Workers Solidarity Movement

WSM Cork today announced that Solidarity Books, of 43 Douglas Street, will host a series of discussions on rights, freedoms, and radical history every other Tuesday at 8pm starting on 5th April and ending on 17th May 2011.  The talks will examine issues of human rights and radical history in Ireland and aim to cover ideas and events not taught in school.

March - April 2011 Edition of the Workers Solidarity freesheet.

PDF of Workers Solidarity 120 Web Edition 4.1 Mb

Interview: Cork Social Welfare Defenders
Gasolinazo in Bolivia Thinking About Anarchism: Policing and the Law
Democracy Delivers? Broken promises and unstated policies
Bertie, Coillte and the Enclosure of the Public Forest
The Workings of Anti-Union Legislation at the Clarion & Davenport Hotels
Signs of Resistance to the crisis from the unions

PDF of Workers Solidarity 120 Web Edition 4.1 Mb

As the first step to sorting out some sort of coalition deal Fine Gael & Labour in a co-ordinated move last night announced that they had discovered the financial situation was worse than expected.  This follows only days after the election and the subsequent vote by all but two of Labour's central council to enter into coalition talks with Fine Gael.  Clearly the scene is being set for not only Labour but also Fine Gael to abandon the promises they were elected for, only days after the supposed exercise in 'democracy' of Election 2011 and before a government has even been formed.  So much for Enda Kenny's proclamation of  "a democratic revolution at the ballot box", instead it's the usual Dail as parliament is meant to work, free from the interference of the masses. 

It’s great to live in a democracy, right? From the moment we are old enough to grasp the concept, the idea that we live in the freest of all possible worlds is drummed into us. From the pages of our school history books to the celluloid magic of our favourite movies, our way of life is portrayed as the ideal, one which we must preserve at all costs and, if possible, export to the less fortunate.

This is the first of a series of interviews with Egyptians speaking directly of their experiences within the revolution and ongoing struggles.  I hope to cover some themes not covered by the traditonal/mainstream press, and allow space for Eygptians themselves to talk about aspects of the recent uprising they feel is important. The bias toward experiential knowledge is a conscious choice, simply because it is often the most neglected form of knowledge in political story telling. Ordinary voices are held as a poor sibling to powerful deterministic political forces and quickly subsumed into an unbending tide of formal history, which cannot speak to the lived experience of people themselves as agents of change and shapers of their own destiny.
 

Today, in an even more meaningless exercise then normal, a minority of the population of Ireland will choose between two almost identical options as to who will implement the ECB / IMF austerity plans for southern Ireland. Outside of this plan the wealthiest 1% will continue to set economic policy tomorrow as they did yesterday and have throughout the last decades. The electoral circus we are now going through provides the rest of us with the illusion of control even though deep down almost everyone acknowledges the ritual as having no real impact on what policies are actually implemented.

Friday was declared 'Departure Friday' by democracy protesters in Egypt as a second Friday of mass protest was been called to drive president Mubarak from his 30 year reign. Huge numberstook part in these protests.

Recent days have seen intense street fighting as protesters had to defend themselves from mobs mobilised in a desperate bid by Mubarak to hold onto power.  Meanwhile there are dozens of disturbing reports of secret police arresting protesters at their homes and workplaces.  There has also been a sustained violent campaign against journalists which has forced the majority of them off the streets and onto balconies around the square.  On Friday morning Aj Jazeera had its Cairo offices trashed.

After a week of popular revolt two million people are demonstrating in Cairo today demanding that president Mubarak and his son leave the country and that the regime be changed. An indefinite general strike has also been called by organisers of the movement.

The revolt which started last Tuesday with small groups in their hundreds marching and meeting up has now engulfed all of Egyptian society, resulting in the collapse of the police force and the deployment of the army. Ordinary Egyptians formed Neighboorhood Defence Committees to patrol their streets and a new Federation of Unions has been declared.  In the streets today the mass of people are debating what the next steps are as opposition groups struggle to be seen as the leadership of this essentially leaderless movement.

As protests continue in Egypt the people are becoming more organised and creating their own structures. After a few days of unsuccessfully trying to smash the movement for change through violent repression, the police were withdrawn from the streets and the army ordered in. The largely conscript army however was unwilling to use violence against the population, whom the majority of soldiers clearly sympathise with.

Tens of thousands of Egyptians have taken to the streets to demand an end to the dicatorship of Hosni Mubarak. The protests echo the recent overthrow of the dictator in Tunisia. Today is a national holiday in Egypt to celebrate the police, a brutal force and a key component in keeping Mubarak in power.