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Workers Solidarity No 50

Spring 1997

For starters

News of the activities of the WSM in the Winter of 1997; in the unions opposing Partnership 2000 and marching in the Bloody Sunday Commemoration in Derry. Things are looking optimistic with national and international victories and we're getting the anarchist message to more and more people

That's Capitalism

Facts and figures detailing the latest abuses of capitalism, including prison labour and the oppression of women

*** News from Ireland & WSM ***

Water Charges Victory

Gregor Kerr, Secretary of the Federation of Dublin Anti-Water Charge Campaigns reports on the defeat of the state by a mass non-payment campaign which stood up to bribes, threats and intimidation

Communities stand up to the heroin barons

Dublin is experiencing a very serious heroin epidemic with an estimated 8,000-9,000 heroin addicts. Heroin addiction is closely related to disadvantage and poverty. The anti-heroin movement has brought thousands of people to meetings and onto the streets in Dublin's working class communities

Employment Equality Bill

The Employment Equality Bill effectively gives schools and hospitals which are controlled by either of the churches the right to discriminate on the basis of marital status, family/parental status, sexual orientation, race, religion or membership of the Traveller Community

The Anti-D scandal

Due to contaminated Anti-D about a thousand women have contracted Hepatitis C. We look at why the contamination happened and why the government tried to cover it up

Bigots and ballot boxes

Two short illustrations of the sectarian nature of the state in northern Ireland

The Irish Nazi, the Unionist MPs and the British Tories

An Irish fascist has turned up as editor of Right Now!, an ultra-right magazine within the British Conservative Party. Among the MPs who have spoken at its meetings are Deputy DUP leader Peter Robinson and Orange Grand Master Martin Smyth

Obituary...Adam Hughes

Adam Hughes died recently at just 18 years old. Adam gave a great deal to the anarchist movement in his two or so years of membership

*** International News ***

For Humanity and against neoliberalism

In August of 1996 3,000 people from all over the world gathered in jungle camps as guests of the EZLN to discuss building a global fight against neo-liberal capitalism

Interview with the SAC

Kevin Doyle of the Workers Solidarity Movement interview's Lars Hammarberg, an organiser with the Swedish syndicalist union the Central Organisation of Swedish Workers (SAC)

Australian union bans Indonesian ships

Australia's powerful Maritime Trade Union launched rolling bans on Indonesian shipping to protest against the arrest of Indonesian trade union activists

358 own half the world!

The UN revealed that the world's 358 wealthiest people have assets equal to the combined income of 2.3 billion people

Obituary...Robert Lynn

Robert Lynn died recently. His death is a great blow for the Scottish anarchist movement which has lost one of its oldest activists

*** History and Theory ***

Thinging about Anarchism
Irish nationalism is not for us

Anarchists are for the defeat of British imperialism. But we want more, we stand for the creation of a new society in the interests of the working class. This is very different from the politics of nationalism, of Sinn Fein

The real difference is not between Catholic & Protestant but between rich and poor

Some republicans seem to be genuinely surprised that the 'peace process' collapsed. How can anything be expected from the British state which was responsible for Bloody Sunday, for smashing the miners strike, for running down the NHS

EducationThe murder machine continued?

What should education be about?" If your answer is that education should be about the development of the full potential of every student and that the role of a teacher/educator should be to facilitate that development, then you will soon realise that much of what passes for education in the current system is nothing of the sort

Workers self-management in the Russian revolution

Factory Committees began to appear in Russia from March 1917 onwards. At first they struggled to limit the control of the bosses and they took up issues such as the eight hour day. The committees soon began to become more adventurous and began to speak of actively running of the factories

Captain Jack Whyte

Captain Jack Whyte fought in the British army during the Boer war, organised the first workers militia in Ireland during the 1913 lockout and went on to become an anarchist and fight alongside the CNT in Spain

Review:Chomsky's Politics

Chomsky has written extensively on the evils of American foreign policy, media censorship, and the complex issues of power and its manipulation by politicians and capitalists of all kinds, and about what constitutes real democracy


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