestkick Mon, 21 Mar 2011 17:55:50
In reply to Mark P.
Maybe, but it would be complacent of us not to see the possibility of one developing and a magazine like this does perform a good service as an anti-racism magazine and one that can also expose fascist grouplets before they develop into something bigger.
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By: Mark P Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:19:14
In reply to Budapestkick.
Well, the thing is though that an anti-racist group is a different thing from an anti-fascist group.
No Quarter doesn’t come out very often and barely any of it actually deals with fascism in contemporary Ireland for the very simple reason that they’d have accumulated enough material to fill a magazine about once a decade.
So you get a magazine that’s largely about anti-racism and historical anti-fascism interspersed with a very occasional report about a bunch of antifascists taking pints away from three social misfits in a pub and telling them to piss off home. Not a bad magazine by any means, but well, the focus seems a bit peculiar.
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By: Neues aus den Archiven der radikalen (und nicht so radikalen) Linken « Entdinglichung Wed, 23 Mar 2011 09:48:35
[…] * Anti-Fascist Action (AFA): No Quarter – Ireland’s Anti-Fascist Magazine, Nr. 2, 2005 […]
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By: Luo Gang Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:09:25
Has it not occured to you that the reason that there is no active fascist movement in Ireland is because there is an anti-fascist group crushing the seeds?
My house isn’t on fire at the moment but I have no intention of getting rid of my fire extinguisher.
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By: EamonnCork Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:38:57
If I set traps for lions on my housing estate in Cork and no lions were ever discovered there, it wouldn’t necessarily follow that they’d been kept away by my anti-lion strategy.
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By: Luo Gang Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:32:28
In reply to EamonnCork.
No it wouldn’t. But there is no reason to believe that there will be any lions loose in a Cork estate. The presence of fascists is a proven phenomenon.
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By: EamonnCork Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:43:45
Fair enough, I was being a bit glib. Though if the Cork estate was near Fota Wildlife Park, who knows?
But I don’t think you can attribute the non existence of a fascist movement in Ireland to the diligence of Irish anti-fascists. The BNP has managed to grow in England despite very energetic anti-fascist movements there.
I often wonder why we haven’t had a BNP type movement here. There have been many predictions that such an anti-immigration movement would spring up but the cause has been the preserve of a few isolated nutcases. I genuinely wonder why that is.
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