Belfast Sees Massive Rally Against the Cuts

An estimated 15,000 citizens crowded onto the streets of Belfast on Saturday 23rd October despite pouring rain to protest against the ConDem cuts, and the DUP’s willing hatchetman Sammy Wilson. The march and rally, organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions under the slogan “There is a Better, Fairer Way”, was easily the biggest [...]

LookLeft Summer 2010

The Summer 2010 edition of LookLeft can be read in full at the link below.
LookLeft Summer 2010

Unemployment as a Policy

Rather than placing job creation to the fore, right-wing governments in London and Dublin are intent on pushing hundreds of thousands more people into the dole queues, reports Conor McCabe.
Northern Ireland is currently experiencing a ‘second wave’ in unemployment. The initial job losses in construction and manufacturing, and subsequent reductions in consumer spending, have had [...]

Review of The Plough and The Stars

Donal O’Falluin reviews the Abbey’s new version of one of its most controversial plays, Sean O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars.
“It appears certain that Nationalism has gained a great deal and lost a little by its union with Labour in the Insurrection of Easter Week, and that Labour has lost much and achieved something by [...]

Slash and Burn Economics Must End

As the Tories plan a massive onslaught on Britain’s public expenditure the evidence mounts that indiscriminate cut backs only further damage the economy, but Europe’s ideological diehards will not listen, according to Aidan Regan.
The Spanish government introduced a massive austerity package on 27th May 2010 amounting to €15 billion, the deepest budget cuts in the [...]

Former EU Humanitarian Commissioner Attempts to Rehabilitate Colonialism

The EU’s former Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid has applauded King Leopold II, the Congo’s late 19th century colonial master whose regime was responsible for between five and 20 million deaths, as a “visionary hero”, writes Francis Donohoe.
Louis Michel, a Belgian former EU commissioner and current prominent Liberal MEP, stated in June that “Leopold II was [...]

Shell to Sea: The Struggle Continues

Shell to Sea: A Mayo Community Continues to Confront Shell’s Demands, writes Shell to Sea activist Stewart Reddin.
The environmental catastrophe and the tragic deaths of 11 oil rig workers caused by the explosion on BP’s Deepwater Horizon platform in the Gulf of Mexico has illuminated the blatant disregard oil corporations have for the protection of [...]