Socialist Voice. 

The December Socialist Voice is now available online: https://socialistvoice.ie/category/article/latest/

Contents

Ireland’s Surplus, NATO’s Narrative, and the Politics of Manufactured Obligation by Eoghan O'Neill

Ireland’s projected budget surpluses for 2025 and 2026—€10.2 billion and €5.1 billion—havesparked renewed calls from the political and media establishment for deeper militaryintegration with Europe. The Financial Times, in a recent piece labelling Ireland “the weaklink in EU defence,” claims that because Ireland hosts Big Tech, Big Pharma and Big […]

Two Economies, One Crisis: The Fiction of Irish Economic Success

by Niall Cullinane

Recent headline figures for the 26-County economy are a study in illusion. GDP growth is expected to reach 10.7% in 2025, a surge driven largely by multinational corporations front-loading exports ahead of potential tariff deadlines. As the European Commission noted in its 17 November forecast, this growth is “exceptional and […]

What Can the Trade Union Movement Make of the National Action Plan? Prioritising the Fight for the Right to Organise by Nicola Lawlor

Trade union density in the 26 Counties stands at a stark 22%, with collective bargaining coverage at around 34%. This is a catastrophic decline from the peak of approximately 60% density in the 1980s. Yet, this bleak picture obscures a crucial reality: there is a massive representation gap between actual […]

Athghabháil na hÉireann: The Cultural Reconquest of Ireland by Gearóid Ó Machail

“Tá dualgas ar gach saoránach Gaeilge a labhairt.” [“Every citizen has a duty to speak Irish.”]  These words of Máirtín Ó Cadhain, spoken in an earlier era of struggle, are finding new resonance in today’s Ireland. Across the nation, and particularly among the younger generations, a quiet but determined reconquest […]

Taxing The Billionaires: The Social-Democratic Delusion by Eoghan O'Neill

A new fashion dominates polite progressive politics: denouncing the billionaire. The political and media establishment now routinely laments rising inequality, yet their critique never dares to name the system that produces it. Their solution—their rallying cry—is as bold as a wet leaf: “tax the billionaires.” At first glance, the demand […]

The Pacification of the Palestinian Struggle by Barry Murray

Let us be clear: there is no ceasefire in Gaza or Palestine. The reality is that despite a genocidal campaign, the Zionist military and its imperialist backers have failed to militarily defeat the guerrilla resistance or break the will of the Palestinian people. Up to 200,000 tons of largely American […]

Trump’s Ukraine Gambit Exposes Imperialist Rifts and Ireland’s Perilous Path by Tommy McKearney

Donal Trump remains as unpredictable as ever and never more so than with his latest pronouncement on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Just when Europe’s leading advocates of endless war were anticipating increased US participation in the conflict on behalf of the Kiev regime, Trump disappointed them. The Whitehouse […]

The Extremist Groups of Israeli Settlers in the West Bank: An Unofficial Arm for the Occupation of Palestinian Land by Dr. Rasem Bisharat

Across the hills between Nablus, Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Hebron, extremist settler groups have grown into organized violent formations that intimidate Palestinians on a daily basis. Comprised mainly of ideologically driven young religious settlers, these groups have become the most dangerous field arm in Israel’s project to assert control over West […]

Speech: Manchester Martyrs Commemoration, 2025 by Paul McGoldrick

Comrades and friends, On behalf of the Robert Emmet 1916 Society, it is an honour to stand in Manchester to commemorate three bold Fenians—William Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O’Brien—whose courage continues to fuel our unfinished struggle. We are not spectators of history, but participants in a living revolution. Empire […]

Break the Academic Chains of Zionism: UCD Encampment and the Crisis of Imperialist Analysis in Ireland by Roisin McAleer

The Break the Academic Chains of Zionism (BACZ) encampment at University College Dublin (UCD) is now the longest-running university encampment in Ireland. It has done more than expose the complicity of Irish academia in the machinery of Zionist settler-colonialism. It has revealed something deeper and far more damning: the profound […]

The Extremist Groups of Israeli Settlers in the West Bank: An Unofficial Arm for the Occupation of Palestinian Land by Dr. Rasem Bisharat

Across the hills between Nablus, Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Hebron, extremist settler groups have grown into organized violent formations that intimidate Palestinians on a daily basis. Comprised mainly of ideologically driven young religious settlers, these groups have become the most dangerous field arm in Israel’s project to assert control over West […]

The Left is the Alternative: Kerala’s Path Against Imperialism by Sajeev Kumar

Twenty-first-century imperialism can no longer rely on classic colonialism to transfer surplus from the Global South to the Global North. Instead, neoliberalism offshores production to low-wage countries, manufacturing commodities at lower costs by pushing wages below subsistence levels. This model requires sustained poverty in the Global South as a fundamental precondition for […]

Report: 15th World Socialist Forum: Beijing by Eilís Ní Mháirtín & Fionn Wallace

The 15th World Socialist Forum (3-4 November, Beijing, Chinese Academy of History) and the Zhejiang University International Academic Forum (7 November, Hangzhou, Zhejiang University Library) hosted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) are important platforms for academics, social scientists, Marxists, and activists to exchange ideas. They are particularly […]

Saving Capitalism is the Priority, Not the Planetby Richard Mullen

For another year, the COP (Conference of the Parties) climate summit has proven to be an exercise in the most cynical of language games. The evasive jargon of COP remains an accurate reflection of the power relations in the world’s energy market, and a testament to its universal disregard for […]

Book Review: From the Bog to the Cloud: A Bestseller We Need by Richard Mullen

From the Bog to the Cloud is the bestselling book Ireland needs—a rigorous analysis of the nation’s place in the world and a strategic guide for how to change it through principled, anti-imperialist struggle. Authors Patrick Bresnihan and Patrick Brodie dissect an Ireland locked snugly between the competing yet collaborative […]

Book Review: The Open Wound – Liadán Ní Chuinn’s Anatomy of Intergenerational Trauma  by Jenny Farrell

Liadán Ní Chuinn’s stunning short story collection is a courageous, unflinching diagnosis of an open wound. That wound is the legacy of the conflict in the British-occupied Six Counties. Ní Chuinn’s genius is to move beyond the strictly political to explore its precise, cellular-level damage within the nationalist community—how state […]

Music, poetry, comedy and theatre performances at Connolly Books during December. by Aaron Nolan

Music, poetry, comedy and theatre performances at Connolly Books during December. Leading musicians, comedians and actors will perform live shows in Connolly Books, and its associated New Theatre, every Thursday, Friday and Saturday in December. Launching on the 4th, it is a celebration of the largely youth-driven renaissance in Irish […]