Below is an article from the August issue of Socialist Democracy (Ireland) pointing to the parallels between the TUC and ICTU, and in particular the role of Len McCluskey and the Broad Left Unite leadership in providing cover for Labour’s acceptance of austerity. A series of discussions recently in both Ireland and Britain have thrown into…
An Orgy Of Orange Bigotry And Unionist Hypocrisy
Since the Flag Protests, beginning at the end of last year, there has been a rising tide of Loyalist violence. Sometimes this has been criticised by leading Unionist spokespersons, but in many cases they have encouraged these Loyalist protests behind-the-scenes. This is because they have the same aims – the reassertion of Unionist supremacy and the relegation…
A Shared Future In The North Of Ireland? – The Emperor’s New Clothes
This article first appeared on the Socialist Democracy (Ireland) website at:-A shared future in the North of Ireland? There is no mistaking the bookend manoeuvre inflicted on the Northern Irish administration at the start of May. At one end the British Secretary of State, Teresa Villiers, made threatening noises about cutting back the flow of…
Pensions Dispute
HAS THE TIDE TURNED? It is a surprising feature of the socialist press that it longer catalogues the ebbs and flows of working class struggle. Cheers of encouragement when the workers appear to advance are followed by glum silence on retreat. Yet for a brief period in Britain it appeared that there might be a…
Reports From Ireland – North And South
Below can be found two very interesting articles from Socialist Democracy (Ireland) forcussing on particular issues in Ireland. The first highlights the continued the sectarian nature of the post-Good Friday state in the North, and the second, the continued lowering of working class consciousness in the South, under the debilitating social partnership of state, big…
Martin McGuinness Shakes Hands With Elizabrit
éirígí’s Rúnaí Ginearálta, Breandán Mac Cionnaith, has responded to the decision by the Sinn Féin leadership to endorse a meeting with the British queen, Elizabeth Windsor, commander-in-chief of Britain’s armed forces. Mac Cionnaith said, “The decision by Sinn Féin to meet with the British queen is not in the least unsurprising, unanticipated or unexpected. However,…
A New Tyranny Over Europe
A crisis of capitalism, a threat to democracy The leaders of Europe spent much time and ingenuity in designing the Financial Stability Pact so that it would not require a vote. The fact that Britain and the Czech Republic did not sign meant that it could not be formally part of European structures. The major…
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…
A Political Report on the ‘Reclaiming Our Trade Unions’ conference in Dublin.
Reclaiming the unions – Bluster about bureaucracy, but no alternative programme – Socialist Democracy (Ireland) The “Reclaiming our Trade Unions” conference in Dublin on 1st October (better seen as a convention because of the limited political discussion) had its theme set by Kieran Allen, the President of SIPTU’s education branch. Kieran denounced the corruption of…
Dublin mobilisation – Lions led by donkeys
On Sunday, February 21st, 120,000 workers answered the call of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and took to the streets of Dublin. John McAnulty, of Socialist Democracy (Ireland), makes his assessment of both the potential and the political limitations of this massive demonstration. It has become unfashionable to speak of working class power. Asserting…