Words are cheap and so the Labour Minister, Alan Kelly, and Irish Water’s John Tierney were told by their PR advisors to say ‘sorry’. But the overall message from the FG-Labour government is that we are still going to try and bully you.
Following the massive protests across the country against Irish Water and the water charges, Enda Kenny tried to claim that the only alternative is increases of up to 4% in income tax.
People Before Profit Alliance tells Government to stop the bullying and debate the real content of the Treaty
People Before Profit Alliance calls for No to austerity treaty
A second bailout would mean even more austerity, more privatisation of social services
In a statement to coincide with the arrival of the EU-IMF “Troika” for the fifth review of the EU-IMF programme for Ireland, Richard Boyd Barrett TD, Finance spokesperson for the United Left Alliance, warned that continuing down the road of “Troika” dictated bank bailouts and austerity was a dangerous slope leading to a 1930’s style economic depression.
Deputy Boyd Barrett said that with Ireland now facing the certainty of a second bail-out, it was clear that the policy of austerity and propping-up toxic banks was not working, and warned that any such new bail-out programme would be accompanied by demands for even more severe and damaging austerity.
The situation in Gaza is worsening. The humanitarian crisis is escalating daily with the continuing siege by the Israelis. As of 1 January 2012, approximately 600,000 refugees will not receive their three month food ration from the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) because as a result of the siege most people are dependent on aid relief from the UN agency.
The Freedom Flotilla which had attempted to sail in June was prevented from sailing from Greece by Israeli pressure. The Irish ship, the MV Saoirse, was sabotaged while docked in Turkey at the time but has since been repaired.
The boats, two civilian vessels, carrying 27 passengers from seven countries, are currently in international waters en route to Gaza.
People Before Profit Councillor Hugh Lewis (Ballybrack) is participating in this humanitarian and solidarity mission with Socialist Party MEP Paul Murphy, Sinn Fein representatives and others from civil society.
At 11.30am today the ships were 225 nautical miles from Gaza, 99 nautical miles w/sw of Cyprus and they expect to reach the port of Gaza sometime tomorrow if they are allowed to continue without interception by the Israelis.
Most of Monday night’s council meeting was taken up with arguments around the future of Temple Bar Cultural Trust
But by far the more interesting discussion for the rest of the meeting was around an emergency motion submitted by People Before Profit Councillors Pat Dunne, myself Brid Smith and Independent Councillor Ciaran Perry.
The motion, calling on management not to proceed with the sale of the bin collection service to private companies, was put before the council because on Friday last bin workers received a letter from Dublin City Council informing them they would be re-deployed, giving them one month to chose an option of where to and finally thanking them for their years of hard work.
I met an old friend on my way into the council meeting who has given 31 years of service to DCC waste management, most of it driving bin lorries. He was so offended by the one line of thanks and wishing him the best for the future contained in that letter. Perfectly understandable when his life’s labour can be written off so easily and sold to the highest bidder to make vast profits.
Public Meeting: "Don’t Pay the Household Tax" 8pm, Monday, 26th September The Handball Alley, Croke Park Organised by the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes
Enough is enough! The Fine Gael/Labour government came to power promising change from the disastrous policies of Fianna Fail and the Greens.
They have betrayed those promises and are continuing the failed policy of bailing out banks, while crushing ordinary people with cut-backs and austerity.
Here in Ireland and across Europe, it is absolutely clear that these polices are not working. Our government has been forced to borrow more than €100 billion at over 5% interest, to pay off the gambling debts of bankers and speculators.
This means that billions that should be invested in jobs, schools, hospitals, vital infrastructure and enterprise is going down a black-hole.
Around 1,000 people took part in the Enough Campaign‘s protest against EU/IMF austerity programme.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett, an organiser of the march, said the campaign was about mobilising mass opposition to the austerity programme and bringing the spirit of Greek, Spanish and Egyptian-style resistance to Ireland. “This day, it’s not just going to be about speeches – we have had too much of that stuff where it is a few speeches and everybody goes home and that’s the end of it,” he told protesters. “This has to be the beginning of building a movement.” Richard Boyd Barrett encouraged those in attendance to rally support for what he hope will be a much larger demonstration on September 14th, when the Dáil resumes after summer recess.
Revelations about Eamonn Casey point yet again to the gross hypocrisy of the Bishops.These are mostly elderly males who think they have every right to
Calls For Broad Mobilisation To Face Down Far-Right Terror Campaign The riot and arson in Coolock today is another shocking development driven by far right
On the back of the recent election results in France, where the French left united around radical demands and came out on top, People Before
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