Workers Solidarity Movement

This weeks New Scientist carries an editorial calling for "robust public debate on geoengineering". Geoengineering is the idea that if climate change cannot be avoided through a reduction in carbon emissions its worst effects can be avoided through large-scale engineering of our environment. The failure of the Climate Summit in Copenhagen has seen many scientists look to what is perceived as the only possible alternative.

The week before last Erris fisherman Pat O'Donnell was jailed for seven months for his part in the communities ongoing resistance to Shell's attempt to impose an experimental gas pipeline on them. Across the country local Shell to Sea groups have been holding solidarity protests and other events for Pat. In Dublin this has included two protests and a public meeting in UCD. Meanwhile Shell have been forced to admit a temporary defeat in the face of local opposition and call off the construction they have planned for Glengad this year.

On the 24th of November something extraordinary happened. Some 250,000 workers acted together in a day-long strike against the public sector wage cuts planned by the government. The vast majority of these workers had never gone on strike before, yet across almost all workplaces the strike involved 90% or more of those working.

An interview with Shane, a member of the Berlin anarchist media group about conditions in the city and the anarchist movement there.

Interview with anarchist squatter in Berlin - Kopi 2009 by Andrew Flood on Mixcloud

Shot this on Saturday morning, someone from the Rossport Solidarity Camp narrates the various components of the Shell armada in the bay and what they have been used for

Over the June Bank Holiday weekend dozens of people traveled from all over Ireland to Erris to join locals in ongoing resistance to Shell's project of imposing an experimental gas pipeline on the local community.

The long running struggle in Erris (Rossport) against Shell's attempt to impose an experimental gas pipeline on the local community has erupted in recent days with repeated local direct actions against the compound Shell are trying to construct. Meanwhile the state at the behest of Shell continues to press vindictive prosecutions against local activists. Back in March retired school teacher Maura Harrington for jailed for 30 days, today the state returned for another pound of flesh and she was sentenced to another 7-10 days in Mountjoy prison. At very short notice over 20 activists from Dublin Shell to Sea gathered at the prison gates and showed their outrage by blocking the entrance of the prison van containing Maura in to Mountjoy for about twenty minutes.

I was a student at Trinity College Dublin in the last four years of the 1980's. The following account is based entirely on my recollections of student activism in those years, unfortunately I don't seem to have archived any of the actual leaflets or papers produced back then. At the time we were always disappointed with the level of struggle, it’s only in hindsight that I realize that period was one of relative militancy in terms of student struggles in Ireland.

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.

Somewhere in the region of 15,000 people took part in the INTO protest at the Dail Wednesday evening. From the crowd it was obvious that as well as teachers many parents, secondary school pupils and college students had turned up to show solidarity.
The Gardai prevented access to Kildare street and the mounted riot police were on standby at the gates of the Dail. An elaborate filter barrier had been installed across the top of Kildare street