April 2012

Spirits are High as of Thousands of Household Tax Protesters march on Fine Gael conference

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The Fine Gael Ard Fheis took place over the course of last weekend (31st March). While hundreds of politicians reinforced an austerity-laden approach to politics in Dublin’s Convention Centre, about 10,000 Anti-Household-Charge protesters took over the docklands in an electrifying show of strength.  This was the final day of the governement trying to force people to register for the tax and by midnight it was clear that the campaigns goal of getting 50% to refuse to register had been met.

Dublin: Campaign Against Household & Water Taxes protest at Dublin City Council

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Monday 2nd April: CAHWT Picket at City Hall, Dame Street, 6pm. The City Council will be discussing a motion opposing the household charge. 

They don’t get it – Shatter, Phil Hogan, Enda Kenny and the rest - We are not dupes We are a people in revolt

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Below is the text of comments by Gregor Kerr introducing the 'Open mic' session at the Campaign Against Household And Water Taxes protest outside the Fine Gael Ard Fheis on Saturday 31st March.  Approx 25 people spoke - representing campaigns in Dublin West, Dun Laoghaire, Carlow, Ballyfermot, Wicklow, North Inner City Dublin, Finglas/Ballymun, Lucan, South East Inner City Dublin, Wexford, Newbridge, Connemara, Kilkenny, Edenderry, Cork and the East Wall area of Dublin.  

The rally was also addressed by Maura Harrington of Shell to Sea, Mick O'Reilly of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions, Jean Monaghan - one of the GAME Shop workers currently in occupation of their workplaces fighting for proper redundancy payments and Jimmy Kelly of Unite Union.  

In Greece - the return of the horrors of the concentration camps in the birthplace of Democracy

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The ruling class in Greece in order to sustain it's power, is attacking the weakest in society, the migrants!
The plan of the government (PASOK,NEA DEMOCRATIA) with the open support of the enthusiastic, ecstatic extreme right*, is to build new camps and renovate old military camps close to the borderline, to use for the imprisonment of migrants! By the way this not a speculation, this has been announced officially a week ago now or so.

Healthcare workers protest over attacks on pay and working conditions

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Last Wednesday workers representing all the main trade unions organised token lunchtime protests outside all the main hospitals in Northern Ireland including the RVH and Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry. These protests comes after the Tory led government in Westminster succeeded in passing its Health and Social Care bill through the houses of parliament on the 20thMarch.  The bill marks the greatest shake up of the NHS since 1948 continuing the pattern of previous administrations in terms of cuts to essential services, staff and privatisation including the outsourcing of services to private companies subsidised by the tax-payer.

Cork: Cinema Night - Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey (2011) this Thurs, 8pm @solidaritybooks

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Join us this Thursday April 5th , 8pm, in Solidarity Books for a screening of Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey (2011) Start time is 8pm. All welcome, donations appreciated. Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey (2011) This remarkable documentary, made over a nine year period, charts the story of Bernadette Devlin McAliskey’s political journey since her explosive entry into the public arena in the late 60's.

Newly elected UUP leader Mike Nesbitt shows his true class colours

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Comments by newly elected Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt that “I’d actually like to live in an area of social deprivation for a day because I think it’s important to get a feel for what it’s like,” is what you would expect from someone who was born with a sliverspoon in their mouth.  Mike was  privately educated at Campbell college and Oxford university.

GSOC bullying of women at center of Corrib Cop Rape Tape case

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In this personal account Jerrie Ann reveals the exraordinary pressure she was put under by GSOC after Garda in Corrib accidentally recorded themselves discussing threatening to rape a women she had been arrested with during a protest against Shell's experiemntal raw gas pipeline construction in Erris. "The GSOC ‘Public Interest Investigation’ has to date served only to mislead the media and the public about the facts of the case, which are actually straightforward"  This piece was written as an appendix to the Shell to Sea report on the GSOC interim report.

NUIM academics on GSOC & the Rossport rape recordings

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Seven academics from NUI Maynooth have released this statement revealing the details of how GSOC treated them in the course of its 'investigation' into the Garda who recorded themseves threatening to rape a women in their custody to force her to give them her name and address.  The statement was published as part of response to GSOC's highly misleading interim report.

Technical details of files deletions in relation to the GSOC interim report

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This technical note was produced by Shell to Sea to counter the misleading implications about file deletions found in the GSOC July 2011 ‘Interim Report’ into the Corrib cops 'rape tape' incident.  It was published as part of a Shell to Sea response into that report.  GSOC had used language to suggest that the recordings of the incident itself had been interfered with, a suggestion that was picked up and incorrectly reported by many sections of the media as fact.  RTE were later forced to issue an apology for their inaccurate reporting.

Dub: Anarchists - who we are and what we are up to - public meeting in Dublin

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A Workers Solidarity Movement public meeting for everyone interested in finding out more about anarchism. Speakers will give an audio visual introduction to the history of anarchism before going on to looks at its relevance in Ireland today and detailing the various struggles that anarchists in Ireland are currently involved in. There will be time after the presentation for for your questions and discussion.

Wynns Hotel
Lower Abbey Street
19.00 12th April

Kicking off the 2011 Revolts in the age of the Networked Individual

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To what extent do the revolutions and revolts of 2011 reflect a new world born from the shell of the old? Were these revolts of the internet generation -- networked individuals? Are people not only using new technology but becoming transformed by it? For anarchists, what lessons can we learn and to what extent must we transform our organisational methods and structures?

 

Because of the length of this review
its been made available as a 15 page
PDF file to download and read off line.

Protest the Labour Party's vicious policies in Galway this Saturday!

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The Campaign against Household and Water Taxes has organised a march and rally to protest the Labour Party's national convention in Galway this coming Saturday.  Assembling in Eyre Square at 1pm, the march will proceed to the NUIG campus where the Labour Party will be busy planning how they proceed with selling out what little remains of their principles. 

Anarchist report from 1916 Easter Commemorations in Belfast

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This year marked the 96th anniversary of the Easter Rising traditionally a time when republicans across this island come out to remember the sacrifice of fallen comrades and renew their ideals set in stone in the 1916 proclamation. It is also a time when rival republican groups set out there stall in a show of strength and support; but what is noticeable in so-called republican heartlands is a decline in overall attendance and of the wearing of the Easter lily and houses flying the tri-colour.

An introduction to Hacktivism and Anarchism

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In the last few years, headlines have been filled with news of online attacks carried out against government and corporate websites claimed by groups calling themselves, among others, “Anonymous” and “Lulzsec”. Hacktivism is now so popular that a documentary will soon be released covering the Anonymous movement and others called “We Are Legion: The story of the Hacktivists”

Anger flares in Galway at Labour Party after protesters attacked with pepper spray

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Saturdays Household tax demonstration in Galway at the Labour Party conference saw angry scenes after Garda attempted to keep the protesters out of sight and sound from the conference venue. Students who were being kept off their own campus were particularly annoyed and led a push against the Garda barriers during which several of them were attacked with pepper spray. They did however succeed in removing the barriers with the result that around 1,000 of the 4,000 or so Household tax demonstrators were able to march to the door of the conference center to protest in full sight of the Labour party delegates inside.

A number of WSM members were present at the protest, either with their various local Household tax delegations or with FEE, the student group. One of them was among the people pepper sprayed. We asked them to give us their accounts of what happened on the day.

Surveys say poverty rising, resistance too

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Two recent surveys have shed a little light on the levels of poverty and financial distress being experienced in Ireland. A survey by the "What's left" found 47% of households (over 1.5million people) with €100 or less in hand monthly after essential bills have paid. The other survey by Social Justice Ireland calculated over 700,000 people now live impoverished lives in the state.  The increasing cost of essentials, declining wages and rising unemployment are all contributing to this.

Labour Party Learns that the People are Revolting - Direct Action should be Encouraged

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Thousands of people marched from Eyre Square in Galway to the Labour Party conference at NUIG on Saturday. People had travelled from all over the country to show their opposition to the household tax and other attacks on people’s living standards. The story that made the evening news however, was one of the several hundred strong breakaway protest that reached the doors of the conference centre.

Stormont roles out the red carpet for Chinese Emperor as worker anger grows

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Stormont was back to business last weekend as they laid down the red carpet for a top member of the Communist Party’s politburo Liu Yandong as part of the ongoing normalisation drive to showcase investment and job opportunities in in the North. Before it was pandering to US capital but with a stagnating economy our local ruling class are increasingly keen to build relations with the next emerging global power, China, which is increasingly flexing its muscles in the US sphere of influence.

Lagan Brick workers take campaign to Belfast in occupation

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Lagan Brick workers from Cavan stepped up their campaign over the Lagan Group’s failure to pay established redundancy terms by occupying their headquarters at Lagan house on the 4th April. More than 35 Lagan Brick workers and their supporters entered the company’s offices at Lagan House, Clarendon Road following a refusal by the company to accept a letter requesting its participation in negotiations.  Workers at the Lagan Brick manufacturing plant in Kingscourt were informed it was closing only hours before it ceased operation on Friday, 15th December.