We Will Not Justify Imprisoning Socialists

A funny state of affairs has arisen in the last few weeks, after we, following much back and forth over days, refused to publish an article from a Ukrainian member of the Irish Labour Party and Irish Left With Ukraine because he wouldn’t give an inch. Aontacht has been accused of being a Kremlin asset during the course of these conversations. We spent days in a back and forth with him trying to accommodate him in a publication that's at least a day's ride further left than who he associates himself with, we nevertheless made every attempt to accommodate him. Central to that disagreement was: We were willing to publish his article but it had to either remove the justification of the 15 year imprisonment of Ukrainian Communist Bogdan Syrotiuk for encouraging draft dodging” or if it was to be published intact we wanted a disclaimer that read “The staff of Aontacht vehemently disagrees with this article for justifying the detention of Bogdan Syrotuik and opposes military conscription on principle. This article has been nevertheless reproduced for the purposes of open discussion”

The Ukrainian Labourite refused to consent to either of these options. This would be the second article fielded from the writer in question; we have no objection to fielding a variety of arguments on Ukraine that are not against our socialist principles. 

We quite simply could not publish that article without it, because as one comrade put it in the internal debate “It defames us to have such anti-communist stuff on the page so damage control for Aontacht is necessary” and as I replied to him “It absolutely is, like, we would not  recover from the outrage of serious communists if we published something supportive of the imprisonment of a communist. Hell, even most anarchists would eat us on principle” this was myself and another rural Irish comrade. 

I feel the need to state this because there seems to be a xenophobic side eye cast towards us on the issue due to the prominent Eastern European minority in Aontacht by Irish liberals, which pro interventionist Ukrainians and the whole EU and NATO industrial complex are quite happy to indulge.

The strongest opponents to this article being published without the disclaimer were myself and another member of the prominent County Limerick minority in Aontacht, while the most prominent voices in support of Ukraine in general come from a Romanian in the IT department without which this publication could not even run, and the Russian Anarchist known as Alexander Rakhmetov. Aontacht remains Ireland's non-sectarian socialist media platform, encompassing a wide range of views on international affairs. 

The Labourite only had to consent to a disclaimer and we were willing to allow him to pose his opinion in the interest of free discussion. 

On the issue of our opposition to the ongoing war, we recently had a fundraiser on our platforms for the anti-war activists in both Ukraine and Russia and the majority internal position has been for a while that there needs to be simultaneous revolution in both countries to stop the war. I don't think a single person in Aontacht to my knowledge supports Putin or NATO. I share the majority opinion myself. 

But further to that we seem to be under attack for supporting Aughinish Alumina. A ridiculous article calling us out by name with a flow chart attached along with the whole of the Irish anti-imperialist left, also materialised with interesting timing. It is amazing what can manifest out of the ether when you say no to a labourite. 

Which is how I personally got dragged into all this. A lot of the Aontacht positioning on Aughinish Alumina has been informed by Roots Party research into the issue and our position that it must be nationalised, hopping off the contributions of others who know that it is the last thing the government will ever do but agreeing with us on the need to maintain the factory or we will inherit a toxic liability when Rusal inevitably pulls out and it would decimate the economy of the mid west and plunge rural Limerick into a localised economic collapse. 

Our position in Roots was covered in this Aontacht article back in June  And I personally, publically called out Fronta Poblachtach for working with the Russians over Aughinish back around the same time in this article. There have only been 2 other articles published on the issue, one of which was news coverage of the environmentalist protests against the expansion of the red mud area, and the other This article by Clare Daly which I believe this nonsense is based on, despite it, in a vacuum, simply calling for sovereign domestic debate.

However, it applies more strongly to me as the strongest voice in Aontacht for Aughinish has been myself and I will not be taking the liberal call for the destruction of the people of county Limerick, who are my people, lying down. I especially will not be taking it from labourites who worked hand in hand during my young adulthood to destroy the industrial base of this country with the government parties during the recession. Who supported austerity instead of strategic nationalisation or support for workers to buy out and co-operativise their workplaces. 

To me this is a declaration of war outside of Aontacht, because on the issue of Aughinish this is a personal attack against me myself, as well as my party who are staunchly Libertarian Socialist, anti interventionist, anti-war and anti-colonialist. I have been an opponent of both Russia's invasion and western opportunism in taking Ukrainian resources in return for arms and pretending it’s charity and solidarity for quite awhile. 

However, I should not expect better from the Labour Party with their history of expecting us to be grateful for being robbed by international capital during the recession which destroyed the lives of myself and everyone who came of age during that great heist they facilitated and all those who came of age after us. That’s to say nothing of their hand in hobbling the trade unions. We will not be taking notes on what should be the left’s position from such people, as whatever they claim in theory, in practice they have no place with us and in spite of social positioning the question of if the Labour Party are left wing at all economically is one that should have been opened a long time ago, as largely they sit closer to FFG than they do to any of the rest of the left, including the other liberals. 

And as for the article originally published prior to this by the Ukrainian who preferred to throw a hissy fit than to allow a disclaimer, our IT department has highlighted the high probability that it was AI. We are leaving it up in the interest of open discussion and the lack of having received anything substantive besides from the Irish Left For Ukraine camp.

For ethical reasons we oppose the use of AI but understand that some people who do not speak English as their first language may rely on it. For this reason we ask in future that non native English/Irish speaking submissions instead apply to us for assistance in refining their submissions, and we also ask that future call out posts and statements also refrain for use of AI as we would prefer that Sam Altman not profit on our intense notoriety as aforementioned ridiculous call out was also flagged by IT as LLM. 

Any ire at my support for the worker owned reindustrialisation of rural Ireland and resource nationalism can be directed directly at me in future. 

Now if the Labourites can excuse me between trying to shoehorn their way into being the arbiters of a left they do not belong to, I need to get back to trying to hold what I have together with metal putty and baling twine because they robbed the likes of me of any chance at social advancement and the Kremlin cheques have, as of yet, failed to materialise.