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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.
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.
A Basque Marxist was
on a speaking tour of the North of Ireland at the end of October. He spoke to
audiences in Belfast, Strabane and Derry mainly composed of republican socialists, but not
only. There was keen interest in seeing how the experience of the Basque
situation could be applied to the North of Ireland, and vice versa. We make
available here a report, originally published in The Plough, the journal of the
Irish Republican Socialist Party.
Last week the Executive in the North of Ireland presented
its budget. It has been presented as a budget that will create jobs, improve
services and reduce poverty. A closer look reveals tax concessions and
incentives for the bosses and cuts in jobs and social spending and increased
taxation for the workers. They are preparing social turmoil in the future.
Michael Collins was a great
Irish revolutionary and nationalist who more than any one person may be
considered to have created modern Ireland. On 22 August 1922, 85 years ago, he
was killed in an ambush during the Irish civil war - he was 31 years of age.
A
Speech delivered in Barcelona Wednesday August 1st 2007 to a gathering of
Marxists from around the world by Gerry Ruddy, a member of the Irish Republican
Socialist Party.
Some disturbing events have been taking place in the south
of Ireland, where two IRSP members have been arrested and are being held under
the notorious “section 30”. This is clearly a case of political victimisation
and should be condemned by all socialists.
As Gerry Ruddy
explains, "The issue of the national question in Ireland is at heart a class
question. The division of the country into two separate states has encouraged
sectarianism, seriously dividing the working class and allowing the continued
exploitation of all workers." This while in the recent period the IRSP in the
South of Ireland has come under attack from political policing.
The armed struggle is over. Class struggle is the only option. Those who ignore the class question and stand alone on their "republican principles" stand condemned to remain in splendid isolation. We now live in different times and the old certainties now no longer hold. We all on the left need to forget our petty differences and become relevant to the lives of the working classes in Ireland while keeping alive our vision of socialism.
