Forward Wales is in meltdown after losing many of its leading activists including its sole councillor Dave Bithell, the National Secretary and International Organiser. The party’s website has been under construction for the past four months and members haven’t received a newsletter from the Wrexham HQ. Those who quit are citing disagreements with the political…
The Way Forward for the Scottish Socialist Party
Donnie Nicolson, ISM platform member and SSY Organiser, contributes to the debate in a personal capacity. The RCN article in March’s Frontline was very welcome in that it identified and clearly described many dangers facing the SSP, and competently argued the case for a new ‘Marxist pole of attraction’ within the party. The purpose of…
In Memory of Miriam Daly
The following address was given by James Daly at the 25th anniversary commemoration of the murder by loyalists of leading socialist and republican Miriam Daly, at her graveside, Swords, County Dublin, 25 June 2005. At commemorations like this in earlier years, while the struggle continued, we could think in terms of the nobility of the…
Empty Bombast Marks the End of the IRA
John McAnulty analyses what Sinn Fein and the IRA are signing up for Tony Blair managed to avoid saying that the hand of history was on his shoulder, but even without that there was enough overblown bombast from London, Washington and Dublin to reward the Provisional republican leadership for their 28th July announcement effectively disbanding…
Iraqi Kurds – Tools of Imperialism
Steve Kaczynski looks at how imperialism has used the Iraqi Kurds The Iraqi Kurds are the only ethnic group that is considered 100% loyal to the US–UK imperialist occupation of Iraq. So much so that when the US-backed Governing Council tried to introduce a new flag for Iraq, it included a yellow line across the…
Fight the Power
Alan Graham examines how politics and music link up Looking back on the Make Poverty History march and the events surrounding it, it is hard to ignore the effect music had on the event. But how did it compare to other political/music events, and how political was the music? I will look at various bands…
When ‘Raising Consciousness’ Ain’t Enough
Column written by Mumia Abu-Jamal The images of voracious famine leaking out of the steamy deserts of the Northwest African nation of Niger, cuts to the soul’s quick. Babies barely able to grasp a breath. Mothers with breasts as flat, and milkless as boys. Men and women, dizzy with hunger, laid low in the barren…
Two Words Collide – Nationalism and Republicanism
Allan Armstrong reviews Two Worlds Collide – power, plunder and resistance in a divided planet by Alan McCombes Earlier this year, Scotland hosted a series of activities in response to the G8 Summit held in Gleneagles. The key events were the official ‘Make Poverty History’ march in Edinburgh, held on July 2nd, and the G8…
Obstructing a Legal Demonstration
On the morning of July 6th, myself and Raphie DeSantos, both members of the SSP, were tasked with organising buses, bus stewards and getting people on buses to go up to Gleneagles from Waterloo Place in the centre of Edinburgh. It was a chaotic scene, with many more people showing up without tickets than with,…
Facing up to the Challenge
Nick Clarke looks at the Left’s response to G8 Over a year ago, comrades from the anti-capitalist movement, Globalise Resistance and the Scottish Socialist Party came together to create G8 Alternatives. G8 Alternatives immediately started organising, agitating, and campaigning to make sure that, when the world’s leading imperialists turned up at Gleneagles in July, they…