Workers Solidarity Movement

On April 5, 2013 Mónica, a 70 year old woman with Alzheimer’s, was scheduled to be evicted from the apartment she has lived in since 1974. In the shadows of Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium located right around the corner from her apartment building, community members and organizers from the Popular Assembly of Tetuan of the 15M movement (indignados) and the Mortgage Victims Platform (PAH) gathered outside her building at 10AM chanting “This eviction! We’re going to stop it!”

The 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.

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

The recent report commissioned by the ‘End Child Poverty’ campaign has found that out of 650 parliamentary constituencies, West Belfast has the second highest levels of child poverty in the UK. Manchester Central being the only constituency to record higher levels of child poverty and deprivation. 43% of children within the West Belfast constituency grow up in poverty. And while this is a reduction on the previous year from 46%, other areas saw a greater percentage drop in poverty levels over that year.

Following on from a very large anti-eviction march of 10's of thousands  in Madrid on Saturday today, 22 February, 2013, over 100 neighbors, anti-foreclosure activists, and 15M organizers stood together to prevent Nieves and her children (ages 6 and 9) from being evicted from their apartment. Although they have lived in their apartment for years, Nieves’ ex-husband’s parents are trying to force out their grandchildren so that their son (Nieves’ ex-husband) and his new family can live there. Her ex-husband has faced charges of domestic abuse and there is currently a restraining order against him legally preventing him from having anything to do with his children. He has also failed to pay child support on numerous occasions.

The latest Spotlight poll indicating the vast majority of Northern Ireland voters would reject Irish unity highlights the need to build a different type of politics which is not rooted in tribal loyalties, but  based on class and revolutionary transformation of society.  While some republicans may say the poll is not representative and that real opinions can only be revealed by an independent referendum north and South of the border, the reality is polls  over the years have consistently indicated minority support for a United Ireland. (1)

If there is anything we can take from the continuing street protests in loyalist heartlands is that we are from powerless if we utilise direct action rather than constantly lobbying our politicians and peacefully marching from A-B.

A WSM member responds to the crazy claims of the Newtownabbey Times.  As the sectarian flag riots continue to burn, one paper the Newtownabbey Times in sensationalised headlines in December of last year attempted to blame riots in the Newtownabbey area on “anarchists hell-bent on damage and destruction.” Quoting South and East Antrim Community Federation spokesman, Tommy Kirkham, a former independent loyalist councillor who previously represented the UDA-linked Ulster Political Research Group, who claimed that known paramilitaries were behind the trouble as “conv

From across the country, over three hundred members of the Campaign against Household and Water Taxes attended an open discussion in the Red Cow, Tallaght about the future of the campaign as it faces into a new phase of opposition in 2013. The numbers attending far exceeded the organisers’ expectations and delayed the start of the meeting for half an hour.

The continuing opposition by loyalists to the decision by Belfast city council to limit the flying of the Union Jack  is a product of a deeply sectarian colonial settlement that smothers the importance of class.  The disturbances were pretty predicable in the context of summer riots over parading, intra unionist rivalry and rising anger in traditional protestant working class communities over shortage of jobs, housing and perceived gains made by the ‘nationalist’ community.  The mass inflammatory leafleting by unionist parties in the days leading up to the council vote served to heighten fears in a constituency which is easily inflamed and mobilised in defence of the realm. This is not the cause of the disturbances; but the logical conclusion of capitalist decay and opportunist politicians battling for the hearts and minds of protestant working class communities- disenchanted and disillusioned with the peace dividends promised over 10 years ago.