Workers Solidarity Movement

A few hundred people took part in a protest last night at the Mansion house in Dublin where the Taoiseach Brian Cowen was going to dinner with the organisation of the domestic section of the capitalist class that instructs him. As various bosses and Cowen went into the venue protected by ranks of Gardai, with the riot squad on standby outside the back entrance of Anglo Irish Bank and mounted police across the road, they were jeered by the crowd with shouts of 'thieves', 'robbers' and 'scum.'

The dinner was held by IBEC (Irish Business and Employers Confederation) which has been the organisation which initated discussion of many of the cuts that the Fianna Fail and Green Party government imposed on workers in Ireland.  None of the workers who IBEC members have made unemployed in the last months or who have suffered pay cuts at the behest of IBEC could afford this 1300 Euro a table dinner with the Taoiseach, not of course that they were even invited.  The large police presence was there to keep us outside and away from those responsible for destroying our wages and services.

The WSM members present distributed a leaflet at the demonstration with the text below.

Let's talk about Socialism

We are all here today because we know what we don’t want.  We don’t want working people saddled with cost of the bosses’ crisis.  It seems obvious that something must be done. But what?

Can capitalism be made to work differently? Or do we need a social revolution to replace capitalism with some other society?

We are all here today because we know what we don’t want.  We don’t want working people saddled with cost of the bosses’ crisis. It seems obvious that something must be done. But what? Can capitalism be made to work differently? Or do we need a social revolution to replace capitalism with some other society?
 
When we are strong enough we can force concessions from our rulers.  That’s how we got the 8-hour day, paid holidays, contraception, equal pay, and much more.  Anarchists are in favour of whatever improves our lives. 

That’s why our members have a long record of campaigning for higher pay, for divorce rights, against clerical control, for abortion rights, and against the water tax.  We are for reforms but we know that’s what they are: important but relatively small changes within capitalism.
 
However, some people think that capitalism can be made to serve us all if only we can get enough of the right reforms. Everything would be better; recessions could be avoided if we had “better regulation”, or nationalised banks, or a different tax system. They do not see capitalism itself as the problem.
 
The limits of reform
Those of us who want to improve society should ask whether capitalism offers enough scope for achieving lasting solutions to the multitude of problems it causes. Of course, some improvements are made and some problems are alleviated. Yet new kinds of problem also arise in a society which is changing rapidly, constantly seeking new ways to make a profit.
 
Capitalism is based on the concept of a minority having control over the majority, of the boss over the worker.  It is driven by a lust for profit rather than a desire to satisfy human needs. It cannot guarantee economic security because the ‘boom and bust’ cycle is integral to it. 

That’s why we want to get rid of capitalism. Unless we organise for an alternative, the profit system will continue on its blind, unswerving path.  But what is the alternative?

How about anarchism?  How do you feel about these basic ideas?
- Common ownership, which means the resources of the world (such as factories, land, offices, transport firms, oil & gas fields), being owned in common by the entire population. This will mean everybody having the right to take part in decisions about how global resources will be used, and to share the benefits.  
 
- Production for use, and carried on in an environmentally sustainably way. With the vast natural and technical resources of the world held in common and controlled democratically, the sole aim of production would be to meet human needs, and to do so in a manner which leaves our planet in good condition for future generations.   The old slogan of "from each according to ability, to each according to needs" would be our goal.
 
- Direct democracy is essential to anarchism. We are for a society where the only limit on the freedom of the individual is that they do not deny that same freedom to others, and where everyone will have the right to participate in making the decisions that affect them. Workers control of the workplace, neighbourhood control of the neighbourhood.  All efficiently organised on a national and international scale
           
Find out more
Check out www.wsm.ie or drop us a line and we’ll send you more information.

Workers Solidarity Movement
P.O. Box 1528,
Dublin 8.
wsm_ireland@yahoo.com

Trade Union TV video of protest