Workers Solidarity Movement

The “World Wealth Report 2011”, published by finance conglomerates Merrill Lynch and Capgemini, has shown that the amount of wealth held by the world’s wealthiest elite increased by almost 10% in 2010.  The number of ‘High Net Worth Individuals’ (i.e. those with investable assets of over $1million) also rose last year – to 10.9 million.

The population of Greece are in revolt again the IMF /ECB austerity plan that is being imposed on them.  WSM member Con who is a migrant to Ireland from Greece tells us what it is like to follow the struggle by home from Ireland and especially the extraordinary events yesterday when many police, who for months have been attacking demonstrators, instead joined the demonstrations.  Presumably they will soon be bought off and return to business as usual but all the same perhaps such an usual event is close to a miracle.

While in South East Asia recently Sean Matthews caught up with two Malaysian anarchists who told me about the issues they face as workers and anarchists in their country. Over a few drinks and few hours we discussed the current political and social situation including the problem of race and religion in their country. We exchanged ideas and experiences, the wider international anarchist movement and most important what we can do to assist anarchists in this part of the world.

 A Union drive in computer giant Apple retail is breaking new ground. Apple showroom employee Cory Moll who works in an Apple computer store in San Francisco has started a drive to unionise retail workers in a rare move at the company. He wants to unionise his fellow workers to fight for better wages and conditions. Unfair practices at the company have spurred him in this struggle.

José Antonio Gutiérrez Danton returned from Egypt with news of the state of the struggle for greater freedom in the post-Mubarak era to give this presentation at the 2011 Dublin anarchist bookfair.

PM Press author Gabriel Kuhn gave a talk on the subversive side of football to the 2011 Dublin Anarchist Bookfair. This is the recording of that talk and the discussion that followed.

Welcome to Issue 3 of The Irish Anarchist Review, produced by the Workers Solidarity Movement.  This magazine aims to provide a forum for the exploration and discussion of theories, thoughts and ideas about where we are and where we would like to be in terms of political struggles today.

Download The Irish Anarchist Review Issue 3

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.

Following on from Saturday's Spanish Revolution solidarity protest in Cork City there was another big crowd on the street of the city Sunday. As the issues that have brought the people of Spain out to protest are just like those affecting people in Ireland and across Europe, there was many calls to make this movement international.

The solidarity group here plan to return to the Grand Parade every day this week to hand out information and discuss the events in Spain with passersby. This will be between 11am and 1pm, and from 6pm to 8pm. Come along and find out what's going on!

The election of Barack Obama to the White House in 2008 was one of the most celebrated electoral victories of recent times. Not since Nelson Mandela’s win in South Africa, following the collapse of the Apartheid regime, was the supposed power of the ballot box so publicly celebrated and displayed.

Obama’s victory was hailed as a triumph for the ‘democratic process’ and was widely touted as a fine example of how people power and electioneering can trump entrenched bigotry and money.