IMT: Ireland
Fightback is the printed Magazine and online journal of the International Marxist Tendency in Ireland. The website was launched in July 2009 and has just passed 340,000 hits.
Fightback carries regular updates on the political and industrial situation throughout the island of Ireland and internationally. The historic defeat of FF and the Greens in the last election reflected the extent of the economic and political crisis in the state. Now a little more than a year into the FG/Labour coalition its clear that nothing significant has changed. The government is coming under pressure from the bosses on the one side and will come under enormous pressure from the working class on the other. This will be reflected particularly in the Public Sector where the Croke Park deal will come under huge pressure. Already FG back benchers are screaming out against the deal. At the same time the government are planning the selling off of state assets.
The referendum on the fiscal treaty has been passed. But it will solve nothing. It merely ties the state into a permanent austerity programme. The anarchy of Capitalism is the problem. We need to get rid of it and replace it with a 32 county socialist united Ireland.
Labour must change direction and put a stop to the Household, Water and Septic Tank charges. We believe these are just another imposition on workers, the old, the sick and the poor. We say NO to all home taxes. We believe that the opposition to the household charges reflects a deep discontent with capitalism in Ireland.
Labour must break the coalition and fight for a socialist programme in the interests of working people and the youth.
In the North the effects of public sector cuts will mean the loss of up to 48,000 jobs. There have been two huge strikes, first on October 5th and then November 30th which was almost a General Strike in the North. The trade unions have a duty to fight against the cuts and to provide a mass working class political alternative to the sectarian blind alley of Stormont. There is only one majority in the North - the working class; and it needs a political expression.
The next period will see a heightening of the class struggle both North and South of the border. Under these conditions the ideas of Marxism will be an invaluable tool for the trade union movement and for the youth. We hope to bring together those workers and young people who recognise the need to develop a strong Marxist Tendency within the Labour movement and among the Youth across the whole of the Island of Ireland.
We base ourselves on the ideas of Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, VI Lenin, James Connolly and Leon Trotsky; the basic principles of the Marxist movement. Over the past 30 months we have been extremely encouraged by the response that we have had to this website. We now have regular readers in all of the cities in Ireland, in 28 of the 32 counties as well as many towns and villages and at the last count 157 countries internationally also. We are confident that we have the best international coverage of any left website in Ireland, as well as the most up to date analysis. Our coverage of the Greek crisis has been second to none.
We are confident that our perspectives and analysis have been borne out by events and we would encourage you to read the articles posted on the site. We know as well that our articles have been translated and reprinted in Spanish, Portugese, Catalan, Italian, Dutch and German as well as other languages and have been circulated throughout Latin America and Europe. We would recommend you to read our material and study the theoretical material that we have reproduced.
Most importantly we'd urge you to join with us in the fight for Socialism.
Where we stand
- Nationalise the banks and the major industries under the democratic control of the working class
- You can’t control what you don’t own we need a democratic socialist plan of production
- Nationalise any factory or business threatening redundancy under workers control and management.
- Make the bosses pay for the crisis.
- "Social Partnership" has proven little more than a trap for the working class. Industrial action to protect jobs, services, wages and conditions.
- No sale of state assets; privatisation is piracy
- Not a cent off the pay, not a second on the day.
- No wage cuts or attacks in conditions on either side of the border
- Break the Coalition with Fine Gael. For a Labour and Left Government with a socialist programme.
- No collaboration with the bosses. Labour must support the workers in struggle.
- A 32 hour working week with no loss of pay
- For a €12.50 per hour minimum wage.
- For a free and universal health care system
- Affordable and adequate housing for all, no reposessions
- Place empty housing under state control; slash the housing queues
- No to all Household Taxes!
- Fight all discrimination whether on the grounds of religion, age, race, gender or sexual orientation.
- Fight anti union legislation. For full union recognition in all workplaces - with no loopholes
- No to the Lisbon Treaty; No to a Bosses Europe, for a Socialist United States of Europe.
- No to Stormont and the sectarian blind alley of the Good Friday Agreement
- For a mass non sectarian workers party in the north, based on the trade union movement
- For a 32 county Socialist United Ireland linked in a voluntary federation to a socialist Britain as part of a European and World Socialist Federation.
- Workers of all countries unite! We have nothing to lose but our chains