As communists we understand the importance of the trade union movement. It is, first and foremost, simply the work-place or industrial collective organisation of the working class. Its most important function is as a working-class defence against the worst ravages and exploitation of employers and bosses. It is workers coming […]
Campaigns
Evictions: The brutal reality of government captured by landlords
The moratorium on evictions was lifted on 23 April, placing the fate of thousands of renters affected by this pandemic firmly back into the hands of landlords. The government has clearly shown that it cares more for the rights of the propertied classes during an economic and public health crisis […]
The great housing robbery
The mantra “You need to own your own house” or to “get on the property ladder” has great appeal in the Irish psyche. Young couples will queue outside building sites for days to get their “dream home.” While they wait, and it makes the evening news, the original price of […]
A hundred years of division
On 3 May in this, the decade of anniversaries, we reached the hundredth anniversary of the partition of Ireland. Britain partitioned the country to protect its interests—not to protect us from each other but to keep us apart. Divide and conquer, imperialism’s favourite control mechanism, is a device they used […]
Campaign for an all-Ireland health service
The campaign for an all-Ireland public health service, fully funded and free at the point of entry, is gaining momentum around the country. Already three district councils in the North have supported the demand
Water is a human right
At the end of 2020 the water “futures” of California, the largest state in the United States in population and economy, were floated on Wall Street for the first time, under the banner of Nasdaq Veles California Water Index.1 It was the first flotation of its kind, offering potential investors the opportunity to hedge against the future availability of water in California: in simple terms, to get rich from the scarcity of the most important substance for all human, animal and plant life to survive.
Standing up for tenants
The Community Action Tenants’ Union (CATU) is Ireland’s only union organised within the community you are living in—in the same way that a trade union branch is based within a workplace. CATU members come together to combat not only issues concerning tenancy but anything that affects the whole community, such […]
Towards a united Ireland
The recent formation of Trade Unionists for a New and United Ireland should be considered a positive development, providing an opportunity for a debate among those committed to ending the imperialist domination of our people and on what that new Ireland should be like. We must reclaim the vision for […]
Build a People’s Dáil
Late in January some three hundred activists from all over Ireland gathered in Liberty Hall, Dublin, to celebrate the centenary of the first Dáil Éireann. The event, organised by the Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum, attracted a wide range of forces, including trade union and community activists and women’s and […]
Raise the Roof Housing conference held in Dublin
On 30 January the Irish Congress of Trade Unions held a housing conference under the banner of “Raise the Roof.” The two main demands to come out of the conference were the need for public housing and for the right to housing to be enshrined in the Constitution of Ireland. […]
Socialism or barbarism
There has been a lot of spin about the recent eviction in Co. Roscommon. The fact of the matter is that the Central Bank stated in April 2018 that more than 29,000 mortgages are in arrears for at least two years. It estimates that more than half of these will […]
International conference against military bases
Peace activists from around the world gathered in Dublin from 16 to 18 November for the First International Conference Against US and NATO Military Bases, organised by the Global Campaign Against US and NATO Military Bases. The meeting was supported by the US Peace Council and the World Peace Council […]
Organising to halt our descent into misery
Theresa May once told a Tory party conference that people viewed Conservatives as “the nasty party.” She claimed this was an unfortunate misunderstanding, to be rectified by improving the party’s public-relations campaign. While few readers of Socialist Voice would fall for that type of self-serving nonsense, too many others accept […]
United Bodenstown Commemoration, 2018
The second United Bodenstown Commemoration to honour Theobald Wolfe Tone and the United Irish movement, organised by the Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum, took place on 19 August. Activists came from all over the country—from Dublin, Belfast, Newry, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Cavan, Monaghan, Armagh, Wicklow, and Waterford. A delegation from Scotland […]
A summer of change
This summer has indeed been very different from summers of the past—and it wasn’t just the long period of hot weather. There has been a sustained period of civil disobedience by ordinary citizens, who have been marginalised by high rents and low pay as a result of the neo-liberal policies […]
A different Ireland is in the making
What for long appeared unimaginable has seemingly now become inevitable. The Northern state, created with a built-in unionist majority and uncompromising regime, once seemed as permanent a fixture as its grandiose parliament building at Stormont. Not any longer, though. Britain’s Tory prime minister has voiced her doubts about its future […]