Over 30 years of anarchist writing from Ireland listed under hundreds of topics
LGBT: Celebration and Struggle
Date: Mon, 2011-10-03 11:35
June last saw another massive Pride in Dublin with approximately 25,000 people taking part. While Pride has very much become more of a social and commercial event since its early years in Dublin it also remains a strong political expression of the ongoing struggles against Queer oppression. There was also a thousands strong “March for Marriage” through Dublin on August 14th, organised by LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) Noise, which opposes civil partnership on the grounds that it does not provide similar rights to those of married heterosexual couples.
Noam Chomsky on anarchism, anarchist organisation and state socialism
Date: Fri, 2011-09-30 15:04
During a visit to Oslo Noam Chomsky gave a 70 minute video interview with our Anarkismo sister group, Counterpower. Chomsky says the most important task is the creation of Libertarian Socialist organisations and that if we keep the current system we are doomed. Counterpower describe the event as "an evening dedicated to the question of alternatives both beyond capitalism and state socialism, including what the alternative could look like and how we could get there."
Bad dreams in the eurozone - Austerity, Austerity and not a recovery in sight
Date: Wed, 2011-09-28 14:18
How can you expect growth without investment or stimulus packages? This is question that is screaming to be asked from the European leaders and the ECB who serve up the same policy: menu du jour, austerity slop/soup.
The policy in poetic form reads thus,
Austerity, Austerity, and not a recovery in sight.
Look at the growth figures, or should I say non-growth figures of the Gross Domestic Product for various economies in the second quarter and they only serve to prove this point. The UK 0.2% growth, the USA 0.3% growth, Germany 0.1% growth, the eurozone average is an anaemic 0.2%. Top of the eurozone charts with growth rate of three times the zone average is Belgium. Belgium has been without a Government now for 15 months. 1
Protest takes place at British embassy in solidarity with Dale Farm Travellers
Date: Tue, 2011-09-27 12:12
Friday the 16th September saw a well attended protest outside of the British Embassy called by Minceirs Whiden (Ireland’s Traveller only forum). The struggle continues to keep the 86 Traveller families in their homes in Dale Farm, Essex. The evictions were scheduled to take place that weekend but since then there have been a series of hearings in court which has prevented the bailiffs moving in.The latest court decision is to review the full extent of the ‘enforcement notices’ and this will be heard on Thursday the 27th. The residents have won a temporary reprieve and it remains to be seen what will happen.
Michael Albert talking in Dublin on Alternatives to Capitalism and the IMF
Date: Tue, 2011-09-27 11:26
Michael Albert, writer, activist, author of 'Parecon - Life after Capitalism' and co-founder of ZNet, will be giving talks at various locations in Europe in October 2011 including a talk in Dublin, October 11th. Subjects include media, participatory economics, the creation of a new international organisation for a participatory society, and strategy for social change.
Secret Documents reveal British state collusion
Date: Tue, 2011-09-27 10:48
New documents uncovered by the Pat Finucane Centre in Derry reveal the endemic collusion between the British army regiments and loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. The declassified official documents uncovered highlight that the Ulster Defence Regiment’s (UDR) Belfast battalion was heavily infiltrated by the Ulster Volunteer Force(UVF) in the late 1970s.
What is needed to Build a National Campaign against the Household Tax
Date: Fri, 2011-09-16 10:06
Workers Solidarity Movement member Gregor Kerr gave the leadoff at the session dealing with "Organising the Campaign" at the successful National Forum of the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes on Saturday 10th September. What follows is the text of his contribution:
Hundreds on anti-SNA cuts march for opening of Dail
Date: Thu, 2011-09-15 14:47
Up to 800 people gathered in Central Bank plaza and marched on the Dáil with a c
lear message for the government; change up your policy and start protecting the vulnerable or you will find yourselves out of power in the wilderness along with the previous governing party. Banners were on the march from political organisations, community groups, parents associations, and National Traveller organisations. The mood was one of strong defiance.
This is the fifth protest on this very issue but what people have witnessed is a continuation of the cuts which were started by the previous Government. There had been a rumour which was converted into a promise by the political parties whilst they were campaigning that they were going to protect the vulnerable in this society. Politicians campaign in the poetry of promises and govern in the prose of policy and they are fooling nobody with this routine.
Support the Dale Farm families - Put a marker down to stop the racist onslaught against Travellers
Date: Wed, 2011-09-14 16:52
Dale Farm is a halting site which is also the largest concentration of Irish Travellers in Britain, being home to over 1000 people (about 100 families), many of whom are said to have their cultural roots in Rathkeale in Limerick. It was started in the 1960s when a number of families bought the former scrapyard site and Basildon council granted planning permission for 40 houses. This happened in the context of broad progress in race relations and a brief breeze of relative official tolerance for Travellers, epitomised in the liberal-sponsored 1968 Caravan Sites Act. Basildon Council have put aside an £18 million budget to bulldoze the site and forcefully evict the families (a staggering figure when you consider that in 2010 the total UK budget for providing Travellers with halting facilities was less than 30 million).
Successful National Forum sees Campaign against Household Tax gets organised
Date: Wed, 2011-09-14 12:12
Last Saturday (10th September) over 200 people attended the National Organising Meeting of the Anti-Household & Water Tax Campaign. People from over 16 counties arrived during the first session in the afternoon with more arriving later. The meeting was organised to co-ordinate a mass non-payment campaign against the €100 household charge announced by the government to come into effect on 1st January 2012. The campaign sees this as the “first step in the government’s plans to implement a fully fledged property and water tax by 2014 that could be around €1,200 according to one government economic advisor. “ In the long-term, this paves the way for the privatisation of the water supply, as occurred with refuse collection.