Socialist Voice

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

Contents:

Neutrality Under Attack: The Triple Lock and the Assault on Irish Sovereignty Andrew Reagan

The Dublin government’s decision to abolish the Triple Lock marks a significant departure from the 26-county state’s traditional policy of military neutrality. Here we see the “extreme centre” at work – imposing technocratic and neoliberal political outcomes over and against popular sentiment while presenting them as the only responsible course […]

The Government Moves to End Neutrality Fionn Wallace

On Wednesday 21 October, the Dáil voted 79 to 71 to advance the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2016 to committee stage. 15 Government TDs and 9 Opposition TDs did not vote. There were no abstentions. This would suggest that the Government had pairings with 9 Opposition TDs and had 6 rebels […]

Irish Capitalism in Late 2026: Industrial Committee View

Industrial Committee, The Communist Party of Ireland

Inflation continues its upward path this month, as the latest CSO release shows mortgage interest costs, rental costs and diesel prices rising sharply. For workers with high housing and transport costs, the pinch is now really starting to bite; militant pay bargaining, not just across the public but also the […]

Drumcree: Orangism and Unionism’s Decline Tommy McKearney

“There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.” A quote attributed to V. I. Lenin might also be applied to recent events in the Six Counties. The two-week Drumcree standoff has had a large impact on the day-to-day political situation in the north. Not only […]

The Politics of Power: Part 4 – Imperialism and Dependency Eoghan O 'Neill

This is the fourth in a five-part series on the politics of power. Earlier articles asked what makes rights real, why some prevail over others, and how that hierarchy is reproduced through the state and its institutions. This article follows that machinery beyond the border. In September 2024 the Court […]

Show Me the Success of Capitalism: Gen Z and the Crisis of the System

Sanjeev Kumar

Fidel Castro asked the question: “You talk about the failure of socialism, but show me the success of capitalism.” The Gen Z protests spreading like wildfire across the world are the evidence that capitalism is not working for the majority of the people. The first wave of Gen Z protests, […]

What Would a People’s Budget Look Like? Eoghan O 'Neill

The People’s Budget, published by the Communist Party of Ireland, starts from what working people need now, and goes on to ask what the country has to show for public money once it has been spent. (Available to buy and order from Connolly Books >>> https://www.connollybooks.net/product/the-peoples-budget ) Every October the […]

Empty Hospitals and Empty Promises Peter Foley

In recent decades, we have been no strangers in Ireland to corruption and inefficiency in the delivery of infrastructure projects. Be it a bike shed or a major hospital, no project seems to have the ability to come in on time and under budget. The investigations into the construction of […]

The Limits of Bourgeois Democracy James Corcoran

Supporters of bourgeois liberal democracy claim that the bourgeois state exists to defend the interests of all its citizens and is therefore neutral on political and economic issues. The state claims that its legitimacy is based on the will of the people as expressed in elections for its supreme legislative […]

A Marxist View on AI: Part 1 of 6 James Steinhoff

A Marxist View on AI: A Six-Part Series Part 1: AI and the Marxist Theory of Machines Capitalists say some wild things about what AI is all about. Elon Musk has described it in terms of a project of extending the “light of consciousness” to the stars. A Marxist perspective […]

The State and Class Priorities: We support public sector workers

Industrial Committee, The Communist Party of Ireland

Public sector workers have demonstrated their determination to secure a fair settlement through collective industrial action. They subsequently suspended further action to facilitate negotiations, yet the Government has failed to produce a satisfactory offer. The Government’s foot-dragging must be seen in a wider context. The latest CSO national accounts show […]

Protest in Paris: The Real Violence Comes from Capitalism Lauriane Monchâtre

Over the past few days, friends in Dublin have been messaging me to ask if I’m okay after the protests in Paris. I understand why they might have felt like they should worry about me. I’m a Communist Party member living in the suburbs of Paris, and TV channels all […]

We Stand Firmly with the Workers, Other Employees and Trade Unions of Škoda Auto Trade Union Association of Bohemia, Moravia Silesia

The management of the Volkswagen Group is demanding a wage freeze at Škoda Auto, extending until 2030. This move is part of cost-cutting measures across the entire VW Group, which is currently falling into a deep crisis. According to the trade union IG Metall, the Group’s management plans to freeze […]

Pax Silica Richard Mullen

In December 2025, representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia and Israel signed the Pax Silica declaration, a strategic initiative to secure the global supply chains for advanced information and communication technologies and, in particular, artificial intelligence. Like other prongs of the wide US […]

From the Archives: The Man Behind the Green Curtain Richard Mullen

Vikentiy Matveyev (1923–1997), celebrated foreign correspondent of the Soviet newspaper Izvestiya and a historian, was among the first Soviet journalists to visit Ireland. Here, we reproduce entries from his journal documenting his visits in 1955 and 1961. 3 September 1955 I was fortunate enough – yes, indeed! – to spend […]

Professors on a Farm: Addressing the Gap Between Mental and Manual Labour

Helena Sheehan

Early on a Sunday morning in October, a group of professors gathered at the School ofMarxism at Peking University. It was for a day of labour organised by the CPC partybranches in the school. We boarded a bus and set out for a farm where we dug the soil toharvest […]

Review: “Communism, the Highest Stage of Ecology” Richard Mullen

More than three years ago, I reviewed Bresnihan and Millner’s book All We Want Is the Earth: Land, Labour and Movements Beyond Environmentalism [socialistvoice.ie/2023/09/environmentalism-capitalism-and-vibes/] for Socialist Voice. In that review I noted that between their excellent analysis and contrasting of “the co-opted ‘First World’ environmentalist language picked up by corporations […]

Life in the GDR: Women’s Emancipation and Its Destruction

3rd November 2026 by Jenny Farrell

The German Democratic Republic (GDR) was founded in October 1949, four months after the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). From its first year, the emancipation and social participation of women were core objectives of its socialist project, with equal rights anchored in its constitution. What followed was perhaps the most […]