Workers Solidarity Movement

This is a collection of videos of protests around the May 2011 visit of the British Queen to Dublin.  Ten thousand security personnel were deployed and the city locked down over the four days to prevent effective protest.

Following on from Saturday's Spanish Revolution solidarity protest in Cork City there was another big crowd on the street of the city Sunday. As the issues that have brought the people of Spain out to protest are just like those affecting people in Ireland and across Europe, there was many calls to make this movement international.

The solidarity group here plan to return to the Grand Parade every day this week to hand out information and discuss the events in Spain with passersby. This will be between 11am and 1pm, and from 6pm to 8pm. Come along and find out what's going on!

Workers and students from the areas of Spain living here in Cork protested today on the Grand Parade in support and solidarity with the movement for ‘Real Democracy’ in their homeland.   Over a hundred turned up in pouring rain to voice and sing their anger at the failure of capitalism and lack of hope and possibilities that is offered to us under the present ‘free market’ regime.  

Spin and window-dressing were the order of the day this afternoon in Cork where a heavy-handed police presence ensured that the British Queen’s visit to the city could be presented to the outside world as ‘positive and welcoming’ and ‘a real Irish welcome’.  A sizeable protest on Sullivan’s Quay was met with lines of riot police and police dogs guaranteeing that those who opposed the visit were kept far away from where they could be seen and heard.

Since the demonstrations called last Sunday, the central squares of cities all across Spain have been occupied by camps of protestors, furious at austerity and the uselessness of all the existing politicians and the pointlessness of this coming Sunday's local elections.

The movement consists mainly of young people, both students and unemployed or precarious young workers calling themselves by names such as Juventud Sin Futuro (Youth Without Future) and #DemocraciaRealYa (Real Democracy Now!). Bypassing existing organisations, whether political parties or trade unions, the participants have organised themselves via Facebook and Twitter, in the manner of the Tunisian and Egyptian activists of the Arab Spring.

Former Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald's death was announced this morning. As is usual in such circumstances we are being subject to a load of old guff, very rarely in such instances are we treated to an honest assessment of a mans life instead we are expected to believe in the individauls perfection.  The great phrases you will hear for the next week will be that he was "a patriot who always put the national interest first", "an honest man, a fair man", "he did the state some service" etc. At least the last is true, Garret Fitzgerald was a thouroughly pro-state, pro-capitalist, pro-EU, pro-imperialist politician.  He never wavered in his support for the capitalist order.

About 250 people took part in the éirígí organised march on the banquet for the British Queen staged in Dublin castle last night. WSM members joined the demonstration but Garda had intercepted the person transporting our flags and banner to the protest leaving us somewhat invisible. This was part of a pattern of suppression of visible protest that occurred throughout the visit of the British Queen despite Garda claims that they would "facilitate protest" in advance of the visit.

The British Queen - An enemy of the working class, an enemy of the poor, head of the imperialist British state, symbol of privilege, inequality and oppression.

The visit: why now?
There is a drive to normalise the British occupation of the six counties and partition. It is part of a wider pattern to integrate Ireland into the loose alliance of imperialist nations. There has always been a desire on behalf of the British state, the USA and the European Union to engage Ireland as a junior partner in the imperialist club. The ending of the war in the north and the gradual normalisation of relations between Britain and Ireland has allowed an acceleration of this process. The visit of Britain's Queen Elizabeth is all part of it.

On last Tuesday evening at Solidarity Books a small but very interested audience listened to James McBarron of Cork WSM give a talk outlining why people should oppose the impending visit of the queen of England to the Republic of Ireland. In his presentation, he reminded us that the institution of monarchism, the British monarchy in particular because of its historic role, is bound up intimately with the promotion of imperialism, militarism and privilege, and therefore should be opposed.

Next week the latest in a long line of parasitic chancers who have ruled Britain and (up to 90 years ago) all of Ireland for centuries will descend on the city of Dublin. As a result some one million people are going to have their lives seriously disrupted and tens of thousands have already had to suffer intrusive Garda calls at their homes. Streets all over the city will be closed, Garda will be harassing pedestrians and motorists, even the zoo will shut. And all for what? That is a question that seems impossible to answer.