The centre collapses - the Yellow Vests emerge

Date: Tue, 2018-12-11 14:58

On the apolitical labelling of the movement - Many of us have been following the Yellow Vest clashes on the streets of France with great interest and trying to understand this movement that appeared to come from nowhere.  It is another story of the pressures of late stage capitalism collapsing the center of politics, a center no longer able to fool more of the people most of the time.  A movement made possible by social media but which also reflects the often chaotic ‘apolitics’ of such movements.  And worrying in the context of the millions being poured into far right propaganda a movement in which the far-right have made some progress in infiltrating, even if our comrades in France are physically driving them out of the protests.

There is no such thing as an apolitical movement, all there can be is a movement with internal contradictions as well as internal struggles to resolve those contradictions.

Yellow Vests - People are ready to go onto the streets because they have nothing else to lose - audio

Date: Tue, 2018-12-11 14:58

A look at why the Yellow Vests will reject Macron’s concessions that takes the form of a discussion between two of our members, one of whom is a French migrant in Ireland who has been following the news and discussions in the movement in France online. Looks at the ‘concessions’, the formation of the movement, the clash with far-right infiltration and the contradictions of the relations between the Yellow Vest movement and climate change movement which also marched in Paris this weekend. Ends with a discussion of where the movement is now likely to go. [audio]

 

Alan MacSimoin - Rest In Power

Date: Wed, 2018-12-05 17:56

The WSM are shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the death of Alan MacSimoin, one of our founder members, a friend, and a key central figure in building the anarchist movement in Ireland for over four decades. Alan had not been a member of WSM for some years but remained politically active right to the end. His last Facebook post on November 29th was supporting the locked out bricklayers at Mary’s Mansions. Alan will be sorely missed by all in the WSM and we offer our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.


Alan (right) leading a small pro-choice march in 2002

The housing crisis in Ireland - 8 points on the big picture

Date: Thu, 2018-11-29 13:20

The WSM has been having a 'big picture' discussion around the housing crisis from which the following points emerged. We are publishing them ahead of the December 1st demonstration in Dublon (14.00 Parnell square).

1. We built our cities and the houses of our cities. They are ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own*.

2. The contemporary crisis of capitalism has made markedly visible the relationship between finance capital and property speculation, between the concentrated money-power of bankers and speculators and the shaping of the built environment in our towns and cities.

Identity Politics is a Four way Conflict

Date: Thu, 2018-11-29 13:20

Discussions about Identity Politics (IdPol) absorbs a huge amount of energy across the political spectrum.  Discussion on the left however is often complicated and made overly hostile because they take place along the single axis of oppression which means proponents of IdPol get lumped in with Hilary Clinton while opponents get lumped in with Donald Trump.  This understandably encourages bad faith discussions that throw a lot of heat and very little light. Here we are going to argue that a much more useful exchange can happen when we instead create a plot where one axis is oppression and the second is exploitation as that puts both Trump & Clinton a good distance away from socialists. [Audio of this article]

WSM marks International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women at their strategy gathering

Date: Mon, 2018-11-26 14:14

The WSM took some time out from our future directions discussions session at Cloughjordan eco village over the week to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Extinction Rebellion solidarity rally in Dublin

Date: Fri, 2018-11-23 17:00

Dublin saw a few 100 people gather last Saturday to take part in a rally in solidarity with Extinction Rebellion, the group which has recently emerged in Britian and which yesterday occupied 5 bridges across the Thames, blocking them for about 4 hours and resulting in large numbers of arrests.  This act of Civil Disobediance is in the context of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that says we have only a decade to reduce emmissions by about 45% in order to try and keep Climate Change down to a 1.5 degree centagrade increase in global tempertures. [video]

No LNG terminal on the Shannon - Climate Change & Methane

Date: Thu, 2018-11-22 15:39

We interviewed William Hederman, an environmental researcher living in County Clare, about the planned Liquefied Natural Gas terminal on the Shannon. Construction of it will mean Ireland will fail to meet its Climate Change commitments and will instead be tied into pumping out additional Greenhouse Gases for decades. As the LNG will come from the US it will includes fracked gas, a process banned in Ireland that releases three times as much of the very powerful Climate Change gas methane as conventional gas. [video]

Video - all of 2018 March for Choice as it passes down the Dublin quays

Date: Mon, 2018-10-01 13:17

This video shows all of the 2018 March for Choice pass down the quays in Dublin.  This year we had won the refrendum but much is left to fight for in terms of the details of the legislation and standing down the inevotable anti-choice attempts that will be made once the lefislation comes in to intimidate doctors,  as welll as women and pregnant who will finally be able to access free, safe and legal abortion in Ireland. [video]

Claire Byrne Live and the anarchist menace

Date: Sun, 2018-09-30 14:51
We missed this last week.
 
-Quote- 

Claire Byrne: [Take Back the City] "have pledged to train up volunteers on how to occupy vacant buildings across the country. We have them here tonight, we're going to talk to them in a minute but first of all I want to come to you, councillor Paddy Smyth because you believe this group are anarchists, is that right?"
Cllr Paddy Smyth (FG): "Well, they're disobeying court orders, they're taking possession of property that isn't theirs, and effectively if we don't have property rights, we don't have ownership rights in this country, we do have anarchy, so, yes." [1] 

-End quote-
 

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