20Mar2011
Author
Paul Dillon
Category
International
Tags
Any agreement signed between El Salvador and the U.S government has to guarantee El Salvador´s democracy and sovereignty. Thumbnail

Any agreement signed between El Salvador and the U.S government has to guarantee El Salvador´s democracy and sovereignty.

By Nora, an activist in the El Salvadoran social movements.   Barack Obama is on a trip through Latin American countries. He will arrive in El Salvador on the 22nd of March. It is considered to be a historic event for the country, as Barack Obama is the first U.S. president to visit El Salvador in the context of our first left wing government, led by President Mauricio Funes. El

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12Mar2011
Author
Paul Dillon
Category
Reviews
Tags
David Thornley-Rebel without a platform. Thumbnail

David Thornley-Rebel without a platform.

David Thornley was a contradictory character. A late convert to active Catholicism and an active socialist. A rebellious and dissenting TD in the Labour Party of the 1970s, who had held senior positions in establishment institutions like Trinity and RTE in the 1960s. And a man of energy and intelligence, whose political career is often seen as a failure. Of these contradictions, it is the dichotomy between Thornley's ability and his performance as a politician that most exercises the 11 writers in this collection of essays in his memory, which is edited by his daughter, Yseult.

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12Mar2011
Author
Paul Dillon
Category
Articles
Tags
Interview Arthur Scargill Thumbnail

Interview Arthur Scargill

You do not have to agree with Arthur Scargill on everything to admire him. He once told a meeting in Dublin: "I never asked anyone to anything I was not willing to do myself" It was the best definition of leadership I have ever

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12Mar2011
Author
Paul Dillon
Category
Interviews
Tags
Our next President? Interview With Michael D Higgins. Thumbnail

Our next President? Interview With Michael D Higgins.

Michael D is an inspiring man. He is a free thinker, a radical and truly gifted person. Read this recent interview I conducted with him over on

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12Mar2011
Author
Paul Dillon
Category
Articles
Tags
And here is the Good News… Street Preachers in Dublin. Thumbnail

And here is the Good News… Street Preachers in Dublin.

Left blogger generally stciks to what he knows best: Politics, Trade Unions, the left, dissenting voices. Every so often, in a bid to attract new and interested readers, Leftblogger takes a notion and writes about something from leftfield. Check out the article below about Street preachers. Enjoy and comment.

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12Mar2011
Author
Paul Dillon
Category
Articles
Tags
Tony Benn and Nicky Wire meet for a chat. Thumbnail

Tony Benn and Nicky Wire meet for a chat.

http://thequietus.com/articles/04946-tony-benn-and-nicky-wire-of-the-manic-street-preachers-in-conversation This link is well worth checking out. It is a conversation between Nicky Wire and of the Manic Street Preachers and the always great Tony Benn. It is presented as a meeting of minds. Actually, if you watch closely, what emerges is something very different. For me, it was a clash of

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03Oct2010
Author
Paul Dillon
Category
Articles
Tags
,
roma-community

A Fresh Start for the Roma Community in Ireland?

Anita Elena is a Romanian woman, who has lived, worked and studied in Ireland for 7 years. As part of her postgraduate work in Trinity College Dublin, she is conducting research on the life experiences of the 3,000 strong Roma community in Ireland. “What many people forget or do not know is that the Roma face racism everywhere, including Romania. There is a refusal to accept the Roma way of

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02Oct2010
Author
Paul Dillon
Category
International
Tags
, ,
funes

President Funes and the FMLN: Neither marriage nor divorce

In March 2009, El Salvador joined the list of Latin American countries with a left wing government when the candidate of the Ferabundo Marti Liberation Movement (FMLN), Mauricio Funes, won the popular vote in the presidential election. Paul Dillon reports on the political dynamic between the President and the FMLN.

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01Oct2010
Author
Paul Dillon
Category
Reviews
Tags
ken-livingstone

Book Review: The Battle for the Labour Party (1981)

"The Battle for the Labour Party", written by journalist David Kogan and academic Maurice Kogan, describes how the left within the British Labour Party came to exercise enormous influence within the party between 1974 and 1981 (he lefts influence continued for a number of years thereafter but this book was published in 1981). The collaboration between a journalist and an academic

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30Aug2010
Author
Paul Dillon
Category
Interviews
Tags
, , , ,
scott millar brian hanley

Talking about a Lost Revolution: An interview with Brian Hanley and Scott Millar

In the first week of its release, “The Lost Revolution” shot straight into the top 5 non-fiction titles in Ireland. This in itself showed the enduring interest in the Official Republicans/The Workers’ Party. This interest was brought home to me again at the launch of the book, held in the Teachers club on September 12, which attracted an audience of around 300, including current and past members of the Official movement, as well as dozens of interested individuals from across the broad range of Republican and left groups in Ireland.

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