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Friday March 25, 2005 23:09 by Andrew - WSM
The Workers Solidarity Movement is the Irish anarchist communist organisation who members are involved in anarkismo.net. It has been active on a wide range of issues in Ireland for over 20 years. The Workers Solidarity Movement was founded in Dublin, Ireland in 1984 following discussions by a number of local anarchist groups on the need for a national anarchist organisation. At that time with unemployment and inequality on the rise, there seemed every reason to argue for anarchism and for a revolutionary change in Irish society. This has not changed
Like most socialists we share a fundamental belief that capitalism is the problem. We believe that as a system it must be ended, that the wealth of society should be commonly owned and that its resources should be used to serve the needs of humanity as a whole and not those of a small greedy minority. But, just as importantly, we see this struggle against capitalism as also being a struggle for freedom. We believe that socialism and freedom must go together, that we cannot have one without the other. As Mikhail Bakunin, the Russian anarchist said, "Socialism without freedom is tyranny and brutality". Anarchism has always stood for individual freedom. But it also stands for democracy. We believe in democratising the workplace and in workers taking control of all industry. We believe that this is the only real alternative to capitalism with its on going reliance on hierarchy and oppression and its depletion of the world's resources. In the years since our formation, we've been involved in a wide range of struggles - our members are involved in their trade unions; we've fought for abortion rightsand against the presence of the British state in Northern Ireland, and against the growth of racism in southern Ireland; we've also been involved in campaigns in support of workers from countries as far apart as Nepal, Peru and South Africa. Alongside this, we have produced over eighty issues of our paper Workers Solidarity, and a wide range of pamphlets. As anarchists we see ourselves as part of a long tradition that has fought against all forms of authoritarianism and exploitation, a tradition that strongly influenced one of the most successful and far reaching revolutions in this century - in Spain in 1936 - 37. The value of this tradition cannot be underestimated today. With the fall of the Soviet Union there is renewed interest in our ideas and in the tradition of libertarian socialism generally. We hope to encourage this interest with Red & Black Revolution. We believe that anarchists and libertarian socialists should debate and discuss their ideas, that they should popularise their history and struggle, and help point to a new way forward. Our newspaper Workers Solidarity is now a free news-sheet and appears 6 times a year. With a print-run of 6,000, this means a huge increase in the number of people here in Ireland receiving information about anarchism and struggle for change. We have simplified the process for joining the WSM. Although the basics still hold - you have to agree with the WSM's democratically decided policies and you have to agree to work for these - joining is a lot more straight forward. If you want details on this just write or email us. In recent years the WSM has been very active in opposing the war and in particular in helping to organise direct actions at Shannon. We also fought the introduction of bin charges in Dublin, our Cork members were also involved in the campaign there and were also been active in the Old Head of Kinsale struggle. In terms of helping to build a broad libertarian movement in Ireland we have continued to work in the Grassroots Gathering. We also initiated campaigns against both Nice referenda, in the second over 50,000 libertarian leaflets were distributed. We were involved in the organisation of a number of Reclaim the Streets including the one that saw the Gardai riot on Dame street. We helped defeat the 2002 March 6th anti abortion referendum and were very involved in bringing Women on Waves to Ireland before that referendum. We played a significant role in organising against the EU summitas part of the Dublin Grassroots network To get regular updates about what we are up to subscribe to our mailing list Ainriail The WSM currently has three branches in Ireland, two in Dublin and one in Cork. If you are interested in finding out more about anarchism or the WSM, contact us
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Last year the Workers Solidarity Movement celebrated its 20th Birthday. It was also a year of firsts.
On May the first, Dublin Grassroots Network had the largest libertarian demonstration ever seen in Ireland. As the EU leaders met in Farmleigh house, over 4,000 people occupied Fitzwilliam Square, had a party on Gardiner Street and marched against the right wing agenda of the new EU. The media hype that preceded the event had to be seen to be believed. In the month preceding the event the press carried bizarre and fabricated stories about dangerous anarchists intent on burning Dublin to the ground.
In another first, the Late Late Show featured anarchists explaining why they intended to march. The look on Pat Kennys face when he realised the woman he was interviewing was actually an anarchist caused many of us to chuckle.
A month later, we were on the go again, this time heading down to Shannon (some of us cycled!) to protest at the arrival of George Bush. Unfortunately, though the majority of the Irish people are against the war, Shannon airport is still being used by the US military on their way to Iraq. It wasn't our first time at Shannon, and neither will it be the last. As long as the US persists in its occupation of Iraq, we will oppose the use of Shannon airport as a military base.
Before the Bush visit we took part alongside the Campaign Against the Rascist Referendum (CARR) in campaigning in the citizenship referendum, and were disappointed but not too surprised when a huge majority of the Irish population accepted this racist proposal. The rise of intolerance and racism is perhaps the most ugly side of Irish society today.
In June there was another first, we rented an office in Dublin. The lack of meeting space is a major problem for any group trying to organise itself and although the office costs us a lot, it makes political activity much easier. In the next year, on the first Sunday of each month we will be showing political films and documentaries there, as well as using it for our normal discussions and meetings
In October, we spoke at the Irish Social Forum and later that month, again as part of the Dublin Grassroots Network, we helped organise a demonstration against the Less Lethal Weapons Conference.
This year some of us, unfortunately, had to spend time attending court cases. There is a definite trend to criminalise protest, with more and more protesters being arrested often on spurious charges. Just before May Day three English anarchists were arrested near an abandoned building. Two of them were forced to stay in Dublin for six months while they waited for their trial. Happily the case was thrown out for lack of evidence, but in a sense thanks to the truly draconian bail conditions, the activists had already been punished. This use of the court system is cynical in the extreme. On another pessimistic note, all but one of the police who were shown on RTE news beating Reclaim the Streets protesters were, astoundingly, found by a jury to be not guilty of assault. The mind boggles. We were delighted that Mary Kelly did not have to serve prison time for her action against the US military machine in Shannon. The other Shannon defendants will be facing the courts again shortly, as will some of those arrested after the May Day demonstrations on the Navan road.
The year wasn't all hard work. We attended two Grassroots Gatherings, one in Cork and one in Belfast. The next Grassroots Gathering is in Dublin so those of us living in Dublin will be busy helping to organise that. During the summer some of us went to the Anarchist Summer Camp, for a gentle weekend of relaxation by the beautiful mountains of Mourne.
Last year was quite busy and this year probably will be as well. One development we really like is the 'seomra spraoi' initiative (see article elsewhere). A year ago it would have been hard to see this coming together, let's see what happens by this time next year!