The recent quarrel over the timing and constitutional validity of the proposed independence referendum in Scotland has again pushed the national question to the forefront of British politics. Such developments give us a fresh opportunity to revisit this important issue.

James Connolly and Jim Larkin founded the Irish Labour Party in 1912, based on the trade union movement as a means to express the political and social aspirations of the Irish working class. Connolly understood that the working class needed to organize to combat British Imperialism and the rack renting landlords and the slave drivers of Belfast and the sweated trades owners of Dublin.  Connolly went to his death in 1916 as a workers leader who had fought his whole life in the interests of working people.

There has been a certain feeling over the past three or four years that we are living through history, the sort of history, that is, which people pick over many years into the future when they try to explain the factors that led to a war or a revolution for example.

RTÉ and the Irish press report fairly regularly about the workings of the Troika and the discussions Enda Kenny (leader of Fine Gael) and Michael Noonan (Minister of Finance) hold with European Union and the IMF, although the edited highlights and the “communiqués” don’t mention the small print. As many people behind on the mortgage will have found out to their cost over the last few years, the devil is in the detail.

RTÉ and the Irish press report fairly regularly about the workings of the Troika and the discussions Enda Kenny (leader of Fine Gael) and Michael Noonan (Minister of Finance) hold with European Union and the IMF, although the edited highlights and the “communiqués” don’t mention the small print. As many people behind on the mortgage will have found out to their cost over the last few years, the devil is in the detail.

By any standards a country whose young people are forced to leave for want of a future can’t be healthy. The Troika and the European Bond Markets speculators judge the health of nations by the “success” of their austerity measures in slashing public spending and attacking services. Most working people would consider how the old, children and women are supported. Economists look at the statistics for trade, earnings and GDP. One measure looks at the scale of inequality within society.

Thank God for the Olympics!” must be the cry from most if not all Tory Ministers after the economic news at the end of last month. They will be more than a little relieved that the London Games have been hogging all the news and will continue to do so over the next few weeks at least. However, we all live in the real world and in that world we can see the consequences of the just over two years of this Coalition. We are now in the longest “double dip” recession for over 50 years.

As the Spanish government got its €65bn austerity package passed in Parliament, millions of people took to the streets in unprecedented demonstrations against cuts on July 19. The day after, as the Valencian regional government asked for a central government bail out (of 3.5bn euro), the risk premium on Spanish bonds hit a new record, while 10 year bonds were yielding 7.3%. The Spanish economy is on the verge of a full bail out.

The prospect of a Syriza government caused a wave of panic in the bourgeoisie of Greece and internationally. They organized a massive campaign to drive people away from Syriza, warning of economic catastrophe if they came to power. That was sufficient to panic wide sections of the middle class, older people and backward layers into voting for the New Democracy. [part 1]

[We strongly recommend this article, as it highlights the return of class solidarity across the ethnic divide in the former Yugoslavia.]

At the recent Srebrenica massacre commemoration in the Potočari Memorial Centre, the victims’ families turned against the politicians present, and Bosnian crowds directed loud whistles and curses at the same politicians.

"Off with their heads!” screamed the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland. The mass of people agree, especially when it comes to bankers. And this is no joke. Across much of the world, bankers have acquired pariah status, responsible for triggering the crisis and then being bailed out with taxpayers’ money. Their standing is about on a par with paedophiles or rapists.

Last month's day of action by doctors in Britain attracted a lot of criticism from the Tory press - no surprise there! Here is an article we have received from a doctor putting their case and explaining what really happened.

Last night over 150,000 people turned out in Madrid to receive the coal miners who have marched for 18 days to cover the 400 km separating their home regions from the Spanish capital. A huge crowd of tens of thousands (the Madrid secretary of CCOO union put the figure at half a million) showed their solidarity with raised fists, revolutionary slogans and songs, and accompanied them from Ciudad Universitaria all the way to the Puerta del Sol square which the indignados have filled often in the last one year of struggles.

The crisis of the euro resembles a long drawn-out death agony. There is one “decisive” summit after another, each proclaiming a definitive end to the euro crisis. The markets rally for a few hours or days and then fall once more. The index of the European stock markets resembles a thermometer that tracks the process of a terminally sick patient.

Ken Capstick, former Vice-President, Yorkshire National Union of Miners and Rob Sewell, author of 'In the Cause of Labour' and editor of Socialist Appeal talk about the struggles that lead up to 1972 and up to the miners strike of 1984/5. The speeches were given at the ULU Marxist Summer School which was recently organized in in London.