I4C Trouble with Daly and Wallace

This week on the podcast we're reflecting on the question of Irish neutrality, Michael Martin's laughable consultative forum and the event Mick and Clare hosted in Dublin.

This week we’re sharing the recording of the event we held in Dublin on Saturday 24th June, Neutrality: Who Cares? *** note that this is part 2, if you haven’t yet listened to part 1, we recommend you go back and listen to that first *** Speakers featured - Clare, Mick, Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK, and British-Iraqi hip hop artist, academic and political campaigner Lowkey Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK. She is also co-founder of the human rights group Global Exchange, the Peace in Ukraine Coalition, Unfreeze Afghanistan (which advocates for returning the $7 billion of Afghan funds frozen in U.S. banks), ACERE: The Alliance for Cuba Engagement and Respect, and the Nobel Peace Prize for Cuban Doctors Campaign. Medea has been an advocate for social justice for 50 years. Described as "one of America's most committed -- and most effective -- fighters for human rights" by New York Newsday, and "one of the high profile leaders of the peace movement" by the Los Angeles Times, she was one of 1,000 exemplary women from 140 countries nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the millions of women who do the essential work of peace worldwide. Lowkey is a British-Iraqi hip hop artist, academic and political campaigner. He is a patron of Stop The War Coalition, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and The Peace and Justice Project founded by Jeremy Corbyn. He has a Masters in Middle Eastern Studies from SOAS university and is an advisor to the website Declassified UK which investigates the activities of the British Intelligence Services and the Ministry of Defence.

This week we’re sharing the recording of the event we held in Dublin on Saturday 24th June, Neutrality: Who Cares? This is part one, featuring Clare, Mick, Ann Wright, Yanis Varoufakis and Sevim Dagdelen, MP for Die Linke, Germany. Part 2 to follow soon. Ann Wright served for 29 years in the US Army and 16 years as a US diplomat in US embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She resigned from the US government in March 2023 in opposition to George Bush's war on Iraq. She has been a strong anti-war voice for the past 20 years. She is the co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience." Yanis Varoufakis is Greek politician and former Greek Finance Minister. In 2016, he co-founded DiEM25, Europe’s first transnational pan-European movement. In 2018, together with US Senator Bernie Sanders, he established the Progressive International – a global movement with affiliated members of over 200 million people from across the world. In addition to these organisational endeavours, he has travelled extensively giving talks and participating in various activist events and projects. He is the author of several best-selling books. His latest, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, will be released in autumn 2023. Sevim Dagdelen of the Left Party (Die Linke) has been elected four times as a member of the German Bundestag for North Rhine Westphalia. She is Deputy Leader of her party in parliament and chair of the German-Turkish parliamentary group, as well as spokeswoman for the Left Party parliamentary group on the Bundestag's Committee on Foreign Affairs. She previously worked as a journalist for German and Turkish newspapers.

Mick joins the podcast fresh from hours of voting on the Nature Restoration Law. We discuss the latest on this major piece of environmental legislation as well as Mick and Clare's recent trip to Georgia and a new report from the Parliament on AI.

The EU is not coming after the small farmers of Ireland with the proposed Nature Restoration Law but that is how it has been painted at home. This is some of the most significant EU environmental legislation for decades and it is urgent. This week we’re breaking down the new law, what it would mean for people in Ireland and we’re busting some of the myths surrounding peatland rewetting - particularly the idea that farmers will be forced to rewet agricultural peatland as a result of the law.

This week on the podcast we've got a new intro and a new host - Mireia. Mick and Clare discuss Ukraine, the anniversary of the Nakba, EU militarisation, Belarus and Sudan.

This week Mick, Clare and Damien discuss a debate on the role of farmers in the ecological transition where the EPP are doing their best to scrap the green deal, a parliament vote to fast track ammunitions manufacture for Ukraine and how fortress Europe has enriched the warring factions in Sudan.

This week we’re discussing Micheál Martin’s recent comments about China, Commission President von der Leyen’s horrific speech about Israel and the state of electoral politics in Georgia.

This week on the podcast we’re discussing the gathering momentum for the anti-war movement across Europe. We also discuss how government policies in Ireland are driving people into the arms of the far-right, the approach of the international community to the war in Ukraine and the recent fighting in Sudan.

Mick and Clare join us from Strasbourg. They discuss the parliament plenary debate on China, EU “battlegroups”, the European Green Deal and the EU’s inconsistency when it comes to defending media freedom.