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Anti racism, Anti Fascism, Anti imperialism!

17/08/08

It is appropriate that as west Belfast’s famous community festival, Féile an Phobail, celebrated its 20th birthday, the single biggest event of this year’s festival was the second annual Anti-Racism World Cup held from the 1st – 3rd of August.

Féile an Phobail (the Festival of the People), piloted in 1988 as a revolutionary response to vicious verbal and physical attacks on the population of west Belfast, offered yet another outlet of struggle to a community famed for its resilience in the face of state oppression.

The festival marks the anniversary of internment every year and is comprised of numerous events by local community activists and groups. Over the years people from the community, which still has the most multi deprived political wards in the Six Counties, have used the festival as another from of resistance, empowerment, self-expression and crucially an outlet for enjoyment and community bonding.

Over the years the community has been on the receiving end of vicious state attacks in the form of black propaganda, induced poverty, imprisonment - with 1 in 10 of the adult population having been imprisoned for political reasons - and ultimately violence and death – with the greatest concentration of conflict related deaths being attributed directly to the area.

Their experience is merely proof of the rule that the most militant section of an oppressed nation will be the target for the most vicious racism of the occupier.

In this context, west Belfast is a natural home for the Anti-Racism World Cup.

Organised by community activists from a number of political groupings and none, including éirígí, the World Cup brought 16 teams from around the world to Belfast for a weekend of soccer, radical politics, entertainment and international solidarity.

Among the nations represented were the Congo, England, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Palestine (represented by Irish players following the refusal of Zionist officials to allow the Palestinian team to travel), Portugal and Scotland, as well as number of local youth and community teams.

From Friday (August 1) through to Sunday (August 3), the one hundred odd international guests and hundreds of locals from various ethnic and religious backgrounds, all representing anti fascist, anti imperialist and anti racist groupings across Europe and Africa were kept busy with a variety of political events.

It began with information sessions by all of the constituent groups followed by Italian anti fascist Ska band The Offenders on Friday night. Saturday saw the launch of the tournament with a full day of sports, activities international food and a pitch side fair, allowing local residents and the far traveled international guests to bond and share their experiences.

Marking the 40th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement in Ireland, the organisers launched a specially commissioned video, which documented the struggle of the nationalist community for jobs, homes and the right to vote (see below). This was followed by a talk from Peoples’ Democracy veteran and Irish language activist Fergus Ó hÍr, giving the context for the tumultuous events of the late 1960s and early ’70s for the uninitiated in the audience.

The finale to the events came on Sunday afternoon when the impressive contingent of international guests and local people gathered in Andersonstown to form the anti-racist contingent of the Féile an Phobail parade.

Led by the Congolese World Cup team, the marchers carried dozens of red flags inscribed with the logo of the West Against Racism Network, as well as a myriad of internationalist anti imperialist imagery.

Renditions of songs of resistance from all over the world were sung for the thousands of onlookers on the Falls Road, in a fitting colsure to what was a tribute to the people of west belfast and their comrades who travelled from all over the world to make this experiment in human solidarity a resounding success.

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