Category: Irish Politics

#StopTTIP movement can work together with anti-TPP activists in the US

~ jlpagano

Thanks to my regular listening to progressive American podcasts (he said, as if there were progressive Irish ones with which to compare) I knew about the TPP about two years before I ever heard of the TTIP which actually affects the place where I live.  The media silence here has been deafening.

It was good to hear the latest episode of Best of the Left which featured segments on the TTP but also included mentions of the #StopTTIP movement in Europe, like the one above from Occupy.com.

In the coming months, those Europeans who have campaigned against TTIP should surely reach out to their American counterparts – even if TTIP is defeated, we still live in a world in which major corporations often have greater power than nation states.  

Only organised movements that cross borders can have any hope of challenging this unaccountable dominance.  From tax justice to climate change, the “protest never achieves anything” brigade have been proved wrong.  Here’s a potential victory to relish and build on.

Next up here from the Irish #StopTTIP movement is a march on September 17.  Unfortunately there is also a #Right2Water march in Dublin the same day…I’d love to know how or why that came about they really do seem like causes that much of the same people would support and thus should have protests on different days.

Anyway…we’ll deal with the water issue in other posts…here’s some info on the #StopTTIP and their Autumn of Action…

STOP CETA! Join us for a day of action on the 17th of September at 2pm at Christ Church.
This will be a solidarity march with Germany and other parts of Europe on the same day ..we hope to meet as a CETA/TTIP block group and join the RIGHT TO WATER march that will be meeting at Heuston Station AND Connolly Station also at 2pm.Bring your STOP CETA/TTIP BANNERS/POSTER or RED BALLOONS WRITE ON THEM STOP CETA.KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR MORE STOP CETA EVENTS OVER THE COMING WEEKS.

We are civil society, grassroots organizations, labour movements, farmer, environmental and social groups from all across Europe, Canada and the U.S. We want to put an end to secretive trade deals like CETA and TTIP, and any that follow; and we want to create an alternative trade policy, one that puts people and planet first and ends corporate impunity.

We are calling, not for a single day of protest, but for an Autumn of Action – because together, our actions will speak louder to those who need to hear us.
Right now – social movements and civil society are fighting against CETA: TTIP through the backdoor.

The process around CETA was EVEN MORE secretive than TTIP. No MEP or politician saw the texts until they were already finalised. CETA is ready to sign and the European Commission and many governments are pushing hard to get it through.

CETA means less democracy in favour of extensive investor rights, it endangers our public services, our small and medium businesses, our workers rights, our environmental and food standards and our planet. The biggest threat is that CETA is a blueprint for TTIP and allows already US corporations to use the ISDS system to sue us for democratic decisions. If CETA is passed it will be hard to oppose TTIP, we need to stand now together to ensure that we do not let our rights get sold off to multinational corporations.

Over the past few years a powerful movement against unfair trade policies has emerged in Europe and beyond. Farmers, judges, local business, trade unions, municipalities and many more stand up against CETA and TTIP.

We protest the way current trade policies profit the few, while the planet and the people suffer.
We reject a trade policy that undermines our hard won labor rights, that forces privatisation of public services and that is dependent on the exploitation of our natural resources and creating the destructive climate change that people across the globe are fighting
We won’t accept a trade system that perpetuates poverty in the global south and produces extreme wealth among the few.
It’s time to face our planetary limits and to share the wealth we can produce between everyone, this is simply impossible with trade agreements giving the opportunity to the most wealthy to win even more.

We therefore stand in solidarity with social movements and civil society in the global south that is fighting for a more just trade system also against our governments and corporations. Just like in Europe people in the Americas, Asia and Africa are going to take action against free trade agreements like TPP (Transpacific Partnership).

Now is the time to act!

This autumn of action will see a massive wave of actions, protest and disobedience in Europe and beyond. This autumn we will show the millions of voices that demand the suspenssion of CETA and TTIP. We are determined to defeat CETA and to win. Stoping CETA opens the space for alternatives. We call on organisations, individuals and alliances to participate by organising autonomous, decentralised actions across Europe. We welcome a diversity of tactics and solidarity actions from across the world that will help inform, engage and mobilise people locally. We will win against CETA because future and current generations deserve it.

Autunm of Action – September to November 2016
#stopCETA and #TTIP

There is also CETA/TTIP. Public Meeting. 
Hosted by Cllr Ray McHugh. With .
MEP Lynn Boylan.and TD Aengus OSnodaigh.
Wednesday 7th September 7/30 pm
Transport Club Clogher Rd.
All Welcome.

 

Brianna Parkins and Breda O’Brien write in the Irish Times #RepealThe8th

~ jlpagano

Two pieces well worth reading in the Irish Times.  Both make reference to the #RepealThe8th campaign.  Both involve the “controversy” surrounding comments made by Sydney Rose Brianna Parkins.

The first, by Parkins herself, not only puts her remarks into context but also gives us a wider view of the overall event itself from the point of view of the contestants.

I stand by the festival, but I believe it’s time for it to change. If it doesn’t accept that women who enter will want to have political opinions then it risks being on the wrong side of history.

The second, by Pro-Life campaigner and regular IT columnist Breda O’Brien, does pretty much what every such article does…misdrect using straw people and hypothetical scenarios.

If she had called for the retention of the Eighth Amendment, would media people be queuing up to congratulate her, and to offer her a drink?

Breda DOES know that her regular columns in a national newspaper make her a “media person”, right?

She goes on…

And please don’t say Brianna Parkins just called for a vote. No-one who supports the equal right to life of the unborn child and the mother would call for a vote on the amendment that protects that right.

Nobody who supports democracy would object to the calling of a vote.

An open letter to RTÉ regarding the Sydney Rose #RepealThe8th

~ jlpagano

Even though the Irish Government’s latest delay tactic of a “Citizen Assembly” is still a way off being put together, it has been a busy week or so for the #RepealThe8th campaign.

First we had the incredible bravery of the #TwoWomenTravel timeline on twitter.

Then, just last night, we had a PBP councillor denied access to a GAA club for a public meeting.

In between we had the noble actions of Brianna Perkins, the Sydney Rose in the Rose of Tralee “contest” when she voiced her opinion on the importance of a referendum on the subject of the 8th amendment.

Much like the GAA club situation, it seems officials have reacted very quickly to what seems to be a small number of complaints.

So fair play to Saorlaith Ni Shuibhne of Cork for organizing an online petition to provide an “antidote” of sorts to these complaints to demonstrate just how many members of the pubic are actually in agreement with what Ms Perkins had to say.

Here is the Open Letter – if you wish to sign  CLICK HERE.

To whom it may concern,

In response to the small number of formal complaints RTÉ has received in relation to the Sydney Rose’s comments on Monday night’s (August 22nd) Rose of Tralee, we the undersigned would like to offer our formal compliments  to Ms. Parkins and welcome her voicing the need to repeal the 8th Amendment in Ireland. Noting that RTÉ does not appear to have a mechanism for offering formal messages of support, we ask that these signatures be assessed in the same manner as any complaints received.

Yours,
The Undersigned

This petition will be delivered to:

  • RTE

On a final, only slightly related note…see if you can spot anything interesting in the relationship between the story linked by this Irish Times tweet and the photo…

Dublin GAA club refuses to host #RepealThe8th meeting because of “complaints”

~ jlpagano

A statement by Councillor John Lyons of People Before Profit was posted on Facebook this evening.

The public meeting tonight calling for Repeal of the 8th Amendment was due to take place in Parnell’s GAA club in Coolock Village.

Four hours before the meeting the GAA club said that the meeting could not take place as they had ‘received complaints’. People Before Profit believe that those against repealing the 8th amendment brought pressure on the venue to cancel the meeting.

Cllr John Lyons who was to chair the meeting said:

“This is a disgraceful denial of free speech. Why did those who complained not come along to the meeting and express their views? We would have been only too happy to discuss the issues with them at the meeting. This is an example, yet again, of conservative forces in Ireland preferring to bury these issues so that a new generation of young people are denied the right to discuss them.

“We shall be holding a meeting outside the venue at the gates of Parnell’s GAA and we urge all those who were to attend to come along. Our voices will be heard”

According to one of the comments below the posting :

John we were denied , in much the same way, from having an anti water charges meeting in a GAA venue too. You have to wonder who is behind these complaints….

The actual US Presidential Election method explained, plus the National Popular Vote movement

~ jlpagano

It never ceases to amaze me how the process of electing the political leader of a “super-power” nation of over 300 million people is so much simpler than that of the Republic of Ireland with its mere 5 million.

You try to tell American voters about surpluses, quotas, transfers and first preferences and they’re likely to head for the hills.  In fact, I’m pretty sure a lot of Irish ones head for the hills as it is.  No matter what defence you make for the PR-STV method we use here, it can’t involve one which claims it’s in any way “straightforward”.

But anyway…this post is meant to focus on the US.  I often get asked how it works, which reminds me how much of a nerd I am on things like that when my initial reaction (in my head) is “Doesn’t EVERYONE know this?”  Why should Irish people have a working knowledge of how things work in other countries?

The first phrase you need to know is “Electoral College”, because you’ll hear it a lot in official explanations.  This doesn’t mean a place you go to learn out about elections.  It simply refers to the body of people who actually choose the President.

The U.S. Constitution specifies that the President and Vice President of the United States are to be chosen every four years by a small group of people who are individually referred to as “presidential electors.” The electors are collectively referred to as the “Electoral College.”

The Constitution specifies that each state is entitled to one member of the Electoral College for each of its U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators. Today, there are a total of 538 electoral votes in the Electoral College. This total corresponds to the 435 U.S. Representatives from the 50 states plus the 100 U.S. Senators from the 50 states plus the three members of the Electoral College to which the District of Columbia became entitled under the 23rd Amendment…

The 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, have been allocated their own number of members (or “votes”) of this Electoral College based on population.  For example, a big state like California has 54 while a small one like Vermont has just 3.

On the first Tuesday in November an election will be held in each jurisdiction and whomever tops the poll receives ALL the electoral votes going.  So even if a candidate wins California by just ONE vote, they still get ALL FIFTY-FOUR members of the Electoral College to vote in their favour. (Note there are a couple of exceptions like Maine but this is the case in the vast majority of the states)

For the purpose of the 2016 Election, the “magic number” is 270…in fact it has been for many years now.  Once a candidate reaches that total, no matter what combinations of states brought it about, then that’s it.  They get to live in the White House for four years.

Before I go on I should clarify one thing…technically (not to mention unbelievably) speaking, the Electoral College members do NOT have to actually vote for the candidate their state chose.  I could write volumes on this, but I won’t because in practice it never comes to that eventuality.

Now to examine how this method relates to the actual campaigns, and here is where we have problems.

With the size of the US as it is, travelling isn’t easy.  This means that candiates have to be selective when deciding where they go.  And while you’ll hear a lot in the press about about national polls, in reality what matters are the indivual polls within states.  This, in turn, gives the candidates a road map of where they need to be shaking hands and kissing babies.

All of the above makes perfect sense, when to take into account the electoral system.  Why should Hillary Clinton, for example, spend a lot of time and money showing her face in California when she pretty much knows she can put its 54 EC votes in the bank?

This virtual “guaranteed” nature of some places’ vote creates what are known as “red states” (Republican) and “blue states” (Democrat).  Basically there is no earthly reason for either candiadte to go there.  Which leaves the real battleground in what are known as the “swing” states.

Ohio and Pennsylvania are two of the best known swing states, which is precisely why the two major parties held their conventions in Cleveland and Philadephia respectively.  Another well known one is Florida, where Al Gore arguably had the election “stolen” from him by George W Bush in 2000.

There is a movement in America which wants to change the process of electing the President to one which will ensure the candidates will have to listen to the whole country throughout the campaign.

“National Popular Vote” is exactly wht it says on the tin…a campaign to have the President be the one for whom the most citizens voted, period.

And it’s not just a bunch of “crackpots” protesting outside Congress with a placard reading “Down with this sort of thing” either…they are actually getting elected bodies from jurisdictions around the country to sign up to the concept.

The bill has been enacted by 11 jurisdictions possessing 165 electoral votes—61% of the 270 electoral votes necessary to activate it, including four small jurisdictions (RI, VT, HI, DC), three medium- size states (MD, MA, WA), and four big states (NJ, IL, NY, CA)

So to put it simply,  once the bill has been enacted by enough states to bring the total electoral votes to 270, they win!

Only 105 to go.  We wish them well.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind some electoral reform here in Ireland.  Maybe not exactly the same as across the pond, but definitely something other than the mathematical maelstrom that is PR-STV.

 

 

 

Racism? In @Ireland? Surely not?

~ jlpagano

The Irish tourism industry loves to promote the concept of “Céad Míle Fáilte” or “100,000 welcomes” but to some, even that amount of hospitality comes with certain conditions.

I primarily run a rugby union website that focuses on a particular team, so we often get trolls from “fans” with different allegiances.  It can often be cruel and abusive.  But none of it even comes close to the type of reaction Michelle Marie appears to be getting as she curates the @Ireland twitter account as the Guardian reports…

Originally from Oxford in England, she wrote she had settled in Ireland and “it has my heart”.

However, just hours after taking over the profile – which is followed by nearly 40,000 people – the abuse began.

We featured a post on Newstalk a while ago which contained a story about public racist abuse towards foreigners around the country, particularly towards taxi drivers, yet the bulk of the comments beneath represented complete denial.  These people were more concerned about being called racist than the subjects of the article, even though it didn’t refer to them personally.

As far as online trolling is concerned, there is no doubt it is inevitable.  Social media needs to be available to all and that means the extremists will find their voice.  And I know there’s a body of opinion that says “just ignore them – the attention gives them oxygen”.

Personally I think they need to be called out as trolls and “WUM”s (wind-up-merchants).  Sure, highlight their hateful comments, but make sure they are put into their proper category.  If they are proud to be labelled as such, then that’s on them.  Meanwhile, the vast majority of civilised commentators can continue to use social media in a more productive fashion.

And when it comes to racism in Ireland, have no doubt that it exists.  My Portuguese heritage gave me a skin colour darker than most Irish people…now I can’t even begin to claim to have receive full-on “abuse” in the near 40 years I have lived here, but having said that, people’s attitudes towards me do change when there hear my American/Dublin hybrid accent.  In that time I have been asked was I Italian, Spanish, American Indian, Indian Indian, even Arab.  Clearly they would treat me differnently if they found out I was.  You have no idea how many times I have been tempted to fake it for a bit just to see what they do.

Once as I worked in a retail store a black customer walked in and the security guard made monkey noises as the other staff laughed.  This was over 20 years ago and though I was shocked I was too naive to express my revulsion.

I believe we are better served today by both acknowledging and confronting it whether we see it in the virtual or the actual worlds.

Soros news leaked the day #TwoWomenTravel. Coincidence?

~ jlpagano ~ Leave a comment

Here at FPP we’re not afraid of the term “conspiracy theory”.

When two or more people plan to deceive, that is a conspiracy. When you suspect this may be happening, until you have proof then it is a but a theory. There’s nothing frightening about the two words yet over time they are put together to pretty much discredit anyone who cries foul about anything.

Take the bravery of the @TwoWomenTravel timeline from the weekend just gone. Apparently they set up the twitter account in advance of the date, so there were those who knew this was going to happen. This makes us curious about the supposed “Leaked strategy document” from the Open Society Foundation of billionaire George Soros which conveniently came to light on Saturday giving “Pro-Lifers” a stick with which to beat their opponents as the women live-tweeted their journey :

In the leaked strategy document, the foundation said it would fund the three Irish organisations (Amnesty International Ireland, the Abortion Rights Campaign and the Irish Family Planning Association) “to work collectively on a campaign to repeal Ireland’s constitutional amendment granting equal rights to an implanted embryo as the pregnant woman”.

All a bit too convenient if you ask me.  Cora Sherlock et all were at hand for the entire day to cry foul at the notion of (paraphrase) “millions in foreign donations to influence the Irish Constitution”.  A Constitution much of which was pretty much hand-written by the Vatican-based Catholic Church, I might add.

Thankfully the protestations did not go unanswered, as with this tweet from Colm O’Gorman :

The article (from 2013) shines some light on the source of funds for such “Pro-Life” organisations as Youth Defence, though the news is hardly surprising…

American abortion opponents have given hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years to the Irish pro-life lobby, according to Joseph Scheidler, spokesman for the U.S.-based Pro-Life Action League.

When the Irish government finnaly gets around to establishing wording and setting a date for a referendum on the 8th Amendment, it is going to be an extremely bitter campaign, of that there can be no debate.

Overwhelming support among Irish Twitter community for #TwoWomenTravel #RepealThe8th

~ jlpagano ~ Leave a comment

Of course there was dissent from the likes of Cora Sherlock, John McGuirk, The Bopps, all the usual sources.  If it were possible to disassociate yourself with the seriousness of the subject matter you could almost find it amusing to track their tweets throughout the day as they cleared their respective schedules to dream up multiple different ways to spew their misdirection and stubbornness.

But one thing was clear on the timeline for the hashtag #TwoWomenTravel – those protestations were all but lost among an overwhelming show of support and the samples below are merely a small sample.

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Courageous use of social media by @TwoWomenTravel #RepealThe8th

~ jlpagano ~ Leave a comment

It speaks volumes that the Guardian had this story online an hour before the Indo.

An Irish woman who is live-tweeting her trip to Great Britain to obtain an abortion has thanked prime minister Enda Kenny for forcing her to “hit the road”.

The woman and a friend left Ireland at about dawn on Saturday, documenting their journey via the handle @TwoWomenTravel from 5am BST.

They described their mission: “Two women, one procedure, 48 hours away from home.”

We wish them all the best on their extremely brave journey.

 

Can we please stop pretending that ticket touting is the biggest scandal of #Rio2016?

~ jlpagano ~ Leave a comment

When we gather around the watercooler discussing the Olympic games today here in Ireland, according to the media we are meant to be focusing on two topics…Thomas Barr’s agonising 4th place finish in the hurdles despite setting another personal best time, or the ticket-touting scandal involving Irishman Pat Hickey, President of the IOC.

On the Barr story, fine.  Of course we should be celebrating actual sporting success.  While I haven’t really paid much mind to these games, naturally I’m happy when it’s Irish men and women doing so well.  Personally my favourite story is that of Annalise Murphy, mostly because I had the pleasure of meeting her at a rugby event in the Aviva Stadium not long after the 2012 Olympics.  I found her post-event interview a joy to watch because it was so obvious just how happy she was with her medal and that’s what it’s all about from the sporting side of things.

But when it comes to scandals, I couldn’t give a damn about ticket touting.  So a few people at the top were trying to make a quick buck here and there.  What of it.

Why the indifference?  Stories like this one from the Huffington Post entitled The Olympics Are Always A Disaster For Poor People.

Displacement of the urban poor is a hallmark of the modern Olympics, a virtual certainty rather than an accidental occurrence.

In fact, the major beneficiaries of the Olympics are the local and international developers in charge of these projects, as well as the host city’s wealthy residents. The poor lose out.

Sorry if my “bleeding heart liberal”-ness pricks your conscience too much here but I feel that this is what we should ALWAYS be talking about when it comes to the Olympic Games, or any major sporting event for that matter – soccer’s World Cup isn’t much better.