Theory & History
Socialism: How could a planned economy work?
The discussion about how a planned economy would work is a crucial one for the workers’ movement and the oppressed.
80 years after his assassination: The life & ideas of Leon Trotsky
This year, 21st August marks the 80th anniversary of the death of Leon Trotsky in Mexico following an assault at the hands of a Stalinist agent. Alongside Lenin, Trotsky was the central Bolshevik leader of the October revolution in Russia which created the world’s first workers’ state. He would wage a lifelong struggle against both capitalism and Stalinist dictatorship.
James Connolly’s revolutionary socialism
We live in turbulent times; just seven months into a new decade and it has been totally dominated by crises, especially in the form of the pandemic and the economic crisis it has detonated.
100 years since the Belfast Pogroms: A warning from history
This week marks 100 years since the outbreak of the Belfast pogroms, when the city saw significant sectarian violence and the expulsion of an estimated 10,000 men and 1,000 women from their workplaces, starting in the shipyards and spreading to other workplaces. The violence also spread to the Belfast slums with 22 killed and hundreds wounded. It was the start of a period known as the first ‘Troubles.’ Between June 1920 and June 1922, 428 people were killed and tens of thousands kicked out of their homes, similar to the early phase of the later ‘Troubles.’
Review: One Man’s Terrorist by Daniel Finn
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Provisional IRA. This new book, One Man’s Terrorist: A political history of the IRA, is therefore a timely study of this movement. Seán Burns looks at the book and the lessons that can be learned for today.
Ten Years of Tory Rule
When researching for this article, it came back to me that, around the time the Tories first came to power, the mainstream media often referred to “Broken Britain”. A decade on from then and any serious examination of the facts shows irrefutably that first Cameron, then May and now Johnson have only broken it further.
75th anniversary of VE day: What do socialists say?
Friday 8th May marks the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. In the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown, the establishment are appealing to the ‘Blitz spirit’ and the sense that we’re all in it together against a common enemy. These appeals are as empty now as they were in the midst of the horrors of fascism and war.
Peter Hadden – a life of struggle for workers’ unity & socialism
On the tenth anniversary of his death, we re-publish the following obituary of Peter Hadden, a leading member of the Socialist Party and our International, who played a key role in developing a Marxist understanding of the national question in Ireland.
Socialist classic ‘Divide and Rule’ republished
This year, the Socialist Party intends to re-print some of Peter Hadden's key works, which we think will be an assist for a new generation looking towards socialist ideas as an alternative to sectarian division. Our first re-print will be of Divide and Rule, written in 1980, in which Peter analyses the period leading up to the partition of Ireland. Below is the introduction to the new edition.
