Gavin Bowd’s book Fascist Scotland, Caledonia and the Far Right has given succour to unionist opponents of Scottish self-determination. Allan Armstrong (RCN) provides a republican and international socialist critique. WHAT THE FUK? Fascist UK, Britannia and the Far Right 1) What is a fascist organisation? Gavin Bowd’s book, Fascist Scotland, Caledonia and the Far…
LGBT RIGHTS IN IRELAND – A BEACON OF LIBERATION FOR US ALL
Following the inspiring referendum vote in support of gay marriage in Ireland, E&L is posting the article below from Socialist Democracy (Ireland). The 22nd of May was a truly historic day. The population of the Irish state, long seen as a bastion of Catholic conservatism, voted in an overwhelming majority to amend the constitution…
WHAT DO WE MEAN WHEN WE TALK ABOUT GALLIPOLI
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…
ANTI-UNIONISM AND THE WORKING CLASS IN ENGLAND
As we predicted, the impact of Scotland’s ‘democratic revolution’ has become central to the Westminster General Election (http://republicancommunist.org/blog/2015/03/16/the-left-in-the-uk-the-2015-general-election-campaign-and-the-wider-impact-of-scotlands-democratic-revolution/), and hence to the longer term existence of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Socialists in England, standing under the banner of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition or the Left Unity Party, have largely ignored this issue.…
KAGARLITSKY, THE WAR AND POLITICAL CORRUPTION
Last year at the beginning of the latest phase of the crisis in Ukraine, we posted two differing views of the situation (see http://republicancommunist.org/blog/2014/03/07/ukraine-a-statement-from-awukiev/). Since then, one of the two writers, Boris Kargalitsky has moved decisively into the Russian chauvinist camp. Below we are posting a critique of Kargalitsky’s politics. KAGARLITSKY, THE WAR AND POLITICAL CORRUPTION…
MAY DAY GREETINGS
In the run-up to the General Election next Thursday, this year Emancipation & Liberation is devoting its annual May Day Greetings to messages of support from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England for Steve Freeman who is standing as republican socialist candidate on an ‘internationalism form below’ in Bermondsey & Old Southwark (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfuPJcSwc6c and https://youtu.be/WuSFclgQ7BU). …
LIVING THE PEACE PROCESS IN REVERSE
The following extract is taken from an article by Robbie McVeigh, entitled Living the peace process in reverse: racist violence and British nationalism in Northern Ireland, in the current issue of Race & Class (Volume 56, April-June 2015, no. 4). Virtually the whole of the Left has ignored the broader implications of the new pan-unionist…
THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP – THE TTIP OF THE PACIFIC
Cynthia Phinney of Labor Notes (USA) writes on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which she dubs the “NAFTA of the Pacific”. However, we in Europe will also be able to recognise it as the ‘TTIP of the Pacific’. SHOWDOWN NEARS ON FAST TRACKING OF THE BIGGEST FREE TRADE DEAL YET This spring the battle is coming…