Workers Solidarity Movement

We are often told that ignorance of the law is no excuse, but what are we to do when nobody will say what the law means. The High Court in Belfast has said NO to a request that it spell out what is legal and what is not. The Family Planning Association had asked it to order the Department of Health to publish guidelines about when abortion is legal in the six counties.

Northern Irish homes are to be subjected to a tax on water, unless enough of us get together to stop the government's plan. Friday 20th June saw the end of the "consulation" period, not that the government was doing much "consulting" with us - because they had already said that the next announcement would be about how to pay this tax! The decision had been made before they pretended to listen to our opinions about whether or not such a tax should be introduced.

The last year or so has seen a hectic period for activists in Ireland. From the May 6th Gardai attack on Reclaim the Streets in Dublin, through the anti-war campaigns, people have been coming into conflict with the state. In Dublin, we are now in the middle of a struggle with local anti-bin tax groups across the city taking action to defeat the councils refusal to collect rubbish.

As we go to print, the bin charges battle has started in earnest in Dublin with Fingal Council's attempt not to collect non-payer's bins. Trucks have been blockaded across Fingal forcing the council to cancel all collection services. Elsewhere campaigns are gearing up to blockade trucks in solidarity with Fingal or when the other Dublin councils attempt to implement non-collection. In our next issue we hope to report in full on how the councils were defeated. In the meantime you can follow events on our web page. Below we report on South Dublin's council attempts to con households into paying.

The state company which runs Cork, Dublin and Shannon airports is to be broken up if the government get their way. As it is one of the most profitable state firms, what is the reason for this privatisation? Is it good for air travelers, for airport staff, for the ordinary taxpayer, or just for a few rich friends of the government?

In Britain the 'Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Household Income' report revealed that, under Thatcher, 1979-90, the fifth of the population with the lowest incomes had their share of post-tax national income cut from 10% to just 6%. The richest fifth increased their share of post-tax national income from 37% to 45%.

In this issue of our magazine, we continue our tradition of dealing with the pressing issues of the day for anarchists and libertarians, and for all who are seriously interested in bringing about a new society. We carry articles by a member of the North Eastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists in relation to the future of the Black Bloc, and another by a member of Doctors For Choice on abortion rights (or the lack of them!) in Ireland.

Anarchism is a very simple idea -basically society should be organised in a non-hierarchical way, it should not be divided into order-givers and order-takers. We don't need bosses, politicians, bishops or anybody else to tell us how to live our lives. Anarchists look to a society which will be based on the idea of "from each according to ability, to each according to need".

On Sunday 13th July activists of Autonomous Community Spaces (ACS) entered 42 Parnell Square in central Dublin, a building which had been vacant for 11 years. They were violently evicted the following day. The extracts below from one of their press releases details what happened.

Every day nearly US$2 trillion changes hands on the money markets (i.e. is gambled by speculators). It can be hard to get a handle on just how much a trillion is. If you stacked a million dollar notes on top of one another it would reach about six foot high. If you stacked a trillion dollars the same way it would reach to over 40 times the height of Mount Everest! Yet the rich tell us there is no money for health care, affordable housing and modern school buildings.