Irish, EU & international politics & economics
By Lisbeth Latham. Global wealth inequality is reaching historic highs. Inequalities have been both highlighted and exacerbated by the current crisis. However, while the world’s super-rich are obscenely wealthy, most discourse around this issue fundamentally misunderstands and misrepresents the nature of much of this wealth – which, in turn, can […]
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 […]
By Seán Fearon. A significant but narrowing gap in the Irish just transition literature is how we intend to finance just transition policy, and specifically, what types of finance are best suited to advancing myriad radical policy initiatives. The answers to this puzzle in green-left circles increasingly form a combination […]
By Emma Clancy. The recession we are facing as a result of the coronavirus pandemic – together with the urgent need for climate transition – will require unprecedented public investment by the European Union (EU) and its member states. The EU’s absurd debt and deficit rules – combined with the […]
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 […]
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 […]
By Emma Clancy. Members of the Irish Green Party voted overwhelmingly to enter a coalition with the two traditionally dominant centre-right parties on Friday. Coming less than a decade after the Greens were decimated for their last stint as a junior partner in government – propping up Fianna Fáil and […]
By Michael Taft. It is not the biggest issue in the Programme for Government. But sometimes small proposals can speak volumes. So what are we to make of the following commitment in the PfG? “The 3% USC [Universal Social Charge] surcharge applied to self-employed income is unfair and proposals will be […]
By Lisbeth Latham. The central driver of the capitalist system is the drive for capitalists to constantly increase profits – failure to do so can be a trigger for a crisis within the capitalist system. Since the end of the long boom in the early 1970s, capitalism, particularly in the […]
Below Irish Broad Left reprints the speech made by Dublin Central TD Neasa Hourigan to the Green Party’s online special convention on the Programme for Government held on Thursday 18 June. Just as in 2007 our party has come together for a special convention that will shape the party, the […]