December 2010

Budget day protest - 1% Network and left bloc

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Tuesday 7th December will see the imposition of yet another vicious budget to protect the wealthy 1% and make the rest of us pay for the crisis. The WSM will be joining the 1% network which  will be meeting up at the Wolfe Tone statue at 5.30pm to join the left bloc protest at the Dail at 6.

Wikileaks comes to Ireland - The Shannon connection

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The latest Wikileaks release of “diplomatic” communications has unearthed some new information about the US military's use of Shannon airport. Whilst the Irish government have always tried to downplay the role that Shannon airport plays in the mass murder of people of colour and the geopolitical power plays of the US and UK, it was clear in 2005, when this cable was written, that Shannon airport was a significant “stopover” for the US industrial-military complex

Students occupy Department of Education for surprise conference

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Roughly 50 students occupied the grounds of the Department of Education today in the bitter cold, erecting a marquee to hold a 'Surprise Conference.' Garda looked on until after a few hours when apparently a deal was reached whereby the students would pack up early and their would be no arrests. Given the cold that police were probably keen to get back indoors for a cup of tea.  The Department was invited to participate but failed to provide a speaker.

The ICTU march and the call for elections to bring about change

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You have a gathering of nearly a 100,000 people, many of them active trade union members, and we are supposed to phone up one delusional Green party leader and try to get him to do our bidding. We, as workers and trade Union members are supposed to have that power to change things. We can do so by withdrawing our Labour! We do not do it by putting through phone calls like we are voting in the X-Factor and praying that our voice prevails.

Students March in Cork to Oppose Coming Budget Cuts and Fees Hike

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Over 1,500 students from Cork’s various colleges took to the streets to protest the fee increases and cuts to the education system anticipated in the upcoming budget. Students gathered at the UCC grounds, and when the marchers from CIT made it to the university grounds the protest moved off and headed to the city centre by an unusual route via Dyke Parade, the north Leeside quays and Patrick St. to the plaza at Grand Parade.

Mayday 2004 and why we still need to resist the EU project

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With the European Central Bank in partnership with the IMF taking over the running of Ireland's economic policy and hence social policy for the next few years we thought it timely to revisit the weekend of Mayday 2004 when Dublin saw major protests against the EU summit and the neo-liberal policies that were being adopted. This is not an article about how “right” anarchist were about the EU, but we thought it timely to remind people of the biggest, openly organised weekend of protest against hierarchy, power and capitalism Ireland has so far seen.  It includes a 30 minute documentary that shows the highlights of the weekend that we think has not yet been put online.

Why students must protest against this budget

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Workers Solidarity Movement and Free Education for Everyone member Donal Ó Fallúin on the need for students to protest this upcoming, savage budget.

 

FEE NUIG blockade Anglo Irish Bank.

1% Network urges support for Budget Night Protests - Press Release

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Ordinary people are being sacrificed on the altar of international capitalism.  We absolutely must step up the protests against what’s being done to us.” – Gregor Kerr, 1% Network spokesperson

The 1% Network has called on “workers, the unemployed and all who care about any form of democracy or equality” to protest outside the Dáil on Budget night, Tuesday 7th December.

WikiLeaks and the Politics of Information

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It is an uncommon pleasure to see the world’s politicians scuttling around furiously, much like woodlice uncovered by the lifting of a rock. WikiLeaks are the ones who did the lifting, and have exposed for us the working of US diplomacy; the information, intentions and concerns of the world’s dominant power.

James Connolly - from Anarchy #6

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JAMES CONNOLLY (1868-1916) born in Edinburgh of a Co. Monaghan father, was Commandant-General of the Dublin Division. He was a member of the Military Council and Provisional Government. He founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party in Dublin in 1896. In 1903 he emigrated to the U.S.A., but returned after seven years. With Padraic Pearse he led the main Insurgent force from Liberty Hall to the G.P.O. Severely wounded during the fighting, he was taken after the surrender to Dublin Castle. Despite his condition he was executed - sitting on a chair - on May 12th, in Kilmainham Jail.

Colm McCarthy's Fire Sale of Semi-States

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The former chairman of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure (otherwise known as ‘An Bord Snip Nua’), UCD economist Colm McCarthy, is currently heading another cutting group, the Review Group on State Assets, which is looking into the fire-sale of state firms.

State enterprises such as the ESB, An Post, Irish Rail, Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports, (all owned by Dublin Airport Authority) 10 port companies, the VHI, TG4, RTE, Eirgrid, CIE, Bord na Móna, Bus éireann Expressway, Bord Gáis, HRI, RTÉ, utilities (like water and refuse collection, where provided through local authorities), and Coillte are being looked at.

Capitalism is the real problem

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This article was first published in the Monday edition of the Andersonstown News a few weeks ago.

The dreaded IMF have now landed on our shores, thanks to the bankers, property developers and their lackeys in power.

Once again, ordinary people will bear the brunt of a new round of vicious cutbacks in jobs, wages and conditions and social services, all, we are told, in the name of the ‘national interest’ . 

Wikileaks Cables: Harmless Gossip or Threat to World Stability?

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Wikileaks is currently making headlines daily.  Aside from the various revelations, there are also two widely told stories which are suppose to help us put these leaks into context.

The first story is that the leaks are nothing more than gossip.  They are stories about Gaddafi's nurse[1] and what the ambassador thinks of David Cameron[2].  Anyone who isn't a tabloid reader or nosey-parker should be disinterested in the content.

WSM to join anti-Budget protests and calls on workers to organise for a general strike

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Anarchist organisation Workers Solidarity Movement (WSM) has confirmed its intention to join the protests against Tuesday’s budget at Dáil Éireann.

Speaking today, Gregor Kerr, WSM P.R.O. said that members of the organisation would be joining the 1% Network protest meeting at Wolfe Tone statue St Stephen’s Green at 5:30p.m. and marching with them to participate in the protest at the Dáil at 6p.m.

Firefighters and Ambulance crews desert SIPTU

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Firefighters and ambulance crews are abandoning SIPTU and signing up with the Psychiatric Nurses Association to form a new union.  Des Kavanagh , general secretary of the PNA, says he expects about 2,500 new members to sign up in the next month or so.

Fianna Fail, EU and IMF protect the most vulnerable?!?

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The government recently published a draft memorandum that will give legal effect to the negotiations between the EU/IMF and Ireland (see here). Essentially the draft details, by quarter of each year, how the government intends to implement an incredibly far-reaching austerity program to help get us back on our feet.

Opinion Polls suggest Fianna Fail about to be annihilated, But should this worry us?

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I never thought I’d feel this way but the thought that Fianna Fail are about to be wiped out in the forthcoming general election is sort of worrying me. The latest opinion poll has put Fianna Fail’s support as low as 13% - in fourth place behind Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Fein. 

Fine Gael offer no alternative

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Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, Up pop Inda Kinny and Baldy Noonan with their version of how they intend to screw the workers (or their “budgetary proposals” as they put it).

Having accepted fully the same €15 billion cuts target as the current FF/Green coalition, the only issue at stake for Fine Gael is how they intend to implement their version of the ‘slash and burn’.

The problem is capitalism, not just a harsh budget - WSM speech at the Dáil

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As part of the budget protests at the Dail Dec 7 2010 Gregor Kerr gave the following speech for the WSM.  In it he argues that, while we must fight the budget, we need to look beyond that and clearly say that capitalism as a way of organising society is morally and politically bankrupt. If we want to ensure that this financial crisis and the economic misery it has visited on millions of working class people across the world is the last, then we need to begin to organise not to change the administrators of capitalism, but to tear down that capitalist system and replace it with a system which places the needs of the many above the greed of the few.

The 1% get richer while we get poorer - 1% Network speech at the Dáil

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As part of the budget protests at the Dáil Dec 7th 2011 Andrew Flood gave the following speech for the 1% Network at the left bloc rally. "If we wish to build a new society based on equality and real democracy, we need to find a way to take political power as well as economic wealth away from that 1%"