Over 30 years of anarchist writing from Ireland listed under hundreds of topics
Workers Solidarity Movement members are currently centrally involved in helping to establish a campaign against the new household tax announced by the government. For this campaign to be successful it will have to be built at a local level in every area of Dublin and in every town and city around the country. The central plank of the campaign will be non-payment and it will be based on the successful anti-water charges campaign of the 1990s.
Northern Ireland suffers from some of the worst poverty in Western Europe according to a report produced by a consumer watchdog. The Price of being Poor released by the Consumer Council found that our wages are the lowest in the UK and those who have least are expected to pay more for essential good and services such as the use of transport and fuel poverty.
Three Gardai have been convicted in Waterford in the case of a man set upon and assaulted in the city centre. Anthony Holness was taking a piss in New street when he was set upon by the Gardai who beat him and arrested him. Garda Daniel Hickey and Sgt Martha McEnery were both convicted of assault whilst Garda John Burke was convicted of intending to pervert the course of justice, in his case by moving away the cctv cameras from recording the scene.

The recent closure of the Roscommon Hospital Accident and Emergency department goes to show, yet again, that the FG/Labour coalition is fully intent on following identical “slash and burn” policies to their much-loathed predecessors. In an astonishingly overt show of contempt for the will of the electorate, as well as a demonstration of the pressure the IMF/ECB can bring to bear on our politicians, Kenny and co. have completely and utterly reneged on a promise they publicly made to the people of Roscommon just months ago.
A Facebook page scrutinizing PSNI harassment and operations has been forced to close down today due to a media frenzy and scaremongering from the police and politicians. The Facebook page Crown Forces Watch has dominated news headlines and radio shows this morning with the Chairman of the Police Federation Terry Spence claiming the site was ‘an attempt to gather information which is likely to be of use to terrorists which I am in no doubt will be used in attempts to target police officers for murder."
David Ford, Minister of Department for Injustice has once again refused to release long suffering prisoner Brendan Lillis on compassionate grounds to receive proper medical attention. Roisin Lynch, partner of Brendan, and representatives from Sinn Fein and SDLP met with the minister today to lobby for his release but have been rejected once again, despite a ground swell of popular support, protests and rallies.
The Shankill library in Belfast hosted a successful meeting as part of the West Belfast Feile on the lives and contributions of working class people from the Falls and Shankill who fought against Fascism 75 years ago in the Spanish Civil War.
It is a living testimony to common class conflict coming to the fore, an often ignored part of our history which does not fit in with the narrative of a divided and segregated sectarian carve up which is the new era in the North.
"End Prison Torture" echoed on the streets of West Belfast on Saturday in support of republican prisoners in Maghaberry. Despite a provocative security operation hundreds of people and three bands marched from Dunville Park on the Falls Road to Andersonstown to demand the rights and dignity of prisoners to be respected.
For the WSM's position on the North see our position paper and our topic pages on Republicanism andLoyalism.
During the week the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission released an interim report on the Garda rape threat tape recordings that were revealed last April. The report contains a major error that suggests GSOC are the source of repeated attempts to spin the story in the media as somehow being the fault of the women the Garda were recorded discussing threatening to rape. The timing of the release of the report was also suspect, coming in the week Shell resumed construction and the day before a national day of action in Erris durig which four Shell to Sea campaigners were injured by Garda and/or private security violence. Such was the level of spin applied that some media made the mistake of leading with the news that the Garda had been cleared of something no one had ever accused them of, directly threatening the two women with rape.
Around 100 Shell to Sea campaigners took part in a national day of action today in Erris with a WSM member at the scene reporting that all work has been stopped and several fences had been pulled down. At least four campaigners were been injured by Garda and private security, at least two of these have gone to hospital. One of these appears to have serious head injuries.