Workers Solidarity Movement

Organise! and the Belfast branch of the Workers Solidarity Movement and supporters picketed Starbucks in Belfast city centre today from 12 to 1 pm.

Union members and social activists are gearing up for what may be the largest, global coordinated action against Starbucks ever.

On Saturday July 5th anarchists, trade-union members and social activists in Dublin, Belfast and around the world will be leafleting and protesting against the anti-union practices of Starbucks. In Dublin a protest will be held at the Starbucks on Dame St. at 2pm. Earlier on sturday in Belfast two simultaneous protests will be held at the Starbucks at 90 Botanic Avenue and Cornmarket. In England, Europe, Canada, the USA and Latin America simultaneous protests will be held.

A new moderated discussion forum for anarchists in Ireland has been launched as part of anarchistblackcat.org, a growing global anarchist project that a number of WSM members are involved in. The forum is open to anarchists and those interested in anarchism across the island and those elsewhere interested in events in Ireland.

The NO victory in Ireland is a clear demonstration of the lack of support among the people for the European project being promoted by the Brussels technocrats and the transnational corporations grouped together in the capitalist cartel, the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT). This rejection by the country with the highest levels of approval and popularity for the EU shows that a different form of European unity is needed, a real unity of all the people. And the gap between public opinion and their "representatives" is a clear sign of the crisis in representative democracy and the need for direct democracy.

Workers from the IMPACT union marched from Cork University Hospital to the HQ of the HSE on Model Farm Road on Wednesday June 11th at 1 pm to protest against the ongoing recruitment embargo being orchestrated by the HSE. 

In 1984 ten young women and one young man, members of MANDATE trade union, started a long strike at Dunnes Stores in Dublin's Henry Street. They walked the picket line in support of their union's policy of solidarity with the anti-apartheid struggle and boycotting South African products.

It only ended when the government agreed to ban the import of South African fruit & veg until the apartheid regime was overthrown.

A number of weeks ago, a member of the INTO (Irish National Teachers Organisation) submitted a letter for publication in the union magazine ‘In Touch’. This was in response to a request in the previous issue of the magazine for members to write letters for publication.

In a timely statement on May 1st, nurses in Cork city's A & E service poured scorn on the HSE. Part of the reason why they did this was because of the ongoing situation at Cork's Mercy Hospital. In their statement, the nurses said that it was their "collective view that patient care is being compromised and that it is only a matter of time before there are serious issues and incidents ..." A month on from that statement there has been no resolution in the Cork area. The Workers Solidarity Movement look at the issues and how the impasse could be resolved.

Some useful info for all those rebels out there....

A series of anarchist posters in Cork have begun to make a dent on the deluge of Vote Yes posters that appeared in Cork just over a week ago courtesy of Fianna Fail and the business organisation, IBEC.