Video Of The Week

Just three weeks ago the National Transport Authority (NTA) officially started the tendering for 2016 of initially 10% of Dublin Bus routes and a further 10% of all Bus Eireann routes with most of the routes in Waterford City, and a number of Dublin commuter routes are to be privatised. In the original plan a number of Cork City routes were to go but these will probably happen later. This process has been the culmination of a relentless effort by Fine Gael (FG) in the present government and their predecessors and fellow Neo-Liberal ideologists, Fianna Fáil (FF) in the last government where they have consistently pushed for the break up of both Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann so that it can be handed over to their friends in the private sector to run on a profit basis. The NTA is used as a sort of cloak of respectability to give the impression that they will actually be a regulator with teeth of which we know very few regulators have any teeth, with the banking regulator during the Celtic Tiger coming to mind, plus many other examples and the function of NTA is really for propaganda value to convince the middle class. However this whole scheme is about ideology and is NOT about competition but about privatisation. ... read full story / add a comment

On the weekend of 23-25 January, Irish actors, musicians and activists descended on Wales for a weekend of solidarity with WikiLeaks whistleblower Chelsea Manning (formerly known as Bradley Manning) and her family.

The first Truthfest in January 2014 was the brainchild of Irish actor and activist Donal O'Kelly, an idea hatched after he met members of Manning's family during a visit to Dublin organised by Irish Australian activist Ciaron O'Reilly in collaboration with Afri (Action from Ireland) in November 2013. The links forged during that visit have been maintained and strengthened through a series of exchange visits since that time, most recently this 2nd Manning Truthfest.

Ciaron O'Reilly was one of five Pitstop Ploughshares activists who disabled a US Navy war plane at Shannon airport in 2003. Read about Chelsea Manning and Shannon Airport here: http://wp.me/P42I6Q-iF ... read full story / add a comment

After the relatively large turn-out to the Anti-Water charges protests over a week ago on Saturday the 31st, the government is worried that their propaganda hasn't worked as well as it should so in response they have launched a new dirty tricks campaign to discredit the Anti-Water charges campaign. They are using the same strategy as that used in the Corrib Gas issue in Mayo over the past decade where the strategy was to criminalise the protests in the eyes of the public. ... read full story / add a comment

In 2012 public opposition forced the ditching of a plan for a "retirement village" on the side of the Dublin mountains, isolated from services and public transport and cut off by the M50, in an area normally zoned for agriculture and public amenity and widely used by the public. A previous plan for a private school on the site had been rejected for similar reasons in 2005. After the 2014 local elections the plan came back in a lightly tweaked form, with the developer's sister among a number of newly elected councillors supporting the project. A proposal to amend the development plan to include this project is due to be voted on this Tuesday evening, February 10th. Meanwhile some interesting shenanigans have developed. ... read full story / add a comment

Shell protester given suspended sentence after Pullathomas protest ... read full story / add a comment

TTIP is an undermining of hard won labour rights, citizen consumer and environmental protections and an erosion of the notion of democracy. We need to resist this blatant corporate power and resource grab Now. Meeting in Galway this week discussed and highlighted the insidious and secretive corporate and government collusion against EU citizenry that is TTIP. A report of the meeting follows.. ... read full story / add a comment

Integrity Ireland which was setup to expose and fight corruption in our legal
and justice system has written an Open Letter to President Higgins because of
the unprecedented obstalces and obstructions that they have encountered.

The open letter reproduced below is seeking the protection of the Presidential Office in the
event we have to arrest two of our most senior judges for criminal conspiracy on Friday January
30th next.. ... read full story / add a comment

Over 500,000 people were reached on January 6, 2015, Oscar's 72nd birthday, as the National Boricua Human Rights Network and La Respuesta coordinated the "Social Media Campaign for Oscar López." Using various hashtags (e.g. #freeoscarlopez, #gift4oscar, #regalopaoscar) on Twitter primarily, but also Facebook and Instagram, the campaign publicly brought together a broad spectrum of supporters, from Calle 13's René Pérez to actor Luis Guzmán; from NYC Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito to Congress members Nydia Velázquez and Luis Gutiérrez, from blogs like Latino Rebels to newspapers like El Nuevo Día. ... read full story / add a comment

On January 6, 2015 La Respuesta magazine and National Boricua Human Rights Network (NBHRN) call on you to act on behalf of the Puerto Rican people’s longest-held political prisoner, Oscar López Rivera. ... read full story / add a comment

During the 41st anniversary statement, the Communist Party of the Philippines has boldly declared that in five years time its strength and influence will be already at par with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). ... read full story / add a comment

All around the world, the struggle against the State, against capitalism is a struggle against police, too. The killing of activist Rémy Fraisse in France, the kidnapping of the 43 students in Iguala (Mexico), the policial murder on Mike Brown and Eric Garner in USA, the arrest and torture against Nikos Romanos and another greek anarchists, the preventive attacks against the solidarity protest in London (Westfield shopping centre), and recent the prosecution/arrest of anarchists in Spain shows it. Since the beginning of November, there are social protests and riots in at least 21 countries, following the rebellion in North America.

Obs: we thanks a possible translation to Celtic/Irish/Gaeilge idiom for better diffusion for our brothers in Ireland/North Ireland. ... read full story / add a comment

Decision more jaundiced than judicial!

In the High Court today Justice Peter Kelly rejected Michael McKevitt's application to overturn the Minister of Justice’s refusal to grant him enhanced one-third remission. ... read full story / add a comment

RNU have forced Stormonts regional development minister to amend the law to ban water meters being installed. ... read full story / add a comment

Policing for the G20 summit in Brisbane this past weekend was of overkill proportions. There was very little in the way of serious resistance, the Guardian reported that cops (6,000) outnumbered protesters and only 14 arrests were made. One of these was Irish-Australian Manning and Assange solidarity and anti-war activist Ciaron O'Reilly, who has been held in custody all weekend and will be brought before Brisbane Magistrates on Monday morning. ... read full story / add a comment

Today G4S has been victim of a fake press release spread in the name of the company, which made circulate the false rumour of a serious accountancy scandal concerning G4S. This false release induced G4S' shares to temporary fall down. ... read full story / add a comment

A response to Miriam Lord in the Irish Times 23 October 2014:
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/this...73438

The big man protecting the little woman. That explains the sexist picture dominating the Irish Times front page on 23 October, of Taoiseach Enda Kenny looking out for Mairia Cahill.

In our patriarchal society men hold the material and physical upper hand. Women often fight back with emotional and psychological weapons. These are being exploited in this fight, but not by men on the one side and women on the other, but by men and women on both sides.

The spouse of First Minister Peter Robinson, Iris, was in an exploitative relationship with a younger man. He is forgotten (I forget his face and name), while Mrs Robinson was publicly rehabilitated by President Mary McAleese and the Queen of England at a live televised public event in Dublin. She received therapy and expiated her sins, while he was left to his own devices. Who cares, f**k him. ... read full story / add a comment

Republican Network for Unity activists discovered water meters in Belfast despite NI Water denying their installation. ... read full story / add a comment

Five years ago, the Irish Anarchist Review replaced Red and Black Revolution as the magazine of the Workers Solidarity Movement. It’s mission was to fill a vacuum in Irish radical circles, to be a publication that raised questions and provoked debate, rather than laying out blueprints for success, as had been the norm in the more theoretical work of the left. It was established at a time where a fightback was believed to be imminent, when the expectation was that as the (economic) beatings continued, morale would improve. ... read full story / add a comment

Akbayan sends letter to US Ambassador demanding the surrender of PFC Joseph Scott Pemberton
... read full story / add a comment

+++ travel warning +++ Reisewarnung +++ Avertissement de voyage +++ SEYAHAT UYARISI +++ Alerta para los migrantes +++ Utazási +++ DIGNIIN +++poliţia va efectua controale mari în Europa +++Uwaga – Ostrzeżenie dla podróżnych +++ Lưu ý ­ cảnh báo đối với du khách +++ figyelmeztetés +++ Kujdes Qarkullimi/Udhëtimi +++ Внимание +++ تحذير سفر +++ عملیات گسترده
... read full story / add a comment