This section of our continuing debate on the Scottish Independence Referendum addresses the British Left. The commune asked Allan Armstrong and Bob Goupillot to submit an article on the issue. This article, The Scottish Independence Referendum, appeared in the April, 2012 issue of the commune. Barry Biddulph replied to this in the June issue with…
“Without Feminism Socialism Can’t Exist, And Without Socialism, True Feminism Can Not Exist”
This is an interview originally entitled, Without Socialism There Can be No True Feminism, made by Rachael Boothroyd with feminist activist, Meglimar Melero, from the Insumisas Collective and the Feminist Spider network, discussing the feminist movement in Venezuela today. The above quote is from the interview. It was first published on:- http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/6886 and on RCN member,…
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…
International Women’s Day – Report from Israel and Statement from Afghanistan
Women For Civil Disobedience In Israel Report Some 400 Israeli, Palestinian and international women gathered in the West Bank village of Beit Omar, under the slogan of “Women for Civil Disobedience as part of the Non-violent Popular Resistance to the Israeli Occupation”. It was the 2nd Conference marking the International Women’s Day. The conference was organized by…
March 8th – International Women’s Day
About IWD and Power… International Women’s Day is about power: theirs and ours. Their power puts courts and legislatures in charge of whether or not a woman can have an abortion. Our power leaves this decision where it belongs: with the woman herself. Their power dictates a profit-driven “managed care” health care system, at the…
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…
English Republicanism – history for today (3 articles)
ENGLAND’S DEMOCRACY – ST. PAULS TO ST. MARYS The following piece has been written by Steve Freeman of the Bermondsey Republican Socialists for the Occupy Times. “I think the poorest he that is in England has a life to live as the greatest he……and I do think that the poorest man in England is not…
Three Reviews Of Allan Armstrong’s ‘From Davitt To Connolly’ (with replies)
Below are three reviews of Allan Armstrong’s book From Davitt to Connolly. The first one, written by Jim Monaghan, appeared in Saothar (the journal of the Irish Labour History Society); the second one, by T.R. appeared in Socialist Voice (the monthly journal of the Communist Party of Ireland) and third is from Ted Crawford, who helps to compile the Marxist…
Red, Orange And Blue
Allan Armstrong gives his personal reflections on The Provisional IRA – From Insurrection to Parliament (by Tommy McKearney, with an Introduction by Paul Stewart). I first met Tommy McKearney in the preparations for the initial Republican Socialist Convention, which was held in Scotland. He was due to pick me up from the Dublin Monaghan bus.…
The 99%, The 1% And ‘Anti-Finance’
Oisín Mac Giallomóir of the commune argues the Occupy movement needs to oppose capitalist production not just capitalist finance and governments A lot of people have commented that a problem with the Occupy movement is that it is not clear what they are for. I think that is a smaller problem than the lack of clarity…