Unionism in Ireland

Landmark labor sector draft bill tabled; opposition expected to be intense

The Mitsotakis government on Friday evening tabled a landmark draft bill envisioning reforms in much of the country's labor sector, changes that the pro-business and pro-market government underlined as long overdue, but which are expected to generate heightened criticism by the political opposition and Greece's still formidable unions.

British PM condemns latest Northern Ireland violence

Britain's prime minister has condemned another night of violence in Northern Ireland, after crowds threw petrol bombs and a bus was set on fire in Belfast.

The violence follows a week of rioting which some have suggested is the first evidence Brexit turbulence may be boiling into unrest in the British province, where post-EU rules are stoking fury among pro-U.K. sections.

The ostrich effect

When it comes to acknowledging the problems plaguing Greece's higher education system, there is hardly any disagreement. All sides admit that lawlessness and violence cast a long shadow over the country's universities.

Time for the rectors

All - or almost all - Greek governments in recent decades have lamented the occupation of university spaces by outside forces, whether they be unionists or simply delinquents.

For the first time, however, a plan has been drawn up to protect universities from such outside forces.

Wasted unionism

Unionism on the level of local administration has ended up acting against its best own interests. 

Repeated strike action by sanitation workers, a quasi-ritual that undermines the interests of society, has stripped unionists of their legitimacy. 

Unionism and trade unionists

Nobody questions the right to strike - the only question concerns the way this right is often wasted. Nobody questions the value of unionism either, without which employees would be greatly disadvantaged. But unionism does not exist to further the interests of trade unionists.

The cruellest walls

On April 18, during a riot in Derry, the second city of Northern Ireland, a 29-year-old journalist, Lyra McKee, was shot dead, probably by a paramilitary republican. Her funeral brought together politicians from both sides of the political and religious divide which has caused thousands of violent deaths since 1968. At the front of the congregation were the Irish and British prime ministers.

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