Thanks to the SpunOut.ie team, myself and a friend found ourselves with a once in a lifetime opportunity. We had won a competition to see Noam Chomsky speak.

The night to see Chomsky came and we were not sure what to expect, having only Chomsky’s Youtube broadcasts as a rough guide. As soon as he begun speaking though, our imaginations started firing. We listened to a man who spoke about what our hearts had told us, but what the world around us had convinced us not to believe. ... read full story / add a comment

Seeking to diversify in an era of ever tightening margins in the book trade the esteemed publisher Faber and Faber is moving into the lucrative, and unregulated, area of creative writing classes. ... read full story / add a comment

LORNA SIGGINS Western Correspondent
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1123/1....html

Mon, Nov 23, 2009

PEACE AND human rights organisation Afri plans to initiate a national “active citizenship” campaign in the new year as it says “traditional sources of authority have proven to be ineffective”. ... read full story / add a comment

Hundreds of private e-mail messages and documents of prominent American and British climate researchers hacked from a computer server at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (aka Hadley CRU) show that climate scientists conspired to overstate the case for a human influence on climate change. ... read full story / add a comment

"In the heart of this first world I found scenes more reminiscent of the third world.."
... read full story / add a comment

Dave Isaacson criicises leading SWP members who have undermind and sabotaged attempts to forge rank and file organisation in the CWU. Now SWP member Jane Loftus has actually endorsed a sellout deal. Full text at link.

There was one significant omission in Jim Moody’s article on the sell-out of the postal strike by the Communication Workers Union leadership, which allowed CWU president Jane Loftus to come out of it looking rather good, when actually she has been an utter disgrace (‘Militants condemn sell-out’, November 12).

Loftus, a long-standing member of the Socialist Workers Party and therefore supposedly a revolutionary, is also a member of the CWU’s postal executive committee (PEC), which voted unanimously on November 5 to accept the interim agreement and call off the strikes, just as the strength of the postal workers was starting to be realised. This goes completely against the position of Loftus’s organisation. Socialist Worker has rightly stated that “Leaders of the postal workers’ union were wrong to suspend strikes at Royal Mail last week … There was no reason for the union to sign up to the agreement. The proposed escalation of strike action - that would have seen two 24-hour strikes in close succession last week - had widespread support within the union” (November 14). ... read full story / add a comment

The Student's Union of NUI Maynooth has confirmed, via email correspondence, that they will not be encouraging NUIM students to support the strike on Tuesday. The full text of the email correspondence is presented below. ... read full story / add a comment

Brazilian Workers Charge Shell with "Environmental Crimes"

Brazilian WorkersLeft to right: Rasteiro, Cascone, de Lima

(November 12, New York City) -- Brazilian chemical workers addressing a New
York audience of students, academics, and union members said that the Shell
Oil Company, one of the world's largest, had willfully ignored
life-threatening exposures to its workers who handled hazardous chemicals in
South America. ... read full story / add a comment

The new free monthly newsletter featuring the latest updates from the No Borders Network and beyond: ... read full story / add a comment

Yassamine Mather writes on how workers confidence has increased in the ongoing demonstrations in Iran. While the militias beat many protesters, they were also opposed and in some cases forced to retreat. Full text at link.

No-one in Iran will ever forget November 4 2009. It was the day when illegal demonstrations in at least six separate locations in Tehran and 20 cities and university campuses throughout the country overshadowed the state-organised event. As the national broadcasting service was showing live pictures of the gathering outside the former US embassy, shouts of “Death to the dictator” from protesters on neighbouring streets and squares were so loud that it was difficult to hear the minister’s speech. In Tehran the six locations were Enghelab Square, Ferdowsi, Haft Tir, Enghelab Square, Vali Asr and Vanak Square.
... read full story / add a comment

Des Dalton has become leader of Republican Sinn Fein
... read full story / add a comment

Yassamine Mather interviews Ali Pichgah a leader of the Iranian oilworkers strikers during the revolutionary period.Ali emphasises the importance of opposing all Imperialist sanctions. Full text of interview at link

How do you evaluate the recent political protests and the role of the working class in them?

The protest against the regime’s rigged elections took such dimensions because the majority of the population are opposed to the absence of political freedoms in Iran. In particular the youth, who constitute a high percentage of the population, feel contempt for the way the religious state interferes in their private lives. People are losing patience and in general opposition to the regime has reached unprecedented levels. I think what is different this time is the terrible economic situation. Inflation above 25%, mass unemployment, the growing gap between rich and the poor ... and from this point of view one can say that the relentless workers’ struggles of the last two years against job losses and poverty, against non-payment of wages, as well as the demonstrations by teachers, nurses and so on against the economic policies of the government, were precursors to the huge demonstrations we saw this summer.

Of course, many of these protests were defensive (wage-earners trying to maintain what little they had), yet the working class has remained the most persistent opposition to the entire regime over the last few years, in the run-up to June 2009. Coincidently we see the continuation of the mass protests of early summer in the unprecedented level of workers’ struggles in recent weeks, the victory of the Iran Khodro workers (where the regime clearly retreated), the revolutionary tactics of Pars Wagon workers (from ransacking the refectory to mounting hunger strikes), workers bringing their families along to demonstrations .
... read full story / add a comment

An important study which illustrates the paucity of US media reports of civilian deaths in Iraq. hence it is hardly shocking that US citizens are unaware tof the true extent of civilian casualties. Full story at related link.

In February of 2007 Associated Press conducted a survey of 1,002 adults across the United States about their perceptions of the war in Iraq. Whilst the respondents accurately estimated the death toll of U.S. soldiers (the median estimate was 2,974 while the actual toll at the time was 3,100), they grossly underestimated the number of Iraqi civilian casualties (the median answer was 9,890 at a time when several estimates put the toll at least 10 times that number and some as high as 50 times that number). ... read full story / add a comment

THE HEALTH Service Executive is examining substantial fees paid by dozens of health service bodies and agencies to employer’s body Ibec. ... read full story / add a comment

Last week a consortium of three companies bought a Sellafield site with a view to a 2016 expansion of
UK nuclear energy provision, this emanates from the *Entente Formidable* fiscal deal between the Heir
to Slitherin' Gordon Brown (pal of Alistair Campbell , currently being investigated for Provence parties
and expenses and best matey of Toxic Blair, who really had to go and is not getting Europe BTW) and
the Gallic Shrimp Premier Sarkozy.

Heres the Contract site which the Irish Times did not make mention of during the sale period :

[] http://www.contractjournal.com/Articles/2009/10/28/7308....html ... read full story / add a comment

Leading British Marxist activist and theoretician Chris Harman has passed away. Former editor of Socialist Worker and International Socialism Journal, Chris was a leading member of the SWP. ... read full story / add a comment

In the region of 20,000 workers march through Cork City centre today to oppose Government cuts and the ongoing attacks on wages and conditions. ... read full story / add a comment

Vibrant rallies were held today in Dublin, Cork, Dundalk, Galway, Limerick, Sligo, Tullamore and Waterford to protest against the treatment of workers and the vulnerable in Irish society. It is estimated that over 20,000 marched in Dublin, up to 15,000 marched in Cork and up to 5,000 or more in other cities and towns around Ireland. This is undoubtedly a powerful collective message to our government. ... read full story / add a comment

Britain:NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear has spoken out against threats to reporters by Islamophobic racists. Dear called for “tough and urgent action” against the EDL and other Islaophobic and racist groups after reporter , Marc Vallée, and video journalist, Jason N. Parkinson, were intimidated verbally and by email for their coverage of an EDL march last weekend.
... read full story / add a comment

Brian Currin, a South African attorney working as a mediator, said the left-wing nationalist movement should not stop putting forward new initiatives despite the arrest of its top members. ... read full story / add a comment