Category: Uncategorized (Page 2 of 2)

Socialismo o barbarie: quale futuro per Israele e la Palestina

November 17, 2023 / Ciaran Mulholland

Published on Internationalist Standpoint website, November 17, 2023

Alla conferenza internazionalista di Milano dello scorso luglio abbiamo conosciuto Internationalist Standpoint, trovando ampie convergenze con loro sulle analisi e le posizioni che hanno portato in questa occasione. In questi giorni terribili, segnati dal massacro di Gaza e dall’apparente egemonia di prospettive nazionaliste reazionarie contrapposte nella guerra israelo-palestinese, pubblichiamo allora questa lunga analisi e questo indirizzo politico sul conflitto in corso, di Ciaran Mulholland [un compagno nordirlandese], tratto dal sito Internationalist Standpoint, che condividiamo nel suo impianto classista e internazionalista.

Rioting in Protestant areas of Belfast in opposition to Protocol, Spring 2021

“Windsor Framework” Will not Solve Fundamental Problems

April 4, 2023 / Ciaran Mulholland

First published Internationalist Standpoint Website, April 4th, 2023

On February 27^th the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) Government published a draft agreement designed to solve the impasse which led to the collapse of devolved government in Northern Ireland in February 2022. The Framework has now been passed by an overwhelming majority the UK Parliament and has been endorsed by all EU member states.

The Framework has the support of the nationalist parties (Sinn Fein and Social Democratic and Labour Party) which win the majority of votes in the Catholic community in Northern Ireland. The British Labour Party declared it would support the Framework before it was even published. The Irish government is fully behind the deal. US President Biden and ex-President Clinton are to visit Northern Ireland next week to mark the 25^th anniversary of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement in April and their visit is clearly designed to bolster support for the Framework and ensure a return of the local devolved Assembly.

The spotlight is now on the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the main unionist party, which is favour of Northern Ireland remaining in UK and win votes in the Protestant community. The DUP voted against the Framework in Parliament. Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson has outlined five “areas of concerns” that it wants to see addressed, suggesting that further talks and concessions from the EU could resolve the issues. Other key figures in the party have taken a harder position and reject the Framework entirely, arguing that it is even worse than the original Protocol. There is no immediate prospect of the local Assembly returning. Understanding the context of this latest crisis in the long-running “peace process” is essential if the worker’s movement is to point a way forward.