Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
JUST AS the coronavirus is wreaking havoc in the United States, and has also begun to affect Venezuela, the Trump regime has decided to step up its aggression against Venezuela, which can only obstruct the country’s efforts to safeguard the health of its population from the threat of the pandemic.
António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, has appealed for an end to all economic sanctions on account of the pandemic.
NICARAGUA’S SUCCESS in containing the covid-19 virus makes the failure of the United States and its allies look pathetic. The country’s low numbers of nine confirmed cases to date and just two fatalities categorically vindicate the policies of its Sandinista government, led by President Daniel Ortega and Vice-President Rosario Murillo.
The same is true of other revolutionary and socialist governments around the world. Cuba has given a shining example of global leadership and solidarity. Most notably elsewhere, Venezuela, Viet Nam and India’s state of Kerala have also implemented diverse but successful policies containing the pandemic.
THANKS TO the current pandemic, Ireland was unable to publicly remember the Easter Rising of 1916, its aspirations for an independent socialist republic, its heroic leaders. Many of these leaders were poets and writers. Patrick Pearse’s poem “The Wayfarer” was written on the eve of his execution, in Kilmainham Gaol.
The beauty of the world hath made me sad, This beauty that will pass; Sometimes my heart hath shaken with great joy To see a leaping squirrel in a tree,
Or a red lady-bird upon a stalk, Or little rabbits in a field at evening, Lit by a slanting sun,
The capitalist mode of destruction – Eoghan O’NeillDownload The great global crises (they come in threes) On Thursday 12 March many of us watched Leo Varadkar announce (in Washington) “the closure of schools, pre-schools and further and higher education settings for a period until 29 March 2020, to support efforts […]
The covid crisis demands a new beginning – Tommy McKearneyDownload People of Ireland, all is well! Your Taoiseach loves you. Wasn’t this what he told us in his St Patrick’s Day address to the nation (that part of it living south of the border)? His concerned yet confident demeanour was […]
The covid-19 pandemic now sweeping the globe has exposed the underlying weaknesses and inequalities in many societies, particularly here in Ireland. Global debt stands at $250 trillion, with corporate debt already enormous, while trillions of dollars are swirling round in stock markets and in tax havens, stashed away by powerful […]
Is coronavirus the problem? Over the course of the next few years we will hear the same excuse over and over again. The social and economic crises we are experiencing the first moments of will be levelled at the feet of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.1 Like all great lies […]
Class solidarity, not social partnership – Jimmy DoranDownload The trade union movement must not compromise on “social partnership” after this pandemic is over. It is not our class that must compromise but the ruling class, as the failure of capitalism has been exposed beyond all doubt as a result of […]
“It is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism.” Fredric Jameson The global coronavirus pandemic has spread across the world, leaving incalculable, indescribable tragedy in its wake. The lives of every human being on the planet are being today, or will soon be, somehow […]
Cuba’s medical internationalism – Graham HarringtonDownload “Whoever cannot fight for others will never be sufficiently able to fight for themselves.” Fidel Castro Since 1960, socialist Cuba has sent 400,000 doctors and nurses to more than 164 countries to share their medical expertise. Internationalism has been a part of the Cuban […]
Dictatorship: Who decides? – Seán Ó MaoltuileDownload The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas. Karl Marx (1845) Once from the pulpit, now from the mass media, the elite of society have always sought to ingrain within us an acceptance of our own subjugation. The […]
“Ironically and cynically, both the US and the European Union impose these sanctions under the guise of protecting human rights when in fact the sanctions always impact negatively on the human rights of the civilian populations. Ireland is complicit in these breaches of international law by virtue of its membership […]
A time that called for giants – Jenny FarrellDownload The great Italian painter and architect Raphael died 500 years ago, in April 1520. He lived at the time of the High Renaissance, one of the most progressive periods in history; as Engels put it, “it was the greatest progressive revolution […]
“Ireland without her people is nothing to me,” James Connolly wrote in 1900. This phrase has been repeatedly quoted, in isolation, especially by those who wish to promote a workerist and non-national (or anti-national) view of James Connolly. Anyone who reads the sentence intelligently can see that Connolly condemned those […]
Call for submissions Culture Matters is taking an initiative in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis to compile a second anthology of working-class writing. We hope it will be one way for working people to creatively express their anxieties, experiences and thoughts about various aspects of their lives in these […]
The CPI expressed its solidarity with all those affected and who will be affected by this growing health crisis, and to the health staff and emergency services in the front line. The health services across the country from Belfast to Cork are wholly inadequate, having experienced over a decade of harsh austerity cuts, bed closures, lack of investment, staff shortages and the prioritisation of private corporate medicine over a decent well-funded public health system.