Workers Solidarity Movement

On Sunday May 18th Argentineans went to the polls and elected Nestor Kirchner - widely considered a puppet of the former populist president Eduado Duhalde. Yet on December 19/20th 2001 Argentineans "churned through 3 presidents in a row" as thousands poured into the streets. Their slogan: "que se vayan todos" (everyone must go). Yet quite clearly "everyone", in the shape of an old school populist president, is back. This begs two questions. Firstly how did such a formidable protest/popular movement evolve, and secondly where is it now?

Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist with intimidation and murders being committed almost daily. Coca Cola is currently being sued by the Colombian food and drinks union Sinaltrainal for its (alleged) use of right wing paramilitary death squads at its plants in Colombia. The company has denied the allegations and predictably claims that it has no responsibility for the actions of the bottling plants.

Twenty years ago (in 1983) the Government put an extra 1% on workers' PRSI. This was to pay for local services, after they abolished domestic rates. Under the agreement reached in 1983, the councils were to be allocated money from this extra 1% contribution. But you just can't trust our rulers. Last year, for example, Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council only got 48% of the money owed to them under this agreement.  According to the latest figures less than 8% of waste comes from our homes. Most waste dumped in landfills is not domestic rubbish, but rather commercial, construction and agricultural waste.

It is a testimony to this campaign that the government has changed the law of the land in their latest attempt to defeat it. The authorities, from the bean counters at City Hall to government level, have been twisting and squirming as they look for yet another way to make us pay this double tax. Initially they tried taking us to court. That hasn't worked and logistically it proved to be a nightmare for them. In Cork they tried not collecting rubbish from non-payers, and even jailed some campaigners for dumping rubbish outside City Hall.

Facing the Enemy kicks into gear with a look at Bakunin's ideas on the necessity of anarchist organisation and thereafter studies individualist anarchism, syndicalism, the Organisational Platform of Russian exiles, a quick chapter on the Spanish movement and a somewhat bizarrely detailed account of post war French anarchism. Also, included are almost one hundred pages of original documentation mostly relating to the Organisational Platform.

While most people understand the word democracy to mean that the people hold power, there is another meaning. According to the second meaning of the word, democracy means that the super-rich make all of the decisions while the people's job is to do what they're told, and to put a piece of paper in a box every few years. This 'democracy' is extremely hostile to any notions of popular involvement in politics. The US/UK war against Iraq, trumpeted as a war for 'democracy', illustrates what this 'democracy' means in practice.

There is nothing wrong or "inefficient" in subsiding public transport. It's a lot cheaper to provide regular, dependable and affordable (or free!) buses and trains than to have even more car usage. More cars on the road means more road building, more road repairs, more traffic jams and more air pollution.

= more profits for the bosses
= traffic jams, pollution and crap service for travellers
= worse pay and conditions for workers

There are a large number of anarchist news services on the internet - one of the best ones covering North America is the news section of infoshop.org. The site looks a little like Indymedia, including readers' comments with articles but in fact all articles require prior approval by an editor.

Social spending is plumetting in the USA, leading to some strange things happening. The budget for the United States is going to run to a deficit of £180bn of spending over income.