Workers Solidarity Movement

In recent weeks, the signs of anger among the peoples of Europe have been increasing: a general strike in Portugal, the huge September 29 strike in Spain, demonstrations of historic proportions in Ireland, the student movement in England, the enormous protests in Italy by factory workers and students and the growing mass movement against the privatization of water and, hopefully, the beginning of a lasting movement following the mobilizations over pension reforms in France. Though the slogans may vary from one country to the next, the revolt has the same origin: the peoples' refusal to pay for a crisis they did not cause, to have to put up with austerity measures by themselves, without the capitalists having to pay.The case of Ireland is emblematic - reduced social benefits, staff cuts in the public sector and cuts to public sector workers' pay, the extension of income tax to those who do not currently pay, the lowest-paid workers. But the government is not touching corporate tax, however, one of the lowest in Europe. The Irish people are refusing to bow down and tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in late November.

The WSM is one of 108 organisations internationally that has signed a statement in support of today's general strike in the Spanish state.   Spain like Ireland is one of the countries where the capitalist crisis is hitting the working class hardest, unemployment has reached 20%, but in Spain unlike Ireland large sections of the working class are organising to resist the crisis.  Spain has a long history of militant anarchist unions, this statement was prepared by one of them, the CGT, in opposition to the partnership approach taken by most of the unions.  It's is preceeded by an analysis by Manu García, a member of another of the unions, the CNT, about the importance of today's general strike.

Along with other socialist groups the WSM has launched the 1% Network, a coalition that aims to highlight the gross inequality in Irish society where the richest 1% of the population own 34% of the wealth.  The network will be carrying out a number of activities in the run up to the budget including a walking tour of the private mansions, corporate headquarters, secret meeting spots and private banks on October 9th.

One of the best known French anarchists, Georges Fontenis, died on August 9th at the age of 90.

Our comrades of Alternative Libertaire described him as “an untiring fighter for libertarian communism, a supporter of the Algerian independence fighters, a trade unionist, one of the leading figures of May 1968 in Tours and a pillar of the Freethought movement”.   Until the very end he was also a member of Alternative Libertaire.

At the urging of our comrades in  the Colombian anarchist organisation Red Libertaria Popular Mateo Kramer the WSM has signed this international statement.  Red Libertaria Popular Mateo Kramer describe the current political reality in Colombia as follows. "As repression assumes fearful proportions in Colombia, sheer violence is the mechanism to impose a terrorist mafia regime, an enclave subservient to US imperialist interests in the region. The current regime represents the political expression of the harshest class violence against workers in the region. This is not shameful for the Colombian people but it represents a menace to all of the Latin American people. Those libertarian organisations who have signed this statement do so in order to show solidarity with the libertarian movement in Colombia which, along with the rest of the people’s movement, knows no quarter in its struggle against State Terrorism and Imperialism."

The WSM has signed an international statement that highlights the ongoing resistance of the Mapuche, an indigenous people in Chile who make up perhaps 5% of the Chilean population but comprise the majority of political prisoners in Chile.  The statement originated with anarchists organisations in Chile who are in solidarity with the Mapuche.

Radio Solidarity - Prog. 6 - "How I came to be involved" is now available to listen to on the Near FM podcast site.

In this show, we at Radio Solidarity went out and spoke to people who are actively engaged in struggle and have a definitive idea of how to change the world for the better.

Immigration is an inevitable effect of the economic and military policies conducted by European states; the concerted efforts to prevent it are the result of racism and an unwillingness to face domestic consequences.

Radio Solidarity is on Facebook

So please feel free to go there, make friends with us and keep in the loop with events.

We hope to commence posting up full interviews from our third program over this weekend, we had some technical difficulties prior to this.

This is the audio of the ad on Radio Solidarity for the 2010 Dublin anarchist bookfair.