Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
There it goes, down again. Holed below the waterline, the leaking vessel Stormont is floundering once more. Yet, in spite of its official role as an integral part of overall United Kingdom governance, the British establishment cares little about the political apparatus in Belfast. Underlining this reality was the spectacle […]
Based on Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel of the same name, the film Persepolis follows a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. The film moves from her early childhood in secular 1970s Iran, where Marji’s deepest desire is to be the next […]
Statement by the National Executive Committee, Communist Party of Ireland Today the world is closer to global war than at any time since 1962. The two largest countries in Europe are at war. The immediate cause of this situation has been the expansion of NATO and its project to constrict […]
Tomás Mac Síomóin, From One Bright Island Flown: Irish Rebels, Exiles, and Martyrs in Latin America (Nuascéalta, 2022; €9.10 / £7.30). Available on line. The defeat of the Gaelic Irish, supported by Spanish forces, at the Battle of Kinsale in 1602 was the final blow in the English conquest of […]
Iraq: A bilingual photo-haiku portfolio Gabriel responds to images from Iraq by the acclaimed photographer Maxime Crozet. Iraq . . . all that has gone all that remains an Iaráic . . . a bhfuil imithe is a bhfuil fágtha ··············································································································· a mirage? former palace of Saddam Hussein in Babylon ciméara? seanphálás Saddam Hussein […]
Government housing policy is the cause of the housing crisis. Homelessness, waiting-lists and extortionate levels of private rent are the symptoms of policy designed to benefit speculators, landlords, and hedge funds—the business class. The number of homes available to rent has fallen close to a historical record, while rents have […]
Marxist writer, thinker, activist The death of Tomás Mac Síomóin has caused much sadness to comrades and his large circle of friends as well as his family members, but his full, worthy life is a cause for celebration. He bequeathed to coming generations a legacy of powerful writing and thought. […]
This March, those of us who are “lucky” enough to work at liberal corporations, or are surrounded by liberal organisations, are once more sure to encounter “liberal” or capitalist feminism. Usually these corporations and organisations will drop the “Working” from International Working Women’s Day, which should give a hint to […]
While violence against women cuts across socio-economic divides, working-class women are particularly exposed both to violence—especially violence from strangers—and to its economic effects. Urantsetseg Tserendorj was an office cleaner who was attacked in the Financial Services Centre in Dublin as she made her way home from her shift in January […]
At the recent biennial delegate conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions a motion from Dublin Council of Trade Unions was passed to seek alternative legislation to restore all rights lost as a result of the Industrial Relations Act (1990). The 1990 act was a direct result of the […]
Hostile architecture is familiar to most people as dramatic instances of anti-homelessness spikes, sprinkler systems, or directional speakers. These devices are placed outside shops and businesses to discourage people who sleep in the street from choosing this particular nook to shelter in, or to prevent teenagers from gathering. Egregious examples […]
The illusion of food democracy There are many things in life that we can do without—but food is not one of them. Along with food we need water, shelter, clothes and warmth to have any chance of survival as a species. And yet we often take food for granted, and […]
Before covid-19, “normal” was homelessness, a two-tier health service, waiting-lists, precarious work, poverty pay, no sickness pay, a gig economy, pension-age extensions, lack of workers’ rights, exploitation, bogus self-employment and inequality for the majority of people in Ireland while the parasitic elite profiteered off this misery. “Back to normal” must […]
The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, during the peak of the covid pandemic, said that “we are all in this together.” But, on the contrary, two newspaper articles provide evidence to believe otherwise. The Irish Examiner reported that the wealth of nine Irish billionaires increased by 58 per cent since the […]
The continued eastward expansion of NATO is increasing tensions between Russia and the Western imperialist bloc. It has also caused concern to the Sunday Business Post, a newspaper that vies with the Irish Times to be the main proponent of Atlanticism in the Irish media. In line with the adage […]
Prison abolitionism is often viewed as a utopian idea, but when we examine the root causes of crime, and the victims of the legal system, it’s clear that if abolitionism is utopianism we are living in a dystopia. When a particularly heinous crime is committed it is the typical reaction […]