Over 30 years of anarchist writing from Ireland listed under hundreds of topics
Was winning the Repeal referendum inevitable?
Date: Fri, 2019-01-04 12:48
The vote to remove the ban on abortion from the Irish constitution in May 2018 was overwhelmingly carried, with almost 2 out of every 3 voters voting Yes remove the ban. The margin of victory was such that some post-referendum polemics made the mistake of arguing that victory was always inevitable, that the campaign didn’t matter. Such arguments tended to be made by opinion writers who never liked the Repeal campaign and in some cases published pieces during the campaign arguing that unless whatever aspect they disliked was dropped the referendum would be lost.
Alan MacSimoin remembered by Des Derwin
Date: Thu, 2018-12-20 15:07
In recent years I saw less of Alan than in previous years. Yet I regularly bumped into him and it was always an enthusiastic and humourous short reunion. That’s because like many here Alan was involved in every campaign of the day But Alan seemed to be involved in all the minor as well as the major campaigns. And going right back, and without a gap or a letup over five decades. And he remembered it all. And in detail!
[This is the speech Des Derwin delivered at Alan MacSimoin's wake]
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]