Workers Solidarity Movement

This post- Melbourne Anarchist bookfair conversation took place in the Melbourne Anarchist Club (MAC) which has a history stretching back to the 1890s.  While visiting the premises which contains a library, meeting space and infoshop I caught up with Brendan and Ben two active members of the collective and Kieran from Anarchist Affinity which is seeking to build a similar organisation to the WSM, based on theoretical and tactical unity and collective responsibility.

Topics discussed included the history of MAC, opinions on the third Melbourne bookfair, struggles engaged in by anarchists, and the potential for building a viable anarchist movement in Australia.  Other areas discussed included Australia's treatment towards refugees, it's history built on the genocide and dispossession of its indigenous people and ongoing land struggles.

An Irish anarchist living in Melbourne, Australia gives his perspective on the 'asylum seeker' debate there leading up to the forthcoming elections. He argues Irish workers should be standing in solidarity with the most marginalised and dispossesed in our society. In the words of one Aboriginal activist; ' “As people who know what it’s like to be invaded by boat people we are in a better position to judge how the current boat people should be treated. Where the original boat people who took our country were armed to the teeth and bent on conquest, asylum seekers in 2012 are unarmed and seeking sanctuary."

Conversation with Dimitris,  a Greek anarchist living in Melbourne, co-founder of Anarkismo and translator of many English anarchist publications. I began by asking Dimitri, who became active in anarchism after a background in the Greek Communist Party, the nature of austerity in Greece and resistance to it. We also discussed briefly the history of Greek anarchism, its strengths and weaknesses in contrast with anarchism in Australia.