July 2009

Striking back against wage cuts

Date:

The Workers Solidarity Movement is calling on our fellow workers to support the national TEEU strike. This is an important battle for all of us, the first big blow against the employers’ wage-cutting agenda.

The strike is about an overdue 11% pay rise. The 10,500 TEEU members employed by electrical contractors at about 240 sites and factories have not been paid their agreed increases for more than three years. And now their employers want a 10% wage cut as well.

Belfast: Organising for Anarchism

Date:

A day of workshops and discussions organised by the Belfast branch of the Workers Solidarity Movement and the Anarchist Communist Discussion Group.

Direct Action Gets the Goods: Visteon Occupation Pays Off

Date:

The occupation of the Visteon motor parts factory in Belfast ended on May 3rd when the company gave in and agreed pay extra compensation of between six month’s and nearly two year’s money to the workforce for the loss of their jobs.

Shell's Armada in Broadhaven bay, Rossport a video guide

Date:

Shot this on Saturday morning, someone from the Rossport Solidarity Camp narrates the various components of the Shell armada in the bay and what they have been used for

Reports from the Shell supply ship occupation in Killybegs

Date:

On Monday July 6th Shell to Sea protesters broke through a weak spot in the armada deployed to defend the Solitaire, the supply port in Killybegs.

Workers Solidarity 110

Date:

July - August 2009 Edition of the Workers Solidarity freesheet.

PDF of Workers Solidarity 110 Southern Web Edition 1.6 Mb
PDF of Workers Solidarity 110 Northern Web Edition 2.7 Mb

Dublin: Organizing the Digital Assembly Line: Labour’s Resistance in the Call Centre

Date:

Low pay. High stress. Constant surveillance. Here one day and
outsourced the next. Call centre work has exploded in the last 20
years, but delivers precarious and highly exploitative jobs.

Thinking About Anarchism: The Politics of Climate Change

Date:

In recent years climate change has loomed large in the public imagination. Scientifically, there is little doubt that it is a real threat to the future of human civilisation. The greenhouse effect has been known about since the early 19th century - gases in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour trap heat from the sun, causing the climate of the planet to heat up over time. Probably the most spectacular known example of this effect in action is on Venus.

Unemployment & the War on Youth

Date:

On RTE news on 18/5/09, Mary Hanafin stated, in her usual Orwellian fashion, that the Department of Social and Family Affairs (DSFA) had now provided a financial incentive to encourage those under 20 to go into training or education. This ’financial incentive’ involved cutting the dole to €100 per week for new claimants under the age of 20.

Workers Solidarity 1 - Nov 1984

Date:

In 1984 the first Workers Solidarity hit the streets. Costing 20p, its print run of 1,000 was mainly sold around the pubs of Cork and Dublin on Friday nights, outside the GPO and the Cork women's labour exchange.

Former chair of the Anti-Racist Network to speak at anarchist event

Date:

The Workers Solidarity Movement in Belfast organise a day of discussions and workshops tackling issues such as fighting fascism and racism from a class perspective, anarchist organisation and our vision of a free, classless, post-capitalist society.

Dublin: Anarchist militia veteran of Spanish revolution speaks

Date:

Roma was in Barcelona during the generals' revolt of 19 July, 1936,
when he joined the POUM with his brothers and fought in Aragon
till the POUM were supressed, when his unit transferred to the Anarchists.

Planning For Progress - WS1 1984

Date:

The introduction to the Workers Solidarity Movement as published in the very first issue of Workers Solidarity, back in 1984.

Them and us

Date:

Article from Workers Solidarity 1, 1984 about the recession and the companies & individuals who were making millions

Planning for Poverty

Date:

Analysis from Workers Solidarity 1 (1984) of the National Plan that was put forward to get Ireland out of the 1980's recession.

Dublin: Distro and Stall at GPO

Date:

The Lucy Parsons branch of the Workers Solidarity Movement will have a stall at the GPO on O'Connell St., Dublin at 2.30pm on Saturday 18th July.

Dublin Shell to Sea protest at Green party convention

Date:

The Green party are holding a special convention on the Programme for Government and the Lisbon Treaty this Saturday. The convention is on in the Hilton hotel at Charlemont Place, Dublin 2.
Dublin Shell to Sea are holding a protest outside the convention at 1 o clock.

Protest 1 o clck at the Hilton Hotel in Charlemont Dublin2 (hotel marked by the H)

A personal account of the annual Orange Order parades from Belfast to Bangor

Date:

After hearing about Slugger O’Toole’s day in the Orange, I jumped at the chance of finding out more about this annual event which brings hundreds of thousands onto the streets across Northern Ireland. As the day progressed I was converged with a mixture of emotions, soon drained away by tiredness and an element of boredom.

3rd Belfast Anarchist Bookfair

Date:

The 3rd Belfast Anarchist Bookfair will take place at the Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre, 45/47 Lower Donegall Street, from 12 noon to 6pm on Friday 28th August and Saturday 29th August 2009.

Building an effective anarchist movement

Date:

What do anarchists want? To put it briefly, we want to get rid of capitalism and replace it with a society organised to serve the needs of the many, we want to make real the old call of “from each according to ability, to each according to need”. This will be a socialism where everyone affected by a decision can take part in making that decision, and where the liberties of the individual are respected.