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Public Inquiry
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

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

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Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

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Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link ?British Workers Come Last in Starmer?s Britain?: Employers Who Hire Indian Workers Given Major Tax ... Tue May 06, 2025 17:16 | Will Jones
Keir Starmer has been accused of putting British workers last after it emerged that employers who hire Indian workers are to be given a major tax break under Labour's new trade deal.
The post “British Workers Come Last in Starmer’s Britain”: Employers Who Hire Indian Workers Given Major Tax Break in Labour Trade Deal appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Nicola Sturgeon Refuses to Apologise to Women Over Self-ID Gender Policy, Saying ?Trans Lives Could ... Tue May 06, 2025 15:10 | Will Jones
A defiant Nicola Sturgeon has refused to apologise to women for her self-ID gender policy after the Supreme Court ruled trans women are not women, saying "trans lives could become unliveable".
The post Nicola Sturgeon Refuses to Apologise to Women Over Self-ID Gender Policy, Saying “Trans Lives Could Become Unliveable” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link What Lucy Powell?s Grooming Gang Comments Tell Us About Labour Tue May 06, 2025 13:00 | Andrew Doyle
Voicing concerns about grooming gangs is a "dog-whistle", a "little trumpet" and jumping "on a bandwagon of the far Right". That's what Labour really thinks, says Andrew Doyle, and voters will not be forgiving.
The post What Lucy Powell’s Grooming Gang Comments Tell Us About Labour appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Merz Humiliated as He LOSES Vote to Become German Chancellor Tue May 06, 2025 11:07 | Will Jones
Friedrich Merz,?leader of the German conservatives, was humiliated in Parliament today as he failed to win a majority in a secret ballot to become Chancellor. Turns out selling out to the Left has consequences.
The post Merz Humiliated as He LOSES Vote to Become German Chancellor appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link German Political Class Gleefully Planning to Ramp Up Persecution of AfD and its Supporters, Because ... Tue May 06, 2025 09:00 | Eugyppius
In Germany, 'democracy' now demands that the most popular party be kicked off the media, stripped of its funding and even banned outright, according to leading figures. Germany is a really stupid country, says Eugyppius.
The post German Political Class Gleefully Planning to Ramp Up Persecution of AfD and its Supporters, Because Hitler 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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The Bourgeois Left supports nationalisation of Irish banks

category national | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis author Tuesday September 01, 2009 13:49author by Paddy Hackett - Noneauthor email rasherrs at eircom dot net Report this post to the editors

NAMA and nationalisation

For the working class the debate over whether to nationalize Irish banks or support NAMA is a false debate.

For the working class the debate over whether to nationalize Irish banks or support NAMA is a false debate. It is a debate that has been whipped up by the bourgeois media and a substantial component of the bourgeois political establishment together with sections of the radical left. Neither NAMA nor nationalisation can serve the class interests of the working class. Either policy is essentially bourgeois in character. Consequently the debate is really a debate within the bourgeoisie as to what option best suits its class interests. Much of the Irish Left support nationalization. Some with the qualification of nationalization under workers' control. But such qualifications make little difference to the essential nature of the policy of nationalization as a bourgeois policy. Under capitalism the workers can never control the banks. It is a contradiction to suggest that banks can be controlled by the working class. By definition workers can never nationalise the banks under workers’ control. They can only annihilate them by destroying capitalism without which banks cannot exist.

The planned march for the month of September against NAMA is an attempt to organize the working class around the wrong issues --an issue from which the working class have nothing ultimately to gain. It is similar to organising a march against the Fianna Fail party and for the Fine Gael party. The left that promotes this march are playing the working class right into the hands of capitalism by rallying the workers around an issue that is about the class interests of the bourgeoisie and thereby against the class interests of workers. There is a strategy afoot by People before Profits and the Socialist Party to misdirect the working class into a struggle against itself. The prospective NAMA march is just this. Mass marches should have been held months ago against the income levy --admittedly there was the odd isolated protest in the absence of the general active support from the trade union leadership as a whole. The ICTU and other elements within the labour movement successfully obstructed attempts to organise a mass strike and demonstration. This was a decisive piece of treachery. It has seriously weakened the working class struggle. There need to be rallies and other forms of mass activity against the cut back in the living standards of the working class. A gigantic rally is needed to express popular opposition to the forthcoming slash and burn budget. Protests, rallies and strikes need to be linked into each other to create a continuum of struggle culminating in mass opposition to the forthcoming budget. Slogans expressing the class interests of the working class are needed.

If old age pensioners can “successfully” organize against the abolition of the free medical cards for OAPs swiftly then the labour organizations can surely organize at least as swiftly against the income levy and many other class issues. So far the Irish state and its bourgeoisie have had an easy run. There has been minimal resistance to the crassly anti-working class policies of Fianna Fail and the Greens. If anything the bourgeois left have been at most fertilising the conditions for alternate capitalist parties gaining power –Fine Gael and Labour et al.

Paddy Hackett

Related Link: http://paddy-hackett.blogspot.com/
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