Unity

Eoin Ó Murchú writes for Unity castigating the continued intransigence of Western governments as a genocide unfolds in Gaza on our screens.

Lynda Walker writes for Unity on the suppression of Palestine Action in Britain.

From Clerys to Debenhams to Iceland, time after time again, wealthy employers have been allowed to walk away from the consequences of their greed, leaving workers shortchanged and the State holding the bag for the payment of Statutory Redundancy. Now the closure of Poundland stores across Britain following a shady transfer of assets between companies has raised questions about job security for the same company’s Dealz workers in Ireland. Why does the system take such extraordinary measures to protect the rich at all costs?

Eoin Ó Murchú writes for Unity on the shadowy business interests lobbying the Irish government for favourable changes to conditions in the rental market as we face into a new set of “reforms” that will only aggravate the enduring harm being inflicted on tenants. We need to build homes, not a rental bog profit bonanza for gombeen landlords.

As the Israeli narrative flounders, showmanship eclipses substance. Public relations exercises staged for global and domestic consumption amid rising anger, mounting protests and the threat of judicial accountability.

For this year’s Madge Davison Memorial Lecture at Féile an Phobail we are celebrating the Life and Times of Sean Morrissey with Professor Sinéad Morrissey, Sean’s granddaughter, doing a presentation. In the chair this time will be Tommy Campbell, a long-time comrade of Sean’s, now living in Aberdeen.

Eoin Ó Murchú writes for Unity on last week’s ICTU conference in Belfast. Important motions on neutrality, a new economic model, and social solidarity were discussed and passed – but discussion alone will not bring the change needed. The Irish trade union requires laser-sharp focus and determined radicalism to advance an agenda favourable to workers in the face of relentless ruling class opposition and sustained political failure across social democracy.

A society’s priorities can quickly be gleaned from which rights it chooses to prioritise – and which rights it chooses to ignore. In Ireland, at least, the right to property continues to trump the right to a home as derelict buildings set a tone of urban decay. A surreal scenario where overpriced, out-of-reach new developments continue to spring up while potential homes collapse, underlining the anti-social behaviour of the wealthy within the market.

Profiteering from sale of houses, ownership by private landlords and housing associations is a major issue that is diametrically opposed to social housing, in that greed not need is the driving force. This issue will never be solved until we get a strategy which accepts that social housing is a human right and not a privilege–that it is acknowledged and acted upon.