Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
Comrade Gearóid Ó Machail, SIPTU NIDC Workplace Representative and National Executive Committee member of the Communist Party of Ireland, succeeded in having the below resolution passed at the recent NIC-ICTU Biennial Delegates Conference in the Guildhall, Derry. MOTION: This motion calls on ICTU to lead an active campaign to highlight […]
The 26 counties has a rapidly ageing population. According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the amount of the population aged 65 or over grew 40% between 2013-2023, from 569,000 to 806,000. By 2051, the number will double to 1.6 million. As with everything in this country, the lack of […]
Our island floats on the backs of unpaid women. Ireland has the third highest amount of unpaid work in the EU, consisting primarily of care work. The state has continued to support a gendered distribution of this work, rather than attempt any dual caregiving model, like those of Scandinavian countries […]
The forthcoming General Election takes place in the context of multiple crises, such as rising prices, rising rents, and homelessness. The health system is operating beyond all capacity, with excessive waiting times for GP appointments, in A&E departments, over-crowded hospitals, and people waiting years to be referred to a specialist. […]
“Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.” It might be a cliché, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t accurate. The upcoming 26 County elections will most likely have an outcome which will bear unpleasant similarities with the 1979 results in Britain. Throughout the 1970s, the National Front […]
The election at the end of November will be an important indication of where our people are at and in particular, where the working class is. The political pundits and major news outlets are predicting a return of both Fianna Fáil (FF) and Fine Gael (FG) to government, with the […]
Our understanding of foreign direct investment (FDI) is heavily influenced by Lenin’s analysis of imperialism, where FDI is seen as the export of capital from the advanced capitalist core, led by monopolists, to peripheral countries. The motive behind this is clear: to secure higher rates of surplus value no longer […]
The Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil/Green Party government has been characterised by an increasing shift towards NATO, an intensification of moves that occurred under previous governments, introducing new levels of entanglement with PESCO and other “common defence” initiatives. This is happening in tandem with the increased militarisation of the EU the ever-greater sabre-rattling of […]
After the discovery of natural gas in Kinsale by Marathon Oil in 1971, the Resources Protection Campaign was founded by several groups, including the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI). Under public pressure for Irish natural resources to be used for the benefit of the Irish people, the Irish National Petroleum […]
“Crumbling to the point of crisis”: so reads the headline from the Irish News of 16th April 2024, referring to the dire state of our GP medical services and the NHS in general. What should have been added to the headline were the words “by design”. Those of us who […]
If the political entity known as Northern Ireland were a hospital patient, above its bed would hang a notice reading “do not resuscitate”. So dire is that area’s performance across a range of issues, from the political to the economic, that only those blinded by outdated prejudice can argue for […]
US economist and diplomat John Kenneth Galbraith coined the phrase and concept of a “contented majority”. This “majority” he sees as being those in the western world who benefit from the current state of affairs, even if unevenly, and dominate politically producing a “culture of contentment”, showing disdain for those […]
After a seven-month wait for a Programme of (Mis)Government, the Executive produced vague promises on health and housing, with no specific targets. While easy to criticize the administrative class for incompetence, they are constrained by limited autonomy over fiscal matters, while facing challenges that demand significant investment. A key issue, […]
As the debate around Irish reunification gathers pace in Socialist Voice and elsewhere, we must not leave unity as an open goal to the British and Irish governments. We must build a left case for unity: the people’s unity of Ireland with the priority being the needs, wants and desires […]
This year saw a minor rise in electoral support in Ireland for the far right and poorly disguised criminal elements at the last local elections. These forces inserted themselves into community opposition and concerns about the establishing of various centres being set up by the state to house both those […]
Recent articles in Socialist Voice by Comrades O’Neill, McGoldrick, and Murphy explore whether the left should support Sinn Féin in the upcoming election. While both sets of authors present persuasive arguments, the debate may be misplaced. It’s unlikely that Sinn Féin is particularly concerned with the socialist left or its […]