Aontacht Media

On The Affective Aspects of Politics: A Letter to Irish Comrades

Zohran Mamdani’s popularity is not down to policy alone, neither to his class-first politics in conjunction with his unyielding defence of minorities, but also his youthful presentation, engagement with popular culture and New York’s unique history, scavenger hunts and quips and storytelling, exciting the masses. This is politics, a complete package, decorating a rational kernel with a libidinal force, presenting it to the masses.

Warning from Citywest: How the Left Let the Right Set the Agenda

The Left and the Government have entered into the holy alliance of liberal respectability politics over Citywest. Those with the least purchase in society are hunted from both sides, a paranoiac pressure-cooker surrounding them from every corner, with no one left to champion their interests bar the Right. Their concerns ignored for months and months, the eruption of a riot triggers media frenzy, focusing on the unsavoury elements: rage- and hate-fuelled racist agitators.

The Case of CATU v Social Democracy

A few weeks ago, the Community Action Tenants’ Union (CATU) issued a call for an all-Ireland national housing demonstration on July 5th. A few days later, a bloc of soft-left, social-democratic Dáil parties consisting of Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats, and People Before Profit called for housing demonstrations under the Raise The Roof (RTR) campaign, a campaign connected to many Irish trade unions which has sat dormant for many years. The timing of this call is no coincidence.

Lessons of Your Party

Those keeping track of British politics as of late are likely familiar with the emergence of Your Party. For those not familiar with it, it is, in essence, a grassroots organisation spearheaded by MPs Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn, along with a few others in Parliament or otherwise. Ideologically, the organisation committed itself to the growing trend of Democratic Socialism. Its origins are hardly surprising. Starmer’s Labour edges ever rightward, and the party’s left wing has functionally ceased to exist.

Liberal and Revolutionary Protesting

When I attended a pro-Palestinian protest at Shannon Airport last year, I had immediately noticed in the air a confrontational attitude among the protestors. The police had quartered us off from the airport proper with a line of officers and metal fencing. However, the crowd had grown to such a size, and the number of police was so passive, one could’ve hoped we would challenge their presence.