Tuesday 7th December will see the imposition of yet another vicious budget to protect the wealthy 1% and make the rest of us pay for the crisis. The WSM will be joining the 1% network which will be meeting up at the Wolfe Tone statue at 5.30pm to join the left bloc protest at the Dail at 6.
With the European Central Bank in partnership with the IMF taking over the running of Ireland's economic policy and hence social policy for the next few years we thought it timely to revisit the weekend of Mayday 2004 when Dublin saw major protests against the EU summit and the neo-liberal policies that were being adopted. This is not an article about how “right” anarchist were about the EU, but we thought it timely to remind people of the biggest, openly organised weekend of protest against hierarchy, power and capitalism Ireland has so far seen. It includes a 30 minute documentary that shows the highlights of the weekend that we think has not yet been put online.
Over 1,500 students from Cork’s various colleges took to the streets to protest the fee increases and cuts to the education system anticipated in the upcoming budget. Students gathered at the UCC grounds, and when the marchers from CIT made it to the university grounds the protest moved off and headed to the city centre by an unusual route via Dyke Parade, the north Leeside quays and Patrick St. to the plaza at Grand Parade.
You have a gathering of nearly a 100,000 people, many of them active trade union members, and we are supposed to phone up one delusional Green party leader and try to get him to do our bidding. We, as workers and trade Union members are supposed to have that power to change things. We can do so by withdrawing our Labour! We do not do it by putting through phone calls like we are voting in the X-Factor and praying that our voice prevails.
Roughly 50 students occupied the grounds of the Department of Education today in the bitter cold, erecting a marquee to hold a 'Surprise Conference.' Garda looked on until after a few hours when apparently a deal was reached whereby the students would pack up early and their would be no arrests. Given the cold that police were probably keen to get back indoors for a cup of tea. The Department was invited to participate but failed to provide a speaker.
The latest Wikileaks release of “diplomatic” communications has unearthed some new information about the US military's use of Shannon airport. Whilst the Irish government have always tried to downplay the role that Shannon airport plays in the mass murder of people of colour and the geopolitical power plays of the US and UK, it was clear in 2005, when this cable was written, that Shannon airport was a significant “stopover” for the US industrial-military complex
If we accept that this deal was never meant to provide justice to the people of Ireland, then we have to judge its success or failure on other grounds, the ones it was designed to fulfill. From that perspective the willingness of the rulers of the French, Germans, British and others to drive countries like Ireland and Greece and Portugal, each of us less than 2% of the Eurozone economy, into ruination is understandable, albeit unforgiveable. Just as there is no honour amongst theives, so there is no solidarity amongst capitalists.
This weeks leads editorial in the international business magazine 'The Economist' shrugs its shoulders and walks away from the idea of controlling Climate Change. This is very significant for The Economist is not a climate change denial publication, for some time (at least as far back as 2006) it has accepted the scientific consensus that human caused Climate Change is a real process with extremely serious implications. So it giving up the fight is a very big deal indeed, and one that contains serious lessons for the Climate Change reformists who continue to believe that if enough pressure is put on a deal can somehow be struck at five minutes to midnight.
November - December 2010 Edition of the Workers Solidarity freesheet.
PDF of Workers Solidarity 118 Web Edition 2.28 Mb
1% of the Population, 34% of the Wealth
Democracy in Brazil
Attacks on Welfare Continue
Sacking of Socialist Nurse Overturned
That's Capitalism!
Thinking About Anarchism: Dual Organisation Film Review: Made in Dagenham
The Workers Solidarity Movement is very pleased to announce the second issue of The Irish Anarchist Review. This magazine is dedicated to understanding the contemporary political, economic and social situation that confronts us, and finding ways to advance alternatives.
Download The Irish Anarchist Review Issue 2
Our first issue was released in the aftermath of major strikes across the public sector. Despite decades of partnership, a deflated union movement and an intense barrage of media bile, Irish workers showed their willingness to take to picket lines to fight the Government.
Now, however, we can see that the union leadership were not willing to fight - they quickly demobilised strike action to return to the bargaining table, squeezing out a disgraceful deal in Croke Park negotiations. Now, without opposition, the Government calmly talks of four-years of ‘hair-shirt’ budgets to restore the national finances.