Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
Dublin may not boast quite the same scene as other cities, nor does Ireland in general, but no journey through any urban centre is devoid of the plague of advertising or of the sight of its counterpart, graffiti. Opposing sides of the same coin, they both involve the co-option of […]
I was 16 years old, sitting in an A-level politics class in a college in the middle of London when suddenly my teacher asked the class, “Why did we go to war with Iraq?” Her question filled me with fury and I abruptly answered, “It isn’t a war, it’s an […]
Western Europe has been the scene of climate activism for many years. Driven by the reality of our changing climate, activists take desperate action to demand their governments uphold their agreement to reduce their carbon footprint. In few places was this more evident than in Germany. In the months leading […]
Early in March, Leo Varadkar said, “renters need landlords, and landlords need renters. We don’t have enough landlords.” As the leader of the largest landlord party in the Dáil, it is unsurprising that this is his proposed solution to the housing crisis. It is also unsurprising that in the same […]
Brendan Behan was born after the foundation of the Irish Free State and during the Civil War, on 9 February 1923, into a working-class family of house-painters. Behan’s people sided with the Republicans. One of Behan’s uncles, his mother’s brother Peadar Kearney, wrote “A Soldier’s Song,” and another uncle, P. […]
A chara, Ba chóir do Choillte diúltú don socrú seo le hinfheisteoirí. Tá Éire, lena haeráid bhog mheasartha (téite ag Sruth na Murascaille) an-fheiliúnach do chrainn dhúchasacha. Ach le míle bliain anuas laghdaíodh méid ár gcoillte go dtí 1%. Faoi láthair tá níos lú ná 12% den talamh faoi chrainn, […]
Siblings by the GDR writer Brigitte Reimann has just been published in an English translation by Penguin in its series of classic international literature. In this novella we have an authentic female voice communicating what it felt like to live in the GDR just before the Berlin Wall was sealed […]
The Charlie Donnelly Winter School returns to Dungannon on Saturday 11 March and will again be hosted by the Hill of the O’Neill and Ranfurly House. The centre will play host to a series of presentations and discussions on the ideals and legacy of the Dungannon-born revolutionary socialist poet who […]
On the 8th of March, International Working Women’s Day is celebrated. This celebration has been watered down and stripped of its history by liberal feminists and the ruling class. Marxists understand the important role that women have played throughout the history of socialist movements. Here in Ireland, seeing the importance […]
Democracy is a combination of two Greek words, dēmos (people) and kratos (rule). As societies change, some words wither away, some new words come into existence, and some words change meaning. Democracy has a broader meaning today than in ancient Greece. The democracy of the ancient Greeks had its limitations […]
In April, the 25th anniversary of what was called the “Good Friday Agreement” will be marked. The name “Good Friday” was no doubt the invention of the best media and advertising gurus, who were asked to come up with a catchy title for it, and they did. The agreement has […]
In 2017 the Trade Union Left Forum published an article that speculated about the link between increasing household debt and reduced strike action. The article suggested a relationship between growing debt and inequality and reduced worker militancy. The full article and the statistics used are available at http://www.tuleftforum.com/debt-inequality-industrial-action-chicken-egg/, but a […]
“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 […]
More than a century has passed since the end of the First World War. In that interval Ireland has known some bitter conflicts; but, tragic as these have been, they were confined to this country. With the exception of the Belfast Blitz during the Second World War and the North […]