InDepth – Northern Ireland

We publish below a new introduction by Peter Taaffe to Leon Trotsky’s ‘Permanent Revolution’, which the comrades of Socialist Movement Pakistan (CWI) are to translate into Urdu and publish.

Introduction to new Urdu edition of ‘Permanent Revolution’ by Leon Trotsky

What relevance does Trotsky’s Theory of the Permanent Revolution have to the problems of the workers’ cause or the peasants’ (small farmers) movement today? After all, it was formulated more than 100 years ago during the first Russian revolution of 1905-07. The same kind of question could be posed – and it is – regarding the ideas of Marx and Engels, Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg. But no matter how ‘old’ is an idea – a method of analysis upon which mass action is based – if it more accurately describes the situation today than ‘new’ theories, it retains all its relevance in the modern era. This is particularly the case for the masses in the neo-colonial world – and especially today in the vital country of Pakistan with more than 200 million inhabitants – confronted as they are with all the terrible problems flowing from the incomplete capitalist-democratic revolution.

Thousands demand dissolution as political crisis deepens

The BBC World Service has reported that on Wednesday 6 April, “Thousands of Thai anti-government protesters - known as "red-shirts" – [have] marched on parliament, amid high political tension in Bangkok. The red-shirts forced MPs to call off a session and some breached security to enter parliament’s grounds…”

An IPSOS/MRBI poll published in June in the Irish Tines showed Labour as themost popular party in the Irish Republic with 32% support. This had never happened before in the history of elections or opinion polling in this state.

This poll was merely the most dramatic of a series of polls showing a big increase in support for Labour since the 2007 General Election. This rise in support is particularly strong in Dublin here polls are consistently showing Labour with more than 30% support.

Tommy Black calls for immediate statement from Libraries NI over future of Woodstock Library

Concerned library staff have informed Socialist Party campaigner Tommy Black that management have announced plans to close Woodstock Library in East Belfast only weeks after Libraries NI chief executive Irene Knox announced it would “remain open”.