Workers Solidarity Movement

An mp3 talk on the Kibbutz movement in Palestine / Israel focusing on the radical and anarchist elements of it.

At this stage its unsurprising in the least to read Royal Dutch Shell propoganda being presented as "journalism" by the Irish Independent and its stable mate, the Sunday Indo. Most readers of this site will be only too aware that the paper's owner 'Sir' Tony O Reilly has a very practical and profitable interest in the vast amounts of oil and gas of the West coast of Ireland.

However even by the hack standards of journalism, and right wing opinions, that grace the paper, yesterdays piece by Maeve Sheehan suggest not just the usual biased and unnuaced 'presentation of facts' but has an almost willful ignorance of the facts on the ground. Combined with a willingness to present Shell and Police PR without any simple background checks or colloratory evidence over such an 'extensive' (read: its got a big word count) this article would be most useful for any who sought a practical example of what Noam Chomsky describes as the 'manufacturing of consent'

In June of this year the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) wrote to its members in all primary schools in the Republic announcing that a National Rally on the issue of class size would take place on Saturday 4th October. Posters were included for display in schools and staff reps were urged to begin the process of building a delegation of teachers and parents to represent their school at the rally.

Last week another communication arrived in schools from INTO head office. This informed members that the 4th October rally “will not proceed… as previously indicated.” Here Gregor Kerr, a member of the Dublin City North Branch of the INTO (writing in a personal capacity) analyses why the union leadership have backed off from the rally, asks whether they really have the bottle for a fight on this issue, and urges a grassroots campaign to deliver victory on the issue.

Over a period of several months Sean Matthews interviewed a representative from the anti-fa organisation in relation to their current activity in combatting the far-right, building support with migrant workers and lessons we can learn in Ireland both North and South plus lots more...... 

Anti-fa is committed to physically and idealogical opposition to fascism. The 'Antifa' initiative has come from members of the Anarchist Federation, Class War Federation, and No Platform. Although coming from the anarchist tradition, antifa are open to work with any group/individual that is serious about militant anti-fascism, but will NOT work with any state affiliated groups. Image: *eightball* - http://flickr.com/photos/kola1965/

The progress of the Irish Peace process has been both a long and turbulent one. It had seen the development in recent times of the once unimaginable, with Ian Paisley the leader of the DUP and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuiness sharing Power within the local administration. Since then, Paisley has stood down and Peter Robinson has taken over such leadership roles. No doubt in the years ahead many will attempt to pull the threads together of how such in it’s entirety had been moved to happen. Yet with now seeing such an administration up and running, has it delivered beneficial change for working class communities, and more importantly what change, if any, has there been for working class communities since the ending of the ‘war’.

When it comes to ‘spin’, ‘bling’ and ‘mantra’ Sinn Fein are masters in disguise and a mouthpiece of New Labour......
During this year’s West Belfast Feile Talk Back we were once again greeted with the sight of Deputy First Minister Martin McGuiness in a dazzling, articulate performance that left the unionist opposition in a limbo and would make former Labour spin doctor Alistair Darling proud. Beneath the hollow words from the platform on the need to ‘work together’, ‘building an Ireland of equals’ or ‘we face many challenges’ lies a much more sinister side based on cut-throat Thatcherite capitalism that Sinn Fein and all the other political rulers seek to promote and impose.

As we as workers and unemployed continue to bear the brunt of the rising cost of living and economic downturn weasel words from current British prime minister Gordon Brown and local administration that they understand ‘our concerns’ and tighten our belts is ok for some with their fat cat salary and the perks. It’s seems that our bosses including trade union bureaucrats are clearly divorced now more than ever from the everyday realities and concerns facing our class.

When most people think of benefit fraud they usually think of the ‘solitary criminal figure’ that doesn’t want to work and who continually pockets more from the benefit system than they have been allocated. This vision is primarily the image conjured up by the mainstream media, politicians and the gutter press such as the Sun. It’s ok if your filthy rich and wealthy such as the Murdoch mafia who can afford to hire lawyers and keep their money in offshore accounts away from the public gaze.

With a large number of conflicting interpretations in circulation, many voters’ voting decisions depended on whom they trusted the most. 

When it came down to it, the side that was represented by politicians and IBEC was always going to be in trouble. In the end, the loyalty test split the electorate on class lines. The wealthier constituencies trusted their politicians and business leaders more, the rest of the country sided against them and with the left or the nationalists.

The NO victory in Ireland is a clear demonstration of the lack of support among the people for the European project being promoted by the Brussels technocrats and the transnational corporations grouped together in the capitalist cartel, the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT). This rejection by the country with the highest levels of approval and popularity for the EU shows that a different form of European unity is needed, a real unity of all the people. And the gap between public opinion and their "representatives" is a clear sign of the crisis in representative democracy and the need for direct democracy.