Workers Solidarity Movement

An IPSC meeting on Saturday saw some of the Irish participants on the Freedom Flotilla talk of their experiences, and discuss what practical steps Irish people can help take to bring about the end of the siege of Gaza and Israeli apartheid as a whole and secure self determination for the people of Palestine. This is the audio from the meeting.

The current violence errupting in the southern region of Kyrgyzstan is deeply troubling.

If we are to go by the news reports given by the BBC, the violence is the culmination of long standing ethnic tensions.  If we are to believe the Economist's recent article "Stalin's Harvest" we are seeing the inevitable fruits of Stalin's labour. 

According to The Economist the ethnic violence is to be attributed to Stalin based on his inefficiency in drawing borders.  Any ethno-geographer of the region would acknowledge that drawing effective borders, even if based on language groupings -  is effectively impossible for Central Asia as populations are organised as consistently by elevation as by region.  Uzbeks typically being in more sedentary populations at lower elevations, while the Kyrgyz historically lived in pastoral highlands.  When ethnicity is brought into the equation things become even more complex.  The result is a maze of populations where borders are abitrary by necessity.

A recently leaked report, which appears to have been produced by the CIA's Red Cell, aims to shore up support for the war in Afghanistan by manipulating public opinion in Western Europe.  The report targets France and Germany as regions which need specially designed messages to stem an eroding popularity for the war.

The BBC has reported that at least 23 people have been killed and 300 injured in violence which has erupted in the city of Osh, Kyrgyzstan. It is not yet clear what forces are responsible for the violence.

Until recently Kyrgyzstan's head of government was President Kurmanbek Bakiyev who was forced to flee the country after riots erupted in April 2010.  Bakiyev's power base is largely in the southern area of Kyrgyzstan including Osh.

Pentagon investigators "are desperately searching" for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, to try and prevent the publication of over 260,000 diplomatic cables that were allegedly leaked by intelligence analyst Bradley Manning.

Despite the efforts of the Israeli military and propaganda machine which stole all the footage they could find on board the Freedom Flotilla some footage activists succesfully snuck past the jailers has started to emerge.  The Isreali propaganda team has already released out of context fragments obviously taken from stolen equipment to try and bolster its case, the fact that only a few seconds (that show a firework being thrown) could be found speaks volumes.

The state is a central concept in the political philosophy of Anarchism. Anarchism is often defined as being an anti-state ideology. While this is sometimes a useful way to distinguish anarchists from other state socialists it also leads to a fair bit of confusion. We will look at the source of this confusion with the aim of showing that anarchism is in its essence opposed to rulers and is not a naive or idealistic form of anti-statism.

One of the main myths of those who support the Zionist state of Israel is that all Jews, inside and outside of Isreal support that state.  In fact there is small but significant opposition to the oppression of the Palestians from people of Jewish background inside of Isreal.  Since the Israeli military attacked the Freedom Flotilla there have been onging demonstrations agains the attack in Isreal itself, demonstrations that have been largely ignore by Israeli and international media.

This is the recording of the 'Israeli Apartheid, BDS and Grassroots Resistance in Palestine' from the 2010 anarchist bookfair. The speaker is Freda Hughes from the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Topics covered in the one hour audio include the apartheid wall and settlements, experiences of the occupied territories, popular committees and Bi'lin, the cage protest and other direct actions, how Israeli activists argue for the boycott, Zionism, the freedom flotilla, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.

This collection of articles looks at how the media try to discredit protesters in relation to Ireland, London and the US. They were mentioned by Barry Finnegan on Radio Solidarity Show 4.