History
Review: Labour in Irish History - One hundred years of a socialist classic
Written by Cillian Gillespie Wednesday, 08 September 2010 13:43
The publication of James Connolly’s Labour in Irish History 100 years ago this year was a landmark in the development of a socialist and Marxist understanding of Irish history. In this book James Connolly sought to outline the key social struggles of Irish working people uniting all religions and to explain why the struggle for national liberation against British imperialism was inherently linked with these movements.
70th anniversary of the assasination of Leon Trotsky
Written by Peter Taaffe, General Secretary Socialist Party (CWI England and Wales) Monday, 16 August 2010 14:08
Coming mass revolts will see workers and youth look to Trotsky’s ideas
Seventy years ago the greatest living revolutionary of the time, Leon Trotsky, was murdered by Josef Stalin’s hit man Ramon Mercader. There had been a number of failed previous attempts on Trotsky’s life but this time a fatal blow from an ‘ice pick’ successfully destroyed the ‘brain’ of the working class and the symbol of implacable opposition to capitalism and totalitarian Stalinism. This event, celebrated in the Kremlin by Stalin and the bureaucratic elite he represented, also brought joy to the capitalist governments of Europe, America and the world.
Britain - The great anti-poll tax victory
Written by Peter Taaffe, General Secretary Socialist Party England & Wales Friday, 26 February 2010 17:00
How 18 million people brought down Thatcher
The majority of trade union leaders are completely unprepared to meet the onslaught on jobs and public services, the worst for 40 years. But that does not mean that the inevitable resistance is destined for defeat. On the 20th anniversary of the introduction of the poll tax to England and Wales, PETER TAAFFE looks back on the ‘unofficial’ mass movement which humbled the seemingly invincible Margaret Thatcher.
Marxism and the second world war
Written by Peter Taaffe Sunday, 10 January 2010 14:33
The lyrics to Eric Bogle’s haunting folk song, No Man’s Land (The Green Fields of France, or Willie McBride), set against the background of an imaginary young soldier killed in the first world war, are as relevant today on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the start of the second world war which falls on 1 September. War did happen ‘again and again’ with its countless victims and will continue to do so as long as capitalism remains. Indeed, the total number of victims of the second world war dwarfed even the carnage of the first. Estimates of the total number of casualties for the war suggest some 60 million died, 20 million soldiers and 40 million civilians.