Steve Freeman, who is standing as a republican socialist candidate in the Bermondsey & Old Southwark constituency in the Westminster General Election on May 8th has issued the following two appeals. Could RIC members supporting Steve’s candidature please e-mail him:- steve@republicansocialists.org.uk _______________ 1. AN APPEAL TO THE RADICAL INDEPENDENCE CAMPAIGN Another England Is Possible Dear…
THE LEFT IN THE UK, THE 2015 GENERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN AND THE WIDER IMPACT OF SCOTLAND’S ‘DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION’
After analysing the role of the constitutional nationalists of the SNP, the liberal and conservative unionists amongst the Conservatives, Labour and Lib-Dems and the reactionary unionists led by UKIP, and their attempt to roll back Scotland’s ‘Democratic Revolution’ (http://republicancommunist.org/blog/2015/02/24/british-unionists-and-scottish-nationalists-attempt-to-derail-scotlands-democratic-revolution/), Allan Armstrong (RCN) examines the problematic role of the Left in the UK in challenging this. 1. The UK constitutional issue will be central to…
INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY – MARCH 8th
In recognition of International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8th, we are posting two contributions. The first is the introductory talk on IWD given by Linda Rogers and Cat Grant to the Edinburgh Radical Independence Campaign meeting on March 2nd. The second is a major contribution to the history of women’s suffrage, entitled Finland 1906:…
PROMOTING REPUBLICANISM
Murdo Ritchie (RCN) wrote the following article for supporters of the Republican Socialist alliance. It was first also posted on Murdo’s blog at http://murdoritchie.blog.co.uk/2015/02/13/promoting-republicanism-20090169/. _____________ PROMOTING REPUBLICANISM The advocacy of socialist republicanism has very few precedents in the United Kingdom. While many organisations can make claims to republicanism, in most cases this has been rarely…
ROLLING BACK SCOTLAND’S ‘DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION’
Allan Armstrong (RCN) updates his socialist republican analyses of constitutional developments in the UK and Ireland, in the lead up to the May 2015 Westminster election. ___________ ROLLING BACK SCOTLAND’S ‘DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION’ 1. British unionists and Scottish nationalists attempt to derail Scotland’s ‘democratic revolution’ There are several important features to the political landscape we can currently…
GREEK VOTERS REIGNITE THE FLAME FOR DEMOCRACY
Below we are posting an article by Paul Feldman from World to Win on Syriza’s election victory in Greece. This is followed by the leaflet produced by Real Democracy Now (Greece) which was handed out at the Radical Independence Campaign called demonstration at the Scottish Parliament on 14th February. The stunning victory of the anti-austerity Syriza in the…
STORMONT HOUSE DEAL
Below are two articles from the latest edition of Socialist Democracy (Ireland). They provide an account and analysis of the Stormont House Deal between the UK government and the DUP/Sinn Fein coalition in Stormont over the implementation of Westminster imposed cuts, against the background of threats to stand down Stormont. (http://www.socialistdemocracy.org/Bulletins/SDBulletinJan2015StormontHouseDeal.html and www.socialistdemocracy.org/Bulletins/SDBulletinJan2015SectarianismAndAusterityTwinPillarsOfReaction.html) …
THE RCN AND THE CAMPAIGN FOR SCOTTISH SELF-DETERMINATION
THE REPUBLICAN COMMUNIST NETWORK, THE RADICAL INDEPENDENCE CAMPAIGN, AND THE CAMPAIGN FOR SCOTTISH SELF-DETERMINATION Contents A) The emergence and clash of Left British unionism and Left Scottish nationalism B) The politics of the Scottish independence referendum campaign C) How the Left responded to the demand for greater national self-determination in Scotland D) Carrying over lessons…
BOB PURDIE, 1940-2014
D.R.O’Connor Lysaght of Socialist Democracy (Ireland) has written the following obituary to Bob Purdie. Bob was onetime member of the International Marxist Group and influential in establishing their position in the Irish struggle for Irish self-determination in the 1970’s. Later a member of the SNP, he recently wrote Hugh MacDairmid: Black, Green, Red and Tartan. Obituary: Bob…
THE RCN’S UPDATED ‘WHAT WE STAND FOR’
Over the RCN weekend away from November 7th-9th 2014 held near Dunfermline and our aggregates held on January 11th in Edinburgh and February 21st, 2015 in Glasgow, we updated our What We Stand For in the light of our recent engagement with the struggle for Scottish self-determination and our ongoing discussions on communism, secularism and…