EAPN Ireland | Workfare Won’t Work for the Unemployed
Excellent blog post from Aiden Lloyd, on EAPN’s On the Line blog. This pretty much nails the governments ‘thinking’ behind the workfare scheme. It wants to be seen to be doing something, while doing absolutely nothing. The economic structure of the country is based on attracting foreign [...]

Hugh Green | Anglo Grinder
Hugh Green, on foot of the largest profit loss in Irish history - the 8.2 bn lost by Anglo Irish Bank in six months - has started to look at the figures and its eye watering.

Grants to Enterprise was ticking over nicely all the way through the boom, making [...]

Tony Judt Interview on BBC4’s No Triumph, No Tragedy about his disability
Only available for the next 7 days.

WSM Launch The Irish Anarchist Review
The Workers Solidarity Movement have set up a new political magazine called The Irish Anarchist Review, which aims to pursue “a non-sectarian approach, taking ideas from various left currents, mainstream discourse, and reflections on experiences of life and struggle. We will take, print, and discuss, anything that we find useful [...]

Birkbeck Debate The Greek Crisis: Politics, Economics, Ethics
A very interesting discussion held last week (before UK election and EU bailout), on the Greek Crisis in Birkbeck College, London.
Speakers’ Comments
order of speakers:
* Costas Lapavitsas, Economics SOAS
* Kevin Featherstone,Director, Hellenic Observatory, LSE
* Peter Bratsis, (Politics) Salford University
* Stathis Kouvelakis, King’s College London
* Etienne Balibar
* Costas Douzinas, (Chair) [...]

Dean Baker | Another Front Page Editorial on Deficits at the Washington Post
Dean Baker is taking The Washington Post (”a.k.a. Fox on 15th Street”) to task for continuing to aggressively push its anti-welfare state agenda in a front page news article on the Greek financial crisis. Sez the Post:
“‘We can’t finance our social model anymore [...]

Jane Gray on Ireland After NAMA makes an important point -which I missed last week - when wondering why there has been so much bile in ‘public discourse ‘directed at public sector workers at a time when a tonne and a half of public money is being used to make up for the mistakes of [...]

At the Hands of the State
A TG4 documentary from a number of year back on human rights abuses in Ireland in the 70’s and the Sallins train robbery.
In 1977 Amnesty International published a report condemning the government of the twenty-six counties for its stance on human rights. The case of Osgur Breatnach was one of [...]

The European Commission’s Eurobarometer report is available (PDF)

Background to the Referendum
On June 12th, 2008, the Irish electorate was presented with the opportunity to vote “yes” or “no” to the Lisbon Treaty. This was the seventh referendum on European integration in Ireland in the last 36 years, so EU referendums are very much part [...]