May 2015

Migration State Racism and Anti Racism Organising - video of panel at DABF 2015

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The Dublin anarchist bookfair panel on migration, state racism and anti-racist, migrant self organising.

Looking at issues faced by migrant activists involved in left-wing politics including the NGOization and electoralization of the migrant justice movement; confronting nationalism and white privilege within campaigns and the particular types of exploitation and oppression faced by different communities of working class migrants. Also discussing migrant self-organising, as in the Kinsale Road occupation, and strategies for making single-issue campaigns more inclusive of anti-racism organising.

Creating the Commons: on the meaning of Bolivia’s water wars

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In the history of humankind every act of destruction meets its response, sooner or later, in an act of creation’ - Eduardo Galeano

In Bolivia, there have been remarkable experiences in urban peripheries, notably in Cochabamba, that reveal the capacity of grassroots associations to construct a free society based on solidarity and mutual aid. The background to the country’s Water War of April 2000 must be understood against preceding waves of struggle, particularly the huge marches for sovereignty and livelihoods of coca growers, Amazonian groups, and others that emerged with the implementation of the neoliberal model in 1985 [1]. Subsequent mine closures and rural migration occasioned huge increases in Bolivia’s urban centres, particularly in Cochabamba, the country’s third largest city. The state water company, Semapa, served only half of the city’s population. In the neglected southern peripheries, neighbourhood groups organised associations to bring water to their homes. Cooperatives, formed without state assistance, dug wells, built water mains, and even created drainage and sewers. In cases where wells could not be dug, the committees bought their own water tankers and organised daily deliveries. By 1990, some 140 urban water committees had formed in the south of Cochabamba, with between 300 and 1000 families in each one [1].

 

Brigadistas in Paradise - The Green Brigade and left wing football fan culture

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The following is an abridged summary of a qualitative study undertaken as part of the Masters in Community Education, Equality and Social Activism at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. The thesis drew upon theories of culture, subculture, social movements, radical pedagogy, ethnographies and studies of ultras, gender and football research, as well as studies of the Irish immigrant experience in Scotland, and specifically the role of Celtic FC as an expression of Irish identity.

The Green Brigade of Glasgow Celtic Football Club were founded in 2006 as an explicitly anti-sectarian, anti-racist and anti-fascist group of ultras, who would celebrate Irish Republicanism, oppose the commercialisation of football, and act as an alternative to apolitical fans groups who were perceived as being too close to the management of the club.

 

Belfast Solidarity Demonstration for Baltimore - No Justice, No Peace

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On May 5th the Belfast branch of the Workers Solidarity Movement organised a demo and protest in solidarity with Baltimore.

We arranged candles in a circle with flowers in the middle as a vigil to those who have been murdered as a result of police and state-sponsored violence and racism. We then played interviews from Baltimore and Black America out on a speaker in order to allow those directly affected to speak for themselves.

Every 28 hours a person of colour (POC) is murdered by the police force in America. So far 157 known POC have been murdered - we printed out their names to show that they are not just numbers or statistics. Instead of reporting this the media and those with privilege have decided that it is much more important to talk about looting. This is the narrative in a neo-liberal, racist, society that places profit over the lives of people. In a society that is founded upon violence to act violently is to act in self-defence. Freddie Gray didn’t have the opportunity to act in self-defence against the torture he endured which eventually killed him.

Striking Bus Drivers or Climate Warriors? Notes on Ireland’s Eco-Transport Struggles

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Could climate change become a catalysing force for radical social transformation in Ireland? Recent struggles around public transport in Ireland prompted me to think along these lines. Last weekend, Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann workers went on strike over plans by the National Transport Authority to tender out 10% of public routes to private operators. A few days earlier, SIPTU’s banner at Liberty Hall had been unfurled to state: ‘Say No to Privatisation; privatisation results in fare increase, reduced services, a threat to free travel, a bad deal for taxpayers and job cuts’. SIPTU and NBRU members and strike organisers have emphasised the damage privatisation will do to society, primarily concentrating on the loss of community services and the race to the bottom in bus drivers’ terms and conditions [1]. The striking workers deserve our support and their claims should be taken seriously. This is definitely the case when the regime media adhere to a deeply unimaginative line, loudly declaiming traffic disruption to an imagined city of angry consumers and silently accepting the hollowing out of public services [2]. At the same time, however, we also need to think about what’s not being said, about the words that don’t make it on to the papers or the banner.
 

Decency for Dunnes Workers March in Newbridge, Kildare - Report

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Over 100 people, mainly Dunnes workers, marched from the town hall to Dunnes Stores in Newbridge, Co. Kildare on Thursday evening as part of the Decency for Dunnes Workers campaign which focuses on decent hours and earnings, job security, fair pay and representation and right to dignity at work. Marchers included members of the Scrap Water Charges Kildare group as well as a small, smartly dressed doggy. Mandate representatives and numerous local supporters were in attendance.

The Housing Crisis is Really a Capitalist Crisis - Resist, Repopulate, Reclaim!

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Ours is a society in which, in every field, one group of people makes decisions, exercise control, limits choices, while the great majority have to accept these decisions, submit to this control and act within the limits of these externally imposed choices. Nowhere is this more evident than in the field of housing: one of those basic human needs which throughout history and all over the world people have satisfied as well as they could for themselves, using the materials what were at hand and their own, and their neighbors labor. The marvelously resourceful anonymous vernacular architecture of every part of the globe is a testimony to their skill, using timber, straw, grass, leaves, hides, stone, clay, bone, earth, mud sand even snow. Consider the igloo: maximum enclosure of space with minimum of labor. Cost of materials and transportation, nil. And all made of water. Nowadays, of course, the Eskimos live on welfare handouts in little northern slums. Man, as Habraken says “no longer houses himself: he is housed” – Colin Ward

 

The Rojava Revolution, Gender Liberation & Feudalism Video & Audio from DABF 2015

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This session at the 2015 Dublin anarchist bookfair examined the reasons why gender liberation is central to the Rojava revolution in northern Syria and looks in particular at the importance of the struggle against tribal feudalism.

How Nuclear Power was Defeated in Ireland - Video from DABF 2015

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Alan MacSimoin explains the successful campaign of the 1970's that stopped nuclear power coming to Ireland

Voting for Marriage Equality While Being Critical of Marriage - DABF 21015 Panel Video & audio

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We find ourselves in Ireland facing a imminent referendum on marriage equality, which the hardline religious right are opposing as part of their program of maintaining multiple oppressions.

A No vote in that context would be disastrous, serving only to entrench homophobia. Therefore anarchists are campaigning for a Yes to Marriage Equality vote but beyond the need to ensure the referendum is not defeated this session of the 2015 Dublin Anarchist Bookfair asked what else needed to be said?

Self organising and the city - Squatting panel at Dublin Anarchist Bookfair 2015 video & audio

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What are the challenges and possibilities of popular self-organisation to reclaim our lives, our homes and our cities.

At this years Dublin anarchist bookfair Jenny and Zoe looked at recent occupations in Dublin, including the Grangegorman Squat in Smithfield where resistance to eviction is ongoing

Voting Yes for Marriage Equality

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Marriage as an institution has no great appeal for anarchists. Its primary role in capitalist society is to regulate property ‘rights’ and to promote social norms. But we also know that in our current society marriage has a social standing to which many people aspire. To tell a significant section of the population that they should be denied access to marriage is to ask them to accept a second­class position vis a vis their straight family members, workmates and friends.

Migrants Call for Vote for Marriage Equality

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On Friday Ireland goes to the polls for a referendum to introduce Marriage equality, when it is passed Ireland will be the first country to introduce Marriage equality by popular vote. In the final days of campaigning the reactionary anti-equality crowd are becoming increasingly open about their homophobia as they become increasingly desperate in the face of defeat.

Homophobic No Campaigners Setting Up Fake Equality Pages

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In the last 24 hours anti-equality campaigners have been setting up fake Yes to equality Facebook pages and then posting links around to large groups like the 26,000 strong anti water charges group. The intention being to trick people into voting No by trying to give credence to the fevered imaginations of homophobes.

May 22nd - Vote Yes to Defeat the Bigots

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May 22nd offers an opportunity for many of us in Ireland to strike a blow against homophobia in voting for Marriage equality.

Calling it early - the marriage equality referendum has passed

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Its already clear (23 May, 10am) that the referendum has been passed, that there has been a Yes vote across the country, its now only a question of how big. We won't know the answer to that for hours.

We are confident with this call because not only are huge Yes tally being reported from Dublin (as high as 3:1) but very large Yes votes are also being reported from some rural boxes. There are others that are 50:50 or even thought to be slightly No but its clear these No's hope to counteract the huge Yes's from the cities, never mind the significant Yes votes that appear to have happened in many rural areas. Areas that voted against divorce are showing significant Yes votes.

Anarchist Bloc on the April 18 Bin Your Bills Water Charge March

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Taking advantage of the fact that a lot of local water charge groups were not seriously mobilsing for the April 18th march we called a last minute Anarchist Bloc to encourage people to attend via our Dublin radical events from WSM group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/radical.dublin)

Anarchist bloc on the water charges march through Dublin

Posted by Workers Solidarity Movement (Ireland) on Saturday, 18 April 2015

 

O'Connell Street Blocked by Water Charge Protesters Demanding Release of Stephen Bennett (Video)

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Dun Laoghaire court remanded one of the water charge protesters arrested 19th May to Cloverhill prison for a week. An emergency protest called for the 20th blocked the quays and O'Connell St. for an hour in the evening demanding his release.

Stephen Bennett  is a well known water charges activist in Dublin who has been successful in defending himself in numerous cases brought by the Garda. He was remanded after refusing bail conditions that would have denied his freedom to protest in future. These conditions were clearly intended to remove him from the streets.

More Arrests of Water Charge Campaigners in Dun Laoghaire

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There were more arrests of water charge campaigners in Dun Laoghaire yesterday (19 May) and two of the four arrested are up in court around now.