(The following article is from the February 15-28, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

Special to PV

An international campaign is underway to demand the release of Sean Garland, a former leader of the Workers' Party of Ireland, who was arrested at the request of Washington on Jan. 30 outside his party's head office in Dublin. The United States wants to extradite Garland to stand trial on charges related to trumped-up accusations of involvement in counterfeiting; the case is part of George W. Bush's so-called "war against terror" launched world-wide against a vast range of opponents of US imperialism.

     Current Workers' Party President Michael Finnegan condemned the arrest as a "heavy handed and blatantly political act," stressing that "Some time ago Sean Garland had been in touch with gardai (Irish police) through his legal representatives and had made it clear that he was willing and available to speak to them at any time. There was absolutely no need to arrest Sean Garland outside the party offices and the decision to do so only serves to reinforce the political nature of this arrest. Sean Garland has made it clear previously and again now that he will fight any attempt at extradition to the United States through the Irish courts."

     Finnegan said on Feb. 3 that outgoing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice personally signed the extradition request in the dying days of the Bush administration. He called on the new Obama administration to drop the request.

     "Many of us were encouraged by the words of President Obama in his inauguration speech two weeks ago in which he declared that his government would not follow the same discredited path as Bush and Cheney," said Finnegan. "The continued pursuit of a 74 year old, suffering from diabetes and cancer, and who has spent a lifetime fighting for justice and against division and sectarianism on this island, is both vindictive and inhumane. The allegations against Sean Garland are both preposterous and without foundation. We have no doubt whatsoever that Sean Garland will be vindicated at the end of this process. However, given Sean's medical condition and the conditions in the prison in which he is being currently held, we believe that in the meantime his health will suffer irreparable damage. I therefore call for an end to these pointless proceedings and for Sean's immediate release."

     Garland's family and fellow WPI members have been heartened by the continuing messages of support and solidarity they are receiving from at home and abroad.

     This is not the first attempt to railroad Garland, who was arrested in 2005 while attending a WPI conference in Northern Ireland at the request of the US government and with the active collaboration of the British authorities. Garland was not charged with any criminal offence, but the Bush government sought to extradite him to face U.S. "justice".

     Sean Garland has spent a lifetime of resistance to imperialism. Born in Dublin in 1934, he joined the Irish Republican Army in 1953. On instructions from the IRA leadership, he joined the British Army to secure information for a successful arms raid on a British barracks. Soon after he became a fulltime IRA officer, participating in a number of major operations from 1955-56. He was imprisoned in Dublin's Mountjoy Jail from 1957 to early 1959, and then in Belfast's Crumlin Road Jail until August 1962.

     Garland became part of the group within the IRA which sought to turn from military struggle to socialist political activity, and was a strong supporter of the historic campaign for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland in the sixties. In the IRA split of 1969/70 he was a foremost opponent of the narrow nationalism which some elements sought to impose on the organisation. Over the following years he consistently worked to curtail the military activities of the Official IRA, which at times had degenerated into terrorist activity. He was successful with others in securing the Official IRA Ceasefire of May 1972. In March 1975 he was nearly assassinated by those who opposed the political road, but survived to become General Secretary of Sinn Fein-The Workers' Party, as it became known in 1977, and later The Workers Party.

     Over the 1970s and '80s Sean Garland was very active in developing and expanding the party's international activity. He played a major role in solidarity campaigns with Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, South West Africa, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Greece, and Palestine. He also took part in developing fraternal relations with many parties in the former Socialist countries of Eastern and Central Europe. For decades he has been a vocal and active critic of United States foreign policy.

     Rejecting opportunist pressures during the early 1990s to abandon socialism as their goal, Garland and other leaders of the Workers' Party maintained friendly relations with Communist Parties which have upheld their Marxist ideals. The WPI attends the annual meetings of Communist and Workers' Parties which were hosted by the Communist Party of Greece for a number of years, and which was held last November in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

     Messages of protest should also be sent to the Irish authorities:


     Send copies to the Workers' Party at 24 Mountjoy Square, Dublin Ireland, email wpi@indigo.ie. For updates, visit the website http://www.seangarland.org.