"You should blog more " Andrew says.

"I don't have the energy to write" I say.

"Blog your pictures" he says.

"Ok, ok, I will" I say.

Interface: a journal for and about social movements

Educate, agitate, organise. The phrase has been around for years but the ideas it encapsulates are still radical. We live in a world where we are encouraged to be passive. We are all consumers. We watch, we read, we observe, and some of us wait, hope and dream. These words go against the grain. You can't build a revolution by watching from a distance. There comes a point where many decide that they are tired of sitting on the sidelines.

"It’s just another manic Monday
Wish it were Sunday
That’s my fun day
My I don’t have to run day
It’s just another manic Monday"

(The Bangles)

It was Budget Day last week. I wrote this blog while finding it difficult to concentrate what with the sense of impending doom.

In the weeks leading up to today's budget the government had been in talks with the representatives of most of the Irish unions on how best to cut public sector pay.

Or the frustrations of social research

In Europe the pilots are arguing in favour of shorter hours on the basis of health and safety. In contrast, I came accross a report of surgeons in the UK represented by the Royal College of Surgeons in England were using health and safety of patients to argue against working time reductions. This is what they want

Here's a poster wot I have just made. It's obviously a play on "Don't Mourn, Organise" - but the Irish seem to moan more than mourn. I wanted to encourage those who grumble into their pints to do a little more, particularly now, when we actually have to get up off our arses and try and influence the direction our crumbling country is going in.

Philip Lane, Professor of International Macroeconomics at TCD, had a letter in Monday's Financial Times arguing that there was no connection between Irelands economic collapse and its membership of the EMU. He concludes