The last property crash was brought about by a combination of banks lending on the basis of spurious calculations, massaging their own financial data, and inflated property prices that were completely divorced from reality. Following the collapse, property prices adjusted back to more realistic values. The Government bailed out the […]
Month: May 2019
More power to you!
The recently launched campaign by three of our largest trade unions—SIPTU, Fórsa, and Connect—is to be welcomed. Under the slogan “More Power to You,” it is asking voters to take the local power pledge: “I believe in local government.” This is a pledge to use your vote in the coming […]
Imperialism will kill us all
Our planet is on the verge of an environmental catastrophe. Billions live in abject poverty; millions more go hungry for want of food or clean drinking water. The gap between rich and poor grows and grows. The wealthiest 1 per cent of people on our planet could fit in a […]
The killing of Lyra McKee
Statement by the Communist Party of Ireland20 April 2019 The Communist Party of Ireland strongly condemns the killing of Lyra McKee, a young journalist working and living in Derry, on Thursday 18 April. Once again a family has lost a loved one in a needless and senseless act committed by […]
Reckless isolated groups should vacate the stage
he death of Lyra McKee was a needless tragedy inflicted on a young woman by thoughtless stooges. It was an act that devastated her life partner, her family, and her friends and colleagues in the world of journalism. There is no room for equivocation when commenting on this event. Yet […]
Pete Seeger on his 100th birthday
There are few people more famous in the political song movement than Pete Seeger. Along with his contemporaries Paul Robeson and Woody Guthrie, Seeger represented the might of song in highlighting the common cause, strengthening courage, and inspiring resistance. Song was their weapon in this struggle for a fair, equal […]
“Nice little earners”
There I am sitting among my three or four neighbours, and the talk turns to property. Their property. This topic has bothered me for some time, as it brings out the nastiest prejudices in my neighbours: condemning suspected “welfare cheats,” bothersome tenants, and everything else. Now one of these neighbours, […]
Identity and class
There is no truly universal experience of the world. It is deeply influenced by how we have been taught to orient ourselves in that world, which then predicts how we interact with it. Language is one such example. Monoglot English-speakers break their day down into time slots and scheduled intervals; […]
Book: Living in an armed patriarchy
Living in an Armed Patriarchy: Public Protest, Domestic AcquiescenceLynda Walker This booklet takes its reader back in time to the years from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, years that shook the North of Ireland profoundly in many ways. It is an example of the kind of writing about […]
Workers in struggle
Lloyd’s refuse to attend the Labour Court At the Labour Court on 26 April the employees’ union, Mandate, presented the case for all Lloyd’s Pharmacy workers to receive improvements to their terms and conditions of employment. Mandate’s submission includes demands for: A pay increase of 3.4 per cent, backdated to […]
A victory for pro-Venezuela activists
A group of determined American activists forced Juan Guaidó’s shadow ambassador, Carlos Vecchio, to flee from a rally that was supposed to mark his triumphant entry into the Venezuelan embassy in Washington. It was supposed to be a day of triumph for the Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaidó and his […]
Venezuela: A timeline of struggle
This is an edited version of a document supplied by the Venezuela-Ireland Network In our media the economic and political difficulties in Venezuela are usually presented as recent developments. In most reports, all blame is laid on the alleged failure of the Bolivarian Revolution. Absent from the narrative are any […]
Vote left!
This month we face a number of electoral choices: local elections, elections for the EU Parliament, and a proposed amendment to the Constitution. The local elections have produced a staggering number of small parties and independents, hoping to be elected to what is in fact powerless local government. Real power […]