for lefties too stubborn to quit
Once more following on Dr. X’s suggestion, it’s all yours, “announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose”, feel free.
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The Cedar Lounge Revolution
Len Graham will be singing in the Clé Club, downstairs in the Flowing Tide pub (across the road from the Abbey Theatre, Dublin) on Thursday 6th Oct from about 9pm. Most of the people present (including myself) will be voting for Michael D in presidential election.
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I usually enjoy Newton Emerson in the IT. Today’s piece is on why Northern Protestants, if they had a vote and were forced at gunpoint to use it, would vote for Dana. Excellent!
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It was good. I met someone last week who thought his similar deconstruction of M McG was genuine. I hadn’t the heart to put them right.
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Here’s something for people to consider. Look down the comments…
http://www.sovereignindependent.com/?p=27317
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Was Bertie ever convicted of taking money off developers? And I love the WP masonic link…. and there was me thinking they are Stalinists.Every type of slur imaginable has been hurled,must be doing something right.
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Well I remember HAL the initiation ceremony when I joined the Party in the early 80s. Up on Gardiner Place. I was brought into the room on the second floor where the Grand Master was on the phone consulting with the last remaining Romanovs who were taking instruction themselves from the Pope – and Ian Paisley who were holidaying together on the secret Nazi moonbase on the far side of the Moon.
Ah, happy days. 😉
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The SI has a very, very….unorthodox take on world
affairs. I remember reading an article in it stating the
Green Movement advocated eugenic sterilization. They also
advertise material by radio host and conspiracy theorist
Alex Jones :
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/trutherism/2011/09/where_did_911_conspiracies_come_from.html
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Satire by Diarmuid Breathnach on a recent political meeting.
Excerpt of the transcript of the meeting to set up the campaign, about half an hour into the open part of the meeting:
“My name is Noel McTrustsky. From Socialist Faction. I have little to add to what the speaker before me said but …..”
Chairperson: “Right, sit down then. Next!”
“But I haven’t finished! I hardly started!”
“You just said you have little to add to what has been said before, didn’t you?”
“Yes …….. but …. but ….”
“I already said that we would take contributions that added something to the discussion and asked people to avoid repetitions. Well, since you have little to add but wish to speak, you presumably meant to repeat what others had said. We wish to avoid repetitions so we shall move on. Please sit down. Next, please! Ahhh, yes, you over there …..”
(Mc Trustsky sits down, looking bewildered. Two thirds of the room applaud)
“My name is Jim Larkin and I am from the Revolutionary Workers’ Socialist Party. I think we have to build a mass movement …….”
“That’s already been said …..”
“Excuse me?”
“‘build a mass movement’ – it’s been said already. In fact ….. um ….. let’s see now … yes, it’s been said six times already.”
“Oh, sorry. Well, I think we can do it. We have to get everyone we know, we have to get out there …..”
“Into our communities?”
“Er, yes …”
“And into our workplaces?”
“Well, yes ….”
“It’s all been said a number of times. Have you anything new to say?”
“It seems to me, Comrade Chairperson, that you are discriminating against the RWSP, by interrupting me and not allowing me to finish.”
“Comrade, I cannot help it if those remarks were made already a number of times by people who preceded you; nor can I help it if they were not members of your party. We wish to have a focussed meeting. We wish to avoid repetitions. However, I will repeat this: have you anything new to say?”
“Em … er ….”
“Please sit down then. If you think of something new, we’ll come back to you.”
(Two thirds of the room, but not the same two thirds, applaud)
“Next …. yes, the comrade over there in the black jacket.”
I’m Connolly James of the Left-Wing Parliamentary Alliance and the RWSP. I think the working people of this country are waiting for good leadership ………” (pauses, looking at Chairperson)
“Yes, carry on.”
“Sorry, I thought perhaps someone before had said that already.”
“Well, no — not in those words anyway. Carry on, please.”
“As I said, they’re waiting for good leadership. There’s a lot of anger out there ….”
“That has been said already.”
“Well, if we build up confidence …..”
“That too has been said before.”
“Really, I don’t recall ….”
“Yes, by other members of your party. Four, to be exact.”
“Well ….”
“Carry on, please.”
“Er …. I think with this campaign we can provide that leadership”.
(Sits down. One third of the room applaud vigorously)
“Thank you. Next! Yes, you, in the red jumper.”
“I’m Michelle Louise from the Real Socialist Party and also a member of the Left Wing Parliamentary Alliance. We in the RSP have run campaigns like this before. I think it’s important to learn the lessons from those campaigns ………” (pauses, looking at Chairperson)
“Yes? Go on, please.”
“I was thinking perhaps someone had said that before?”
“Well, yes ……… but the lessons you wish to draw might be different.”
“Did they say have campaigns in every area?”
“Ah …. yes.”
“Well, how about bring people out on demonstrations so they can gain confidence?”
“Yes, that too.”
“Well ………… did anyone say ……….. Did anyone say …….. did anyone say …. we need to have good publicity?”
“Well, quite a few …….. Do you have any specific suggestions about publicity?”
“It should link all these things back to capitalism.”
“Yes, that’s been said..”
“And the bank bailouts ….”
“Yes, that too has been said. Anything else?”
“Er no.”
(Sits down. A different third of the room applaud vigorously)
“Thank you. Next!”
“I’m Larkin Daly and a member of the General Workers’ Union . In my estate and in my depot, ordinary working class people are very angry. Me Ma has been fighting all her life. Me Da too – an’ me neighbours. I’m working class. I’m sorry but we speak plainly where I come from. We have to stand up to the government and the bankers.”
“Yes, thank you.”
(Sits down. Everyone in the room applauds vigorously; some shout “Yeah!” or “That’s right!”)
“Next! Yes, you …. no, the man behind you. Yes, you!”
“I’m Nestor Mac Noe of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Workers’ Movement. This campaign has to be broad-based ….”
“That has been said many times before.”
“And democratic – not run by one party or another.”
“Yes, a number of people have said that.”
“Otherwise people who come to us will be turned off ……” (pauses, looking at Chairperson)
“Yes, go on please.”
“I thought you were going to say that had been said before too.”
“Well, it has, but I was going to let it go this time.”
“We don’t need experts or leaders telling ordinary people what to do or how to do it. Ordinary working people are quite able to learn how to do those things themselves. But ….”
“The campaign needs to be open and democratic?”
“Exactly.”
“Have you finished?”
“Yes.”
(Sits down. One eighth of the room applaud vigorously)
“Thank you. Next! Yes, you ….. tall man with glasses.”
“Shay McGramshee, Provisional Preparatory Committee for the Sixth International. Comrade Chair, we need to put this campaign in context. I mean the international context. I mean the revolution which is sweeping the world and is on its way here. The Arab world is rising, the working class in Europe is rising ….We need to get ready to be part of that and sweep this rotten, exploiting system away for ever! Any day now, it will sweep through this country. Nobody has said that before, have they now?”
“No, you’re quite correct, no-one.”
(Sits down. Two people in the room applaud)
“Thank you. Next!”
“Liam McGargle, Sin Léim party. We mustn’t go too far, too quickly. If we do, we’ll leave a lot of our following behind. We need to keep them with us.”
“Sorry, do you mean your party’s followers or the Campaign’s followers?”
“Well, both.”
“Thank you, please go on.”
“And that’s what we did with the Freeze Process – which is working by the way, but it mustn’t be rushed. These things take time …. we’re heading for fifteen years into it now and some people think we haven’t achieved anything. But we’re making steady progress, but slow so those in power don’t notice it. That’s the way to fool them. That’s what we need with this campaign.”
(Sits down. Ten people in the room applaud, some mutedly)
Chairperson addresses the meeting:
“Comrades, it’s great to see so many people interested and here. We have half an hour left of the meeting and we don’t want to run over, especially since some people have come here from other parts of the country.”
“We have had twenty-six people speak so far. We have had four specific practical suggestions, which are to have open and democratic committees, to build one in each area, to bring people out on demonstrations and to link this issue to capitalism and the bank bailout in our publicity. Perhaps we could, as well as continuing to avoid repetitions, think of some more practical steps to take? “
“Now, who’s next? Yes, you, young woman there …..”
End of excerpt ….
(Then I woke up and realised I had only been dreaming …)
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The funniest thing about this piece is the author. He’s a clown.
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I’m the Waterford ASTI Branch candidate for Standing Committee Region 8 by-election. If you’re a member of the Waterford, Wexford, New Ross or Enniscorthy Branches and you’d like to know more about my campaign reply to this post and I’ll get back to you.
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Watched some of that Secret Millionaire the other night on RTE. While in one respect it was good to see a working class area being portrayed in a half way positive light, I just find the whole tone of it, and the whole philosophy underpinning so utterly patronising. Some millionaire spends a wet week (imagine!!) along the lines of how RTÉ thinks life is for the less well off, gets to decide who are and who arent the deserving poor. Patrician crap.
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Not sure if I was the same millionaire but in the Business Post they noted he was from outside Dublin and had been on RTE once before in the 80s on the Late Late Show to demonstrate a piece of tech he invented, apparently at the end of the segment Gay Byrne turned to the audience and said ‘well he seems like a bit of a gom!’ cue laughter… I thought that said a lot about this society then and now.
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you know what i want to say. Fintan O’Mahony and other trade union activists, get yer wee bottoms to this event…http://tradeunionactivist.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/hello-world/
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Has anyone noticed Richard Brutons comments in Paris
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0929/1224304933408.html
‘Addressing a largely French audience, Mr Bruton said that when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) came to Ireland last year, “the majority of Irish people were pleased” because they knew rigorous controls would ensure responsible policy decisions.
“That’s a sign of political maturity. People did not regard this as an intrusion. They didn’t blame the European Union,” he said.
“There was no hostility to the IMF. I think the people from the IMF, when they were walking down the streets of Dublin, were surprised to see people smiling at them and saying, ‘good on you’.”
Ireland was “resolutely” facing up to its difficulties, he said. Public servants had been persuaded to accept a 14 per cent pay cut, competitiveness had improved, rents had fallen dramatically and the economy was growing.
“Irish people are the most enthusiastic supporters of the European Union,” he added.’
:S
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Transport Workers Union supports Occupy Wall St.:
-‘We spoke to TWU Local 100’s spokesman Jim Gannon who told us that the executive board voted unanimously last night at their regular monthly business meeting to support Occupy Wall Street. TWU Local 100 has 38,000 members, the vast majority of whom work in New York City transit. (TWU has 200,000 members in 22 states.) Gannon said, “A motion was brought up to endorse the protests’ goals; I don’t know why it took us so long to do it. Right now we’re going to be involved in a march and rally on the 5th of October. We’ll gather at City Hall at 4:30 and march to Zuccotti Park.”‘-
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/09/transport_worke.php
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