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Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

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Human Rights in Ireland
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

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Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Biden Proposes Sweeping Supreme Court Reforms as He Attacks ?Extreme? Judges Tue Jul 30, 2024 19:00 | Will Jones
Joe Biden has proposed sweeping reforms to the U.S. Supreme Court accusing it of making "dangerous and extreme decisions" and losing the public?s trust.
The post Biden Proposes Sweeping Supreme Court Reforms as He Attacks “Extreme” Judges appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Reeves Scraps Winter Fuel Payments for 10 Million Pensioners to Fund Public Sector Wage Rise Tue Jul 30, 2024 17:00 | Will Jones
Rachel Reeves is to scrap winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners and ditch a cap on social care costs to fund a public sector wage rise, it has been announced.
The post Reeves Scraps Winter Fuel Payments for 10 Million Pensioners to Fund Public Sector Wage Rise appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link A Summary of Why the Czech Republic Vaccine Data are So Devastating to the ?Safe and Effective? Narr... Tue Jul 30, 2024 15:00 | Will Jones
The Czech Republic record-level vaccine data are devastating to the "safe and effective" narrative, says Steve Kirsch, as he provides a new overview that explains why.
The post A Summary of Why the Czech Republic Vaccine Data are So Devastating to the “Safe and Effective” Narrative appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Keir Starmer?s Anti-Israel Policies Are Now No Different to Jeremy Corbyn?s Tue Jul 30, 2024 13:00 | Will Jones
Unlike Jeremy Corbyn, Keir Starmer has never described Hezbollah as his friends. But other than that, when it comes to Israel there is now little of consequence to differentiate them, says Stephen Pollard.
The post Keir Starmer’s Anti-Israel Policies Are Now No Different to Jeremy Corbyn’s appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Is the Muslim Vote Abandoning Labour? Tue Jul 30, 2024 11:00 | Frank Haviland
Is the 'Muslim vote' set to abandon Labour? With three quarters of British Muslims refusing to believe Hamas committed atrocities on October 7th, it's hard to see how Labour can retain them, says Frank Haviland.
The post Is the Muslim Vote Abandoning Labour? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Netanyahu soon to appear before the US Congress? It will be decisive for the suc... Thu Jul 04, 2024 04:44 | en

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Voltaire Network >>

The Folly of Racism

category national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis author Wednesday August 25, 2004 04:25author by Joe King - Workers Solidarity Movement Report this post to the editors

Citizenship Referendum: Politicians played the race card and most workers were fooled

Racism is alive and well in Ireland. Only the very dishonest or the very naïve can deny it. We all knew it was bad, we only had to listen to our friends, neighbours and workmates. We only had to look at how generations of Travellers were treated. But the result of the citizenship referendum really opened our eyes to how widespread it is.
getaway.gif

The referendum was carried by 4:1 (79.17% to 20.83%). An RTE exit poll of over 3,000 voters taken immediately after voting ended indicated that 36% voted Yes because the country was being “exploited by immigrants” and a further 27% voted Yes because there were “too many immigrants”. That’s 2 out of 3 Yes voters giving an explicitly racist reason for their vote.

To conclude that all these voters across the country are hardened racists would be silly. The handful of self-proclaimed anti-immigrant campaigners standing in the local elections got a pathetically small vote.

But there is a “soft” racism out there. The Yes vote said that some children are less equal than others - because of where their parents come from. To treat someone worse because of their race is racism. It’s that simple.

The referendum arguments got lost and deliberately confused in a mess of jargon and lies: of ‘non-national babies’ ‘flooding’ our hospitals; irrelevant EU cases; allegations of ‘citizenship tourism’ and ‘abuse’ of ‘liberal’ Irish citizenship laws. The government didn’t have to win these arguments. It was enough to raise them.
And this was nothing new. Over the last ten years the parties in power have been consistantly blaming refugees and asylum seekers for everything. Faced with anger at the terrible state of our health care system or the housing crises the government convienently deflects the blame from themselves - the true culprits - and instead point the finger at the ‘hoards’ of invading asylum seekers.

Thanks to government lies, most people in Ireland today would be surprised to learn that in fact only 14.7% of those who immigrate to Ireland are asylum seekers1. Instead of allowing asylum seekers to work, and become really integrated into Irish society, the government prefers to isolate and marginalise them.

Sucessive governments’ campaigns to scapegoat asylum seekers have resulted in widespread ignorance about immigration. Rumours that immigrants get priority on the housing list and get higher welfare payments are accepted as fact. To some, everyone from Africa or Asia is an asylum-seeker and everything they have must come from social welfare. That they might be on work permits, or student visas, or even be Irish doesn’t seem to get a thought. And the government has no interest in correcting this.
In Northern Ireland in recent times, there has been a marked increase in violent racist attacks. It’s not coincidental that this happened when politicians and newspaper editors were demonising asylum seekers.

It’s all about divide and rule. Rulers keep the majority in their place by dividing and playing us off against each other. We gain absolutely nothing from racism, just a false feeling of superiority to distract us while the rich get richer and the rest of us struggle to build a reasonable life for ourselves and our children.

The important difference is not between white and black (or Protestant and Catholic), but between rulers and ruled. Instead of looking for scapegoats, it would make a lot more sense for working people of all colours to get together, end the rule of the millionaires and make the world a better place for all of us.

Footnotes

1. 2002. The Needs of Asylum Seekers in Cork, Cork: NASC, The Irish Immigrant Support Centre

Related Link: http://www.struggle.ws/wsm

 #   Title   Author   Date 
   egalitarians..     Cermunnos    Wed Aug 25, 2004 04:43 
   strange name there     Jehovah    Wed Aug 25, 2004 10:29 
   People are suckers for racism     Anon    Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:29 
   oh, go smoke on your pipes!!!     HT    Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:58 
   No Borders     C sna C    Wed Aug 25, 2004 13:34 
   no borders     kelvin    Wed Aug 25, 2004 13:54 
   No wankers     C sna C    Wed Aug 25, 2004 18:57 
   Re C sna C -Naive outlook     Starstruck    Wed Aug 25, 2004 19:46 
   OOps worng reply     Starstruck    Wed Aug 25, 2004 19:48 
 10   Oh how ruuuude!!     Kelvin    Wed Aug 25, 2004 19:49 
 11   The usual easy answers     chris    Wed Aug 25, 2004 20:32 
 12   yawn     dube    Wed Aug 25, 2004 22:04 
 13   Knocking conscious     Fergus    Wed Aug 25, 2004 22:18 
 14   Racist to begin with?     Ois    Thu Aug 26, 2004 02:37 
 15   the big deficit     arthur    Thu Aug 26, 2004 03:23 
 16   Racism is just one form of predjudice Chris     R. Isible    Thu Aug 26, 2004 03:52 
 17   Arseholes     Alo    Thu Aug 26, 2004 22:14 
 18   no     dube    Thu Aug 26, 2004 22:24 
 19   Hate the haters     Alo    Thu Aug 26, 2004 22:50 
 20   words     dube    Thu Aug 26, 2004 23:05 
 21   Speaking of hate, Alo     R. Isible    Thu Aug 26, 2004 23:10 
 22   McDowell     Alo    Thu Aug 26, 2004 23:11 
 23   Rise a rabble     alo    Thu Aug 26, 2004 23:19 
 24   alo alo     Badman    Thu Aug 26, 2004 23:36 
 25   Any bets "Alo" had the end of his penis chopped off     R.Isible    Fri Aug 27, 2004 00:03 
 26   Alo     Badman    Fri Aug 27, 2004 00:22 
 27   I'M NO RACIST     jeff    Sat Aug 28, 2004 14:52 
 28   Don't worry Jeff     be happy    Sat Aug 28, 2004 15:59 
 29   Jeff     Alo    Sun Aug 29, 2004 01:07 
 30   is it not     paulc    Sun Aug 29, 2004 03:35 
 31   Re:Be happy/ the folly of lax immigration policy     Gt    Sun Aug 29, 2004 07:46 
 32   Short Memories     Michael Hennigan    Tue Aug 31, 2004 16:47 
 33   Immigration     Alo    Wed Sep 01, 2004 22:56 
 34   Alo:     Badman    Thu Sep 02, 2004 18:13 
 35   Abuse and invective?     Badman    Thu Sep 02, 2004 20:25 
 36   mumbo-jumbo     lysenko    Mon Sep 06, 2004 18:14 
 37   Vote     joj    Thu Sep 09, 2004 20:28 
 38   Deportations     Tom    Fri Sep 10, 2004 16:06 
 39   Immigrants     Fergal    Fri Sep 10, 2004 16:15 
 40   Face a 79% fact and stop moaning     Non Irish white immigrant view    Fri Sep 10, 2004 21:29 
 41   Alo et al     Tom    Sat Sep 11, 2004 01:15 
 42   Why people are and always will be racist     You dont like the truth    Sat Sep 11, 2004 12:37 
 43   Experience-based racism     Tom    Sat Sep 11, 2004 15:51 
 44   I never denied white crime exists     I know theres good and bad in all    Sat Sep 11, 2004 18:53 
 45   Oh dear more anecdotal racists     Badman    Sat Sep 11, 2004 19:14 
 46   Read the newspapers...     Tom    Sat Sep 11, 2004 20:36 
 47   so you admit there is a problem elsewhere     I n responce to badman    Sat Sep 11, 2004 22:15 


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