"Over the years I have developed a healthy disrespect for an education system that promoted class and social division and had no relevance whatsoever to the social conditions which existed in working-class communities," Sinn Féin's Mary Nelis told an important conference on education last weekend. Free article

Chile's so-called "friendly transition" from the bloody dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet to the democratic government of the Concertación Coalition including socialists, social democrats and Christian democrats, has seen allegations persist that those who suffered most under Pinochet are still being victimised by politicians afraid to upset the military or the rich. Free article

With Sinn Féin activists gathered in Derry to evaluate and develop the party's campaign around education in the North, An Phoblacht took the opportunity to talk to West Belfast MLA and Education spokesperson Michael Ferguson. Free article

The leader of the banned Basque political party Batasuna, speaking at an alternative rally after a Batasuna congress was banned, said on Saturday last that a Basque peace process was inevitable despite the obstacles. Free article

Former political prisoner and well-known republican Leonard Hardy voluntarily travelled to Germany this week to deal with charges related to the conflict in Ireland. Free article

Sinn Féin MEP Bairbre de Brún was in Palestine this week as an election observer as the Palestinian electorate went to the polls in the first national elections in a decade De Brún who went to Palestine last Monday, is part of a delegation from the European United Left/Nordic Green Left group in the EU Parliament who observed the legislative election on Wednesday. Free article

Former Tory Home Office Minister Douglas Hogg was visibly shaken when, on Friday 20 January, members of the campaign group An Fhirinne confronted him over involvement in events leading up to the 1989 murder of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane. Free article

This year's commemorative programme marking the 34th anniversary of the massacre of 13 unarmed civilians in Derry on Bloody Sunday 1972, has a packed agenda drawing out and reflecting on a range of issues related to the continuing search for justice and a lasting peace in Ireland. Free article

The sectarianism and racism aimed at Catholics and Irish nationalists in Scotland once again raised its ugly head at the weekend when unionist thugs backed by British neo-Nazis attacked a Bloody Sunday commemoration march through Glasgow on Sunday 22 January. Free article

Irish soldiers will be used as "shock troops" in a developing EU Army if the 26 Counties joins EU battle groups in the time ahead, according to a new publication by Roger Cole, Chairperson of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance. Free article