Radio War Nerd EP #75—Sinn Fein's Long War Success
A deep dive into Sinn Fein's long bullets-to-ballots strategy for gaining power, culminating in their recent surprising success in Northern Ireland elections . . . War Nerd talks about his own personal, painful history as a Sinn Fein activist in the Bay Area . . . Tracing the rise of Sinn Fein & IRA in early 20th c. Ireland, how the urban guerrilla army succeeded against British Empire by losing on the battlefield, before degenerating in victory under De Valera . . . Rise of new generation of young Sinn Fein radicals in late 1960s who put gaining power over doctrinal purity — through bullets and ballots — and how it succeeded . . . Also: Ames on two former Moscow correspondents— David Remnick, and Canadian foreign minister Chrystia Freeland who's now dealing with a Nazi skeleton in her family closet . . .
Total time: 2:52:33
Comments (25)
This one is awesome. Viz the second half and Ukrainian fascists: my friend (whose neighbors are Ukrainian) was telling me about how in Canada there's a statue to a Ukrainian Nazi. Wonder if anti-racism protestors could target that one, but sort of doubt it unfortunately. It's crazy how this stuff sort of just gets buried.
Yeah, there are just so many strata of evil that people can only dig out a few sites that seem particularly galling at the moment.
What's the music that plays around the 2hr 11min mark?
Great episode, btw
Any chance of an episode with Pankaj Mishra? His new book seems to touch on a lot of subjects you guys have talked about. Maybe a bit theory heavy, but I'd love to listen to you discuss the intellectual history of angry young men on the show. Haven't had an episode on war and culture in a while.
Whoa, Niall Ferguson threatened (just Googled) to sue him for libel. He sounds great.
The timeliness of this episode was uncanny, given the sudden interest in Irish unification that came out last week as a consequence of not only Sinn Fein's electoral gains, but also increasing calls for another Scottish independence vote, and the distressing realization that Brexit would result in a hard border around Norther Ireland. (see <a href="http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2017/03/17/it-s-now-clear-northern-ireland-is-leaving-the-union)." rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2017/03/17/it-s-now-clear-northern-ireland-is-leaving-the-union).</a> If the UK continues down the path to Brexit, it seems like the union drifting apart is a very real possibility, and that the dream of a unified Ireland would come about not through direct struggle, but as the unintended consequence of the Brexit fiasco.
Yes, exactly. I don't think anyone, even McGuinness, thought that scenario would happen--but here we are, as the feller said.
Instructive as always. Keep up the good work. Mark: Sometimes it seems like you speak of the Left very narrowly. When talking about the events in Berkley, you suggest that the Left is so powerless that the most it can do is destroy an individual here or there. On its face, this idea is plainly absurd. The only possible way it can make any sort of sense is if you take "Left" to mean something extremely narrow and specific. It can be a little confusing.
Why is the Irish flag Green Whit and Orange?
It was the flag of the Young Ireland movement in 1848. It's basically a representation of Wolfe Tone thought: "To unite Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter under the common name of Irishmen in order to break the connection with England, the never failing source of all our political evils, that was my aim". In the flag, the green stands for Catholics, the white for peace, and the orange for Protestants (though it isn't actually quite the right shade of orange).
Could you look into the current blustering over North Korea by the Trump administration for the next show? I'm trying to get a read on whether it'll be more of the same worthless sabre-rattling or Trump might actually be trying to start something. Mattis doesn't strike me as the reckless type, and I don't get the impression that he loves all this counter-insurgency work we've been doing. I think he wants his name on a big, decisive military operation like a war on North Korea - if they thought they could pull it off. The political situation in the South doesn't seem appropriate, however, not to mention the political situation in Washington. It's also annual exercise with SK and bluster about the North Koreans' inevitable response season, but it's the first time the Trump Administration has been in charge of it and their bluster seems a little more blustery than usual.
Yeah, we talked about this on the latest show. I've said before there's very little chance of any particular bluff getting serious, but then there are so many bluffs that the odds probably go up.
A Great book on America and the Wests cold war alliance with Nazis is Christopher Simpson's book "Blowback." Also check out "inside the league" By Jon Lee Anderson and Scott Anderson for more on Ukrainian OUN/B Fascists and the Croatian Ustashe.
Yeah, I think Mark's recommended that one.
Your mention of William Jennings Bryan was interesting as Bannon has recently compared Trump to him. A while ago I read a paper on the Scopes trial (admittedly by Gary North) that said that Bryan was a very radical-left person and that the bible belt was considered a part of the progressive wing of American left politics, up to the Scopes trial. He claims that the liberal intelligensia was behind the trial in the shape of H.L. Mencken and their plan was to lose the trial and then take the fight to the supreme court. However, Bryan lost and it did not work out the way they planned. What I don't undertand is why Bannon would want people to identify Bryan with Trump?
Probably because Trump has (or at least Bannon believes Trump has) fans on the paleocon faction of the contemporary right (think Pat Buchanan et al) and there's plenty of affection for the right wing of the Populists in that quarter. The first positive takes on WJB I recall coming across in the contemporary media were from paleocons loosely aligned with the 90s anti-globalization movement (notably one in New York Press, now that you mention it...)
Mark, re: your comment about FOIAing records related to the Chomiaks, it looks like there's some files in CREST as part of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act collection that mention a Chomiak who writes articles and was on CIA payroll: <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/search/site/Chomiak" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/search/site/Chomiak</a>
looks to be an entirely different Chomiak. a Polish scientist at first glance?
This may not be new information, but the nickname Chuckle Brothers is a reference to a questionably funny comedy duo who were on British childrens TV for over 20 years.
Ah, OK. It does have a pejorative sound.
non-related request! it would be great if you could talk to the author of "blitzed: drugs in the third reich" <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Blitzed-Drugs-Third-Norman-Ohler/dp/1328663795/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489467958&sr=8-1&keywords=blitz" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/Blitzed-Drugs-Third-Norman-Ohler/dp/1328663795/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489467958&sr=8-1&keywords=blitz</a>" amazing book
Really hope you do a show on the populists some time down the line, would be a fascinating listen. Also if you want a more purely "war" topic along those lines, look at the "Battle of Blair Mountain" in 1921, the historian James Green wrote a fascinating book on the topic <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Devil-Here-These-Hills-Virginias/dp/0802123317." rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/Devil-Here-These-Hills-Virginias/dp/0802123317.</a> The idea of 10,000 rebels rising up against the US government is hard to believe even now, and if you squint look awful similar to the revolutions that were breaking out in Europe at roughly the same time. Also, loved the diss of Melanie Phillips in this episode. Another great listen
It's a minor point, but Ireland actually won the Economic War, and got substantial economic as well as diplomatic benefits from it. Granted, if we were up against steelier opposition than Neville Chamberlain we might not have done Then again, I think the major Irish losers were big cattle ranchers, and they were Fine Gael voters anyway - many Fianna Fáil supporters may not have been unhappy to see them suffering.
That's an interesting point. Ireland seemed so poor when I first went there in the 1970s that when I read the Economic War was a failure, it rang true. (Good news is that when I went back after they joined the EU, the change was incredible.)