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?”
Campaign Against House Tax Conference Votes for Opposing the Austerity Treaty
A conference of the Campaign Against the Household and Water Tax (CAHWT) meeting on Saturday May 19 in the Red Cow Hotel decided for voting No to the Austerity Treaty in Ireland on May 31. Eight motions calling for a No Vote were discussed in the morning session chaired by Tommy McKearney. The mood of the conference is summed up in the Dublin South Motion :
Conference Agrees that nationally the CAHWT calls for a No Vote in the forthcoming Referendum on the Fiscal Treaty
A very large majority of the 250 people attending the conference supported the Vote No Policy. No counter-motions were proposed, but members of the anarchist Workers’ Solidarity Movement argued against the majority view.
http://nohouseholdtax.org/national-conference-may-19th-2/
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0520/breaking16.html
Austerity will send Greece to hell, warns Syriza Leader Alexis Tsipras
Austerity will send Greece to hell, warns Alexis Tsipras
A Guardian Article we recommend :
Emboldened by yet another poll showing his party’s wide appeal, the leftwing Syriza leader, Alexis Tsipras, said the international accord that Greece had signed up to in return for rescue loans was catastrophic for the country. Instead of a rescue, the debt-stricken nation has been thrown into its worst recession since the second world war.
“With this policy [bailout agreement] we are going directly to hell,” he told CNN. “To save Europe we need to change direction,” insisted the politician who has pledged to “tear up” the €130bn (£104bn) “memorandum of understanding” that Athens reached with the EU and IMF earlier this year.
The latest Opinion Poll Figures from Greece :
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_14/05/2012_441959 Read the rest of this entry »
50 per cent have not paid the house tax – latest figures
It is official – only 50 per cent of eligible victims have signed up to the house tax – many thanks to Nama Winelake for the story.
In advance of the referendum on 31st May, there appears to be a temporary lull in talk of austerity, at least talk by the Government. It almost feels like being back as a child at home when there are visitors, and you have committed some real or imagined transgression and you know as soon as the visitors leave, you’ll be in for a leathering. And the anxiety is that as soon as the referendum is out of the way on 31st May, we won’t be able to escape wall-to-wall coverage about household charges, septic tank registration fees, fines, prosecutions and the results of the expert group looking at charging structures for a new property tax in 2013 – the only certainty is the commitment with the IMF which states in the Memorandum of Understanding (page 83) there will be “an increase in property tax.”
But what about the household charge for…
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Ireland’s turn to Reject Austerity Fantasy?
Gavan Titley and John O’ Brennan argue for Voting No to the Austerity Treaty on May 31
SYRIZA Lays out Five Points of Greek Coalition Talks – Austerity in Smithereens All Over Europe
http://socialistresistance.org/3487/syriza-lays-out-five-points-of-greek-coalition-talks
Austerity in Smithereens All Over Europe.
See also this very good survey by Éric Toussaint :
http://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article2604
Seismic election results
Syriza, the radical left-wing coalition comes first in all major cities and among people aged 18-35. Its campaign advocated suspending debt payment and cancelling austerity measures.
1. Results
At the May 6 polls, the radical left-wing coalition Syriza becomes the second “party” in numbers of voters as it moves from 4.5% at the previous elections (2009) to 16.8% (52 MPs instead of 13). It is the first party in the major agglomerations and among people aged 18-35.
The Socialist Party (PASOK) lost 2/3 of the votes it had received in 2009 (from 44% to 13.2%, a loss of 119 MPs, from 160 to 41!). PASOK pays ‘cash on the nail’ their rigorous austerity programme and subjection to the ‘Troika’ and big private business interests. Read the rest of this entry »
The Right to Die With Dignity – Is Ireland on the Brink of a New X Case?
Ireland’s legislators have delayed taking action on the infamous X Case for more than twenty years.
In 1992 the State tried to prevent the parents of a raped suicidal pregnant 14 year old girl bringing their daughter to England for an abortion.
In 2011 the State prevented Bernadette Forde, who was suffering from a horrible disease – Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (PPMS) – that was getting worse all the time – from visiting the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland in order to end her own life. The Gardaí intervened, threatening legal action against Bernadette and other people who might be helping her.
Shortly afterwards Bernadette took her own life in Ireland.
A file is now with the Director of Public prosecutions.
The 2011 General Election saw Ireland swinging to the left on such matters – Clare Daly TD, with the support of other Leinster House colleagues, took legislative “Action on X”, and this struggle will continue :
http://politico.ie/crisisjam/8310-the-x-case-twenty-years-is-too-long.html
Similar establishment inertia surrounds the “Right to Die” issue, and Ireland could experience a political crisis similar to the X Case unless legislative action is taken.
Bernadette Forde’s story – “Forbidden to Leave” was published in the Sunday Business Post on April 15 2012 : Read the rest of this entry »
Tomás Ó Flatharta 