Workers Solidarity Movement

The November / December issue of Irelands anarchist paper Workers Solidarity.  This is issue 128

Articles includes

Begin To Question, Begin To Organise... WS129 Cover story
Austerity IS working – it’s working for those at the very top of society. During the last 4 years, while the rest of us have suffered pay cuts, job losses, increased taxes and decimation of our social services, the very wealthy in Irish society have thrived.

Student Loans = Student Debt
This college year has seen a large increase in the number of students taking out loans in order to go to college. As part of an aggressive advance into the student debt market, Bank of Ireland has already agreed schemes to provide “discounted loans” to students in DCU and Trinity, and to postgraduate students across the country (in this case the scheme was negotiated directly with theState) .B of I is also said to be in “advanced discussions” with over 10 other 3rd-level institutions.

Thinking about Anarchism - A Question of Choice: The X case is not enough
I remember when I was 13 trying to work out my view on abortion. Abortion was in the news, a pro-life referendum had just been passed. Most of my friends’ mothers had campaigned on the ‘pro-life’ side. Abortion was in the classrooms. I remember a teacher, walking between our desks, saying ‘abortion, abortion’, rolling the rrrs, making the word stretch. “Aborrrrrrtion - even the word is ugly”. I remember sitting there, too afraid to question.

Celebrating 21 years of Anti-Fascist Action in Ireland
On the weekend of 5th-7th October, Anti-Fascist Action Ireland held a series of events to celebrate their twenty one years in existence. The organisation was founded in 1991 with the aim of fighting fascism both physically and ideologically as and where the need arises.

Turn Off The Red Light: Should we advocate it?
The subject of prostitution is becoming part of mainstream discourse again as a number of European countries look to legislate to curb demand, whereby the punter rather than the prostitute is crimi- nalised. Ireland has also been looking to write this into law since the high profile cam- paign Turn off the Red Light (TORL) was launched.

CAHWT defeats attempt to stop student grant in Clare
Despite increasingly desperate attempts by the government to extract their pound of flesh from householders,the Campaign against Household and Water Taxes (CAHWT) continues to rack up victories.

Marian Price: Internment without trial
In August 400 people marched through Dublin to protest the internment without trial of a 58 year old woman in ill health for over a year. In May her husband told the Belfast Telegraph she “is so ill that she had to be taken to a recent visit in a wheelchair. Her hair is falling out, she has lost a lot of weight, and her arthritis has got worse. She is suffering from severe depression after a year in solitary.

The Croke Park Agreement – the very antithesis of Larkin’s trade unionism
Next year, 2013, will mark the 100th anniversary of what many see as the most significant industrial dispute ever to have taken place in Ireland - the Dublin Lockout.  The employers of Dublin, led by William Martin Murphy, locked out over 20,000 workers in an attempt to starve them into submission and to smash the increasingly popular Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU).

The CAHWT in Kildare: A locally-led national campaign
Since the foundation of the Campaign Against Household & Water Taxes, WSM members have been pushing for a strengthening of grassroots democracy in the campaign, and we believe that the more democratic the campaign is the more likely it is to succeed. In this article, Brian Fagan, a WSM member involved in the campaign in Kildare, outlines his experience of being involved in building the campaign in his local area.

WSM activity in late 2012
A round up of the struggles our members were involved in

Download the PDF of WS128