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…

Emancipation & Liberation Special Bulletin – The Centenary of the World War I Imperialist Slaughter

WORLD WAR I – THE CATASTROPHIC RESULT OF IMPERIALIST RIVALRIES On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, A Serbian nationalist, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire. This incident sparked World War I, that soon engulfed much of the world and led to the deaths of millions of soldiers, and…