Ah there's the minister now ...

Today thousand of protesters, young and old, marched on the Dáil to tell our government to shove their plans, regarding fees and medical cards for the over 70's, where the sun don't shine.

Related Links: Medical Card Protest in Dublin - Photo Story | Students take to the street of Dublin to protest budget cutbacks | Students Respond to Batt Signal | Protest at Dail to maintain universal Medical Card for over 70s | Protest on Weds 29th Oct Against Education Cuts

Organise! at the UUP Office

The Alliance for Choice in Northern Ireland is heading up a campaign for the extension of the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland. On Wednesday 22nd there will be a vote on an amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill in Westminster to extend the Act to NI - 41 years after its introduction in the rest of the UK.

Organise!, political activists, and pro-choice campaigners will be staging a series of protests in the next week in the run up to the Westminster vote on the extension of the 1967 Abortion Act to NI. Organise! are currently carrying out pickets of the four main political parties in the north.

Related Links: Organise! Blog Abortion on Indy.ie Choice Ireland Aliance for Choice Alliance for Choice N.I.

This is the second of a series of articles covering the financial and money markets from a critical perspective.

In 'Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction', Paul Bowman examined the derivatives market and promised that the succeeding article would cover the 'story of the historical development of successive regimes of global financial orders' and would explain the role of the Eurodollars market 'in undermining the Keynesian Bretton Woods system'.

However, in the interests of space and relevance, I will only tell the story of the historical development of the regime of global financial order under US hegemony. I will begin by examining how the centre of capital accumulation shifted from Europe to the US in the first half of the twentieth century, and how following World War II the global financial order became centred around the US through the Bretton Woods system.

I will then look at how the Bretton Woods System was undermined, concentrating as much on the role of workers’ militancy as on the role of the Eurodollars market. After considering the response to the crisis of Bretton Woods, I'll look at the Clinton boom bringing us up to the current situation of the US’s current heavy dependence on foreign borrowing.

Paula Walters of SIPTU takes some enquiries on the HSE

Brendan Drum of the HSE had earmarked the St Mary’s Orthopaedic Hospital in Cork as next in line for his cuts. But workers at the hospital are intent on fighting back and not accepting this. Kevin Doyle interviewed Paula Walters, SIPTU member, and a hospital attendant with over 30 years experience at the hospital.

Q:To begin with Paula, for those not familiar with Cork and its hospitals, what sort of place is the Orthopaedic?

A: The hospital’s main business is with bones and it specialises in hips and knee replacements, and broken legs. Mostly people who come up to us have something like that the matter with them. That’s what it specialises in. There are others area too like Plastics and Physio too. The Orthopaedic was one of the first of its kind in the south of Ireland. It opened 53 years ago. It’s on the North side of Cork, in Gurranbraher, the last hospital of any size in what is a huge area of Cork city. It has big grounds. It’s a homely hospital – it’s small and a lovely place to work in. A lot of people’s families worked there over generations. It’s a very calm hospital in a way.

Q: How many are working there now?

A: Roughly between staff and kitchen staff and so on, you would have about 200 people.

Q: People will be familiar with the cutback in the Mercy Hosptial and the ongoing refusal by the HSE to fund the opening of the new A & E there. What’s been happening at the Orthopaedic?

The interview continues after the jump...

Troublemakers Inc.

More than two years have passed since these two cases began. On Thursday last, Conor was at a special sitting of Ennis District Court for the finale.

Related Links: Civil Rights and Civil Wrongs in Shannon |