The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
Jeremy Corbyn came to the attention of police after becoming involved with Red Action, an ultra-left group that expressed its “unconditional and uncritical support” for IRA atrocities and included members of an IRA bombing team.
Patrick Hayes, a Red Action leader, and another member, Jan Taylor, were convicted of an IRA bombing campaign in England and sentenced to 30 years in jail. A third member, Liam Heffernan, was convicted of stealing explosives for another republican terrorist organisation, the INLA, and sentenced to 23 years.
Corbyn spoke at at least three Red Action meetings between 1985 and 1992 and the group sometimes met at his then constituency office, ex-members said.
Jan Taylor, left, and Patrick Hayes were convicted of a bombing campaign in EnglandNEWS GROUP NEWSPAPERS
Red Action’s journal, seen by The Sunday Times in an archive, says it provided security for Corbyn and others in their work with two other IRA-sympathising organisations, Troops Out Movement and Labour Committee on Ireland. In mid-1992, the journal says, Red Action co-ordinated a speaking tour with Corbyn and others to protest against the treatment of republican prisoners.
At around the same time, Hayes and Taylor were plotting a bombing campaign that began in November 1992 and ended with their arrest in March 1993.
It included an attack on Harrods, the third time the department store had been targeted by the Provisionals. The bomb, in a litter bin outside the shop, caused extensive damage and four people were injured. Hayes and Taylor also bombed a train and planted huge bombs at Canary Wharf and in Tottenham Court Road, both in London, which would have caused mass casualties, but which failed to explode because of faults.
A senior police officer from the period told The Sunday Times that Corbyn came to officers’ notice for his links to Red Action and for hosting IRA and Sinn Fein figures at the Commons. The visits caused concern that the IRA was able to familiarise itself with the layout and security of the building. The police officer told The Sunday Times, however, that insufficient evidence was found to pursue a case against Corbyn. “He knew they [Red Action] were open supporters of terrorism and he supported them,” he said.
“We had no evidence that he knew they were actually involved in terrorism themselves.” A former Special Branch officer, Peter Francis, has also said Corbyn was investigated over his IRA links. There is no suggestion he carried out any act of terrorism.
Red Action also made up the activist core of a broader organisation, Anti- Fascist Action (AFA). Corbyn was involved with AFA between 1985 and the mid-1990s. According to the leading historian of the British anti-fascist movement, Professor Nigel Copsey, and AFA’s official history, Corbyn was the group’s national secretary or president between 1985 and 1989. Hayes was AFA’s London organiser before his arrest. AFA specialised in physical attacks, sometimes unprovoked, against people it believed to be “fascists”. A number of its members were imprisoned as a result.
During Corbyn’s time as its secretary or president, AFA was involved in at least five serious incidents of street disorder. Corbyn was present on at least one of these occasions, though he did not act violently. He told the author of a student thesis that he quit his AFA post because he believed only defensive physical confrontation should take place.
Red Action stated in its journal that “both as an organisation and as individuals we support the activities of the Provisional IRA and the INLA unconditionally and uncritically”. After the 1984 Brighton bombing, which targeted Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet, it said “there are plenty of people who thought that it would have been better if it had been more successful”.
It praised the Provisionals as the “gladiators of today” and said IRA killings were “justified in the fight for freedom from your oppressor . . . if you shit on people for 800 years it’s a bit unrealistic to cry foul when they put a bomb in a soldiers’ pub”.
Despite this stance Corbyn was the keynote speaker at Red Action’s “national meeting” on February 23, 1985, and continued to have links with the group until at least 1992.
Records accessed in archives in London and Belfast show that Red Action held some meetings at Corbyn’s then constituency office, 129 Seven Sisters Road in Finsbury Park, north London, including a meeting on April 6, 1990, to discuss an “anti-imperialist coalition” on Ireland. Corbyn was not present.
Red Action stewarded fringe meetings with Corbyn and the Sinn Fein leader, Gerry Adams, at the 1983 and 1989 Labour conferences. “We hope Labour Committee on Ireland manage to improve Labour’s disgraceful record on Ireland,” the journal said after the 1983 meeting. “Perhaps they should start by sending that foul-mouthed bigot Don Concannon MP, Labour spokesman on Northern Ireland, something nice for Christmas, like a bomb.”
Corbyn’s spokesman said: “Jeremy has never supported political violence in Northern Ireland. He had no contact with police over Red Action and was completely unaware of any criminal activities. “ Asked why Corbyn attended meetings with the group, he said they could have been about other subjects such as the treatment of prisoners. He said other groups used Corbyn’s constituency office for meetings not organised by the MP.
@mragilligan
Patrick Hayes, a Red Action leader, and another member, Jan Taylor, were convicted of an IRA bombing campaign in England and sentenced to 30 years in jail. A third member, Liam Heffernan, was convicted of stealing explosives for another republican terrorist organisation, the INLA, and sentenced to 23 years.
Corbyn spoke at at least three Red Action meetings between 1985 and 1992 and the group sometimes met at his then constituency office, ex-members said.
Jan Taylor, left, and Patrick Hayes were convicted of a bombing campaign in EnglandNEWS GROUP NEWSPAPERS
Red Action’s journal, seen by The Sunday Times in an archive, says it provided security for Corbyn and others in their work with two other IRA-sympathising organisations, Troops Out Movement and Labour Committee on Ireland. In mid-1992, the journal says, Red Action co-ordinated a speaking tour with Corbyn and others to protest against the treatment of republican prisoners.
At around the same time, Hayes and Taylor were plotting a bombing campaign that began in November 1992 and ended with their arrest in March 1993.
It included an attack on Harrods, the third time the department store had been targeted by the Provisionals. The bomb, in a litter bin outside the shop, caused extensive damage and four people were injured. Hayes and Taylor also bombed a train and planted huge bombs at Canary Wharf and in Tottenham Court Road, both in London, which would have caused mass casualties, but which failed to explode because of faults.
A senior police officer from the period told The Sunday Times that Corbyn came to officers’ notice for his links to Red Action and for hosting IRA and Sinn Fein figures at the Commons. The visits caused concern that the IRA was able to familiarise itself with the layout and security of the building. The police officer told The Sunday Times, however, that insufficient evidence was found to pursue a case against Corbyn. “He knew they [Red Action] were open supporters of terrorism and he supported them,” he said.
“We had no evidence that he knew they were actually involved in terrorism themselves.” A former Special Branch officer, Peter Francis, has also said Corbyn was investigated over his IRA links. There is no suggestion he carried out any act of terrorism.
Red Action also made up the activist core of a broader organisation, Anti- Fascist Action (AFA). Corbyn was involved with AFA between 1985 and the mid-1990s. According to the leading historian of the British anti-fascist movement, Professor Nigel Copsey, and AFA’s official history, Corbyn was the group’s national secretary or president between 1985 and 1989. Hayes was AFA’s London organiser before his arrest. AFA specialised in physical attacks, sometimes unprovoked, against people it believed to be “fascists”. A number of its members were imprisoned as a result.
During Corbyn’s time as its secretary or president, AFA was involved in at least five serious incidents of street disorder. Corbyn was present on at least one of these occasions, though he did not act violently. He told the author of a student thesis that he quit his AFA post because he believed only defensive physical confrontation should take place.
Red Action stated in its journal that “both as an organisation and as individuals we support the activities of the Provisional IRA and the INLA unconditionally and uncritically”. After the 1984 Brighton bombing, which targeted Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet, it said “there are plenty of people who thought that it would have been better if it had been more successful”.
It praised the Provisionals as the “gladiators of today” and said IRA killings were “justified in the fight for freedom from your oppressor . . . if you shit on people for 800 years it’s a bit unrealistic to cry foul when they put a bomb in a soldiers’ pub”.
Despite this stance Corbyn was the keynote speaker at Red Action’s “national meeting” on February 23, 1985, and continued to have links with the group until at least 1992.
Records accessed in archives in London and Belfast show that Red Action held some meetings at Corbyn’s then constituency office, 129 Seven Sisters Road in Finsbury Park, north London, including a meeting on April 6, 1990, to discuss an “anti-imperialist coalition” on Ireland. Corbyn was not present.
Red Action stewarded fringe meetings with Corbyn and the Sinn Fein leader, Gerry Adams, at the 1983 and 1989 Labour conferences. “We hope Labour Committee on Ireland manage to improve Labour’s disgraceful record on Ireland,” the journal said after the 1983 meeting. “Perhaps they should start by sending that foul-mouthed bigot Don Concannon MP, Labour spokesman on Northern Ireland, something nice for Christmas, like a bomb.”
Corbyn’s spokesman said: “Jeremy has never supported political violence in Northern Ireland. He had no contact with police over Red Action and was completely unaware of any criminal activities. “ Asked why Corbyn attended meetings with the group, he said they could have been about other subjects such as the treatment of prisoners. He said other groups used Corbyn’s constituency office for meetings not organised by the MP.
@mragilligan
