Workers Solidarity Movement

Ashanti Alston is a former member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army member told us about his experiences, the lessons he draws from them and what he thought of revolutionary politics in Ireland at the 2009 Dublin anarchists bookfair.

My experience in the Black Panther Party - anarchist Ashanti Alston at the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud

This audio is of the session at the 2009 Dublin anarchist bookfair organised by the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign. The speaker is Nidal Saadeh, a leftist Palestinian activist from Bethlehem in the West Bank.

Palestine & womens rights - a Bethlehem women speaks at DABF 2009 by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud

Martha is a US anarchist feminist and author of the classic anarchist text 'Free women of Spain'. In her talk at the 2009 Dublin anarchist bookfair she discusses Mujures Libres, the movement of revolutionary anarchist women that arose during the Spanish revolution of 1936.

Martha Ackelsburg - anarchist feminist on Mujeres Libres / Free Women of the Spanish Revolution by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud

Private, fee-paying schools for the wealthy received more than €100 million from the 26 county taxpayer last year. €99 million was spent on paying teachers’ salaries, and a further €2.1 million on building works in 17 fee-paying schools in 2008. Blackrock College in Dublin tops the list, receiving €3.9 million. Other schools receiving more than €3 million in annual support include Kilkenny College (€3.5 million), St Andrew’s College (€3.4 million), Belvedere College (€3.3 million) and Wesley College (€3.1 million). Most of the schools in receipt of this free taxpayers’ cash charge fees of about €5,000 per year.

These are two audio interviews with US anarchist Ashanti Alston who the WSM have brought to Ireland to speak at the Anarchist bookfair. Ashanti describes himself as a former member of the Black Panther Party and a former soldier in the Black Liberation Army, in connection with which he served 14 years in prison in the US. Today he is an active US anarchist who speaks at events all over North America, giving him a valuable perspective on the state of the movement today.

Media coverage of events in Israel and Palestine often depends on well-worn clichés that depict a bitter struggle between two homogenous and mutually exclusive cultures. The truth of course is far more complex and there is a small, but very vocal, opposition within Israel to the military Occupation of Palestine. One of the most visible and courageous forms of this opposition has been the refusal to serve in the Israeli army.

Slaughter in Gaza. It's in the papers, on the radio, on the TV news. We stare numbed at the images of horror while eating our dinner. And then the spokespeople, one after another. Hamas are blaming Israel. Israel and the US are blaming Hamas. The Europeans and the rest of the world are blaming the US. One one thing they are all agreed, it's not their fault, the blood is on somebody else's hands. Meanwhile bloodied parents stagger through the streets of Gaza bearing the shattered bodies of their children.

The election of Barrack Obama created a buzz all over the world. Some commentators even lost the run of themselves and tried to convince us that the one of the most important events in human history had just happened.

One child in eight in less developed countries gets no primary schooling, according to UNESCO. Of the approximately 75 million children who receive no primary schooling, about 55% are girls. In sub-Saharan Africa one-third of all children receive no schooling.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett commented on the US financial crisis that “it’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked, and Wall Street now looks like a nudist beach.” Well when it comes to Ireland, the receding tide of the global economy has revealed that not only were our business and political elites swimming naked, they were engaged in a great big orgy as well.