Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Archive for the ‘Emigration and Immigration’ Category

Multiple Bullies At Work, Out to Create a “Multipolar World” – Kavita Krishnan

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Two interesting articles by Kavita Krishnan are below.

The author explains :

My article in The Hindu on what’s at stake for Ukraine and the world.
I try to get all my material on Ukraine from the horse’s mouth: I just read Putin, Dugin, Vance, Mearsheimer really thoroughly – and they confirm all that I’m saying, without even bothering to disguise their intent. There can’t be more reliable and irrefutable sources.
The article attached is based on reading Mearsheimer himself saying Putin’s top peace condition is a puppet regime in Kyiv, since liberal democracy in Ukraine is an “existential threat to Russia”.

Kavita Krishnan

The second article examines the recent electoral defeat of Viktor Orbán in Hungary

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“A Confederacy of Gobshites – Ireland’s Government of Contempt”- by Éamonn Sweeney

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Once again, thanks to the editor of the Cedar Lounge Blog for drawing the attention of readers to very good Éamonn Sweeney left-wing analysis to the current Dublin government, which administers the 26 county bit of Ireland.

On this blog we describe the Mícheál Martin / Simon Harris government as FFFGBG – that is : a coalition of Fianna Fáil (FF), Fine Gael (FG), and Beggar-Gombeens (BG’s). The BG’s were assembled by the North Tipperary ex-FG minister Michael Lowry, who was thoroughly investigated by the Mahon Tribunal following credible allegations of financial corruption in the 1990’s. Fine Gael’s ethical standards are extremely low, but the party was obliged to expel Mr Lowry.

The BG’s got many perks for propping up the FFFG Martin-Harris duo – the biggest was the position of Dáil Ceann Comhairle (speaker) handed to the Wexford racist, and former FG member, Verona Murphy.

Some of the BG’s might be tempted to join their racist-fascist soul-brothers who lead the fuel blockade movement.

A coherent left-wing alternative is very badly needed.

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Yanis Varoufakis “on the stage at a Moscow investment forum to a techno track repeating his own name”

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Andreu Movtxan reports below :

And in case readers cannot believe it, here is a link :


Yanis Varoufakis dances to viral techno-hit named after him in Russia

And thanks to Yuliya Yurchenko, who observes :

In case anyone was in a coma for the past few years and still has any respect for Yanis Varoufakis – Γιάνης Βαρουφάκης , read Andreu Movtxan.

Yuliya Yurchenko

While Russian FPV drones crossing the Dnieper hunt civilians at bus stops in Nikopol and Kherson, while yet more one-and-a-half-ton glide bombs fall on apartment blocks in Kramatorsk, while Russian anti-war socialists rot in Mordovian prisons… the Greek “anti-imperialist” politician Yanis Varoufakis is dancing on the stage at a Moscow investment forum to a techno track repeating his own name.

How does he manage to be like this? One has to be real human mold to behave this way. I could end the post here. But I’ll add a bit more.

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Vance in Budapest: Orbán as the Far Right’s Proof of Concept – the ideological logic of the Trump–Orbán alliance comes into focus

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The far-right political rulers of the USA and the Russian Federation, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, are promoting the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, ahead of a general election in the Eastern European state on Sunday April 12 2026. The implications of this political development are widely understood; a selection of reactions which have appeared on Bluesky should put an end – for ever – the obviously ludicrous theory promoted by some on the left that the 2022 Russian genocidal invasion of Ukraine was a disguised USA V Russia war (a “Proxy” war).

Trump calls into an Orbán campaign rally to endorse him, as Bloomberg reveals secret tapes of Orbán's private conversations with Putin in which he promises him absolute loyalty.

Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) 2026-04-07T17:30:10.027Z

-Trump threatening to wipe out entire civilizations.-JD Vance courting dictators, Orban and Putin.🚨 We are in the middle of a national emergency, and the only way it ends is with Trump's removal. This is ALL we should be talking about right now.

D. Earl Stephens (@dearlstephens.bsky.social) 2026-04-07T22:03:45.225Z

JD Vance is off to Hungary, another Trump official working (with Putin) to prop up Orban. Re-upping this piece abt why many self-styled “classical liberals” abandon all principles when it comes to Orban: they like the authoritarianism and want it for America.donmoynihan.substack.com/p/make-ameri…

Don Moynihan (@donmoyn.bsky.social) 2026-04-07T13:09:36.082Z

If he was telling the truth, he would have added "on Moscow's terms" immediately after saying "Trump and Orban have done the most to end the war".It is a completely new low for the Vice President of the United States to perform such blatant political interference in a foreign country. Disgraceful.

(@furro293.bsky.social) 2026-04-08T04:14:36.000Z

Vance in Budapest: Orbán as the Far Right’s Proof of Concept

What Pinochet Was to Neoliberals, Orbán Is to Christian Nationalists

When US Vice-President J.D. Vance travelled to Budapest to endorse Viktor Orbán ahead of the 2026 Hungarian elections, the ideological logic of the Trump–Orbán alliance came into focus. For American nativist Christian nationalists, Orbán’s Hungary is a proof of concept: evidence that a programme combining Christian nationalism, anti-migration politics, and systematic dismantling of democratic opposition can hold power for sixteen years. Jan Bělíček dissects Vance’s Budapest speech — its Great Replacement tropes, its anti-EU demagoguery, its hollow invocations of workers’ rights, and the irony of preaching Christian civilisation to a comparatively secular Hungarian audience. The underlying agenda, Bělíček concludes, is replication: Vance and Trump want to build in the United States what Orbán has built in Hungary. [AN]


Watching yesterday’s second appearance by J.D. Vance in Budapest, I think I finally understood why the second-highest-ranking US politician has travelled to lend his support to Viktor Orbán ahead of the elections. [1] For nativist Christian nationalists like Vance, Orbán’s Hungary represents much the same thing that Augusto Pinochet represented for the neoliberal right. [2] It demonstrates that their political experiment — grounded in Christianity, aggressive nationalism, and hostility to expert knowledge and the left — can succeed and hold power for an extraordinary sixteen years.

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Former French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin of the Socialist Party has passed away aged 88 – Former Trotskyist at the centre of “a story of hope and missed opportunities”

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The long life of former French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who has passed away at the age of 88, gives us many useful explanations of the state of the left today, not just in France.

A useful list is here :
L’Echec de la gauche – the failure of the left

Jospin moved from the left to the right, and unsuccessfully tried to cover some of his tracks.

We reproduce two articles here from
Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières

  1. Lionel Jospin the former Trotskyist
  2. Former French prime minister Lionel Jospin: a story of hope and missed opportunities

Jospin lays the ghost of long past TrotskyismThe French Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, admitted in 2001 that he began his political career as a Trotskyist

Lara Marlowe, Irish Times Wednesday June 6 2001

The French Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, admitted yesterday that he began his political career as a Trotskyist. Mr Jospin responded to questions in the National Assembly following press reports that he was a Trotskyist revolutionary who infiltrated the Socialist party on the instructions of his semi-clandestine organisation.

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European socialism, imperial militarism, and defence of Ukraine – Simon Pirani, People and Nature Blog

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Simon Pirani offers extremely useful insights which are relevant to every European country, including Ireland.

Insight 1

On the political side, socialists in Nordic countries are streets ahead of us in the UK, perhaps because they are geographically closer to Russia.
Bjarke Friborg of the Red-Green Alliance in Denmark underlined in a recent interview the “very real” threat posed by Putin’s regime, “not necessarily in terms of ‘tanks rolling into Paris’, but certainly as a threat to democracy, sovereignty and the principle that borders can not be changed by brute force”. He continued:
We oppose Russian imperialism just as we have opposed American and NATO imperialism: not by supporting one bloc against another, but by defending the right of peoples to self-determination and supporting democratic and progressive forces in Russia and its client state, Belarus.

Simon Pirani, People and Nature Blog
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The U.S. & Israeli War with Iran: What Should Be the Approach of a Principled Socialist Left? – Frieda Afary

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Below is the revised text of a presentation by Frieda Afary to the South African organization, Zabalaza for Socialism on March 15, 2026.

Link :


The U.S. & Israeli War with Iran: What Is a Needed Approach for a Principled Socialist Left? Frieda Afary, ESSF

These are key passages :

Globally, the Russian government has gained from this war because the price of oil has increased, and the Trump administration has lifted sanctions on Russia’s sale of oil. Russia has also gained because the anti-missile systems that Ukraine and Europe were buying from the U.S. to help defend Ukraine against Russia’s brutal imperialist invasion of that country are now going to the Middle East. Russia is also helping the Iranian government by sharing secret information about U.S. targets.
The Chinese government has also gained from this war, because the U.S. government will pay less attention to the Pacific Region and might even allow China to proceed with its plans to take over Taiwan.

Frieda Afary, ESSF, March 15 2026

IV. What Can International Progressives Do Now?
First: Do anything you can to stop this war. Educate, speak out, protest, put pressure on your government representatives and independent intellectuals. In the case of the United States, public opinion is currently 60% against this war. Most people don’t want to send their children to fight in the Middle East. Half the adult population is opposed to the Trump administration’s attacks on and detention/deportation of innocent immigrants. There is also a great deal of anger about the ways in which mostly wealthy men including Trump, other politicians and even academics have collaborated with and benefited from the late Jeffrey Epstein’s network for trafficking of women and girls for rape and sexual abuse. All of these questions need to be addressed in articulating an anti-war message.
Second: Reach out to progressives in the Middle East or Middle Eastern progressives abroad. Do not limit yourself to talking only about one struggle or one country in the Middle East.
Third: Oppose campism, take a clear stand against all global and regional capitalist-imperialist powers and defend the rights and humanity of the peoples that these powers are oppressing.
Fourth: Address key issues that are holding back our struggles: racial and ethnic discrimination, patriarchy, capitalist exploitation, and capitalist alienation.

Frieda Afary, ESSF, March 15 2026
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“The brave few documenting ordinary life in Putin’s Russia” – Catriona Crowe

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This excellent article appeared in the Friday March 20 2026 issue of the Irish Times :

Concerning the differences between the Ukrainian and Russian States, Catriona Crowe hits the nail on the head :

Casualties are breaking down at a ratio of 2-2.5 to 1, with Russia suffering the largest proportion, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. While the international press can report from Ukraine, although with some difficulty and considerable danger from the front lines, the Kremlin has detained at least 27 journalists since 2022, and 355 international journalists have been branded “foreign agents”.

Irish Times March 20 2026

Catriona Crowe: The brave few risking everything to unmask Putin’s Russia

The Oscar-winning documentary Mr Nobody against Putin is a record of something totally unseen in the world outside Russia

Ukraine is now in the fifth year of its war with Russia, an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign state based on Vladimir Putin’s desire to reconstitute the Russian Empire. It is estimated that casualties for both sides (killed, wounded and missing) will amount to two million sometime this year.

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USA ICE Deportation Flights Passing Through Shannon Airport in Ireland – Dublin Government’s Gardaí Refuse to Intervene

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Ukraine, Palestine, Occupation Is A Crime

ICE is an enemy of Palestine, Ukraine and opponents of the barbaric Trump-Friendly régime of Vladimir Putin

The aircraft, a Gulfstream V operated by ICE charter Journey Aviation, left the ICE hub of Mesa, AZ, at 2:28 a.m. local time Wednesday, and landed at Shannon Airport eight and a half hours later. The plane continued on to Cairo International Airport, which ICE has previously used to transfer Russian dissidents and asylum-seekers to Egyptian authorities, who then force them onto planes to Moscow.



Three and a half days after the ICE flight through Shannon Airport. Multiple phone calls and emails to the Gardai, and we’ve heard nothing from them on what action they took to investigate. I’ve been told by one officer that there is nothing on the PULSE record except my initial report.

Three and a half days after the ICE flight through Shannon Airport. Multiple phone calls and emails to the Gardai, and we've heard nothing from them on what action they took to investigate. I've been told by one officer that there is nothing on the PULSE record except my initial report.

John Lannon (@jclannon.bsky.social) 2026-02-14T11:44:36.751Z

Here is Gillian Brockell’s excellent report (thanks to Joe Noonan for circulating the information).

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Prosecution expected over killing of IRA informer Denis Donaldson – Dublin government minister Jim O’Callaghan makes a statement

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This could be a very significant news story.

Link :
Crimeworld – Prosecution Expected over 2007 killing of IRA Informer Denis Donaldson

Press Association Story :

“A prosecution is expected in relation to the fatal shooting of Denis Donaldson in Co Donegal in 2006, the Irish justice minister has said.

Minister Jim O’Callaghan made the statement after meeting with Mr Donaldson’s daughter Jane Kearney.

“It has now been nearly 20 years since Denis Donaldson was killed near Glenties, Co Donegal in April 2006,” he said in a statement.

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