While unconditionally opposing the policies of Zionism and their slaughter in Gaza it is important to look at the tactics of Hamas. Does their political, ideological and military tactics, such as firing rockets in Israel weaken or strengthen the Palestinian struggles. There is a difference between an offensive tactic like firing rockets into Israel and a defensive military strategy such as organizing a new intifada around mass collective workers organizations and from this base defend the Palestinian people with armed struggle. John Throne. read full story / add a comment

the NCT was brought in to inject life into the flagging motor sales industry in celtic tiger days, and to create lucrative business opportunites for some lucky people who happened to well connected and in the loop. It's all a bit of a money making scam, which targets the poor disproportionally, gives gardai draconian powers of seizure. Chronic delays in the test system, not to mention reports of corrupt practices make the thing a nightmare for the less well off trying to keep a vehicle on the road in order to increase their chances of finding work. Just another obstacle put in the way of the poorer classes which serves to limit their possibilities and their movements. read full story / add a comment

In reaction to an adverse Supreme Court ruling against Argentina, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced that Argentina would offer new bonds to its creditors governed under Argentine law. The proposed debt swap would involve the 92% of the country's creditors that agreed to restructure in the wake of the country's 2001 default. While the debt swap proposes an alternative for the South American country to avoid paying hold-outs, it fails to reverse the global implications on debt markets, debt restructuring and financial stability. read full story / add a comment

In 2012 public opposition forced the ditching of a plan for a "retirement village" on the side of the Dublin mountains, isolated from services and public transport and cut off by the M50, in an area normally zoned for agriculture and public amenity and widely used by the public. A previous plan for a private school on the site had been rejected for similar reasons in 2005. After the local elections the plan is back in a lightly tweaked form, with the developer's sister among a number of newly elected councillors supporting the project. read full story / add a comment

The inaugural Ruairí Ó Brádaigh Summer School will take place at the Abbey Hotel, Roscommon on June 6,7, and 8. The event will involve discussion and debate covering a range of topics and issues which were central to the life of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh such as the history and development of Irish Republicanism, the Irish language, the international dimension of the Irish struggle in the context of global anti-imperialism and the Éire Nua programme for a New Ireland of which Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was an architect and champion. The summer school will also include a reflection on the life of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh by people who were comrades and friends over many decades. Among the speakers are Professor Robert W. White, biographer of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Desmond Fennell, Dr Kevin Bean, Dr Marisa McGlinchey, Maura Harrington and the President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton. read full story / add a comment

Christian Aid Ireland, Grupo Raíces (Grúpa Fréamhacha), Justice for Colombia Ireland, LASC and Trócaire are calling the Irish Parliament not to ratify an EU-Colombia Free Trade Agreement which could probably be voted in June this year.

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/tds-and-senators-...ombia read full story / add a comment

Are you

- active in social movement struggles but need space to stand back, reflect, recharge?
- involved in community and voluntary activism but feel trapped by the structures?
- politically minded but don’t know how to turn that into an effective and radical practice?
- clear that social change is central to you but unsure how to build a life around it?
- interested in spending a year with your peers and experienced practitioners?
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To: Former participants/members of the Rossport Solidarity Camp, potential future volunteers, all who wish to work in solidarity for social, environmental and economic justice in the struggle against the Shell Corrib Gas Project.

We invite you to a meeting to review the current status of the solidarity movement and discuss how we can best continue our work into the future. read full story / add a comment

Along with Anto Macaba I recruited Joe Higgins to socialism and Militant/SP. He would later go on to refuse to support my right to appeal against my expulsion from that organization. He put his own position in that organization over principle.

Editors Note: The Socialist Party website has a statement reproduced in the first comment below, saying that Joe is NOT retiring from political activity but will NOT stand in the next general election read full story / add a comment

On Monday, the Supreme Court hears arguments between Argentina and holdouts who refused two debt restructuring deals after Argentina defaulted on its debts in 2001. The Supreme Court Justices will determine if predatory hedge fund, NML Capital can obtain information from US Banks that reveal Argentina's holdings in order to target those assets for debt payments. The Obama Administration is siding with Argentina in the case. In the summer, the Supreme Court will also decide if it will hear a much broader case between Argentina and the hedge funds that impacts extreme poverty, official US debt policy and country debt restructuring. read full story / add a comment

The annual International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank meetings are focusing on the role of high debt burdens in both global economic recovery and increasing inequality. At the onset of the meetings, the G24 released an IMF statement noting that the IMF's failure to implement quota reform and the outcome of the US Supreme Court Argentina/NML Capital case impacts global inequality. read full story / add a comment

Cork Airport is being left in the lurch while other Irish airports receive new services. read full story / add a comment

Jubilee USA Network, a religious anti-poverty coalition, along with 78 other religious and development groups filed with the US Supreme Court in the case between Argentina and NML Capital read full story / add a comment

Sadly, Tony Benn has died aged 88 "After the war people said, 'If you can plan for war, why can't you plan for peace?' When I was 17, I had a letter from the government saying, 'Dear Mr. Benn, will you turn up when you're 17 1/2? We'll give you free food, free clothes, free training, free accommodation, and two shillings, ten pence a day to just kill Germans.' People said, well, if you can have full employment to kill people, why in God's name couldn't you have full employment and good schools, good hospitals, good houses?" -Tony Benn (1925-2014): read full story / add a comment

Post offices: loss of community, Tesco takeover and rush to electronics?
In a press statement Wayne Flanagan Tobin an independent candidate for elucidates the current situation regarding local post offices.
Flanagan Tobin opened:
“Post offices have served a very important role over the years as far as the payment of welfare, and those on welfare are concerned. People have been able to go into the post offices and collect their welfare payments without any big stigma being attached, and they have often gotten to know the post master or post office staff and have developed good relationships with them. “ read full story / add a comment

Carlow, Kildare, Wicklow, Wexford and Kilkenny are now recruiting. read full story / add a comment

Foreign backed coup in Kiev.

This year will mark the one hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. Observing the media of Europe and the U.S one could be forgiven for seeing startling similarities between 2014 and 1914. Imperialist powers and entangling alliances pitting the world into two opposing camps over the fate of a small nation. In this case the autonomous Republic of Crimea. Crimea which is an autonomous region belonging to Ukraine but with an ethnic Russian majority has held the attention of world since the Pro-Russian government of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown by rioters in the countries capital of Kiev on February 23rd, 2014.
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Argentina officially requested that the US Supreme Court hear an appeal in a debt case that will impact people living in extreme poverty around the world. The case dates back to Argentina's 2001 default, after which 92% of all Argentine bond holders restructured their defaulted debt. Predatory hedge fund, NML Capital leads a small group of holdouts who won judgments for payment in lower US Courts. NML Capital never invested in Argentina and bought the debt cheaply after Argentina's default. Because sovereign lending is contracted in the United States, the precedent the case sets impacts some of the poorest economies around the globe and allows these hedge funds to target assets that benefit poor people. The International Monetary Fund, the Paris Club, legitimate investors, the US and most governments oppose this predatory behavior because it cancels the benefits of debt relief, makes sovereign debt restructuring more difficult and limits credit to poor countries read full story / add a comment

Argentina will file its final US Supreme Court appeal in the NML Capital hedge fund debt case before this Tuesday, February 18th. Legal observers, economists, investors, the United Nations, the Obama Administration, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the religious community have closely monitored the proceedings. read full story / add a comment

Washington, DC - Heads of state, financial ministers, celebrities and representatives from many of the worlds most powerful corporations are meeting in Davos, Switzerland for the 2014 World Economic Forum. This year's theme of the forum is "The Reshaping of the World: Consequences for Society, Politics and Business." The Forum has focused on income inequality, the impacts of low economic growth and climate change. In advance of this year's forum Oxfam International released a report that noted that the world's 85 richest individuals have as much wealth as 3.5 billion people or half the world's population. read full story / add a comment