Workers Solidarity Movement

THE PROTESTS against the housing of a Traveller family in Farnagh near Moate were racist. The organisers deny this but then go on to say that their main objection is that they "were not consulted" by the Council about rehousing the family of Alice and Joe Joyce. Do these same people expect to be "consulted" everytime a settled family is given a house? Of course not.

One of the ringleaders, local priest Fr Liam Farrell, even claimed that the protesters were concerned for the family, worried about their transition from an urban to a rural area! More honest was the one who told journalists that he did not want "inferior people" in his town.

NOLAN TRANSPORT CASE
- 1990 INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT COMES HOME TO ROOST

WORKERS AT Nolans Transport in New Ross have been told their strike is illegal. They have been in dispute since February 1993 for better pay, better conditions and union recognition. Now they could be jailed if they continue to picket.

WHO REMEMBERS when Democratic Left was formed? It was only two and a half years ago when they arrived on the scene trying to convince us that they were like an anti-coalition Labour Party. Their founding policy statement said "we see no role for our party as a partner of a right wing government". And some were convinced, like the Labour members who uprooted themselves and joined DL, thinking it more left wing.

Daniel Guerin's book "Anarchism" has been translated in Russian and Arabic for the first time. Thanks to a collection at our 10th birthday party we are able to send £100 pounds to aid in the publication of this important work in these languages. The Arabic version will be distributed among immigrants in Europe, in the Lebanon and in other Arabic speaking countries. It's available in English from the WSM bookservice for £7.95.

Originally published in Workers Solidarity 44, 1995

Once you get past the caricatures of anarchists as bomb-throwers in black cloaks, you'll probably find that you have a great deal of sympathy with anarchist ideas. Reading through the articles in this paper, you may agree with our perspective on issues, and you could become one of the many people who are happy to be described as anarchists. Having got that far, and acting as anarchists in their everyday & political lives, why is it that so many don't see the need to go further, and join anarchist organisations?

Over the past year, there has been a series of physical attacks on Travellers in different parts of the country. Travellers were attacked in Glenamaddy in New Ross, Wicklow and Bantry.

In Bantry, a group of hired vigilantes wearing balaclavas broke into the caravan of an elderly Traveller couple. They hit the woman in the face with a pick axe handle, breaking her nose and giving her dozens of stitches.

The Awareness League in Nigeria is to become the first African section of the IWA. Readers of Workers Solidarity will remember the League from the reports of the jailing of four of its members by the state for opposing the military coup there. The international appeal launched on this occasion raised nearly $2000 dollars, saw pickets and demonstrations in many countries including Ireland and resulted in the publication of over 54 articles in languages including Japanese and Hindi. The four comrades were released.

Over the last few years Workers Solidarity has responded to appeals launched on behalf of two Moldavian [1] anarcho-syndicalists, Igor and Tamara. They had come under severe state repression, first from the Stalinist regime and then from the 'new' nationalist one. This included frequent raids by the secret police, physical assaults, threats and the killing of the family dog. Political activity in such circumstances was impossible and there was a real danger that either or both of them would be killed.

Discussions have begun between anarchists and two Asian trade unions, the National Garment Workers Federation in Bangladesh which organises 5% of the 1 million textile workers of Bangladesh and the GEFONT trade union federation of Nepal. The NGWF calls itself an "independent revolutionary union organisation". GEFONT was a (pro-China) Communist Party oriented federation but following the collapse of the USSR and solidarity from anarchists during the recent battery strike is now developing contacts with anarchists.

The 1994 Human Development Report issued by the United Nations reveals that: