Workers Solidarity Movement

Interested in anarchism and looking for others to talk about it with and maybe get your questions answered? Conversations about Anarchism is returning this November and all are welcome.

Conversations about Anarchism is a facilitated discussion group that takes and collectively answers some questions designed to help us explore what anarchism is about and what anarchists do.

The 9th Belfast anarchist bookfair takes place this weekend 14 October - 16 October with the main bookfair events being at the Black Box 19-22 Hill Street, on Saturday from 11.30am to 5pm.  On Friday night there are events at Just Books 22 Berry Street, Belfast

When did you first become active or interested in politics?
Politics is something that it’s hard not to have, especially living in Derry. Politics would always come up in conversation no matter where I went or what I was doing. I always voiced my opinions and had most people agree with what I had to say. When it came to doing something about it like becoming involved and actually joining an organisation that was different.

The massive complex of squatted buildings at Grangegorman was evicted for a second time in early August, this time its likely to be permanent at the plan is to build a huge number of expensive to rent student apartments on the site.

The eviction was anticipated and a lot of material was moved over the days around August 11th when 'heavies' broke through the gates but were told to back off and allow time for material to be moved out when the Garda arrived.  The squatters were quietly moving to another large abandoned building nearby that had been squatted recently, the Debtors Prison on Halston street. Central Dublin is full of such abandoned buildings despite the worst housing crisis in the history of the state. Welcome to Ireland 2016 where protecting the rights of vulture funds to make millions come far, far ahead of needs of those without secure accommodation.

This is the first of issue of Barricade Bulletin, news sheet of the Derry Anarchists.  It is our intension to issue this free news sheet every two months locally to help generate anarchist info and knowledge of class struggle anarchism to a wider audience beyond the boundaries and limitations of the internet.  

If you would like to get involved with anarchists locally, to take part in anarchist activity, discussions and conversations, prisoner support or contribute to Barricade Bulletin, then drop us a line to our email: derryanarchists@gmail.com

To mark todays 80th anniversary of the Spanish revolution and what is also the 4th anniversary of the Rojava revolution in Kobane this recording of a Kurdish version of A Las Barricadas has just been released.

It's recorded in Qamişlo, Rojava by members of the Mohamed Şêxo art and culture centre. The performers say "What happened in Barcelona on 19th July 1936 was repeated 76 years later. We started in Kobanê, and it was there that we put up our fiercest resistance. Countless comrades have fallen to defend this city against the fascists, just like the countless comrades who gave their live to defend the revolution in Catalonia and Spain.

We are excited by the news that a new radical social centre opened 6th June in Squat City, Grangegorman named the Violet Autonomous Space (after Violet Gibson, the Irish woman who once shot at Mussolini!).

Presentation given by Davide Turcato about the ideas and contributions of Italian Anarchist Errico Malatesta

“Communal Luxury” takes as its subject matter the Paris Commune of 1871, one of the single greatest advances toward a free society ever attempted in human history. The Commune arose in the course of a devastating war between France and Prussia (Germany), with the French army’s defeat prompting the collapse of the imperialist, authoritarian French regime. The people of Paris organised their own defence, bought their own cannons, and refused to hand said cannons over to the new French Republic. Instead, staging a worker-led insurrection, they declared Paris to be liberated from both the French and Prussian forces and set about constructing a free society, one in which all comers participated in decision-making and all wealth was shared in common. The Commune lasted some 72 days in the spring of 1871 before being brutally crushed by the reactionary forces of Nation, Church, State and Capital. Some 25,000 men, women, and children were executed.

A wave of deadly attacks took place last night in Paris and Saint-Denis. The French government has been conducting wars in several countries (Libya, Mali, Syria ...) for years. These wars today have an impact on the French territory.

We are confronted to attacks aiming to spread terror and to stir up divisions within the population. Alternative Libertaire condemns these attacks: killing people at random in the street in the sole purpose of frightening is abject. These attacks are the work of a political movement - the Salafist jihadism - whose first victims are the civilian populations of the Middle East and which has already hit Beirut in recent days. This same political movement that continues to wage war against Kurdish progressive forces in Syria.