Covid-19
As precarity for artists worsens during COVID-19, Maeve McGrath looks at who pays the artist, the impact on creativity, and the need for a society which cherishes the art that enriches all of our lives. As the 2020 European Capital of Culture, Galway was not blessed with the most
Features
Continuing Rebel’s Power in a Union series, James O’Toole explores the history of workers’ occupations both as a radical and effective tactic to win individual disputes but also as laying the basis for a different type of society – one based on direct democracy. “Occupy!” the shout went out,
Features
Ahead of a national protest in support of the Debenhams workers, Stewart Smyth argues that the blame lies squarely with failed management and dodgy accounting. And importantly, that with enough support from grassroots union members and the wider community, the workers can win. For over a hundred days now workers
Features
The recent treatment of Black Lives Matter protesters by the PSNI laid bare the institutional racism of the ‘New Northern Ireland’. In a piece which takes stock of the inaction of Stormont over more than a decade, Rebel exposes the depth of the problem. On Tuesday 9 June 2020, Justice
Features
John Hume deserves his place in history as a man of peace. But the sentimentalised view of him presented in most of the media in the days since his death is far from the full truth. I knew John for decades. We disagreed about politics, frequently in angry tones. But
Features
Eugenics neither began nor ended with the Nazis, despite the term being most-often associated with their despicable crimes. As the far-right attempt to rehabilitate these abhorrent ideas, Aislinn Shanahan Daly traces some of the hidden history of eugenics. It is a dark omen that the word eugenics has
Features
As thousands of BLM protesters continue to resist armed Federal agents on the streets of Portland, Rebel speaks to Bob Bacon, an activist on the ground. Rebel: Just last week, it was announced that the Federal Troops will be leaving Portland’s streets. This seems like a massive blow for
Features
As the advertising standards agency of Ireland bans a tampon ad deemed ‘widely offensive’, Fiona Ferguson argues that the women of Ireland, North & South, are up for the fight against period stigma. God love the conservatives of Ireland. Tormented by Repeal, tortured by endless LGBTQ+ campaigns, and lately, a
Features
With the recent ruling in the Apple tax case being spun as a “win for Ireland”, Stewart Smyth takes apart the propanganda, arguing that this is another example of tax-haven Ireland at work. Readers of this website won’t be surprised that the common sense view of a particular
Features
In first of a new series, Power in a Union, Eddie Conlon explores the nature of trade union leadership and how socialists in unions should relate to it. The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the brutality of the capitalist system. Across the globe employers have shown complete disregard for workers’
Features
Clara Zetkin (1857 – 1933) is known to many as the founder of international women’s day, but she was not just a women’s rights activist. Clara was also an important Marxist thinker and as such, her aim was not simply to free women in order for them to compete
Ecosocialism
The European Green Deal aims to make Europe carbon neutral by 2050. But as Kieran Logan explains, an appointed advisor in delivering the Deal – BlackRock – is the “biggest driver of climate destruction on the planet”. The European Commission unveiled its European Green Deal in October 2019, aimed at making Europe