Over 30 years of anarchist writing from Ireland listed under hundreds of topics
Tom Murray
We will march for choice. Will you?
Date: Tue, 2017-09-19 11:35
Ask yourself a question.
A relative, a friend, a neighbour, a co-worker or a stranger on a bus says to you that they were pregnant but exercised their right to choose and secured a termination. Would you then imprison them for 14 years? If you wouldn’t jail someone for exercising their right to choose, would you want to be associated in any way with their jailors?
If the answer to the above is ‘no’, then you might consider joining the 6th Annual March for Choice will take place in Dublin this Saturday, 30th September. We anarchists of the Workers Solidarity Movement will be assembling with thousands of other pro-choice people at the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square from 1.30pm, before we march on Dáil Éireann at 2pm.
THE WORMS THAT SAVED THE WORLD - a review of a brilliant children's book
Date: Fri, 2017-06-02 20:05
THE WORMS THAT SAVED THE WORLD is an illustrated children’s book about a rebellious group of earthworms who fight to save their home from a luxury golf course that takes over their headland. Written by Kevin Doyle and illustrated by Spark Deeley, the book introduces us to Connie and her friends as they band together to save their community and their home.
At first, the worms try to make do but the growing pollution combined with the new owners’ intolerance force them to take action. They realise that they cannot win against the powerful golf club on their own so they seek the help of other animals who share the headland with them. They are a determined and inventive community of worms and in the end the win back control of their home. (Hurray!) The story was inspired by a famous campaign that took place at the Old Head of Kinsale in Cork, Ireland in the early 2000s.
Rojava: a new world in our hearts?
Date: Mon, 2017-02-13 23:28
War is hell. In September 2015, the heartbreaking image of Alan Kurdi went viral. The picture of the little Syrian-Kurdish boy lying face down on Ali Hoca beach in Turkey highlighted Fortress Europe’s racist response to those refugees fleeing conflict in the Middle East. Abdullah Kurdi, Alan’s father, returned to Kobane to bury his wife and two sons. He wrote to the world: ‘I am grateful for your sympathy for my fate. This has given me the feeling that I am not alone. But an essential step in ending this tragedy and avoiding its recurrence is support for our self-organisation’. Kurdi was referring to the emergent experiment in popular democracy sweeping Rojava, the most hopeful thing to have happened in the Middle East for a very long time. A popular, anti-authoritarian rebellion is struggling against the death-world of capitalist modernity. And for now, it seems to be winning.
Report on “Kurdish Resistance in Turkey and Syria” meeting (November 2016)
Date: Mon, 2016-11-28 11:17
About 50 people gathered in the Teacher’s Club on Monday evening for a public meeting organised by Rojava Calling.
Speaking at the meeting were Faysal Sariyildiz, People’s Democratic Party (HDP) MP in Turkey, and Calvin James, a Dublin born DJ and activist who spent 6 months as a volunteer medic in northern Syria in 2016. Faysal joined the meeting by Skype from Brussels as the Turkish state recently cancelled his passport.
Fire in the Minds of Irish Men and Irish Women - notes on the meaning of 1916 today
Date: Tue, 2016-03-15 12:22
What ideas inspired the men and women who rose up in 1916? How did those ideas fare in the Irish Free State founded in 1922?
Book Review: Kristin Ross Communal Luxury: The Political Imaginary of the Paris Commune
Date: Fri, 2016-02-26 16:02
Kristin Ross has written a beautiful, inspirational account of the life and afterlife of the Paris Commune and of the everyday communards who brought it to fruition.
“Communal Luxury” takes as its subject matter the Paris Commune of 1871, one of the single greatest advances toward a free society ever attempted in human history. The Commune arose in the course of a devastating war between France and Prussia (Germany), with the French army’s defeat prompting the collapse of the imperialist, authoritarian French regime. The people of Paris organised their own defence, bought their own cannons, and refused to hand said cannons over to the new French Republic. Instead, staging a worker-led insurrection, they declared Paris to be liberated from both the French and Prussian forces and set about constructing a free society, one in which all comers participated in decision-making and all wealth was shared in common. The Commune lasted some 72 days in the spring of 1871 before being brutally crushed by the reactionary forces of Nation, Church, State and Capital. Some 25,000 men, women, and children were executed.
Luas Strikes: Rage Against the Regime Media
Date: Fri, 2016-02-19 17:33
To all of Ireland’s regime media - just what exactly is your problem with striking Luas workers?
The media demonising striking Luas workers suits their boss, Transdev, just fine. However, demonising striking workers suits your boss just fine too.
Sexual Assault: What Colleges Can Do
Date: Thu, 2016-02-11 13:45
An investigation is currently under way at University College Dublin following reports that up to 200 male students allegedly shared explicit images of women they had sexual relations with. The incident not only highlights a culture of misogyny in Irish universities, it also calls attention to the absence of material supports for effectively responding to sexual assault on campus. But what kinds of supports should students demand from Irish universities?
Trigger Warning: Discusses rape and ‘revenge porn’ image sharing
Traveller and Homeless Families in Ireland: Dignity and Decent Housing for All!
Date: Thu, 2016-01-21 13:19
We built our cities and the houses of our cities. They are ours not to slave in but to master and to own.
Last night’s RTÉ programme, My Homeless Family, explored the lives of three homeless families living in emergency accommodation. They provided an insight into the appalling housing and living conditions faced by a large number of people at the moment.
Dignity and Decent Housing for All!
Date: Tue, 2015-10-20 12:49
There are over 5,000 homeless people across Ireland. And if current trends continue there will be over 6,500 homeless by the end of the year [1]. Our leaders worship the free market faith. We must organise together if we want them to bend to a social logic and the rule of fairness.
We do not expect those who inhabit Leinster House to solve our housing problems. Last week, Taoiseach Kenny ruled out state intervention in the property market to curb the cost of renting. “It is very clear that interference in the market to its detriment is not something we should do,’’ he said [2]. They call this ‘restoring confidence to the market’. We call this ‘destroying the fabric of society’.
