The Fighting Spirit of the "San Patricios" id RAA22588; Thu, 25 Sep 1997 17:18:35 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the October 2, 1997 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- HUNG BY U.S. 150 YEARS AGO: LONG LIVE FIGHTING SPIRIT OF "SAN PATRICIOS" By John Peter Daly This September marks the 150th anniversary of the U.S. military executions of the San Patricios--68 mostly-Irish immigrants who, in a tremendous act of solidarity, deserted the U.S. Army and fought in five major battles on the side of the Mexicans. The men became known as the San Patricios (St. Patrick's Battalion) because of the banner they carried into battle against the U.S. Army during its war on Mexico. A newspaper reporter from New Orleans described it as "green silk, and on one side is a harp, surmounted by the Mexican coat of arms, with a scroll on which is painted, `Libertad por la Republica Mexicana' [Liberty for the Mexican Republic]. Underneath the harp is the motto `Erin go Bragh' [Ireland forever]. St. Patrick adorned the front." The U.S. Army eventually captured and executed the San Patricios. This mass hanging, according to Robert Ryal Miller, author of "Shamrock and Sword," was the largest group execution ever carried out in U.S. military history. Those few who were spared received 50 lashes and had the word "deserter" branded on their faces. Almost no one who grows up in the United States learns about the St. Patrick's Battalion. Small wonder. Yet both Ireland and Mexico held official commemorations of the battalion at mid-September events. In all wars there are deserters--sometimes out of political awareness, often from fatigue. Far less often have soldiers deserted to join the opposing army. This indicates the San Patricios' action was political rather than accidental. FROM THE FRYING PAN TO THE FIRE Like many Irish, those in the San Patricios had emigrated to the U.S. to avoid the 1846-50 famine. In British-ruled Ireland, Irish peasants had little land to cultivate for survival. When the potato crop failed, the Irish famine began. Starvation took over one million lives. The boats the Irish boarded to flee in desperation became known as "coffin ships," because so many passengers died of disease and hunger before reaching their destination. Those who arrived in the United States faced bigoted campaigns, similar to today's reactionary immigrant-bashing. Irish immigrants faced police violence and murder--like many oppressed immigrants today. The media ran hate-mongering depictions. A Sept. 16 article in the Los Angeles Times recalled the media hate- mongering of that period. One old "news" article depicted the Irish as having "simian features, portraying them as unintelligent and drunk and charging that they were seditiously loyal to the pope." Just as immigrants today perform the most painstaking labor, particularly in agriculture and the service sector, Irish women were relegated to employment as nannies and maids, while many of the men joined the military in order to eat and be clothed. WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? During the 1846 Mexican-American war the Irish were used as cannon-fodder by the U.S. military. Why wouldn't the San Patricios desert and fight for Mexico? After all, most of the Irish immigrants had been landless peasants evicted by their English colonial landlords. The Irish were not permitted by law to own land in English-occupied Ireland, nor were they allowed access to education or professional jobs. If, as some bourgeois historians allege, the San Patricios responded to Mexican promises of land grants, it would still be a righteous reaction to British oppression. In the U.S., Irish immigrants faced widespread discrimination and in the army they were physically mistreated by officers. It's likely the San Patricios began to see they were fighting on the wrong side. They saw the United States carrying out a huge, greedy land grab, reminiscent of the English occupation of Ireland. Maybe they did not want to be on the side of the exploiters, the expansionists, the slave owners. On Sept. 12, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo honored the San Patricios at a ceremony at San Jacinto Plaza in Mexico City where the first 50 of the soldiers were hanged. Zedillo called their desertions "an act of consciousness," saying they "listened to the voice of justice, dignity and honor, and joined Mexican patriots who faced an aggression that lacked any justification." Little is documented regarding the San Patricios' reasons for joining Mexico against the United States. However, what evidence exists points to their feeling an affinity with their brothers and sisters south of the Rio Grande. The San Patricios probably could not foresee that United States expansionism that was just beginning with the seizure of Mexican lands would give birth to the current era of worldwide imperialist rule. Today big business plunders the entire globe in the hunt for super-profits. Those who wish to resist this global piracy can look to the San Patricios for an example of how the very troops that uphold imperialist domination can turn against it. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. 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