Workers Solidarity Movement

A report by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture has found that conditions in several Irish prisons are extremely unsafe.

Turkey has been under the spotlight this year, due to the threats of the Army against the possibility of an Islamist party taking the presidency. This move came to pose a number of questions to the European establishment, as Turkey has been negotiating its entry to the EU. The apparently uneasy two alternatives of government in Turkey are political Islam or the old fashioned authoritarian Kemalist secularism, which has the army as its vigilante sector of the ruling block. The European bourgeoisie has been quite keen to support the ruling AKP Islamist party, instead of the military, sending a clear message that they won’t favour a dictatorship in the vein of that of 1980. Actually, they have compared the authoritarian tradition of Turkey to Greece, saying that entry to the EU would eventually help to democratise it.

Leiser Peles, a prominent Israeli opponent of the massive wall that Israel is building on Palestinian land in the Occupied West Bank will speak in Cork on Thursday night. Mr. Peles is a member of Anarchists Against The Wall, an Israeli - Palestinian organisation established in 2003 to build solidarity with the Palestinians in their struggles.

CopWatch was formed to combat police brutality against oppressed groups. By documenting and exposing incidences of police misconduct and brutality they hope to foster a culture of resistance to state justice among working class people. This interview with a member of Berkeley CopWatch looks at some of their current activities as well as the broader political context for their work.

“Anarchists Against the Wall (AATW) is a direct action group that was established in 2003 in response to the construction of the wall Israel is building on Palestinian land in the Occupied West Bank. The group works in cooperation with Palestinians in a joint non-violent struggle against the occupation.”

Operating under the principle that “It is the duty of Israeli citizens to resist immoral policies and actions carried out in out name”, the AATW is actively resisting the construction of the wall with more than protesting in the streets, governed by the belief that the Israeli segregation of the Palestinian people will not end by itself. Instead, they believe that the only way to end the occupation is by creating a social climate that is “ungovernable and unmanageable” for the Israeli state.

Public meeting
Saturday 15th September
1pm
Lourdes Youth and Community Parish Hall
Sean McDermott Street
Dublin 1

Terence Wheelock’s death is by no means extraordinary, in that his death was one twenty two deaths reported in Garda Custody since 1997. Of these figures, a majority of those who died are under the age of thirty, and, in the case of Brian Rossiter, the victim was just fourteen years old.

Recent arrests of protestors, both north and south of the border, has shown that political policing is alive and well within our society. 

The situation at present as I sit in the convergence centre is that several large demonstrations have taken place in Rostock and elsewhere and the police presence has been heavy and aggressive.

A benefit gig for anti war protesters is being held in the Roddy McCorley Club, West Belfast on Saturday 16th June.