Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
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 […]
These past few months, Germany’s Die Linke (“The Left”) party has been struggling with the issue of agreeing on a position regarding the Ukraine war. Die Linke – founded in 2007 after a merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and Labour and Social Justice – through the PDS […]
Travellers, or Mincéirí, are a minority ethnic group indigenous to Ireland who have a shared language and culture. The biggest blight on “modern” Ireland, without question, is the treatment of the Travelling community. It is a continuing shame on the state and on society more generally. Traditional Traveller occupations, such […]
How serious is the far-right threat in Ireland today? The question is being widely discussed because of a series of high-profile protests. At first these were outside asylum-seekers’ accommodation, and more recently they targeted Sinn Féin TDs. Prominent members of fascist organisations have taken part in these demonstrations. It is […]
As inflation is making essential goods ever more expensive, increasing numbers of people are relying on food banks. Politicians and the ruling class blame covid-19 and the war in Ukraine for the “cost of living crisis.” Working-class people know otherwise.
“Buggins’s turn” is a disparaging term meaning appointment to positions by rotation rather than by merit. No Brownie points for identifying Leo “the-classified-file-sharer” Varadkar as the Dáil’s current Mr Buggins. Even the chronically right-wing Fine Gael-supporting Sunday Independent was unable to get excited about him swapping chairs with Micheál Martin. […]
On 21 December 2022 the Irish News in Belfast published a front-page report that a senior Irish government official was actively spying for the British government. The report was based on an interview with a former member of the British army ’s “Force Research Unit,” which operated both side of […]
Last month the social media giants Twitter and Meta (Facebook) announced widespread layoffs. They join Coinbase, which fired 18 per cent of its staff in June, part of a trend of technology companies freezing the hiring or sacking of employees. The technology industry is in dire straits. However, these […]
Inflation is an increase in the price of goods and services. When the quantity of money in an economy exceeds the quantity of commodities it will cause “demand pull” inflation. When the cost of raw materials or an increase in wages causes price increases it is “cost push” inflation. The […]
In October the British prime minister, Liz Truss, resigned. The capitalist media informed us that her economic policies did not find favour with the financial markets, and as a result she had to go. Once Truss had been removed, the Tories selected a new prime minister, and the media moved […]
The Cost of Living Coalition had many people taking to the streets during the protest march on the 24th of September. The coalition was a broad range of left-wing organisations, such as People Before Profit, the CPI, the Connolly Youth Movement and other grass-roots movements, such as activists from mica […]
On 24 September there was a massive turn-out in Dublin to protest against the increase in the cost of living. More than 20,000 people took to the streets—and it could have been higher except for traffic hold-ups in Kildare, which resulted in delays of more than four hours for those […]
Sashi Tharoor, the Indian politician who wrote a book on British colonial plunder, An Era of Darkness (2016), once made a satirical remark: “They say the sun never sets on the British empire; that’s because even the god did not trust the British in the dark.” The Queen’s death and mourning have […]
The Government is attempting to push the state pension age to 70 by the back door. It is proposing to do this by adding 24 per cent to the pension rate if people forgo their pension and work on till they are 70. By working to 70 you give up […]
The coalition government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party has announced its 2023 budget. This is taking place in a period of growing inflation, rising energy costs, and falling consumer confidence and spending. The increase in social welfare payments comes nowhere near meeting the rate of inflation. […]