THE BIG MATCH

MATCH REPORT ECB V IRELAND, DUBLIN, IRELAND, MARCH 30th 2012 - by Diarmuid O'Flynn.

European Bank Bondholder Bailout League, penultimate round, Frankfurt.

ECB 19-39 Ireland 0-1

There were extraordinary scenes at the end of this penultimate round of the European Bank Bondholder Bailout League in Dublin yesterday. Losing heavily, totally outplayed and outmuscled, the Irish team briefly left the stadium to play a game among themselves on an adjoining field and in the safety of that environment scored a few uncontested points. They then returned to the main playing area and before a bemused audience and despite the final scoreline, the captain of the Irish team, Michael Noonan, flanked by player/manager Enda Kenny, claimed victory for his side.

Right from the throw-in the ECB were in control of this game. Ireland's cause certainly wasn't helped by the fact that in a warm-up game at home against their own bankers Ireland had already suffered grievous losses and thus were already badly bruised when they first lined out against the ECB. It didn’t help Ireland’s cause either that their starting line-up featured a number of players in pivotal positions who had no previous experience of playing at this level – Brian Cowan and Brian Lenihan, for example, centre-back and centre-forward respectively, were just getting to know the basic skills and rules of the game and of their positions.

Helped by what could be termed an own-goal by Irishman Patrick Honahan (he's a member of the ECB panel but also claims loyalty to Ireland) the ECB took a commanding early lead and at the end of the first quarter had already streaked ahead, no threat whatever from a very feeble Irish attack which simply didn't seem to know how to use its early good possession.

Sad to report too, there was also much foul play from the ECB. It wasn’t enough that they had far more skill than the novice Irish, they also used their considerable muscle to intimidate and bully their weaker opponents. The Irish appealed to the officials for fair play but received short shrift – in fact far from adopting an objective and neutral stance, referee Merkel and her assistant Sarkozy constantly berated the Irish players, accused them of feigning injury and deliberately slowing up the game.

At half-time Ireland was in real trouble, but – as at the full-time whistle – we were now to witness an extraordinary scene.

Among the Irish supporters in the stands and even in the Irish dug-out itself, right through the first half there had been growing exasperation at the inept display by those on the pitch. Most vocal of all were the aforementioned Enda Kenny, the longest-serving member of the Irish panel, and Eamon Gilmore, himself a former starter. “Ye’re a disgrace to Ireland,” shouted Enda; “Ye’re betraying the jersey!” chorused Eamon; “Jaysus lads, let me at ‘em,” pleaded one of the young guns, Leo ‘The Lion’ Varadkar, “I’ll show ‘em – not another inch would they get from me!”

Then it happpened – with the approval of the ECB and in an unprecedented move, the whole of the Irish team was substituted and an entirely new side, led by Enda Kenny, took to the field. Even before he took up his new position however the signs for the Irish were bad as Enda was heard to mutter – “Christ Eamon, would you look at the size of these fellas! They’re a lot bigger in here than they looked from the sidelines – I think we’re in trouble!”

It was of course premature capitulation, an ongoing problem with this Irish team, their courage drained before a ball was struck. Thus it was that the second half brought no relief for the ranks of Irish supporters, now suffering silently on the banks. There was an occasional defiant shout – ‘Up Ballyhea!’ was heard from one small corner – but that was it. The ECB piled on the pressure, the scores mounted. Ireland did manage to sneak a point (Michael Noonan claiming the credit) when a streaker – said later to be Greek – distracted the ECB side momentarily, but soon it was back to business as usual, the Irish crushed under the ECB onslaught.

Then came those final minutes and that bit of light relief for those who had been observing the spectacle, Kenny and his team claiming victory from the carnage. The medical staff have put it down to concussion from all the heavy blows suffered during the game.

Scorers for ECB: So many scores and scorers it was impossible to keep track, but Jean Claude Trichet and Mario Draghi both figured prominently among the scorers, as did Hermann Van Rompuy, on loan from the EU.

Scorers for Ireland: M Noonan 0-1.

ECB: Currently captained by Draghi but prefer to remain anonymous.

Ireland: B Cowan, M Coughlan, B Lenihan, M Harney, D Ahern, N Dempsey, M Martin, E O Cuiv, M Hanafin, J Gormley, E Ryan, B Smith, B O'Keeffe.
Subs (all at half-time): E Kenny, E Gilmore, M Noonan, R Quinn, B Howlin, R Bruton, J Burton, J Deenihan, P Rabbitte, P Hogan, A Shatter, S Coveney, F Fitzgerald, J Reilly, L Varadkar.

Referee: A Merkel
Assistant Referee: N Sarkozy.

THE PENALTY

                  We are bombarded with warnings that if the Household Charge of €100 isn’t paid by March 31^st the penalties will kick in – but what are the penalties? Delay until June 30^th and it’s 10%, that’s €10; delay until December 31^st and it’s 20%, that’s €20; delay beyond that and it’s 30% and 1% per month. So, I ask, what’s the panic? If you pay now your money is gone; if you don’t want to pay and you aren’t yet certain about making a stand, why not hold off for a few months? Yes, you're risking €10 – it might turn out to be the best tenner you (n)ever spent.

                  Don’t be intimidated, don’t be strong-armed. Since humankind frist began to legislate it’s been making good law and bad; good people have always resisted those bad laws, thus was slavery challenged and ended, likewise the Penal Laws here, the Tithe Laws, the religious discrimination, the voting restrictions, etc. etc. 

                  We got no say in whether or not we should pay the failed bonds of our failed banks, successive governments caving in to the threats of the ECB-dominated troika; we DO have a say in this. Our government tells us that this is mandated by the ECB/troika; let’s send the troika a message, let this March 31^st deadline be our referendum on their demands and their deadlines – DO NOT REGISTER, DO NOT PAY. 

                  This is bad law, being imposed for bad reasons; good people have a duty to resist it. Take a stand - you are not alone.

Regards, Diarmuid O’Flynn

ALL THE LIES THAT YOU TOLD ME

“If you tell a lie big enough and repeat it often enough, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can deceive the people about the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie and thus by extension the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” That was Joseph Goebbels, the man who perfected the dark art of propaganda during the darker days of the Third Reich. Joseph has a lot of very worthy successors in Frankfurt today but I’m taking a leaf – of sorts – from his book, repeating over and over this quote above, refuting over and over the lies, repeating over and over the truth. 

FIVE BIG LIES WE’RE BEING TOLD

1. 1) In November 2010 Ireland was bailed out by the troika. Wrong. When the ECB came to town in November 2010 it was with a singular aim – protect its own, ensure the bonds that were owed by the Irish banks to its banks were paid in full, the tab to be picked up by the people. We bailed out the ECB, not the other way around, and it’s costing us tens of billions.

2.  2) The austerity programme is to get us back to the financial market – another lie. It was the bank debt burden, when piled on top of our own sovereign debt burden, that squeezed us from the markets in the first place; it’s the bank debt burden that is keeping us from the markets – without it we would already be on the road to recovery. The austerity programme? The austerity budgets over the next four years (3.8 + 3.5 + 3.1 + 2) = €12.4bn, exactly the same amount as the Promissory Notes for the same four-year period (3.1 x 4), which begs the question – our austerity, for whose benefit? All that sacrifice and suffering for just four instalments of the 21 due to the year 2031, for just two of our zombie banks, Anglo and Irish Nationwide. Now we're hearing talk of 'restructuring'; that's the ECB simply restating its position - 'I'll do everything I can to lighten your load but I'm not getting off your back'.

3.  3) The Irish banks were saved for the good of our economy – this is a juicy one. The Irish banks – all six of them – were saved so they could continue to pay bonds to the international financial institutions who loaned them the money that fuelled the fires that then engulfed our economy. Five of those banks – AIB, Anglo (I refuse to call it by any other name), Bank of Ireland, EBS and Irish Life & Permanent – are still paying out bonds on a weekly basis; €19bn in 2012, €17bn in 2013, €55bn in the four years 2012-2015 (incl). From where comes that money? Directly (recapitalisation) or indirectly (fees, mortgage interest etc.), it comes from us.

4.  4) We had no choice, we HAD to pay the bank bonds or a) we’d never be allowed back in the markets and b) the ECB would pull the plug on us – nonsense, both claims. Iceland got a choice; their President ensured they got a referendum after their politicians had bought the same line from the banks as did ours, and had already agreed to sell out their country to the bankers as did ours. However, in the face of all the same Armageddon threats we still hear here on a daily basis, the people of Iceland voted against the deal; they burned their bondholders, allowed their banks to fail, and started over. Now, less than three years on, they are in growth, unemployment falling, credit-rating rising, paying back their debts early. Then you look at Greece; met none of its targets yet the ECB did everything in its power to ensure that Greece stayed within the euro – why? So the Greek people could continue to pay the banks of France and Germany, even at a reduced rate. Does anyone really believe anymore the ECB would have thrown us to the wolves if we had refused to pay a debt that wasn’t ours?

5.  5) We all partied – even Enda sings that tune. No, we didn’t all party. There was a feelgood factor for a few years in the early Noughties as Ireland began to pick itself up, a smile on people’s faces in what was initially a genuine expansion. Then the wideboy bankers took over, Delboy dealers who found themselves with access to all sorts of cheap billions from Europe’s bigger banks and scattered it about like snuff at a wake. Ordinary punters who went for mortgages of €200k came out with €300k, no fuss no scrutiny; big developers were given millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, to engage in bidding wars against each other for real estate that was rapidly heading off the scale. Yes, there were those in their thousands and tens of thousands who partied, puked and pissed their way through the boom, but there were also those many more of us who did not. Trace everything back, the buck for all this mess stopped with those big financial institutions who so recklessly lent those tens of billions into the Irish economy; those were private deals between consenting adults whose duty it was to be as aware of the risks as of the rewards. If there WAS a mass party those major financial institutions were the hosts, they were the ones who supplied all the drugs and alcohol. It was their billions, their greed-induced blindness to what was happening – where was THEIR due diligence? Their investments failed, this is their loss; they should be made to pay – we don’t want to risk ‘moral hazard’, now do we?

Know the truth. Don’t be fooled by the propaganda, don’t be intimidated by the lies. What’s happening to Ireland is extortion, the ECB forcing us to pay a debt that isn’t ours, that will never rightfully be ours. In Ballyhea and Charleville we proclaim that simple truth again and again, we protest that gross injustice. Right WILL prevail. This Sunday again, in Charleville, 11.30am, we march.

Regards, Diarmuid O’Flynn

IRELAND'S WAKING NIGHTMARE

THE SCENE

The ECB/EU/IMF troika have emptied our Pension Reserve Fund, taken our life's savings; they have ordered that we sell the family silver (the ESB etc.) and give them most of the proceeds; they have coerced us into assuming a debt that isn't ours, blackmailing our weak government into paying failed private bonds - €19bn this year, €55bn for the four years 2012 to 2015 (incl.); under their instructions we are set to destroy €3.1bn on the 31^st of this month, just as we did on the 31^st of March last year, just as we're scheduled to do for 12 years when that figure is educed on a sliding scale until the final payoff of €0.1bn in 2031 - the most odious Promissory Notes, the bill (final total €48bn-€80bn) to bail out just two banks, Anglo Irish and INBS.

THE SMOKESCREEN - RESTRUCTURING

Sometime in the next few weeks someone in our overseer government will announce a 'restructuring' of those Notes - a reduction of the interest rates, an extension of the terms, a ‘holiday’ for a few years, or perhaps a combination of some or all of those. It will be presented as a victory. It is not.

The 'restructuring' is done for one reason, to ensure that the big banks get their blood-money. NOTHING that's been done since this whole mess began has been for the benefit of the people; first-to-last everything has been for the benefit of the banks - European banks, British banks, American banks, banks worldwide. €3.8bn austerity budget this year, €3.5bn in 2013, €3.1bn in 2014, €2bn in 2015, that's €12.4bn (3.8 + 3.5 + 3.1 + 2) of additional cuts and taxes for the year 2015; €3.1bn destroyed every March 31^st, that's an equal €12.4bn for just those four years of our annual Promissory Note payments - our austerity, definitely, but for whose benefit?    

THE GREAT LIE

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” That was Joseph Goebbels, propaganda master of the Third Reich. Since this crisis began we’ve been bombarded with propaganda from Europe and from Leinster House, Fine Gael and Labour this week doing contortions to clap themselves on the back for the great work they’ve done over the last year (easy to bend over backwards when you have no spine), the media cheerleading on the wings. Don't believe it.

We’re told again and again that we are being bailed out by Europe, by the ECB specifically – lies. The truth is, we’re bailing out the banks of Europe and elsewhere, our weak government blackmailed into doing so by the ECB and now acting as their agents in the implementation of that bank bailout. When the ECB rode into town here in November 2010 it was with one agenda and one agenda only, to ensure their banks in Europe were saved and that we, the Irish people, would pick up the tab.

We’re told again and again that all this austerity is for us, part of a great plan to get us back on our feet. It’s not - we will continue to be bled so the big European banks can be saved. Our old-age pensioners and their benefits are the new target of the troika; of all the groups they – apparently – haven’t yet suffered enough, so their free travel/fuel/phone allowances, along with the old-age pension itself, are now in the line of fire. 

We’re told the ‘restructuring’ is for our benefit – lies. Bleeding us dry at this stage when there is still so much more to be had from us? No, that's not part of the ECB plan, but getting every cent of the original principal that forms the basis of the Promissory Notes – THAT’S the plan, thus the ‘restructuring’, and all the lying media propaganda around it.      

THE GREAT TRUTH

Know the truth. What's at stake here is one of the fundamentals of human existence - the age-old battle between right and wrong. In full view of the world, in broad daylight, the ECB is getting away with a crime, the extortion of tens of billions from the Irish people, the forced payment from the public purse of the failed private debts of others. That is wrong. Even if we were Switzerland and could swallow that debt whole without so much as a hiccup, that act would STILL be wrong. But we’re Ireland, and with that act we are being crushed by the ECB, by the EU. At every level, at the most fundamental level especially, it’s wrong, and until that great wrong is righted that is where the focus of every discussion around the bailout of November 2010 should lie. The ECB and its banks were the ones bailed out, Ireland and its people the ones paying the price.

In Ballyhea and Charleville we proclaim that truth, we protest that injustice. Eventually right WILL prevail. This Sunday again, in Ballyhea, 11.30am, we march.

Regards, Diarmuid O’Flynn

THE WAKING NIGHTMARE

THE SCENE

The ECB/EU/IMF troika have taken our life's savings, emptied our Pension Reserve Fund; they have ordered that we sell the family silver (the ESB etc.) and give them most of the proceeds; they have coerced us into assuming a debt that isn't ours, blackmailing our weak government into paying failed private bonds - €19bn this year, €55bn for the four years 2012 to 2015 (incl.); under their instructions we are set to destroy €3.1bn on the 31^st of this month, just as we did on the 31^st of March last year, just as we're scheduled to do for the next nine years when that figure is set to be reduced on a sliding scale for another eight years or so - the most odious Promissory Notes, the bill (final total €48bn-€80bn) to bail out just one bank, Anglo Irish.

THE SMOKESCREEN - RESTRUCTURING

                

Sometime in the next few weeks someone in our overseer government will announce a 'restructuring' of those Notes - a reduction of the interest rates, an extension of the terms, a ‘holiday’ for a few years, or perhaps a combination of some or all of those. It will be presented as a victory. It is not.

               

The 'restructuring' is done for one reason, to ensure that the big banks get their blood-money. NOTHING that's been done since this whole mess began has been for the benefit of the people; first-to-last everything has been for the benefit of the banks - European banks, British banks, American banks, banks worldwide. €3.8bn austerity budget this year, €3.5bn in 2013, €3.1bn in 2014, €2bn in 2015, that's €12.4bn (3.8 + 3.5 + 3.1 + 2) of additional cuts and taxes for the year 2015; €3.1bn destroyed every March 31^st, that's an equal €12.4bn for just those four years of our annual Promissory Note payments - our austerity, definitely, but for whose benefit?

                

The 'restructuring' is not done to alleviate the pain being suffered here in Ireland; we will continue to be bled, the old-age pensioners and their benefits the new target of the troika (of all the groups they – apparently – haven’t yet suffered enough, so their free travel/fuel/phone allowances, along with the old-age pension itself, are now in the line of fire). But bleeding us dry at this stage when there is still so much more to be had from us? No, that's not part of the ECB plan.

THE GREAT LIE

               
You'll hear and read the propaganda from Europe and from Leinster House, Fine Gael and Labour this week clapping themselves on the back for the great work they’ve done over the last year, the media cheerleading on the wings. Don't believe it. A quote: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” That was Joseph Goebbels.

THE GREAT TRUTH

                

Know the truth. What's at stake here is one of the fundamentals of human existence, the battle between right and wrong. In full view of the world, in broad daylight, the ECB is getting away with a crime, the extortion of tens of billions from the Irish people, the forced payment from the public purse of the failed private debts of others. That is wrong. Even if we were Switzerland and could swallow that debt whole without so much as a hiccup, that act would STILL be wrong. But we’re Ireland, and with that act we are being crushed by the ECB, by the EU. At every level, at the most fundamental level especially, it’s wrong, and that's where the focus of every discussion should lie. In Ballyhea and Charleville we proclaim that truth, we protest that injustice. Eventually, right WILL prevail.

Regards, Diarmuid O’Flynn

INTO OUR SECOND YEAR

Sunday last, March 4^th, was a birthday we never wanted to mark, a full year of protest against the extortion by the ECB of tens of billions of euro from the Irish people. Our cause is as just now as it was then.

                

In February 2011 we elected a new coalition government of Fine Gael/Labour, under the premise and with the promise that they would take courage from the people and bring our cause to the ECB/EU/IMF troika. Instead the new coalition took their example from the cowardice of their predecessors and like Fianna Fáil/The Greens, instead of forcing our just cause on the troika they are forcing the cause of the troika on us.

               

The coalition cites legal obligations; we reply - when bad law is made we have a right and a duty to resist that law, we have a right and a duty to change it. Thus did we, the people, resist and thus did we end the discrimination against women, against homosexuals; going back further in history, thus did we change the law denying women the vote, thus did we overturn the penal laws in Ireland, the slavery laws worldwide.

                

They say we have no choice, they warn of the dire consequences if we don’t do as bid. We say, when people are oppressed they have a right - and some of us would say a duty - to resist the oppressor. What the ECB and the EU are doing to us is oppressive; under threat of what will happen if we don’t accept their terms they are combining their financial and political muscle to blackmail and bully the Irish government into paying a debt that is not ours, a debt of tens of billions of euro.

                

Almost in justification of what’s being done, those of us who protest are asked again and again – what else can we do, what will happen to us all if the ECB pulls its funding of our Central Bank? Wrong questions, to the wrong people – do you ask the oppressed to accept their oppression or do you ask the oppressor to stop, do you ask the oppressor to justify legally or morally what they are doing? When the troika last came to town to pat us on the head for being good people and doing what we’re told, Vincent Browne tried to get answers to those questions – he was ignored by the troika, left on his own by his fellow-journalists.

               

A few basic questions for ye: €3.8bn austerity budget for 2012, €3.1bn taken from our exchequer and on March 31^st, destroyed, a single instalment payment on the bank bondholder bailout for one bank – our austerity is for whose benefit? If your neighbour – no matter how big – came into your house, took all your savings (our Pension Reserve Fund), ordered you to sell all your family valuables (ESB, Coillte etc.) and hand over the cash to him, then further, demanded that you give him a percentage of your income for the next 18 years (bank bonds, Promissory Notes), would you agree? If, after a year or so of this penury, and having looked at your circumstances, he allowed you a couple of percentage points off what you had to pay him every week, would you accept that as any sort of victory?

                

Our new overseers, Kenny and company, those carrying out the orders of our new masters the ECB, will present it as such; in the Ballyhea and Charleville protest group we don’t see it like that. This Sunday, March 11^th, 11.30am, we march again, in Charleville this time. Until this injustice is righted, we will continue to march. If you too have had enough, join us.

Regards, Diarmuid O’Flynn