July 2015

Dublin LGBTQ Pride 2015

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Thousands of people paraded through the streets of Dublin Saturday June 27th for LQBTQ Pride 2015.

Pride followed shortly after the overwhelming victory in the Marriage Equality referendum and some of the blocs and banners referenced that including a controveral 'Fuck Marriage; We want revenge" one.

20th June Burn the Bills Water charges march in Dublin - video

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Thousands of people marched through Dublin June 20th to protest the continuing attempt to impose water charges on the 'Burn your Bills' protest.

The Barricade Inn - squatted social centre in Dublin - video ad

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Right in the centre of Dublin city a new squatted anarchist social centre is up and running and open to all. It's in a reclaimed building at 77 Parnell St that was formerly Nearys hotel, which had been left unused for many years, abandoned and left to slowly fall to ruin.

Video of Dublin march in solidarity with Greece before referendum

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On the 4th of July there was a march in Dublin in solidarity with those resisting austerity in Greece and against the soft coup intentions of the EU & the Irish Labour Party.

 

The true colours of Loyalism

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The removal of Confederate and Nazi Flags at loyalist bonfire site in Carrickfergus by local community workers is a positive step forward but this should not detract from a political settlement that rests on accommodating and institutionalizing the most reactionary elements in Northern Ireland, rather than seeking to uproot and transcend sectarian division in this mini colonial statelet.

As the clock ticks towards the annual Orange Order 12th of July marches, the sectarian marking of territory is underway as working class communities across the North are besieged with Loyalist emblems and paramilitary flags, indirectly facilitated by the PSNI who have turned a blind eye to this showcase of sectarian triumphalism and intimidation towards anyone who is perceived as the ‘other’ from Catholics to ethnic minorities.

Terrorist white supremacist suspect behind the Charleston murders

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The terrorist white supremacist suspect behind the Charleston murders has been identified as Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old from Lexington County, S.C. In this photo he is wearing the apartheid-era South African flag and the flag of the racist Rhodesian state on his jacket. Another photos shows that his car had a 'Confederate States of America' racist flag license plate.

The murders were carried out almost on the anniversary of June 16, 1822. That was the date in 1822 when Denmark Vesey planned a slave revolt in Charleston in order to liberate those enslaved, and sail to the black revolutionary republic of Haiti. Vesey was one of the founders of the church where yesterdays murders took place. The revolt was originally planned for July 14th, the anniversary of the storming of the bastille during the French revolution but was brought forward because of a fear of informers.

Kurdish anarchist on why there were such high hopes in HDP in June 7 elections in Turkey

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Turkey goes to the polls June 7th and for the first time it looks like a radical left party, the HDP may get enough votes to claim seats in parliament. In the last couple of weeks of the campaign at least two HDP officers have been bombed, the driver of a HDP election vehicle was shot dead and unknown numbers of its activists have been arrested by the Turkish state.

Why is the Turkish state and the ruling AKP party so threatened by the HDP? The HDP presents itself as anti-capitalist and aspires to end religious, gender and racial discrimination. It has a 50% quota for women and a 10% quota for the LGBT community when fielding candidates. It's an expression of the movement coming out of Gezi park but also of the new ideology of the PKK and despite the peace process any manifestation related to the PKK continues to be repressed by the Turkish state.

On the Greek online funding campaign - lets not neo-liberalise solidarity

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The ideas of each age tend to become that of the ruling ideology and we are seeing an extraordinary example of that at the moment. As a response the ECB/IMF attack on Greek democracy an online fund it campaign has been set up to fund the 1.6 billion interest owed and so far 1,863 people have contributed.

The first problem is the obvious practical one that the 1.6 billion if raised only represents the latest interest instalment on an unplayable debt over 300 billion. So even if successful such a project would only kick the ball down the road for a month or two.

Syriza confirm electoralist road is wrong road to another world

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It now appears that the Syriza's insistence that the severe nature of what the Trokia demanded meant that the Greek people had to directly decide through referendum on whether or not to comply has been replaced with the more standard 'We can decide for you' of electoralist politics. That is unless the letter from Tsipras offering a deal that the Financial Times has leaked is a forgery, which seems unlikely.

According to how uncritical individuals and organisations are of Syriza they are currently taking one side or another in an argument as to whether this indicates a sell out or is some new master stroke. But it reinforces our criticism of the hopes placed in electoralism and Syriza. Once more the people who elected them and those in solidarity with them across Europe are reduced to being spectators in something akin to an episode of West Wing.

IMF back Syriza demand for debt write off while EU leaders wish for soft coup

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Last night (2 July) the IMF in effect put its weight behind the Syriza government and the call for a No vote (OXI) in the referendum. An image of Chile's socialist president Allende, murdered in the 1973 US coup 'backing' the No vote captured for us both the contradictions and dangers of Sunday's vote in Greece.

Media lies to boost Yes vote ahead of Greek referendum

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The images show two examples where the Media in Greece has been caught lying ahead of Sunday's referendum. One of our readers tell us that what the media are saying is "If you vote No, zombies will rise, nuttella will turn bitter, a comet will strike Greece, etc etc etc etc. That's how ALL Greek TV channels are these days! They all make FOX NEWS look like a kindergarden.

A couple of our Greek readers had commented asking us to highlight the outrageous abuse of press freedom going on in the Greek media ahead of Sunday's referendum vote.

Greece votes OXI against austerity in referendum

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The plans of the EU leadership for an engineered 'soft coup' are in tatters given the likely size of the OXI victory. They won't be able to pretend its a society 'divided down the middle'. The opposition leaders they hoped would head up a caretaker government are instead now under pressure to resign as it appears every district in Greece is voting NO.

Even after referendum Syriza forced to propose massive austerity

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 The new Greek finance minister has tweeted that "Greece reforms' proposal sent to the Institutions and Eurogroup's Dijsselbloem" well ahead of the midnight deadline. If media reports are to be believed it appears the Syriza led government is offering massive further austerity cuts of 13 billion in return for some debt relief and a further 50 billion bailout.

Syriza are not the limits of our dreams

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Austerity was never going to be defeated by the vote. We don't live in an economic democracy, we live in an economic dictatorship where only those with vast wealth determine its course. Parliament provides a useful illusion, one that limits our dreams and stops us acting to make them a reality. The real defeat in Greece will not be the capitulation of Syriza but rather if that capitulation is broadly accepted as the end of the road of struggle.

Failed attempt to evict The Bolt squatted hostel July 3rd - video report

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Video report from the attempt to evict the new squatted emergency family accommodation center in Bolton street in Dublin on July 3rd.  The building is now being referred to as The Bolt.

Two more Rossport community defenders under prosecution as refinery forced through

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Over two years after the last major mass direct action against Shell in Erris the state continues to pursue a vindictive prosecution against some of those arrested that day. In June 2013 at the culmination of a week of action around 70 people entered the Shell compound at Aughoose where the final section of the experimental high pressure raw gas pipeline was being connected.

The local community have been resisting the pipeline and refinery for a decade. During that resistance hundreds have been arrested or injured and several have spent periods in jail. Millions was spent every year deploying hundreds of Garda and at times the airforce and navy to make effective protest impossible. Despite this the protests meant that the project has finished years late and at 3 to 4 times the original projected cost.

Irish Travellers protest at city hall over housing

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On Wednesday 8th of July several organisations from the Travelling community held a protest outside Dublin city hall for better housing conditions. Irish Travellers are a ethnic minority with an identity and culture, based on a nomadic tradition, who face severe discrimination and marginalisation in Ireland.

Two Irelands: the case of Roscommon Hospital

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THERE ARE TWO IRELANDS – reality for people like you and me; fantasy for the rich and their political servants.

Frank Feighan lives in fantasy Ireland. He was elected TD for Roscommon/South Leitrim in 2011 on the basis of a pledge not to downgrade Roscommon Hospital. Enda Kenny even made a speech in Roscommon town promising to keep the hospital at its current capacity [1]. Once elected, Feighan and Fine Gael broke their promises in order to support the global financial system and to open up Ireland’s welfare services to retrenchment and privatisation. Roscommon County Hospital was downgraded in 2011, losing its 24-hour accident and emergency service. Local people reacted angrily to this betrayal, occupying the hospital for a number of days, organising local demonstrations in the town and a national demonstration outside the Dáil. Neighbours generally shunned Feighan in his constituency, painting slogans like ‘traitor’ on bales of hay on the roads leading to his home.
 

Drop the abortion pill prosecution protest takes place in Derry

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Pro-choice campaigners in the north picketed two of the largest police stations to challenge the authorities to arrest them for breaking the law by procuring abortion pills. This was in “an act of solidarity” with woman who is being prosecuted for obtaining abortion medication for her pregnant underage daughter.

Solidarity protests spread after Belfast woman charged for helping her daughter procure an abortion

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News broke on the 19th June that a Belfast woman is to stand trial for helping her daughter procure an abortion.  In response on 24th June  a letter was handed in signed by 215 abortion activists admitting that they are guilty of breaking the law by either taking or helping someone procure the Early Medical Abortion (EMA) pill.

Alliance for Choice Belfast has organised this action in solidarity with the woman charged. A similar action occurred in 2013 when 100 people signed a letter admitting to doing the same thing this woman has done and not a single person who signed the letter was contacted by police.