Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Ukrainians join Global Sumud Flotilla Mission to Gaza – Ukraine, Palestine, Occupation Is A Crime

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Two Ukrainian volunteers are participating in the 2026 Global Sumud Flotilla Mission to Gaza.

They are Nina Potarska and Andrii Movchan, and the links to the media release announcing this participation and their biographical details can be found below.

Nina Potarska and Andrii Movchan, participating in the 2026 Global Sumud Flotilla Mission to Gaza

Media: ukraine-solidarity.eu YouTube  Facebook Instagram Mail: info@ukraine-solidarity.eu

ENSU Media statement

Ukrainians join Global Sumud Flotilla Mission to Gaza

Ukrainian volunteers in the Global Sumud Flotilla Mission to Gaza say their participation is a call for humanitarian access, international accountability and solidarity against occupation

Ukrainian volunteers in the Global Sumud Flotilla Mission to Gaza say their participation is a call for humanitarian access, international accountability and solidarity against occupation, reports the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine.

Two representatives of Ukrainian human rights activism have announced their participation in the international civilian mission to Gaza, joining volunteers from across the world in an effort to deliver humanitarian aid and challenge the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza.

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Eilish Moore RIP

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Many thanks to Marion McEvoy for letting us know the sad news. Eilish was a heroic activist in the National H Block / Armagh Campaign from 1979 to 1981. Smashing H-Block After that she supported many similar anti-imperialist causes which were not popular with the Irish establishment. In the late 1960’s Eilish worked as a nurse. When she got to know me as a political activist, she told me that she had become a great friend of my father Denis in 1968-9. He was suffering from terminal cancer. Like Eilish, he was determined to continue seeing the funny side of life.

I am sure many other friends have great memories of Eilish.

Eilish Moore ran the Meeting Place, a bastion of Dublin’s folk scene in the 1970s for many years. She came from a talented musical family which included her brothers Christy Moore and Luka Bloom (aka Barry Moore).

Condolences to all her friends, family members, feminists, socialists, and comrades. She will be missed.

John Meehan April 25 2026

Vincent Doherty adds :

Eilish was a dear friend who got me back singing and playing music. After having lost the spirit during the 1980’s she encouraged me and invited me a few times to perform at the gigs she ran in Mother Redcaps.Her son Conor loaned me a flute to get me started again and l’m incredibly indebted to Eilish and her extended family for a lot of support I hot over the years. I loved her rougish laugh and her irrevrrence towards various sacred cows. Eilish really was one of a kind.




Eilish Moore sings on RTÉ’s Late Late Show in 1988 :

Link :


Eilish and Nancy Moore, Late Late Show 1988

Seated beside Nancy Moore in the audience is her eldest daughter Eilish, who accepts an invitation to sing. She performs a version of ‘The Work Song’ a cappella. The Work Song was written by Canadian singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle. It was first released by the American singer Maria Muldaur in 1973.

This episode of ‘The Late Late Show’ was first broadcast on 13 May 1988. The presenter is Gay Byrne.

Link, Eilish Moore’s death notice :


Eilish Moore’s Death Notice

May 7 2026 Elections in Wales Scotland and England – Promising Predictions from the Celtic Nations – and a Horror Story from England.

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Wales :

1 way or another, if these numbers are right, Wales is headed for a left-wing majority at the May 7 Senedd elections. A Plaid Cymru/Labour/Green coalition would have 56 seats, a healthy majority of 16 against the vile racist right Reform-Cons. it’s a proportional representation election.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿Senedd | Plaid lead by 5pts🟩Plaid: 30% (+9)➡️Ref: 25% (+24)🔴Lab: 15% (-21)🔵Con: 12% (-13)🟢Grn: 10% (+6)🟠Lib: 6% (+2)– Seats –🟩Plaid: 39 (+17)➡️Ref: 27 (+27)🔴Lab: 13 (-31)🔵Con: 12 (-18)🟢Grn: 4 (+4)🟠Lib: 1 (+1)Poll: @Ipsos, 2-8 April (+/- vs 2021) x.com/LeftieStats/…

Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️‍⚧️ (@leftiestats.bsky.social) 2026-04-23T14:22:30.013767Z

Scotland :

If these numbers are right, the Scottish National party will win the May 7 Scottish parliament election, either with a majority over all other parties, or in coalition with the Greens. The vile racist far-right coalition Reform-Cons will only get 23 seats out of 129.

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Multiple Bullies At Work, Out to Create a “Multipolar World” – Kavita Krishnan

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Two interesting articles by Kavita Krishnan are below.

The author explains :

My article in The Hindu on what’s at stake for Ukraine and the world.
I try to get all my material on Ukraine from the horse’s mouth: I just read Putin, Dugin, Vance, Mearsheimer really thoroughly – and they confirm all that I’m saying, without even bothering to disguise their intent. There can’t be more reliable and irrefutable sources.
The article attached is based on reading Mearsheimer himself saying Putin’s top peace condition is a puppet regime in Kyiv, since liberal democracy in Ukraine is an “existential threat to Russia”.

Kavita Krishnan

The second article examines the recent electoral defeat of Viktor Orbán in Hungary

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Hungary 2026: An Autopsy of Sixteen Years of Illiberalism

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A few days before the Hungarian general election held on April 12 2026 the USA Vice president JD Vance flew into Budapest campaigning for the far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán. Vance, a high-profile member of the Catholic Church, picked the wrong place to boost a close ally. The self-described hillbilly bombed in Budapest.

Orbán was also strongly backed by the far-right president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Hungary joins a growing list of countries where candidates closely aligned with the far-right twins Trump-Putin sink to a humiliating defeat.

Adam Novak explores the issues in the interview below published on the
Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières (ESSF) site:

Link :


Hungary 2026: An Autopsy of Sixteen Years of Illiberalism.

Among the fascinating details in the article below, we highlight two :

For Trump and Vance, it is the loss of the most useful ally within the European Council — the one who blocked collective decisions on Ukraine, including the 90-billion-euro loan to Kyiv that Orbán had vetoed. For Putin, it is the loss of the most accommodating European government on energy and sanctions. For European far-right parties, it is the signal that the model is not election-proof.

Vance delivered a speech on Christ and the Christian foundations of European civilisation before a comparatively secular Hungarian audience. He invoked workers’ rights without saying a word about the tech billionaires enriched under Trump. And he denounced Brussels bureaucrats for “making millions” whilst saying nothing of the oligarchy that Orbán himself built. The electoral effect of the visit is close to zero: Vance is little known in Hungary, and it was not Trump who came.

Hungary 2026: An Autopsy of Sixteen Years of Illiberalism.

After Orbán: Electoral Fractures and the Programmatic Void

The Hungarian legislative elections of 12 April 2026 brought to an end sixteen years of uninterrupted rule by Viktor Orbán. Péter Magyar’s Tisza (Respect and Freedom [Tisztelet és Szabadság]) party won a super-majority of 138 seats out of 199, inflicting on Fidesz a defeat explained by judicial scandals, saturation of the identitarian discourse, a generational fracture, and the concrete effects of the freeze on European funds.

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“A Confederacy of Gobshites – Ireland’s Government of Contempt”- by Éamonn Sweeney

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Once again, thanks to the editor of the Cedar Lounge Blog for drawing the attention of readers to very good Éamonn Sweeney left-wing analysis to the current Dublin government, which administers the 26 county bit of Ireland.

On this blog we describe the Mícheál Martin / Simon Harris government as FFFGBG – that is : a coalition of Fianna Fáil (FF), Fine Gael (FG), and Beggar-Gombeens (BG’s). The BG’s were assembled by the North Tipperary ex-FG minister Michael Lowry, who was thoroughly investigated by the Mahon Tribunal following credible allegations of financial corruption in the 1990’s. Fine Gael’s ethical standards are extremely low, but the party was obliged to expel Mr Lowry.

The BG’s got many perks for propping up the FFFG Martin-Harris duo – the biggest was the position of Dáil Ceann Comhairle (speaker) handed to the Wexford racist, and former FG member, Verona Murphy.

Some of the BG’s might be tempted to join their racist-fascist soul-brothers who lead the fuel blockade movement.

A coherent left-wing alternative is very badly needed.

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The Blockade Is the Message

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How a Fuel Price Spike Became a Fascist Audition

An effective heavy vehicle blockade campaign brought the 26 county bit of Ireland to a halt in the second week of April 2026.

Parties and individuals based on the left have offered significantly different opinions about these protests.

There is no doubt that far-right organisations are involved. This poses a big problem for all forces on the left – parties, trade unions, social movements that are pro-feminist and anti-racist, and so on.

It is essential to start with concrete analysis. Left-wing actors such as People Before Profit (PBP) say they support the blockaders :

“ There is “no question” that there are far-right people trying to intervene and be present in the protest…So some of these people (the far-right) are present and are trying to shape the protest, but one: the vast majority of people who are participating in the protest have nothing to do with the far right, whatsoever.
“And two: I really have a strong sense that ordinary working-class people in Dublin, people who live in Dublin South-West that I represent, have a lot of support for these protests,” Murphy said.

Paul Murphy TD, People Before Profit, Dublin South-West,
The left shouldn’t abandon fuel protesters, Paul Murphy says

The article below, and several other reliable sources, demonstrate that Paul Murphy’s analysis is based on wishful thinking rather than concrete analysis.

The far-right are not “trying to intervene and be present in the protest”. Far-right actors initiated this campaign.


This has serious implications for all forces on the Irish left.

Summing up: socialists have to recognise the hardships caused by high fuel prices (on top of all the other high prices). Blaming the right-wing government is fine. But – an extremely big But :

The Left must pledge : no co-operation with fuel-protester fascists and racists.

James Geoghegan is a spokesperson for the Fuel Protesters’ Campaign

The policy of the PBP and others on the left is “support the fuel protests”.

The only way you can implement this policy is practical collaboration with the far-right on the streets and elsewhere. That means putting the lives and welfare of your own members and supporters in danger.

The left can do much better – a useful starting point for for a more progressive policy is here, written by the SIPTU researcher, Michael Taft :


Searching the Evidence – Michael Taft

This immediate problem is down to Trump’s wars in Iran, Lebanon, and other parts of the Middle East.

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Yanis Varoufakis “on the stage at a Moscow investment forum to a techno track repeating his own name”

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Andreu Movtxan reports below :

And in case readers cannot believe it, here is a link :


Yanis Varoufakis dances to viral techno-hit named after him in Russia

And thanks to Yuliya Yurchenko, who observes :

In case anyone was in a coma for the past few years and still has any respect for Yanis Varoufakis – Γιάνης Βαρουφάκης , read Andreu Movtxan.

Yuliya Yurchenko

While Russian FPV drones crossing the Dnieper hunt civilians at bus stops in Nikopol and Kherson, while yet more one-and-a-half-ton glide bombs fall on apartment blocks in Kramatorsk, while Russian anti-war socialists rot in Mordovian prisons… the Greek “anti-imperialist” politician Yanis Varoufakis is dancing on the stage at a Moscow investment forum to a techno track repeating his own name.

How does he manage to be like this? One has to be real human mold to behave this way. I could end the post here. But I’ll add a bit more.

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Vance in Budapest: Orbán as the Far Right’s Proof of Concept – the ideological logic of the Trump–Orbán alliance comes into focus

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The far-right political rulers of the USA and the Russian Federation, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, are promoting the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, ahead of a general election in the Eastern European state on Sunday April 12 2026. The implications of this political development are widely understood; a selection of reactions which have appeared on Bluesky should put an end – for ever – the obviously ludicrous theory promoted by some on the left that the 2022 Russian genocidal invasion of Ukraine was a disguised USA V Russia war (a “Proxy” war).

Trump calls into an Orbán campaign rally to endorse him, as Bloomberg reveals secret tapes of Orbán's private conversations with Putin in which he promises him absolute loyalty.

Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) 2026-04-07T17:30:10.027Z

-Trump threatening to wipe out entire civilizations.-JD Vance courting dictators, Orban and Putin.🚨 We are in the middle of a national emergency, and the only way it ends is with Trump's removal. This is ALL we should be talking about right now.

D. Earl Stephens (@dearlstephens.bsky.social) 2026-04-07T22:03:45.225Z

JD Vance is off to Hungary, another Trump official working (with Putin) to prop up Orban. Re-upping this piece abt why many self-styled “classical liberals” abandon all principles when it comes to Orban: they like the authoritarianism and want it for America.donmoynihan.substack.com/p/make-ameri…

Don Moynihan (@donmoyn.bsky.social) 2026-04-07T13:09:36.082Z

If he was telling the truth, he would have added "on Moscow's terms" immediately after saying "Trump and Orban have done the most to end the war".It is a completely new low for the Vice President of the United States to perform such blatant political interference in a foreign country. Disgraceful.

(@furro293.bsky.social) 2026-04-08T04:14:36.000Z

Vance in Budapest: Orbán as the Far Right’s Proof of Concept

What Pinochet Was to Neoliberals, Orbán Is to Christian Nationalists

When US Vice-President J.D. Vance travelled to Budapest to endorse Viktor Orbán ahead of the 2026 Hungarian elections, the ideological logic of the Trump–Orbán alliance came into focus. For American nativist Christian nationalists, Orbán’s Hungary is a proof of concept: evidence that a programme combining Christian nationalism, anti-migration politics, and systematic dismantling of democratic opposition can hold power for sixteen years. Jan Bělíček dissects Vance’s Budapest speech — its Great Replacement tropes, its anti-EU demagoguery, its hollow invocations of workers’ rights, and the irony of preaching Christian civilisation to a comparatively secular Hungarian audience. The underlying agenda, Bělíček concludes, is replication: Vance and Trump want to build in the United States what Orbán has built in Hungary. [AN]


Watching yesterday’s second appearance by J.D. Vance in Budapest, I think I finally understood why the second-highest-ranking US politician has travelled to lend his support to Viktor Orbán ahead of the elections. [1] For nativist Christian nationalists like Vance, Orbán’s Hungary represents much the same thing that Augusto Pinochet represented for the neoliberal right. [2] It demonstrates that their political experiment — grounded in Christianity, aggressive nationalism, and hostility to expert knowledge and the left — can succeed and hold power for an extraordinary sixteen years.

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Western left campist fantasy of egalitarian China Jacobin Glorifies Leftist Yellowface, Ignores Chinese Perspectives in Article on “Chinamaxxing”

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Western left campist fantasy of egalitarian China Jacobin Glorifies Leftist Yellowface, Ignores Chinese Perspectives in Article on “Chinamaxxing”

Jacobin Glorifies Leftist Yellowface, Ignores Chinese Perspectives in Article on “Chinamaxxing”

Source :
Western Left Campist Fantasy of egalitarian China

Brian Hioe reports :


A RECENT ARTICLE in Jacobin by Seth Ackerman on “Chinamaxxing” again reveals the usual blind spots of Western leftists. Ackerman discusses the online phenomenon of “Chinamaxxing”–the recent turn of Gen Z teens on social media claiming that they are in a “very Chinese period of their life.” Gen Z teens have taken to mimicking Chinese cultural habits, such as taking off shoes indoors or drinking hot water. For Ackerman, this highlights the “kill line” in the US–that living conditions are desperate and marked by scarcity–that Gen Z Americans have turned toward imitating such cultural habits.

Brian Hioe

For one, Ackerman conveniently never discusses the racial projection at work, nor does it ever seem to occur to him that this is a form of culturalist Orientalism. It is, after all, hardly just a Chinese habit to take off shoes indoors. And one is hard pressed to find the connection between drinking hot water and remedies to stark socioeconomic inequality.

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