Dave Douglass reviews Steve McGrail and Vicky Patterson’s Cowie miners, Polmaise colliery and the 1984-85 miners’ strike. COWIE MINERS, POLMAISE COLLIERY AND THE 1984-85 MINERS’ STRIKE Great Strike of 1984-85: an unequal battle Polmaise was at the epicentre of the Scottish miners’ action in 1984. Like Cortonwood it was among ‘the first of the first’…
Review: Struggle or Starve: Working Class Unity in Belfast’s Outdoor Relief Riots
Tommy McKearney reviews Struggle or Starve: Working Class Unity in Belfast’s Outdoor Relief Riots by Sean Mitchell. STRUGGLE OR STARVE: WORKING CLASS UNITY IN BELFAST’S OUTDOOR RELIEF RIOTS Struggle or Starve by Séan Mitchell is an important book that deserves the widest readership among those interested in promoting progressive politics in the North of Ireland. The author…
BEFORE AND AFTER THE ‘RETURN OF THE BRUTE’
As the official celebrations and the unofficial commemorations of the centenary of the First World War continue, many personal accounts, poems and novels written about this period have been published or republished. One novel, not yet republished, is Return of the Brute, written by Liam O’Flaherty. David Trotter, in The Cambridge Companion to The Literature…
CLASS AND NATION IN CONTEMPORARY SCOTLAND
CLASS AND NATION IN CONTEMPORARY SCOTLAND CONFERENCE September 17th-18th The Renfield Centre, 260, Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4HZ Last September the Sociology Department at Glasgow University held a successful conference on ‘Racism: from the Labour Movement to the Far Right’. We are pleased to announce that we are holding a second conference next month, with…
Moving On Song
by Ewan McColl with 2 verses added by Eileen Penman (Dec 2005) Born in the middle o’ the afternoon In a horse-drawn wagon on the old A5 The big twelve-wheeler shook my bed You can’t stop here the policeman said Chorus: You’d better get born in some place else Move along, get along, Move along,…
RCN: What We Stand For – From Theory to Practice
1) Another world is possible – a joyful, creative, new world communism which emancipates us all from oppression and frees us all from exploitation, and which forms a new sustainable relationship between humanity and the environment. 2) The history of all hitherto existing class society is the history of class struggles. The enforcement of patriarchy…
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 held in severe isolation, and…
FIFA’s Failings
At the end of May, FIFA Delegates gathered in Zurich for the their annual congress. However, the party was crashed when dawn raids by police led to seven FIFA executives being arrested in their hotels. The seven have since been charged with corruption by US prosecutors. These high profile arrests meant that the mainstream media,…