20th EDINBURGH INDEPENDENT RADICAL BOOK FAIR, 26-30.10.16

20th EDINBURGH INDEPENDENT RADICAL BOOK FAIR, 26-30.10.16   Wednesday, October 26th 19.00 JAMES KELMAN opens the 20th Edinburgh Independent Radical Book Fair and reads from Dirt Road with live music from the The Dirt Roadsters 21:00 Loud Poets present Rhyme Minister’s Questions Thursday, October 27th 16.45 ROB SEWELL discusses the latest edition of Leon Trotsky’s…

DAVID HOPPER AND THE DURHAM MINERS GALA

David Hopper died on July 16th. He was the General Secretary of the Durham Miners Association and last spoke on Saturday July 9th at the Durham Miners Gala. This was attended by 150,000 people. David Hopper was central to the revival of this major working class political and social event, after the defeat of the…

PEOPLES, NATIONALITIES, NATIONS, NATION STATES, NATIONALISM AND NATIONALISTS

A young comrade after reading the UK State, Britishness and the ‘Racialised’, ‘Ethnicised’ and ‘National’ Outsiders (http://republicancommunist.org/blog/2016/03/02/britishness-the-uk-state-unionism-scotland-and-the-national-outsider/) has asked Allan Armstrong to clarify the differences between Nationalities, Nations and Nation States. Here is a section of Allan’s book, Internationalism from Below, volume 1, which explores these concepts.   PEOPLES, NATIONALITIES, NATIONS, NATION STATES, NATIONALISM AND NATIONALISTS…

FIRST HAND REPORT OF THE 1916 DUBLIN RISING

The first reports sympathetic to the 1916 Rising appeared in the Women’s Dreadnought on Saturday 13 May 1916. Thoughts on Easter Week was written by the editor, Sylvia Pankhurst. This was followed by Scenes from the Rebellion by Patricia Lynch sent to Dublin to report on the Easter Rising. Patricia Lynch (1898 – 1972) was an Irish author…

TOWARD A SECULAR SOCIETY

Eric Chester (RCN) takes David Cameron to task over his promotion of a Christian UK. During his recent Easter weekend address, Prime Minister David Cameron made a point of declaring that the United Kingdom was a “Christian country.” This is not the first time Cameron has used religion to advance his conservative agenda. In his…

THE CENTENARY OF THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916

As part of our celebration the 1916 Easter Rising, we are posting two new articles.  The first is by Allan Armstrong (RCN), and addresses Lenin’s response to in his Irish Rebellion of 1916 (which is also posted). The second comes from the latest issue of Socialist Democracy (Ireland) and looks at the situation in Ireland today,…

THE EASTER RISING AND THE SOVIET UNION: AN UNTOLD CHAPTER IN IRELAND’S GREAT REBELLION

This article by Brendan McGeever was first posted on OpenDemocracyUK at:- https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/brendan-mcgeever/easter-rising-and-soviet-union-untold-chapter-in-ireland-s-great-rebellion#.VvUvpKvURyY.twitter   THE EASTER RISING AND THE SOVIET UNION: AN UNTOLD CHAPTER IN IRELAND’S GREAT REBELLION                       In a previously undocumented corner of history, research in old Soviet archives shows the extent of the…

HAMISH HENDERSON, FOLK SONGS AND THE BUILDING OF SCOTTISH LEFT WING IDENTITY

Adam Ramsay of  open democracy has written the following review article after seeing the new film, Hamish, about the life of Hamish Henderson. It was first posted at:-    https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/adam-ramsay/hamish-henderson-folk-culture-and-building-of-scottish-left-wing-identity   HAMISH HENDERSON, FOLK SONGS AND THE BUILDING OF SCOTTISH LEFT WING IDENTITY   For me, he was the polyglot communist who first translated Antonio Gramsci into English.…

THE UK STATE AND BRITISHNESS

  This article, written by Allan Armstrong (RCN) in 2015, has now been updated to include a new section 3 on Scotland. It has been moved from its earlier site. Section A –  The UK State and Britishness Section B –  From the Irish-British and ‘Ulster’-British ‘Insider’ to the Irish ‘Racialised’ and ‘Ethno-Religious Outsider’ to the new ‘National…