The Hedge School hub of West of Ireland Portal Hubs has a number of workshops & courses planned for the next few months.

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On 6th April last, the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign appealed to Riverdance to cancel its tour of Israel scheduled for 1-13 September next.

In response, Riverdance posted the following on its website: “Riverdance supports the policy of the Irish Government and indeed the policy of every other EU state that cultural interaction is preferable to isolation.” Significantly, all feedback comments were disabled for this posting.

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Thousands of Kazakh oil workers are now in their third month of strike action. In their struggle for trade union rights and negotiations over the implementation of a wage agreement, they have faced massive repression and intimidation. Hundreds of workers have now been fired. Their lawyer has been imprisoned for six years for “stirring up social conflict”. The police and riot police have been used against the strikers as well as the company’s security. One of the key trade union activists has now been murdered.

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Riverdance is scheduled to perform a series of shows in Israel in September (see here: http://www.ipsc.ie/press-r​eleases/riverdance-sho...203;h). To protest this the IPSC are organising another demo outside Riverdance’s ongoing run at the Gaiety Theatre (South King St, off Grafton St – map here: http://bit.ly/nOFHgt ) at 6.30pm on Thursday 18th August. This will be the final action in our series of ongoing protests before Riverdance heads to perform for Israeli Apartheid – so please make the effort to come along! read full story / add a comment

This is an article about a new book on climate change. Written by Orrin Pilkey and illustrated by Mary Fraser.

"IT TURNS out that there is a hoax involved in climate change. Only the hoax is being perpetrated by public relations efforts by the fossil fuels industry." Thus begins the most memorable chapter of Global Climate Change.

Better known for his exposés on the flaws of coastal engineering, geologist Orrin Pilkey has turned his attention to this century's hot environmental topic: climate change. There are no surprises for those familiar with the subject, but the book does a good job of explaining the foundations of climate science to an interested novice.

 

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So the bankers and politicians made a lot of mess and people have to pay the bill. No jobs, cutbacks, more taxes, low salaries, lost houses, debts, IMF, corruption, crisis. Sounds familiar? It happened in Argentine in 2001 . Check out how they coped with that on September 9th at The Happy Pear in Greystones! We’ll be showing THE TAKE.

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This year the IPSC Sponsored Hill Walk will take place on Saturday 3rd September 2011. We will be setting off from Laughanstown, Co. Dublin at 11.30am and finishing up with a meal and some liquid sustenance in Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow. The route will take us through the Dublin/Wicklow mountains via Lead Mines and Prince William's Seat on a beautiful scenic walk.

The last four years’ walks have been enormous fun and raised a lot of money for the IPSC, as well as letting people get to know each other a little better.

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Yassamine Mather is interviewed by  Mark Fischer on developing divisions in the Iranian Regime and the failure of the leading reformists to challenge the existing institutions. Full text at link.

Given its potential importance, it seems odd that there has been so little said in the western media about the ongoing conflict between Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the supreme religious leader, Ali Khamenei. Why is this?

It can perhaps be explained by the attitude of the US administration, which seems to be playing a waiting game. Obviously, they will have followed these disputes, but they expect the system to disintegrate without much intervention from the US and at the moment they have other countries to worry about in the region.
 
However, this is a serious, ongoing struggle which shows no signs of abating and has actually started a process of political differentiation within the green movement between leaders looking for ‘reconciliation’ with the regime and the more militant, intransigent sections of its base. A number of developments indicate the scale of the crisis.

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Throwing more debt, in the short or long run, at the problem will not solve the problem. At most it merely alleviates or postpones the problem. This is precisely because the source of the problem does not lie within the process of circulation (i.e. money and credit spheres). It is contained within the production process­­­.

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Yet more startling  news from the Wikileaks US Cables. This time its about US attempts to overthrow Bolivian President Evo Morales. Full text at link.

Recently released United States embassy cables from Bolivia have provided additional insight to the events leading up to the September 2008 coup attempt against the Andean country’s first indigenous president.

On September 9, 2008, President Evo Morales expelled then-US ambassador Philip Goldberg as evidence emerged that Goldberg and embassy officials had been meeting with several key civilian and military figures involved in an unfolding coup plot.

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Between a concrete lock-on blocking the road for almost 4 hours and a bluegrass country band playing tunes in front of a Shell truck, Wednesday 3rd August was another impressive day of stopping Shell's work on the onshore pipeline of the Corrib Gas Project. read full story / add a comment

A chairde, Following on from the successful protests held in Dublin highlighting Brendan Lillis’s plight, concerned activists will once again take to the Capitals’ busy streets this coming Tuesday to highlight Brendan’s campaign.

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“The member states whose currency is the euro may establish a stability mechanism to be activated if indispensable to safeguard the stability of the euro area as a whole. The granting of any required financial assistance under the mechanism will be made subject to strict conditionality.”

- Amendment to Article 136 of the EU Treaties (TFEU) which was decided on by the 27 EU Member States at the March European Council summit and which licensed the 17 Eurozone States to sign the European Stability Mechanism Treaty on yesterday week, 11 July.

This ESM Treaty would establish a permanent EU bailout fund from 2013. The ESM Treaty and the Art.136 EU Treaty amendment which authorises it now go around for ratification by the Member States. The Government has decided not to put it to referendum here even though it means more power to the EU. The ESM Treaty can be downloaded from the internet.

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REPUBLICAN NETWORK for UNITY Chairperson, CARL REILLY has called on the Catholic Primate of Ireland, Sean Brady to resign his position.

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On Tuesday 2nd August Shell's work was halted for most of the day, only two tractors getting into the Aughoose compound by 3.30pm. There was a heavily increased garda presence with up to 40 guards being drafted in from Roscommon and elsewhere, and four arrests were made. read full story / add a comment

 

This week saw Shell begin the next stage of their gas project by attempting to extend and secure their compound in Aughoose in preparation to lay the onshore section of the pipeline. This entailed tractors delivering fencing, machinery and other things for them to carry out the work. If all had gone to plan would have had the compound near completion now. However, there was five days of 12 hour blockades which has slowed them down tremendously. Here's a quick round up of the events of last week...

 

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Sinn Féin was out in strength on Saturday 30th July proudly supporting Belfast Pride 2011. Ógra Shinn Féin activists and the Sinn Féin LGBT group were joined by Belfast Mayor Niall O’Donnghaile, DCAL Minister Caral Ni Chuilin, Gerry Kelly MLA and a host of Sinn Féin councillors to celebrate the biggest pride parade in Ireland.

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Two previous articles, 'Of Cups, Rings and Cultural Heritage' & 'Cultural Heritage and the Economy'  (Indymedia, August 1, 2011) dealt with recent research on the Hill of Tara and Bend in the Boyne that could open a new chapter in their history, as well as that of hundreds of additional archaeological sites throughout Ireland, the UK and other Atlantic/Mediterranean European countries.  More importantly, they discussed the apathy on the part of the politicians, government agencies and archaeologists in Ireland towards that research, and its potential cultural and economic benefits.  In all fairness though to the aforementioned, what of the European Union and UNESCO World Heritage Centre, who are just as responsible for protecting the cultural heritage and economies of countries within the Euro Zone.

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Considering the dismal economic state of a growing number of EU nations, it is more important than ever for them to protect their cultural heritage, as it is firmly linked to their economies in the form of tourism.  Though one tends to think of cultural heritage as something taught in schools and preserved in museums, it goes well beyond that, as evidenced by the attraction of archaeological and cultural World Heritage Sites to millions around the world. Though sites such as the Bend in the Boyne and Stonehenge play a significant role in our understanding of who we are and where we came from, every site, however small, is just as important, and they deserve to be indentified, excavated, restored and preserved for future generations.

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The following is the first of three articles regarding cultural heritage and its potential benefits to the economies of Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and other Atlantic/Mediterranean European countries, which given the ever growing number of EU nations seeking bailouts, canʼt be ignored any longer. There are those whoʼve questioned why the cultural heritage of Ireland for example, is of such importance to someone who is a 4th generation Irish-American. The bigger question is why those whoʼve been ʻchargedʼ with protecting the cultural heritage of a nation; the archaeologists, politicians, government agencies, EU and UNESCO, have turned a blind eye to the issue.

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