Ireland

We reproduce willingly this article that first appeared on the éirígí website. Faced with the current financial meltdown the author poses the choice bluntly: “Every person in Ireland has a choice to make. Do they support a ‘free’ market or do they support a free people? And if they choose a free people they need to make one more choice – to become politically active and join the struggle for a free, socialist Ireland.”

Ireland has been hit hard by the credit crunch. The country has gone from one of the highest rates of growth to bust. The government is being forced to intervene with guarantees, but as could be expected they are aimed at sustaining the rich not the ordinary working people.

We publish the recent editorial of The Plough, which stresses the need to adopt the Marxist method and approach within the Irish republican movement, to raise the class issues at the same time as struggling for a solution to the national question, one being inextricably linked to the other.

An interesting comment, that appeared in the recent edition of The Plough, on the present state of the Irish economy, north and south of the border.

In spite of all the main parties, big business, the media and even most of the trade union leaders campaigning for a "yes" vote in yesterday's referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, the "No" won the day. This was a slap in the face for the Irish government and the European Union bosses.

Ireland, after a long period of economic boom, is now feeling the effects of the worldwide slowdown. Some have made big money, but at the other end of the social spectrum there are many who have lost out. Now is the time to raise the banner of genuine socialism within the Republican movement and the working class as a whole.

In looking back at the Good Friday Agreement, Gerry Ruddy points out that it has served to stabilise British rule in the North as Sinn Fein has been absorbed into the establishment. In this situation he stresses the need for republican socialists to focus on working class and socialist policies.

After the Easter 1916 uprising the actual class conditions that motivated the likes of James Connolly and the trade unionists who set up the Irish Citizen's Army to battle capitalism were written out of history. Radical ideas were demonised and Connolly's Marxism was airbrushed from history.

For the interest of our readers we publish a speech delivered by Paul Little (of the IRSP Ard Comhairle) on Sunday, 23rd March, at the Republican Socialist Plot, Milltown Cemetery, Belfast. He explains that the aim of the IRSP is “to oust imperialism, oust capitalism in all its guises and end the occupation and exploitation of the Irish working class.”

In February five members of the IRSP were brought before a court in Dublin, a clear case of state harassment. It is an attempt to silence any left criticism within the Republican movement. We publish here three articles explaining what is behind all this and we call on all our supporters to support these comrades.

On February 23 three comrades of the International Marxist Tendency attended the Republican Socialist Youth Movement's (RSYM) winter day school in Belfast. Jim Daly, Sean McGowan and Bernadette McAliskey spoke on various aspects on the question of Republicanism and Socialism and the role of the working class. Francesco Merli spoke on Venezuela. There was keen interest in the ideas of Marxism and the school bodes well for the development of the RSYM. A HOV speaker also took part in this year’s Connolly Festival on February 22 and 23, while Labour Youth organized another talk on Venezuela in...

The second edition of Alan Woods' book on Ireland, Ireland: Republicanism and Revolution, has just come out, the first edition having sold out. It is now available again to order from Wellred Books.

Over 150 years ago Ireland lost a staggering 13% of its population to death by disease and starvation. How could it be that Britain, which was still the richest and most powerful country in the world, could not prevent this horrific death toll? The answer is simple ‑ the British ruling-classes did not want to minimize the death toll, on the contrary, they welcomed it!

We are publishing here an interesting piece on the Irish trade unions by Peter Black, an active member of the TGWU (now fused with Amicus to form “Unite”) and the Irish Republican Socialist Party. Trade union membership is growing in Ireland, as is the militancy of the working class and Socialist Republicans, in the tradition of James Connolly, can play an important role in providing the militant leadership the Irish workers deserve.

Last week an important dispute flared up at the Dublin Bus company over new work schedules. Although the strike was called off today, the present article, written last week, gives an idea of the militant mood that exists among Dublin's bus workers.