Author: andrewnflood

The March 1st action at Shannon

Post author By andrewnflood
Post date January 31, 2008

If you were anywhere in Ireland in the last week of February you can’t have missed the hype ahead of the March 1^st direct action called at Shannon by the Grassroots Network Against the War (GNAW). Suddenly every politician, reporter and even bishop in the country was joining the queue to denounce the planned ‘violent’ protest. The morning before the protest irony died on its feet when Sinn Fein announce it was pulling out of the unrelated Irish Anti War Movement protest at the airport for fear of violence.

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Report on August 2002 anti-war protest at Shannon airport

Post author By andrewnflood
Post date January 31, 2008

A report on the first of the Grassroots Gathering direct action style protests against the re-fueling of US War planes at Shannon airport.

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Gardai attack globalisation protest at Dublin’s Burlington hotel

Post author By andrewnflood
Post date December 27, 2007

Flour in the lobby of the Burlington hotel during globalisation protest

A protest against an international privitisation conference at Dublin’s Burlington hotel Oct 10 2001 turned violent when the Gardai (Irish police) attacked protesters with batons. They were aided by a number of non uniformed men armed with sticks and torches, some of who may have been political police (Special Branch) but others appeared to be private security.

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The Mexican Zapatistas and direct democracy

Post author By andrewnflood
Post date October 23, 2007

On January 1st 1994, a rebel army called the Emiliano Zapata Liberation Front (EZLN) rose against the Mexican government in Chiapas, Mexico. Workers Solidarity contributor Andrew Flood has been researching the life of ordinary people in the Zapatista area. Below he writes about some of his findings

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Anarchism, the Zapatista’s and the emerging anti-capitalist movement

Post author By andrewnflood
Post date October 23, 2007

This is the text of a talk given to the WSM Ideas & Action dayschool 13 Nov 1999 shortly before the Seattle WTO protests. It looks at whay anarchists should be interested in the Zapatista rebellions and in particular references the anti-capitalist network that was emerging around the rebellion.

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Why parliament is a fraud

Post author By andrewnflood
Post date October 9, 2007

We are used to being promised the sun, moon and stars in elections only to receive cuts, cuts and cuts. Is this just because all politicians are liars or are there deeper reasons? Abstention from elections has been an anarchist tactic from the time of Bakunin. In this article we look at some of the reasons anarchists advocate abstention/spoilt votes. The right to the vote was part of the hard won struggles of workers (and suffragettes!) over the last couple of hundred years. Obviously it is preferable to live in a parliamentary democracy rather than a dictatorship. Even the most flawed democracies are forced to concede rights that dictatorships do not, such as relative independence for trade unions, the right to limited demonstrations, a certain amount of free speech, etc.

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An anarchist look at the Russian Revolution

Post author By andrewnflood
Post date September 28, 2007

The Russian revolution has been a subject of key importance to anarchists for two reasons. The first reason is that for the first time in history a working class revolution succeeded in ousting the old ruling classes. The second reason is that after the old ruling class was ousted a new class came to power. Those of us who want to make a revolution to-day must understand where the successes and failures of the past came from.

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Whatever happened to the Anarchist Workers Group

Post author By andrewnflood
Post date September 28, 2007

The emergence of the Anarchist Workers Group at the start of the 1990’s was something the WSM welcomed. Most of the people involved initially with the AWG came from the South London branch of the Direct Action Movement. At least one founder member of the Anarchist Communist Federation (ACF) was also involved initially in the AWG. This meant they also had a branch in the North of England made up of people from Manchester and Liverpool.

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The changing nature of the working class

Post author By andrewnflood
Post date September 28, 2007

The nature of the working class to-day is quite different from that of a hundred years ago. In the late 80’s a large part of the left interpreted this as meaning socialism was no longer possible, that the best hope was to form alliances with greens and others in a rainbow coalition which would attempt to limit the worst excesses of capitalism.

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The Greek Communist Party during the second world war and Civil War

Post author By andrewnflood
Post date September 28, 2007
4 Comments on The Greek Communist Party during the second world war and Civil War

Greece has been a somewhat unstable entity throughout its history and particularly with the coming into being of nation states in the 18th century. Its borders have shifted, expanded and contracted on several occasions over the last 200 years leaving behind a legacy of quite virulent Greek nationalism. Greek armies were also involved in foreign intervention against the Russian revolution in north west Asia minor.