Workers Solidarity Movement

The 10th DABF took place on 25th April in the new locations of the Generator the Cobblestone and Block T around Smithfield square. Saturday saw us host a day of talks and workshops emerging out of a range of struggles and new movements with book and organisation stalls in the Generator.

Our Facebook event for DABF 2015

After the bookfair on Saturday the always amazing Afters Party was at the Voodoo Lounge

#DABF

Stalls at this years bookfair will include AK press, Irish Labour History Society, Atheist Ireland, Seomra Spraoi, Rebel County Books, Anti Fascist Action, Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, PM Press, Abortion Rights Campaign, Stoneybatter & Smithfield peoples history project, Rabble, Alliance for Animal Rights, Look Left magazine, National Animal Rights Association, Basic Income Ireland, International Bolshevik Tendency, Sex Workers Alliance Ireland,  Anti-Internment Ireland, An Spreach, Glasgow Anarchist Collective, Workers Solidarity Movement

Large high res JPG of the
2015 Dublin Anarchist Bookfair
poster to print out & display
 

Meeting Timetable  

10.30 to 12.00
Generator - Winning Environmental struggles in Ireland
How can we build an active and confident movement to defend the natural environment?  Alan MacSimoin and Polly Wolf will discuss past and present environmental struggles in Ireland in order to see what the challenges and possibilities are. Watch video

Block T - Voting for Marriage Equality while being critical of Marriage
We find ourselves facing a imminent referendum on marriage equality, which the hardline religious right are opposing as part of their program of maintaining multiple oppressions. A no vote in that context would be disastrous, serving only to entrench homophobia. Therefore we are campaigning for a Yes to Marriage Equality vote but beyond the need to ensure the referendum is not defeated what else needs to be said?
Listen to the Audio
Watch the Video

Cobblestone - Community Debt and Development Workshop
The aim of the participatory The Irish Debt Crisis - What Happened? workshop is to raise awareness on events that took place in Ireland from 2008 until now, relating to the banking crisis.  Much of the emphasis is on the Anglo-Irish Bank story and it is framed within an understanding of social justice – we think what happened was unjust and we want to reverse it.
 

12.15 to 13.45
Generator - The fight against water charges - where next
In this panel, Rachael O’Sullivan and Gregor Kerr will discuss the challenges facing the popular, community-based movement against Irish Water, and what we should do next.
Watch the video

Block T - Revolution in Rojava - from lessons to solidarity
This panel will discuss the popular struggles and direct democratic experiments ongoing in the autonomous region of Rojava, the three largely Kurdish province of northern Syria. There are reports that popular assemblies, women’s and youth councils as well as popular militias have been formed, while regime property has been turned over to worker-managed co-operatives. What exactly is happening in Rojava, what can we learn and what can we do?
Listen to the audio
Watch the video

14.00-15.15
Generator - Defending the Amazon, Defending Life
Andrés Sacanambuy will discuss the extractive economy in Putumayo, the ramifications of recent Free Trade agreements and the ongoing defence of the Amazon rainforest as a vital pillar for the whole planet and as a source of hope and life for future generations. Andrés Sacanambuy is a representative of the Regional Front of Social Organisations of Putumayo, Baja Bota Caucana and Cofanía Jardines de Sucumbíos de Ipiales Nariño, a regional network of over 50 peasant, indigenous, workers, women and youth associations.
Listen to the audio

Block T - Migration, State Racism and Anti-Racism Organising
This panel will discuss migration, state racism and anti-racist, migrant self organising. It will discuss issues faced by migrant activists involved in left-wing politics including the NGOization and electoralization of the migrant justice movement; confronting nationalism and white privilege within campaigns and the particular types of exploitation and oppression faced by different communities of working class migrants. We will also discuss migrant self-organising, as in the Kinsale Road occupation, and strategies for making single-issue campaigns more inclusive of anti-racism organising.
Watch the video

Cobblestone - Free, Safe, and Legal: Challenging Pro-Choice Values Workshop
What we talk about when we talk about abortion. While debates about abortion continue in the public sphere, millions of people are forced to hear their own lived experiences discussed and analysed by those who have little direct experience with abortion themselves.  In this workshop we seek to challenge people's understanding of abortion beyond those extreme and publicised cases.

15.30- 17.00
Generator - Self-Organising and the City: stories from Athens and Dublin
This panel will look at the challenges and possibilities of popular self-organisation to reclaim our lives, our homes and our cities. Katerina Nasioka will discuss the social consequences of the crisis in Greece, critique the hope promised by SYRIZA and, finally, look at the contradictions that social movements and self-organized experiments face in the present moment. Jenny and Zoe will look at recent occupations in Dublin, including the Grangegorman Squat in Smithfield where resistance to eviction is ongoing
Listen to the audio
Watch the video

Block T - Parents in activism
The Parents in Activism workshop will be a child-friendly event, at which children of all ages are welcome, and will look at the challenges faced by parents in activist circles, particularly those parents faced with a number of other oppressions already.

Cobblestone - Celebrate People’s History!
The Stoneybatter & Smithfield People’s History Project and the East Wall History Group are not just local history societies. They both recognise the political importance of putting working class history firmly on the record and challenging the capitalist and nationalist interpretation of how Irish society evolved. Members of both groups will talk about their work to date and will discuss with the audience the necessity for similar initiatives in other parts of Dublin and the rest of the country. At a time when many Irish working class people are defying the government on the water charges, it is vital to remember and learn from the lessons of the past, including the stories of so-called ‘ordinary people’.

Closing Assembly
5:30pm - assemble in Smithfield square