The market is foul play

Thierry Henry’s ‘main de dieu’ (hand of God) has been the thorn in the side of French society since the World Cup qualifier between the Republic of Ireland and France a couple of weeks ago . As an Irishman living in France, I have been inundated with apologies and commiserations from French friends and colleagues. I must admit I have been quite moved by the sense of fairness and sympathy which French people have expressed towards Ireland. As it happens, Henry’s infamous hand ball has in fact coincided with a national debate about French identity.
The French have always been a nation given to introspection. It that insuperable question which became the title one of Gaugain’s masterpieces ‘ D'où venons-nous ? Que sommes-nous ? Où allons-nous ?’ Where are we from, what are we and where are we going? Among the responses to the question of French identity, the values of human rights have come to the prominently fore. For the French, therefore, the French Revolution is a foundation stone of what it means to be French. But France has long ceased to be a revolutionary society. The May 68 riots were perhaps the last pathetic attempt to resuscitate French revolutionary consciousness, yet they amounted to little if nothing. In fact, French socialism died in May 68. Many of the 68ers would later prove to be among the greatest sell-outs and proselytisers in French history. The Trotskyist Lionel Jospin was one of the students in the 1968 riots is perhaps one of the most notable traitors of socialism. When France finally elected a socialist government under the stewardship of Francois Mitterand, himself a former collaborator with the Vishy regime during the Nazi occupation, the greatest privatisation programme in French history was launched. The Trotskyite dissembler Jospin called it ‘réalisme de gauche’ left-wing realism. George Orwell would have been proud of him!
Mitterand turned socialism on its head, sending military aircraft and warships to the Gulf to be used against the Iranian people in the days when Saddam Hussein was a ‘friend’ of the West. His conduct in Africa was typical French colonialism with a ‘human face’. The attitude of the French ‘socialist’ led coalition government during the nineteen eighties towards Africa’s most progressive leader Thomas Sankara is a case in point. In 1983 in the Republic of Upper Volta, Thomas Sankara took power a revolutionary coup d’etat. His programme was to educate, feed and house all citizens of the former French colony. He re- named the country Burkina Faso, land of the upright men.
Unlike Mitterand, Sankara didn’t just preach and waffle about socialism, he practised it. Unlike former Nazi collaborator Mitterand Sankara’s father faught in the French army against the Nazis during World War II. During Thomas Sankara’s short reign, female circumcision was banned, women were given full and equal rights to men, contraception was promoted and the country’s first supermarket was opened. But that wasn’t enough for Sankara. He sold the government’s fleet of Mercedes cars and replaced them with modest Renault 5s! He himself continued to live with his family in a poor mud cabin. Thomas Sankara promoted socialism,ecologism and feminism; he understood Africa’s problems and dedicated his life to solving them.
But the ‘socialist’ French government had always been less than enthusiastic about Sankara; he had been placed under arrest just in 1983 after a visit by Mitterand’s son Jean Christophe, the crook locals called ‘Papa m’as dit’ Daddy told me. In a state visit to Burkina Faso in 1984 President Mitterand warned Sankara that his socialism was going to far. In other words, France had many interests in the country which were threatened by Sankara’s reforms, such as the super rich French minority who lived in luxury from the labour of Burkina Faso’s poor. Sankara’s reforms could conflict with their priviledges. Such a threat to Burkina Faso’s plutocracy was a problem for the French ‘socialists’.
In 1987 Sankara was murdered in right-wing coup d’état lead by his friend Blaise Compaore. Many people in Burkina Faso suspected French involvement. It would be hard to blame them given the fact that subsequent French presidents have to this day greeted the murderer Compaore as a friend
It is the same old story of hypocrisy and greed. The French nation changed the world in 1789 and changed it again albeit briefly in the Paris commune of 1871. These events marked France’s claim to greatness. But where are the philosophers today? Where are the revolutionary ideas and who will implement them? What has become of this once great nation that no longer understands what it came from, who it is and where it is going?
We live in a world where the greatest liars and cheaters win the greatest prizes. It is a world of capital rights; human rights are irrelevant. In this sense Henry’s handball is symptomatic not only of the crisis in French identity. Rather, the handball is the symbol of our corrupt capitalist world. It is the hidden hand of the market ruthlessly sticking down all hope of fairness and justice, the hand that steals as it gives, the hand of treachery.

Post-democracy and the new dictators

In this post-democratic age any politician who defends democracy is denounced as a tyrant or dictator. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Athmadinejad of Iran and many others have consistently been demonised in the Western press for their ‘anti-democratic’ politics. The reason for this is simple: All three leaders defend economic policies which favour the poor over the rich. This is their biggest crime. Now, before you shout me down, I should say that there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that Athmadinjad ‘stole’ the presidential election this year. I have pointed out in other articles that the so-called Green revolution agenda in Iran is part of a US-funded regime change project to replace Athmadinejad with a leader propitious to US interests in Iran. It was in reality an anti-democratic agenda.

There is no doubt that most of the young people in Iran want change but this desire for change is more cultural rather than political. I spoke to many students in my last visit to Iran a few months ago. What struck me about many of them was their deeply confused reasoning on international issues. Many students I spoke to admired Israel and the United States as paragons of democracy and progress, flagrantly denying the fact that these are two of the most aggressive states on the planet, both guilty of war crimes and genocide abroad as well as deep corruption at home.

The opponents of Athmadinejad have fallen from the Scylla of Islamic theocracy into the Charybdis of Western pseudo-democracy.The problem with the Iranian opposition groups is that their opposition to the cultural politics of the Islamic Republic has thrown them back into the hands of CNN and propaganda radio stations from Israel. Moreover, many of them express views of Arabs and in particular Palestinians that amount to racism. But in the west racism against Arabs is the norm. Every time the newspapers and TV channels refer the Israeli Defence Forces combating Palestinian ‘terrorists’, they are guilty of racism as they deliberately ignore the fact that the Israeli occupied territories are in breach of international law and if you defy the law you are a de facto criminal. Therefore, the Israeli state is as such a criminal entity. Moreover, Israel’s insistence on describing itself as a ‘Jewish’ state is outright racism, as it favours one ethnic community over others. Hamas is one of the only democratically elected organisations in the Middle East and in view of the fact that Israel chooses to ignore international law, their military struggle with Israel does not constitute terrorism. Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah are no less unlawful than the IDF, they are simply combatants in a protracted conflict.

President Athmadinejad of Iran has also been demonised for his statements concerning Israel. But his statement was as usual taken out of context. He did not call for the destruction of the Jews. On the contrary, he called for an end to Zionism. There are many anti-Zionist Jews both in Iran, Israel and throughout the world. Athmadinejad has Jewish ancestry himself and is supported by a majority of the Jewish community in Iran, the biggest Jewish community in the Middle East outside Israel. He also has support from anti-Zionist rabbis in Israel itself.

As for Hugo Chavez, here the vitriol, lies and anti-democratic propaganda reaches dizzying proportions. Hugo Chavez is a democratically elected president. Since he has come to power, he has provided free schooling for the country’s poor, free health care through generous help from Cuba and a free press for the first time in the country’s history. He has given hope to millions of the country’s poor and has overcome a US backed fascist coup against him and an international campaign to demonise him. Human Rights Watch and Reporters without Borders are the most notorious examples of mendacious propaganda against Chavez. I will reserve discussion of Venezuela and an exposé of the lies and propaganda of Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders for another article. But before I finish, it is important to debunk one of the biggest lies propagated throughout the world concerning Chavez. Unlike the US-backed dictators the ‘human rights’ activists in the opposition promote, Hugo Chavez has consistently promoted freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Venezuela. 95 percent of the media in Venezuela is privately owned by right-wing pro-us moguls. When the ‘human rights’ opposition supported the CIA-backed coup d’etat against the democratic Chavez in 2002, the Venezuelan media applauded the re-installed fascists. Since then, they have spread the most atrocious propaganda against the president, accusing him of mental illness, among other calumnies. As the media in Venezuela refuses to recognise the democratic leader of the country, Chavez has been forced to open his own TV programme where he answers calls from Venezuela’s poor. In this Orwellian world, leaders who side with the poor, oppose imperialism and favour the interests of their people over those of the US,EU and the international cabal of capitalist hawks are subject to the most callous and outrageous calumnies. It is a deeply worrying sign of how inhuman and decadent Western societies have become when we attack the democrats and freedom fighters and defend the tyrants. The problem is now ubiquitous in this post-democratic age.

Barack Obama: Bush le haghaidh nua

Le seacht bunáite mileata nua faoi thógháil i gColomóim, níos mó lastais d’airm á thraisloingiú chug Iosrael, anord agus sceimhlitheoireacht faoi lánseol san Iaráic agus an slogadh mileata meiricáneach is mó ó chogadh sa Vítneam san Afghanistáin, fuair Uachtarán na Stát Aontaithe Barack Obama an Duais Nobel san Oslo an tseachtain seo caite. Cé a chreidféa? Sa ráiteas a thug sé san Oslo, labhair Uachtarán Obama faoi thábhacht an chogaidh sa troid in aghaidh na sceimhlitheoireachta. Bhí sé ag iarraidh a chur in iúl do dhaoine go raibh an cogadh ceart agus cóir. Bhí sé ag iarraidh a chur in iúl dúinn go raibh Na Stáit Aonaithe ag iarraidh saoirse agus síochán a chothú ar fud an domhain. Ergo, bhí sé riachtanach leanúint ar aghaidh le cogadh, an cogadh buan domhanda ar son na síochána!

O togadh Obama an bhliain se caite níor athraigh Mister Change tada. I dtaobh milteata agus eacnamaíochta de, níl aon dhifríocht idir Obama agus Bush. Go tipiciúil, níl i gceist anseo ach chomhthoradh an fhoirceadail Bush. Ach i bhfírinne, tá Obama níos contúirtí fós. Ní raibh aon chreidiúnacht fágtha do pholaitíocht na Stát Aontaithe nuar a bhí Bush i gcumhacht ach anois tá fear deas, éirimúil i gcumhacht agus is breá an díoscúrsa a dhéanann sé cé go bhfuil an díoscúrsa ceannann céanna le déachtóir Bush!

Nuair a bhí Barack Obama ag canbhasáil agus ag stocaireacht d’ uachtaránacht na Stát Aontaithe an bhliain seo caite, ba mhór an dóchas a bhí agam ag an am. Shíl mé ansin go raibh rúd éigin iontach agus tábhachtach ag tarlú sa domhan. Ach bhí sé deacair ansin a chréidbháil go mbeadh athrú sunstasach docúil. Dúirt mé ansin nach mbeadh ach athrú cosmaideach i gceist agus b’sin an fáth go raibh an aicme cheannais na Stát Aontaithe ag chur chun cinn an Seanadóir Obama. Ach ag an am céanna, bhí dócas agam go mbeadh sé difriúil. Anois Uachtarán Obama sé déistin orm. Measaim nach bhfuil ifreann i ndán do mhuintir an domhain anois agus i ndeireadh na dála, tiocfaidh an t-ifreann sin ar ais do na Stáit Aontaithe féin. Féach ar na tíortha ar liosta na stát rógaire a luaigh Obama in san ráiteas: An tSiombáib, Déanphoblacht Dhoanlathach na Cóiré, an tSomáil , Maenmar, An tSúdáin agus ar ndóigh An Iaráin. Bheadh sé réasúnta do thíortha sin a bheith buartha anois agus an cogadh ‘daonúil’ a bheith i ndán dúinn mura bhfuil siad réidh cloí le leas na Stát Aontaithe agus ECAT!

Gluais

Slogadh- mobilisation

Comhthoradh- corollary

Foirceadal- doctrine

an aicme cheannais- ruling class

daonúil- humanitarian

Leas - interest

Fascism is the cornered rat of capital.

Unemployment has returned with a bang to the forefront of Irish economic discourse but this time round the Irish unemployment phenomenon is likely to manifest a degree of nastiness hitherto unknown on this island. We are, after all, one of the most globalised countries on the planet with immigration figures over the last decade that have superceded many of our European neighbours. So what are we going to do about all the foreigners who now constitute the work-hungry reserve army of our national economic shambles? What are we going to do about the foreigners? The first thing that should be said about the unemployed foreigners in Ireland is that they will inevitably become new unwitting actors in the psychopathology of basket-case Ireland. In psychoanalytic jargon, the foreigner will now begin to assume the traits of a deep structural symptom; the unwanted foreigner as symptom of our national depression. But he is also a comfort to us in the sense that his foreignness enables us citizens born in Ireland to blame him for our troubles.

We can now say that the immigrant is a burden on Irish society, a ruthless opportunist, a parasite competing for ‘Irish’ jobs. We have now entered the period of radical reaction and could be facing a golden age of racism and xenophobia.

The paradox of xenophobia in modern capitalist societies is that the ruling class, that is to say, the bankers, investors, developers and their media propagandists tend to support the idea of a multicultural society. This is fundamentally different from the situation in, say, Nazi Germany during the 1930s. In today’s Europe, being racist or xenophobic is politically incorrect, whereas the opposite was the case in German and throughout Europe during the economic crisis of the 1930s. Here we can see that a fundamental shift has taken place in Europe. There are various reasons for this. The most important of course is that racism as a political ideology was based on pseudo science. But in times of economic crisis, science and rationality have very little to do with social phenomena.

In spite of the fact that anti-racism is more or less espoused by all the right-wing, neo liberal regimes in Europe today, racism is in fact on the increase and the radical right is on its way back. Two British fascists MPs were elected to the EU parliament last year. However, this new emergent fascism has fundamental differences to this social phenomenon during the last century. Spanish, German and Italian fascism were reactionary ideologies designed to counter what seemed like the unstoppable march of communism throughout Europe since the rise of the Soviet Union. Fascism is in essence the attempt to rescue a failed capitalist system by appealing to the emotions of disgruntled workers.

Unlike communism which seeks to unite and educate workers of all races and nationalities, fascism subverts this tendency by superimposing racism and nationalism upon the ignorant masses. This divides the workers and the unemployed by distracting them from the true origins of their misery. In Nazi Germany, the racist subversion took an even more perverse form. There the Jews, long associated with the ruling banking class could easily be scape-goated. The communist leaning workers would then be encouraged to the ruling class with a particular race. To the ignorant masses, it became obvious who the enemies of Germany were. This scape-goating of the Jews in particular also benefited the radical international Zionists who were also anxious to see an exodus of European Jews to Palestine. As Theodor Herzl said “anti-Semitism is our best friend”. The concept of anti-Semitism still remains, paradoxically, the best friend of Israel today as it is the only concept which could justify the occupation of the West Bank and the oppression of Gaza. It is no surprise that the neo-Nazis in Germany today support the state of Israel. Fascism is simply the attempt to defend the worse excesses of human greed by subverting rational analysis of its correlative, namely, poverty.

Speaking on the international situation in 1924 Josef Stalin said “Social Democracy objectively represents the moderate wing of Fascism" What Stalin meant by this is that bourgeois parliamentary democracy is designed to defend the interests of capitalism. When the capitalist system crashes, the bougeois liberals and social democrats will be more inclined to support the intensification of capitalism represented by fascism rather than supporting a revolutionary atlternative.This is precisely what happened in Germany after the rise of Hitler when the social democrats refused to form an anti-fascist alliance with the communists. Fascism is simply captialism's last stand.

What can we in Ireland learn from this? The problem in Ireland and throughout Europe today is that we no longer have a radical united egalitarian opposition to the boom and bust theory of political economy. There is no longer a communist international capable of uniting workers of all races and nationalities. So, what the racist reactionaries, who are very often from working class backgrounds, do not see is that the Polish, Nigerian and other foreign workers should be their allies. They have had to leave their own country to find work just like the Irish who are leaving for Australia and Canada. Yet, they too are unable to see the reality of their situation. The real enemy of paddy Irishman is not paddy Polishman or Paddy Nigerian, it is the paddies in IBEC who represent the interests of a transnational global elite that is imposing this hardship on peoples of all races and nationalities.The question then for Irish workers is not ‘what are we going to do about the foreigners’. The question is ‘what are we going to do about the dictatorship of the bankatariat? Workers of all lands unite!

Pléaschán ina thóin, Al Qaeda mó thóin!



O am go chéile, cloistear scéal nua faoi bhagairt an Al Qaeda sna meáin chumarsáide, eachtra sceimhlitheoireachta eile a chuireann eagla orainn. Fear arabach gafa san eitleán le pléaschán ina thóin. Seo é an scéal nua. Go bhfóire Dia orainn, an féidir linn aon rud níos áiféisaí a shamhlú? Pléaschán ina thóin? I n’dáiríre! B’in a scéal a chualamar cúpla seachtaine o shin nuair a bhíomar ar tí ár ndeocheanna a ghabhadh siar don Athbhliain. Caithfidh mé a rá go bhfuil amhras orm anois faoina scéalta sin. Ní gá dom a rá leat nach raibh i gceist le Al Qaeda i dtosach báire ach sócmhainn do sheirbhisí slándála iartharacha.

Bunaíodh Al Qaeda san Afganastáin i 1978 agus bá tionscadal de CIA iad i gcónaí. Ag an am, bhain siad usáid as an ISI( Interservices Intelligence) de Phacastáin chun na moslammaigh a ghríosú in aghaidh na Sóvéadaigh. Cloiseann tu a lán seafóid faoi láthair maidir le ‘ionsaí’ a rinne Aontas na bPoblachtaí Sóvéadachta Sóisialacha san Afganastán ag an am. Ar dtús báire, níl sé sin fíor in aon chor. Is fíor gur ndeachaigh na trúpaí sóvéadeacha go Kabul ach bhí drogall orthu é sin a dhéanamh ar an gcéad dul síos. I bhfírinne ní raibh na Sovéadaigh ag iarraidh an tír a rialú. Tháinig siad arna iarraidh sin ag rialtas sóisialach na hAfganastáine nuair a bhí na mujahedeen/CIA ag chothú sceimhlitheóireachta ar fud na tíre. Sin difríocht mhór idir an cogadh anois agus an cogadh ansin.

Faidhmíonn Al Qaeda mar shocmhainne na seirbhísí rúnda iartharaigh ó thosaigh an scéal mór na sceimhlitheoireachta domhanda. Ní folóir dúinn é sin a thuiscint. Mar sin, nuair a chlóisim scéalta faoi fhear éigin arabach eile gafa sna san éitleán éigin sna Stáit Aontaithe, tá fhios agam céard atá i gceist anseo. Ciallaíonn sé sin go bhfuil céim nua ag teacht sa chogadh in aghaidh na sceimhlitheoireachta. Ar ball, béimid ag caint faoi sceimhlitheoireacht sa Nigéir chomh maith. Tá an cogadh ag leanúint ar aghaidh sna tíortha eile anois chomh maith. Tá an Araib Shádach, comhghuaillí na Stát Aontaithe ag píolótú thar Phoblacht Éimin faoi láthair agus beidh siad ag cabhrú le maoirseacht na Somáile ar ball chomh maith. Déan dearmad ar ‘Al Qaeda’, tá cluithe i bhfad níos casta i gceist anseo. Pléascháin ina thóin, Al Qaeda mó thóin!

Gluais

Bagairt - threat

níos áiféisaí- more absurd

sceimhlitheóireacht- terrorism

cogadh- war

maoirseacht- supervision

a ghríosú- to incite

FEFANS BIPOLAIRES : DE GRÂCE, NE PASSEZ PAS VOS FRUSTRATIONS SUR VOS COMPAGNES

Incroyable mais vrai. J'ai entendu des fefans le jurer dur comme fer ces dernières années. Je l'ai encore entendu de la bouche des officiels du torCHon le 4 décembre lors des célébrations entourant le centenaire des CHieux. Quoi donc ? Et bien rien de moins que le CanaCHien de Mouryial est la plus grande dynastie du sport dans le monde entier. Et vlan dans le dentier ! Aussi bien affirmer, sans rire, que Guy Lafleur est encore premier scoreur de la NHL et que Jean Béliveau est encore dominant sur la patinoire... Sur quelle planète ils vivent ces gens-là ? Ils ne sont pas encore au courant que la métropauvre est devenue la Sibérie du hockey et que plus aucun joueur qui se respecte ne veut jouer pour les CHaudrons ?!

Ni pour les fefans bipolaires non plus, d'ailleurs. Il y a tout de même des partisans réalistes qui savent que le club des Molson est en décadence depuis plus de quinze ans, et qu'il n'est pas près de se sortir du trou. Ceux-là sont pas mal désillusionnés mais trouvent des trucs pour compenser leur déception lorsque les défaites de leurs pioCHeux s'annoncent assez tôt, et en haute définition (HD), les soirs de match, en écoutant les âneries de Pierrot le perdu, Benoît la langue brune, Popositif Demers et grand galop Bouchard à RBS (Réseau Bull Shit). Des trucs comme placer stratégiquement leurs bouteilles de bière en bas du frigo (photo) et demander gentiment à leur blonde, légèrement vêtue, d'aller leur chercher une bonne froide...

Les fêlés du CHaudron eux, continuent à croire à la dynastie du torCHon, comme Hitler croyait en un Reich allemand qui allait durer mille ans... Comme l'ancien dictateur qui pensait jusqu'à la fin, que des armes secrètes allaient lui faire gagner la guerre, les fefans sclérosés ont une confiance absolue en Bob Gainey, le messie qui va les conduire à la terre promise. Mais lorsque les Glorieux sont exclus des séries ou en sont balayés subito presto, comme le printemps dernier, les bipolaires intégristes de la religion de la CHiasse sont frustrés au max et se défoulent sur leur compagnes.

Une étude statistique révèle que lorsque le torCHon participe aux séries éliminatoires, le taux de violence conjugale à Montréal (région la plus violente au Québec après la Côte Nord) se situe entre 325 et 350 infractions par 100 000 habitants. Quand le CHiendent manque la grande danse de fin de saison, ce taux grimpe entre 400 et 420 cas rapportés à la police. Lors de la période 1999 à 2002 (l'âge d'or pour les Anti-Habs, quand Peanut Houle était DG) la violence conjugale à Mourial a atteint son paroxysme parce que les CHieux ont raté les séries durant trois saisons consécutives.

Bien que je me réjouisse des éliminations hâtives et des séries de défaites du torCHon, j'ai toujours une pensée un peu triste pour ces femmes qui payent de leur sang la bipolarité des fefans malades mentaux qui se déragent sur elles parce qu'elles ont le malheur d'être à leurs côtés, à la mauvaise place, au mauvais moment... Pitié pour les blondes de ces colons piqués de la rage du CH.

LENDEMAIN DE PARTY AU CENTRE POUBELL...

Décembre premier, au Centre Bell, on a fêté, les Alouettes et leur Coupe Grey.

Dans l'édifice surchauffé, on avait aussi amené, la Coupe Stanley, pour le centenaire du torCHon à célébrer.

Pourquoi pas en profiter, pour acclamer Lucian Bute, champion de boxe incontesté.

Tant qu'à s'énerver, autant donner, à Scary Price le Molson trophée.

Mais les CHieux ont oublié, qu'ils avaient un match à disputer. Trois à zéro buts comptés, les Leafs ont gagné.

Après tant d'athlètes ovationnés, ça s'est terminé sous les huées.

Sur la glace les préposés, des dentiers de fans ont ramassés...

Les Molson leur bière ont ravalée, de travers leur club ont récupéré...