James Davis is visiting Dublin and will be giving a talk for the WSM on the topic of Catastrophism in Seomra Spraoi (10 Belvedere Court) at 20.00 on Weds June 25th.
We live in catastrophic times. The world is reeling from the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression, with the threat of further meltdowns ever-looming. Global warming and myriad dire ecological disasters worsen—with little if any action to halt them—their effects rippling across the planet in the shape of almost Biblical floods, fires, droughts, and hurricanes. Governments warn that there is no alternative to the bitter medicine they prescribe—or risk devastating financial or social collapse. The right, whether religious or secular, views the present as catastrophic and wants to turn the clock back. The left fears for the worst, but hopes some good will emerge from the rubble. Visions of the apocalypse and predictions of impending doom abound. Across the political spectrum, a culture of fear reigns.
Wednesday 21st saw another successful defence against an eviction in Dublin. This time in the Stoneybatter area. We put out an alert after we were told that a gang of 3 men with crowbars "came this afternoon and broke in to one of the houses. About 40-50 people showed up outside to show support, then 5 Garda showed up. People inside resisted and argued until the alleged owners and Garda left the house and left the street to a large round of applause.
Everything is cool now. The street was closed off and there was lots of music, food, fun, and we managed to get the support of many parents and school children on the way home from school.
Generally speaking, the Garda didn't know what to do and there was wide public support. Small victory for now"
Over the years, Dublin’s working class has organised to fight landlords, developers and politicians in search of decent housing and well-being for all. This panel at the 9th Dublin anarchist bookfair considered how some of these earlier campaigns and direct actions can inform today’s struggles.
Dublin Housing Action: Past, Present and Future - Anarchist bookfair 2014 audio by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud
We are relaying yesterday's statement from our comrades in Turkey's Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet (Revolutionary Anarchist Action) on the mining catastrophe in Soma, the AKP and state corruption behind it and the police repression of protestors in Turkey's major cities.
Selma James lead off a discussion on sex work at the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair alongside, sex worker Jenny O, and Wendy Lyon who blogs at Feminist Ire
There is then a 30 minute discussion with the audience around anarchism, sex work and feminism.
Sex Work as Work: A Conversation with Selma James at the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud
At this session at the Dublin anarchist bookfair Dave Douglass talked about his experiences of 1984 - the year the British mines almost defeated Thatcher. "That fight in 84-85 involved the whole community, it was not only about unions. It was partly about unions but it was about an industry, it was about a way of life. The miners were almost an ethnicity, with father to son for hundreds and hundreds of years in the same miner family. And we had a very strong revolutionary and radical tradition. So, all of the politics of power, fuel power was about political power and not just about energy. It was about more than that. It was about "Who rules ?""
The hardship of the current economic crisis has impacted unevenly across genders. This panel from the 2014 Dublin Anarchist Bookfair discussed the intersection of austerity, care-work and women’s reproductive rights. Selma James and Conor McCabe presented with Conor focusing on what this has meant in Ireland in particular.
In 2012 The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) made a submission to the Irish government’s public consultation on the prostitution laws. Most of it was just a cut-and-paste job of text sent to them by the Turn Off The Red Light campaign, which seeks the introduction of the Swedish model. But there is one part of ICTU’s original contribution which I found remarkable. A few paragraphs down the submission cites – clearly for the purpose of endorsing – the view of the Technical, Electrical & Engineering Union‘s General Secretary that “prostitution could not be considered work”.
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