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…
A Tribute To International Women’s Day
Our Emancipation & Liberation blog is posting our annual tribute to International Women’s Day. There are three articles. The first is by Susan Dorazio, a committed socialist feminist and member of the IWW, writes about the struggles of women care workers in the USA and Scotland. The second and third written by J. M. Thorn, come from…
Rank and filer, Jerry Hicks contests Broad Leftist bureaucrat, Len McCluskey in election for UNITE general secretary.
Unite is currently holding an election for its General Secretary in which there are only two candidates. The nomination period began on the 1st January ending on 15th February. Each candidate requires 50 Branch Nominations to contest the election. In 2010 Jerry Hicks secured 52,527 votes and beat 2 senior officials when runner up to…
Athens Calling: Unite Against Fascism
Demonstrations against fascism in Greece took place on Saturday 19 January in several cities around the world, with Athens as a central location (Solidarity with Greece anti-fascist movement Sat 19 Jan). This initiative was about protesting against the fascist role and activities of the Greek party Golden Dawn, which is unfortunately growing fast, creating new…
Belfast – “the carnival of reaction” continues
James Fearon has sent the following article to Socialist Democracy (Ireland). We are reposting it here as a follow- up to our other articles covering the Belfast flag riots. These riots have exposed the continuing sectarian nature of the Northern Ireland statelet, and the UK state’s role in maintaining Loyalism as a back-up defence for…
David Jamieson of the ISG replies to Allan Armstrong
David Jamieson of the International Socialist Group (ISG) replies to a series of articles written by Allan Armstrong (RCN) on the Radical Independence Conference and the ISG (see links at the end of this article). The current crisis engulfing the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) highlights the necessity for openness, democracy and equality on the Left.…