Dublin mobilisation – Lions led by donkeys

On Sunday, February 21st, 120,000 workers answered the call of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and took to the streets of Dublin. John McAnulty, of Socialist Democracy (Ireland), makes his assessment of both the potential and the political limitations of this massive demonstration. It has become unfashionable to speak of working class power. Asserting…

Well, the Crisis of Capitalism has arrived – So, what do we do now?!

Not just a ‘Credit Crunch’ – but a ‘Crisis of Capitalism’ This year’s SSP Conference takes place against the background of an unprecedented crisis for capitalism. Every day it becomes clearer that the problems in the economy are not just confined to the over-inflated world of finance, but are having a major impact on the…

Emancipation & Liberation Index 16

Emancipation & Liberation, Issue 16, Spring 2008 SSP – Learning the Lessons, RCN The role of platforms in the SSP, RCN Prospects For Socialists In Scotland, Allan Armstrong Respect Split, Ed Walsh Cartoon, Rod MacGregor Ken Livingstone: The End of Road, Gerry Fitzpatrick Paisley’s Legacy, Matt Siegfried ‘Celtic Tigers’ And ‘Celtic Lions’ Both Pussycats For…

Man’s Best Friend?

This experience comes from leafleting during a council by-election in the Lochee ward in Dundee, but I imagine that what is described in this little ditty is transferable to anywhere that dogs lurk unseen, waiting to give their canine judgement on political activists of any persuasion. For we, who politics inspire, There is a time…

Democracy 2

Review: Alan Graham Keynesian Economy Simulator Format: PC Publisher: Positech Developer: Cliff Harris (probably in his bedroom) Price: £15.28 Bourgeois Democracy: Another simulation Following on from the original Democracy, Clif Harris has released a sequel: imaginatively titled Democracy 2. The game is a simulation of politics. You have been elected President of X country and…

Punk, Politics and Perdition

Mary McGregor interviews communist and actor, Tam Dean Burn. Tam Dean Burn is the most respected political actor in Scotland today. He was born in Leith and grew up in Clermiston, a west Edinburgh housing estate. He went to Queen Margaret College to study acting at a time when working class men were encouraged to…

Workers, Serfs And Slaves: Managed Migration And Employment Rights

Reprinted from the No One Is Illegal website Whatever the merits of Tony Blair’s recent retrospective apology for Britain’s leading role in the slave trade it would be less hypocritical if his government was not developing a modern system of slavery and the reintroduction of sweated labour through the reshaping of immigration controls. The mechanisms…

The SSP Gives Its Support To The ‘No One Is Illegal’ Campaign

Taken from SSP website If anybody had any illusions that Gordon Brown was going to be a better and more principled Labour leader than Tony Blair, they were soon rudely shattered. When Brown declared his support for British jobs for British workers, at the Labour Party Conference, he lifted a slogan straight from the BNP…