Anarchist Writers

Maurice Brinton, For Workers' Power, David Goodway (Ed.), AK Press, ISBN: 1904859070, 2004

Maurice Brinton was the pseudnum under which Christopher Pallis (1923-2005) wrote and translated for the British libertarian socialist group Solidarity from 1960 until the early 1990s. He was its leading and most influential member, unsurprisingly given the quality and insightfulness of his work, and his ideas still influence many today across the world.

This article looks at how direct action had forced one military airline out of Shannon in the context of how dependent modern wars are on long supply chains. This is used to argue that similar actions across Europe and the US could prevent the war from taking place.
"In this war our rulers do not need us to fight as soldiers, they would like but do not require our support for the war. They do however need us to remain passive, for if we turn our disgust at this war into action against it then their war machine will grind to a halt."

A front cover story for Workers Solidarity in 2002 on the use of Shannon airport for refuleing US war planes

Report on the massive anti-war march in Dublin February 2003 and the plans for the March 1st direct action at Shannon airport that developed out of the meeting that morning.

Refueling Peace is one of the many anti-war groups that has sprung up over the last year. They have defined themselves around a very specific purpose, to "monitor and stop US military flights refuelling in Ireland". The information gathering aspect of this is proving essential in moving the Shannon refuelling issue to the centre of the Irish anti-war movements.

In every country after February 15th 2003 the anti-war movement was faced with the question of what to do next. In Ireland almost all of the direct action protests were targeted on Shannon airport. More than half dozen successful actions took place, ranging from a large scale breach of the fence in October, to physical attacks on planes as the build up to war escalated. In response to these actions three out of the four airlines using the airport for troop transportation pulled out just before the start of the Iraq war.

From the summer of 2002 to the spring of 2003 there were numerous direct actions against war at Shannon airport in the west of Ireland. The airport is well located as a refueling stop for US troops being transported from the NE coast of America to the warzones in Afghanistan and Iraq.

At the end of the year the organisation called the Irish Anti War Movement went through an internal crisis as some of those involved tried to democratise it. When the Socialist Workers Party who controlled the IAWM responded by arranging the expulsion of some of its opponents from the committee most of the independent groups reacted by disaffiliating from the IAWM.

The war however goes on and in June George Bush visits Ireland. The question now is what sort of broad anti-war movement can be built that is genuinely inclusive and democratic?

I'm an Irish anarchist, a member of the Workers Solidarity Movement. These are some of the thoughts that have been mulling around in my mind since the Bradford conference. I am very aware that it is so much easier to criticise than to offer solutions, so bearing this in mind I would like to throw out five things (not solutions unfortunately) that came to mind in Bradford.

A brief overview of the conference - The May Day weekend saw hundreds of anarchists from all over Britain (and beyond) travel to the small town of Bradford in Yorkshire, Northern England. A local anarchist social centre, the 1in12 Club had organised (for the second year running) a weekend of activities under the title of 'Reclaim Mayday'.