The following clip is from an interview with Joe Deasy, who was born in 1922 and who met and worked with Jim Larkin Snr in the 1940s. Both were Labour councillors on Dublin Corporation. Joe would later leave the Labour party and join the Irish Workers League, which was a communist organisation, the antecedent to [...]

In September 2009 I interviewed John Throne about his own history, as well as the Irish left and working class. We talked for about two hours and after I had stopped recording, I asked John would it be ok to ask him about his expulsion from the Committee for a Workers’ International. He said yes, [...]

Yesterday I talked to Michael Burke, an economist with 25 years experience working in the Financial Services sector in the UK, including a 5 years period as a senior economist in Citibank. Recently he entered the economic debate here by saying that the Government’s current strategy of cutting government spending could lead to an even [...]

Below is a recording of Harry Browne at the launch of the Irish Socialist Network’s latest pamphlet, A force for progress? Five myths about the European Union. The event took place in Connolly Books, Essex St, Dublin 2.

Sinn Féin launched their pre-budget submission yesterday with a press conference in Buswell’s hotel, and a document which it claimed would provide the road to economic recovery. Within the current debate dominated by the rethoric of slash and burn, it was good to find out that Sinn Féin are arguing against the strategy of cuts [...]

The following recordings are from the final session in the dayschool organised by Irish Socialist Network and Fourthwrite.
The session was held today, Saturday 7 November 2009, in the Central Hotel, Dublin.
The title of the session was: Building a 21st Century Left
Chair: Mick O’Reilly
Speakers: Murray Smith (New Anti-Capitalist Party, France), Ciaran Perry (independent councillor [...]

John Throne was heavily involved with the establishment of Militant Irish Monthly, the newspaper of the Militant Tendency in Ireland. It began publication in June 1973, and a copy of the first issue, as well as some information on the Militant Tendency, is available on cedarlounge here.
The interview below is part of an Irish [...]

Below is a short video file, with the full audio file underneath, of Arthur Scargill’s talk on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the miners’ strike. Arthur gave insight on the background to the strike, its course and consequences, as well as some thoughts on the trade union movement and the European Union.
Enjoy.

Yesterday I spoke to Professor Terrence McDonough on the phone, about his talk at the recent TASC conference entitled Towards a Progressive Economics. In a conversation that lasted about 30 minutes Professor McDonough described how orthodox economics is commonly (and inaccurately) understood and suggested that the left in all its forms should take a fresh [...]

Yesterday I spoke to Dr. Nat O’Connor, Policy Analyst with TASC and a regular contributor to Progressive Economy on the phone about the TASC autumn conference in DCU this Saturday. Nat explains how the perspective of TASC and those of the speakers differs from the more mainstream economists and commentators whose solutions on how to [...]