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international / worker & community struggles and protests Sunday November 15, 2009 - 20:15 by Yassamine Mather
Yassamine Mather writes on how workers confidence has increased in the ongoing demonstrations in Iran. While the militias beat many protesters, they were also opposed and in some cases forced to retreat. Full text at link. No-one in Iran will ever forget November 4 2009. It was the day when illegal demonstrations in at least six separate locations in Tehran and 20 cities and university campuses throughout the country overshadowed the state-organised event. As the national broadcasting service was showing live pictures of the gathering outside the former US embassy, shouts of “Death to the dictator” from protesters on neighbouring streets and squares were so loud that it was difficult to hear the minister’s speech. In Tehran the six locations were Enghelab Square, Ferdowsi, Haft Tir, Enghelab Square, Vali Asr and Vanak Square. ... read full story / add a comment
international / worker & community struggles and protests Friday November 13, 2009 - 19:55 by pat c
Yassamine Mather interviews Ali Pichgah a leader of the Iranian oilworkers strikers during the revolutionary period.Ali emphasises the importance of opposing all Imperialist sanctions. Full text of interview at link How do you evaluate the recent political protests and the role of the working class in them? The protest against the regime’s rigged elections took such dimensions because the majority of the population are opposed to the absence of political freedoms in Iran. In particular the youth, who constitute a high percentage of the population, feel contempt for the way the religious state interferes in their private lives. People are losing patience and in general opposition to the regime has reached unprecedented levels. I think what is different this time is the terrible economic situation. Inflation above 25%, mass unemployment, the growing gap between rich and the poor ... and from this point of view one can say that the relentless workers’ struggles of the last two years against job losses and poverty, against non-payment of wages, as well as the demonstrations by teachers, nurses and so on against the economic policies of the government, were precursors to the huge demonstrations we saw this summer. Of course, many of these protests were defensive (wage-earners trying to maintain what little they had), yet the working class has remained the most persistent opposition to the entire regime over the last few years, in the run-up to June 2009. Coincidently we see the continuation of the mass protests of early summer in the unprecedented level of workers’ struggles in recent weeks, the victory of the Iran Khodro workers (where the regime clearly retreated), the revolutionary tactics of Pars Wagon workers (from ransacking the refectory to mounting hunger strikes), workers bringing their families along to demonstrations . ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Monday November 09, 2009 - 14:26 by pat c
 2 comments (last - thursday november 12, 2009 - 18:40)
An important study which illustrates the paucity of US media reports of civilian deaths in Iraq. hence it is hardly shocking that US citizens are unaware tof the true extent of civilian casualties. Full story at related link. In February of 2007 Associated Press conducted a survey of 1,002 adults across the United States about their perceptions of the war in Iraq. Whilst the respondents accurately estimated the death toll of U.S. soldiers (the median estimate was 2,974 while the actual toll at the time was 3,100), they grossly underestimated the number of Iraqi civilian casualties (the median answer was 9,890 at a time when several estimates put the toll at least 10 times that number and some as high as 50 times that number). ... read full story / add a comment 
international / miscellaneous Saturday November 07, 2009 - 20:38 by Socialist
5 comments (last - thursday november 12, 2009 - 16:38)  1 image
Leading British Marxist activist and theoretician Chris Harman has passed away. Former editor of Socialist Worker and International Socialism Journal, Chris was a leading member of the SWP. ... read full story / add a comment
international / rights, freedoms and repression Saturday October 31, 2009 - 13:48 by Basque Country Information
Brian Currin, a South African attorney working as a mediator, said the left-wing nationalist movement should not stop putting forward new initiatives despite the arrest of its top members. ... read full story / add a comment
international / arts and media Monday October 26, 2009 - 15:13 by The Hat
 1 video file
Superhero/Austere Fiscal Enforcement Officer The Hat tackles Healthcare. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / crime and justice Monday October 26, 2009 - 00:13 by fitwatcher
17 comments (last - friday october 30, 2009 - 13:35) 3 images
Ever notice how the police on demonstrations seem to know your name and use it? How they take pictures and video of specific individuals but not others? This report from London might explain things. Of course, the gardaķ don't use similar tactics and systems for catagorizing "trouble-makers" and people "who may instigate offences". Oh no. That could never happen here. ... read full story / add a comment
national / rights, freedoms and repression Friday October 23, 2009 - 15:44 by Peter Sutherland's Nemesis
The vote at the European Parliament was on a "motion condemning interference in the media and calling for legislation banning media monopolies in EU countries was defeated" thanks to Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. The majority of the sycophantic media in Ireland will no doubt ignore this story - and fair play and thank you to The Irish Examiner for printing it. So ... there's no fear for Tony & Gavin O'Reilly's "Independent News and Media" or for Denis O'Brien's "Comunicorp" semi--and-growing-monopolies of Irish newspaper and radio respectively, when we see the cringing support given from Ireland's FF and FG Members of the European Parliament to Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi. Gobshite right winger Thatcherite embarrassements that they are. ... read full story / add a comment
international / rights, freedoms and repression Friday October 23, 2009 - 15:34 by Yassamine Mather
Yassamine Mather analyses the development of the struggle in Iran following the rigged presidential elections. She critiques the Green Movement and points to the for support of the Iranian Left and the struggles of the Iranian Working class. Yassamine also illustrates how ordinary Iranians suffer most from Sanctions. Full text at link. Every day for the last few weeks Iranian workers have been protesting, at times in their thousands - at their workplaces, outside government offices and provincial offices complaining about job losses, non-payment of wages, privatisation ... Universities have been the scene of daily protests and ordinary people have used every opportunity, even football matches, to express their opposition to the regime. At the same time a new wave of exiles, including reporters, writers, professors of literature, are leaving the country, despairing of continued repression and the ineffective ‘reformist’ leaders. ... read full story / add a comment
international / crime and justice Thursday October 15, 2009 - 12:23 by no platform
1 comment (last - saturday november 21, 2009 - 00:05) 1 image
The UK Equality and Human Rights Commission launched county court proceedings against the BNP party leader, Nick Griffin, and two other party officials, Simon Darby and Tanya Jane Lumby soon after the European elections. The EHRC case was quite clear : the BNP party constitution restricts membership of the organisation on grounds of ethnicity & race & the EHRC was created to uphold the UK Race Relations Act. So, in a move which oughtn't surprise anyone who has seen now the BNP are playing the field with their new drive for a slice of the political pie, Nick Griffin has today announced that he will table a new constitution to the BNP conference next month. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / environment Sunday October 11, 2009 - 19:16 by Plebian
4 comments (last - monday october 19, 2009 - 16:21) 1 image
Recent research published in this week's New Scientist and The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that 'commons' communities would do a better job of managing forests than state control. Government control generally leads to enclosure (privatisation) and licensing rights for logging, or an expectation that the forest will not last leading to unsustainable exploitation. Carbon storage potential is especially improved when community organisations and their institutions "incorporate local knowledge and decentralized decision making" to "restrict their consumption of forest products". ... read full story / add a comment
national / anti-capitalism Thursday October 08, 2009 - 16:08 by Anne Mc Shane
Article analysing the results of the referendum and the current crisis in Irish society. Points to the lessons for the left, the dangers of just calling for a no vote and the prospects for struggle. It seems to have become the norm here in Ireland for the government to repeat a referendum when it does not like the result of the first ballot. While farcical, these bullying tactics have a proven record of success. For an establishment intent on getting its own way, ‘no’ never really means ‘no’. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Wednesday October 07, 2009 - 14:37 by Catholic Worker
1 comment (last - thursday october 08, 2009 - 10:27)
61 anti-war activists arrested at the White House on the 8th. anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Those arrested included members of Catholic Worker communities, Code Pink, War Resisters League and Witness Against Torture. See link below for photos/video/reports of the action...... ... read full story / add a comment 
national / education Tuesday October 06, 2009 - 17:36 by o as if
1 comment (last - wednesday october 07, 2009 - 13:48) 1 image
The parents of girls who attend St John's Girls' national school, in Carrigaline, County Cork, have been instructed by the school's principal, Catherine O'Neill to provide toilet paper for their daughters. It's one those stories which appeals to an international audience and especially the lurking anti-Irish sentiment still present in AngloSaxon media or perhaps if not anti-Irish, a sour sense of resentment that other English speaking peoples never got to enjoy 2 Lisbon Referenda or a jaunt on the pig's back of the Celtic Tiger. Whatever the true classification of the story doing international commerical & state rounds today, msot readers will admit it illustrates a wee home truth. ... read full story / add a comment 
The Socialist Party's analysis of the Lisbon referendum result, titled: "Lisbon victory not endorsement for hated government" is now online. A significant 2/1 majority, on a higher turnout, passed the Lisbon Treaty overturning the decision of June 2008. It is clear that the economic crisis served to shift opinion across the board to a yes vote because people felt that passing the Treaty might boost Ireland’s prospects for economic recovery. Last year Lisbon was rejected because people feared the consequences of the changes it brings to the EU and because of a distrust of the political establishment. For a majority this time around the actual Treaty and its contents were secondary to the economic crisis. Read it all at link below. ... read full story / add a comment
national / animal rights Sunday October 04, 2009 - 23:15 by Thomas Janak
 1 audio file
WILD TIME attended a weight pulling event hosted by the Sled Dog Federation of Ireland on October 4th 2009 at the Equestrian Centre in Coole, where WILD TIME host had the opportunity to talk to Mandy Heynes and other members of the Federation about their activities. ... read full story / add a comment
national / history and heritage Saturday October 03, 2009 - 14:16 by Blazes Boylan
25 comments (last - sunday january 23, 2011 - 05:56) 3 images 2 video files
An ignored outcome of the Lisbon II referendum; a new role for Tony Blair, our next über-President. Move over Mary Mac, and be glad that he is a convert. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Saturday October 03, 2009 - 12:18 by Bazooka Joe
8 comments (last - sunday october 11, 2009 - 16:47)
As Israel tries to manoever the world into accepting it bombing Iran the propaganda war is raging. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Friday October 02, 2009 - 15:42 by Yassamine Mather
2 comments (last - saturday october 17, 2009 - 19:58)
Yassamine Mather writes on how the Iranian Regime uses threats from the imperialists to justify the oppression of Iranian workers, students and womens rights activists. Full story at url below. The dramatic statements by Obama, Brown and Sarkozy about Iran’s undisclosed nuclear enrichment plant, made on the first day of the G20 gathering in Pittsburgh, were clearly intended to prepare the world for a new conflict in the Middle East. But this is old news. US and UK secret services had known about it for at least 3 years - Israel and France also knew about it and delivered their finding to the International Atomic Energy Agency earlier this year. So what was the main purpose of the Obama-Sarkozy-Brown show on September 25? Could it be it was directed mainly to audiences in the US, UK and France, to convince them that, at a time of economic uncertainty, western leaders have to deal with a ‘major external threat’ posed by Iran’s nuclear development? ... read full story / add a comment
international / rights, freedoms and repression Wednesday September 30, 2009 - 18:17 by pat c
The struggle continues. Thousands of Tehran University students thronged the streets around the university’s main entrance protesting against the Iranian Regime. At Alameh Amini Auditorium where the Science Minister, Kamran Daneshjoo was supposed to be taking part in the opening ceremonies, students ripped up posters and demanded the expulsion of the minister from campus forcing the security forces to fire tear gas and close the campus gates. ... read full story / add a comment |
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