Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Archive for the ‘Abortion’ Category

Nightmare News, New Orleans USA – Anti-abortion Louisiana governor Jeff Landry encourages terrorism

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Louisiana’s governor Jeff Landry issued a deadly threat to the people living in the city of New Orleans :

This story – dateline November 13 2023, did not hit international headlines.

By contrast, on January 1 2025, we are in the middle of a breaking story about another mass shooter event in an American city : at least ten people are dead because an assassin opened fire into New Orleans citizens celebrating the new year.

The city of New Orleans uses the Mississippi River as drinking water. Our current governor (Louisiana’s Jeff Landry) begged the state to remove funding from the city of New Orleans to fix the pumps and the decaying sewage and water system UNTIL the District Attorney agrees to prosecute women for abortions.

Must read article by @geauxgabrielle.bsky.social.“IN A HORRIFYING INTERSECTION OF REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, JEFF LANDRY HAS URGED THE STATE TO WITHHOLD FUNDS BECAUSE OF HIS PERSONAL FEELINGS ABOUT REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS.”👇🏽

Lisa Reyna Loe (@lisaloe.bsky.social) 2024-12-31T22:28:01.068Z

On January 1 2025 conflicting explanations of the mass shooter event are offered :

One correspondent notes :

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On arming Ukraine and the struggle against Militarism – European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine Declaration

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The European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine (ENSU) has denounced the Russian invasion
of Ukraine from the very beginning and fully supports the Ukrainian right of self-defence.

The Ukrainian people’s armed resistance is just. It is not taking place as part of military aggression by NATO, the United States or any Western country, but as defence against the declared war aim of Russian president Vladimir Putin: to reconquer the fictitious “Russian world” supposedly lost with the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Since Ukraine’s armed resistance is legitimate, all states that regard themselves as democratic and upholders of law-governed international relations have the responsibility to help the Ukrainian people defeat the Russian invasion.

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Li Andersson MEP (Left Alliance, Finland) : “Three Weeks Ago I was Sitting on a Train from Kyiv…….. Everyone in Ukraine was telling us the same thing”

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nstead of fake doves, listen to those who care enough to actually ask people on the ground about their concerns. Pressure Putin, not us—stop trading with him, for God’s sake. Strengthen Ukraine, with arms, diplomatic efforts, grants, and by raising the voices of the unions & CSO

Li Andersson MEP, Finland, Left Alliance

At the plenary session today, we had a debate on the EU’s support to Ukraine. During our visit to Ukraine, everyone emphasized how this winter will be the hardest period since Putin started his war of aggression. That is why our support is so needed now.

Utmost importance that we stand firm in our solidarity with Ukraine

https://x.com/SocRuch/status/1861402319734104537

Li Andersson (Left) got the highest number of votes of any European election candidate in Finnish history. Image: Tiina Jutila / Yle

About Li Andersson and the Left Alliance in Finland

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Elections (USA): Making Sense of Trump’s Victory & the Necessary Resistance – Frieda Afary

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Frieda Afary has written an excellent analysis (see below). She shows that the Democratic party candidate Kamala Harris lost 10 million votes compared with Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. Trump’s vote totals in 2020 and 2024 were almost identical.

Source :
Elections (USA): Making Sense of Trump’s Victory & the Necessary Resistance (ESSF)


This article analyzes the vote breakdown, the pundits’ views, argues that Trump is a fascist and offers perspectives for the needed anti-fascist resistance.

Donald Trump’s election as president, and the Republican victories nationwide are a catastrophe for progressive forces in the U.S. and around the world. What the November 5, 2024 election showed was that while this country is still divided, there has been a rightward shift nationwide and across all demographic and geographic groups. (Levitt, 2024)

Vote Breakdown:

Let’s take a closer look at the demographic breakdown of the votes. Approximately 72 million voted for Harris and 75 million voted for Trump. Approximately 700,000 voted for Jill Stein and 700,000 voted for Robert Kennedy. This means that Democrats received 10 million fewer votes than in 2020 when Biden received 81 million. Trump received approximately the same number of votes he received in 2020. (U.S. Election Results, 2024)

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9000 Days of Putin’s Régime in the Russian Federation, 1000 Days of War – Protest, The Spire, O’Connell Street, Dublin 1, Sunday November 17 3-5pm

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Free Russians Ireland has organised a protest in Dublin :

Link :


Free Russians Ireland – 9000 Days of Putin’s Régime in Russia

Sunday November 17, 15:00 – 17:00

1,000 Days of War, 9,000 Days of Putin’s Regime 

Location: The Spire, O’Connell Street, Dublin

Hello everyone! 

You’ve probably seen the call to join the big rally in Berlin on November 17. 

November 20 will mark 1,000 days since February 24, 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since then, cities have been bombed, and over a million civilians have been killed or injured, according to “The Wall Street Journal”. 

Our message in Dublin is the same as in London and other cities around the world holding actions: stop the war in Ukraine, withdraw the troops, provide reparations, and free political prisoners!

There are currently around 5,000 political prisoners in Russia, according to OVD-Info, including minors, people with health issues, and those facing ethnic and religious persecution. In the past year alone, over five people have reportedly been killed in prison.

We are taking to the streets this November for an important reason — cold weather is setting in for Ukraine, and its infrastructure has been severely damaged. Together with the London-based Russian Democracy Society, we are raising funds for generators and informing the Irish public about what is happening in Ukraine and Russia and why we demand an end to the war.

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1000 Days since the Russian Invasion of Ukraine – Protest at Embassy of Russia in Ireland, Tuesday November 19 2024, 3 – 4pm, 186 Orwell Road, Dublin 14

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Tuesday November 19 2024 marks the 1000th day since the start of the full scale invasion of Ukraine by Putin and his military forces.

To mark the day an event is being held outside the Russian embassy commencing at 3.30pm..

A poster advertising the event is below.

Feel free to circulate it to friends, acquaintances and contacts.

European Left Alliance for People and the Planet (Howie Hawkins Report) – Dispatches from Europe, No. 8, November 6, 2024

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Howie Hawkins, Green Party Presidential Candidate in the 2020 USA General Election, reports from Kyiv, Capital City of Ukraine, on a meeting of the European Left Alliance for People and the Planet.

Dispatches from Europe, No. 8, November 6, 2024 – European Left Alliance for People and the Planet

Air Raid Alerts in Kyiv

I arrived in Kyiv on the afternoon of November 2 to the sound of air raid sirens. The air raid warnings had been going on all day. They come by phone once you get the Air Alert app, which is one of the first things my hosts had me do. Now my phone screen is covered with air alerts.

By the end of the night of November 2-3, Ukraine had been targeted with 96 drones and 1 air-to-surface missile. Ukrainian air defense units intercepted the missile and 66 of the drones, but between the drones that got through air defenses and debris falling from intercepted drones and missiles, six districts of Kyiv were hit, mostly residential buildings. One explosion woke me up. A large explosion hit a building at one of the campuses of Taras Shevchenko National University.

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Free Boris Kagarlitsky – Free All antiwar prisoners in Russia

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BORIS KAGARLITSKY
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN

On February 13, 2024, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation sentenced prominent Russian socialist, anti-war activist and author Boris Kagarlitsky to five years jail
for ‘justifying terrorism’.

This campaign exists to win his freedom and that of all other antiwar prisoners in Russia.


Free Boris Kagarlitsky – Free All antiwar prisoners in Russia (Web link)


Register for Boris Kagarlitsky Conference (Web Link)

Online Conference – Boris Kagarlitsky and the Challenges of the Left Today

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

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Goodnight Sister – Remembering Nell, October 4 2024, 7pm, The Teachers’ Club, 36 Parnell Square, Dublin 1

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Goodnight Sister is a tribute to the late Nell McCafferty, March 28 1944 – August 21 2024.

Details Here :

Photo : Derek Speirs

Nell McCafferty’s Funeral from Derry was broadcast late on RIP.IE – Minus an Eamonn McCann Eulogy, Gay Rainbow Flags, or any personal memories of a woman who “changed Ireland for the better”

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Many people who knew Nell McCafferty could not get to her funeral in St. Columb’s Cathedral, Derry. An alternative was offered on RIP.IE – a live broadcast starting at 12.30pm. When interested viewers tuned in, they were mystified, seeing only a blank screen. The livestream did not start until after 1.00pm, as a priest shared the altar with three men conducting a religious ceremony containing no stories about one of Derry’s most talented writers, Nell McCafferty. At one screening venue a small group of Nell’s fans – including Máirín Johnson who travelled on the legendary Dublin-Belfast contraceptive train with Nell in 1971 – were not impressed. We learned later that Eamonn McCann delivered a eulogy in front of the altar – A report is below. Source :
Nell McCafferty “Changed Ireland for the Better”

Eamonn McCann delivers a eulogy for Nell McCafferty, St Columb’s Cathedral Derry, August 23 2024


Nell McCafferty ‘changed Ireland for the better’, mourners at her funeral in Derry’s Bogside told

Campaigning journalist and author, who focused on women’s rights, poverty and social injustice, died on Wednesday aged 80

Nell McCafferty “changed Ireland for the better”, mourners at her funeral have been told.

Delivering an elegy in advance of her funeral Mass in Derry’s Bogside on Friday, the veteran civil rights campaigner and journalist Eamonn McCann said it was “given to very few of us to actually change the world”.

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