Workers Solidarity Movement

The 7th Anarchist Bookfair tool place in Dublin the weekend of 26th May 2012 at Liberty Hall, Eden Quay. The Dublin Anarchist Bookfair takes place in Dublin every year in the Spring.  

Audio & Video from the 2012 bookfair

To get an idea of what to expect here are recordings of some of the meetings from the 2012 bookfair, join the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair facebook group to get notifications when the 2013 ones are posted

Old Media In the Age of The Internet - Why Bother With Radical and Underground Publishing - Video
This session of the 2012 Dublin Anarchist Bookfair looked at the value of paper and ink when the net is usually declared the real frontier. We asked our panel to track some of the connections between todays underground radical press, and what went before.

WSM & SP MEP Paul Murphy debate fiscal treaty & what the left should say - DABF2012 Audio
Mark Hoskins of the WSM debates MEP Paul Murphy on what positions the left should take on the Fiscal Compact to be voted on in Ireland May 31st. 

My Life in Politics: Women Speak - DABF2012
This session at the 2012 Dublin Anarchist Bookfair was held in memory of Sue Richardson, a Dublin anarchist who was a friend to many of the bookfair organizers and who had died earlier in the year. The panel was women speaking of their experiences as activists and consisted of.

Being an anarchist 
Recording of the 'Being an anarchist' session at the 2012 Dublin anarchist bookfair where 3 WSM members talk about the influences that brought them into radical politics and anarchism. Touches on 1981 Hunger strikes, 1984 Miners strike and x-case as well as more recent events like the Garda attack on the Dec 2010 student protest in Dublin.

Abortion in Ireland - Is the X case enough
In this session from the 2012 Dublin Anarchist Bookfair Socialist Party TD Clare Daly and Dctors for Choice spokesperson Mary Favier look at the ongoing pro-choice struggle in Ireland and in particular at the recent attempt by Clare to get legislation for the X-case passed through the Dail.

Eyewitness Afghanistan
Eyewitness Afghanistan outlined the current political situation in Afghanistan as told through interviews Farah conducted with Afghan politicians, artists, religious leaders, community organizers, journalists and activists between December 2010 and February 2012.

Below are the details for the 2012 bookfair 

Sessions

Download a larger timetable here.

Afters fundraiser in the Dark Horse

Eyewitness Afghanistan - the current political situation in Afghanistan as told through interviews conducted with Afghan politicians, artists, religious leaders, community organizers, journalists and activists; a Forum on Radical and Underground Publishing; Racism in the Recession with a speaker from the Traveller community; The Sue Richardson panel: My Life in Struggle, Women Speak - a forum on women in activism; Is it kicking off in Ireland? – discussion on the Irish response to austerity; a talk on Dublin’s Other History hosted by the authors of the popular blog Come Here to Me, a GP speaks on the Right to Choose, a debate on the fiscal treaty referendum as well as introductions to anarchism and the WSM.

The Bookfair will also host a showing of “Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey” with a Q&A session with director Leila Doolan and  “The Viking Way”, a documentary about how Iceland responded to the crisis. 

Bookstalls carrying an array of radical literature will be set up for the day. Among the organisations from home and abroad will be: PM Press, AK Press, WSM, RAG (Revolutionary Anarcha-Feminist Group), Manchester Anarchist Federation, Solidarity Books, Look Left magazine, Organise and Just Books, Oxfam, the Irish Labour History Society, Corporate Watch and Freedom Press. 

Several campaign groups will be present with information stalls including: IPSC (Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign), Choice Ireland, Shell to Sea, LASC (Latin America Solidarity Centre), FEE (Free Education for Everyone), AFA (Anti Fascist Action) and the Campaign against Household and Water Taxes. 

In the Foyer: A Decade of Resistance - Images of Struggle 2002 - 2012

This group exhibition features photographs by activists and photographers Andrew Flood, William Hederman, Aileen O’Carroll and Paul Reynolds.

In the context of street protest, official history has often relied on images captured by photographers positioned behind police lines, or in some way mediating events from the perspective of authority. By contrast, the photographs in this exhibition record resistance from the viewpoint of the resister.

‘A Decade of Resistance’ documents an array of anti-capitalist, anti-war, pro-choice, environmental and other protests, starting with a mass trespass at Shannon Airport in October 2002 and ending with a Reclaim The Streets in Dublin in April 2012. 

Is it kicking off in Ireland?
Gregor Kerr of the WSM and Tommy McKearney based in Co. Monaghan and active in the Campaign Against the Household and Water Taxes is an organiser with the Independent Workers Union. He has been politically active in Ireland for over 40 years. As an IRA prisoner in 1980 he took part in the hunger strike that year. He was a founder member of the League of Communist Republicans whilst in prison.

'The Referendum Debate' will voting no make any difference?

13.00 to 14.30 in the Mail Hall Liberty Hall
Mark Hoskins from WSM debates MEP Paul Murphy (Socialist Party) 
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Many on the left see a vote against the 'Austerity treaty' as a contribution to building resistance against the austerity agenda. But does participating in the referendum campaign just sow illusions in a democratic sham, and is the referendum in reality a no-win situation for those who want to build resistance to austerity and who have a vision for a socialist world?

Old Media In the Age of The Internet - Why Bother With Radical and Underground Publishing
Speakers from: Look Left, Rag, rabble, Liberty Paper and Workers Solidarity.
11.30 to 13.00 in the Mail Hall Liberty Hall
(RSVP to this event on Facebook)

This session of the 2012 Dublin Anarchist Bookfair looks at the value of paper and ink when the net is usually declared the real frontier. We're asking our panel to track some of the connections between todays underground radical press, and what went before. Do these organs represent something of a collective organiser, agitator and voice for our movements or are we simply shouting slogans at the bewildered to keep ourselves busy? Where are the similarities in our projects and where are the fundamental differences? How do we judge our successes and more importantly what blinds us to our failures? Should we be building consciousness, communities or organisations?

The session will be hosted by Ciaran Moore of Dublin Community Televison.The panel will feature banter from people involved in Look Left, Rag, rabble, Liberty Paper and Workers Solidarity.

Being an anarchist
What do anarchists think and do? A panel discussion with three current members of the Workers Solidarity Movement, followed by a question and answer session

Eyewitness Afghanistan
Eyewitness Afghanistan will outline the current political situation in Afghanistan as told through interviews conducted with Afghan politicians, artists, religious leaders, community organizers, journalists and activists between December 2010 and February 2012.

14.30 - 15.30 in the Red Room, Liberty Hall

Racism in the recession
A panel of speakers including Hannagh McGinley, a member of the Irish Travelling community who has worked as a Traveller activist since 2005. 

Documentary: "The Viking Way" by Small Planet Productions
In 2008, Iceland was confronted with an unprecedented economic disaster. The country's three banks collapsed, dragging with them to ruin the country's whole social, economic and political life. Four years later, in 2012, Iceland has begun to show signs of recovery. Unemployment rates are declining and growth rates have reached approximately a 2,5%. However, in order to reach this positive outcome, some quite unorthodox methods were implemented. The measures taken were completely different from what the E.U. and the IMF enforce on member states of the Euro zone. Many times, this brought Iceland up against the International Community and the markets. Nowadays, even the IMF admits that the different methods used in handling the crisis in Iceland have achieved worked. How did the Vikings' descendants achieve these results?

Bernadette: notes on a political journey
This remarkable documentary, made over a nine year period, charts the story of Bernadette Devlin McAliskey’s political journey since her explosive entry into the public arena in the late sixties. Combining archive footage with a series of intimate interviews conducted with Devlin McAliskey, director Lelia Doolan perfectly encapsulates the idiosyncrasies and rebelliousness which has fuelled her subject’s pivotal role at the heart of civil rights, feminism and socialism in Northern Ireland. Bernadette is a fascinating and powerful account of this firebrand figure, an impressively rounded depiction of a woman blessed with incredible eloquence, clarity and firm socialist principles.

Question & Answers with director Leilia Doolan
Lelia Doolan, is the director of ‘Bernadette: notes on a political journey. Born in Cork in 1934, she studied French and German at University College Dublin, where she won a scholarship to study at the Brecht Theatre in Germany. She presented and acted in shows on the newly established RTÉ in 1961 but soon moved into a role as producer/director, after training in the United States. She became concerned at the one sided nature of the material being received from USA only and broadcast by RTÉ on the Vietnam War and attempted to send a 7 Days film crew there from Ireland but they were prevented from traveling at Dublin Airport by direct Irish government action. She was once described by Archbishop John Charles McQuaid as "mad, bad, and dangerous". Shortly after being made head of light entertainment, Doolan resigned in protest at the political and commercial policies of RTÉ. She became artistic director of the Abbey Theatre for two years before studying for her PhD in Anthropology at Queens University. While she was there, she also worked in community video and adult education in Belfast. She taught at the College of Commerce, Rathmines (now part of the DIT) between 1979 and 1988, where she established and was head of the first Irish course in Media Communications. In 1987 she produced Reefer and the Model, with director Joe Comerford. In April 1993 she was appointed chairperson of the Irish Film Board, a role she filled for three years before retiring. She was also a founder and director of the Galway Film Fleadh. 

Come Here To Me: Dublin's Other History

 Sam McGrath will present his research on the life and death of English revolutionary socialist Arthur 'Neal' Wicks who was killed in action in the Easter Rising. Donal Fallon will Donal Fallon discusses the problems and potential in marking history from below, and how we should commemorate our past. Ciaran is looking at Dan Donnelly, a boxer in the 1700s who fought the English champion in front of 30,000 in the Curragh. He was born around the corner from where our meeting takes place, in the Dark Horse Inn, Georges Quay

Unlock NAMA discussion
Unlock NAMA is a campaign to socialise NAMA's assets, to end the waste of buildings and other city space that falls under the control of the agency. Members of the group will outline the role played by NAMA, it's relationship to the current financial system and how the campaign aims to challenge that. An interactive section will allow the audience to have their say.

Conversation about gettting involved in the WSM
An informal discussion around anarchist thought and how it is put into practice, particularly by the Workers Solidarity Movement. The aim is to create a space where people interested in learning more about anarchism can have a relaxed conversation with each other. The session will be based around questions previously gathered from those interested in the discussion

Details of last years 2011 Bookfair to give you an idea of what to expect