Labour Party spokespeople after the enormous rejection their policies received in the elections have been trying to spin this as being down to some flaw in leadership. The implication being that there was no real problem with their role in imposing savage cuts on workers and marginalised people. No, instead we are to believe it was all a problem of the current Labour leaders not being skilful enough at ‘selling’ these cuts to the electorate.
Archives: Blog entry
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Wednesday 21st saw another successful defence against an eviction in Dublin. This time in the Stoneybatter area. We put out an alert after we were told that a gang of 3 men with crowbars "came this afternoon and broke in to one of the houses. About 40-50 people showed up outside to show support, then 5 Garda showed up. People inside resisted and argued until the alleged owners and Garda left the house and left the street to a large round of applause.
Everything is cool now. The street was closed off and there was lots of music, food, fun, and we managed to get the support of many parents and school children on the way home from school.
Generally speaking, the Garda didn’t know what to do and there was wide public support. Small victory for now"
It’s election time in Ireland and as usual the excitement of the electoral game has resulted in some on the left losing the plot. I’m referring in particular to the continued endorsement erstwhile leftists are giving to a virulently anti-choice MEP candidate, one Diarmuid O’Flynn. Diarmuid you see is considered sound on the issue of the bank bailout debt. That alone is enough to not only overlook his anti-choice politics but to attack those who raise this contradiction as ’posturing’ ‘minoritarian’ ‘arrogant’ ‘postmodern’ ‘moralists’ who lack an ‘alternative strategy’.
The insults quoted are all from a single afternoon Facebook row and were leveled at anyone who dared to question people on the left endorsing an MEP candidate who stated "The only occasion on which I can foresee abortion arising in the EU is as an equal rights/civil right issue. I would vigorously oppose any such imposition on Ireland.”
As seems usual these days, I’ve been far too busy to blog. Been busy in writing a reply to an article on Proudhon in the current Anarchist Studies on social property.
Over the years, Dublin’s working class has organised to fight landlords, developers and politicians in search of decent housing and well-being for all. This audio I edited is the panel at the 9th Dublin anarchist bookfair which considered how some of these earlier campaigns and direct actions can inform today’s struggles.
Dublin Housing Action: Past, Present and Future – Anarchist bookfair 2014 audio by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud
Audio I recroded and edited from DABF 2014 – Selma James lead off a discussion on sex work at the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair alongside, sex worker Jenny O, and Wendy Lyon who blogs at Feminist Ire
There is then a 30 minute discussion with the audience around anarchism, sex work and feminism.
Sex Work as Work: A Conversation with Selma James at the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud
My recording of the space we provided at this years Dublin Anarchist Bookfair at which people involved in a variety of struggles explained them and sought solidarity. There were three talks, Vegan Information Project , Stop NATO in Cymru and the International Organisation for a Participatory Society (IOPS).
This was a new experiment this year to try and provide space on a cramped schedule for groups which contacted usso I’m interested to hear how you thought it actually worked out.
Nelly Cuadros a community activist from the central department of Tolima, Colombia shared with the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair her stories of resistance, and lessons on uniting against injustice. Women play a central role in these communities and, in spite of discrimination as both peasants and women, are emerging as important social leaders for this pivotal time.
This talk was part of Latin American Solidarity Week. As a last minute addition to the program Leah also spoke about the struggle against Fracking in Ireland
At this session I edited from the Dublin anarchist bookfair Dave Douglass talked about his experiences of 1984 – the year the British mines almost defeated Thatcher. "That fight in 84-85 involved the whole community, it was not only about unions. It was partly about unions but it was about an industry, it was about a way of life. The miners were almost an ethnicity, with father to son for hundreds and hundreds of years in the same miner family. And we had a very strong revolutionary and radical tradition. So, all of the politics of power, fuel power was about political power and not just about energy. It was about more than that. It was about "Who rules ?""
The hardship of the current economic crisis has impacted unevenly across genders. This panel I recorded and edited from the 2014 Dublin Anarchist Bookfair discussed the intersection of austerity, care-work and women’s reproductive rights. Selma James and Conor McCabe presented with Conor focusing on what this has meant in Ireland in particular.