Call-out for students for this autumn's MA in Community Education, Equality and Social Activism at Maynooth - please circulate!

We have a lot going on at the MA - a talk next week "Gypsy rebellion? Leadership, NGOs and activism among Spanish gitanos"; in April John Holloway is giving a two-day seminar "Think Hope, Think Crisis" and not long after that we're co-organising the "Joining the dots" Grassroots Gathering in Dublin - all part of a wider Dublin Spring of resistance and creation bubbling up from below.

Now read on... read full story / add a comment

Front line view of the first anti-state riot in Athens under the new government of SYRIZA & ANEL. read full story / add a comment

Michael Hudson, interviewed on real news network discusses the class war starting in greece and the panic among the Euro rich and powerful that the rich might actually be taxed for a change rather than crippling the labour force and the poor with endless austerity, and how the finance ministers of currently right wing governments of spain, finland, Portugal, Ireland and germany are determined to make an example of greece to avoid contagion of these dangerous ideas which would likely lead to such governments losing upcoming elections to left wing parties read full story / add a comment

For years, a number of Irish movements have stood in solidarity with the struggle for justice, dignity, equality and freedom of the popular movements in Colombia. Now, hearing of the case of political persecution against the Water Rights movement, Colombian organisation have expressed their solidarity with the struggle of the Irish people. Peasant organisations of Cauca Valley and a broad coalition of over 50 organisations of indigenous, Afros, peasants, women and workers from the Southern jungle of Putumayo, together with refugees in Europe, have issued two statement expressing their unconditional support with those who struggle and reminding the government of Ireland of their obligation to respect the rights of the people in Ireland. read full story / add a comment

It was bad enough in 1966. I'm glad I'll be at a safe distance when The Circus comes to town next year. read full story / add a comment

Shannonwatch are urging their supporters to come to Ennis District Court on Tuesday February 24th to support TDs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace who attempted to inspect a US military plane at Shannon last July. Their alleged offence is illegal entrance into a restricted area of the airport, and their action was in response to the failure of the authorities to inspect US aircraft at Shannon.

Shannonwatch have repeatedly called for an end to the US military use of Shannon. They also call for inspection of all military and suspected CIA aircraft at the airport for as long as they are being allowed to pass through. read full story / add a comment

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture have responded (today) to concerns raised by the Celtic League about arrests of children in dawn raids in Dublin recently. read full story / add a comment

The Anti-Austerity Alliance has today condemned the jailing of anti-water meter protestors at the behest of Denis O’Brien’s company GMC Sierra.

Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy said “The jailing of these protestors and the arrests in Tallaght is an attack on the right of communities to protest against the imposition of austerity measures, in this case the water charge and meters, which are being imposed by the government despite the massive opposition to them. read full story / add a comment

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

The Right2Water campaign is shocked by the jailing of five water protesters for contempt of court today (Thursday, 19th February). Bernie Hughes, Derek Byrne and Michael Batty were all sentenced to 28 days in prison while Paul Moore and Damien O’Neill were given 56 days each.

Right2Water representatives were in court for the sentencing, which they described as “an unnecessary and provocative decision brought about by an unfair water charge that has already been rejected and cannot work.” read full story / add a comment

“No one deserves to live like this”
A poster I came across on a billboard recently, juxtaposed by the wasteland where one of our block of flats used to sit, where working class families used to live happily, side by side, before they were all socially cleansed from the area, and for what? Already a year has passed since they were pulled down to the ground, and all we have to show for it now is a lousy carpark—desperate!

Currently, there are over 80 unused empty units in Tom Kelly Flats, some of which have been empty for over five years or more, 3 and 4 bedroom flats too. read full story / add a comment

The courts decision today to further remand Seamus Daly into custody, based on the assertions by the prosecution that a further 6 weeks was needed to obtain analytics and perhaps up to a further 4 months to obtain other material from the 26 Counties can only be viewed as a stalling tactic and disingenuous. read full story / add a comment

Some of the gifted and highly intelligent victims of the UN's and State's cultural cleansing of individual self-determination may seek accountability. read full story / add a comment

Eight housing activists were today acquitted by the Dublin Criminal Court of Justice, relating to a case spanning back seven months ago, when the charge against them of trespass was thrown out of court.

All eight accused had initially set about into investigating whether or not it was feasible to open up, and re-do, one of the 80 unused flats on Charlemont Street, that had been lying empty for over two years or more. read full story / add a comment

Eight housing activists were today acquitted by the Dublin Criminal Court of Justice, relating to a case spanning back seven months ago, when the charge against them of trespass was thrown out of court.

All eight accused had initially set about into investigating whether or not it was feasible to open up, and re-do, one of the 80 unused flats on Charlemont Street, that had been lying empty for over two years or more.

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We Americans (conditioned in the Hebrew tradition) have learned to see enemies in Biblical terms as one-sidedly evil as Satan. It takes a mass media of some very sophisticated accomplishment to continually portray people like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi, several Middle Eastern leaders as Satan. One needs to be somewhat steeped in the Biblical Literature to create such black and white conclusions. This is one legacy the Bible has bequeathed to modern politics—the absolutism of naming enemy in terms of good versus absolute evil. Israel plays a master game of such portrayal of their supposed enemies. The current leader of Syria, Bashar al-Assad is the new version of Zionist Satan, but even this casting of totally evil Muslim figure is not good enough—we have a new entity that does the most obviously sensational sins—behead journalists and engage in egregious forms of violation—the ISIS/ ISIL phenomenon that America magically armed and some claim even trained (see in alternative media) and magically uses to create even more authoritarian war powers to an already criminal torture state that Barack Obama has no power to quell. 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

Speaking of this mornings events Joe Higgins TD who has been in the process of visiting the various Garda stations where the public representatives are being held said:

“The arrests of AAA TD Paul Murphy, councillors Kieran Mahon and Mick Murphy and a fourth person who remains to be identified to us as we go to press is a cheap attempt to denigrate and weaken water charges movement as we approach make or break time – bills coming out and need for mass non-payment. read full story / add a comment

Follow up correspondence to Council of Europe CPT and UN Special Rapporteur Juan Mendaz OHCHR read full story / add a comment

Concerns about reported events at Maghaberry Prison lead to call for International Rights Groups to become involved read full story / add a comment