Workers Solidarity Movement

This video shows the view from inside the house evicted on the last Tuesday evening June 2015 by a large gang of Garda in Dublin operating without a search warrant or eviction order.

Over 1,000 abortion pills were seized last year at customs, a figure that represents double the amount seized the two years previous. This fact is very much in contradiction with the myth of the anti-choice side that there is no demand for abortion in Ireland.

Despite the fact that abortion is illegal in Ireland and having an abortion, or even helping someone have one, is punishable by up to 14 years in jail it is a well known fact that abortions still occur.

Monday night (22/09/2015) RTE aired the misguided David McWilliams documentary "Ireland's Great Wealth Divide". It points out that the richest of the rich have far, far more than their fair share and that it's considerably worse than "we" think it is - this is demonstrated with opinion poll data (see image below) showing how Irish people would like wealth to be divided, contrasted against how "we" think it's divided and how it's actually divided. It also argues against the notion of trickle down economics, pointing out that the wealthy don't let their money trickle down and do not create jobs.

Last Saturday the 26th of September saw thousands of people take to the streets of Dublin for the now annual March for Choice. The march is organized every year by the Abortion Rights Campaign.

The current key demand is that for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment. This amendment passed in 1983 equates the life of a mother with that of a foetus. It's implementation through the legislation of the Labor Party party and FIne Gail government means in effect that a doctor who helps a pregnant person have an abortion or someone who procures one in Ireland could face a jail sentence of up to 14 years.

Sometimes the old ones are the gold ones. The attempt by the Irish state to damage the electoral chances of the Anti Austerity Alliance by hitting them where it matters - in the pocket - reminds us of how shallow parliamentary democracy is. The Anti Austerity Alliance is the political front the Socialist Party runs under but for the next elections its unified with the SWPs People Before Profit as the rather lengthy AAA - PbP.

It's broadly understood that cash determines who wins an election more than any other factor. Indeed with the US presidential election, for almost a century, the winner has always been the candidate who had the most money behind them. So in terms of influencing the outcome of an election denying a party the right to fundraise is probably the single most effective tactic short of banning them outright.

Rich people in Ireland as elsewhere are good at not paying taxes. When you give them a chance to prove you wrong we get figures that show that in 2013 just 15 of the super wealthy paid a total of €1.8m.

Who are these rich people and how do they do it? By rich we mean that you have an income of more than €1 million rolling into you from around the world, and that you have assets of more than €5 million here. That is some wealth right there. How they manage it is that whilst they might live here they register to pay tax in a low-tax haven like Malta or Monaco.