Sunday 8 January 2012

The Dirty Dozen w/e Jan 15th 2012

No change in the dirty dozen for this week but money does begin to change hands in the coming days, starting with a couple of Irish Life & Permanent bonds this Wednesday, one for €8m, the other for a mere €3 - sure what would that get you these days? A few of our senior citizens kept comfortable, who gives a damn about that?

Then there's the €1bn Anglo bond on Jan 22nd, the even more substantial €1.25bn from the same zombie bank three days later, but sure look, if the choice is between paying these failed private bonds or imposing greater and greater pain on everyone in this society, well, there's only one answer really, isn't there?



3 comments:

  1. Hello Diarmuid,
    I’ve great admiration for yourself and the people of Ballyhea for your sustained opposition to the robbery of the Irish people by the banking sector.
    This idea has been mentioned previously but have you considered the possibility of trying to launch a mass Mortgage Boycott as a means to pressurise the government into halting the repayment of the private banking debt by the Irish state?
    The recent property bubble amounted to a enormous theft from Irish people where hundreds of thousands of people have been saddled with huge debt just to put a modest roof over their heads (in most cases) An insider elite of landholders, developers and bankers became obscenely wealthy on the back of this bubble while the political class encouraged the stampede.
    This debt is now a millstone around our necks but it could be used as our most effective weapon to drive real change for the better in how this country is governed.
    This would involve a large number of people withholding their mortgage repayments until the government stops paying the bondholder gamblers with our republic’s money. As the Irish state now owns most of the Irish banking system, the impact on the government would be immediate and substantial.
    The idea would be for people to stop their standing orders, direct debits etc on their mortgages and to divert the money elsewhere, in another account for example, until a conclusion has been reached. At this point the accumulated funds could be transferred to the mortgage lenders and normal repayments would resume.
    No penalties, additional interest or any financial sanction would be accepted on the late payments from the Banks or the strike would continue.
    Obviously, it would take a significant number of people to commit to the action for this to be effective but it might be possible to kick start the protest through the media, Facebook etc and sign up the necessary number of people for the movement. Momentum for the civil disobedience should be achievable with so many people already under serious financial pressure thanks to the greed and stupidity of our banking and political elite and other vested interests.
    A reasonable target might be in the region of 100,000 mortgage holders who are prepared to sign up and commit. When the target figure has been reached the protest would begin the following month and continue until the government undertakes to stop rewarding the failed bondholder gamblers with our money and future.
    I believe our government has signed up to pay €3 Billion a year for the next 10 years in bond repayments and promissory notes for the failed Anglo Irish and Irish Nationwide Banks. Meanwhile FG and Labour will tear the heart out of this country with vicious cutbacks and tax increases to pay for this robbery while our young people look at an empty future and emigrate in their tens of thousands. This is wrong and has to stop.
    It’s time the government realised that they rule the Irish people only through our consent and they do not have our permission to bleed the country dry to provide a transfusion to the parasite financial elite.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Johnny, agree with what you're saying and would love to be able to devote myself full-time to this, which is what it actually requires. I already have a full-time job, however, and maintaining these blogs (thechatteringmagpie14 is the other) and the Facebook pages, along with the weekly march, is as much as I can physically do at the moment.

    The problem with home mortgages is directly related to the bank bonds - as long as the banks have to pay the bonds they CANNOT give any kind of blanket forgiveness to homeowners in distress; every cent they can get will go towards paying off these bonds, and even then it won't be enough, we'll be asked to bail them out yet again. And on it goes, this vicious cycle.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Diarmuid,
    Yes, I’m working full-time myself and know that this is too big a job for any one person to organise but there are other groups out there who would be natural allies in this protest. There is a organisation called New Beginning which is legally representing (for free) people whose homes are in danger of being repossessed by the banks. One of their founders Ross Maguire has already spoken about a mass mortgage action which has been reported in the Irish Times and other media.
    Another ally would be the Socialist Party/United Left Alliance. I know they are not everyone’s cup of tea but Joe Higgins and Richard Boyd Barrett are elected TDs and have shown themselves to be men of integrity and a credible voice of protest against this pillage of the country.
    (I’m not a member of any political party or New Beginnings)
    Have the Ballyhea protest considered trying to link up with these or any other or groups to form a unified protest?
    A joint venture between the Ballyhea group, the United Left Alliance, New Beginning and possibly others might generate the necessary interest from the media to help kick start a large scale protest. I believe there are journalists out there who would highlight the case for definitive mass action against the Banks if a cohesive protest could be flagged to them.

    ReplyDelete