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Archives: Blog entry
A <em>blog entry</em> is a single post to an online journal, or <em>blog</em>.
Saturday 20th saw another #ExtinctionRebellionrally take place in Dublin. Our video shows as it marches to block O’Connell bridge.
Several hundred people marched through Dublin this afternoon as part of Extinction Rebellion Ireland. They then moved to block the northbound lane of O’Connell bridge. This is in the context of the UN science report that says we only have until 2030 so that’s now getting nearer to 11 than 12 years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to prevent a disastrous climate change of 2 degrees centigrade or higher. We are already seeing devastation in many parts of the world most recently in Mozambique and in Iran where unusual big weather events caused very heavy flooding.
First, I’ve been busy working on two talks – one in Glasgow and another in Edinburgh. I’ve posted a couple of new articles: Precursors of Syndicalism II (on the I.W.P.A. and the “Chicago Idea”) and a review of Rupturing the Dialectic by Harry Cleaver. In addition, I added something to the AFAQ blog on The Symbols of Anarchy, revisited and something on the Proudhon blog entitled Hal Draper on Proudhon: the anatomy of a smear.
For some, the verdict of history is of little consequence. Marxists in particular seem unconcerned that every mainstream Marxist movement and revolution has become authoritarian, at its worse dictatorial, at its best bureaucratic. Rather than socialism, state-capitalism has been created time and time again.
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]
I was at the Aboprtion Rights Campaign christmas party when I heard Mary do the spoken word piece on the organisation behind the succesful campaign that forced and then won the referendum that over turned the ban on abortion from the Irish constitution. My immediate reaction was to talk to her about getting a recording together and a couiple of months later we started to work on the Ode to ARC video, which is really my first serious go at making a video that isn’t just footage of a march passing with my narration.
In the campaign for a chance to repeal the hated 8th amendment – the anti-choice clause that was in the Irish constitution – March 8th 2017 was a key date. On that morning thousands of people took a day off work or college to hold protests in the city centre demanding a referendum that then converged on O’Connell street bridge, blocking it for a couple of hours around lunchtime. That evening there was an International Womens Day march, also demanding a referendum.
We included an appendix on “The Symbols of Anarchy” in An Anarchist FAQ which covered the two main flags of Anarchy, the black and the red-and-black. Later, we blogged about “The Red Flag of Anarchy” and how the likes of Proudhon and Bakunin associated themselves with this iconic embalm of labour and socialism. Here, we add new material.
Since last blogging, I’ve been concentrating on my two talks. Both were well attended (beyond official capacity) and seemed to go down well, although obviously the audience decides that. I tried to get too much in the first talk, but then I had to cover a lot of ground (maybe in ten libertarians would have been better?). Still, it was nice to go through such important activists and thinkers – particularly women libertarians, as these are often overlooked (which was why the Five Leaves people wanted it organised).
In the aftermath of the huge march in support of the nurses on Saturday [video] the government suddenly found a pay deal it could put on the table, leading to the INMO suspending the strike until that deal is discussed and voted on.
According to RTE the suggested deal, which some nurses have expressed strong reservations about, would see a "new grade being created including the Enhanced Nurse Practice Grade which is a pay scale that is higher than the existing scale, by an average €2,000 to €2,500 – around 7% – and will range from €35,806 to €45,841 per annum. Nurses would be eligible to apply for the enhanced grade after four years’ service."