Aid, not Occupation

As predictions for the death toll from the Haitian earthquakes rise over 200,000, ABC News have reported that planes carrying medical equipment and relief supplies are having to compete with soldiers for the valuable slots at Port-au-Prince airport which was taken over by the US military after the quake. Since the start of the great anti-slavery republican insurrection nearly 220 years ago, Haiti has been presented as a dangerous place incapable of running its own affairs and requiring foreign intervention. Yet the reality is its people were the first enslaved population to deliver themselves from slavery and also carried out what was only the third successful republican insurrection on the planet. The threat of this good example was rewarded with centuries of invasion, blackmail, the robbery of Haiti's natural resources and the impoverishment of its people. This articles summarizes that history of intervention and the resistance to it in order to put into context what is happening in Haiti after the quake

Podcast: "The Haitian Revolution"



Direct download in mp3 format (48.39mb)
Strong aftershock hits Haiti | Naomi Klien's document | has the world failed Haiti? (video) | US aid relative to other countries | The Incapacitation of Haiti | Against the grain main site

Huge crowd welcomes Gaza convoy in Amman, Jordan

Following several months of fundraising, four teams from across Ireland departed on Saturday, 5 December, to travel 4,000 miles across land to Gaza in Palestine to deliver ambulances and humanitarian aid to the besieged people of that tiny region. Concerned Irish citizens from Cork, Derry, Dublin, Galway and Tyrone are bringing two ambulances, a mini-bus, and a truck filled with over 10 tonnes of humanitarian aid.

IPSC webpage | Latest news from Jordan | Ireland to Gaza Facebook Page | Official Viva Palestina webpage | 'Viva Palestina Cork’ Facebook page | Stranded in Jordan | Willie O'Dea gives his support | Noam Chomsky and Proinsias De Rossa give their support | Egyptian government efforts to hinder march | Youtube footage of convoy entering Turkey

Contact details for the Egyptian Embassy in Dublin are: +353-1-6606718 / +353-1-6606566 / [email protected]

Contact details for the Egyptian Embassy in London are: 0044-20-7499-3304 / [email protected]”

It Takes More than This to Stop Us

Every day the war machines roll through Shannon, as the innocent populations of Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere suffer the brutal consequences of neo-liberal occupation. The Gardai react by mounting public displays of strength against half a dozen innocent protestors, while claiming to have no opinions or authority over the cargos and personnel passing through the airport.

Related Links:
Making War Through Shannon Airport | Shannon Peace Vigil Among the Warplanes | Videos from Shannon Peace Conference | US Military Officers Oversee War Activities at Shannon | Hiroshima remembered at Shannon Peace Vigil

Obama - Hope, No!

A critique of the Obama Presidency from taking office in January of this year to now.

Criticism of the Obama Administration in the United States (and around the world) is more noticeable as is the slide in the opinion polls for the young president. This may seem predictable given the unrealistic levels of global expectation that accompanied him as he swept into the Oval office with the words ‘hope and change’ ringing around America. However, just over nine months on, commentators and supporters alike are disappointed at Obama’s apparent inability to deliver on his campaign promises. The polemicist, Gore Vidal, in several recent interviews went as far as to say that Obama will be a ‘one term President’ who is ‘completely overwhelmed’ by the challenges that confront him.

This unease and anger seem to galvanise after the Administration’s decision to bailout the major US banks and financial institutions in the form of a ‘stimulus’ package, which is pushing close to $1 trillion dollars. The Nobel Prize winning economist, Professor Joseph Stiglitz, commented on RTE’s Primetime programme that this amounted to a massive “theft of the American taxpayer”. The ill feeling surrounding this package intensified when it was revealed that part of this enormous sum of money was used to pay the annual bonuses of senior banking executives who had largely caused the crisis. This was against a backdrop of economic decline with millions of Americans losing their jobs, millions more facing home foreclosure while the dispossessed are filling the growing number of tent cities which are becoming an increasing feature on the outskirts of major American cities.

Newspaper headline from the examiner

The Raybestos Manhattan Corporation moved to Ireland in the mid-70s. A campaign opposing their operations here began almost immediatly. It was a long and protracted struggle but eventually ended in victory. This article examines the campaign against the mulitnational and the lessons that can be learned from it today.

Related Links:
More about RM | Wikipedia on asbestos | asbestosis | Asbestos: a matter of time (clip) | Full video | Asbestos disease awareness organisation | Book: the environmental movement in Ireland | US EPA info on raymark industries plant | Asbestos.com site | Dail question related to the issue | WSM site