Cork SWP

Public Meeting/Book Launch
The Case Against the EU Lisbon Treaty.
Thursday 31st January in the
Victoria Hotel, Cork at 8.00pm.
Speaker Kieran Allen, author of "The Corporate Takeover of Ireland"

The Socialist Workers Party will host a public forumand book launch outlining the case against the EU Lisbon Treaty on Thursday 31st January in the Victoria Hotel, Cork at 8.00pm. Speaker Kieran Allen, author of "The Corporate Takeover of Ireland"
Kieran has written a new guide to the EU Lisbon Treaty which will be officially launched at this meeting.

The French NO vote in 2005 terrified the ruling class across Europe and now they wait anxiously on the Irish vote.
Party leaders Bertie Ahern, Enda Kenny, Eamonn Gilmore and John Gormley have assured them that everything will be allright on the day.But if the lessons of the French referendum are quickly learnt there could be another resounding NO.
The first is that the way to win is to fight from the left. Irish debates on the EU have focused for too long on "national sovereignty" and defending De Valera's constitution of 1937. The NO campaign should not try to re-take that rhetoric.Instead over the next few months, the campaign needs to go to postal workers to show how the EU postal directive will affect their jobs.

It should remind the families of Aer Lingus workers how the EU was used to privatise the national airline. It should alert everyone to the dangers posed to public services by the philosophy of a "free, undistorted market".
It should mobilise the anti-war movement to oppose the EU battle groups and not be taken in by talk of "humanitarian missions" which are a cover for power grabs.By tapping into this enormous well of resentment and resistance, a powerful movement can be built to challenge the elite.
Among the major changes the Lisbon Treaty will bring are;A requirement on member states to increase military spending. Article 27-3 states that" member states shall undertake progressively to improve their military capabilities".
A legal requirement forcing member states to make troops available for EU battle groups (article 27-3)A fast track system whereby the Commission can conduct negotiations with agencies such as the World Trade Organisation on the premise of promoting a)"the achievement of uniformity in measures of liberalism"b)the "progressive abolition of restrictions on international trade and on foreign direct investment" article 188.
In practice this implies a greater push towards privatisation and globalisation that will become binding on member states.
The more formal creation of an EU state which has its own distinct "legal personality".Greater use of Qualified Majority Voting to give the EU more"competencies" over member states..Thanks to the legal actions of Raymond Crotty, the Irish people are the only people who can vote on these hugely important issues.
We should exercise that vote on behalf of the whole people of Europe.
Kieran Allen has written a new guide to the EU Lisbon Treaty and will put the case for a NO vote on Thursday 31st January in the Victoria Hotel.

Public meeting
The Fight for Womens Liberation Today
Speaker, Marnie Holborrow
Thursday 29th November,
Victoria Hotel, Patrick St. 8.00pm.

We are told that women are now equal to men and that there's nothing left to fight for.
Women's lives were certainly transformed in the 20th century.
But while a minority of women can now command high professional salaries, the majority still earn less than men and carry the responsibility for most work in the home.
Meanwhile the commercialization of sexism-"raunch culture"-has reached new heights.

Marnie Holborrow will trace the roots of womens oppression and will show why the way society is organised under capitalism, especially the modern family, continues to leave most ordinary women-and men-losing out.
This is the socialist case for why the fight for womens liberation isn't over and why winning this battle means changing the world.

All welcome

Film Showing of the acclaimed documentary
The Take
by Naomi Klein (No Logo, the Shock Doctirne) and Avi Lewis.
Thurs Nov 1st 7.30 PM
Capwell Art Gallery - 16 Frankfield Terrace, Cork

In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave.
All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - The Take - has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head.

In the wake of Argentina's dramatic economic collapse in 2001, Latin America's most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment. The Forja auto plant lies dormant until its former employees take action. They're part of a daring new movement of workers who are occupying bankrupt businesses and creating jobs in the ruins of the failed system.
But Freddy, the president of the new worker's co-operative, and Lalo, the political powerhouse from the Movement of Recovered Companies, know that their success is far from secure. Like every workplace occupation, they have to run the gauntlet of courts, cops and politicians who can either give their project legal protection or violently evict them from the factory.
The story of the workers' struggle is set against the dramatic backdrop of a crucial presidential election in Argentina, in which the architect of the economic collapse, Carlos Menem, is the front-runner. His cronies, the former owners, are circling: if he wins, they'll take back the companies that the movement has worked so hard to revive.
Armed only with slingshots and an abiding faith in shop-floor democracy, the workers face off against the bosses, bankers and a whole system that sees their beloved factories as nothing more than scrap metal for sale.
With The Take, director Avi Lewis, one of Canada's most outspoken journalists, and writer Naomi Klein, author of the international bestseller No Logo, champion a radical economic manifesto for the 21st century. But what shines through in the film is the simple drama of workers' lives and their struggle: the demand for dignity and the searing injustice of dignity denied.

Forum of Resistance
Saturday 6th October
Victoria Hotel, Patrick Street,
2.00pm to 6.00pm.
Organised by the Socialist Workers Party.

Schedule of events.
Bush's War, The Fall of the US Empire ?
Speaker, Sinead Kennedy.
George Bush represents the greatest threat to world peace. Not only has he destroyed Iraq but he also wants to start a new war with Iran.But Bush is only a front man for corporate capitalism.Behind the new drive to war, a system is spinning out of control.At this session we look at the link between capitalism and war.

Selling our Bodies, Capitalism and the New Sexism.
Speaker, Crea Ryder.
Everything is for sale in this market mad world. our bodies are no exception.The increased presence of Brats and Playboy brands are pushing sexual commodification to younger and younger audiences.This session discusses how we can fight the New Sexism while also fighting for liberation and sexual equality. 3. Hugo Chavez, 40 years after the death of Che Guevara, Revolution in the 21st Century.Speaker, Kieran AllenForty years ago, Che Guevara was assassinated in Bolivia as the US took their revengeon one of their great opponents.But today Latin America has become the centre of a struggle against corporateglobalisation and the US Empire.In this session, we look at some of the lessons of one of the most exciting conflicts in the region, the progress of Venezuela under Chavez.

Hugo Chavez, 40 years after the death of Che Guevara, Revolution in the 21st Century.
Speaker, Kieran Allen
Forty years ago, Che Guevara was assassinated in Bolivia as the US took their revengeon one of their great opponents.But today Latin America has become the centre of a struggle against corporateglobalisation and the US Empire.In this session, we look at some of the lessons of one of the most exciting conflicts in the region, the progress of Venezuela under Chavez.

Following the international clamour to send troops to Darfur in western Sudan, the United Nations has voted to send in troops.More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur in the last three years and around 2 million have been displaced. This is the result of fighting between government forces and rebel groups. Many civilians have suffered and, quite rightly, people across the world want the horror to end.But it is a huge leap from those tragic facts to supporting the right of Western troops to invade Sudan. Far from aiding the suffering people of Darfur, experience shows that intervention may in fact make matters worse.Back in 1992 UN troops went to Somalia. The invasion that began with promises of ending a famine and saving people from warlords, ended with Somalis in revolt against the occupiers and atrocities being committed by US, Canadian and Belgian forces against the Somalis.The warlords were strengthened and progress in Somalia hurled back over a decade.Despite Western governments protestations that their role in Sudan would be purely "humanitarian" an invasion of Sudan by the West would have the added benefit of clearing the way for US and European oil firms to grasp more of Sudan's oil.Sudan has two billion barrels of recoverable oil and currently produces 250,000 barrels a day. Much of that oil is likely to be trapped by Chinese firms and the US wants to challenge them.Sudan has become a frontline in the clash between US and Chinese imperialism. An invasion would also put in place a pro-US government on the shores of the Red Sea, opposite Saudi Arabia.The NGO Action Against Hunger said in May of this year that UN military intervention "could have disastrous consequences that risk triggering a further escalation of violence while jeopardising humanitarian assistance to millions of people".



==Cork Socialist Workers Party
corkswp@yahoo.com
http://www.swp.ie

Speakers:
Uche Odinukwe, Nigerian activist
Joe Moore, Cork SWP.
Thursday 3rd May 8.00pm
Victoria Hotel, Patrick Street, Cork

Two hundred years after the passing of a bill in the British parliament outlawing the Atlantic Slave Trade are the African people still suffering the effects of the greatest crime against humanity.
Two hundred years ago last March, a bill outlawing British involvement in the Atlantic Slave Trade, was passed in Westminster. This was the first step in a long journey that eventually led to the ending of the greatest crime against humanity, ever perpetrated.
From the early 16th century to the end of the 19th century, over 20 million Africans were enslaved and between 10 and 30 million lost their lives.
Although the media focus is on the role played by the MP William Wilberforce, the Atlantic Slave Trade was ended by the resistance of the slaves themselves and the mass movement in Britain in support of the abolition of slavery.

The greatest rebellion was in the country now called Haiti. As a result of the influence of the ideals of the French Revolution, a rebellion began in 1791 which overthrew the slave owning class in what was then France's richest colony.
A British invasion of the island led to one of the greatest military defeats, when an army of ex-slaves inflicted casualties of over 80,000 on the greatest imperial power in the world. In Britain over 350,000 people signed a petition against the Slave Trade. This was supported by a successful consumer boycott of sugar, the main slave produced commodity.
The Atlantic Slave Trade eventually ended in the 1880's, with Cuba and Brazil being the last countries to outlaw this barbarity.This did not however end the suffering of the African people.

From the 1880's until the early 20th century, the European imperial powers divided the African Continent between them, in the so-called"scramble for Africa".Freedom was eventually secured in the second half of the last century after heroic struggles by the African people against the colonial powers, especially in Algeria, Kenya, Mozambique and Angola.Although political freedom was achieved, the continents natural resources are still controlled by Western multi nationals.

This situation was referred to by Kwame Nkrumah, the leader of newly independent Ghana, as "neo-colonialism"
These issues will be discussed at a public meeting entitled "The Big Question, Can Africa be truly free from the effects of the Slave Trade"