Article

Ireland

Stormont Deadlock

After almost two years without a devolved administration, the northern state appears politically deadlocked. The latest round of talks in Hillsborough castle between the British government’s Chris Heaton-Harris and the five largest parties in Stormont have concluded without a definite restoration of the institutions. This in spite of the fact […]

Ecology International Politics

COP28

The 28th edition of the United Nation’s Climate Change Conference (COP 28) took place in United Arab Emirates this December. Controversially presided by the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, COP 28 once again showed its modest range of action, wrapped in passive political language. On the fringe […]

Art Imperialism

Art enters the age of imperialism

Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1893) speaks to us again today with great intensity. Why has this painting become so indelibly engraved in the collective memory of the human community? The figure not only hears the scream, he is also screaming in despair. His hands cover the ears to protect them […]

International

Apocalypse Now: Gaza

Just imagine for a moment what a post-nuclear-apocalyptic holocaust might look like. A destroyed landscape. People wandering the streets, in a state of post-traumatic shock. No shelter, no clean water, no food. Just the clothes on their backs and the shoes on their feet. Distraught children mystified by their new […]

Theory

Alienation in Marxist theory

CPI released a statement condemning the Dublin riots which contained the word “alienation”. How is alienation connected to the riots?  Alienation is a concept put forward by Hegel, and was also mentioned by William Thompson who according to James Connolly was the first Irish socialist. Alienation literally means separation, and […]

History Ireland

Sovereignty and Reunification

In a recent interview with the Irish Times, arch-revisionist historian Roy Foster opined that Irish reunification is nearer than he would have thought a couple of decades ago. A week earlier the Irish News published results of an opinion poll indicating a majority of Alliance Party voters believed that, in […]

Ireland Socialism

A Socialist Programme For Change

In notebook no. 4 from Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, “The World in Economic Depression:  A Marxist Analysis of Crisis”, Marxist economists, E. Ahmet Tonak and Sungur Savran state that the present state of capitalism can best be described as a Great Depression starting in 2008. They point out that […]

Ecology

Climate, Degrowth and Ardnacrusha

In a speech delivered in November 1920, Lenin exclaimed the famous line: “Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country.” In the sentences that followed, Lenin goes on to explain how such a plan has to be long-term, lasting at least a decade, with an army of […]

Socialism

On Democracy

The word “democracy” comes from Greek and means “rule of the common people”. We are told that we in the Western world are democratic. But it is hard to see choices being given to the workers with their input as the rule of the common people, or the common people […]