Hello everyone

[Hibernicus]

Hello everyone, I'm certainly "of the left" but I don't know enough about socialism or communism to say what, if any, tendency I'm part of. So I'm here to learn :) I'm from Ireland btw

Looking forward to contributing to discussions

[Q]

Welcome :)

If you have political questions, you can ask them in the Learning forum. That's why it's there after all!

If you have questions about your account, don't hesitate to send me a PM or ask here.

How's the left at your place? And what got you into revolutionary politics to say that you're "of the left"?

[Comrade Jacob]

Welcome Hibernicus.
There's no need to go looking for a particular tendency.

[Bolshevik Sickle]

Welcome to RevLeft, comrade.

[Hibernicus]

Welcome :)

If you have political questions, you can ask them in the Learning forum. That's why it's there after all!

If you have questions about your account, don't hesitate to send me a PM or ask here.

How's the left at your place? And what got you into revolutionary politics to say that you're "of the left"?

Hi, thanks for the welcome :)

The left here is unfortunately very weak. What we have in Ireland currently is a coalition between a right wing party (Called Fine Gael) and a supposedly left wing party (The Labour Party). The latter have basically broken every election promise they have made as they have implemented a right wing austerity program imposed by the IMF and the EU which has meant lots of cuts which have affected (as they tend to do) the poor and vulnerable. They have also conspired in loading yet more of private banking debt onto the shoulders of the Irish public - basically they are scumbags although happily the labour party look set to be wiped out at the next election.

Aside from the Labour party who traditionally have been a lite social democrat party and the main "left" party whats left is very fractured. We have a socialist trotskist party and a few other partys which are along the same lines, they are all very small and because of various ego issues they don't get along. They are not very inspiring.

We have another party called Sinn Féin (political wing of the now disbanded Irish Republican Army) which over the past 15 years and more have shifted more towards the centre, in the north of Ireland (the bit controlled by the UK) they are in a (mandatory) power sharing govt with a rabid right wing pro UK party - its basically a talking shop, theres no fiscal control. In the south of the country they are surging in the polls and look set to replace the labour party as the main centre left party.

What got me into revolutionary politics was my study of Irish history and the fact that I'm an Irish republican (someone who supports the establishment of an independent 32 county Irish republic (the UK still controls six). Irish republicanism is quite a large church, traditionally it would be somewhat left, but there is a strong revolutionary socialist trend therein, I'm a great admirer of James Connolly for example. Basically through my increasing understanding of Irish history and being confronted with the reality in Ireland today I've progressively become more left as I understand more and learn more things as I get older (I'm 22).

[The Idler]

Are there any groups who don't get on for reasons other than personal ego? You may be interested in James Connolly's early involvement with the Socialist Labor Party.