Workers Solidarity Movement

Saturday 29 September saw thousands march through Dublin as part of the March for Choice

This is a selection from the 180 photographs we published in our Facebook album of the March for Choice.

On Wednesday last, 19th September, the United Left Alliance held a press conference at which it announced “plans to launch a public campaign of resistance to property tax and austerity”.  For those of us who have been working alongside ULA members for over 12 months now to build the broad-based Campaign Against Household & Water Taxes (CAHWT), this announcement came as something of a surprise. CAHWT already is a ‘public campaign of resistance to property tax’ so why do the ULA (who are part of CAHWT) feel the need to ‘launch’ something that already exists?

Anti Household Tax campaigners have this week had 2 major victories against government and County Council attempts to bully people into registering for the hated tax. In Clare, following a week long campaign which culminated in a protest march to the Council offices on Friday (21st), the Council were forced to publicly back down from threats to withhold or delay third-level grants from students whose families are refusing to pay the household tax.

Marian Price has been detained without trial in inhumane conditions since May 2011.  Despite the fact that the charges against her – encouraging support for a paramilitary organisation – have been dismissed and her release ordered by the courts, she continues to be held on the direction of the North’s secretary of state, Owen Patterson. 58-year-old Price spent a year in solitary confinement in Maghaberry (an all-male prison) and Hydebank prisons.  During this time she was locked in her cell for 21 hours a day while kept under constant camera surveillance.  The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture has said that spending anything more than 15 days in solitary confinement amounts to torture.

 €1,600 billion.  That is the figure for Irish Oil & Gas reserves already licensed revealed this morning in a detailed report from Shell to Sea using the energy corporations own reports and estimates.  People in Ireland will see almost no benefits from this incredible wealth because the Irish state gives these reserves to the corporations at the cheapest terms in the world.

National Rally calling for the release of Marian Price at 2pm on Saturday the 15th of September. Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square, Dublin 1, and march to the GPO. Speakers include Monsignor Raymond Murray, Thomas Pringle TD, Pauline Mellon from the Justice for Marian Campaign in Derry and Councillor Cieran Perry.

We don’t know a lot about the personal life of this son of a small farmer.  He was the richest man in Ireland in 2008 with an estimated wealth of €4.7billion and now he is only out of jail because the Judge wants him to help the Irish Resolution Banking Corporation (IRBC) recover some of the €2.8 billion that he owes them.  You may never have heard of IRBC but you will know of it’s previous alias: Anglo Irish Bank,winner of the dodgiest bank award in a state where there is stiff competition for that prize.   His son is in prison, (plush Training Unit in Mountjoy) serving a sentence for what the Judge called ‘outrageous’ contempt of court as he sought to put money/assets beyond the reach of the bank.  His nephew Peter is supposed to be there for the same reason but has gone missing.  All we know about Sean – the daddy of the empire is that he’s big into the GAA and he likes to play poker for a few quid with his friends. Along with his love of poker, I would guess that Sean senior fancies the odd western.

For the last twelve hours Shell and the Gardai have been attempting to move some sections of a 500 ton tunnel boring machine to the remote site of Aghoos in Erris. Despite this, the effort has proven to be farcical, with protestors pulling off three road blockades under the noses of hundreds of Gardai. In the latest twist, the lorry, which has been on the road for twelve hours so far, failed to make a crucial turn on the last leg of its journey at the Aghoos / Bellinaboy Road due to its size, despite being in a specialist vehicle.

A huge secretive Garda security operation last night swung into operation in Dublin Port as Shell's Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) left the port as part of a huge convoy of Garda vehicles.  News of the operation had leaked at the last minute meaning that with only an hours notice a handful of Shell to Sea campaigners managed to get down to the port entrance despite the pouring rain.  Most of us were pulled over and questioned by Garda at least once and the Garda helicopter stayed overhead as various Garda vehicles including a van load of riot cops with the door open drove past us repeatedly.

The Ireland segments of a European speaking tour with an Anarchist from Moscow who will talk about the anarchist movement in Russia, its successes and failures. Antti Rautiainen lived in Moscow for 13 years, participating in anarchist activities. His residence permit was revoked in March of this year, allegedly because he "called for a violent overthrow of constitutional order, or otherwise endangered the safety of Russian Federation or its citizens". He is member of Autonomous Action and the Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow.

• Cork on Sat July 7th, 5pm at Solidarity Books, Douglas St.
• Dublin on Sun, July 8th, 4pm at Seomra Spraoi, 10 Bevedere court D1
• Belfast on Tue, July 10th, 7pm at Na Croisbhealai Workers Co-op cafe
• Derry on Wed, July 11th, 7pm Castlebar Waterloo street