Editorial

Abstract

This issue of Irish Marxist Review begins with a focus on two key events in Irish history - the 1913 Lockout and the 1916 Rising - and then moves on to consider how different legacies of that history, Loyalism and Dissident Republicanism are manifesting themselves in Northern Ireland today.

However in the South it is the fight against Fine Gael/ Labour imposed austerity that holds the centre of the political stage. It is therefore useful to introduce this issue with some brief reflections on where we are at in this struggle.

December 2012 saw the sixth austerity budget in a row. It included a number of particularly vicious cuts hitting, as so often, the most vulnerable - for example the cut to the respite grant for carers and the cuts in child benefit - combined with a multitude of small measures chipping away at the living standards of low and middle income earners, i.e. the working class, and at the services available to working class communities. All of which caused great and well deserved anger.