reland must assert its sovereignty and invest the proceeds of the AIB shares in public infrastructure, according to leading economist, Paul Sweeney of TASC.

The main reason for investing this capital in Ireland, Mr Sweeney said, is that it generates bigger returns than the savings on the interest on the national debt. Furthermore, the extraordinarily low level of public investment is manifested in the housing crisis and hospital overcrowding. read full story / add a comment

The election cycle has come around yet again it is time to take a look at some of the issues being discussed and more importantly those not discussed and have a quick look at the economy.

For this election there are more independents going up than ever before, although people should be warned that a certain fraction of them are closet FFers and FGers so if it is change you are looking for, they may not be the candidates to vote for. Sometimes people seemed to assume Independents tend to be more to the Left. There is no inherent reason this should be the case and statistically one would expect them to evenly spread to the Left and Right. So if voting for an Independent then be sure you have checked what they really stand for and their previous record if any. read full story / add a comment

Statement of the Communist Party of the Irish Republic on the conjurer's trick of a "peace process" in Ireland. read full story / add a comment

Once again we are being asked to vote on yet another EU treaty. This time it is the Fiscal Treaty otherwise known as the permanent austerity treaty. Most of the people of Europe are against this treaty and they are once again relying on us although as usual most of the governments of Europe are for the treaty because well they represent the people in power -the large banks, corporations and financial elite in general. As we know they call the shots these days in every country and it has got to the stage where "investors" will lend money to governments and charge a nice rate of interest too and in this way they get to decide how much they will allow governments to spend on luxuries for the middle class and poor like health, education, social welfare, pensions, water and sewage etc. And since the financial crisis they have come to the realization that none of this is neccesary. In fact the only arms of government really required are the police, army, courts and prisons.

Anyhow in this feature the folks from People's Association Watchdog have done a really good job in going through the Fiscal Treaty line by line and doing alot of other research and analysis to discover and explains what it really means. And don't forget if enough of us vote No, the government will be back to give us plenty of more chances to vote Yes, just like they did with the Nice Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty.

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A Uachtaráin,

It is my assertion that the current government of the Irish Republic is attempting to initiate changes that will negatively impact the welfare of the people of Ireland.

An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny T.D. is seeking to circumvent the initiation of a referendum by seeking to have a ruling from the Attorney General which will deny the people of Ireland our constitutional right to self determination which is also a principle of international law.

I am hereby petitioning you with respect in your capacity as Uachtarán na hÉireann to invoke your powers under Article 27.5.1 to call a referendum on the ESM Treaty, a proposal I believe is of such national importance that the will of the people should be accordingly ascertained.

Article 15.4.1° The Oireachtas shall not enact any law which is in any respect repugnant to this Constitution or any provision thereof. read full story / add a comment

Given it is just days away from the election and a new government, most likely to be led by Fine Gael, many are probably wondering what exactly is the current state of Ireland and what are the prospects for recovery. In short, things are bad and a recovery is very unlikely. There are also wider and bigger global issues and we are unprepared and should be doing something about it now. read full story / add a comment

Around the world countries have been betrayed by their politicians who have worked hand in glove with their capitalist partners to systematically destory each economy and then to hand them over to a private financial elite composed of bankers, investors and speculators and other parasites.

From Iceland to Lativa to Greece to Ireland the Financial Coup has taken place. It has already long ago taken place in such countries as the USA where big capital and big finance captured their governments long ago where corporations like Goldman Sachs have their own people in government dictating the bailouts. But many other countries are on the list. The austerity which the capitalists smile down on, have already hit most of Europe especially in countries like Spain, Portugal, Hungary and the UK. read full story / add a comment

In the latest piece in Monday's Irish Times from Prof. Morgan Kelly who at the height of the boom in 2007 said Anglo had lent over €100 billion and would eventually go bust, now says the country is facing a wave of mortgage defaults and that the country is effectively gone bust already. read full story / add a comment

Anne Mc Shane writes on the deepening Economic Crisis, Biffos travails, fightback and the need for a new Marxist Party. Full text at link.

Enormous instability remains the key feature of the political and economic situation in Ireland. The crackdown on public spending is far from over as the government continues to borrow billions from international lenders. A draconian budget is planned for December to compel the working class to pay off the enormous interest on national debt. read full story / add a comment

Mary Hanafin seems proud of the creation of new laws which put those in receipt of welfare under checkpoint security read full story / add a comment

Last weekend saw in excess of a hundred young republican activists, gather at the Felons Club in Belfast for the Ógra Shinn Féín national congress. The weekend was the conclusion of a significant year for Ógra in which the republican youth movement remembered the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the original republican youth movement, Na Fianna Éireann.
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Broughan demands recall of Dail to deal with Corrib impasse and Dublin Port Lands. read full story / add a comment

The message is if you're Israel, India or Pakistan it's OK to have WMD. In fact you can even engage in a dangerous arms-race if you're India and Pakistan, or force your enimies to try to acquire the same weapons if your threatened by Israels 400 nukes. But if you're Egypt, Syria, Iran or North Korea you're not allowed to be in the club. Why? read full story / add a comment

CATEGORIES B-E read full story / add a comment

This comment on a report of a Pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin was silently scrubbed from the page about 3 minutes after appearing, just hours ago! This raises some disturbing questions about the Kommissar-like tendancies of the dogmatically-straitjacketed thought-police running that shop!! The piece defends the right of the original authors to publish on Indymedia, and exposes those who would deny it to them. A translation of both the report and the comment follows. The german text is provided for those following the link from IMC-Germany. read full story / add a comment