Workers Solidarity Movement

“Your letters have sparked riots in the maximum security wing of my heart” - Sideshow Bob, the Simpsons!

On 21st April 2010 I was convicted of assaulting a number of Gardaí in relation to Shell to Sea protests and sentenced to 6 months imprisonment. Remission for good behaviour means that prisoners will have their sentences reduced by a quarter, once you keep your nose clean. I was given credit for 2 weeks time served previously in 2009, before I was bailed out pending my appeal.

So I spent 4 months in jail from April to August in the summer of 2010. 

Art - a Composite of Van Gogh's 'Exercise Yard' & Munch's 'Scream' by Prisoner Mick Connors.

A crowd of about 100 people gathered in the local GAA club in Cabra last Wednesday night (1^st Feb) and the message was simple and clear, we’re not registering, we are not paying.

PEOPLE HAVE got so used to the health cuts over the last ten years that they just accept them as their lot. The situation on hospital waiting lists for public patients is now so farcical that people are being offered appointments two years away. The waiting list for tonsils operations in Crumlin Children's Hospital is now two years long. Tell them that the child is missing a lot of school because of tonsillitis and produce doctors letters to that effect and you will get an appointment in 15 months!

Approximately 200 people – INTO staff representatives and school principals – from across Dublin attended a packed meeting in the Teachers’ Club on Thursday 2^nd February and agreed plans for an escalation of the campaign against the staffing cuts announced in DEIS schools in December’s budget.

On Saturday 28th January Unlock NAMA opened an occupied building in the center of Dublin for a day of lectures about NAMA, Ireland's 'Bad Bank.' The event was cut short by a large number of police who turned up and ordered them out of the building. In this 40 minute interview Andrew Flood interviews Cat & Moira from Unlock NAMA about the occupation, what NAMA is and what Unlock NAMA demands.

Image: All rights reserved by Paul C Reynolds - used with permission

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 6,000 members of Dublin DEIS school communities – parents, teachers and children – protested outside the Department of Education & Skills on Marlborough Streetin Dublin’s city centre on Thursday 19^th January.

2 branches of the INTO (Irish National Teachers Organisation) - Dublin North City and Gorey Co. Wexford - have passed a motion condemning the Household tax and supporting the campaign of non-registration and non-payment  at their Annual General Meetings.  

The motion further calls on the CEC (Central Executive Committee) of the union to “support in any way possible INTO members who are victimised for refusing to register for or pay this tax.”

The Derry Anarchists and the Workers Solidarity Movement support the call for people to attend and support all Bloody Sunday commemorative events over the upcoming weekend, including the 'March for Justice' leaving Creggan shops at 2.30 pm on Sunday 29 January.We stand in solidarity with and salute the courage and dignity of all of the members the Bloody Sunday families and the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign in their long struggle for justice and truth.

The changes to third-level fees and the maintenance grants system for new postgraduate students in Budget 2012 come as no big shock. The €250 increase in the student contribution charge means students will pay €2,250 from next September, with other increases likely to come in 2013 and 2014. In relation to postgraduates, no maintenance grants will be paid for new entrants from the 2012/13 academic year. These changes come into effect after months of campaigning by the grassroots student campaign group Free Education for Everyone (FEE) and the Union of Students Ireland (USI).