Saw this on TAL forum..
The event started at 12pm at the Victoria Park Hotel Edinburgh, near the cities Leith district.
Around 100 delegates registered, as tea and coffee was provided. The conference seating was set up theatre style, facing a lectern, top table and large projector screen. As the delegates arrived there was a montage of James Connolly moments and events on the large screen whilst music played.
All around the perimeter of the room there was an exhibition displaying the last 20 odd years of the James Connolly Society....old campaign posters, pictures of previous marches, literature from both the Society and the enemies of Republicanism were on show. A 1916 Uprising Uniform was also on display, alongside a Rising Phoenix RFB uniform ( Leith ).
Jim Slaven briefly welcomed the delegates to the conference and explained the format. Before the fist session began, Stevie Dodds opened proceedings with a song. Appropriately for this week, he sang The Roll Of Honour.
1st session was on Scottish Independence.
David was the first to address the conference. He is a member of the JCS, a former SNP member and most surprisingly....a Jambo! He spoke first about his journey from SNP activist to Republican and supporter of the PIRA during the war. He told the conference that he believed the SNP was a middle class party, and we should all do our utmost to engage the working class in Scotland and promote the YES campaign. As Republicans we should naturally want to break up the British State, given its brutal history was written in blood.
Liam O'Hare was next to speak. Liam represented Scottish Radical Independence movement. He spoke passionately about the issues that effect Scotland today as a member of a Union which is pre-occupied with clinging onto British colonialism. He also said we have a unique chance to show the world that small nations can have self determination and our vote would have an impact in Ireland, Basque country, Catalonia and elsewhere. He described the Radical Independence movement as not nationalist, but Internationalist, however we have the chance to make our small part of the planet a better place by cutting the ties to a brutal British regime which is responsible for much of the death and destruction around the world.
He discussed the reasons why we should break the Union, focussing on Britain and its record in world politics. He spoke of the arms trade, illegal wars, nuclear weapons and the environment. He said the aim was to have a Scottish Republic.
There was a Q&A session after the two speakers had finished.
Next up was the session on the Far right and Fascism.
The first speaker was Dr Mark H, a former member of AFA and also Red Action. Dr Mark H now works at Southampton Uni however in the late 80's and 90's he was heavily involved in the physical and political opposition to fascism on the streets of Britain. He described technical aspects of the AFA and Red Actions war on the Nazi's and how the AFA organised itself.
Next up was Talman, former AFA activist and editor of Celtic fanzine TAL. He went into more detail about how the AFA took the fascists on in the streets and forced the BNP and C18 to stop its strategy of marching on the streets.
Both touched on the fact fascism was alive and well, however they have changed tactics now, attempting to be more acceptable in communities. They have moved away from open physical confrontation as they were beaten off the streets in the past by organisations like AFA among others.
Again, a Q&A followed with many points brought up.
After more refreshments and a short interval the JCS launched the new James Connolly Songbook and CD. Stevie Dodds again sang a couple of songs from the CD to much applause.
Jim Slaven then spoke about the James Connolly Society Welfare Dept and the work they did to contact and send Christmas cards to Irish POW's and other revolutionaries around the world who find themselves incarcerated.
He went to great lengths to make clear the JCS stance on Irish POW's. He said the society consider all Irishmen and women in British and Irish gaols for political actions or armed resistance as POW's, irrespective of when they were jailed or which group they belonged to.
The 3rd and final session was on Irish Republicanism.
The main speaker of the day was Independent Councillor Barry Montieth, former mayor of Dungannon, and current national chair of the 1916 societies.
Barry began with explaining his current stance on the situation in the Occupied 6 Counties. He said he left Sinn Fein after many Republicans in East Tyrone became disillusioned with the path the movement was following and lost faith in the leadership. He spoke of 90% of fallen Volunteers families in East Tyrone refusing to have SF organised commemorations and many Republicans disenfranchised in the North. He said that the 1916 societies were borne out of this disillusionment. Much of the speech was spent explaining how the 1916 societies were formatted, organised and their role.
Following Barry, Jim Slaven spoke briefly again. He spoke of his vision for Republicans in Scotland and reiterated his and the JCS commitment to the 1916 societies and the aims of Irish national self determination and One Ireland One Vote campaign. He spoke about the need for republicans to work together in Scotland and reaffirmed the JCS role in the YES campaign.
Again there was a Q&A session from the floor.
The whole conference to this point took 5 hours, and I had to leave after the final session. There was then a buffet ( no idea what this consisted of ) and more live music from Mise eire.....again, no idea how that went.
All in all a very worthwhile day. I urge all Republicans or anyone interested in Irish politics or politics in general to attend next year. After the success of this year I cannot imagine they wont do this again.
