Workers Solidarity Movement

The Southern general election saw six parties make it to the Dail. Five of them were open to coalition with any of the others, the PDs being willing to share power with anyone except Sinn Fein. They all looked for votes on the basis that they would be better managers of the present system.

It was all about what variety of capitalism you wanted. You could have selfish with the PDs, greedy with Fianna Fail, a little bit caring with Labour, a bit ecologcial with the Greens, a more polite version of the PDs with Fine Gael, or most of the above plus Irish unity with Sinn Fein.

Nobody was arguing for anything radically different. As Vincent Browne put it “The reason ‘left’ politics is now out of fashion is because there is almost nobody campaigning for them”.

Anarchists don’t run for the Dail because we want to end the division between rulers and ruled rather than become rulers ourselves. That doesn’t mean that we are not political. We do have a goal, one that is radically different, one that requires the replacement of capitalism by something much better.

We stand for a society where production is organised to meet human needs and desires rather than to generate profit for a few. We hold that there should no limits on human liberty other than respect for the liberty of others. We believe in democracy, in direct democracy. This means everyone being able to have a say in making the decisions that will effect them.

The Workers Solidarity Movement is an organisation of working class anarchists who have come together to maximise the impact of anarchist ideas. Pooling the resources of many people allows us to distribute 6,000 copies of this paper every two months, and 1,000 copies of our twice yearly magazine, Red & Black Revolution. It allows us to discuss the best ways to advance working class interests, and prioritise particular activities rather than be so widely dispersed as to have little effect.

Every additional person who joins adds a little bit more to what we can achieve.

To find out more you can write to the WSM, P.O. Box 1528, Dublin 8; or email us using the link above.

This article is from Workers Solidarity 98, July/August 2007

PDF file of Workers Solidarity 98