Haiti – disaster compounded by capitalism
Here we post Joe Higgins' article from Wednesday January 27th's edition of the Daily Mail, on the crisis in Haiti. We apologise for the delay in posting the article online.
Meeting & Discussion – building a new anti-water charges campaign
MEETING: "No Re-Introduction of Water Charges! Boycott the Charge – Boycott Meter Installation!", due to take place on Saturday, February 13th from 12pm to 3pm in the Teachers’ Club, Parnell Square West, Dublin 1.
Determined fight from unions needed to stop government onslaught
The Budget will, if the Government gets its way, mark the first of four where working people, the unemployed and those who depend on public services will be crucified over an economic crash they did not cause. The palpable anger this is causing in society generally can be seen in the threat by the Garda Representative Association to ballot for industrial action.
Union leaders discuss sell out despite historic strike
250,000 public service workers took part in the one day strike on 24 November in opposition to the threatened cut of €1.3 billion from the public service pay bill in next month’s budget on top of similar sized cuts in Social Welfare payments and in public service provision itself.
A short video clip covering the campaign against the water charges that took place during the mid-1990s. The clip was shown at the Water Charges forum hosted by Joe Higgins MEP. READ MORE
On Saturday the Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany, Guido Westerwelle, called for the setting up of a European army when he addressed the Munich Conference on Security Policy. Herr Westerwelle occupies a senior position in the government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel. READ MORE
This week the ‘SWIFT agreement’ was rejected by the European Parliament by 378 votes to 196. If this agreement was accepted it would have legally endorsed a deal between the US and the EU on the transfer of personal financial information that is in the ‘SWIFT’ system from the EU to the US authorities. READ MORE
Joe Higgins MEP criticises the hypocritical condemnation of Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, by right-wing MEPs for temporarily suspending the broadcasting license of RCTV, which was involved in supporting a right-wing military coup in Venezuela in 2002 and continues to openly call for the overthrow of the Bolivarian revolution. Capitalist politicians have condemned Chavez while ignoring how they support the use of the media as a mouthpiece for neo-liberal propaganda and for waging a war against the living standards and wages of workers. READ MORE
For exposing the gulf between the rhetoric of European democracy and the reality of predatory trade relations with under-developed countries, Joe Higgins has been labelled a “fair politician” by the NGO “Fair Politics”. Read their account on the debate on “Policy Coherence” here. READ MORE
In this video Joe Higgins MEP highlights that the impact the economic crisis is having on the living standards of ordinary people while the speculators continue to bet on the markets and workers and poor are told that they must pay for this crisis. READ MORE
Bank of Scotland (Ireland) has decided to close its Halifax outlets with the resulting loss. This must not be accepted. The financial institutions should be in public ownership and run democratically to meet societies needs. READ MORE
