Thursday January 01 1970
The Bank Bail-Out Is Costing Us Far Too Much
national |
rights, freedoms and repression |
event notice 
Friday April 01, 2011 22:43
by T
NO MORE BAILOUTS - SCRAP THE IMF-EU DEAL - 2 EVENTS
Call for a Referendum on the IMF/EU Deal
Open Meeting - Tues 5th April 8pm
Gresham Hotel O'Connell St, Dublin 1.
Special Guest Speaker
Lilja Mósesdóttir
MP from iceland
SPEAKERS:
Mick Wallace, Independent TD,
Richard Boyd Barret, People Before Profit TD
plus Andy Story (Afri & UCD Lecturer)
Rita Fagan (Community Activits)
Jimmy Kelly (Regional Sec, UNITE)
2nd Event
DEMONSTRATION at the Dail at 6pm
on Kildare St,
Weds 6th April
NO MORE BAILOUTS - SCRAP THE IMF-EU DEAL
DEMAND A REFERENDUM
Once again Irish people are being forced to cough up for the crimes of bankers and speculators. The recent
stress tests mean a further €18 to €23 billion cash is needed for Irish banks. This is on top of the €46
billion already committed.
Despite talk of 'burden sharing' and even 'burning the bondholders', the Fine Gael-Labour government is
following the exact same strategy as Fianna Fail and pouring billions into the banks and implementing the
EU-IMF deal that insists that the banks are re-capitalised.
In order to fund this enormous bailout the Irish state agreed a deal with the IMF and the EU that will see a
devasting cuts package of €15 billion to social welfarfe, health and education; a massive fire sale of state
assets; hundreds of thousands of young people emigrating; home repossessions and tens of thousands of job
losess.
EU treaties signed by this country with arguably far less grave or immediate effects for our economy and
society than the EU-IMF package have been put to referendum.
Some claim that the IMF and the EU are trying to help Ireland out and that without their support the ATM
machines would have no money or that the state could not pay social welfare. These scare stories conceal the
real purpose behind the deal which is to force Irish workers to pay for the private debts' of Irish and
European bankers and speculators.
If Fine Gael and Labour are permitted to continue with this failed policy the country will be ruined for
decades to come. The majority of Irish people are opposed to this EU-IMF deal but have been denied any real
say.
Last year the people of iceland demanded the right to have a referendum on their IMF deal and in March 2010 a
massive 93 percent of the people rejected the deal. There is an overwhelming democratic case for putting an agreement with such profound implications for the economic and social future of our country to a referendum of the people
It is time we stood up for our democratic rights:
- Demand a referendum on the deal so that the people can democratically decide.
- Not another penny into the bankis - we will not pay the gambling debts of bankers and speculators
- call a halt now to the cuts being imposed by the IMF-EU deal
Comments (5 of 5)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5The idea of a referendum is an excellent one and deserves support.
It is important that this serious issue for our Country is dealt with head on.
However
I feel that the following TDS among those calling for a referendum have some cheek!!
Shane Ross as a stockbroker/ cheerleader was one of the original economic boom town rats and has very little credibility on this issue
Independent Finian Mc Grath supported the original bailout in 2008and advised us at the time to "put on the green jersey" . With his record on referenda- opposing Lisbon 1 and supporting Lisbon 2 within a year he will sniff the breeze to see which way the wind is blowing and act in his own populist interest at the time.
There was a very big and enthusatic turnout to the meeting last night and all of the speakers were good. What was most interesting is that the Icelandic MP Lilja Mósesdóttir revealed that when Iceland rejected their deal the sky didn't fall in and indeed the IMF came back with a lower interest rate. And then they rejected the second deal and still the IMF came back with an even better deal. And now the Icelandics people have no intention on paying that back either.
What was also interesting is that it was mentioned Ecuador had a "debt audit" where they reviewed their debt and decided what was legitmate and what wasn't. Again investors did not flee Ecuador and people are still lending them money today. In fact the Ecuadorian economy is now booming because they have lifted the debt burden which wasn't theirs off their backs.
At end of the meeting there were a number of votes taken and it was agreed to launch an official campaign to demand a referendum on the EU/IMF bailout. In the next few weeks meetings will be setup around the country and people are encouraged to get started themselves and get the ball rolling.
Richard Boyd Barret has offered his Oireachtas (Dail) office as a coordination point so that people can contact the campaign and work out things through that.
The new campaign is to be called: Enough !.
richard talks a little about this on vincent browne show last night (05/04/2011)
should be available on the tv3 site
he also gets harangued by a so called "neutral" independent journalist
"Voters in Iceland have rejected a government-backed deal to repay Britain and the Netherlands for their citizens' five billion US dollars (£3 billion) worth of deposits in a failed online bank, referendum results showed - sending the dispute to an international court and plunging the economically fragile country into new uncertainty."
"The result reflects Icelanders' anger at having to pay for the excesses of their bankers, and complicates the country's recovery from economic meltdown."
"It is the second time voters have defeated a bid to settle the bitter dispute stemming from the collapse of Iceland's high-flying banking sector in 2008."
The three excerpts above have been copied from a Press Association article at the following www location:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5...6477A
In a interview with Hot Press, Bono has given his support to the referendum on the bailout. Traditionally Bono tried to put a pleasant face on the system by his years spent befriending world leaders and trying to get them to do nice things. But usually in the end his efforts have not worked simply because he does not appear to recognise the beast he faces.
It the report linked to below he says having to accept a bailout is an “affront” to Irish people and should be put to a plebiscite election.
Having to take on the debts of private enterprise is “an affront – that is an injustice to the Irish people,” he tells Olaf Tyaransen.
“It would be a very sophisticated thing indeed should the Irish people demand a chance to debate and argue, and finally decide themselves, on what will in the end be a decision that will affect their children and grandchildren.”
Indymedia Ireland is a media collective. We are independent volunteer citizen journalists producing and distributing the authentic voices of the people. Indymedia Ireland is an open news project where anyone can post their own news, comment, videos or photos about Ireland or related matters.