Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
The terms left and right originated following the French Revolution. In the French national assembly, the right comprised aristocrats and the rich. The left comprised the poor and working class who demanded democracy and wanted more tax on the rich. Throughout history, the concept of left and right has changed, […]
To the Marxist it is indisputable that a revolution is impossible without a revolutionary situation; furthermore, it is not every revolutionary situation that leads to revolution. What, generally speaking, are the symptoms of a revolutionary situation? We shall certainly not be mistaken if we indicate the following three major symptoms: […]
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, emboldened by recent election results, are confident enough to return to policies that feather the nests of the ruling class. They have created the narrative facilitated as always by their lackeys in the media that inheritance tax is “too punitive and unfair and needs to […]
The M-C-C’-M’ circuit means Money (M) which is exchanged for Commodities (C) – including labor power which also becomes a commodity in a capitalist society – involved in the production process to produce a value-added commodity (C’) which is sold for more Money (M’), and thus the accumulation of capital […]
Two rival positions are circulating regarding the British and the North. The first is the British have no interest in maintaining the North. Lord Alderdice recently revived this argument in an interview online, claiming the Irish government, not the British, block unity. The second is that the British want to […]
We are in a pivotal moment in the global anti-war movement. Not since the Iraq war and the start of the so-called “global war on terror” have we seen so many people actively engaged in direct action, political education, boycotts and sustained protest. Rarely, if ever, has the racism and […]
The European Central Bank interest rate has been set as high as 4% which is a record interest rate since the 2007/8 credit crisis. The premise justifying this high interest rate is that the previous practice of setting the interest rate at zero, if not negative, rates caused a massive […]
150,000 public sector workers recently undertook a 24-hour strike across the North. The demand was principally in relation to pay. Adding fuel to worker discontent are strained public services, which impact labour effort via intensification but also relativity of pay. Northern Irish workers’ salaries compare unfavourably to equivalents in Britain. […]
On 18th January 2024, 150,000 public sector workers joined together in a wave of strikes across the North. The main reason for this strike was pay. Workers were demanding pay increases that match inflation. Public sector workers’ pay has been falling behind inflation for more than a decade: more than […]
A long time ago, around 2007, I published an article on some technical blog about how online platforms such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and the likes can potentially manipulate the masses into revolting and rioting by propagating a skewed version of reality. Back then Twitter was still using SMS messages […]
“It will always remain one of the best jokes of democracy, that it gave its deadly enemies the means by which it was destroyed”: these are the words of Joseph Goebbels, the man in charge of propaganda in Nazi Germany. Nazis came to power democratically through elections and then subverted […]
Almost a year ago, President Xi Jinping made a historic visit to Riyadh, followed by several landmark deals. Trade between the two reached $106bn in 2022 – almost double the value of Saudi Arabian-US trade. Recently, the central banks of China and Saudi Arabia have agreed on their first currency […]
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 […]
Farmers always give the appearance that the last penny is in their pocket. Or better, hasn’t reached it yet. They might have 500 or 600 acres and they would still say, “It’s only a hobby.” No money in it, and talking about “giving it up” for fifty years. And yet […]
In the preface of his book SuperIntelligence, Nick Bostrom writes: “The human brain has capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities (language, technology and complex social organization) that we owe our dominant position on the planet.” The question is whether these capabilities will […]
Small business owners, farmers, tech enthusiasts, workers, and environmentalists are forming an unlikely alliance, fighting for the right to repair our own stuff. How did it get this way, and what is the Marxist perspective? In this article I will dig deeper into the “right to repair” movement. Planned obsolescence […]