Crime, prison and punishment :
An anarchist view

What is crime and who defines it, if we get rid of the police then who will stop crime occuring.

Class War prisoner


Justice in a corrupt society
Why is it that there is no expensive tribunals set up to 'establish the truth' about joyriding in Darndale

Crime and community policing
The term 'community policing' has been much abused in recent times, most particularly in the North of Ireland where it has become shorthand for vicious punishment beatings and shootings. In this article Gregor Kerr takes a look at the issue of community policing - what it is and more importantly what it isn't. The question of what levels of real community policing would actually be possible or allowed under capitalism is looked at, and the debate about crime, anti-social behaviour and reactions to it in an anarchist society is touched on.

The Role of the Gardai
The primary role of the police is to preserve the status quo in society. In other words, the first task of the police force, of any police force, is to ensure the rule of the State and the rich elite

Thinking about Anarchism - Crime
Whatever nice theories about crime anarchists might come up with we can be sure that any community subjected to a murder or a rape will want something done about it.

Crime and Punishment
What exactly is crime anyway, who defines it and how is it enforced.

Crime, Criminals, Punishment an anarchist view
Kropotkin came up with three types of crime. Property related crime, government related crime and crimes against the person. In Britain it has been estimated that 94% of crime is committed against property. However what isn't recorded are those crimes committed for property.

'Justice' and 'Equality' in action
Just in case you had any illusions about the fairness or impartiality of the Irish 'justice' system

May 9th 2001 - Large protest in Dublin against police brutality [with photos]
After two days when the first item on the evening TV news was the brutal Gardai attack on a Reclaim the Streets party it was not surprising that thousands joined a rally against police brutality outside Pearse St police station on Thursday night.

May 6th 2002- Dublin Reclaim the Streets attacked by Gardai [with photos]
It was expected that this would be the largest Dublin Reclaim the Streets to date. What was not so expected was that by the end of the day 24 people would have been arrested and over a dozen hospitalised by a police riot on Dame street.

March 13th 2002- First Case against Burlington protestor dismissed in Dublin district court!
As many off you probably know 14 people were arrested for at an anti privitisation demo at the Burlington hotel last October. The first full hearing came up today., I wasn't a witness so I got to sit through the whole thing and study the machinations of the capitalist justice system at district court level in great detail!

Jan 10 2002 - Report on Defend our civil liberties meeting
About 35-40 people turned up mainly non-party political. Firstly the video was shown of the Burlington anti PPP demo and the attacks by the cops. Pretty disturbing stuff much more so when you view it in the cold light of day.

Oct 11th 2001- Gardai attack globalisation protest at Dublin's Burlington hotel
A protest against an international privitisation conference at Dublin's Burlington hotel turned violent when the Gardai (Irish police) attacked protesters with batons. They were aided by a number of non uniformed men armed with sticks and torches

August 20th 2001 - Another member of Householders Against the Service Charges jailed in Cork
He is being held in Cork Prison having been sentenced to serve 5 days in jail for not paying a £70 fine under the Litter Act

Irish campaigner arrested and beaten
The most frightening experience involved my arresting Carabinari attempting to stab me. When this happened my mind thought of people who had died of gunshot wounds in French detention and for a moment I did question my future

Who guards the guards?
In the light of the latest crime scare and the extra powers provided to the police we look at what the state is really up to.

New law aids pimps and protection rackets
Tagged on to the end of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 were further restrictions on prostitution. Under the new act, prostitutes are now liable to fines of up to £1,000 and up to six months in prison.

Censor Censored!
A Censorship law praised by feminists has been used to ban books by a leading anti-porn feminist.

Pushers Out: Poverty Out too
The Heroin crisis continues in Dublin, we examine how it is rooted in poverty

Homelessness - Prostitution; Legalisation?
The sex industry is expanding and is said to gross millions of pounds per annum. Over the last year this has been reflected in the increasing focus in the media on prostitution.

Gardaí involved in racist persecution
Belmondo Wantete, an electrical engineer from the Congo, has lived in Ireland with his wife and young children for the last four years, and is a legal resident. Last year, on May 1st, gardaí raided his home at 3am. They shouted threats and racist abuse, and pushed a gun through his letter box.

Red and Black Ireland

News of Anarchism in Ireland

The Ainriail mailing list carries the latest news from the WSM and the struggles anarchists are involved in. There are never more then 8 posts a week (and normally only 2-4). We post printed articles to it shortly after they are published.

More details!


It's one law for the rich...

Employment Equality Bill
The Employment Equality Bill effectively gives schools and hospitals which are controlled by either of the churches the right to discriminate on the basis of marital status, family/parental status, sexual orientation, race, religion or membership of the Traveller Community

Irish Building workers ripped off in Germany
Thousands of Irish building workers have gone to work in Germany over the last few years. As European integration proceeds, German contractors are increasingly turning to foreign workers. They want foreign workers because they are cheaper, unorganised and easier to push around

Your job is not worth a lot
.. and that's official according to the appeals tribunal

Which western country never fully abolished slavery?
SLAVERY IS STILL LEGAL in the USA. Contrary to what we may learn in school, the American Civil War did not see the complete abolition of slavery in 1865.

The Anti-D scandal
Due to contaminated Anti-D about a thousand women have contracted Hepatitis C. We look at why the contamination happened and why the government tried to cover it up

Explosion in Cork Harbour
The explosion and fire at the Hickson chemical plant in Ringaskiddy, Cork, last August, has gone down as one of the most serious industrial accidents in Ireland to date.

Accidents will happen?
Workplace accidents rarely happen. They are caused. It is equally the case that workers end up taking more than their fair share of blame when things do go wrong

Wads of cash
Corruption, corruption, corruption, everywhere you go. No matter where you turn these days, it seems to jump right up into your face. Lowry. Haughey. Brown paper bags. Wads of cash. Bank Drafts. Favours. Planning permission. Rezoning. The Cayman Islands!

37% illegally underpaid
Over 37% of the workplaces visited by wages inspectors were illegally underpaying staff.

Uncle Sams Torture Trade
From September 1991-December 1993, the U.S. Commerce Department approved over 350 export licenses, worth more than $27 million, for torture and police equipment

Review: Would Pat Buchanan take a cheque from Satan
A review of Michael Moore's 'Downsize this!'

Crime does pay
When Shell managers in Nigeria declare openly that they prefer military dictatorship to representative rule, they know what they are talking about.


...and another for the rest of us

The Censorship of Abortion Information Act, 1995
In the autumn of 1992, the people of Ireland voted to legalise abortion information. More than two years later, the government has finally introduced a Bill to 'regulate' this information.

Anarchists raided in Canada
The Canadian state has raided anarchists in Quebec in response to growing social unrest.

If the cops don't like you
Class War meeting banned in Dublin

Costly speech for Irish dissidents
Three socialists in Cork, members of the Socialist Alliance group, have found themselves up against the guardians of 'public order' for the second time in two months. Their crime? Putting up posters.

Wexford strike declared illegal
WORKERS AT Nolans Transport in New Ross have been told their strike is illegal. They have been in dispute since February 1993 for better pay, better conditions and union recognition.

Roadblocks on the Information Super-highway
Capitalism will not allow 'freedom of information' in any real sense. The mass media is all state owned or owned by wealthy corporations. As long as access to the internet was confined to a narrow layer of academics and students, freedom of expression was permitted. But now that it starts to become a mass medium of communication the state is seeking to impose limits on this expression.

513 Anarchists arrested in Greece
On November 18th this year after an overnight battle with police and fascist gangs on one side and Greek anarchists on the other riot police stormed Athens Polytechnic and arrested 513 of the 2000 mostly anarchist occupiers.

Socialist arrested by gardai
SWP election candidate was arrested by Gardai while making an election address in Rathmines, Dublin

Free speech and the litter act
The use of the Litter Act to prevent the distribution of anti-racist leaflets is a very serious step. A blanket ban on the distribution of leaflets would have serious consequences for other political, environmental, civil liberties, community or trade union campaigns.

The United States of Captivity
The US Prison system incarcerated its two millionth prisoner. This means that the prison population of the USA accounts for 25% of the entire prison population of the world

The Secret Police during the Russian revolution
Was the Cheka integral to Lenin's doctrine or did it arrive by chance?

Anarchist ex-Black Panther to speak in Ireland
Lorenzo Komboa Ervin speaking tour, US political prisoner and ex-Black Panther was speaking in Ireland in May of 1997. This article explains who he is.

Lorenzo arrested
Recently the WSM organised a speaking tour by Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin in Ireland. After Ireland Lorenzo went to Australia where he was arrested by the racist Australian government.

International campaign wins stay of execution for US black activist
American black activist and journalist, Mumia Abu-Jamal, was sentenced to die at 10pm on August 17th. Protests which took place in over twenty countries forced the US authorities to grant a stay of execution, just 11 days before he was to be killed.

article by Mumia: The return of the chain gangs

Review: BAD - The Autobiography of James Carr
From Gangster to revolutionary - This book tells the brutally honest story of a Black American brought up in the ghettos of LA to become, alongside George Jackson, one of the most intransigent prison rebels of that period of the late 60s and early 70s

Troops out : Prisoners out
We welcome the cease-fire. The "peace process", however, has little to recommend it. It represents little more than arguments over who exactly will administer capitalism in Ireland.

Drugs

Legalise it
The legaisation of Cannabis is now being debated openly by sections of the European ruling class.

The heroin menace
Dublin is experiencing a heroin epidemic similar to the in the late 1970s. That epidemic left hundreds of young people hooked on heroin and dozens of them have since died of AIDS and AIDS related diseases. Some big criminals made fortunes out of it

Bans or legalisation?
SINCE THE DAYS of Concerned Parents Against Drugs (CPAD), the growth of the heroin problem in inner-city Dublin has largely gone without comment. In the last few months, two factors have pushed it back into the spotlight - the government's declaration of a 'War on Drugs', and the emergence of the city-wide campaign against heroin which has been set up by Inner City Organisations Network.

Direct Action Against Drugs: Murder & Thuggery
MEN SHOT DEAD, many more beaten up. Attacks in Armagh, Belfast, Derry, Dublin, Dundalk and Kerry. In most cases the reason given was that the people being punished were ecstasy dealers. The murders in the six counties were claimed by Direct Action Against Drugs.

 


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