Bernadette McAliskey says that people who have mixed feelings about campaigning for peace, including community and youth workers, should practice their ethics now and “stand up for what you believe in”.
People must choose between ethics and their career, she said. Speaking directly to Ireland’s community workers, and particularly to some who may be fearful of consequences from condemning Israeli aggression, she said, “If you’re afraid to speak out about injustice (now)… you will fail when the chips are down to defend your own community”.
“For people who say – ‘It’s alright saying that, but we could lose our funding’, ‘I could lose my job’, ‘It will be used against me as a paid worker’ – we all have ethical choices to make.”
Bernadette is highly regarded among her community work peers and was, for instance, welcomed with thunderous applause when the World Community Development Conference came to Ireland in 2018. She is known for standing with the oppressed since before Bloody Sunday, which she witnessed, and for many years she co-ordinated STEP in Dungannon, Co. Tyrone.
“I’ve now retired. But I always have something to say to community workers,” she told Changing Ireland, after addressing a peace rally at Shannon Airport on November 12.
COMMUNITY WORK “FOR WHAT?”
“I would say to community workers who are asking, ‘Why would I get involved in protests?’ First of all, in achieving social change, it is achieved politically or it’s achieved militarily. That’s the basics. (Some may ask) why would they get involved in what they maybe see as political?
“Politics has a big ‘P’, a wee ‘p’ and sometimes no ‘p’ at all. At the same time, that’s the process it is. It’s a process of democracy, of ethics, against injustice, against racism and against oppression.
“So we’re not just changing the world, we’re changing it for the better, changing it for social justice and that requires a lot of different activity within the community. If you’re organising (a project for) young people to build their own self-confidence – for what? For what? If you’re building within the neighbourhood for a community to have its democratic say – for what? People have to understand the context of their lives and the context of their work in the political, social and economic life of the country,” she said.
‘WE COULD LOSE OUR FUNDING’
“And if you’re afraid to speak out about injustice when you’re merely asked to witness the rights of people suffering, you will fail when the chips are down to defend your own community, to defend their rights, to speak out for them.
“For people who say – ‘It’s alright saying that, but we could lose our funding’, ‘I could lose my job’, ‘It will be used against me as a paid worker’ – we all have ethical choices to make. If community work is merely a career for which you will not make an ethical judgement now, take my word for it, to save your career at some point you will make an unethical judgement. So, practice your ethics now. Stand up for what you believe in. You have to believe in something, other than a career or a project that works,” she said.
ISRAELI MINISTER EVOKES CROMWELL
In her speech to hundreds of anti-war campaigners, she linked “the punishment and The Nakba of the Palestinians” to what the Irish experienced under British rule.
“The attempt to drive Palestinians, as one Israeli minister said recently, to the desert or Ireland reminded me of Oliver Cromwell inviting the people of this nation to flee to the barren lands of Connacht or go to hell. And in the massacres of Drogheda and Wexford he made clear he didn’t care which one we chose. So we have an historic link with oppression throughout the world,” she said.
• Oliver Cromwell portrait by Samuel Cooper in 1656. Source: Wikipedia.
“Sadly, in modern times, our governments have led us to links with oppressing people across the world. We need to make them understand – no more. No ministerial backside should occupy a ministerial seat after the next general election without a promise to maintain ad infinitum our neutrality in going to war on behalf of anybody in the world who would seek to oppress another,” she said.
CHILDREN HAVE RIGHTS
“We read out the names of children whose lives were stolen from them. Children have rights. The constitution of this nation says it will protect the children of the nation equally. Let us pledge ourselves to protect the children of the world as if we had given birth to them ourselves,” she appealed.
Names of dead children read out at Shannon Airport peace rally
• Bernadette McAliskey was one of the key speakers at the first ever World Community Development Conference held in Ireland, in 2018. Click image to open and see inside (page 5) what she meant by “lurking in community development”.
