Two important and worrying new laws are on the way in Denmark and in Germany which evidence the ongoing increase in the authoritarian nature of the State across Europe. These laws come in response to the loss of legitimacy that is a hallmark of states in this era of monopoly […]
Politics
Coalition Government Running Out Of Steam and a System That Can’t Be Fixed!
The three party coalition government of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party is clearly running out of steam. Their Programme for Government has failed on many levels, from housing to the environment to healthcare, the list goes on. Their housing strategy has failed as private capital is driven […]
Ruling By Fooling
Fifty years after the collapse of the first attempt to reform the governance of Northern Ireland, the six county state remains a hopelessly failed political entity. Not only is it afflicted with the chaotically dysfunctional local Stormont administration, but lurking always in the background is manipulation by Britain’s Deep State. […]
Review – James Connolly Festival 2024
In a departure from the usual week-long run of events, this year’s James Connolly Festival ran from Thursday to Sunday, culminating on 12th May: 107 years to the day that Ireland lost its greatest martyr and Marxist theoretician, James Connolly. It was at the outbreak of war in Europe during […]
Capitalism’s “good name” is being damaged!
The Tory Housing Secretary Michael Gove has said that Kingspan Insulation in Cavan is “giving capitalism a bad name.” (Irish News, Sat 20th January 2024). Really! He went on to say that Kingspan is trying to “minimise their involvement” in regards to their insulation materials being used in the cladding […]
How prices can rise while a market slows down
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 […]
The imperialist march to war
Mythology refers to Helen’s “beautiful face that launched a thousand ships”. This, according to legend, was the cause of the Trojan war. Whether true or not, what we can say in the modern era is that the face of major war is now the ugly face of capitalism at its […]
NATO killed peace in Ukraine
In early May 2022, Ukrayinska Pravda broke the story that March 2022 peace talks between Ukraine and Russia held in Istanbul were derailed by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Right after the Ukrainian and Russian negotiators agreed on the design of a future possible agreement based on the outcome of […]
People Want It Now!
Thousands of activists have, over time, chanted these well known words. “What do we want, when do we want it”….”Now !!” This is a very well known chorous from all sorts of political demonstrations and calls for change, all over the world. However well intentioned and correct that call may […]
Against Centralised Online Platforms
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 […]
Opinion: Sovereignty and Reunification
A recent article in December 2023 Socialist Voice (“Sovereignty and Reunification”) muses on the benefits of a united Ireland, offering many insights. One argument advanced is that a single island-wide political structure would offer benefits from unified infrastructures, eliminating “duplication” in health and education, for example. This argument raises problems. […]
Book Review: Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
Paul Lynch’s novel Prophet Song winning the 2023 Booker Prize signifies a notable awareness regarding the dismantling of democracy in the Western world. It underscores the realisation that the erosion of democratic principles is a pressing concern that transcends borders and could impact any country. Microbiologist Eilish Stack is married […]
Footsteps of Fascism
“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 […]
On Human Nature
The anti-communists tell us that communism cannot work because of human nature or that Marx failed to consider human nature. This has been met with some of those on the left claiming that humans are too complex or simply don’t have an inherent nature. Dr John Edward Terrell, a professor […]
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 […]
Troubled Waters
Last month, I watched a crowd gather in Amsterdam for a rally in support of climate justice. With 70,000 people in attendance it was the largest of its kind in the country. Although it started peacefully, the pleasant atmosphere turned into one of conflict when Peace Prize winner Sahar Shirzad […]