This is an edited version of a speech by Yassamine Mather delivered to the September 7 London meeting of the Campaign for a Marxist Party The month of September is known in the Iranian exile calendar as the month to commemorate one of the biggest mass executions of political prisoners in the Islamic republic’s period…
No Attack on Iran
The stark warning by David Owen in his article, Signs of an Israeli strike on Iran,[1]The Sunday Times October 12. is just one of hundreds of references to the window of opportunity for a US-backed/tolerated Israeli strike on Iran between November 2008 and mid-January 2009, when the outgoing US president might feel inclined to give…
Republican Socialist Convention
Uniting the Left on the basis of ‘Internationalism from Below’ Frances Curran – Scottish Socialist Party Mike Davies – member of former Welsh Socialist Alliance Dan Finn – Irish Socialist Network Tommy McKearmey – Fourthwrite Declan O’ Neill – Convention of the Left Speakers will lead off Introductory outlining struggles in their particular countries and…
New Republicanism pamphlet
We have just published a new pamphlet titled Republicanism, socialism and democracy It is available for £1 including postage from the usual address. A short extract follows. For socialists republicanism in the United Kingdom describes the movement from below for a radical and militant democracy. Republicanism addresses those immediate democratic issues faced by the working…
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…
Life With You
by The Proclaimers Like many people I have liked the Proclaimers for years. I really enjoy their love songs which have a Tom Leonard quality to them in terms of their ability to express profound emotions in the language of the working class. I was therefore really pleased to be given Life with you as…
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…