Dissident republicans join forces with anti-facist group linked to Paris attacks

Members of Action Antifasciste Paris-Banlieue (AAPB) travelled to Northern Ireland last week to take part in Easter commemorations in Belfast and Derry.

A member of the group spoke at the Derry parade on Easter Monday at which police came under attack from young rioters.

A small number of AAPB members had also taken part in a parade in Belfast on Saturday.

Both events were organised by Saoradh, which is regarded as the political wing of the New IRA.

The Parades Commission had been notified, as required by law, about the Belfast parade but the commission was not notified about the commemoration event in Derry.

As a result, it was an illegal event.

The PSNI last week said they had “strong community intelligence” which indicated there were plans to use the parade in the Creggan area of the city to draw police officers into “serious public disorder”.

Organisers of the parade claimed they planned to have a “dignified” event and urged police to stay away.

A short time after the parade started on Monday afternoon, a number of petrol bombs and other missiles were thrown by a group of youths at a police vehicle parked on the route. No one was injured during the attack.

The vehicle left the area and police stayed out of Creggan for the remainder of the hour-long event, which ended with speeches at the city cemetery.

Members of a colour party which had led the parade changed their clothing after the speeches ended. They were protected from the view of an overhead police helicopter by people holding up umbrellas.

The clothes were then burned close to one of the entrances to the cemetery.

Several plastic bins were later set on fire a short distance away and used to block a road.

On Tuesday, the PSNI said they had found four viable pipe bomb devices in the cemetery which, they believe, would have been used against police officers had they not withdrawn from the area.

Speaking in the Derry cemetery during Monday’s event, the AAPB representative said they hoped to build up “international networks of solidarity”.

AAPB, which was formed in 2008, is made up of a small group of anti-fascists who are based in the suburbs of Paris.

It is believed, according to a journalist who has written extensively about the group, that it has no more than 30 members.

AAPB said 12 of its members travelled to Northern Ireland for the republican commemorations.

After the Derry parade, the group posted a message on its Facebook page which wrongly claimed that the PSNI had tried to ban the event.

“A dozen Parisian antifascists were present in Derry at the invitation of Saoradh to participate in the commemoration in honor of the women and men of the 1916 uprising,” the message read.

“The police, who had been communicating for several weeks about the banning of this march, planning to prevent it, failed in the face of the determination of the inhabitants of Creggan.

“French anti-fascists took the floor at the end of the march to recall the importance of international solidarity and also addressing the social and ecological movement that we are experiencing in France.”

During his short speech at the Derry parade, the AAPB representative mentioned their “comrade Serge”.

This was a reference to Serge Duteuil-Graziani, a 32-year-old man who was seriously injured after being struck in the head by a gas canister fired by police during a recent protest in France.

The protest at Sainte-Soline in south west France last month was against agricultural reservoirs in the region.

In 2013, an AAPB member, 18-year-old Clément Méric, died after being punched during a fight with a group of right-wing skinheads in Paris.

In 2020, AAPB’s Twitter account was suspended and, as a result, the group said it had lost all its followers on the social media site. The account was reactivated a short time later.

Sebastien Bourdon, a journalist who has covered the anti-fascist movement in France, said AAPB members have been involved in public protests in France over the last few years and hold counter-demonstrations at far-right rallies.

“They do from time to time violently clash with far-right groups in France, especially in Paris, but it is not that common,” he said.

“In 2016 in France there was quite a big social movement against government reforms and in Paris some of the protests turned quite violent. Some members of AAPB were definitely involved in the protests and the clashes.”

Mr Bourdon said he believed AAPB had taken part in events in Ireland prior to last weekend’s commemorations.

“Maybe a few years ago I saw a picture of them, or maybe it was one guy travelling, meeting with local Irish militants. I am not sure which group and when exactly, but I know I have seen at least one picture before of them going to Ireland.

“They do travel from time to time and attend various events all around Europe but it’s definitely not anything big.

“It is not like a network or they are trying to set up a branch elsewhere. It’s just they attend other leftist events across Europe whenever they get invited.

“I am not even sure they know that much about the political situation in Ireland and the whole event and the meaning around it.

“I think they see it as a leftist revolutionary event and that’s why they went there.”

Several prominent dissident republicans, including Thomas Ashe Mellon and Dee Fennell, were among those who took part in last weekend’s events.

Speaking at the Derry commemoration, Saoradh’s national chairperson Stephen Murney urged people to “join the IRA”.

The PSNI are studying the footage gathered at the Easter Monday parade before deciding if charges can be brought against of the participants.

There was widespread condemnation after police found the pipe bombs in the cemetery.

Foyle MP Colum Eastwood said those involved in the planned attack had no political mandate or support from people in Derry.

“Planting devices in a cemetery, a place where people go to grieve and remember their loved ones, is disgusting,” he said.

“These actions have put Derry people in danger, and those behind it must stop for good.

“Those who carried out this act do not care about Ireland or our people, only their narrow, twisted agenda. The only way we can work towards a new Ireland is through respect, tolerance and democracy.”