At the invitation of Guerrero based ´Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre´ I had the inspiring opportunity to witness an historic event last Wed (18th nov 2009): Two indigenous women, both former Amnesty International prisoners of conscience left their communities once more to make a trip to a Mexican Jail. This time however instead of being accompanied by their arresting officers, they went along with a group of local, national and international human rights organisations to make a solidarity visit to another indigenous activist and Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, Raul Hernandez. read full story / add a comment

The 21st of November marks the United Nations ‘World television Day’.

Television can be a tremendous force for good. It can educate great numbers of people about the world around them. It can show us how much we have in common with our neighbours, near and far. And, it can shed light on the dark corners, where ignorance and hatred fester.

The television industry is also in a unique position to promote mutual understanding and tolerance -– with content that tells the stories not just about the powerful, but about the powerless, and not just about life in the world’s richest pockets, but also in the developing countries that are home to the majority of the world’s population’. read full story / add a comment

The rich remain rich and the rest of us are supposed to keep them that way. That’s why we get pay cuts, health cuts, education cuts, job cuts. It’s not as if dipping into the pockets of PAYE workers is the only way to foot bills. A mere 5% of the Irish population own 40% of the wealth. And a tiny 1% own most of it (34%). What pinko fantasist came up with these figures, asks the cynic. Well, it was that well-known radical outfit, the Bank of Ireland (in its Wealth of the Nation report). read full story / add a comment

Hollman Morris is a familiar name in Colombia, both for his TV programme Contravía (Counter-current), which he has been directing for many years and represents a unique window to glimpse into the realities of the Colombian conflict, and also for the accusations and harassment which he has suffered from the State intelligence agency (DAS) and by the very president Uribe. read full story / add a comment

As workers fight Fianna fail and the Green partyy's neoliberal attacks, now is a good time to learn from the fightback against Thatcherism in the 1980s with this video of Arthur Scargill discussing the Miners Strike.
http://www.vimeo.com/7589961 read full story / add a comment

When it comes to the public meeting, Arthur Scargill is one of the best performers around. He has it down to fine art. Perhaps this is down to his political up bringing as a member of the Young Communist League, where great stress was placed on the importance of making inspiring speeches. Or perhaps it has something to do with that fact that much maligned figure like Scargill needs the medium of the public meeting more than most to get across his points, and has thus has a particualr understanding of how to use public meetings to maximum effect. read full story / add a comment

During Noam Chomsky's recent visit to Ireland five members of the Workers Solidarity Movement met him over breakfast to talk over a range of issues from Palestine to the capitalist crisis to social partnership to Iran to Obama and the US Labour Movement. Notes on the discussion are below followed by the audio recording itself. read full story / add a comment

Since when does sharing the pain equate to someone not being able to afford their mortgage on a foreign property and someone not being able to afford rent and childcare? Listening to the media is something which should be done with a health warning. We are in the middle of a propaganda war for the hearts and minds of the people living on this island. The question for the ruling classes is how far can they push the ordinary working and unemployed before it spills over into civil unrest? The question for the workers and unemployed is how to reclaim the unions from the 09 Mercedes class running them, get solidarity among all the workers of this country and figure out creative solutions to sharing the wealth, dismantling the dominative violent enforced power of the state and creating a society where it is easier for people to do good. read full story / add a comment

As part of the build up to this Friday's 'Day of Action', Unite the Union invited legendary Trade Union leader Arthur Scargill to Ireland for a series of talks. Before his talk to a packed Matt Merrigan Hall, Indymedia caught up with Scargill to chat about the Miners' Strike of 1984/85 and other contemporary issues such as January's Lidnsey oil refinery strike, which Scargill supported, a strike which caused much debate on the left with the use of the slogan 'British Jobs for British Workers'. read full story / add a comment

Seventy years after the Battle of the Ebro the dead remain unburied and the ghosts of Franco's dictatorship still haunt the landscape. Indymedia investigates... read full story / add a comment

Marching Is Not Enough, Organise for a general strike read full story / add a comment

Thanks to the publication of a British police intelligence "spotter card" issued to rank & file coppers for a climate change protest in 2007 this week by a British newspaper, many people regardless of whether they are activists in the UK or Ireland or indeed elsewhere in the EU are wondering about their constitutional and statutory rights in the face of the European wide creation of intelligence databases by police forces. Whereas those whose images appeared without prior consent in this week's British media may have recourse to legal action and a bit of chatter, Irish political activists, protesters & ordinary citizens thus far enjoy no public recognition of the existence of such databases in Ireland nor it would appear have any mechanism to ensure that their details if not guilty of any criminal offence are removed from the intelligence files of the Garda Siochana. read full story / add a comment

As this article is published the leader of the BNP, England's neo-fascist racist political party & one of the principle articulators of European neo-nazism in the English language has entered the BBC studios in London to take part in a BBC "question time" broadcast. The presence of Griffin has not gone without protest or reaction in Britain as much as in Ireland. This article collates much of the recent coverage of that reaction & puts this week's publishing on the internet on "Wikileaks" of the current BNP membership list in context.

But the point of this article is to examine from a leftist and Irish perspective the possible consequences of the BBC invitation to Griffin and the reaction in the liberal English chattering classes and at parliamentary level. Rather than moving to a revamping of the Race Relations Act the British it seems are considering a return to the censorship which was applied to the factions of the north of Ireland in general and Sinn Fein in particular. read full story / add a comment

Today's (October 16th) edition of the English newspaper "The Daily Mail" carried an opinion piece by the English journalist Jan Moir. The homophobia and inherent hatred voiced in the article led to an extraordinary amount of comments on that newspaper's website which together with reaction from other newspapers saw the title of the article changed by mid afternoon. By late afternoon an internet campaign had begun to pressure advertisers who use the Daily Mail to cut their support.

The loss of revenue to the English newspaper might be the most serious blow to its editorial policy of articulating and pandering to middle English prejudice ever. As such the article which prompted this reaction merits archiving. read full story / add a comment

More than 50 NUJ members and supporters came down to protest at the proposed loss of jobs at INN. read full story / add a comment

This morning the 14 October, a local resident blocked the entrance gate to a Shell construction site for which there is no planning permission, refusing to move until some proof that Shell's actions are legal were provided. read full story / add a comment

The Climate Camp held recently in Shannonbridge, Co. Offaly highlighted the urgent need to address the issue of peat bogs in Ireland and the dangerous effect their exploitation by Bord na Mona and the ESB has on Climate Change. read full story / add a comment

12,000-15,000 people marched through Dublin yesterday (September 30th) to protest at big cuts this year to community resources and the threat of massive further cuts.
The marchers are people living and working on the ground and they see the harm done, with worse to come.
"People live in communities, not economies," read one of the thousands of placards.
If there was a general theme running through the march, it was that people saw the Government as helping out ‘fatcats’ and developer friends at the expense of poor communities.
The next big COMMUNITY march - bringing in people from all over Munster – is due to be held in Limerick on November 5th (fifth).

SOME GOOD LINKS
http://www.changingireland.blogspot.com/
http://www.changingireland.ie
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/93996#attachment1000049741
http://www.siptu.ie/community
http://www.eapn.ie
http://www.cwc.ie read full story / add a comment

In the first week of its release, “The Lost Revolution” shot straight into the top 5 non-fiction titles in Ireland. This in itself showed the enduring interest in the Official Republicans/The Workers’ Party. This interest was brought home to me again at the launch of the book, held in the Teachers club on September 12, which attracted an audience of around 300, including current and past members of the Official movement, as well as dozens of interested individuals from across the broad range of Republican and left groups in Ireland. read full story / add a comment

While a self selected group of world leaders congregate behind a sea of security and police controls in downtown Pittsburgh, up in the Hill District a different kind of movement is beginning to be built. read full story / add a comment