Audio: The Irish in Revolt

[Fintan]

And, Gerry says to expect another
election taking place real soon!

The Machiavellian analysis is that FF are now salivating
at the prosepct of triggering another election before their
neoliberal rivals FG can regroup in wake of their implosion.

[Fintan]

Gerry's a bit of a character too
- with an earthy sense of humor!

[kathy]

Sadly Mr. Water-Charges-II, Alan Kelly (FG) was voted back in
as was Joan Burton and Kenny, himself. Haughey's son Sean and
Brian Cowan's brother also made it - but the old guard were dealt
a severe blow.

I think people need lessons in how to vote (I don't mean who to vote for) because they number every candidate on the paper rather than just those they actually want to represent them.

One outgoing TD commented tonight that the outgoing government did not show enough empathy to the people during the severe austerity. Outgoing Minister for Health James Reilly stated:

'Some of the Government's decisions
were fairly repugnant to me as a doctor'

and

"I'd liken it in a medical metaphor to 'the operation
was a success but the patient is still in a lot of pain'

Well, as a doctor he should have practiced the Hippocratic Oath: First Do No Harm
- if he found Government's decisions were fairly repugnant.

And if the patient was in pain he should have done his duty as a doctor
and not gone along with the torture of the people who were suffering as
a result of the government austerity measures.

But I guess the pay and position was lucrative - too lucrative to care
what was actually happening to the patient.

Fortunately Dr. Reilly did NOT make it back.

[Fintan]

General Election Result Positive for Left

By Tom Stokes

Reasons to be cheerful, one, two, three.

One. It was always an impossible ask to replace an entrenched two-and-a half Right-wing party regime with a progressive government in one fell swoop, but the creation of a Right2Change movement to draw allies together and directed towards a bedrock of principled rights-based policies has demonstrably worked even in the face of an antagonistic hegemonic political class propaganda machine.

Two. We now have concrete evidence that the electorate is on the move and that a sufficient proportion of voters are open to persuasion, if only the means of effective persuasion are there. That means that the valiant efforts of Right2Change to open up new lines of communication that bypass mainstream media both in public meetings and via social media, and in the distribution of a progressive newspaper packed with exciting and accessible ideas on the ground and online, have been validated. We need now to imagine the potential effect on the electorate if that magnificent effort is sustained and enhanced.

Three. It may be that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will at last be forced to coalesce, leaving the ground open for a progressive opposition for the first time ever. The clearing out of the reactionary detritus within a discredited Labour Party will likely force that party to return to the Left under a new leader as part of a progressive opposition. The potential for a radically different opposition to anything that has gone before to offer a coherent progressive alternative for government, is there to be exploited. That would mean that at the next election the capacity of a corrupt propagandist media to rubbish progressive ideas would be greatly diminished, particularly if the Right2Change movement vigorously challenges and exposes the anti-democratic nature of State and corporate media.

If the progressive Left maintains discipline and resolve, acts intelligently and in a principled way, keeps a strong presence on the streets and in communities, holds onto those policy principles as the basis of a just and equal society, then I have no doubt that we can put in place a progressive government at the next election.

What an achievement that would be!

But fundamental to success will be the continuation and enhancement of the involvement of the progressive unions via Right2Change.

I would urge all Right2Change activists to make that a priority, and to rally around the movement.

That is the best guarantee that our dream of a progressive government and the creation of the true republic will come to pass.

Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.



"Let the Left hold firm, and let the Left not indulge in
in-fighting, because at this moment of real power to engineer
change by forcing realism on the political class, sowing division
will be simply unforgivable.

Hold your council, button your lips, talk between yourselves,
stay calm, let the Right stew. There is no rush.

This process is part of the revolution."

[Fintan]

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[Fintan]

Priceless.

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[Fintan]

IRISH PROTEST MOVEMENT DEFEATS
CORRUPT 'PAY-FOR-WATER' AGENCY

by Fintan Dunne - 2 March, 2016

Just days after a national election saw neo-liberal political parties fall
below 50% support, the defeated outgoing government has signaled
that it will negotiate over it's already failing bid to enforce domestic
water supply privatization via a pay-per-use 'Irish Water' quango.

The climb down by the Fine Gael party was rendered necessary by the
political reality that their remaining coalition partner, Fianna Fail had
campaigned on a platform of discontinuing residential water charges.

While disputed votes were still being counted, speaking on national TV,
Fine Gael's Simon Coveney hinted that the game was up:



Predictably, by the following morning the party's leader, Enda Kenny
was pouring water on the idea of abandoning the 'Irish Water' agenda.
But, significantly, he declined to deny the issue was up for negotiation:



Even as establishment stalwarts were briefing journalists that talk of
Irish Water's demise was premature - they were also communicating that
if water charges were being eliminated, those who paid
their Water bills over the last two years of the disputed charges
- would NOT be getting their money back.

Irish people - quick to astutely read between the lines of political spin -
made their feelings known in a mid-afternoon opinion poll on
Irish national talk radio.

When the minority who have been paying their water bills were asked
if they will pay their NEXT bill in the light of the latest develpments,
80% sent text messages confirming that they would make NO further payments.

Stand Clear.
Caution: Irish Water
Huge Neoliberal Entity
IS DEAD MAN WALKING


The ONLY country in the OECD group of developed nations
not to charge it's people for drinking water has BEATEN
the well-financed, cunningly patented, corrupt predator called
privatization of people's water.

It took mass mobilization, individual and community bravery,
and literally thousands of protest rallies over three years.

Gotta hand it to the Irish.

Take a BOW

[Fintan]

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[Fintan]

Tom Stokes shared his event.

The State apparatus is claiming that the 1916 Centenary is today
Easter Sunday, 27th March, 2016 - but the real centenary to the hour
and the day is four weeks later, exactly 100 years after the reading of
the Proclamation and the start of the Revolution.

REAL CENTENARY: 24th April, 2016

Join us at the GPO on Sunday in four weeks time for the real centenary,
and a commemoration organised by citizens for citizens. No dignitaries,
all of us there as equals, in the spirit of the Republic.

Some great speakers lined up, with appropriate songs and poetry,
from 11am-12pm, followed by a dignified, formal commemoration.

Please share this out.
https://www.facebook.com/events/202867073408402/

IRELAND IS FOR CORPORATE SALE

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[Fintan]

THE DEMISE OF THE TWO PARTY, ONE PARTY STATE

BY Fintan Dunne, BreakForNews.com : 9th April 2016

It's the year 20-Something. And the last decade has taken a toll
on both of the once monolithic Republican and Democratic parties.

More and more Republicans have cast aside their party identities and
now run for Congress as Independents. The same has taken place in
the Democratic party. Many voters could care less about the whether
their candidate is an official party representative. What concerns them
is whether the candidate will "deliver" economically for the home State.

The Cruz and Sanders phenomena of the 2016 presidential race only
accelerated this change. Dis-satisfaction with the GOP's abandonment
of "Christian Values" has led fundamentalist voters to scorn the party
and back Independents who espouse these values. Prominent high-profile
"Tea Party" candidates have also successfully run as Independents.

The same sectional fragmentation has diminished the Democratic Party.

Appalled by the economic policies of the 2016 Clinton presidency, a
swathe of leftist Independents now espouse openly Socialist ideology.
And feeling betrayed by hollow promises by Obama and Clinton, most
"Global Warming" environmentalists have deserted the party entirely to
make the once marginal Green Party a new and significant political force.

It now seems a distant memory that the two big parties once commanded
a staggering 95% of voter allegiance between them - a level of support
for their near-identical TweedleDum and TweedleDee politics which made
the United States a de facto Two Party - One Party State.

These days the Republicans command only 30% of voter allegiance.

The Democratic Party: reduced to the same diminished 30% support.

Independents with a virtual rainbow of political views hold 30% backing.

The environmentalist Green Party has swelled to command a 5% share.

To make matters worse, the Independents and Greens are playing the
two former big parties against each other - demanding more and more
in return for their pivotal support for legislation in Congress.

And the slide shows no sign of stopping. That has led many in each party
to propose the once unthinkable. If the GOP and the Dems were to form a
coalition, the reformers argue, they would have 60% between them - and
could enact their own policies - which are in any event near identical !!

They could even command the Presidency - making an agreement to
rotate the office holder: a 4 year term for a Republican President
- then a 4 yearterm for a Democratic candidate.

A Coalition! Old timers in each party were horrified - and indeed some
strategists argued that a good 3% of each party's 30% electoral support
would cease voting at all if a coalition with the 'old enemy' were enacted.
Their combined 27% plus 27% would only command a thin 54% majority
in Congress - defeating the very aim of the strategy.

'We have no choice but to risk it' - argued the modernists. 'Our decade-
long slide is continuing and this is our last change to halt it.' Now caught
between a rock and a hard place, argument raged inside both parties.

If you think this scenario fanciful, look to Ireland. It's happening now!
All I have done is to adapt the politics of Ireland in 2016 to the USA.

Ireland's TweedleDum and TweedleDee parties are called Fine Gael
and Fianna Fail - and they find themselves facing a near-identical coalition
dilemma following recent elections. Both parties have suffered a decade-
long decline with dynamics similar to the USA scenario I painted above.

Other European states are at various stages of similar scenarios.

And where Ireland has gone, Europe will follow in time.

The demise of the Two Party - One Party State is underway in Europe.

Despite the fact that I used the political dynamics of the USA to put all
this in terms easily comprehensible to our U.S. readers, the grip of the
CIA on the U.S. political process means that the New World Order would
aim to simply reinvent itself as a Multi Party, One Party State.

Only economic collapse following the Fall of NWO's once-global Empire,
and the consequent deep loss of faith in all Federal structures and in
all Establishment institutions will finally free U.S. citizens from the
New World Order's well-masked, manipulative machinations.

IRELAND'S TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE TO SHARE POWER?




Acting premier Enda Kenny(FG) has issued a second plea for his arch rival
Michael Martin(FF) to accept a ground-breaking coalition government.

[Fintan]

As predicted, Ireland's two Neo-liberal political parties
have agreed to prop each other up in a power-sharing deal
which will see the formation of a joint government:

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to meet today
to agree 3-year government deal

Thursday, April 28, 2016 - By Fiachra Ó Cionnaith

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’s negotiating teams will meet today to finalise what
is expected to be a three-year government formation deal before a likely re-
election of Enda Kenny as Taoiseach next week.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/fi ... 95428.html

Neither of the two parties is any longer able to rule on their own, so being
forced into mutual coalition marks a fitting end to their neo-libal efforts to
destroy the resistance of the Irish.

Also down the drain with their electoral fortunes is their bid to privatize
Ireland's publicly-owned domestic water supply. That scheme, designed
to benefit their Wall Street buddies has now been shelved due to the
success of a multi-year mass movement of street protest:

What’s the Irish Water deal?
A full 61 days after the general election, Enda Kenny and Micheál Martin’s
parties have agreed to suspend charges for up to 18 months, a move
effectively ending water charges.

Crucially, in order to reintroduce water charges and end the suspension
a Dáil vote would have to take place which would be near impossible to
get passed.

Here's one of the leaders of the successful campaign
which derailed the Wall St boys pay-for-your water scam.

Good interview by a very effective communicator:

Brendan Ogle on LM/FM RADIO this morning.

LISTEN HERE: http://bit.ly/23a8YZa

[Fintan]

According to the US/EU mainstream, this
definitely wasn't happening today in France.

Everything there was peace and calm.
Happy peasants glued to their TV's.
Neo-liberal bliss wafting everywhere.

Don't believe your lying eyes, ok?

Up to 500,000 people went on strike and took to the streets across
France to protest pro-business labor reforms that would leave many
people unemployed and would be an attack on worker's rights.










France’s largest cities saw a new wave of street demonstrations and
strikes as student groups and unions tried to maintain pressure on the
government just days before the bill is brought to Parliament.








Violent clashes between police and mainly young protesters broke out
in Paris, as well as the cities of Nantes, Rennes and Lyon.








Tyres were burned as students tried to block the main commercial port
serving the French capital and its surrounding region. In Lyon, France’s
third largest city, hundreds of students clashed with police as they tried to
march on the city centre. Some threw objects at police, who responded
with tear gas. Similar incidents were also reported in Nantes and Rennes.








Despite concessions, unions and student organisations plan further
protests on May Day, as well as on May 3, when parliament begins
debating the bill.





Meanwhile, an air traffic controllers strike canceled 20 percent of all the
flights at Paris' Orly Airport and also caused delays at Charles De Gaulle
Airport, according the Paris airport authority.


Via TeleSur/AP-ClaudeParis