December 2011

Shell to Sea Day of Solidarity in Erris, Co. Mayo

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Dublin Shell to Sea are helping to organise transport from Dublin for the national day of Solidarity in Mayo Saturday 10th December.  Shell has begun peat removal from the tunnelling compound in Aughoose. They hope to remove up to 175,000 tonnes of peat from the site and replace it with stone from nearby quarries.

Coverage of the N30 strike in northern Ireland

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WSM members & supporters in northern Ireland provided live coverage of the N30 Pension strikes  via our Twitter feed. Anarchists in Derry  put a banner up in the city centre in solidarity with today's strike and a WSM leaflet (below) was  distributed across the north.

The strike was part of the UK wide public sector strike against attacks on public sector pensions, attacks similar to those imposed on public sector workers in southern Ireland over the last couple of years.  They are part of a Europe wide offensive against the pensions rights of workers.

(Pic: Anarchist solidarity banner at Derry rally)

Derry anarchists say all out on the 30th

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On November 30th the Derry Trades Union Council have called on workers to rally in Derry's Guildhall Square at 1pm. Many Public Workers will be holding pickets outside their place of employment then marching to the Guildhall Square. 

Breivik Psych Report: An Alibi for Hate

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The court psychiatrists evaluation of Norwegian neo-fascist killer Anders Breivik as paranoid schizophrenic follows in a long line of similar evaluations of recent far-right murderous attackers in Western Europe and gives the lie to the notion that the political abuse of psychiatry was a phenomenon of the former USSR alone. By rendering his crimes "apolitical" the official version of "not bad, just mad" absolves the propagandists of the hate that motivates Breivik and other far-right extremist killers of any responsibility for their violence. The Daily Mail's Melanie Phillips, whose vile stream of hate-propaganda against muslims was extensively quoted in Breivik's manifesto for murder, will doubtless be toasting the Norwegian psychiatrists verdict with champagne. (Pic: Passport photo of Breivik released by Norwegian police for press use)

Cork - Parade in Defiance

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Occupy Cork invites everyone opposed to the current austerity regime out in force on Saturday, Dec. 3rd. Similar actions on this date will be co-ordinated with Occupy camps in Dublin, Waterford and Galway. A solidarity action from Occupy Belfast has also been proposed. Assembling outside the opera house at Emmet Place at 1:30pm, we will march down the quay, up Patrick St. and down South Mall, back to Emmet Place. There we will hold a general assembly at which anyone can speak.

Dub: RAG open meeting - discussion on sexism in the workplace

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There will be a RAG open meeting on Monday, 7.30pm, 5th December. This facilitated discussion will look at the issue of sexism in the workplace. This event will take place in Sin É, on Ormond Quay, in the basement room.

Dub: Spectacle of Defiance and Hope

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The Spectacle of Defiance and Hope is a broadly based alliance of Community Organisations from Dublin and beyond which is organising a pre-budget protest at Castle Street (off Dame street) from 2pm on Saturday.  They say "Please join us as we take to the streets on the 3rd of December @ 2pm to draw attention to the savage economic injustices that are happening in Ireland. Bring your books of Grievances and Hopes which will state clearly the kind of Ireland we all aspire to live in, this is an Ireland of true equality in the conditions of peoples lives."

Eyewitness to the destruction of Greece under IMF/ECB rule

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This year as every year I went back to the place of my birth, Greece. I go back to Greece once, sometimes twice a year if I can. The experience of my last and recent visit to the place was a different experience all together that has me sick to my stomach and feeling extremely upset. 

Here in Ireland I read about Greece on a daily bases on the web, in the liberal mainstream and radical press and as well as I keep regular contact with people though phone calls and the internet. This gives me the false impression that I understand the current situation in Greece even though I'm living 2500 miles away from the place for a good 11 years now. Primarily I went back  to meet good friends and family but also because I have that odd habit to travel around the place try to figure out things for myself.

N30 strike round up for northern Ireland

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Biggest rally in decades outside Belfast city hall Up to 200,000 public sector workers took part in the one day industrial action across Northern Ireland along with millions in the rest of the UK. Trains and buses were halted along with about 400 schools being closed with Irish Congress of Trade Unions assistant general secretary Peter Bunting predicting at the rally that ‘people are going away more determined to oppose the cuts coming down the line.’

 

Spectacle of Defiance & Hope parades through Dublin

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Saturday saw the 2nd Spectacle of Defiance & Hope take place in Dublin, just ahead of the budget cuts that are expected to further devastate community organisations & services. The Spectacle describes itself as a "broadly based alliance of community organisations from Dublin and beyond" and also represents an attempt to break from the standard pattern of demonstrations in Dublin to create something more fun, participatory & engaging.

Occupy Cork Marches Against Austerity

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Occupy Cork staged a "Parade of Defiance" against the austerity programme of the government on Saturday December 3rd in Cork. Cork Community artlink provided many props and floats for the march , a samba band gave the march an noisy and energetic flavour beyond the usual sloganeering. 

Irish Mortgage Holders Getting Organised

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New Beginings a group of lawyers and professionals who have been directly helping mortgage holders in legal battles with lenders, are planning a series of meetings across the state to sign up hard pressed householders to a national campaign.

Solidarity with the popular struggle in Egypt against SCAF and for a new revolution

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During the upsurge of protest in Egypt ahead of the elections, protests that demanded that the miltary step down and the 12,000 political prisoners be released the WSM signed the following international solidarity statement initiated by the Egyptian Libertarian Socialist Movement on Anarkismo.net.

The statement signed by 23 organisations in 20 countries was also published in [العربية] [Català] [Castellano] [Français] [Ελληνικά] [Italiano] and [Danish].

Understanding RTE apology for bias in Corrib gas dispute & role of GSOC

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Station’s crime correspondent Paul Reynolds falsely reported that recording of Garda rape conversation was ‘tampered with’

Shell to Sea has revealed that RTÉ is being compelled to broadcast an apology ahead of Wednesday's Six-One and Nine O’Clock TV news programmes, as a result of RTÉ's biased coverage of Shell's attempt to build an experimental gas pipeline and refinery in Erris. In this specific case, RTÉ chose to ignore the facts as explained to them by Shell to Sea around technical issues concerning the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) investigation into the conversation Garda had about threatening to rape two women Shell to Sea campaigners they had arrested in April this year. RTÉ instead reported as fact the false suggestions of Justice Minister Alan Shatter, that part of the recording of the arrest had been deleted. 

Christy Moore visits Occupy Dame Street and sings Ride On

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Singer songwriter Christy Moore dropped into Occupy Dame Street in Dublin last night to sing and send grettings to all the Occupy camps in the major cities of Ireland,  at Cork, Limerick, Belfast, Waterford, Kerry, Athlone, Galway and the over 2000 Occupy camps world wide.  In the video Christy refers to being in the 'Yellow Submarine,' thats the wooden structure built to serve as a kitchen for a camp that is waterproofed with heavy yellow plastic.  Christy then sings 'Ride On' before heading off into the night to the applause of the assembled campers.  

(Pic: a still from Dave's video of
Christy Moore at Occupy Dame Street)

Pensioner takes direct action to open up Transport House for homeless

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Saturday night pensioner Francis Morgan began tearing down the wooden boarding at the disused Transport House union building in Belfast city centre to demand rights for homeless people.

'I am a Belfast man born and bred and I want to bring the heart back into the city. I want to open this building as a shelterter for the homeless until the end of March.... this union building belongs to its members and I am calling on them to give this building for the homeless,' he told the Irish News.

The Budget, Third Level Education & the student occupations

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The changes to fees and the maintenance grants system for new postgraduate students in Budget 2012 comes as no big shock. The €250 increase in the student contribution charge means students will pay €2,250 from next September, with other increases likely to come in 2013 and 2014. In relation to the future of the postgraduates, no maintenance grants will be paid for new entrants from the 2012/13 academic year.

These changes come into effect, after months of campaigning by the grassroots student campaign group Free Education for Everyone (FEE) and the Union of Students Ireland (USI).

Some unemployed workers 432 euro worse off after budget

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Reading all that budget analysis you'd be forgiven for thinking that the unemployed were unaffected by the budget by and large; and you'd be wrong.  None of our news commentators in the mainstream media made much of the dramatic cut to the circumstances of the unemployed. A single person on the dole in rented accomodation is going to be €432 worse off this coming year.

May 15th - a Peripheral Conversation about the crisis & the EU periphery

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This conversation between anarchists from the so-called “peripherals” in the Eurozone, Portugal, Ireland, and Spain took place by timely coincidence on the very day that saw the birth of the Spanish M15 movement.  This spread for a period around the globe and was to some degree a precursor or pattern for the “Occupy Everywhere” movement which emerged later this year. On a historical point of interest, in this conversation we also look at the precursor to the M15 movement, the March 12th mass demonstrations in Portugal called by the Geração À Rasca movement.

DEIS Education Cuts Target The Most Vulnerable

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Primary school communities in some of the poorer areas of the country have been left reeling as the extent of savage cuts to the numbers of teachers in DEIS primary schools begins to emerge.