It used to be that revolutionary organisations had a monopoly on revolutionary knowledge. That was one of the reasons people joined and worked with them.  But now anyone who can use google can access vastly higher quality information on revolutions than I could in 1980's Dublin by going to SWP meetings or buying left papers.  

These photos are from the Action on X protest outside the Gender Equality Conference held in Dublin Castle as part of Ireland’s EU Presidency. Action on X is one of a number of pro-choice organisations in Ireland campaiging in advance of anticipated legislation in line with the X-case.  

Back in April thousands took part in the anti home tax march on the EU Finance ministers march in Dublin castle. The slideshow here are my better images from that demonstration and you will also find a link to the Facebook all that was fit to publish album.  A lot of work by the march organisers went into organising the iconic red card images you can see here, I suspect they will get a lit if reuse in years to come.

 When we have a disagreement with some as part of our political organising what are we trying to acheive?  Thats probably a question that it worth asking yourself whenever things start to get a bit heated.  In everyday life arguments are often really about quite problematic and aimed at asserting dominance, punishment & even humilation.  It's easiest to recognise those element in the darker parts of the web, comments on youtube videos for instance.  But when we have a strong disagreement as organisers we often fall into that pattern of behaviour, the point of the discussion becomes to 'win' and as things turn nasty to humilate the other side.  Which is probably going to be the worst outcome you could have if what you actually want to do is build an ongoing relationship.

Selma James, the activist and political writer, spoke in Ireland during the week. She has been active since the time of the Spanish revolution in a number of countries and across many struggles but is possibly best known for the International Wages for Housework Campaign and her writings around gender, class and racism. I got to her 'Defending Caring and Welfare in Careless Times' meeting for the School for Social Justice in UCD where I tweeted notes to the WSM Twitter feed. The video of her talk (but not the more controversial Q&A session) has also been uploaded as has her entire talk 'How Can Women Defeat Austerity?' at CERSA, NUI Maynooth.

Picture: Theresa O'Keefe, used with permission 

This photo is one I took a couple of weeks back at a national pro-choice meeting in Dublin called as part of the process of launching a new national campaign. I was stuck at home with an injured leg when I got a sequences of tweets & txts asking me if I could come in as there wasn't anyone else available and we wanted a photo to send out with the press release.  So I called a taxi and in I went.

Here is some useful life advise. If someone is trying to sell you something and their patter involves counting something you should probably walk away if they want to switch methodologies. Wanting to count two similar things in different ways when you intend to then make a comparison is pretty much the warning that a con is coming.

After the anti-choice Vigil For Life last week received press coverage that 'several thousand' had attended I wrote up a piece pointing out that counting the crowd from their own video gave a figure of a little over 1000. The methodology I based this on was that used by a pro-life blogger who goes under the interesting name of Thirsty Gargoyle. After the March for Choice in September he had made a big deal out of doing a count of 'every person' in a video and on that basis proclaiming that only 850 were present.

Saturday saw a major anti-austerity march through Dublin organised by Dublin Council of Trade Unions and the Campaign against the Household and Water Taxes.  The turnout was far larger than I expected, perhaps as many as 15,000 marched on a fairly miserable late Novemeber day.  I've a selection of some of the photos I took here, as usual there are much more in the WSM Facebook album for the event.

Saturday 17th Nov 2012 saw a Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) protest in the center of Dublin against the attacks on Gaza by the Israeli state.  Speakers at the protest on O'Connell street included a Gaza resident and a member of the Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall group - both speeches are in the embedded video.  For the curious I filmed this with a Go Pro Hero 2 which I wear on my head when I'm taking photos, that's why you will see my SLR coming into view from time to time.  

These are my photos from the many protests in Dublin following the death of Savita Halappanavar after she was refused an abortion in a hospital in Galway.  There is much to say about this and about the organisation of the protests but that will have to wait until I have time to do some writing.  In the meantime I think these photos capture something of the mood of the huge numbers of people who have taken to the streets to say Never Again.