Browsing Tag

Daniel Waldron

18 posts
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Water Charges: We Won’t Pay!

The threat of water charges is back on the agenda. In a statement regarding the next Northern Ireland budget, Tory Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris said that “difficult choices cannot be deferred any longer” and that water charges are one of the options under consideration.
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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.

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New Decade, Same Approach

Almost exactly three years after its collapse in the wake of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scandal, the Northern Ireland Assembly reconvened on Saturday 11th January and elected a new Executive. This followed an agreement between the DUP, Sinn Féin and the British and Irish governments, entitled ‘New Decade, New Approach’.

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Labour defectors launch ‘Independent Group’

In late February, the long predicted Blairite split from the Labour Party – or at least its first wave – finally emerged, with the resignation of seven MPs to launch the so-called Independent Group. They were soon joined by one other from the Labour benches and three pro-EU Tories, including Anna Soubry.

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60 years on: Cuban revolution remains an inspiration

New Year's Day this year marked the 60th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, the overthrow of corrupt, US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista by the July 26th Movement, a guerrilla army led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. This began a process which would see capitalism and landlordism abolished on the island.

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Southern establishment parties offer no alternative for the North

There is an urgent need for a genuinely cross-community, left-wing labour force in Northern Ireland. The surge in membership of the British Labour Party locally in response to Jeremy Corbyn's leadership shows the potential such a party could have if the trade union movement swung its weight behind the project. However, to break through the sectarian morass, a labour alternative here will need to be both anti-sectarian and also adopt left and anti-austerity policies, rather than the failed politics of Blairism or the Irish Labour Party.
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Bolsonaro victory poses threat to poor and oppressed

A misogynist, racist homophobe, he has been called the 'Trump of the Tropics'. In reality, he poses a more profound threat even than Trump, partly because his own politics are more extreme but also because of the recent history of military dictatorship in the country (ending in 1985), remnants of which are still very much alive in the armed forces and other state institutions.