These are the issues of the Irish anarchist paper Workers Solidarity published in the year 2000. Number 59 was the last issue that was sold, 60 was the first issue of the new style free sheet - some half a million individual copies would be produced and distributed over the decade that followed.

Workers Solidarity No. 61 - Nov/Dec 2000

PDF file of Workers Solidarity No61

Space Aliens horrified by Earth
An alien spacecraft surveying the earth would surely be astounded by the 'civilisation' that inhabits it. Tens of millions die every year because they lack access to basic medicine and clean water. 2.6 billion people have no access to sanitation, 2 billion have no electricity and 100 million are homeless.

Council on the run over bin bill
Resistance to the introduction of Bin charges in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown and Cork Rubbish dumping outside the City Hall has become a regular feature of the campaign against the bin-charges in Cork city

The inflation con - demand pay increases
This year's pay increase, under the Programme for Prosperity & Fairness, is 5.5%. As we go to press inflation is 6.2%, and rising. When the economy was in recession we were told to tighten our belts so that the economy could recover. Now that it is booming we are being told to accept what is actually a pay cut, in order to keep it booming.

Recent WSM activity
What we've been up to

That's capitalism
More proof that the system isn't working

Pogroms in Palestine
An Israeli anarchist on Jewish resistance to the Israeli state

Your class needs you
The Workers Solidarity Movement is an anarchist organisation. Anarchism is the idea that we should organise society in a non-hierarchical way without bosses. We don't want to live in a society that is divided into order-givers and order-takers. We stand for a real socialism based on freedom and democracy.

Anarchism, elections and power
Anarchists have always opposed participation in the sham of parliamentary elections (choosing rulers rather than ending the division into rulers and ruled) and this time around it will be no different.

Anarchists and the right to choose
We envisage an anarchist society as a society where people are free to make choices about their own lives. For women, this includes the decision whether or not to become pregnant, whether or not to remain pregnant, whether or not to have children.

The 'polluter pays' & the bin tax
The attempt to introduce refuse charges by the Dublin area county councils has been welcomed in some quarters. It is, we are told, necessary to fund a local waste management policy, that will increase the amount of waste recycled, and reduce the amount of landfill needed.

Unions - how can the 'democratic deficit' be tackled?
The leaderships see themselves as a protected elite, and many union members feel powerless to do anything about it. Rulebooks are often written in such a way as to make it as difficult as possible for ordinary members to influence how decisions are arrived at.

What is Anarchism!
A review of the Anarchist FAQ

Victory in Prague - IMF and World Bank closed down
Amongst the protesters on the early evening of S26 the sense of victory was something you could almost pluck out of the air. We marched into the city centre led by an anarchist Samba band from Seattle and fire breathers. Locals waved from their balconies and tram drivers rang their bells as we passed

PDF file of Workers Solidarity No61

Supplement - The SWP's very peculiar 'Anarchism' [This text as a PDF leaflet] 
This is a supplement that was distributed with the paper at Marxism in Dublin. It's based on a reply to an article on Anarchism published in Socialist Review by Pat Stack

Workers Solidarity No. 60 - Sept/Oct 2000

PDF file of Workers Solidarity No60

Our globalisation - Fighting Global Capitalism
The world's 225 richest people have a combined wealth equal to the combined annual income of the world's 2.5 billion poorest people.

Bin the Bin Tax!!
Double taxation has returned to the Dublin area, with a £150 refuse charge introduced by Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council and talk among councillors on Dublin Corporation of the introduction of a charge there too.

Drowned, suffocated and beaten to death - 'Fortress Europe' - legalised murder
These are the victims of 'Fortress Europe' - the human cost of a policy which places the needs of capital over the rights of people. In fact over 2063 people have died in and around the European Union since 1993 as a result of the anti-refugee policies of governments across Europe.

Aldi strike
The strike at the Aldi supermarket on Dublin's Parnell Street came to an end on Friday August 18th. It marked the end of a bitter three month struggle for union recognition

From the Czech Republic: Why we organise against the IMF
The Czech anarchist organisation Solidarita/Organisation of Revolutionary Anarchists is working as part of INPEG, the Czech alliance organising the protests in Prague this September. Vadim Barek, Solidarita's international secretary explains what the IMF means to workers in the Czech republic and why they are organising against the summit.

The World Bank and its actions..........
Right now across the world, the lives of millions of people are in the hands of two of the most powerful financial institutions ever created - the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB)

The housing crisis
After six years of massive house price increases it is now almost impossible for the average worker to buy a house in Ireland. Average house prices in Ireland rose from 11.3 times the average income in 1989 to 18.2 times income in 1999. We name the Greedy Bastards

The housing crisis: Finding a scapegoat
The real cause of the housing crisis is neither the tens of thousands of returning Irish born migrants nor the 15,000 or so asylum seekers. The reason housing is in short supply and expensive is because of the hoarding of land and super profits of a handful of speculators

Your class needs you
What anarchism is and how you can get involved in building it in Ireland

Beyond the 'Days of action against global capital'
For decades, the organisations that manage capitalism have met to divvy up the world among themselves. For the first time, their role as dealers of poverty and misery has been exposed by thousands of angry protesters.

That's Capitalism
More examples of the cruelty, greed and stupidity of the capitalist system

The United Bigots
When the 'Northern Ireland Assembly' discussed the issue of abortion in June, the prospect of denying rights to women united politicians right across the so-called 'religious divide'.

Review: Fight Club - out on video
Fight Club is an anarchist inspiration to some, fascist propaganda to others, and it's easy to see why opinions are divided. It's an attack on the emptiness of consumerism, the way society robs us of real choice, the void at the heart of capitalism. But the solution it portrays is just as bad

PDF file of Workers Solidarity No60

Workers Solidarity No 59 - Spring 2000

Is Bill Gates really worth 14,000,000 people?
Bill Gates, the richest man on earth, earned over 14 million dollars a day from the increasing value of his Microsoft shares alone. Yet over one billion people on this planet live on less than one dollar a day

Irish government plans more discrimination
The government's "solution" to the crisis of accommodation for asylum seekers in Dublin

For starters
We are suspending publication for a while

That's capitalism

Swedish libertarian socialist murdered by fascists
SWEDISH FASCISTS murdered a long time trade unionist last October. Björn Söderberg was an activist of the 'libertarian socialist' Swedish Workers Central Organisation (SAC) union

Some lessons from the 'Campaign Against A New Partnership Deal'
THE WORKERS Solidarity Movement have, since their inception with the Programme for National Recovery in 1987, identified 'social partnership' agreements as a major problem.

Thinking about anarchism: Dare to lead... with ideas
Leaders get into positions of power where they tend to make decisions that don't represent the views of the people who put them there &endash; and then they spend their time convincing people that it's the only option &endash; or you might call it selling the deal to them

Workers copy TDs and demand an extra £250 a week
These three motions were passed in January at the annual general meeting of Public Service Executive Union

Partnership fight provides real opportunity for return to activism in teachers' unions
Activists in all three unions - INTO, TUI and ASTI - have united in "Teachers Against Partnership"

Confessions of a store grunt
There are approximately 236,400 people working in the wholesale and retail trade. Most of us working in this sector are badly paid, as unskilled labour usually is

The Executive is still no way forward
There will be a lot of huffing and puffing, but it is hard to see Sinn Féin walking away from the 'peace process'. Decommissioning, in some form or other, will probably happen &endash; but not in a hurry

Hacking into Heaven
The Internet - when it arrived on the scene and began to expand in the early 90's - heralded for some the dawning of a new age of communication and learning. People hoped to exchange ideas and pass on knowledge with no censorship impeding on this.

And the Wall came down?
Ten years ago, a series of popular rebellions brought the so-called 'Eastern Bloc' dictatorships to their knees. Even from today's vantage point, what was remarkable was the speed of the collapse

Anarchist Platform
Regular readers of Workers Solidarity outside Ireland who find they agree with a lot of what we say and have email should consider subscribing to the Anarchist Platform email list

The United States of Captivity
The US Prison system incarcerated its two millionth prisoner. This means that the prison population of the USA accounts for 25% of the entire prison population of the world

The Two Octobers by Piotr Archinov
Reprint of the 1926 essay by an anarchist vetarn of the revolution

Can you have an anarchist army?
AS ANARCHISTS believe the bosses will resist a revolution, it follows that we accept the need for armed force to defend the revolution. But anarchists also oppose militarism

3,000 police evict Mexican students after nine month occupation
The strike was characterised by marathon assemblies in which the General Strike Council decided on strategy and drew up proposals to be put to the University Rector, the Mexican government and to Mexican society in general.

International shorts
Madeline Albright egged by Czech anarchists

Review: The Spanish Civil War by Antony Beevan
It is a very welcome break from the normal pattern of mainstream military histories of the Spanish Revolution. For the most part these fail to discuss the revolution within the civil war

Review: The Culture Novels of Iain M. Banks
The Culture is a society that has solved all the immediate problems it faces. All work is automated, and artificial intelligences deal with those tasks that need reason to complete. People are free to leave it, and whole habitats or ships can disfederate at will.