Updated, 29th Oct. 2006
This page covers from Campaigns to the Democratic Socialist Movement, (Nigeria)
Campaigns by the SP See also the
Water charges articles and
Bin Charges
Dublin Local News in
the Socialist, July-August 2006
Limerick & Cork news in
the Socialist, July-August 2006
Dub West schools crisis in
the Socialist, May 2006
Hains budget means Higher taxes and worse services By Gary Mulcahy From the Nov-Dec 05 issue of
the Socialist.
Socialist Party exposes Estate management fees rip-off By Councillor Ruth Coppinger From the Nov-Dec 05 issue of
the Socialist.
Limerick bins debacle - From the Sept. 2005 edition of
the Socialist
Cork campaigning news - From the Sept. 2005 edition of
the Socialist
Guarranabraher leisure centre Prices are too high! From
the Socialist, August 2005.
By Niamh Dunne
Estate management double tax From the May 05 edition of
Socialist Voice - by Councillor Ruth Coppinger
Non-payment can win - A reply to Gerry Adams From the May 05 edition of
Socialist Voice - Gary Mulcahy
Fingal rezoning victories. This article was in the Feb. 2005 edition of
the Socialist.
Swords rezoning - A recipe for disaster This article is from the Sept. 2004 edition,
Socialist Voice
PLANS TO rezone huge parts of Swords is causing growing anger and concern amongst local people. Ridgewood/ Rivervalley on one side and Castleview/ Applewood on the other, will see an explosion of thousands of new houses being built on an existing green belt. Swords would grow by almost 25% placing further strain on already inadequate local services.
Pressure Labour and Sinn Fein to kick out tax This article is from the Sept. 2004 edition,
Socialist Voice
THE DUBLIN City Council estimates meetings in November and December will be a focus of the anti-bin tax campaigns in the coming months.
By Kevin McLoughlin
Cork: Gurrane residents target City HallThis article is from the Sept. 2004 edition,
Socialist Voice
RESIDENTS OF Gurranabra-her on Cork's Northside will march on the 27 September meeting of Cork City Council to demand a comprehensive programme of traffic calming measures for their community.
By Anthony Hetherington
S Ireland - the anti
bin tax struggle by Kevin McLoughlin Spring 2004 Socialist View
Pay back time at elections
Working class communities in Dublin City and Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown are still not paying the bin tax and local campaigns are preparing for the non-collection battle. By Kevin McLoughlin
Read more here from the April ‘04 Socialist Voice..
Bin Charges campaign – persecuted for costs
Regular readers of Socialist Voice will remember well how on 19 September last, a High Court judge not only sent us to jail but awarded the Council costs against us.
Read more here from the April ‘04 Socialist Voice..
Cork City Council - Face protests across Northside
Working class communities on the Northside of Cork City should use the run-up to the council elections in June to put pressure on City Hall and local councillors for much-needed improvements.
By Mick Barry.
Read this article from Socialist Voice, March 2004.
Don't put the sticker on your bin!
Dublin City Council have begun to send out letters to all householders requesting them to put "Bin Identification Labels" on their wheelie bins. The Council claims that these stickers are to "enable us to give credit to households for each week the service is not used."
By Diarmuid Naessens.
Read this article from Socialist Voice, March 2004.
South County Dublin - Pro-bin tax parties face election trial
Five weeks into the battle against non-collection in South Dublin County Council, the general significance of the battle against bin charges is clear. The mass opposition to double taxation is uniform across Dublin and remains strong.
By Paul Murphy
Read this article from Socialist Voice, March 2004.
Bullying tactics by Dublin City Council: TRUE TO form, Dublin City Council has now employed a debt collector to try and scare people into paying the bin tax.
Read more here from the Feb. 04 Socialist Voice...
Bin tax battle continues: South Dublin County Council Residents resist tag system
Read more here from the Feb. 04 Socialist Voice...
Last December saw a plethora of increased stealth taxes, cuts in essential services and more broken promises from this government. The Voice reviews the consequences of these cut-backs for working class people and communities and looks at who benefits from the government's policies. By Katia Hancke
Socialist Voice, January 2004 - A government of Stealth taxes and savage cuts.
Read more...
Savage 16 cuts - reject Ahern's government of the rich
The Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Coughlan has made effective the "savage 16" cuts worth 55.8 million euro announced in the book of estimates. This is despite the Government finances being 500 million euro more than what was expected.
Socialist Voice, January 2004
Read more...
October Bin Charges Supplement
Bin Tax Jailings: Unions must act
All bins or no bins!
You don't intimidate us
Reports from Dublin South and City areas
A story of solidarity
How we can beat the bin tax
Organise stoppage now!
Join the SP
International support for Joe and Clare
Fight the Bin Tax - Fight Non-Collection By Kevin McLoughlin, Socialist Voice Sept 2003
Blockade the Trucks to Beat the Bin Tax Socialist Voice Sept 2003
News from Days 1-2 of the Fingal campaign, Sept.2003 Socialist Voice Sept 2003
Cork Protests: Sun Valley Protests - Force Council Clean Up
by Mick Barry
Socialist Voice Sept 2003
Defend our public services - Fight the bin tax Socialist Voice, July 2003
As bin tax battle looms, residents around Dublin say: no way, we won't pay! Socialist Voice, July 2003
No to privatisation - Save our public services By Kevin McLoughlin Socialist Voice June 2003
Bin Tax battle looms Socialist Voice June 2003
Joe Higgins Column - Bin Tax battle approaches Socialist Voice June 2003
Government Prepares for Non-Collection, Price Hikes & Privatisation - Stand Firm Defeat Bin Tax
by Diarmuid Naessens, Lisa Maher & Joan Collins May 2003 Socialist Voice
North: £400 Water Charge We Won't Pay May 2003 Socialist Voice
Campaign Against the Bin-Tax: How We Can Stop Non-Collections by Kevin McLoughlin April 17th 2003 Socialist Voice
Build For Battle Against Non-Collection By Diarmuid Naessens April 17th 2003 Socialist Voice
by Chris Henry April 17th 2003 Socialist Voice
High Court Tells Fingal Council - Collect All Bins By Michael Murphy Socialist Voice, March 2002
Campaign Against the Bin Tax: Defy the Courts, Defeat the Tax Socialist Voice, Oct. 2002 by Robert Connolly
Bin tax set to rise: They'll try and squeeze us dry Socialist Voice, Nov. 2002
Campaigns - Bin charges, rent rises. Socialist Voice, Feb. 2003
Campaigns against low pay, rent rises, etc. Socialist Voice, Jan. 2003
Stop the Cuts - Scrap the Charges Kevin McLoughlin Socialist Voice, Jan. 2003
Water Charges Struggle: The Lessons for Today by Kevin McLoughlin in Socialist View, No. 8 Spring 2001
Cut Backs and Privatisation: The Irish Government's New Offensive
by Kevin McLoughlin Socialist View, Feb. 2003
Cabinet papers
1973 papers - Civil war fears revealed - THIRTY YEARS ago, on 1 January 1974, a power-sharing government was established in Northern Ireland. Within months it had been brought down by a Loyalist stoppage and it would be 25 years before another power sharing government was established, similar to the 1973-1974 model. Read more...
1972 Cabinet Papers: Repartition - Still a Threat Socialist Voice, Jan. 2003
Che
Che Guevara - A legacy of struggle
By Daniel Waldron in Socialist View, No. 13 Winter 2004.
Review - Motorcycle Diaries
By Dave Reid in Socialist View, No. 13 Winter 2004.
Che Guevara - symbol of struggle
By Tony Saunois, CWI
DURING 1996 and 1997 numerous books, pamphlets and articles have been published by assorted writers about Ernesto Guevara to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of his execution. Throughout the world he is known simply as 'Che'. He was given this nickname by friends and comrades in struggle when he was in Mexico during the 1950s. Che is a commonly used term in Argentina - his native country. In 1997 young people in Latin America and Europe have begun to wear Che Guevara T-shirts and display posters of his portrait.
China
Mao – The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday
Reviewed by Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party, England and Wales
China: The Rising Force in our Region
Posted on Monday, November 08 by Australian SP Added to Irish Socialist Party site, 14th Nov. 2004
Background feature on history of and current situation in China
1949 Chinese Revolution: The gains of ‘49 squandered by the Communist Party bureaucracy.
Marxists describe the momentous Chinese Revolution of 1949 as the second greatest event in world history, after the Russian Revolution of 1917.
China: Is China heading for a crash?
Rapid economic development over 20 years led some commentators to claim China could deliver sustained global growth. But it has started to falter, and risks becoming a destabilising factor in the world. And the dramatic growth has created vast inequalities within this vast country. Read more here...
Laurence Coates, Sweden. Added August 3rd 2004
Stephen Jolly, a cde based in Australia, wrote this pamphlet after speaking to the mass demonstration in Tainamen Square, China, in 1989.
Read this exciting report here...
Chile
Chile: Student victory in the Socialist, July-August 2006
Chile: One million protest in the Socialist, June 2006
The Lessons Of Chile 1970-73
In an article celebrating 40 years of the Militant newspaper (now the socialist), Roger Shrives looks at how we reported and commented on the tumultuous events of Salvador Allende's government in Chile from 1970 until the vicious coup by the reactionary general Pinochet in 1973. Taken from The Socialist, 16th October 2004.
Victor - An unfinished song By Joan Jara, Reviewed by Tony
Saunois
PINOCHET HAS been sent home to Chile and paid up to half a million
pounds in legal costs by the British government. The same generosity,
however, was not shown to the thousands of victims of his military
dictatorship, prominent amongst whom was the renowned musician, Victor
Jara.
The moving story of Victor Jara, told by his British wife, Joan, was
first published in 1983. It was republished in 1998 to commemorate the
twenty-fifth anniversary of the 1973 coup. This lively and honest biography succeeds in graphically tracing the emergence of Victor Jara's theatre, music and poems, and the crucial role they played in the Chilean workers' movement.
Read more here.
History: 11th September 1973 - Coup in Chile
By Chris Loughlin, Socialist Voice, Sept. 2003.
Chile 1973: Heroism was not enough Tony Saunois
Chile: The Threatening Catastrophe – Alan Woods Sept. 1971
CIE - buses, etc.
Bus workers prepare to fight privatisation
plans July 2004 edition, Socialist Voice
As we go to press a strike ballot of National Bus and Rail Union is
underway. There are high hopes among rank and file members that a
serious approach will be taken by the leadership in demonstrating
opposition to the creeping competition and eventual break up of
CIE.
Step up the fight to save public transport
The decision by the leadership of SIPTU to call off the 18 March public transport strikes has enraged workers in Aer Rianta and CIE. The 18 March was a lost opportunity to stop the Government in its tracks and setback their privatisation agenda Read more here from the April ‘04 Socialist Voice..
Bus workers must take control of the dispute!
On 17 March the SIPTU leadership did the dirty work of Seamus Brennan and the Government by forcing the workers in CIE and Aer Rianta, against their wishes, to call off the 18 March public transport strikes on the basis of meaningless "reassurances" from Bertie Ahern. Read more here from the April ‘04 Socialis Voice..
Name the date for strike action!
On 23 February, Dublin Bus workers took limited strike action in their ongoing campaign against privatisation. The strike action was organised by union leaders from 11.00am to 3.00pm in order to cause the minimum amount of disruption. In doing so the leaderships of the NBRU and SIPTU have once again angered and frustrated many bus drivers, who correctly don't see the point in taking industrial action which has little effect on the Government.
John McCamley, Dublin Bus driver. Read this article from Socialist Voice, March 2004.
CIE: Time for action not talks. At a meeting of 500 Dublin Bus workers on 22 January an angry mood was reflected in the unanimous support given to the idea of strike action to defeat Brennan's plans.
Read more here from the Feb. 04 Socialist Voice...
CIE - Union leaders baulk at action
The leaderships of the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) and SIPTU abandoned talks with the Government on the break up and privatisation of CIE for 24 hours, threatened strike action - met Seamus Brennan for three hours, called off their strike threat and reentered the talks! Read more...
Coke - Boycott Coke Campaign
Campaign to Boycott Coke In co-operation with International Socialist Youth, Socialist Uouth have joined the campaing to boycott Coke. This campaign arises from the repression of Columbian trade unionists.
Collusion
Dirty tricks & collusion will the truth come out?
THE PUBLICATION of the Cory Report into the deaths of Pat Finucane, Rosemary Nelson, Billy Wright and Robert Hamill, and of the Dail report into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, has provided further evidence of the nefarious role played by the British State in the conflict in Northern Ireland.
By Ciaran Mulholland Read more here from the April ‘04 Socialist Voice..
Connolly
The real ideas of James Connolly
And 2 letters about Connolly and Religion. This is an article by Peter Hadden carried in Socialism Today, No. 100. It was followed by 2 letters dealing with Connolly and Religion. Read more here..
James Connolly - Bill Joyce, Militant Irish Monthly, No. 44, June 1976
James Connolly (1868-1916) is one of the outstanding figures in the history of the socialist movement. Born of Irish parents in Scotland, Connolly was active as a leading participant in the labour and trade union movement in both Ireland and America.
Connolly in America - James Connolly and the United States, written by Carl and Anne Barton-Reeve and reviewed by Niall Kelly, Galway, Militant Irish Monthly, February 1980.
James Connolly voted onto 100 'Greatest' people Niall Mulholland writes on the August 2002 BBC online poll:
Cork Cork City Council
Cork: Gurrane residents target City Hall
This article is from the Sept. 2004 edition, Socialist Voice
RESIDENTS OF Gurranabra-her on Cork's Northside will march on the 27 September meeting of Cork City Council to demand a comprehensive programme of traffic calming measures for their community.
By Anthony Hetherington
Face protests across Northside
Working class communities on the Northside of Cork City should use the run-up to the council elections in June to put pressure on City Hall and local councillors for much-needed improvements.
By Mick Barry. Read this article from Socialist Voice, March 2004.
Corruption [See Flood and Morris Tribunals as well]
Call an election now!, carried in The Socialist, No. 20, October 2006
An Garda Siochana - Corrupt and out of control in the Socialist Sept. 2006
The Morris Tribunal in the Socialist, April 2006
Socialist Party Dáil Debate 10th February 2004
Inconceivable That Taoiseach Did Not Know About Rampant Fianna Fail Corruption
Joe Higgins TD, Socialist Party
During today's Statements on the Mahon Tribunal, Joe Higgins called for a full Dáil debate on corruption, and for the Taoiseach to stop hiding behind the tribunals to avoid answering questions about his knowledge of corruption in the Fianna Fail party.
Ahern facing tribunal
Corruption: it hasn't gone away!
"You guys make the mafia look like fucking monks"
Tom Gilmartin, June 1989, speaking after being approached by a Fianna Fail figure for £5 million. Read this article from Socialist Voice, March 2004.
More scandals Editorial March 2002, Socialist Voice
Ansbacher Debate Dáil Eireann, 11th July 2002:
Tourist board scam By Ciaran Crossey Socialist Voice, Nov. 2002
Corruption: Put the system on trial! Kevin McLaughlin Socialist Voice, Nov. 2002
Morris Tribunal: Garda corruption exposed Socialist Voice, Nov. 2002
Cuba
Cuba after Castro?, carried in The Socialist, No. 20, October 2006
What are the prospects for Cuba today? by Peter Taaffe, cwi, 2005.
The Cuban revolution, which triumphed over the hated Batista regime 46 years ago, in January 1959, has endured many predictions of its imminent demise. Two new timely books on the subject, ‘Cuba: A New History’, by Richard Gott, and ‘The Real Fidel Castro’, by Leycester Coltman, go a long way to explain the durability of the revolution but, at the same time, the dangers which are still posed by the implacable hostility of US imperialism – underlined by the posture adopted by George Bush in his second term.
CWI Documents, etc.
Building a mass socialist international
This article is a reply, by Peter Taaffe, from the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI), to an article by John Percy, Secretary of the Australian Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP - formerly the Democratic Socialist Party), carried in it's journal, Links no. 25, January to June, 2004).
Interview with Venezuelan revolutionary socialist
This article is from the Sept. 2004 edition, Socialist Voice
Yasmin, a leading member of the Venezuelan revolutionary socialist organisation Utopia attended the CWI summer school in Belgium and spoke to the Socialist Voice.
Joe Higgins Column
This article is from the Sept. 2004 edition, Socialist Voice
He attended the Australian SP conference in mid August
Swedish interview on the history of the CWI
The following article is based on an interview last Autumn made by Marcus Kollbrunner with Arne Johansson. Arne has been the editor of Offensiv, the Swedish Marxist newspaper, from its start in 1973. He was also one of the founding members of the Committee for a Workers’ International in 1974 and is still a member of the CWI’s International Executive Committee. Back in 1973, Offensiv was a monthly paper that mainly attempted to rally together young Marxists within the Swedish Social Democratic Party. Since 1997 it has been the weekly paper of Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna (The Socialist Justice Party), the CWI's section in Sweden.
Interview on the history of the CWI - The CWI was established 30 years ago this month. Our American cdes have carried an interview with one of the founding members, Peter Taaffe Read the interview
Chinese politics: Stephen Jolly, a cde based in Australia, wrote this pamphlet after speaking to the mass demonstration in Tainamen Square, China, in 1989.
Read this exciting report here...
Scotland:- More than 400 delegates and visitors attended the 2004 Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) conference on the weekend of 27 and 28 March 2004 in Edinburgh. This was the fifth, and largest, SSP conference and the first since the SSP's election success of last May when six SSP members were elected to the Scottish parliament. The conference also welcomed the first affiliated trade union delegates. The SSP's membership currently stands at around 3,000. The International Socialists, the cwi in Scotland, is an active and growing section of the SSP. International Socialist member Philip Stott reports below about the conference
CWI statement (17/12/3) on the likely developments following the capture of Saddam
Saddam’s capture will not end Iraq turmoil : “The killing or capturing of Saddam Hussein will have an impact on the violence, but will not end it,” General Sanchez, US military commander in Iraq, New York Times 7 December 2003.
Read more here....
Bali bombings: no to war and terrorism, fight for international socialism CWI analysis, 14 Oct, 2002
CWI May Day Statement, 2003
War and ‘reconstruction’: The lessons of the Balkans, Timor and Afghanistan 16th April 2003
CWI statement Issued, March 20th 2003, Day X
Working people and youth of the world protest against outbreak of war
International Reports from Day X March 20th 2003
International Women’s Day, CWI Statement, 2002
International Women’s Day, CWI Statement, 2001 International Women’s Day, CWI Statement, 2001
The war train departs – 7th Feb. 2003
The bloody occupation of Iraq: Triumph of the US Empire? April 9th 2003
Afghanistan, Islam and the Revolutionary Left
Link through to the CWI site
Clare Daly
Clare Daly Column in the Socialist, April 2006
Local press coverage for Clare Daly, May 3rd 2002
Celestica Closure Press statement May 2nd 2003
Ardagh Glass Closure Joe Higgins and Clare Daly:Press Statement 1st May 2002
Democratic Socialist Movement See the articles on Nigeria as well
Nigerian CWI: Socialist Democracy Special Bulletin – Oct. 2001