Archive for the ‘Ernest Mandel’ Category
Catherine Connolly Irish Presidential Campaign and Climate Change which threatens humanity
In a Facebook discussion, the Swiss eco-socialist activist Chris Zeller points out that the British “Your Party” makes no statement about climate change which threatens humanity – I wonder has the Catherine Connolly presidential campaign in Ireland made a climate change declaration?
Chris’s statement, which I endorse ” I have the impression that “Your Party” is no exception. In several European countries, we see that the traditional left and the trade unions are more or less consciously putting the ecological challenge on the back burner. I would go so far as to argue that the fossil fuel backlash we are seeing in all key sectors of capital has eaten deep into the traditional left and the trade unions.
We are currently less far along than we were possibly in 2019. However, the Earth system is changing abruptly. The effects will pose a concrete threat to the physical survival of a significant portion of humanity in just a few decades. Yet the imperialist countries – including trade unions and the left – assume that the suffering will spread far away from our societies in Europe and North America.
This, of course, raises important strategic questions. My working hypothesis is that we urgently need to build a transnational revolutionary eco-socialist vanguard.
We need collectives and organisations that vigorously oppose the fossil fuel backlash and the power of fossil fuel capital in general.”
Possibly Catherine Connolly makes a good start here :
John Meehan October 13 2025
“If Northerners had a vote, Catherine Connolly would be our next president” – Justine McCarthy’s interesting comment on the 2025 Irish Presidential Election
This article was published in the September 26 2025 edition of the Irish Times.
If Northerners had a vote, Catherine Connolly would be our next president
Northerners have a vested interest in an election portrayed as seminal for the abolition of partition. But they don’t have a vote
Catherine Connolly’s presidential election campaign would be a stroll to the park if Ireland honoured all its citizens’ rights. Instead, the Independent candidate is being accused of lip service by two parties that have ensured the exclusion of hundreds of thousands of potential voters from choosing their head of state.
Irish citizens living in Northern Ireland are allowed no say in an election that is being billed as crucial to their future constitutional status. Sinn Féin insists the next president must “champion a united Ireland”. Fine Gael says its candidate, Heather Humphreys, as a Presbyterian from a Border county, would symbolically unite the island. Fianna Fáil presents its candidate, Jim Gavin, as being Border-blind due to his involvement with the all-island GAA. Yet those living in the North’s six counties are silenced in the election. Their continuing exclusion reduces them to nominal citizens.
Addressing his party’s annual conference last weekend, DUP leader Gavin Robinson rebuked the Republic for what he called its “institutional intolerance of Protestant culture and heritage” but the southern State’s starker prejudice is against its own citizens in the North. Under the 1956 Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, affirmed by the 1998 Belfast Agreement, people in Northern Ireland are entitled to choose to be citizens of Ireland. As such, the Irish President is their president. Ever since Mary Robinson’s election to the Áras in 1990, the office’s holders have striven to represent them with their presence and their utterances. But across the Liffey in Government Buildings the realpolitik means that extending voting rights to Northern citizens would be electoral hara-kiri, virtually handing Sinn Féin the presidency on a plate.
Read the rest of this entry »What is the problem with Yanis Varoufakis’ appearance in Moscow?
Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis is listed as a speaker at the BRICS Urban Future Forum 2025 to be held in Moscow, Russia, from September 17-18. Jeffrey Sachs was well recieved at last year’s event. Ilya Mateev wonders what Varoufakis hopes to achieve.
1. Education for Russians is good and right. I have no idea of “cancelling those living in Russia” – my approach is precisely the opposite. I do a great deal for education, discussion and bridge-building in Russia, though for obvious reasons I won’t write about this in detail. Overall, I am OBVIOUSLY in favour of any constructive activity involving those in Russia, and I consider this very important.
2. There are no problems with Varoufakis’s book being published in Russian. The book is rubbish and not worth the time spent on it, but that’s another conversation. The very fact of translation can only be welcomed.
3. Varoufakis is a public intellectual and even an activist (well, sort of). He had various options for engaging with Russians. He could have organised a closed Zoom event for Russian readers of his book and spoken with them candidly. After all, his DiEM25 [1] could have taken an interest in Russian opposition and left politics, Russian political prisoners, and so forth. Solidarity at the level of society and grassroots initiatives is both possible and valuable.
4. Varoufakis and his organisation did nothing of the sort. Instead, he went to the Moscow government’s urban planning forum. Such events are dubious in any country – they are thoroughly business establishment affairs, no place for leftists. In Russia there’s an additional factor – war, censorship, the impossibility of even asking a question without risk of criminal prosecution [2]. In such a situation, joining with bankers, developers, Chinese and Saudi surveillance companies is really beyond the pale.
5. Of course, Varoufakis does all this consciously. I think this is how he represents anti-imperialist struggle against the damned West and evil NATO (plus money, attention, first-class flights, etc.). This behaviour (whilst completely ignoring Russian grassroots initiatives) is precisely campism [3] – I’ll hang out with the Kremlin against the White House and Brussels. A dead end in political evolution.
6. The fact that I can’t even call on readers in Russia to ask Varoufakis some pointed question (because I have common sense) precisely demonstrates that he’s wrong to go and is engaging in nonsense. It’s shameful to speak at an event where the audience could get a two-year prison sentence [4] for their questions.
Ilya Mateev is one of the tens of thousands of anti-war Russians living in exile.
P.S.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/ilia.matveev
Translated for ESSF by Adam Novak
Footnotes
[1] DiEM25 (Democracy in Europe Movement 2025) is a pan-European political movement founded by Varoufakis in 2016, advocating for democratic reform of EU institutions and progressive economic policies
[2] Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the country has implemented increasingly harsh censorship laws, including criminalising “discrediting” the armed forces or spreading “fake news” about the war, with penalties of up to 15 years in prison
[3] Campism refers to the political tendency to reflexively support one geopolitical “camp” against another, often leading to uncritical backing of authoritarian regimes simply because they oppose Western powers
[4] Under current Russian law, individuals can face up to two years imprisonment for various speech-related offences, including “discrediting” the military or spreading information deemed “extremist”
Bad Man Dies in Utah, USA – Sniper Kills Charlie Kirk, President Donald Trump Inflames Right-Wing Hatred
A close friend and comrade, Mark Findlay writes :
Seriously, nothing good will come out of this, save a bit of schadenfreude. It will only enrage the far right even more and replacements will be found. Just like the daft idea of shooting Trump. He survived and made the most of it propaganda-wise. I am completely opposed to any idea of assassination of our opponents.
Let’s wait to see the results of the police investigation. At the time of writing no definitive evidence is in the public domain about the identity of the assassin.
Read the rest of this entry »Message of Social Movement (Ukraine) to Palestine Freedom Flotilla * Mensaje de Sotsialnyi Rukh a la Flotilla de la Libertad * Missatge de Sotsialnyi Rukh a la Flotilla de la Llibertat
Ukraine, the Ukrainian left, and the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine (ENSU) were present in Barcelona at the farewell to the Freedom Flotilla in Gaza. A symbolic but very welcome action. We’ve made more friends. The message from our friends at Sotsialny Rukh is below :
Ucraïna, l’esquerra ucraïnesa i XESU presents a Barcelona al comiat de la Flotilla de la Llibertat a Gaza. Una acció simbòlica, però molt ben rebuda. Hem fet més amics. Ara el missatge enviat pels nostres amics de Sotsialny Ruhk:
Ucrania, la izquierda ucraniana y XESU presentes en Barcelona en la despedida de la Flotilla de la Libertad en Gaza. Una acción simbólica pero muy bien recibida. Hemos hecho más amigos. Ahora el mensaje enviado por nuestros amigos de Sotsialny Ruhk.
We write from Ukraine with respect for your courage and in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Having lived through invasion, occupation, forced displacement, and separation from our loved ones, many of us know too well what these mean. We also remember the history that has led to this day: the dispossession of the Nakba, the continuing violence and land-grabbing by settlers, the persistent denial of the right to return, and the suffocating blockade that has turned Gaza into an open-air prison. We see how civilians, women and children are disproportionately targeted, trapped on a narrow strip of land where famine has been manufactured and where homes, schools, and hospitals have become ruins. The paralysis of the so-called international community, unable or unwilling to intervene and put a stop to this madness, feels painfully familiar to us. We commend the dedication of the Freedom Flotilla, and we believe that solidarity, even when symbolic, can break the spell of inevitability. We add our voices to demands for a permanent ceasefire and an end to apartheid-like structures, for a future based on dignity, equality, and respect. May the path you embark on today become a safe passage for aid, and tomorrow, a corridor for freedom!
CATALÀ
Us escrivim des d’Ucraïna amb respecte pel vostre coratge i solidaritat amb el poble de Palestina. Havent viscut la invasió, l’ocupació, el desplaçament forçat i la separació dels nostres éssers estimats, molts de nosaltres sabem prou bé el què significa tot això.
També recordem la història que ha portat fins avui: la despossessió de la Nakba, la violència contínua i l’apropiació de terres per part dels colons, la negació persistent del dret al retorn i el bloqueig sufocant que ha convertit Gaza en una presó a l’aire lliure. Veiem com els civils, les dones i els nens són un desmesurat objectiu, atrapats en una estreta franja de terra on s’ha provocat expressament la fam i on les cases, les escoles i els hospitals s’han convertit en ruïnes. La paràlisi de l’anomenada comunitat internacional, incapaç o no disposada a intervenir i posar fi a aquesta bogeria, ens resulta dolorosament familiar.
Elogiem la dedicació de la Flotilla de la Llibertat i creiem que la solidaritat, fins i tot quan és simbòlica, pot trencar la idea d’una desgracia inevitable. Sumem les nostres veus a les demandes d’un alto el foc permanent i la fi de les estructures semblants a l’apartheid, per un futur basat en la dignitat, la igualtat i el respecte. Que el camí que empreneu avui esdevingui un pas segur per a l’ajuda i, demà, un corredor per a la llibertat!
ESPAÑOL (CASTELLANO)
Les escribimos desde Ucrania con respeto por su valentía y solidaridad con el pueblo palestino. Habiendo vivido la invasión, la ocupación, el desplazamiento forzoso y la separación de nuestros seres queridos, muchos de nosotros sabemos muy bien lo que esto significa. También recordamos la historia que ha llevado a esta situación: el despojo de la Nakba, la violencia continua y el acaparamiento de tierras por parte de los colonos, la negación persistente del derecho al retorno y el bloqueo asfixiante que ha convertido a Gaza en una prisión al aire libre. Vemos como los civiles, las mujeres y los niños son blanco de ataques desproporcionados, atrapados en una estrecha franja de tierra donde se ha provocado una hambruna y donde las casas, las escuelas y los hospitales se han convertido en ruinas. La parálisis de la llamada comunidad internacional, incapaz o poco dispuesta a intervenir y poner fin a esta locura, nos resulta dolorosamente familiar. Elogiamos la dedicación de la Flotilla de la Libertad y creemos que la solidaridad, aunque sea simbólica, puede romper el hechizo de la inevitabilidad. Sumamos nuestras voces a las demandas de un alto el fuego permanente y el fin de las estructuras similares al apartheid, por un futuro basado en la dignidad, la igualdad y el respeto. ¡Que el camino que emprenden hoy se convierta en un paso seguro para la ayuda y, mañana, en un corredor para la libertad!
Global call: Ukraine must receive all it needs to win a just peace! – Consider Signing A Petition
Link :
Global Call – Ukraine Must receive all it needs to win a just peace
To: The European Commission, the governments of European Union Member States and the United Kingdom
After US president Trump’s “summits” with Putin (August 15) and European leaders (August 18) Ukraine confronts the appalling prospect of an unjust “peace” settlement that rewards the Russian aggressor.
If forced on Ukraine, it will legitimise:
- The violent Russian occupation of a fifth of Ukrainian territory and the swap to Russia of territory and people presently under Ukrainian administration
- The destruction of Ukraine’s towns, schools, hospitals, infrastructure, environment and heritage
- The murder of tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens and the kidnapping of thousands of Ukrainian children, and
- The genocidal Russification of the occupied territories, and a host of other war crimes.
It will also place the burden of ending the war not on aggressor Russia but on Ukraine, its victim–even as the Putin regime steps up its bombardments of Ukraine’s cities and infrastructure.
Read the rest of this entry »Yankee Spies in Greenland – “We do not spy on friends” says Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen
Diplomatic and Political skirmishes between the USA and western European governments – Ireland, Denmark, France to name but a few – are spreading.
Here is a case study.
Copenhagen is not amused by Yankee covert operations in Greenland :
Denmark summoned the top U.S. diplomat in Copenhagen on Wednesday after Danish media reported that Americans with ties to President Donald Trump had carried out covert influence operations in Greenland.
Danish broadcaster DR reported that at least three U.S. citizens linked to the U.S. government were involved in activities that, reportedly, authorities fear could be used covertly to support Trump’s desire to make Greenland part of the United States.
Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said the U.S. chargé d’affaires — currently its most senior diplomat in Denmark — had been summoned in response. He called any interference in Danish affairs “unacceptable,” and emphasized that Copenhagen “will of course not accept covert operations on our territory,” in a statement emailed by his ministry, according to the AP.
The news is spreading :
When powerful governments publicly argue like this – in this case the former (?) friends Denmark and the USA – is it useful to declare “a plague on both your houses”?
The answer is No. Concrete analysis is needed, and concrete answers must be promoted.
The war of words escalated after a provocative visit by Donald Trump’s vice president JD Vance to Greenland in April 2025.
Keir Starmer’s Cops Arrest Screenwriter Paul Laverty in Edinburgh for wearing a Pro-Palestine T Shirt – “The most important court in the world is the court of public opinion”
The screenwriter of many Ken Loach films – including The Wind That Shakes the Barley – Paul Laverty – has been arrested in Edinburgh for wearing a Pro-Palestine T Shirt.
Link :
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Wikipedia)
Update : Paul Laverty Released and charged with a terrorism offence
The most important court in the world is the court of public opinion
Paul Laverty : https://bsky.app/profile/dmcguirecfc67.bsky.social/post/3lxap5nwebc2s
Mapping the Conservative Left: Why Some Socialists Sound Like the Right – “Soul-Searching on the Left”
Duncan Chapel, a revolutionary socialist based in Scotland, hosts a blog which explores big political and social changes in the world we live in.
The article below addresses many troubling developments on the left which have erupted in the 21st century. These trends exist everywhere – Duncan is very familiar with awful examples from the British state.
Readers on the left in in Ireland may be familiar with the example of “Counterfire” which is degenerating rapidly :
The red-brown disease can spread further without inoculation. Organizations at risk like Counterfire in Britain, while maintaining left-wing rhetoric, have consistently aligned with authoritarian positions internationally, acting as surrogates for Assad, Putin and Trump. Their opposition to supporting Ukrainian resistance and their hostility to transgender struggles reveals the logical endpoint of politics that prioritize “anti-Western” positioning over genuine solidarity with the oppressed.
| Mapping the Conservative Left: Why Some Socialists Sound Like the Right | Four conservative left tendencies: each represents a different form of capitulation |
The rise of the far-right across Europe and North America has prompted urgent soul-searching on the left. From Trump’s return to power to the growth of Alternative for Germany (AfD), from Giorgia Meloni’s ascendancy in Italy to the surge of Reform UK, reactionary forces are capitalizing on widespread social discontent. Yet a troubling phenomenon has emerged alongside this rightward shift: sections of the left itself have begun adopting positions that sound suspiciously similar to those of their supposed political opponents.
Source :
Mapping the Conservative Left – Why Some Socialists Sound Like the Right
This “conservative left” represents a fundamental betrayal of socialist principles. Rather than offering a genuine alternative to capitalist crisis, these currents have absorbed key elements of right-wing discourse—from economic nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment to cultural traditionalism and geopolitical authoritarianism. Understanding this phenomenon is crucial for any socialist strategy that seeks to build genuine working-class unity against our real enemies: the capitalist class and their political representatives.
Once Upon A Time in the White House – Civilised People Wondered : Would timid European powers back the nauseating Trump-Putin “peace in our time” war crime plan and assist the carve-up of Ukraine?
Two fascist gun-slingers : convicted rapist President Donald Trump (USA) and indicted international war criminal Vladimir Putin (Russia), embraced in Alaska. The USA grabbed Alaska in the 19th Century through a deal with Russia, its imperialist partner-in-crime. Uncle Sam took over the vast icy territory through the ugly and brutal method of ethnic cleansing. Civilised people hoped this ugly feature of international capitalism was a thing of the past. Wishful thinking : it is returning with ominous force in the 21st Century – especially in Ukraine and Palestine.
Volodymyr Zelensky was a target of the Alaska fascist-fascist war-crime plan. The President of Ukraine was summoned to the White House (Washington DC). A charade was staged.
Leaders of the main imperialist powers in Western Europe saw a car-crash coming : On the one hand they were opposed to witnessing Zelensky crushed by the fascist-fascist Trump-Putin steamroller, and they did not want to be accomplices to an infamous surrender. Haunting memories : the pathetic 1938 British Imperialist leader Neville Chamberlain came back from a Munich summit with the Nazi warlord Adolf Hitler – “peace in our time” said Neville, as the people of Czechoslovakia and its leader Edvard Benes were sacrificed. One year later – “peaceful” Herr Hitler invaded Poland, World War Two began.
On the other hand Macron of France, Merz of Germany – and company – wanted to avoid a direct and open clash with the White House gangster, Putin’s ally Trump. Therefore, observers were offered a charade : One after another Zelensky, Macron, Merz, Von der Leyen, Meloni, Starmer, and Rutte smeared the vain gangster Trump with praise.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tomás Ó Flatharta 