Two and a half years after it was reported on Indymedia that Starbucks were planning on bringing their business here, the coffee chain finally opened their first city centre outlet on College Green, right next door to the historic Bank of Ireland building, and a stones throw from the front gate of Trinity College, the oldest university in the state. Starbucks first Irish cafe opened up several months ago in the new Dundrum Shopping Centre, in the southern suburbs.

Starbucks have a touch of the cute hoor about them when it comes to the presentation of their cafes. Conscious of the backlash against the white and yellow plastic generic decor (and equally plastic food) of global fast food chains, instead they have constructed their premises in warm, organic, earthy browns, greens and oranges, selling the customer a relaxed atmosphere and image of luxurious radiance brought on by the warm afterglow from drinking one of their nuclear reactor size coffees. This is also the case with the Dublin cafe. There are many cafes around the city where you can relax and unwind - but for the most part at present, these cafes are independently owned and operated, without a massive global corporation behind the scenes.

But seriously though, whats the problem with them coming here? If people enjoy their coffee, like the premises, and their business does well, isnt that the invisible hand of the market giving the public what they want? Simon, the owner of "Simons Place" cafe in the Georges Street Arcade, said "The [Irish people] vote with their feet and their wallets. They generally get what they want. People seem to want this trend of big drinking factories, and in the last few years they've sprang up all over the place. Starbucks probably would be successful here." Judging on their success and expansion in the UK, undoubtedly the company is not going to rest on its laurels with its two stores in Dundrum and College Green. Expect them to heavily dot the landscape in the coming months.

The unoffical action and indeed the direct action taken by the SIPTU members on the two Irish Ferries Ships in Wales last night (November 24th) should be commenended and supported wholeheartedly by the leadership of SIPTU and ICTU. Both leaderships should now publicly support in the strongest possible terms the action taken by the Irish Ferries workers without reserve. Surely these workers must now be facing criminal proceedings by the managment and the owners of Irish Ferries?

It is unfortunate and regrettable that the SIPTU members of Irish Ferries have been left with no other alternative but to resort to this desperate but principled and very admirable and brave stand. It must be causing the leadership and bureaucracy of SIPTU an unwanted headache of migraine proportions. The direct action that the Irish Ferries workers have taken has shown that the Industrial Relations Act of 1990 should never have been even contemplated nor considered acceptable by our trade union bureaucracy when it was both discussed and finally introduced as legislation.

*** Due to unforeseen circumstances the Dublin meeting on water privatisation has been postponed until Sunday Nov 27th. It will take place in the Teachers Club, Parnell Sq. at 5pm. ***

In January 2005 Bolivia’s second water war was launched in the city of El Alto. Armed with sticks, traditional indigenous Aymara flags and the words - ‘Fuera Aguas del Illimani! Aguas del Illimani must go!’ - the people of El Alto challenged Bolivia’s President and the World Bank to expel Suez - one of the world’s largest water corporations - and return water to public control. In a city of 800,000 poor indigenous rural migrants -the privatisation of water left 200,000 people without access to a water service and imposed a $500 connection fee on people living on less than $1 a day. Inspired by the success of Bolivia’s first water war in Cochabamba (2000) - which saw the termination of a 30-year private water contract with US engineering giant, Bechtel Corporation - the people of El Alto were determined to fight for their right to water.

After an initial victory, the government rolled back on its’ promise of a publicly controlled company when Suez threatened to bring a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the Bolivian state. Over the last year, El Alto’s community interest group, el Fejuve has struggled to negotiate a fair and just water service for the people of El Alto.

As a representative of El Fejuve, Julian Perez will speak in Dublin and Derry on the 25th and 26th November respectively about the citizen led campaign to reverse the privatisation of water service as demanded by World Bank lending conditions. In both venues he will be joined by local campaigners involved in resisting water privatisation on the Island of Ireland.

A to Z of the Irish Times

By Dave Lordan

(From collection titled 'Clonakilty Red Pudding'. The collection is dedicated to ‘Tom Barry’s Missing Statue’)

All strikes are wrong, particularly the ones that go on.
Bombs are good in Baghdad and Belgrade, bad in Belfast
Cheerlead every imperialist war.
Dissidents need not apply.
Editorial line, editorial line, editorial line.
Famines are caused by a shortage of food.
Good for business, good for all.
Hallelujah social partnership!!!
Ignore anti-capitalist and anti-racist events not organized by our friends.
Jail the poor.
Keep repeating the establishment line.
Letters from the organized left not printed. Letters from far right God-spouting nutters pride of place.
Middle class audience, middle class values.
NATO is a peacemaker and moral authority.
Orange marches are an expression of Protestant culture.
Prague didn’t happen, Genoa didn’t happen, Florence isn’t happening.
Queue’s in public services the fault of the staff.
Releases from PR agencies quoted verbatim as truth.
Sanctions which murder hundreds and thousands of children are ‘an understandable reaction to the threat of terrorism’.
Tell lies about the Nice Treaty.
UVF same as IRA.
Vanity mirror for the rich and politicians.
World Bank Good Good Good.
Xtreme left Bad Bad Bad.
Yes Yes men and Yes Yes women.
Zero coverage of Working Class Issues.

Some of the more recent poetry from the collection "The Boy in the Ring" which won the prize for Dave is available here as is a poem on the subject of Shannon Airport.

The Kavanagh Award has been awarded yearly since 1971 and previous winners have included Pat Boran, Celia de Freine, Paul Durcan, Sinead Morrissey, Peter Sirr and Joseph Woods. Lilliput Press published an anthology of the recipients of the award since 1971 in 2004 titled Dancing With Kitty Stobling.

Most Indymedia readers will know Dave Lordan as an unabashed socialist activist and this is often reflected head on in his writing. Here for example is Dave's Tribute To Joe Strummer and also his response to the events in Genoa in 2001.

Around 75 community and housing activists from across the city gathered in the Macro Community Resource Centre on North King St last night, for the launching of a new Tenants First booklet, entitled "The Real Guide to Regeneration for Communities: Making The Right Decision About Urban Regeneration". The booklet has been in production for several months, and five thousand copies have been printed up for distribution around local authority flat complexes and housing estates right across Dublin City.

The booklet was produced not as a leaflet to be shoved through letterboxes, but rather as a tool that local communities can use in facilitating workshops and discussions when faced with regeneration (which based on the contributions from the floor last night, seems to be widespread and increasing). "12 steps to making the right decision about regeneration" are mapped out, and take tenants from the initial stages of finding out information and understanding what is happening, to organising your own agenda, getting resources and fighting for what you want.

Three speakers, Joe Donohue from Fatima Groups United, John Bissett from St Michael's Estate, and Lena Jordan from O'Devaney Gardens gave a brief outline of their experiences to date of the regeneration process. They talked of how each of their communities had experienced difficulties with Dublin City Council, at all stages of the planning and organisation. Also prevalent was the continuing presence of PPPs (Public Private Partnerships) in redevelopments. The results of PPPs were varied, but inevitably lead to the reduction in the number or physical space afforded to social housing, and an increase in housing densities coupled with a loss of open space areas.