Afternoon Blog - 03 December 2010

Criticism, analysis, response: The BudgetJam liveblog. Email your comments here or comment below.

4.38: News just in from Aengus Ó Snodaigh about the rally organised by Sinn Fein tomorrow.

"I just want to notify you that the national rally against cuts organised by Sinn Féin and scheduled to take place tomorrow 4ht December has been canceled due to the weather.

You might consider signing our online petition which you can access at the below link.

http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/thereisabetterway

Also, while I'm at it there's a nice piece from Tom Rowe in Le Monde Diplomatique giving a good round view of events here to those reading from the outside.

"Almost half of Irish people surveyed recently say they would rather the IMF or the EU took over the management of the country – at least for the time being – rather than continue to be mismanaged by Irish politicians. Many want Ireland to default and not take an €85bn loan, believing bank debts should not be paid by ordinary people."

4.25: Interesting reading the comments today from Jean-Claude Trichet about the fate of the Euro. He has said before that the only concern of the ECB was controlling inflation - which of course is a huge problem for us peripherals (not) and seems to be a concern of employers in Germany trying to avoid wage pressure through increased inflation in the domestic economy. As a German economic correspondent said on Prime Time last night, the ECB has a large bloc from the Bundesbank who maintain a conservative grip on the ECB.

In this IT breaking news piece

"ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet insisted on French radio RTL that "there is no crisis of the euro as a currency" and said he did not think austerity measures to reduce swollen public deficits would drive the region back into recession."

There is a lot that he didn't think the ECB would do before that it is doing now, so we can put this prediction a notice below Dan O'Brien. Or is that to harsh?

4.15: A brief burst from Karl Kitching that I failed to mention earlier.

"An Irish 'industrialist', 'philanthropist' and former advisor to the President is telling us that the Irish middle class are the future: use them or lose them (to emigration), while we definitely need to lose overseas aid. In the words of Anchorman Ron Burgundy, stay classy."

In The Irish Times

3.58: Oisin Wall, an Irish student in London (son of the Irish novelist William) provides his account here on budgetjam of how student demonstrators got around the 'kettle' tactic operated by police in the last couple of weeks. Have a read. There is lots to read on this of course, but one place worth taking the time to check out is the latest post Kettle Logic on K-Punk, the blog of Mark Fisher, author of Capitalist Realism. http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/

Also, important stuff from Debt and Development Coalition Ireland:

They've just published 'A Global Justice Perspective on the Irish EU-IMF Loans: Lessons From the Wider World' (PDF),

The document outlines lessons from the global debt justice movement in responding to debt crises, provides a background to the Irish EU-IMF loans (up to the 28th November 2010 - before the loan documents were made public), and offers some recommendations from DDCI based on these lessons from our work. It also flags up recommendations from other groups.

One of their recommendations is that all records of dialogue with the EU-IMF lenders should be publicly available now and through all reporting stages on any loans.

This is essential, I think.

3.42: Ann-Marie Mullally has kindly put together a list of Demonstrations/Meetings/Actions from Dec 3 - 7

Today Friday Dec 3

The recently formed Leitrim "Claiming our Future" Group will hold a peaceful demonstration against the appalling economic situation in Ireland at 2pm Friday week, 3rd December, at Gurns corner (Main St/New Line crossroads) in Manorhamilton.

Saturday 4th

A Drum, Pot n' Pan Bang - Peaceful Sonic Vigil for Real Democracy

Gather outside the Dail to peacefully bang your pots n' pans! Bring pots, pans and drums.

There will be two main gatherings:

* On Saturday 4th December at 2pm. (this way people who work during the week can participate)

* On Tuesday 7th December - Budget Day - from 3pm on.

But please know, there are no hard and fast rules, go when you can and make some noise! Ideally people would be there from now until Budget day.

Sunday 5th

Monday Dec 6th

http://www.people.ie/english1.html The People's Movement pre-budget protest will be held on December 6th – the day before the budget. Our protest will commence at the EU Commission offices in Molesworth St at 1:00 on Monday, December 6th, and proceed to the Dáil. Those participating are asked to wear black for the occasion. The demonstration will last for about forty minutes.

From Paddy Healy: NPSA Meeting on Public Service Pension Cuts will now take place in Teachers Club on Monday DEC 6, at 8pm.

Tuesday Dec 7th

Human rights.ie blognival - live blog of the budget on Tuesday next.

A Drum, Pot n' Pan Bang - Peaceful Sonic Vigil for Real Democracy

Gather outside the Dail to peacefully bang your pots n' pans! Bring pots, pans and drums.

On Tuesday 7th December - Budget Day - from 3pm on.

1% Network Budget Day Protest

Tuesday, December 7 • 5:30pm - 6:00pm

Location Wolfe Tone statue, Stephens Green opposite Shelbourne Hotel

Stephens Green North

Dublin, Ireland

So something for everyone there.

3.25: Sinn Féin have accused Fine Gael of stealing their clothes in their budget-submission. Breaking news from The Irish Examiner:

"Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Finance Pearse Doherty has accused Fine Gael of "plagiarising" the Government's budget plans in their pre-Budget submission, while Labour have "shown their true colours" as they plan to "lay off public sector workers" in their pre-Budget submission.

Mr Doherty said if Fine Gael was to lead the next Government, Ireland will continue on the same track that Fianna Fáil has led the country on and "people should be worried".

This is kind of funny, because earlier on today on the News at 1 on RTE Radio Michael Noonan was saying that unlike Fianna Fail voters Fine Gael voters "had no need to fear" that their vote would lead to Sinn Fein entering government. So, maybe not SF, but their budget ideas would.

3.17: I keep on getting the 'hang-on, hang-on" from the monkey wrenchers, so delays at the moment. I know you demand dynamism in this "I want it now" society, but tough luck. However, Hugh Green has this from our Spanish comrades:

"News just in: El Blog Salmón, an influential Spanish blog on matters politico-economic, conducted a survey of 864 of its readers.

And the results:

* Should the EU rescue Ireland? - Yes 60% No 40%

* Do you agree with the Irish adjustment plan? - Yes 48% No 52%

* Will Ireland be able to pay back the loan it receives from the EU? Yes 36% No 64%

A ringing endorsement there of some of our fellow PIIGS."

3.01: Another break due to server swapping malarkey. In the meantime though things have piled up, which I shall now try to divest. First, Colin Coulter has something for dapper politicos:

"I know that all of the people blogging here are, in the finest traditions of the Irish Left, dedicated followers of fashion. So you were probably just as excited as I was to find that yesterday's Irish Times came with the indispensible style guide that is The Gloss. Another quality appendage from the people who brought us the quintessential Celtic Tiger propaganda sheet that was the property porn of the Thursday supplement. All of you dialectical materialists eager to freshen up those jaded winter wardrobes should check out page 16 in particular. You'll find red satin platform shoes from Dior, a snip at €580; Pierre Hardy muti-colour leather sandals, being given away at €945; a Roksanda Ilincic silk satincape dress, a positive steal at €973. In order to snap up any of these bargains, someone on the new minimum wage would have to work for 76, 123 and 127 hours respectively. And then try to live on fresh air. I thought that the country was broke. So how can people afford to buy these fripperies, let alone the even more expensive luxuries on show in a certain famous yuletide themed shop window? What, those shoes with this recession? As Gianni Versace never got the chance to say..."

Ah yes, The Gloss, such a good way to plough good newspaper money. Putting it into investigative journalism, now what a waste that would be.

2.30: Sorry about hiatus there. Technical problems - or that's my excuse. Good stuff coming in at moment which I will try and get up as soon as I can.

First though, seeing as Talk to Joe is on, you have to see this handy 'soundboard' from Clamnuts. You too can have your own show:

text

http://clamnuts.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/The-Joe-Duffy-Soundboard1...

13.35 Just now, it seemed that Joan Burton is backing down from the suggestion of going in to government with Sinn Fein: they have "no proposals about going into government with Sinn Fein", but it was clear that all her talk about putting together a stable government was about going in with Fine Gael.

If anyone has any stories or snippets that they'd like mentioned send them on to budgetjam@gmail.com

13.19 Donagh here to take the liveblog through the afternoon. Will try by best to keep the pace up on what has gone before. Well done to all involved so far.

It's all snow on the news at one. Is everyone else sick of the sneacta yet? Michael Noonan on now about the Fine Gael shafting pre-Budget submission.

Noonan and FG think that getting the deficit down to 3% of GDP by 2014 is achievable. This is funny - growth policy in parallel to cuts. So you take and you give. Reskinning austerity as growth.

13.14 All disentangled hopefully..

12.56 Readying up to sign-off and hand over to Donogh..Thanks for your attention and contributions..will follow-up with list of protest planned later today..

Darius Whelan sends this: The excellent Human Rights in Ireland blog (www.humanrights.ie) has been hosting a blog carnival on Civil Disobedience and Policing in Ireland. In her introductory post, Vicky Conway says that the protests in Shannon over the landing of US planes and in Mayo against the on-shore gas refinery could be considered the most significant acts of civil disobedience in Ireland in recent times. Sometimes breaking the law is necessary; lawful protests may not be sufficient to achieve ends which are right and just. Ilan Rua Wall discusses whether civil disobedience is non-violent by definition, and whether there is a danger of a slippery slope of universalisation: if everyone follows the precedent of civil disobedience, then could society fall apart? Joe Noonan, solicitor, summarises what happened in 2006 in the trial of five people charged with criminal damage to a US military transport plane at Shannon Airport. The defendants claimed they had a "lawful excuse" for their actions, and evidence was heard concerning the legality of the invasion of Iraq. Ultimately, the jury acquitted the defendants. Ilan Rua Wall then posts the full contents of a memorandum published by wikileaks concerning the actions of the 'Shannon Five'. Amanda Slevin looks at the Corrib Gas project and reminds us that the state has had a multifaceted role in the conflict, and that the jailing of the Rossport Five greatly mobilised support for the community's struggle. Vicky Conway then recounts various incidents where it seems the powers of the gardaí are being used in a politicised manner to facilitate the Corrib gas project and take the side of Shell. Finally, William Wall reviews Risteard O'Domhnaill's film The Pipe, about the Corrib Gas project. He notes that the brutality with which largely elderly (though far from frail) people were handled by members of the Gardaí brought gasps from the audience.

More to come from budgetjam and human rights.ie - Watch both spaces..

More endorsement about the fragility of the prevaling framing assumptions here:

http://newswhip.ie/national-2/everybody-agrees-irish-bailout-will-not-work

And the Indo is joining  us in our 'nonsense' (Brian Lenihan)http://www.independent.ie/opinion/editorial/europe-needs-to-face-up-to-crisis-2446707.html

Signing off now, from frosty rural Cork..with another take, entirely, on the snow, courtesy of James Joyce..Enjoy

"A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead." (The Dead)..

12. 38 FG has published its pre-budget plan, Fine Gael has published its pre-Budget plan, which says the party will limit income tax increases to half the levels proposed by the Government over the next four years. They are also planning a radical public sector reform, aiming for 18, 000 more voluntary redundancies  than the FFers are planning for - and oh, wait, reversing the cut in the minimum wage..More here..http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1203/budget-business.html

12.22 Dunphy and O'Toole arguing for the budget to be voted down. Rebelman Eddies Hobbes arguing that the Irish public sector can't be reformed except with a chainsaw, that O'Connor and Begg were insiders i.e. party to this debacle and under the protection of the Croke Park agreement. Hobbes also gunning for the Irish Times which ignored his rip-off Republic endeavours, as it was in the pockets of the bankers and builders. Reminds that the I.T. spent 15 million on a property website (in 2005?) Ouch!  Eddie Hobbes conclusion, we are where we are  (and now I'm paraphrasing) because we did what we did...Breaking news FF will reverse the cut in the min wage if they get into power after the next election...Whatever next ?

12.00 over on Newstalk Damien Kiberd is hosting panellists Eamon Dunphy and Fintan O'Toole. Kiberd wonders 'Can we vote down the budget?' Tune in folks and let us know what you think. Hope ....later to put up some info we've compiled on what protest actions are planned and how you can get involved. Please send us on any links you may have..Here's something to kickstart this thread.

Colin Coulter informs us that 'In this morning's Irish Times, Jimmy Kelly of the Unite union makes the case for a national strike:

"We are absolutely convinced that marching in the streets for the rest of this year and into next year will not achieve the pressure that we need to put on those politicians. We are saying we need to look at the alternative which is taking strike action as part of the protest." Coulter adds, 'I think that's what they call the sound of the penny/cent finally beginning to drop. Kelly is to put the case for a national stoppage to the ICTU. I'm sure we'll all be waiting with bated breath to see how the scandalously underpaid bureaucrats in the national union leadership will respond to that. The sensible money is on more hand wringing and simulated outrage designed to keep the membership paying their dues and in their place. There should of course have been an indefinite national strike the first time anyone had the bright idea of taking our money and throwing it down the black hole that is the banks. But at least it is now moving on to the agenda. And that agenda has to be to stop a barbaric 'structural adjustment' that makes no sense by the lights of conventional bourgeois economics, let alone any other, more human, criteria. A national strike has had a logic for many months but it will have even more after the election. We all know that the Labour Party will cite the 'straitjacket' of the Memorandum of Understanding and continue to administer the hard medicine. And the union bosses will look grave, offer their regrets and sit on their hands. At that point, more radical action will be needed, not to get the current union leadership to represent our interests but to ensure they will never be able to misrepresent us again. O'Connor, Begg and the rest are themselves architects of this crisis. It's high time they did the decent thing and stepped aside in favour of men and women who will do their job both properly and on a more appropriate salary.'