E&L is posting this article, written by New Zealander, Rory MacKinnon, about the tragic Gallipoli Campaign launched just over a century ago on 25th April, 1915. Today I will be speaking primarily about the New Zealand perspective rather than the Australian or Turkish one, because it’s the history I’m most familiar with. I…
Moving On Song
by Ewan McColl with 2 verses added by Eileen Penman (Dec 2005) Born in the middle o’ the afternoon In a horse-drawn wagon on the old A5 The big twelve-wheeler shook my bed You can’t stop here the policeman said Chorus: You’d better get born in some place else Move along, get along, Move along,…
Plane Wreck at Los Gatos
Words by Woody Guthrie, Music by Martin Hoffman The crops are all in and the peaches are rott’ning, The oranges piled in their creosote dumps; They’re flying ‘em back to the Mexican border To pay all their money to wade back again Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita, Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria; You…
DEFINING REPUBLICANISM
John Tummon (Republican Socialist Alliance) responds to Murdo Ritchie’s (RCN) Promoting Republicanism (http://republicancommunist.org/blog/2015/02/24/promoting-republicanism/) Murdo Ritchie’s ‘Promoting Republicanism’ is a very important contribution to something we Republican Socialists need to keep working on until we have a theoretically rigorous and internally-tested critique of the poverty of any socialist analysis that fails to incorporate a full understanding…
INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY – MARCH 8th
In recognition of International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8th, we are posting two contributions. The first is the introductory talk on IWD given by Linda Rogers and Cat Grant to the Edinburgh Radical Independence Campaign meeting on March 2nd. The second is a major contribution to the history of women’s suffrage, entitled Finland 1906:…
DAVE WILLIAMS – A TRIBUTE
Brian Higgins of the rank and file Building Workers Group sent us this obituary for Dave Williams, a militant building worker and like Brian on the employers’ black list. Recently I received the very sad news that blacklisted bricklayer Dave Williams died in November following a serious illness. Condolences to Dave’s family and…
THE RCN AND THE CAMPAIGN FOR SCOTTISH SELF-DETERMINATION
THE REPUBLICAN COMMUNIST NETWORK, THE RADICAL INDEPENDENCE CAMPAIGN, AND THE CAMPAIGN FOR SCOTTISH SELF-DETERMINATION Contents A) The emergence and clash of Left British unionism and Left Scottish nationalism B) The politics of the Scottish independence referendum campaign C) How the Left responded to the demand for greater national self-determination in Scotland D) Carrying over lessons…
THE WOBBLIES IN THEIR HEYDAY
Murdo Ritchie reviews a new book by Eric Chester, The Wobblies in their Heyday. The Rise and Destruction of the Industrial Workers of the World During the World War One Era. AN OPEN UNION IN A POLITICAL WORLD Using documents that have been concealed or hidden in plain sight, Eric Chester reveals the repression used…
The 18th Edinburgh Radical Book Fair, 22nd-26th October
The 18th Edinburgh Independent Radical Book Fair – the alternative international book festival – organized by Word Power Books (http://www.word-power.co.uk), will take place from Wednesday 22 to Sunday 26 October 2014 in Out of the Blue Drill Hall, 30-38 Dalmeny Street, Edinburgh, EH6 8RG, Scotland, UK. Doors open on Wednesday 22 October 2014 at…
EMANCIPATION & LIBERATION RIC SPECIAL BULLETIN – September, 2014
Allan Armstrong (RCN) has written the following article for the RCN Radical Independence Campaign Special Bulletin, which will be distributed at the RIC National Forum in Glasgow on September 27th. Nobody could have anticipated the rise of the Radical Independence Campaign, nor the form it would take. It has been moulded by the…