What you want to say? Open Thread, 19th October 2011 October 19, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Economy, European Politics, Irish Politics, Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin, The Left, US Politics.trackback
As ever… following on Dr. X’s suggestion, it’s all yours, “announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose”, feel free.
Just to announce details of the conference “New agendas in social movement studies” (Maynooth, Saturday Nov 26th, free) which are online here: http://ceesa-ma.blogspot.com/2011/10/social-movements-conference-at-maynooth.html
A benefit night for Eugene McDonagh will take place on Saturday Oct 22, 8pm onwards in Clifton Court Hotel on Eden Quay. Music by
trad/Ballad group Boxty with spot prizes, raffles and food. All
proceeds to Eugenes upcoming court hearing at the Employment Appeals Tribunal.
Eugene, a well known trade union activist and campaigner against cuts in bus services was sacked by Dublin Bus in 2009.This followed an unofficial strike in Harristown and other garages.The company used the dispute to target Eugene and others, After a lenghty wait for a hearing , Eugene case will be heard on Nov 2nd. This fund raiser will help with the costs of a important case for all trade unionists in this country
Please pass on to all trade unionists. Tickets 10 euro each. Contact 087 2858388
D_D,
Unfortunately I live nowhere near the big smoke and bright lights, but I’d happily stick a tenner in an envelope and send it to yees.
Anyway, I can do this?
how can I do this? doh
You are as generous as you are exiled
Maybe ring the contact number: 087 2858388
A Frank Maguire (RIP) intervention from Seamus.
Sorry must be a bit slow dunno what that means!
Frank was an abstentionist nationalist MP for Fermanagh Sth Tyrone. He famously on one occasion made the journey to Westminster for a crucial vote – in order to abstain in person. I thought that was what you were doing with your blank post on this thread – what you want to say.
Oh ok lol Is the poster for the Seamus Costello event on Saturday not showing up for everyone?
Just letting people know it’s on this Saturday, Newtownmountkennedy community centre, be there for 5.15pm
Ha ha ha. It’s not showing up for me. Which is just as well.
Alternative Publications and Cards –
– we distribute…
1. “HIDDEN WOUNDS” Brutalised soldiers are coming home to brutalise…
About the rehabilitation / psychological problems that Northern Ireland veterans experience on their return to civvy street and the number who end up in HM prisons. Also comment on Vietnam veterans. By former soldier
Alistair Renwick. £4.99. (nb. Between 1984 and 2006, 687 serving soldiers committed suicide-MoD statistics)
They ask me where I’ve been
And what I’ve done and seen.
But what can I reply
Who knows it wasn’t I,
But someone just like me
Who went across the sea
And with my head and hands
Killed men in foreign lands…
Though I must bear the blame,
Because he bore my name. Wilfred Gibson 1WW vet
2. “NOTHING BUT THE SAME OLD STORY” – the roots of anti-Irish racism by Liz Curtis.
“I welcome this book and feel it will help play a valuable part in helping to remove the negative and racist stereotyping which so often adversely effects the Irish community in Britain.” Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London. £2.50
Part of our Irish Studies series – includes books and videos. Ask for separate leaflet.
3. An Interlude with Seagulls – Memories of a Long Kesh internee by Bobby Devlin. ‘I went into Castlereagh a poor, humble postman, but according to information received, I was a brigadier-general in the Irish Republican Army. This dramatic promotion must have even eclipsed General Custer’s meteoric rise in the American civil war. £1.50 scarce
4. …LAST NIGHT ANOTHER SOLDIER…by Alistair Renwick. A novel written by an ex-soldier. Not for the
faint hearted, it deals with the reality of British soldiers experience in Northern Ireland. £3.95
5. Cormac Strikes Back – resistance cartoons from the North of Ireland. Cormac is a radical and very popular Belfast cartoonist. Introduction by Guardian cartoonist
Steve Bell. £2.50
6. British Soldiers Speak Out on Ireland. 1969-198? A real exposé by ex squaddies. Some then on the run. Published at 40p scarce item now £5.00. Only a few
7. THEY SHOOT CHILDREN – between April 1972 and April 1986, 16 people, seven of them children, were killed by plastic and rubber bullets. £1.00 scarce
Also – Peace Cards, Rebel Cards, May Day Cards, Celtic art workshops and exhibitions – we attend community festivals.
8. Selected Short Stories Of Donall MacAmhlaigh. – Northampton based writer and chronicler of the Irish working experience in Britain, author of An Irish Navvy,
Schnitzer O’Shea, An Dialann Deoraí etc. £6.00
9. An Irish Navvy by Donall MacAmhlaigh now back in print. £10.00
10. Irish Poetry BEYOND THE SHORE
A poetry anthology by the first and later generations living in Britain, France and the USA. 47 poems by 32 internationally acclaimed poets. Fergus Allan, Linda Anderson, Samuel Beckett, Brian Farrington, Nigel Gray, Desmond Greaves, Sean Hutton, Derry Jeffares, Richard Kell, Brendan Kennelly, Thomas Kinsella, Tom Leonard, James Liddy, Eddie Linden, Roger McGough, Edward Mackin, Joe Malone, Gerard Mangan, Ewart Milne, Aiden Murphy, Hayden Murphy, Michael P O’Connor, Desmond O’Grady, Michael O’Neill, Derry O’Sullivan, Tom Paulin, Cyril Leslie Riley, Padraig Rooney, Deirdre Shanahan, Matthew Sweeney, Shaun Traynor, Robert Welsh. £4.00 including uk postage. $10.00 USA airmail – only a few left.
11. Rebel Cards – a celebration of our heroes – most cards have a picture on the front with a short biography or quote on the inside left. Wolfe Tone 3, Robert Emmet 2, Jamie Hope, Henry Joy McCracken, Chartist Leaders, Feargus O’Connor, Bronterre O’Brien, James Fintan Lalor, Michael Davitt, Robert Owen, Thomas Paine, Young Irelanders, James Connolly – 3 Countess Markievicz, Padraig Pearse, Roger Casement, Michael Collins, Maud Gonne MacBride, Jim Larkin, Jim Connell + The Red Flag, Charles Bradlaugh + I was there quote, Anne Besant, Joseph Priestly, Terance MacSwiney, John MacLean, William Morris, Robert Tressell, G.B.Shaw, Gustaf Holst, John Devoy, Charlotte Despard, Keir Hardie, Sylvia Pankhurst, Martin Niemoeller quote, Eva Gore-Booth, Shelley red poet, John Clare farm worker poet, Hanna S. Skeffington, Scotland Go Bragh, Erin Go Bragh, Irish Proclamation – facsimile edition, Revolution means Change, The Minstrel Boy, The Training Ground, etc + May Day Cards – The Solidarity of Labour, Tolpuddle Martyrs etc. Peace Cards (anti-war) – Bookmarks etc. £7.00 for ten cards.
12. The Missing Piece in the Peace Process by Ken Keable. Why British people must campaign for Britain to withdraw from Northern Ireland. Foreword by Tony Benn. £3.00
13. The Irish Republican Congress Revisited by Patrick Byrne (former joint Secretary with Frank Ryan) £2.00 o/p
14. Video – ‘The Irishmen’ they came to rebuild a post war Britain – social commentary made in 1965. Music by Ewan Macoll and Joe Heaney. £18.00 – rare footage.
From-Northampton Connolly Association 5 Woodland Avenue, Abington, Northampton NN3 2BY. Tel. 01604-715793 e-mail. pmcelt@aol.com
Anything on the plan to have Galway University Hospital being run by a private company?
Oh does anyone watch Nikita?
Just getting down to brass tacks about all this ‘global’ banking business. The Unemployed, could not get a mortgage in the boom times; and now, still, the unemployed cannot get a mortgage in the recessionary time. Some of these for many years have paid, (their personal quota) large amounts to private landlords.
Could not there be a ‘Direct’ ‘Seller to Buyer’ association established? i.e. – by-pass the (unelected) Banks’ mortgages.
Some older, smaller, places now are only Euro100K. Could some kind of payment agreement be made? i.e. to pay as much as possible now per month; and if work can be found, then to increase the payments.
Why can not people negotiate terms with ….. people.
Very interesting idea.
+1
yeah yeah, ouch – I Know it looks like a marshmallow brain posting here – but still, the very poor and marginalised are never going to shake off that ‘masterless men’ burden, whilst also being the conduit of steady rent to others who own many places/houses.
There just isn’t time in life to wait for Basel III to enunciate it’s ratifications and strategies.
And besides, Was the State itself the biggest employer during the boom times? – by that I mean, Banks were only too happy to lend to people in micro (non-profit) State jobs; i.e. no cognisance was given by the Banks to those jobs not being financially profitable ; just as the money of the ‘unemployed’ is not a product of profit.
But then, Banks seem to me to be hypocritical in espousing a ‘businesses’ profit motive’ model; and then, themselves, accepting money from non-profit workers.
Banks really are just about: energy, invigoration, (and distraction).?
whoops, …. and, : .. … . control.
Or, maybe it was people themselves, exchanging coins between themselves, as a denotation of energy or actions; or, for many varieties of reasons.
But when banking (an usury) started in earnest, hundreds of years ago, banks were astute enough to keep this idea connected to money – whilst at the same time, themselves, adding on interest.
David Malone from http://www.golemxiv.co.uk/ is speaking on “Debt or Democracy?” at the NCAD Friday. He’s done some fantastic writing on our debt and the banking fiasco over the last two years.
http://news.ncad.ie/?p=490
Rovers have a game tonight – where’s the obligatory IELB post? And are they scabbing by playing in Greece in the course of a general strike?
Was going to wait til after we win the League on Monday
Can’t see us getting much tonight either, although I think the weeks rest and pressure off in the League will be a big help.
As for myself I’m currrently in negotiations about missing a meeting about my sons Confirmation tonight… and not being volunteered by my good wife into discussing with a bunch of 11 year old boys the merits of the Apostles Creed.
Confirmations, yep, had that earlier this year. Sympathies IEL. Sitting down the back of the church during practice sessions, reading some Lenin, quiet time, not so bad. Thankfully my lad gave up any interest in religion after making his wedge. Have you tried the conscious objector tactic with herself?
Conscientious objector…
I don’t practice myself but my wife and children go every Sunday and would meet their Granny and Grandad there too.
I’ve actually a Communion and Confirmation this year and the process has changed since the young lad made his Communion. A lot of what would have been previously done at the school is now expected to be done at home and also by volunteer parents. I’m terrified of being ‘volunteered’ to do something as its not something I’d be comfortable with at all.
Just say no.
If nothing else it’s a good example to demonstrate to the kids that if you’re not comfortable with something, don’t allow someone else force it upon you.
I had a tip from a friend to say what he called an American No…
“Thank you so much for asking, I’m really honoured, I’d really love to do it …. but its such a pity that I’m not available…”
The temptation to start slipping in bits from the Book of Mormon would, I’m afraid, overwhelm me in such a situation.
Who would win in a fight between Sean Gallagher and martin McGuiness? I ask because Marty’s hard-man image has been dented by the whinging over Miriam’s questioning. You’s think a fella whose been inside Castelreagh a few times wouldn’t be fazed by RTE’s earth mother.
Here’s a question. You have the IMF in residence, telling your government what it can and cannot do. I wondered the other day – do you actually hear anything from the IMF directly, even on the level of charm offensives? You know, interviews with sympathetic journalists, perhaps with quotes like “we’re not ogres you know”, that sort of thing?
I’d imagine a charm offensive would be something they’d avoid at all costs, for fear of ruining their forbidding, the-end-is-nigh brand image. It’d be like the Nazgul from Lord of the Rings starting to wear red clown noses, wouldn’t strike the right note of trepidation at all.
“The Occupy Wall Street protests that began as a nebulous mix of social and economic grievances are becoming more politically organized — with help from some of the country’s largest labor unions.
Labor groups are mobilizing to provide office space, meeting rooms, photocopying services, legal help, food and other necessities to the protesters. The support is lending some institutional heft to a movement that has prided itself on its freewheeling, non-
institutional character.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/occupy-wall-street-and-labor-movement-forming-uneasy-alliance/2011/10/19/gIQAkxo80L_story.html?wprss=
The Central Statistics Office has released figures showing that Ireland’s exports increased by 10% in August
Read more: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/cso-figures-boost-govt-with-improved-exports-525293.html#ixzz1bPlU4HWT
I wonder how much if any of this can’t be put down to transfer invoicing? How are these figures compiled, someone at the docks with a clipboard?
The Sindo are advertising a new commemorative series on Brian Lenihan, the heroic etc. I was vastly amused to see the TV ad has a silhouette of someone in either a Garda or Army officer uniform lowering a Tricolour to half-mast in some field.
The Sindo really has no self-awareness, does it?
That’s so true EWI. Are they serious? I guess they are and that says it all!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJueY6tLkzY&w=560&h=315
In all its glory
Interview I did with David Norris for NUIG’s student newspaper, where he declares that: “I am a left-wing person, I am somebody who believes in Socialism”, and makes clear his oppopition to the IMF and his support for the Palestinians. On the other hand his views on fees aren’t too appealing, although at least he doesn’t skirt around them… I’m regretting not asking him who exactly the ‘student leaders’ were…Gary Redmond, I’m looking at you. http://bit.ly/pRcOOS
Very interesting Gearóid, not sure I like his line on fees. Surely it would make more sense for him to lobby for Scandinavian levels of taxation.
Good graphics at irisheconomy here (especially the first) which show the extent of the post-2008 investment strike and the way that nominal GDP growth is made up entirely of MNC tax-evasion/avoidance.
Meanwhile Christine Kirschner in Argentina gets a landslide victory for
- Telling the IMF to go f**k itself
- Presiding over a 50% drop in the gap between rich and poor. (Yes I know it was from obscene levels to slightly less obscene levels but it’s significant.)
- Forcing bondholders to suffer before ordinary people
- Nationalising private pensions
- Using central bank reserves to increase government investment rather than imposing austerity
And she’s a Peronist, not a socialist or social democrat. Hmmm…