Ireland

Ireland's exit from the Troika - the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Union (EU) and European Central Bank (ECB) - bailout programme on 16 December is being celebrated as proof that austerity works. The storyline from the Irish ruling class is that sovereignty has been regained. They claim that 85 percent of the "heavy lifting" has been done and only a little more sacrifice needs to be squeezed from the population. The EU elite see the exit as a much-needed propaganda point to counter the growing criticism of their doctrine of "expansionary austerity".

On 12 May 1916, the Irish socialist James Connolly was strapped to a chair because of his wounds, acquired during the defeated 1916 Easter rising, and executed by a British firing squad. The news of his death was greeted with cheers in the House of Commons, cheers in which Labour MPs joined.

What is the truth about the Dublin dispute?

In the year 1911 the National Seamen's and Firemen's Union, as a last desperate expedient to avoid extinction, resolved upon calling a general strike in all the home ports... the call was in danger of falling upon deaf ears, and was, in fact, but little heeded until the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union began to take a hand in the game.

The Irish state postal service recently issued a series of stamps showing scenes from the Great Dublin Lockout of 1913. The stamps are very handsome, but this isn't the point. Rather it is the irony of the government issuing them being responsible for imposing the worst cuts in living memory on Irish workers. This shows how important it is to properly recall the memory of the events of 1913. For the lockout is not just the most important struggle of the Irish working class; it is also one of the most important industrial episodes in British history.

The Irish economic crash has been almost without parallel in Western Europe. Having previously been held up as a poster boy for neoliberalism Irish capitalism went into freefall in late 2008, as hundreds of thousands lost their jobs and the banking system rapidly disintegrated. The Celtic Tiger "miracle" turned out to be a mirage and it was the particular rhythm of Irish neoliberalism that can best account for the boom, the bubble and the disastrous bust.

GREECE: CRUCIBLE OF RESISTANCE

Greek workers show the way

In this case it's an acronym coined by "economic analysts" to describe the European countries that have been hardest hit by the recession: Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain.

Now, I happen to be Irish, but I'm not particularly nationally-minded, so on one level it doesn't bother me all that much. However, when you consider who these "economic analysts" are, and what their role has been in the crisis affecting Greece, it's a different story.

Waterford Crystal management had ambitions to expand and borrowed money to buy companies, using Waterford and Wedgwood to fund their debts. As the debts got larger they were harder to repay. When the Bank of America called in their loans we went into the receiver's hands and became victims of venture capitalists, KPS Capital Partners.

Irish voters delivered a major blow to the plans of Europe's rulers and the Irish political establishment by voting against the Lisbon Reform Treaty on 12 June. Supporters of Lisbon have been quick to try and frighten the Irish public with the consequences of their No vote - a continuation of the strategy of the Yes side during the campaign.

Fine Gael, the other right wing party also increased its representation in the Dail, but with 27 fewer seats than its rival. However, it is in the search for coalition partners that the real story of the election emerges, with important lessons for the left.

The three main parties of the left - Labour, Sinn Féin and the Greens - each indicated in advance they would be prepared to form a coalition with one or other of the two main parties. Consequently any left-right division was blurred and no clear left alternative offered to voters.