Two weeks of intense strikes and protests in Ecuador push back IMF

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After almost two weeks of intense strikes and protests that brought Ecuador to a standstill and forced the government to flee the capital protesters have succeeded in their demands. The IMF backed financial package known as Decree 883 will be thrown out.

Travel for abortion access continues - 244 contacts to help line were past 12 weeks

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Despite a landslide vote to Repeal the 8th amendment, women are still being forced to travel for abortions. The Health Service Executive revealed today that 244 women who had passed the 12-week limit for an abortion had called their helpline. The 12 week deadline is an extremely restrictive deadline. Due to a national shortage of GPs many women have to wait up to a week to get appointments. Parts of rural Ireland still do not have GP coverage.

MASI conference a celebration of the struggle for a humane asylum system.

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MASI - the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland - held its first ever conference Saturday to mark FIVE years of struggle to end Direct Provision.

Hundreds of people attended the conference in Liberty Hall whose theme was 'Towards a More Humane Asylum Process'. People in the asylum system travelled from across Ireland to discuss the past and present of the asylum and deportation machine and to point the way forward to the end of Direct Provision and a more humane asylum system.

Reduced numbers at 2019 March for Choice after referendum win but a big fight is coming in 2021

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The 2019 annual March for Choice in Dublin was smaller than the previous two marches as many assumed the abortion referendum that Repealed the hated 8th amendment had settled the issue.  In fact the legislation brought in by the Fine Gael government in the months after the referendum left some groups behind, in particular migrants and forces everyone to go through a medically useless 3 day waiting period.  Despite being warned about this and other issues including the trans exclusive language Fine Gael went ahead with the flawed legislation so some still have to travel and not everyone has the papers or resources to be able to do so.  The legislation is up for review in 2021 and the anti-choice organisations are gearing up to try and roll back the legislation, the pro-choice movement needs to not only stop them doing so but needs to try and force whoever is in power to remove the flaws in the legislation. [Video]

 

Transport needs and Climate Breakdown as 25,000 march through Dublin

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As part of the global climate strike about 25 thousand students marched through the center of Dublin city. This was one of many demonstrations that took place around Ireland, even the small dormitory towns around Dublin like Maynooth had their own demonstrations. So the actual numbers protesting in Ireland was probably in the region of 40,000.  In this piece Andrew looks at how collective action can halt Climate Breakdown using the example of the need for transport to illustrate why individual consumer choices cannot fix things.

XR strategy is based on bad science

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If you happened to be using bad science to impose a strategy that turned out to be inefficient, and if as a result of this inefficiency billions of people died... who would be the most violent person in the room? This is the question Roger Hallam (a founder of XR) and George Monbiot (a Guardian journalist and prominent supporter of XR) would do well to ponder as the collapse of the earth's biosphere and the system fueling that collapse are claiming more lives every day.

Both of these men have been arguing in favor of non-violent civil disobedience as the only acceptable tactic to avert catastrophic climate change. This stance is usually justified by referencing a study entitled “Why Civil Resistance Works” authored by Erica Chenoweth.

Trans Pride 2019 in Dublin

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Around a thousand people took part in the second Dublin Transgender Pride Parade last Saturday, July 6. This is almost double the number that marched last year. Upon assembling at Parnell Square the colourful procession made it's way down O' Connell Street, through Eden Quay, Customs House Quay and Lombard Street, before arriving at it's destination of Merrion Square. It was watched by crowds of onlookers who offered encouragement and support in the form of cheering and applause.[video]

Pride Alternative protests 1st cop bloc on Dublin Pride

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The presence of uniformed cops marching as a bloc on Dublin Pride meant that for the first time Pride Alternative was organised. Many participants may not have been aware that just across the street 3 van loads of riot police were lurking down a laneway, presumably there so that if there was any attempt to block the cop bloc they would have charged in. Thats so, so far from the roots of Pride in the riots that followed police raids on the Stonewall Inn.

Dublin protests against Trump visit

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Donald Trump's visit to Ireland is defined, as you might expect, by cynicism. He seems to be here mostly in order to promote his hotel in Doonbeg. This is the hotel that rather famously, despite him being a major climate change denier, perhaps the leading climate change denier, that he has applied for planning permission to build a seawall to protect the hotel against rising sea levels!

Extinction Rebellion video report from Dublin

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Saturday 20th saw another #Extinction Rebellion rally take place in Dublin.  Our video shows as it marches to block O’Connell bridge.

Several hundred people marched through Dublin this afternoon as part of Extinction Rebellion Ireland. They then moved to block the northbound lane of O'Connell bridge. This is in the context of the UN science report that says we only have until 2030 so that's now getting nearer to 11 than 12 years to reduce  greenhouse gas emissions enough to prevent a disastrous climate change of 2 degrees centigrade or higher. We are already seeing devastation in many parts of the world most recently in Mozambique and in Iran where unusual big weather events caused very heavy flooding.