At a time of accelerating ecological crisis, a persistent push for militarism, and deepening social inequality, critical left analysis – of both the problems and our movements’ responses to them – is as timely as ever. Two of our pieces this month spur us to think about our direction and strategy, one through a historical account of the Irish left and the other through a consideration of how environmental movements engage with legal strategies. Our other two articles deal with the most dire arena of social inequality in Ireland today: housing.
Harun Šiljak reviews Oisín Gilmore and David Landy’s new edited volume “Fragments of Victory: The Contemporary Irish Left”. Offering a heterodox and ambitious account, the volume projects the social change in the past decade in Ireland onto major axes of its social movements.
Orla Kelleher and Patrick Bresnihan discuss the anti-democratic Planning and Development Act, passed last year and consider its implications for movements seeking environmental justice in Ireland, as well as what alternative and complimentary strategies exist.
Rory Rowan reviews Eva Richardson McCrea’s new film The Decameron / Na Deich Lá. The film depicts a group of young people in a co-living complex struggling to make connections with each other in the long psychological shadow of the housing crisis. It asks what hyper commodified housing does to our ability to relate to each other, and ourselves.
Fiadh Tubridy gives an account of a recent workshop held between researchers, activists and public housing residents. The article makes the case for connecting local struggles into a national campaign for public housing, and for seeing public housing tenants and those involved in organising these campaigns as one of the most important and (potentially) well-organised and cohesive forces for climate justice in Ireland.
We’ll be back in April with a new suite of pieces.
In the meantime, please get in touch if you have any contribution ideas you’d like to pitch.
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