Workers Solidarity Movement

We are relaying yesterday's statement from our comrades in Turkey's Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet (Revolutionary Anarchist Action) on the mining catastrophe in Soma, the AKP and state corruption behind it and the police repression of protestors in Turkey's major cities.

As the relatives of those murdered and injured on Bloody Sunday gathered this week to launch this year's commemorative events, anarchists in the city echoed their call by encouraging everyone interested in standing up for human rights and social justice to support the annual 'march for justice' which will take place on Sunday 2nd February.

Today (Weds) was very quiet; there was no eviction attempt. We were prepared for the worst, but no cops called around, nobody claiming to be the owner, nothing.Just to recap, we are preparing ourselves to resist eviction because previously, on Friday, two people claiming to be agents acting on behalf of a company, which they claimed own two of the houses, came to illegally board them up. When we weren't letting them do so, they called the cops. The cops decided not to do anything because they did not have the paperwork or legal authorisation to evict us^[1]. However, the “owners” and the cops did say that they'd be back on Wednesday (today) with “papers”.

An Irish anarchist living in Sydney reports of recent march against deaths in Custody and its parallels with Ireland. "Many of our readers may be aware of the tragic death of Inner city Dubliner Terence Wheelock in 2005 from injuries received in Garda Custody while in the North there is a long history of state violence and terror in and outside of custody; as there are across the UK.

"Australia is no exception to this given its colonial racist roots in the active dispossession and genocide of its indigenous people and the continuing plight of asylum seekers. Recently a national day of action took place across Australia marking the 30^th anniversary of John Pat’s death in custody. Up to 100 people took part in a rally and march in Sydney including anarchists and the James Connolly Society, set up by Irish emigrants drawing links between the continuing colonial legacy in Ireland and Australasia.

The eruption of conflict and intense rioting in Belfast over the last couple of months is a clear illustration that, no matter what lengths Stormont and the media circus go to to disguise the ugly reality of the ‘peace process’, the scars of the past and frequent eruption of sectarian conflict refuse to go away as political parties play the sectarian card to get one over on their rivals. 

With over 300 police officers apparently injured so far this year, the honeymoon period following a 'successful' G8 conference has long passed - lifting the veil from a colonial sectarian settlement that has delivered a few crumbs to our class while the rich get richer. While at the same time our rulers in Stormont are busy stuffing themselves with £250,000 subsidised food expenses in 2012.

The Prisoners’ Rights Organisation (PRO) was founded in the early 1970s. Before its dissolution in the late eighties it was in many ways a unique phenomenon - a small but highly energetic grassroots organisation that consistently called public attention to cases of police brutality and misconduct through varied forms of street protest and media work. This article tells the story of the formation and development of the organisation and the ‘hidden history’ of  the PRO’s attempt to make police accountable.

The incident - On a Saturday night in July 2008 at about 11pm, I was waiting outside a fast food restaurant in Drumcondra for a friend, when over eight garda vehicles came speeding from a few different directions with their sirens on. They pulled up outside a pub just up the road from where I was. I cycled up to have a look at what was going on. When I got up there, there didn’t seem to be a lot going on. I started to film the line of garda vehicles parked in the centre of the road. I had been filming less than a minute when a guard approached me, demanding that I give him the camera. I put the camera in my pocket and told him it was a public area and I was entitled to film.

How have activists tried to put manners on the police? Which methods have worked? Which might be worth trying? This article is a brief overview of different ways of resisting political and social policing.

This list is intentionally ‘partitionist’ in that it deals only with police in the “26 counties” as providing material on policing in the “6 counties” would easily treble the length of the guide.