Allan Armstrong (RCN) asks why the Pitchford Enquiry into undercover policing does not extend to Scotland. Last July, Theresa May, Conservative Home Secretary, set up the Pitchford Enquiry into undercover policing in England and Wales. The Channel 4 Programme Dispatches had highlighted the role of the Met’s Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) in trying to undermine the family…
REPORT OF REPUBLICAN SOCIALIST ALLIANCE MEETING, STOCKPORT, 12th MARCH
The RCN is affiliated to the Republican Socialist Alliance. Allan Armstrong attended the meeting hosted by the new RSA (North of England) group on the 12th March in Stockport. Steve Freeman, acting RSA convenor, has written the following report. Report on Republican Socialist Alliance meeting, 12th March, Stockport This was a productive with decisions taken…
RCN BULLETIN FOR THE 4th RADICAL INDEPENDENCE CAMPAIGN CONFERENCE
Today we are holding the 4th RIC conference. RIC has been very much a contributor to Scotland’s ‘democratic revolution’, where 97% registered and 85% voted. Despite the ‘No’ result, politics in Scotland have been transformed. However, both the British unionists and the wannabe Scottish ruling class, who have latched on to the SNP, are trying…
LET THEM IN
The world has been alerted to the horror of the current refugee crisis by the photograph of Aylan Kurdi, a three-year old Syrian Kurd from Kohane, on the beach at Bodrum in Turkey, drowned after trying to make it with is family across to the Greek islands. In 1972, another photo of a young girl, this…
FREE STEVE KACZYNSKI
FREE STEVE KACZYNSKI Steve Kaczynski has been held in a Turkish prison since April 2nd. He was taken, along with centre workers and the best-selling political band Grup Yorum, in a raid on the Idil Cultural Centre in the Ortaköy district of Istanbul. Steve has not been charged with any offense, has been…
DEFEND GREEK PEOPLE AGAINST THE TROIKA’S COUP D’ETAT
As the vote in Sunday’s crucial referendum draw’s close we are posting this article from World to Win (http://aworldtowin.net/blog/defend-Greek-people-against-the-Troikas-coup-detat.html#sthash.URODG5UP.dpuf) DEFEND GREEK PEOPLE AGAINST THE TROIKA’S COUP D’ETAT The financial crisis sweeping impoverished Greece alongside the turmoil in global markets, is the outcome of the resistance by an elected anti-austerity government to a political coup plotted by a…
THE 2015 GENERAL ELECTION AND THE NEXT STEPS FOR REPUBLICAN SOCIALISM
The RCN and Republican Socialists (Scotland) gave their backing to Steve Freeman who stood as a republican socialist and anti-unionist candidate in Bermondsey in the General Election. Here we are posting Steve’s political assessment of the campaign. Introduction This paper will not address the important question of what is ‘Republican Socialism’ beyond identifying…
SUPPORT THE STRUGGLE FOR MEANINGFUL SELF-DETERMINATION IN A SCOTTISH DEMOCRATIC AND SECULAR REPUBLIC
At our RCN aggregate held in Dundee on May 23rd, we re-examined our platform for working in the campaign for Scottish self-determination. Some of these issues have already arisen within the Radical Independence Campaign, particularly in RIC-Edinburgh (see http://radicalindyedinburgh.blogspot.co.uk/), the three RIC national conferences, and Trade Unionists for Independence (East Coast) (see http://republicancommunist.org/blog/2014/10/24/after-september-18th-bring-real-democracy-into-our-trade-unions/). Now that there are plans…
ANTI-WATER CHARGES CAMPAIGN: FROM PROTEST TO ELECTIONS
Our blog has been chronicling developments in one of the most important socio-economic struggles in these islands since the Anti-Poll Tax campaign (see http://republicancommunist.org/blog/2015/03/27/sinn-fein-under-pressure-from-irish-workers/, http://republicancommunist.org/blog/2015/03/01/water-charges-independent-mobilisation-new-state-repression/ and http://republicancommunist.org/blog/2014/12/16/defying-water-charges-in-ireland/). The Irish government is attempting to collect specific water charges from the Irish people (water is already paid for out of general taxation), preparatory to privatising Irish water in…
BLACKLISTED – a review by Brian Higgins
Brian Higgins, a much blacklisted building worker and Secretary of the rank and file Building Workers Group, reviews Blacklisted, The Secret War between Big Business and Union Activists, by David Smith and Phil Chamberlain. This much needed book is a powerful and always compelling expose. It is sometimes moving with first hand accounts by the…