Workers Solidarity Movement

Supported by Dublin Council of Trade Unions and the Public Health
Service Campaign

Saturday, 18 October @ 2pm

Belfast City Hall

John Hewitt, Donegall Street. Belfast city centre
8pm

National Protest March & Rally
End the cutbacks and bans on staff recruitment.

Dublin
Saturday 11th October 2008


September-October issue of WSM's freesheet.

• The system works...for the rich
• Why can’t all the socialists get together?
• TV Review: The Wire
• Capitalism & war in the Caucasus
• The DUP and creationism
• Hamas, the left and ‘liberation’ in Palestine
• The Recession and housing
• Uncovering fraud where none exists 
• Capitalism and the exploitation of women 
• WTO trade negotiations 

When the Irish constitution was unveiled in 1937 it set out a special place for women within the home. In Ireland as elsewhere ‘women’s life within the home’ has to a large extent been characterized by long hours of thankless drudgery. While the struggles of Irish women for greater liberties during the last century have improved our lives in many ways, the drudgery of housework remains thankless and the workplace has not brought the liberation that certain feminists promised. As anarchists see it, this is because as long as we live in a capitalist society women (or men) can never be meaningfully liberated.

In June of this year the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) wrote to its members in all primary schools in the Republic announcing that a National Rally on the issue of class size would take place on Saturday 4th October. Posters were included for display in schools and staff reps were urged to begin the process of building a delegation of teachers and parents to represent their school at the rally.

Last week another communication arrived in schools from INTO head office. This informed members that the 4th October rally “will not proceed… as previously indicated.” Here Gregor Kerr, a member of the Dublin City North Branch of the INTO (writing in a personal capacity) analyses why the union leadership have backed off from the rally, asks whether they really have the bottle for a fight on this issue, and urges a grassroots campaign to deliver victory on the issue.

The Spring 2008 issue of Ireland's anarchist magazine Red & Black Revolution is now available. Articles include “No Justice, Just Us” Interview with Larry Wheelock, Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction, How free can you be if you can’t even control your own body?, Book Review: “Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant .

Download the PDF of RBR 14

On 8/8/08, The Department of Social and Family Affairs (DSFA) issued a press release entitled “€238 million saved in first six months of this year through Welfare anti fraud crackdown.” A closer look at the operations of the DSFA reveals a slightly different story however. According to the 2007 Social Welfare Appeals Office (SWAO) Annual Report, 46% of appeals to the SWAO were successful. The chief appeals officer, Brian Flynn, is critical of social welfare deciding officers “applying the ‘fraud’ applications of the legislation in all cases involving overpayments”.

Last month, Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe indicated that third-level fees were ''back on the agenda''. His comments have been met with strong opposition from university students.