International Socialists (CWI Scotland)

Turmoil over the issue of the flying of the union flag has now continued across Northern Ireland for six weeks. The protests, blocking of roads and frequent rioting began on 3 December when Belfast City Council voted to fly the flag over City Hall on seventeen "designated days" only rather than 365 days a year. Since then, there have been protests almost every day-including a small protest on Christmas Day.

If you vote ‘No’ you will be exiled to Siberia! Just about the only threat the Irish people have not been menaced with over the past few weeks. Don’t be surprised if it yet emerges, as we enter the last week of the campaign around the Referendum on the Fiscal/Austerity Treaty.

Posted 13th March 2012

It is clear that hundreds of thousands of households will refuse to register or to pay the household tax in Ireland. The only issue is whether this number will be more than half a million, more than three-quarters of a million or more than a million itself.  With big numbers deciding it is better to break the law than to break the poor, this is a key first step in a major campaign of civil disobedience. Watch this Video produced by the campaign to help build a mass opposition to mobilise for the "Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes"

Two weeks ago, fierce rioting took place around the Catholic Short Strand enclave in predominantly Protestant east Belfast, in Northern Ireland. Petrol bombs and other missiles were thrown and shots were fired in some of the worst rioting in the area for a decade. The PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) used water cannon and fired plastic bullets.

The general election in Ireland was historic but not for the reasons being stressed by the would-be new government partners of Fine Gael and Labour. It is that true both parties achieved unprecedented successes at the polls but these are pyrrhic and temporary victories. The election results are also extremely significant because it marked the emergence of the United Left Alliance, which won five seats.

The imminemt general election in the Irish Republic was called because the dominant coalition party - Fianna Fáil - collapsed out of office in utter disarray. 14 years of its rule in the interests of major developers and bankers has bankrupted Ireland, causing mass unemployment, drastic reductions in take home pay, and forcing tens of thousands of young people to emigrate.

Joe Higgins, Socialist Party Ireland MEP, condemns the bondholders and financial speculators at a press conference in the European parliament following the €90 billion "bailout" of Ireland which will mean huge cuts in living standards for the working class in Ireland. 

 http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/4684

Sunday 21 November, the day the Irish government formally applied for a bailout to the EU and IMF, should be marked as the day that the Irish capitalist class were exposed as a rotten, despicable failure, bankrupt in every sense and incapable of offering any way forward. The significance of these developments cannot be overstated; they are a turning point in Irish history and will impact on other countries in Europe and the EU itself.

“This was MURDER”

Re-publication of article from the Militant newspaper (CWI in Britain – predecessor of the Socialist)

More analysis on the outcome of the Saville report investigation into the massacre of 13 civilians by British paratroopers on on Sunday, 30th January 1972 will follow soon on socialistworld.net. Below we publish an article carried in Militant, newspaper of the Militant tendency (CWI – predecessor of the Socialist Party) on that tragic day’s events.

Withdraw troops - Replace with Armed Trade Union force Militant 4th February 1972

Working class people need their own alternative

On the 5th February the DUP and Sinn Fein agreed a deal on policing, justice and parades. The deal was announced in triumph as a "historic breakthrough" by First Minister Peter Robinson of the DUP and his deputy Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein, sitting alongside Gordon Brown and the Irish Taoiseach (PM) Brian Cowen.

Ciaran Mulholland, Socialist Party, Belfast