Workers Solidarity Movement

When Brian Lenihan announced his budget last October, two of the measures in particular were met with howls of outrage and his government was forced to back down post haste. The first of these - and the one most people remember because of the dramatic pictures of the Age Action meeting in Westland Row church where Minister of State John Moloney was booed off the stage – was the attempt to take away the automatic entitlement of over-70s to medical cards.

A bully is strolling across a schoolyard in Clara. He steals from, humiliates and hits the other kids. Whatever you decide is the best way to deal with him, there is one thing you probably won’t do. You won’t sit down with him over tea and biscuits and try to hammer out an agreement about how to convince everyone else that bullying is inevitable and might even be good for them.

If waged employees today do practically all real work, then the capitalist has no role other than collecting dividends, living the high life, and gambling on the Stock Exchange. The big banks, all of which are now kept afloat with our tax money, and most of which are now majority state-owned, are still paying massive “bonuses” to their top people.

Belfast City Centre was brought to a standstill last Friday lunchtime in a rally organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) against the latest job losses in the manufacturing and textile industry.

If truth be told, should we be surprised by revelations in recent weeks concerning the expenses of ‘our’ politicians?

Lenihan’s budget has continued the political strategy of defending the wealthy. Where is the reaction? Where is the anger?

This is a recording of Stanley Aronowitz speaking on 'Popular Education in a Time of Struggle' to a Workers Solidarity Movement meeting in the Seomra Spraoi Social centre, Dublin the end of March 2009. Stanley Aronowitz is professor of sociology, cultural studies, and urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is also a veteran political activist and cultural critic and an advocate for organized labor.

In March Ashanti Alston, a former member of the Black Panther Party and a Black Liberation Army solider, came to Ireland to speak at the Dublin anarchist bookfair. This is the video of his presentation. In it he talks about his experiences in the Black Panthers and BLA, the lessons he draws from them and what he thinks of revolutionary politics in Ireland.

In 2007/8 WSM member Andrew Flood spent a total of 16 weeks touring North American and Canada, giving talks in 44 cities. The topic was 'Building a popular anarchism in Ireland' which involved a history of anarchist involvement in struggle from around 1997 to 2007. This video is formed from the audio of the talk and images of the anarchist movement in Ireland from the mid 1990's to the present day.

That the very threat of a national strike was enough to force government and IBEC to change their position demonstrates the power the working class holds when we threaten to withdraw our labour. For all the media attempts to convince us we are powerless and that class struggle is a thing of the past when faced with the reality of the organised working class standing up both bosses and state were keen to avoid any confrontation that could illustrate and encourage our collective power.