Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Archive for the ‘USA’ Category

With apartheid an irrefutable reality, Israel’s democracy has always rested on blind faith – Amnesty International “Accuses Israel of Subjecting Palestinians to Apartheid”

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Amnesty International became the latest human rights group to label Israel an apartheid state. In a damning report titled “Israel’s Apartheid against…

With apartheid an irrefutable reality, Israel’s democracy has always rested on blind faith

We are reblogging an important Middle East Monitor Analysis of Amnesty International’s Report stating that Israel is subjecting Palestinians to Apartheid. (See Above). Betty Purcell elaborates in an Irish Times letter, published February 2 2022.

Amnesty report on Israel

Sir, – I was not surprised but am deeply grateful to the esteemed human rights organisation Amnesty International for their devastating report “Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity” (“Amnesty accuses Israel of subjecting Palestinians to ‘apartheid’”, World, February 1st).

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Public Meeting – Uprising in Kazakhstan

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Uprising in Kazakstan
Zoom meeting ‒ Report, Questions & Answers, Discussion

Zoom meeting, Saturday, January 22nd, 10am PT / 6pm UTC / 19h CET Ainur Kurmanov, Socialist Movement Kazakhstan – with a report, Q&A and discussion. Sign up at → tinyurl.com/uprising2022

Public Meeting- Solidarity with the Kazakhstan Uprising

Please sign up here to get the login details for our Zoom meeting with Ainur Kurmanov (Socialist Movement Kazakhstan), with reports, Q&A and discussion on Sat, Jan 22, 10am PT / 6pm UTC / 19h CET.
https://tinyurl.com/uprising2022

Since January 2, the uprising in Kazakhstan has offered an inspiring chapter in the global revolt against oppression, endemic poverty, and yawning wealth inequality. We are excited to hear from Ainur Kurmanov from the Socialist Movement Kazakhstan about the background to this uprising, recent developments, and the fight for working-class power.

While different factions of the old regime are trying to exploit the anger and unrest, the striking oil workers and miners provided a glimpse of working-class power. We stand in solidarity with all the people arrested, protesting the hundreds of killings that reportedly took place at the hands of an armed Russian intervention and brutal state repression.

This meeting is organized by AntiCapitalist Resistance (England and Wales), ControCorrente (Italy), ecosocialist.scot (Scotland), Internationale Sozialistische Organisation (Germany), Lernen im Kampf (Germany), Reform & Revolution caucus in DSA (USA), Republican Socialist Platform (Scotland), Russia’s Socialist Movement (Russia), RISE (Ireland), SAP ‒ Antikapitalisten (Belgium).

Aufstand in Kasachstan

Veranstaltung mit Ainur Kumarow
von der Sozialistischem Bewegung Kasachstan

Internationale Online-Veranstaltung 
am Samstag, 22. Januar 2022, 19 Uhr
auf Russisch und Englisch

Mitveranstalter: 
Anti*Capitalist Resistance (A*CR, England und Wales), 
ControCorrente (Italien), 
ecosocialist.scot (Schottland), 
Internationale Sozialistische Organisation (ISO, BRD), 
Lernen im Kampf (BRD), 
Reform and Revolution ‒ Caucus in the DSA (R&R, USA), 
Republic Socialist Platform (RSP, Schottland), 
RISE (Irland), 
Rossiskoje Sozialistitscheskoje Dwishenije (RSD, Russland), 
SAP – Antikapitalisten (Belgien)

Bitte hier anmelden:
https://tinyurl.com/uprising2022

Uprising in Kazakhstan ‒ Zoom meeting

Please also consider signing our international statement of solidarity with the uprising in Kazakhstan, https://tinyurl.com/KazakhstanSolidarity

Solidaritätserklärung auf Deutsch:
https://sozialismus.ch/international/2022/internationale-solidaritaet-mit-dem-aufstand-in-kasachstan/

Kasachstan: Farbrevolution oder Aufstand der Arbeiterklasse? Interview mit Ainur Kumarow
https://sozialismus.ch/international/2022/kasachstan-farbrevolution-oder-aufstand-der-arbeiterinnenklasse/

Internationale Sozialistische Organisation (ISO), Sektion der Vierten Internationale in Deutschland

iso@intersoz.org
www.intersoz.org
http://facebook.com/intersoz.org

Convicted Criminal Ghislaine Maxwell – Low Media Standards, an Irish Link, and a Prince of England

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A lot of public commentary about the convicted criminal Ghislaine Maxwell, her late boss Jeffrey Epstein, and an alleged client, Britain’s Prince Andrew, suffers from low media standards. An interesting exception is the reporting of a former BBC correspondent John Sweeney.

It is a horrific story. Known credible allegations should be highlighted.

Lazy speculation and lurid gossip should be avoided.

John Sweeney – a Blogger-Journalist who carefully assesses hard evidence

John Sweeney carefully assesses real hard evidence. The author avoids sloppy tabloid-gossip methods. He explains the serious evidence very well. The scandal is far from over in the courts – especially in the case of the British state’s Prince called Andrew.
John Sweeney explains no evidence was presented at the Maxwell trial implicating Bill Clinton in either trafficking or criminal sexual intercourse with underage women. Evidence was presented proving that Clinton, ex US President Donald Trump and other wealthy powerful men accepted freebie flights given by Epstein and Maxwell. Sweeney sarcastically observes at one point that men such as Clinton and Trump enjoyed having sex with 23 year old women – the Epstein/Maxwell gang assisted them.
Sweeney also explores very interesting connections between the criminal behaviour of Ghislaine Maxwell and her late father Robert Maxwell : a corrupt billionaire who died after he fell off his private luxury yacht “Lady Ghislaine” in disputed circumstances.

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Joe Biden President of USA – Donald Trump Departs – Extreme Right Criminals Celebrate

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One correspondent is not impressed with many displays of forelock-tugging on Irish mainstream media outlets. Joe Biden is an Irish-American, who frequently quotes Irish poets and writers such as Séamus Heaney WB Yeats and James Joyce.

Joe Biden is an incubator of Trumpism.

“I wonder did he read any poems written by Black men in American prisons, seeing as he was the main architect of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 which enforced mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses. Due to that and other ‘catch-all’ crime laws, Black men (also women) make up about 15% of the population but 40% of the prisoners.”

President Donald Trump sent QAnon-style goons on their way to Washington DC’s Capitol Hill on January 6 2021 trying and failing to overturn a convincing Joe Biden General Election victory in November 2020. Trump lost by a margin of over 8 million votes, a gap of more than 4.5 per cent, and turnout reached record levels. Many of the QAnon-style Trump-goons so far arrested and charged over the Capitol Hill assault on the US Senate and Congress are serving or retired staff in the state repressive forces – Army, Air Force, Police, National Guard and so on. What protection is the US state offering to the people attending the Joe Biden Presidential inauguration on January 20 2021? It is a version of putting the fox 🦊 in charge of the chicken 🐓 coop – 25,000 members of the National Guard occupy the city of Washington DC, whose population is overwhelmingly non-white, politically and socially hostile to Trumpism, and supportive of the magnificent Black Lives Matter Movement. No wonder the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had to desperately “vet” the repressive forces instructed to “protect” the Joe Biden inauguration.

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Needles And Trust

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When it’s my turn to take the vaccine for the coronavirus, I’m taking it. Granted, I probably won’t be able to until next summer when it’s available …

Needles And Trust

In the USA : Distrust of State advice comes from two different (opposed) directions : rationally from the left, irrationally from the right.

Polls show 71% of Americans are willing to take the vaccine. Black Americans willing to take it currently stands at 62% which is an increase from three months ago when it was at 50%. Politically, 86% of Democrats are willing to take the vaccine and Republicans…only 56% of them are willing to take the vaccine. Why?

Why do Republicans (white people) mistrust the vaccine more than black Americans? Why do some black Americans mistrust the vaccine at all? Black Americans have a good reason. White Republicans (I know. Redundant), do not.

From 1932 to 1973, the U.S. government, along with Tuskegee University, conducted a study of the effects of syphilis in black men. They told the men they were receiving free health care. That was a lie. The government was studying the effect of syphilis being untreated in black men with some of them only receiving a free lunch. Oh, look. All your shit just fell off. Here, have a sandwich.

Free Julian Assange – Political Prisoner – International Human Rights Day in Dublin, December 10 2020

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TD’s from Sinn Féin, People Before Profit, RISE, Solidarity and left independents, including Leas Ceann Comhairle Catherine Connolly, gathered outside the Convention Centre where the Dáil was sitting on December 10 2020 – International Human Rights Day. They made a public call on the British Government not to extradite Julian Assange to the USA.

‘We condemn the detention of Julian Assange pending his extradition proceedings. We further condemn the attempted use of the US Espionage Act to prosecute Assange for his work exposing the war crimes committed by US service personnel in the Iraq and Afghan war logs. It is our view that the use of these judicial measures by the US constitutes a grave threat to free speech and a free press. It further notes that this attempted prosecution is without precedent in US law.

The TD’s, joined by Senate colleagues including David Norris, were supporting a call made by the National Union of Journalists in Britain that Boris Johnson’s government should refuse to extradite Assange to the USA on false charges of espionage. If sent to America, Assange would face a sentence of 175 years for doing the job of a journalist, where he published the lies told by the US government about the invasion of Iraq. The following statement has been signed by 24 members of the Oireachtas. It is fitting that on International Human Rights Day solidarity with the plight of Julian Assange is expressed. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has endorsed this statement.

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Nazi Rally Scheduled in Dublin – Don’t Go! Boycott!

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A correspondent highlights a tiny rally in Dublin next Saturday – Don’t Go!

“I see Justin Barrett’s National Party, who want a Catholic Fascist Dictatorship in Ireland, have organised a little protest for Saturday ‘against the lockdown’. Even if you don’t agree with public health measures, don’t be fooled by this shit. These people want young women and girls back in slave labour laundries, young men and boys back in industrial schools, an end to birth control and women’s bodily autonomy, all non-white-Irish people to be forcibly exiled, and executions of their political opponents. All under the jackboot of a paedophile-protecting Catholic dictatorship.”

Don’t Go!

Trump To Appoint Right-Wing Catholic Sect Member To Supreme Court – Handmaid’s Tale Fiction to Become an American Reality?

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As expected, it looks as if Trump is going to choose as his Supreme Court nominee, an anti-abortionist disciple of a cult that could have come …

Trump To Appoint Right-Wing Catholic Sect Member To Supreme Court

US President Donald Trump plans to nominate a woman, Amy Coney Barrett, to his country’s Supreme Court. Ms Barrett is a member of a very creepy Catholic Church cult called “People of Praise”. Amy Goodman, host of “Democracy Now”, investigates.

Amy Coney Barrett, husband Jesse, Handmaid’s Tale, People of Praise

We’re looking at Amy Barrett’s membership in a secretive Catholic group with rigid gender roles and a lifelong loyalty oath. We’re now joined by a former member of People of Praise who’s now speaking out against the group. Coral Anika Theill was a People of Praise member for five years, from 1979 to 1984, after being forced to join the organization by her then-husband. She documented her experience in her memoir titled Bonsheá: Making Light of the Dark.

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British Labour Westminster MP Rosena Allin-Khan slams Democratic Unionist Party Colleagues Supporting Donald Trump

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Birds 🦅 of a feather are flocking together :

Pink News reports that Westminster Labour MP Allin-Khan “eviscerates” DUP Westminster MP’s Sammy Wilson et al who are getting behind US President Donald Trump. Radical action is suggested here, possibly a little bit inhumane.

Pink News reports on a group of “eviscerated” DUP Westminster MP’s

Eviscerates definition : “: to take out the entrails of : disembowel. b : to deprive of vital content or force. 2 : to remove an organ from (a patient) or the contents of (an organ)”. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eviscerate

“Allin-Khan, Labour MP for Tooting, shared a tweet from DUP MP Sammy Wilson, which shows himself and three others holding a Trump flag on parliament grounds.

“Keep America Great!” Wilson tweeted, along with British and American flag emojis.

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Conspiracy Anti-Vaxers against Covid-19 lockdowns blend with far-right fascists – Irish and British Examples

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No to Racism Defend Our Public Health Workers – Minorities, Migrants, Homeless, Asylum Seekers, LGBTQ+Solidarity for Real Change

12 September 2020 | 1 PM
Assemble: GPO | O’Connell Street Dublin United Against Racism is organizing this rally in partnership with others and co-hosted by all organisations supporting it. For support and endorsements please email: info@united-against-racism.net…

https://www.facebook.com/events/653860718566358?active_tab=about

Congratulations to United Against Racism for calling this event. It needs to be supported by other organizations across the left, and mass membership organizations like trade unions.

Mass action is badly needed to confront and crush the racist far-right.

Professor Dolores Cahill, leader of far-right Irish Freedom Party

In Dublin, across Ireland and internationally the racist far right are using anti-mask, anti-vaccine and other fears to promote themselves and their racist agenda. In Dublin they mobilised up to 2000 at the Custom House on 22 August. In London, with the aid of Dolores Cahill (pictured above) from the Irish Freedom Party they put several thousand in Trafalgar Square.

In Berlin they mobilized up-to 30,000 and in the US they have been holding armed demonstrations. In Dublin they also rally regularly at the GPO on Saturdays. This is very dangerous; they must be exposed and opposed. At the heart of these mobilizations are individuals and organisations whose core agenda is to attack people of colour, migrants, minorities, asylum seekers, Muslims etc. but at present they are focusing on other prejudices, bigotries and COVID-19 fears and doing so in the name of an utterly perverted version of Irish nationalism that is an insult to Connolly and Pearse and all they stood for. They mounted a vile homophobic campaign against Green Party government minister Roderic O’Gorman.

DON’T ENDANGER OUR FRONT LINE WORKERS

ANTI-MASK IS ANTI – WORKER!

We can trust our healthcare workers who have risked their lives and are telling us first hand to wear a mask and follow the basic health advice. We can mind our health and criticize the government at the same time without the lies and conspiracy theories of the far-right.It is urgent that their lies are exposed and their influence is countered.The far-right have zero policies or interest in protecting civil liberties, defending workers, ending the housing crisis, improving the health system or uniting people. These are the same people that campaign against asylum seekers and refugees. They simply want to divide us and scapegoat vulnerable sections of our society which lets the government off the hook.We therefore call on all progressive organisations and individuals – trade unions and trade unionists, migrants rights organisations , anti-racists, LGBTQ+ activists, feminist activists, progressive political parties, environmental activists, housing activists – everyone who wants to defend public health and see a more just and equal country – to unite and oppose the far-right and their growth in IrelandWe in United Against Racism like to organise this rally in partnership with others and co-hosted by all organisations supporting it. For support and endorsements please email info@united-against-racism.netWe are planning to call for an organisers Zoom meeting next week 8 September 2020, 6.30PMJoin us for a peaceful, socially distant rally to give your support to our front line heroes in hospital; shops etc who are being put in danger by those who think COVID-19 is a conspiracy – not a disease.’This is will be a socially distances rally. Please wear a mask to protect yourself and others around you. Thank You!

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