The two shameful actions have been decisive for securing him the first place in the polls and are also enough to pay him the cassation of his candidacy and his replacement by Ciro Gomes, third place in the first Brazilian round. read full story / add a comment

LASC, as an organisation with a mission to expose injustice in Ireland and Latin America and to stand in solidarity with the people of Latin America who are resisting oppression and are struggling to create a fair and inclusive society, shares the concerns of many of our members in relation to the current situation in Nicaragua. read full story / add a comment

Over half a million households in rural Ireland are missing out on broadband because of a disastrous privatisation policy.

Up to 1999, the telephone network was run by a state company, Telecom Eireann. But the Fianna Fail government decided to copy Margaret Thatcher and sell it off. Ever since then, disaster has piled on disaster.

Instead of providing long term investment to install broad band, a series of private owners simply asset stripped the company, which had been re-named Eircom. read full story / add a comment

The present Irish farmer has proven over the last number of years that he is one of the finest producers of quality food in the world. By his dedication to his work in adapting to modern revolutionary methods and long hours in caring for his animals’ health and dietary needs he is first class. read full story / add a comment

What, in God’s name, can any President of Ireland achieve in a second term that could have been achieved in a single seven years term?

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New IPCC report on 1.5°C shows the urgency of transformational policy change if we are to avoid dangerous climate change. But Ireland is still lagging behind.

The IPCC special report on global warming of 1.5°C is the most important climate science report of the decade. It offers the most exhaustive and authoritative assessment of the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and the action needed to stay below this threshold. The report will hugely influence international, EU and domestic climate policy making over the next few years. read full story / add a comment

Ten thousand people attended a lunchtime protest outside the Dáil on Wednesday, Oct 3 to protest Government inaction on the growing housing crisis and demand change.

The protest was called by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and the National Homeless and Housing coalition – a coalition of student unions, Housing campaigners, political parties including Solidarity, trade unions and others. read full story / add a comment

Take Back The City Social
The Grand Social
Saturday Oct 6th
8pm - Late
Adm €5 read full story / add a comment

Climate denial group the Irish Climate Science Forum (ICSF) has significantly escalated its lobbying campaign to prevent climate action.

The group’s main function until now has been to hold behind-closed-doors meetings with infamous climate science deniers as guest speakers. But it has now submitted a document to the Irish Parliament insisting climate change simply isn’t as bad as scientists make out, DeSmog UK has learned.

The group, which has no publicly accessible membership or officer list, has run a series of ‘invitation-only’ events in Dublin over the last 18 months allowing familiar faces from the world of climate denial, such as Richard Lindzen, William Happer, Henrik Svensmark and Nicola Scafetta to showcase their debunked arguments against taking action on climate change. read full story / add a comment

Peat permitted as animal bedding due to ‘exceptional circumstances. Ban on use on organic farms also lifted

The Department of Agriculture has responded to objections about Teagasc’s recommended use of peat for animal bedding by stating that the authorisation has only been made in the ‘exceptional circumstances of the current fodder and bedding shortage’.

riends of the Irish Environment [FIE] had written to the Minister objecting to a recent Teagasc Factsheet entitled ‘Alternatives to straw bedding’ which recommended peat as an alternative to straw for animal bedding. The environmental charity’s submission provided evidence that Bord na Mona and independent operators are aggressively marketing peat for animal bedding this autumn. read full story / add a comment

The new scheme to improve the Dublin Bus network called Bus Connects on close inspection is nothing of the sort. It is more akin to Bus Disconnects. The reports and PR from Bus Connects maintains it will be better and while the theoretical basis for it may be correct, it doesn't deliver because they plan to do it with the same number of buses. For some routes there will be a reduction in capacity by 25%. For example they claim a bus every 4 minutes on the main backbone A-Route but this figure is misleading because it is for the 4 A-routes. Since you are only likely to be on one of these, then that means the real peak frequency is every 15 or so minutes which is no different to the present. read full story / add a comment

Leaked memo shows business tactics to undermine climate change targets

BusinessEurope, the largest group of business interests in Europe – which includes Google and Facebook as well as IBEC– has advised its members to oppose the ‘new increases of ambition’ as the European Commission is considering whether to set more ambitious climate goals. The issue will be determined in December at the COP24 conference in Poland.

The memo, obtained by Greenpeace Europe, comes as a UN draft report due for publication in October is known to be calling for ‘rapid and far reaching’ changes. read full story / add a comment

A Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown area branch of the Dublin Cycling Campaign is to be trialed under the name DLR Cycling.

We have decided to develop a DLR Cycling Advocacy Group to help form a better level of engagement between the cycling community and the councillors and officials of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.

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GLOBAL INVITATION -First International Conference Against US/NATO Military Bases November 16-18, 2018, Dublin, Ireland Add Your Support and Join Us Dear Friends of Peace Around the World,

We are deeply concerned, and frightened, by the threat of war that permeates the present Global atmosphere

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The increasingly aggressive and expansionist actions of US/NATO forces in violation of international law and the sovereign rights of all nations, the raging wars in the Middle East, the burgeoning arms race devastating the national treasuries, the bellicose language replacing diplomatic negotiations, the economic difficulties facing country after country, and the destruction of global environment through war and unfettered exploitation, and their impact on public health, have all created crises that, unless checked by popular opposition, can lead to unimaginable catastrophe and war.

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Masked Garda threatening people with batons in the aftermath of the violent eviction carried out by thugs in Dublin last night. Pepper spray, dogs and batons were deployed, there were 5 or 6 arrests and four housing campaigners required hosptial visits from injuries received in the course of the eviction of the Frederick St occupation. Video at https://youtu.be/BaBTdaWv3Ro read full story / add a comment

Only the second Papal visit in 2,000 years by the first non European Pope. Pope Francisco is from Argentina where the United States client state ruled with terror, kidnappings and politically motivated assassination. His papacy appears to have many proactive enemies from wiithin reactionary Catholicism globally and (neo) liberal elites in Irish media & NGO sector. The recent visit was in visual and audio contrast to the only other visit of the papacy to Ireland. Pope John Paul 2nd in 1979 (the year of the Mountbatten assassination, Warrenpoint, punk). What does this tell us about Papa Francisco and contemporary Irish society? read full story / add a comment

The 12th Dublin Anarchist Bookfair takes place on the 15th September 2018 at the Teachers Club 35 Parnell square and on the evening ofthe 14th at Wynns hotel. Every year hundreds of people attend the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair for a day of inspiring discussions and the opportunity of meeting lots of other radicals, browsing books and meeting campaigns.

With two weeks to go we are finalsing the details join the Facebook event to let us know you are coming so we can plan for expected numbers and when you do so ask 10 of your friends who you reckon should go. If you are on Twitter than RT our promotional thead read full story / add a comment

This September sees the much-anticipated return of The 6th Wexford Documentary Film Festival, a jam-packed 3-day festival of International, National, and Local films. The Festival takes place in the working fishing village of Kilmore Quay, County Wexford from Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd September 2018. In keeping with the festival ethos, this year’s festival returns with a curated program of films that powerfully explore social, political, and environmental concerns. The Wexford Documentary Film Festival is gaining strength and popularity, by providing the public with the opportunity to see award winning National and International documentary films and 2018 is no exception!

The Festival program engages with some of the critical issues facing society at present both globally and locally. These include films that explore the threat to democracy, the role and responsibility of the media, the ways in which we can create an inclusive society and films that portray the positive role women are playing in challenging and shaping society. read full story / add a comment

Indirect support to burning peat through a Public Service Obligation (PSO) levy to support electricity generation from three peat powered plants when co-fired with biomass has been challenged as it is leading to significant increases in greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the price of biomass to home users, forcing them to use more fossil fuels. read full story / add a comment

There have been numerous attempts to frame the Assad regime with launching and carrying out chemical attacks in Syria. All of them so far have either been fake or carried out by the so called 'Rebels' and terrorists largely backed by Washington, London and Paris through their proxies in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey before it turned away from the US after it organised an attempted coup against Erdogan.

In all cases the chemical attacks and talk of them has been used by the US and it's allies as an excuse to bomb Syria. There is absolute no reason and motive for Assad to use chemical weapons either now or in the past. At this stage he has won the war in Syria and expelled most of the terrorists or done deals with them and arranged for them to be bused out. From a logical and motive point of view it would be insane for him to do this. He would gain zero. On the other hand it makes perfect sense not so much for the terrorists who are just pawns in a bigger game, but perfect sense for the US because Syria has been on their target since at least 2001 and they have wanted regime change from the start. They have also been humiliated that their terrorists have been defeated and their regional plans thwarted. This turn-around happened largely happened after Syria invited Russia into Syria to help in the war effort and it represents the fist time since the breakup of the Soviet Union that Russia has been able to get up of it's knee and challenge the destructive insanity of the US. And so this gives some background to the report below that appeared on RT.

“Foreign specialists” have arrived in Syria and may stage a chemical attack using chlorine in “the next two days,” the Russian Defense Ministry said. This will be filmed for international media to frame Damascus forces.

Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said the operation is planned to unfold in the village of Kafr Zita in Syria’s northwestern Hama Province in “the next two days.”

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