Public Meeting - After The Troubles - where now for socialists and republicans?

dublin | anti-capitalism | event notice Tuesday March 03, 2009 14:18 by Irish Socialist Network

Meeting hosted by the Irish Socialist Network to launch new pamphlet "After The Troubles: Republicanism, Socialism and Partition"

Speakers:
Tommy McKearney (Fourthwrite)
Colin Coulter (Sociology Dept, NUI Maynooth)

Venue: Teachers’ Club, Parnell Square
Date and Time: Wednesday March 18th, 7.30 PM

After many years of conflict, peace (of a sort) has arrived in the North of Ireland. But the post-ceasefire settlement has done nothing to address the dire poverty of working-class communities that bore the brunt of civil war.

The Stormont power-sharing executive will be required to carry out an economic agenda determined by London that rules out any redistribution of wealth. The movement that took up arms against the British state has been absorbed into the conservative political mainstream and now finds itself subject to a DUP veto.

The new situation poses many challenges for socialists and left republicans. Will the Sinn Fein – DUP coalition endure? What opportunities might exist for the development of class politics? How has Northern Irish society changed over the last decade, and how is it likely to develop in the coming years?

The Irish Socialist Network has published a new pamphlet, After The Troubles: Republicanism, Socialism and Partition which explores these issues. To launch the pamphlet, the ISN will be hosting a public discussion with former republican prisoner Tommy McKearney and Colin Coulter, editor of the recent collection Northern Ireland After The Troubles: A Society In Transition.

We hope you’ll join us for what should be an interesting discussion.