Jacobin is not a socialist paper. It exists because the US capitalist media allows it. Their ideology is characterised by their inability to see beyond electoral politics even in the face of persistent failure, and their role as a mouthpiece of US imperialism. Despite their aesthetic, the “Brooklyn Socialism” of Jacobin amounts to little more than the same meek demands of democratic socialism, but in radical dress.
Whether by directly improving workers’ pay and conditions, promoting progressive legislation, or reducing economic inequality, being a member of a trade union provides a unique opportunity to proactively remedy social and economic inequity. Trade unions provide an avenue to dissolve the fetters imposed upon ordinary citizens by those who profit from their immiseration. They can help to build a foundation upon which society can be built anew.
“It is hard to watch things back home and see how they should be done, and how they could be done. Its not rocket science. The people and the party go hand in hand, and people do see the benefit of doing these things and that’s why they’re happy to do it”
Americanisation has taken root and Ireland requires an intellectual revolution, rooted in Gaelic culture, Republicanism, and anti-imperialism. So that, someday, some people of Ireland will not stage protests outside the GPO against the Bill Gates-George Soros conspiracy, but instead engage with the concrete political and economic issues we face.
In a time of growing living costs, and stagnant wages, a Dunnes worker stresses that there really is power in a union and that a better future is possible if we unionise.
I began to witness the true extent of human suffering caused by the EUs crushing austerity. Men and women with crippled limbs prostrated out with open palms begging for money. Desperate men selling pens and stationery on the train in a bid to make ends meet in a country without work. Pampered British expats corralled in Syntagma square while people counted coins to buy loaves of bread a couple of streets away.
Without a shred of irony, Leo Varadkar informed RTÉ’s Clare Byrne that ‘poverty is one of the biggest killers, you know. Unemployment, poverty, mental health…’
OnlyFans sees 75% surge of new sex workers during the lockdown. Bankers-son and digital pimp *cough cough* ‘entrepreneur’, Timothy Stokely, takes 20% of their income.
The grounding of queer organising in queer history is essential.
The Children’s’ Hospital will be built at some stage, but it will have lined the pockets of many different consultants, officials, developers, builders, contractors before it actually helps a single patient.