In the wake of his recent humanitarian visit to Cuba, RICHARD BURGON points to the now urgent need to defend the island’s political sovereignty and its right to self-determination
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British army death squads in the north of Ireland
The admissions by former members of the secret, plain-clothes ‘Military Reaction Force’ suggest they were responsible for killing at least two Irish civilians in the 1970s, writes RICHARD RUDKIN
A British soldier in the north of Ireland
Thousands of jobs are at risk across higher education, yet government funding appears only when universities can be linked to military objectives, says JO GRADY, in the run-up to the Stop the War International Conference this Saturday
The Wye, Usk, Arrow and Lugg were once treasured for their clean waters – today, pollution and corporate excess are fuelling demands for a return to public ownership, says MARK SEDDON
The new Employment Rights Act is a step forward, but restoring collective bargaining and union power remains essential to tackling insecurity, outsourcing and low pay, says PAUL WHITEHOUSE
Rising support for Farage’s party reflects Labour’s failure to defend working-class living standards or offer a credible alternative to neoliberal decline, says JOSEPH MILLS
Trade unionists are mobilising to support Cuban workers and public services, amid escalating US pressure on the socialist island. RONAN OGILVY explains
SPEAKING to the Mail on Sunday in 2012, Simon Cursey stated: “The rules of engagement in Northern Ireland were very clear: you were allowed to open fire at a person actively shooting at you or someone you are with. We had our own slight variation of these rules. We opened fire at any small group in hard areas, neighbourhoods that even looked suspicious, armed or not.”
This was a blatant admission by a former member of the Military Reaction Force (MRF), a clandestine unit of British soldiers, dressed in civilian clothes, armed with non-military issue weapons that drove in unmarked cars and operated in Republican areas, that death squads did existed in Belfast in 1972.
Despite Cursey’s admission, agencies of the British government have constantly denied that the British military ever acted outside the law. However, Ciaran MacAirt, author and founder of “Paper Trail,” together with researcher James Kinchin-White, uncovered files that suggest Cursey’s statement to be true.
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