Today's Topics:
1. wsm.ie: Ireland, 11th Dublin Anarchist Bookfair - April 15-16th 2016 (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. wsm.ie: What Pegida represents and why we oppose it by Tom Murray (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. wsm.ie: Traveller and Homeless Families in Ireland: Dignity and Decent Housing for All! by Tom Murray (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. wsm.ie: Better to Squat Than Let Homes Rot by Cormac Caulfield (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Britain, RESISTANCE BULLETIN #159 - Syrizia: lessons from the Greek tragedy (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
The 11th Dublin Anarchist Bookfair will take place Saturday 16th of April around Smithfield square, there will also be a major event on the Friday night. ---- More details will be posted over the next couple of weeks, this preliminary announcement is so that you can 'hold the date'. Be sure to join the DABF 2016 Facebook event and help with our promotion by inviting your friends and tweeting with #DABF ---- Please email all queries to bookfair@wsm.ie ---- Below old hands will find an appeal for help with costs and for new people details of previous bookfairs to give you an idea of what to expect. ---- Make a donation towards the bookfair costs ---- The Dublin Anarchist Bookfair is costing about 4,000 euro to put on this year. The costs include flights for speakers, hiring the venues & tables and printing programs & posters. All of the organisers are unpaid volunteers contributing hundreds of hours of labour between them. Their work and your donations mean that there is no entry charge for any of the events except the Afters Party. Any donation you can make towards the costs is welcome. Stalls at last years bookfair included AK press, Irish Labour History Society, Atheist Ireland, Seomra Spraoi, Rebel County Books, Anti Fascist Action, Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, PM Press, Abortion Rights Campaign, Stoneybatter & Smithfield peoples history project, Rabble, Alliance for Animal Rights, Look Left magazine, National Animal Rights Association, Basic Income Ireland, International Bolshevik Tendency, Sex Workers Alliance Ireland, Anti-Internment Ireland, An Spreach, Glasgow Anarchist Collective, Workers Solidarity Movement What people think of the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud Details of last years DABF 2015 to give you an idea of what to expect, links to older bookfair pages at the bottom of this page Our Facebook event for DABF 2015 The 10th DABF took place on 25th April in the new locations of the Generator the Cobblestone and Block T around Smithfield square. Saturday saw us host a day of talks and workshops emerging out of a range of struggles and new movements with book and organisation stalls in the Generator. After the bookfair on Saturday the always amazing Afters Party was at the Voodoo Lounge #DABF Stalls at this years bookfair will include AK press, Irish Labour History Society, Atheist Ireland, Seomra Spraoi, Rebel County Books, Anti Fascist Action, Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, PM Press, Abortion Rights Campaign, Stoneybatter & Smithfield peoples history project, Rabble, Alliance for Animal Rights, Look Left magazine, National Animal Rights Association, Basic Income Ireland, International Bolshevik Tendency, Sex Workers Alliance Ireland, Anti-Internment Ireland, An Spreach, Glasgow Anarchist Collective, Workers Solidarity Movement Large high res JPG of the 2015 Dublin Anarchist Bookfair poster to print out & display Meeting Timetable 10.30 to 12.00 Generator - Winning Environmental struggles in Ireland How can we build an active and confident movement to defend the natural environment? Alan MacSimoin and Polly Wolf will discuss past and present environmental struggles in Ireland in order to see what the challenges and possibilities are. Watch video Block T - Voting for Marriage Equality while being critical of Marriage We find ourselves facing a imminent referendum on marriage equality, which the hardline religious right are opposing as part of their program of maintaining multiple oppressions. A no vote in that context would be disastrous, serving only to entrench homophobia. Therefore we are campaigning for a Yes to Marriage Equality vote but beyond the need to ensure the referendum is not defeated what else needs to be said? Listen to the Audio Watch the Video Cobblestone - Community Debt and Development Workshop The aim of the participatory The Irish Debt Crisis - What Happened? workshop is to raise awareness on events that took place in Ireland from 2008 until now, relating to the banking crisis. Much of the emphasis is on the Anglo-Irish Bank story and it is framed within an understanding of social justice – we think what happened was unjust and we want to reverse it. 12.15 to 13.45 Generator - The fight against water charges - where next In this panel, Rachael O’Sullivan and Gregor Kerr will discuss the challenges facing the popular, community-based movement against Irish Water, and what we should do next. Watch the video Block T - Revolution in Rojava - from lessons to solidarity This panel will discuss the popular struggles and direct democratic experiments ongoing in the autonomous region of Rojava, the three largely Kurdish province of northern Syria. There are reports that popular assemblies, women’s and youth councils as well as popular militias have been formed, while regime property has been turned over to worker-managed co-operatives. What exactly is happening in Rojava, what can we learn and what can we do? Listen to the audio Watch the video 14.00-15.15 Generator - Defending the Amazon, Defending Life Andrés Sacanambuy will discuss the extractive economy in Putumayo, the ramifications of recent Free Trade agreements and the ongoing defence of the Amazon rainforest as a vital pillar for the whole planet and as a source of hope and life for future generations. Andrés Sacanambuy is a representative of the Regional Front of Social Organisations of Putumayo, Baja Bota Caucana and Cofanía Jardines de Sucumbíos de Ipiales Nariño, a regional network of over 50 peasant, indigenous, workers, women and youth associations. Listen to the audio Block T - Migration, State Racism and Anti-Racism Organising This panel will discuss migration, state racism and anti-racist, migrant self organising. It will discuss issues faced by migrant activists involved in left-wing politics including the NGOization and electoralization of the migrant justice movement; confronting nationalism and white privilege within campaigns and the particular types of exploitation and oppression faced by different communities of working class migrants. We will also discuss migrant self-organising, as in the Kinsale Road occupation, and strategies for making single-issue campaigns more inclusive of anti-racism organising. Watch the video Cobblestone - Free, Safe, and Legal: Challenging Pro-Choice Values Workshop What we talk about when we talk about abortion. While debates about abortion continue in the public sphere, millions of people are forced to hear their own lived experiences discussed and analysed by those who have little direct experience with abortion themselves. In this workshop we seek to challenge people's understanding of abortion beyond those extreme and publicised cases. 15.30- 17.00 Generator - Self-Organising and the City: stories from Athens and Dublin This panel will look at the challenges and possibilities of popular self-organisation to reclaim our lives, our homes and our cities. Katerina Nasioka will discuss the social consequences of the crisis in Greece, critique the hope promised by SYRIZA and, finally, look at the contradictions that social movements and self-organized experiments face in the present moment. Jenny and Zoe will look at recent occupations in Dublin, including the Grangegorman Squat in Smithfield where resistance to eviction is ongoing Listen to the audio Watch the video Block T - Parents in activism The Parents in Activism workshop will be a child-friendly event, at which children of all ages are welcome, and will look at the challenges faced by parents in activist circles, particularly those parents faced with a number of other oppressions already. Cobblestone - Celebrate People’s History! The Stoneybatter & Smithfield People’s History Project and the East Wall History Group are not just local history societies. They both recognise the political importance of putting working class history firmly on the record and challenging the capitalist and nationalist interpretation of how Irish society evolved. Members of both groups will talk about their work to date and will discuss with the audience the necessity for similar initiatives in other parts of Dublin and the rest of the country. At a time when many Irish working class people are defying the government on the water charges, it is vital to remember and learn from the lessons of the past, including the stories of so-called ‘ordinary people’. Closing Assembly 5:30pm - assemble in Smithfield square Details of the 2014 9th Dublin Anarchist Bookfair Details of the 2013 8th Dublin Anarchist bookfair Details of the 2012 7th Dublin Anarchist book fair Details of the 2011 6th Dublin Anarchist Bookfair 2010 5th Dublin Anarchist Bookfair 2009 4th Dublin Anarchist Bookfair (report) 2008 3rd Dublin Anarchist Bookfair 2007 2nd Dublin Anarchist Bookfair 2006 1st Dublin Anarchist Bookfair http://www.wsm.ie/c/dublin-anarchist-bookfair-latest
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2 A COUNTER-DEMONSTRATION TO the announcement of an Irish branch of Pegida, a racist anti-Islam group, will occur in Dublin on 6th February. It will be one of a series of Europe-wide counter-demonstrations against Pegida and its fascist political ideology. ---- But what is Pegida and why should we oppose it? ---- What is Pegida? ---- Pegida is a German “anti-Islamisation” political movement. The group’s name is an abbreviation of “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident” (German: Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes). Offshoots of Pegida have formed in various countries. Ireland may become the 15th country to establish a branch of the organisation. ---- Where does it come from? ---- Pegida was founded in October 2014 by Lutz Bachmann, who runs a public relations agency in Dresden. What does it stand for? Pediga opposes what it considers to be “the Islamisation of the Western world”. It demands more restrictive immigration rules, particularly for Muslims. But they say they are anti-establishment? Pegida self-describes as anti-establishment, appealing to people’s resentment and fear in the wake of austerity, rising inequality and a growing lack of democracy within state and EU institutions. It also tries to exploit the arrival of migrants and refugees from the war-torn Middle East as an opportunity to demonise, to incite hatred against and to attack Muslims. Pegida presents its arguments in a hypocritical register of reasonableness and concern for people. The reality is that the group is a front for racist, far-right, and fascist political actors who have a much more sinister agenda than they are prepared to argue for in public. Who are the primary leaders? A good example of Pegida’s mask slipping is provided by its founder, Lutz Bachmann. On 21 January 2015, Bachmann resigned from Pegida after excerpts from a closed Facebook conversation incriminated him as having designated immigrants as "animals", "scumbags" and "trash". He was also quoted commenting that extra security was needed at the welfare office "to protect employees from the animals". On one occasion, Bachmann had posted a photo of a man wearing the uniform of the Ku Klux Klan accompanied by the slogan: "Three Ks a day keeps the minorities away." In February 2015 Pegida confirmed on its Facebook page that Lutz Bachmann had been re-elected as chairman by the six other members of the organisation’s leadership committee. Wait a second. Haven’t other fascist groups emerged from Germany in the past? Yes. Pegida considers itself the natural heirs to the Nazis of the 1930s and 40s. At Pegida's anniversary event on 19 October 2015, keynote speaker Akif Pirinçci named the Muslim refugees as invaders, with Germany becoming a "Muslim garbage dump." Pirinçci said the German government was acting like "Gauleiter against their own people," as they wanted critics of Germany's refugee policy to leave the country. Addressing the crowd shouting "Resistance!", he claimed that "there are other alternatives – but the concentration camps are unfortunately out of order at the moment." In Leipzig, as Pegida celebrated their one year anniversary, participants attacked and vandalised foreign-owned shops. How has Pegida operated? Throughout late 2014 and early 2015, Pediga held demonstrations every Monday, at a location and time specified beforehand on the movement's official Facebook page. Its Facebook page has almost 200,000 followers. It is seeking an electoral foothold. In June, 2015, Pegida candidate Tatjana Festerling ran for the mayoral office of Dresden, polling 9.6% in the first round. Marches in the streets also continue. Pegida drew as many as 20,000 supporters to a 19 October 2015 rally in Dresden. Who are Pegida’s supporters? Pegida’s appeal should not be underestimated, particularly given the wider political climate. Dresden University of Technology (TU) interviewed 400 Pegida demonstrators on 22 December 2014 and 12 January 2015. According to the poll, the main reasons of their participation were dissatisfaction with the political situation (54 percent), "Islam, Islamism and Islamisation” (23 percent), criticism of the media and the public (20 percent), and reservations regarding asylum seekers and migrants (15 percent). Who are Pegida’s Irish supporters? Pegida’s Irish-support base centres on the far-right group, Identity Ireland. Dan Ó Loinsigh claimed the group has 400 members in Ireland. Peter O’Loughlin of Identity Ireland will be running in Cork North Central in the 2016 General Election. He won 930 votes for Identity Ireland in the Carlow-Kilkenny by-election last year. Pegida UK co-ordinator and former English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson is also involved. Why do we oppose Pegida? As the WSM Constitution states: “We actively oppose all manifestations of prejudice within the workers' movement and society in general and we work alongside those struggling against racism, sexism, [religious] sectarianism and homophobia as a priority. We see the success of a revolution and the successful elimination of these oppressions after the revolution being determined by the building of such struggles in the pre-revolutionary period. The methods of struggle that we promote are a preparation for the running of society along anarchist and communist lines after the revolution.” As one comrade posted this morning, "Pegida must be stopped from gaining any foothold here. Capitalism and the way in which it condemns hundreds of millions of people worldwide to lives of poverty, destitution and war is responsible for the ghettoisation and impoverishment of communities. Blaming 'Muslims' lets the super wealthy and those really ripping us off off the hook. In Ireland it is the fact that governments have chosen to bail out bankers and international financial gamblers that has led to the current crisis in homelessness, and has led to massive cuts in necessary social services. Blaming 'Muslims' is nothing short of ridiculous. The 'English Defence League' are direct inheritors of the politics that not so long ago saw signs in London windows saying 'No blacks. No dogs. No Irish'. Pegida have nothing to offer: they cannot be allowed to spew their hatred or build a base of support, or we will all suffer in the long run". There is an alternative… Two different futures are fighting to be born in this moment. One is the future of more effective border guards, of dragging refugees off trains and herding them into camps, of war without end, of hatred for the 'other', of wealth for a privilege few and immiseration for the masses. The other future is glimpsed in the people quietly organising our own aid convoys to Calais, of solidarity with Rojava, of fighting for an equality that will be global in scope and from which no one will be locked out. Which of those futures will you choose to fight for? http://www.wsm.ie/c/what-pegida-represents-oppose-it
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Message: 3
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. ---- Latest figures show that there are a total of 3,463 people living in emergency accommodation (mainly hostels, hotels or B&Bs) in Ireland, with over 1,600 children. Living conditions are often dire. According to the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive, homeless families have recorded complaints about rat and cockroach infestation, human faeces on the floor, anti-social behaviour and loud pubs on the premises. Recent Facebook posts from some families also highlighted the lack of privacy in some accommodation with CCTV surveillance located in every room. And as bad and all as it is to be homeless, how much worse is it to be homeless and a Traveller in this country? Last Friday, up to forty guards, including masked members of the Emergency Response Unit, carried out an eviction notice at the Woodland Park halting site on the outskirts of Dundalk, Co Louth. Louth County Council evicted 23 families. Families say they were given just hours to pack their belongings. They were could either remove their caravans themselves or face them being impounded and having to pay €1,000 to get them back. The families were instructed by the Guards that they could be arrested without warrant if they failed to comply with their orders. The Armed Response Unit stood around the site, masked men with riot shields. Of course, the Council had no plan to relocate these families before they gave them notice of eviction. WHOSE CITIES? OUR CITIES! In Ireland today we have Traveller and homeless families struggling to get their children to school, to put a roof over their heads, and to live their lives with dignity. Does it have to be this way? In a word, 'No!' To paraphrase the great anarchist, Peter Kropotkin: “Our cities, bound together by railroads and motorways, are organisms which have lived through centuries. Dig beneath them and you find, one above another, the foundations of streets, of houses, of theatres, of public buildings. Search into their history and you will see how the civilization of the town, its industry, its special characteristics, have slowly grown and ripened through the co-operation of generations of its inhabitants before it could become what it is to-day. And even to-day; the value of each dwelling, factory, and warehouse, which has been created by the accumulated labour of the millions of workers, now dead and buried, is only maintained by the very presence and labour of legions of the men and women who now inhabit that special corner of the globe…Millions of human beings have laboured to create this civilization on which we pride ourselves to-day. Other millions, scattered through the globe, labour to maintain it. Without them nothing would be left in fifty years but ruins…By what right then can anyone whatever appropriate the least morsel of this immense whole and say — This is mine, not yours?” WELL-BEING FOR ALL Is there anything we hold in common with the greedy parasites who would bleed us dry because we need to put a roof over our heads? Or with the ‘vast array of courts, judges, executioners, policemen, and gaolers needed to uphold their privileges’? We all share more in common with Travellers and homeless people than we do with the class of people who profited in the boom and who are still profiting in the bust – whether big developers or private landlords or government politicians. We share more in common with the squatters in our cities, and with the housing action groups that are busy forming and talking to one another across Dublin and across Ireland. We all refuse to bow to the rule of money in our society. Housing is a human need that we can create for all. Or as Kropotkin put it: “All is for all! If the man and the woman bear their fair share of work, they have a right to their fair share of all that is produced by all, and that share is enough to secure them well-being…What we proclaim is THE RIGHT TO WELL-BEING: WELL-BEING FOR ALL!” WORDS: Tom Murray
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On the merits of Squatting as a tactical response to the permanent housing crisis. ---- While the government says there is no money to build social housing, they seem to forget the fact that there are over 270,000 vacant houses, flats and apartments scattered around the country, and over 30,000 in Dublin alone. There are over 90,000 people waiting on the social housing list in Ireland - but there is quite an easy answer to the housing crisis, the government doesn't even need to stretch itself any distance to address. they simply need to introduce a law to legally allow people to squat properties that have been empty for over 6 months, or relax the laws to make it easier to squat. Coupled with a sensible social housing strategy, based around people's actual needs and not purely profit for landlords, the housing/homeless crisis could be greatly reduced. No government loan schemes, no sub-standard, gentrified social housing projects, and no need to wait for a new property bubble to develop to finish off the economy altogether. Over one billion a year is provided by the government to create and sustain social housing in Ireland over a two year period. The majority of this is a simple giveaway and effectively a government subsidy to private landlords (including large and small landlords, hotels, hostels and B&Bs), as the money goes straight into the coffers of already property- and capital-rich individuals/companies. It is largely dead money to those homeless or precariously homed people who have no choice but to pay artificially inflated rent for, in many cases, sub-standard and dangerous accommodation. Another enormous problem with the renting market is that its is highly precarious. Renters are always under the foot of their landlords and the government (that's if the landlord even accepts rent allowance) and even if the renter has been paying for accommodation in the same space for 20 years they still do not own it. They have nothing to leave to their children or to call a permanent home in old age - they are at the complete mercy of the goodwill of the state and landlords. But what is the outline of government strategy for solving the worsening issue? Below are the 3 primary aims of the government's housing strategy until 2020 - in dark italics is the effective meaning of their strategy. Government policy plans- 1. Provide 35,000 new social housing units, over a 6 year period, to meet the additional social housing supply requirements as determined by the Housing Agency (read: build too few houses to alleviate the problem according to their strategy, subsidise building companies and banks to build unnecessary houses, divert taxpayers' cash from essential services and waste it on those sectors which destroyed the economy, when a law could be introduced to legally allow people to take over empty property at no cost to the taxpayer) 2. Support up to 75,000 households through an enhanced private rental sector (read: effectively give landlords more money, keeping people in precarious housing and wasting billions over a five year period instead of pushing legislation through to legalise squatting, which would cost nothing but would annoy landlords) 3. Reform social housing supports to create a more flexible and responsive system. (read: make it easier for people to become trapped in the precarious rental sector - to the benefit of private landlords) Obviously if the only choice were to leave individuals and families on the streets or the housing strategy outlined by the government then the government plan would be the best option to take, but this is not the case. Other countries have effectively legalised squatting in the past as it is cost-effective and an easy, practical way of minimising a homeless crisis. Up until 2010 squatting was in practice legal in the Netherlands - although the law technically made it illegal it was lax enough to allow hundreds of properties across the country to be occupied and used as homes for thousands of people. A similar law could be introduced in Ireland to help alleviate the housing crisis. How will we get this change of law?--by squatting and occupying empty properties! 41 out of 166 TDs are landlords and over 20% of Stormount MLAs are also landlords. Ignoring the class/structural connections between politicians, banks and property speculators the fact that over 25% of TDs are landlords is obviously a huge conflict of interest and will make TDs in the Dail very cautious about even proposing legislation to make it easier to squat – ignoring the fact that they have the same class/power interests of those who speculate and profit from the housing issue. The best way to get this change is to begin to publicise squatting as a tactic, to help people develop the skills and know-how to squat, and to squat yourself to develop these skills. If we confine ourselves to just marching up and down the street, it will do nothing for homeless families and individuals. The government can ignore our passivity and apathy but they can't ignore our organised action. If marching up O'Connell St. isn't backed up by people taking over properties and forcing the politicians to think that maybe it will be their empty property next if they don't change the law to allow long term empty properties to be put to use by people, then the growing numbers of homeless people will continue to be ignored as a voiceless, powerless group within society. While realistically the government will never be allowed or want to legalise squatting completely - as this would effectively spell the end of capitalist private property and be a threat to the state/capitalist system itself - it could relax the laws significantly as well as implementing a social housing policy plan that could include a law which would force landlords to use properties for housing after a certain period lying empty, and rent controls to keep rents more affordable. This is obviously only a short term solution to a permanent problem The housing crisis is not a phase, it is a product of a permanent problem. Capitalism. Words: Cormac Caulfield
http://www.wsm.ie/c/better-squat-than-homes-rot
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Message: 5
Many volumes will be written over the coming years about the rise and fall of SYRIZA, but the immediate lessons are simple. Capitalism is sustained in part by the Left From European 'social democrats' supporting imperialist slaughter in World War One, and the French Communist Party winding down the 1968 General Strike, to SYRIZA rescuing the euro with Greek austerity, parliamentary Leftists have helped stabilise capitalism and defend war for over a century. With the euro teetering in the balance, it took Europe’s most radical government to save it. When people have had enough of the 'tough' anti-worker, anti-poor talk of the right, there is always somebody waiting in the wings to carry out much the same policies with a new face and a leftish sounding program. ---- When elected leaders say they are going to sell out, believe them Even on the eve of the “OXI” referendum, SYRIZIA leader Tsipras insisted that he was only going to use it to negotiate a better deal in order to remain in the Eurozone. He was doing everything he could to avoid a Greek exit and was very open about it. The numbers in the eventual austerity deal were even worse than expected, but ultimately this is not a maths problem but a political problem. Electing radicals into powerful positions disarms them Taking a radical, giving them an enormous amount of power, media attention, a generous living stipend, a free car, etc. is a formula for turning them into just another politician. This should be obvious. They become accustomed to their position, to their own selfimportance, and to playing by the rules of government and business. Even worse, once they are in power, others on the left suddenly become toothless and placid, unable to stand the thought of fighting their own friends. Leftists will consistently cling to power rather than dismantle it Only two members of SYRIZA’s 'Left Platform' voted against Tsipras’s proposal. Many even voted for it, or like many in Labour's recent parliamentary votes simply abstained. They could have used every parliamentary tactic they had to sabotage the deal that the Greek people had voted against. They could have split their party, brought down the government and done everything possible to pull the emergency break on this disastrous plan. Instead they chose to maintain SYRIZA’s hold on parliament and their position in it. In spite of what they consistently say, Leftists throughout the world are waiting for a messiah to rescue them Various self-described left-revolutionaries the world over looked to SYRIZA to break the euro and defeat austerity in Greece and beyond. All they had to do was realise that a few dozen left-wing MPs were not up to the task and would, as always, succumb to the pressure. In spite of all the talk of working-class self-organisation, many still believe that electing radical leaders into parliament is a good strategy rather than a disaster waiting to happen. There is a bright and necessary future for radical and revolutionary organising, but it is in the workplaces, the prisons and the streets, not in parliament The problem is not that we have bad people, but bad strategies. Even the best people falter when they take parliamentary power. The more radically working class and left-wing they are, the more everyone around them believes they are immune from the pressures to compromise their principles and sell out. The solution is not to find better people to elect, but to use different strategies. These unsurprising sellouts will continue happening until there is a revolutionary struggle powerful enough to fight for something else So let’s build that instead. Adapted and abridged from an article originally posted to Libcom.org by Scott Jay in July 2015
