Workers Solidarity Movement

When the Irish constitution was unveiled in 1937 it set out a special place for women within the home. In Ireland as elsewhere ‘women’s life within the home’ has to a large extent been characterized by long hours of thankless drudgery. While the struggles of Irish women for greater liberties during the last century have improved our lives in many ways, the drudgery of housework remains thankless and the workplace has not brought the liberation that certain feminists promised. As anarchists see it, this is because as long as we live in a capitalist society women (or men) can never be meaningfully liberated.

In June of this year the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) wrote to its members in all primary schools in the Republic announcing that a National Rally on the issue of class size would take place on Saturday 4th October. Posters were included for display in schools and staff reps were urged to begin the process of building a delegation of teachers and parents to represent their school at the rally.

Last week another communication arrived in schools from INTO head office. This informed members that the 4th October rally “will not proceed… as previously indicated.” Here Gregor Kerr, a member of the Dublin City North Branch of the INTO (writing in a personal capacity) analyses why the union leadership have backed off from the rally, asks whether they really have the bottle for a fight on this issue, and urges a grassroots campaign to deliver victory on the issue.

The Spring 2008 issue of Ireland's anarchist magazine Red & Black Revolution is now available. Articles include “No Justice, Just Us” Interview with Larry Wheelock, Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction, How free can you be if you can’t even control your own body?, Book Review: “Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant .

Download the PDF of RBR 14

On 8/8/08, The Department of Social and Family Affairs (DSFA) issued a press release entitled “€238 million saved in first six months of this year through Welfare anti fraud crackdown.” A closer look at the operations of the DSFA reveals a slightly different story however. According to the 2007 Social Welfare Appeals Office (SWAO) Annual Report, 46% of appeals to the SWAO were successful. The chief appeals officer, Brian Flynn, is critical of social welfare deciding officers “applying the ‘fraud’ applications of the legislation in all cases involving overpayments”.

Last month, Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe indicated that third-level fees were ''back on the agenda''. His comments have been met with strong opposition from university students.

Unemployment has risen by a third in the last year and everyone agrees that worse times are ahead. Worries about losing jobs and not being able to pay the mortgage are growing. Whose fault is it? Is it the politicians administering the economy, or is it the capitalist economy itself?

The Irish Socialist Network is talking to a half dozen other groups about unity. The Socialist Workers Party, always in a hurry, simply wants everyone else to join their People Before Profit creation. Every few years we see the same game played, “why won’t the Judean Peoples Front join the Judean Popular Front?”

Preparation is under way to resist unwelcome and destructive activities by Shell and Allseas Ltd

Grassroots Shop Stewards and Union Activists Conference: Re-Building Trade Union Activism

Saturday 20th September
Venue: UNITE Hall,
Middle Abbey St, Dublin 1.

The author wrote this as part of his Dissertation in 2008 in Queens University titled ‘Anarchism and the Law’. The author firstly recalls a historical overview of the anarchism, its proponents and their position on laws and how society deals with anti-social behaviour and their vision for the future, from Godwin to the present especially during revolutions when anarchist ideas and movements flourished. He then moves on to the thorny subject of the meaning of “law” and its relationship anarchism, liberalism and authoritarian socialists.

The last few paragraphs examine case studies from Paris Communards 1871, Makhnovichna (the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army in the Ukraine) 1917-22, CNT-FAI militia in Spain 1936-39, Christiana in Denmark today, EZLN in Chiapas today. The response of anarchist groups in Ireland and abroad to crime and the law is also briefly discussed and reviewed.

Finally the author concludes which serves as a lesson to us all,

“Saying ‘no blueprints’ (detailed outlook) is a cop out for having no solution. The past always imposes itself on the present. For anarchism to have a future anarchists need to convince more people. If anarchists want to be taken seriously they have to be able to provide credible alternatives on the key issues that concern people including crime prevention.”