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The latest Irish Times (IPSOS/MRBI) opinion poll has been widely discussed in the media in recent days, with claims being made that it heralds the rising from the grave of Fianna Fail. In reality, this is a gross spinning of the facts and an attempt by the media and the establishment to demoralise anti-austerity activists, and rehabilitate Fianna Fail.

There is no question but that the Property Tax is the anti-austerity issue this year, writes Cllr Matthew Waine. The planned robbery of peoples’ wages, pensions & welfare payments by a government that includes the Labour Party is the final straw for many people.

Since the anti-globalisation movement of the late '90s and early 2000s, wherever the political representatives and economic thinkers of capital met, they encountered protest and opposition. The anti-worker and environmentally unsustainable implications of their free trade and neo-liberal agenda were exposed at Seattle, Genoa and worldwide.

Eyewitness reports of Garda violence at South Dublin County Council, on 11 February. Photo: Paul Murphy MEP being arrested by plain clothes Gardaí.

Zero Dark Thirty, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, sets out to depict – but according to Bigelow not necessarily endorse – the “greatest manhunt in history”, the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Despite Bigelow’s claims of artistic neutrality, her film is a grotesque and blatant propaganda piece for US foreign policy post 9/11 and its criminal use of torture in particular.

What a rancid state and political establishment. Even the whitewash of a report by  devout Catholic, Martin McAleese illustrates intimate state involvement of various hues in the Magdalene Laundries. Yet, the mealy-mouthed immediate response from the government constituted a blatant shirking of responsibility, and a refusal to apologise, or even clearly admit wrongdoing on behalf of the state.

The following letter was sent by Paul Murphy MEP to Minister Varadkar, to clarify the facts made on the 27 January episode of The Week in Politics. Below is a link to the program for any who missed it,

The ‘butterfly effect’ is used to explain a complicated theory touching on mathematics and meteorology. It posits that the flap of the slender wings of a butterfly could create minuscule changes in the atmosphere that might ultimately be sufficiently enhanced to accelerate or delay a faraway tornado or alter its path. The idea might help explain recent dramatic events in the Sahel region of north Africa, notably the French military intervention in Mali and the murderous events at the In Amenas energy plant in south east Algeria.

The Irish political establishment will no doubt use its presidency of the EU to paint a rosy picture of a ‘social' European Union. But such a picture will jar dramatically with the reality of an EU that is the driving force in the austerity destroying lives in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe.

The theatrical release of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln is situated between important events and anniversaries. This past 22 September marked the 150th anniversary of the preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, 6 November saw the re-election of the first black president, Barack Obama, to a second term and 1 January, 2013 is the 150th anniversary of the final implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation.