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Showing posts with label Green Party Ireland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Green Party Ireland. Show all posts
Matt Treacy ✒ A Longford based NGO, Ethnic Minority Hub, has written to the National Council for Curriculum Development and the Minister for Education Norma Foley demanding that two books currently on the Junior Certificate English syllabus to be taken off as they apparently affect the “mental well-being of African children and children of colour in Irish schools.”

15-Auguet-2022

The two books concerned are John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, published in 1937 and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961.

Specifically, the letter signed by Chairperson Catherine Joseph, refers to the use of the “n word,” but also to the claim that the books, presumably To Kill a Mockingbird, “promotes the outdated and inappropriate view that black people need to be saved by white people.”


This might be considered somewhat ironic given that the entire migrant and racism business in Ireland is both almost completely funded by, and indeed largely staffed by “white people.”

Joseph is the local Green Party representative in Longford.

She claims that having the books read in class is hurtful to children, and doubts that it can be guaranteed that teachers are able to use the books with “the sensitivity and understanding necessary to ensure that children realise that these books are historical and outdated.”

A lot to “unpack” there as they say. When I was at school, teachers of English, Irish and German seemed to be quite able to use texts that dealt with sensitive issues without any of us ever feeling the need to head off to the South Circular Road to cut pounds of flesh off the nearest Jewish person after reading The Merchant of Venice, or compelled to beat to death Dean, whose family had just moved to Dublin from Manchester, in vengeance for Donncha Rua Mac Conamara.

That anyone could read either of the books which Joseph wants to stop 14 and 15 year-olds reading, and not understand that it is ignorance and prejudice which lead some of the characters to being treated as less than fully human persons, is difficult to believe. That they would read or hear the offensive term for black people and be turned into racists as appears to be implied in the letter is frankly risible – as is the claim that the black characters are portrayed as “slaves, weaklings, incompetent..”

And even if they are shown to have frailties, and even if some of the other characters in the books are portrayed as weak and even brutal and murderous, that has less to do with their being black or white or men or women or belonging to any particular profession or class, than to their being human beings. Those considerations have been the subject of serious literature since it was first put into written words from the oral traditions from which it sprung.

That is probably beside the point, as it is difficult to avoid the impression that the call to ban these books, and To Kill a Mockingbird in particular, is no more than the sort of inane adoption in Ireland of tactics that have been found to be successful on the part of racial activists in the United States where the campaign to have the book banned has largely been successful.

Ironically, the initial campaign against Harper Lee’s novel in the 1960s was led by conservative Protestant parents who objected to rape being a central theme, and to the use of language such as “whore lady.” You can be pretty damn certain that when this was taking place that the same sort of white bourgeois liberals who now support a ban were arguing the exact opposite.

Gript contacted the Green Party spokesperson on Education Senator Pauline O’Reilly to ask her if the removal of the books in question is part of Green Party policy or is something that she would personally support. We had received no response by the time of publication.

Update: Catherine Joseph replied to say “Ethnic Minority Hub is a nonprofit organisation and we rely on fundings from government and local Authority for our integration.”

Matt Treacy has published a number of books including histories of 
the Republican Movement and of the Communist Party of Ireland. 

Green Party Rep Remove These Books From School

Caoimhin O’Muraile slams the Greens in Government.

Our planet is under attack, serious attack! Planet earth is vandalised on a daily basis and not by aliens, as in H.G Wells War of the Worlds but by a few thousand mega rich capitalists of the international bourgeoisie epitomised by the Bilderberg Group and the likes of. 

The space programmes carried out by various countries are wreaking havoc to all layers of the atmosphere. Each time one of these rockets lifts off it is the equivalent of twenty-eight Jumbo Jets taking off simultaneously. Think of the pollution pumped into the earth’s atmosphere every time one of these huge machines takes off, then multiply by twenty-eight. Unlike the commercial airliners, which are bad enough, these spacecrafts travel through the atmosphere at phenomenal speeds. All this is what we are supposed to applaud as progress! Recently the United Arab Emirates joined the so-called space club for the first time, and certainly not the last that is for sure.

Over in the USA - where else? - space exploration has reached new heights, heights which for the first time are outside the control of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) which since 1958 has been in control of all US space expeditions, including the alleged, though sometimes disputed, moon landings of 1969. More recently tech billionaire, Elon Musk and his company SPACEX have been launching private missions into space. Musk, a multi-billionaire as are most of those doing the maximum damage to what is in theory our planet, launched his first privately funded liquid propellant rocket to reach orbit (Falcon 1) in 2008. SPACEX were the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft (Dragon 2010) and was the first company to launch a private spacecraft to orbit the Sun. One of Musk’s ambitions is to enable the colonisation of Mars, and he envisages consumer flights into space in the near future for those who can afford. 

These ventures may one day become as common for the very wealthy as transatlantic flights by airplane are today. This means, if his plans come to fruition, that rockets equaling twenty-eight Jumbo Jets in thrust will be lifting off at regular intervals. The damage which our planet will suffer by the antics of this mega rich space cowboy is unimaginable! SPACEX have sent regular crafts to the International Space Station which, one day, will have to come down again. All these satellites could one day come crashing back down to earth, assuming there is still an earth left! As Isaac Newton once told us; ‘what goes up, must come down’ and satellites will be no exception to this gravitational law!

On Wednesday 24th February 2021 the Irish Daily Mirror could gleefully inform us:

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has chosen a remote location in Kerry to trial a new global broadband scheme. The SpaceX supremo selected the Black Valley as the site for antennae which will link to his Starlink satellite to provide high-speed internet access.

This is to give the people of Kerry connectivity to homes and businesses who may, ordinarily, have to wait up to six years to be connected to the National Broadband Plan. Musk will bring to the people of Kerry what most of the country have had for some time, while at the same time continuing to vandalise planet earth. The people of Kerry may, understandably, be delighted with Musk as they need broadband and the internet, but has anybody, including the Green element of government considered the ecological damage this man, and others, have caused in their relentless pursuit of ever greater profits? I doubt it.

The government of the twenty-six counties consist of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Green Party. If it could be imagined the government to be a bicycle with the two main parties, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael the riders, the Greens would represent the mudguards preventing any shit spraying up and hitting the riders. The question which must be asked of the Greens, not only Eamonn Ryan and his cronies in Ireland, but across the globe is why are their voices so silent when it comes to condemning the activities of big business which are clearly damaging the planet? It may be true they can do little if anything about what other countries do, but not even to voice a murmur in protest surely shows where their true loyalties lay, first, second and third behind the capitalist profiteers. 

So, we accept there is little can be done by these various Green parties across the globe about the rich and powerful USA, former USSR, Japan, UAE etc but what Musk is going to do is in our own country, Ireland should be opposed. The hypocricy of the Greens is beyond belief, wishing to protect the planet but voice no opposition to the likes of Musk! They not only are silent but appear to be actively encouraging this planet vandal to continue his wrecking work. They may argue he will create employment for the region, which on this issue they may have a point, but employment by an exploiter of labour whose activities are causing so much planetary damage surely we can find employment without the likes of Musk? The Greens are hand in glove with him in order the people of Kerry can have broadband which nobody suggests they should but by other means. 

The whole thing stinks of hypocritical cowardice from our environmentalists in government. Little more could be expected from Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, two parties who put the interests of the rich and powerful, Irish or otherwise, above all other considerations. But the Green Party claim to put the future of planet earth first, well this would suggest they do not.

Perhaps this tells us just how serious these global governments really are about preserving the planet. It may be all very well adopting eco-friendly policies providing they do not interfere in any shape or form with the profits of the great and the good [who are neither], the mega rich who are the real government. Irrespective of who sits in the Dail, Westminster, the White House or the Kremlin global capitalism and the interests of the international bourgeoisie are the real governments. Perhaps these elites are trying to find another planet to inhabit, for the chosen few, which is perhaps why they talk a lot about protecting mother earth but in practice do the opposite. They talk about the damage to the environment in one sentence then tell us about new runways going to be built at various airports, including Dublin, which is hardly conducive with preserving the planet. From this topic, which is bad enough, they then go on to marvel about the fantastic achievements of people like Elon Musk, even inviting him to set up camp in Ireland.

Caoimhin O’Muraile is a Dublin based Marxist and author. 

The Greens In Government – A Hypocrisy!

Matt Treacy ✒ One of the unforeseen consequences of the closure of the midland peat-burning power stations is the threat to thousands of jobs in the horticulture sector because of the sudden shortage of horticultural peat. 
 

Last year, Bord na Mona suspended all peat harvesting on its bogs, and peat-burning power stations were closed down ahead of schedule, causing “significant shock” to the hundreds of people who lost their jobs unexpectedly. The closure of the stations was on the cards because of EU dictats on Climate Targets, but the refusal of Bord Pleanála to allow them to continue operating after 2020 left workers – and local businesses reliant on the power producers – high and dry.


Now those working to produce food in Ireland, at a time of severe and unprecedented lockdown, also are at risk.

None of the well-paid consultants, risk assessors, energy experts or woke politicians seem to have factored in the additional threat to horticulture from the cessation of peat harvesting.

Peat is used by the vast majority of those working in the horticultural sector in Ireland as a base material. They are now facing a severe shortage of horticultural peat with potentially devastating results for jobs and fresh food production.

One producer told RTE that “if a solution is not found, jobs will be at risk and customers will be faced with a shortage of plants and increased prices.”

Irish Farmers Association President Tim Cullinan said on December 11 that they had been informed by Bord na Móna that the remaining stocks of horticultural peat will only last until March, despite previous assurances that there were sufficient stocks to provide for the 2021 growing season.

That would have at least given them enough time to adapt to the new situation. Now, they are in a situation where businesses may be forced to close.

One Kildare nursery owner believes that much of the 500,000 square metres of peat currently being stored at Edenderry will be exported to Britain. Not only that but that it will be used in power generation there. Which of course makes a lot of sense because any carbon emissions across the Irish Sea will remain in the British territorial skies. Especially after Brexit.

Mushroom growers will also be impacted as they too will have to import substitutes from overseas. According to the growers and compost merchants, the sector only uses somewhere around 1% of what until now had been the annual peat harvest.

So even on that level it hardly represents a major obstacle to whatever Don Quixote project is being pursued to save the planet and the bogs. And presumably the less plants that are grown either commercially or in people’s gardens and allotments, the less carbon is being absorbed.

The fiasco is another example of the lack of “joined up thinking” that goes with the missionary zeal to abide by an international agreement more honoured in its breach than observance. Thousands of jobs will be lost, and entire communities undermined just to ensure the ticking of another box in a soft totalitarian agenda whose adherents’ slavish obedience to Brussels is only matched by their basic disinterest in what happens to real people.

When I was in Leinster House one of the then Green TDs Ciaran Cuffe grew tomatoes and other plants in his office. He at least has the advantage that if he requires a human replacement for his compost that his party colleagues are prodigious producers of the same substance.


Matt Treacy has published a number of books including histories of the Republican Movement and of the Communist Party of Ireland.
He is currently working on a number of other books; His latest one is a novel entitled Houses of Pain. It is based on real events in the Dublin underworld. Houses of Pain is published by MTP and is currently available online as paperback and kindle while book shops remain closed.

In The Green Rush To Close Peat Power Stations, Thousands Of Horticulture Jobs Are Now Endangered

The Greens are back in government Ireland. A Jacobin feature penned before this year's election insists that they will be pretty much useless in terms of effecting radical change.


By David Landy & Oisín McGarrity

We don’t need to persuade people that climate change is happening — they know that already. What we need is action. For many climate activists on the Left, the answer lies in changing the power structures in the economy. This would mean forcing change on oil companies and other polluters, imposing emissions limits and taxes on their profits, even if they resist.

But some deny the need for such a confrontation — a reluctance which, perhaps, comes from unexpected quarters. Yet this is precisely the approach of the dominant liberal wing of Ireland’s Green Party. Denouncing “ideological” solutions, they insist we need scientific proposals that make sense to everyone. We need to get the powerful on board, work with them. After all, it’s their planet too.

The Greens aren’t just a fringe group — they’ve been in government before, and their current poll rise (as high as 10 percent) suggests they could be again after the February 8 general election. Doubtless, such a vote will be powered by a sense that climate action is necessary. Yet if we look beyond manifesto pledges and take past performance as an indicator of future behavior, the chance of the Greens leading Ireland to a carbon-neutral future are close to zero.

Continue reading @ Jacobin.

Ireland’s Greens Will Never Confront the Powerful

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