Workers Solidarity Movement

So building social housing is "not viable" for the profiteers at construction firm Michael McNamara & Co. What they really mean is that they've got themselves in a bit of a sticky situation by riddling the country with overpriced and unsustainable housing developments and the profits from the "Public Private Partnership" aren't sufficient to get them out of it.

Housing posted produced by Belfast WSM branch

The self congratulatory waffle of business men, the press and politicians continues even though we are hearing a lot less about the “Celtic Tiger”. After almost fifteen years of economic boom we are able to look around and think about what we are left with. Access to decent and affordable housing, one of the most fundamental issues effecting working class people, is an impossibility for many of us. For most young people growing up in Ireland today the possibility of owning a house is outside our reach and keeps us at the mercy of rack renting landlords.

Shelter, especially in the form of long-term housing, is a basic human need. That's why Abraham Maslow put it at the base of his hierarchy of needs back in 1943. As a basic requirement in life, it should also be seen as undeniable right - something all people deserve, no matter who they are or where they come from.

It has been said that the Irish are “obsessed with property”. Indeed the level of knowledge of the property market possessed by the average Irish taxi driver is Ireland is reputedly comparable to that possessed by full time real estate agents in some countries. In the run up to the 2007 election the various parties were scrambling to come up with an olive branch to offer the electorate in the property arena. The increasing difficulty faced by first-time buyers, and the pressure felt on the government was reflected to some degree in election promises including abolishing stamp duty entirely for first-time buyers and building more social housing.

A Solidarity Night for the Chilean Agrupación de Pobladoras y Pobladores Sin Techo (APST)

Lakker: ragga jungle expeditions and moody stylings


Homo Ludo: never lost his tharr rarr/deck action versus heavy weight guitar


Kalpol: medicine man mash up

Krossie: krunk, junk and baile funk

Antrophe: grim dub train crashes

Kavi (Oger crew): sick ass visuals all night

PLUS: Film screening of the classic account of the Pinochet coup the "Battle of Chile" @ 7pm and a brief intro to today's movement for housing in the barrios of Santiago.

MARCH 10TH SEOMRA SPRAOI NUMBER 6, LOWER ORMOND QUAY, RUB-A-DUB-DUBLIN €5

Organised by Electronic Resistance

With the kind assistance of Seomra Spraoi

On Sunday 13th July activists of Autonomous Community Spaces (ACS) entered 42 Parnell Square in central Dublin, a building which had been vacant for 11 years. They were violently evicted the following day. The extracts below from one of their press releases details what happened.

The housing crisis for home buyers and private renters is in part due to the arrival of thousands of people into the country. The vast bulk of these people were born in Ireland but became 'economic' refugees and left for other countries to find work over the last few decades. The lucky ones did so legally but many thousands however were forced to enter the US as 'illegals'.

After six years of massive house price increases it is now almost impossible for the average worker to buy a house in Ireland. Average house prices in Ireland rose from 11.3 times the average income in 1989 to 18.2 times income in 1999. The increases in rent and house prices have, for many workers, completely wiped out any gain made from tax cuts in our take home pay. And for the poorest and most vulnerable sections of the working class the housing crisis is becoming a disaster as the rapidly growing number of young people sleeping on the streets demonstrates.

TWO NEW BUZZWORDS have entered the lexicon of the Department of Justice; "dispersal" and "direct provision". The government's "solution" to the crisis of accommodation for asylum seekers in Dublin, like many State solutions, has served to create more problems than it has solved.