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GlAcDa

Demonstrate in Solidarity with Venezuela. Sunday 19th April 2015

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In 1985 President Ronald Reagan declared Nicaragua to be “a threat to the United States”, and proceeded to finance and arm the “contras” in order to overthrow the democratically elected Sandinista government. When, thirty years later the current president of the U.S. declares Venezuela to be “a threat to the United States”, it can only mean one thing – the U.S. is seeking to overthrow the government of Venezuela.

Since the election of Hugo Chávez in 1998 transformed the political situation in Venezuela and Latin America, the U.S. has striven to restore its dominion over the continent. It has supported and encouraged the Venezuelan ultra-right, during the coup d’état in 2002 and since, in all its efforts to destabilise and undermine the Bolivarian Government.

Last year the ultra-right organised street violence resulting in the deaths of 43 people. This year in February, Venezuelan security services uncovered a plot for another coup d’état. You would not know this from the Irish media who take their news from the Washington Post and the New York Times. They would have us believe that the deaths last year were the result of state repression of peaceful demonstrations and that there was no plot, that persons convicted of violent crimes or awaiting trial are political prisoners.

These false reports have been endorsed by the U.S. Senate and the European Parliament. It is on this basis that the Senate orders sanctions and the President issues his executive order.

The threats against Venezuela have been repudiated by UNASUR and by ALBA, representing a majority of Latin American States, who no longer accept the hegemony of the United States. The Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement in the United Nations has stated that they also reject the latest decision of the Government of the United States to expand it’s coercive measures against Venezuela.

 

The Venezuela Ireland Network is holding a demonstration outside the U.S. Embassy in Dublin from 2pm til 4pm on Sunday 19thApril, to call for the rescinding of the order declaring Venezuela to be a threat to the United States, for the ending of sanctions against officials who were only acting according to the constitution and laws of Venezuela, and for an end to all U.S. interference in Venezuelan affairs.

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NCADnotabusiness

Education Versus Neo-Liberalism

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The ongoing events in the National College of Art and Design (N.C.A.D.) speak to a larger and slowly emerging crisis in the Irish educational system. Having endured increases in fees, an escalating dearth of studio space, and an ever more obstinate college bureaucracy and leadership, the students took it upon themselves to offer a list to demands to the college management. The college ignored the requests of the students, even going so far as to pull out of a meeting with the students where their concerns and objections would be voiced in person. The students responded by occupying a room in the college on Tuesday, March 24th, with further similar actions, including public lectures, having taken place in the last few days, and with more actions planned. A petition has also been circulated and signed by a number of Irish academics and graduate students, declaring solidarity with the students and the need for “another model of what higher education might be — one guided by the pursuit of learning rather than the pursuit of profit, driven by radical enquiry rather than bogus metrics”. Events in the N.C.A.D. are a microcosm of what the education system in Ireland is currently enduring. 

Although having to meet certain economic and financial requirements have always been part and parcel of the lives of academics and students, such requirements were not as threatening and all-encompassing as they are now. An obvious starting point for the current attack that the education system is under is the sinking of the economy due to financial malfeasance on the part of banks, civil servants, and governments. In fact, and to my knowledge something that has never been reported on, the education system, particularly third level, was always going to be one of the first areas that would come under attack in order to save the banking system. Reading the transcripts of the MacGill Summer School of 2009, in which over forty Irish intellectuals, government ministers, and elites gathered together to discuss what needed to be done to fix the economy, demonstrates this. Of particular note was the speech given by Dermot Gleeson, the then Chairman of Allied Irish Bank (A.I.B.), and who also happened to have a meeting with the Taoiseach and Minister of Finance on the evening before and night of the bank guarantee. Gleeson, blaming the public as much as the banks for the economy collapsing, pointed out that something needed to be done in order to increase government revenue. He laid out the corrective plan as follows: 

“We need to broaden the tax base by cutting out reliefs which are no longer justified; this is very much preferable to raising tax rates. Property taxes need to be less dependent on transactions and a property tax of some sort, needs to replace stamp duty, at least in part. There may be need for more user charges to fund high quality infrastructure in the form of road tolls, water charges and university fees. A carbon tax needs to balance the demands of climate change and competitiveness. In relation to expenditure we need more difficult decisions while maintaining investment in research and infrastructure. The cost of public services needs to be brought into line with costs in the rest of the economy. Excessive regulation and outdated work practices need to be eliminated. We need to reduce the long term inflation expectation back to the Euro average and we are well advanced on that project…. We need to implement public sector reform with real urgency” [emphasis added].

 University fees are far from the only thing we have to worry about, however. Third level has not only had fees reintroduced in all but name, as per Gleeson’s suggestion, but cutbacks have been made across the system as a whole. In spite of such cutbacks, student numbers have increased, putting the system under even more pressure. An obvious result of such pressure is that it makes universities and colleges more pliable. They simply need the funding and will do what they can to attract such funding.

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image2

New Proclamation to the People of Ireland

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Proclamation
The Next President
OF THE
IRISH REPUBLIC
TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND

IRISHLADS AND IRISHLADIES: In the name of O’Brien, Martin-Murphy, Esat Digifone, the Dublin United Tramways Company, and of the dead executioners who met with unhappy accidents on their way to midday Mass, from whom she receives her old tradition of being neither this nor that.

Having patiently perfected her zeal, having waited, resolutely as a cat bound and gagged all night in the outhouse, for the right moment to reveal herself on Facebook, she now seizes this moment, with her one good typing hand, supported by all her children who thankfully went away and quietly died in flats above chip shops at Cricklewood, and by gallant allies first in London, and now, Berlin, but relying in the first instance on her own weakness, she strikes in full confidence of her ongoing defeat.

I declare the right of others – henceforth to be referred to as the financial markets – to the ownership of Ireland, and their unfettered control over all Irish destinies –male, female, hermaphrodite, thin, fat, or medium sized – to be sovereign and indefeasible. Our long subjugation by foreign institutions and dudes named Rupert, or lately Gunter, who knew and still know what’s best for us, has extinguished us. Nor should we be ever again be spoken of, except by madmen roaring on street corners and those who will be henceforth called Shinnerbots on Twitter, our candle having been successfully quenched by our own hand. In every generation a rabble of corner boys (joined occasionally by Bernadette Devlin and her likes) have conspired in back alleys and attics secretly converted for said purpose to assert the lie of our right to national freedom and sovereignty; eight times during the last four centuries they have asserted it by force of pikes, Lewis machine guns and Kalashnikovs. Standing against such fundamental wrongs and re-asserting our most recent surrender in the face of Goldman Sachs, on legal advice received from Peter Sutherland Senior Counsel, I hereby proclaim the Irish Republic to be a state subjugated to people whose names I don’t even know, and couldn’t pronounce if I did, and pledge my life, and more importantly yours– and those of your inconsequential children – to the cause of our ongoing interest payments and GMC/Sierra Ltd, in which you should all immediately buy fucking shares.

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LL_thumb2

LookLeft 21 Out Now In Easons and Across the Country

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LookLeft 21 is in Easons stores and hundreds of selected newsagents across the country now.

Still only €2. The highlights of this issue include:

Women on the frontline – Áine Mannion talks to women who are leading the fight against austerity

‘Pious Hooligans’ – Donal Fallon discusses the mass movements of Christian Anti-Communism in 1930s Ireland.

Divided but strong – The Greek Left’s history informs its present and Europe’s future. Éilis Ryan reports from Athens.

Solidarity at Solitude – Paddy Wilson and Chris Bailie discuss the efforts of fans to create a progressive, non-sectarian fan culture at Cliftonville FC.

Combat Folk! – Kevin Squires talks to The Modena City Ramblers about the music and politics that keep them going.

Can the left co-operate? – At least four different plans are being proposed to further Left co-operation but many hurdles remain, reports Dara McHugh

The battle for Ukraine – After the coup in the Ukraine, Ukrainian progressives face severe repression. We interview leftist organisation Borotba about the coup and the new regime.

God, culture and the republic – After the terrorist attacks in Paris and Copenhagen, Gavan Titley and Ultán Gillen discuss the roles of secularism and multiculturalism

Cut out from the docklands carve up – Dublin Docklands communities are being sidelined from their area’s development. Richard O’Hara investigates.

Another lost generation? – Youth work is disproportionately hit by cutbacks, damaging the prospects of young people.

Stormont House Agreement: who benefits? – Justin O’Hagan looks at the movement against austerity in Northern Ireland.

And much more…

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bag

Returning to the Business of Bonuses

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When everything came crashing down there was considerable discussion of the ‘bonus culture’; primarily but not exclusively in the finance sector.  Bonuses were tied to outputs that, while rewarding the individual (usually a senior management figure), played mayhem in the economy –as if the dispensing of loans for property speculation is a measure of commercial success.

Bonuses, in general, have been with us for a long time.  It actually started among workers and was paid out as ‘piece-meal’ work – the more you shovelled, the more you harvested, the higher the pay This benefited only a few, especially as the total pot of remuneration rarely grew – it was just redistributed (but it did get workers to produce more for their employers).  But as economies industrialised, bonuses became a phenomenon of management and those with special skills; and as the financial sector was deregulated, bonuses became associated with bankers – senior bankers.

Bonuses are justified on the basis of ‘rewarding performance’ or ‘attracting the talented’.  That’s the justification – a hypothesis rarely tested.  It can reward some aspects of work but it ignores others; they can attract some talent but demotivates other talent.  Employees rely on the fixed income of their wage – either the direct or social wage; bonuses can have a distorting effect and can leave employees reliant on HR whim no matter how dressed up it might be with metrics that aspire to measure productivity.

Whatever the justification, there is one thing we can be sure of:  bonuses benefit higher income employees; namely, managers and professionals.  Very little trickles down to workers on the shop and office floor, production line or building site.   The CSO used to measure bonuses by type of employee – not so anymore.  But we can reasonably assume that the share-out is much the same today.

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cantpaywontpay

Agree to a Left Slate: Response to PBPA ‘Alliance’ Proposal.

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This response is written by Brendan Young and Eddie Conlon

People Before Profit have released a public letter seeking endorsement from individuals and organisations for a ‘coherent left alliance’ which would include “[PBP], the Anti-Austerity Alliance and many independent socialists and community and trade union activists.” The focus of this is the coming general election. We are in favor of a slate of anti-austerity candidates standing in the election – based on the water charge campaign and clear opposition to coalition with pro-austerity parties. While we favor this, we are opposed to the method of the current PBPA proposal. But we are in favour of urgent discussion between the SP and SWP on a left slate and would urge the SP to stop stalling on the matter.

While we agree with much of the politics set out in the PBPA proposal, individuals and organizations are being asked to sign up to a proposal for a new left alliance – which is undefined. An alliance is, by definition, a formal organization involving groups and perhaps individuals. We are a couple of years after the breakup of the ULA and relations between groups and individuals on the left are probably worse now than before 2011. Proposing that a new alliance be set up has no basis in the current relations on the left.

There is now however, an improved basis for a left slate in that PBPA is now openly campaigning for non-payment of the water charge. Calling for a boycott is essential to winning this battle and is the basis for common political work. We think that PBPA should now energetically build the non-payment demo on April 18; and that PBPA should actively get involved in the Non-Payment Network or agree to a coordinated approach to non-payment activities. This does not involve splitting from R2W. The groups in North Kildare actively build R2W events – but have publicly argued for non-payment from the outset.

But to propose a new alliance by publicly soliciting support is to attempt to apply pressure so that those who do not agree with participating in a new alliance at this point in time are seen as divisive. The PBPA proposal, as it stands, is likely to fail. The last thing we need now is another failed initiative for left unity leading to hostile recrimination and the demoralisation of those who actively want to see the radical left uniting.

A more considered approach is needed which ensures that those left forces with significant social weight, and in the main that means PBP and the AAA, are committed in principle before the project is publicly launched. That’s not to argue that these are the only forces that should be involved. Indeed the success of any new project will be determined by the extent to which it engages with those who have become active and organised against the water charges.

The focus now should be on building a slate of candidates to run in the general election. A slate would be based upon rejection of coalition with the Troika parties and the championing of non-payment as essential points; repudiation of debt, taxes on wealth, a public works program and repeal of the 8th Amendment would also be needed. How to deal with the North should be parked for ongoing discussion, as there are known differences on it and the more urgent need is to put a slate in place for the elections in the South.

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1

From Alpha to Omega Podcast #061: The Calculation Problem

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After repeated requests from a number of listeners, this week I am delighted to  welcome back to the show Dr Paul Cockshott, a reader in the computer science department of Glasgow University. We talk of the Socialist Calculation debate, the Soviet plans for their own internet, Google vs a planned economy, and the problems with Council Communism.

If you’d like to listen to the show on your phone, you can now also listen with TuneIn here:

http://tunein.com/radio/From-Alpha-To-Omega-p686756/

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peoplesnews

Peoples News No. 122 Out Now

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Peoples News No. 122 Out Now

Contents 

P1. Greeks do the decent thing – Irish EU officials helpful; as usual! The Greek parliament has overwhelmingly adopted a “humanitarian crisis” bill to help its poorest people, ignoring pressure from the EU to halt the legislation.

P1.  TTIP and education. Proposals to make education a ‘traded’ commodity could cost the Irish taxpayer millions, by allowing investors in ‘for-profit’ colleges to sue the government for loss of profit as a result of state investment in public education.

 

P2. Draghi calls for quicker and deeper Eurozone integration. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has called for a “quantum leap” in institutional convergence of the eurozone.

 

P3. The IFA pronounces on TTIP. EU negotiators must ensure the interests of Irish and European farmers are not sacrificed in pursuit of an overall trade deal with the US, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has warned.

P4. Blockupy!! This week some 17,000 people gathered in Frankfurt to protest against the European Central Bank (ECB). The protest culminated in acts of violence which of course attracted a great deal of publicity.

P5.  Irish data commissioner happy with EU/US data transfer agreement! A lawyer for the European Commission told an EU judge on Tuesday last that he should close his Facebook page if he wants to stop the US snooping on him.

P6. Next, an Energy Union – as EU integration deepens! EU leaders agreed on 19 March to construct an Energy Union with what the EU Commission has spoken of as a ?dynamic governance process.

P7. How to Measure Impacts of Trade – The Copenhagen Report for the Irish Government on the impact of TTIP. The Copenhagen Economics Report (CER) released today Friday 27th is sure to cause controversy on the basis of its underlying rationale for the initiative.

P9. To know the truth and call it a lie. The reaction among German political parties to EU President Juncker’s call for a full blown EU army provides a cautionary tale for us all.

P11. Why the agri-food community should oppose TTIP. Here are some reasons the agri-food community need to oppose TTIP and fight for something far better as agri-food policy in the EU in general!

P14. TTIP 2015 deadline likely to be missed. EU trade officials have conceded that the 2015 deadline to agree the TTIP trade deal with the United States is likely to be missed.

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dunnesdecency

We Are All Dunnes Stores Workers

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This Thursday, April 2nd, workers in Dunnes Stores throughout the country are coming out on a one-day strike.  In essence, the dispute boils down to two urgent issues.

The first is zero/low hour contracts.  Such contracts require employees to be available for work but do not guarantee hours of work.  Therefore, workers cannot be assured of their income from one week to the next.  And because hours and shifts change, workers cannot plan childcare, eldercare, family time or leisure.

The Dunnes Stores Workers are seeking what is called ‘banded hours’.  This means people are rostered in such a manner that they are guaranteed a minimum and maximum number of working hours and, so, income.

While Dunnes Stores management might claim (if they ever went public to defend their position) they require roster flexibility, banded hours are widespread throughout the industry (e.g. Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Arnotts, Pennys, to name a few).  This is from Jennifer who has worked for eight years with Tesco:

‘Unlike my Dunnes colleagues, I am much more fortunate in that I have the stability and security of a banded contract. This allows me the guarantee of 30-35 hours every week but also, it does not restrict me to 35 hours. In the event that extra hours become available, I am able to work up to and including 39 hours weekly.’

The fact is that flexibility is a diversion.  Management uses the roster as an instrument of control, punishment and reward to create a compliant and submissive workforce.  If you try to organise a union in the workplace or make a health and safety complaint – don’t expect too many hours next week.

It is also an instrument of payroll cleansing.  This from a Dunne Stores worker:

‘I tell them I can’t work between 2pm and 5pm because of child care issues . . . but they keep putting me on the 2-6pm shift.  They are trying to push me out after 9 years because I’m on an old contract with higher wages.  They want to replace me with cheaper staff on new contracts.’

No wonder that in a survey of Dunnes Stores workers, 85 percent stated that insecurity of hours is used as a method of control.

It is, however, the second issue that cuts to the heart of the matter.  Quite simply, Dunnes Stores management treat their employees as nothing more than a factor of production.  What the Dunnes Stores workers are seeking is terribly simple and far-reaching:

‘You will acknowledge us.’

You will acknowledge us when we want to discuss our contracts, our pay, our working conditions.  We are not mere instruments in the value-added creating process.

Again, management will divert the issue by claiming it is about a union demanding recognition.  It is not.  It is not about Mandate or any trade union.  It is about what the workers want.  Do you or don’t you want to be a member of a union?  Do you or don’t you want to negotiate with your employer collectively?  Do you or don’t you want to appoint a trade union as your negotiating agent?  Do you or don’t you want to take industrial action?  It all starts, proceeds apace and ends with the individual worker and what she or he wants.

The Dunnes Stores workers have made their decision.  They have joined a trade union, sought to negotiate with management, were ignored, and have voted by an overwhelming majority to take this
one-day action.  Now they are paying a considerable price. Management is putting pressure on workers with threats of redundancies and layoffs (in a letter that wasn’t even signed) and especially key activists and workplace representatives whose working hours and income is under threat.

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2010

Not a Vintage Year

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This is a post by Michael Burke originally posted on Notes on the Front.  Michael works as an economic consultant. He was previously senior international economist with Citibank in London. He blogs regularly at Socialist Economic Bulletin.  You can follow Michael at @menburke

The publication of the ESRI’s latest Quarterly Economic Commentary follows the recent publication of the national accounts for 2014. But they were both strangely muted affairs given that the headlines were GDP growth of 4.8% in 2014 and GNP growth of 5.2%. The ESRI is forecasting 4.4% and 4.1% respectively for 2015- although it does not have a very good forecasting track record.

Not only are these the strongest actual and projected growth rates since the recession began but they are also the strongest growth rates in both the EU and in the OECD. So why the long face? Why are people still taking to the streets to protest water charges and the government parties getting no bounce in the opinion polls?

One factor is that despite all the talk of recovery, even on the distorted GDP measure of activity the patient is still convalescing. The economy has not returned to its pre-recession peak, as shown in Chart 1 below. GDP contracted by 12% from the end of 2007 to the end of 2009. In the 5 following years about 70% of that shortfall has been recovered.  On that trend it will be 2016 before the economy is finally in recovery.

Chart 1. Real GDP

MB ESRI 1

On most indicators including GDP the level of activity is now back to around the level last seen in 2010, which was hardly a vintage year. Following a deep recession, industrialised economies much more usually bounce back equally sharply. But this is a slow, painful and incomplete recovery from a deep recession.

Stagnation apart from exports

There is another factor in the subdued mood. GDP is a measure of activity. But it is not designed to be a measure of prosperity. It is widely accepted that recorded export activity is hugely distorted by the activities of multinational company operations in Ireland. Yet since the economy stopped contracting at the end of 2009 these highly distorted net exports (exports after imports are deducted) have risen by an annualised €16bn, almost exactly equal to the rise in GDP.  Net exports, many of them purely fictitious, account for the entirety of the partial recovery.

Chart 2 below shows that the key components of domestic activity are either still falling or are stagnating after a sharp fall. Personal consumption is over €7bn below its peak on an annualised basis and is stagnating. Government spending is €5.6bn below its peak and continues to contract. Popular anger is actually inclined to grow the more there is talk of ‘recovery’.

But the most dramatic contraction is in fixed investment which is now €23.6bn below its peak at the beginning of 2007. The decline in investment led the recession and continues to act as the main brake on recovery. The fall in investment now far outstrips the total decline in GDP since the recession began.

Chart 2 Personal Consumption, Government Consumption and Investment

MB ESRI 2

There might be grounds for increased optimism if the ESRI were plausibly making the case for higher consumption, government spendign and investment. But that is not the case. Private consumption and government consumption are projectedf to rise by just 2% and 0.5% respectively in 2015. Investment is forecast to rise by 12.5% following a double-digit increase in 2014. Even if the ESRI’s optimism is borne out, the fall in investment is now 60% from its peak. So it would take another 4 years of growth at that pace to begin a full recovery.

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elly

Kelly

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“He has balls”, a Labour Party source   

 d

The clasp of his handshake once reassured

prospective mothers-in-law

he’d not disappoint their daughters.

And though his infrastructure’s

in desperate need of an upgrade,

he’s confident he can get his

waterworks fit for purpose,

ladies and gentlemen, here tonight,

and those at home

watching on TV, sometime

within the next twenty

five years. And if doing so

 d

involves flogging

every last rain drop,

from Bellmullet to Garryduff,

at a savage discount, to the guy

who despite his wallet’s ongoing

morbid obesity, has hair

that looks like it’s been stuck

to the skull with Evo-stick,

then Kelly’s the kind of pragmatist

who’ll make shit like that happen,

whether anyone asked

it to or not.

 d

His tongue rough

as the carpet in a room

where Stevie Coughlan

once talked against the Jews.

For the past six months,

every erection he’s had

has been a member

of the Heavy Gang

about to throw a Provo

onto the railings

from a Garda Station

second storey window.

 d

According to recent polls,

in certain areas of Tipperary,

he’s only slightly less popular

than Richard the Third. At least

half a percent less hated

than this time last week.

Of unequivocal victory,

he has no alternative

but to be certain.                                           

 d

KEVIN HIGGINS

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1

Grassroots Gathering 2015

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Grassroots Gathering 2015
Joining the dots between grassroots movements, communities, campaigns…

Call for contributions and registration info

St. John Bosco Youth Centre, Drimnagh, Dublin


Friday April 17 (evening) – Sunday April 19th (afternoon)

We are coordinating with local water charges groups so as to fit in with the Burn the Bills demo.

A grassroots gathering is a one-off event run by a local group bringing together people involved in different community campaigns and social movements to learn from each other’s experiences, talk about what works and what doesn’t, develop networks and make alliances. Joining the dots – imagines a raising of awareness, a politicisation leading to radical transformation, it may also envision a strategic connection between diverse campaigns and collective actions in order to advance, strengthen, consolidate and collaborate in struggle with unity and purpose.

There have been over a dozen of these gatherings in different parts of the country over the last eleven years and they have helped support all sorts of different campaigns and movements – campaigning against the water charges, resisting Shell in Erris, campaigning against cuts, supporting women’s right to choose, advocating for housing rights and resisting evictions, challenging neo-liberalism in the EU, campaigning against deportation and the direct provision system, creating free space for young people, fighting for environmental justice, highlighting US military use of Shannon, challenging racism and more.

We’re looking for contributions – offers to host workshops or even just to give a short talk, as well as artistic and children’s events. Please let us know by Tuesday April 7th (just after the Easter bank holiday) if you would like to do something so we can finalise a programme. You can email us at grassrootsgathering2015@gmail.com or find us at https://www.facebook.com/GrassrootsGathering.

A good workshop for this gathering has any speakers talking for just 5 or max 10 minutes each to get a discussion going – remember most other people there are also activists. A really good workshop has people from different movements giving 5-minute intros about the same kind of practical problem from their own experiences and then a discussion. We aren’t looking for events which are mostly made up of one person talking or which are mostly about trying to sell other people on a specific issue. So please let us know if you’d like to do a short intro or organise a whole workshop!

Typical sessions might include:
- How to organise, strategy and tactics, direct action, dealing with police…
- getting people involved, mobilising communities, media of all kinds, politicisation…
- education, understanding the issues, working together against austerity…
- arts workshops, film showing, children’s activities, outdoors activities…

It’s not for profit (and we all get to muck in with washing up, passing the hat and generally helping out), it isn’t run by any political party and nobody will try to recruit anyone.

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svmay

The March Issue of Socialist Voice is Out Now

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The March issue of Socialist Voice is out now. 

Northern workers protest against austerity
Eugene McCartan
On Friday 13 March tens of thousands of public-sector workers took part in a day of action against proposed cuts, job losses, and welfare cuts. 
Called by the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, it brought public transport, ambulance services and other public services to a standstill. 


Economic misery and bloody chaos
Tommy McKearney
The soap opera that surrounded SYRIZA’s limp attempt to negotiate with the vicious, agenda-driven European Union, led by the financial sector, has understandably captured huge attention during the recent past. 
As with all the best action within that genre, viewers were kept in mock suspense while the inevitable dénouement was played out. 



The American media: a masterful work of deception
Richard Bryant
I have been fascinated by the coverage surrounding Brian Williams’s inability to accurately remember certain details concerning his time in Iraq and New Orleans. 
It is a story that says much about our culture and the times in which we live. 



The Greek people are in a double bind
Mary MacMahon
Since the election of the SYRIZA government in Greece earlier this year the European media have gone into overdrive to marginalise the Greek people and the new government. 
Even the very limited agenda of SYRIZA, which raised so much hope within Greece and throughout Europe, has been dashed on the real existing European Union—not the air-fairy one that is the darling of the social democrats, ultra-leftists, and broken-down Labour Party types and their supporters within the trade union movement. 



“Divide and rule” still the strategy of the United States
Tom Bateson
In early March the Obama regime issued an executive order placing sanctions on seven Venezuelan officials for alleged violations of human rights and the political prosecution of opposition protesters since February 2014. The statement refers to “the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela.” 



Merkel’s poodle
Alan Hanlon
Adolf Hitler had a German shepherd dog named Blondi. Hitler liked to have photos taken of himself with Blondi, or with children, as part of his campaign to groom the German people into thinking of him as a man of peace, who loved animals and children, instead of the street thug that he was. 


Take it down from the mast?
Tomás Mac Síomóin
Irish representatives, along with fellow EU neo-liberals, ganged up on Greece in the recent negotiations between the elected representatives of that country and the EU. Their stance, lauded by most of the Irish media, has already made a hollow mockery of next year’s official 1916 commemoration. 


What’s left of Labour?
Robert Navan
On the 28th of January last Dáil Éireann debated a motion to approve the terms of the free-trade agreement between the European Union and Colombia, sometimes known as the EU-Colombia Trade Agreement. 
 
The agreement has been in operation since August 2013 but still requires ratification by all member-states. 


Back from the future
Jenny Farrell
The “Cold War” is not over. And it won’t be—until the very last memory of an alternative to the society of capital is deemed eradicated. So let us take a moment to stem this drive for oblivion. 

As the rewriting of GDR (East German) history continues unabated, there are some areas in which the servant scribes find this a little more difficult.


Film review: Some dreams are worth fighting for
Jenny Farrell
Jimmy’s Hall, perhaps Ken Loach’s last major feature film, is of special interest as it celebrates the life and struggle of the Irish communist Jimmy Gralton. 

It is rare indeed to come across a film that unashamedly stands by the tradition of struggle by the dispossessed against the combined forces of economic, political and religious power,


Theatre: Counter culture
Paul Doran

Counter Culture at the New Theatre, Dublin, Monday 16 March 

This was a very enjoyable evening, organised by the James Connolly Festival, which is fund-raising for its major list of public events taking place in May.

 

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New University / ReThink UvA occupation at the University of Amsterdam

ICTU Youth, USI and IFUT statement in support of University of Amsterdam occupation

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The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) Youth, the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) and the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) want to express our support for the New University / ReThink UvA occupation at the University of Amsterdam.

The demand to put an end to “managerialism, real-estate-speculation and precarious labour in Higher Education” should unite students and staff across the world. 

In Ireland, the campaigning group Third Level Workplace Watch recently highlighted the terrible conditions facing adjunct staff in our Higher Education institutions – where lecturers are surviving on welfare, in ‘permanent’ part-time status for years, and working sixty hours per week while barely making minimum wage.

At the same time, students are facing exorbitant increases in fees as budgets for Higher Education are cut by successive austerity governments. In the twenty years between 1995 and 2015 these fees have increased 1,579%. From an adjusted figure of just under €190 in 1995 to €3,000 for incoming students. 

The balance of funding for Higher Education in Ireland is moving from public to private. In some cases this takes the form of major multinational corporations directing scientific research, in others EU research grants being used in the development of drones and “counter-terrorist” weaponry. Little if any of this enjoys democratic oversight.

Still again this neoliberalisation takes the form of increased emphasis on attracting international students – who pay exorbitant, unsubsidised fees and are set into competition with Irish students for places in a process antithetical to genuine internationalism. These students can expect to pay more for poorer services too.

The neoliberal university in Ireland is profoundly changing the student experience. Most students aspire to engage in the free and critical pursuit of knowledge, to use our time in Higher Education for personal development and to become rounded citizens of society. However, increasingly it seems like we are reduced to consumers in a rat race, with degrees little more than stamps of social capital meant to improve our chances in the job market.

But this is not simply a problem in Higher Education. In Further Education budget cuts have forced the closure of many programmes. Community education and training has also been devalued, utilised as a source of free labour and a means to hide real unemployment figures. 85,000 people are on ‘labour activation’ schemes in Ireland at the moment which are often exploitative and result in little experience being gained. Apprentices have found themselves burdened with extortionate fee increases too.

The occupation in Amsterdam inspires many of us – both students and staff – who are trying to understand how we can break these cycles which worsen year-on-year. In Ireland we understand, like you do, that it is time for a fight back.

We send our solidarity to all of those involved in the occupation and in our common struggle for an education system that is democratic, developmental and focused on serving the needs of society rather than the careers of technocrats or the profits of business.

Derek Keenan (Chairperson, Irish Congress of Trade Unions Youth)

Laura Harmon (President, Union of Students in Ireland)

Mike Jennings (General Secretary, Irish Federation of University Teachers)

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