Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Archive for the ‘Referendums’ Category

Ireland’s turn to Reject Austerity Fantasy?

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http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/10/now-ireland-turn-austerity-fantasy?cat=commentisfree&type=article

Gavan Titley and John O’ Brennan argue for Voting No to the Austerity Treaty on May 31

Vote No to the Austerity Treaty – Public Meeting Wednesday May 9 Kavanagh’s Stoneybatter

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ULA Public Meeting : NO To Austerity, Build a Radical Alternative – Tuesday April 24 @8.00pm, Teachers Club, 36 Parnell Square

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United Left Alliance

Dublin Central Branch

Public Meeting

NO To Austerity, Build a Radical Alternative

Tuesday April 24 @8.00pm, Teachers Club, 36 Parnell Square

Speakers : Joe Higgins TD, Joan Collins TD,

Sheila Judge (DEIS campaigner)

Boycott the Household Tax

The Campaign to boycott payment of the Household Tax has won magnificent support. The anger expressed at meetings and protest shows people are prepared to face the government down.

The United Left Alliance (ULA) fully supports the Campaign. Our members, councillors and TDs support the boycott of the tax and stand with those resisting the charge.

Labour & Fine Gael Bail Out Bankers

Labour and Fine Gael promised to stand up to the EU-IMF. Labour even threatened to ‘burn the bondholders’. Now they have made a conscious decision to bailout bankers and speculators and every dirty trick in the book will be used to threaten people to force them to pay this unjust tax.

VOTE NO to Austerity Treaty on May 31

Austerity is being imposed to pay off the gambling debts of the banks. The government wants to enshrine these policies in the Constitution by signing up to a European Treaty that will restrict the ability of states to fund public investment to create jobs. The passing of this treaty will lead to ever more cuts in health and education and more misery for the majority of people. It must be opposed.

Wealth Tax Will Fund New Jobs

The ULA is opposed to all forms of austerity:

making ordinary people pay for a crisis that was not of their making. Ireland is not broke and austerity is not inevitable. The richest 5% have a combined wealth of €219 billion. A wealth tax on these resources and a refusal to pay bank debts could generate billions for a programme of job creation.

Build A Radical Political Alternative

The growing opposition to austerity must be linked. The ULA believes it is time to build a radical political alternative. The ULA stands for the creation of a new party for working people that stands for democratic public ownership of the resources of the economy that can guarantee a decent standard of living for all. It does not believe that there is a just or sustainable solution to the current crises based on the capitalist market and bowing to the power of speculators.

We believe there needs to be a wide debate, involving all those groups and individuals opposed to austerity, about the best way to build a new organisation to represent working people, the unemployed and the marginalised.

Come to the Public Meeting, join the debate and get involved in the fightback.

The ULA, formed in November 2010, is an Alliance of People Before Profit , the Socialist Party and the Tipperary Workers and Unemployed Action Group. It has five TDs, an MEP, and councillors throughout the country. It is now building branches in all areas to provide active opposition to the austerity policies of the government.

For more information contact Donal at 087 7552559 or Colm at 087 2947100

United Left Alliance at http://www.unitedleftalliance.org/

Watch “Andy Storey on the new EU fiscal treaty” on YouTube

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Written by tomasoflatharta

Mar 8, 2012 at 10:31 am

Vote No to Austerity Europe – No to the Treaty on Stability, Co-ordination and Governance – Platform of the Campaign Against the Austerity Treaty

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Vote No to Austerity Europe – No to the Treaty on Stability, Co-ordination and Governance –
Platform of the Campaign Against the Austerity Treaty

The proposed new Treaty on Stability, Co-ordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union– in reality an Austerity Treaty – is an undemocratic attempt to institutionalize austerity across Europe. Its ‘Fiscal Compact’ would deny the right of Member State governments to run a ‘structural’ budget deficit of more than 0.5%. This would remove the democratic right of national parliaments to decide national budgets, with that power shifting to the unelected European Commission and European Court of Justice. This would be a fundamental transfer of power away from elected governments. We call for a ‘No’ vote in the referendum. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by tomasoflatharta

Mar 4, 2012 at 8:58 pm

Why this really is an Austerity Treaty

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New Statesman – The EU treaty is a disaster for the left

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http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/12/european-treaty-cameron-stop

Read an excellent short article on why all shades of the left are assaulted by the European Union Fiscal Pact

Vote No to EU Austerity Treaty – Bailout People Not Banks – Public Meeting, Liberty Hall, Monday March 5, 7.30pm

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Say No the Austerity Treaty – Irish Times Front Page Photo, 29.2.2012

First Poster of the 2012 EU Austerity Referendum Campaign

Bailout People Not Banks

Link to PDF of Poster is Here :

Say No to EU Austerity Treaty

More Information on the Danish Red-Green MEP Soren Sondergaard Here :

Soren Sondergaard on Denmark and the Euro

Danish People’s Movement Welcomes Foreign Workers

Public Action was needed to force the government to hold a referendum.

We have extra time after the Lisbon Treaty 1-1 draw – let’s score in extra time and win this European battle on Irish Soil – start the fight back against the parasite banks in Ireland, spread the spirit of rebellion beyond our shores to the rest of Europe.

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United Left Alliance calls for a NO vote in ‘Austerity Referendum’

The five United Left Alliance TDs (Richard Boyd Barrett, Joan Collins, Clare Daly, Joe Higgins and Seamus Healy) today called for a NO vote in the referendum on the Fiscal Treaty – the austerity treaty. Read the rest of this entry »

Trinity

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The Left Unity Blogging Network has this post today:

comment on wall from H. Silke : “Not one but two different component parts of the ULA organised public meetings clashing with the ULA’s Dublin city branch meeting (at the same time and place). Hardly driving confidence in joined up thinking never mind revolution? :-/”

and asks, “Can anyone shed any light on the matter?

Well yes, and it all sheds light on the Babel that is the ULA and the need concentrate on the ULA as an organisation. Last night the Dublin Central Branch held its (well attended) monthly meeting in the Teachers Club, Parnell Square, Dublin. I was astonished to see posters in town for a Socialist Party public meeting at the same time in the Teachers Club on the Fiscal Treaty. Wait, we have a troika of our own.  Socialst Democracy, an informal component of the ULA, had a public meeting at the same time in the Teachers Club,  with Conor McCabe speaking on the economy. This seems to have been reasonably well-attended too.

Now all three meetings were very worthy of attention and attendance. And no doubt it was all the kind of mix up that we all do on occasion, and was no disrespect to the Dublin Central ULA trying to gather all ULA members and sympathisers in the area for a Branch meeting. But it was also a symptom of disengagement by the components from the ULA itself,  of everybody doing their own thing and of little reference into the organisation and schedules of the ULA. And, all three meetings could have been held under the banner of the ULA, and why not. And all three may even have been combined in some way, to cut down on all the subdivision of action and multiplication of energy that is a feature of the left – and the broad social response to austerity too – at the moment.

Des Derwin

The Billion Dollar Anglo Irish Bond – Cedar Lounge Revolution – and the Greece Referendum

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