Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Posts Tagged ‘Climate Goals

How to Handle Dilemmas – Chris Zeller responds to Hanna Perekhoda – European States must guarantee Ukraine can defend itself – but the call for general re-armament is wrong

leave a comment »

This is an important discussion because a Trump-Putin alliance threatens Ukraine.

What are the implications in Ireland?

A very simple policy should be supported by the left in Ireland :

We do not have a policy of “Neutrality” in the conflict between Israel and Palestine – we are for Palestine. We must not have a policy of “Neutrality” in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine – we must be for Ukraine. Trump-Putin are promoting genocide in Palestine and Ukraine.

Concretely, the Irish state helps Ukraine to clear mines planted by the Russian genocidal invaders.

The Irish left must support this measure.

Moving things forward :

Expand mine clearing and related non lethal military support.

That has to be the policy of the Irish left – no ifs and buts.

Alongside that, we must oppose any Irish state attempt to to join imperialist military alliances such as NATO – a firm policy of Non-Alignment is required.

John Meehan March 22 2025


Chris Zeller’s note, published on facebook, is addressed to Hanna Perekhoda, whose article is included in this blog post :
How to Finance European Defence and how not to – and how the Irish Left can assist Ukraine by all means necessary (TÓF)

How to handle dilemmas?

I understand your arguments. I share your argument that we need a perspective of solidarity for the whole continent of Europe. This perspective includes massive support for the Ukrainian resistance. However, the fact that the countries of Europe and the USA have so far given too little support to Ukraine is not due to military inferiority vis-à-vis Russia but has political and economic reasons. At least some important sectors of capital have always focused on resuming “reasonable economic relations” with Russia.

Read the rest of this entry »

A solution staring us in the face for Europe’s housing crisis – Li Andersson MEP, Left Alliance, Finland

leave a comment »

This is an extremely useful article, very relevant to the housing crisis in Ireland.

Links :
A solution staring us in the face for Europe’s housing crisis

I am back! And here to tell you that I did an op-ed in EUObserver on solutions to the housing crisis and why we should be focusing on non-profit rentals instead of talking about ”affordable housing”. euobserver.com/eu-political…

[image or embed]— Li Andersson (@liandersson.bsky.social) December 6, 2024 at 11:46 AM


In this legislative mandate, there are many expectations for housing. The EU Commission has appointed its first-ever commissioner for energy and housing, and Ursula von der Leyen addressed the issue in her political guidelines, outlining that the commission will need to “urgently address the housing crisis facing millions of families and young people.”

Danish commissioner Dan Jørgensen will be responsible for the first-ever European Affordable Housing Plan.

In addition to this, the commission will revise the state aid rules to enable housing support measures and plans to double cohesion fund investments in affordable housing.

Over the past 10 years, average rents within the bloc have risen by 19 percent, while house prices have surged by 47 percent.

Read the rest of this entry »