File spoon-archives/marxism-general.archive/marxism-general_1997/marxism-general.9712, message 320


Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 23:37:28 +0000
From: Gerry Downing <gerry-AT-gerryd.demon.co.uk>
Subject: M-G: New York anti-draft riots of 1862



Comrades,
I would be pleased if anyone could supply me with details and political
analysis of the above. The reason for asking is that Workers Action, by
one of the new LTT sections in Britain, has an article by one Chris Ford
defending George Julian Harney, the Chartist leader. In particular he
argues that Harney's change in attitude to the Irish was defensible
because he witnessed a meeting of 'Copperheads' which was overwhelmingly
Irish suppporting the Southern cause and the Irish took part in 'the New
York anti-riots in which nearly a thousand people were killed or injured
by racist lynch mobs.'

Is that how these riots are to be understood? Was not the opposition of
the Irish to the Union army at least partly motivated by the extreme
anti-Irish WASP character of that Army and society? The new film on the
Mexican war and the San Patricios who were hanged for deserting to
Mexico surely confirms that analysis.

I would be greatful for some help on this and perhaps some reading
material that could be reccommended

 
-- 
Gerry Downing


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