Workers Solidarity Movement

The insurrection in Greece is a violent manifestation of the flame of class war that is sweeping across the world.
The flame of rage against injustice is burning from sweatshops in China to the streets and campuses of Dublin; to the inner city areas of Belfast. From the thousands of pensioners, education workers who took to the streets recently, to the workers who occupied a factory in Derry, we all share a common desire for change.

A crowd of anarchists and activists picketed the Greek Embassy in Dublin on a cold winters evening whilst a young man who was killed by the state Special forces is buried in Greece.

The BBC website is reporting that the general strike in Greece today has cancelled flights out of the airport and that public transport is badly disrupted

"Toward the end of the demo however the riot police launched a major attack, forcing it to retreat toward the city’s historical university building (the so-called parartima). Soon thereafter, the most incredible attack began: Tens of fascists (that seem to had gathered in Patras from across the country, in a pre-planned joint operation with the police) attacked the demonstration with knives and stones."

The Workers Solidarity Movement, an Irish anarchist organisation, have organized a picket of the Greek Embassy in Dublin this Tuesday 9th December 2008, meeting at Stephen’s Green at 5pm. The picket is in response to the killing of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, a 15 year old, who was shot and killed by Greek police in Athens on Saturday night. WSM spokesperson, Gavin Gleeson, says that “As fellow anarchists, we want to show our solidarity and support for the Greeks in opposing police brutality.”

Statement from Greek anarchists on the shooting of the 16-year-old boy, Alexandros Grigoropoulos,  in Athens

Recession is just another word when you are rich. Google bosses, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have just spent €17.6 million on a 60-seater Boeing jet for their “personal use”. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen splashed out €140 million to buy the world’s eighth largest yacht. It comes with two helicopters, two submarines, eight smaller boats, a basketball court, swimming pool, a crew of 60 and running costs of about €15 million a year.

Big Business doesn’t like what’s happening in South America. The election of reforming governments in Peru and Ecuador might have been a bearable irritant but that Chavez guy in Venezuela has really got up their noses. In Bolivia sections of the local ruling class got so riled up that they tried to overthrow President Morales in September. The US ruling class, in collusion with local bosses, is trying to destabilise political and economic reforms. As they see it, too much is going to workers and peasants, and not enough into their own coffers.

The official story is that the origins of the current crisis lie in the collapse of the US subprime mortgage market - i.e. poor people not paying their mortgages. Although this may have been the trigger event, it is not the real cause. The real cause lies in pyramids not houses. Specifically the enormous debt pyramid built up by the Western countries, particularly those following the Anglo-saxon economic model - which, unfortunately for us, includes Ireland.

The financial markets have taken a hammering. Speculators (that’s a rich person’s word for ‘gambler’) lost incredible sums of borrowed cash in bets on everything from mortgage values to the possible price of wheat in 2011. Banks who lent out far more money than they actually had needed governments to step in with billions to bail them out. In some countries the state took them over.