The Chinese have a saying and curse – may you live in
interesting times. The financial crisis and credit crunch are certainly
interesting times. But how do these complex shenanigans impact on the real
economy? 
We are experiencing a crisis in what is called the monoline
business in the USA where banks are set to
write down more than $200 billion of their assets. Kissing goodbye to all that
money brings a banking collapse so much closer. $2.4 trillion in loan
guarantees have been called into question.

After the Easter 1916
uprising the actual class conditions that motivated the likes of James Connolly
and the trade unionists who set up the Irish Citizen’s Army to battle capitalism
were written out of history. Radical ideas were demonised and Connolly’s Marxism
was airbrushed from history.

The outstanding
leader of the Easter 1916 uprising was James Connolly. There have been many
attempts to portray him simply as an Irish nationalist. But Connolly was, first
and foremost, a militant workers’ leader and a Marxist. He alone in the annals
of the British and Irish Labour Movement succeeded in developing the ideas of
Marxism. (Written in 2001 on the 85th anniversary of the uprising.) Read the article here.

For the interest of
our readers we publish a speech delivered by Paul Little (of the IRSP Ard Comhairle) on Sunday, 23rd March, at the Republican
Socialist Plot, Milltown Cemetery, Belfast.
He explains that the aim of the IRSP is “to oust imperialism, oust capitalism
in all its guises and end the occupation and exploitation of the Irish working class.”

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to
mark the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, and to stand against the
ongoing occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. These demonstrations come as the
US is piling the pressure on its NATO allies to commit more troops, and send
more into combat on the front line.

On Wednesday 19th March . 19 Labour MPs voted against the plan with the
Tory hypocrites and many more abstained. Some voted out of principle
and some to save their miserable hides at the next election. For this is
a plan that nobody (except the jackals of big business) wants. Four
million signed the petition to save the post offices. They were ignored.
The government is now recommending the county councils take over the
threatened branches. They are commemorating Easter by imitating Pontius
Pilate. The fight is still on to stop this vandalism.

Three years ago Peter Doyle the Regional Officer
for UNISON in Carlisle pulled off a huge victory in terms of Equal Pay for Work
of Equal Value worth potentially £340 million. The amount was so big partly
because the case had dragged on for years and also because the extent to which
the 1,500 women had been underpaid. Trade union struggles are often complex and
difficult. They are made even more difficult by the union bureaucracy cuddling
up to the labour leadership, instead of representing the members.

It is almost impossible to believe the rank stupidity and/or duplicity
of the people masquerading as Labour Ministers. This is a press release
from UNISON in response to the latest claptrap from Kim Howells, in
which he makes allegations that put at risk the lives of trade unionists
in Columbia. Please use this information in your own unions and demand
the retraction of Howells’ allegations.

In the past
month Ken Loach has been outstanding in his support for Shelter workers in an
industrial dispute with management. They are trying to impose an extra two and
a half hours a week work for no extra pay so that Shelter, a company with a £49.1m turnover is competitive with
private companies in winning work contracted out by a Labour government to the cheapest bidder. Over 70% of
the 468 Unite members voted for strike action.

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