Anarchism on the Move

national | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis

Monday January 26, 2004 12:13

by WSM

Kieron Barry reviews 2003, a busy year for Irish Anarchists

2003 saw a big upsurge in anarchist activity across the country. A small but growing number of anarchists are building opposition to the status quo based on the politics of freedom and equality. We want, and know it is possible, to create an alternative to the politics of bluff, lies and shady deals. Justice will not fall from the sky- it will have to be fought for here and now. That's why anarchists are involved in a wide range of campaigns and are active in the day-to-day struggles of our communities and in our workplaces. We also know that to build a different society requires imagination and initiative and so we are not content simply to criticise what is- over the past year we showed what can be achieved through grassroots democracy and direct action.

Throughout the year anarchists were busy organising meetings, demonstrations and direct action against the war. The main focus of this activity was the use of Shan-non by the US military on the way to wage war on Iraq. Anarchists and other activists decided to publicise this fact and undertook to stop the misuse of Shannon. A peace camp was established and following the smashing up of a military plane by Catholic Workers and Mary Kelly, and other security breaches during demonstrations, three of the four carriers responsible for shipping the US military through the airport temporarily pulled out of Shannon. The government responded by deploying the Irish army and riot police at Shannon to defend the use of a civilian airport by a foreign army in a "neutral" country. Anarchists were also in-volved in a series of actions against Top Oil, an Irish company that directly benefits from servicing the US war machine.

In Dublin when the council tried to impose a bin tax as the first step to privatising the service, direct action was once again the order of the day. People all over Dublin, including anarchists, set about resisting the non-collection of bins through blockades, demos and pickets. This has, so far, stopped the full implementation of the bin-tax.
Predictably, the state has victimised activ-ists involved in these campaigns and a lot of energy and time has been put into the defence of those dragged in front of the courts. A group called Anarchist Prisoner Support has been established to offer soli-darity and support to those imprisoned for their political activity.

Irish anarchists took part in the protests against the G8 in Evian and the EU in Thessaloniki and the WTO in Mexico. The mistreatment of protesters arrested in Thessaloniki resulted in five of them going on hunger strike and there was a welter of activity internationally, including Ireland, to put pressure on the Greek state to release the prisoners. This was successful and the protesters are now out on bail. A demon-stration at the Italian embassy was organ-ised to mark the second anniversary of the killing of an anti-capitalist protester in Genoa and in solidarity with the protesters in Evian. Anarchists also attended the Irish Social Forum, which promotes discussion and debate about globalisation.

Reclaim The Streets threw three street parties with a point in 2003 and the police response to dancing in the streets was muted in comparison to 2002- no Garda riot, just over the top surveillance. The Mayday party was so successful that it inspired some of Dublin's inner city residents to launch their own version of RTS.

The CAZ provided a space for Cork radicals to discuss and plot by the lovely Lee. The organisers of the CAZ are currently look-ing for a new venue. In Dublin the Magpie squatters transformed, with a bit of imagi-nation and hard work, a derelict house into a home, a library and a social centre where people can meet and organise. Towards the end of the year Belfast anarchists opened up a series of temporary squat cafes.

2003 also saw workplace and union activity including support for firemen on strike in the north, Palestinian and Latin American solidarity work, anti-corporate initiatives, anti-racist activity, eco-activism, the de-fence of archaeological heritage in Carrick-mines, lots of free grub courtesy of Food Not Bombs, events held by TCD and UCD anarchists and the UCG ecology society, the defence of the commons on the old head of Kinsale, the formation of a new anarchist group, Organise! and the further development of alternative media. And if all that sounds a bit too worthy there were a load of social events as well- gigs, cabaret, films, the annual anarchist summer camp and anarchist picnic and hundreds of people attended the three Grassroots Gatherings held in Limerick Dublin and Galway for the workshops, debates and booze.

To build on the successes of the past year and ultimately to build a genuine anti-capi-talist, non-hierarchial movement we need more people to get involved in 2004. So find out about anarchism and help us build an alternative to a world dominated by greed through solidarity and direct action.

---

To get in touch with Irish anarchists, see the Irish anarchism index page at http://anarchism.ws/ireland.html

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Comments (6 of 6)

good article but...

by gus

Mon Jan 26, 2004 17:39

while shannon had some great highpoints such as those you referred to in your article, ie. carriers pulling out of shannon and the great work the CW and Mary Kelly did we have to be honest with ourselves or else we risk marching fruitlessly forward and not acknowledging the screw ups.

March 1st for example, while showing how we could get 500 or so people to shannon and interested in taking part in a direct action showed how utterly disorganised the GNAW was at the time, it has come a long way since then but it is still somewhat crippled by the need to tag along with IAWM reformist crap and balance that with more direct confrontations with war. Not only does this hamper it, at a national level it really doesnt exist, lets face it GNAW should be called Dublin GNAW. No major attempt is made to try and incorporate small groups or individuals across the country who align themselves to the GNAW. GNAW is too dublin centric.

The Top Oil demonstrations could have been alot more effective if people across the country where most of the Top Oil distribution centers are located were either a) supported or b) allowed a voice.

I dont think any of this is intentional, as a relatively small but vocal group it is inevitable that personalities take center stage but this has to stop, especially if demonstrations for this years EU 2004 summits are to be a success.

It can't be two or three people's opinions that are taken into account, it has to be all of the participants of the GG.

The last GG while being very well organised and catered for crippled itself on the final day by forcing itself to come to a conclusion so the attending masses could go for a drink. Now everyone was tired but did important decisions on Shannon and EU 2004 really have to be decided upon then leaving the GG Eu 2004 thing up in the sky and many people confused about Shannon. In my opinion two national meetings were needed in the new year to decide on these important issues but this hasnt come about, instead we must wait for the next GG in March where perhaps the same mistakes maybe played out again.

While much has happened this year in Irish Anarchist circles like the foundation of Anarchist Prisoner Support and Organise a large degree of disunity prevails.

APS dont appear to get much support and Organise has been ignored entirely by the Anarchist community of the south.

Some changes in the status quo of Irish Anarchism have appeared the Magpie collective have given a breath of life into an anarchist movement that still talks about workers and unions and other such stuff. They set themselves goals and go for it, so do FNB and i for one am glad groups like this have begun to emerge, they offer a new route into anarchism and in my opinion a more interesting route, a route where anarchism is put into action, perhaps we should allow them to orgnise the next GG ( ; after cork.

Indeed, much has happened this year gone but we need to learn from our mistakes, not just brush them aside, and new innovations such as the Magpie collective, FNB, APS or the anarchist news site that was up here a while ago need to be supported. Older more established groups such as the Cork Anarchists, WSM, Gluaiseacht etc etc need to network more and need to start discussing there differences and how they
can work together better, the GG needs to be more democratic and more emphasis put on decision making, discussion and building on concrete proposals if the anarchist movement is to thrive and grow here.

Workers Solidarity -do they not want members?

by James ó Reilly

Tue Jan 27, 2004 16:47

binnmor at yahoo dot co dot uk

Iorua

Workers Solidarity Movement newspaper, a complaint and description of my failed efforts to obtain a subscrption.
Having often bought copies of the well laid out Workers Solidarity newspaper (and in my opinion an excellent read) whenever it was for sale at rally's and protests etc. Having emigrated to Norway I have made use of their web site http://struggle.ws/wsm/paper.html, currently down as I write this, to read editions of the paper. In each edition there is an ad offering a subscription for euro7 for 6 copies of the paper plus a copy of Red and Black revolution. I thought this sounded good so I sent away my cheque in November for euro15 so I could get a few extra papers. And so the weeks passed and my desire for anarchist news went unfulfilled.
I checked my bank account and the cheque had been cashed so where were the papers?

I waited till now but no reply from the email. Is this how the workers solidarity intends to expand its readership/membership? Its disappointing really. In fairness to socialist worker if you want a paper or email/txt them they respond quickly, in fact its hard to get rid of them (I hope this doesn't start the trolls off again, its only meant as a joke). Anyone out there from the anarchist world who can shed some light on this?
Go raibh maith agaibh, James

Woops

by Chekov - WSM (personal capacity)

Tue Jan 27, 2004 17:01

Sorry about that James. I will bring to the attention of the person responsible for subscriptions and make sure you are included in the current mail out. We do sometimes let things like this slip as we are normally very busy and some times things fall into the organisational gaps. Will try harder. By the way, a new addition is available as of today - with a new look.

Organise! et al.

by Al - Organise!

Sun Feb 01, 2004 10:40

Regarding the comments about Organise! and its perceived lack of attention in the south, a few things.

The public launch of Organise! in the south has yet to take place, but there will be a meet next weekend, venue still to be confirmed. So patience, folks...

Apart from that, Organise already has members in the south (Dublin, Galway, Cork and Kildare). We are optimistic that Organise will do its bit in promoting libertarian communism throughout the country.

it is true and quite surprising that APS have not received much support in Dublin. I have no idea why that is. Organise! (like the ASF and AF before it) intend to do as much as it can to help promote the prisoner issue. A testament to this is the two page space we give to prisoners in the last and future editions of Working Class Resistance (WCR).

Regarding Anarchomedia, it is a superb project, and one that should be supported by ALL anarchists who feel comfortable with the editorial policy. Anarchomedia is here to stay, and it remains an opportunity for anarchists in this country to show some of the solidarity we all think so important.

Al

organiseireland@yahoo.ie

on support and centrism

by James - WSM (personal two cents)

Sun Feb 01, 2004 18:20

One doesn’t support an anarchist organisation like you do Man Utd or Fine Gael, you get involved and do things, rather than cheer them on from the sidelines.
Anarchists in Dublin have done some good if unspectacular stuff in aid of those facing the strong arm of the state; raising money to pay fines, straight donations, having defendants speak at meetings to help raise public awareness, visiting bin taxers in prison; involvement in Salonika 7 case.

In short the issue isn’t being swept under the carpet; The explanation for perceived lack of support is probably as simple as people working away on their own without needing to go to APS every time they want to take action. It is no more necessary for folks to do solidarity work with those facing state repression to work through APS than it is for anarchists interested in, say, the bin tax to work through the WSM. The more self-activity and stuff going on the better.

The existence of a specific group dedicated to this issue brings an added dimension and focus to it. That’s healthy, every extra bit that can be brought to the struggle is welcome.

I would think that any specific requests for aid – to put on a benefit, can your group send two people to meeting about xxx - will always be treated favourably by anarchists. General and vague calls for support tend to be put on the backburner due simply to having lots of specific stuff to do, including solidarity work.

There is an ongoing discussion on prisoner support at the moment on the Irish Anarchism List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irishanarchism

Re Gus: Dublin Grassroots does call it itself ‘Dublin’ Grassroots; there is no attempt to assume a national title. The remedy for (fictitious in my opinion) Dublin-centrism is for local groups to spring up. That sort of thing would be great, but on this the ball is surely not in our court – that’d be central control from Dublin. Anyway I think plenty of non-dublin grassrootsy types are active away, they don’t necessarily use the term grassroots. No big thrill I think, practical cooperation will continue.

Prisoners

Mon Feb 02, 2004 14:36

organiseireland at yahoo dot ie

I'm not quite sure who it is you are arguing with, James. It is fairly obvious that by 'support' I meant the practical efforts people can put into raising awareness of prisoner issues, supporting arrestees, attending trials etc... as opposed to waving flags and chanting 'APS United' on the streets of Dublin.

In addition, I'm not making a 'vague' call for support for prisoners. If I wanted to make a specific plea for anarchists to coordinate on issues, like prisoners, it would be in the pages of our bulletin, or at the beginning of a thread specifically on the issue (as opposed to at the end of a thread with a different subject heading) on newswires like this. There is a forum set aside for discussion on prisoners at:

http://www.anarchomedia.myikonboard.com/login.php

which I hope will generate more debate on this.

In actual fact, I was asking a question about what I perceive to be the lack of practical support given to APS ie low turn-outs at prisoner writing sessions etc..., demos they call, fund-raisers, not arguing for centrism...a strange thing for an anarchist to do (an even stranger accusation for an anarchist to make of another)

Naturally enough, I believe in as much self-activity as possible. But APS are the ones breaking their backs on this single issue, and more individuals, groups should be cooperating, coorderating with them to build up a valid network. I'm not saying they should play a 'leading' role in this, but since they have a permanent structure, operating at times during media calm, they are in a position to help others. Mutual Aid, anyone?

Finally, I don't think I mentioned WSM in my initial reply. They are not the only anarchists in Dublin, after all.

Al

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Comments (6 of 6)