July 2008

WSM welcomes rejection of the Lisbon Treaty

Date:

The Workers Solidarity Movement welcomes the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. This treaty dealt with structural changes in the EU and as such no matter what it contained could not give us more control over our lives. This can only happen when we have democracy in our workplaces and communities.

Starbucks Fires Staff For Joining Unions: Anarchists Protest

Date:

Union members and social activists are gearing up for what may be the largest, global coordinated action against Starbucks ever.

On Saturday July 5th anarchists, trade-union members and social activists in Dublin, Belfast and around the world will be leafleting and protesting against the anti-union pratices of Starbucks. In Dublin a protest will be held at the Starbucks on Dame St. at 2pm. Earlier on sturday in Belfast two simultaneous protests will be held at the Starbucks at 90 Botanic Avenue and Cornmarket. In England, Europe, Canada, the USA and Latin America simultaneous protests will be held.

Starbucks Fires Staff For Joining Unions: Anarchists Protest

Date:

Union members and social activists are gearing up for what may be the largest, global coordinated action against Starbucks ever.

On Saturday July 5th anarchists, trade-union members and social activists in Dublin, Belfast and around the world will be leafleting and protesting against the anti-union practices of Starbucks. In Dublin a protest will be held at the Starbucks on Dame St. at 2pm. Earlier on sturday in Belfast two simultaneous protests will be held at the Starbucks at 90 Botanic Avenue and Cornmarket. In England, Europe, Canada, the USA and Latin America simultaneous protests will be held.

RAG open meeting. "Men and Feminism"

Date:

Men & Feminism:

What does it mean to be a man in a patriarchal society? How
can men participate and offer solidarity in the feminist struggle against
patriarchy?

Global Day of Action Against Starbucks - Belfast Picket

Date:

Organise! and the Belfast branch of the Workers Solidarity Movement and supporters picketed Starbucks in Belfast city centre today from 12 to 1 pm.

Time for profit restraint

Date:

Working people in the Irish Republic have been hearing a lot from the representatives of their exploiters lately about the need for us to exercise ‘pay restraint’ and to ‘moderate our demands’ in these difficult times.

Scrap the 11+ in Northern Ireland

Date:

The ongoing debate about how school pupils should transfer from primary to post-primary school in Northern Ireland raises fundamental questions about the type of society we want to live in.

The triumph of greed over need

Date:

The construction industry and the property market have well and truly collapsed. House prices have already fallen by about 20% since 2006 and the fall is set to continue for some years still.

Raytheon 9 acquitted in Derry trial

Date:

It was a victory for people applying common sense and cutting through capitalist bullshit. What the prosecution had feared most was the jury acquitting the 9 because they believed them when they said that they had sabotaged Raytheon's computers in order to disrupt the company's activities. These activities are supplying the world's most lethal weapons of mass destruction to the world's most human rights abusing regimes.

That's Capitalism WS 104

Date:

The Health Services Executive in Cork is spending nearly four times as much giving work that used to be done by a HSE employee to private profiteers. A worker in the Environmental Health Unit (which deals with everything from transport to pest control) used to get a maximum of €700 a week until he retired this year. Now the same work is being given to a private firm, who charge €2,625 a week.

HSE Board have an interest in running down health service

Date:

It’s not incompetence, it's sabotage - Would you put people with a financial interest in running down the public health service in charge of our hospitals?

Starbucks Fires Staff For Joining Unions

Date:

In the USA they sacked a barista active in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union as part of it’s ongoing offensive against employees pushing for a better wage and regular working hours. Cole Dorsey was fired after two years of service, while he was coordinating a union recruitment drive at Starbucks stores in Grand Rapids. In Spain, a barista, Monica, was fired in April from a Starbucks in Seville for her activity on behalf of her union, the National Confederation of Workers (CNT-AIT).

Lionbridge sack worker for joining a union in Poland

Date:

Lionbridge, is a USA based multinational company that provides translation, and software development services. They have operations in over 26 countries, including Ireland, and everywhere they are hostile to decent pay and trade union rights. Today there are protests outside their offices all over the world.

Report on the picket of Lionbridge in Dublin

Date:

Anarchists, trade unionists and social justice activists placed a placed a lunchtime picket on the offices of Lionbride in Dun Laoghaire on Friday the 4th of July as part of an International Week of Solidarity with Jakub G, a longstanding Polish Lionbridge employe who was fired for encouraging fellow workers to join a union to protect their pay and conditions in Lionbridge's Warsaw office.

Dublin pickets of Starbucks as part of global day of action

Date:

On July 5th 2005 the IWW in Grand Rapids and the CNT in Seville called for a world wide day of action on Starbucks restaurants. We know people have many issues with Starbucks from their flagship role on Capitalist Globalisation to their overpriced cup of froth laughably posing as coffee. This day of action, though, set out not to attack the company per se. Our aim was to encourage workers within it to get organised and unionised or, at least, to start thinking about it. Specifically we were supporting the call for solidarity for Cole Dorsey fired for organising workers into the IWW in Grand rapids in the USA and Monica: organising for the CNT in Seville Spain.

Anti-choice bigots unite in northern Ireland

Date:

Orange and Green politicians sometimes find it incredibly easy to come together, especially when it’s to stop progress.

Lisbon No: A Class Act

Date:

As the morning of Friday 13th of June grew towards midday, the government watched and ... realised with mounting horror that they had not only lost the referendum for the Lisbon treaty, but had lost badly. In the end, with a turnout higher than both Nice referendums and European elections, the Irish electorate had cast more No votes, than the number that elected the FF government last year.

Workers Solidarity 104

Date:

 

Workers Solidarity Issue 104, July August 2008

  • The triumph of greed over need
  • Time for profit restraint
  • Our bodies, our choice
  • Scrap the 11+
  • It's official: fighting war criminals not a crime
  • Thinking about anarchism: Why class matters
  • Solidarity on Cork docks
  • HSE Board have vested interest in running down the health service
  • Lisbon: A class act

Thinking About Anarchism: Why class matters

Date:

The concept of class is fundamental to the anarchist understanding of society. The goal of anarchist communism is to create a classless society where everyone is on an equal footing, where all have equal access to wealth and contribute to society as best they can.

Seomra Spraoi fundraiser in Dublin

Date:

As the search for a new premises continues,Seomra Spraoi cordially invites you to an evening of musical entertainment,craic and frolics in the Lower Deck, Portobello.
Do join us!