Workers Solidarity Movement

Following on from the occupation of the Waterford Glass plant in February which managed to save some of the jobs and improve redundancy conditions workers in Belfast at Visteon occupied their factor last week. With plant closures happening across the island both these occupations provide an example of workers taking direct action to preserve jobs and/or force employers to improve on redundancy conditions. Here we present reports from WSM members from these occupations and background articles.

Lenihan’s budget has continued the political strategy of defending the wealthy. Where is the reaction? Where is the anger?

In the latest round of attacks on ordinary workers in order to force us to pay for the crisis in capitalism the government had "declared a moratorium on Recruitment and Promotions in the Public Service with effect from 27th March". This is both yet another direct attack on public sector workers and an indirect attack on all workers as it means our access to health, education and other essential services will be further reduced.

In 2007/8 WSM member Andrew Flood spent a total of 16 weeks touring North American and Canada, giving talks in 44 cities. The topic was 'Building a popular anarchism in Ireland' which involved a history of anarchist involvement in struggle from around 1997 to 2007. This video is formed from the audio of the talk and images of the anarchist movement in Ireland from the mid 1990's to the present day.

That the very threat of a national strike was enough to force government and IBEC to change their position demonstrates the power the working class holds when we threaten to withdraw our labour. For all the media attempts to convince us we are powerless and that class struggle is a thing of the past when faced with the reality of the organised working class standing up both bosses and state were keen to avoid any confrontation that could illustrate and encourage our collective power.

March - April 2009 Edition of the Workers Solidarity freesheet.

This is an audio recording of the '‘Organising The Fightback’' meeting at the 2009 Dublin anarchist bookfair. There were three speakers at the meeting, Gregor Kerr a WSM (and INTO) member, an Executive member of the Civil and Public Services Union (CPSU) and a representative of the Free Education for Everyone (FEE) Campaign.

Organising the Fightback - student & workers perspective from Ireland in 2009 by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud

This is the audio recording of one of the first morning meetings at the 2009 Dublin anarchist bookfair 'Left Unity? What sort of Left should we be trying to build?' It was a debate between the WSM & ISN. There are contributions from the floor from "People before Profit' and the 'International Bolshevik Tedency'.

'Left Unity? What sort of Left should we be trying to build? - DABF 2009 with WSM & ISN by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud

The national strike called by ICTU should be just the first day of action in what must become a strike wave across every sector until all pay cuts are withdrawn. The super-rich can shoulder the costs of their crisis themselves.The bosses have spent months using the media to try and divide one set of workers form another and to set those still in jobs against the unemployed. They know that divided we are weak. March 30th is the moment we can throw that back in their face, a huge demonstration of class unity that can force them to back down or face the consequences.

“People who got mortgages they can’t afford to pay back were greedy and foolish and should suffer the consequences…They signed a free contract, they’re adults and they have to take responsibility for their actions”. This is the kind of thing that gets thrown around a lot in recessions. It conveniently ignores a few things.