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(13/12/07) North: New Socialist Party site launched - click here to view
 We are pleased to announce the launch of our new look site for the Socilaist Party in Northern Ireland. Click here to go there.
(12/12/07) Solidarity Appeal: US anti-war student suspended in attack on activism
 Last Friday, December 7th one of the students at Foster High School in Tukwila, WA involved in Foster Student Action was given a 9 DAY suspension supposedly for "having an Ipod out in class." However, the real reason she was suspended was because she and other Foster Student Action activists dared to collect petition signatures at lunch period the day before requesting that teachers who allowed the November 16th antiwar student walkout to happen get to keep their jobs. Emails of protest and solidarity are needed.
(10/12/07) Chavez: Chavez loses constitutional referendum
 The constitutional referendum called by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela on December 2 has unfortunately and tragically resulted in a defeat. For the first time in nine years Chavez has lost an election. The right wing opposition will claim this victory as theirs. This defeat for Chavez will embolden and strengthen the rightwing and is a warning of the threat that exists from the counter revolution. 50.7% voted no to the proposed changes with 49.2% voting yes with 44% abstaining.
(08/12/07) Leaflet: People and planet before profit!
 While climate change effects our planet as a whole, it is the world’s workers and poor who will bear the brunt. If major action is not taken to halt climate change then 600 million more people in sub-Saharan Africa will go hungry from collapsing agriculture, 400 million more will be exposed to malaria and 200 million people will be forced to migrate due to rising sea levels, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
(04/12/07) UCD: International solidarity wins a victory for victimised students
 The close to a hundred emails and phone calls received by the UCD authorities from around the world protesting against their attack on the right to protest has forced them to back down. Darren Cogavin and Enda Duffy, both of whom were facing possible fines for engaging in peaceful protest against Shell and Green Party Minister Eamon Ryan have met with the Vice President for Students. All indications are that Darren and Enda will face no punishment.
(28/11/07) End the Health Crisis: Unions must organise people power campaign
 The government’s record speaks for itself. Their answer to the lack of hospital beds has been to support the building of private hospitals on public land. This policy will cost the taxpayer €1.2 billion and will not provide the 15,000 beds needed. Their answer to cutting the waiting lists wasn't to invest more money and resources in the public health system – no they have paid the private health sector to treat 70,000 public patients. And there are still up to 240 people on trolleys in A&E on a daily basis.
(28/11/07) URGENT SOLIDARITY APPEAL: UCD students victimised for protesting against Shell and government ministers
 A member of the Socialist Party, Darren Cogavin, and one other student, Enda Duffy, are due to meet the Vice President for Students at University College Dublin (UCD), Dr. Martin Butler, in the next week. They face punishment for engaging in a peaceful protest against the giant corporation Shell and the Green Party Minister for Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan. Emails and phone calls of support and solidarity are needed.
(28/11/07) Dublin Bus: Strike ends with concessions
 Between 12-18 November, 450 Dublin Bus workers at the Harristown depot in north Dublin took official strike action against management attempts to force through changes in working conditions. The dispute began when management reneged on a previous agreement made when the Harristown deport opened in 2004, that all routes would begin, break and finish in the depot and not in the city centre as is the case with other garages.
(28/11/07) Pakistan: Musharraf's second coup - A desperate attempt to stay in power
 Brutal state force has been unleashed on protesters and opponents of the regime in Pakistan, as General Musharraf has in reality launched a second coup. He has suspended all fundamental rights and replaced the constitution with a “Provisional Constitutional Order”, cracking down on opposition forces and opponents within the state apparatus. Constitutional guarantees of free speech, free movement and free association have been suspended.
(28/11/07) North: Victory to the Classroom Assistants
 The classroom assistants’ magnificent strike against attacks on their pay and conditions and cuts in children’s education has continued to win the support of the vast majority of people, including of those parents whose children are affected by the strike. This is despite an avalanche of propaganda from the education & library boards, from the mainstream media and from the Assembly Executive.
(28/11/07) North: Socialist alternative needed against sectarianism
 Recent events have served as a warning that unless a working class alternative is built to fill the political vacuum against the capitalist policies of the Assembly, sectarian forces which at this time remain isolated and small can at a certain point fill the vacuum and cause major sectarian conflict to re-ignite.
(16/11/07) Now Online: New leaflets added to the archive
 Socialist Party leaflets in support of the Dublin Bus workers and the Classroom Assistants in the north are now available online.
(26/10/07) Health Cuts - Health Crisis: Free public healthcare for all!
 Bertie Ahern's stuttering utterances in the Dail reached a sickening new low when he spoke of the death of cancer patient Susie Long. Ahern said "I know there are problems… very regrettably, the system did not live up to its standards in that case." The truth is that Susie Long died because of the two-tier health system. A system which exists because of the historic failure of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Labour and the PDs to build a free national health service, accessible to all irrespective of income.
(26/10/07) Susie Long (1966–2007): She struck a blow against the privatisation of healthcare
 The recent untimely death of Susie Long was widely covered in the media in the South. Susie made a powerful impression in January of this year when she spoke on RTE radio of how she had developed terminal cancer of the colon. It was a tragic and shocking story.
(26/10/07) Special Feature: Africa consumed by war, poverty & disease
 Over the past number of years the horrific plight faced by the population of Africa has increasingly affected the outlook of radical young people and workers across our globe. This was shown by the 200,000 strong demonstration organised by the "Make Poverty History" campaign in Edinburgh in July 2005. See Also: URGENT SOLIDARITY APPEAL: Nigerian socialists arrested & imprisoned.
(26/10/07) Aer Lingus: Only action can defeat bosses attacks
 In mid-October, Aer Lingus was pulled back from the brink of a potential lock-out, when management and the pilots’ union agreed on terms and conditions for pilots at the new Aer Lingus base in Belfast and established a framework for how the opening of more of these bases will be dealt with in the future.
(26/10/07) North: Water charges, cuts, privatisation... Fight the Assembly's attacks
 The Assembly Executive has only begun to implement its right-wing agenda of cuts, privatisation and business hand-outs, but has already faced stern opposition from classroom assistants, forced to take all-out strike action to defend their conditions. Classroom assistants have learnt that the most effective way of forcing management and the Executive into negotiations and a partial retreat from attacking historic terms and conditions, is to organise and take militant action.
(26/10/07) Refuse Collection: Dublin councils planning to privatise bin collection services
 When the bin tax was introduced by Local Authorities in Dublin and Limerick around 2002, The Socialist Party warned that, if allowed to be implemented, the price would rapidly increase and there would also be a move toward privatisation of the household waste collection service. Unfortunately on both counts we are being proved correct.
(25/10/07) Nigeria: Imprisoned students get world-wide support
 As students and other protesters marched to the courthouse in Oshogbo on Tuesday, 23 October, simultaneous embassy pickets took place across Europe. More are planned and messages continue to be sent from places as far afield as Colombo (Sri Lanka), Dublin (Ireland) and Sao Paolo, Brazil.
(22/10/07) URGENT SOLIDARITY ACTION: Nigerian student leaders framed on charges of conspiracy to murder
 The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights in Nigeria is appalled at the news that three student leaders of a major Nigerian university are being held in prison on trumped up charges of conspiracy to murder. They were elected by the students of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, to fight against plans of the university and state authorities to commercialise and undermine education provision and to attack the students’ rights to organise and resist.
(20/10/07) History: 90th anniversary of the Russian Revolution
 The capitalist media have made little comment on the 90th anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. Yet on the 80th anniversary in 1997, capitalist commentators and historians produced books and articles seeking to denigrate revolutions in general and the Russian Revolution in particular. This year, just one such book, The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia has so far been published. We look at the events of the October revolution and ask: does this comparative silence have something to do with the changed background to discussion about the events of October 1917?
(17/10/07) Report: Over 200 people at public meeting on Che Guevara
 Over 200 people crammed into the ballroom at Wynn’s Hotel, in Dublin city centre, on Tuesday night, 9 October. They came to hear CWI Secretary, Tony Saunois, speak on Che Guevara and the fight against capitalism today. The event was part of a series of meetings throughout Ireland which the Socialist Party is organising to mark the 40th anniversary of Che’s execution in Bolivia, in 1967.
(15/10/07) Sacked Belfast Airport workers: Protest ends after commitment from union to cover costs
 The two sacked shop stewards who occupied the rooftop of Transport House in Belfast have finished their hunger strike after a 24 hour protest. They have now secured cheques owed to them from the outcome of their victorious Industrial Tribunal case which had been tied up in a legal dispute between their solicitor and the T&GWU/Unite.
(09/10/07) Latin America: A continent in revolt against imperialism and capitalism
 The following is an introduction to the new Brazilian [Portuguese language] edition of the Peter Taaffe's book, Marxism in Today's World. We are publsihing this extract on the 40th Anniversary of the murder of the great Argentine revolutionary Che Guevera in Bolivia by the forces US Imperialism - the same forces that still plauge the people of Latin America today.
(08/10/07) Reviews: It's a Free World, The War on Democracy, Anno 1701 and more
 In a special edition of International Socialist Voice we publish a selection of reviews from our international comrades. Books, DVDs and games reviewed include two excellent new films by radical filmmakers Ken Loach (It's a Free World) and John Pilger (The War on Democracy), the Nintendo DS governer simulator Anno 1701 and seven recently published books inlcuding Consumed, Young Stalin, Gay Life & Culture and The Real Oliver Twist.
(03/10/07) New Online: Over twenty articles added to Socialist View Archive
 We are pleased to announce that we have added a collection of articles from our theoretical journal Socialist View to the website. The articles are from 2006's Summer and Winter editions and cover topics such as Palestine, Iraq, Bolivia, Rossport, the NI talks, People Trafficking, the Spanish and Hungarian Revolutions and reviews of books and DVDs. Click the above link to go to the archive.
(03/10/07) North: 2,000 classroom assistants hold one-day strike
 The strike seriously rocked the Assembly. Minister Caitríona Ruane displayed schizophrenic tendencies, by claiming she sympathises with the classroom assistants and demanding the boards and the unions get together and resolve the dispute, while, at the same time, the minister told the boards ‘nothing extra’ could be offered to the strikers, without her permission.
(020/10/07) 40th Anniversary of Che Guevara's death: Che's relevance today
 Forty years after his death a new generation of young people walk the streets with Che Guevara images on shirts, bags and hats. While for some it is a fashion statement, for many others it is a political declaration. They identify with the legacy left by Che Guevara as a symbol of struggle, defiance, internationalism, and for a better, socialist world. Today's establishment politicians and institutions are increasingly viewed with disgust, while Che is justifiably viewed by these young people as an incorruptible, principled revolutionary fighter.
(01/10/07) World Economy: Credit crunch threatens global downturn
 The global capitalist economy has been hit by a major credit crunch. The collapse of the sub-prime mortgage business in the US, brought home by the collapse of two hedge funds managed by Bear Stearns investment bank, provoked panic on money markets. The effects have already spread much wider than the housing finance sector. As a result, there is a paralysis of inter-bank lending and a seizing up of big sections of the wholesale money market.
(28/09/07) Africa: Workers' struggle and capitalist nightmare
 Africa has seen an economic boom in the 2000s, with an average growth of 5 % a year since 2001. Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the continent quadrupled over the last six years. For the masses, however, this upswing has offered no improvement, rather worsening conditions. Nigeria's biggest city, Lagos, is a city of “crime, poverty, nightmarish congestion, an almost total breakdown of services. We have no fuel, no food, water, no light, no free education” described a man working at the rubbish dump.
(27/09/07) Burma: Army shoots peaceful protestors
 The ruling military junta in Burma (Myanmar), terrified by continuing opposition protests and demonstrations, used the police and military to try to crush mass protests, on Wednesday, in the largest city, Yangon (Rangoon). The ‘security forces’ opened fire and used tear gas to violently disperse peaceful demonstrators in the heart of the city. Reportedly, four monks and two other protesters were shot dead and more than 300 were arrested.
(21/09/07) Unions must act: Stop €245m health cutbacks
 The crisis in the health service has deepened with the announcement by the HSE of cutbacks to deal with a €245 million "overspend". Hospitals around the country have been ordered to implement a recruitment ban, to lay off temporary and agency staff, and despite what Minister for Health, Mary Harney, has said – patients will suffer. Senior HSE management at Cork Uni Hospital have outlined a series of proposals in an internal document seen by The Socialist entitled "Cost containment initiatives". A fancy phrase for health cutbacks!
(21/09/07) Falling property market: 10 year housing boom is over
 There are conflicting views on what is happening with the housing market. Some economists are arguing that the sharp drop in the number of houses being built will eventually stop the decline in house prices and create a new property boom even as early as the new year. This is very doubtful. The housing boom ended mainly because houses became too expensive. In the last ten years house prices rose on average by 350%.
(21/09/07) North: Classroom Assistants, Postal Workers - Strike against low pay!
 The announcement that postal workers are to resume strike action in September and the magnificent 93% vote by classroom assistants across Northern Ireland to take all-out strike action against low pay are indicators that a new phase of workers struggle is underway which will challenge the neo-liberal agenda of bosses and the Assembly.
(21/09/07) Iraq: US 'surge' is another failure
 Petraeus and Bush are attempting to deny reality when they claim that US Imperialism can achieve victory in Iraq - the reality on the ground is that their surge has failed and defeat is not a matter of if but when. The failure of the surge is illustrated by the fact that the Iraqi Red Crescent Organisation claims that the number of internally displaced persons has jumped from 500,000 to 1.1m since the surge began in February.
(21/09/07) Mahon Tribunal: D'Taoiseach's dodgy dealings
 The information that has been put together by the Planning Tribunal regarding the financial affairs of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in the 1990s is highly instructive. In December 1993 some business friends of Mr Ahern who was then Fianna Fail Minister for Finance, gave him £22,500. It was supposedly a loan to help him pay some debts but hadn’t been paid back by 2006, 13 years later.
(23/08/07) Top 1% have €100 billion: End the great wealth robbery!
 The race to the bottom in workers’ wages and conditions is gathering pace. Aer Lingus management have declared war on its workforce, as they shift operations from Shannon to Belfast in an attempt to drive down wages and impose poorer working conditions. If they get away with it then the jobs, wages and working conditions of all Aer Lingus staff will be under threat. It's happening across all sectors of the economy and in particular in the construction industry.
(23/08/07) Heartless and barbaric: The deportation of Great Agbonlohar
 Great Agbonlohar and his family’s deportation underlines the barbaric nature of this government’s immigration policy. Great is a six year old autistic Nigerian child, who has lived with his mother Olivia and twin sister Melissa in Clonakilty, Co. Cork since March 2003. He and Melissa were born in Italy and have never been to Nigeria.
(23/08/07) Feature: Will India & China rescue world capitalism?
 The constant threat of job outsourcing to China, India and Eastern Europe, has been consciously used as a weapon to dragoon workers into accepting lower wage increases, worsening conditions and the whole neo-liberal mantra. At the same time, we are promised that China's growth will stretch into the future, thus ensuring that 'modern capitalism' can, unlike the past, escape recessions and slumps.
(23/08/07) North: Smash Brown's pay restraint - Build for a one day public sector strike
 Public sector workers are determined to resist Gordon Brown’s attempt to hold down wages. Brown wants a limit of 2.5% on public sector pay rises. A growing mood of militancy is developing in opposition to the miserly rises now on offer. This has been shown most dramatically in the postal workers’ dispute. Postal workers have been rock solid in the days of strike action called by their union in July and August.
(22/08/07) Press Release: Sacked Belfast shop stewards to commence hunger strike
 The sacked Belfast shop stewards are to start a hunger strike in Transport House in London (Transport House, 128 Theobald's Road, Holborn, London WC1X 8TN) unless the T&GWU meet their demands for an inquiry and meet their legal and other costs. This follows their legal victory over their former employer ICTS.
(17/08/07) Shannon Airport crisis: Aer Lingus and government betrayal
 There was palpable anger at a meeting of Aer Lingus workers at a meeting in Shannon Airport where Aer Lingus Chief Executive, Dermot Mannion, officially announced the move from Shannon to Belfast. Workers jeered, heckled and booed Mannion during his speech and many workers walked out of the meeting when Mannion indicated that he would not answer questions from the workers. The primary reason for the Aer Lingus decision is an attack on the jobs, wages and conditions of Aer Lingus workers.
(17/08/07) Leaflet: Government & Aer Lingus Betrayal
 The decision of Aer Lingus management to axe the Shannon to Heathrow routes is a declaration of war on working conditions and jobs. Like Irish Ferries, it shows what a disaster privatisation is and that bosses are intent on imposing a 'race to the bottom'. These routes are profitable. If this agenda of greed and maximizing profits is accepted it is clear there will be no end to the attacks on pay, and jobs and the living standards of Aer Lingus will be devastated.

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