Limerick City: Cian Prendiville

The Socialist Party is opposed to the visits to Ireland by Queen Elizabeth and Barrack Obama. €25 million will be spent wining, dining and protecting the Queen and Obama in a vain attempt to try to rebuild Ireland’s damaged reputation. The reputation of the Irish state was of course destroyed by the actions of the Irish capitalist class whose greed, corruption and unquestioning faith in the market has bankrupted the country.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a Russian political activist and member of the punk group Pussy Riot, was jailed in August 2012 for hooliganism and blasphemy. Her crime was to stage an anti-Putin protest, along with two other performers, inside Moscow's Orthodox Cathedral. Despite claims that Russia has made steps towards becoming a more open society, those in power took immediate steps to silence the band’s radical feminist message.

Last month revolutionary and renowned soul, jazz and blues artist, Gil Scott Heron, sadly passed away. Most famous for his song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", Gil had a long and turbulant artistic career and life, and is seen as a key musical influence on the development of R&B and rap. His songs were not just mundane songs about nothing, but were scathing social commentary on capitalism and capitalist society. Here we post a review, written by members of Socialist Alternative, our American sister party.

A difficult few months for the United Left Alliance was made significantly more difficult by the recent withdrawal of Seamus Healy TD and the Workers & Unemployed Action Group in Tipperary from the alliance. The ULA is at a crossroads and its future uncertain.