Workers Solidarity Movement

We are relaying yesterday's statement from our comrades in Turkey's Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet (Revolutionary Anarchist Action) on the mining catastrophe in Soma, the AKP and state corruption behind it and the police repression of protestors in Turkey's major cities.

Selma James lead off a discussion on sex work at the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair alongside, sex worker Jenny O, and Wendy Lyon who blogs at Feminist Ire

There is then a 30 minute discussion with the audience around anarchism, sex work and feminism.

Sex Work as Work: A Conversation with Selma James at the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud

A space at which people involved in a variety of struggles explained them and sought solidarity. There were three talks, Vegan Information Project , Stop NATO in Cymru and the International Organisation for a Participatory Society (IOPS). 

Nelly Cuadros a community activist from the central department of Tolima, Colombia shared with the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair her stories of resistance, and lessons on uniting against injustice. Women play a central role in these communities and, in spite of discrimination as both peasants and women, are emerging as important social leaders for this pivotal time.

This talk was part of Latin American Solidarity Week. As a last minute addition to the program Leah also spoke about the struggle against Fracking in Ireland

The WSM is one of the signatures on this international anarchist statement produced for Mayday 2014 involving 8 groups in 7 countries at time of publication.  This is part of our ongoing involvement in the Anarkismo.net network involving anarchist organisations in some 30 countries.

PDF version of the text & graphic

The nostalgic left is a bit of shorthand I’ve started using for those on the left who have reacted to the disintegration of the old left by wishing for idealised simpler times. And perhaps more strangely blaming the collapse on what they see as threatening new developments, like intersectionality. They hold such newfangled nonsense responsible for the current failure of the left to get an echo from the general population.

[Audio recording of recent talk and discussion in the Black Rose anarchist social centre in Sydney on the theme of identity politics and its relevance today. Below is the text of the talk given by Timothy followed by a lively and constructive discussion covering everything from sexual violence in radical spaces to ‘intersectionality,’ feminism and autonomous organising.]

This talk is at a midpoint between being an original work, and being an exegesis of Selma’s James justly famous “Sex, Race and Class.” This astonishingly brilliant work contains within itself the clear foundations of a historical materialist, or Marxist, conception of the relationship between capitalism and oppression. Because I have mixed in many of my own original points, both intentionally and no doubt by accidental misinterpretation, I would strongly suggest everyone here goes and reads the original.

Privilege and the theory around it is a significant topic of debate at the moment among those interested in radical social change. Touching on many issues dear to the hearts of anarchists, it is hard to avoid.(i) Yet, the two are not fitting together as well as they should and there is a sense of unease about this. (ii) Much of this is because privilege theory has emerged from US academic circles rather than anarchist ones and, ironically, has been co-opted to protect middle- class privileges. (iii) This is a situation in need of repair if we are to maintain our links with feminist, anti- racist and other struggles against oppression. If we are to create a mass movement capable of social change then it has to be able to engage with everyone in the first place.

Guest writer, Dónal O’Driscoll, contributes to the ongoing discussion on intersectionality and privilege theory.