The Troubles and Good Friday Agreement

SWP on “anti-imperialism”: cowardice and opportunism

The Socialist Workers Party’s immediate response to the 7 October massacre of Israeli civilians (“Rejoice”) and its repeated statements of support for Hamas — all that is aimed at presenting an image of being the most militant “anti-imperialists” in the hope of recruiting people who are appalled by Israel’s horrific actions in Gaza Now, the SWP’s hatred of Israel and Israelis is long-standing. But its “tough-guy” pro-Hamas stance is sheer opportunism and entirely in line with a record of inconsistency and cowardice. The SWP’s forerunners, the Socialist Review group, started out in 1950 on the...

An open letter on Brexit to Irish people in Britain

Brexit means the xenophobic and reactionary unravelling of the European unity that has taken many decades to knit together. And for Ireland, Brexit threatens nothing less than the catastrophe of a new partition. Isn’t it time that the Irish population of Britain raised a collective voice against Brexit? There are 430,000 Irish immigrants in Britain, and millions of people of recent Irish descent. Yet there has been no outcry from this potential power in British politics against the wrong being done to Ireland by Britain. In Britain Brexit has led to the creation of a government under a buffoon...

Rayner Lysaght and Sean Matgamna debate "Socialism, Ireland, and permanent revolution"

On 9 November 2018, 7:30 at the London Welsh Centre, 157-163 Grays Inn Rd WC1X 8UE, Rayner Lysaght, author of "The Republic of Ireland" and many other books, debated Sean Matgamna of Workers' Liberty on the perspectives of Irish politics. Opening speeches, part 1 Opening speeches, part 2 Summing-up speeches Ireland: theory, history, debate. Contents page Solidarity 485 carries interviews with Lysaght and Matgamna outlining the ideas they will debate. Interviews by Martin Thomas: read below, or click here for Lysaght , and click here for Matgamna --- Rayner Lysaght: Threading together struggles...

The story of Martin McGuinness

The young Martin McGuinness was a typical Catholic boy who grew up in the six north-east counties of Ireland, in the Protestant-sectarian backyard of the British state, the "Protestant sub-state for a Protestant people". The sub-state had a one-in-three Catholic minority. In McGuinness's Derry, two miles from the border with the 26 Counties, it was the other way round: there was a Catholic majority of two-to-one. In the Protestant state for a Protestant people, inconveniences like that could be dealt with by a little judicious gerrymandering of election boundaries. The Protestant one-third...

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