Signs of Hope – A continuing series February 7, 2019
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.trackback
Gewerkschaftler suggested this recently:
I suggest this blog should have a regular (weekly) slot where people can post happenings at the personal or political level that gives them hope that we’re perhaps not going to hell in a handbasket as quickly as we thought. Or as the phlegmatic Germans put it “hope dies last”.
Any contributions this week?
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
happenings at the personal or political level.
Well, this is personal, dealing as it does with my infantile obsession with a foreign game/business. Le cúnamh Dé and if Manannán Mac Lir, god of the sea, also permits. Me and three of my oldest pals are off to Elland Road on the weekend of 23 Feb to see Leeds United Vs Bolton Wanderers.
Leeds are stuttering again but then so were SF a while back and they’ve steadied their ship.
I’ll be remembering another childhood buddy who died a few years back, way too good a bloke and way too young. John approached me on the corner of the road where we lived back in 1969 and asked me: “Who do you follow in England?” “I don’t know”, I answered. He then said “I follow Leeds” and then, the clincher, “and they’re winnin’ it”. Thus I was added to that generation of young boys who became Leeds United fans, inspired by the team of Bremner and Giles, the greatest team that ever played association football. Ever. Football unites the world.
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Football unites the world… won’t let you away with that.. Football kills people
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Look. I know people do their cruciates and break their legs and get concussed. But football killing people? Explain please.
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Ibrox .. 70s… Heysel 85… Hillsborough 89? Etc etc .. all over the world…
A lad from Meath got beaten up and suffered severe brain injuries going to a Liverpool -Roma game..
I think two Leeds lads were stabbed to death in Istanbul when Dave O Leary was boss
During the last World Cup à feminist organisation estimated that when England lost women’s refuges were twice or three times as busy… women being battered by men sore after a football result.
And that’s not to speak of the damage done to families with matches on three or four times at weekends.. dad down the pub watching them with his mates..
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I remember a nasty case in England a few years ago, now when the fan of a losing team came home from the match, rowed with his girl friend about it before battering her to death and then killing himself.
‘Fan’ is a diminutive of ‘fanatic’.
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Ah I understand you now. I don’t know. I still think the balance sheet is in the black overall.
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There was a ‘soccer war’ between Honduras and El Salvador in 1969. Much more than soccer was involved.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_War
‘While often recognized as a dramatic game that elicits intense emotions, an equal combination of sport and theater, and a key way to understand society, soccer is still underestimated as a force and platform for political unrest. One salient example of the game’s ability to directly impact global politics is the armed conflict between Honduras and El Salvador in 1969–the so-called “Soccer War.”
https://sites.duke.edu/wcwp/research-projects/the-soccer-war/
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Paddy Healy, Former President, Teachers Union of Ireland 086-4183732
March With The Nurses on Saturday Next Feb 9, 12.30 Garden of Remembrance, Dublin
Nurses and Patients Must Be Saved from Further Suffering at the Hands of This Heartless Government for The Super-Rich
YOU CAN HELP BY BEING THERE.
TELL GOVERNMENT THAT IT IS NOT ACTING IN YOUR NAME IN REJECTING THE JUST CLAIMS OF NURSES!
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“Supreme Court blocks Louisiana abortion law..
By 5-4 vote, the court said the restrictions must remain on hold while challengers appeal a lower court decision in favor of the law. Chief Justice John Roberts voted with the court’s liberal members…
It was the Supreme Court’s first significant action on the hot-button issue of abortion since Donald Trump’s nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, replaced Anthony Kennedy, who generally voted with the court’s liberals to uphold abortion rights. Kavanaugh voted with the conservatives — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch…
The stay on enforcement of the law will remain until the challengers bring their full appeal to the Supreme Court. If the court agrees to hear the case, the stay would remain until it issues its decision, which would happen sometime late this year or early in 2020.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-blocks-louisiana-abortion-law-1st-major-ruling-abortion-n968766
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US Rep. Ocasio-Cortez talking truth unto power?
5 minutes and worth every second
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Impressive.
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Sign of Hope????
Irish Independent SIPTU-HSE-DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SLUSH FUND : A UNION official used a publicly funded credit card to pay for five holidays in Lanzarote costing more than €8,000 – all of which was repaid – a new watchdog report has revealed.The credit card was part of the state-funded “SIPTU slush fund” aimed at providing training for low-skilled workers.
A report by the Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG) has uncovered new details about the fund which has been at the centre of major controversy in recent years. It confirmed that the senior SIPTU official, Matt Merrigan, who administered the fund, used its credit card “in error” to book five trips to Lanzarote which were not business related.Mr Merrigan told the C&AG that the payments incurred in the Lanzarote trips “had been fully refunded”.The Lanzarote jaunts are among a previously undisclosed set of 18 foreign trips, costing a combined €46,000, uncovered by the C&AG.Destinations also included London, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Milan and Zurich in Europe, as well as Orlando, Texas and California in the US.’The newly identified junkets come on top of the 56 foreign trips to places like New York, Australia and Hong Kong already identified by the Health Service Executive, which contributed to the fund.Other funding came from the Department of Health and the Local Authority National Partnership Advisory Group.
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Joe… I’d be a Stalinist on this one.. not one single goal.. is worth one single life… bit like the north really! 😉
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Four left deviationists are still heading for Elland Road an f*** Stalin.
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Enjoy Yorkshire Joe!!
Uncle Joe can still be happy for other people!
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The First Genuine sign of hope in the workers movement for years was the huge participation IN THE NURSES MARCH LAST SATURDAY including the participation of some trade unions
The Two Biggest Trade Unions , SIPTU and FÓRSA , WERE ABSENT https://wp.me/pKzXa-ls
AT LEAST 40,000 Marched On the Nurses Demonstration .
Trade Unions Who Marched With The Nurses:
MANDATE, ASTI, CWU, OPATSI(Plasterers), UNITE The Union, Northern Ireland Public Services Association(NIPSA Belfast Branch), Dublin Trades Council, Waterford Trades Council, Dublin Colleges Branch TUI (But not TUI Executive) , TUI Grassroots (Rank and File Organisation), INTO Dublin District (But not INTO Executive). There was also a contingent from the Financial Services Union (FSU-old Bank Officials Association).
But we must not get over hopeful. Very much remains to be done.
Not alone did the two biggest trade unions fail to take part, Siptu which has 5000 nursing members, is not honouring the INMO pickets . The head of SIPTU Health Division publicly criticised the strike in advance-a godsend to government. Fórsa (Merger of IMPACT, PSEU,CPSU) issued a statement saying that it would insist that any concession to the nurses would go to its members. This was the false rational being used by government to reject the nurses claims. If FORSA genuinely wanted to get pay increases for its members, it would at worst have remained silent until the nurses won. Its statement militated against both the nurses and its own members getting pay increases ! Like SiPTU it was directly collaborating with Government against the nurses. This is the sort of Corporatist trade unionism which was favoured by Mussolini
It gives me no pleasure to say these things. My father was one of the founders of the Health Division of ITGWU through the mental hospitals, my brother was chair of the Health Executive of IMPACT before he became a TD. I have been elected President of TUI and I was very dissappointed that TUI NEC refused to march. However the trade unions which did take part in the nurses march give a sign of hope. But there is a long way to go!
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