This is an agreed response from International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity to the substantial comment placed by Patrick Downey beneath the ‘IUAFS statement on the suspension of Bill O’Brien’, which was published on this site as well as the IUAFS site.
Dear comrade Patrick,
We were very pleased to receive your 28th April response to our earlier statement, posted in the comments below the posting of the “IUAFS statement on the suspension of Bill O’Brien” on the Consistent Democrats’ website (https://www.consistent-democrats.org/uncategorized/iuafs-statement-on-the-suspension-of-bill-obrien/#comments (see below).
It is certainly a lot more fraternal and political than the responses of Bill O’Brien, who has been attending IUAFS’ weekly Zoom meetings for several years, but has recently behaved in an outrageous manner as detailed in the statement, leading to his suspension from being invited to these meetings. His behaviour since has been a profusion of threats and profanity, in such a way that we resolved to treat him as having walked away from the united front that is IUAFS, in our view originally for reasons that have nothing to do with the purpose of IUAFS, which is indicated in our name – to mobilise anti-fascist solidarity with the people of the Donbass, the Russian-speaking South-East of Ukraine, against the Western-funded and -armed Nazi Ukrainian nationalists, and with the Russian army that intervened to stop these Nazis in 2022.
It is good that you have apologised for the inclusion of our logo on the publicity for this international commemoration alongside that of the fascist UNN. Evidence of their far right nature is to be found in May 2025 on the BBC website,, which noted that “David Clews, a conspiracy theorist and far-right influencer, and Mark Collett, a Nazi-sympathiser who set up the far-right Patriotic Alternative (PA), have called for supporters to ‘infiltrate’ Nigel Farage’s party to push their own ‘pro-white’ and anti-immigration agenda.” (bbc.com/news/articles/clygr52dn1ro). We in IUAFS have expressed strong disagreement with those who have attempted to build a ‘solidarity movement’ with Clews and his UNN since 2023, when we broke from No2NATONo2War, the putative umbrella Ukraine anti-war movement initiated by the Workers Party and George Galloway, because of their insistence on putting UNN speakers, including Clews, on No2NATO platforms.
As principled anti-fascists, we are utterly opposed to sharing a platform with fascists and this was documented in a statement dated May 30th, 2023 “No No2NATO Platform for Fascist David Clews!” (https://iuafs.blogspot.com/2023/05/no-no2nato-platform-for-fascist-david.html). This was further documented in the transcript of a long interview on the UNN website by Clews with two leaders of the openly Nazi Patriotic Alternative group, Mark Collett, and Laura Towler, which was published on the Consistent Democrats website as evidence of Clews’ fascist politics (https://www.consistent-democrats.org/clews-collett-towler-transcript/). In that interview Clews argues with these upfront Nazis that it is necessary for Nazis to hide parts of their politics to fool “Joe Normie” (the common man) into putting Nazis in power, and that was done by “revolutionary organisations” in 1930s Germany (it is obvious he means Hitler’s NSDAP).
Given this record, we found the appearance of our logo alongside that of UNN in this publicity totally scandalous. You now say “I, Patrick Downey, was the one who was asked to put the logos of those participating in the May 2 commemorative event poster on it, which has now become a global event, and to which Ben Stimson has been the person binding things together.” The question is “asked by whom?” It appears that the answer is Ben Stimson. And earlier this was confirmed by Paul Cannon, the General Secretary of the Workers Party, when he said:
“The Workers Party has not produced the advertisement nor organised the meeting although we will support it.
“The event is being organised by Ben Stimson, with No2Nato participating in the event. For more detail about how logos have been used and the arrangements made please follow it up with them”
So, the common denominator is Ben Stimson, as we said in our earlier statement. And as we noted in that statement, it became clear that Bill O’Brien was both discussing the contents of IUAFS meetings with Ben Stimson and collaborating with him against IUAFS. The fact that you appear to have included our logo on this material with the UNN logo without knowing its significance on the initiative of Stimson, when we were already aware that your chair, Bill, was collaborating with Stimson and sharing the contexts of our discussions, simply corroborates our suspicions about Bill O’Brien, who has for a long period been the point of contact between IUAFA and TANA. We of course accept that you did not know about the fascist nature of UNN, but Bill O’Brien did, or should have done, because has been a regular weekly attender at IUAFS meetings for several years, including the period when our break with No2NATO over their giving a platform to Clews and co was a central point of discussion in our meetings.
On the question of Sinn Fein. The IUAFS is a united front purely about the Ukraine war and solidarity with anti-fascist resistance. We do not have a position on Sinn Fein or the Good Friday Agreement. Nor do we have a position either in favour of, or opposing, votes for the British Labour Party in elections. We have people within IUAFS with different views on both these questions, which are outside the framework of the united front that is IUAFS. This is why Bill’s attack on Theo for his views on Sinn Fein, and his attempt to have him purged for them, were outrageous. Not because IUAFS supports SF or the GFA. We do not. But because he was trying to get rid of our effective and dedicated Secretary because he doesn’t like his views on a question that is outside of the purpose and framework of the united front. That was a kind of sabotage of the united front and put Bill’s views on Irish politics above the interests of the struggle against Ukrainian fascism.
We never wanted to face a confrontation such as this with Bill O’Brien, and we have avoided taking any action over his behaviour for two years. We would greatly welcome any opportunity to repair relations with TANA, and indeed with Bill provided these requirements are acknowledged. However, Bill’s latest threat to have our secretary “shot or shut (shoot?) you myself” clearly makes such a reconciliation an even more difficult prospect.
We would be quite happy to repair relations with yourselves and indeed Bill provided some things are acknowledged. 1). That it was wrong to include our logo on any publicity without our permission, and far more wrong still that our logo should be used alongside that of the fascist UNN. (2) that IUAFS is a united front, and the views of tendencies or individuals on other questions (such as the nature of Sinn Fein) are outside of the united front and irrelevant, so long as they don’t promote fascism or racism. (3) That Bill O’Brien acknowledges that his behaviour in IUAFS meetings, and his insults and threats to IUAFS officers, were unacceptable. And (4) all threats of violence, implicit or explicit, are wrong and should be repudiated.
Fraternally
Paul Collins (Chair)
for IUAFS
Patrick Downey’s earlier comment
As secretary and PRO of the Truth And Neutrality Alliance, I, Patrick Downey, was the one who was asked to put the logos of those participating in the May 2 commemorative event poster on it, which has now become a global event, and to which Ben Stimson has been the person binding things together.
in relation to the use of the logo on the international poster (not our own, ie TANA), that is on me. If an apology is owed for this then it’s me who is sorry for the use of it.
I’m not familiar with UNN, I took it on good faith that they were or are a like-minded group. I haven’t looked into them to know if they are some kind of far right fascist entity and if they are then I wholeheartedly apologise.
In regards to Sinn Fein, TANA cannot and will not make any apologies for not supporting or promoting this party, as they have not served the people of Ireland well since the pandemic and the post pandemic era and have sat on the fence on many issues, and they have lost so much of the grassroots support they had in Ireland because they’ve shunned the people here and their main concerns. They want to ride the gravy train the same way the duopoly has, here in this country for so long.
In relation to threats made, to which I don’t support, but I also can’t take seriously due to the distance between the people involved and especially when someone obviously has PTSD. I do believe Ben was blocked from participating in Zooms, and I am not sure I understand why.
Yes Ben served time in prison, but this is due to the fascist British establishment and judiciary picking a side in the Ukrainian civil war, and later the SMO, in which it is deeply involved, especially MI6.
I personally find the whole thing petty and unfortunate, as if we had been working in cooperation with each other this event, and others, would be so much bigger and more effective and meaningful.
I don’t see relations between TANA and IUAFS as irreparable and if I’m completely honest I think for TANA’s part there may have been a mistake by using a logo but I don’t think this should ever have escalated to this point.
TANA will never turn our backs on our Chair as Bill has set up something that has the potential to be massive, especially with the groups we are now working with, and the knowledge and experience that Bill brings to the table.
As for Ben, while I and TANA don’t condone threats we can tell what are off the cuff remarks made in frustration. Ben has to be commended for sacrificing himself to participate in the struggle to defeat fascists and ultranationalist Nazis in the Ukrainian civil war and subsequently the SMO. He has faced outrageous treatment at the hands of the British establishment and I believe he has to carry that around with him all the time, so I would ask you to bare that in mind.
As I’ve stated, and I will reiterate, the situation is not irreparable and maybe there are 2 parties at fault here, not one.
TANA will continue to build relationships with other organisations, as we are currently doing with groups that we share common grounds with and this is only going to serve to strengthen us and make our rallies, events, seminars etc, larger and more successful.
We endeavour to preserve Irish Neutrality, fight the move to hyper-militarise the EU, fight Russophobia and seek a peaceful end to the NATO proxy war in Ukraine and Novo-Russia.
If you wish to reach out and resolve things then I would ask that you keep dialogue open with our Chair Bill. If you wish to sever ties that that is also your prerogative. We will continue our work and wish you the very best of luck with yours.
