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Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

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Human Rights in Ireland
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Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Corbyn?s New Party Split Over Trans Policy Mon Sep 01, 2025 15:20 | Will Jones
Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana?s new 'fruit and nut' party is already split over its policy on transgender issues as the People's Front of Gaza continues to go full Python.
The post Corbyn’s New Party Split Over Trans Policy appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Introducing Vexillophobia: Fear of the Flag is Britain?s Greatest Madness Mon Sep 01, 2025 13:18 | Laura Dodsworth
Introducing vexillophobia: fear of the flag is Britain's greatest madness, says Laura Dodsworth. There's only one thing for it: exposure. As with any phobia, it's the surest cure. Let the beautiful colours fly!
The post Introducing Vexillophobia: Fear of the Flag is Britain’s Greatest Madness appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Labour MP Calls People Hanging St George?s Flags ?Extremists? Mon Sep 01, 2025 11:09 | Will Jones
Labour MP Clive Lewis has said people flying the?St?George?s Cross?outside a migrant hotel in his constituency are "extremists" trying to "mark territory".
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offsite link Sixty Years of Temperature Averages Declared at UK Met Office Station With Only EIGHT YEARS of Actua... Mon Sep 01, 2025 09:00 | Chris Morrison
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The post Sixty Years of Temperature Averages Declared at UK Met Office Station With Only EIGHT YEARS of Actual Observations appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link ?Stop Trump? isn?t a Grass Roots Campaign, But Another Left-Wing Cause Linked to a Well-Funded Umbre... Mon Sep 01, 2025 07:00 | Charlotte Gill
'Stop Trump' is far from a scrappy protest group; it's a well-funded engine of the radical Left rooted in the activist hub Pelican House, says Charlotte Gill.
The post ?Stop Trump? isn?t a Grass Roots Campaign, But Another Left-Wing Cause Linked to a Well-Funded Umbrella Group in Bethnal Green 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

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France In Revolt – Workers And Students Unite

category international | worker & community struggles and protests | news report author Sunday April 22, 2018 20:48author by pbp - People Before Profit Report this post to the editors

While the Irish media focus only Macron bombing Syria and making speeches in praise of the EU French workers and students are in full scale revolt against the French President’s neo-liberal policies.

The past few weeks have seen an explosion of resistance to Macron’s proposed anti-worker Labour Laws, his plans to cut 120,000 jobs in the public sector and introduce individualised “payment by results” for workers, along with his attacks on free higher education. Rail workers led the way but many other sectors have followed suit in mass strikes across the country.

French socialist,Catherine Vigier from Rouen, reports:

“The temperature here has suddenly gone through the roof – things we all thought would go through without a murmur of protest have suddenly taken centre stage and Macron is facing a shipwreck scenario – with rail workers, Air France, hospital workers and University students and lecturers all fighting back.”

And left Presidential candidate, Jean Luc Mélenchon said last week:

“The president of the rich has decided to confront us. We will fight back. We will see who will have the final word. If we have the wisdom to unite across the country … the final word will be ours.

Inevitably, given it’s the fiftieth anniversary, parallels are being drawn with May 1968 when mass student revolt sparked an indefinite general strike of ten million workers. Says Mélenchon, “To those who suggest with a wry smile that I dream of May ’68, I say, yes it’s a fine dream. I prefer my lovely dream to the nightmares that are in the process of happening.”

But some of the parallels are very real. Vigier notes:

“It’s a wonderful irony that a conference on May 68 at Nanterre had to be cancelled because of the student occupation. Nanterre has been shut down by the authorities after riot police were called in to evacuate the occupation last night.”

Nanterre, on the outskirts of Paris, was the University where the student rebellion of May 68 began. And last week police attacked and evicted occupying students at the Sorbonne in the Paris Latin Quarter, just as they did 50 years ago.

Eight trade union groups have called a day of public sector strikes and demonstrations on 22 May. Strikes are planned by rail, air and maritime transport workers, and in every level of education from nurseries to universities. Postal workers, firefighters, health workers, electricity and gas workers, refuse workers and many more will also strike.

Meanwhile the battle is ¬sharpening among students. Police have cleared out occupying students in Nantes, Bordeaux, Paris, Lille, Caen, Dijon, Grenoble, and Strasbourg. There were dozens of arrests.

Macron had prepared the assaults by saying that protesting students were “professional agitators” and ought to be revising. At present students who pass their school-leaving exam can enrol in any university course.

Macron wants universities to have access to school records to select those with the best “motivation” – shades of Leo Varadkar wanting to represent ‘people who get up early in the morning’.

And Varadkar should take note. What France shows is that just when everything seems to be going swimmingly, when the spin appears to be working and the outlook from Dublin 4 seems set fair, seething resentment from below can suddenly explode in struggle.

Related Link: http://www.pbp.ie/france-in-revolt-workers-and-students-unite/
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