Workers Solidarity Movement

One of our reporters was using his van to help transport refugee solidarity donations to Jigsaw, one of the Dublin sorting points of this grassroots initiative. He took a moment to shoot this quick video explainer showing the volume of materials that has poured in.

The 'X to Calais' solidarity groups formed in cities, towns and villages right across Ireland in order to collect needed supplies, form convoys and drive them to the migrant camps across Europe starting with the inspiring site of consistent self organised resistance at Calais.

In the space of a few weeks a network of groups has sprung up, contacted each other and began the complex logistical tasks of organising direct solidarity with those the governments sought to criminalise.

The network formed before and independently from the governments offer to accept 4000 people and the speed of response certainly demonstrates how powerful we can be when we organise together.

--- Transcript
Hi, so here we are at our main sorting centre in
Dublin 1 Its the main sorting centre
that all donations come to you before they get
sent out to our warehouses. As you can see we've
had a massive amount of donations here so the main
thing we are looking for at the moment is more people to take part
in sorting and packing all the stuff
that's here.

And we are also looking for monetary
donations for storage et. So that is
pretty much what we do here, we sort and
pack in this particular area.
Where does this go?

This is all going down, once it is sorted and packed we have couriers to
bring it out to our warehouses then
from the warehouses its sent to another location in Rosslare
before it gets sent off then to Calais.

All over Ireland similar groups have formed spontaneously
Direct Aid from people in Ireland in
solidarity with refugees now
struggling in Calais and other camps across Europe.
This photograph shows one center in a
small town in cork with a population of 6,000 people

Video edited by (Andrew Flood)