Under Irish law there is no right to privacy in the sense that it exists in the US.
What I suspect has happened here is that someone has made a complaint about the website or a specific post or contribution on the website on the grounds of incitement to hatred legislation, and the police have requested the information as part of investigating the complaint (which I believe they are fully entitled to do, under Irish law).
that's interesting. i guess here in the u.s. an intelligence bureau would have just secretly infiltrated the group, collected names and addresses, and then filed them away for later use.
Poe, what is your view regarding how working class communities should respond to immigration and do you think neo-liberals/capitalists have deliberately created mass immigration to drive down wages?
a-minor-body, this is a complicated question that deserves a much better treatment than what i'm about to give it on teh internets. basically, i think that working class communities should accept immigrants for what they are - workers - and then organize the shit out of them. being an internationalist, this is a no brainer for me, but i understand why it is so difficult for some people. nevertheless, divide and conquer has been a longstanding tactic to reduce the power of workers, and manipulating the immigration debate is just another manifestation of that. workers have won largely when they have stood in solidarity with one another. the solution here is no different.
i don't think that
capitalists have purposefully created mass immigration per se, but i do think it is a natural consequence of capitalist system. given that human migration has been a longstanding phenomenon, it's no wonder that the hyper-mobility of capital has exacerbated this. that said, i do think that capitalists see the advantages of a mobile, vulnerable population of workers with no citizenship rights. this is expressed in some categories of work visas and the widespread hiring of undocumented workers. look no further than the tomato fields of south florida, the reconstruction on the gulf coast, and even midwest meat plants for evidence. i found it interesting to see bush caught in the middle of his conservative constituencies when he grappled with immigration reform. on the one hand, social conservatives and xenophobes want the "illegals" deported (good luck with that), and on the other, business wants the cheap labor.
what is your end game here, anyway? i thought there was only an ultra rich class and everyone else? what is this talk of "working class" communities? are you a marxist, bateman?
anyway, i think the afl-cio actually gets this one right:
Throughout the history of our country, immigrants have played an important role in building
our nation and its democratic institutions. Immigrants also have played a vital role in building
the union movement. The AFL-CIO’s immigration policy recognizes the important contributions
foreign-born workers make to our economy and to our community, and it welcomes immigrant
workers into our movement.
The trade union movement was built by immigrants. Irish ironworkers and German bricklayers—
just to name a few—established working standards for all trades across the nation. From the
birth of America’s union movement, immigrant laborers have used all means available to fi ght for
workers’ rights. It is more important than ever that we stand alongside our immigrant brothers
and sisters at a time when workers are under attack from corporate forces on all fronts.
We know from our long experience that employers try to destroy worker solidarity by attempting
to divide workers along race, gender, and in the last decade, immigration status.
I would think the more alarming trend was that in 2009 there are still groups with large memberships that are so intent on restricting immigration...
yeah, i certainly didn't intend to understate the xenophobia.
