Over 30 years of anarchist writing from Ireland listed under hundreds of topics
Croke Park proposal shows why we have to take our unions back & organise to win
Date: Thu, 2013-03-21 19:29
It is quite incredible that the majority of the union leadership had the nerve to stay in the Croke Park talks and return to us, the members, asking us to vote for such a terrible deal. All of the unions should have had a ballot before entering into negotiations and we should have voted to refuse to enter discussions at all as long as a billion euro of cuts was a precondition of talks. Once we entered on that basis, nothing good could come out of talks. And after making the mistake of entering on that condition, all the unions should have had a change of heart and walked out once the reality of what would have to be accepted became clear.
We have to ask ourselves how we have found ourselves in unions where the leadership was allowed take such an approach. And we have to work out how we create unions that we control and which will help us organise together to defend our common interests.
Property Tax: Frequently asked Questions
Date: Thu, 2013-03-21 19:04
T
he Campaign Against Household & Water Taxes has produced this useful FAQ on the new Property Tax that answers basic questions about the tax that will be of interest to those determined to resist it.
Don’t sign up for more austerity - Boycott property tax Forms - Mobilise to put them under pressure
Date: Thu, 2013-03-21 19:03
The Government call it a Property Tax but it’s really a tax on the family home and once they get the foot in the door with this tax it will only rise. Along with the water tax (which comes in next year) households will be hit with bills of 1,000 euro a year and more before too long.
Five years of austerity have hammered ordinary people. No more. The Government must be stopped in their tracks on this one.
Review of Paul Mason, 2013, Why It’s STILL Kicking Off Everywhere
Date: Thu, 2013-03-21 14:45
A question. If depression is the inability to construct a future, does depression not appear very like the world’s prevailing mood or zeitgeist right now? As I write, the immense working majority faces into continued hierarchy, exploitation and polarisation, characterised by, among other things, ecological catastrophe, austerity without end, technocratic governance, nuclear annihilation, escalation of war... Compounding these dilemmas is our collective inability, real or illusory (I am not sure which), to construct an alternative future.
Today, it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. And yet. Something else is stirring. 2011 occasioned a shared, transnational impulse of ‘outrage’, ‘indignation’ and ‘enough’ against the cruelties of global financial institutions and the petty thuggery of enthralled states. The occupation of the world’s squares was simultaneously an impulse of ‘hope’, ‘solidarity’ and ‘the commons’, directed towards a dimly perceived yet somehow more just, more humane future. Tracking their emergence, evolution, fading, and re-emergence around the world – now in Cairo, then in Syntagma, here in Zuccotti Park, there in Puerta del Sol - Paul Mason, BBC journalist and author, has provided an insightful record and (somewhat more questionable) analysis of these revolts.
Belfast - Conversations about Anarchism
Date: Thu, 2013-03-21 14:20
Friendly free discussion for people who are new to anarchism & seek answers to basic questions.
Conversations about Anarchism comes to Belfast March 23rd with the first sessions being What are the basics of Anarchism
Conversations about Anarchism is our friendly discussion based sessions designed for people who are new or fairly new to anarchism and want a chance to ask and hear answered some basic questions. It's open to anyone with an interest in finding out more about anarchism and will take place at Na Croisbhealaí Workers Co-Op, KIng Street, Belfast at 12.30
If you are on Facebook sign up for the event there and ask your friends
Selma James interview on welfare, work in the home, abortion & sex work
Date: Wed, 2013-03-20 22:11
Selma James recently came over to Ireland to do a speaking tour in order to launch her most recent book: Sex, Race and Class--the Perspective of Winning: A Selection of Writings 1952–2011. We took the opportunity of interviewing her, the interview is below, and recorded the talks she gave on 'Defending Caring and Welfare in Careless Times' meeting for the School for Social Justice in UCD and 'How Can Women Defeat Austerity?' at CERSA, NUI Maynooth.
Selma James founded the Wages for Housework campaign and was the first spokesperson for the English Prostitutes Collective. She has been has involved with anti-sexist, anti-racist, anti-imperialist campaigns from a very young age. She was born in Brooklyn, New York and as a young women she worked in factories and was a full time housewife and mother. In 1955 she moved to England, where she married writer and historian CLR James. Since 2000 she has been international co-ordinater of the Global Women's Strike.
The Human Cost of Cuts to Public Services - Thoughts of a Public Sector Worker
Date: Wed, 2013-03-20 21:40
The following text was sent to us by a reader who works in a social welfare office. It illustrates just one aspect of the human cost of the Croke Park agreement and of the furhter deterioration that will occur under the "extension", if it is passed.
Life in a social welfare office can be heartbreaking sometimes. Sitting there, behind the glass, you have a very limited range of available responses available to a broad expanse of problems. As the crisis deepens, people’s problems become more serious and varied and our responses and the time available to respond narrow.
News from Rossport Solidarity Camp - March 2013
Date: Tue, 2013-03-19 15:13
A regular bulletin that brings news from the struggle against Shell in Mayo. The list of rumors about what has happened to Shell's TBM is recommended.
Contents:
Izzy is Free!
Celebration in honour of Niall Harnett 23rd March (Dublin)
Good Friday Walk March 29th
Corrib project update and actions
Accommodation update
More events
Come to Mayo on 21st of June
Dublin Anarchist Bookfair 2013: Schedule being finalised
Date: Mon, 2013-03-18 20:14
The Dublin Anarchist Bookfair 2013 is almost upon us, taking place over the first weekend of April, and the schedule of meetings is currently being finalised. This year’s Bookfair takes as its theme ‘1913-2013: Re-building a movement from below’.
Cyprus: Grand Theft Euro
Date: Mon, 2013-03-18 16:03
This Saturday morning Cypriot people woke up to the news that they were about to be robbed. In a pre-planned ambush scheduled to coincide with a local bank holiday weekend, Eurozone apparatchiks threatened to bankrupt the Cypriot banking system by immediate withdrawal of the ECB liquidity support.
The "deal" forced on the Cypriots by Frankfurt means a "bail-out" of the banks to the tune of 17 billion euros, roughly equivalent to the annual GDP of the Republic that makes up the EU-recognised part of this divided island. But only 10 billion will be provided by the ECB and IMF, the other 7 billion will be taken by a combination of a 1.4 billion privatisation programme, but in bulk by robbing anyone with a bank account in Cyprus.