Workers Solidarity Movement

This article addresses Direct Action in the context of the sometimes hysterical debate about the Grassroots Network Against War (GNAW) action at Shannon on March 1st.

One of the most interesting arguments from within and, interestingly from without, the growing anti-war movement is on the use of violence. Typically, the argument takes this form: anti-war protests are peace protests, therefor they must be peaceful. Further, these self-appointed arbitrators within and without the movement have extremely tight definitions of what is and what isn't peaceful.

The trial of the Colombia 3 has produced a frenzy of speculation in the Irish media about whether they are guilty or not, and how this might effect the 'peace process'. What is all too lacking, however, is any background to Colombia itself. This is not too surprising. Andrew Flood looks at the situation there and argues that it is the Colombian state that should be in the dock.

Anarchists are not particularly interested in protesting against the evils of the world - we would prefer to abolish them! Political parties, of both left and right, are happy to make statements and mount ineffectual protests that are intended to achieve little more than a bigger profile for their own party. And when their party gets big enough they will sort out everything for us. That might be alright for those who merely want to change their rulers. It holds no appeal for anarchists who want to abolish the division of people into bosses and workers, rulers and ruled.

Recent revelations in the Washington Post regarding Bush's eagerness to engage in war on Iraq only serve to prove what is morbidly obvious: War is always in their sights. Six days after the Trade Centre strikes in New York the Bush Administration had already initiated plans to take Iraq out. Is it just coincidence that Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world? One should not be shocked - such political behaviour is de rigeur in a system, in a society, that places the relentless quest for wealth and power above the lives of the inhabitants of the planet.

As war looms in the Gulf again we can be sure that, whatever the outcome, hundreds of thousands of lives will be destroyed by the conflict. A UN report leaked in December estimated that the war will cost the lives of half a million Iraqi civilians and create a million refugees as a result of both direct deaths and the deliberate distruction of infrastructure. Furthermore the unwilling soldiers of Saddam's conscript army face whole-scale butchery at the hands of the powerful US war machine.

'Liberty without socialism is poverty and injustice. Socialism without liberty is tyranny and brutality'
(Bakunin)
Bakunin had a vision of an alternative way to run society and it is a vision that we share today. I want the replacement of the current economic system, a system based on profit and hierarchy, with a system based on need and freedom. I don't believe the current system can be reformed to make it more human. In different ways, and on various levels, the political work I do is aimed at creating the possibility of revolution. Revolutionary change is not as unusual as is often thought; in 1974 we had the Portuguese revolution, in 1979 Iranian Revolution, in 1979 Nicaragua, in the eighties we saw the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Terry Clancy, of the Free Earth website, examines the 'free' press to find out why we shouldn't expect them to provide neutral or impartial coverage, especially during a war.

Peadar O'Donnell (1893-1986), the novelist and political activist, is a major figure in the history of the Irish left. Born in Donegal, he left teaching (and a prominent role in the Donegal branch of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation) to become a full-time organiser with the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union in 1918.

There is a strong history of anarchist struggle in South America. Anarchist ideas were first brought to South America during the 1880's and 1890's through the influence of european immigrants. Anarchist ideas found fertile ground and during the first two decades of the 20th century anarcho-syndicalism was the most important current in the latin amercian labour movement.