Socialist Party

The Con-Dem coalition government is gearing up for a massive onslaught against the public-sector in the autumn. Meanwhile, local councils are pushing through harsh cutbacks in local services. This has to be met by determined action by workers and working-class communities. Socialistparty.net reports on preparations for the fight-back – with lessons drawn from the struggle of Liverpool city council and the anti-poll tax campaign.

I am just finished doing a science PLC (Post Leaving Certificate) course and I found the science aspects of the year interesting enough, the trouble is only half of my classes are science based the other half are classes designed simply to stretch out the year.

Business and media circles are agog at “the most significant development in philanthropy” for many decades. Forty US based billionaires have pledged to give half of their wealth to “charity” while living or on their death.

The “Giving Pledge” was initiated by two men said to be the richest in the world, Bill Gates founder of Microsoft, whose wealth is estimated to be about $40 billion and Warren Buffet coming in at $37 billion.

On August 28, the right-wing populist Tea Party Movement, an assortment of conservative organizations, and Fox News commentator Glenn Beck will descend on Washington, D.C. for the so-called “Restoring the Honor” rally. For the black freedom movement, August 28 marks the 47th anniversary of the great March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Dr. King’s oratorical benchmark “I Have a Dream” speech.

The selection of this day by the Tea Party Movement and Glenn Beck is blatantly intended to tarnish the memory of that historic day when the Civil Rights Movement marched to demand that President Kennedy and Congress end Jim Crow in the South and extend full citizenship rights to African-Americans.

All citizens who value the need for publicly owned vital infrastructure would have experienced a shudder of fearful anticipation last month when the Minister for Finance established a Review Group on State Assets and Liabilities.

Towards a 24 hour all-European general strike!

The international day of workers’ action, called by the European Trade Union Confederation for 29 September, could be an event of major importance for the working class movement and the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) . The day itself, which will see co-ordinated protests, action and general strikes, has the potential to shake the continent. Europe’s capitalist governments are intent on continuing their brutal war of austerity and attacks against the working class, at the behest of their masters: the international markets. It could play a decisive role in hammering home the power of the international working class and stop their savagery in its tracks. The CWI will work enthusiastically to mobilise workers and youth to take action on the day, under the banner of international struggle and solidarity, against Europe’s axe-wielding governments and the dictatorship of the capitalist markets.

Accordging to the Police Federation of Northern Ireland, dissident republican groups have been responsible for carrying out an average of two attacks a day since the beginning of the year. These attacks range from high profile car bombings targeted against the police and army to so-called punishment shootings in Catholic working class areas. Regardless of how “successful” they are in the attacks they carry out, socialistparty.net argues they have nothing to offer but a return to sectarian killings

Trotsky’s key 1938 work shows rich application of the method of Marxism

On the 70th anniversary of the death of Leon Trotsky, on 21 August 1940, Peter Taaffe examines one of the great revolutionary key texts, ’The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth Intenational’, also known as the Transitional Programme, and its relevance today.

Imagine being turned down after a job interview. Then imagine checking an employment website some time later only to find an ad for that same job, word for word, except for the fact that it is now a "Work Placement Programme"- a job where your only "pay" is a few words on your CV. There are now a range of job advertisements on jobbank.fas.ie offering nine-month, full-time contracts, each declaring that "This is a work placement programme and does not offer a salary."

Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play, A Doll’s House was greeted by a storm of outcry and controversy when it was first staged. In A Doll’s House, the protagonist Nora, a housewife and mother, comes to the realisation that she has never been able to develop as a human being as she’s been constrained by being seen and treated as a little more than a sweet little doll, initially by her father and subsequently by her husband. The play ends with Nora deciding that the only way she can grow as a human being and break free of the social constraints objectifying her, is for her to leave the family home, including her children.