Still a Long Way from 25 May

Denial of access to abortion services has the potential to jeopardise a persons physical and mental health and denies them autonomy, dignity and freedom. The denial of abortion access is a form of violence and oppression and reflects a patriarchal agenda concerned with the control of the sexuality and bodies of women and pregnant people. It is crucial that we stand with women and pregnant people and ensure that they are given the reproductive rights and care that they deserve. 

Squid Game and the Realities of Capitalism

A provocative and deep criticism of South Korean capitalism, Squid Game offers several stark observations on the depredations of the system. Capitalism has forced working-class people like Gi-hun into such dire material conditions that blood-sport is seen as a lesser evil.

Anti-Imperialism and the Politics of Language

“Much like with the breaking of looms, the breaking of a language becomes a necessity so as to better exploit an imperialised nation, whether that be by complete linguistic extinction or by marginalising a previously dominant language. There are three primary ways in which language presents an obstacle to imperialism.”

McMindfulness: The New Opium of the People

The HSE spent over 180,000 euro on mindfulness and 89,000 on yoga sessions over a three year period. Mindfulness is being vaunted as a solve-all intervention for a host of social problems, fits in closely with the individualised logic of capitalism, and diverts attention and resources from real changes that could improve people’s lives and challenge the economic system that governs over daily attacks on people’s mental health and wellbeing.

The Community Action Tenants Union – An Organisation of People’s Power

“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.”

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.

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”.