Archive for the ‘United Left Alliance’ Category
United Left Alliance Budget Statement
United Left Alliance
Budget Statement December 2011
PDF edition here: http://www.peoplebeforeprofit.ie/files/ULA%20Budget%20Statement%20December%202011.pdf
Austerity Is Not Working: Tax The Rich, Invest In Jobs
Next weeks budget will see further drastic cuts in the living standards of workers, the unemployed and the poor. Since the onset of the crisis in 2008 government policy has focused on bailing out banks and speculators and making the working class pick up the bill. Hardly a cent has been taken from those who have the real wealth in society. The effect of this policy has been lengthening dole queues and impoverishment with rising inequality in a society that was already deeply unequal. The wealth of the super-rich has increased throughout the crises. Read the rest of this entry »
ULA must build campaigning party: Eddie Conlon
Article by Eddie Conlon, non-party steering committee member of ULA and PBPA, in Resistance (published by Irish Socialist Network), No 14, Autumn 2011.
ULA Must Build Campaigning Party
The United Left Alliance offers real potential for building a radical force on the left which has significant social weight and can mobilise wide layers in struggles against austerity and for socialism. The election of five TDs was a real breakthrough. As was the organisation of the national forum and the coming together of the left to organise a significant gathering of trade union activists into the Trade Union Activist Forum. Read the rest of this entry »
The Billion Dollar Anglo Irish Bond – Cedar Lounge Revolution – and the Greece Referendum
http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/11/02/the-billion-dollar-anglo-bond/
and a cartoon which says it all :
More, from the NAMA Winelake :
Dave Allen has the last word :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5y_gE1Rb1Y
Helena Sheehan Leaves the Labour Party
Here is a very welcome statement from Helena Sheehan (copied from her facebook page).
I do not however agree with supporting Michael D Higgins in the Presidential Race – in other blogs I have argued that the radical left should try to convert the presidential election into a proxy referendum on ECB / IMF Reverse Robin Hood “stealing from the poor, giving to the rich” menu.
http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/meanwhile-back-at-the-presidential-election-campaign/
More recently Robert Ballagh has promoted a similar strategy, but has made it clear he will not himself be a candidate :
Time to leave the Labour Party
It is time to draw a line under my 30 year membership of the Labour Party. It is past time actually, as I have not been active at branch or constituency level for the past 15 years. There were many reasons for this, including the demands of my academic job. I did remain active politically, but not in a way that was so focused on the Labour Party or even electoral politics. I recognise the importance of electoral politics, but it has never been the area in which I felt I had a particular contribution to make. During the years of Labour Left, of which I was a founding member, we tried to create a deeper political intellectual culture in the Labour Party. Once this ended, I didn’t see so much of a role for myself. Nevertheless, I remained. Read the rest of this entry »
The ULA: two reports and an article
Two report of the ULA Forum on 25th June can be found at:
(from the SWP) http://www.swp.ie/editorial/after-united-left-alliance-forum/4602
and (from the ‘Weekly Worker’ [CPGB]) at:
http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004455
In issue 44 (June 2011) of Red Banner magazine, ‘The vote changes nothing: the struggle continues’ by Aindrias Ó Cathasaigh “offers a view of the political landscape for the left following February’s election”. This long and interesting study of the ULA manages to never mention the ULA by name.
Des Derwin
Tomás Ó Flatharta 