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Never forget that we won the last referenda on abortion rights! Anti-abortion campaigners such as Des Hanafin and SPUC have been trying to rewrite history by claiming that they won, and that the country had voted against abortion.
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY no doubt that voices will be heard telling anti-charges campaigners to trust one gang or another of politicians to abolish the charges if only we will wait until the next local elections and put them into control of the councils.
An Eastern Health Board report published in December 1994, shows a huge increase in the number of homeless people put up in Bed and Breakfast accommodation by the Health Board.
At 4 am on Wednesday December 6th the first attempts to disconnect water were made. Water inspectors who arrived in estates in Clondalkin, Lucan and Tallaght found, however, that campaign activists were well-organised and that mobile patrols were in place to prevent disconnections.
Last Autumn the speed at which events in Northern Ireland were moving wrong-footed pundits across the political spectrum. British soldiers shouldered arms and swaped hard hats for natty berets, loyalists attacked police stations, Gerry Adams was "Mandelifeid" (to coin a phrase) into a serious statesman with a cute North Belfast brogue.
David Ervine of the UVF linked Progressive Unionist Party, Gusty Spence and Gary McMichael of the UDA's Ulster Democratic Party are all talking about is a new working class loyalist political party. There is much talk of how the ordinary working class Protestant has gained nothing from the old loyalism, of poor housing and the lack of respect shown to them by the "fur coat brigade".
Orange sectarianism is not without a material base, and it is not some sort of frightened reaction to militant republicanism. Unless we understand the basis for sectarianism we will not be able to uproot it. When Protestant workers accept loyalist values they are joining an alliance with their bosses.
When the case of Father Brendan Smyth, the paedophile priest, came out, the whole country was revolted. Here was an unrepentant child molester, carrying out sexual assaults on hundreds of children over a period of forty years, with the full knowledge of the Catholic Church.
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.
It was easy to predict that DL would jump into bed with almost anyone who would give them a ministerial car. After all they believe in the division of society into rulers and ruled, you won't catch Rabitte or Gilmore calling for the workplaces to be turned over to the workers.
Ireland is the 19th most competitive country in the world
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.
Anarchism on the internet
"Voice of Fire" is important, it contains everything that is known about the EZLN. It has all their press interviews, letters, communiqués, and it has responses to the Mexican Government's propaganda
The I.W.A.was formed at the 1922 Berlin Congress of Revolutionary Unionist organisations. This congress had been convoked by the CNT and USI in response to the formation of the Red Trade Union International
The Central Organisation of Swedish Workers (SAC) is a union which describes itself as syndicalist and libertarian socialist.
Daniel Guerin's book "Anarchism" has been translated in Russian and Arabic for the first time.
Why is it that so many anarchists don't see the need to join anarchist organisations?
Solidarity with young and unemployed
The Workers Solidarity Movement has always supported a woman's right to control her own body, and have campaigned for this right as part of the pro-choice movement. We believe that control over one's fertility is an essential part of individual freedom.
In the autumn of 1992, the people of Ireland voted to legalise abortion information. More than two years later, the government has finally introduced a Bill to 'regulate' this information.
Capitalism will not allow 'freedom of information' in any real sense. The mass media is all state owned or owned by wealthy corporations. As long as access to the internet was confined to a narrow layer of academics and students, freedom of expression was permitted. But now that it starts to become a mass medium of communication the state is seeking to impose limits on this expression.
Not many people know why May Day became International Workers Day and why we should still celebrate it. It all began over a century ago when the American Federation of Labour adopted an historic resolution which asserted that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labour from and after May 1st, 1886".
Community Employment Schemes (CE) were introduced by the Government last year and have replaced all the other schemes, such as S.E.S.
Ireland is one of the thirty richest countries in the world. At the same time, 20% of the population live below the poverty line. There are over 3,700 charities in Ireland. They all do essential and valuable work. But they are only necessary because the state is not providing these services itself.
IRISH WORKERS enjoy fewer holidays than anyone else in the European Union, work longer hours than workers anywhere else apart from Britain, and suffer the highest rate of long term unemployment in the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD)
The Irish Famine was not just a result of British Government incompetence or the greed of a few landlords. But of what happens when you have a system that puts profits for the few above all else.
The popular stereotype of anarchists' relationship to religion is that we are all priest-killers and church-burners. This is, as is usually the case with mainstream representations of anarchism, almost completely false.
The formation of the "Rainbow Coalition" in December led to a number of promises of change in the double taxation service charges which have been vigorously opposed by residents' and community groups throughout the state since their inception.
GEORGE WOODCOCK, author of two well known and widely available books on anarchism - Anarchism and The Anarchist Reader - has died, aged 82.
Thousands of Irish building workers have gone to work in Germany over the last few years. As European integration proceeds, German contractors are increasingly turning to foreign workers. They want foreign workers because they are cheaper, unorganised and easier to push around
On Friday February 17th, following a 3-week strike in defence of a colleague who had been unfairly dismissed, eight MANDATE members at Knightingales store in Dublin's ILAC Centre returned to work victorious.
Spy Cameras and pensions that give you no money were on the agenda when the SIPTU members in Trinity College met for their annual general meeting in March.
Florence has to be one of the most beautiful cites in Italy. Thanks to the hospitality of some friends in the Anarchist Movement of Florence (MAF) three members of the Workers Solidarity Movement were recently able to visit this city. During the week we spent there we were able to be tourists by day and meet with anarchists by night.
Three decades of polite appeals to 'liberal' politicians have changed little for Travellers. It is up to anti-racists, trade unionists and other ordinary working class people to join with Travellers and deal a crushing blow to the politics of discrimination.
Travellers are a distinct "ethnic" group with their own traditions and customs. Very few people want to accept that they are. This reflects the widespread racism towards them, a racism which insists on seeing them as "failed settled people".
The IRA ceasefire is approaching its first anniversary. That year has been striking for two things, on the one hand the success of the 'peace process' in turning Sinn Féin from demonised pariahs to lauded peace makers. On the other hand, the failure of the process to produce any substantial gains for the nationalist community.
We welcome the cease-fire. The "peace process", however, has little to recommend it. It represents little more than arguments over who exactly will administer capitalism in Ireland.
The problem for the unionist politicians is that, unlike the period of the Anglo-Irish Agreement, when over a hundred thousand could be mobilised in demonstrations, now they are unable to organise any significant opposition.
Sinn Féin's politics offer little more to Northern workers, as a class, than the politics of the fringe loyalist groups. Both aspire to getting a better deal for the poor and oppressed in their communities but neither are capable of delivering, as they are limited to rhetorical appeals to the workers of the other side to "see sense"
It costs a fortune own a newspaper or TV company. Anybody who does so is a millionaire. Media moguls are in the same league as the rest of the rich. They hang about in the same clubs, they buy racehorses from each other and, more importantly, they have similar economic interests.
How do we deal with powerful multinational firms who often have an international income greater than the Irish government? If we end up having to strike they can often pack their bags and move to another country; where they will receive another round of tax breaks, free workforce training and preferential treatment.
Government ministers appear on TV to inform us that interest rates will have to go up or down, or reassure us that, having spent hundreds of millions of pounds, our standing in the ERM is now safe. What are they talking about?
American black activist and journalist, Mumia Abu-Jamal, was sentenced to die at 10pm on August 17th. Protests which took place in over twenty countries forced the US authorities to grant a stay of execution, just 11 days before he was to be killed.
This pamphlet is based on a talk by Pepe Gomez of the CNT's Puerto Real/Cadiz section given in London in October 1993. It is based on the long running battle between the CNT and the shipyard bosses.
Householders in Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown and Fingal got letters threatening them with instant court action if they didn't pay up without delay. This scare tactic was intended to frighten people into paying. It didn't work.
On Tuesday May 23rd, approximately 15,000 teachers marched through Dublin as part of their campaign for early retirement.
The need for a real alternative was confirmed when Labour and Democratic Left once again put the bosses' interests first. They have agreed to a freeze on jobs in the public sector, a cut of £77 million in government spending and further cuts next year.
Generally Workers Solidarity appears on the net one or more months after publication. You can help us by taking out a subscription to the printed version.
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