Category Archives: Proletarian politics

“However, our politics must be working-class politics. The workers’ party must never be the tagtail of any bourgeois party; it must be independent and have its goal and its own policy.” — Friedrich Engels, Apropos of Working-Class Political Action

Working Class Hero

There is a fairly widespread argument concerning the working class that goes something like this: The Working class is now only a small fragment of the population. The old class politics is therefore permanently dead and can not be resuscitated. … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Proletarian politics | Comments Off on Working Class Hero

Podemos: what is it?

Podemos is a new political option in the Spanish state. For now it is not much more than an idea, and it will go for elections for the first time for the European Parliament, a contest wherein–for reasons I will … Continue reading

Posted in Politics, Proletarian politics | 2 Comments

Spontaneity, control and socialist organization

In this article I wish to write down some of my thoughts on socialist organization, more specifically on spontaneity and control within the working class and how this relates to socialist organization(s). The thinking underlying this article starts with the … Continue reading

Posted in Critique of the Left, Proletarian politics | Comments Off on Spontaneity, control and socialist organization

Socialist Party Resignation Statement

This statement has been drawn up by the following recently resigned members of the Socialist Party: Andrew Phelan, Megan ni Ghabhlain, Richard O’Hara, Pamela Rochford, Stephanie O’Shea and Jimmy Dignam. Notes: Tragically, Rob Ryan passed away before this statement was … Continue reading

Posted in Proletarian politics | 4 Comments

The democratic road: marxism’s greater vehicle

Movements are never uniform. Where humans meet to achieve a common purpose, more likely than not, divergences exist: on ends and means, on commitment and focus, on vision and motivation… Even the sort of movement Nechayev proposed in his mad … Continue reading

Posted in Critique of the Left, Politics, Proletarian politics | 1 Comment

Interview with a member of the Communist Party of Canada

This is our second audio interview, this time with a young cadre from the CPC. We hope you find it as interesting as we do, and that this won’t be our last. Hopefully we will keep bringing you diverse communist … Continue reading

Posted in Politics, Proletarian politics | Tagged | Comments Off on Interview with a member of the Communist Party of Canada

Review and Analysis: Patterns of Betrayal

In 1992, the Workers’ Party published a pamphlet: “Patterns of Betrayal: the flight from Socialism”. The pamphlet details the events leading up to the split in the Workers’ Party, including several primary source documents. The contemporary Left in Ireland is … Continue reading

Posted in Proletarian politics | 2 Comments

The European Monetary Union and the Left

Recently a 45 page report written by Heiner Flassbeck and Costas Lapavitsas was issued by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, “The systemic crisis of the euro – true causes and effective therapies”. They later popularised their report in a Guardian article. The … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Proletarian politics | Comments Off on The European Monetary Union and the Left

Why I am no longer an anarchist

What follows is an outline of my personal process of ideological formation. The process of changing ones world view is in my experience a gradual one. All world views will have places in which they do not match up quite … Continue reading

Posted in Critique of the Left, Politics, Proletarian politics | 2 Comments

Provisional thoughts on Egypt

Between January and October 1850, Karl Marx wrote a series of four articles on the revolutionary situation in France for the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, which were collected and published with the dreadfully uninspiring title Class Struggles in France: 1848-1850. Decades later, … Continue reading

Posted in Bourgeois politics, Politics, Proletarian politics | Comments Off on Provisional thoughts on Egypt

European Left Summer University

The European Left Summer University was held between July 3rd and 6th. Organised by Bloco de Esquerda of Portugal, the University was a three-day series of lectures and seminars on the key issues facing the European Left, the party of … Continue reading

Posted in Proletarian politics | 1 Comment

The ties that bind: historical memory and present struggle

After having received 12 years of schooling in Ireland, I think it’s not too outlandish to say that history is a means to the formation of national identity, one which inculcates in the population a more or less patriotic conception … Continue reading

Posted in History, Proletarian politics | Comments Off on The ties that bind: historical memory and present struggle

The roads to power: capitalist democracy and socialist strategy

This article comes from an abortive book project that I was working on about five years ago. The questions that it raises about political strategy for the radical left now appear far more pressing than they did when I wrote … Continue reading

Posted in History, Proletarian politics | 1 Comment

The Philosophy of Science

As we saw in Part I, scientific progress is used by the capitalist class as a tool for the expulsion of labour from the workforce by way of technological improvements, which enables them to increase profits. This fact was immortalised … Continue reading

Posted in Philosophy, Proletarian politics, Sci-tech | Comments Off on The Philosophy of Science