Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
Statement by the Communist Party of Ireland – 25 September 2023 The news and the scale of the ecological catastrophe at Lough Neagh are getting worse by the day. These issues did not come to light this month, nor indeed this year. The ecosystem collapse in the lough has long […]
Paul Lynch’s novel Prophet Song has deservedly been short-listed for this year’s Booker Literary Award. The author spins a chillingly realistic tale of an Ireland governed by a fascistic regime in the throes of an armed conflict with its local opponents. The regime’s definition of public order is maintained by […]
Engels said, “The nation cannot be free if it oppresses other nations. The force needed to oppress others in the end will turn against them.” All have a beginning, they flourish, and then they implode under their own weight. Spain explored the world, discovered new land masses, and brought many […]
The Central Intelligence Agency has a long history of fighting against progressive movements and supporting the most reactionary regimes ever seen. This can be seen by the CIA-backed coups against the democratically elected governments of Mohammad Mosaddeg in Iran, Salvador Allende in Chile, and Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala, among dozens […]
What is the nature of those elements now aligned to the anti-immigrant, anti-trans, “nationalistic” and conspiratorial movements seen in Ireland recently? Do such movements mobilise from within particular and consistent segments of the class structure? Are such mobilisations evidence of a risk of far-right elements moving towards mass influence? What […]
The far right has been pushing the belief that Ireland has an immigration issue, that immigrants are replacing the Irish. While this isn’t true, Ireland has a problem with immigrants—and that is, how they are treated. The highest non-Irish population is Polish; and the largest non-English language spoken is also […]
The exposé of Russell Brand this month by the Channel 4 documentary “Dispatches,” and the on-line vitriol that followed, was a stark reminder of the continued dangers of standing up to abusers in a post-MeToo society. A number of women and former colleagues were interviewed on their experiences with the […]
In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for Literature, Pablo Neruda describes his escape from the Chilean government of Jorge Videla across the Andes to Argentina. The arduous and dangerous trek through this primeval world becomes a parable of humanity’s path through its own history and present, a world […]
Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita and Gabriel Rosenstock well, says the orang-utan at least I’m not a wage slave bhuel, arsa an t-órang-útan ní sclábhaí pá mé ar aon nós
Before the war, the EU had never used common funds to reimburse member-states for the delivery of weapons to a third country. This precedent was established in February 2022 with €500 million for arms through the European Peace Facility (EPF), an off-budget instrument financed by member-states’ contributions, established in March […]
Ukraine is haemorrhaging tens of thousands of soldiers, the west is pumping in trillions of US dollars, and the EU is pumping in billions of euros, yet there is no end in sight to this senseless slaughter. By the time this war ends, as it will, Ukraine will be a […]
Statement by the Communist Party of Ireland – 25 September 2023 The Communist Party of Ireland condemns the terrorist attack on the Cuban Embassy in Washington on 24 September, and calls on the US authorities to provide greater protection to the embassy. This attack must be seen in the light […]
A current fashion within the left is the championing of multipolarity. It assumes a bloc of states in different countries, some with more mixed economies than others, as objectively “anti-imperialist” insofar as they present a threat to the American hegemon. Some of this interpretation is jaundiced, especially when one considers […]
Indigo Girls (Amy Ray and Emily Saliers) opened their recent show in what was without doubt an incredible performance, singing a combination of folk-protest songs and country music in a sold-out National Concert Hall, Dublin. They performed without orchestral accompaniment or flashing lights: just two women with acoustic guitars playing […]
In the age of social media, the term “vibe” is often used as shorthand for aesthetic, often with the substance shifted into the background and just picking up on the visual, sensory or language aspect of an object, movement, culture, or politics. I was reminded of this term when reading […]
■ Carlos Martinez, The East Is Still Red (Glasgow: Praxis Press, 2023) The East Is Still Red is a very readable and able defence of the current People’s Republic of China. The basic argument of the book is that China is on the right path with regard to building socialism, […]