“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”.
Boycott Puma; Boycott Israeli Apartheid
“We encourage fans of local clubs to support the BDS call and boycott any of the clubs merchandise which is sponsored or supplied by Puma to put pressure on their local clubs to cut ties with the Israeli apartheid. It is the least we can do while the Israeli occupation and slaughter continues in Palestine, even when it is not reported by the news.”
¡No Pasarán!
85 years ago today a war began that would result in the working men and women of the world leaving the comfort of their homes and travelling to the Iberian Peninsula where many sacrificed their lives in the fight to uphold the ideals of the Second Spanish Republic. The Spanish Civil War is often described as a warm-up for the Second World War; this is not only disingenuous but completely false. The conflict deserves its own place in history as a worker’s struggle, of solidarity and sacrifice against a foe whose interests lay at the antipode from that our class.
Sinophobia: Red Scares and Yellow Peril
The rise of racist attacks against East Asians in the West is not due to individual hatred or fringe populists like Donald Trump. In reality, this rise in racism is due to centuries of white supremacist ideology, which is perpetuated by Western hegemony and its imperialist interests. Reading this article, one may take away that only the far-right is to worry about, but when you look at how the majority of leftists, centrists, and centre-right individuals perpetuate these ideas about China, especially through the media, it is clear that liberals enable and accentuate the fascist narratives around China.
An Argument for Socialist-Republicanism
“In Ireland, one cannot have socialism without republicanism. The socialist-republican cause is both the cause of labour and the cause of country. The liberation of the working people of this Island can only be achieved through anti-imperialism and active class struggle. But first we must analyse what is to be done, understand the flaws in non-republican socialism and pseudo-republicanism.”
Reviewing Orange is the New Black
“Although Orange is the New Black is gripping, for a while, it paints a grim picture using humorous sub plots, stories, and characters of a prison system entirely unfit for purpose… Anybody who views the series should take the funny sections of the series with a pinch of salt, because what it really shows is an unrelenting anti-working-class industry that thrives from the locking up, starving and punishing of millions of non-violent offenders in a vicious cycle of violence and re-incarceration.”