WSM activity in the last months

national | anti-capitalism | press release

Friday January 09, 2009 10:49

by WS editors - WSM (WS 107)

wsm_ireland at yahoo dot com

November saw WSM public meetings about anarchism in Cork and Dublin, with 40 people at one and about 60 at the other. With the crisis and a growing employers’ offensive on wages there is a greater openness to radical ideas, and we will be holding more meetings around the country over the next couple of months.

November also saw big numbers turn out for demonstrations against the education cuts. A leaflet by WSM education workers asked “why do we keep inviting Fine Gael and Labour TDs to speak at our rallies. When they were in government, they were every bit as mean as Fianna Fáil, every bit as good at cutting services in order to keep down the tax bill of the rich. When in opposition they make promises, when in government they stick the boot in.

“Surely we should be looking to others in the same situation as ourselves. Surely we should be looking to join up with other working people who face the same attack on their jobs and services.” The government’s cuts strategy is an attack on the standard of living of all working people, a united resistance where “an injury to one is the concern of all” is the best response.

December saw 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos shot and killed by police in Athens in December. WSM spokesperson Siobhan Rattigan said that “While Greece was preparing for the December 10th general strike against making working people pay for the economic crisis, Alexandros was killed in cold blood. That is how a ‘special forces’ police officer answered anti-police slogans that a small group of school students were chanting.”

Far from frightening people it sparked off riots throughout the country. A General Strike was called for the following day, and 10,000 marched on the Greek parliament. Schools all over Greece were occupied by their students, and a 3-day strike declared by the High School Teachers’ Union.

In Dublin WSM members helped to organise a protest outside the Greek embassy. A Greek anarchist addressed the crowd and explained that “the special forces are trained by the old guard, the military who were in power. They are not respected by the people, and neither is the government which mirrors our own with its corruption and ineptitude. That is why Greece is in the grip of its greatest social upheaval in decades.”

We were on the streets again that month, joining protests against the Israeli slaughter in Gaza. A joint statement from our sister organisations in Palestine/Israel, South Africa, Italy and Canada summed up our rulers' attitude:

"Hundreds of dead and thousands of injured, sacrificed on the altar of Zionist expansionism and fundamentalism. In Europe, the foreign ministers of every EU country talk about an "exaggerated", though "legitimate", reaction on the part of Israel, reversing the true situation with an operation that would make the most cynical illusionist feel proud by making the aggressor, the State of Israel, appear to be the victim."

On a happier note, December also saw the first of the WSM’s monthly radio shows on Dublin community radio station NEAR 90.3FM. If you miss the live programme you can download it from
http://www.archive.org/details/RadioSolidarityShow1From...eland

This article is from the forthcoming print edition of Workers Solidarity 107, this is it's first online publication. You can find back issues of Workers Solidarity online at http://www.wsm.ie/ws

http://ia310814.us.archive.org/1/items/RadioSolidarityShow1FromTheWorkersSolidarityMovementIreland/WorkerssolidaritymovementradioSolidarityShow1_64kb.mp3

Embedded audio: http://ia310814.us.archive.org/1/items/RadioSolidarityShow1FromTheWorkersSolidarityMovementIreland/WorkerssolidaritymovementradioSolidarityShow1_64kb.mp3

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Comments (1 of 1)

Great stuff, great to see this sort of stuff happening, look foreward to future shows

by Dunk

Fri Jan 09, 2009 15:42

Tek note, the embedded audio file is not working from the imc-ie site, as its not an mp3, by clicking on the archive.org site people can play it, id suggest changing it into mp3 file and uploading, then embed that new MP3 link. Also this file is not traceable (it seems) from IMC-RADIO, if you upload your MP3 there, then this file will be in that newswire, thereby wider listenership base etc...

Nice to get seomra update, as ever near fm doing fine community media stuff, is majority world still going??

Perhaps a future show might go out live from upcoming anarchist bookfair or a show from the seomra spraoi of a talk and round room discussion? related post about future of irish activist media here:

printflares, imc-ie physical space, training, streaming, radio station, global network
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/90365#comment242286

regards from Barcelona

Dunk

{mp3 fixed. thanx dunk! -an editor}

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WSM activity in the last months

Comments (1 of 1)