Rundale

‘No necessary correspondence’ is a line that the Marxist theorist Stuart hall reiterated when it came to making sense of the articulation between distinct social elements. While we may understand, and even desire, that distinct issues and concerns are connected, this should never be assumed or merely stated; it takes work to articulate two or more things together. The three articles published this month touch on questions of correspondence and articulation, whether across different political groups within new Left alliances, or the multiple and intensifying fronts of capitalist extractivism and dispossession.

In Where Extractivism Meets the Military Industrial Complex: Céad Míle Fáilte to the War Economy in Ireland, V’Cenza Cirefice explores the links between extractivism, specifically mining, and militarism with a focus on the Irish context. She argues that we need to build strong coalitions between anti-extractivism and climate justice movements, taking on the military industrial complex and standing in solidarity with communities whose lands are being sacrificed for the material conditions of war and genocide.

As we seek to build left unity in Ireland, Dónal Hassett looks at what we can learn from the recent left alliances in France. In The Lesson from France’s Left Alliances: Put Policy and People Power Before Parties and Personalities, he underlines that popular engagement in a left alliance must be not only broad but also deep, rooted in grass-roots activism at a local level and not subject to the whims and ambitions of political elites. 

We are also delighted to have Ann-Louise Bresnahan writing for us this month. She is a member of Save The Moat – Save The Sperrins, a grassroots group formed to protect the area from industrial developments. In The Last Wild Places, Ann-Louise reflects on place, community, and what it means to defend the land you call home, while looking beyond the glossy PR narrative to the real impacts of wind factory developments, data centres and mining on peatlands, wildlife, rural life and communities.