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.

While the British prime minister Keir Starmer preens himself over the reset of relations between the UK and the EU – a reset warmly welcomed by the capitalist government in Dublin – the stark reality remains that this reset offers nothing to workers in Ireland or Britain who are being squeezed by higher prices, social welfare cuts and missed employment opportunities.

This article recounts Dympne McGlade’s memory of a family experience which runs contrary to the grain of jingoistic commemorations of the Second World War, highlighting political repression of republicans in Ireland and communal suffering. Celebrations of victory contrast with the deep and abiding harm which was inflicted upon the colonial subjects of some of the victors, continuing to this day.

JAMES Connolly, born in Edinburgh of Irish parents, experienced and wrote about the struggles of workers against capitalism and imperialism. Taking part in those struggles in Ireland, Britain and America he worked for the unity of the working class. He was a socialist, a Marxist an internationalist and a patriot-committed to the real independence of Ireland.

Micheál O’Riordan, former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Ireland, fought with the XV International Brigade in the Spanish Anti-Fascist War and for the unity of Ireland and its working class.