Failing to see the irony, the Government and Fianna Fáil voted—on World Refugee Day, of all days!—to send fourteen members of the army’s Ranger Wing (Ireland’s SAS) to war in Mali.
The minister for defence, Paul Kehoe, told the Dáil that the country was a victim of “terrorism,” and we must play our part.
Mali is not just some poor country plagued by “terrorism.” It’s worse: it’s a poor country plagued by imperialism.
International
The spoils of economic war How the United States and Saudi Arabia profit from sanctions on Venezuela and Iran
The United States has been playing the role of the world’s economic bully. So far it has imposed sanctions against Afghanistan, Belarus, Burma, Burundi, Central African Republic, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Crimea, Cuba, Cyprus, Eritrea, Haïti, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Lebanon, Libya, Russia, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.
Out of the chambers and into the communities!
All elections are but a snapshot of the degree of political or class consciousness of the mass of the people, in particular of working people. It is clear from the turnout in the recent elections, both north and south, that large numbers of people (more than half) decided not to […]
The EU tightens its grip
Over the course of the many referendums fought on the various EU treaties, the Irish establishment always sold the idea that neutrality and foreign-policy decisions would remain with the Irish state. But, as time progressed, those forces that strongly opposed these treaties and argued that there was only one direction […]
Lessons from the Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution did not begin as a socialist revolution; in fact the original Cuban communist party, the PSP (People’s Socialist Party), denounced the attack on the Moncado Barracks in 1953 as a “putsch,” and, while engaging with the rebels during the guerilla campaign, it did not fully align with […]
A victory for pro-Venezuela activists
A group of determined American activists forced Juan Guaidó’s shadow ambassador, Carlos Vecchio, to flee from a rally that was supposed to mark his triumphant entry into the Venezuelan embassy in Washington. It was supposed to be a day of triumph for the Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaidó and his […]
Venezuela: A timeline of struggle
This is an edited version of a document supplied by the Venezuela-Ireland Network In our media the economic and political difficulties in Venezuela are usually presented as recent developments. In most reports, all blame is laid on the alleged failure of the Bolivarian Revolution. Absent from the narrative are any […]
International Working Women’s Day, 2019 Speech by Ghada Abdalkeem (Sudan)
Good evening, everybody. My thanks to the Communist Party of Ireland for inviting me to speak today. First of all let me send my greetings to all the communist parties, workers’ parties and the democratic organisations for their support and solidarity for the people of Sudan in their ongoing revolution […]
The Berlin Wall, thirty years later
“The bourgeoisie turns everything into a commodity, hence also the writing of history. It is part of its being, of its condition for existence, to falsify all goods: it falsified the writing of history. And the best-paid historiography is that which is best falsified for the purposes of the bourgeoisie.” […]
Venezuela’s internal coup crumbles
The situation in Venezuela continues to deteriorate as the illegal sanctions imposed by the United States (Trump’s policy, a continuation of Obama’s) and the European Union continue to have an impact upon workers, the urban and rural poor and farmers. The Venezuelan oligarchs have used every possible manoeuvre—economic, political, and […]
Chronicle of a coup foretold
The attempted coup d’état of 23 January in Venezuela is unique in one respect: it was promoted and organised openly and publicly by the government of the United States, supported by its allies and client states in Europe and Latin America. One hundred years ago the United States declared its […]
Americans want out of disarmament treaty
Last month the United States withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces [INF] Treaty, which was concluded with the Soviet Union in 1987. That treaty was the first nuclear disarmament agreement ever to be concluded between the two countries, albeit to the disadvantage of the Soviet Union. It led to the […]
Who’s being gulled?
Many regions on the outskirts of Dublin have been plagued in recent years by an invasion of aggressive gulls, which soil houses and clothes-lines and scatter refuse, as well as killing smaller birds. Most people, it seems, have either not speculated about the cause of this new plague or else […]
Venezuela screaming
Robert NavanVenezuela-Ireland Network “Make the economy scream” was Richard Nixon’s instruction to the CIA when the United States decided in 1973 to overthrow the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile. Other countries in Latin America have seen democratically elected leaders ousted by the United States or its proxies. […]
Brexit: Fact or fiction?
There is a lot more fiction than fact in the Brexit debate, the smoke and mirrors being created by the establishment here, in Britain, and in the EU. The Government are up to their necks in the propaganda war, and have failed to deal with Brexit in Ireland’s interest. Instead […]
Brexit and the divisions within the British ruling class
The British ruling class is divided over the Brexit issue. That much is clear. Not so obvious, though, is the underlying cause of this split. Among the jingoistic fringe there is a hankering after the glory days of empire. Reared to believe that the sun was never supposed to set […]