The horrific death toll from the earthquake in Haiti briefly focused the world’s attention on the plight of the Haitian people. The earthquake was a natural disaster coming on top of decades of human disasters imposed upon the people as its economy has been forced to transform to suit the needs of transnational corporations. This is the reason so many people were packed into substandard accommodation in Port-au-prince. ... read full story

Public meetings to be held in Cork and Dublin this week will pose the question of how the legacy of U.S. imperialism has impacted on the catastrophe visited on Haiti in the recent earthquake. ... read full story

Approximately 40 people packed in Solidarity Books in Cork to hear Elsie Haas (a Haitian film-maker and journalist, based in Paris) and Jose Antonio Gutierrez (of the Latin American Solidarity Centre in Dublin) talk about the political and economic history of Haiti and how the recent US intervention in the country, following the earthquake, is just a continuation of the UN-led occupation since 2004, following on from 200 years of occupations and imperialism. ... read full story

As predictions for the death toll from the Haitian earthquakes rise over 200,000, ABC News have reported that planes carrying medical equipment and relief supplies are having to compete with soldiers for the valuable slots at Port-au-Prince airport which was taken over by the US military after the quake. Since the start of the great anti-slavery republican insurrection nearly 220 years ago, Haiti has been presented as a dangerous place incapable of running its own affairs and requiring foreign intervention. Yet the reality is its people were the first enslaved population to deliver themselves from slavery and also carried out what was only the third successful republican insurrection on the planet. The threat of this good example was rewarded with centuries of invasion, blackmail, the robbery of Haiti's natural resources and the impoverishment of its people. This articles summarizes that history of intervention and the resistance to it in order to put into context what is happening in Haiti after the quake. ... read full story

The Workers Solidarity Movement(WSM) has called for a No vote in the Lisbon referendum, referring to it as “a treaty for the rich”, and claiming that “people in Ireland can do a lot better than a choice between the clowns in the Dáil or those in Brussels”. ... read full story

The Workers Solidarity Movement is calling for a No vote in the Lisbon referendum. It is a treaty for the rich, people in Ireland can do a lot better than a choice between the clowns in the Dáil or those in Brussels.

We oppose the EU's policies of privatisation, militarisation and attacks on workers' conditions but don’t insult people’s intelligence by saying that our current society in Ireland with its severe recession, diabolical public services and corruption is anything better. The major lack of democracy in our lives is not between us and the EU but between the Irish government and us.

The upcoming Lisbon vote is one of the rare occasions that the people get a direct say. But it’s only a very limited say. We get to choose between either a gombeen republic or an embryonic European state, neither of which makes for an exciting prospect.

Whichever way the vote goes, there is no indication that either a yes or a no vote will substantially alter the exclusion of the public from major public decisions. That requires a rethinking of the kind of society we want.

The problem is not the treaty alone but the EU as an institution.We call on people to Vote No to Lisbon but also to organise to take more control of our lives and to build real democracy in our communities and our workplaces. ... read full story

It’s the time of year where we plebs get a chance to rectify our impertinence in rejecting the Lisbon Treaty. In itself, rerunning the referendum is hardly an affront to democracy. After all, people are simply being asked to confirm the decision made. ... read full story

One of the great problems that people encounter in making up their minds about the Lisbon treaty is that, depending on who you talk to, the treaty can appear to be an altogether different thing. According to those who are campaigning for a Yes vote, it merely serves to tidy up the existing European treaties, with a few changes to allow the EU to function more efficiently. ... read full story

The WSM is calling for a No vote in the 2nd Lisbon referendum on the grounds that people in Ireland can do a lot better than a choice between the clowns in the Dáil or those in Brussels. We oppose the EU's policies of privatisation, militarisation and attacks on workers' conditions but don’t insult people’s intelligence by saying that our current society in Ireland with its severe recession, diabolical public services and corruption is anything better. The major lack of democracy in our lives is not between us and the EU but between the Irish government and us. ... read full story

Unlike most literature on the ‘conflict’ in the North, this book assesses the impact and effectiveness of the armed struggle. It devotes significant attention towards the motivations of men and women who joined the IRA and the rigid hierarchal structures which underpinned the organisation to explaining the eventual outcome and ineffectiveness of the armed struggle.

... read full story

This audio is of the session at the 2009 Dublin anarchist bookfair organised by the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign. The speaker is Nidal Saadeh, a leftist Palestinian activist from Bethlehem in the West Bank. ... read full story

There was the whiff of something in the Derry air. The constantly rising civilian death toll in Gaza had already produced the same outpourings of rage on the streets of Derry as it had around the world. Thousands of signatures had been gathered calling on Raytheon to be given the boot, while ever larger crowds had gathered for vigils at the cenotaph, marches through the city, rallies at the Guildhall and at a nonviolent blockade of Raytheon itself. Now more and more of us were becoming determined that we do not have to resign to feelings of helplessness in the face of Israel’s war atrocities. Our burning rage was igniting something positive. ... read full story

The armed and indiscriminate attack on the Massereene British Army barracks in Antrim on Saturday night is futile and counter-productive which only serves to strengthen the status-quo.

These attacks along with the killing of a police officer will only heighten sectarian divisions in times of growing alienation and disillusionment in working-class communities. Especially, in the midst of a global economic recession with an increase in class struggle at home and abroad. Convienently, diverting attention away from the disastrous neo-liberal economic polices pursued by our rulers at Stormont.
... read full story

Media coverage of events in Israel and Palestine often depends on well-worn clichés that depict a bitter struggle between two homogenous and mutually exclusive cultures. The truth of course is far more complex and there is a small, but very vocal, opposition within Israel to the military Occupation of Palestine. One of the most visible and courageous forms of this opposition has been the refusal to serve in the Israeli army. ... read full story

Slaughter in Gaza. It's in the papers, on the radio, on the TV news. We stare numbed at the images of horror while eating our dinner. And then the spokespeople, one after another. Hamas are blaming Israel. Israel and the US are blaming Hamas. The Europeans and the rest of the world are blaming the US. One one thing they are all agreed, it's not their fault, the blood is on somebody else's hands. Meanwhile bloodied parents stagger through the streets of Gaza bearing the shattered bodies of their children. ... read full story

Along with thousands of others WSM members have been taking part in protests in Dublin, Cork and Belfast against the Israeli attacks on Gaza. Here we present a collection of writings we have published on Palestine as well as articles by our members published elsewhere and useful articles our members have helped get re-published.

All this helps put into context our participation in the protests as well as past activity which has included visits to Palestine by WSM members and helping to tour and fundraisers for the Israeli anarchist organisation 'Anarchists Against the Wall'. ... read full story

In Workers Solidarity 105 we reviewed David Simon's 'The Wire'. His follow on project 'Generation Kill' which features some of the same actors is a 7 episode series following the United States Marine Corps' 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during the invasion of Iraq . It's based on the book published by Rolling Stone journalist Evan Wright.
... read full story

The victory of Obama in the US presidential elections, echoed all over the world through the mass media, tried to convince us that the single most relevant event in 2 millions of years of human existence had just happened. ... read full story

The Workers Solidarity Movement held a public demonstration in Belfast in opposition to the Ministry of Defence's decision to hold a march celebrating the occupation and continued atrocities in Afganistan. Here we present two individual reports from members who took part in the protest. ... read full story

Anarchists organise Anti-War Demonstration
Politicians of all sides show hypocrisy
Sunday 2nd November at 11am sharp

The Workers Solidarity Movement,(WSM), an anarchist organsiation, will be holding a public demonstration in opposition the Ministry of Defences decision to hold a march celebrating the occupation and continued atrocities in Afganistan ... read full story