This is the talk James Kelman gave to the Edinburgh Festival Book Fringe held in Word Power bookshop on Friday, August 10th. On a recent Sunday the Herald had a twenty page full colour supplement in association with the Scottish Tourist Board. Stories from the land that inspired Disney Pixar’s Brave. That’s us. The land…
Councillor Adopts Principled Stance Against The Cuts
TO: Elaine Kerr, Senior Admin Officer, Walsall Voluntary Action. FROM: Councillor Pete Smith.[1]Pete Smith stood for and was elected as the Democratic Labour candidate in the Blakenall Ward of Walsall Metropolitan Burgh Council in the May local elections. Walsall Democratic Labour stood as part of the Trade Union and Socialist Coaltion. RE: Council Spending Priority…
Solidarity With The Miners At Marikana Platinum
We are posting this statement from the Abahlali base Mjondolo (Shack Dwellers) Movement in response to the police killing of at least 34 mineworkers at Marikana Platinum mine, 100 miles north west of Johannesburg on Thursday 16th August. The Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement began in Durban, South Africa, in early 2005. Although it is overwhelmingly located…
The Political Significance Of The Merger Of Irish Physical Force Republicans
We are posting two articles on the recently agreed merger between three of the physical force Republican groups. The first is by Tommy McKearney, former IRA hunger striker, and now in the Independent Workers Union . The second is by John McAnulty of Socialist Democracy (Ireland). John was a Peoples Democracy councillor on Belfast City…
Pensions Dispute
HAS THE TIDE TURNED? It is a surprising feature of the socialist press that it longer catalogues the ebbs and flows of working class struggle. Cheers of encouragement when the workers appear to advance are followed by glum silence on retreat. Yet for a brief period in Britain it appeared that there might be a…
Reports From Ireland – North And South
Below can be found two very interesting articles from Socialist Democracy (Ireland) forcussing on particular issues in Ireland. The first highlights the continued the sectarian nature of the post-Good Friday state in the North, and the second, the continued lowering of working class consciousness in the South, under the debilitating social partnership of state, big…
For An Independent Scottish Socialist Republic
The Republican Communist Network supports the creation of an independent Scottish Socialist Republic as a significant step towards communism. We look to and would support a Federation of European Socialist States. Our support is for a genuinely independent Republic, not a sham façade that presents a Scottish nationalism that settles for symbols, not substance. A…
Communism And Human Nature
This article is an RCN contribution to the growing desire to reclaim the idea of a genuine communist society, an idea badly damaged first by the experience of the USSR and later by subsequent totalitarian regimes. It is a further development of the paper Debating The Possibility Of Communism, posted earlier, which provided the basis…
A Report On The Situation In Greece
RCN member, Eric Chester, has just returned from a trip to Greece, where he spoke to members of SYRIZA and ANTARSYA. Here is Eric’s report. During a recent visit to Greece, I was able to get some sense of the enormous problems confronting that country. Greeks are very proud of their past, not only the…
Martin McGuinness Shakes Hands With Elizabrit
éirígí’s Rúnaí Ginearálta, Breandán Mac Cionnaith, has responded to the decision by the Sinn Féin leadership to endorse a meeting with the British queen, Elizabeth Windsor, commander-in-chief of Britain’s armed forces. Mac Cionnaith said, “The decision by Sinn Féin to meet with the British queen is not in the least unsurprising, unanticipated or unexpected. However,…