Bail Out the People March, Sept. 20th
See: Bail Out People . org

While a self selected group of world leaders congregate behind a sea of security and police controls in downtown Pittsburgh, up in the Hill District a different kind of movement is beginning to be built.

Related Links:
Videos:
Police Crackdown on G20 Protests: Democracy Now! Reports from the Streets | 30 Second Video of MIlitary Kidnapping a Protestor | Video: Riot Police Attack Students at University of Pittsburgh | Video Compilation from Pittsburgh

Articles:
G20 at Anarchist News . org | ACLU sues Pittsburgh, Secret Service over G20 protest permits | Huffington Post: G20 PROTESTS: Men In Military Fatigues Snatch Protester

Links:
Indymedia Pittsburgh Dedicated G20 Site |
Pittsburgh Organizing Group | Bail Out People, not Banks | People Summit | ResistG20.org | White Band .org - Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) | Extensive list of organising centres

Harry Browne
"Voting No is a way of showing them that they’re not out of trouble yet"

There are plenty of good reasons to vote No, again, on Lisbon – far more than there are reasons to vote Yes. We shouldn’t be ashamed of saying that the best of them are only partly to do with the specificities of the treaty itself.

On the other hand, we should be careful about some of the debating points we adopt.

Anti-imperialists, peace campaigners and workers’ rights advocates on the No side have the best set of arguments, to be sure. The writings of Kieran Allen and Andy Storey, among others, are the gold standard and I wouldn’t presume to add to them. But a few folks on ‘our side’ – and with that phrase I don’t include the right-wingers who happen to support the same vote but are otherwise alien politically – are wandering down some political dark alleys.

We should not, for example, get hung up on a ‘No Means No’ kick, as though in putting the Lisbon question to another referendum the Government were behaving like a rapist. Given that many of us on the left would consider ourselves advocates of more direct democracy – and are heirs to a democratic tradition that has often advocated annual parliaments and frequent referenda – it does seem rather churlish for us to suggest that the people aren’t allowed to change their minds, as they eventually did on divorce. Admittedly a simple cry of “we told you already” has some popular, populist traction – we never, after all, get a re-run when we vote the way the elite wants us to first-time. But it’s unsustainable as a real argument.

Related Links:
Big Business Out to Buy a 'Yes' to Lisbon | Lisbon Treaty: Three Strikes, You’re Out | VOTE NO to Lisbon - Raft on the Liffey Launch | Irish Friends of Palestine Against Lisbon put their case to the public in Dublin's Grafton Street | Green Party U-Turn on a Democratic EU | The Lisbon Treaty and the Triumph of Technocracy | Debut of Irish Friends of Palestine Against Lisbon outside Dublin EU Parliament Offices | 13 Things the Lisbon Treaty Would Do | The Legal guarantees on Lisbon Treaty will not change treaty - a propaganda stunt to mislead voters | Dáil shouldn't have inferior Lisbon Treaty powers to German Parliament, controlling ministers | The Lisbon Treaty, Alan Shatter and the guys in hoods! | Lisbon Treaty News: German Constitutional Court delays Germany’s ratification of the Lisbon Treaty | No EU Guarantees Can Change Thrust Toward Militarisation in Lisbon Treaty | The Gurantees: Comment by Jens-Peter Bonde | Spoofing the Irish media and public with Lisbon “guarantees” that guarantee nothing | Supposed ‘hard fight’ to secure guarantees on Lisbon Treaty: a clever tactic to mislead says McKenna | Lisbon: Round Two - A bosses charter, with or without 'guarantees' | The Lisbon Assurances - A Closer Look

No to Lisbon Groups List can be found here.

Harry Van Bommel

In 2005 the Dutch people overwhelmingly said ‘no’ to the constitutional treaty, just as the French had done some days before. In contrast to the Irish, this was the first time the Dutch people had been allowed a say about the future of Europe; and they made it clear that they didn’t like the way it was heading. Did they want to get out of the EU? No - the Dutch are big supporters of EU membership, just like the Irish, but they don’t want Europe to develop into a federal superstate.

Related Links:
VOTE NO to Lisbon - Raft on the Liffey Launch | Irish Friends of Palestine Against Lisbon put their case to the public in Dublin's Grafton Street | Green Party U-Turn on a Democratic EU | The Lisbon Treaty and the Triumph of Technocracy | Debut of Irish Friends of Palestine Against Lisbon outside Dublin EU Parliament Offices | 13 Things the Lisbon Treaty Would Do | The Legal guarantees on Lisbon Treaty will not change treaty - a propaganda stunt to mislead voters | Dáil shouldn't have inferior Lisbon Treaty powers to German Parliament, controlling ministers | The Lisbon Treaty, Alan Shatter and the guys in hoods! | Lisbon Treaty News: German Constitutional Court delays Germany’s ratification of the Lisbon Treaty | The Gurantees: Comment by Jens-Peter Bonde | Spoofing the Irish media and public with Lisbon “guarantees” that guarantee nothing | Supposed ‘hard fight’ to secure guarantees on Lisbon Treaty: a clever tactic to mislead says McKenna | Lisbon: Round Two - A bosses charter, with or without 'guarantees' | The Lisbon Assurances - A Closer Look

English Language Version of Dutch Socialist Party Website - http://international.sp.nl/

Gently Down the Stream

Irish (and tourist) people wake up to a sign of the coming times in Dublin.

Hello friends,

This Morning, Saturday the 8th August at 7am, Irish Friends of Palestine Against Lisbon (IFPAL) launched the Vote No To Lisbon raft on the River Liffey in Dublin City Centre.

Irish Friends of Palestine Against Lisbon are calling for Irish voters to oppose the Lisbon Treaty in the forthcoming re-run of the Lisbon Treaty Referendum, a referendum that is exactly the same as the one they have rejected already. VOTE NO to Lisbon on October 2nd.

Issued on behalf of IFPAL.

Related Links:
Irish Friends of Palestine Against Lisbon put their case to the public in Dublin's Grafton Street | Green Party U-Turn on a Democratic EU | The Lisbon Treaty and the Triumph of Technocracy | Debut of Irish Friends of Palestine Against Lisbon outside Dublin EU Parliament Offices | 13 Things the Lisbon Treaty Would Do | The Legal guarantees on Lisbon Treaty will not change treaty - a propaganda stunt to mislead voters | Dáil shouldn't have inferior Lisbon Treaty powers to German Parliament, controlling ministers | The Lisbon Treaty, Alan Shatter and the guys in hoods! | Lisbon Treaty News: German Constitutional Court delays Germany’s ratification of the Lisbon Treaty | The Gurantees: Comment by Jens-Peter Bonde | Spoofing the Irish media and public with Lisbon “guarantees” that guarantee nothing | Supposed ‘hard fight’ to secure guarantees on Lisbon Treaty: a clever tactic to mislead says McKenna | Lisbon: Round Two - A bosses charter, with or without 'guarantees' | The Lisbon Assurances - A Closer Look

Irish Friends of Palestine Against Lisbon Website - www.ifpal.ie

Raymond Deane

My complaint to the Israeli Embassy elicits a remarkably informal and rude reply, to which I respond as politely as I can under the circumstances...

Related Links:
Emergency Protest: Israel must Release the Free Gaza activists | Reports that Free Gaza boat 'Spirit of Humanity' has been boarded by the Israeli Navy. | IFPAL Press Release 29th June | Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign | Raymond Deane's Facebook Page

From the Letter:
"... Your final gambit constitutes the standard recourse to red herrings: the fact that Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia violate human rights doesn't in some mysterious way mitigate Israeli crimes, although it's interesting that you implicitly acknowledge that Israel belongs in such dubious company. Even if it were true that Israel is "a liberal democracy" - which it is not, because Israel is an Apartheid ethnocracy or racial state - this would in no way mitigate its crimes." - Raymond Deane.