Workers Solidarity Movement

The struggle against capitalism and authority is constant but each year on May Day the labour movement takes time out to celebrate its history and achievements. Rather than dwell on the hardships of struggle we take to the streets and remember what it is we are aiming for - the emancipation of our class. Climbing a mountain means paying close attention to the ground you walk but it's important to look up now and again in order to focus on exactly where it is you're headed.

At the beginning of April, the G20 group of major world economies met in London. Media attention focused as much on the confrontation between police and demonstrators outside the conference as on what was going on between the suits inside. The London police were their usual charmless selves and even managed to kill an uninvolved man, Ian Tomlinson, on his way home from work.

This book sets out to show that unequal societies are bad for everyone in them. It does this by collating decades of research in the areas of health, crime, trust, mental health, obesity, education, teenage pregnancy and social mobility, all of which demonstrate statistically the connection between social inequality and social problems. The authors explain that, in hierarchical societies that are unequal in wealth and status, our social class affects all aspects of our lives. From an Irish perspective, one of the most interesting points they make may be about the connection between inequality, levels of trust in society and corruption.

Young Fine Gael just can't get away from their Blueshirt roots. Trinity College YFG vice-chair, Thomas Broe, has called for everyone between the ages 18-25 who has been unemployed for a year to be conscripted into the army.

The text of the leaflet produced by workers in occupation of the Ford Visteon factory in Enfield, London explaining why they had joined the occupations in Belfast and Enfield.

This is a recording of Stanley Aronowitz speaking on 'Popular Education in a Time of Struggle' to a Workers Solidarity Movement meeting in the Seomra Spraoi Social centre, Dublin the end of March 2009. Stanley Aronowitz is professor of sociology, cultural studies, and urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is also a veteran political activist and cultural critic and an advocate for organized labor.

In March Ashanti Alston, a former member of the Black Panther Party and a Black Liberation Army solider, came to Ireland to speak at the Dublin anarchist bookfair. This is the video of his presentation. In it he talks about his experiences in the Black Panthers and BLA, the lessons he draws from them and what he thinks of revolutionary politics in Ireland.

Listen to me. For twenty-five years, the most intelligent and devoted of men have dedicated their lives to the defence of our holy cause. In their writings, speeches, reports, memoirs, investigations and statistics, they have pointed out, affirmed and demonstrated to the Government and to the wealthy that the working class is, in the present state of things, materially and morally placed in an intolerable condition of poverty and suffering

Ashanti Alston is a former member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army member told us about his experiences, the lessons he draws from them and what he thought of revolutionary politics in Ireland at the 2009 Dublin anarchists bookfair.

My experience in the Black Panther Party - anarchist Ashanti Alston at the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud

This audio is of the session at the 2009 Dublin anarchist bookfair organised by the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign. The speaker is Nidal Saadeh, a leftist Palestinian activist from Bethlehem in the West Bank.

Palestine & womens rights - a Bethlehem women speaks at DABF 2009 by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud