Workers Solidarity Movement

IT HAD BEEN some time since I'd read any science fiction when my partner started buying the whole series chronologically. Once I read the first I was hooked. Banks has created a very attractive fictional society, the Culture. That it was instantly attractive and obviously anarchist is, perhaps, more interesting because the main character in Consider Phlebas, Horza, is antagonistic towards it. So, we see the first glimpse of this galactic anarchy through the eyes of one who has chosen to fight it.

• Consider Phlebas
• The Player of Games
• Use of Weapons
• The State of the Art
• Excession
• Inversions

A SURPRISING BEST SELLER last year was 'Stalingrad' by the same author. His publishers have obviously re-released this book, first published in 1982, to cash in on this. As you might expect, it is primarily a military history of the Spanish Revolution. But it is a very welcome break from the normal pattern of mainstream military histories of the Spanish Revolution. For the most part these fail to discuss the revolution within the civil war, the thousands of collectives or the role of the anarchists. If they are mentioned, they are usually portrayed as an obstruction to the efficient military pursuit of the war by the republican side.

ON MARCH 6TH two Czech revolutionary anarchists, members of the Solidarita organisation, attacked US State Secretary Madeleine Albright, with eggs to protest against capitalist globalisation driven by transnational financial and trade institutions dominated by US imperialism (IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organisation). In the Czech Republic widespread redundancies have been the result.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6TH: Students from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the largest and historically the most prestigious university in Latin America, were engaged in debate over the slim chances of achieving effective negotiation with the University Council. This was to enable classes to restart after a lengthy strike which had seen the occupation of all the university buildings, the erection of barricades around the campuses and monster marches through the streets of Mexico City.

IN THE UNITED STATES, in February, the US Prison system incarcerated its two millionth prisoner. This means that the prison population of the USA accounts for 25% of the entire prison population of the world. This figure is even more startling when you discover that the US only accounts for 5% of the global population. The next time you hear someone sing the Star Spangled Banner you should remember that fact and consider that "land of the free and the home of the brave" is in truth neither.

SOMETHING DIED on the Internet or the wonderful wide world of the web. It's hard to know when it all happened, but the last post will be sounded for it as soon as the authorities catch and punish those responsible for hacking into the web sites of Amazon and E-Bay in February. It is most likely that they'll serve prison sentences. This appears to be the solution to all problems in the US at the moment. They shall be made an example of, and the Internet will be kept safe for business.

These are the issues of the Irish anarchist paper Workers Solidarity published in the year 2000. Number 59 was the last issue that was sold, 60 was the first issue of the new style free sheet - some half a million individual copies would be produced and distributed over the decade that followed.

Many people would agree that the anarchist principle "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs" is a nice idea. A self managed society with everyone having a real say in how things were run is a lovely ideal. They might nod along to the lyrics of "Imagine" by John Lennon but then equally shake their heads and tell you that such a thing could never work "in the real world". You would probably be told that people are just naturally greedy and self-centred and such a thing would end in chaos.

AS THIS ARTICLE is being written, George Mitchell has flown in to Belfast and begun a round of meetings with political parties in the North in a supposed "review" of the Good Friday Agreement. Needless to say this "review" is unlikely to address any of the fundamental flaws in that agreement. Nor are we likely to witness an outbreak of concern for the working class people of the 6 Counties from any of the participants in this review.

IRISH WORKERS are undervalued by 50% according to an international study published earlier this year. By comparing wages and productivity in 28 different types of job throughout all 15 European Union countries it found only Portuguese workers did more and received less.