Friday, October 31, 2014

Ireland Revolts against Water Charges



IRISH PEOPLE IN REVOLT
AGAINST WATER CHARGES:



THE RIGHT2WATER CAMPAIGN has said at least 90 demonstrations against water charges will take place this Saturday.These have been organised across the country, with over 25 individual marches taking place in Dublin.

The campaign, organised by trade unions, political parties, and community groups.
is looking for a return to a water supply “based on need and not on ability to pay”.
“The extent and diversity of the events being planned around the country not only by Right2Water, but also by other groups, reflects the level of public anger surrounding water charges,” a spokesperson said.

Right2Water was the main group behind a massive demonstration in Dublin on 11 October,  2014 where as many as 100,000 people took to the streets and locked down the centre of the Irish Capital for several hours. At the General Post Office in O’Connell Street, thousands roared support for Opposition leaders who are supporting the people’s protests rattling windows all along the street in the biggest demonstration the Irish Capital has seen since the demonstration against invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Marches were held in Limerick, Cork, and Kerry against the charges this week on Tuesday, with RTÉ News(Irish National Television) putting the total attendance at 6,000.



After six years of miserable austerity policies at the behest of the hated "Troika" of the IMF, EU Commission and European Central Bank, Irish people have had enough and the introduction of Water Charges by the current Government has been the straw that broke the camel's back. Although the Troika proposed Water Charges as a way of increasing Government revenues they also stated that other taxation could substitute if the Government wished, so, the Water Tax is a political choice by the current Government and now they are paying the political price for their mistaken choice having lost two parliamentary bye-elections this month and facing mounting public anger as revealed by the extent of the popular demonstrations against the tax now taking place across the country.



The Government, by useless propaganda and their badly thought out legislation setting up the new Public Water Utility, Uisce Éireann (Irish Water) is trying to justify their failure to set up a properly organised public water authority which will tackle first the main problem in Ireland, the waste of water from leakage in obsolete piping systems. UE immediately wasted €50M on employing consultants to tell them how to organise the transfer of Local Government staff who worked on public water supply systems to their remit when this information could have been had free from the Trade Unions and Local government managers. They are planning to spend €500M on installing domestic water meters when the main problem in Ireland is leakage from Victorian era piping systems and not a penny on renewals of piping until they have succeeded in borrowing billions from foreign banks years from now. This upside down thinking has angered the population, especially in those areas where the water supply is undrinkable due to contamination from leaky pipes.



Saturday’s Protests:
 
November 1st – Demonstrations:

Cashel, Co Tipperary 2pm on The Plaza, Main Street
Clare, Shannon, Shannon Town CTR Carpark (behind Kincora).
Cork, Cork, 2pm City Library Grand Parade.
Cork, Bandon, 12pm Main Bridge.
Cork, Cork City, 2pm, Library, Grand Parade.
Dublin Stoneybatter, Cabra and Phibsboro meet at 1pm at Phibsboro church.
Dublin City. 2pm Connolly or Heuston heading to GPO
Dublin, Ballyfermot, 1pm Civic Centre,
Dublin 15, Blanchardstown Town Centre, at the plaza in front/beside Fingal Co. Co. Offices, 1pm
Dublin, Clondalkin, 2.30pm from County Council,
Dublin, Crumlin, 1pm Crumlin Shopping Centre,

Dublin, Cork St., Ardee St., 1.30pm
Dublin, Ringsend, 12:30 Ringsend Library
Dublin, Ballyfermot, 1pm Civic Centre.
Dublin, Tallaght, 11am Dominican St. Mary’s Priory Tallaght.
Dublin, Drimnagh, 1pm Galtymore Shops.
Dublin, Dun Laoghaire, 1pm Glasthule Dart. .
Dublin, Artane/Edenmore, 11am various meeting points.
Dublin, Cabra, 12noon Cabra Bingo Hall.
Dublin, Finglas, 11.30am Cappagh House / 1pm outside Bank of Ireland Finglas Village,
Dublin York St 1.30 meeting
Fingal, Swords, 11.30am Pavilions March to Fingal Co.Co.
Galway (Against Water Charges) organised protest for Sat the 1st Nov starting at the Fountain,guest speakers in attendance and will have music.
Galway. Tuam. Palace grounds gathering 1.30pm
Gorey Wexford.2PM.Comm.School.Esmonde Street.
Kerry, Tralee, 1pm, Horan Centre.
Kildare, Athy, 1.45 The Arches, Athy.
Kildare, Newbridge, 2pm Ballymany shops, Newbridge.
Kildare, Naas, 2pm The Courthouse.
Kildare, Celbridge, 12pm Rally Castletown Gates.
Kildare, Leixlip, Rally meeting point Leixlip Fire Station 2pm.
Limerick, Limerick City, 2pm Bedford Row.
Louth, Drogheda, 2pm O’Rahallaigh’s GAA club to Shop Street.
Louth, Dundalk, 2pm Fairgreen.
Meath, Navan, 2pm Fair Green.
Meath, Kells, Rally starting at 2pm at Fair Green, Kells.
Meath, Ashbourne, Arkle Statue 2pm.
Meath, Duleek, Duleek Village 12 noon,
Roscommon, Boyle, 1:30pm Royal Hotel Carpark.
Roscommon, Roscommon Town, 2pm The Mart.

Sligo, 2pm GPO Sligo.

Waterford, Waterford City, Ballybricken Hill 2pm.
Wicklow, Bray, 2pm Three assembly points: Lidl, Dell Boghall Rd. or St Fergals Church.
Wicklow, Greystones, 2pm from Civic Offices Mill Rd.
Wicklow, Wicklow, 12.30 Wicklow County Council.
Wicklow, Arklow, Fr. Murphy Monument, Parade Ground 1.45.
 

 Late Additions:
Tipperary Town – Redmond Square @ 3.45pm
Carrick on Suir, Castlefield @ 3pm
Nenagh Railway Station @ 2pm
Tullamore in offaly 2pm
Donegal in Letterkenny at 2pm
Offaly 2pm at O Connor Park
Kilkenny, marching from the railway station at 1.30pm on Saturday
Wexford, 2pm starting at riverbank hotel car park
Carrick on Shannon Tesco's at 12.30 for march starting at 1pm more details on Leitrim Against Irish Water on facebook.
Enniscorthy starting at fairgreen (opposite Pettits) at 2 pm
Monaghan at 2pm from the Court house
Dublin City: Northside Connolly Stn 2pm. Southside Heuston Stn. 2pm. Live music in O’Connell Street after.
Dungarvan 3pm at Walton park
Cavan Town this weekend. 2pm on Market Square
Ballyshannon 2pm. Assemble at the Abbey Centre.
Clare in Ennis, 2pm at the O’Connell monument.
Portarlington 2 PM
Lifford in County Donegal, 2pm from Croaghan heights
Ennis, Co. Clare: O’Connell Monument at 14:00
Carlow Liberty tree 2 pm.
Westmeath Athlone St. Peter’s church 2pm
Dublin, Balbriggan. Meeting at Balbriggan train station at 11.30am
Wexford. Ferry bank, 2 pm finishing in the Bullring.
Fermoy Co Cork. 2pm Chapel square.
New Ross says No, 2pm the Quay.
Longford 2pm, Battery road.
Mallow Co Cork – Gathering at Taylor’s Corner, West End @ 1.30pm and march starting @ 2pm


More demonstrations are expected to announce early tomorrow.








Saturday, October 25, 2014

Germany subsidises Israeli Navy

Meko A class Corvette,ThyssenKrupp Marine Services, Kiel.


GERMANY TO SUBSIDISE
ISRAELI NAVAL CORVETTES:

The German Federal Government will subsidise up to €300m of an Israeli naval purchase of two corvettes from ThyssenKrupp Marine Services (TKMS) of Kiel in a contract worth €1bn. 


Israel is to streamline the two major warships in its navy. The corvettes, an enlarged 2,200 tons version of TKMS's Meko A class, 1,650 tons vessel can be fitted with anti-aircraft defences and are, according to Israeli information, to protect the gas deposits in the Mediterranean, from attacks via helicopter, aircraft, missiles or long range naval attack.The irony is that Israel has no legal claim to any marine gas desposits anywhere since the State has no territorial waters since its foundation in 1948.

When Ben Gurion and the Zionists declared the independence of the "State of Israel" in 1948 following the rejection of the United Nations partition plan by the Palestine Arab population, they also declared that they were not the lawful successors of the Palestine Mandate, held by Britain since 1922, in order to avoid paying anything of the Mandate debt incurred by Britain during its administration of the territory. Thus, the "State of Israel" was a land-based entity of the areas controlled by the Zionist militias at the time and had no entitlement to Mandate territorial waters and the Mandate was relinquished by Britain back to the UN following its withdrawal from Palestine.

However, considering the recent Gaza conflict, it is clear that the Israeli warships could also be used for taking targets in the Gaza Strip under fire, as they did in the recent onslaught on the Strip which killed up to 2,000 civilians, men, women and many children.The subsidised delivery of warships by Germany would mean a support for future attacks on the Palestinian territory.



The wailing defence industry in Germany is also pleased about it. Israeli media reported that Germany and Israel had agreed after years of negotiations on the delivery of  the two corvettes in the value of one billion euros . For Israel, however, it only needs to pay 700 million euros. The remaining 300 million euros will be forked out by the German taxpayer.

Israel is also considering building the corvettes themselves in the future, under licence, with US supplied funding to purchase the ships engines from Germany. They have previously imported steel and other materials and equipment from the US to build their own "Merkava" main battle tank using the same funding source; US Foreign Military Funding(FMF).

TKMS is the same company which delivered two German "Dolphin" class, nuclear capable submarines to Israel over a year ago.