Elections mark further steady rise of Sinn Féin

18th May 2011 Socialist Action 0

By Frances Davis

This week, as Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams’ announced the party’s new Ministerial Assembly team, the party emerged from the fourth consecutive election this year which has seen Sinn Féin’s vote steadily rise – north and south of the border. The 5 May Assembly and council elections in the six counties saw a continuation of a trend in the north – that of an increase in support for Sinn Féin, and of endorsement for the Good Friday Agreement.

The 1981 Irish Hunger Strike – ‘ one of the most heroic chapters in human history ’

26th April 2011 Socialist Action 0

By Frances Davis

This year will mark the 30th Anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike, in which Bobby Sands and nine other republican prisoners died in a struggle for political status against the Thatcher government’s brutal policy of ‘criminalisation’. The hunger strike was a critical turning point in the most prolonged struggle against colonialism anywhere in history – the more than 800-year-long struggle against British rule in Ireland. This historic moment in Irish history, which ultimately saw the victory of the hunger strikers’ demands, was indeed, as Fidel Castro described that year, ‘one of the most heroic chapters in human history’.

Photo by Adam Tinworth

Sarkozy’s turn to chauvinism and racism

13th April 2011 Socialist Action 0

By Jane West

Sarkozy’s introduction of the legal ban on wearing the full face veil in France is an indication of the degree to which right-wing governments across Europe are prepared to try to deflect anger at attacks on working class living standards onto innocent scapegoats – in this case approximately 2000 Muslim women in France, less than 0.2% of the population, who wear a Burqa or Niqab.

In memory Brian Moore – ‘Cormac’

14th March 2011 Socialist Action 0

Socialist Action express sadness at the death of Brian Moore ‘Cormac’

Socialist Action was deeply saddened to hear of the death of Brian Moore, the political cartoonist known as ‘Cormac’, who died on Saturday night (12th March). Brian was well known by his sharp and insightful cartoons ‘Notes by Cormac’ which appeared in Republican News and An Phoblacht.

Brian was also a regular contributor to Socialist Action weekly newspaper throughout the 1980s and to its predecessor, Socialist Challenge in the 1970s. His cartoons in Socialist Action – ‘A Piece of the Action’ – showed his incisive, hilarious and sometimes surreal take on many political issues during that period. They revealed his socialist, republican and internationalist view of the world.