A standard cry from Sinn Féin
supporters in the North has always been: “wait until Labour comes to power!” After all, the programme of the British Labour Party over generations has, at
least formally, been in support of an Irish democracy. Surely the close ollaboration with Unionism would
come to an end?
Sir
Kier Starmer did not wait for the British general election to upend these
fancies. He said he would campaign for Northern Ireland to remain part of the
UK if such a referendum was held in his lifetime. (read more)
The Starmer - Reeves Labour budget has been lambasted as a traditional tax, spend and borrow budget in the tradition
of old Labour. That’s not true. Old Labour budgets were based on Keynesian ideas of high levels of government
spending to stimulate the economy and on the high levels of profit drawn into Britain through imperialist exploitation. (read more)
The opening of Belfast’s brand-new traffic hub designed
to be at the heart of the North’s new transport policy was hailed as a triumph
of the devolved administration. Yet getting from A to B in Belfast in the past
few weeks has been problematic. As widely reported, the reason is the troubled
opening of the same “travel hub”. Demolition of the nearby Boyne Bridge and the
closure of nearby streets, for perhaps a year, has caused chaos. (read more)
Last month an enormous demonstration in Dublin, linked to ongoing protests around the world, showed the mass
sympathy here for the Palestinian cause. Today’s march will demonstrate that sympathy yet again. Yet the genocide, carried out by Israel with the support of the US, proceeds apace. A mass siege of northern Gaza involves the outright slaughter of civilians, starvation and destruction of the remaining medical facilities. (read more)
Early Wednesday morning, with a victory in Wisconsin that put him above the required 270 electoral votes, Trump won the presidential elections. While it will take days to know the final count, he looks set to win both the electoral college and the popular vote, and has cinched every battleground state. With Republicans cinching other key races, Trump’s heading back to the White House with what looks to be a Republican-led Congress and will have a right wing Supreme Court. (read more)
The dysfunctionality and
incompetence of the Stormont administration is well documented. Responsibility
for this is most often attributed to local political parties. And whilst this
is true it would be wrong to think that politicians are solely to blame. In nearly every scandal that has erupted in
Stormont over the period of devolution, civil servants have been deeply
complicit. (read more)
Palestine Solidarity Bulletin
Bookshelf
As part of a new publishing project Socialist Democracy is
digitising books, pamphlets and magazines from its back catalogue and putting them online for download. Click on
the link below to view the titles that are currently available.
view titles
The 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in April 2023 was met with jubilation and celebration in Belfast. Past and present taoisigh (Irish government leaders), British prime ministers, US presidents and a raft of academics were brought together by the local universities and media in an extended celebration.Yet all is not well. If the decay of the agreement is of concern, the universal failure of academia, of the press, the trade unions and political parties to acknowledge such decay is astounding. John McAnulty provides that missing critique and suggests how Ireland will move beyond this historic inflection to fulfill the revolutionary implications of its initial struggle for freedom.
Buy Now: £6
(includes P&P UK & ROI)
Socialist Democracy statement on neutrality
The headline rush by the Irish government into the ranks of
NATO, the clumsy duplicity of the fake consultation process and the evidence of
impunity in asking a conservative pro-NATO academic, a Dame of the British Empire,
to oversee the process has caused outrage across Ireland. (read more)
10 April 2023
25 Years On: in the debris of the Good Friday Agreement
The 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement is being
marked by assemblies of the great and the good. Joe Biden rushes through the
North, avoiding attention to the barren political landscape. On RTE television
the ghost of Bertie Ahern dominates, while the high point will be the upcoming visit
of Bill and Hilary Clinton and Tony Blair to a celebration at Queens
University.
No-one will remark on the unsavoury character of
these saints of peace. Even less will anyone notice that the fine mansion that
they built is now in ruins. (read more)
Gender identity ideology
Presentation by Orla Ni Chomhrai on why socialists should oppose a dogma which undermines women's rights, gay rights, free speech, and science.
18 October 2021
Ireland's Housing Crisis
Discussion on the housing crisis with Brian Leeson of Eirigi and author Conor McCabe.
17 October 2021
Kevin Keating (1949-2020)
Rayner O' Connor Lysaght
(1941-2021 )