ROB WARZYNIAK recalls the emblematic 1906 book, The Jungle, in its analysis of the crisis presently engulfing the US Food and Drug Administration
ARE attitudes to the EU changing among Europe’s parties of the left? On the basis of last week’s meeting in Lisbon the answer is a qualified Yes.
There is now a much fuller rejection of the EU as a neoliberal, pro-competition and anti-working class institution — not by all on the left but certainly marking significant change.
Organised by the Portuguese Communist Party under the auspices of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left parliamentary grouping, delegates attended from Portugal, Spain, Cyprus, Belgium, Britain and Sinn Fein from Ireland.
The position of most delegates was that project to reform the European Union, to create a “social Europe,” had definitively failed.
This assessment was embedded in the meeting’s title, “No to a European Union of transnational companies and big powers — Yes to a Europe of co-operation, social progress and peace.”
While Italy’s communist tradition remains fragmented and politically marginal, France’s party is attempting to re-establish itself as an independent force rooted in working-class organisation, says NICK WRIGHT
From summit to summit, imperialist companies and governments cut, delay or water down their commitments, warn the Communist Parties of Britain, France, Portugal and Spain and the Workers Party of Belgium in a joint statement on Cop30
A new group within the NEU is preparing the labour movement for a conversation on Irish unity by arguing that true liberation must be rooted in working-class solidarity and anti-sectarianism, writes ROBERT POOLE
The independent TD’s campaign has put important issues like Irish reunification and military neutrality at the heart of the political conversation, argues SEAN MacBRADAIGH



