Workers Solidarity Movement
Encyclopedia
The Workers Solidarity Movement is an anarchist organisation in Ireland
broadly in the platformist
tradition of Nestor Makhno
. It was set up in 1984 and publishes the paper Workers Solidarity
and the magazine Red and Black Revolution.
and Ballymena
on the need for a national anarchist organisation. After an initial period of rapid growth it split in the late 1980s, with some Cork members joining or rejoining the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party
. At the time of the 1991 Gulf War
it was relaunched but saw only a little growth in the early 1990s. In this period it was the main political organisation involved in the Dublin Abortion Rights Group which organised the successful 'X-case
' demonstration which pressured the Irish courts to overturn an injunction preventing a pregnant 14-year-old rape victim from leaving Ireland to have an abortion in England
.
In 1994, along with Militant
, it initiated the Anti-Water Tax campaign in Dublin. This campaign grew rapidly in the three years to 1997 when the attempt to impose the new tax was defeated. At its height it claimed 60,000 households as paid members of the campaign. A WSM member, Gregor Kerr, was the secretary of the campaign and although small the WSM played a role in the defeat of the tax.
The WSM has been involved in a wide range of struggles in Ireland: its members are involved in trade unions; have fought for abortion
rights and against the growth of racism
(especially state racism
) in Ireland and have also been involved in campaigns in support of workers from countries as far apart as Nepal
, Peru
, Mexico
and South Africa
.
, the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation, and the Alliance of Cork Anarchists, the WSM organised the first Grassroots Gathering in Dublin. The impetus behind this emerged from members involvement in struggles around globalisation and in particular the summit protest movement. WSM members took part in summit protests in Seattle
, Prague
, Brussels, Genoa
and Seville and helped organise some of the related Reclaim the Streets
events in Dublin.
In recent years the better known struggles the WSM were involved in included the 2003 March 1 action against US war planes in Shannon, the 2003 Anti-Bin Tax Campaign
in Dublin and the 2004 EU Mayday protests also in Dublin as well as campaigning against the Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland
in 2004. In 2006, Noam Chomsky
, the acclaimed US linguist, philosopher and author, held a talk with the WSM in the Teacher's Club, Dublin.
WSM members were also among the founders in 2005 of the Anarkismo.net
project, which the WSM continues to participate in.
This period has seen a rapid growth in WSM membership from a dozen members to a group with five branches (Dublin [3], Cork [1], Belfast [1]) and over 60 activists.
WSM members were involved in the Terence Wheelock
Campaign, the Rossport Solidarity Camp as part of the Shell to Sea
campaign. Members are still involved in the Cork
and Dublin Shell to Sea groups. They are also involved in the Cork Autonomous Zone, Seomra Spraoi
, , Indymedia Ireland
, the Independent Workers Union of Ireland
, Choice Ireland and the anti-Raytheon
campaign in Derry
. Although the WSM Autumn 2005 conference prioritised the IWU they also have members in SIPTU
, Communication Workers Union
, Teachers' Union of Ireland
, IMPACT
, Civil and Public Services Union
and the INTO.
The WSM has produced over 107 issues of its paper Workers Solidarity
. They distribute 10,000 copies of each issue of their free bi-monthly paper - mostly through door-to-door distribution and, to a lesser extent, at political demonstrations.
In Spring 2009 it published the 15th issue of its magazine Red and Black Revolution which targets left-wing activists and has a much smaller circulation than Workers Solidarity.
It has also published numerous pamphlets including 'Towards a Cure' on health, 'Parliament or Democracy?' and the Irish Rebellion of 1798
The group held the fourth annual Dublin Anarchist Bookfair
on the weekend of 6–7 March 2009.
criticised the WSM for being too influenced by Irish republicanism
and of using language that threatened to alienate the northern Irish Protestant working class. Organise! have also criticised the WSM for supporting the election campaign of Des Derwin, a SIPTU activist who ran for a national position in SIPTU in 2002.
The role of the WSM in campaigns in Ireland has been attacked by the mainstream media
on a number of occasions. On the 19th of October 2003 the Sunday Independent
, Ireland's largest selling Sunday newspaper, claimed that the WSM "had infiltrated the [Bin Tax] campaign in significant numbers". The April 25th, 2004 issue of Ireland on Sunday
claimed that WSM members were linked with the WOMBLES
in England in advance of the EU Mayday protests at the start of May that year. The same paper subsequently made a personal charge at another WSM member, calling her an 'unreconstructed' "left-wing die-hard…" who "regularly contributes to anarchist and feminist websites and magazines" after she had appeared on The Late Late Show
.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
broadly in the platformist
Platformism
Platformism is a tendency within the wider anarchist movement originally theorised by Nestor Makhno and is mainly based on his concept of anarchism and the organisational theories in the tradition of Dielo Truda's Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists ...
tradition of Nestor Makhno
Nestor Makhno
Nestor Ivanovych Makhno or simply Daddy Makhno was a Ukrainian anarcho-communist guerrilla leader turned army commander who led an independent anarchist army in Ukraine during the Russian Civil War....
. It was set up in 1984 and publishes the paper Workers Solidarity
Workers Solidarity
Workers Solidarity is the bi-monthly publication of the Irish anarchist organisation, Workers Solidarity Movement. It is intended to provide an accessible introduction to anarchism for members of the public and to spread the influence of anarchist ideas in Ireland...
and the magazine Red and Black Revolution.
Origin and early years (1984-2001)
The Workers Solidarity Movement was founded in Dublin in 1984 following discussions by a number of local anarchist groups from Dublin, CorkCork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
and Ballymena
Ballymena
Ballymena is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland and the seat of Ballymena Borough Council. Ballymena had a population of 28,717 people in the 2001 Census....
on the need for a national anarchist organisation. After an initial period of rapid growth it split in the late 1980s, with some Cork members joining or rejoining the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (Ireland)
The Socialist Workers Party is an Irish Trotskyist political party.-Foundation and growth:The SWP was originally founded in 1971 as the Socialist Workers Movement by supporters of the International Socialists of Britain living in Northern Ireland, who had previously been members of People's...
. At the time of the 1991 Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
it was relaunched but saw only a little growth in the early 1990s. In this period it was the main political organisation involved in the Dublin Abortion Rights Group which organised the successful 'X-case
Attorney General v. X
Attorney General v. X was a 1992 Irish Supreme Court case which established the right of Irish women to an abortion if a pregnant woman's life was at risk because of pregnancy, including the risk of suicide....
' demonstration which pressured the Irish courts to overturn an injunction preventing a pregnant 14-year-old rape victim from leaving Ireland to have an abortion in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
In 1994, along with Militant
Militant
The word militant, which is both an adjective and a noun, usually is used to mean vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in 'militant reformers'. It comes from the 15th century Latin "militare" meaning "to serve as a soldier"...
, it initiated the Anti-Water Tax campaign in Dublin. This campaign grew rapidly in the three years to 1997 when the attempt to impose the new tax was defeated. At its height it claimed 60,000 households as paid members of the campaign. A WSM member, Gregor Kerr, was the secretary of the campaign and although small the WSM played a role in the defeat of the tax.
The WSM has been involved in a wide range of struggles in Ireland: its members are involved in trade unions; have fought for abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
rights and against the growth of racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
(especially state racism
State racism
State racism is a concept used by French philosopher Michel Foucault to designate the reappropriation of the historical and political discourse of "race struggle", in the late seventeenth century....
) in Ireland and have also been involved in campaigns in support of workers from countries as far apart as Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
In the 21st century (2000-2007)
In November 2001, along with the Irish Mexico Group, GluaiseachtGluaiseacht
Gluaiseacht for Global Justice is an all-Ireland environmental, peace and social justice group. Gluaiseacht means "movement" in the Irish language. The group believes in non-violent resistance to the current form of capitalist globalisation...
, the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation, and the Alliance of Cork Anarchists, the WSM organised the first Grassroots Gathering in Dublin. The impetus behind this emerged from members involvement in struggles around globalisation and in particular the summit protest movement. WSM members took part in summit protests in Seattle
WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity
Protest activity surrounding the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, which was to be the launch of a new millennial round of trade negotiations, occurred on November 30, 1999 , when the World Trade Organization convened at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington,...
, Prague
Anti-globalization Protests in Prague
Anti-capitalist Protests in Prague during the International Monetary Fund and World Bank summit in September 2000 in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic....
, Brussels, Genoa
27th G8 summit
-Overview:The Group of Seven was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada starting in 1976. The G8, meeting for the first time in 1997, was formed with the addition...
and Seville and helped organise some of the related Reclaim the Streets
Reclaim the Streets
Reclaim The Streets is a collective with a shared ideal of community ownership of public spaces. Participants characterize the collective as a resistance movement opposed to the dominance of corporate forces in globalization, and to the car as the dominant mode of transport.-Protests:Reclaim The...
events in Dublin.
In recent years the better known struggles the WSM were involved in included the 2003 March 1 action against US war planes in Shannon, the 2003 Anti-Bin Tax Campaign
Anti-Bin Tax Campaign
The Anti-Bin Tax campaign was a campaign which opposed the introduction of bin charges by local authorities in Ireland. The campaign centred largely in city areas, in particular Dublin. The campaigns were locally based with some co-ordination in the Dublin area...
in Dublin and the 2004 EU Mayday protests also in Dublin as well as campaigning against the Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland
Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland
The Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland provided that children born on the island of Ireland to parents who were both non-nationals would no longer have a constitutional right to citizenship of the Republic of Ireland...
in 2004. In 2006, Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, the acclaimed US linguist, philosopher and author, held a talk with the WSM in the Teacher's Club, Dublin.
WSM members were also among the founders in 2005 of the Anarkismo.net
Anarkismo.net
Anarkismo.net is an international anarchist-communist, platformist and especifista news and discussion website. Its news service is one of the select publishers included in the Google News aggregator...
project, which the WSM continues to participate in.
Current activity (2008-)
WSM members were involved in the Terence Wheelock
Terence Wheelock
Terence Wheelock, a 20 year old young man from Summerhill in the North Inner City of Dublin died on the 16 September 2005 from alleged injuries received in Garda custody. Terence was arrested with three others on suspicion of stealing a car and taken to Store St Garda station. Two hours later he...
Campaign, the Rossport Solidarity Camp as part of the Shell to Sea
Shell to Sea
Shell to Sea is a campaign based in Cill Chomáin parish, Erris, County Mayo, Ireland which opposes the proposed construction of a natural gas pipeline through the parish and the ongoing construction by Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil and Vermilion Energy Trust of a refinery at Bellanaboy intended to...
campaign. Members are still involved in the Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
and Dublin Shell to Sea groups. They are also involved in the Cork Autonomous Zone, Seomra Spraoi
Seomra Spraoi
Seomra Spraoi is an autonomous social space in Dublin, Ireland. The space is run by an open collective along libertarian principles. The project attracts people from diverse social and political backgrounds...
, , Indymedia Ireland
Independent Media Center
The Independent Media Center is a global participatory network of journalists that report on political and social issues. It originated during the Seattle anti-WTO protests worldwide in 1999 and remains closely associated with the global justice movement, which criticizes neo-liberalism and its...
, the Independent Workers Union of Ireland
Independent Workers Union of Ireland
The Independent Workers Union of Ireland is a trade union in Ireland with its headquarters in Cork City. It was formed by Irish workers dissatisfied with the trade union movement in Ireland which it states, has "become nothing more than an arm of the state and management." It has 1,000 paying...
, Choice Ireland and the anti-Raytheon
Raytheon
Raytheon Company is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007...
campaign in Derry
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...
. Although the WSM Autumn 2005 conference prioritised the IWU they also have members in SIPTU
SIPTU
SIPTU , or in Irish: CSTGT is Ireland's largest trade union, with around 200,000 members. Most of these members are in the Republic of Ireland, although the union does have a Northern Ireland branch...
, Communication Workers Union
Communication Workers Union (Ireland)
The Communication Workers Union is a trade union in Ireland.The union was founded in 1922 as the Irish Post Office Engineering Union, splitting from the British Post Office Engineering Union following the establishment of the Irish Free State...
, Teachers' Union of Ireland
Teachers' Union of Ireland
Teachers' Union of Ireland , in Irish Aontas Múinteoirí Éireann, is a trade union representing teachers in post-primary schools and lecturers in third level Universities, Colleges and Institutes of Technology...
, IMPACT
Irish Municipal, Public and Civil Trade Union
The Irish Municipal, Public and Civil Trade Union is a trade union in the Republic of Ireland. It primarily organises workers in education, health, local government and the civil service...
, Civil and Public Services Union
Civil and Public Services Union
The Civil and Public Services Union , is an Irish trade union for clerical and administrative grades in the civil service, the wider public sector and the private sector. It is a member of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions....
and the INTO.
The WSM has produced over 107 issues of its paper Workers Solidarity
Workers Solidarity
Workers Solidarity is the bi-monthly publication of the Irish anarchist organisation, Workers Solidarity Movement. It is intended to provide an accessible introduction to anarchism for members of the public and to spread the influence of anarchist ideas in Ireland...
. They distribute 10,000 copies of each issue of their free bi-monthly paper - mostly through door-to-door distribution and, to a lesser extent, at political demonstrations.
In Spring 2009 it published the 15th issue of its magazine Red and Black Revolution which targets left-wing activists and has a much smaller circulation than Workers Solidarity.
It has also published numerous pamphlets including 'Towards a Cure' on health, 'Parliament or Democracy?' and the Irish Rebellion of 1798
Irish Rebellion of 1798
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 , also known as the United Irishmen Rebellion , was an uprising in 1798, lasting several months, against British rule in Ireland...
The group held the fourth annual Dublin Anarchist Bookfair
Anarchist Bookfair
The Anarchist Bookfair is the name of several annual anarchist book fairs.The British Bookfair started in 1983, and it has become the largest anarchist event in the British calendar, and is a combination of stalls, talks and workshops by anarchist groups and campaigns.Most British anarchist groups...
on the weekend of 6–7 March 2009.
Criticism
In their 2004 pamphlet 'Crossing the Border' Organise!Organise!
There have been several anarchist groups in Ireland that have used the name Organise since 1984.- Organise! :Formed from the Antrim anarchist group.- Organise!-IWA :...
criticised the WSM for being too influenced by Irish republicanism
Irish Republicanism
Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
and of using language that threatened to alienate the northern Irish Protestant working class. Organise! have also criticised the WSM for supporting the election campaign of Des Derwin, a SIPTU activist who ran for a national position in SIPTU in 2002.
The role of the WSM in campaigns in Ireland has been attacked by the mainstream media
Mainstream media
Mainstream media are those media disseminated via the largest distribution channels, which therefore represent what the majority of media consumers are likely to encounter...
on a number of occasions. On the 19th of October 2003 the Sunday Independent
Sunday Independent
The Sunday Independent is a broadsheet Sunday newspaper published in Ireland by Independent News and Media plc. The newspaper is edited by Aengus Fanning, and is the biggest selling Irish Sunday newspaper by a large margin ; average circulation of 291,323 between June 2004 and January 2005,...
, Ireland's largest selling Sunday newspaper, claimed that the WSM "had infiltrated the [Bin Tax] campaign in significant numbers". The April 25th, 2004 issue of Ireland on Sunday
Ireland on Sunday
Ireland on Sunday was a Sunday newspaper in the Republic of Ireland, published by Associated Newspapers Ireland Limited, a subsidiary of the Daily Mail and General Trust plc...
claimed that WSM members were linked with the WOMBLES
WOMBLES
The WOMBLES are a loosely aligned anarchist and anti-capitalist group based in London...
in England in advance of the EU Mayday protests at the start of May that year. The same paper subsequently made a personal charge at another WSM member, calling her an 'unreconstructed' "left-wing die-hard…" who "regularly contributes to anarchist and feminist websites and magazines" after she had appeared on The Late Late Show
The Late Late Show
The Late Late Show, sometimes referred to as The Late Late, or in some cases by the acronym LLS, is the world's longest-running chat show by the same broadcaster and the official flagship television programme of Irish broadcasting company RTÉ...
.
External links
- WSM Website
- WSM Twitter Account
- Old WSM Website containing archived material from 1986 to 2006