The world is a mess. War, poverty, and oppression are now part of the daily lives of billions round the globe. Even during the last boom 80% of the world’s population - 5.4 billion people - lived on less than $10 a day. Now that the world is in the midst of this crisis even the head of the World Bank has said it will result in “a human and developmental calamity… the number of chronically hungry people is expected to climb over 1 billion this year”. The wars in the middle east, enviromental destruction and worsening economic turmoil are only the most recent striking examples of the crises facing humanity.
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What is Socialism?
43 posts
Socialism: the great anti-theft movement
By Cillian Gillespie In 1910, James Connolly wrote his celebrated pamphlet Socialism Made Easy. As well as playing…
“All hail to the mob!” – The 99% is the force for change
The establishment fear of the anti-water charges protests was summed up by the Dailly Mail in a front page containing a picture of Ruth Coppinger TD and myself with the headline: “‘Democrats’ who believe in mob rule.”
It doesn’t have to be like this
By any reasonable standards capitalism in the 21st century is a disaster. Poverty, war and environmental destruction – all stemming from the profit system – as isolated issues would be testament to that fact, but the combination is lethal.
The socialist alternative to G8 tyranny
Not since its 2001 meeting in Genoa, which saw 200,000 protesters take to the streets has the G8 dared to meet in an area accessible to protesters. However remote a place they choose, they are met by protesters opposed to austerity, war and environmental destruction, but what is clear is that protesting is not enough. We need to build an alternative that is in the interest of the 99% not the dictatorial rule of the 1% – a socialist alternative.
Fight for a socialist society!
Socialists are for massive investment in new jobs and for retooling the economy to both protect the environment and put all the unemployed back to work. Democratic planning by the majority of society could ensure that everyone has a good job and that the economy provides the products we need.
Answering common questions – Socialism FAQs
With the rise of the Occupy movement, opposition to the existing political and economic order has gone mainstream. It’s hard to imagine that the bandana-clad woman on the cover of Time magazine – representing “The Protestor,” Time's “Person of the Year” – has many nice things to say about capitalism, and the ubiquity of the Guy Fawkes mask – popularized by “V for Vendetta” – further underscores how widespread the idea of revolution has become.
A socialist programme for economic recovery
The premise of Fine Gael and Labour’s Programme for Government is that there is no alternative to continuing the austerity policies of Fianna Fail. socialistparty.net questions this assertion and argues for socialist policies to redevelop the economy.
The socialist alternative to IMF/EU diktats
The capitalist media say that there is no alternative to the thrust of the economic policies being advanced by the government, the EU and the IMF. This is completely untrue. There is an alternative - a socialist alternative. Here socialistparty.net puts it forward in the form of a ten-point programme.
Capitalism has failed us – The case for socialism
Wages have been slashed, unemployment has exploded and our public services have been cut savagely as the economic crisis developed in Ireland. All of this is the result of the policies of the right-wing government and the actions of a small group of speculators, bankers and developers. Here Paul Murphy outlines the socialist alternative.
