Month: March 2014
20 posts
Statement on proposals for a Dublin Mayor
Socialist Party demands stand alone Plebiscite whereby massively far-reaching proposals can be properly debated. Forcing a Plebiscite on May 23 along with Local and Euro Elections, with no adequate time for debate, would be anti-democratic and unacceptable.
State must build public housing
Despite more than 289,000 vacant dwellings in Census 2011, there is the most serious housing crisis seen in this country for decades. Few of these vacant properties are being turned over to the state. Many are being deliberately held onto by developers, Nama or receivers, clearly waiting for prices to rise again and turn a profit.
Taking a stand against fracking
Leading anti-fracking campaigner and Socialist Party member Donal O'Cofaigh has been selected by anti-fracking activists to stand as a local election candidate in Enniskillen in May. Here he outlines the importance of the election campaign and the fight for a seat to strengthen the movement to stop fracking beyond the elections.
Crimea breaks away to join Russia – tensions between powers worsen
Crimea’s 16 March referendum saw an overwhelming majority vote in favour of joining Russia. According to the claimed official result, 96.77% voted ‘for’ integration and turnout was 83.1%. Tens of thousands celebrated in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea.
Open forum: Fighting the water tax & austerity
First they asked us to pay for the crisis, now they are asking us to pay for the “recovery”! Hardly a day goes by without some new announcement in the media about economic recovery. But rather than seizing the so-called recovery to ease the burden, the government are actually stepping up their austerity agenda. A sharp edge of this continuing policy is the drive to impose water charges.
Dublin – Winning an MEP seat for the left & the working class movement
Paul Murphy, members of the Socialist Party, and many more supporters of Paul’s work as an MEP have put in a huge effort to highlight crucial issues and to put Paul in the best position possible to retain the seat won by Joe Higgins in 2009, which Paul took over three years ago in March 2011.
Ireland’s inequality increases
New figures released for 2013 highlight how Ireland is a country of widening inequality, with a massive divide growing between the super-rich elite and big business on the one hand and the majority of the population subjected to brutal austerity on the other.
NUIG students smash homophobia on campus
The week of a college referendum on whether or not the Students' Union should support gay marriage has seen hundreds of NUI Galway students take a stand against anti-LGBTQ bigotry and fear-mongering. Last Wednesday, hundreds of students crowded around an anti-gay marriage stall set up on the main campus canteen, standing there for hours and showing the homophobic campaigners behind the display that they weren't welcome in the college.
Youth guarantee: forced cheap labour
The Youth Guarantee was the crowning achievement of the Irish Presidency of the EU in 2013. The Labour Party have hailed it from the rooftops, Emer Costello MEP, has even gone to the bother of holding meetings around the city to promote it. But what does it really guarantee?
Capitalism – “Working for the few”
We are living in a world where there is massive social and economic inequality. This situation is outlined in the Oxfam briefing paper “Working for the Few” which shows that the top one percent of the population have increased their income since 2008 and seven out of ten people live in countries where economic inequality has increased in the last 30 years. While multinationals get away with paying a minimal tax rate we are bombarded by such unfair taxes as the property tax and the up-coming water charge.