Archive for the ‘FFFGGG Coalition’ Category
“Sinn Féin’s disaster was the standout story of the weekend’s count” – Cedar Lounge Revolution Blog starts important discussion
Overall, the June 7 2024 Local and European elections in the 26 County bit of Ireland were good news for the ruling coalition elected in February 2020. The Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael-Greens plus Gombeens (FFFGGG) combination scored an important victory, setting them up for a possible return to the seat of government in Dublin’s Leinster House in less than 12 months, when a new general election must happen.
Even worse, due to ominous rising support for Gombeen currents (primarily the Independent Ireland [II]) party and extreme racists, FFFG might be able to dump the Greens and rule on their own – or coalesce with the II gombeens and other toxic racist-right populists.
Read the rest of this entry »Finnish Left Alliance Chairperson Li Andersson says Clare Daly and Mick Wallace “parrot” Putin’s propaganda against Ukraine – and should be denied membership of the Left group in the new Euro-Parliament (if elected)
Current Irish Member of the European parliament Clare Daly has lost her seat in the Dublin constituency.
Link :
Clare Daly loses Euro-Seat, June 11 2024
Daly and Mick Wallace were part of the left group in the last parliament, but the chairperson of the Left Alliance (Finland) disagrees strongly with the Wallace-Daly Ukraine policy.
Li Andersson, Chairperson of the Finnish Left Alliance, says Daly and Wallace parroted Putin’s propaganda :
Andersson said MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace from Ireland, two fierce critics of support for Ukraine, can no longer sit with The Left. Despite also parroting Russian propaganda and seeking to torpedo resolutions on Russia, and seeking to torpedo resolutions on Russia, Daly and Wallace have been allowed to continue as members of The Left.
In Finland, the Left Alliance won big in the European parliament elections :
Finland’s results in the European election bucked a continent-wide trend of rising support for parties on the outer fringe of right-wing politics, with the Left Alliance and the National Coalition winning big at the expense of the nationalist Finns Party. Leftist leader Li Andersson received more votes than any other candidate has ever received in a European election. By 8:34pm, with just 60 percent of the vote counted, she had already beaten Eurosceptic Centre Party grandee Paavo Väyrynen’s total of 157 668 votes in the 1996 election. She ended up getting nearly a quarter of a million votes. Andersson was visibly delighted after the results were announced. ”I’m still in shock. This is an incredibly fantastic result, much better than I could have ever dared to expect,” she said.
Link :
Left Alliance Record Result in Finnish Elections
In the article below Li Andersson’s robust left-wing pro-Ukraine policy is examined in detail – the Irish left should follow this excellent example.
John Meehan, June 11 2024
Link :
Finland: ANDERSSON: The Left must clean out members who oppose support for Ukraine
CHAIRPERSON of the Left Alliance Li Andersson says The Left, one of the seven political groups in the European Parliament, should clean out members who question support for Ukraine and show sympathy for Russia.
“The groups are always reformed at the start of the term, and we want changes to the group that make it more cohesive on foreign and security policy,” she said to Helsingin Sanomat on Tuesday.
The Left Alliance is part of The Left in the European Parliament.
Helsingin Sanomat reported earlier this week that several members of the political group voted this term against resolutions concerning Ukraine, questioning the need for support – especially military support – for Ukraine. Some members have also criticised the economic sanctions slapped on Russia over its war of aggression in Ukraine.
An analysis conducted by the newspaper found that the group has divided on votes concerning Ukraine, with support coming from parties from the Nordics and opposition from parties in Central and Southern Europe.
Andersson, who herself is vying for a seat in the European Parliament, pointed out that The Left has nonetheless unanimously condemned the war of aggression prosecuted by Russia.
“I’ve stressed that there are certain things we won’t compromise on. The entire group has condemned the war unequivocally. Had that not been the case, we would’ve left the group or someone else would’ve had to leave,” she stated.
“On other issues, you can see that other parties differ from us in terms of their security policy analysis. They don’t reflect the thinking of the Left Alliance.”
How Russia and Ukraine support are viewed by other parties in the group is becoming a threshold question within the Left Alliance – one that defines what parties are capable of co-operation, according to Helsingin Sanomat.
Andersson said MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace from Ireland, two fierce critics of support for Ukraine, can no longer sit with The Left. Despite also parroting Russian propaganda and seeking to torpedo resolutions on Russia, Daly and Wallace have been allowed to continue as members of The Left.
“The Nordic Green Left, [the umbrella party for left-wing parties in the Nordics], as a whole is of the opinion that if they manage to win re-election, they can’t join our group,” stated Andersson.
Sahra Wagenknecht, a German left-wing populist who has opposed military aid to Ukraine and called for the resumption of gas trade with Russia, is similarly not welcome to The Left, according to Andersson.
“We’ll represent our stance in every vote. MEPs of the Left Alliance will vote in favour of supporting Ukraine,” she pledged.
Helsingin Sanomat on Wednesday wrote that the European Parliament’s political groups have generated more discussion than previously in the run-up to the elections, a reflection of the groups’ growing importance in decision-making.
Johanna Kantola, a professor of political science at the University of Helsinki, said to the newspaper that the groups have marked differences: while the largest groups in the parliament – the centre-right EPP, the social democratic S&D and liberal Renew Europe – have highlighted their European and supranational nature, some of it has been lip service.
National interests are visible in votes and the groups exercise no group discipline, she said.
The Greens and European Free Alliance is a genuinely supranational group with a shared set of values, according to Kantola.
Finnish parties in the European Parliament have been aligned as follows: the Christian Democrats, Movement Now and National Coalition have been part of the EPP, the Finns Party of the ECR, the Social Democrats of S&D, the Centre and Swedish People’s Party of Renew Europe, the Left Alliance of The Left, and the Green League of the Greens and EFA.
Riikka Purra, the chairperson of the Finns Party, stated in mid-May that the Finns Party would stay in the ECR even if the group was joined by Fidesz, the party led by authoritarian Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
“We don’t have another group to go to, and you can’t be without a group. That’s when you need other structures that make it possible to co-exist,” she was quoted saying in Brussels on 14 May by Helsingin Sanomat.
Readers are urged to support this initiative :
We invite you – organisations and individuals – to sign the declaration “Ukraine: A People’s Peace, not an Imperial Peace”. Please find the declaration and our accompanying letter below. Different language versions are provided.
Link :
A People’s Peace, Not an Imperial Peace
Any sympathy vanishes :
“Sitting MEP Clare Daily has lost her European Parliament seat in the Dublin constituency.
She was excluded on the 17th count and becomes the first outgoing MEP to lose her seat in the election.
Asked how she felt following the loss, she told RTÉ News: “You had no interest in talking to me for five years, so I’ve no interest in talking to you.”
Ms Daly hugged Independent Ireland candidate Niall Boylan before swiftly leaving the count centre at the RDS.”
Link : https://www.rte.ie/news/elections-2024/2024/0611/1454089-european-election-roundup/
The best that can be said about Niall Boylan is that he is a mini-Trump who should be shunned, like the mini-Hitler political trash which transferred heavily to him in the Dublin Euro-parliament election contest.
Struggles for Self-Determination: Ukraine and Palestine Solidarity Discussion
Link :
Ukraine and Palestine: building real solidarity is hard work
A guest post by JOHN LAWRENCE, from the People and Nature Blog hosted by Simon Pirani.
This article is relevant to the European Parliament Election campaign in Ireland and other parts of Europe.
“Genocide is genocide, a mass grave is a mass grave. We are with the people who are in there, and against the people who put them there”, journalist Ed Vulliamy told a discussion meeting in London on Monday.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Israel’s war on Gaza – both of which have settler colonial and genocidal dimensions – had thrown an unusually clear light on the hypocrisy of people who oppose one, but not the other, Vulliamy said.
Marching in London, March 2024. Photos from United Action UK on instagram
In the United Nations, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky abstains over Gaza, and South Africa abstains over Ukraine, Vulliamy said.
“Large sections of the left wonderfully support Gaza but, having denied and justified [the massacre in 1995 of Bosnians by Serb troops at] Srebrenica, at best indulge, or support, Vladimir Putin and his imperial endeavour,” he continued.
Read the rest of this entry »Swastika cut into poster in sinister Far Right threat to socialist candidate – Irish Local and European Elections campaign, 2024 – Safety Measures Urgently Needed
Far-Right agitators in Ireland are escalating their attacks.
Ruth Coppinger, a Solidarity- People Before Profit candidate in Castleknock, and a former Dublin West TD, is the latest target.
Ruth’s press statement below explains the context well, and she makes an excellent proposal :
I am going to make contact with other parties / candidates – in particular those in opposition and on the left who are targeted more by the far right – to suggest that a central log of incidents and threats should be kept in order to take measures for the safety of all those ordinary activists who come out and campaign, as well as community safety in general.
“The far right can’t be allowed to create an atmosphere designed to frighten and to limit the campaigns of the left
Swastika cut into poster in sinister Far Right threat to socialist candidate
A “menacing atmosphere” is being generated by the far right according to a former TD and local election candidate who has had a swastika cut into her image on an election poster. Ruth Coppinger, socialist candidate with People Before Profit-Solidarity in Castleknock ward, Fingal, says supporters found the poster and that “it shows the danger of the far right in these elections, the threat they are to safety and how they would take away democratic rights.”
Read the rest of this entry »“Vote Left” Transfer Pact in June 2024 Irish Elections? – A Positive People Before Profit Initiative
People Before Profit is proposing a “Vote Left” transfer pact to operate in the June 2024 Local and European Elections, 26 Counties
Presenting this positive initiative Paul Murphy TD said
He was fully aware that there would be different perspectives and, but People Before Profit “sees this as just the start of a process to form a left alternative.”
Paul Murphy TD
Link :
PBP Vote Left Transfer Pact Proposal
A useful detailed discussion is taking place on the Cedar Lounge Revolution Blog
(Link : The Cedar Lounge Revolution)
A correspondent, IrishElectionLiterature, opened the discussion on a positive note :
Link :
Vote left, Transfer left, Then What?
In the article below, important points from the discussion are highlighted.
This is a serious matter, especially in a context where it is necessary to confront and defeat the extreme racist right.
Colm Breathnach offers a very good template :
Just a personal thing, but here’s my own general set of rules when it comes to voting where a Proportional Representation system is in operation (obviously First Pat The Post system is much more challenging in terms of decisions):
- Start with the furthest left and keep voting until you reach the border of what you consider to be the left (for me, that’s social democratic or social liberal parties). Of course that border can shift – the Irish Greens were once inside my border of “left”, now they are definitely outside.
- Exclude candidates who consistently hold reactionary positions regardless of their ostensible politics – favour genocide, homophobic etc etc. So the Daly’s of the world don’t feature or let’s say a centre left candidate who justified Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
- Adjust to take account of specific concerns which one might deem important for progress to radical transformation of society. So for example you may alter your ranking to the take into account the candidates position on climate change or Irish unity etc.
Colm continues :
Read the rest of this entry »Ireland’s Open(ish) Border : “selective Garda passport checks on the Border already take place, at times on the basis of quite blatant racial discrimination” – Statement by Human Rights Organisations and Trade Unions
A number of Irish human rights organizations and Trade Unions have issued a very strong statement following a stampede of racist publicity concerning “Open Borders”.
Here is an example from the Sunday Independent (May 5 2025)
Do you believe there should be checkpoints at the border with Northern Ireland to limit the number of asylum-seekers coming from the U.K.?
The newspaper published this summary of its survey :
Once again, Andrew Flood offers a devastating reply
With the trap carefully baited & Sinn Féin blundering into it here’s the spring being sprung. Farage & Dowson cackling with glee as their weird investment pays off. It’s a trap all the way down of course because …
Andrew Flood
It gets dafter – 82% want to go through an expensive deportation process to somewhere we have a common travel area with & where people deported can just walk back across any of the 400+ border crossing points again you can see where accepting this logic rapidly leads
Andrew Flood
Ireland’s Open(ish) Border – Sinn Féin on the Warpath
Ireland’s Open(ish) Border – Sinn Féin on the Warpath
Sinn Féin’s is warning Irish voters about “Open Borders”.
The party is promoting relentless propaganda in the run-up to the June 7 2024 European and local elections in Ireland.
This leaflet from Balbrigggan (Dublin) is a local version of statewide propaganda.
Let’s ask ourselves a question : What’s wrong with Open Borders?
Andrew Flood calls the border in Ireland Open(ish) – and he is spot on. Here is why :
I say Open(ish) because for two decades black or brown people crossing that border have been stopped and told to produce ‘papers’ by the Garda (claiming to be doing random checks). Maybe they want such checks stepped up, if not what is the demand here?
The border between the EU and the rest of the world is so closed that 3,000 people died trying to sneak across it last year. Over 20 times the number of people killed crossing the Berlin Wall in the 28 years it existed. The border with the 6 counties is Open(ish) – is it that?
OK we all know this is a response to the far right working with FFFGGP to blame Sinn Féin on the government’s failure to plan & communicate for large number of Ukrainian refugees. But this shite is just going to underline that Sinn Féin are no more principled that the rest.
Read the rest of this entry »
Swiss Grannies Win Historic Climate Change European Court of Human Rights Victory – Irish Green Party Minister Éamon Ryan Fought Them – and Lost
You could not make it up. The Irish Green Party Leader Éamon Ryan is a Minister for Climate Change in the FFFGGG (Fianna Fáil Fine Gael Greens and Gombeens) Dublin Coalition Government. In a display of pure gombeen politics, the Green Irish TD fought the “Swiss Grannies” (“Aînées pour le climat”) in the European Court of Human Rights (EHCR) – and lost.
The “Aînées pour le climat” won a historic victory.
Heat-related deaths were at the heart of a recent landmark legal case taken by the so-called ‘Swiss Grannies’ in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The group, representing 2,400 older women, had argued that senior citizens were more likely to die in heatwaves. Earlier this month the court found that weak Swiss government climate policies had violated their human rights.
Jennifer Whitmore TD, Social Democrats, Wicklow
Marielle Budry describes the case :
Source : International Viewpoint,
Historic victory for the “Aînées pour le climat”
Link : Swiss Grannies – Historic victory for the “Aînées pour le climat”
On 9 April, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights handed down a historic verdict, ruling that Switzerland is violating the human rights of older women because the country is not taking the necessary measures to combat global warming. [Aînées pour le climat – Older Women for Climate]
Read the rest of this entry »Dublin Far-Right Racist Connections – A Sunday Independent story highlighted by Paul Murphy TD
Far-right racists regularly target Paul Murphy TD (People Before Profit), Dublin South-West. These sinister activists picket the homes of elected politicians; a few days ago they targeted the home of Green Party Minister Roderic O’Gorman, who is gay and is responsible for the housing of immigrants.
Paul Murphy observes :
Good that some media is finally drawing the obvious link between the far-right and the disgusting intimidatory scenes outside Roderic O’Gorman’s house.
This isn’t a lack of civility in politics.
It’s an organised attempt to undermine democratic rights.
https://twitter.com/paulmurphy_TD/status/1781954648292683804?t=c3ttmKhAR-_G9oNaoBVPyA&s=19
Picketing family homes is from the same playbook as burning 🔥 immigrants’ accommodation, city centre riots such as November 23 2023 in Dublin, and propaganda attacking the rights of specific national groups.
We offer one example: Ukrainians forced to live in Ireland, fleeing from Russia’s genocidal war.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tomás Ó Flatharta 