Workers Solidarity Movement

Issue 124 of Ireland's anarchist paper Workers Solidarity  November / December 2011.

The Household Tax: Organise to Win
Across the country, communities have begun to organise to resist the new household tax. The government have introduced this tax, due to be levied from 1st January, at €100 per year in a bid to sneak in what will within a couple of years amount to a bill of up to €1,300 for every household, combining a property and water tax.

New Government, Same Cuts - Crisis Continues
Another budget looms. The Irish public again find themselves with their head under a guillotine looking up at this budget wondering about the weight behind the blade. We are subjected to daily media leaks of what they are going to do to us in this: Less dole, more job losses for those who have them, stopping medical cards for a few months, all the wild and fearful possibilities of a worse life for many people are being floated.

JobBridge: Intern or Slave?
Over the past five months, the Labour/Fine Gael coalition has rolled out its JobBridge internship scheme. This scheme sees thousands of unemployed people taking 6-9 month “work experience placements” in various jobs in exchange for €50 per week in addition to their social welfare payment.

WSM activity in the late Summer of 2011
Despite the distraction of the presidential election charade, the past couple of months have been busy ones for WSM members as government spending cuts continue to bite.

Review: A Wee Black Booke of Belfast Anarchism
Irish anarchism is a relatively new movement. We do not yet enjoy the popular understanding of anarchist ideas that can be found among thousands of militants and the wider working class in countries like Spain and Italy and across Latin America. However, this is slowly changing, partly as we begin to uncover forgotten events. This pamphlet provides a small glimpse of the history of Belfast anarchism, an idea that continues to grow, spreading the message of radical working class direct action on the streets of Belfast.

Prison Torture Continues in the North
The temporary release of terminal ill prisoner Brendan Lillis from Maghaberry prison, following a mass support campaign across Ireland, marked an important first step in the battle for prisoner rights. However the wider policy to punish, brutalise and isolate republican prisoners continues. 

Household Tax Campaign Kicks Off
Reports from the first anti-Household tax meetings in Cork, Dublin & Galway.

Thinking about Anarchism: Neoliberalism & Education
The public debate on education has settled into a familiar pattern over the course of the crisis. The issue, we are told, is that the country is “broke” and the cost of funding third level education is “spiralling”, therefore students must be prepared to pay more, either through the reintroduction of tuition fees in a formal sense, or through continued hikes in the registration fee (backdoor fees).