Workers Solidarity Movement

This is the promised detailed analysis of the end of the WSM following on from our very brief announcement of December 7th, 2021 titled 'WSM has come to an end - we look forward to new anarchist beginnings'.Developed over a couple of dozen meeting since it outlines our collective reflections on why we have taken this decision. It outlines the WSM’s achievements, the challenges we have encountered, and the lessons we feel can be drawn for the future.  We are writing for our comrades, friends and supporters who have worked with the WSM in the past. We are also writing for fellow anarchists internationally and all those who struggle in our social movements and wish to see a world without bosses. We hope this statement will be useful to those who wish to start new conversations and discussions about the kinds of movements and organisations we need to win

The WSM has been having a 'big picture' discussion around the housing crisis from which the following points emerged. We are publishing them ahead of the December 1st demonstration in Dublon (14.00 Parnell square).

1. We built our cities and the houses of our cities. They are ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own*.

2. The contemporary crisis of capitalism has made markedly visible the relationship between finance capital and property speculation, between the concentrated money-power of bankers and speculators and the shaping of the built environment in our towns and cities.

Discussions about Identity Politics (IdPol) absorbs a huge amount of energy across the political spectrum.  Discussion on the left however is often complicated and made overly hostile because they take place along the single axis of oppression which means proponents of IdPol get lumped in with Hilary Clinton while opponents get lumped in with Donald Trump.  This understandably encourages bad faith discussions that throw a lot of heat and very little light. Here we are going to argue that a much more useful exchange can happen when we instead create a plot where one axis is oppression and the second is exploitation as that puts both Trump & Clinton a good distance away from socialists. [Audio of this article]

The 12th Dublin anarchist bookfair heard this account from Wendy, a Human Rights & immigration lawyer who visited Rojava in May 2018 as part of a fact finding delegation. [audio]

An in-depth interview with Mark Bray, author of ‘Translating Anarchy’, a book which tells the story of the anti-capitalist anti-authoritarians of Occupy Wall Street who strategically communicated their revolutionary politics to the public in a way that was both accessible and revolutionary. [Audio]

For the launch of the 2018 Dublin anarchist bookfair we brought anarchist author Mark Bray over from the US to tell us about 'Pushing back the alt-right in the US'. Mark, who is the author of 'The Anti-Fascist Handbook' looked at what worked for anti-fascists over the last year. [video] [audio]

One day in May we Repealed the 8th amendment. It is three months later. It is 35 years later. Now that the dust is settling this session of the 2018 Dublin Anarchist bookfair reflected on the struggle of abortion rights in Ireland, and in particular the abortion referendum. [audio]

So now that the referendum is won and the government is moving towards enacting legislation that allows limited access to abortion, we're starting to hear questions being raised about Together for Yes activists running in elections. [1] For many people, the conspicuous endpoint of any political campaign is for the political activists to put forward one of their number to run for political office. We are going to argue against that for a number of reasons.

For the future of all our movements and struggles, the experience of a confident, well-organised and winning campaign is hugely important. Who knows where we might go with a victory in the Repeal referendum?

On May 25th we finally get to vote to Repeal the hated 8th amendment.  Here we present the 8 reasons we are voting Yes to Repeal along with many of the articles we have published on the issue in recent months.