As Brexit negotiations grind to a halt, big business is entering panic mode. A no deal, “train-crash” Brexit - the one scenario that capitalism wants to avoid at all costs - looms large. And caught on the tracks is Ireland, the only country that shares a land border with the UK. Ben Curry looks at the the chaotic perspective facing Ireland, in the North and the South, as a result of Brexit and the global capitalist crisis.

Shortly after midday on 29^th June, an eleven person jury delivered 6 unanimous verdicts of “not guilty” to spontaneous cheers in the courtroom at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The verdict brings to its conclusion a trial by means of which the Irish ruling class sought to bring an end to the fundamental democratic right to peaceful protest.

110 years ago, in 1907, a strike in Belfast over wages by dockworkers, coal labourers and others united both catholics and protestants against the ruthless bosses. Although ultimately defeated, the strike remains an important historical demonstration of the power of the working class when united.