Over 30 years of anarchist writing from Ireland listed under hundreds of topics
A Prison by Any Other Name - The fight against direct provision
Date: Sat, 2014-11-08 09:41
Here in Ireland over the past eighteen months asylum seekers have been organising protests against the conditions they are compelled to live in, including blockading the ‘hostels’ (effectively for-profit open prisons) where they are forced to live in appalling conditions, which some have been made to endure for over a decade.
For the past several years, Anti-Deportation Ireland, a political campaign run by both asylum seekers themselves and by their supporters has been pushing for three demands:
1/ An immediate end to deportations.
2/The immediate abolition of direct provision
3/The rights to work and to access 3rd-level education
Cops attack water charge protesters in Santry & Coolock as Enda meets O'Brien
Date: Thu, 2014-11-06 16:42
There were significant disturbances in Santry & Coolock last night following a Garda assault on water charge campaigners protesting a visit by Enda Kenny and Denis O'Brien.
These images are from the video at the link which shows why the campaigners became so outraged. As Enda Kenny drove through the crowd (flashing a dismissive thumbs up sign at the protesters) Garda were assaulting them and throwing them to the ground.
Later multiple arrests were made as Enda left the event and then Garda attacked solidarity protesters with pepper spray who had gone to Coolock Garda station.
Protest in Newbridge, Co. Kildare against water charge
Date: Sat, 2014-11-01 19:10
Over 2000 people marched in Newbridge, Co. Kildare in the lashing rain today to protest the government's plans to force us to pay twice for our water. The march gathered at 2pm at the top of the town, near the hotel Keadeen and then proceeded to make its way down towards the town hall.
Court injunctions lead to second massive water charges protest - Nov 1
Date: Sat, 2014-11-01 16:26
Nov 1st saw demonstrations against the water charge all over Ireland. Around 1000 people from Dublin 7 alone marched down Constitution hill to join the huge anti Water Charges rally at the GPO
Water Charge FAQ - your questions answered
Date: Fri, 2014-10-31 17:10
Jack O’Connor has no mandate for surrendering on water charges
Date: Fri, 2014-10-31 16:14
Well over 100,000 people are expected to take part in over 90 anti water charge protests across the country tomorrow (Nov 1st).
But instead of throwing the weight of the country’s largest trade union behind the protests, SIPTU’s general president Jack O’Connor has this morning in the words of the headlined report on Newstalk’s facebook page been “waving the white flag”.
The 3 things you can do to defeat the water charges - Don't Pay - Protest - Organise
Date: Thu, 2014-10-30 17:34
There is massive opposition across the country to the government’s attempt to impose water charges on us. Not least because we already pay for water through our taxes. This is simply yet another austerity tax. We have put up with years of austerity, cutbacks and extra taxes – all imposed on us to pay off the gambling debts of bankers and financial speculators. Hundreds of thousands of people are now saying ‘No More!’.
People also realise that this is an attempt to prepare our water service for privatisation, which will ultimately end in multinational companies owning it, charging us exorbitant prices and making super profits.
But we don’t have to accept this new charge. We CAN defeat it. To achieve that, there are a few things which we will all have to do:
Futurism or the Future: Review of the Manifesto for an Accelerationist Politics
Date: Fri, 2014-10-24 14:59
The proliferation of computerised surveillance and security systems across workplaces has had the effect that now, in offices across the world, workers’ toilet usage is continuously monitored. You swipe your ID card to get in and out, producing a data event with a time and duration, which is quietly recorded by some computer.
Upstairs, some horrendous bureaucrat ponders over all this data: How long does a shit take? How many shits is too many? Does she have a medical condition, or is she just slacking? Copropolitics: a new technology of discipline and a fresh form of indignity that was inconceivable as anything other than a cyberpunk nightmare (and a dull one at that) a couple of decades ago; the kind of technological revolution that no-one wanted, and nobody is particularly excited about, but which nonetheless happens.
Turnips, hammers & the square - why workplace occupations have faded.
Date: Fri, 2014-10-24 14:40
What if we build it and they don’t come? That was the experience of the left during the crisis - decades had been spent building organisations and a model of how crisis would create revolution, but when the crisis arrived the left discovered that the masses weren’t convinced. The expected pattern of crisis leading to small strikes and protests, then to mass strikes and riots and then perhaps to general strike and revolution didn’t flow as expected. Under that theory the radical left would at first be marginal but then as conditions drove class militancy to new heights, the workers disappointed by reformist politicians and union leaders, would move quickly to swell its ranks.
In 2008 and 2009 that was the expectation of the revolutionary left organisations across Europe and North America, but that cycle of growth never materialised. In 2011 revolts did break out, but not in the manner expected and so the left could only spectate and criticise. Beyond that the period of struggle from 2008-2014 suggests that there is less strength in building struggles around broad ‘bread & butter’ issues than we imagined and a suggestion that diversity proved more useful in sustaining progressive struggle.
The IRA and Rape Culture - “When The Violence Causes Silence We Must Be Mistaken”
Date: Thu, 2014-10-23 10:36
Growing up in West Belfast, as Maíria Cahill did, you are immediately introduced and submerged into a culture of republicanism and of the armed struggle. Murals, flags and gardens of remembrance make it impossible to escape. What is lurking in the shadows of these symbols and the shadows of local heroes is the clandestine sexual abuse that went on during those turbulent years – clandestine to the public but an open secret within the republican family.
Living in a community where Sinn Féin have an absolute political monopoly, it was incredibly brave of Maíria to waive her right to anonymity and challenge the conventional wisdom that surrounded her case – the conventional wisdom that the IRA was responsible for. What we have seen as result, is an attempt by Sinn Féin, as they quite often do, to make Maíria’s rape something it is not. They are trying to write this off as an attack on Gerry Adams and are actively adding to rape culture by implying that Maíria has made it all up for these ends.