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A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
http://www.ainfos.ca/
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AFA Ireland press release - 4th July 2000
FASCISTS RALLY TO PORTADOWN
The increasing participation of fascist groups
in the Portadown stand-off has been condemned by
anti-fascists. It has been revealed that members
of Combat 18 from the North of England will
attend next Sunday's Orange March to Drumcree.
A spokesperson for Anti Fascist Action today
said: "It is clear that the Orange demand to
march down the Garvaghy Road has provided a
convenient rallying point for many sections of
the Far Right from both Northern Ireland and
Britain. The former National Front member and
sectarian murderer Johnny Adair, by staging a
'show of force' in Portadown on Monday night,
has assumed leadership of the most militant
section of Orangeism. The arrival of the race-
hate gang C18 at the weekend will aid the
attempts of fascists to recruit off the back of
the seige of the Garvaghy Road."
The appearance of Adair, leader of the Belfast
UFF, in Portadown has set the agenda for
loyalism and has revealed that the Orange Order
is happy for any and all racists and bigots to
rally to their banner.
The close links between the LVF and Combat 18
have received little attention in Ireland In
addition the fascist British National Party
(BNP) has been organising in the North in
support of Orange marches for the past two years
and now feels strong enough to field a candidate
in the upcoming South Antrim by-election.
The AFA spokesperson, Brian O Reilly, continued:
"For years the fascist right in Britain has
'Supported Ulster' by attacking Irish events and
running guns to loyalist paramilitaries. Now,
with direct involvement of the LVF and the UFF -
and the silent support of the Orange Order -
they are extending their activities into
Ireland."
More Information: Anti-Fascist Action (Ireland)
PO Box 3355, Dublin 7, Ireland E-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.geocities.com/irishafa
===============================================
AFA Briefing Paper on Adair, loyalism and
fascism
"If you make peace, I'll start up something else
... shove the dove" Adair to RUC interviewers
in1994 [Irish News, 20/1/96]
The convicted loyalist terrorist Johnny Adair,
now the leader of the UDA/UFF and setting the
political agenda for Unionism with a 'show of
force' in Portadown, is a man with a background
even more sinister than that of the average
death squad commander.
In 1994 Adair pleaded guilty to 'directing
terrorism' and was sentenced to 16 years,
serving only five until he was released under
the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. In an
interview in a British newspaper he admitted to
being the loyalist known as 'Mad Dog' and
boasted of being involved in the sectarian
murders of 20 Catholics. While in jail Adair
forged close links with Billy Wright, leader of
the LVF, and the UDA carried out sectarian
murders of Catholics to avenge Wright's death.
Adair and Wright were also linked by their
prominent involvement in drug dealing in the
North.
But Adair, who rose to leadership in the Belfast
UDA/UFF in the early 1990s, has a far longer
political pedigree.
In the mid 1980's there were about 200 National
Front members and supporters in Belfast, one of
them the young Johnny Adair. In 1983 a National
Front March took place in Belfast, attended by a
150 fascist skinheads. Prominent in the parade
was Johnny Adair, along with his sidekick Sam
McCrory. This event became known as the
'gluesniffers march', because many of the
skinheads were drunk on cider and openly
sniffing glue from plastic bags as they paraded
from the city centre to the Shankill chanting
anti-Black and anti-republican slogans.
In January 1998 Mo Mowlam visited the Maze
prison to meet the leaders of the loyalist
prisoners. The UDA/UFF leaders in the Maze were
Adair and Sam McCrory, both from the Shankhill
Road. At the time of Mowlan's jail visit the
media reported that McCrory has 'White Power'
and 'Skins' tattoos on his hand.
Investigations by Anti Fascist Action revealed
that in the early 1980's both 'Skelly' McCrory
and Adair played in a Belfast nazi skinhead band
called 'Offensive Weapon'. This band played a
few gigs on the Nazi skinhead circuit in
Britain. In August 1998 the Irish News printed a
photograph of Adair and McCrory on the
'gluesniffers' NF March in Belfast in September
1983. [Irish News 6th August 1998]. With them
was Donald Hodgen, another skinhead who also
became a UDA member and is now a prominent
activist in the loyalist Ulster Democratic
Party.
The early 1990s, when Adair was leader of the
UDA/UFF on the Shankill, also marked a period
ofincreased contact between Northern loyalists
and Fascists in Britain as close links developed
between the UDA and London based Fascists. Eddie
Whicker and Frank Portinari were both 'UDA
Organisers' in Britain. Portinari was jailed in
1993 for gun running to the UDA. In 1994 Terry
Blackham [now prominent in NF anti-immigrant
campaigns] was jailed for attempting to smuggle
sub-machine guns, a grenade launcher and 2,000
rounds of ammunition to the UDA in East Belfast.
Charlie Sargeant, the former leader of Combat 18
now serving life in England for the murder of a
fellow fascist, often boasted of his personal
friendship with Johnny Adair. In the mid 1990s
C18's control of the Blood and Honour 'music'
network allowed them to put on several gigs in
the North. 'Blood and Honour' magazine boasted
of Welsh band Celtic Warrior's visit to Belfast
and published photographs of loyalist bandsmen
playing alongside them at a 'White Christmas'
gig on the Lower Shankill Road. Since the gigs
were held in loyalist areas it would be
impossible for them to go ahead without at least
tacit sanction from the paramilitaries. The same
issue of 'Blood and Honour' magazine which
reported the Shankill Road gig also printed
photographs of two UDA prisoners in Long Kesh,
who sent greetings to C18 and said that they
were "dedicated to keeping Ulster British and
white". Again this had to have been sanctioned
by their leadership within the jail. The
loyalists' prison journal 'Warrior' has
published pro-C18 articles
C18/LVF and Portadown While Adair adopts the
mantle of his friend Billy Wright as the public
face of loyalist extremism in Wright's home
town, the loyalist/ fascist alliance has also
been strengthened in recent years.
In July 1999 Combat 18 brought a group of 25
supporters from Britain to Portadown for the
July 12th weekend. Combat 18 members were
present at the unveiling of a memorial to Billy
Wright in Portadown in July 1999. Wright is also
idolised on a number of C18 websites. On July
11th 1999 a 'Blood & Honour' gig was held in
Portadown. The English fascist bands 'Razors
Edge', 'Chingford Attack' and 'No Remorse'
played alongside loyalist flute bands. According
to a C18 report on the event: "A spokeswoman for
the Loyalist Volunteer Force, who hosted the
gig, took the stage and thanked Combat 18
officially for the support shown to her
organisation and its prisoners of war both in
C18 publications and financially. All the
profits from the gig were donated to the LVF
Prisoners' Fund and links between C18 and the
LVF were strengthened on the evening'. C18
members also attended the Orange march in
Portadown and the demonstration at Drumcree on
July 12th.
There have been revelations in recent years of
strong links between the LVF and nazis in the
North West of Britain. These include C18 members
and supporters within the British army. In May
1999 C18 members in the North of England
distributed leaflets at Blackburn's football
ground attacking Rosemary Nelson, the human
rights solicitor murdered by loyalists.
This year a C18 delegation will also be
attending the Orange March in Portadown. The
Observer reported on July 2nd that the RUC had
refused to take action to prevent the C18
members entering Northern Ireland. The fascists,
from Bolton, Burnley and Preston in the North of
England, have long standing links with the LVF.
The Observer reported that "the neo-Nazis will
be staying with LVF members on Portadown's
Corcrain and Brownstown estates from 7 July. A
number of Combat 18 members have also been
promised accommodation in nearby Tandragee." and
that "contact between Combat 18 and the LVF was
maintained through a young loyalist in Portadown
who has recently become a born-again Christian.
'Ordained' by convicted loyalist murderer Pastor
Kenny McClinton, this man still holds white
supremacist views." Kenny McClinton, a former
loyalist prisoner, was the LVF representative to
the International Decommissioning Body.
One of Combat 18's chief supporters in Northern
Ireland is Shaun Leighton, a convicted loyalist
terrorist from Ballymoney in Co Antrim. Leighton
has written for Combat 18 publications and
websites.
[ENDS]
NO COPYRIGHT - If reproducing please credit to
AFA Ireland (address, etc. above)
http://www.geocities.com/irishafa
---------
Anti-Fascist Action, PO Box, 3355, Dublin 7
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