Its worth pointing out that Roberts is an associate editor of the Wall Street Journal and a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury for Economic Policy, so hes hardly a loony leftie. He is however a Democrat in the real meaning of the word. KM

Reality on the ground in Ukraine contradicts the incompetent and immoral Obama regime’s portrait of Ukrainian democracy on the march. To the extent that government exists in post-coup Ukraine, it is laws dictated by gun and threat wielding thugs of the neo-Nazi, Russophobic, ultra-nationalist, right-wing parties. Watch the video of the armed thug, Aleksandr Muzychko, who boosts of killing Russian soldiers in Chechnya, dictating to the Rovno regional parliament a grant of apartments to families of protesters. http://rt.com/news/radical-opposition-intimidating-tech...-882/

Read about the neo-nazis intimidating the Central Election Commission in order to secure rule and personnel changes in order to favor the ultra-right in the forthcoming elections. Thug Aleksandr Shevchenko informed the CEC that armed activists will remain in CEC offices in order to make certain that the election is not rigged against the neo-nazis. What he means, of course, is the armed thugs will make sure the neo-nazis win. If the neo-nazis don’t win, the chances are high that they will take power regardless. read full story / add a comment

This is an article about an important topic that gets very little coverage. For all the complaining Israel does about discrimination and unfairness one would think they would be an example of tolerance and harmony. The truth is far from that as many around the world have been realizing recently. This story I came across enraged me and I'm sure it will others. The sheer hypocrisy makes one wonder if the Israeli leadership has finally just gone insane. Judge for yourself. read full story / add a comment

Fascist elements are among the protesters in Kiev. They are armed and are shooting at police. They are using the cover of protesters to advance a fascist coup.

Violent clashes between police and protesters yesterday in Kiev mark an escalation of the campaign by the pro-Western opposition to oust Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The opposition, backed by the United States and German governments, aims to install a far-right regime committed to integrating Ukraine within the European Union and implementing its demands for austerity measures.

Bloody street-fighting erupted when opposition protesters marched on parliament, demanding it pass a planned law to decrease Yanukovych’s powers. When the vote went against them, the opposition supporters attacked the headquarters of the ruling Party of the Regions. Clashes between police and protesters erupted and spread throughout the city. read full story / add a comment

Julian Assange calls for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate the NSA, after documents show US spying on WikiLeaks and its supporters.

Today, documents were published from the national security whistleblower Edward Snowden, detailing US and UK spying efforts against the publishing organization WikiLeaks. One document shows that as far back as 2010 the US National Security Agency added WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange to a “MANHUNTING” target list, together with suspected members of al-Qaeda. Another shows that the NSA wanted to designate WikiLeaks as a “malicious foreign actor” in order to expand the NSA’s ability to target WikiLeaks staff, associates and supporters. And a third document, from 2012, demonstrates that the NSA’s UK partner GCHQ also spied on WikiLeaks and its readers. read full story / add a comment

THE PEOPLE’S NEWS contains comment on developments in the EU from an Irish and democratic perspective

Back issues of the newsletter are available from the website http://www.people.ie/

The Peoples Movement Blog http://www.irishreferendum.org/

The Peoples Movement Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/peoplesmovementireland?ref=hl read full story / add a comment

Stephen Donnelly, in an aticle in the independent has highlighted the government's complete lack of interest in the 13,000 mortgage holders from Irish Nationwide. In an excellent article he bares the reality of how current government's neo liberal ideology takes precedence over the suffering of families in mortgage arrears and how foreign vulture capitalists are allowed to get a large discount on these houses but the families actually living in them and supporting the local economy are prevented from getting the option of such a discount read full story / add a comment

US state dept diplomat Nuland "mutt" and Geoff are caught out nicely, in a hacked and leaked phone call. In what is probably the most brazen feat of brass necked hypocrisy I've ever seen, the mainstream media have tried to make it about how awful the russians are for spying on them. And this after the Snowden revelations!! "Fuck the EU" they say. But by far the worst thing about this is how they treat this uprising they are stoking with the aid of far right fascist thugs trained by NATO on the Russian border, like it's just some sort of a chess game.
And of course the EU don't care much about the insult because they are all on exactly the same page, as the second part of the transcript clearly illustrates. Read on.... read full story / add a comment

This from broadsheet.ie ....

You may know Exchange Dublin, a booze free, arts and community co-op space in Temple Bar, Dublin, is being forced to vacate its premises {by landlords The Temple Bar Cultural Trust] for three months following incidents of ‘anti-social’ behavior outside the space. read full story / add a comment

The Irish media has failed to properly report on the local community’s resistance to Shell in Mayo. The reason? Journalism has fewer and fewer resources to filter the truth from the propaganda, Harry Browne writes. read full story / add a comment

http://www.people.ie/news/PN-98.pdf
Peoples News issue no. 98 Date: 26 – 1 – 14
Table of Contents below

THE PEOPLE’S NEWS contains comment on developments in the EU from an Irish and democratic perspective

Back issues of the newsletter are available from the website www.people.ie

The Peoples Movement Blog www.irishreferendum.org
The Peoples Movement Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/peoplesmovementireland?ref=hl read full story / add a comment

How many have noticed that in the quiet hours of night/early morning their Eircom email accounts become unavailable?
And that is on a regular daily, or nightly as it is, occurrence. read full story / add a comment

Asheville Fm radio, based in western North Carolina, aired a fascinating interview with an anarcho-syndicalist named Denys, from the Autonomous Worker’s Union in Ukraine. In the interview, Denys debunks many of the myths surrounding the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine, and explains motives behind the stories and propaganda being circulated around the protests.

Why is the Free Association Agreement with the EU (which would mostly benefit the ultra-rich oligarchs of Ukraine) deliberately being
construed as actual integration? Ukrainian leaders backed off from signing it at the last minute. Meanwhile, Russia is trying to pull
Ukraine into her Customs Union by offering Kyiv a deal for promised purchases of billions of euro of Ukrainian products, and a 30 percent
discount on Russian Natural Gas.

Denys explains that when the protests broke, the political class of Ukraine was taken by surprise. However, the opposition, a coalition
leaning towards far-right (with fascist Svoboda being the most visible of them all) quickly regrouped and turned the street into their PR
machine. The opposition had massive demonstrations in their plans, as fascist Svobodas leader declared in an interview in March 2013. Evidence emerged of the opposition leaders plans to overthrow the current government with the financial and political support of Germany’s
conservative Angela Merkel, the EU leaders from Brussels, and with visible support of the United States, whose envoy, conservative John
McCain was the guest star of the Euromaidan.

read full story / add a comment

This interview with Yassamine Mather from Hands Off the People of Iran appears on the BBC Persian Service . The broadcast coincides with the third year of the Arab Spring . read full story / add a comment

This report is republished from the WSM site and covers the recent local uprising in the city of Burgos -north of Madrid, in Spain. There has been no press coverage about it but it concerns the case very similar to Turkey last year, where people were so fed up with local politicians and developers that they finally snapped on the latest effort to rip them off. The protest has now spread to over 45 cities in Spain. We should be learning lessons from these people and doing likewise given the recent scandals here and the ongoing austerity and other burdens placed on people in Ireland and which has brought many people to almost breaking point.

Just over a week ago, if you were thinking of cities in Spain most likely to host the start of a proletarian uprising, Burgos would have come pretty much at the bottom of the list. A sleepy, socially conservative, traditionally ultra-Catholic city in the Northern Castille plain, Burgos was up until now mostly known for its Cathedral and other mediaeval real estate and a local sausage uncannily reminiscent of Clonakilty black pudding. But since the initial clashes between police and protestors in the working class district of Gamonal on the night of Friday 10th January, Burgos has seen nights of continual rioting, a veritable military occupation by riot police, and solidarity demonstrations this week around 46 cities in Spain, including two successive nights of demos in the capital Madrid, resulting in clashes with the police, arrests and injuries. All this supposedly over a plan to redevelop the main road through Gamonal into a tree-lined Boulevard. read full story / add a comment

THE PEOPLE’S NEWS contains comment on developments in the EU from an Irish and democratic perspective read full story / add a comment

Brain Drain read full story / add a comment

…. the welfare of the people as a whole?”; Brussels Summit takes another step towards forming a Euro Army; Merkel supports EU treaty change; EADS Chief calls for EU Drone budget; Troika consultancies: another fiddle?; Partnership for Profits. read full story / add a comment

Luke Ming Flanagan had done his research. He knew that the word ‘piss’ was not a banned word within the rarified and sensitive environs of Dail Eireann. He had checked out the Consumer Act in order to bolster his political point.

He then planned and carried out a very clever and effective political stunt to guarantee maximum publicity.

Flanagan wanted to highlight the fact that the Government was planning to charge people for the ‘privilege’ of drinking contaminated water. read full story / add a comment

• Number of people employed: Down by 13 per cent since January 2008.

• Number of people unemployed: Up from 107,000 in January 2008 to 296,300 today.

• Annualised domestic growth rate: –1.2 per cent.

• Net emigration: The number of people leaving the country is higher than the number coming in by 35,000. Gross emigration was more than 80,000 last year alone. In six years it went from the highest net immigration level in Europe to the highest emigration, overtaking the Baltic states and Kosovo. Meanwhile a group of students and other young people in Dublin has launched a campaign called “We’re not leaving” after the Government sent out letters encouraging young people to seek jobs abroad.

• Government deficit as a proportion of GDP: 7.3 per cent.

• Public debt: 121 per cent of GDP in 2013, up from 91 per cent in 2010 and 105 per cent in 2011.

• Household debt: 200 per cent of GDP. There are people living on €50 per week or less after paying their bills. We have had eight austerity budgets since 2008; in the community sector there have been cuts of 35 to 40 per cent.

• Value of assets underpinning household debt: –56 per cent since the crisis began.

•Mortgages in arrears for more than six months: 17 per cent of all mortgages. read full story / add a comment

Issue 54 of Red Banner is out now,
available from bookshops or from the address above
€2 / £1.50 read full story / add a comment