Workers Solidarity Movement

The threat of strike action at Domino’s Pizzas in Naas saw SIPTU members secure substantial pay increases. A ban on overtime showed management that the workers were serious, when they voted to strike the bosses caved in and conceded a pay increase of 15% over 27 months. The union also won improved holiday and service leave arrangements.

For almost a year Turkish workers at the multi-national construction company Gama waged a struggle to secure trade union rates of pay, improved working conditions and to reclaim wages which had been siphoned from their pay packets and placed in foreign bank accounts opened in their names but without their knowledge. A co-production by the Socialist Party and Frameworks Films, “The Gama Strike: A victory for all workers” is an attempt to document and highlight the exploitation and subsequent struggle faced by the Turkish workers.

Five peace activists have been acquitted of all charges in relation to their disarming of a US navy plane at Shannon airport in February 2003. The five, calling themselves the Pitstop Ploughshares, used axes and lump hammers to inflict over $2.5m worth of damage in what they described as a “non-violent ploughshares action”. In June they received a unanimous acquittal by using Section 6 of the Criminal Damage Act 1991 which allows for a “lawful excuse” where the damage is caused “in order to protect another or property belonging to another.” They say they were acting in defence of civilian life in Iraq, the local infrastructure, the lives of US soldiers and of Irish people who may become targets of a terrorist attack as a result of Irish complicity in the war.

Anyone who remembers their Leaving Cert history will know about the Spanish Civil War which was sparked off in July 1936 with an attempted military coup against the liberal / left wing government of the day. What you might not be aware of is the ‘Spanish Revolution’ – the activities and massive change which occurred in the parts of the country which were not controlled by the fascists.

The Afghan hunger strike brought into sharp focus the new Ireland into which our country has been transforming over the last 10 years. Our booming economy and relatively high wage levels have drawn many thousands of immigrants into the country in search of a better life here. Much as the Irish once looked to America for the promise of a happier future, so many people from less well off countries now look to Ireland.

‘The Liberties’ gets its name from a number of areas which were outside the medieval walls of Dublin City. This doesn’t mean that they were somehow free - it just means that instead of being under the city’s jurisdiction they were ruled by a different group of masters. The Archbishop of Dublin was the boss of one section, the Earl of Meath was in charge of another, and so on. These men of wealth and power taxed the areas they controlled and made money from them but didn’t really care about anyone who lived there.

We answer the myths about Asylum Seekers in Ireland

Over the past fifteen years those in power made a lot of promises. They promised a country in which everybody would benefit from the economy, one in which poverty and other problems would be left behind. As usual they lied.

Issue 2 of the WSM newsletter for the Liberties and Portobello.

• The Liberties -then and now – same as it ever was
• The Afghan Hunger strike and immigration in Ireland
• Asylum Seekers blamed by the rich and lying politicans
• Facts about Asylum Seekers in Ireland

Download the PDF file

Various shorts on life under capitalism