September 2008

Thats capitalism WS 105

Date:

According to World Bank's 2008 World Development Report, 2.1 billion people live on less than US$2 a day. 880 million of these live on less that US$1 a day

Oil giant Exxon Mobil made a profit of $11.68 billion between April and June, breaking its own record for the highest quarterly profit by a US company.

Foreign Affairs magazine reported that in 2005 six hedge funds managers pocketed €2.15 billion dollars between them

The rise of fascism in Weimer Germany and its role today

Date:

In a period of mass unemployment in 1920's Germany fascism came to power despite not only the presence of mass Communist and Social Democratic parties but also of significant anti-fascist street fighting. Why did the left fail and what was the attraction of fascism. What about fascist movements today, do they represent a similar threat? Can we even agree a single definition of what fascism is?

Capitalism and the exploitation of women

Date:

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.

WTO Trade talks collapse in Doha

Date:

The recent bitter collapse of the Doha round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks has put the WTO back in the news around the world. The latest talks failed in large part because rich countries refuse to reduce subsidies to their own farmers, while insisting that the poor countries should reduce theirs. But what is the WTO, and how is it relevant to our everyday lives here in Ireland?

The dimmer wing of the ruling class

Date:

Senior members of the DUP have been busy embarrassing themselves over the last few weeks.Comments by Ian Paisley Jr that the PSNI should shoot dissident republicans on sight indicate the ingrained right-wing stance of the party. Meanwhile his colleagues have been outdoing him in making their party a laughing stock. Iris Robinson repeatedly put her foot in it by describing homosexuality as an abomination while Edwin Poots and Meryvn Storey clambered somewhere back to the bronze age in their bid to have Christian creationism taught in science class.

Workers Solidarity 105

Date:

September-October issue of WSM's freesheet.

  • The system works...for the rich
  • Why can’t all the socialists get together?
  • TV Review: The Wire
  • Capitalism & war in the Caucasus
  • The DUP and creationism
  • Hamas, the left and ‘liberation’ in Palestine
  • The Recession and housing
  • Uncovering fraud where none exists 
  • Capitalism and the exploitation of women 
  • WTO trade negotiations 

UCD Public Meeting on Anarchism

Date:

Talk and Slideshow on the history and current state of the anarchist movement in Ireland.

Anger as Cork health workers fight on two fronts ...

Date:

Cork hospitals are under attack with major cuts planned ... Meanwhile Beacon Medical Group's planned 'Co-location' hospital in Cork draws closer. It would seem like high-time to call in the union and put manners on a few people but where is SIPTU's Joe O'Callaghan?