… Once a fortnight the train comes through the Kuyan-Bulak railway station. …Then the whole of Kuyan-Bulak, Hare Spring in the local language, gathers on the platform. The cobbler Vasily Solntse and the community leader’s wife in an antediluvian smock, Semen Nikitish Trobka and the Red Army soldiers … Two […]
Socialism
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Lenin on the emancipation of women
Lenin once said that socialism alone would bring the emancipation of women, which Nadezhda Krupskaya, in the preface to The Emancipation of Women by Lenin, said “we see coming true.” However, while socialism and the changes it brings generally to the economic aspects of society are good for oppressed groups, […]
Irish communists’ visit to China
Part 2 ■ Part 1 was published in the August issue here The Communist Party of Ireland recently accepted an invitation from the International Department of the Communist Party of China to attend the 3rd Communist Party Leaders’ Delegation of North American, Oceanian and Nordic Countries at three venues in […]
Working-class unity
Last month’s Socialist Voice had an article on “learning with the people.” The writer made the point about its content that “is anything being said that hasn’t been said a thousand times before? Almost certainly not.” While that may be true, it seems that it’s often forgotten. Socialist movements are […]
Innovative activism: Learning with the people
To my eternal embarrassment, it’s only in very recent times that I realised that, in the scale of human existence, capitalism was actually a very young system of living—or existing. For some reason, I never thought to see it in terms of age. It would seem obvious now, but it […]
Prometheus and the Fire
The film Oppenheimer begins with a mention of Prometheus, the Greek god who is cursed by Zeus for not abiding by the law, stealing fire and giving it to humans in the form of knowledge. Oppenheimer is portrayed as a present-day Prometheus who is applauded for using his knowledge of […]
Interview with Temur Pipia, 1st Secretary of the Unified Communist Party of Georgia
Q. What are the biggest ideological legacies that frame the current situation in Georgia. What role for instance, does the legacy of soviet Russia play in Georgian society today, and what has been the impact of the neoliberal turn that really took off in the mid-2000s? After the collapse of […]
On Chingiz Aitmatov
One of the lasting effects of the continuing Cold War against all socialist thought and culture is the West’s denial of the art of socialist countries. This affects all genres in all the socialist countries. The work of these artists is rarely readily available to the general public, and sidelined […]
Multipolarity and US Hegemony
With the defeat of socialism in Eastern Europe, the United States enjoyed a unilateral ability to shape the world in its own image. Countries which had struggled for national liberation in Africa, South America and Asia were forced to submit to the institutions of imperialism which had been created after […]
Private property is the lock; socialism is the key
It has been revealed by Sinn Féin TD Eoin O’Broin through parliamentary questions that the Department of Housing underspent in excess of €1.5 billion between 2020 and 2022. O’Broin has said that the underspend could have been used to build 40,000 homes. In 2020, €92.7m was underspent; in 2021, €441m […]
“No ethical consumption”
“No ethical consumption under capitalism” is a phrase that is often bandied about with no real connection to its origin. It’s used to provide cover for superfluous hauls and conspicuous consumption (or overconsumption), the line of thinking being that “if no choices are ethical then I can and should be […]
Do not manage poverty
As inflation is making essential goods ever more expensive, increasing numbers of people are relying on food banks. Politicians and the ruling class blame covid-19 and the war in Ukraine for the “cost of living crisis.” Working-class people know otherwise.
Left unity
The Cost of Living Coalition had many people taking to the streets during the protest march on the 24th of September. The coalition was a broad range of left-wing organisations, such as People Before Profit, the CPI, the Connolly Youth Movement and other grass-roots movements, such as activists from mica […]