In the spring of 1920, as the young Soviet Republic struggled for survival amid internal and external siege, Lenin penned “Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder. The pamphlet took aim precisely at those West European communists who considered themselves “more Left” than the Bolsheviks. Lenin pointed out that this “Left-wing” infantilism “regards […]
Politics
Ireland: the Poster Boy for NATO
The Irish political and military establishments, state bureaucracy, mass media and numerous “think tanks” continue in their carefully crafted strategy to end the neutrality of this state and turn our country into an unsinkable platform for NATO. They want this state to be the new poster boy for NATO. The […]
The Politics of Power: Part 2 – The Hierarchy of Rights
This is the second in a five-part series on the politics of power. The first asked what makes rights and freedoms real. This article examines what happens when they come into conflict. Consider a home. To the person living in it, whether tenant or owner-occupier, it is somewhere to live […]
Iceland Says No: A Rejection of EU Neoliberalism and the Surrender of Sovereignty
On 29 August 2026, Icelanders rejected EU accession by 52.8% to 47.2%, on an extraordinary 82.5% turnout. The verdict was a decisive rejection of Brussels’ neoliberal discipline and the erosion of national sovereignty—a rejection that carries profound lessons for Ireland. Iceland’s EU path has been ambivalent. It applied in 2009 […]
Public Sector Pay Talks: A Formula for Pay?
In May of this year, the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, Jack Chambers, TD, published details of an enhanced expenditure control and escalation process to curb what was described as out-of-control spending. It was stated by the Minister that spending was already over the 6% […]
Illusions No Longer Holding the People Enthralled!
In many bourgeois liberal democracies, analysts have become anxious about the “crisis of democracy” – i.e. the loss of support for the traditional parties. Some commentators look outside the system and blame interference by Russian and Chinese state agencies. More realistic defenders of bourgeois democracy locate the crisis within the […]
The People’s Game / The Ruling Class’s Spectacle: The 2026 World Cup in Retrospect
Football is the global language of ordinary people. It is played on any suitable surface (and many unsuitable surfaces) by working people in every corner of the world. But the World Cup stands above this mass, democratic experience, a political and economic spectacle, a plaything of FIFA, multinational corporations, broadcasters […]
Discovering China
Growing up during the cold war, China was a distant, mysterious, menacing spectre. During my new left years, during the cultural revolution, China became a beacon of possibility, when masses seemed to be examining the foundations of knowledge and pushing at the boundaries of the social order. Then it seemed […]
No Basis for Wage Restraint in This Economy
Recent reports on the Irish economy show that Modified Domestic Demand, a better estimate of economic activity than Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Ireland because it strips out some of the distortions caused by foreign multinational activity, rose by 0.3% between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026, spurred by personal spending […]
The Technological Republic?
The 22-point ‘manifesto’ of the Epstein class has been floated by Alex Karp, the CEO of the tech giant Palantir—the company that provided the AI system called Movan Smart Systems, which killed 167 children in a girls’ school during the Iran war and helped orchestrate the genocide in Gaza. The […]
The Anti-Migrant Argument: Deporting the Workers We Depend On
Across Ireland, north and south, immigration has become one of the defining political issues of recent years. From the racist violence witnessed in Belfast to protests outside accommodation centres and anti-immigration demonstrations across the country, a familiar political argument is repeatedly advanced. Migrants are blamed for housing shortages, overstretched public […]
From Russia with Love
St Petersburg (Leningrad), 2026 – If you are considering visiting Russia, let’s cut through the Western media noise: I would genuinely recommend travelling. It is rewarding, eye-opening and surprisingly easy, with one genuine headache: Western bank cards. Before we left, we secured our visa online in under five days – […]
Trump Is Not an Aberration but the Continuum
A question for our readers. Is the Trump presidency an aberration in an otherwise properly functioning governmental structure, or is this bizarre regime symptomatic of a deeper malaise? Let us examine the situation. Donald Trump is an obnoxious, unscrupulous, vainglorious, unprincipled thug. He is also a convicted felon who, as […]
“NATO must become more European to remain transatlantic”
Elbridge Colby, the US Under Secretary of War for Policy, took to Twitter in April to celebrate the EU stepping up to the plate, declaring that “NATO must no longer be a paper tiger”. He said: “Germany is now taking the leading role in this. After years of disarmament, Berlin […]
The Politics of Power: Part 1 – Rights, Power, and Imperialism
This is the first in a five-part series on the politics of power. It begins by asking what makes rights and freedoms real. Later articles will examine the hierarchy among them, the machinery that sustains it, its international organisation through imperialism and dependency, and how working people can build counter-power. […]
Sporting Solidarity: The Campaigns to Break Ireland’s Links with Israeli Genocide
Two grassroots protest campaigns are currently challenging the deep complicity of Irish sporting institutions in normalising the Israeli state’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. The Allianz Amach or Drop Allianz campaign, rooted in Cumann Luthchleas Gael (GAA), and the Stop The Game campaign, targeting the Football Association of Ireland, represent vital and courageous […]
