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EU-Mercosur agreement will devastate industries and environment in Latin America
By Veronica Ocvirk. The free trade agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur bloc of Latin American countries will benefit EU multinationals but pose serious disadvantages for local industries in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. “President, we have an agreement!” This WhatsApp audio message went viral in Argentina with ...
Introducing RUPTURE, Ireland’s new ecosocialist quarterly
By Cian Prendiville. Our world is burning. Climate change, economic recession, political crisis and on top of it all a pandemic. However, from all corners of the world, we see signs of resistance. The recent uprising against racist police violence is a harbinger of things to come. The new ecosocialist ...
Silence as a virture in the age of the cough
Pádraig Ó Meiscill discovers his own personal lesser spotted Belfast at the start of the lockdown. When the silence came, caused by a cough, only a few were expecting it. Many had predicted an uproar over borders. A cacophony of bile about the difference, or lack thereof, between Derry and Letterkenny, ...
After neoliberalism: Naked class war aided by the state
By Zack Breslin. Neoliberalism has been exposed as a failed doctrine, first by the financial crisis that erupted more than a decade ago and now by the Covid-19 pandemic. What replaces it? The seismic events of the financial crash of 2008 revealed the consequences of allowing rampant financial capitalism to ...
Cancel Rio Tinto: Going beyond symbols to fight a racist system
By Carlo Sands.When mining giant Rio Tinto blew up two sacred Indigenous sites dating back 46,000 years in the Pilbara in Australia’s north-west earlier this year, it was with the consent of the state Labor government. It shows that while the Western Australian (WA) Labor Party sometimes pays formal respects ...
Ireland’s Apple antics fuel global race to the bottom on corporate tax
By Mairéad Farrell TD. Last Wednesday, July 15, there was a collective sigh of relief from the government. The European Union’s General Court had ruled against the EU Commission in Ireland and Apple’s appeal against its state aid ruling. The Court found that the 0.005% corporate tax rate that Apple ...
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26 women a week forced to travel from Ireland to Britain for abortion care last year
Below Irish Broad Left publishes the joint statement from Alliance for Choice, Abortion Rights Campaign and Abortion Support Network, issued in response to the release of British Department of Health statistics reporting the number of women that travelled from Ireland to England or Wales to access an abortion in 2019.
Occupied Territories Bill: It’s time for Ireland to ban trade with Israel’s illegal settlements
By Kevin Squires. As the new Israeli government moves to illegally annex yet more Palestinian land, anyone who has been following the fate of the Occupied Territories Bill will have seen it emerge as one of the principal sticking points in the ongoing Irish government formation negotiations. If made law,
Coronavirus will not destroy neoliberalism – only we can do that
By Lisbeth Latham. Triumphalist comments about the end of capitalism or neoliberalism abounded in the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2008, just as there are many people today who believe that the current crisis is the end of neoliberalism or capitalism. Unfortunately, neoliberalism and – more importantly –
Behind the spin on the EU’s recovery plan
By Emma Clancy. Addressing members of the European Parliament on 27 May, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed the creation of a ‘Next Generation’ European Union recovery fund worth €750 billion, to be raised by the Commission – a temporary Eurobond. The funds would be disbursed as €500bn in
Uniting the Left to fight for an ecosocialist united Ireland
By Cian McMahon. After December’s Westminster general election, which returned a majority of nationalist MPs in the North for the first time ever, it’s clear that the entire Brexit debacle has dealt a potentially fatal blow to political unionism. As DUP MLA Edwin Poots commented, reflecting on the historic and
The language of the unheard: Outrage spreads across US over racist police murder of George Floyd
By Emma Clancy. Protests against institutionalised racism have spread to cities across the United States in response to the horrific murder of black man George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis on Monday. Police have responded to three days of protest in the city by pepper-spraying and baton-charging crowds. Minnesota’s
Why is the EU so interested in the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa?
By Mick Wallace MEP. The Sahel region consists of those countries lying to the immediate south of the Sahara Desert, stretching in a strip from the west to east coast. The region is semi-arid, part desert, part savannah and it links the Sahara to more fertile lands further south. From
‘A Worker’s Guide to Historical Capitalism’ – a political economy podcast
By IBL team. A new podcast series aims to provide an overall view of the historical development of the capitalist system – a ‘people’s history’ of the world. Trademark Belfast is the anti-sectarian unit of the Irish labour movement, which has carried out political education for trade unionists and workers
After the shutdown: A just transition and Green New Deal for Ireland
By Conor McCabe. This is the fourth and final article in a series adapted from the Unite union’s policy document, Hope or Austerity: A Road Map for a Better, Fairer Ireland After the Pandemic, written by Conor McCabe. The current crisis is an interplay between Covid-19 and the deep-rooted inequalities and structural
The EU’s Stability and Growth Pact must go – or we face a future of austerity and pain
By Emma Clancy. A decade of austerity imposed by the European Union institutions and EU member state governments has caused significant deterioration in healthcare services across the EU. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the EU’s healthcare and public sectors to be ill-equipped to respond to the outbreak in accordance with
Government protects banks and landlords instead of jobs and small businesses
By Conor McCabe. This article is the third in a four-part series adapted from the Unite union’s policy document, Hope or Austerity: A Road Map for a Better, Fairer Ireland After the Pandemic, written by Conor McCabe. In its response to the Covid-19 economic challenges faced by businesses – particularly micro and
Pandemic hits Ireland’s social infrastructure, already at breaking point
By Conor McCabe. This article is the first in a four-part series adapted from the Unite union’s policy document, Hope or Austerity: A Road Map for a Better, Fairer Ireland After the Pandemic, written by Conor McCabe. The Irish government’s initial response to the outbreak of COVID-19 was somewhat slow