Eric Chester (RCN and IWW), who comes from the USA, uses the experience of the ‘New Deal’ Keynesian reforms to show that the neo-Keynesian ‘solutions’ advocated by so many on the Left today will be unable to resolve the current crisis of capitalism in any way that benefits the working class. The global economy is…
Radical Lallans Poet: Rab Wilson
Working class voices are often underrepresented in poetry. James Foley of the International Socialist Group interviews Rab Wilson, a pioneering voice in contemporary Scottish poetry, who writes in the Lallans Scots dialect to narrate the working life of miners and rural labourers. Rab Wilson has established himself as one of Scottish poetry’s unique voices. Writing…
Good Friday Agreement – Thatcher’s Progressive Legacy?
John McAnulty of Socialist Democracy (Ireland) helps to clear up some of the confusion about Thatcher’s legacy with regard to Ireland. Some have argued that, after ditching the hard-line Ulster Unionists in the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement, she opened up the way to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement (GFA). John, however, highlights that, the degree to which Thatcher…
Blacklist – Enough Is Enough, Time For Action
Blacklisting continues on a daily basis up and down the country. Why, oh why? With our best trade union activists denied work and kept off-sits, this massively lessens our ability to organise and stand up to building employers on site. This means no ELECTED conveners or other shop stewards or safety reps, and our lives…
The Bedroom Tax in Northern Ireland
This article on the ‘Bedroom Tax’ in Northern Ireland comes from eirigi. Several parallels (some erroneous and some useful) have been drawn between the ‘Bedroom Tax’ and the Poll Tax. However, even Thatcher’s Tory government never tried to introduce the Poll Tax into Northern Ireland in the context of the Republican struggle there. Today, the…
We did not win but we are now the Left in UNITE
The results of the election for the General Secretary of UNITE election have been announced. This was a contest between the incumbent Broad Left Len McLuskey and the Rank & File challenger, Jerry Hicks. McCluskey had the support of the Right (they offered no challenger of their own, which speaks volumes) and much of the…
Feminism and the crisis In the British Socialist Workers Party
Below we are posting a statement about the crisis in the SWP from the Freedom Socialist Party of the USA. The immediate cause of the current crisis is the SWP CC’s attempt to prevent the accusation of rape, directed against a CC member, from becoming a wider issue. This despite the issue being used by the…
Jerry Hicks – UNITE General Secretary Election Update
George Osborne said ‘Faster deeper’ cuts he meant it. Our side calls for strike action against those cuts – but do we mean it? The announcement that Unite, is calling for a 24-hour general strike against austerity measures is very welcome. A serious program of strikes to defeat the Con Dem government is long overdue…
Riding Two Horses At Once – The SWP and Scottish independence
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…