Sinn Fein showed courage in calling for a default on the IMF and EU bank bailout

by ... Wed Jan 26, 2011 21:25

meanwhile they green lighting 120 milion for a ruc base in fermanagh
and imposing cuts all over the north

by BYE BY Wed Jan 26, 2011 23:21

I certainly dont care about any base in fermanagh or anywhere else and neither do most people down here! the time for militarism is gone and Sinn Fein are right to stick to the political path and forget futile adventurism. They will get a lot more support if they appeal to the 35 to 40 percent ? of the voters who voted against Lisbon 2 and the fg and labour EU puppets who told all their vote yes for jobs lies.

by phill Wed Jan 26, 2011 23:50

Well they certainly have the right idea as have many south American nations that are telling IMF (et al) to go take a long walk off a short pier. It can't continue and we might as well not encourage them. They'll get the idea that they run the place or something. It's about time all of us (I'm a Canadian) showed them the door.

by Jolly Red Giant - Socialist Party / CWI Thu Jan 27, 2011 00:01

Former Green voter -

I think that you may have misunderstood some of what Gerry Adams (Crown Office Holder - sorry couldn't resist) said -

Adams did not call for Ireland to default - he said the Ireland pull out of the IMF/ECB bailout while renegotiating the terms. Let's be clear - re-negotiating terms with the IMF is simply re-negotiating where the axe will fall and will mean implementing cuts. Pearse Doherty to the best of my knowledge has not stated that Ireland should default either - he has said that no taxpayers money should be put into Anglo. It could be argued that this is in effect a default as Anglo is owned by the taxpayer and owes money to the EU - but Doherty did not specify this specifically. The reality is that, as Joe Higgins has outlined on several occasions, it is inevitable that Ireland will default - there is simply no money available to repay the bailout.

Furthermore Adams has not called for Ireland to leave the EU - although it wouldn't surprise me if he ended up doing so. Howeve, again, Irish withdrawl from the EU would exasperate the economic difficulties facing Ireland leaving it economically and politically isolated. What needs to happen is a European wide campaign of the working class to establish a Europeanwide democratic workers federation where the working class operate ina spirit of mutual co-operation and solidarity rather than in the profits of the transnational corporations.

by Tom Williams - None Thu Jan 27, 2011 21:15

We could stop posting glib, aspirational, ideological claptrap about international worker co-operation and instead demand of every

politician who stands on our doorstep that they make an absolute priority of rescinding the Ray Burke deal, and getting Irish Natural

Resourses into Irish ownership. I don't remember Norway having to go near the I M F lately.

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Fri Jan 28, 2011 13:49

Shell are up before a parliamentary enquiry in Netherlands at the minute over their 50 year record in Niger delta.(check al jazeera, europe, today)

They blamed their filthy environmental record on 'ineffective government'. No mention of who rendered Nigerian Government ineffective with their infiltration and subversion. They must be mad about Assange.

by left voter Fri Jan 28, 2011 14:25

I asked some middle aged supporters of Left Alliance what their policies on the EU were but they didnt seem to have any. They seemed more interested in issues such as feminism etc which are total vote losers in Ireland! The Left Alliance and most of the left are a bit soft on the EU and even if they have any criticism of it they tone it down most of the time. This provides space for Sinn Fein and Fis Nua to make the case for a withdrawal from the EU or at least to leave the Euro currency, which is a very weak currency anyway. A high no vote in the Nice referendum and the Lisbon treaty proves this issue isnt going away you know no matter how much the brave warriors or the Irish left hides their heads in the sand.

by jolly green giant Fri Jan 28, 2011 21:44

I agree with mr. williams about jolly red giants pious aspirations for a socialist federation of eu countries. This isnt very realistic or likely to ever happen. It reminds me of the old millitant group in the labour party and their madcap calls for a socialist federation of the uk and ireland whenever anything happened in the north and the spartacist group also had a similar slogan! It is far simpler to just leave the EU than waiting for every country in europe to go red! How many centuries would that take?

by curious mind Sat Jan 29, 2011 13:49

The Sinn Fein postition on the Eu Seems to have shifted to the right.
But the reasons are more complex than Jolly green giants facile analysis suggests. In fact JFG seems to suggest that staying in the EU is a good idea!

The best analysis of the SF position that I have come across online at least is from the communist party of Ireland website. I am including a piece of their analysis which is very well researched and thought out on this issue at least:

"Another area that shows how far Sinn Féin has shifted politically was the section dealing with “European affairs.” Motions 11, 12 and 13, all again from the Ard-Chomhairle, show a further diminution of opposition to the European Union. There was no indication of the nature of the European Union and what it represents; there was no challenge to the view presented by the media...."

" All three motions were full of woolly thinking and pious aspiration. “Bring information on the EU back to different sectors and local communities in Ireland through a programme of outreach . . . Engage on the basis of our progressive policy positions on issues within EU’s competences . . . Promoting democratic change in the EU.” .....

You can read more of this analysis from the website below:

http://www.communistpartyofireland.ie/sv2010-03/01-sinn....html

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Sat Jan 29, 2011 16:27

Doherty is the only one calling against the Anglo-stranglo.

Of course its political operating. But I just ran a Labour canvasser for being the raspberry ripple in Enda's blue-beret pie in the sky.

I await my next bell-ringer with gathering appetite.

by Englishman Sat Jan 29, 2011 17:00

"Doherty is the only one calling against the Anglo-stranglo."

The Anglos (English) are NOT in the Euro Opus.

In England you still pay for your pint in good old English Pounds and Pence.

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:16

I was referring to the billions being syphoned into the Anglo-Irish sub-prime pyramid scam of split derivative manipulation being dropped on the taxpayers at the bottom of the pyramid. No racial inference.

Not that Britannia is not involved(read Nicholas Shaxon's recent account of the fluid networks of offshore mega-billion shufflers and the axes running through Threadneedle Street of these orbitting minnions of rapacious and cumulative neo-imperial financial consolidation). Check

http://www.tresureislands.org

by Economist. Mon Jan 31, 2011 18:41

"I don't remember Norway having to go near the IMF lately."

Even if Norway had no oil or gas, hydro-electro power would have made them energy independent by now.
They were almost there before they found oil and started calling themselves "blonde arabs".
The richest country in the world,Norway, was the real one who bailed out their little Viking cousins.

Iceland is a small country with the population of Cork City and is easily bailed out.

by Sceptic . - None Whatsoever Tue Feb 01, 2011 01:27

We can say what we like about Sinn Fein , but let me make a point i think is worth making ..

Having tuned into '' Tonight with Vincent Browne '' . Monday 31st January 2011 , rather late i
have to admit ,i was very very impressed with S.F.s representative who ' ran rings around ' such
reps of Fianna Failure , Fine Gael & Labour with his remarkable ability to explain his party's
views on our Monetary System etc , a few more of these guys should , lets just say , be placed
on these television programmes on a regular basis and in particular in the run up to The General
Election ,which is due to be held shortly ..Well done to the guy , i missed his name , and keep
up the information which is of vital importance to one and all .

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Tue Feb 01, 2011 11:15

But at the minute they seem to be the only ones with any agenda other than appeasing the speculator/bondholders. The rest are in lockstep, tugging the forelocks towards the up-ended trough.

Is it not a bit rich the way Adams' economic lack of grasp gets thrown at every opportunity, but the 'experts' who flushed us down the Bertie Bowl to a chorus of 'Always look on the bright side', remain the articulators of the 'revival'?No hard questions of their certainties. Doherty is talking the talk, but that goes with the profession. Feicimid.