The following extended review of Keir McKechnie’s pamphlet, Scotland – Yes to Independence: No to Nationalism, was started before the most recent crisis in the SWP became public. Until the SWP resolves this crisis, its political interventions are likely to have more limited impact on the Left than in the past. Socialists should support those…
David Douglass reviews – Adrian Kerr, ‘Free Derry: protest and resistance’.
Adrian Kerr, Free Derry – protest and resistance, Guildhall Press, 2013, pp. 224, £11.95 From the declaration of ‘Free Derry’ on August 9 1971, when the solidly working class and republican community seized control of their own area of the city of Londonderry, to the time of the Provisional Irish Republican Army ceasefire in 1994, the…
Allan Armstrong (RCN) replies to David Jamieson (ISG) – part 1
David Jamieson of the International Socialist Group has replied to two contributions made by Allan Armstrong of the Republican Communist Network (see David Jamieson of the ISG replies to Allan Armstrong). These took a critical look at ISG member, James Foley’s pamphlet, Britain Must Break, and examined the prospects for the Radical Independence Campaign, and the role…
Red Baiting And Slurs
The SWP Central Committee has tried to draw a hard line between recent events inside the party and the wider Socialist and Trade Union movement. The SWP CC has made two arguments to defend the indefensible. The first is that affairs inside the SWP are a purely internal matter, and of no concern to other…
The Crisis In The SWP:- The failure of the Central Committee’s ‘recruit, recruit, recruit’ tactics
This article examines one aspect of the current crisis enveloping the SWP. The SWP has not had a programme, so it has no real strategy for achieving the socialism it claims to support. Instead, the SWP leadership concentrates on the tactics it thinks will bring it new members. In the SWP leadership’s thinking, socialism will come about…
Blacklisted Jerry Hicks Candidate For UNITE General Secretary Speaks Out
Emancipation & Liberation has been giving its support to Jerry Hicks, the rank and file candidate for the General Secretary of UNITE. In this article reprinted from the rank and file Siteworker bulletin, Jerry attacks the current UNITE leadership’s ‘Johnny-come-lately’ attitude towards the pernicious system of blacklisting, of which Jerry has himself been a victim.…
Communist Relations Today, Capitalist Relations Tomorrow
The article below is written by RCN member, Iain Robertson. Iain is a mountaineer and rock climber. This article represents a continuation of the work the RCN has been posting, not only on what communism could look like in the future, but on how many elements of such cooperative practice already exist today. However, under capitalist domination such beneficial…
Twisting Facts To Suit British Law
The article below highlights the state harassment of eirigi activist, Stephen Murney from Newry. Eirigi is a legal socialist republican organisation with members in both parts of Ireland. This article shows how the British state is determined to marginalise all criticism of its current Northern Ireland set-up, by going to elaborate lengths to create the…
Single Ends And Hobbit Houses
Murdo Ritchie places the so-called ‘Bedroom Tax’ into the wider economic and political context of housing provision today. When debating supporters of capitalism and capitalist markets I am told about the system’s greater efficiency in the use of natural resources. At this point, I ask my opponent if they have an indoor toilet. They smile…
Report On Two Ongoing Industrial Struggles And Campaigns
In 2011 the RCN organised the Third Global Commune event around the theme ‘Trade Unions – Are They Fit For Purpose?’ Speakers were invited to put forward a rank and file, Minority Movement, independent trade union, and autonomous viewpoint (see Trade Unions In The Twenty First Century). Since then Emancipation & Liberation have been reporting on various industrial…