"Interaction?" cries Wag "I thought this was Indymedja not the bleedin' Grauniad Unlimited."

Usually around this time of year, those of us grunts still on active service duty for Indymedia Ireland, spend a week or so trawling the archive with our virtual nets. Sometimes we return with a catch of material that we format into a review of the year. And other times - like last year - short-staffed and burnt out, we simply aren't up to the effort.

This year we are going to try something completely different - by running a competition to unearth the best of the site over the past 12 months. The editorial collective asks readers to dip into the archives, and come up with the sharpest, freshest and most spot on contributions to break through the newswire clouds. We'll be running the competition under several categories, so stick to them. When we have the nominations in, we'll open a poll and let the votes pile in on the most popular five in each. Read on for details...

Sunday's referendum defeat may turn out to be a blessing in disguise for the Venezuelan Left

An analysis of the recent Venezuelan referendum including coverage of the issues by both alternative and mainstream media. This article includes some factual data about the reality of Venezuela’s economy which effectively counters the “conventional wisdom” arising from propaganda spread by much of the mainstream media. The article also draws some interesting contrasts between the political situation in Venezuela and its next door neighbour, Colombia.

Related Links:
Venezuela after the Referendum: Socialist Unity — Tariq Ali on CounterPunch
Recent Indymedia Coverage: Global Women’s Strike in Venezuela call for a Yes vote

Energy & Environment Conference, Dublin 1st December. Senator Al Gore & Bono save the world (again).

A well written and entertaining report of a conference on Energy and the Environment organised by Merrion Capital at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin on the 1st December. The reporter describes the speeches on the environment from luminaries such as David Begg of ICTU talking about the consequences of using land for bio-fuel, Tadhg O'Donoghue of the ESB focusing on nuclear power, and Willie Walsh of Aer Lingus fame speaking about the effects of low-cost aviation before the key-note speech from Al Gore, producer of the popular presentation "An Inconvenient Truth".

This exclusive comes in a tradition of Indymedia exclusives that brought you the British Ambassador’s letter in 1969, when the then Managing Director of the Irish Times, called his Editor and fellow Protestant, Douglas Gageby, “a renegade or white nigger” for his coverage of Northern Ireland.

RTE broadcast a 'Hidden History' programme on 23 October 2007, about the IRA shooting of Richard and Abraham Pearson of Coolacrease, near Cadamstown, Co. Offaly, in June 1921, during the War of Independence. It was made by Niamh Sammon and featured (unelected) Senator Eoghan Harris of the Sunday Independent.

The programme was accused of editing interviews to encourage a view that the IRA in Offaly were sectarian, land grabbing and Catholic peasants. Back in early October Indymedia users played with the title of the documentary strand and began to ask was history being bent to the will of a hidden agenda?

Now a researcher, PhD student Philip McConway, has accused the programme of distorting his views. Local historian, Paddy Heaney, related to an IRA volunteer who died from stomach wounds inflicted by the Pearsons, said the programme left the guts of his interview on the cutting room floor. Another interview, with Pat Muldowney, never made it at all, not one second. His interview with Niamh Sammon of Reel Story Productions, has never been heard by the public. Until now that is...

Today, tonight (to coin a phrase), Indymedia brings you audio of the Muldowney-Sammon interview. Not all of it, we are not miracle workers, and the quality is, we admit, not the best. But it is good enough.

Related Links: Indymedia asks Hidden History or Hidden Agenda? | The Story Starts Here | The Hidden History documentary strand returns to RTÉ | Review of I Met Murder On The Way | War Of Independence Debate On Sectarianism Descends On Unassuming Offaly | Cedar Lounge Revolution Bloggers on Coolacrease |

With only three shopping weeks left in the Christmas shopping season, the Pavilions shopping centre in Swords, Co. Dublin experienced its first bout of ‘Workers Action’ today with Argos employees, who are members of the Trade Union Mandate, abandoning their tills and making for the picket line.

Talks, which lasted until late last night, were held between Mandate and Argos management at the National Implementation Body, ended without agreement being reached resulting in today’s action.

The Retail giant which has 680 stores dotted around the UK and Ireland, last year announced profits which exceeded €8.1 billion, profits are also up 50% for the first half of this year. Yet they are unwilling to increase their workers wages by 10%. With most workers earning €9.00 an hour a 10% increase would raise their hourly rates to €9.90.

• Start of Interview with Mandate Shop Steward 0.99 Mb
• Interview with Mandate Shop Steward 4.22 Mb

Related Links: Mandate Trade Union | Support the workers against the bullying bosses at Dublin Bus | Attack on Trade Unionists on the rise world wide | Cultural Workers Take on Galway Property Tycoon | Strike At Dunnes Stores Cork |Postman Pat says ‘stuff your pay cut”| Our Workers' Issue Archive