The decade long struggle against the construction of an experimental raw gas pipeline by Shell as part of its Corrib gas project continued in the west of Ireland with further direct actions against the project and the opening of a public hearing by the planning authority on the latest phase of Shell’s plan. Meanwhile the irish government continues to give away hundreds of billions of oil & gas reserves to corporations. These two reports published on the WSM site this week explain the latest developments.
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In July 1914, the Shanghai Association of Anarchist Communist Comrades published its statement of principles, concluding with the resolution that, "the implementation of anarchist communism depends on the strength of our party. If we wish to increase our party’s strength, uniting as a whole body and advancing together is our most important task today. Wherever they are, all our comrades should unite with those who share the same purposes and establish groups in free association.” The key member of this group was a Chinese anarchist known as Shifu who was to die a mere nine months later. Although the group carried on after his death, the core concept of this paragraph was never to be implemented. [Italian translation] [Greek translation] [Dutch translation]
A few years back, I published a few articles in Freedom on raising the demand for co-operatives in response to the economic crisis. These were ‘Bailouts or co-operatives?’ and ‘Co-operatives and conflicts!’ (although they appeared in Freedom slightly edited). The last was in reply to another article on this subject, which was replied to on-line.
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“The Coming Insurrection” Review
This is the English translation of the principle piece of evidence in an anti-terrorism case in France. Nine people were arrested in 2008, mostly in the village of Tarnac, under the charge of sabotaging overhead electrical lines on the French railways. With only little circumstantial evidence available, the French Interior Minister has associated them with a ultra-left insurrectionary movement and singled out this book as a “manual for terrorism.” It is not that, but is it a manual for revolution?
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Syndicalism, Anarchism and Marxism
Instead of trying to squeeze Marxism into syndicalism, it would be better to ask why so many “Marxists” rejected the legacy of Marx and embraced positions (revolutionary unionism, primacy of economic struggle, the general strike, unions as the structure of a socialist society, etc.) which were expounded by Bakunin and attacked by the founders of their ideology. Looking at what the syndicalists themselves said, the ideas of Bakunin and what Marx and Engels advocated, it quickly becomes apparently that Marxism was not one of the “core ideological elements” of syndicalism. In reality, syndicalism was simply, as so many syndicalists and others stressed, a new name for the ideas raised in the IWMA and for which Bakunin was a leading advocate.Syndicalism, Anarchism and Marxism
In the aftermath of the summit protests many on the libertarian left followed a set of tactics which concentrated on marginal workers in insecure employment. From the strategic point of view, it would seem to make more sense to imagine a wave of organization that starts with workers who are concentrated into larger workplaces and whose strikes have some real social power.
This collection of articles covers the attack by the Israeli military on the Freedom Flotilla which was attempting to break the siege of Gaza. The muderous attack resulted in the deaths of at least ten activists and the wounding of dozens. More of the hundreds kidnapped off the high seas by the Israeli pirate action were injured when they were beaten in jail. These articles also include coverage of some of the protests that then took place in Dublin. All were originally written as the stories broke for the WSM site.
Two articles on protests in Dublin to mark the 100th day of imprisonment of Erris fisherman Pat O’Donnell for his continued resistance to Shell’s attempt to impose an experimental raw gas pipeline on the people of Kilcommon. The second article describes the occupation of the Department of Natural Resources that was part of this day of action
Gardai have again attacked campaigners protesting at the bank bailouts this time with batons and dogs. This morning around 7am four people got onto on the overhang of Anglo irish Bank and chained themselves together with a banner read that read ‘People of Ireland Rise Up.’ In the last half hour a force of some 50 police, secret police and dogs attacked them and their supporters on the ground with batons, fists and feet. At least six were arrested as a melee broke out on Dawson street.
Around the time of the visit of Shell’s pipe-laying ship the Solitaire in June, it became clear that the Gardai had been told that they could do anything to remove Shell to Sea campaigners from the scene and they would be looked after. Rulings from the District Court, in particular the denial of bail to 7 campaigners charged with the most minor of public order offences, removed people with vital water skills from the area by interning them in Mountjoy and Castlerea prisons. Local fisherman Pat O’Donnell had one of his boats sunk from under him when four masked men boarded the boat in the middle of the night and held Pat and the other crew member at gunpoint while they sabotaged the boat, leading to its sinking. When Pat took to sea in another boat as the Solitaire arrived, he was arrested under the Public Order Act for loitering and once more sent to prison, leaving the way clear for the Solitaire.