Riding Two Horses At Once – The SWP and Scottish independence

The following extended review of Keir McKechnie’s pamphlet, Scotland – Yes to Independence: No to Nationalism, was started before the most recent crisis in the SWP became public. Until the SWP resolves this crisis, its political interventions are likely to have more limited impact on the Left than in the past. Socialists should support those…

David Douglass reviews – Adrian Kerr, ‘Free Derry: protest and resistance’.

Adrian Kerr, Free Derry – protest and resistance, Guildhall Press, 2013, pp. 224, £11.95 From the declaration of ‘Free Derry’ on August 9 1971, when the solidly working class and republican community seized control of their own area of the city of Londonderry, to the time of the Provisional Irish Republican Army ceasefire in 1994, the…

Red Baiting And Slurs

The SWP Central Committee has tried to draw a hard line between recent events inside the party and the wider Socialist and Trade Union movement. The SWP CC has made two arguments to defend the indefensible. The first is that  affairs inside the SWP are a purely internal matter,  and of no concern to other…

Blacklisted Jerry Hicks Candidate For UNITE General Secretary Speaks Out

Emancipation & Liberation has been giving its support to Jerry Hicks, the rank and file candidate for the General Secretary of UNITE. In this article reprinted from the rank and file Siteworker bulletin, Jerry attacks the current UNITE leadership’s ‘Johnny-come-lately’ attitude towards the pernicious system of blacklisting, of which Jerry has himself been a victim.…

Twisting Facts To Suit British Law

The article below highlights the state harassment of eirigi activist, Stephen Murney from Newry. Eirigi is a legal socialist republican organisation with members in both parts of Ireland. This article shows how the British state is determined to marginalise all criticism of its current Northern Ireland set-up, by going to elaborate lengths to create the…

Single Ends And Hobbit Houses

Murdo Ritchie places the so-called ‘Bedroom Tax’ into the wider economic and political context of housing provision today. When debating supporters of capitalism and capitalist markets I am told about the system’s greater efficiency in the use of natural resources. At this point, I ask my opponent if they have an indoor toilet. They smile…

Report On Two Ongoing Industrial Struggles And Campaigns

In 2011 the RCN organised the Third Global Commune event around the theme ‘Trade Unions – Are They Fit For Purpose?’ Speakers were invited to put forward a rank and file, Minority Movement, independent trade union, and autonomous viewpoint (see Trade Unions In The Twenty First Century). Since then Emancipation & Liberation have been reporting on various industrial…

Rank and filer, Jerry Hicks contests Broad Leftist bureaucrat, Len McCluskey in election for UNITE general secretary.

Unite is currently holding an election for its General Secretary in which there are only two candidates. The nomination period began on the 1st January ending on 15th February. Each candidate requires 50 Branch Nominations to contest the election.  In 2010 Jerry Hicks secured 52,527 votes and beat 2 senior officials when runner up to…

Athens Calling: Unite Against Fascism

Demonstrations against fascism in Greece took place on Saturday 19 January in several cities around the world, with Athens as a central location (Solidarity with Greece anti-fascist movement Sat 19 Jan). This initiative was about protesting against the fascist role and activities of the Greek party Golden Dawn, which is unfortunately growing fast, creating new…

Belfast – “the carnival of reaction” continues

James Fearon has sent the following article to Socialist Democracy (Ireland). We are reposting it here as a follow- up to our other articles covering the Belfast flag riots. These riots have exposed the continuing sectarian nature of the Northern Ireland statelet, and the UK state’s role in maintaining Loyalism as a back-up defence for…