The four portraits on the Republican Communist Network banner provide good examples of the historical tradition we come from. These people have been chosen as representative of many others, whose names have often gone unrecorded, yet who have contributed to the struggle for human emancipation, liberation and self-determination. Each individual highlights different aspects of our…
An Ex-Soldier Responds To The Jailing And Dismissal Of Protesting Soldiers
The class-divided nature of the British Army is made very clear in the draconian treatment of fifteen soldiers jailed for staging a sit-in protest directed at senior officers in the Yorkshire Regiment (see article posted on BBC online at Yorkshire Regiment soldiers jailed for sit-in protest). Alan Boylan (RCN) is a former serviceman in the…
Nelson Mandela – Two Views Of His Legacy
MANDELA WILL NEVER BE YOUR MINSTREL Dear revisionists, Mandela will never, ever be your minstrel. Over the next few days you will try so, so hard to make him something he was not, and you will fail. You will try to smooth him, to sandblast him, to take away his Malcolm X. You will try…
Report Of The James Connolly Society Conference, 12 October 2013 In Edinburgh
James Slaven of the James Connolly Society provides us with the following report of its very successful conference held on Saturday October 12th in Edinburgh. For the second time this year, the Radical Independence Campaign provided a speaker for a JCS organised event. The speaker on this occasion was Liam O’Hare of Edinburgh RIC. On…
RIC and the Catalan Struggle
The RCN supports an ‘internationalism from below’ perspective within the campaign for Scottish self-determination. Edinburgh RIC branch proposed the workshop The Break-up of the UK: the Case for ‘Internationalism from Below’ for the very successful RIC conference on November 23rd. Dundee RIC branch proposed the workshop to address the denial of Catalan (and Basque) self determination by…
Ireland To Exit Troika – Old Ireland Free? A Nation Once Again?
John McAnulty of Socialist Democracy (Ireland) provides an analysis of the forthcoming exit of Ireland’s economy from the direct control of the IMF, EU, ECB Troika Ireland’s exit from the Troika mechanism, that had taken over as the effective government of the country, has been presented as a triumph for democracy and national independence by the…
The Unionist reaction to the White Paper
Well, they’ve been busy haven’t they. After delivering an analysis of how an independent Scotland would fare , using Westminster data, the IFS have got straight to work this morning. As well as reading the entire 670 page document and inputting all the data, they have produced a documentary showing the likeliest outcome. They shared…
The Ghost Of James Connolly – Book Launch
THE GHOST OF JAMES CONNOLLY James Connolly and Edinburgh’s New Trade Union, Independent Labour and Socialist Movements(1890-96) James Connolly’s role in Irish history is well known and celebrated. However, Connolly also played a prominent part in the ‘New Union’, independent Labour and Socialist movements in Edinburgh. Allan Armstrong, who conducts Radical Walks in the city, has…
2nd Radical Independence Conference – ‘After The UK: The Future Of 4 Nations’
The RCN received the unanimous backing of the Edinburgh branch of RIC to ask the RIC National Steering Committee to organise a session at the second national RIC conference on November 23rd in Glasgow, entitled ‘The break-up of the UK – the case for ‘internationalism from below’’. This was then unanimously agreed by the Steering Committee, subject to…
Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey Director: Leila Doolan
Zofia Walczak reviews the documentary, Notes on a Political Journey, made by the filmmaker, Leila Doolan, about the political life of Bernadette Devlin MacAliskey. In 1972, when the Conservative Home Secretary Reginald Maulding stated that the British Army had only fired at Bloody Sunday protesters in self-defence, Bernadette Devlin McAliskey walked across the House of…