Workers Solidarity Movement

In November 1999 a new cycle of struggles burst into the media consciousness of the world with the spectacle of anti-WTO protesters confronting police in the streets of Seattle. In fact this was a cycle that had first raised its head in England earlier that year when astonished TV viewers turned on the news on June 18th to discover that the City of London was under siege by ‘anti-capitalist’ protestors, the first time that term had ever been heard in media reporting. ‘Moments of Excess’ is a collection of texts by the Free Association written from 2001 to 2011 paralleling this cycle of struggles, of the so-called anti-globalisation or counter-globalisation movement with its succession of counter-summit mobilisations from Seattle, Prague, Genoa, Evian, Gleneagles and Heiligendamm amongst others.

Workers and students from the areas of Spain living here in Cork protested today on the Grand Parade in support and solidarity with the movement for ‘Real Democracy’ in their homeland.   Over a hundred turned up in pouring rain to voice and sing their anger at the failure of capitalism and lack of hope and possibilities that is offered to us under the present ‘free market’ regime.  

Spin and window-dressing were the order of the day this afternoon in Cork where a heavy-handed police presence ensured that the British Queen’s visit to the city could be presented to the outside world as ‘positive and welcoming’ and ‘a real Irish welcome’.  A sizeable protest on Sullivan’s Quay was met with lines of riot police and police dogs guaranteeing that those who opposed the visit were kept far away from where they could be seen and heard.

The electoral system in the United States is notoriously conservative.  Two political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, dominate.  To be a Presidential hopeful, you need to have stacks of money – to pay for advertising and campaign teams and so on and so forth.  Usually this means courting big business and corporate interests in return for campaign donations.

As a former senator Obama was well aware of this situation and how things worked.  Ultimately, however, his success lay in the fact that he mobilised in two distinct constituencies - among the business community but also amongst the grassroots voters.  This latter aspect – his grassroots mobilisation - received considerable prominence because it was ‘news’ and noteworthy.  His clear and unambiguous business friendly comments received less attention, but were nonetheless important.