Month: January 2019

Trade Unionism

Towards a new republic

On 1 March 2019 the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act (2017) will come into effect. This is to be welcomed; it is a step in the right direction for workers’ rights. We must always be aware that we are up against a formidable enemy in capitalism. The nature of capitalism is […]

Ireland

A century of unfulfilled aspirations

Much has been written and will be written about the establishment of Dáil Éireann in January 1919 and its adoption of the Democratic Programme. That programme offered the people a vision of a better and more just Ireland, presented as a natural progression from the Proclamation of the Irish Republic […]

Socialism

For an anti-imperialist ecology

The Anthropocene is the term used to describe the geological period in which human activity has been the main determining factor in the Earth System. This influence has been overwhelmingly negative and has led the Earth into its sixth great extinction event. While capitalism will portray this as the fault […]

Current Affairs

The body politic

The New Year and the annual (temporary) surge in gym membership, attendance at diet groups and body-shaming begins anew. In the coming days and weeks women (and, increasingly, men) will be cajoled or bullied by television programmes, magazine covers, newspaper articles and advertisers to lose a dress or trouser size, […]

International Political Statements

Cuban doctors unable to carry out their mission in Brazil

The Ministry of Public Health of the Republic of Cuba, committed to the solidarity and humanistic principles that have guided Cuba’s medical co-operation for fifty-five years, has been participating in the programme More Doctors for Brazil since its inception in August 2013. This initiative, launched by Dilma Rousseff, who was […]

Culture

Religious fundamentalism in post-socialist Russia

Russian cinema today explores capitalism against the backdrop of a past socialist experience. Open-minded visitors to former socialist states, and particularly to Russia, will come across this living memory and frequently an acknowledgement of the loss of humanist values since the defeat of socialism in Europe. It is interesting too, […]