Workers Solidarity Movement

Yesterday, members of the Kildare Palestine Solidarity Campaign carried out a boycott Israeli goods action in Tescos in Newbridge. This fairly straightforward action consists of a group entering the store with a trolley or two and filling them up with all the Israeli goods that they can find and then bringing these to the customer service desk and making a formal complaint to management.

Included in the haul were Israeli produced grapefruit, cosmetic products and baby potatoes which Tescos were asked by activists to cease purchasing and stocking due to the ongoing state of illegal occupation and apartheid in Palestine. This action follows on from the previous one in the same store that took place on Thursday 2nd April 2015.

Last Thursday the local branch of Dunnes stores in Gorey Co. Wexford, closed due to an injunction which was brought upon the store by banning the managing agent for the receiver of Gorey shopping center. The injunction was to close the door which leads directly to the car-park. The effect of the door was that customers bypassed the smaller shops in the shopping mall. Dunnes Stores never asked the management for permission to construct the door; it was a clear breach of the lease.
 

We have an easy winner for the WTF example of media bias this week in relation to the water charge resistance. The Sunday World journalists have pulled out all the stops in the service of Denis O'Brien as illustrated below. In case you miss the small print under the photo we have underlined it in yellow 'How it Could have Looked'.

The non exploding Drogheda 'petrol bomb' was a weak story in any case, a scare that felt manufactured before the Sunday World got creative with its photographs of a burned out van from somewhere else altogether. But really what sort of excuse can be offered up for such transparent bias?

Over 2000 people marched in Newbridge, Co. Kildare in the lashing rain today to protest the government's plans to force us to pay twice for our water. The march gathered at 2pm at the top of the town, near the hotel Keadeen and then proceeded to make its way down towards the town hall.

In response to the Israeli Defense Force’s (IDF) latest assault on the people of Gaza, well over 150 people came out for a Gaza solidarity demo in Newbridge on Monday evening. This follows on from a previous well attended demo that took place in Naas on July 21st. Supporters and friends of Palestine rallied in front of Newbridge town hall and many Palestinian flags and banners expressing solidarity with Gaza were on display. The demo was well attended by political activists including members of Sinn Fein, Community Solidarity, Workers Solidarity Movement and many more campaigners and councillors.

Since the foundation of the Campaign Against Household & Water Taxes, WSM members have been pushing for a strengthening of grassroots democracy in the campaign, and we believe that the more democratic the campaign is the more likely it is to succeed. In this article, Brian A., a WSM member involved in the campaign in Kildare, outlines his experience of being involved in building the campaign in his local area.

A commemoration of Frank Conroy will take place in Kildare town on Sunday December 16th 2012. Frank Conroy came from Fair Green, Kildare town and was an IRA activist who fought with the working class against the fascist Blue Shirts in Kildare and Dublin during the 1930s. Like many Republicans he joined the Republican Congress and Communist Party. Conroy volunteered to fight with Republican leader Frank Ryan in the International Brigade to defend the Spanish Republic against Franco. Organisations attending the commemoration include Eirigi, Workers Party, Workers Solidarity Movement, Tus Nua, the Communist Party and Anti Fascist Action. Main speaker at the event will be Harry Owens.

Upon receiving word that Joan Burton, Dublin West TD and minister for Social Protection, would be present for a meeting relating to a resource centre in Newbridge, the Kildare town and Newbridge town branches of the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes organised a protest to show that opposition to the unjust tax continues in the town and county.

On Friday 7th Sept councillors at the Kildare county council offices choose to enter through a side door rather than pass a group of protesters at the main entrance to the building. The councillors were meeting to discuss how to implement the budget cuts imposed on the council by the government as part of its efforts to pay the State's odious debts. Chants of "Axe the household tax" and "Tax the rich, not the poor" resounded in the courtyard of Kildare's administrative centre.