2008 has been a year of ups and downs for the Shell to Sea campaign, however generally the last months of the year have been very positive. This is a brief review of the year and a call-out for people to get involved next year when we expect a big push from Shell and the Government to again try to force this project through. At the moment, we are planning on the assumption that a pipe-laying ship (Solitaire or otherwise) will be back anytime from spring next year, to try to finally lay the offshore pipeline.

Related Links: Shell 2 Sea S2S stories on indy.ie

Justin Morahan writes... On the Jewish Sabbath, this morning, The Israeli Defence forces launched a massive missile attack on Gaza killing at least 140 people.

The attack came as a surprise even to Israelis. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz put the number of dead at 155 or more. There was little or no warning when the "strike" began at 11.30 a.m. Israeli time.

Television footage showed dead bodies scattered on a road and wounded and dead being carried away by distraught rescuers.

The Israel Defense Forces said that the airstrikes "will continue, will be expanded, and will deepen if necessary."

Egypt has now opened its long-sealed border with Gaza to allow in the wounded for medical treatment.

According to reports, the Hamas Government buildings were targeted as were the police headquarters with heavy casualties in both locations. Police Chief Tawfiq Jabber is among the dead. A spokesman said that the police compound in Gaza City had been hosting a graduation ceremony for new personnel when it was attacked.

Related Links:
Ewa Jasiewicz (Free Gaza Movement) writes at UK Indy: 'As I write this, Israeli jets are bombing the areas of Zeitoun and Rimal in central Gaza City. The family I am staying with has moved into the internal corridor of their home to shelter from the bombing....' read more
• also see and hear an MP3 speech of Ewa's at Dublin's Speakers' Square, June 2004

Where's Caoimhe Butterly?
According to FreeGaza.org she is most likely in Gaza at the moment.
UPDATE #1:A credible report tells us that Caoimhe is safe in a third country.
UPDATE #2: Caoimhe will be on a ship with 16 others traveling from Cyprus with Humanitarian Aid to break the Israeli Blockade of Gaza - read more at FreeGaza.org
UPDATE #3: Israelis attack the ship 'The Dignity' - Caoimhe reported to be on board 'The Dignity has been surrounded by at least half-a-dozen Israeli warships. They are firing live ammunition around the Dignity, and one of the warships has rammed the civilian craft causing an unknown amount of damage.' more blogged below.
UPDATE #4: Goretti Horgan, Derry Anti War Coalition, writes us the following update...'Caoimhe contacted members of the Derry Anti War Coalition this morning as the boat limped towards Lebanese waters for repairs - it was too badly damaged by the Israelis' ramming to make it back to Cyprus .... The Lebanese government have said the boat could dock there. We had another phone call in Derry to tell us that they were now in Lebanese waters. Caoimhe says that the Free Gaza boat will set off from Lebanon again just as soon as repairs are complete – in a day, or two at the most.' - read more

Dublin Photo Series: Hundred take to the streets to show solidarity and mourn for the people of Gaza.
Read: 'I own a video camera, but today I discovered what a terrible cameraman I am. I can’t bring myself to film mangled bodies or faces drenched in tears. I just can’t. I start crying myself...' - A translated article by Vittorio Arrigoni at freegaza.org
Look: What was Guernica?

Contact.ie, a website for contacting politicians in Ireland, went live today. Indymedia.ie caught up with Mark Conroy, the site's owner, to discuss the site with him.

Related Links: Contact.ie

“Anyone passing Roxboro in the last 8 weeks will have seen the workers from Curran Aluiminium standing outside on the Picket Line in the worst of weather conditions. “

So starts the blog entry on Cheebah which is entitled “Striking a Blow”. It links to the same video that is embedded here on indymedia which has started to meander through the Irish blogosphere. Running at 4'45'' the Polish language piece with English subtitles has the story told by Grzegorz Romanski, Robert Grabowski, Marek Witomski and Robert Sawlewicz – some of the workers standing on that picket line.

While the Irish Times tells us 33% of Poles may return home - or at least gives recruitment firm CPL an advertorial to say so - we see that Grzegorz anyway intends to stay, as he is "fascinated by this country".The roll call at the end of this well constructed and informative video are our workmates and neighbours, members of our class who are currently being scapegoated and attacked. When Robert Sawlewicz ends the video by bluntly reminding us he is on the dole, he and his comrades are joined by more than 277,000 others. The SIPTU members in Curran Aluminium are standing on a picket line in Dublin fighting for the right to good jobs in Ireland, the right to be represented by their union, the right to decent, legally compliant terms and conditions. We should remember - the video may be in Polish but this struggle is all of ours.

Apparently the workers are back in the Labour Court on Friday - but the company has already ignored one labour court hearing that went against them so this dispute is likely to have a bit yet to run. While Country Tom and the Construction Industry Federation are happy to rip up social partnership agreements nationally - Curran Aluminium won't even accept the right of their workers to be repesented. And their own representatives in IBEC are happy to fight on their behalf to help them deny these workers the right to representation. Remember, in the current economic climate the only partnerships that matter will be those between workers of all types as they form strong unions.

The Harp, January 1908. Consider, oh, my compatriots, what this implies! That Polack, whose advent into the workshop you are taught to view with such disfavor, if you could trace his ancestry back a few hundreds of years perhaps you would find for him an Irish ancestor who charged by the side of Hugh O’Neill on that fateful day when the English flag went down in disaster at the Yellow Ford.
............
But, you ask me, why this thusness? What has all this to do with Socialism? My dear friend, this is a lecture on Internationalism. Didn’t you notice it before? It is a lecture written in characters of blood and fire in Irish history; a lecture on the mingling and merging and therefore on the oneness and unity of all the races of mankind.
Link to Original Lecturing Article

Reporting on Indymedia this evening, Andrew from the Workers Solidarity Movement (disguised as personal capacity) drew lessons from the large crowds who marched to Merrion Square in the bright and crisp December day.

How about a system where production is organised to meet people’s needs, where it would be regarded as insanity to have building workers idle while others go without adequate housing, where the idea of paying farmers not to grow food while hunger is still a daily reality in much of the world would be seen as immoral. This can only work when the means of producing and distributing wealth are owned in common, by all of society. That’s the meaning of socialism.
How about a system that takes socialism and freedom to be of equal value? One where people can do as they wish so long as they don’t interfere with freedom of others? One where you can have a direct say in making the decisions that will affect you? One where control is in the hands of the majority through democratic assemblies and councils? That’s anarchism.

Along with the anarchists reporting from the streets of Dublin, the Irish Republican Socialist Party informed us that both the IRSP and the masses of ordinary people made up a crowd of 50,000. Perhaps what we are seeing.....

...... will require the participation of many of our work colleagues, neighbours and friends. It is about the majority rejecting control over us by any minority group (whether it be employers or politicians). If we want the interests of the vast majority to be respected, then the vast majority must be in control.

Whatever, the anarchists and republicans were definitely along with the rest of us in learning something from na muinteoirí (teachers for our non-gaeilgeoir readers) today. Despite his intention to try and ignore our first answer and come back within a year with the same treaty for us to ratify the Offaly gentlemen currently holding the seal of Taoiseach (chieftan for the non-gaeilgeoir) will give up easy. You've always been thought to respect the elderly - now they're worth emulating.

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