[Marxism] Irish Socialist Network recent articles

["John oneill" <John.oneill@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Beyond the Life of Brian - Sectarianism and the Left
Anyone who has been around the radical left for a while will have heard 
countless jibes about the "People's Front of Judea". The stubborn relevance of 
a Monty Python sketch from nearly thirty years ago suggests that left-wing 
sectarianism is as much of a problem as it ever was. And it's as good a 
starting-point as any for looking at that problem. 

George Galloway:
George Galloway could hardly object to being called a polarising figure. And 
indeed, he'd surely be happy to accept the label - his whole approach to 
politics is brash, abrasive and designed to provoke a strong reaction. But 
hostility to Galloway isn't confined to supporters of the Iraq war and 
conservative elements in general - many socialist and anti-war militants find 
him infuriating. It's worth asking why. 

Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte 
Colm Breathnach shows the relevance of a work written a century and a half ago 
to contemporary struggles. A shorter version of this article first appeared in 
"Red Banner" 27.

Green fig leaf: the weakest link.
The Green Party's decision to enter government with Fianna Fáil hardly came as 
a surprise given that party's drift to the right but the scale of the sell-out 
leaves one breathless. Anyone expecting radical reforms will be sorely 
disappointed as swathes of Green policy vanish leaving only vague aspirations. 
Gone are all the key principles.

All at;

http://irishsocialist.net/

The Left and the Balkan Wars
There was a flurry of excitement some time ago about a controversial interview 
with Noam Chomsky in the Guardian. Chomsky himself strongly contested the 
account of his views given by the article, and in due course the paper 
repudiated it. Reading over the text, there's little doubt that the journalist 
(Emma Brockes) was trying too hard to cause a stir - with the goal of scalping 
a well-known figure firmly on her mind, she lost the run of herself and 
delivered a sloppy, inaccurate and misleading piece. What many people lost 
sight of during the controversy, though, was the light it shone on a troubling 
problem: the persistence of left-wing stupidity concerning the Balkan wars of 
the 1990s.

In full at; 
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/83819&comment_limit=0&condense_comments=false#comment205373


John O'Neill

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