Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
In the early 1950s American companies wanted to invest in Ireland so that they could expand into the European market; and Irish corporation tax policy was adapted for them. In 1956 export profits tax relief was introduced. Exports of manufactured goods were zero-rated (no tax); so American companies that exported […]
Every so often, history presents us with an amazing affirmation of our humanity, a sense of continuity, the passing on of the torch. This applies supremely to Robert Burns’s song “For A’ That.” Burns was highly regarded in the USSR Robert Burns, born on 25 January 1759, lived in an […]
Ideology has dominated the Irish housing sector since the outset. There is no period in history, even during times of relatively robust state house-building, that could be said to have had a stable or working housing system. From tenements to failed housing experiments to bubbles, the Irish story of housing […]
An introduction After hearing the minister for housing, Eoghan Murphy, declare the Government’s response to the housing crisis—namely changing planning regulations and restrictions for developments and the clear impact it would actually have—it reminded me of a small pamphlet that I picked up in Connolly Books back in 2008, Land […]
In its electronic newsletter in mid-December the web site German Foreign Policy (german-foreign-policy.com) reports on the launch of the European Union’s new “Military Union” strategy. The report states: “The German Government has announced that the EU Military Union will be officially launched this Monday, with the EU Council formally adopting […]
The merger of Impact, the Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU) and the Public Service Executive Union (PSEU) will create a new 80,000-member, largely public-sector union, to be called Fórsa, in 2018. Towards the end of 2017, 86 per cent of Impact members who voted supported the merger; 76 per […]
Has the wage system hidden the class nature of our society, where one section—the capitalist class, the owners of finance and industry—exploit working people, the wealth-producers? It is this class that enforces the wage system, as they are the paymasters at the end of the day. Working people enter into […]
Most of the campaigning on zero-hour contracts and precarious work has dealt (rightly) with the retail industry, with Mandate leading the way. The education sector, however, has increasingly been hit by very similar conditions, which is an example of the growing impact of the state’s neo-liberalism. Part of the neo-liberal […]
In the unlikely event that any of our readers have invested in a significant number of shares in the British company Curry’s PC World, they would be well advised to sell before too long On a pre-Christmas visit to one of their larger stores I was surprised to find some […]
In 2016 James Wickham and Alicja Bobek produced a report for TASC into working conditions in Ireland in which they identified “enforced flexibility” as the major development in employment conditions for workers in all industries following the crisis. This enforced flexibility comes in a number of forms. For some it […]
At the time of the last general election in the South it was in vogue to remark that the only thing Sinn Féin were unsure of was whether they wanted to become the next Labour or the next Fianna Fáil. Now, in the light of the events of recent years, […]
Many people in Ireland yearn for a change of government, to one that would govern in the people’s interests and not renege on electoral promises once they enter Dáil Éireann. A noble dream it may be, but how real is it? Let’s briefly look at the Right2Water campaign. The CPI […]
The Campaign for Public Housing is not looking for concessions or for tweaks to the existing housing policy. The state’s housing policy has been designed to fill the pockets of landlords, developers and financiers with rents, subsidies, and tax breaks, as it was designed to do. That strategy is clearly […]
Lenin wrote Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism in 1916 to address an issue that had been raised by J. A. Hobson and Rudolf Hilferding in their works about the changing nature of capitalism towards the end of the nineteenth century. Lenin recognised that the war then taking place was […]
The Department of Education and the media have for years hyped up the idea of schools “ditching the textbooks and going digital.” In particular, Microsoft Showcase Schools are “innovative,” where “digital books” and “tablets” replace “old-fashioned” books This apparently is the great leap forward—but is it? For Microsoft it will […]
On 31 October 1517, Martin Luther made public his 95 Theses against the widespread practice of selling indulgences and clerical corruption. He attacked the Church’s claim to be the sole interpreter of the word and intentions of God and defended ordinary human entitlement to God’s grace without Church involvement. The […]