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offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

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Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link BBC Moral Maze Waffle-Fest Fails to Address Objection That Net Zero Could Leave Billions Dead From S... Wed Sep 17, 2025 09:00 | Chris Morrison
In last week's Net Zero edition of the BBC's Moral Maze, the most basic objection to climate doomerism ? that Net Zero 2050 could leave billions dead of starvation ? was ignored, says Chris Morrison.
The post BBC Moral Maze Waffle-Fest Fails to Address Objection That Net Zero Could Leave Billions Dead From Starvation appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link How Left-Wing Activists are Recycled Wed Sep 17, 2025 07:00 | Charlotte Gill
If you've looked at pictures of Left-wing protests and think, 'Haven't I seen her before?' you'd be right! Charlotte Gill investigates the weird small world of Leftist activist recycling.
The post How Left-Wing Activists are Recycled appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Wed Sep 17, 2025 01:15 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link German State Media Have Systematically Slandered Charlie Kirk in the Wake of his Assassination Tue Sep 16, 2025 19:00 | Eugyppius
German state media have systematically slandered Charlie Kirk in the wake of his assassination, says Eugyppius. They portray him as an unhinged and dangerous fascist, just stopping short of blaming him for his own death.
The post German State Media Have Systematically Slandered Charlie Kirk in the Wake of his Assassination appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link White House Announces Crackdown on ?Terrorist? Left Tue Sep 16, 2025 17:47 | Will Jones
The White House is cracking down on Left-wing "terrorist" organisations following?the killing of Charlie Kirk, with President Trump saying he will considered designating Antifa as a terror group.
The post White House Announces Crackdown on “Terrorist” Left appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Ireland in breach of UN Forced Labour Convention

category national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis author Saturday February 20, 2016 10:07author by Vince McGreal Report this post to the editors

In 1932, Ireland ratified the United Nations’ Convention Concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour (1930). The Convention defines forced labour as "all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.”
Eighty-four years later, Ireland is in breach of that convention.

In 2012, Pathways to Work policy statement, largely copied from the UK, was adopted and signed, among others, by Enda Kenny and Joan Burton. Apart from providing training and education for the unemployed, which have been available long before 2012, the activation system offers them not real jobs but year-long JobBridge “internships” and “apprenticeships” as cleaners and porters. Such offers of practically unpaid (a little more than one euro an hour) work disguised as training now cannot be refused, because they are backed up with sanctions: it can be either a cut of €44 from the weekly €188, or even the suspension of payments for up to nine weeks, which exposes people to starvation, hypothermia and debt. These are the penalties for not volunteering to do unpaid work for businesses, or an analogue of community service on the Gateway and Tús schemes that include cleaning and renovating council-owned buildings and parks. One previously had to commit an offence to be sentenced to this!

Incredibly, this matter hasn’t yet become a major issue in the general election campaign. The mainstream politicians are seemingly happy to allow such treatment of their own countrymen to continue. We are about to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the Easter Rising, but the society plagued with forced labour is not exactly what the heroes of 1916 fought for. Officially, people pressed into doing unpaid work are classed as employed, so the unemployment rate falls. One may think that we are trying to imitate the Roman Empire where all were happily employed – as either slave owners or slaves.

Related Link: http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/analysis/the-complications-and-myths-surrounding-unemployment-and-social-welfare-356528.html
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