Workers Solidarity Movement

A 'shocking' report which was revealed yesterday confirmed to us what we already knew: the IRA still exists.

Project Eagle, or Nama's northern portfolio, was landed in March 2014 by American private investment firm, Cerberus. If this sale has done anything, it has proven that good old fashioned political and economic corruption is not an exclusively American affair.

Nama, oftentimes referred to as the south's "bad bank" - as if there are any good ones - was set up in late 2009 as an attempt by the southern government to try and deal with the property loans issued by Irish banks.

Republican prisoners in Maghaberry prison will be coming off their protest on Monday 19th of October. The prisoners were on protest for 9 weeks because of the closing of a hatch in the kitchen that prevents ventilation and the prisoners receiving their food.

The prison administration struck a deal with the protesting prisoners, confirming they will open the kitchen hatch which will let the prisoner “prepare and consume meals in a dignified manner” [1]. Tomorrow the prisoners will return eating the two meals (lunch and dinner) which are granted by the jail.
 

A case that needs highlighting is the case of Republican prisoner Willy Wong - he is held in Maghaberry Prison in Co Antrim. In March 2010 he was arrested along with another man and charged, eventually convicted of possession of a pipe bomb. He was sentenced very differently to the way Republican prisoners (and social prisoners) usually get sentenced. He was sentenced for an undetermined period, but after 5 years inprisoned it would be up to the Parole Board to decide when he is to be released.

Willy Wong was 22 when arrested, he is now 27 years old, he is still in jail. In March he was up in front of the Parole Board. The board came to the conclusion that Willy Wong is not “eligible” for release. The board said they believe he was not “totally reformed” or had not “fully regretted his actions”.
 

To those involved in left-wing or anti-establishment activism the word "solidarity" has a different meaning to those not involved in anti-capitalist or feminist struggle.

Among leftists it's not only an emotion, it's something that you feel in your gut. It's something that spurs you into action and that drives you forward even when the end destination is nowhere near in sight.

Pro-choice campaigners in the north picketed two of the largest police stations to challenge the authorities to arrest them for breaking the law by procuring abortion pills. This was in “an act of solidarity” with woman who is being prosecuted for obtaining abortion medication for her pregnant underage daughter.

The removal of Confederate and Nazi Flags at loyalist bonfire site in Carrickfergus by local community workers is a positive step forward but this should not detract from a political settlement that rests on accommodating and institutionalizing the most reactionary elements in Northern Ireland, rather than seeking to uproot and transcend sectarian division in this mini colonial statelet.

As the clock ticks towards the annual Orange Order 12th of July marches, the sectarian marking of territory is underway as working class communities across the North are besieged with Loyalist emblems and paramilitary flags, indirectly facilitated by the PSNI who have turned a blind eye to this showcase of sectarian triumphalism and intimidation towards anyone who is perceived as the ‘other’ from Catholics to ethnic minorities.

A Judicial Review into the North's abortion law has begun today and is expected to last three days. The final decision of the case taken by the Human Rights Commission (HRC) is not expected until the Autumn. Women's right to bodily autonomy must be vindicated without delay.

Currently in the North you can have an abortion if the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother, including risk of suicide, and if you are under 9 weeks gestation.

Tomorrow on RTE at 9.30pm there will be a showing of a new documentary that will focus on British government collusion in the north. The documentary makers conducted interviews with many high profile members of British policing in the north from over the last three decades.

One such witness, a high ranking RUC officer, brought up the issue of paramilitary collusion personally with Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister at the time, but the RUC officers concerns were ignored.

The head of special branch at the time, Raymond White said he got message from the British Government on the use of agents in the dirty war, “carry on just don’t get caught”. There are also claims from a member of the loyalist gang that was responsible for the Dublin and Monaghan bombings that the intention of the bombings was to foment civil war in Ireland.