Workers Solidarity Movement

At 7pm last night Shell to Sea campaigners used kayaks to approach a Shell drilling platform in Broadhaven bay.  Five Gardai boats intercepted them and overturned the kayaks, dumping the campaigners in the water.  When one campaigner managed to swim underneath the platform he was hauled onto one of the Gardai boats where a Gardai proceeded to choke him for 90 seconds.

Matt Ridley, has written a book called, "The Rational Optimist: how prosperity evolves".  In the book, the Eton and Oxford educated Ridley, argues that the world is getting better and better, it has been doing so for hundreds of years, and will continue to do so. Nothing stands in the way of his argument, not even global climate changeYou simply could not make this up. I know you could copy and paste that sentence for so much these days, but this one really makes you do a double-take.

It is important that as many voices as possible are raised to say No to bank bailouts, No to the bailouts of wealthy property developers and No to the attacks on our living standards and cuts in public services. Above all we need to be saying No to the notion that we should all be sharing the economic pain. This is the text of Gregor Kerr's speech to the 400 or so people who took part in the Euopean week of protests against bank bailouts in Dublin, June 2010. It includes 23 photos of the protests.

Recorded at the Dublin anarchist bookfair, three speakers look at the economy, what the real situation of the resistance is and what needs to be built and examples of what has been achieved in the unions to date. This is followed by contributions from the floor from a wide range of perspectives.

Progressive taxation is a taxation system which seeks a higher tax rate for higher incomes.  It is a relatively common feature in the western democracies.  In Ireland however, its implementation is almost entirely nominal.

Capitalism as a way of organising our society is bankrupt. It is bankrupt in both a literal and moral sense. Capitalism is at odds with any progressive notion of democracy in the 21st century

Workers Solidarity Movement has called for support for the national protest against the Bank Bailouts and "the dictatorship of the markets" which will take place on Saturday 26th June (1:00p.m. Central Bank Plaza, Dame Street).

We urge everyone who is opposed to the government strategy of making ordinary people pay for the financial crisis to attend this protest and make your voice heard, joining with protests across the EU. 

We are here tonight outside Anglo Irish Bank to deliver a strong and clear message to the cabal of bankers, speculators and developers and their political friends who have brought this country to the brink of economic ruin.  That message as I said is very simple and very straightforward – ‘They didn’t share the wealth, We aren’t going to share the pain. Make the wealthy pay’.

Around 200 people took part on the anti-capitalist bloc which marched to the Dail last night, meeting up with the 400 or so people who had already gathered for the Right to Work demonstration.  Unlike the previous week there was no attempt by the Gardai to prevent us marching although once more a large force was deployed both at our gathering point at the Wolfe Tone Statue and at Anglo Irish Bank where Gregor Kerr of the WSM and Brian Leeson of éirígí addressed the crowd.

Anarchist organisation, Workers Solidarity Movement (WSM), has called on “workers, the unemployed, trade union branches, community organisations and all who are angry with the government’s economic slash and burn policies to come together and build a united campaign against the cuts.”