Workers Solidarity Movement

A story about how a Government who could see the winning line suddenly got side tracked by the issue of poisoning the very people they were hoping would elect them again.

Galway city has grown by over a quarter since 1996. Its major source of water is the big lake, Lough Corrib North of the city. This is the same water source which deals with sewage from two plants, and has its water treated by a plant which was built in the 1940’s. The planners and the gombeens at the Ministry for the Environment do not appear to be aware of the dangers of that old saying ‘don’t shit where you eat’.

People's apathy, particularly young people's, towards elections is normally presented as some sort of failing in civic responsibility. However, indifference towards the outcomes of elections is actually a sensible position to have - it recognises that the emperor has no clothes.

The No6 edition of the British "Anarchy" magazine published in 1970 was largely given over to articles written by members of 'Peoples Democracy'. This article gives a PD view of the history of the north from 1960 to 1970 including the formation of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) and the origins of People's Democracy.

James Connolly es probablemente la figura más importante en la historia de la izquierda irlandesa. Fue un dirigente de la IWW en los EEUU, pero en Irlanda es más conocido por su rol en la construcción del movimiento sindical irlandés, en su fase sindicalista, y por involucrar al cuerpo de defensa armada del sindicalismo, el Ejército de los Ciudadanos Irlandeses, en la insurrección nacionalista de 1916. Esto dejó tras de sí un legado que, a veces, puede ser reclamado no solamente por todos los partidos de izquierda de Irlanda, sino que además por los partidos nacionalistas Fianna Fáil y Sinn Fein.

There was no surprise when Sinn Fein voted to support the PSNI, the republican leadership does not usually put anything to a vote unless they are already pretty sure of the result. This does not mean they found it easy, it was a bitter pill for them to swallow. The IRA used to shoot cops and the cops used to shoot them. Now they have to ask their supporters to assist the PSNI, even join them.

Exploitation is an easy enough concept to grasp. It is essentially, when someone does not receive the full returns to their labour. That is when they do not receive the full benefit from their activities.

In January 2005, Michael X, a courier driver, went to see his GP complaining of recurrent diarrhoea and passing some blood. Following an examination, his GP sent a letter to arrange for an appointment with a gastro-enterologist for specialist assessment. His appointment arrived in the post - he could see the consultant in July, six months later.

William Thompson was one of the of the first people to critically engage with political economy and attempt to turn it around to defend the improvement of the condition of the working class and rural poor. He was from a Anglo- Irish landowning family from West Cork and was to become a leading figure in the early Co-operative movement. In this talk from the 2007 Dublin anarchist bookfair Paul Bowman talks about the importance of Thompson and the relevance of his ideas today

The extract is from the opening of Thompson's last book before his untimely death, "Practical Directions for the Speedy and Economical Establishment of Communities, on the Principles of Mutual Co-operation, United Possessions and Equality" of 1830. In the main was a practical "build your own community" manual and the bulk of it was taken up with practical matters. However the necessity of squeezing in a summary of the political and economic bases of the projected community, means that this "Explanation of Leading Terms" at the beginning of the work remains the most abbreviated version of his analysis available

"Preliminary Observations" is the introduction to his first, and possibly most important book, the lengthily entitled "An Inquiry into the Principles of the Distribution of Wealth most conducive to human happiness; applied to The Newly Proposed System of Voluntary Equality of Wealth" of 1824. It is this work of which the anarchist historian Max Nettlau remarks: "[this] book, however, discloses his own evolution; having started with a demand for the full product of labour as well as the regulation of distribution, he ended up with his own conversion to communism, that is, unlimited distribution". This preface piece shows signs of being originally written before his own conversion to communist distribution with supplemental additions after that change. In it Thompson lays out his approach of applying the critical method of utilitarianism - the re-examination of all social institutions with an atheist skepticism of all received truths, judging outcomes on the basis of "the greatest happiness for the greatest number" - to the theories of Political Economy.