Left Archive: Red Banner, Issue 7, July 2000

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This document joins other editions of Red Banner in the Archive. As noted previously, Red Banner was a socialist magazine published from 1997 until 2016, running for 63 issues. As such that would make it a particularly long-lived publication on the Irish Left.

Its statement, printed in each issue, describes the magazine’s intent:

We intend to present socialist ideas to as many people as we can, and to develop and apply those ideas to the needs of the struggle for socialism today. We wish to contribute, as far as we can, to ensuring that socialism succeeds in rescuing the world from barbarity.

The contents is as usual, wide-ranging. There are pieces on Alliances on the left, Zimbabwe, George Orwell and Jim Dillon amongst others.

The introduction notes:

The past few months have been a time of mixed fortunes for socialists in Ireland. The trade union bureaucracy succeeded in sentencing the workers’ movement to another term of social partnership, while the state whipped up another round of racism against refugees. On the other hand, our argument that capitalist politics was corrupt to the core received further judicial vindication. The ink was no sooner dry on the partnership deal than cracks started to appear. And on an international scale, the wave of rev0lt against global capitalism has continued.

In this issue of Red Banner, Des Derwin analyses the contest for and against the partnership deal and considers the position now faced by socialists in the unions. John Meehan looks at the trend towards alliances among socialists across Europe.

Jonathan Morrison examines the current crisis in Zimbabwe.

Tomás Mac Síomóin gives a scientific perspective on the controversy about genetically engineered foods. Joe Conroy concludes his reassessment of Lenin’s life and work. Fifty years after the death of George Orwell, his attitude towards the working class is examined by Maeve Connaughton. Aindrias Ó Cathasaigh reviews the life of a prominent figure intwentieth-century Irish politics. And we continue to unearth

articles by James Connolly that have been left unpublished since his death.