The great success of societies that are as spectacularly unequal as the US is the indoctrination of the populace into believing that in so far as they are excluded from the wealth of such societies it is because of their own inadequacies. By Vincent Browne.
There is an impulse to dismiss political rhetoric as just so much blather, harmless blather.
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The key message from recent work by Claiming Our Future is that if the Government wants to hit low-average income groups, it is a political decision – not one based on economic or budgetary necessity. By Michael Taft.
Enda Kenny has reflected the prevailing political consensus throughout his career. By Vincent Browne.
On the day that yet another piece of bungling by this government was identified by the Supreme Court ("acted wrongfully. . . in a manner that was not fair, equal or impartial"), Enda Kenny was being feted in Berlin as the "European of the Year" - essentially because of the docility of the Irish people surrendering to the troika's austerity diktats.
"Any violence by a large population is not because this people is more violent than any other. It's an alarm, it's a sign, it's a signal; that something is wrong in the treatment of this population." - Occupation 101 (Film embedded as a playlist below)
Don’t be surprised if unemployment remains high if the Government pursues job-cutting measures. By Michael Taft.
It’s official. The Government’s employment policy is failing. This finding comes from the Government itself, in the form of projections contained in yesterday’s Medium Term Fiscal Framework. The projections are chilling and depressing. Let’s first turn to employment.
Together with other civil society organisations – the Spectacle of Defiance and Hope, the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes, and the Communities Campaign Against the Cuts – the Dublin Council of Trade Unions is organising an Anti-Austerity March on 24 November. In a ’30 day countdown’ to the event, we have been publishing daily ‘Reasons to March’ – short fact-sheets illustrating what austerity is doing to individuals, society and the economy.
Street battles broke out and large parts of Europe were paralysed yesterday as millions of workers walked off their jobs in the biggest coordinated EU strike ever. By Jerome Roos.
In Ireland, the 'right to choose' only applies where death is on the horizon. It is refused, denied, withheld even at the cost of women’s lives. By Máiréad Enright
Yesterday, (14 November 2012) the Irish Times reported on the case of Savita Halappanavar, who died last month at University College Galway, Ireland. It was, we are told, a case of “sudden maternal death”. The Irish Times sets out the facts of the case as follows:
Above: Plaza del Sol, Madrid (via Izquierda Undia).
Approximately 40 trade union organisations from 23 countries are staging a European day of action and solidarity today (14 November) with the aim of calling on Europe's leaders "to demonstrate their determination to really get to grips with the deterioration in employment and to respond to the growing social anxiety felt by Europe’s citizens".