Angela (now Lewis) Gorrie argues the case for the following motion to SSP conference. Conference notes that the unelected First Secretary of State, Lord Mandelson, recently announced the Government’s plans to have an additional bank holiday in 2012 to allow the public to show their “pride and affection” for our unelected monarch on her Golden…
Independence Referendum
The Republican Communist Network’s motion to 2010 SSP Conference Preamble – not for voting on The issue of Scotland’s relationship to the UK remains a key political issue, whatever happens to the SNP’s proposed referendum bill at Holyrood. However, the favoured referendum option being advocated by the SNP – ‘independence under the Crown’ – would…
The new Hillsborough Agreement
John McNulty of Socialist Democracy (Ireland) examines the Hillsborough Agreement, the latest retreat in the ‘Peace Process’ following the earlier St. Andrews and Good Friday Agreements. The immediate response of the world’s media to the latest Irish settlement, a common response when they shy away from any analysis, was to carry out a series of…
Emancipation & Liberation, Issue 19, Spring 2010
Issue 19 of Emancipation & Liberation is out now. If you would like to buy this issue or subscribe, contact us. This will be available at the Dunblane Conference. Comments are open, so until articles are online, feel free to discuss the articles below. When they are online you can discuss the article in it’s…
British nationalism and fascism
Chris Ford of The Commune outlines the very British origins of fascism. He argues that attempts to invoke Second World War nostalgia and the great ‘British democratic tradition’, to dismiss today’s British fascists as just some alien Nazi import, fail to get to a key root of the problem – British nationalism. In an exercise…
Militant anti-fascism: the achievements of Scotland’s Anti-Fascist Alliances
The 20th of February saw the Scottish Defence League’s (SDL) plans to hold a hate-mongering anti-Muslim rally in a major Scottish city foiled for a second time by militant anti-fascist mobilisation. Three months after their attempt to march in Glasgow ended with them having a fifty-person rally in front of a pub for a few…
2nd Republican Socialist Convention
The second Republican Socialist Convention was organised by the Socialist Alliance (The Socialist Alliance is the small organisation still left in England after the defection first of the Socialist Party and then the Socialist Workers Party.) in London on February 14th. In its initial conception it was ambitious. With a General Election looming in the…
RCN extends its platform points
Eagle-eyed readers of Emancipation & Liberation may have noticed two new additions to the RCN platform bullet points on the last page of this issue before the covers:- ii) Independent working class organisation iv) Internationalism from below Many of those organisations once created by our class – e.g. the Labour Party and trade unions –…
Global Commune day school report
January 16th 2010, Out of the Blue Centre, Edinburgh Over the last year, comrades in the RCN have become more and more aware of the ideas and activities of comrades In The Commune, based south of the border. Like many on the left, older members of Commune have been round the block a bit in…
Editorial
What has happened to the Left since the Westminster 2005 General Election This year’s SSP Conference takes place in the context of the run-up to a likely General Election in May. Despite the opportunities provided to socialists by the deepest crisis of capitalism since the 1930’s, the Left in the UK is weaker than it…