May 2010

Tax + Wages: Strike Now! (1983)

Date:

"..the Dublin Trades Council stoppage against the tax system is happening. This will be unlike the stoppage we had in April. Tokenistic gestures from the union leadership! Did the ICTU follow up on the last stoppage with any real action? Thousands of workers had been mobilised on April 13th "Transcription of an article from the June/July 1983 issue of 'Resistance'. The paper of the Dublin Anarchist Collective.

Anarchism & the WSM

Date:

As the economic crisis continues, the WSM has been busy in a variety of campaigns against measures attempting to impose the costs of the crisis on workers and the poor. WSM members in the public sector trade unions have been active in organising against cuts and pressing for a no vote in ballots on the “Croke Park” agreement. We have also been involved in getting the anti-water charges campaigns up and running in both Dublin and Cork and attended a protest organised by these campaigns at the Green Party annual conference in Waterford.

Gregor Kerr on why teachers should Vote No to the PSA

Date:

WSM member Gregor Kerr on why teachers should vote no to the Croke Park Agreement. Speaking at a debate organised by the North Dublin branch of the Irish National Teachers Organisation.

The Anarchist Origins of Mayday

Date:

In 1887 four Chicago anarchists were executed. A fifth cheated the hangman by killing himself in prison. Three more were to spend 6 years in prison until pardoned by Governor Altgeld who said the trial that convicted them was characterised by "hysteria, packed juries and a biased judge". The state had, in the words of the prosecution put "Anarchy .. on trial" and hoped their deaths would also be the death of the anarchist idea.

[Print out and distribute a PDF leaflet of this text]

A day out of the ordinary- The Dublin Anarchist Bookfair!

Date:

This May sees the return of the annual Anarchist Bookfair to Dublin, our fifth Bookfair to take place in the city to date. Starting from humble beginnings in the St. Nicholas of Myra Hall in The Liberties five years ago, last years Bookfair was arguably the most successful to date. Over one thousand people passed through Liberty Hall during the day with ten different meetings and workshops held discussing a wide range of topics ranging from Palestine to Left Unity, Iran to Shell to Sea, Social Centres and beyond.

 

Mayday 2010 celebrated in Cork

Date:

As once again Cork's mainstream trade unions declined to publicly celebrate the everlasting memorial day to working peoples' struggles worldwide, it falls to Solidarity Books/Workers Solidarity Movement Cork Branch and the Independent Workers Union to mark this most important of days. A day of public talks and a community meal was organised by the local branch of the WSM at Solidarity Books, which complemented excellently the annual May Day march through the city streets this evening organised as usual by the Independent Workers Union.

Mayday in Dublin - going through the motions.

Date:

This year May Day fell on a Saturday, meaning that the Dublin march would take place on the day itself. Almost a wash-out (owing to two hours of quite heavy rain right before the demonstration) the march was essentially going through the motions of a Dublin May Day from beginning to end.

Derry's 2010 Mayday march

Date:

In what was described as 'quite a respectable turnout' Mayday in Derry  saw over 100 people take part in the Mayday march called by the Derry Trade Union Council.  Those taking part included the DTUC, GMB, UNISON, 3/3 branch, Communities Against Cuts, Anti-Water Tax, IRSP, WSM and Organise!

The state of the USA one year after Obama

Date:

 The failure of Obama to live up to expectations can be disempowering to many on the Left, even those who understand the limitations of the current political system and how it truly serves only a wealthy elite. We must fight against this tendency with all of our might. Now more than ever, those who are committed to a just society must put forth a viable alternative to the present system, both through words and deeds.Obama’s charisma and oratory was all too achingly reminiscent of fallen civil rights leaders, playing on people’s longing for a time free of today’s suffocating cynicism, when change seemed not only possible, but tangible.

Bi'lin protests at CRH involvement in apartheid wall, Irish cameraman arrested

Date:

Friday April 30th Irish activists joined the weekly protests of the Palestinian community of Bil'in against the apartheid wall.  The focus this week was on the investment by the Irish Cement Roadstone Holdings company in an Israeli company that has a large portion of the contracts for building the wall.  As usual the military attacked the protesters with tear gas and one Irish activist filmed the video below of this attack and his subsequent arrest.

Radio Solidarity Prog. 3 The Church - How it made society silent

Date:

In this  Radio Soldarity  we explore the recent rupture between people and the Irish Catholic Church due to the recent turmoil and revelations which have been exposed. 

Taking back our time - 3rd Rethinking Revolution discussion

Date:

Aileen O'Carroll draw on the stories and diaries of those working in IT company’s to talk about the secrets and contradictions of working in a global industry. The myth is that IT workers happily work a 60 hour week but like workplaces of a previous era, there is a struggle over the nature of work and the length of working time within our lives. The left tends to focus on the formal visible struggles conducted through trade unions. What can this other level of often individualised struggle teach us in the fight for a new world?

Rossport Gathering 2010

Date:

In what has become an annual event the Rossport Gathering will take place over the June bank holiday.  It's a week of music, walks, talks and workshops on the Shell to Sea campaign, Climate Change, Social justice and activism.  There will be camping space and communal meals at the Solidarity Camp.  Local Shell to Sea groups will be organising buses, details will be added below as they are known.

Dublin Anarchist Bookfair

Date:

Dublin Anarchist Bookfair 2010 - May 29th

The 5th Anarchist Bookfair took place in Dublin the weekend of 29th May 2010. Below you will find details of the events at the bookfair including audio recordings of many of the events.

 

Mayday 2010 in Belfast

Date:

The Belfast Mayday demonstration began at Writers Square. A pavilion had been set up in front of the imposing St. Anne's Cathedral and rows of stands and tables were being occupied by a number of organizations including the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union, the Socialist Party, the Worker's Party, Amnesty International, the Northern Ireland Public Services Union, the Irish Congress Trade Unions, the National Union of Rail Maritime and Transport Workers, the Irish Transport and General Workers Union*, the Eirigi party, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, the Alliance for Choice, the Union of Shop Distributors and Allied Workers, the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers, United Teachers Union, the Irish National Teachers Association, the UNISON retirees union, the Trocaire campaign to feed the hungry, the We Won't Pay anti-water charges campaign, and the Anarchist Just Books Collective representing Organise!. Several food, coffee, and beer stands were also set up in the area in front of the pavilion and many families were in attendance. The minor writings of Marx and general Irish Trade Union activist literature dominated the tables as well as a strong presence of Trotsky and Engels; the Just Books table carried the anarchist torch alone, passing out copies of Organise!'s excellent publication, 'The Leveller'.

Focus on Catholic church in Ireland - Radio Solidarity 3 is now online

Date:

Radio Solidarity program no. 3 - focussing on the Church and how it silenced Society - is up on the NearFM podcast site. In this show we tackle the Church and State, their joint complicity in the abuse of children, the subjugation of women and the policing of social norms. This months guests include Dr Helen Keyes, Dairmauid Ferreter, Mags O Brein, Mannix Flynn as well as the usual RS crew

International Solidarity with the Greek workers' struggle!

Date:

The Greek working class is angry, and with good reason, with the attempt to load responsibility for the bankruptcy of the Greek State onto their shoulders. We maintain instead that it is the international financial institutions and the European Union who are responsible. The financial institutions have plunged the world, and Greece in particular, into an economic and social crisis of historical proportions, forcing countries into debt, and now these same institutions are complaining that certain States risk not being able to repay their debts. We denounce this hypocrisy and say that even if Greece - and all the other countries - can repay the debt, they should not do so: it is up to those responsible for the crisis - the financial institutions, not the - to pay for the damage caused by this crisis. The Greek workers are right to refuse to pay back their country's debt. We refuse to pay for their crisis!

Parliament or democracy

Date:

From the 1850s onwards, against a background of great new wealth in society and a working class that was more independent and resourceful, the 'problem of democracy' became urgent for the rich and powerful. In general wealth was rising throughout society, but so was the greed of those who owned the new factories, mines and plantations. The key question was: what was to be done about the general demand for democracy, and about the incessant clamour for political rights which, during the revolutions of 1848, had almost got completely out of hand?