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international / rights, freedoms and repression Thursday September 22, 2011 - 13:39 by An Draigneán Donn
 26 comments (last - tuesday september 27, 2011 - 14:11)
Libya is not only a republic. Officially, it does not call itself a ‘Jumhuriya’. Instead, it is described as a ‘Jamahiriya’, meaning a republic with a system of direct democracy. Not too many non-Libyans are aware that this North African country, conquered several times in the past - and which lost thousands of its citizens, including the legendary hero Omar Mukhtar, as martyrs, to colonialism - has been experimenting since the late 1970s with a governmental policy and practice that enables it to credit its own society as being ahead of a number of Western regimes that have habitually claimed to be the cradle of democracy. ... read full story / add a comment
international / gender and sexuality Friday September 16, 2011 - 14:34 by John Cornford
Iran hangs men for having gay sex. Confirmed by the Iranian news agency ISNA Iran. Full story at Three Iranian men have been executed after being found guilty of charges related to homosexuality, according to a semi-official news agency. The men, only identified by their initials, were hanged on Sunday in the south-western city of Ahvaz, the capital of Iran's Khuzestan province. "The three convicts were sentenced to death based on the articles 108 and 110 of Iran's Islamic penal code, for acts against the sharia law and bad deeds," the Isna agency quoted a judiciary official in Khuzestan as saying. Iran Human Rights, an independent NGO based in Norway, said the men were charged with "lavat" – sexual intercourse between two men. It is not clear whether the three men were homosexuals or merely smeared with homosexualityaccused of being gay. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Friday September 16, 2011 - 13:57 by Yassamine Mather
Yassamine Mather writes on developments in the Middle East and North Africa. She analyses the breach between Israel and Turkey and the continuing Israeli threat . The world is only just beginning to realise the international consequences of the Arab awakening. Of course, Israel was the first to express concerns in the first days of the protests against president Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. It joined Saudi Arabia in warning the Obama administration that Mubarak’s downfall would endanger the ‘peace process’ with the Palestinians. Events in the last few weeks have proved them both right. First came the deterioration of Israeli-Turkish relations. For decades Turkey has been the single most important economic partner of the Zionist state. However, relations between this key Nato ally and Israel broke down after Israel refused to apologise for its deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that resulted in the death of eight Turks and a Turkish-American. In response, Turkey expelled several senior Israeli diplomats, suspended military cooperation and boosted naval patrols in the eastern Mediterranean. ... read full story / add a comment
national / miscellaneous Friday September 09, 2011 - 14:45 by MediaMega
2 comments (last - sunday september 11, 2011 - 09:30)
IRELAND is in the grip of a "heroin epidemic", while alcohol abuse among the young is leading them towards drug use, two youth support organisations warned yesterday. The Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children were told by Spunout and the Aislinn Adolescent Addiction Centre that alcohol was both a gateway and relapse drug and that issues such as the availability of alcohol and its below-cost selling needed to be tackled as a matter of urgency. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-capitalism Friday September 09, 2011 - 13:04 by Simon Basketter
Papers found in Tripoli expose links between Libya and MI6 relating to rendition and the torture of prisoners. Previous investigations were a whitewash, this must not be allowed to happen again. New documents expose years of murderous interventions in Libya by British governments. Within days of celebrating their role in overthrowing former dictator Gaddafi, the shallowness of British claims to support democracy in Libya was shown in evidence of their support for torture. After years of denial and cover-up by both Labour and Tory governments there is now panic in the political establishment. ... read full story / add a comment
national / anti-capitalism Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 23:27 by Freeman Gerry
Fascinating example of double-speak and newthink in the latest of RTE's press-releases on behalf of our overlords in the IMF: http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0907/imf-business.html Instructive and personally therapeutic to sift through the seemingly innocuous and dry-as-dust statements therein and see what lies behind the appearance of 'news.' ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 14:03 by James Turley
James Turley looks at developments in Libya: the divisions among the rebels, how most of the Left opposed NATO intervention. More at link. As it threatened, briefly, to do this spring, the regime of Muammar al-Gaddafi has collapsed. The forces previously known as the Libyan rebels have seized power in most of the country, including the capital, Tripoli - assisted, of course, by months of aerial bombardment by Britain, France and America. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Wednesday September 07, 2011 - 13:43 by pat c
Latest on Libyan situation.: 52 more airstrikes by NATO and truce talks continue in some areas. Tense situation in Tripoli as water is restored to some. The humanitarian crisis in Libya is deepening as NATO-backed forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) continue their offensive to crush forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, with the assistance of NATO bombing and special forces troops. Yesterday AFP reported artillery fire as NTC prepared to attack Surt, Gaddafi’s home city in the center of Libya’s Mediterranean coast. Surt was heavily bombed on Sunday, with NATO concentrating most of its 52 airstrikes on Libya that day on the city. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Tuesday September 06, 2011 - 18:27 by pat c
I wouldn't totally agree with the analysis in this article by Peter Symonds but its interesting in the way it deals with the divisions among the rebels and the continuing NATO bombing of Libya. Full story at link below. Pro-Gaddafi forces continue to control Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte, Bani Walid and the regions of Jufra and Sebha. Attention is currently focused on Bani Walid, a desert town of 60,000 about 150 kilometres south-east of Tripoli. Negotiations for its surrender have broken down and opposition militia have cut off the town. Over the weekend, NATO carried out more than 200 sorties over Libya, bombing 100 targets including near Bani Walid, Sirte, Hun, Buwayrat, Sebha and Waddan. Despite NATO air support and estimates that pro-Gaddafi fighters number fewer than 100, the NTC is using the siege to force tribal elders to negotiate a surrender. ... read full story / add a comment 
national / crime and justice Tuesday September 06, 2011 - 12:27 by Seán Ryan
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Proof that the Garda Ombudsman is a paint job. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Monday September 05, 2011 - 13:13 by Peter Symonds
3 comments (last - monday september 05, 2011 - 19:41)
Peter Symonds analyses the reports of dovuments found in Gadaffis security chiefs office. Peter concludes that they show that NATO was in cahoots with Gadaffi until shortly before they started bombing Libya. A hoard of secret documents uncovered in the Tripoli offices of Libya’s External Security Organisation on Friday has exposed the lie that NATO began bombing Libya for humanitarian reasons or has moved to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi because of concerns over his regime’s abuse of democratic rights. ... read full story / add a comment
international / environment Saturday September 03, 2011 - 14:29 by RB
Bad news for the AGW deniers. Another one of their papers is discredited. Even the editor of the journal that published it is resigning. The editor of a science journal has resigned after admitting that a recent paper casting doubt on man-made climate change should not have been published. The paper, by US scientists Roy Spencer and William Braswell, claimed that computer models of climate inflated projections of temperature increase. It was seized on by "sceptic" bloggers, but attacked by mainstream scientists. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / rights, freedoms and repression Friday September 02, 2011 - 21:31 by libertarian leninist
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Looking for balance? Andrew Flood gets out his scales and tries to find some balance in Libya. Did the Left come down too heavily on one side? The sudden end of the Gaddafi regime some 6 months after the start of the Libyan revolt leaves some difficult questions unanswered for the left. Gaddafi’s determination to physically crush the revolt quickly transformed it into a civil war, a civil war that saw considerable imperialist intervention on the rebel side, intervention that was essential to their eventual victory. This and Gaddafi’s historic record led to some on the left taking his side in the civil war while other organisations tried to balance support for the ‘Arab spring’s’ arrival in Libya with opposition to imperialism. This question of where the balance lies between international solidarity with pro-democracy movements and opposition to imperialism could well rapidly return to the top of the agenda in a very much bigger way as the regime in Syria continues its months long military suppression of the democracy movement there. ... read full story / add a comment
international / worker & community struggles and protests Friday September 02, 2011 - 21:19 by SWPer
Lee Sustar of Socialist Worker, US writes on developments in the Strian revolutionary movement and US sanctions and and attempts to lead the movement astray. AFTER NEARLY six months of continuous mobilization in the face of savage repression, the Syrian revolutionary movement is debating its future as the U.S. tries to manipulate the opposition to suit its own aims in the Middle East. Peter Harling and Robert Malley of the pro-imperialist think tank, the International Crisis Group, correctly point out that these economic changes helped set the stage for the revolution: "For the most part, the regime has been waging war against its original social constituency. When Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, came to power, his regime, dominated by members of the Alawite branch of Islam, embodied the neglected countryside, its peasants and exploited underclass. Today's ruling elite has forgotten its roots. Its members inherited power rather than fought for it, grew up in Damascus, mimicked the ways of the urban upper class with which they mingled, and led a process of economic liberalization at the provinces' expense." ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Friday September 02, 2011 - 15:02 by pat c
8 comments (last - thursday september 08, 2011 - 15:41)
Good news! A United Nations report says Israeli mercenaries used excessive force in its attack on the Flotilla last year. But bizarrely the UN claims that the Pirate Blockade imposed by Israel is legal! At least the Turkish Govt have expelled a Mossad agent, err, I mean the Israeli Ambassador. Turkey is to expel the Israeli ambassador after details emerged of a UN report into last year's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla. Officials in Ankara said it was also suspending all remaining military agreements with Israel. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said some of the report's findings, leaked to the New York Times, were unacceptable.Turkey wants Israel to apologise for the raid but it has refused to do so. ... read full story / add a comment
international / rights, freedoms and repression Thursday September 01, 2011 - 19:37 by Richard Brenner
2 comments (last - friday september 02, 2011 - 21:03)
How will the revolution in Libya advance now that Gadaffi has fallen? The dangers and opportunities are discussed in this article by Richard Brenner. More material regarding the Libyan revolution is available at the League for the Fifth international website. In Tripoli in the early days of the uprising, Gaddafi’s forces had already murdered between 200 and 700 unarmed demonstrators. Like all victorious uprisings the Libyan Revolution will have to crush the remaining elements of the old regime including Gaddafi and his sons. They should not be tried but put to swift revolutionary justice. At the same time the revolution needs to discipline itself. The horrifying cases of killings of black people need to be stopped. Gaddafi hired sub-Saharan mercenaries but in Tripoli gangs seem to be treating black people all as Gaddafi mercenaries. Anyone doing this should be tried and punished harshly. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Thursday September 01, 2011 - 18:23 by Sam
Documents presented to a US court now reveal details of CIA rendition flight finance, destination and logistics. Shannon airport was at the centre of their operation. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / rights, freedoms and repression Thursday September 01, 2011 - 13:23 by John Cornford
2 comments (last - thursday september 01, 2011 - 13:36)  1 video file
Israeli socialist Moshe Machover and Mohammed Reza Shalgouni of the Organisation of Revolutionary Workers in Iran discuss the Arab revolution in the first session of Communist University 2011, chaired by Yassamine Mather ... read full story / add a comment
national / public consultation / irish social forum Thursday September 01, 2011 - 10:40 by Declan Cullen
If we ever needed reminding about who comes first in relation to the terrible economic situation the country finds itself the ESRI article in the September 1st 2011 edition of the Irish Independent once again proves it. ... read full story / add a comment
national / public consultation / irish social forum Tuesday August 30, 2011 - 02:16 by Ruaidhrí O' Conghaile
2 comments (last - wednesday september 12, 2012 - 21:25) 1 video file
In the current economic climate, the issue of drug policy is all too easily swept under the carpet by our politicians, who instead prefer to focus on budgetary cuts as a means of addressing our massive fiscal deficit. What our politicians apparently fail to recognize however, is the economic idiocy of continuing to pour hundreds of millions of euros of taxpayers money into a failed drug policy. ... read full story / add a comment |
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