‘Hope, superior to fear, is neither passive like the latter, nor locked into nothingness. The emotion of hope goes out of itself, makes people broad instead of confining them, cannot know nearly enough of what it is that makes them inwardly aimed, of what may be allied to them outwardly. The work of this emotion requires people who throw themselves actively into what is becoming, to which they themselves belong.’ - Ernst Bloch, The Principle of Hope
Tiocfaidh ár lá
Visited Derry in May for Equity conference and stayed for a few days with @el.wheeze
Was really grateful to learn more about Bloody Sunday from someone whose family were there and was a child in the city at the time. The history of British colonialism in Ireland, occupation of the north and Irish liberation struggle is so close to home yet so thoroughly suppressed and distorted by the British state. That experience of plantation and starvation is recognisable today in Israel’s settlement of the West Bank and genocide in Gaza - a colonial strategy centuries in the making by capitalist ruling classes across the co-called developed world. From Ireland to Palestine as soon as colonial power is threatened all the niceties of ‘liberal democracy’ go out the window and resistance is repressed as ‘terrorism’. Today Western states are only becoming more repressive as they struggle to hold onto that power, embracing nationalist and fascist hysteria as their last hope of stemming the collapse of their popular legitimacy. The lesson of Ireland’s history and Palestine’s present is that the only real choice is socialism or barbarism.
