In the presence of the gentry, Old Kenny the peasant, doffed his cap, crooked his knee, arranged his face in an expression of obsequious servility and said: ‘Savin’ yer presence, yer honours, but sure ’tis all our own fault, for we’re a feckless nation an’ not used at all at all to the ways of [...]

Translation of an article by Manuel Castells, originally published in La Vanguardia, 21st January 2012.
The indignados movement that burst forth in 2011 in Spain, Europe and the United States is a breath of fresh air in a world that smells rotten. They set out in social networks and in acampadas what many people think: that it was banks [...]

On the evening of Wednesday 18th January, the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) held a protest against an official Israeli parliamentary visit to the Oireachtas. This visit of two Israeli Knesset [Parliament] members and their entourage was kept secret by the Irish state until the evening before the two MKs arrived. With less than 12 [...]

Another global wave of critique and resistance would come, I told myself and anyone who asked. For many years I watched and waited. Not passively, but actively, keeping alive the social memory of movements past, analysing the ever shifting shape of the global system and going into the streets to protest against many forms of [...]

Dear TD/Senator,
I write to demand that the so-called “debt” of 1.25bn Euro (one billion, two hundred and fifty million) due to be paid to UNSECURED Anglo bondholders be not paid.
Since the Irish people had no hand in this debt; we do not consent to paying it. Since the Irish people will not benefit from its [...]

Today marks Occupy Dame Street’s 100th day of occupation in the shadow of the Central Bank of Ireland building in central Dublin. It is a good time for us to reflect on where we are now, and where we can go
from here.
The last 100 days have been exhilarating and exhausting for those of us involved in this occupation. [...]

Bob Dylan could have been writing about these times when he composed the lyrics ‘the times they are a changing’. This was never so apparent than on a recent trip to the US to meet  with social and economic justice organisations.
Most striking was the shift in the parameters of the public debate about wealth, income [...]

Schools in Tallaght protested at the Dail to defend their education from savage government cuts.

At a time when the most vulnerable in society desperately need a challenge to the neoliberal, capitalist hegemony it seems that the only criticism of the system that penetrates the public consciousness is spoken in the language of capitalism. The first step to a new political dialogue might come from reframing that language.
The phrase “survival [...]