Archive for the ‘General Election 2011’ Category
Syriza Member of Greek Parliament to Speak in Dublin on Thursday May 24 in Wynn’s Hotel, Abbey Street, 8pm – Supporting Campaign for a No Vote on the Austerity Treaty in the May 31 referendum
The Irish Government’s Finance Minister Michael Noonan explains the crisis in Greece by guessing how much feta cheese Irish people buy each week.
Let Them Eat Greek Cheese
Defending these comments he said :
I’m trying to stop contagion. It’s one of my jobs as finance minister to protect the Irish economy.
According to a well-researched article on politico.ie, Deputy Noonan has got that wrong too :
http://www.politico.ie/social-issues/8569-michael-noonan-there-he-goes-again.html
If you are in Dublin on May 24, come to the meeting addressed by the Syriza MP – we will publish more details as they become available.
International Viewpoint has published three contrasting articles called “What next for Greece?”
ULA Conference: ‘Co-operation not competition’ – Statement from Paddy Healy and the South Tipperary Workers and Unemployed Action Group
It’s good to see the WUAG engaging like this with the ULA at large and doubly so given the content of the statement.
Huge Obligation and Opportunity for ULA as Sinn Féin reiterates its willingness to enter Coalition Government with any Party
Paddy Healy
Because of developments in the national and international economic and political crisis there is a huge obligation on ULA and on its components to make significant progress in its mission to politically reorganise the Irish working class in its own interest. The Irish Labour Party is once again in coalition government with a right-wing party. On this occasion the government is not just failing to introduce improvements for workers but is openly attacking all the gains made by workers over decades. If ULA can rise to its historic task the Labour Party could be wiped out and above all fail to recover from this period in government.
Following the recent rise of Sinn Féin in the polls, the party leader reiterated its willingness to enter coalition with any political party. This guarantees that sooner or later that party will go into oblivion sharing the same fate as Clann Na Poblachta and the Workers Party. But much damage could be done before then. The commitment of Sinn Féin to coalition confirms that it is no longer a revolutionary nationalist party. Read the rest of this entry »
X Case on the Political Agenda
“Anyway, enormous thanks are owed to the TDs who put this together. The fact that they forced a debate on the issue is a major achievement.” –
Stephanie Lord.
That is the key factor for activists. The Dáil debate was supported by Action on X, which mobilised support outside Leinster House and brought the issue to public attention. We can rely only on ourselves, the politics of mass mobilisation – and work harmoniously with the TD’s who introduced the bill – more power to them all.Plus Plus Plus to Ming Flanagan – as pointed out by EamonnCork on the Cedar Lounge discussion “By the way Ming Flanagan’s vote in favour of the bill perhaps gives the lie to people on here who persistently characterise him as some kind of rural conservative in disguise” –
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0420/1224314970161.html?via=mr
It almost seems petty to consider who voted and who didn’t on the Abortion Bill this week. But, it’s an exercise with some utility.
First up, consider that ten of the Technical Group, and four of the ULA (out of five), voted for the Bill. Nine of SF’s 14 voted (though Pearse Doherty was at the funeral of his father). Patrick Nulty, who appears to be becoming a one man tribune of a strand of Labour thinking that has now all but vanished also voted for it. I can’t divine any great rural/urban divide in SF, or pro-choice/anti-abortion divide either. TDs who might seem to fit in either camps voted for the Bill.
Of the Technical Group, Stephen Donnelly voted for the Bill, and that great social liberal, Shane Ross? And what of Thomas Pringle? Finian McGrath was missing in action too, as was Tom Fleming – perhaps less unexpectedly.
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A Government Starting to Crack? Are we over-optimistic?
Perhaps we are over-optimistic, – and the little voice should always say “optimism of the will, pessimism of the spirit” – we think that was Antonio Gramsci’s advice to activists – but it looks like the Kenny- Gilmore government is on the slide downwards towards a Cowen-Gormley meltdown – let’s hope!
By now most will have read the comments Leo Vardkar made about RTÉ, and I’ll get to them in a moment. But let’s start with his less than opportune timing as regards this remark:
He also said RTÉ was “encouraging people to break the law” by giving access to campaigners urging people not to pay the household tax. He claimed RTÉ would not give access to groups advocating that people refuse to pay the television licence fee.
Well perhaps they would if there was a campaign of mass non-payment on the TV license.
But what if instead of ‘law-breakers’ being the problem, the truth is the law itself is broken?
According to The Journal.ie
THE HIGH COURT has granted leave for a challenge to be made against the household charge because the necessary legislation and the statutory instruments are in the English language only – and have yet to be…
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Action on ‘X’ Public Meeting Gresham Hotel, Tuesday 21 February, 7.30pm; Broad Support for Dáil Legislation
Action on X
The Irish Times Reports :
A PRIVATE Members’ Bill which would provide for limited access to abortion will be introduced in the Dáil next week.
The Bill, to make abortion legal where there is a “real and substantial risk to the life” of the pregnant woman, will be introduced by Socialist Party TD Clare Daly in private members’ time and will be voted on in the House on April 19th.
Over 60 organisations and individuals, including seven TDs, two Senators, trade unions, academics and doctors have called for “immediate legislation in line with the ‘X’ case”.
More Here :
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0218/1224311978354.html
There is an impressive media round-up here :
Action on X After 20 Years
http://www.facebook.com/actiononx2012
Public Meeting on February 21 Read the rest of this entry »
An open email to Eamon Gilmore – Film to Follow The Ghost Writer?
http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/an-open-email-to-eamon-gilmore/
A great idea – how about a few more such letters?
The author of this open letter says that the Labour Deputy Gilmore – second in line to Fine Gael Taoiseach Kenny – employs a well-paid adviser Mark Garrett who worked for an American firm – McKinsey and Company – connected to a failed coup attempting to depose Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2002.
Incidentally, do you ever ask Mark Garret about his period working as…. External Relations Manager for McKinsey and Co, the international firm of management consultants.
Does he know anything about the influential people Venezuela? Remember when the McKinsey office in Caracas, Venezuela, was used in the 2002 coup against President Chavez.
A wikileaked cable told us of a Gilmore conversation with a USA Embassy representative in which the Labour Party leader disclosed his public opposition to a second Lisbon Treaty Referendum, was a pose.
The labour leader is looking like a fabulous Yankee asset – interesting ghosts these days in Leinster House!
The intriguing story of the Irish Labour Party leader makes you wonder if Roman Polanski might be tempted to make a film, using a story akin to his recent thriller The Ghost Writer, where the Tony Blair-like character is played by Pierce Brosnan.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-bradley/the-ghosts-of-tony-blair_b_509269.html
Life is often much stranger than fiction.
John Meehan
Time to legislate for life-saving abortion – 20th Anniversary of the Infamous X Case, February 1992
Time to legislate for life-saving abortion
Irish State Tries to Intern a 14 Year Old Raped Suicidal Girl Seeking An Abortion
ULA to Force Dáil Vote on Burning Anglo Bondholders
Joan Collins TD - Dáil Should Burn Bondholders
From the Journal.ie :
http://www.thejournal.ie/ula-to-force-dail-vote-on-burning-anglo-bondholders-335933-Jan2012/
THE UNITED LEFT ALLIANCE is to force a Dáil vote tomorrow evening on whether the State should repay the unsecured bondholders of Anglo Irish Bank.
A motion has been tabled by the five-member group, backed by the other 11 members of the independent technical group, which would force the government not to repay obligations worth up to €50 billion.
The motion includes an instruction not to repay the €1.25 billion unsecured bond issued by Anglo which matures tomorrow, or any further payments to bondholders in Anglo, now the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. Read the rest of this entry »
“Be Patient and Never Give up the Struggle” An interview with Tommy McKearney
International Viewpoint has published a stimulating interview with Tommy McKearney,
http://www.tommymckearney.com/Site/Blog/Blog.html
Tommy McKearney - A Patient Revolutionary Socialist
We hope soon to carry a review of Tommy’s recently published book
Goodbye Armalite, Hello Ballot Box?
Tommy welcomes the United Left Alliance Project :
Q: In late 2010 the United Left Alliance came together to contest the February 2011 general elections in Ireland, winning five seats. What is you assessment of the ULA?
TM: The ULA is a positive and progressive development. The fact that organizations of the left have come together at any time is good and that these groups are doing so at this time of capitalist crisis is heartening and encouraging. The ULA has also given some needed visibility to the left through its articulate and high-profile spokespersons such as Richard Boyd Barrett and Joe Higgins.
Asked about Ed Moloney’s “Voices From the Grave” and the British state attack on the Boston College Belfast Project, Tommy says : Read the rest of this entry »
Tomás Ó Flatharta 