CRH and Israel's Wall

Next Tuesday (05/05/10), the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign is organising a boycott/divestment at the CRH Annual General Meeting being held in the Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire.

The group is calling on CRH to cease its involvement with Israel's West Bank Wall, which they have labelled an Apartheid wall, and which has been internationally condemned.

Take part or find out more here.

Oxfam Launches Climate Financing Action

Oxfam Ireland is asking campaigners to urge the Taoiseach and the Minister for the Environment to ensure that climate financing is new money.

Ireland has committed €100 million, approximately €33 million per year, in fast-track money to support developing countries cope with the devastating effects of the changing climate. Oxfam Ireland is calling for this money to be separate from our existing aid commitment to reach 0.7% of national income by 2015.

To join the call, you can take action here.

Water Tax

There is growing resistance to the imposition of water charges on homes in Ireland. It would seem sensible to tax such an essential a resource in order to ensure it is protected and sustained for future generations. However, there are some key arguments against the latest government proposal to do so;

There are no plans in place as yet that the tax collected from these charges would be earmarked for the improvement of Ireland's moribund water infrastructure. It is reasonable to assume that the moneys collected would simply go into the general state coffers. If the government is genuinely serious about conserving water, then it needs to dramatically invest in a system which allows nearly half the treated water in many local authorities to be lost through broken pipes.

Regarding the public's attitude to water conservation, I believe that if you hit people's pockets, they tend to adjust their behaviour accordingly. However, there is some credence in the supposition that if investment in the infrastructure is accompanied by a national educational campaign the same results could be yielded. This option is less attractive to those in power however, as it does not facilitate immediate results and is quite costly.

Another point of contention is that taxation of our national resource is an incremental step towards the privatisation of water. Whether this is fact or fantasy, it is worth bearing in mind as the people's water service should always be maintained by the people's representatives. Privatisation will not lead to greater efficiency - it would simply solidify a charge and instill a profit driven management of a national and natural resource.

I imagine the debate surrounding water taxation is bound to be controversial and one that will be hotly contested in the coming months.

World People's Conference on Climate Change

The People's Agreement arrived at in Bolivia last week is well worth a read and contains some bold statements such as;

The corporations and governments of the so-called “developed” countries, in complicity with a segment of the scientific community, have led us to discuss climate change as a problem limited to the rise in temperature without questioning the cause, which is the capitalist system.

Have a read here.

Don't Give Up on Haiti

Haiti's largest creditor, the Inter-American Development Bank, announced last month that it would cancel US$ 479 million owed to it by Haiti. Even if it is well overdue, this cancellation is great news.

Unfortunately though, the IMF still has not cancelled the US $271 million owed to it by Haiti despite public outcry. More pressure needs to be put on the Irish Minister for Finance and on the Canadian Government (who represent Ireland at the executive board of the IMF) to cancel the debt immediately and unconditionally.

Haiti may have dropped from the headlines but its debt has not. Email the Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty (jflaherty@fin.gc.ca) and urge him to ensure Haiti's debt is fully and unconditionally cancelled. Please CC Minister Lenihan (minister@finance.gov.ie), Minister Martin (minister@dfa.ie) and Minister Power (peter.power@dfa.ie) when you send your email.

Australia Denies Asylum

Earlier this month, the Australian government made the appalling move of suspending all asylum applications by people from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. Those continuing to arrive are being held at detention centres but are being denied the right to apply for asylum. Instead, the Australian government has indicated that it will simply review the situation for Sri Lanks after three months and for Afghans after six.

Today, the UNHCR criticised the government for refusing to consider alternatives to detention for asylum seekers. The UN agency highlighted the lack of judicial oversight and the geographic isolation of the detention centres as serious concerns.

There is substantial evidence that unnecessary prolonged detention, in such isolated surroundings, can result in serious negative maladies for the physical and mental health of detainees. Such detrimental effects are worsened by the fact that many asylum seekers have been victims of torture before taking the decision to flee their homelands.

The pernicious actions of the Australian government need to be reversed and the UNHCR should be expressing more than disappointment with the progress that has been made so far from discussions between both parties. The peoples of Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have greatly suffered under recent war time conditions and those fleeing should not be punished further.

And we're back...

Despite the fact that more than 400,000 people in this country are currently on the live register, and in the face of Labour Party opposition, the Dáil voted earlier this month in favour of an indulgent 2 week Easter break.

Thankfully, the Dáil resumes today!

The Airplot Design Contest

GREENPEACE UK's Airplot Design Competition is coming to an end this month.

Their unique competition designed to prevent the construction of a new runway at Heathrow seems to have captured the imagination of tens of thousands of campaigners over in the UK.

Here's the competition/campaign video;

Design a fortress to stop the third runway from Greenpeace UK on Vimeo.

March and Rally in memory of Toyosi Shitta-Bey

This Saturday there will be a march to honour the memory of Toyosi Shitta-Bey who recently died in tragic circumstances.

His family and friends have organised this march to call on communities to unite against racism.

Those attending will be meeting at 2PM at the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin 1.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Tax Justice

Last night I attended a very interesting lecture at Trinity College Dublin, entitled A Fairer Global Tax System: Developing World and National Perspectives. Given by David McNair (Christian Aid) and Sheila Killian (University of Limerick, the most engaging element was when the speakers were faced with some difficult questions from those in attendance. Needless to say, the answers were typical of such experienced speakers and quite insightful. For those interested in learning more about the subject discussed, some materials are available on the college website.

Earlier in the lecture however, Ms Killian briefly touched on the subject of tax justice and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). I would have welcomed a more in-depth discussion of this as for years CSR has been the battlefield of environmentalists and human rights activists who have tried (with some success) to ensure that multinational companies act in a socially and environmentally responsible manner with regard to local communities.

If tenets of tax justice were ingrained into CSR policies, the unfair resource flow from 'South' to 'North' would be hampered and governments in the developing world would have a greater amount of income to spend on health, education and other essential services. Furthermore, when the business community takes positive action world leaders tend to follow suit and cement such moves through various international treaties. By adopting (albeit voluntary) tax justice mechanisms to prevent the immoral use of tax havens and transfer pricing as part or their CSR policies, multinationals could give governments the push they need to work towards a fair global tax system.

However, given the discussion last night of the amounts of money generated by a manipulation of tax systems, it will probably be a long and difficult fight to encourage/force multinationals and certain governments to play fair.