Workers Solidarity Movement

Explained Money For Nothing and the Cheques For Free

The recent bitter collapse of the Doha round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks has put the WTO back in the news around the world. The latest talks failed in large part because rich countries refuse to reduce subsidies to their own farmers, while insisting that the poor countries should reduce theirs. But what is the WTO, and how is it relevant to our everyday lives here in Ireland?

Unemployment has risen by a third in the last year and everyone agrees that worse times are ahead. Worries about losing jobs and not being able to pay the mortgage are growing. Whose fault is it? Is it the politicians administering the economy, or is it the capitalist economy itself?

Life Despite Capitalism
Building Radical Economies

Friday 31st October –
Tuesday 4th November, 2008

@ ESCANDA

Summary
In the beginning of November 2008, the Escanda collective in Spain along with others will be hosting a four-day radical economics gathering. We will analyse why the current economic system has failed and we will learn from the possibilities and experiences of those working despite capitalism to build autonomous networks of production and circulation from a basis of sustainability, self organization,

The gathering will focus both on the theory of radical economics and the practice: working towards creating and building radical economies within and between our own movements and collectives. We will provide a space for networking and there will be our very own radical marketplace for participants to bring, exchange, barter and give away goods as well as services etc.

Working people in the Irish Republic have been hearing a lot from the representatives of their exploiters lately about the need for us to exercise ‘pay restraint’ and to ‘moderate our demands’ in these difficult times.

Some useful info for all those rebels out there....

Anarchists in Limerick will be holding a Vote NO stall...

Where? Castle Place (opposite Primark), Belfast
When? 1pm Sat 5th April 5th
Who? Organised by the We Won't Pay Campaign

Under the guise of fighting poverty, the Government is set to attack the welfare of lone parents.The Irish Government is planning to replace the ‘One Parent Family Allowance‘, a welfare payment for single parents of children under the age of eighteen with the ‘Parental Allowance‘. The primary difference between two is that while the OPFA ends when the parent's youngest child is eighteen, the PA ends when the youngest child turns eight. At this stage the parent will be transferred to an ordinary unemployment benefit, and will thus be forced into the job market. At present the policy is on trial in Kilkenny and Dublin, but the Government hopes to apply it throughout the state in the next Budget.

Christmas has increasingly become a matter of spending money on presents, rather than spending time with your loved ones. Where this might be hard for some, it can be financially unbearable for others. In order to meet the expectations from the society and avoid humiliation, we take up loans to get through family events such as Christmas.