Workers Solidarity Movement

The campaign against double taxation bin charges is reaching a critical point. As the number of people joining the non-payment campaign continues to grow, and as an election grows ever nearer, councillors from all political parties are jumping on the bandwagon of opposition to the charges. No doubt by the time of the election, they'll all be proclaiming their steadfast opposition to the charges, and hoping that the voters will have forgotten their past actions in voting for them.

The Workers Solidarity Movement is an anarchist organisation. Anarchism is the idea that we should organise society in a non-hierarchical way without bosses. We don't want to live in a society that is divided into order-givers and order-takers. We stand for a real socialism based on freedom and democracy.

Media coverage of the murderous pogroms unleashed by the Israeli state against Palestinians leaves out some of the story. The so-called 'peace process' like that of Northern Ireland is based on institutionalising sectarianism rather than overcoming it. There are citizens of Palestine and Israel, from both Jewish and Muslim backgrounds, who seek something other then two rival sectarian states. Ironically the ideology behind the pogroms is Zionism - the belief that Jews will only be safe from pogroms in a country run by Jews.

It may come as a surprise, but the mystery around aeroplane crashes isn't what it used to be. In the mid- 1980s, research by the US navy on its fighter aircraft picked up on a problem with the electric wiring that was used, known as Kaptan. Kaptan was once thought to be safe but US Navy investigations discovered otherwise.

In certain circumstances - not uncommon in aircraft flying conditions - Kaptan can actually explode in a ball of fire. So what did the US Navy do?

The big event of the Autumn was in Prague when the fat cats of the World Bank gathered for a jamboree, and thousands of anti-capitalist protesters took to the streets. In Ireland the WSM helped organise the Carnival for Global Economic Justice which included events in Belfast, Cork, Derry, Dublin and Galway. The following week saw the WSM host public meetings in Belfast, Cork, Dublin (and at the Anarchist Bookfair in London) which were addressed by Vadim Barak of the Czech Organisation of Revolutionary Anarchists-Solidarita and Andrew Flood, a WSM member who took part in the protests.

Isn't the Celtic Tiger great! This year's pay increase, under the Programme for Prosperity & Fairness, is 5.5%. As we go to press inflation is 6.2%, and rising. When the economy was in recession we were told to tighten our belts so that the economy could recover. Now that it is booming we are being told to accept what is actually a pay cut, in order to keep it booming.

Dún Laoghaire Rathdown

This Summer 60,000 or so householders in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown received instalment two of their bin bill. Inside in bright red ink it declared "It is intended to replace the traditional refuse collection method with a wheeled bin refuse collection to be introduced on a phased basis from September 2000. Wheeled bins will only be allocated to those householders who have a clear account"

An alien spacecraft surveying the earth would surely be astounded by the 'civilisation' that inhabits it. On the one hand it has sent men to the moon and sequenced the human genome. On the other tens of millions die every year because they lack access to basic medicine and clean water. 2.6 billion people have no access to sanitation, 2 billion have no electricity and 100 million are homeless. How can this be?

At the beginning of Fight Club, the unnamed narrator is cracking up. His job is meaningless, his life is empty, and his attempts to fill it by accumulating stuff - Ikea furniture, Calvin Klein clothes - are failing. His constant travelling, and acute insomnia, mean he's no longer sure where, why, or who he is anymore.

When the 'Northern Ireland Assembly' discussed the issue of abortion in June, the prospect of denying rights to women united politicians right across the so-called 'religious divide'. The Democratic Unionist Party proposed a motion to prevent the extension of the 1967 Abortion Act to the 6 Counties. The SDLP (Social Democratic and Labour Party!!) imposed a party whip in favour of the motion.