“The idea of CATU is a union outside of the workplace. An organisation that is built by the community to organise and fight for the community’s interests. The scope is extremely large. Primarily, CATU is involved in the housing struggle because it believes that real power lies in the hands of ordinary people when they unite together to defend their interests against those that exploit our communities and turn housing into a mere commodity. Ordinary people, organised, united, and standing ready to fight for their interests scares the living daylights out of exploiters and those who take their trust for granted. The statement that real power lies in the hands of ordinary people is entirely correct.”
Author: CYM Committee
Letter to the Editor – CETA
Letter to the Editor – CETA
“The ratification of this treaty will have dire consequences for any the most moderate of social democratic demands when it comes to state funding – as CETA will introduce investor courts that can challenge state investment.”
The Ugly Game; the Rotten Side of Homophobia and Racism in Football
Football, or as it’s known here, soccer, is known as “the beautiful game”. A sport that unites young and old! But the truth is that football does anything but unite, it separates men from women, white people from people of colour, homosexual people from heterosexual people. It isn’t just the far-right leaning section of fans either, this is deeply ingrained in the history of the sport with its governing bodies such as FIFA and UEFA.
Estonia’s Uncomfortable Fascist Problem
Despite Estonia trying to present itself as a social democratic, Scandinavian-style country open to all, at the heart of the culture and education system is a sympathetic relationship to fascism, stemming from the WWII period.
Imperialism Is On Your Plate
When the word imperialism is evoked, it seems strange to equivocate the term with a contemporary form of food production and this is what makes modern imperialism so effective. That is its ability to remain invisible or to go undetected. For the modern superpowers, and in the era of Pax Americana, this is largely how they operate, by using less direct methods in order to advance their nation’s particular geopolitical interests and to disguise these actions by using modern political or economic jargon such as “development”, “liberalisation” or “investment”.
Lessons of the Lockout; Bloody Sunday 1913
“What is the significance of “Labour’s Bloody Sunday” for us today though? Ultimately, it is a lesson in the nature of the state, and the role of police. Both police forces in Ireland have carried on the tradition of their RIC ancestors.”
Poetry: Commuting
As part of strengthening the CYM’s commitment to a counter-culture, Forward will be periodically publishing poems submitted by comrades in the CYM.
Hammer & Sickle, Spears & Sickness
So as long as Britney Spears remains “sick” in the eyes of the public, her conservatorship will continue under the guise of protection – not sick enough to cease work but too sick to have any agency. It is at this point where capitalism and disability justice intersect, where Britney is stripped of all control whilst simultaneously denied effective care.
Double Standards on Detention: Belarus and Ireland
What should be bizarre to any political commentator or follower in Ireland is why elected representatives here have little to nothing to say about the Special Criminal Court. Why do they not reach out to Republican political prisoners convicted under questionable standards and attempt to help them? I think that the answer is relatively simple. Maintaining double standards is a regular theme among representatives of the ruling class, so whilst many of our own elected representatives have a lot to say about what is happening in Belarus and the justice system there, they remain silent about events here.
The Lion, The Bitch, and Leftist Men
“This “White Knight” syndrome that runs rampant throughout leftist spaces is ridiculous and it needs to stop. Women and misogyny-affected people have come to expect misogyny from the right, yet when it comes from the left, from men they trust and call comrades, it is a painful reminder of how patriarchy and internalised misogyny is virtually inescapable”.