Workers Solidarity Movement

An important demonstration against homophobia takes place tonight in Dublin in the aftermath of a frightening mob attack on a Polish gay man in the Phoenix park at the end of last month. The protest will take place on the steps of the Parkgate street court complex because of its location close to the scene of the attack and because of the Garda disinterest in investigating it.

As the organisers of tonights protest explain “On 30th July 2016 a gay man was viciously attacked in Phoenix Park by a gang of over 10 young men. They made homophobic threats and insults, chased him, hit him with an iron bar and made him fear for his life by beating him and attempting to run him over in a car. He ran, screaming for help until he found someone and the gang finally fled. He was taken to hospital and treated for his injuries.

The 2016 Census has again revealed there is no housing crisis. In fact about 1 in 8 houses were empty, a massive 259,562 dwellings in all.

So why are their hundreds of homeless on the streets and thousands in emergency accommodation. Why are rents soaring, particularly in Dublin, to level that mean most people can no longer afford to rent there? Why have house prices continued to increase far, far beyond the reach of the average worker?

It seems clear the answer is to be found in homes being left empty while people sleep on the streets. A situation that only favours landlords and property speculators who want to keep available supply low in order to keep rent and house prices high. And all while courts and Garda evict those amongst us who decide to solve their housing problem by occupying some of these vacant properties.

O’Connell St, July 22nd - amid Ireland’s worst housing crisis in decades, people gather outside Lynam’s hotel to protest the eviction of five homeless families, including ten children. Fifteen of the twenty families granted temporary shelter at the privately ran hotel have already been pushed out by DCC, and now find themselves forced living off the couches of friends and family. The remaining families who do not want to leave, deciding to take a stand against the apathy and cruelty shown to them by the Irish state now find themselves under huge strain and uncertainty as their quality of life hangs in the balance.

Due to a small group of sexist whingers, the beautiful Repeal the 8th mural by Maser at Project Arts in Dublin has been removed.

Over 200 letters of support were sent to the centre thanking them for their support of the campaign to Repeal the 8th Amendment of the Constitution, which equates the life of a foetus to that of the mother and sees that anyone who has an abortion in Ireland will spend 14 years in jail.

Dublin City Council claimed the mural was in violation of the Planning and Development Acts and that the mural changes the tone of the street and impacts on the area. If they think a bit of street art is bad they’d want to take a look at how denying bodily autonomy to half the population and treating them like criminals impacts upon people.

TDs voted against Mick Wallace’s bill July 7th to allow for abortion in cases of Fatal Foetal Abnormalities. This is the second time that TDs have voted this way when Clare Daly’s bill was shot down last year.  The vote comes less than a month after the UN Human Rights Committee declared Ireland’s abortion laws to be a violation of human rights.

Over 60,000 people are to be forced on super exploitative jobs scam schemes by the government. The programme, which has been dubbed as a scam by many, has been outsourced to two privately run recruitment firms. Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar plans to refer 60,000 unemployed to the privately-run Jobs scam scheme in order to force those most hard-pressed by government cuts to be a cheap labour force for business'.

Early July saw Black Lives Matter solidarity protests happen in cities across Ireland, including Cork, Belfast, Galway and two seperate protests on different days in Dublin.

The largest of the Dublin protests was on July 12th when hundreds of people gathered across from the GPO on O'Connell street.  A second protest that Saturday at Central Blank plaza included a march to the GPO.

This is the Kurdish solidarity statement with the Black Lives Matter movement read out by a delegate of Saoirse Jin at the July 12th Dublin protest.‪

Transcript of video
"Thank you.  Saoirse Jin is an Ireland based womens group in solidarity with the Congress of Women’s Freedom, the KJA in Kurdistan which is a pluralist women’s rights movement fighting for the rights of the Kurds and all minorities in Turkey.  And they sent a message of solidarity to this protest. So I’m going to read it for the KJA

To mark todays 80th anniversary of the Spanish revolution and what is also the 4th anniversary of the Rojava revolution in Kobane this recording of a Kurdish version of A Las Barricadas has just been released.

It's recorded in Qamişlo, Rojava by members of the Mohamed Şêxo art and culture centre. The performers say "What happened in Barcelona on 19th July 1936 was repeated 76 years later. We started in Kobanê, and it was there that we put up our fiercest resistance. Countless comrades have fallen to defend this city against the fascists, just like the countless comrades who gave their live to defend the revolution in Catalonia and Spain.

Anarchists in Derry took part in a series of solidarity actions in a show of international support and solidarity with anarchists and antifascists imprisoned in Russia.

Last month the Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow issued an international call for solidarity in support of activists currently facing an extremely intensive political and repressive situation in Russia, especially anarchist and antifa comrades and those fighting for human rights and social justice issues.