The Great Anti-Theft Movement had a major boost, the workers movement has a Marxist MEP in the European Parliament. From Lispole Co. Kerry, The Dublin West Socialist Party (CWI) Joe Higgins was elected after 5am.
Press Talk after declaration [audio MP3]
Interview at 3am with Independent Patricia McKenna [audio MP3]
via@JoeHiggins.EU
Fianna Fail has been found out – clearly and comprehensively – and it is hurting badly as a result. Never before in the 83 years since it was formed has the party stood so bereft of camouflage to cloak its real nature.
Fianna Fail lived a lie for so much of its history that it arrogantly assumed it could never be exposed in he way it now is. It was a party of the gombeen when that class had its fingers on the majority of greasy tills in the newly formed state.
It became the party of the speculators and the developers from the 1960s when groups of assorted cowboys of that ilk saw big opportunities with the ending of protectionism and the beginnings of economic development based on foreign investment. They bought Fianna Fail which has remained in their pockets through the bribed rezonings of the ‘Eighties and ‘Nineties. It went further in its most recent period in power since 1997 and handed 20% of the economy fully over to them to profiteer as they wished.
From the 1960s, of course Fianna Fail also embraced the multinational corporations throwing massive subsidies to them to set up here and making a significant part of the economy dependent on faceless corporate executives in glass towers from New York to Tokyo.
But all the time Fianna Fail masqueraded as the party of the small people. In the 1920s when the Labour Party was too cowardly to lead a movement against the punitive tax on small farmers to pay off the debts owed by the State to their previous landlords, Fianna Fail had no problem with the illegality involved in a boycott. It won the support of a significant number of the small farming community which remained an important base despite selling them out subsequently on numerous issues.
As industrial workers came to have a greater social weight in the 1960s and ‘70s Fianna Fail posed as their friend also. The party even developed its very own mascot aimed at winning and maintaining working class support, one Bertie Ahern, the man in the anorak.
The masquerade worked for a whole historic period largely because of the nature of the opposition. Fine Gael was the party of the rancher farmers and sections of big business. When there were opportunities of building a serious Left alternative to both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, especially in the 1970s and ‘80s, the labour Party in its usual cowardly fashion, opted instead to put Fine Gael into government and then supported swinging attacks on the living standards of working people utterly discrediting themselves in the process and allowing Fianna Fail to pose as the friends of their victims.
Had Fine Gael and Labour won the 2007 General Election, a version of the same process could have been repeated. We would have had a hapless Coalition carrying out cuts in services and living standards similar to the current government, while Fianna Fail would try another makeover to try and crawl back again. However that didn’t happen and for once the party is cornered with nowhere to hide.
The disastrous consequences of the policies of the real Fianna Fail are glaringly obvious to all. The Fianna Fail of the speculators carries the responsibility for the merciless crash of the profiteering driven bubble in the housing market.
The neoliberal, multinational embracing Fianna Fail carries full responsibility for the consequences of handing over vital infrastructure and services to be sweated by vulture foreign capitalist. Thus at a time when broadband is critically needed everywhere in the State, many areas are lagging behind because the vulture capitalists to which were given our telecommunications infrastructure have been too busy sweating the assets rather than investing for the common good.
And 1150 highly skilled SR Technics workers, are seeing their livelihoods slaughtered because Fianna Fail gave their publicly owned Team Aer Lingus to more vultures.
This is the background to the current economic crisis in the State. It is also what is mercilessly stripping away the subterfuge with which Fianna Fail played at being the workers’ friend.
This the context also in which the former Minister of State, John McGuinness, now tries to pose as the salvation of Fianna Fail. It is a posture that should not impress. He carries as much responsibility for the current disaster as the leadership of his party just like all the other backbenchers who for twelve years supported all the policies that have now reaped the whirlwind in which they are caught.
So Fianna Fail faces the Local and Euro Elections on June 5th mercilessly exposed as the party of the speculator, the vulture and the crony capitalists. Among those who will line up to punish them none will be more angry than those whom they succeeded in fooling for a very long time. They and many more will line up to wipe out Fianna Fail for their treachery and then wipe their feet on the hapless Green Party which has chosen to be the doormat for the party of the speculators.
(Originally published in the Daily Mail , April 29th)
Blipathon was the brainchild of Brian Greene a social radio advocate based in Dublin Ireland. Using social radio platform Blip.FM 144 DJs in all corners of the Earth got together over the world wide web on Valentines Day February 14th 2009 to share the love & open the hearts and by extension the wallets of these social DJs and their 10’s of thousands of listeners. The recipients of the donations would be the kids of Gaza.
Greene himself decided to do the full 24hrs non stop, starting at 00.00 Saturday morning and finishing up 24 hours later. The rest of the DJs committed anything from an hour to the whole day to help out. The simple task was to blip (play) songs of love, peace & enjoyment and along with each track asking people to go to blipathon.com and donate money to TuesdaysChild.ie using the charity’s PayPal button.
Over the course of the day in which blip went down for a total of 5 hours, we continued with audio & video linear broadcasts, a total ot 5075 tracks were played for the blipathon and £971 = €1084 = $1386 was donated. Much was learned on the day, and future blipathons are expected.
Big thanks to all the DJs & the crew at Blip.FM. Donations are still welcome at TuesdaysChild.ie
Some lessons learned.
Social media can organise people to act, but action happens in the real world so future events would see real world venues come into play. Music is an international language, presenting no barriers to mass organisation. Gaming (group activity for a purpose) on social media is extremely viral with over 150 viewers tuned to our TV stream at its peak. Audit trails and live totals of cash donations are an assist we could have done with. Democracy within the organistaion of people must be social & democratic, Social democracies have a big future in a world of Facebook Blip.fm blogs twitter ustream.tv & YouTube.
the 144 were
144 DJs worldwide joined blipathon
♪♫ ♪♫ all property is theft! so property tax is double theft. central bank, bosses, govt. & media fly property tax kite near overhead power lines in storm.♪♫ ♪♫
Ictu insists it is not seeking tax on all property that IT headline sounds like ICTU invented it welcome it etc. What happened to the 2nd homes tax idea?
Dublin Bus Serving the entire community
follow this developing story on google news
Stop the Education Cuts protest moves to the county hall swords as 400 parents students & teachers rally as councillors debate the education cuts.
Today I was hoarse doing mega phone on the stop the education cuts demo outside Fingal County Council. Inside all the councillors voted in favour of the Socialist Party motion calling on a reversal of the budget cuts in education services. TV by http://www.firstlook.ie/
And the outcome (post debate) video Qik’ed to the web by me.
cross posted at http://www.MalahideHowth.com
Karlo marx and fredrich engels
Came to the checkout at the 7-11
Marx was skint - but he had sense
Engels lent him the necessary pence
One of our nearest Nuclear Plants Sellafield which lies 128 miles from Malahide - Howth will take 112 years to clean up at a cost of €92 billion euros according to a Westminster report released this week. As the site is still accepting orders of waste nuclear fuel from around the world the true cost and date may never be known.
Anti Nuclear campaigner Brian Greene who runs the ShutSellafield.com website says “The myth that Sellafield is a power plant is the biggest deception of all. The plant was first used in the race for the A-Bomb and now it is the world’s nuclear dumping ground taking shipments from all over the world via the Irish Sea.”
Brian Greene who is the Socialist Party candidate in next years local election for the Malahide - Howth area says “Having the worlds most used nuclear dump on our doorstep has always been worrying but the safety record at the plant has been getting worse. Last year was the 50th anniversary of the nuclear fire at Windscale, and now the plant & its decommissioning are being sold to for profit businesses in a privatisation programme. Safety is threatened by a squeeze on wages and a race to the bottom that sees the plants bosses attacking the workforce’s pay & conditions on an ongoing basis.”
“Nuclear power is being cited as a solution to peak oil & the speculated over priced oil situation. Nuclear power will not power a car. Until a satisfactory waste solution for radioactive material is found Nuclear Power is not the answer.” said Mr. Greene
john handelaar said in January
Never fear, though - this alternative programming strand “is also available on RTÉ’s trial digital service, RTÉ Choice”. Whoop-fucking-ee.
I would like to draw your attention to this exchange (below) with Cathal Goan RTE on Wednesday, 27 February 2008
it was not known then (by the the public) or on March 24th 2008 when MW was shut down that 8 hours of split frequency weekend schedule called ‘second helpings‘ was being dropped. It is not broadcast on LW, Satellite or FM. RTE claim it is on RTE Choice trial DAB service but as the programming
1. is not titled (ie. Second Helpings)
2. has no continuity announcer (as it used to have)
3. is not a fixed schedule
4. is only on a trail service in 4 cities
it is hardly a replacement for second helpings. While 8 hrs of split frequency programming was dropped, RTE now broadcast the same programme of LW FM Satellite Astra2D (sky EPG 0160) & Satellite Eurobird. (Sky EPG 0142). This is a massive duplication of programming across services.
When in the exchange below Mr. Goan said “equivalent service” did he know that 8 hrs split service was to be decimated.? were we misled?
Deputy Liz McManus:
Are our guests stating that once access to medium wave is cut off, people on the Falls Road or living in the glens of Antrim will still be able to receive the split wave service to which they have access at present?
Mr. Cathal Goan: The split wavelength service is based on the ability to receive FM and medium wave.
Mr. Cathal Goan: If one only has access to medium wave at present, when one switches to long wave one will receive the equivalent service but with better reception.
Deputy Simon Coveney:
Yes, but RTE is planning to improve the FM service in the North and, in particular, to target the Belfast metropolitan area, which has a population of approximately 600,000.
Deputy Liz McManus:
What is the timeframe in this regard?
Mr. Cathal Goan: We hope to be in a position to announce that before the end of March.
