Workers Solidarity Movement

Revolt Video is a video activist collective set up to provide footage of political events happening in Ireland and internationally, covering the whole spectrum of social change. The collective works on the same principle as Indymedia, and alongside it will provide footage and less heard voices on issues which other mainstream media outlets ignore, often due to owners vested interests such as advertising and profit.

The June bank holiday saw over half the membership of the WSM travel across Ireland to take part in a weekend of activity organised by the Rossport Solidarity Camp. Rossport is a very isolated village on the Atlantic shore where Shell and Statoil are trying to impose a dangerous gas pipeline on the local population. Last year five local men spent months in prison for defying Shell. We asked one of the RSC organisers to write for our paper about the weekend.

Just over 150 people marched down to HMS Ocean to protest the presence of this British warship which was involved in the invasion of Iraq in Dublin port Thursday June 29. Although some will be disappointed with this turnout in reality it was a significant number for a wet mid week demonstration. Also on the positive side there was a real effort to overcome some of the divisions that have characterised the anti-war movement.

Indonesian workers employed by global security giant Securicor have been through a lot. Over a year ago, they took the decision to strike – and were promptly (and illegally) sacked by the company. Since then, they have tried to win back their jobs.

A young Israeli anarchist was shot by Israeli forces during a protest against the construction of the the so called ‘Separation Fence’ in Palestine. Matan Cohen, 17, was critically wounded when he was shot in the face with a rubber bullet, after Israeli Border Police opened fire on a group of peaceful demonstrators at Bil’in, in the occupied West Bank.

The deaths of Terence Wheelock and John Moloney in Garda custody have again focused attention on the brutal nature of policing in this state. Brian Rossiter and John Carty are other names from a long list that have a public resonance.

Residents in the vicinity of the construction being undertaken on the site of the recently demolished Fatima Mansions today protested at the entrance of their estate over the inadequacy of a long time promised traffic management system which had been promised to them prior to construction work beginning. Two simultaneous blockades were mounted at either end of Lorreta Road, residents joined and left with a fluctuating prescence of anywhere between ten and fifteen maintaining the line on either side of the estate. Marylands is an estate located close to the canal, just off Marrowbone Lane beside Cork Street. Traffic on any given day on Marrowbone Lane is hectic, with cars using it as a route to cut through the Liberties to reach Cork St, leaving a very narrow artery dangerously clogged with passage for cyclists generally untenable at peak hours without using the paths.

WSM members have been taking part in solidarity vigils and other support work for the 41 Afghan Hunger strikers currently in St. Patrick Cathedral in Dublin. We support their demand to be allowed to stay in Ireland and we will be taking part in demonstrations and other events over the new few days in support of that demand. Please come along to these events.

Around thirty people attended an Anarchist meeting, in Cork, on war and the ongoing use of Shannon Airport for US military purposes.

Sunday April 18th saw the Irish government mark the 90th anniversary of the Easter 1916 insurrection against British imperialism. Some 120,000 turned out to watch a military parade and a fly past. To coincide with the event anti-war activists, most of them anarchists were making their way to Baldonnel airbase which has been used by USA hercules military planes and has been involved in CIA torture flights.