Masked Garda threatening people with batons in the aftermath of the violent eviction carried out by thugs in Dublin last night. Pepper spray, dogs and batons were deployed, there were 5 or 6 arrests and four housing campaigners required hosptial visits from injuries received in the course of the eviction of the Frederick St occupation. [Video]
Archives: Blog entry
A <em>blog entry</em> is a single post to an online journal, or <em>blog</em>.
Saturday 8th of September saw another building occupied in Dublin as part of the Take Back the City campaign, this is the 3rd occupation in a little over a month. The new occupied building is on 41 Belvedere Place as the video shows over 100 people gathered outside in support of the occupation.
Sorry for the lack of blogging and articles, but have been somewhat busy. First, I had to prepare a talk on the 1848 Revolution (which I now need to write up).
60,000 people marched as part of Pride this year in Dublin according to the organisers. This would make it the largest to date, this year was also significant as it was marking 25 years since the 1993 decriminalisation of sex between men.
25 years after the government finally removed the 10 year jail sentence for sex between men the Irish army marched near the front of parade, with many in the army band wearing rainbow angel wings. There was one lone counter protester marching along the route 100m ahead of Pride with a cornflakes box on the end of a umbrella. He had stuck a religious icon and the slogan ‘Sodomy is Sexual Abuse’ on the side of the box! While that was pretty laughable we do not forget that on the eve of the pride there were homophobic attacks in Dublin and Laois so we have a lot to fight for even if Pride today can feel more like a corporate sponsored carnival than a protest.
An Anarchist FAQ (AFAQ) is now at version 15.1. The main part of this release is a revision of the appendix on the various oppositions within the Bolshevik party:
I am happy to announce that the final book published in Kropotkin’s lifetime – Modern Science and Anarchy – is now available in English translation, namely 1913’s La Science Moderne et L’Anarchie. I would like to thank the comrades of AK Press for this finally happen, 105 years in the making. More details can be found on the UK and USA AK Press webpages.
Last night we received information (screen shot above) that the No campaign intend to engage in Trump style voter suppression methods by trying to get their people appointed as personation officers at polling stations. They intend to target stations likely to have a high Yes voter the hope that increasing the number of challenges will result in enough Yes voters being unable vote to make a difference if, as is still possible, the result is close. Be sure to bring ID when you go to vote on Friday, the polling card is NOT in itself ID.
In the week before the 1995 divorce referendum the catholic bishops put out a statement commanding their flock to vote No. The WSM reacted to this by putting up posters reading ‘The bishops; They hid priests who raped children and now they want to lecture us about morals.." illustrated with a photograph of Father Brendan Smyth who had raped at least 143 children and whose religious order had hid these actions from the police. The enquiry had found that "..despite knowing his history of abusing children, the Norbertine religious order moved Smyth to different dioceses where he abused more children.."
As the referendum to remove the 8th amendment approaches in Ireland the No campaign are turning to increasingly nasty shock tactics. The 8th amendment passed in 1983 removes healthcare control from pregnant people and puts it in the hands of the courts, it was inserted to ban abortion but in fact impacts every aspect of pregnancy.
The Dublin May Day march last night took place in miserable weather conditions, the parade was led off the Trade Union Repeal the 8th banners – Repeal was one of the march themes and copies of a newspaper aimed at trade unionists called Yes Repeal were also distributed.
Another Dublin May Day theme was working rights for migrants following the farcical new rules that supposedly give asylum seekers a right to work but which in practice few qualify under and which require too much paper work for employers to bother with for a 6 month contract.