The imperialist world order Eoghan O’Neill No sound, sight nor smell do we encounter Away from the lands where they bring man’s thunder Propaganda, intervention, mercenary spies Where indiscriminate carnage falls from above Humanity despairs as the West spreads lies Wrapped in white helmets and perfect white doves All to […]
Month: September 2017
Cuba educates medical students from around the world
Under Fidel Castro’s direction, Cuba has become a “medical superpower,” setting new standards for global solidarity in the interests of human health.
A Catalan republic: fact or farce?
To be an independent republic—or not? That choice will face voters if the referendum planned by the Catalan regional government for the 1st of October is allowed to take place by the Spanish government. Most Irish republicans would probably support a Catalan break with Spain. “A free, independent republic” has […]
Some forgotten anniversaries
Some anniversaries are widely observed in the West, including Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Holocaust Memorial Day, and the atrocities in New York in September 2001. Yet there are other undesirable anniversaries that have largely been allowed to disappear. 1954: CIA terminates the ten-year Guatemalan Revolution Guatemala, a small central […]
Wolfe Tone oration
Speech by John Douglas, general secretary, Mandate at the United Wolfe Tone Commemoration, Bodenstown, 20 September 2017 Comrades, brothers and sisters, Our national freedoms were defined by the United Irishmen in terms of citizenship, the responsibility of the state to its citizens and the responsibility of all citizens to the […]
Dublin Bus up for grabs
In August, at the end of the tendering process for 10 per cent of Dublin bus routes, two bidders remained: Dublin Bus itself and the British transport corporation Go-Ahead. It’s no surprise that, despite Dublin Bus putting in a very good tender and meeting all the criteria, the private British […]
Encouraging signs of growing unity
A recent feature in the Financial Times might cause some surprise among Ireland’s eight thousand homeless, or the many others struggling with the spiralling cost of renting even modest accommodation. The article reported that the Republic is now enjoying one of the most remarkable economic revivals the European Union has […]
Essential to break with the EU and the euro
The recent proposals by the British government regarding a possible border between the British state and the European Union expose how marginal the interests of the Irish people are in relation to the negotiations now under way. The terms of Britain’s relations with the EU will be decided between Britain […]
Bratacha éagsúla
Attoor Ravivarma (or Attur Ravi Varma) writes in Malayalam, the language of Kerala, spoken by about 20 million people. Among Indian states, Kerala had the first democratically elected communist government, and over the years Keralans vote either the Congress Party or the Communist Party into office. Ravivarma’s poem was translated […]
A fitting account of a great communist
The play Jimmy’s Hall, running at the Abbey Theatre, is said to be adapted from Paul Laverty’s film script of the same name, directed by Ken Loach. When the film was first mooted it sent a scurry of excitement around certain sections of the left, and in particular the CPI, […]
Human rights advocate or anti-democratic agent?
Liu Xiaobo, a winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace for his opposition to the Chinese state, died on 17 July 2017. Since his death, Western media have been publishing the usual laudatory obituaries given to those “human rights activists” who, coincidentally, have views aligning with imperialist foreign policy. The […]
Google censors the internet
Amid all the hysteria about “fake news,” as reported by the corporate and state media (i.e. the actual purveyors of fake news for the last century or more), a significant piece of news about Google, the giant near-monopoly internet corporation, slipped by unreported or, if reported, unexamined. In September 2016 […]
United Wolfe Tone Commemoration Bodenstown, 20 August 2017
As part of its continuing efforts to build unity among left and progressive forces, between socialists and republicans, the Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum called for a united commemoration to honour Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763–1798), the founder of Irish republicanism. Tone developed his political strategy in the belief that Irish […]
Thoughts on ideology
The ideas that reflect the objective interests of a class are its ideology. The ruling class in any society imprints its ideology on “mainstream” thinking, as expressed in all the official opinions of the state—in politics, economics, philosophy, art, religion, and so on. As it expresses the interests of the […]
The existential crisis of the GAA
Now that we’ve literally reached the business end of the annual GAA season, it is perhaps timely to reflect on the trajectory that Ireland’s pre-eminent sporting, cultural and community organisation appears to have ingloriously embarked upon in recent decades. Just last month, sporting twitterati and print journos went apoplectic in […]
Public housing is the only solution
The saying “After all is said and done there is usually more said than done” would nicely sit with the Dublin government at this time, especially in their response to the housing crisis. If we are to believe the media, Simon Coveney more or less begged the previous taoiseach, Enda […]