February 2012

Car hijackings in Belfast- A tale of two cities

Date:

Since the new year Belfast has been in the midst of a violent spree of car hijackings across the city mainly targeting vulnerable women. Behind the media spotlight and PSNI spin machine is a deeper context, one where where theose if power are quite contented to confine and manage crime in working class areas as long as it stays there.

Primark retail workers set to strike in 8 stores in northern Ieland

Date:

Primark workers in eight stores across Northern Ireland are set to strike over pay and conditions, setting a precendent for private sector workers. Despite a pay freeze the company has made a staggering 644 million in profit in the last two years.  The Union of Shop and Distributive Allied workers (USDAW) represent around 85 percent of the Primark workforce in Northern Ireland and that fact that 93% of its members voted for strike action sends a clear message to management that enough is enough.

Corporate Power and the Davos Class

Date:

The recent World Economic Forum (WEF), the one where Enda Kenny reminded us of how ‘we’ went mad borrowing, is, in fact, an appropriate reminder of global corporate power and the costs it imposes on the global working class. In a recent libcom article, Steven Colatrella has suggested that the remarkable consistency of approach to crisis resolution adopted by governments the world over, notably their pursuit of austerity at any social cost, indicates the increasing commonality of ruling class interests, a convergence owing in part to shared experiences at institutions such as the IMF, WTO, G20 and EU. The WEF meeting at the Swiss ski resort of Davos must be understood in this context of the ongoing elaboration of global governance networks.

Dublin march and Protest Against SOPA and ACTA - Sat 4th Feb

Date:

On Saturday the 4th of February, there is a protest against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) legislation being implemented. People will meet at 1:00pm at the Gardens of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin.

NAMA v Unlock NAMA at the Great Strand Street Occupation

Date:

On Saturday 28th January Unlock NAMA opened an occupied building in the center of Dublin for a day of lectures about NAMA, Ireland's 'Bad Bank.' The event was cut short by a large number of police who turned up and ordered them out of the building. In this 40 minute interview Andrew Flood interviews Cat & Moira from Unlock NAMA about the occupation, what NAMA is and what Unlock NAMA demands.

Image: All rights reserved by Paul C Reynolds - used with permission

SOPA & ACTA in the fight against actually existing communism

Date:

SOPA & ACTA are the latest attempts by traditional capitalism to reverse a transformation in the exchange of goods that has been escalating over the last couple of decades. In a widely discussed interview in 2005, Bill Gates called the free culture/open source movement "new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and movie-makers and software makers under various guises." This outraged many in the movement who were more inclined to identify with the Ayn Randite ultra-free market right than the traditional left, but in fact he had a point. Many failed to see it because 'communism' for almost everyone has come to mean something like the old Soviet Union. But the word means a lot more than that failed top down experiment. Why was Gates right and why is this to be welcomed?

Pic: Act Up-Paris and La Quadrature's ACTAivists in Luzern, in front of the negotiation site.

150 at successful anti-Household Tax meeting in Castlebar

Date:

On a chilly 1st February evening, in Fine Gael’s heartland of Castlebar, over 140 people turned out for the first public meeting of the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes (CAHWT) in Mayo. Although the meeting was scheduled for 7:30, by 7:15 the room in the Welcome Inn was quietly filling up, much to the surprise of those of us who had been there to organise things since 7:00.

Successful anti-household tax meeting in Shankill Co. Dublin

Date:

Between 30 and 40 people attended a Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes (CAHWT) public meeting in Shankill, South Dublin on Thursday 2nd February. The meeting was chaired by Richard Boyd Barrett (People Before Profit/ULA TD) and was addressed by Cllr. Hugh Lewis (People Before Profit) and Gregor Kerr (Workers Solidarity Movement).

Hugh outlined the political arguments against the household tax, arguing that it was unfair and immoral and that the tax should be opposed by refusing to register and refusing to pay.

Newbridge CAHWT meeting

Date:

On Tuesday January 31st 2011 a public meeting took place in the Hotel Keadeen in Newbridge, Co. Kildare. The meeting was organised by the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes and with around 200 local people in attendance, many having to stand at the back and sides, the meeting was a great start for the local campaign. The video below was recorded just before 8pm when the meeting was scheduled to commence and does not capture the people that continued to file into the hall after it was taken.

Mass meeting plans national protest against DEIS school cuts

Date:

Approximately 200 people – INTO staff representatives and school principals – from across Dublin attended a packed meeting in the Teachers’ Club on Thursday 2nd February and agreed plans for an escalation of the campaign against the staffing cuts announced in DEIS schools in December’s budget.

Anti-Household Tax Campaign Gathers Momentum in Cork

Date:

Cork city and county Anti-Household Tax Campaign rounded off an excellent eight days' work by holding protests in Ballincollig and outside Cork's City Hall this Friday to coincide with taoiseach Enda Kenny's visit to the south. Following on from the massively successful public meeting in the city last Thursday 26th January, 200 people spent well over 2 hours noisily picketing a Chamber of Commerce banquet at City Hall yesterday evening to let Mr. Kenny know the depth of opposition to the Household Tax in the city. Earlier in the day, another 50 people picketed the Oriel House hotel in the commuter belt town of Ballincollig, where he attended another gathering of business people.

Veg Out Cafe! Tuesdays 7pm @solidaritybooks

Date:

Delicious Vegan food (..not just for Vegans!), at the Veg Out Cafe 

Every Tuesday from 7pm in Solidarity Books, 43 Douglas Street (across from Fionn Barra’s)

Suggested donation: 5 euro – all welcome!


Fundraiser for Occupy

http://www.solidaritybooks.org/events/veg-out-every-Tuesday
 

Veg Out Cafe! Tuesdays 7pm @solidaritybooks

Date:

Delicious Vegan food (..not just for Vegans!), at the Veg Out Cafe 

Every Tuesday from 7pm in Solidarity Books, 43 Douglas Street (across from Fionn Barra’s)

Suggested donation: 5 euro – all welcome!


Fundraiser for Occupy

http://www.solidaritybooks.org/events/veg-out-every-Tuesday

Cork: Veg Out Cafe! Tuesdays 7pm @solidaritybooks

Date:

Delicious Vegan food (..not just for Vegans!), at the Veg Out Cafe 

Every Tuesday from 7pm in Solidarity Books, 43 Douglas Street (across from Fionn Barra’s)

Suggested donation: 5 euro – all welcome!


Fundraiser for Occupy

http://www.solidaritybooks.org/events/veg-out-every-Tuesday
 

Cork: Veg Out Cafe! Tuesdays 7pm @solidaritybooks

Date:

Delicious Vegan food (..not just for Vegans!), at the Veg Out Cafe 

Every Tuesday from 7pm in Solidarity Books, 43 Douglas Street (across from Fionn Barra’s)

Suggested donation: 5 euro – all welcome!


Fundraiser for Occupy

http://www.solidaritybooks.org/events/veg-out-every-Tuesday
 

Cork: Cinema Night - The End of Violence - Wim Wenders (1997) 8pm this Thursday @solidaritybooks

Date:

Join us Thursday Feb 9th at Solidarity Books for a screening of 'The End of Violence
Wim Wenders (1997)' (details of film below).

Cork: Cinema Night - Capitalism: A Love Story (Michael Moore) 8pm Thurs Feb 16th @solidaritybooks

Date:

Join us Thursday, Feb 16th at Solidarity Books for a screening of 'Capitalism: A Love Story (Michael Moore)' (details of film below).

Remembering Sue Richardson /Sarah Fenwick Owen

Date:

Three days after Christmas, on one of those clear winter days during which the dark clouds are pierced by a sunlight that turns the water to silver, a group of friends gathered at Bull Island in the heart of Dublin city to say goodbye to Sue Richardson. Sue died in October in 2011, aged seventy, sitting at her kitchen table, waiting for the kettle to boil.  At her funeral a former housemate said, ‘Sue had an uncanny knack of turning the conversation away from herself’. She had an extraordinary life, yet spoke very little about it. The story here cannot be anything but incomplete.

Image: Sue on a pro-Choice picket of
a Rogue agency in Dublin in 2007

Shell start to rebuild compound at Glengad in Erris

Date:

Rossport Solidarity Camp reports that Shell has begun the work on the Landfall Valve Installation at Glengad beach where the off-shore pipe coming from the Corrib gasfield will be connected to the onshore pipe in the tunnel that is being dug under the estuary.

Anti Household tax protest at city hall in Dublin

Date:

Over 100 people took part in a picket at City Hall in Dublin last night to protest the Household tax.  The protest was timed to  coincide with a motion opposing the household tax proposed by Cllrs Louise Minihan, Cieran Perry, Pat Dunne and Brid Smith.