Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
Capitalism has survived despite a roller-coaster of crises for over two centuries. It uses many means to survive, but one of its greatest weapons is controlling the narrative and dividing the working class, to divert attention from the cause of all the crises faced by and paid for by the […]
Last month’s local government election results were even more significant than simply the storming performance by Sinn Féin. The outcome has underlined an inexorable direction of travel that points to the decline not just of unionist political hegemony, but of the very union itself. Not only is unionism losing out […]
It is a truism that all wars must end. They can end either in a victory for one side, in a stalemate or sometimes with a political change if one of the protagonist countries pulls them out of the war, as happened in Russia following the October Revolution. In the […]
The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement (GFA), signed a quarter of a century ago in April 1998, was promoted then and is being celebrated now, as a peace agreement to end the 30-year armed conflict between Irish republicans and the British state assisted by its local militia allies within unionism. Prepare to […]
To Burn or Not to Burn is a bilingual tanka (5-7-5-7-7 syllables) by Gabriel Rosenstock in response to artwork by Banksy. To Burn or Not to Burn tá sé ag éirí fuarníl mórán fágtha le dóbratach mo thíre?tar éis a bhfuil déanta aiciar mo shonsa ‘is ar son an domhain! […]
In the March Socialist Voice, a piece on Ukraine proposed the proximate cause of the war is NATO. There are good reasons why Communists in Western European countries should highlight NATO’s role to its own populations insofar as it helps counter one-sided narratives of the conflict. However, some have also […]
Sean O’Casey’s play The Shadow of a Gunman premiered 100 years ago, on April 12, 1923, at the Abbey Theatre. It is set during the War of Independence in a Dublin tenement. Davoren, writer of romantic verse, shares a room with Seumas, a peddler and onetime patriot who has now […]
In 1984 a baby was found dead on a beach at Caherciveen. He was murdered: stabbed 28 times. At that time Gardaí arrested a young woman and got a confession from her for the young baby’s death. It was later proven that the Gardaí forced the confession from this innocent […]
When it comes to money and power, real power, like imperial power, not Micky Mouse or parish-pump “power”, there’s always a deal to be had. Since the partition of Ireland the number of “agreements” that have been engineered and given important sounding names, would fill a thousand large skips with […]
Living on Rathlin Island, six miles from Ballycastle in North Antrim, Mary Cecil ponders life and chronicles her thoughts in poetic form. “The Rathlin Poet”, as she is known, has penned a great many poems, including anti-war verses: hardly surprising for the daughter of a soldier psychologically scarred during service […]
The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that he believes the government have now turned the corner on housing. In turning this corner, the government have turned their backs on the housing needs of the citizens of Ireland. A blatant example of this is the latest government scheme which puts Ireland […]
War is a slaughter, a living hell, visited first and foremost against the working class. As Lenin noted, “a bayonet is a weapon with a worker at both ends”. War too is invariably orchestrated by members of the ruling class, who are spared the peril of death or physical danger […]
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed last month, causing major turbulence across the world’s financial sector. Within a week of its closure, the Financial Times was reporting that the value of global bank stocks had fallen $460 billion. Fearing meltdown from contagion, state-controlled treasuries across the capitalist order made huge sums […]
Capitalism evolved from the development of trade: mercantile capitalism gave way to manufacturing capitalism which transformed into industrial capitalism after the industrial revolution, which was fueled by scientific inventions. The history of capitalism as a dominant mode of production begins in the 17th century, with Holland and England being the […]
The annual James Connolly Festival returns for its ninth year, from the 8th – 14th of May 2023. The annual week-long festival sees events in radical arts, culture, and politics take place in The New Theatre, Dublin, and across the city. It is a community-based celebration of music, film, discussion […]
Dear Editor, I refer to plans to build British Army Memorials in 2023, for example in our area, Killester, on Dublin’s north side. Many well-meaning people in this country see no harm in the numerous British War Memorials, thinking that they are just remembering the past glories of the British […]