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national | arts and media | other press Sunday February 11, 2007 14:42 by E - SWP

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Socialist Worker

Selected articles:

Harney's Heathcare Market Madness

New figures from the HSE show the closure of Crumlin and Monaghan hospitals are part of plans for more cutbacks in the public service. These cutbacks will make even more space for private ‘for-profit’ hospitals like the Beacon Clinic. The HSE recently announced its budget will increase by only 5.6%. Just taking into account general inflation (5%) and population growth (2%) will wipe out this increase and mean pressure on the HSE to impose even more cutbacks.

All out March 24: National protest at Fianna Fail Ard Fheis

The Irish Anti War Movement issued the following statement in February. Bush’s wars are based on lies— and the Irish government has tamely swallowed and backed up those lies without challenging them. Indeed, Bertie Ahern and the Irish government have been actively collaborating with this monstrous and illegal war. They have allowed over 1,000,000 US troops to pass through Shannon since 2003. They have turned a blind eye to secret “renditions”—torture flights.

Global warming: Ireland’s guilt

New figures show that Ireland is one of the worst offenders in Europe with regard to the greenhouse emissions that are contributing to global warming. Under the Kyoto Protocol, Ireland is only permitted to have a 13% increase in CO2 emissions between 1990 and 2010. But up to 2001 they had risen by 120% and carbon emissions will be up 180% by 2008.

A Real Alternative at the Stormont Election

Eamonn McCann: Foyle

Sean Mitchell: West Belfast

Labour On The Run Over Water Charges

The success of the campaign for non-payment of water charges is clear from New Labour's last-minute ‘consultation’ on how charges are to be enforced on non-payers. The eight-week consultation ends on 5 March: two days before polling in the Assembly election. After that, NIO officials say they will assess people’s views before finally deciding how the scheme is to work. The new Assembly is scheduled to meet on 26 March, when it is intended that a new power-sharing Executive is formed. Charges are scheduled to come in six days later, on 1 April.

Venezuela, Hugo Chavez and permanent revolution

Chavez is talking of 'permanent revolution' in Venezuela – but, argues Chris Harman, there is a fight for the future of the revolution and for change from below Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez recently announced a shift to the left in his government. "Trotsky said that the revolution was permanent, it never finishes. Let's go with Trotsky," he said.

Nuclear Iran?

The United States and Israel claim that Iran is on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. This was the basis for the UN Resolution 1696 in July 2006 proposing sanctions on Iran if they continued to breach their obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Resolution 1696 also demanded that Iran suspend all nuclear enrichment related and reprocessing activity by August 2006.

Clean Water: A basic right or a source of profit?

‘Water, water every where… nor any drop to drink… unless you can pay!’ ‘It's quite simple’, say Dublin City Council of waste charges, ‘the less you throw away the less you will pay.’ And so it would seem only fair. The logic of their system is that the polluter pays and in this case the polluter, it appears, is the householder.

Slaves to the Mushroom Flush

Virtually every shop and supermarket in Britain and Ireland sells white, bland mushrooms which are produced in dark factory like tunnels. The people who pick them are subject to gross exploitation. Mushroom picking became an industry in the nineties when farms were consolidated and the number of growers reduced from 500 to 120. The Department of Agriculture and Food helped this consolidation by pouring in millions in grants and setting up a ‘taskforce’ composed solely of industry representatives. Today the industry accounts for 40 percent of Ireland’s horticultural exports and employs 3,000 people.

Would a US withdrawal create a bloodbath?

Many people who opposed the war in Iraq still fear that a US withdrawal would intensify sectarian conflict and create a bloodbath. There can be no denying the increased sectarian conflict, especially over the last year. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, 50,000 Iraqis a month are fleeing from their homes and two million Iraqis have fled abroad in fear of their lives. The UN says Iraqis are being killed at the rate of 3,000 every month.

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Conrad (1857 – 1924), seafarer and novelist. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was first published in episodes in 1899. Though the narrator Charlie Marlowe, and based on his own experiences, Conrad tells the story of a steamboat journey upriver through the Congo to find the enigmatic Mr Kurtz. It is the book on which Apocalypse Now is based.

The babble of modern civilization

The Bible says God was angry when a united humanity tried to reach heaven by building a tower. Observing the unity of humanity in the construction, he stopped the work by devising different languages that made understanding impossible. It became known as The Tower of Babel, meaning noise, confusion and miscommunication. The brilliant Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, following on their success with films such as Amores Perros and 21 Grams, have applied the concept of Babel to the way we live now, in a world threatened and divided by fear.