An Easter of Arrogant Individual Indifference or Solidarity ?

international | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis Sunday April 08, 2012 07:50 by BrianClarkeNUJ - AllVoices

Gunter Grass's Affinity with Ireland

Gunter Grass published a poem on Wednesday of this week in which he said that Israel's nuclear program and not Iran’s is a threat to world peace. The poem calls for Germany to stop supplying Israel with submarines, and warns against an Israeli strike on Iran. The following is a translation of it;

Put Marian Price Back Thief !

First they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the Palestinians,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Palestinian.

Then they came for Marian Price,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't Irish or a Woman.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me !

The original, "First they came.." is a well known statement attributed to Martin Niemöller about the inactivity of German people during the Nazi rise to power before the second world war. There is some disagreement about the exact wording, when it was created; the content of the quotation and its presentation. However many regard it as an important part of the German World War experience.

The current adaption of it, relates to the interned Marian Price and a general British assault on civil political freedoms with the suspension of all due process with internment without trial, to the intimately chilling effect of all political protesters in occupied Ireland having all body cavities searched, as a sectarian state looks into virtually every human orifice after you are first stripped searched often violently, after you get arrested even after a demonstration. This is all part of the Irish experience of Britain's arsenal to smash all dissent to its occupation.

Irish readers know of Gunter Grass's affinity with Ireland but he is best known as a writer of the German experience of Fascism and as the author of The Tin Drum published in 1959 followed in 1961 by Cat and Mouse and in 1963 the Dog Years which together are known as The Danzig Trilogy. All three deal with the rise of Nazism and with his own war experience in the setting of Danzig and the delta of the Vistula River.

Gunter Grass published a poem on Wednesday of this week in which he said that Israel's nuclear program and not Iran’s is a threat to world peace. The poem calls for Germany to stop supplying Israel with submarines, and warns against an Israeli strike on Iran. The following is a translation of it;

What needs to be said
04/04/2012, 12:03
The poem by Günter Grass
Günter Grass, warns in the "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" of a war against Iran. In his poem titled "What must be said" the Nobel literature requests, therefore, Israel should not get a German U-boats more.

"Why I am silent, silent about too long,
what is obvious and in simulations
was practiced, as at the end of survivor
We are footnotes at best.

It is alleged that on the first strike of the subjugated by bullies
organized and directed rejoicing
could wipe out people of Iran,
because in the sphere of construction
a bomb is suspected.
But why do I say to myself,
that other country to call by name,
In the years since - though secret -
a growing nuclear capabilities available
but out of control, because no test
accessible?
The general concealment of this fact,
which my silence has subordinated
I feel as burdensome lie
and is forced, the penalty in view,
when it is ignored;
the verdict of "antisemitism" is familiar.
But now, because in my country,
from the very own crime
who are without comparison,
Time to time will be sought and taken to task,
turn and purely commercial basis, albeit
with nimble lip declared as restitution,
another U-boat to Israel
be delivered to the specialty
in it, everything is devastating warheads
there may be direct, where the existence
a single atomic bomb is unproven,
wants to be but as a fear of evidentiary value,
I say what needs to be said.

But why I kept quiet until now?
As I said, my background,
which is never subject to tilgendem flaw
forbid this as a fact distinct truth
the land of Israel, whom I am connected
and wants to stay, be expected.

Why do I say now only
aged and last ink:
The nuclear-armed Israel at risk
the already fragile world peace?
Because it must be said
what tomorrow might be too late;
also because we - as a German loaded enough -
Suppliers could be a crime
that is predictable, which is why our complicity
none of the usual excuses
would pay off.

And yes, I hold not more,
because I was the hypocrisy of the West
'm tired, also is to be hoped
There may be many free of silence
the cause of the apparent danger
to renounce violence and call on
also insist
that unrestricted and permanent control
of Israel's nuclear potential
and the Iranian nuclear facilities
by an international body
is approved by the governments of both countries.

Only then is all, the Israelis and Palestinians
more, all people working in this
region occupied by the delusion
live close to enemies close
and ultimately to help us."

There is a street in Tehran today called after Bobby Sands, who was treated precisely as a political prisoner the way prisoners of conscience are treated in occupied Ireland today. When I stood at Bobby's funeral more than 30 years ago, as more than a hundred thousand did, an Iranian all the way from Tehran, shook my hand and offered his condolences to the Irish people.

Marian Price today too, has spent more than 200 days on hunger strike and more than 300 days in solitary confinement, with a lot of pretentious Irish republican careerist politicians and aspiring ones, will again this Easter parade and trample on the wounds of the very brave who sacrificed all, having a vested interest in pretending Nazism in Ireland or internment without trial is not happening.

In our contemporary corporate, banker, fascist, world of crisis capitalism, prior to world war three, it is only by helping each other and in solidarity with sound leadership of real sacrifice, that we can survive the next holocaust and apply the lessons of our experience be it German or Irish.

Caption: Video Id: L71P3rJFoG8 Type: Youtube Video
Justice for Marian Price Part 2 - Bernadette McAliskey