The true class nature of the Irish state was exposed recently at the eviction of the Take Back the City group from a house in North Frederick Street, Dublin, when employees of a private security firm, masked and armed with sledgehammers and cutting equipment, smashed into the occupied premises while […]
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The attack on public transport must be resisted and defeated
The Communist Party of Ireland condemns the attempt at further privatisation by putting out to public tender another 10 per cent of Bus Éireann routes. We are not fooled by the standard neo-liberal dual strategy of starving and running down their target, in this case Bus Éireann, through lack of […]
A new constitution for Cuba
Social property will be the main basis for production in Cuba after the adoption next year of a new constitution, and this will continue to be the governing principle of the country’s social and economic life. This was the main message of the Cuban deputy minister of foreign affairs, Ana […]
The Rights of Man
Thomas Paine’s famous work Rights of Man was published in 1791. It was written as a reply to Reflections on the Revolution in France by the Anglo-Irish politician Edmund Burke. Burke’s book was an attack on the principles of the French Revolution, written by a representative of the ruling class […]
Another failure for the right wing in Venezuela
Nobody relying on the news media in Ireland can have any understanding of events in Venezuela. They take their line from the international corporate media (primarily North American, British, and Spanish), which are waging a media war against the government. According to them, Venezuela’s economy is collapsing because of the […]
Freedom becoming
Thro’ the shattered mainstream of life the waste land bears testimony to the shadow Hear mothers wail for dead children whose fathers slave to re-erect the rubble Upon the rubble their fathers erected This alter for sacrificed generations Build fast! Build furious! Erect the citadels of despair Light high in […]
Another world is possible
Twenty years ago, on 8 October 1998, the communist writer José Saramago became the first Portuguese author to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. The first fifty years of Saramago’s life were defined by the fascist dictatorship that ruled Portugal from 1926 to 1974 and his active resistance against it. […]
Robin Hood, Ireland, and the communists
Robin Hood, the legendary outlaw known throughout the world, has an unusual connection with Ireland, and an even stranger connection with the communist movement. No-one knows for certain whether Robin Hood ever existed or was based on a real individual. There are records of people named Robin Hood or similar […]
A Star Is Born
A Star Is Born has been remade for the fourth time and was released in Irish cinemas on 5 October. The retelling follows the familiar story of an aging male star—this time the country singer Jackson Maine (played by Bradley Cooper)—who happens across an ordinary woman whose talent is being […]
Events in Venezuela
Nobody relying on the news media in Ireland can have any understanding of events in Venezuela. They take their line from the international corporate media (primarily North American, British and Spanish) which is waging a media war against the government. According to them, Venezuela’s economy is collapsing due to the […]
Workers in struggle – Lloyd’s Pharmacy: Fighting for union recognition
Mandate has called on Lloyd’s Pharmacy to respect its employees’ right to trade union representation before the management does even more damage to the business. The union responded to a press statement issued by the company to correct serious flaws in its presentation of what is happening and to expose […]
Not seeing the wood for the trees – A technocratic solution to a political problem
The problems facing organised labour in Ireland—declining density, lack of younger members, difficulty engaging contract workers, depleted funds, hostile media coverage, etc.—are well known and familiar to all those involved in the movement today. Many people have posed rather sensible responses to these issues, such as a better use of […]
Unity is strength
The job of trade unionists is to fight the cause of the workers “An Act to Make Further and Better Provision for Promoting Harmonious Relations between Workers and Employers . . .” reads the long title of the Industrial Relations Act (1990), and its predecessors and amendments. The use of the phrase […]
EU myths and Greek reality
Sadly, the journey travelled by the Greek people since 2010 was not some Homeric odyssey, filled with adventure, but rather a living nightmare for millions of Greek people. In particular, Greek workers and their families, as well as small family farmers, have paid a very heavy price at the hands […]
United Bodenstown Commemoration, 2018
The second United Bodenstown Commemoration to honour Theobald Wolfe Tone and the United Irish movement, organised by the Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum, took place on 19 August. Activists came from all over the country—from Dublin, Belfast, Newry, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Cavan, Monaghan, Armagh, Wicklow, and Waterford. A delegation from Scotland […]
External powers strive to exert control
On a wet night in February 1912, Winston Churchill, first lord of the admiralty, addressed a cheering crowd of more than seven thousand nationalists gathered in the old Celtic Park football ground in Belfast. He was there to promote the third Government of Ireland Bill (often called the Home Rule […]