Workers Solidarity Movement

These are two audio interviews with US anarchist Ashanti Alston who the WSM have brought to Ireland to speak at the Anarchist bookfair. Ashanti describes himself as a former member of the Black Panther Party and a former soldier in the Black Liberation Army, in connection with which he served 14 years in prison in the US. Today he is an active US anarchist who speaks at events all over North America, giving him a valuable perspective on the state of the movement today.

The Grassroots Gathering is a twice-yearly coming together of anarchists and libertarian socialists who are active in political groups and campaigns up and down the island of Ireland. The second of 2008's Gatherings was held in Cork on 14th-16th November. The 90 or so attending, combined with the quality of the discussions, left its organisers very pleased with the weekend. It showed that there's a lot of life left in the Grassroots Gathering as a show-case for trends and thinking among Ireland's libertarian left.

Big Business doesn’t like what’s happening in South America. The election of reforming governments in Peru and Ecuador might have been a bearable irritant but that Chavez guy in Venezuela has really got up their noses. In Bolivia sections of the local ruling class got so riled up that they tried to overthrow President Morales in September. The US ruling class, in collusion with local bosses, is trying to destabilise political and economic reforms. As they see it, too much is going to workers and peasants, and not enough into their own coffers.

Last weekend saw the 12th Grassroots Gathering held in Cork. The event was pretty successful I'd guess there were at least 80 there on the Saturday. It's good that after its two year interruption the Gatherings seem to be getting back on their feet.

WSM member Gregor Kerr took part in the Grassroots Mobilisation in Ireland: Opportunities and Challenges panel at Bloom’s First Activist Forum Saturday 8th November in the Teachers Club in Dublin. This is a recording of the session.

The next Grass Roots Gathering will take place in Cork on the weekend of the 14th, 15th and 16th of November.

This Gathering will have the twin themes of Inclusion and Community Building - Surviving the ' Recession'.

Workshops, activities and events being planned so far include : The present legal situation for LGBT people, Travellers and settled people working together, Telling stories, sharing experience looking at exclusion, Housing cooperatives, food security, tackling racism in times of unemployment, reproductive rights, women's right to choose, conflict resolution, social centres: recent experience, L.E.T.S. and reclaiming our natural resources.

Craigavon & District Council of Trade Unions present the inaugural
JIM HAUGHEY MEMORIAL LECTURE

In a period of mass unemployment in 1920's Germany fascism came to power despite not only the presence of mass Communist and Social Democratic parties but also of significant anti-fascist street fighting. Why did the left fail and what was the attraction of fascism. What about fascist movements today, do they represent a similar threat? Can we even agree a single definition of what fascism is?

An mp3 talk on the Kibbutz movement in Palestine / Israel focusing on the radical and anarchist elements of it.

The Irish Socialist Network is talking to a half dozen other groups about unity. The Socialist Workers Party, always in a hurry, simply wants everyone else to join their People Before Profit creation. Every few years we see the same game played, “why won’t the Judean Peoples Front join the Judean Popular Front?”