Public meeting about recent EU draft legislation, adopted 6th May on the quiet, effectively banning seeds...

Protest march in Castlebar 1.30pm, meeting at The Mall (grassy area near library) and heading to End Kennys office. Saturday. read full story / add a comment

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” (Abraham Lincoln)
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An 80 minute documentary film is being screened at The Ardhowen Theatre, Enniskillen on June 4th, 8pm.

Tickets, £2, are available to book online now at http://ardhowentheatre.com read full story / add a comment

Press Conference / Public welcome - Friday 24th - Dublin in Buswells Hotel - 4pm on Molesworth Street opposite Dail Entrance

How and Why the Irish EPA must ensure Human Health and our Environment are Protected Against the "Fracking" Industry
Internationally renowned researcher and campaigner Dr.Mariann Lloyd Smith and Juliet Duff, Chairperson of Irish Doctors Environmental Association on the impacts of 'fracking' (unconventional gas extraction)

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Regardless of what the actual total of livestock contribution to global warming, it is part of the problem and we ignore it at our collective peril.
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Our new zine Return Fire is now available. It's a diverse mix with liberatory aims, which we hope to be informative and inspiring for anyone who decides to make their life a weapon against the dominant order.
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Building the people’s resistance and presenting an alternative direction for all our people, north and south—beginning the difficult but necessary re-conquest of Ireland for and by its people—is the task that the National Executive Committee and all the party have set themselves as we begin to prepare for our 25th National Congress in 2014. read full story / add a comment

Last week, we made our way to the book launch of Dirty Wars - the world is a battlefield" by former New York Catholic Worker now celebrated investigatory journalist Jeremy Scahill http://dirtywars.org/jeremy-scahill

Jeremy gave an excellent speech naming Guantanamo as the most visible point of a massive iceberg of a U.S. policy of torture and assassination. So if Obama closes Guantanamo and escalates his assassination program while maintaining other black site torture chambers http://tinyurl.com/ap9ayy7 we will know our work is far from over. read full story / add a comment

Anarchists Condemn G8 Scaremongering - press release
Date: Wed, 2013-05-22 09:37

In response to yesterday’s Irish News (Mon 20 May 2013) front page article, “Police to Occupy hundreds of vacant premises in Belfast during G8”, the Workers Solidarity Movement condemned security forces scaremongering in the media.

A spokesperson for the All-Ireland anarchist organisation said:

“These kind of absurd and over-the-top scare stories are aimed not so much at intimidating anarchists, but the concerned citizens, trade unionists and others wanting to show their opposition to the offensive waste of money on this pointless G8 charade. read full story / add a comment

Sun newspaper, Wed May 22 2013:
There is still [a British] appetite to influence world affairs.
UK troops are supporting operations in Mali and Somalia and are on stand-by to aid the government in Libya.
During his two-day trip, Mr Hammond congratulated Brits at Koulikoro base, who are deployed with Irish troops for the first time since 1922. He said the Queen’s 2011 trip to Ireland brought a change in Anglo-Irish relations.
Sgt Gerry Setright, 49, of the Irish Defence Forces, said of working with the Brits: “It’s been a pleasure. We are closer than people think.”

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our...aRMDs read full story / add a comment

Well respected blog "NamaWineLake" has made it's final post. This is a great loss to the Irish online community. Thanks for all your great work NWL! read full story / add a comment

First of all i would like to introduce a misson as to what direct democracy would like to achieve:

What is direct democracy?

Direct democracy is a form of democracy in which the people have the right to:

Select their own candidates to represent them.
Call a referendum on any topic if a sufficient number of people deem it necessary, by gathering a set number of signatures.
Create legislation and put it to a referendum if a sufficient number of people agree with it, by gathering a set number of signatures.
Recall, remove from office, any representative deemed to have acted in breach of their terms of employment.

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In this week's issue:

SECTARIAN LEFT: SVENGALIS OF LEFT UNITY BLOCK UNITY
Peter Manson examines two contrasting views of the new attempt to revive Labourism

ZIONIST MYTHS: HEBREW VERSUS JEWISH IDENTITY
This is an expanded version of the talk given by Moshé Machover at the March 3 London conference, ‘Reclaiming an Alternative Jewish Culture and Identity’

The latest edition of the Weekly Worker is now available online at http://www.cpgb.org.uk/home/weekly-worker/962 read full story / add a comment

An analysis of the Colombian peace process that takes on the myths about "peace" and the rush to support yet another defeat for workers and peasant movements in Colombia. read full story / add a comment

Interesting report on the State attacks on British Muslims and the role played by private think tanks.

This report attempts to understand the current climate of fear being whipped-up against Muslims in Britain by examining two right-wing think-tanks: the Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC) and Policy Exchange. The report maintains that the arguments advanced by these thinktanks represent a reversion to the failed counter-subversion strategies of the past.

The report also argues that right-wing think-tanks have understated the rise of Islamophobia on the far-right and in some cases condoned the rise of groups such as the English Defence League (EDL) because of their own links to the counter-jihad movement. read full story / add a comment

From Justice Minister Alan Shatter's statement on mortgage default and repossessions ,Dec 2012

"All mortgages contain remedies that may be exercised by lending institutions in cases of mortgage default. Repossession in the event of such default is, therefore, an existing contractual right.
In a well-known 2011 case (Start Mortgages), the High Court found that enactment of reforming legislation in 2009 may have had the unintended consequence in certain cases of restricting lending institutions from asserting their repossession rights. read full story / add a comment

In the last week or so it was announced by the government that they were seriously considering extending the current free Pre-School year to a second free pre-school year. The government has been giving it a positive spin but also on the table as part of the deal is the suggestion that child benefit would be reduced by €20 per month. A lot of figures have been bandied about but the real question is: are the government trying to pull a fast one yet again and how do the numbers stack up? We attempt to look at the figures here. read full story / add a comment

Yassamine Mather looks at the candidates for the presidency, who have to be approved by a council of clerics, and reckons they have anything to offer to the ordinary people.

On the last available day, ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani registered as a presidential candidate. Rafsanjani was the Islamic republic’s fourth president and is standing as a ‘reformist’. In reality he is the candidate of capitalism and probably one of the richest men in Iran. The newst that Rafsanjani had entered the race ‘to save the country’ generated hysteria. The principlists (conservative, hard-line supporters of ayatollah Ali Khamenei) accuse Rafsanjani of holding back before making his last-minute move in order to surprise his opponents. There is some truth to this claim: principlists entered the presidential elections with at least 7 serious candidates and another 14 less serious contenders. Had they known they would be facing such a figure, they would have tried to rally round a single candidate. read full story / add a comment

Press statement: Joe Higgins TD

Joe Higgins TD seeks topical issue debate tomorrow in Dáil on Bus Eireann strike

Challenge Minister Varadkar on his desire to engineer privatisation of company

Despite possibility of talks there is no basis to call of strike until cuts in pay and conditions are rescinded

Following on from his previous statement of support for the striking Bus Eireann workers and his subsequent visits to the picket lines in Broadstone and Busaras Joe Higgins TD has today submitted a request to the Ceann Comhairle for a topical issue debate to be held in the Dáil tomorrow on the dispute:

"I want an opportunity tomorrow to put directly to Minister Varadkar the points that the workers on the picket line made to me about this dispute. It is undeniable that Minister Varadkar supports the wholesale privatisation of Bus Eireann and is willing to use his position in government to help engineer that end. I want to put to him directly points that were made to me about the levels of six figure executive pay in the firm, recent pay hikes these top brass have obtained and the €70 million that has been banked by CIE. It has been raised with me and party colleagues by some of the workers that the government want the company to financially sink as a prelude to selling it off. read full story / add a comment

But the key problem is that there exists no revolutionary communist party to provide leadership in the class struggle. The Socialist Party, the SWP and the People Before Profit are merely reformist organisations that seek to provide a more benevolent capitalism. In this sense they are Utopian and seek to inculcate illusions within the working class.
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