Socialist Voice March 2023 March 15, 2023
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The March issue of Socialist Voice is now available online: https://socialistvoice.ie/category/article/latest/
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Contents:
Capitalism and democracy
by Sajeev Kumar
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 […]
International Working Women’s Day
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 […]
Commemorating an Irish anti-fascist hero
by Editors
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 […]
Peace and pacification
by Barry Murray
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 […]
Debt and strikes
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”
by Laura Duggan
“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 […]
Sleepwalking into war
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 […
How long will Europe suffer for the United States?
There is a saying that generals always fight the last war. They plan for future wars based on the tactics of the previous wars. Only when war commences and changes in technology etc. become evident are tactics adjusted to take account of the new situation. That saying came to mind […]
A story of global terrorism
by Anonymous
12 January 2019: The US ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, writes to companies involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, urging them to stop working on the project and threatening them with sanctions if they continue. 2019: The RAND Corporation (an American think tank), in a report […]
Boom or bust?
by Jimmy Doran
In Ireland the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and more people are falling into poverty every day. The Central Statistics Office is the statistical agency responsible for gathering information relating to economic, social and general activities and conditions. It collects and “analyses” this type of information […]
Northern Ireland Protocol: Part of an inter-imperialist struggle
Statement on 1st anniversary Ukraine war
Ná Díolaimis Coillte Do Chreach-Chistí
by Editors
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
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 […]
Borstal boy | Brendan Behan, on the centenary of his birth
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. […]
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Prize for the worst article in Stalinist Voice goes to Tommy Mckearney who managed to write a whole article without referring to, much less objecting to Russia’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine. As usual, no recognition of the agency of the Ukrainian people: note the reference to “Zelensky’s forces” presumable meaning that the struggle against Russian imperialism is being carried out by some ragtag US backed militia rather than being a massive struggle with the clear backing and involvement of the vast majority of Ukraine’s population, including it’s trade unions.
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I was struck by the logic of the argument that we were open to the threat of a nuclear strike if we jettisoned neutrality. As I know you are, few if any here support giving up Irish neutrality or participating in NATO, but that aside surely if there was a conflagration where Ireland was a primary target (as distinct from secondary or tertiary target, and I’ve read analyses that Shannon simply by its existence as a large airport on the western margin of Europe is a target from the get-go, quite apart from the messing around by our governments over the past multipole decades) then there’s no hope either way – it’s a global nuclear war and everything is finished and neutral or not we all go up. I’m entirely in favour of this state working the UN and other international forums, but it’s impossible not to recall that Russia at the Security Council of that former body who right up to the point when the invasion started was assuring all and sundry that no invasion was intended. And while I fully believe that we should be preparing the ground for any possible future negotiations – if we as a state didn’t actually acknowledge Ukraine’s rights and sovereignty then all Ireland would appear is, far from neutral, simply in the pocket of Moscow.
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