A.R.I.S.E Nights!

Barry McColgan

"I'm out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world!" Woody Guthrie

As we, Ógra Shinn Féin, enter into an intense Broad Anti Imperialist campaign (A.R.I.S.E.), we must be pitching our message and actions to the widest possible audience.

The campaign will no doubt witness the distribution of leaflets, thousands of posters fly posted from Derry to Kerry, protests, and public debates.

All the above are massively important actions, the core of the campaign in a sense, and by doing so we will reach a widely receptive audience.

However if we are to truly step it up a gear and be imaginative, we can reach thousands more youth across Ireland. I am talking about the social aspect of the campaign.

Just like last year's hugely successful 'Rock Against The Blocks', Ógra Shinn Féin will be organising 'A.R.I.S.E. Nights' across Ireland. Each event being a lively mix of social, music and politics. It is a way of bringing the politics of the A.R.I.S.E. campaign to a different audience. Realising that political debates aren't everyone's cup of tea, here is a novel way of promoting politics.

Music has always been used in Ireland as a tool of 'protest' and defience, inspiring and uniting communities against any onslaught. 'Protest songs', internationally such as those so popular during the cycle of struggles of the late 1960s in which civil rights and anti-imperialist militants wrote, sang and played aimed to mobilize social movements against existing institutions and policies.

The 'A.R.I.S.E Nights' of today will hope to envigourate that spirit and politicise and empower a new generation of youth. The nights will include all types of music from rebel, to traditional, ska and rock, and will include a speech on the night.

The 'A.R.I.S.E Nights' begin tonight (Wed 29 Nov) with the first being organised upstairs in the Hatfield Bar, Ormeau Road, Belfast @ 10pm. Music is by Ireland's biggest rebel band 'The Spirit of Freedom.'

'A.R.I.S.E Night' coming to a town near you soon!

'As long as Imperialism exists, it will, by definition exert its domination over other countries. Today that domination is called neo-colonialism.' Che Guevara