Archive for the ‘Dublin Governments’ Category
RISE Leaflet – We need a socialist government
RISE distributed a leaflet (link below) at a 1000 strong March 7 Dublin Demonstration. The last paragraphs advocates the creation of a new left party which is “open for different groups to organise within it”. This is extremely positive.
COVID-19 is a class issue
This useful article argues that the Irish Government needs to call off the March 17 St Patricks’s Festival in Ireland, where hundreds of thousands of people will gather together, and spread the CoronaVirus, which will bring down many people with CoVid-19 Illness.
The failure to take any of these measures could be disastrous. Not only would it leave our entire society vulnerable to the spread of infection due to working people having no choice but to work, but it would leave the most vulnerable in our society hanging out to dry whilst depriving us of an absolutely essential resource for fighting this crisis – healthy frontline medical staff. The price of putting profit above people is simply too high.
Change the system
It is a price that would, firstly, be a product of government inaction in order to protect the interests of the capitalist establishment it represents, but the ultimate cause would be the severe neglect and abuse of our health service, already stretched thin. In South Korea, where they have 12 beds per 1000 people, they are running short on beds due to the spread of the virus. Ireland has 3 beds per 1000 people – the numbers speak for themselves.
Now is the time to start taking the necessary action of establishing a single-tier universal healthcare service: where the most vulnerable in our society are taken care of, that is properly staffed and properly funded, with enough beds and free to access. In that process we need to take the private hospitals into public ownership.
The public health crisis is impacting the entire planet, and already we are seeing significant economic impacts starting in China and rippling outwards, potentially leading to a global economic crisis. The Eurozone, of which Ireland is a part, is already projected to enter into a very deep recession. It has been reported that upwards of 30-50% of the Irish population is likely to get sick (Sunday Business Post, 8 March 2020) and 40 to 70% of the global population within a year, which would be akin to a huge global general strike. Profits would massively fall, causing panic in the markets and likely capital flight.
In this case, we must stand utterly opposed to any and all job losses, pay cuts, or attacks on conditions which the establishment will attempt to impose on us in the aftermath of the crisis. If businesses claim that these are necessary measures, we must absolutely reject that logic. They must open the books, and if they are unable to continue operating then they should be taken into democratic public ownership.
The crisis created by COVID-19 is a symptom of a fundamentally sick capitalist system. If we want to head off the worst effects of the crisis and protect ourselves into the future, the system must go.
— Read on www.letusrise.ie/featured-articles/covid-19-is-a-class-issue
The Virus – Apocalypse Now?
This is a very gloomy CoronaVirus Warning – and it is credible.
The Monster Is Bursting Through Our Door
Pentecostal Christians – and probably many others – believe that at ‘the end of days’, which precedes the Second Coming of Christ, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will ride out.
The Four Horsemen are generally interpreted as being pestilence, death, famine, and war. If Pentecostals are thinking logically (as if) they should be expecting to see the Lamb of God some time soon.
In the wake of wars that have killed more than 500,000 since 2001 and an accelerating environmental crisis dramatised by the Australian firestorms, the current Covid-19 outstrips dystopian science fiction stories like Outbreak. What American Marxist author Mike Davis described as ‘The Monster at Our Door’ has, in a rather different form, burst through the door. Read the rest of this entry »
Fianna Fáil’s O’Callaghan supports national govt idea – Family Squabbles on the Right Wing of the Irish Political Establishment Nearing a Conclusion.
For nearly 100 years, since the foundation of the partitioned Irish State in 1921, Governmental Power has alternated between the dominant Fianna Fáil Party and its junior sibling Fine Gael – Tweedledum Versus Tweedledee. The February 8 2020 General Election Result ended this sham – FFFG between them secured 72 seats, well short of the required 80 seat majority. Until now a FFFG plus GG (Gombeens and Greens) Coalition Government looked likely as the third Irish Civil War party, Sinn Féin, was rejected by FFFG – considered to be too left-wing, especially by FF.
Now, a leading FF TD, Jim O’Callaghan, has changed the tune – we might see a SFFFFG Coalition.
Fianna Fáil TD Jim O’Callaghan has said that Fianna Fáil may have been too definitive in ruling out a government with Sinn Féin and said he would “go along” with the idea of a national government to deal with the coronavirus.
Fine Gael TD Martin Heydon insisted a functioning government was in place and that there were daily meetings of the emergency committee dealing with coronavirus.
He said the Taoiseach would have no issue in talking to other leaders and there was already full dialogue between the Minister for Health and other health spokespeople.
— Read on www.rte.ie/news/politics/2020/0308/1120949-government-formation/
‘Do the right thing’ – Vicky Phelan joins in call for St Patrick’s Day cancellation – Covid-19 Cases in Ireland Continue to Rise
Vicky Phelan has added her voice to those calling on the Government to re-think their move not to cancel St Patrick’s Day celebrations as the number of coronavirus cases here continues to rise.
The cancer awareness advocate, and previous marshall of a St Patrick’s Day parade, believes “human lives are at risk” by not cancelling the national celebrations on March 17.
Ms Phelan, who is living with terminal cancer and who is known for lifting the lid on the cervical cancer scandal, has already cancelled many of her public appearances due to the coronavirus outbreak here.
The Kilkenny native who now lives in Limerick said: “I am supporting our doctors and epidemiologists, like Professors John Crown and Sam McConkey and others who have called on the government to to postpone the St Patrick’s Day parade now. Not in a week’s time, or two days beforehand. Do the right thing now.
— Read on www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/do-the-right-thing–vicky-phelan-joins-in-call-for-st-patricks-day-cancellation-986492.html
FFFGGG Government Emerges in Ireland
A Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael/Green/Gombeen (FFFGGG) Government Emerges – a Treble F Treble G GeeGee is galloping towards the winning post – lots of dosh waiting in the trough for the greedy nags.
Sinn Féin Talking to Fine Gael – and the Social Democrats Offering Coalition With Either Leo Varadkar or Mícheál Matrtin
A useful post from the Cedar Lounge Revolution Blog :
Okay, intriguing that FG are willing to talk to SF. Perhaps the penny has dropped with some that not talking is a bad look for political parties in a democracy. Can FF hold their line in light of this?
But more interesting again is the following from the SDs:
Ms Shortall and Ms Murphy reiterated the party’s position that they would not enter government with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, but would consider serving in government with one of the two parties and Sinn Féin.
https://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2020/03/04/an-interesting-distinction/
The ballroom dances are not over! Coalition with FFFG is a one-way ticket into Dante’s Inferno.
Words on Des Bonass (died 26th September 2019), commemorative evening, Teachers Club, 29th February 2020.
Words on Des Bonass (died 26th September 2019), commemorative evening, Teachers Club, 29th February 2020.
Delivered by Des Derwin, on behalf of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions.
Des Bonass, a constant campaigner in a long life of activity in the most stirring and also the most unproductive political times, is missing, just missing, the extraordinary outcome of this month’s general election. The upending of a century of duopoly by Tweedle Fail and Tweedle Gael, a surge for change at the ballot box, the development of a left-right configuration, however confused, and a crisis in mainstream, establishment politics. ‘Who would have thunk it’? An overflow crowd outside a political meeting in Liberty Hall [25th February 2020] addressed in the biting wind by one the speakers who has come out to speak to them too. In the 21st century.
Well, such is the lot of many a life-long political activist. Things happen just after you are gone. But that is not the way we think and its not the way Des would have thought. Because he worked and acted in the here and now; he did what could be done at the time. And because he helped set the present in motion, and a lot of other big steps too in the past. And because we are this evening giving Des his rightful place in whatever is happening now, because of his contribution, and because he would have been no less a part of the big things, and the small less-noticed things, than he ever was. And finally, what is happening this month is – if indeed it keeps up and develops – only a small proportion of the eventual historical events that will be needed, and that will follow, and will probably be missed by most of us here too, to bring about the really momentous social change that Des Bonass stood for, and worked for and carried a clear vision of in his head, throughout his long trade union, republican and socialist life. Read the rest of this entry »
British Royal Vultures Visit Ireland in 2020
James Connolly
Unfortunately Irish President Michael D Higgins is among the grovellers in March 2020!
A correspondent notes : Actually it’s nice that welfare recipients are able to take a brief holiday. I suppose they’ll be sending holiday post cards of Ireland back to Benefits Street. And to think our budget strapped national broadcaster can spend resources reporting on these scroungers. It’s win-win all around.
Tomás Ó Flatharta 