Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
China’s economy is now 23% larger than the US according to the IMF. China is the largest trading partner with Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Japan and third largest to the EU. The Belt and Road Initiative has gone from strength to strength since 2013 and is the centrepiece […]
In the past few weeks, there has been a lot of noise about instability in the NATO military alliance. The EU is up in arms about Trump’s diplomacy with Putin and US pronouncements that they may not defend NATO allies slacking on defence spending. Tánaiste Simon Harris said “a gulf […]
May I beg to differ with the carefully created mainstream media consensus surrounding Micheál Martin’s meeting last month with US president Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance? Ireland’s establishment media took the view that the Taoiseach had very skilfully handled an incredibly challenging situation and had, thankfully, exited the […]
There has always been great talk in Ireland that Ireland is a neutral country. Nothing could be further from the truth. The evidence for this is based on our 900 years of occupation by British Imperialism. Non-neutrality was reinforced by the outcome of the 1922 counter-revolutionary civil war in Ireland. […]
Are we heading towards World War 3? It is no exaggeration to admit that, if so, humanity’s very existence will be threatened, from the potential usage of nuclear weapons to the use of “conventional” weapons systems, that alone would create a climate breakdown. We currently face major conflicts involving imperialist-backed […]
Ireland has an FDI-dependent economy, of that there is little doubt or even disagreement across the political spectrum. Approximately 280,000 workers are directly employed by FDI and 30% of Dublin jobs are in FDI companies. This job dependency grows significantly when we consider jobs indirectly associated to the presence of […]
The German military theorist Carl Von Clausewitz famously declared “war is a continuation of politics by other means”. Lenin, like all good Marxists, took this insightful analysis and added class to its understanding stating war as a part of class politics: “we understand the inevitable connection between wars and the […]
Recently China made a bond sale in Saudi Arabia. While perhaps not particularly notable on the surface, if we dig a little deeper, we can see some signs of China’s broader geopolitical goals being played out. China has long called for a global system of cooperation, based on the UN […]
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 […]
Once again, the Venezuelan opposition has refused to accept the electoral victory of Chavismo. Since the first victory of Hugo Chavez in 1999, the Venezuelan extreme right have used fascistic methods to try and break the Bolivarian Revolution. These include attempted coups, terrorist attacks against public health and education centres, […]
The context within which any electoral or social struggles takes place is critical to an understanding of how the working class understands how or where change can be secured. The ongoing struggle between Irish democratic forces and forces wedded to imperialism is the basic context in which the elections must […]
A recent series of blog posts on the website of Verso Books, acclaimed publisher on the left, attracted a lot of attention online. Andreas Malm, best known for his excellent analysis of the capitalist systems of climate emergency, started this series off with his long and informative essay “The Destruction […]
The following is a speech given by Cuban Ambassador of Ireland, Bernardo Guanche Henandez, at this year’s James Connolly Commemoration at Arbour Hill in Dublin: “Comrades all, I am very honored this afternoon to pay tribute to a historical figure of the stature of James Connolly, a prominent Marxist and […]
The M-C-C’-M’ circuit means Money (M) which is exchanged for Commodities (C) – including labor power which also becomes a commodity in a capitalist society – involved in the production process to produce a value-added commodity (C’) which is sold for more Money (M’), and thus the accumulation of capital […]
In an often mentioned quote from the Italian partisan and later president, Sandro Pertini exclaimed that “sometimes in life it’s necessary to fight, not just without fear, but also without hope.” Today, as we have access to a wide range of media reports on the major crises around the world, […]
In one of the most disturbing recent Irish government announcements, Mícheál Martin has repeated his administration’s intention to press ahead with legislation to get rid of the triple-lock dealing with Irish military involvement abroad. Designed to protect this country’s neutrality, the triple-lock curtails the unrestricted deployment of Irish troops in […]