(Web site http://www.theplough.netfirms.com/)
Vol. 4- No 24
Saturday 3rd November 2007
E-mail newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party
1) Editorial
2) Health Service Limps From Crisis To Crisis
3) Report on Basque Meetings
4) Irish Labour Youth supports Venezuelan revolution and Hands Off Venezuela campaign
5) A Polemic
6) Media
7) What’s On?
Editorial
Below we reprint a leaflet from NIPSA issued during their continuing industrial dispute with their employers the Educational and Library Boards and the Department of Education under Sinn Fein Minister Catrina Ruane. This dispute following the recent class action by the Post office workers shows a slow rise in class struggle. The appalling state of the health service in the 26 Counties highlighted by the article below “Health Service Limps From Crisis To Crisis” is an other example of how the economic policies driven by the IMF, the World Bank and the E.U. are stripping public assets and selling them off to private enterprise who then deliver poor quality service and appalling conditions all in the name of profit. In the North the new administration is not only delivering British political rule but also implementing economic policies that has the business classes of the north almost orgasmic with delight, So much for Provisional Sinn Fein’s much vaunted “socialism”. With the scent of power their radicalism disappeared like snow of the ditch in the sunshine!
Following a very successful tour of the North by a comrade from the Basque Country (see Report on Basque Meetings) we hope more and more Basque militants see the reality of the Irish Peace process for what it is –a capitulation to international capitalism..
Finally we reprint from a British left wing paper a series of letters on the IRSP. If the individual “Mark Kevson” from Dublin has genuine concerns about the IRSP and is not simply engaging in political sectarian baiting then we would be only too happy to met with and answer any questions he/she may have.
DEFEND CHILDRENS’ EDUCATION
Classroom Assistants went on strike to preserve and have recognised three key points:
Defend their right to pay rates based on the 32.5 hour school working week;
Stop their special needs allowance of 65 pence per hour being taken away;
Maintain recognition of their NVQ Level 3 qualifications.
What about the £15m payout?
Classroom Assistants are being asked to sell out all their rights and accept pay rate cuts for a one off
net payment of just £1,100 or £1,700 only. No Way! The 3 points above are key to a properly funded education system, where the community as a whole receives quality front line service in the classroom. Anything other than that is a cut in service, a cut in real quality terms, and an unacceptable attack on our childrens future.
Classroom workers have not given up nor gone into hiding, but are providing a window of opportunity to management who have consistently failed in 12 years to come to the table with what is rightly ours.
Classroom workers want the public and parents to understand that we have suspended this strike to demonstrate that patience and care is what we are about, but to know that we will return to the picket lines on 30th October if the boards do not resolve this properly.
STOP ATTACKS ON CLASSROOM ASSISTANTS
TERMS & CONDITIONS
Support Classroom Assistants’ fight
to defend their rights
fair and just pay
a better education for all children in the future.
Call on your MP, MLA, Local Councillor to demand fair pay and justice for Classroom Assistants.
If you would like additional information please talk to the strikers or
contact NIPSA by e-mail: nipsa517@seelb.org.uk
FREE STATE HEALTH SERVICE LIMPS FROM CRISIS TO CRISIS:
The situation in the twenty six county health service is staggering, like drunken man, from one problem to another. It would appear that the problems are deteriorating on a nearly daily basis. Perhaps if the Minister charged with responsibility for the health service, Mary Harney, did her job, that is of course if she knows how to do it, a step in the right direction may be achieved. Unfortunately this would appear not to be the case, certainly as far as the public sector is concerned. According to reports in The Socialist, September 2007, under the front page headline ‘€245 MILLION HEALTH CUTBACKS’ the paper could inform us “The crisis in the health service has deepened with the announcement by the HSE of cutbacks to deal with a €245 million “overspend”.
Hospitals around the country have been ordered to implement a recruitment ban, to lay off temporary and agency staff, and despite what Minister for Health, Mary Harney, has said patients will suffer‘. It should be common sense that patients will suffer because, like in any other job, if fifty workers carry out a hundred tasks in eight hours and this number of workers is reduced to thirty with the same output expected in the same, or less, hours the quality of what is produced will be inferior to that produced by the former.
The same principle applies to the health service, though we are not speaking of output per se, fifty nurses, for the sake of argument, can not be expected to provide the same level of care and cover to that once provided by say seventy five, basic mathematics should tell you that. The paper continues ’Senior management at Cork University Hospital (CUH) have outlined a series of proposals in an internal document seen by The Socialist entitled “Cost Containment Initiative”. A fancy phrase for health cutbacks’.
Bosses at CHU are to take whatever action they deem necessary to ’eliminate the budget deficit’ which means, whatever way it is dressed up, inferior conditions for patients in the hospital and others around the country which follow the same course of action. At South Tipperary General Hospital an operating theatre is to be reportedly closed. At Ennis Hospital a Cardiac Clinic, according to reports, is to close to say nothing of the withdrawal of cancer care at Mayo General Hospital. To add to all this because of government incompetence there is no doubt that the country’s A&E departments will once again hit the headlines, for the wrong reasons, this winter.
The government have done nothing to relieve the shortage of beds problem and are in fact travelling in the opposite direction to that which they should be going because they are reportedly cutting doctors hours, getting rid of essential nursing staff and reducing other areas of medical procedures. Hardly conducive with relieving the pressures on the A&Es, once again the previous simple mathematical equation applies.
Increasing expenditure in the health service will help alleviate the problems, providing the personnel presiding over knows what they are doing which would appear to rule out the present person and her team in the job. But a long term permanent answer needs far more drastic surgery and is part of a far larger problem, capitalism.
The problems faced by working class people requiring health care is only one, all be a it sizable one, aspect of the barriers faced on a daily basis under the capitalist system. This system no longer requires, if in Ireland it ever did, a large fit and healthy workforce therefore those who are entrusted to govern the affairs on behalf of this system do not see the necessity of prioritising these problems in the health service and putting them right.
Of course we are talking exclusively about problems in the public sector which are not generally faced by the privileged gang who use the private facility. The problems faced by the health service are just a few among many in a catalogue of difficulties faced by working class people on a daily basis. Such issues of job losses, often accompanied by home repossession, are a regular feature of modern working class existence, real wage reductions, while An Taoiseach and other so called Ministers receive huge pay increases disproportionate to their responsibilities compared with the German Chancellor, US President and British Prime Minister, and the constant threat of unemployment on a more general and long term basis than job losses alone.
All of these along with the crisis in the health service are symptomatic of a system which does not, can not, and frankly was never intended to provide goods and services for all on a regular basis. A system which quite frankly has to go. The question is how much longer are people going to walk round like ostriches with their heads in the sand pretending they can not see what is before their very eyes every day? The short term solution, certainly for health is to nationalise completely the whole service financed through higher taxation earmarked for specific areas of need with competent people at the helm.
The long term permanent answer is the destruction of the capitalist system and the evil of greed by the few at the expense of the many, which is inept within it, and the establishment of socialism based upon need before profit, equality, freedom and democracy minus the word liberal. This will only come about, in Ireland, by the establishment of a 32 county democratic socialist republic.
Kevin Morley IRSP, Dublin
Report on Basque Meetings
Recently three successful meeting were held on the Irish and Basque Peace Processes in Belfast Strabane and Derry The meetings were organised by the International Left Solidarity Committee, a group composed of republicans socialists and Marxists, dedicated to looking at issues of international significance for the working classes.
Ibon Artola, (Editor of Euskal Herria Sozialista) gave a detailed examination of the current state of the struggle for Basque independence from a Marxist perspective and his analysis of the so-called Basque Peace process. For his Irish audiences Ibon gave a brief history of the Basque struggle.
The Basque Country is made up of seven provinces, Labourd, Basse Navarre, and Soule all located in an area governed by the France, and Viscaya, Guipuzcoa, Alava and Navarre all under the control of Spain.
Following the overthrow of the Spanish Republic by a military coup led by Franco and supported by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany the ancient and unique Basque language was banned. The Spanish state refused funding for the Basque language and culture, workers were denied their right to use the language and even the graves of Basque martyrs were interfered with to replace the Basque language on tombstones with Spanish inscriptions. Also under the Franco dictatorship Communists, Socialists but also Basques, were executed for their resistance to the regime.
Euskadi Ta Askatasuna or ETA (Basque
Ibon pointed out that at the beginning of the 20th century there were those socialists who claimed that the rise of capitalism would solve the national question. The reality has been different. The Irish national question still has not been resolved. In Belgium national differences are once more coming to the fore. In essence capitalism is incapable of solving the national question. On the contrary Capitalism uses the national question and the existence of minorities to divide and thus weaken all sections of the working class regardless of their nationality. Imperialism wishes to impose itself on small countries and that the fight to overcome this was essential.
The fall of the Franco dictatorship did not solve the national question in Spain. After the death of Franco a new constitution gave limited autonomy to three of the Spanish controlled Basque provinces called the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC) while Navarre was not allowed to opt into the BAC but made into a separate autonomous region. By 1983 the BAC had limited autonomous powers including its own elected parliament its own police force its own school system and control over taxation. (It is worth noting that all of these except most notably the control over taxation have all been granted to the current Stormont administration.)
Theses changes while accepted and worked by the more conservative nationalists in the PNC Partido Nacionalista Vasco
Spain still exerts extensive influence over Basque life, some spheres of which, such as harbour authorities, customs, employment, the armed forces and foreign relations, remain entirely under jurisdiction of the central government. The central state apparatus, including politicians, police including the local Basque police, army and prisons, have continued to persecute members and sympathizers of the Abertzale movement and to obstruct Basques' attempts to construct their own political structures and to articulate and defend a national sovereignty project.
The Spanish and the Basque ruling class, in the form of the PNV, showed their reactionary nature by supporting the 2002 coup against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. They also endorsed the electoral fraud perpetrated by the Mexican ruling class aided and abetted by USA Imperialism.
The rise of ETA and a broadening of its support base in the beginning was because of the failure of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) to do anything. It was not in their interests because the Basque bourgeoisie was and still is firmly bound with the Spanish bourgeoisie. This is similar to the way the Irish bourgeoisie despite its so-called formal freedom is intrinsically tied in with the British ruling class and also subservient to USA Imperialism.
Ibon pointed out that 65% of the population of Spain is in favour of a solution to the situation in the Basque country. In March 2006 ETA declared a ceasefire. Hopes were raised for a settlement and not only was there comparisons with the so-called Irish Peace Process but clergy involved in facilitating the IRA ceasefires became involved in delicate negotiations in the Basque Country. Sinn Fein leaders including Gerry Adams also visited the Basque Country encouraging militants to follow the Sinn Fein(P) example.
However the People's Party (PP) in Spain began arguing that the Spanish ruling class was granting too many concessions to ETA. Its leaders Rajoy called on the government to continue, "fighting terrorism" and reject negotiations. Zapatero, the Spanish prime Minister in fact stepped up repression. Despite the calls from left Nationalists for round table talks there was little movement from the Spanish Government. ETA militants were still been harassed and detained and there was no movement on the issue of the prisoners. It is the policy of the Spanish government to imprison political prisoners at least 600 kilometres from their homes and some as far as the Salto del Negro
Much to the astonishment of his Irish audiences Ibon pointed out that the oppression included political prisoners not been released as planned, with some having their sentences increased. Following the Barajas bombing when ETA attacked an airport the Spanish Government banned the Basque left nationalist youth organisation Segi, declaring it to be a terrorist organisation because both Segi and ETA have the same stated goals of independence and socialism. ETA had bombed the airport in an attempt to put pressure on the Spanish government. This had the adverse effect and resulted in a series of repressive measures by the Spanish ruling class including a widespread propaganda campaign aimed at undermining ETA. Batasuna leader Ortegi summed up the new departure of Batasuna when he said “How can we have a peace process with bombs going off?”
There are some on the left, as Ibon pointed out who argue that the problem in the Basque Country is “terrorism”. They do so from the safety of their well-paid parliamentary jobs without any understanding of national oppression. The Basque problem is the interference of the Spanish government in the affairs of the Basque Country.
Ibon pointed to the example of Russia prior to the 1917 October. There had existed a group called the Narodniks.The Narodniks believed the peasantry was the revolutionary class
There are also some militant youth who have launched attacks against the offices of Spanish trade unions. Ibon pointed out the importance of winning over the Spanish and French working classes to support and solidarity with the Basque people and therefore it is wrong to antagonise them by attacks on the organisations that the workers regard as theirs. It is of the greatest importance that these young people are won over to genuine Marxist politics. Revolutionaries cannot turn our backs on the militant youth.
Ibon then went on to point out something that should be salutary lesson for Irish republicans Every September there is a demonstration in favour of the prisoners. This year it was banned with little explanation. Basque policemen were sent to deal with the demonstration and over 100 people were injured. Having Basques in the police force or catholics in the PSNI is no victory when these same forces are used to protect the status quo.
The PNV defend their own interests which are the interests of the ruling
Class. They may talk about independence but the bottom line is that PNV in the Basque Country, have no interest in independence for the Basque country. They share the same interests as the Spanish ruling classes have
Only the working class can solve the national questions, whether it’s in the Basque country, Ireland, the Balkans or anywhere else.
During the Russian revolution the Bolsheviks managed to overthrow the old order, despite Russia being a country with dozens of different nationalities.
When Ibon Artola had finished his presentation in all three venues there were discussions and questions and answer sessions. Naturally some of these questions focussed on the issue of prisoners, their actual conditions in jail and if they had any input into the Basque Peace Process. Other questions included if the prisoners or their organisations had tried to use the denial of human rights and torture used by the Spanish government to take Spain to European courts. It was pointed out that those who tried to see comparisons between the peace processes in Ireland and the Basque Country failed to see that the Republican struggle in Ireland had been defeated and that in accepting both the Good Friday Agreement and the St Andrews Agreement republicans settled for less than the Basque Country had achieved years ago.
A prominent feature of the meeting was that unlike many other meetings on international issues organised by other groups the audience at these meetings were overwhelming working class and had an instinctive grasp of the class issues thrown up by the struggle in the Basque Country.
Irish Labour Youth supports Venezuelan revolution and Hands Off Venezuela campaign
By Hands Off Venezuela - Ireland
Tuesday, 30 October 2007
The conference of Irish Labour Youth passed a motion (no. 37) in support of the Venezuelan Revolution last Saturday, 27th October. The motion also called on Labour Youth "to build links with the Irish branch of the ‘Hands Off Venezuela Campaign’." Resolution 37: Socialism in Venezuela "Conference recognizes: The work done by the people of Venezuela in bringing about a democratic socialist revolution in their country. "Conference resolutely believes: That this is an example of twenty first century socialism, and that it is a socio-economic model that is worth aspiring to. While not being faultless, its approach to redistributing wealth, democratising the workplace and the providing social services is evidence that socialism can be implemented democratically. "Conference condemns the former TV station RCTV and the Venezuelan oligarchy in Their attempts to organise a military coup against the democratically elected government in 2001. "Conference further condemns: The forces of U.S. imperialism which have continually sponsored and encouraged right wing terrorists in Latin America in their attempts to topple popular democratically elected government and replace them often with a military junta. "Conference welcomes: The attempts by President Hugo Chavez to initiate the economic transition from a Capitalist state to a Socialist state, which is to be brought about democratically through a ballot of the entire populace in the coming months. "Conference further welcomes: The nationalisation of the largest telecommunications company, the electrical power companies and the four largest oil companies in the Orinoco River basin, which had previously been controlled by foreign multinationals. This is in turn has significantly reduced the cost of electricity and fuel for the ordinary citizens of Venezuela. "Conference calls on: Labour Youth to build links with the Irish branch of the "Hands Off Venezuela Campaign" in the hope of creating awareness and solidarity for the Venezuelan nation and its people in Ireland. "Conference mandates: The international Officer to investigate the possibility of organising a delegation of Labour Youth activists to visit the country over the coming year."
The letters reprinted below first appeared in the Weekly Worker http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/index.html We leave it to the readers to make their own judgements
A POLEMIC
I am a long-time reader of the various websites of the left, including the Weekly Worker. One of the websites I read on a regular basis is the International Marxist Tendency’s In defence of Marxism (www.marxist.com).
As an Irishman, I am shocked and dismayed by the IMT’s affiliation with the Irish Republican Socialist Party. The Grant-Woods tendency has long been associated with the view that Marxists should operate within the “traditional organisations of the working class”, such as the Labour Party. Why is it then that they associate with this splinter of a splinter from the republican movement?
The IRSP has no standing within the Irish working class and is in fact a miniscule organisation, far smaller and more remote to the Irish worker than some that the IMT would classify as ‘sects’. Not only that, but the IRSP through its paramilitary arm, the Irish National Liberation Army, has a history of violence, terrorism, internal feuding and organised crime.
How do the IMT and particularly Alan Woods, who always comes across as an intelligent, articulate man, justify this association?
Mark Kevson Dublin
IRSP politics
Mark Kevson asks, why support the Irish Republican Socialist Party, given it is “minuscule” and has little support among the Irish working class (Letters, October 11)?
Well, it is not for communists in Britain to advise, let along tell, the Irish people to whom they should lend their political support. But surely it is politics which counts, rather than numbers? Otherwise, we should all of us just give up now! But, of course, we all know from history that those advocating liberation and emancipation always start off as small, sect-like minorities, before building and developing strength, before ultimately becoming irresistible and irreversible majorities.
My understanding is that the IRSP stands for national liberation and socialist revolution in Ireland, expressed as three fundamental objectives:
l The end of partition and the reunification of the island of Ireland, with the complete removal of the British political and military occupation in the north;
l The ending of British/European imperialist domination over the whole of existing divided Ireland;
l And the common ownership and control of the whole of the resources of Ireland by the working people of Ireland, for the benefit of the working people of Ireland.
That is, for the working people of Ireland to be united, sovereign, independent, self-determining, and to exist as equals and in peace with the peoples of Britain, Europe and the world.
Further, the IRSP argues that all three fundamental objectives are dialectically interconnected, interdependent and reinforcing: ie, all must be progressed together, as part of an integrated and coherent revolutionary political and military strategy.
As to the INLA, my understanding is that the organisation is currently on cessation, accepting that the votes in the referenda - on both sides of the partition border - on the Good Friday agreement meant there was currently no political basis for a military campaign. This does not, of course, equate to IRSP/INLA support for the GFA, which, on the contrary, represents a defeat for republicanism and socialism.
I struggle to think how any decent and principled socialist or communist could disagree with any of the above ...
Andrew Northall Kettering
Contradiction
Andrew Northall misses my point somewhat (Letters, October 18
The Irish National Liberation Army, while currently inactive, has not disbanded and the IRSP do not renounce their past. This is a past rife with indiscriminate sectarian murders and internal feuding. Even if they had been straight-up anti-imperialists using the methods of what Trotsky and others called ‘individual terrorism’, Marxists must oppose them.
To quote Trotsky:
“The disarray introduced into the ranks of the working masses themselves by a terrorist attempt is much deeper. If it is enough to arm oneself with a pistol in order to achieve one’s goal, why the efforts of the class struggle? If a thimbleful of gunpowder and a little chunk of lead is enough to shoot the enemy through the neck, what need is there for a class organisation? If it makes sense to terrify highly placed personages with the roar of explosions, where is the need for the party? Why meetings, mass agitation and elections if one can so easily take aim at the ministerial bench from the gallery of parliament?”
Substituting self-appointed liberators with an Armalite for the hard slog of the class struggle is a false method and completely contrary to Marxism. At its best, it is Blanquism; at its worst, anarchic adventurism. The terrorist cell is not controlled democratically by the class it claims to represent; instead it places itself at the head of the movement and resists removal by force.
My other point is that in much of their literature the International Marxist Tendency reject what they call ‘sects’ as irrelevant. They clearly state that Marxists must work within the mass organisations of the working class. The IRSP is as far removed from the Irish working class, from the day-to-day struggles of the class, as can be imagined. Now I do not agree that it is correct today to try and work within the Labour Party. There are times when entryism is a valid method and there are times when it is counterproductive. However the IMT raise entryism to a principle. How do they explain the contradiction between their theory and their application of that theory to the class struggle in Ireland?
Mark Kevson Dublin
INLA’s past
Mark Kevson, in his original letter (October 11
The INLA does indeed have a history of violence, terrorism and internal feuding - this is not something that can be denied. It is a revolutionary organisation and a product of the conditions prevalent within society at that time. I find it strange that an avid reader of Marxist websites would neglect to mention that the Bolsheviks too were guilty of these three points.
The Irish Republican Socialist Movement collectively have challenged those who claim the INLA are involved in crime, whether drug dealing or otherwise, to provide the evidence. It is 10 years since Irish Republican Socialist Party spokesperson Kevin McQuillan challenged journalists at the burial of a volunteer in Dublin and not one piece of evidence has been forthcoming since from any quarter.
Mark continues: “The IRSP has no standing within the Irish working class and is in fact a minuscule organisation.” Of all leftwing organisations within Ireland of any hue, the IRSP is the only one that has a strong base within nationalist working class areas. It is safe to say the majority of the left in Belfast would be more accustomed to Stranmillis than the Short Strand.
In Mark’s second letter (October 25) he claims “the IRSP do not renounce their past”. This is correct. We do not deny or renounce our past. To do so is entirely dishonest and not based upon Marxist methods. Collectively we have painstakingly analysed our past and drawn strong lessons for the road ahead. I would recommend Mark gives the Ta Power document careful consideration.
If Mark is genuinely seeking answers as to the basis for the International Marxist Tendency’s relationship with the IRSP, then I am certain he could arrange to meet the relevant organisations and discuss the matter.
Sean McGowan
Belfast
From The Media
No evidence' of collusion in NI murders
There is no evidence the security forces in Northern Ireland colluded with loyalist killers in the murder of two Catholic brothers 14 years ago, the Police Ombudsman said today.
However an investigation by Nuala O'Loan found the police investigation of the murders by the Ulster Volunteer Force, despite early effort, was unacceptably flawed and cut short after three months.She upheld a complaint by the father of the murdered men that the police failed to conduct a thorough investigation.
She also revealed that Special Branch had not passed on all relevant intelligence to the police investigating the murders.
Gerard Cairns (22) and brother Rory (18) were gunned down by two masked men at the family home at Bleary, near Lurgan, Co Armagh, on the evening of October 28th, 1993.
No one has ever been convicted over the murders which happened in one of the bloodiest weeks of the Troubles.
The Cairns family lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman claiming the police and army had prior knowledge of the attack on the brothers, and that they had allowed a clear path for the murderers through what they believed was an unusually high level of security activity in the area.
The family also alleged police did not carry out a proper investigation and failed to keep the family updated on its progress.
Investigators from the Ombudsman's office examined police documents spanning nine years, assessed intelligence about the murder and interviewed serving and retired police officers, retired soldiers from the Royal Irish regiment and 54 civilians.
Mrs O'Loan concluded: "There is nothing to suggest that the security forces colluded in the brutal murders of Gerard and Rory.
"There is no evidence that the police had any advance warning, that they knew Gerard and Rory would be targeted and no evidence that they could have prevented the attack. This was a purely sectarian attack."
However Mrs O'Loan said the Special Branch had failed to pass on all relevant intelligence to the police inquiry team, and she upheld the complaint the family had not been kept informed about the police investigation.
She said: "Although much good work was done in the initial stages of the investigation, within three months it had been stripped of resources and had effectively ground to a halt."
She expressed "grave concern" the RUC had begun to wind down the investigation within just two weeks of the killings.
Mrs O'Loan added: "I acknowledge the enormous pressure on police officers during this difficult time. Nevertheless, it is unacceptable that the investigation effectively ended after just a few months and has not since been properly reviewed for new lines of inquiry.
Mr Cairns had alleged two local loyalists had carried out the murders but had not been charged because they were security force agents.
Irish Times
What’s On?
FROM THE IRELAND-PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN
The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign is pleased to announce that the European Première of the multi-award winning documentary film Occupation 101 will take place in Liberty Hall Theatre, Dublin at 7:30 PM on Tuesday 6th November 2007.
Tickets are €10 or €5 for unwaged/students. To book in advance - please call the IPSC office on 01-6770253 or email us on supportpalestine@ireland.com. Tickets can also be bought on the door on the night.
Regional Screenings:
Limerick
Weds 7th Nov 2007
Time: 7:30 PM
Venue: Castletroy Park Hotel, Wednesday 7th November
Donegal
(First event of new IPSC Donegal branch!)
Thurs 8th Nov 2007
Time: 8:00 PM
Venue: Abbey Theatre, Ballyshannon Thursday 8th November
Belfast
Friday 9th November
Time: 7:00pm sharp
Venue: An Culturlann Theatre, 216 Falls Road, Belfast.
The showing will cost £5 waged and £3 unwaged.
OCCUPATION 101
A thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. government involvement, Occupation 101 provides a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the conflict and dispels many myths and misconceptions. The film also details life under Israeli military rule, the United States' role in the conflict, and the major obstacles which stand in the way of a lasting and viable peace. Rare footage and testimony never shown by most media outlets are presented. The roots of the conflict are explained with incisive commentaries from leading Middle East scholars, peace activists, journalists, religious leaders and humanitarian workers whose voices have too often been suppressed in Western media.
http://www.occupation101.com
Anti-Racism Workplace Week, Dungannon and South Tyrone, event, Wednesday 7th November 2007
Dungannon and South Tyrone Council
"Anti-Racism Workplace Week" 5-12 November 2007
Wednesday 7 November 2007
East Tyrone College – Main Hall
6pm – 8pm
Free entrance – open to public
ICTU and Trade Unions will be giving employment rights information for migrant workers and ethnic minorities
Glór na Móna as part of their annual Féile Gaeilge le Bród festival present
The inaugural Harry Holland memorial Lecture
by a prominent Irish Language activist TBC on 'The revival of the Irish language: past, present and future'
Thursday 8th November @ 8pm
Gort na Móna CLG
Belfast
Followed by live traditional music session
Glór na Móna will also be officially launching their festival also.
Shell To Sea Rossport f day-of-action on November 9th.
Shell are running a high pressure gas pipe close to the houses of local Mayo people. They have refused to move their operation offshore, claiming it would be too expensive. Shell makes a profit of €375million every week. The cost of moving the Rossport operation offshore would be €360million.
Under the deal that the oil & gas multinationals were given by Fianna Fail, the taxpayers of Ireland will receive:
1) No royalties from the oil and gas,
2) No share of the oil and gas,
3) No reduced price for the oil and gas.
4) Nothing, nada, zilch. AND
5) The companies can write off all their capital costs against tax for up to 25 years.
The locals have kept the struggle going. often against great odds. Far from being frightened off, whether by the power of their enemy or the role of the Gardai as Shell's cops, they have grown increasingly militant. There have been sit-downs and site occupations. To win requires large numbers of people being prepared to stand together and use their numbers to stop Shell's plan. A large turnout on November 9th will help to build a stronger campaign.
WSM Delegate Council, October 2007
For information about busses to Rossport call 0879935876
More: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/84701
1a.4 Rights at Work Information Day, Belfast, Saturday 10 November
This event is an introduction to employment rights and trade unions. Participants will also have a chance to talk to trade union representatives and discuss specific employment issues. A social evening will follow in the John Hewitt bar with musicians playing Irish session, a Polish band and Motion Project.
Rights at Work Information Day,
Saturday 10 November,
Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre
45 – 47 Donegall Street
2 -5 p.m
· • Introduction to employment rights for migrant workers in Northern Ireland.
· • Information on trade unions, membership and assistance they offer.
· • Launch of ‘Your Rights at Work’ card published by Irish Congress of Trade Unions and Equality Commission.
· • Meeting with the representatives of:
- Irish Congress of Trade Unions
- Equality Commission
- Belfast Trades Union Council
- Trade unions
Information and materials available in variety of languages.
Light refreshments will be served.
Multicultural Music Experience
Saturday 10 November,
The John Hewitt bar, Donegall Street
5.30 until late at night
Celebration of ethnic diversity played by artists from all over the world, including:
· Irish traditional session
· Quatro Potrzebne – Polish band
· The Motion project – Northern Ireland’s multi-cultural music collective.
· Everybody welcome!
INCORE Conflict Documentary Film Festival, next film Wednesday 14th November
Wednesday 14th November 2007: International Day of Tolerance (16 Nov)
Iraq in Fragments (2006)
Iraq is pulled in different directions by religion and ethnicity but its disparate groups - Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds - share a common fate: living in a world ravaged by years of repression, occupation and violence. This film explores that through the lives of ordinary Iraqis. (94 min.)
*Discussion to follow chaired by Professor Tom Fraser*
Wed 12th Dec 2007: Human Rights Day (10 Dec)
The Crying Sun (2007)
Addresses the impact of armed conflict in Chechnya through the stories of people disappeared/ displaced from the mountain village of Zumsoy, highlighting villager’s struggle to maintain cultural identity and traditions. (26 min.)
*Discussion to follow chaired by Dr. Stephen Ryan*
Full details on the INCORE Conflict Documentary Film Festival are available at www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/pdfs/filmfestival2007.pdf < INCORE Conflict Documentary Film Festival, next film Wednesday 14th November
Venue: Magee campus, MB127 Derry
Wednesday 14th November 2007: International Day of Tolerance (16 Nov)
Iraq in Fragments (2006)
Iraq is pulled in different directions by religion and ethnicity but its disparate groups - Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds - share a common fate: living in a world ravaged by years of repression, occupation and violence. This film explores that through the lives of ordinary Iraqis. (94 min.)
*Discussion to follow chaired by Professor Tom Fraser*
Wed 12th Dec 2007: Human Rights Day (10 Dec)
The Crying Sun (2007)
Addresses the impact of armed conflict in Chechnya through the stories of people disappeared/ displaced from the mountain village of Zumsoy, highlighting villager’s struggle to maintain cultural identity and traditions. (26 min.)
*Discussion to follow chaired by Dr. Stephen Ryan*
Full details on the INCORE Conflict Documentary Film Festival are available at www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/pdfs/filmfestival2007.pdf
A DAY AROUND
THE LOOM
*Watch crafters working!
* Enjoy demonstrations of old techniques!
* Take a valuable piece of crafts home!
On Saturday, Nov.24th 2007
At The Flax Mill, Derrylane, Dungiven
From 10 am – running all day.
Local genuine crafts only, no dealers, no products from child-labour.
Tea and refreshments.
For details phone Flax mill textiles 02877742655
Note: A day around the loom is a private event. There is no entry-fee and the owner reserves the right to refuse admission
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