Workers Solidarity Movement

On Saturday, more than 15,000 people marched through Dublin to demand an end to austerity and to oppose the State’s transferring of the financial crisis on to the shoulders of the working class.  Organised by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions and the Campaign against the Household and Water Taxes, the march offered people an opportunity to pressure the government prior to the budget and to raise the profile of the CAHWT, already the most popular act of civil disobedience since the foundation of the state.

On Saturday saw an estimate of fifteen thousand to seventeen thousand people marching in Dublin from the Garden of Remembrance to the Daíl in solidarity with Savita Halappanavar's family and for abortion rights. Savita Halappanavar was a woman in Galway who had died after being refused an abortion.

The march opened with a speech from Ruth Coppinger from the United Left Alliance, who spoke about motion that was tabled in April to legislate for X, but said that legislating for X is not enough, as no woman should have to be put through pain and agony in order to receive a life saving abortion. She also noted that the cases of rape and incest should also be grounds for abortion, when considering the X case. 

This year has seen a re-energised campaign for abortion rights  in Ireland, starting with the Action on X campaign at the beginning of the year but Youth Defense's awful billboard campaign over the summer invigorated pro-choice activists to take full scale action. On Saturday 29th September the March for Choice was organised to mark International Day for Decriminalisation of Abortion. This has also been organised a month ahead of a publication of a report on abortion from a government appointed expert group, which will examine how the Governement will handle the abortion issue.

Upon receiving word that Joan Burton, Dublin West TD and minister for Social Protection, would be present for a meeting relating to a resource centre in Newbridge, the Kildare town and Newbridge town branches of the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes organised a protest to show that opposition to the unjust tax continues in the town and county.

 €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.

On Friday 7th Sept councillors at the Kildare county council offices choose to enter through a side door rather than pass a group of protesters at the main entrance to the building. The councillors were meeting to discuss how to implement the budget cuts imposed on the council by the government as part of its efforts to pay the State's odious debts. Chants of "Axe the household tax" and "Tax the rich, not the poor" resounded in the courtyard of Kildare's administrative centre.

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.

About 700 people from all over Ireland took part in a evening march to the Dail last night to highlight the ongoing resistance to the attempt to impose the Household tax.  Although smaller than recent CAHWT protests because the march was at 5 o'clock on a working day in July it was still of significant size.  The timing was because this was the last day the Dail sits.  Below is a slideshow of photos our photographer took on the demonstration, many more photos will be found in our Facebook album of the march which you are encouraged to share.  There is a video of the march in the body of the article, click through to view it.

Four anarchists including two Greek anarchists examine the real effects of the Euro crisis on the Greek population, resistance to the attempts to impose all the costs of the crisis on ordinary Greeks and the meaning of the second round of elections in particular the role of SYRIZA

This session of the 2012 Dublin Anarchist Bookfair looked at the value of paper and ink when the net is usually declared the real frontier. We asked our panel to track some of the connections between todays underground radical press, and what went before.