Workers Solidarity Movement

A few thousand people took part in the 40^th anniversary Bloody Sunday march demanding real truth and justice after the publishing of the Saville report this year which confirmed that the massacre was ’unjustifiable and unjustified.’

This years march clearly divided the families and relatives of the Bloody Sunday Trust with the majority deciding to end the march with some pressure being concerted by Sinn Fein. Despite attempts by the political class to co-opt and de-radicalise the march and brush it under the carpet as part of the new shiny image of Northern Ireland there was a better than expected turnout, the Irish Times estimated 3,000 took part. Derry anarchists and the WSM were present along with a host of political and social organisations including the Independent Workers Union.

Irish opposition politicians have called foul over Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s statement at Davos that the blame for the crisis in Ireland is that “people went mad borrowing” a month after he told the Irish people that “you are not to blame” in a national broadcast. But their are far more interesting issues that explain why the same man can make both statements without being aware of a contradiction than simple two-facedness.

Over the last year, from Tahrir Square in Cairo to New York, a new movement sprung from the discontent of millions. It brought down a dictatorship in Egypt, re-awakened the libertarian spirit in Spain and affected a sea change in American politics. The Occupy movement, as it has become popularly known in English speaking countries, shook the world in 2011.

If the recent budget highlighted anything, it was the fact that the working class in Ireland is under severe attack.  Services, too numerous to mention here, are being cut or removed entirely, while the real living standards of many of us are being driven down and down.  Meanwhile the banker-thieves and investment-gamblers still live the highlife. 

Recent figures uncovered by the Irish News show that almost 41 million of taxpayers’ money was handed over to our local NI politicians in salaries and allowances - including childcare -while the assembly was suspended between April 2003 and May 2007. Yet, only a few weeks ago we listened to the SDLP leader pleading ‘poverty’ and warning of ‘millionaire clubs’ only forgetting to mention that he was born with a silver spoon and remains so. As well as his wage as an MLA and MP (excluding expenses topping at least 150,000 a year) he has a large list of privilege and perks including his part time wage as a GP and rental from several properties including his farm.

The idea of direct action is sometimes misunderstood as meaning anything violent, anything from a brick through a window to a full-scale guerrilla war. Our political opponents go out of their way to spread confusion because they know that in a “battle of ideas” they would lose. That is why they portray anarchism as a ludicrous system of chaos and disorganiation.

The idea that calling for a referendum is a good strategy for winning significant reforms often crops up in campaigns. It seems logical, as a referendum is a chance for the population to directly make a decision on the issue to hand. But the reality is that the demand for a referendum is seldom, if ever, the best way to build a struggle for a reform. Here are five reasons why:

Mid-December saw the eventual publication of the long-threatened household tax legislation. The first three months of 2012 will present every household in Ireland with a choice: whether to succumb to this new home tax, which along with the proposed water tax will rise to approx €1,200 per annum within a couple of years, or to refuse to register, refuse to pay and make a stand against the costs of bailing out bankers and developers continuing to be hoisted on our shoulders.

The PSNI new strategy of 'pizza n peelers' covered in a recent edition of the Andersonstown News, is a cynical and laughable stunt to win over young people and highlights how much they are out of touch in our communities. Despite the cosmetic changes and a propaganda blitz waged by the media and Sinn Fein apologists, the continuity RUC/ PSNI like any police force is political, to defend the power and wealth of the ruling class. Quite simply it is the state’s physical and intimidatory means of maintaining a desired status quo in society; one of socio-economic divisions and inequalities.

Occupy Belfast held a protest outside the city hall yesterday in a campaign against evictions/re-possessions and an end to homelessness. Campaigners have also located an empty building in the city centre and hope to re-possess the centre as a self-managed space in the next couple of weeks beginning the process of building a movement against house evictions.