We are posting this statement from the Abahlali base Mjondolo (Shack Dwellers) Movement in response to the police killing of at least 34 mineworkers at Marikana Platinum mine, 100 miles north west of Johannesburg on Thursday 16th August. The Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement began in Durban, South Africa, in early 2005. Although it is overwhelmingly located…
Pensions Dispute
HAS THE TIDE TURNED? It is a surprising feature of the socialist press that it longer catalogues the ebbs and flows of working class struggle. Cheers of encouragement when the workers appear to advance are followed by glum silence on retreat. Yet for a brief period in Britain it appeared that there might be a…
The Democrat Party Derails The Struggle In Wisconsin
The Wisconsin left failed to form a powerful opposition to Governor Scott Walker’s regime. That failure was the catalyst for the recall strategy. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin was able to utilize mass protest and street action for its own selfish goals, and hoped to gain power through a bourgeois electoral process which would pit…
Socialism Militant, Socialism Triumphant: thoughts on communism and the workplace inspired by William Morris and the IWW
An important topic for discussion by the Left today is labor organization as we know it under capitalism, and as it could be under socialism and communism. Below are statements from our radical history, and one that is an outgrowth of that history. Taken together, they offer guidance. In the conclusion to his commentary on…
The Silent Retreat Of The United Left Alliance
The following article was first posted on the Socialist Democracy (Ireland) website. At its formation the United Left Alliance (ULA) appeared to represent a new resurgence of the Socialist Movement in Ireland. It brought together a number of different socialist groups, obtained a significant number of votes and representation in the Dail, and put forward an uncompromising revolutionary position with the call to repudiate the debt – that Irish workers would…
Union Leader Slams Ed Miliband – But Who Put Him There In The First Place?
Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey has launched a stinging attack on the Labour leader Ed Miliband claiming that he {Miliband] is “leading Labour to destruction”. McCluskey lambasts the Labour leader for “failing to support millions of low paid trade unionists” and thereby “disenfranchising the party’s core support”. All this is from a union leader so…
Liverpool – the city that dared to fight
Emancipation & Liberation has published a number of articles relating to the current struggle against public sector cuts including:- International Resistance To Public Sector Cuts Socialists have drawn lessons from the struggles against Thatcher in the 1980’s and 1980’s. Emancipation & Liberation has already looked at the lessons to be drawn from the Anti-Poll Tax…
A new review of ‘From Davitt to Connolly’ by Tara O’Sullivan
Celtic Soul Brothers Tara O’Sullivan (from Red Banner, issue no. 45) A review of From Davitt to Connolly: ‘Internationalism from below’ and the challenge to the UK state and British Empire 1879-95, by Allan Armstrong Earlier in the year we witnessed much discussion of relationships between Ireland and Britain. Some was of interest, but the worst…
A Political Report on the ‘Reclaiming Our Trade Unions’ conference in Dublin.
Reclaiming the unions – Bluster about bureaucracy, but no alternative programme – Socialist Democracy (Ireland) The “Reclaiming our Trade Unions” conference in Dublin on 1st October (better seen as a convention because of the limited political discussion) had its theme set by Kieran Allen, the President of SIPTU’s education branch. Kieran denounced the corruption of…
The First Shoots of a New Industrial Fightback?
The following encouraging developments on the industrial front highlight two of the strategies discussed and debated at the Third Global Commune event, the report of which can be found at:- Report of the Third Global Commune Event Major gains for Lower Paid at Heron Tower Dispute Brian Higgins and the Anti-Blacklist Campaign Success at Brussels…