Clare Daly and the Communist Quest for Justice

Today I want to talk about three Irish politicians with similar views Clare Daly, Mick Wallace and Catherine Connolly. Since they are similar but unique I'll post about them individually. Let's start with Clare Daly. She became famous when her eloquent dissent of Butcher Biden went viral over the war in the Ukraine. 

First of all, Clare and Mick are wearing free Julian Assange T-shirts. That's something we agree on. Tulsi Gabbard said she would pardon Julian Assange when she ran for the leadership of the Democrat party. Something that Trump discussed but failed to do. Edward Snowden's name also comes up who became a fugitive for reporting illegal activity. 

Clare Daly refers to herself as "Independent. Socialist. Former Member of European Parliament." She is anti war, pro Palestine and anti American Imperialism. So let's talk about that. 

Let's start with American Imperialism. The purpose of the American revolution was to break off from England and form a free Republic. The purpose of the American revolution was not to become a super power actively involved with colonialism. 

Yet that is exactly what Trump 2.0 has become. The term provide for the common defense meant to support liberation not invade and conquer sovereign states. This opens the conversation about far left and far right. 

Clare Daly calls herself a socialist. Yet she speaks out passionately about issues I agree with. It brings me back to James Connolly and my time with CUPW, the Canadian Postal Union. I was a letter carrier for Canada Post and became actively involved with the Union. 

I ultimately lost my job at Canada Post for Union activity opposing the privatization of Canada Post. Historically Canadain Postal workers were represented by two different Unions. Internal workers were represented by CUPW while external workers or letter carriers were represented by LCUC. 

There was a forced merger between the two unions and since CUPW had more members, they won the vote. Yet it wasn't a merger it was a hostile take over because the two different unions both had very different ideologies. 

LCUC was a Business union like the Teamsters while CUPW was a socialist union with a whole list of political objectives. I started working for Canada Post after the forced merger and jokingly said my mother, CUPW, was a Communist while my father, LCUC, was a Capitalist. 

I met many people in CUPW who called themselves Communists which completely shocked and baffled me. Their definition of Communism was very different than mine. I had one coworker say that he thought I was a Communist for the same reason I thought he wasn't - we both believed in democracy and free speech. That claim took me a long time to understand. 

To make a long story short it brings us to James Connolly. When I was in West Belfast back in the /80's a friend gave me a pin. I read the name out loud - James Connolly. She smiled and with a twinkle in her eye said he was a Rebel. He was a Communist. 

I cherished the gift and was determined to learn more about this Rebel. James Connolly was one of the signers of the Irish Proclamation and was executed for signing it after the Easter uprising. That landmark document was the Irish version of the Declaration of Independence declaring it's separation from British occupation and defined their ideal of a free Republic. 

James Connolly signed that document which protected civil liberty by law. Yet he was a Communist which historically crushed civil liberty at every opportunity. 

I'm going to stop there and state Clare Daly is that kind of Communist. Although I don't agree with all of her positions I do agree with many of them and since the mainstream media has become so tainted, I think it's important to hear other voices.