Anti-Workfare Protests In Leith And Glasgow

Susan Dorazio (RCN and IWW) has submitted these two pieces – Anti-Workfare protestors in Leith blockade and occupy Superdrug and British Heart Foundation Protestors blockaded and occupied both British Heart Foundation and Superdrug in Edinburgh today Saturday 8 December, in opposition to their participation in the government’s workfare schemes. A huge banner declaring IF YOU EXPLOIT…

MI5 – They Haven’t Gone Away You Know!

Below we publish two recent articles from the Irish republican socialist organisation, eirigi, which deal with the continued activities of MI5 in the ‘Six Counties’. SHINING A LIGHT ON THE SHADOWS The Conway Mill on Belfast’s Fall Road was the setting for a very well-attended public meeting on Thursday [November 8] at which éirígí launched…

The Scottish Independence Referendum Debate, Part 3

This section of our continuing debate on the Scottish Independence Referendum addresses the British Left. The commune asked Allan Armstrong and Bob Goupillot to submit an article on the issue. This article, The Scottish Independence Referendum, appeared in the April, 2012 issue of the commune. Barry Biddulph replied to this in the June issue with…

The Silent Retreat Of The United Left Alliance

The following article was first posted on the Socialist Democracy (Ireland) website. At its formation the United Left Alliance (ULA) appeared to represent a new resurgence of the Socialist Movement in Ireland. It brought together a number of different socialist groups, obtained a significant number of votes and representation in the Dail, and put forward an uncompromising revolutionary position with the call to repudiate the debt – that Irish workers would…

Union Leader Slams Ed Miliband – But Who Put Him There In The First Place?

Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey has launched a stinging attack on the Labour leader Ed Miliband claiming that he {Miliband] is “leading Labour to destruction”. McCluskey lambasts the Labour leader for “failing to support millions of low paid trade unionists” and thereby “disenfranchising the party’s core support”. All this is from a union leader so…

English Republicanism – history for today (3 articles)

ENGLAND’S DEMOCRACY – ST. PAULS TO ST. MARYS The following piece has been written by Steve Freeman of the Bermondsey Republican Socialists for the Occupy Times. “I think the poorest he that is in England has a life to live as the greatest he……and I do think that the poorest man in England is not…

Three Reviews Of Allan Armstrong’s ‘From Davitt To Connolly’ (with replies)

Below are three reviews of Allan Armstrong’s book From Davitt to Connolly. The first one, written by Jim Monaghan, appeared in Saothar (the journal of the Irish Labour History Society); the second one, by T.R. appeared in Socialist Voice (the monthly journal of the Communist Party of Ireland) and third is from Ted Crawford, who helps to compile the Marxist…

Red, Orange And Blue

Allan Armstrong gives his personal reflections on The Provisional IRA – From Insurrection to Parliament (by Tommy McKearney, with an Introduction by Paul Stewart). I first met Tommy McKearney in the preparations for the initial Republican Socialist Convention, which was held in Scotland. He was due to pick me up from the Dublin Monaghan bus.…

Liverpool – the city that dared to fight

Emancipation & Liberation has published a number of articles relating to the current struggle against public sector cuts including:- International Resistance To Public Sector Cuts Socialists have drawn lessons from the struggles against Thatcher in the 1980’s and 1980’s. Emancipation & Liberation has already looked at the lessons to be drawn from the Anti-Poll Tax…