9 May 2013

Press statement: Joe Higgins TD

Supreme Court ruling on Registered Employment Agreements poses need for organising drive by union movement as first step in protection of conditions

Commenting on today's Supreme Court ruling that Registered Employment Agreements are unconstitutional Joe Higgins TD said:

"The striking down by the Supreme Court of the REAs will be seen by employers and sub contractors as a signal for a savage attack on the wages and conditions of workers. The trade union movement should immediately declare that any such attacks will be met by all out action and must now go on the offensive to ensure that wages and conditions provided for by the REAs remain intact.

"Today's ruling is further proof that the judiciary in the final analysis contains an inherent bias against the interests of working people. Employers have allies in the top echelons of the state who are prepared to strike down the legal underpining of conditions in the private sector that exceed the statutory minimum wage. ... read full story / add a comment

At 12 midday on the 16th of May, Occupy Galway will return to Eyre Square to mark the first anniversary of the destruction of the Eyre Square camp. ... read full story / add a comment

Galway Pro-Choice condemns the passing of three motions at today's Fianna Fail Ard Fheis which oppose suicide being included as a ground for abortion under proposed X Case legislation. In particular, we condemn the decision of the Galway East Comhairle Dáil Ceantair of Fianna Fáil to propose one of these motions which would continue to place women’s lives in danger.

Orlaith Reidy of Galway Pro Choice said:

“The motions presented to the Ard Fheis reveal a fundamental disregard for women's health. As Dr. Peadar O'Grady of Doctors for Choice has outlined, denying women the right to choose is a key cause of suicidality among pregnant women, and maternal deaths have markedly declined in countries where abortion is available.” ... read full story / add a comment

On Sunday April 14, Bolivarian candidate Nicolas Maduro won the Venezuelan presidential election by a narrow margin. With 99.12% of the votes counted, there was a 78.71% turn out, with Maduro receiving 7,505,378 votes (50.66%), and Capriles 7,270,403 votes (49.07%). Opposition candidate Capriles declared that he does not recognise the result and demanded an audit of 100% of the vote.

On Monday April 15 Capriles made a speech, which was broadcast live by all private TV stations as well as CNN Spanish. In it he refused to recognise the election results and called for mobilisations to demand a full manual recount of the vote. These included a national pots and pans banging protest on Monday at 8 pm, marches on the regional offices of the National Electoral Council (CNE) on Tuesday 16, as well as a march on the CNE in Caracas on Wednesday 17.

At the same time both the Organisation of American States president Insulza and the United States declared that they were also in favour of a full recount. The Spanish government added its voice to the chorus and said they did not recognise the results of the elections. ... read full story / add a comment

Call to action of the Indonesian People's Movement Against Neocolonialism-Imperialism toward Bali WTO Ministerial meeting on 3-6 of December 2013
... read full story / add a comment

A course for movement practitioners and community educators who want to deepen their own practice ... read full story / add a comment

The Woodland League wish to highlight the fact that Coillte since 2009 have already sold 108 million euros of trees with harvesting rights, to IFUT ( Irish Forestry Unit Trust ) a pension fund company, of which they are partners. In a bizarre situation, Coillte have used these proceeds to pay off some of its own large pension fund debts. The National Pension Reserve Fund has also been used by IFUT to fund these sales and its contribution obscured within IFUT’s bail out of Coillte. This is not how this vital Public NPRF funding should be used, it is supposed to be invested in the peoples future. http://www.nprf.ie/Publications/2011/NPRFReport2010.pdf
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The Chair of the Grass Roots Left Gerry Downing was summarily dismissed on Tuesday 12th by Metroline Travel at its Cricklewood garage a spurious charge of “inappropriate behaviour towards members of the public whilst driving a route 210”

The dismissal was clearly politically motivated during the election campaign of Jerry Hicks for General Secretary of Unite. It comes on the heel of the libel action taken by Unite against Gerry and the Weekly Worker by Unite’s Regional Industrial Officer Wayne King over an article defending sacked Sovereign buses Convenor Abdul Omer Mohsin on 12 January 2012. This action was initiated by Thompson’s solicitors on 5 December, the day after the snap General Secretary election was called by the Executive Council on 4 December.

His letter to Unite’s General Secretary and Executive Council on 30 December remains unanswered. Gerry has been a thorn in the side of Metroline for over two decades as he says in his submission to the hearing:
... read full story / add a comment

To defeat the property tax YOU have to get involved Don’t register for the tax – do not return the form which the Revenue Commissioners will send to you in March Go to your local public meeing when it is held and find out how you can become an acive member of the campaign Join any local or naional protests which the campaign organises. ... read full story / add a comment

From next week the latest bitter austerity pill will be administered to our hard pressed low and middle income earners as letters arrive in every home from the Revenue Commissioners demanding the new property tax. Although having the Revenue logo, they will arrive by edict of the Troika, the economic dictators who are being allowed to walk with jackboots over the living standards of our people, courtesy of the connivance of gutless politicians who comprise the Fine Gael and Labour parties, and before them, Fianna Fail. And never forget, this is another tribute exacted to bail out the private gambling debts of the bankers and bondholders who wrecked this economy. ... read full story / add a comment

This month a group of socialist and republican activists from a variety of backgrounds throughout Ireland came together in Dublin to establish the Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum. The concept of the forum arose from a series of seminars that in turn had their origin in a symposium on “Republicanism in the Twenty-First Century” hosted by the Communist Party in September last year.

The aim of the forum is to promote the ideas of socialist republicanism, as best expressed by James Connolly, Liam Mellows, and Peadar O’Donnell. The forum is named after Peadar O’Donnell in recognition of his outstanding role as a union organiser, republican soldier, author, enemy of fascism, friend of the worker and small farmer, committed socialist, and lifelong activist for peace and against imperialism.

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This past weekend, as the nation celebrated International Women’s Day and Mother’s Day, an Irish Maternity Hospital initiated an invasive procedure on a pregnant woman against her will. ‘Mother A’ was denied patient autonomy and the right to informed refusal when the drastic and unprecedented measure of an emergency High Court sitting was called in order to compel her to undergo a Caesarian section. The risk of uterine rupture was cited as one of the main reasons for the urgency in this case but this risk is widely reported as being 0.1% or 1/1000. This is what Dr. Michael Turner, Obstetrician at the Coombe Hospital has called: “exaggerated, professional scaremongering...and it must stop”. (VBAC Conference, 2012) ... read full story / add a comment

Dendermonde, 12th February 2013. Today the court of Dendermonde convicted 11 activists of 'gang formation'. In doing so, the judge has criminalised their participation in the non violent direct action and debate on May 29th, 2011, which brought attention to the need for a sustainable agriculture system. ... read full story / add a comment

Anti Property Tax Campaigners occupy headquarters of International financial company.
Sending out message of "It's not our debt, and we're not paying".

Members of the Campaign Against Home And Water Taxes ( CAHWT) are currently occupying the headquarters of Price Waterhouse Coopers in Dublin's Docklands.

This is the first occupation of this type held by the campaign, and represents a significant escalation of our protest activity . It is designed to draw attention to the financial institutions that have avoided the effects of the economic crisis while ordinary workers and their families are made to suffer. ... read full story / add a comment

Abstract: There is an overwhelming failure to recognize human rights in birth in Ireland. In December 2011 the Fine Gael and Labour Government passed legislation, called The Nurses and Midwives Act, 2011, which governs the way midwives are insured to attend homebirth in Ireland. Midwives who make an individual assessment, that the mother and baby are safer birthing at home than in a hospital setting, desite falling outside generalized guidelines, are punishable by law with a €60,000 fine and/or a 10 year prision sentence. Women who make an informed decision, against the uninformed terms, are threatened with having their midwife barred from attending them in childbirth and having their baby taken into State custody at birth.

... read full story / add a comment

Last month, the De Silva report into the 1989 murder of Pat Finucane highlighted the scale of collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and undercover units of the British Army in the late 1980s.

A new report published today by Spinwatch and the Pat Finucane Centre traces the roots of this covert relationship to the earliest days of the Northern Ireland conflict.

COUNTER-GANGS: A history of undercover military units in Northern Ireland 1971-1976 shows how the application of colonial counter-insurgency theory led to the recruitment of paramilitaries by plain-clothes army units in the early 1970s ... read full story / add a comment

Good news from Northern Ireland . AFAR is delighted in The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) stance in updating the Welfare of Animals Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 to ban any dog docked after this date from being shown in Northern Ireland. Dogs docked before this date may still be shown under current legislation.

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The Anti Eviction Taskforce (AET) have written to all Government Ministers across all political parties on behalf of all distressed mortgage holders in Ireland today, delivering a mandate to bring a motion before the Dáil to ban eviction in Ireland. This letter will arrive on the desks of all Ministers on February 4th 2013.

To explain the logic behind this mandate: The Government and Financial institutions continue to ignore the issue of distressed mortgages, which is resulting in much family distress, family break-up and, in some cases, suicide. While, as yet, eviction is not an everyday occurrence, it is only a matter of time before eviction becomes common place. This threat, along with the inaction by both the Government and Financial Institutions to devise credible resolution is disabling distressed mortgage holders and resulting in impasse. ... read full story / add a comment

Abortion Rights Campaign established in Dublin today, 19/01/20130

At a national pro-choice meeting in Dublin today, the name and aims of the newly established Abortion Rights Campaign were announced. Groups and individuals from across the country, including Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Belfast came together to discuss and agree the next steps for the movement.

The aims of the campaign include legislation on the X & C cases and repeal of the 8th amendment to the Irish constitution. Actions and events are being organised across the country over the coming months.

Speakers at the event included Clare Daly TD who said, “The Abortion Rights Campaign is not a sprint, it's a marathon and we're here for the long haul. In the meantime, we want the immediate introduction of legislation for the right to safe, legal abortion when a woman's life is at risk, including from suicide. We also want the simplest, broadest legislation that includes the right to abortion in the case of fatal foetal abnormality. We will keep the pressure on until we get this." ... read full story / add a comment

The latest loyalist sectarian attack on the people of the Short Strand illustrates the unchanging reality of life for large sections nationalist community in Belfast and throughout occupied Six Counties. Once again it is the nationalist people who must bear the brunt of loyalist mobs who have unleashed in order to further the political agenda of the unionist political establishment. ... read full story / add a comment