jump to navigation

What you want to say – 2nd April 2014 April 2, 2014

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
trackback

As always, following on Dr. X’s suggestion, it’s all yours, “announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose”, feel free.

Comments»

1. Gewerkschaftler - April 2, 2014

Normal service is resumed with the news that through effective deployment of the strike weapon during negotiations public sector workers in Germany have won a 5.7% wage increase and a guaranteed 30 day paid leave per year.

The rights and remuneration of apprentices was improved.

What is particularly satisfying is that the result is progressive with a €90 per month increase for all workers within the overall 5.7%, thereby benefiting the poorest paid most.

Like

Reply
Gewerkschaftler - April 2, 2014

5.7% over two years I should have said.

With rise in energy prices and a burgeoning property bubble and rise in rents that’s probably a little above break-even, in terms of wages.

Like

Reply
Ciaran - April 2, 2014

Well, luckily public sector union bosses in this country are more mature and realistic.

Oh sorry, it’s the 2ND of April! I really should keep up….

Like

Reply
workers republic - April 2, 2014

Great new! Congratulations to the German workers. Last Saturday I attended the AGM of the Independent Workers Union. It was a great meeting, there was a tangible vibe a buzz in the atmosphere. There was intense debate on many motions but no negativity. We are a syndicalist union in the tradition of Larkin and Connolly , opposed to “Partnership”; our exploiters are not our partners! We work on the principle that “an injury to one ,is an injury to all”.
Though we are critical of the bureaucrats in SIPTU we give total support to that union in its dispute with Aerial Lingus .

Like

Reply
workers republic - April 2, 2014

Aerial Lingus are attacking the workers pensions whilst Muller the CEO got a bigger pension pot and last week was awarded a bonus of E400,000. They got an injunction , the judiciary but the rights of the employers before the rights of the employees.
If Aerial Lingus workers go on strike,I hope all workers support them. physically as well as morally.
Again buailladh bos do the German Workers.

Like

Reply
2. CL - April 2, 2014

Leader of Die LInke, Gregor Gysi, on Ukraine:

” Yes, there are real fascists in the government. They are currently in leading positions. They have the vice-prime minister position, defense minister, and minister of agriculture and environment minister positions. Besides that, there is the co-founder of Svoboda party, who is not a member of this party right now, but he is in charge of the security committee, some sort of intelligence service.”
http://rt.com/news/ukraine-government-fascists-gysi-997/

“The Triad organized in Kiev what ought to be called a “Euro/Nazi putsch.” To achieve their target (separating the historical twin sister nations — the Russian and the Ukrainian), they needed the support of local Nazis.”-Samir Amin.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2014/amin240314.html

Like

Reply
Justin - April 2, 2014

For such a well-respected third world marxist, Amin’s prescription for an alternative Ukraine is peculiarly insipid:

“A people-oriented policy implies therefore moving away, as much as possible, from the “liberal” recipe and the electoral masquerade associated with it, which claims to give legitimacy to regressive social policies. I would suggest setting up in its place a brand of new state capitalism with a social dimension (I say social, not socialist). That system would open the road to eventual advances toward a socialization of the management of the economy and therefore authentic new advances toward an invention of democracy responding to the challenges of a modern economy.”

Since Amin believes that after Stalin the USSR languished under a form of ‘state capitalism’, it’s hard to unpack exactly what he means here. But surely more radical possibilities exist?

Like

Reply
Justin - April 2, 2014

Mistake: he’s referring to Russia in the quote i extracted.

Like

Reply
3. Michael Carley - April 2, 2014

CPOI event on Saturday, We All Partied, was excellent, and included Kathleen Lynch, who I had not heard before. This seems to be similar to her talk:

Like

Reply
4. Gewerkschaftler - April 2, 2014

Over at the Irish Left Review I saw the welcome news that an Irish branch of Attac is being launched. Attac has been in the forefront for at least a decade of the fight against neo-liberalisation and for alter-globalisation of Europe and the world. They seem to be tireless, well-informed and take an internationalist perspective. They were significantly instrumental in the successfully preventing the global privatisation of Europe’s water supplies.

So if you want to work with an organisation of committed and smart people that transcends national boundaries, and are likely to be a significant part of anti-TIPP organising, then go along to the launch.

Attac’s website is here.

Details of the launch:

Disarm the Markets: Launch of Attac Ireland with a public talk by Esther Jeffers (University of Paris VIII and European Attac Network) and IFSC walking tour with Conor McCabe.

Where: Room 4-027, Dublin Institute of Technology, Aungier Street, Dublin 2

When: Saturday 5th April, 2pm.

Like

Reply
CMK - April 2, 2014

The branch is being re-launched. There was an active branch 1998-2006 but between one thing and another (kids, work, etc, etc,) it wound down. Also trying to advocate for a Financial Transactions Tax during that time was to guarantee frustration. Hopefully this incarnation has better luck; I think it’s being re-launched at a propitious time given the damage that finance capital can do is obvious to nearly all.

Like

Reply
workers republic - April 5, 2014

Thanks Gewerksschaftler,
It was a very positive meeting, very enthusiastic people and good to see a mixed age profile.I was glad to see that nobody was making the usual sectarian party-political speeches. Long may that continue!
The test will be, how many will turn up for future meetings and is there sufficient people who are prepared to share the groundwork and not allow it to fall on the shoulders of a few.
Ireland needs a network with the progressive global social vision of Attac

Like

Reply
5. BB - April 2, 2014

FYI, as they say … see the info below regarding the Progressive Film Club in Pearse Street, Dublin 2.

“Hi,
Only 2 days to go to the opening of our first film festival. The opening film “Peripheral Vision” is the latest by Donnacha Ó Briain the award winning maker of “The Revolution will not be Televised”. This time he turns his attention to Ireland and the attempts by small community groups to mobilise the public against bank bailouts and austerity.

We have films from Hollywood (Raging Grannies) to Bollywood (Tara) from Belfast (For the Record) to Bulgaria (Homeschoolers). We have an Irish whistle-blower film (Committing the Truth) and there are first films from young film makers (many of them Irish) – a very eclectic mix indeed.

Watch out for two thoughtful works (Muslims like Us and Pakistan One on One)) from US based Mara Ahmed.

Below are links to a downloadable programme poster. We would be grateful if you could help us by publicising the events

Entry is free to all screenings.

****NB – all screenings are at the Pearse Centre

If you have any enquiries, don’t hesitate to call or email me.
Regards,
Robert Navan,
http://www.progressivefilmclub.ie/
Phone: 087 6257521

Click to access Fest.pdf

Click to access Fest-A3.pdf

Like

Reply
6. sonofstan - April 3, 2014

Nice line from David Harvey during a talk at the LSE this evening on the the ’17 contradictions of capitalism; discussing the sometimes vicious arguments over production v realisation, he described Marxists as forming ‘circular firing squads’ over the issue

Like

Reply
7. steve white - April 3, 2014
Bob Smiles - April 3, 2014

Just what is it with Tyrone footballers? Dog fighting, porn, what else?

Like

Reply
8. Gewerkschaftler - April 3, 2014

Talking of the damage finance capital and their government yes-men are inflicting (as CMK was above) Varoufakis has a good comparison between the recent expropriation of citizens in favour of bankers in Ireland and Greece here in Tale of Two Swindles.

He repeats the canard about it being mainly ‘German’ finance capital that was rescued in Ireland’s case, but the conclusion is worth a quotation.

The common thread between these fresh assaults on the Irish and the Greek people, is the European Central Bank; the truly guilty party here. In Ireland’s case, the ECB imposed further losses on the Irish by forcing Ireland’s Central Bank to sell (at a discount) government bonds that should be held to maturity so as to minimise the cost to the Irish people. In Greece’s case, the ECB allowed for (and, indeed, encouraged) a change in the rules of bank re-capitalisation that increase the effective transfer of wealth from the exhausted Greek public to the bankrupt and corrupt bankers (who, in turn, back Greece’s political and media establishment).

Why is the ECB doing this? There are two main reasons. One is ideological, fundamentalist, pig-headedness. The other is cynicism. The fundamentalist dimension has to do with a pathological fear of debt monetisation (in the case of the Irish Central Bank) and of public ownership of banks (in Greece’s case). Turning now to cynicism, the fact is that the ECB (following the so-called ‘banking union) knows that it will have (from next November) to evaluate the assets of these banks, in the full knowledge that: (a) they are bankrupt, and (b) the ECB cannot say that they are bankrupt as it lacks the capacity to recapitalise them (i.e. it is not like the Fed that can call the FDIC in). So, in order to allow itself room to pretend that the banks of Ireland and Greece are not insolvent, it is pressurizing Dublin and Athens to transfer additional wealth to the bankers. It is that simple…

Like

Reply
CL - April 3, 2014

The

“The market knows that Draghi has underwritten the value of our debt.
In normal circumstances, no sane person would keep their money in banks haemorrhaging capital as fast as Ireland’s through mounting bad loans. But in a world where banks can effectively borrow unlimited amounts at near zero interest rates from the ECB, notions like capital adequacy become anachronistic.”-Morgan Kelly.
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/morgan-kelly-warns-our-real-economic-crisis-will-begin-if-ecb-credit-stops-1.1724130

Like

Reply
sonofstan - April 3, 2014

It’s a weird one when the ECB and the Fed are effectively printing on demand, but also keeping to zero inflation policies

Like

Reply
CL - April 3, 2014

I don’t profess to understand it. Morgan Kelly is saying the ECB saved Ireland, while Varoufakis is accusing the ECB of assaulting the Irish and the Greeks.

Like

Reply
9. Tomboktu - April 3, 2014

Telling snippet of the day: the only training the Irish Civil Service Training and Development Centre is providing at the moment is on preparing for retirement.

Like

Reply
10. CL - April 3, 2014

The contrast between working class reality and the propaganda from the ruling class is quite stark in this article.

“The overall unemployment rate in Ireland is about 12%, but if emigration is factored in, it would be around 20%, and if discouraged and involuntary part-time workers are included, it would be above 24%….
in Ireland, nearly one in five young people have experienced serious deprivation, which is twice as many as in 2007, while a stunning 51% of young people have difficulty accessing health care because it is too expensive.”
But Enda Kenny and Stephen Collins see things differently:
” Stephen Collins, the political editor of the Irish Times, surpasses himself in praising Enda Kenny, because—wait for it—Kenny enjoys his job. The praise is supposedly well deserved because his ‘obvious enjoyment of his job is a key aspect of creating confidence’ and a ‘key element of Kenny’s success has been his infectious optimism’.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/03/ireland-under-austerity-2/

Like

Reply
11. Michael Carley - April 5, 2014

Are we not to expect better from the Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/05/irish-soldiers-who-fought-for-britain

I see an Sionnach Fionn has had something to say on it.

Like

Reply
CL - April 5, 2014

Elaine Byrne in the Guardian piece quotes a Tom Kettle poem about those who died in WW1, they “Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor,”-Really?

RTE too is going to remember the forgotten with a documentary on Gay Byrne’s father.
“Byrne says he remains angry that his father’s experience and that of the other 200,000 Irishmen who fought in the first World War were written out of Irish history after it ended.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/gay-byrne-reveals-his-father-s-trauma-from-first-world-war-1.1750850

Like

Reply
Starkadder - April 5, 2014

“Written out of Irish history”? I’m sure both Lemass and
De Valera expressed sympathy for the Irish sodiers killed
in WWI.

Like

Reply
Michael Carley - April 5, 2014
12. roddy - April 5, 2014

Fair enough Michael and CL but how would you like this shite rammed down your throat incessantly like we have to put up with in the North.

Like

Reply
Michael Carley - April 5, 2014

I live in England.

Like

Reply
13. roddy - April 5, 2014

The English people regard the Brits as their army .The people where I live most certainly do not but are expected to go along with this wether they like it or not.

Like

Reply
Michael Carley - April 5, 2014

Remember that a couple of million people marched against the invasion of Iraq (I organized buses for that one); a lot of those people find the Poppy Day offensive, or at least dubious, and quite a few object to `poppy fascism’.

Like

Reply
14. sonofstan - April 6, 2014

Nick Cohen is often wrong, but this is bang on: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/06/odds-against-nation-of-walkers

The comments are predictably depressing.

Like

Reply
CL - April 6, 2014

Almost all traffic deaths are avoidable. Enforcement of existing laws is having an effect in NYC.
“The number of people killed in traffic accidents has dropped sharply during the early days of Mayor de Blasio’s administration compared with the same period last year, new data reveal.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/vision-zero-push-nyc-traffic-fatalities-26-2014-article-1.1743720

Like

Reply
sonofstan - April 6, 2014

Something to ask local election candidates about – would they support such a strategy for Irish towns and cities?

Like

Reply
15. leadershiphelp.org - May 8, 2014

Since the admin of this site is working, no question very quickly it will
be famous, due to its feature contents.

Like

Reply
16. raw cucumber Juice recipe - May 15, 2014

Thanks on your marvelous posting! I quite enjoyed reading it, you might be a great author.
I will always bookmark your blog and will come back later in
life. I want to encourage that you continue your great job, have a nice weekend!

Like

Reply

Leave a comment