This is the collection of audio & video I recorded and edited from the 2018 Dublin anarchist bookfair.
For the launch of the 2018 Dublin anarchist bookfair we brought anarchist author Mark Bray over from the US to tell us about 'Pushing back the alt-right in the US'. Mark, who is the author of 'The Anti-Fascist Handbook' looked at what worked for anti-fascists over the last year. [video] [audio]
This is the collection of audio & video I recorded and edited from the 2018 Dublin anarchist bookfair.
For the launch of the 2018 Dublin anarchist bookfair we brought anarchist author Mark Bray over from the US to tell us about 'Pushing back the alt-right in the US'. Mark, who is the author of 'The Anti-Fascist Handbook' looked at what worked for anti-fascists over the last year. [video] [audio]
This was a period that opened with the large neo-fascist mobilisation in Charlottesville during which they murdered anti-fascist protester Heather Heyer. It also saw several other major battles where fascists attacked anti-fascists but where they were more and more often defeated. In the last months their main spokespeople admitted there post Trump election hopes of expansion had been contained by anti-fascist mobilisations.
One day in May we Repealed the 8th amendment. It is three months later. It is 35 years later. Now that the dust is settling this session of the 2018 Dublin Anarchist bookfair reflected on the struggle of abortion rights in Ireland, and in particular the abortion referendum. [audio]
What did we do well?
What did we do badly?
What did we learn?
What should we have done differently?
Speakers: Fionnghuala Nic Roibeaird (Rally for Choice), Maire Ni Mhordha (WSM), Mary Coogan (ARC Dublin), Kathy Darcy (Arc Cork)
The conversation covers;
- experiences of canvassing,
- tensions in the campaign between local groups and HQ,
- the messaging of the campaign,
- importance of time & space resources,
- problems with political parties using the campaign to harvest activists,
- the challenge of working in very broad campaigns for anarchists,
- the use of Savitas image in the context of racism in Ireland,
- the emotional cost of the campaign,
- women get shit done.
Panel from the 2018 Dublin Anarchist bookfair on the intersection between race politics, class and gender in Ireland with a particular focus on the current housing struggles and the Together for Yes referendum campaign / Repeal movement. [audio]
This audio is an independently organised panel from the 2018 Dublin Anarchist Bookfair on the bleak reality of climate change and its intersections with financial capitalism, state politics and migration. [audio]
What is climate change, where did it come from and why would Wall Street have anything to do with it?
What are fossil fuels and sure isn't climate change solved now I have a keepcup reusable coffee mug?! How far are we really from climate collapse, and what would that look like?
Who are the people we drown so we can continue our reliance on fossil fuels? Can capitalism facilitate decarbonisation or is revolution our only hope?
Just a few questions we'll attempted to answer in this panel discussion by Conor McCabe, Lucky Khamboule, and "Not Here Not Anywhere" in a panel session chaired by Sinéad Mercier.
People currently in Direct Provision talk about the dehumanising conditions and the large profits being made out of their suffering by the companies that own the direct provision centres. People don’t understand why we ended up in Direct Provision, we hope to bring our stories out of the shadows of Irish society. [audio]
The 12th Dublin anarchist bookfair heard this account from Wendy, a Human Rights & immigration lawyer who visited Rojava in May 2018 as part of a fact finding delegation. [audio]
Rough notes of topics covered; May 2018 delegation by Peace in Kurdistan Campaign and Kongreya Star woman organisation. Acknowledging limits of a short eyewitness organised trip, really really impressed by what I saw, some context about Democratic Federation of North Syria (Rojava), decision making structures, situation in Manbij, Kobane women’s communes, central role of gender equality and local contexts, the women’s only village, men serving the tea, the 3 levels of work, political, societal and the personal, anti-capitalism & co-ops, distribution of regime land to co-ops, remaining private property and the dangers of ethnic tension around redistribution, nationalism & ethnic groups, not a Kurdish project, visiting Kobane and conditions there, Kobane before the revolution, the revolution in Kobane from a women’s liberation perspective, ISIS targeting the women’s revolution with terror, the last cat in Kobane, Turkey assisting ISIS, situation in Afrin, sense of betrayal after playing the leading role in defeating ISIS, challenges of women liberation in the Manbij region, attitudes to western volunteers, economic work of the women’s movement, taxation system and the challenge of external trade, peoples mindset was positive despite horrible experiences because they saw what they were doing as such big forward step ‘Rojava is free; Here there is construction, everywhere else there is destruction’, what happens when Assad comes looking for the oil and agriculture, responding to some common western left criticisms, womens organising in Rojava as against Ireland
An in-depth interview with Mark Bray, author of ‘Translating Anarchy’, a book which tells the story of the anti-capitalist anti-authoritarians of Occupy Wall Street who strategically communicated their revolutionary politics to the public in a way that was both accessible and revolutionary. [Audio]
By “translating” their ideas into everyday concepts like community empowerment and collective needs, these anarchists sparked the most dynamic American social movement in decades. Andrew Flood, a WSM member, discussed the ongoing legacy of that anarchist influenced social movement with Mark, touching on its successes and failures and what we can learn from them