The coming year will be a challenging one for working-class people in Ireland and across Europe. The threats facing us are manifold. Economically people are faced with the consequences of the austerity programme imposed on them by the EU political and financial elite. For Irish Republicans increasing repression highlights the reality of the old imperialism of British rule in Ireland. read full story / add a comment

We strongly condemn Thursday’s massacre at Sirnak in which 36 civilian Kurds were killed by Turkish air strikes. This year more than 4,500 people have been arrested under nebulous “terrorism” charges in Turkey, including dozens of journalists last week. This AKP-directed pogram, known as the KCK Case, began in 2009 against any Kurdish dissent in Turkey. Mayors, local councillors, journalists, human rights activists and Kurdish party workers are targeted. read full story / add a comment

The tunnel boring machine(TBM) planned to tunnel under Sruwadducon Bay has been named ‘Fionnuala’ after one of the children of Lir. The 4 children of Lir were turned into swans for 900 years by their jealous step-mother. They spent the last 300 years in the seas off North Mayo.
‘Fionnuala the TBM’ is 140 m long and weighs almost 500 tonnes. It is painted with the Mayo colours and is to be transported to Erris for early next summer. Shell plan to bore a 4.5 m diameter, 4.9 km tunnel up Sruwadducon bay. This is Shell’s gift to Sruwadducon - ‘bod nimhneach an ghaill dhaill’ (the poisonous penis of the bitter and the blind ). read full story / add a comment

AFAR offers to find ‘forever homes’ for condemned hens. TEN farmers across the country say they will be forced to cull hundreds of thousands of hens next week to comply with an EU directive which the IFA claims could cost them their livelihoods. A directive issued back in 1999 to phase out so-called battery cages to house hens and replace them with a more humane version known as "enriched" cages has apparently led to this situation. The Alliance for Animal Rights have already spoken to IFA National Poultry Chairman Mr Alo Mohan and have made an offer to find ‘forever homes’ for some of these hens to allow them live out their natural lives. read full story / add a comment

PHOTOS: Link http://www.flickr.com/photos/69766931@N05/sets/72157628623607465/ read full story / add a comment

Three OMNI air troop carrying warplanes at Shannon on 30 Dec 2011, are now under heavy guard by a combination of Shannon airport security, Gardai and the Irish Defence Forces. read full story / add a comment

Ports up and down the West Coast were blockaded, from Seattle to San Diego. The blockade was called in solidarity with longshore workers fighting a union-busting assault in Longview, Washington and port truckers seeking union recognition in the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach. This support should have been greeted. But now the class war on the West Coast docks is coming to a head, and it can't be waged from the outside. Bay Area labor has called for a caravan to Longview. The goal should be a real occupation of the terminal by the workers to prevent the loading of the scab cargo. Longshore militants have called on the longshore unions to shut down every port on the West Coast, and the East and Gulf Coasts, to smash EGT's union-busting. Can it be done? Yes, but only though sharp struggle against the pro-capitalist labor bureaucracy. read full story / add a comment

Belated merry xmas and happy new year to all our contributors and readers read full story / add a comment

16 Catholic Workers closed and occupied the Main Entrance of Northwood Military Headquarters. Scott and Maria Albrecht, Henrietta Cullinan, John Lynes and Rachel Wood pitched tents, knelt and prayed in front of the main gate for 2 hour while others vigiled holding signs. read full story / add a comment

With the FG-Labour coalition set to introduce an animal welfare bill in the new year, no government TD or Senator can answer the question: will hare coursing be included in the bill? FOI reports show that the cruelty of this so-called "sport" continues despite the muzzling of greyhounds... read full story / add a comment

Revisiting the effect of pesticides 50 years after Rachel Carson's expose of their terrible impact on all living organisms read full story / add a comment

The Irish government has been complicted in the murder of innocent people for almost a decade now via the wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are completely hypocritical when for so many years they condenmed the acts of murder in the North, but now not only remain slient about these mass murders in far off lands but actively support it through the apparatus of the state in the form of providing resources -Shannon Airport, policing to go with it and of course welcoming back in 2004 the war criminal Bush and more recently Obama. We are supposed to cheer when the US and NATO drop daisy-cutter 4,000 lb bombs or when drones fire missles and say oops! when innocent civilians get killed. And to counter the propaganda spewed a few weeks ago about the so-called ending of the war in Iraq. It is not over. There are still troops there. And contary to statements at the time of only 64,000 killed as if that was just a few, the figure is well over one million people, as estimated by internationally peer reviewed Lancet study that was done twice to confirm the initial findings. We are so immersed in the propaganda that we have all forgotten our true values and the difference between right and wrong. Fortunately there are a few individuals willing to stick by their convinctions. Below we reproduce a handwritten communication we received from one of the members of the Peace Team that sabotaged a US troop transporter at Shannon warport last Tuesday morning, 20th December 2011. We have verified that this person participated in this action. read full story / add a comment

GALWAY ALLIANCE AGAINST WAR ****** DECEMBER BULLETIN 2011

FREE BRADLEY MANNING!!!!!!
FREE BRADLEY MANNING!!!!!!
FREE BRADLEY MANNING!!!!!!
FREE BRADLEY MANNING!!!!!!

CONTENTS
1) EXCLUSIVE REPORT ON THE PEACEFUL ACT OF SABOTAGE AT SHANNON WARPORT
2) SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS: IN PALESTINE
3) LIBYA: AN ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE
4) NORTH KOREA: AN ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE
5) REPORT ON AN ALTERNATIVE CONFERENCE ON AFGHANISTAN
6) EDWARD HORGAN REPORTS FROM THE CONGO
7) BUSH & BLAIR FOUND GUILTY OF WAR CRIMES
8) FOR YOUR DIARY read full story / add a comment