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Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Fraud and mismanagement at University College Cork Thu Aug 28, 2025 18:30 | Calli Morganite UCC has paid huge sums to a criminal professor
This story is not for republication. I bear responsibility for the things I write. I have read the guidelines and understand that I must not write anything untrue, and I won't.
This is a public interest story about a complete failure of governance and management at UCC.
Deliberate Design Flaw In ChatGPT-5 Sun Aug 17, 2025 08:04 | Mind Agent Socratic Dialog Between ChatGPT-5 and Mind Agent Reveals Fatal and Deliberate 'Design by Construction' Flaw
This design flaw in ChatGPT-5's default epistemic mode subverts what the much touted ChatGPT-5 can do... so long as the flaw is not tickled, any usage should be fine---The epistemological question is: how would anyone in the public, includes you reading this (since no one is all knowing), in an unfamiliar domain know whether or not the flaw has been tickled when seeking information or understanding of a domain without prior knowledge of that domain???!
This analysis is a pretty unique and significant contribution to the space of empirical evaluation of LLMs that exist in AI public world... at least thus far, as far as I am aware! For what it's worth--as if anyone in the ChatGPT universe cares as they pile up on using the "PhD level scholar in your pocket".
According to GPT-5, and according to my tests, this flaw exists in all LLMs... What is revealing is the deduction GPT-5 made: Why ?design choice? starts looking like ?deliberate flaw?.
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Israeli Human Rights Group B'Tselem finally Admits It is Genocide releasing Our Genocide report Fri Aug 01, 2025 23:54 | 1 of indy We have all known it for over 2 years that it is a genocide in Gaza
Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has finally admitted what everyone else outside Israel has known for two years is that the Israeli state is carrying out a genocide in Gaza
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Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
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Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony
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Parse failure for http://humanrights.ie/feed/. Last Retry Saturday September 27, 2025 14:15
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Spain's Political Repression Gamble in Euskadi
Spain's Tribunal Supremo (Supreme Court) has again politically capitulated to the pressures of its reactionary political establishment led by the Partido Popular (PP) and the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE), against efforts to allow for democratic participation of all political forces in Euskadi (Basque country).
 In a nine to six vote the tribunal declared illegal all the candidatures presented by Bidu for the upcoming May 22 regional elections ( Bidu means "to gather" in Basque, and is a united coalition of leftist Basque nationalist forces, composed of Eusko Alkartasuna, Alternatiba, Araba Bai, Herritarron Garaia, and several other leftist independent groups) .
In addition to this decision, the tribunal also moved to declare illegal 10 of the 19 political affiliations presented by the state's attorney's office for certification.These are all Izquierda Abertzale (Patriotic Left) organizations.
These judicial decisions are the culmination of months of antidemocratic repressive efforts by the Spanish state -and it's right wing Basque collaborators- aimed at preventing the participation in the democratic process of any political organization that advances a radical leftist social economic agenda and supports sovereignty for Euskadi.
The justification again, as it was in the last bout of a very similar judicial process against another coalition named Sortu, is the coalitions supposed link to the armed independentist group, ETA and it's outlawed political wing, Herri Batasuna.
It would take a much lengthier piece than I've intended to produce here to explore the complex history of leftist Basque nationalist groups, or their relationship over the last 40 plus years to the armed group ETA. For now, and for the purposes of this particular piece, it is sufficient to say that ALL the members of Bidu have publicly renounced violence as a means for achieving independence.
This has always been the claimed critical expectation by the Spanish State of any group wishing to participate in the Basque democratic process. Yet, today, an organization rejecting violence as a way to achieve power no longer satisfies the State. They must now also "condemn" the choice of armed resistance of other organizations as well, even if they are not in anyway associated with that organization. Not doing so, immediately qualifies you as a sympathizer and prone to persecution, prosecution, violation of your constitutional rights and political marginalization.
So, what gives? Why would the Spanish state argue, and even fabricate evidence to determine that the these groups are being controlled by the mandates of ETA even when they've made a public and written commitment to non-violent participation in the democratic process? Why would Spain not desire the end of a bloody armed conflict with an enemy it has not been able to defeat in more than 40 years through the integration of it's primary ideological exponent into the democratic political process, not unlike what occurred in Northern Ireland with the IRA?
This is what continues to frustrate all Basques, even moderate rank and file members of the PNV (Partido Nacionalista Vasco). Time and time again, the Spanish State has used the threat of terrorism by Basque Nationalists as an excuse for the political persecution and militaristic intimidation of all leftist nationalist political militants. Violence has been often provoked, constitutional rights have been systemically violated and legal processes blatantly ignored and obscured, all under the banner of fighting Basque nationalist terrorism. All Basques are seeing through this infamy now, and they are as sick of it as they are of ETA's senseless violence against increasingly ridiculous targets.
Using ETA as an excuse, the right-wing Basque nationalist political party, the PNV, and the two major reactionary Spanish national establishment parties, have for almost 40 years been able to secure political control over Basque politics and national future. That is why ETA can not be allowed to disappear. A dissolution of ETA, as an armed struggle group deemed a terrorist organization, would eliminate any of the present excuses that have allowed Spain to "illegalize" the popular and politically significant civil society voices of leftist nationalism. These voices do have the capacity to challenge the present political status quo in Euskadi. Nobody presently in power is willing to let that happen, by whatever means necessary. Even if it means keeping a senseless bloody conflict alive for another 40 years.
On January 10th 2011, ETA declared a unilateral cease fire. It has since kept it's commitment and made several calls to the Spanish state to accept an internationally mediated dialogue to end the armed insurrection and facilitate the group's transition into the political process. The response by the Spanish state has been to intensify the military confrontations with the group and escalate the political persecution of anyone of any power and significance in the leftist independentist community.
It is clear to anyone that is paying attention, that the present Spanish regime is not only not interested in a negotiated end to the violent conflict, but that it actually aims to perpetrate it and provoke it by making it impossible for any revolutionary nationalist left force to participate in the existing democratic process.
The present Spanish state's failure to recognize the folly of its archaic, arrogant and totalitarian entrenchment not only with regards to the the Basque country, but also with regards to the aspirations of the people Catalunya and to a lesser degree of those of Galiza, may yet be the very thing that will eventually lead to braking Spain into four separate and fully independent states.
This unwillingness by the post Franco ruling political class to advance a comprehensive constitutional reform that provides a pathway for the formation of a federal republic, and providing the necessary constitutional guarantees for the just and equable integration of all four main nationalities in non-Portugal Iberia, betrays the eternal shortsightedness of Spain’s dominant Castilian political class.
Claiming to be defending the integrity of the nation as a whole, while blatantly and shamelessly criminalizing political dissent and violating its own constitutional guarantees to freedom of political assembly and expression in Euskadi, this long conceptually obsolete and always democratically deficient parliamentary monarchy system may actually be hammering the nails of it's own coffin much more effectively than any group of armed Basque nationalists could ever have.
Adrián Boutureira Sansberro
May 4, 2011



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Jump To Comment: 1This article by Adrian Boutureira is a welcome contribution to a discussion that rarely enough takes place in the Irish Left.
A few points to add:
The correct Euskara (Basque) name for the Basque Country is "Euskal Herria" and the southern country (under Spanish rule) is called "Hegoalde". "Euskadi" is the name given by some to three of the southern provinces, which does not include Navarra.
The organisation which was banned is called "Bildu", not "Bidu"; also it was legalised by the Constitutional Court just after midnight on the 5th/ 6th May. The Constitutional Court also criticised the banning by the previous court as well as one other banning that had been appealed to it, which might be understood as a criticism also of the banning of all the other Abertzale (Pro-Independence) Left municipal election platforms.
Bildu is essentially a social-democratic platform, formed by social democratic parties -- although it was going to permit Abetzale Left candidates to stand for election upon it. The overturning of its ban occurred after Basque and international protests (in Ireland included). While it is a victory, it has to be treated with caution. The message to the Basques may be: organise in social-democratic parties and you will be permitted to stand; otherwise you will not.
In discussing violence one must also refer to that of the Spanish state, which has not only been repressive but which has also detained thousands and tortured "confessions" out of them over the years, for them to then spend up to 40 years in jails dispersed across the Spanish and French states, far from their families.
ETA was an unarmed organisation formed during Franco's dictatorship and was subjected to arrest and torture. After nearly a decade of this, the organisation went on an armed offensive and their first planned target was the area chief of the Guardia Civil in charge of the tortures. The actions of ETA cannot be blanketly called "senseless" or "ridiculous" when one takes into account the killing of Carerro-Blanco, Franco's intended fascist successor, or the regional Chief of the Anti-Terror (i.e. spying, repression and torture) Department and the role ETA played in the halting of the nuclear reactor building at Lemoiz, which is now in ruins. However certainly some of their other targets were unjustifiable in my opinion.
"Why would Spain not desire the end of a bloody armed conflict with an enemy it has not been able to defeat in more than 40 years through the integration of it's primary ideological exponent into the democratic political process, not unlike what occurred in Northern Ireland with the IRA?" asks Adrian Boutureira. Presumably he means "ideological opponent" rather than "exponent". Certainly there are elements in the state that benefit from having an "enemy of the state" and "terrorism" in order to justify their activities and the employment of so many departments of repression. But repression and resistance are constants in class and in national liberation struggles and violence is also an unavoidable part of the process.
Political violence is usually first offered by the native capitalist or imperialist state; that engenders resistance, part of which is also violent. Those who object to "violence" should make clear whose violence they are objecting to and how the people are to defend themselves and advance their struggles without revolutionary violence. They should also demonstrate where in history a class was successful in peacefully overthrowing the ruling class or a nation in peacefully liberating itself from imperialism or colonialism.
Furthermore, if Boutureira is advocating for the Basques an outcome like the Irish "Peace Process", which admittedly seems to be the direction of at least part of the current Aberzale Left leadership, he should really add a few lines explaining why that would be a good thing for them or why it has been a good thing for us. Over a decade after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement we are not one tangible step nearer to a free or united Ireland, not to speak of a "socialist and Gaelic-speaking" one.
Finally, Boutureira seems to be advocating some kind of a democratic federal state. However, nations have a right to self-determination and the Abertzale Left (and in theory even the nationalists of the PNV) have always been struggling to achieve independence, not greater autonomy within a federal system. The breaking up of imperialist states is usually anathema to social democrats, old-style communists and some kinds of revolutionary socialists. They wish to take over the state some day and want the biggest areas they can have under their control. To genuine revolutionary socialists, libertarians and democrats, the break-up of those states offers greater opportunities for democratic social experiments and diminished dangers of new systems of repression.