Solidarity

Solidarity & self-organisation at the Dunkirk refugee camp - A better world is possible

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Around 1000 people currently live in a camp near Dunkirk in France.  Many of them are Kurdish, fleeing either ISIS in Syria, the Iranian state or the Turkish states war against the Kurdish part of its population.  Some families have already spent 10 months in the camp.

Many hope to get to the UK just a short and very famous journey away across the sea.  There is a motorway near the camp and when traffic slows down some in desperation try and leap onto passing lorries.  Sometimes people get killed doing this.

It’s an all too familiar story and there is a liberal tendency to paint the people living in these conditions as victims requiring our charity.  What we want to talk about here is how this isn’t the case, that instead people in the camps are self organising with solidarity activists and in the most difficult of circumstances taking some control back over their lives. It's solidarity we need to talk about, not charity.

Solidarity, Engagement & the Revolutionary Organisation

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Over the last couple of years the WSM has been going through a process of re-examining the way we relate to people interested in what we have to say. Alongside this we have recently begun to try and get a better understanding of what it is we do. Both these processes have some major implications in reaching an understanding of what the usefulness of a revolutionary organisation is in the modern era of broad and loose social networks.

 

Beyond the "solidarity of the same” - Solidarity, class and empowerment

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Solidarity is a word that fills the songs, slogans and even names of movements in the anarchist, socialist and left tradition. Yet the meaning of the term is often assumed to be common knowledge that needs no further explanation or enquiry. In line with the theme of this issue of the Irish Anarchist Review this article aims to look a little deeper into the history and meaning of this term and how it should inform our activity today and the problems we face. Particularly in situations when equal empowerment between all the participants in the solidarity relation cannot be assumed as a starting point. Clearly solidarity, class and equality are all in some way intertwined, but the question is how, exactly?

 

Fascists fail to stir hate as Ballaghaderreen says welcome to refugees

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The small town of Ballaghaderreen recently found out that it would be welcoming some 82 refugees in the near future.  About half of these are minors and most of those are under 12 including 13 under the age of 4.  There were the predictable attempts by neo-nazis to whip up hate online and someone even distributed about 80 British fascist leaflets in the town.  But rather than hate taking hold the town held a standing room only welcoming meeting last Thursday.  We asked one of the organisers, Jessamine O Connor,  to tell us how this happened.

Help fund Medical support/solidarity with refugees forced to cross the sea to Lesvos

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As the massive rebellion against the racist borders of Fortress Europe rolls from Spring through the Summer to Autumn & now Winter conditions are becoming very much more dangerous. According to Al Jazerra since the photos of the drowned today of Alan Kurdi shocked so many into action at least another 71 children have died on the route.

Tens of thousands are still on the road, many are even now attempting the crossing from Turkey to Lesvos, a crossing that becomes more dangerous as storms increase. Others are camped out in cold and wet conditions along the route while at Calais the death toll of those hit by cars and lorries contain use to rise.

Make a donation at https://www.gofundme.com/xy74whj4

Dublin protests in solidarity with those targeted by Ankara bombing in Turkey

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People gathered outside the Turkish embassy in Dublin last night to take part in a solidarity protest of remembrance for the 100 plus people killed in the bombing of a peace rally in Ankara on Saturday. 

Ireland to Calais Refugee solidarity - Report as the 1st convoys departed

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One of our member is now at the refugee camp in Calais as part of the solidarity convoy that arrived from Ireland a couple of days back.  Before he left he filed this report for us.

Today the first of Ireland-Calais Refugee Solidarity’s convoys of basic aid is due to arrive in the French port of Calais. The aid is for distribution among the several thousand refugees living in deplorable conditions in makeshift camps outside the town, hoping to gain entry into the UK.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been lucky enough to be part of the ‘Ireland Calais Refugee Solidarity’ group, collecting and organising for refugee aid convoys, the first of which is being delivered to Calais today. The group was initially set up by one very impressive person from Cork, Tracey Ryan, who was planning on collecting donations and delivering them to Calais personally. Apparently though, interest in the solidarity action was so large that it grew into a cross-country action, focused in Cork and Dublin.

Dubliners gather to spell out Refugees Welcome on Sandymount strand

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Crowd spells out Refugees Welcome on Sandymount strand in Dublin - Drone photoOn a damp Sunday afternoon hundreds of Dubliners gathered to spell out a clear Refugees Welcome mention on Sandymount strand, opposite the iconic Pigeon House chimneys.

The organisers had said "Let's tell our government that people in Ireland want to extend the Céad Míle Fáilte to the thousands escaping conflicts. European ministers are meeting on Monday 14th September to agree a new programme."

Quick interview at Jigsaw about Dublin to Calais refugee solidarity

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One of our reporters was using his van to help transport refugee solidarity donations to Jigsaw, one of the Dublin sorting points of this grassroots initiative. He took a moment to shoot this quick video explainer showing the volume of materials that has poured in.

The 'X to Calais' solidarity groups formed in cities, towns and villages right across Ireland in order to collect needed supplies, form convoys and drive them to the migrant camps across Europe starting with the inspiring site of consistent self organised resistance at Calais.

Solidarity and the prosecution of Belfast woman charged for supplying daughter with Early Medical Abortion pill

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To those involved in left-wing or anti-establishment activism the word "solidarity" has a different meaning to those not involved in anti-capitalist or feminist struggle.

Among leftists it's not only an emotion, it's something that you feel in your gut. It's something that spurs you into action and that drives you forward even when the end destination is nowhere near in sight.

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