Workers Solidarity Movement

Between 6p.m. and 8p.m. Monday evening a dozen or more of the city's Palestine solidarity activists held a vigil on Patrick St. To remember the 19 people slain when Israeli commandos wantonly attacked the Freedom Flotilla on its way to Gaza to break the illegal blockade imposed by Israel and deliver much-needed humanitarian aid. This evening's vigil followed a well-attended static protest against Israel's murderous attack on the international aid convoy at Daunt Sq. this afternoon. The people at that protest went on to briefly picket the main supermarkets in the city centre to persuade shoppers to boycott Israeli produce and force that murderous rogue state to respect human rights and desist from their oppression of Palestinians and end the occupation of their land.

Over two thousand people took to the streets of Dublin last night to protest the bloody attack by the Israeli military on the Freedom flotilla to Gaza which left between 9 and 19 people dead and dozens injured. The assembled crowd heard that least five people from Ireland were now in an Israeli jail awaiting trial for refusing to co-operate with being deported from a country they had been brought to against their will, after their ships were hijacked by the heavily armed pirates of the IDF.

The Israeli military have released a video which claims to show heroic passengers attempting to beat back the IDF pirates that are boarding their ship in order to hijack it. Although of course that is not the spin that the IDF put on it.

Protests are to take place in Dublin, Sligo, Galway, Belfast, Derry,  Monaghan & Cork today against the act of international piracy by the Israeli military last night when they attacked a flotilla bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza . The Globe & Mail is reporting that 19 people have been killed in an attack staged last night. The flotilla of six ships called the “freedom flotilla” includes one from the Ireland called the Rachel Corrie, named after the American activist murdered by the IDF in 2003. At least 8 Irish people are on board various ships in the flotilla.

Cork hosts arrival of solidarity cyclists destined for Rossport

Nearly thirty cyclists who had started off from Merthyr Tydfil in Wales the previous day arrived in Ringaskiddy on the ferry early on Monday 24th of May.  They passed through Cork city on their way up the west coast to Rossport, Co. Mayo, and were joined by a dozen-strong cycle contingent from Spain, who had cycled all the way from Madrid, also linking struggles around fossil fuel extraction, refining and nuclear power in Spain with those in Wales and here in Ireland.

The Mandate Trade Union reported that hundreds joined the rally it had called for lunchtime today in Dun Laoghaire in support of Connolly Shoes workers who have been on strike for almost two months.

Since the first Dublin Anarchist Bookfair 5 years ago, this event has grown to be one of the biggest left wing political events in Dublin every year,” said Ciaran Murphy, a member of Workers Solidarity Movement and one of the Bookfair organisers.  “This year’s event promises to be an exciting and interesting occasion, bringing together a wide variety of anarchists, activists and just ordinary people who are looking for new ideas.

Around 200 people took part on the anti-capitalist bloc which marched to the Dail last night, meeting up with the 400 or so people who had already gathered for the Right to Work demonstration.  Unlike the previous week there was no attempt by the Gardai to prevent us marching although once more a large force was deployed both at our gathering point at the Wolfe Tone Statue and at Anglo Irish Bank where Gregor Kerr of the WSM and Brian Leeson of éirígí addressed the crowd.

Anarchist organisation, Workers Solidarity Movement (WSM), has called on “workers, the unemployed, trade union branches, community organisations and all who are angry with the government’s economic slash and burn policies to come together and build a united campaign against the cuts.”

The sequence of tables shows the results of the ballots in the Trade Unions on the 'Croke Park Deal' as of the 24 May.  We will be updating these tables as new results become available. The tables show the number of members in each union, what the executive recommended and how the members voted (where this is known).