Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
On the 23rd of January 2025, The Ditch published a story detailing how the Department of Defence was keeping its interactions with lobbyists for arms manufacturers “confidential”[1]. The lobby group involved is the Irish Defence and Security Association (IDSA) – who count among its members genocidaires Lockheed Martin and Patria. […]
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 Communist Party of Ireland offers our deepest sympathies and condolences to the family, friends and comrades of legendary Irish language community activist Gearóid Ó Cairealláin, who passed away on 21st December 2024. Exemplifying the popular Belfast activists’ mantra “Ná habair é, déan é!”, Gearóid’s was a life dedicated to […]
At the start of a new year, it is worthwhile asking what are the prospects for positive progress in the northern six counties? It will hardly surprise our readers if we say that the omens are not offering much ground for optimism. Depressingly, the statistics, recording social deprivation amid a […]
The Labour Party contains many good members. There are plenty of genuine left-wingers in the Labour Party in Ireland today; however, those people are not leading the party. The Labour Party has not been committed to a genuine socialist republic since Connolly was shot and Larkin went off to America, […]
Declan Kearney, Sinn Féin MLA writing in the An Phoblacht paper, is wondering out loud about a “left Republican alliance being the way forward”. Interesting though that he didn’t say that a Socialist Republican alliance is the way forward! There’s a big difference between the ‘Liberal Left’ approach and a […]
The outcome of the general election in the 26 counties will do nothing to solve the multiple crises of homelessness, health provision, rising prices and precarious employment facing many urban and rural working-class communities. Nor will it deal with the continuing erosion of democracy which sees the Irish government unable […]
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 […]