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Strong attendence at Irish anarchist bookfair

category ireland / britain | anarchist movement | news report author Wednesday March 26, 2008 20:19author by Gregor Kerr - WSM Report this post to the editors

The Dublin Anarchist Bookfair – held this year on the weekend of 14th and 15th March – has firmly established itself as the biggest and most exciting event on the political left in Ireland.
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This year’s event kicked off on Friday night with an informal get-together in the Teachers’ Club attended by anarchists and libertarians from across the country and from abroad. Old friendships were renewed and new ones made. Pints were drunk, music was listened to and there was plenty of chat and debate until the early hours.

Despite a day-long downpour, Saturday’s Bookfair saw over 800 people pass through during the day. 13 different meetings were held discussing topics as varied as the Health service, the Lisbon treaty, climate change, feminism and class, trade union organisation and many many more…. Several thousand Euros worth of books and pamphlets were purchased from stalls operated by Workers Solidarity Bookservice, Barracka Books, Just Books, Anarchist Federation, Irish Socialist Network, Oxfam Bookstore and others. Pamphlets and leaflets from a vast array of campaigns and political organisations including Revolutionary Anarchafeminist Group, Shell to Sea, Residents Against Racism, Choice Ireland, Seomra Spraoi and Justice for Mumia Abu Jamal were distributed.

All day long, the film room showed alternative movies. And, in the kids’ area, there was crafts and fun aplenty.

Most importantly of all, on an informal level there was plenty of chat, discussion and debate. The great thing about attending an event like the Anarchist Bookfair is the number of new people one meets. It’s a friendly forum where people can dip in and out. People who know nothing about anarchism but are simply looking for new ideas can come along and chat to others in a non-threatening, easy-going environment. And anarchists, libertarians and others who are involved in political groups and campaigns can meet like-minded individuals, share ideas and debate differences – again all in a friendly and comradely manner.

For those of us involved in organising this year’s Bookfair, there is no better or more satisfying feeling than standing in the hall in the Teachers’ Club and watching the browsing, the chatting and the discussion unfold. The weeks and months of planning and organising were all worthwhile on seeing this and on seeing successful meetings and debates take place. We were delighted to be able to welcome a vast array of speakers from outside the Workers Solidarity Movement – speakers such as Sara Burke (freelance journalist and health policy analyst), Dr. Ciara McMeel (a GP in Dublin’s north inner city), Martin Collins (Pavee Point), Dave Landy (Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign), Dr. Graham Smith (School of Law at University of Manchester), Anne McShane (Hands off People of Iran)…. and many more.

Following a day of debate and discussion, the evening ended with a well-attended and music-filled social event in the Clifton Court Hotel on Eden Quay. And despite the lateness of events on Saturday night, early Sunday afternoon saw a lively bunch of people participate in a guided walking tour of Dublin city centre visiting several sites of historical and more contemporary interest.

Of course, because we are always looking to make things better, we are already wondering how things could be improved for next year. If you were there, we’d love your feedback. What was your favourite part of the weekend? What could be improved? We’re not sensitive, we don’t mind criticism so please do let us know what you thought. We’re already working on ideas for next year’s Bookfair so if you’ve any suggestions, please let us have them. Let’s make next year’s event even bigger and better.

Related Link: http://www.wsm.ie/index.php
author by Alan MacSimoinpublication date Wed Mar 26, 2008 20:34author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Some of the stops on the walking tour and a few notes about them

MOORE LANE - 1916

Four IWW members were among the 70 or so rebel dead of the 1916 Dublin rising and its aftermath. Of the four the best known is James Connolly - one of the main organisers of the rising. He had been an IWW organiser in New York. Obviously his IWW connection is pretty well known on the far left.

Donal Nevin, in his book James Connolly 'A Full life', refers to "a British conscientious objector (possibly called Allen) who wore the button of the revolutionary syndicalist union, the Industrial Workers of the World. He was wounded during the evacuation of the GPO and died on Saturday"

The second may be a Londoner named Neale, who was shot and died later in Easter Week, and the third was a Greek sailor who apparently jumped ship in Liverpool to join the rebellion and was killed in the final charge on Moore Street.

One of the three was thought to be Jewish and so was not buried in Glasnevin but in a Jewish cemetery. There is a story of a family who opening their family plot in the 1930's only to discover a body wearing a Citizen Army belt and an IWW button already in the grave.

HENRY STREET - DUNNES STORES

In July 1984, eleven young workers at Dunnes Stores on Henry Street went on strike following the suspension of a 21-year-old cashier, Mary Manning. At their union’s conference a motion calling for a boycott of South African goods had been passed. These workers took their trade unionism seriously; Mary was suspended when she politely refused to handle a South African grapefruit at her checkout. Selflessly, these workers remained on strike for two years and nine months.

Their contribution to the fight against Apartheid is internationally recognised and remembered in the Ewan MacColl song, “Ten young women and one young man”.

Finally, the government was pushed to resolve the strike by banning imports of SA fruit & veg.

O’CONNELL STREET – LARKIN'S STATUE

At the time of the 1913 lockout, Cleary’s department store was the Imperial Hotel. A rally in support of the unions had been banned, but large numbers gathered anyway. An elderly clergyman appeared at his hotel window overlooking the crowd. Off came his hat, off came a false beard, it as Jim Larkin.

The police attacked, causing the deaths of two workers. Hundreds more were injured. It is still known in the Irish Labour movement as "Bloody Sunday". James Nolan, a young union member, was beaten so badly that his skull was smashed in. John Byrne also lost his life that day.

A young striker Alice Brady was marking her way home with her food parcel from the union office when an armed scab shot her dead,

Michael Byrne, secretary of the ITGWU in Dun Laoghaire was tortured in a police cell and died shortly after release. In response, Larkin, Connolly and an ex-British Army Captain called Jack White formed a uniformed worker's militia - the Irish Citizen Army - to protect workers' demonstrations.

Leaving for the USA in 1914 to raise funds for the union, Larkin became involved in the activities of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). In November 1915 he was one of the chosen speakers at the funeral of IWW organizer and songwriter Joe Hill.

On the other side of the world, in Australia, the IWW were prominent opponents of World War 1. The Sydney Twelve were members arrested in September 1916, and charged with treason under an archaic law known as the Treason Felony Act (1848), arson, sedition and forgery. One of them was Big Jim’s own brother, Peter, who was finally released four years later by the newly elected Labour government

THE GATE THEATRE

Back in the early 1900s this was the Rotunda Concert Hall and Pillar Room.

On Wednesday January 18, 1922, two hundred radicals seized the building, hoisted a red flag and declared a ‘soviet’.

The ‘soviet’, which lasted only three days, ended when the IRA were used to clear the building and make it safe for its private owners

While many of us will have read Liam O’Flaherty’s ‘The Informer’ when at school, few will have been told that he was the leader of this affair.

Sean McAteer, a docker and member of the Irish Citizen Army was another leading figure. He later emigrated to America and became an activist with the IWW.

This might seem a bit comic opera but we need to remember that it coincided with the many factory occupations in the period immediately after Irish independence. These generally started as strikes but quickly moved to occupations and the resumption of production under workers’ control. Inspired by news the Russian Revolution, they flew the red flag.

Self-declared 'Soviet' occupations occurred at Cork Harbour, North Cork railways, the quarry and the fishing fleet at Castleconnell, the gasworks and a coachbuilders in Tipperary, a clothing factory in Dublin's York Street, sawmills in Ballinacourty and Killarney, the Drogheda Iron foundry, Waterford Gas, mines at Arigna and Ballinderry, two flour mills in Cork, Sir John Kean's farm in Cappoquin, the Monaghan asylum. Undoubtedly there were others.

CORNER OF O’CONNELL STREET & PARNELL STREET

It was here that Tom Clarke, one of the seven signatories of the 1916 proclamation, had his tobacconist’s shop. Clarke is seen as the link between the old Fenians and the new nationalists around Pearse.

It is usually thought that the socialism in Ireland can be dated from Connolly’s time. In fact our history goes back a little further.

What isn’t as well known is the connection between sections of the Fenians and the international socialist movement. Joseph McDonnell, an ex-Fenian represented Ireland on the General Council of the International Working Men’s Association in London.

In 1872, branches of the International were established in Dublin, Cork, Belfast and Cootehill, Co Cavan.

Immense opposition came from the Catholic Church and the newspapers, there was a propaganda offensive that claimed socialists would murder priests and suppress religion.

Meetings were broken up by mobs organised by the Catholic Men’s Sodalities. Sackings and difficulties in hiring venues forced the closure of these early socialist bodies. Welcoming their, Canon Maguire, a Cork cleric, noted with satisfaction that: “those wretched people had been expelled from Belfast”.

The socialist movement remained on the periphery of Irish politics until 1885. In this year, the Dublin Democratic Association came into existence. This organisation was essentially an offshoot of the much larger British group known as the Democratic Federation.

In some cases hundreds attended its Saturday meetings at the Rotunda (today it is the Gate Theater) in Dublin.

The Socialist League followed quickly on the heels of the Dublin Democratic Association. Once again, the Dublin branch arose out of a larger network established in Britain in December 1884, whose members included William Morris.

Indeed, it was with the arrival of an English anarchist, Michael Gabriel who lived in North Strand, that the Dublin Socialist League began to make ground. It differed from previous Irish socialist organs in its radicalism. The defence and promotion of workers’ rights and issues took precedence above everything else.

They contended that Home Rule would entail: “the rule of the farmer, the publican, the clergymen and the politicians.” Can’t argue with that!

 
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