Workers Solidarity Movement

Around a thousand people marched through Dublin tonight to protest against the bail out of the banks. When the march reached the gates of the Dail a group went through the gates where they were attacked by Gardai with batons.

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This is the story of a dog, a dog from the streets that lives in one of the European PIGS. [The basket case economies of Europe have been grouped together neatly into this porcine gang – Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain.]  Our dog, the stray dog lives in Athens and for the last two years or more he has been appearing at every single protest that has been fought there.  As the World slipped into the tail spin spiral of a global recession, one dog was putting in the hours, pounding the pavements in protests, knowing which side he was on in the battles being fought.

On April 26, 2010, some twenty militants and international observers set off for San Juan Copala, a village of around 700 inhabitants located about 250 kilometers from the city of Oaxaca and belonging to the Triqui ethnic group who live in the Sierra Mixteca region. Arriving in Huajuapan de Leon, where the convoy spent the night, they distributed a text denouncing the paramilitary group UBISORT (Unidad de Bienstar Social de la Región Triqui, Unity of Social Wellbeing of the Triqui Region), which had maintained a state of siege against the village of San Juan Copala, controlling the comings and goings of its residents.

The Belfast Mayday demonstration began at Writers Square. A pavilion had been set up in front of the imposing St. Anne's Cathedral and rows of stands and tables were being occupied by a number of organizations including the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union, the Socialist Party, the Worker's Party, Amnesty International, the Northern Ireland Public Services Union, the Irish Congress Trade Unions, the National Union of Rail Maritime and Transport Workers, the Irish Transport and General Workers Union*, the Eirigi party, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, the Alliance for Choice, the Union of Shop Distributors and Allied Workers, the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers, United Teachers Union, the Irish National Teachers Association, the UNISON retirees union, the Trocaire campaign to feed the hungry, the We Won't Pay anti-water charges campaign, and the Anarchist Just Books Collective representing Organise!. Several food, coffee, and beer stands were also set up in the area in front of the pavilion and many families were in attendance. The minor writings of Marx and general Irish Trade Union activist literature dominated the tables as well as a strong presence of Trotsky and Engels; the Just Books table carried the anarchist torch alone, passing out copies of Organise!'s excellent publication, 'The Leveller'.

Friday April 30th Irish activists joined the weekly protests of the Palestinian community of Bil'in against the apartheid wall.  The focus this week was on the investment by the Irish Cement Roadstone Holdings company in an Israeli company that has a large portion of the contracts for building the wall.  As usual the military attacked the protesters with tear gas and one Irish activist filmed the video below of this attack and his subsequent arrest.

In what was described as 'quite a respectable turnout' Mayday in Derry  saw over 100 people take part in the Mayday march called by the Derry Trade Union Council.  Those taking part included the DTUC, GMB, UNISON, 3/3 branch, Communities Against Cuts, Anti-Water Tax, IRSP, WSM and Organise!

This year May Day fell on a Saturday, meaning that the Dublin march would take place on the day itself. Almost a wash-out (owing to two hours of quite heavy rain right before the demonstration) the march was essentially going through the motions of a Dublin May Day from beginning to end.

As once again Cork's mainstream trade unions declined to publicly celebrate the everlasting memorial day to working peoples' struggles worldwide, it falls to Solidarity Books/Workers Solidarity Movement Cork Branch and the Independent Workers Union to mark this most important of days. A day of public talks and a community meal was organised by the local branch of the WSM at Solidarity Books, which complemented excellently the annual May Day march through the city streets this evening organised as usual by the Independent Workers Union.

This May sees the return of the annual Anarchist Bookfair to Dublin, our fifth Bookfair to take place in the city to date. Starting from humble beginnings in the St. Nicholas of Myra Hall in The Liberties five years ago, last years Bookfair was arguably the most successful to date. Over one thousand people passed through Liberty Hall during the day with ten different meetings and workshops held discussing a wide range of topics ranging from Palestine to Left Unity, Iran to Shell to Sea, Social Centres and beyond.