Neue VeranstaltungshinweiseEs wurden keine neuen Veranstaltungshinweise in der letzten Woche veröffentlicht Kommende VeranstaltungenIreland / Britain | Community struggles Keine kommenden Veranstaltungen veröffentlicht
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Recent articles by Tomás Lynch
It is now or we have to wait for a long time Apr 21 22 30 years Haringey Solidarity Group May 21 21 “Clap for Carers” but now they want our money as well Apr 13 20 Organizing against the Irish housing emergency![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The occupation of Apollo House in Dublin was the largest direct action in Ireland in recent years, but it did not materialize out of nowhere. On December 16, 2016 media reporters and cameramen jostled each outside the carpark of Apollo House, a nine-storey city center office building in Dublin that had been lying vacant for over a year. The journalists were there to report on a “public intervention” into the ongoing homelessness emergency in the city, in which a campaign group called Home Sweet Home, led by well-known celebrities and musicians Glen Hansard and Damien Dempsey, occupied the empty building and opened it as a hostel for the city’s homeless. In the face of a housing crisis that has been intensifying ever since the economic crash in 2008, visible rough sleeping on the city’s streets, rising homelessness statistics, soaring rent, and the large-scale purchase of property and mortgage loan-books by predatory foreign vulture funds, this collection of activists occupied the building, which is controlled by NAMA, the government-owned asset management agency set up at the height of the crisis to swallow the toxic loans incurred by the nation’s property developers and speculators. Over three-and-a-half weeks during the coldest time of the year, Apollo House provided beds for over 90 homeless people, in a welcoming and safe environment that was open 24 hours a day and where they could come and go as they pleased. In contrast to the previous month, no homeless people lost their lives in Ireland while the occupation was going on. The campaign received 4,000 applications from people who wanted to help, and collected over €160,000 on the campaign crowdfunding page, as well as receiving countless personal testimonies from people whose own lives had been affected by the ongoing crisis — young families forced to move back into their parents’ homes with their children, or sleeping in their cars. Above all, the Apollo House occupation generated an unprecedented amount of media attention on the homelessness and housing emergency in the face of government inaction, and forced Simon Coveney, the Minister of Housing, to the negotiating table to try to get the activists to leave peacefully.
ORGANIZING A NETWORK
But though it might have appeared spontaneous, this was a well-planned and well-organized campaign. The various actors were able to move fast when the opportunity presented itself only because the networks were already in place. “Organizing” is a word thrown about a lot by the left, as the essential step in the creation of powerful movements that can effect change, but often what “organizing” actually involves can be harder to pinpoint. |
HauptseiteElements of Anarchist Theory and Strategy 19 de Julio: Cuando el pueblo se levanta, escribe la historia International anarchist solidarity against Turkish state repression Declaración Anarquista Internacional por el Primero de Mayo, 2022 Le vieux monde opprime les femmes et les minorités de genre. Leur force le détruira ! Against Militarism and War: For self-organised struggle and social revolution Declaração anarquista internacional sobre a pandemia da Covid-19 Anarchist Theory and History in Global Perspective Capitalism, Anti-Capitalism and Popular Organisation [Booklet] Reflexiones sobre la situación de Afganistán South Africa: Historic rupture or warring brothers again? Death or Renewal: Is the Climate Crisis the Final Crisis? Gleichheit und Freiheit stehen nicht zur Debatte! Contre la guerre au Kurdistan irakien, contre la traîtrise du PDK Meurtre de Clément Méric : l’enjeu politique du procès en appel Comunicado sobre el Paro Nacional y las Jornadas de Protesta en Colombia The Broken Promises of Vietnam Premier Mai : Un coup porté contre l’un·e d’entre nous est un coup porté contre nous tou·tes Ireland / Britain | Community struggles | en Wed 01 Feb, 14:55 30 years Haringey Solidarity Group: A Celebration of 30 years of radical ideas This is a statement from some activists from Haringey Solidarity Croup express its support and solidarity to UK National Health Service (NHS) and other workers. In the meantime expresses its anger about that people been asked to pay the money to NHS while the health system is being suffered for almost two decades on the hands of the current government of conservative party and the former one of Labour. The demand is unreasonable while the UK is 3rd richest country in Europe and 6th richest country the world. The statement clarifies the current position of NHS and treatment of the government to NHS. Six men were on trial accused of falsely imprisoning the then Tanáiste (deputy Prime Minister) and Labour Party TD, Joan Burton, and her colleague in Jobstown, a working class suburb of Dublin, on 15 November 2014. The charge of false imprisonment carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. All six men claimed that they were exercising their right to protest, and that the protest was peaceful. This was part of a mass campaign that successfully defeated the attempt to introduce water charges. Following a nine week trial, the six have been found not guilty. The Irish government's attempt to introduce domestic water charges in Ireland is not going well. In fact, for them it's been a disaster because it's sparked off a huge upsurge in working class self organisation and direct action. Saturday saw thousands of anti-water charges campaigners flooding the streets of Dublin o to again voice their opposition to Irish Water & water charges and as a show of strength for the movement. On Wednesday The Barricade Inn Collective received court summons papers informing us that the following day (Thursday 22nd October) the estate holders of the building would be seeking an injunction against us. Court was adjourned and the case will be back in court next Wednesday (28th October). The Workers Solidarity Movement has decided to withdraw from the Campaign Against Home and Water Taxes. Please see statement below. We have made a donation of €1,000 towards paying off the debts of CAHWT.
People in deprived areas in Northern Ireland are three times more likely to take their lives. Health minister Edwin Poots said, ‘Unemployment rates in deprived areas further affect people and this is a major concern. Studies indicate that a 1% increase in unemployment is met with a corresponding 0.79% increase in suicide. A huge secretive Garda security operation last night swung into operation in Dublin Port as Shell's Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) left the port as part of a huge convoy of Garda vehicles. News of the operation had leaked at the last minute meaning that with only an hours notice a handful of Shell to Sea campaigners managed to get down to the port entrance despite the pouring rain. Most of us were pulled over and questioned by Garda at least once and the Garda helicopter stayed overhead as various Garda vehicles including a van load of riot cops with the door open drove past us repeatedly. In a new twist to the decade long struggle against Shell Rossport Solidarity Camp has revealed that Mayo County Council (MCC) has issued an eviction notice to the landowner of the field where the Rossport Solidarity Camp is located. Mayo farmer Gerry Burke has been threatened with fines of over €12,000 and two years in prison. Despite these theats the annual June Bank Holiday solidarity gathering will go ahead in a couple of weeks. Saturday's National Rally against the Household Tax in the National Stadium was literally filled to overflowing. As well as nearly 3,000 people crammed into every possible space in the Stadium another 4 to 500 were in the car park at the side, unable to fit into the building. And the thousands who attended were angry, energized and expectant of victory. The National Stadium normally hosts boxing marches but the atmosphere on Saturday topped that of watching a home fighter coming out on top in a close fought bout. more >>
We can contact other local groups wherever they are and make our campaign bigger and nationwide. We can win the price war. Nowadays, organising ourselves and creating campaigns are much easier than thirty years ago during the poll tax era. New technology and social media platforms have given us more opportunities to call and contact people, whilst providing more and better skills to plan and organise.
The outraged media reaction to a jury doing its job and finding the Jobstown defendants not guilty is quite extraordinary. Rather than do the right thing and launch an investigation as to how 180 cops could produce evidence that was directly contradicted by video evidence, the media have gone on a rant against Twitter! Rather than finding it suspicious that nearly 3 million in public funds was spent by the DPP on a case that any proper check of available evidence should have indicated was never likely to convince a jury, the media suggest instead that the problem lay in the exact charges brought. The trial was part of a large scale state operation to suppress a mass anti-austerity community campaign.
“The law is essentially the weapon of the privileged, it is made by them for the purpose of enshrining their power and the people need to dismantle it entirely if they want to be genuinely free” – Errico Malatesta
A housing direct action is took place this morning at the Dublin City Council (DCC) office in Bunratty Civic Centre, Coolock in Dublin. Mother’s and their children who are in need of housing occupied the offices in order to force the council to answer their questions. In particular they want to know why many people are discovering there isn’t even emergency accommodation available.
Last week, three children under the age of six slept rough in Dublin city centre while their parents stayed awake to watch over them. As of August 2015, this family is but one of 620 families in Ireland, including more than 1,300 children, who are homeless. The root of the current crisis of housing is the current crisis of capitalism. more >>
30 years Haringey Solidarity Group: A Celebration of 30 years of radical ideas
On Wednesday The Barricade Inn Collective received court summons papers informing us that the following day (Thursday 22nd October) the estate holders of the building would be seeking an injunction against us. Court was adjourned and the case will be back in court next Wednesday (28th October).
The Workers Solidarity Movement has decided to withdraw from the Campaign Against Home and Water Taxes. Please see statement below. We have made a donation of €1,000 towards paying off the debts of CAHWT.
With the full backing of the Glasgow chapter of Liberty and Solidarity and local community newspaper 'The Burgh Angel' , Hamiltonhill Action Group will be holding a demonstration with the Scottish Tenants Organisation on Thursday 24th September, against the Glasgow Housing Association's (GHA) refusal to invest money in their community.
The second issue of 'The Libertarian' a local newsletter distributed in Dublin 8 by the WSM is online. more >> |