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

This is a table of what public sector workers
in Ireland really earn based on the data given in the
reply to a Dail question in Feb 09.

The cancellation of today's strike is a blow to the developing movement against the cuts on the scale of the cancellation of the March 30th strike at the start of the year. The so called compromise ICTU have been negotiating for is a further blow, it seems designed to drive a wedge between workers and fails to answer the main problem public sector workers have, the inability to take further cuts. But the strike that did happen on 24th November has brought 250,000 workers into their first experience of the power we collectively hold and points towards an alternative

The announcement from ICTU while we were picketing during the national strike on the 24th that a second strike had been set for December 3rd caught most strikers by surprise. Initially workers, most of whom were on strike for the first time ever, were concerned that we would be going out again so soon. But once the news sunk in the idea of having a second strike before the budget cuts made sense, its much easier to stop cuts happening then reversing them.All over the country union sections and branches began the work of organising for a second day of striking and effective pickets.

Bush First, Obama Second

After more than three months' deliberation, President Barack Obama has finally decided to commit more than 30,000 US troops to the Afghan war. The ‘Afghan surge’ is to be fast tracked over the next six months with a large bulk of the troops arriving before Christmas. The deployment will cost approximately $1 million dollars per soldier, per year, some $30 billion overall. This price tag is on top of the considerable costs (running into the hundreds of billions of dollars) of keeping over 100,000 US soldiers ‘in-country’, while maintaining other US global military operations as well as the on-going fiasco in Iraq. The combined deployment of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan is close to 250,000 service personnel, which is augmented by the greatest number of private military contractors/mercenaries ever seen (some 100,000 in Iraq alone).

Related Links:
Response to obama Statement "Guantanamo will not close by January 2010" | Award of Nobel Peace Prize to President obama | Vid/Photoes/Report-61 Arrested at White House on 8th. Anniversary of Invasion of afghanistan | Refuelling War ongoing at Shannon airport | Making War through Shannon airport | Open letter to new Ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney

International Week of Solidarity

The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign took part in this year’s International Week of Solidarity called by the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (http://www.stopthewall.org).

An international call to activists was put out to launch a week of global mobilisation against the walls of apartheid in Palestine from November 9th to 16th 2009. The IPSC used this opportunity to highlight the necessity of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, with specific reference to the ongoing role of Irish construction company CRH (formerly Cement Roadstone Holdings) in the building of the Apartheid Wall and illegal colonial settlements in the West Bank.

Stop the Wall:

The Campaign call is to:
1. Stop the Wall
2. Dismantle parts already built
3. Return all lands confiscated for the Wall, and
4. Compensate for all losses.

For more info, visit: StopTheWall.org

OPIM men at the meeting in their headquarters,
Jane Jones from Tlachinollan in the foreground
and two Peace Brigades accompaniers
who are delegated to OPIM on the far right

David Salgado was a seasonal agricultural worker who died in the course of his work as a 'jornalero', that is a seasonal migrant worker on an industrial farming operation. His death occurred in Sinaloa state in northern Mexico in January 2007. Deaths in farming are all too frequent worldwide but this case was different, David , who hailed from Guerrerro one of Mexico's poorest states, was eight years old.

Extra Information:
What is the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center?
Tlachinollan Human Rights Center is a non-governmental organization based in Tlapa de Comonfort, in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. For more than 13 years, we have stood by the Nauas, Na savi (Mixtecos), Me' Phaa (Tlapanecos) and Amuzgo indigenous peoples, as well as other poor communities, in their struggle for justice and full respect of their human rights. Two years ago, we expanded from La Montaña to Costa Chica, set up an office in Ayutla de Los Libres, and started working in La Costa Grande and the state heartland. We have a staff of 23 full-time, dedicated people. Fore more, click here.

What is OPIM?
OPIM was founded in 1994 in the Costa Chica region of Mexico’s Guerrero state, in response to grave human rights violations by the controlling Mexican army, including extrajudicial killings, forced sterilizations, rape, torture, and illegal detentions. In addition to human rights defense, OPIM works to transform the causes of poverty and social exclusion that affect the Mepha’a people through community organizing and grassroots community development. For more, click here.