The WSM has been having a 'big picture' discussion around the housing crisis from which the following points emerged. We are publishing them ahead of the December 1st demonstration in Dublon (14.00 Parnell square). read full story / add a comment

This article argues for the inclusion of a "None of the above" option on all ballot papers in an election. It starts by explaining the benefits of its inclusion. Then it demonstrates how its inclusion can be achieved through activism. read full story / add a comment

PRESS RELEASE: HORSECRACING IRELAND AWARDS DEMONSTRATION.
STOP RACING HORSES TO DEATH, END ALL Equine RACING , Horses deserve the right to live free of exhaustive training, pain and death.
The horse racing industry advertises itself as “glamorous,” or the Sport of Kings. However in reality, exploitation, welfare violations, cruelty, and premature deaths are an inherent and unavoidable part of this industry which is based on greed. A lot of effort is put in to covering up the true face of the industry. Dr. Holly Cheever, an award winning veterinary surgeon and expert on animal abuse prevention noted “cruelty is an inherent part of the horse racing industry.”
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The report into the activities of the former Minister, Denis Naughton, on rural broadband is a total whitewash.

Naughton held eighteen meetings, and five dinners with representatives of Granahan McCourt. Minutes of these meetings were not kept and there were often no civil servants present. Yet the company was a bidder for the lucrative broadband contract.

But aside from Naughton’s unusual behaviour, there is an even bigger scandal looming.

Rural broadband was originally supposed to cost some hundreds of millions. But the latest estimate puts that figure at a staggering €3 billion. read full story / add a comment

The first International Conference against US/NATO Military Bases was held on November 16-18, at the Liberty Hall in Dublin, Ireland. The conference was attended by close to 300 participants from over thirty-five countries from around the world. Speakers representing countries from all continents, including Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, United States, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Poland, United Kingdom, Ireland, Czech Republic, Israel, Palestine, Kenya, D. R. Congo, Japan and Australia, made presentations at the conference. read full story / add a comment

OPEN LETTER: A call for more funding for walking and cycling is needed, but that call to date has lacked clarity on the quality needed and that is having practical effects. read full story / add a comment

The Integrity Initiative is now trying to smear and attack Seumas Milne, Jeremy Corbyn's communications director and a key voice on the anti-war, anti-capitalist left, tweeting a Times article that appears to have been contributed to by them. read full story / add a comment

In this issue:
Rebelling against the industrial capitalist system
“At the heart of this problem lies our sense of separation from nature”
Abolishing dissent
Does work set us free?
Save Whitehawk Hill!
Acorninfo read full story / add a comment

In The case of Selahattin Demirtaş v. Turkey (no. 2) – The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered Turkey to release the opposition deputy from prison….and, in its complex ruling this week, concluded there has been “several violations of the Convention”. read full story / add a comment

Current efforts by social media companies and Atlanticist think tanks to remove various alternative media pages are part of a coordinated corporate attempt to disrupt and destroy a "global intifada" of social movements, according to documents and data examined by this writer read full story / add a comment

Orsola Casagrande, long-time journalist with the left-wing Italian Il manifesto, now freelance and currently living in Havana, Cuba, recently visited Rojava in Northern Syria read full story / add a comment

Today saw another hearing, this time in Court 5, Dublin Circuit Court - Judge Melanie Greally presiding - in a case involving peace activists Edward Horgan and Dan Dowling. The case relates to the alleged writing of some graffiti (DANGER DANGER DO NOT FLY) on a US war-plane at Shannon Airport on 25 September 2017, and a charge of trespass relating to the same incident which the Ennis District Court has arguably being trying to hold in reserve (or park as they describe it) so that if we are acquitted in the Circuit Court they might have second go at us in the lower District Court. read full story / add a comment

LOOK BACK IN ANGER THIS SUNDAY AND REMEMBER ALL THE DEAD OF WORLD WAR 1
Supported by:
Sinead Cusack Actor, Felim Egan Artist, Frank Mc Donald Journalist & Writer, Raymond Deane Composer, Stuart Dunne Actor & Artist, Sean Harrington Architect, Rev. Patrick Comerford President CND, Patricia Mc Kenna former MEP, Richard Boyd Barrett TD, Clare Daly TD, Aengus O Snodaigh TD, Brid Smith TD, Joan Collins TD, Eamonn McCann former MLA for PBP, Councillor Tina Mc Veigh, former Councillor Enda Fanning, Goretti Horgan Ulster University, Marcin Wojcik Lecturer DIT, Ms. Deirdre Judge and more.

The Irish Anti-War Movement will hold a dignified vigil at the entrance to the Irish National War Memorial in Island Bridge, Dublin on this Sunday morning 11 November from 10am to 11am.

This is to coincide with the World War 1 Armistice People’s Remembrance organised by the Royal British Legion that is taking place in the Memorial Garden from 10.45am.

Our vigil will remember all the dead of WW1 – Irish, British, German, Turkish, soldiers from the colonies etc. and the millions of civilians that died – and we will ask one simple question - What did they die for? This is the title of our pamphlet published four years ago at the centenary of the beginning of the war along with a statement signed by many prominent Irish people. We encourage people who attend to wear white poppies as a symbol of peace. read full story / add a comment

Ireland has just been identified as one of the most unequal countries in the EU regarding access to healthcare according to a joint report by TASC, FEPS and Trinity College.

“Without health and social measures that compensate for poor health, individuals are not able to fully participate in political and social life. The great importance of health is related to its value to all other life spheres. Not only do individuals have a right to health and well-being, but they also have manifold individual rights that are constrained in the case of poor health. From this perspective, health inequalities represent a particularly serious social injustice in modern societies” (‘Health Inequalities in Europe’) read full story / add a comment

So far, due to a variety of ignoble reasons, not least public healthcare being farmed out to private laboratories, at least 221 Irish women have now been identified whose smear tests had been read incorrectly with tragic consequences read full story / add a comment

Dublin Save Movement specialise in running vigils at slaughterhouses in Ireland. This includes "bearing witness" with regards to the plight of the other animals about to be slaughtered. These animals have never experienced much in respect to their well-being, and nothing in respect to their rights. read full story / add a comment

In a letter published today in the Irish Times ( https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/israel-and-arms-trade-...78396 ) newspaper, Minister of State Finian McGrath and fifty other Irish TDs and Senators have called for an arms embargo to be placed on Israel, and for “an end to the bi-lateral arms trade between Ireland and the apartheid state”.

In addition to independent Minister McGrath, the signatories include members of Sinn Féin, Solidarity-People Before Profit, Labour, the Green Party, Independents 4 Change and other independent members of the Oireachtas, who condemn “the shooting dead of some 205 [Palestinian] protestors, including 40 children, and wounding of more than 5,000 people by live fire [on the Great March of Return] in Gaza since April”. read full story / add a comment

Thousands of children are in danger of huge disruption to their education because of the school building scandal. About 40 schools are due to be inspected because of concerns about serious structural defects.

Defects have already been found in a number of schools built by Western Building Systems. This company won a large amount of contracts from the Department of Education and was responsible for building many schools. read full story / add a comment

A Workers’ Party councillor has called on the OPW to reverse its decision to sell two residential sites which it owns in Dublin city. The sites are due to be auctioned by Lambert Smith Hampton on November 6th. read full story / add a comment

The Court has today (Fri 19th Oct) at the request of Bord Pleanala put the hearing of the Judicial Review of the Ringaskiddy Incinerator planning permission back a month. The hearing is now scheduled to begin on 19 March 2019.

The Court has made some revisions to the timeline for exchange of documents in the meantime. The extension was triggered by the Board not meeting its deadline of last Friday for filing its Statement of Opposition. It explained to the Court that its legal team was in difficulty as the Board Chair had resigned and the new Chair only takes up office on 30 October. They asked to be allowed to file their Statement by 9 November. read full story / add a comment