Workers Solidarity Movement

Three days after Christmas, on one of those clear winter days during which the dark clouds are pierced by a sunlight that turns the water to silver, a group of friends gathered at Bull Island in the heart of Dublin city to say goodbye to Sue Richardson. Sue died in October in 2011, aged seventy, sitting at her kitchen table, waiting for the kettle to boil.  At her funeral a former housemate said, ‘Sue had an uncanny knack of turning the conversation away from herself’. She had an extraordinary life, yet spoke very little about it. The story here cannot be anything but incomplete.

Image: Sue on a pro-Choice picket of
a Rogue agency in Dublin in 2007

The idea of direct action is sometimes misunderstood as meaning anything violent, anything from a brick through a window to a full-scale guerrilla war. Our political opponents go out of their way to spread confusion because they know that in a “battle of ideas” they would lose. That is why they portray anarchism as a ludicrous system of chaos and disorganiation.

Interview with veteran Irish anarchist activist Alan MacSimoin on how he became interested in anarchism, his work in researching the history of Irish anarchism and hopes for the future.

This conversation between anarchists from the so-called “peripherals” in the Eurozone, Portugal, Ireland, and Spain took place by timely coincidence on the very day that saw the birth of the Spanish M15 movement.  This spread for a period around the globe and was to some degree a precursor or pattern for the “Occupy Everywhere” movement which emerged later this year. On a historical point of interest, in this conversation we also look at the precursor to the M15 movement, the March 12th mass demonstrations in Portugal called by the Geração À Rasca movement.

During the upsurge of protest in Egypt ahead of the elections, protests that demanded that the miltary step down and the 12,000 political prisoners be released the WSM signed the following international solidarity statement initiated by the Egyptian Libertarian Socialist Movement on Anarkismo.net.

The statement signed by 23 organisations in 20 countries was also published in [العربية] [Català] [Castellano] [Français] [Ελληνικά] [Italiano] and [Danish].

As revolution once more erupts in Egypt Yasser Abdullah from the Egyptian Libertarian Socialist Movement has explained what is going on in two interviews with Anarkismo.net. He outlines the origins of this latest phase of the revolution, of note is how a sit-in of just a few dozen a few days ago was the catalyist that has resulted in the mobilizations of hundreds of thousands. (Image: Lilian Wagdy)

Yasser looks at the relationship between the Islamists including the Muslim Brotherhood and the military council (SCAF) and how those defending the square on the 20th were the "the main revolutionary forces and the unorganised youth" and not the brotherhood. On the 20th Yasser concludes by saying "the people now realize that their power lies in a leaderless, collective movement."

By the 22nd Sharraf’s government is offering to resign and Yasser is outlining what the demands of the people are and that the Egyptian anarchist communist movement is using the slogan "All power to the people" and "calling for civil disobedience all over Egypt and for a general strike by the Egyptian workers."

Early in the morning the crew arrive from the Occupy Cork camp to do their dish washing in the back kitchen of Solidarity Books. At 12 o'clock the days first volunteer arrives to open the bookshop and by lunch time the campers are back for the lunchtime wash up.  By evening the bookshop is closed but will invariably re open by 8 for a meeting or organising group, maybe a movie showing or a talk, the Climate Campers doing their vegan cafe or it could be the Couchsurfers for their meet up, maybe the Campaign Against the HouseHold Tax for an organising meeting or just a crew to paste posters onto corriboard.

Irish anarchism is a relatively new movement. We do not yet enjoy the popular understanding of anarchist ideas that can be found among thousands of militants and the wider working class in countries like Spain and Italy and across Latin America. However, this is slowly changing, partly as we begin to uncover forgotten events. This pamphlet provides a small glimpse of the history of Belfast anarchism, an idea that continues to grow, spreading the message of radical working class direct action on the streets of Belfast.

Seventy-five years ago, in Barcelona and across much of the rest of Spain, anarchists and other radical workers, in order to stop Franco’s attempted coup, stormed army barracks, took over the factories and kicked off “the greatest revolutionary festival in the history of contemporary Europe.”(p.173). A familiar story no doubt, however, unlike many ostensible working class histories of the period, that are often just histories of workers’ organisations, Ealham’s engaging writing and theoretical fluency give us a complete view of proletarian life, from community centres in the city’s slums, to unemployed groups of shoplifters, to general strikes and uprisings.  

Unemployment is at alarming levels. There are hundreds of thousands of workers who would take any job. At least it is better than being on the dole. But of course that is what unemployment is all about. It is a tool the bosses use to discipline those in work and help them keep wages low. Also, as workers are let go those remaining are expected to take on more work. Few workers are resisting this. Most just want to hang on to what they have.