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…
Emancipation & Liberation, Issue 22, 2013
We are posting a new link to an electronic version of the special issue of Emancipation & Liberation, issue no 22, the RCN produced for the second Radical Independence Campaign conference, held in the Marriott Hotel in Glasgow on November 23rd, 2013. http://republicancommunist.org/blog/2013/11/24/emancipation-liberation-issue-22-winter-2013/ This will provide some basis for assessing the changes, which have occurred…
EMANCIPATION & LIBERATION – RIC Special Bulletin, October, 2014
The following two articles are from the Emancipation & Liberation bulletin distributed at the RIC National Forum in Dundee on November 1st. LORD SMITH – A PILLAR OF THE BRITISH ESTABLISHMENT If there had been a ‘Yes’ vote on September 18th, the current SNP government was going to use its electoral mandate, under the UK state’s devolved…
THE FUTURE OF THE RADICAL INDEPENDENCE CAMPAIGN
The RCN, which participated in the setting up of the Radical Independence Campaign in June 2012, has been discussing the possible futures for RIC after September 18th. Bob Goupillot and Allan Armstrong have further developed the idea of Movement and Party, first outlined in the RCN’s special bulletin for the September 25th RIC National Forum. After the battle –…
STUC AND ITUC (NORTHERN COMMITTEE) DEMONSTRATIONS ON OCTOBER 18th.
On October 18th the TUC, STUC and ITUC (Northern Committee) held demonstrations to protest against austerity. Trade Unionists For Independence (East Coast) distributed the leaflet below at the STUC rally, It’s Time to Create A Just Scotland, held in Glasgow on Saturday, October 18th. It was attended by 3500 trade unionists. Socialist Democracy (Ireland) wrote the second…
MORE PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE RCN’S ‘WHAT WE STAND FOR’
The RCN will be debating new amendments to our ‘What We Stand For’ on our annual weekend away being held on November 8th. The first set of amendments proposed by Allan Armstrong were posted at:- http://republicancommunist.org/blog/2014/08/09/proposed-amendments-to-the-rcns-what-we-stand-for/. Eric Chester has proposed another set of amendments, which are posted below. Add to point 5: We call for…
AFTER THE SEPTEMBER 18th REFERENDUM VOTE – A socialist republican response
In the aftermath of the September 18th Scottish independence referendum, Allan Armstrong (RCN) updates his earlier piece (http://republicancommunist.org/blog/2014/09/03/up-to-and-beyond-the-september-18th-independence-referendum-a-socialist-republican-perspective/). A Movement-in-the-making The campaign for Scottish independence has been the largest movement for popular democracy seen in these islands since the Irish War of Independence. In terms of electoral participation it was unprecedented. Voter registration was 97%…
Up To And Beyond The September 18th Independence Referendum – A Socialist Republican Perspective
Allan Armstrong (RCN) has written an account of the Scottish independence campaign since the SNP launched its official ‘Yes Scotland’ campaign in 2012 up until the last two weeks before the September 18th referendum. This is based on several contributions Allan has already made on this blog. It is also a contemporary update of his…
A Letter To Scotland’s New Radicals – Gerry Hassan
The writer and political commentator, Gerry Hassan, has written the following letter to “Scotland’s New Radicals”, including the Radical Independence Campaign. Gerry raises some pertinent questions, so we asked him if we could repost his article. Gerry agreed. We hope to post a reply quite soon. Radical Scotland’s re-emergence and re-invigoration around the independence referendum has been one…
The Empire Strikes Back
Jim Slaven of the James Connolly Society wrote the following article for the Irish-based 1916 Societies. Here Jim examines the implications of the Scottish referendum for Ireland. As Scotland enters the final three months of the independence referendum campaign it remains too close to call. The No campaign have been consistently ahead throughout but the gap has…