Workers Solidarity Movement

A fresh outbreak of Covid 19 in a meat plant in Waterford this week brings to a total of 44 the number of clusters in meat plants across the State in the past 6 months, or some 1,600 confirmed cases of the virus. One cluster is unfortunate, two might be carelessness, but forty-four is capitalism. The sustained outbreaks of COVID 19 in Ireland’s meat plants reveal how the meat industry and its management really operate on the basis of unchecked power and exploitation. And that’s a problem for us all. 

Photo: Standing room only. Meat plant workers on the 6am bus to work in Waterford.

Credit: @Deisesupes

This book unapologetically does away with many tired myths about the origin of states, their alleged utility and the so-called social contract. For far too long these myths have led many to accept authoritarian institutions as necessary for the coexistence of human beings in large scale societies, allowing a tiny minority to enslave exploit and murder in plain sight, under the protection of a legitimizing discourse. But that shit is going away.

Today, China is the driving engine of global economic growth. A major crisis of the Chinese economy will almost certainly drag the global economy into the next recession in the 2020s. This may turn out to be far more damaging than the Great Recession of 2008.

Minqi Li is a political economist at the University of Utah and an advocate of China’s Maoist New Left [1]. His most recent book, ‘China and the 21^st Century Crisis’, outlines capitalism’s next looming crisis. Regardless of the proximate cause, this coming crisis will be economic, political, and ecological. It will also be global.

On the apolitical labelling of the movement - Many of us have been following the Yellow Vest clashes on the streets of France with great interest and trying to understand this movement that appeared to come from nowhere.  It is another story of the pressures of late stage capitalism collapsing the center of politics, a center no longer able to fool more of the people most of the time.  A movement made possible by social media but which also reflects the often chaotic ‘apolitics’ of such movements.  And worrying in the context of the millions being poured into far right propaganda a movement in which the far-right have made some progress in infiltrating, even if our comrades in France are physically driving them out of the protests.

There is no such thing as an apolitical movement, all there can be is a movement with internal contradictions as well as internal struggles to resolve those contradictions.

A look at why the Yellow Vests will reject Macron’s concessions that takes the form of a discussion between two of our members, one of whom is a French migrant in Ireland who has been following the news and discussions in the movement in France online. Looks at the ‘concessions’, the formation of the movement, the clash with far-right infiltration and the contradictions of the relations between the Yellow Vest movement and climate change movement which also marched in Paris this weekend. Ends with a discussion of where the movement is now likely to go. [audio]

"I'm pretty sure I could clear that gate in one bound if I get chased down the driveway by a dog...".

This is what you think to yourself as you walk up a very long driveway that had a 'Beware of the Dog' sign on the gate that you respectfully closed behind you on your way in.

Nevertheless, you push on because the Yes side must win out over the ICBR fetusphiles, the American evangelicals and the assortment of women hating Irish fundamentalists.

The Dublin May Day march last night took place in miserable weather conditions, the parade was led off the Trade Union Repeal the 8th banners - Repeal was one of the march themes and copies of a newspaper aimed at trade unionists called Yes Repeal were also distributed.

Another Dublin May Day theme was working rights for migrants following the farcical new rules that supposedly give asylum seekers a right to work but which in practice few qualify under and which require too much paper work for employers to bother with for a 6 month contract.

This is a quick article about some of the psychology and health issues of being a political organiser. There is as much to say about this topic time in the universe would allow, as such, this is a brief sketch which will be part of an ongoing series of articles dedicated to mental health and psychology with a particular focus on its application to political organising.

Considering the fact the Anarchist Communism as a coherent and easily transmutable ideology only came to be during the 1870’s and 1880’s the Fenian Proclamation of 1867 is striking in its progressiveness and clarity of thought. A product of the Irish Famine, English economic and military Imperialism in Ireland and a tradition of insurrectionary attempts against Imperialist rule, the original Fenians of 1867 should be viewed as proto socialistic in their values and analysis.

This is not to say they were Anarchists or close, they were most definitely Republican statists, who organised for an almost purely military strike against Imperialism, as opposed to the destruction of the state and working class/farmer self-activity for the destruction of exploitation and Imperialism and the creation of a cooperative society.

Irish Rail workers were out on strike recently. What’s going on? 

The WSM recently caught up with J, an activist and worker at Irish Rail, to find out.

For background details, see our analysis, "Why Irish Rail workers are right to strike", published here.