Irish Anarchist Review

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Irish Anarchist Review The Irish Anarchist Review is the new political magazine from the Workers Solidarity Movement. This

06/04/2023

Everyone: Stop making people homeless. Do something to control energy prices because old people can’t heat their homes while the energy companies are making massive profits.

Leo Varadkar:

28/11/2018
The Anarchist Case Against Borders – A response to Angela Nagle’s ahistoric revisionism

“Nagle, despite hinting at an understanding of what Marx meant, uses this to justify a ‘left’ position on immigration that is almost identical to that of the far right, albeit with differences in methodology. When she writes that “The importation of low-paid labor is a tool of oppression that divides workers and benefits those in power”, her solution is bringing in measures to discourage capitalists from employing migrant labour and get tough on immigration. To come to the conclusion that this is to make a “left case” is to airbrush the traditional response of socialists and anarchists within structures of organised labour; The divisions between the established local working class and migrant labour must be resolved by organising both to fight for better wages and working conditions, decreased working hours without loss of pay, thus providing not just employment for all but more leisure time to educate, organise and play together, and alongside that as Marx contended, overturning the social conditions that leaves little alternative to colonised people than to migrate.

It is also worth noting that the ruling class has never needed the appearance of migrant labour to divide workers to increase their share of the wealth. How would we apply Nagle’s logic to the situation in the six counties in Ireland? Encourage the catholic population to move south? Force everyone descended from Scottish and English planters to move across the water? Women are still paid less than men in the workplace. Is the solution to get them to stay in the home to look after children? Obviously the answer to those questions is no, so why should the answer to the arrival of migrant labour be to turn them back?

Using a single letter Marx wrote in 1870 to justify any position on migration today is nonsensically ahistorical. When we look to the history of our movement for inspiration, we should be mindful of the historical context, analyse which tactics succeeded and which failed and learn the lessons of the lived experience of those who came before us. The difference between the two approaches is akin to the difference between studying the development of modern feminism by looking at the social conditions that lead to the formulation of intersectional theory and seeing what worked tactically and what theory and tactics of past movements apply to the current situation on the one hand; And on the other hand taking a single tweet from someone who was part of that movement and present it as representative of that movement as a whole, with no context applied whatsoever.”

Argelès-sur-Mer is a pleasant little seaside town in the south of France. Today it is a magnet for sun worshiping holiday makers, but in 1939 it was the site of a refugee camp for Spanish anti-fasc…

02/07/2018
Neuro-Anarchy: ADHD, Neurodiversity, and Libertarian Communism

“Life with libertarian communism would be more in tune with the way people with ADHD’s brains work. We need to be able to change up what we are doing several times a day, we need to have the spare time to pursue our passions lest we die of boredom, and as Guy Debord wrote, “boredom is always counter counter-revolutionary.” In marked contrast to life under capitalism and hierarchy, Marx wrote that “in communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.” Of course those who prefer to specialise in one sphere and stick with it would be free to do that too.

You will find that Marx quote, from The German Ideology littered throughout articles and essay’s I have written. ADHD often calls for the repetition of phrases or ideas we find appealing and that single sentence, from the moment I read it transformed the way I looked at the world and its possibilities. It is not that I wish to be a hunter, a fisherman, a herdsman or a critic, but for an endless vista of opportunities to be anything I wish. I have suspected for a while that Marx himself had ADHD, going by the sheer number of unfinished works he left behind and the amount of procrastination that went on when he was writing capital (see Francis Wheen’s biography), not to mention his theory of alienated labour which looks like something someone with ADHD would think of. .”

Where’s my head at? Well at the moment I have nine other unfinished blog posts in my drafts folder, a rake of unfinished short stories and two unfinished novels, but I decided to start writin…

23/05/2018
Abortion Rights Campaign

Abortion Rights Campaign

"I hope that people in Ireland will remember the fate of our daughter Savita on the day of the referendum and will vote YES, so what happened to us won't happen to any families." - Andanappa and Akkamahadevi, Savita's father and mother.
♥️

20/07/2017
Sin on a sunny day – Folk Memory against Wage Labour

"Sin is something we used to take quite seriously in Ireland. The shadow of the Bishop’s cloak is not as long as it used to be, they have political sway, but their ideological grip on the minds of the Irish has been weakened considerably. When I was a gossin though, you’d still hear people talking about sin in an earnest manner. Being shacked up with your significant other out of wedlock was still known as ‘living in sin’ for example. The worst kind of sin was a mortal sin; These included blasphemy, adultery, murder, ma********on and staying inside on a sunny day.

The latter is, of course not an official ‘mortal sin’ recognised by the Catholic church but is something that my Nana and other Irish people of older generations would say from time to time; “It’s a mortal sin to stay inside on a day like that”. Maybe the saying has no other origin than the fact that sunny days are not all that common in Ireland and it’s seen as shameful to waste them, or a desperate plea to get children out from under the feet of adults, but I like to think it has something to do with folk memory from the time we were sun worshipers, or at least worshiped various aspects of nature through the associated personages from the pantheon of the Irish gods, most notably the Tuath Dé Danann."

  Sin is something we used to take quite seriously in Ireland. The shadow of the Bishop’s cloak is not as long as it used to be, they have political sway, but their ideological grip on t…

26/06/2017
Follow the Yellow Brick Road – Socialism and the British Labour Party (Part 2)

"1939 was also notable for the release of a quite a remarkable film. The Wizard of Oz, a fantasy musical in glorious technicolor might not have been a box office hit at the time, but it made a lasting impression on the medium of cinema. The film follows a girl, Dorothy, who has been blown by a tornado to Munchkinland in the Land of Oz as she, her dog Toto and some friends she meets along the way travel to the emerald city to find the wonderful wizard of Oz who they believe can grant their wishes. Dorothy simply wishes to get home, the Tin Man wants a heart, the Scarecrow wants a brain and the Cowardly Lion wants to have courage. All the gang has to do, they believe, is follow the yellow brick road.

“The Spirit of ’45”, in no small sense thanks to Ken Loach’s documentary film of the same name, has become the yellow brick road of the twenty first century British left. Loach’s acclaimed film documents the momentous changes that occurred in post war Britain under the first majority Labour government and the public sentiment that swept them to power. It is a somewhat simplistic and sentimental film, but all the same, it is hard not to feel inspired in parts. It isn’t hard to see why it had such an impact in a Britain where hope was a luxury that few could afford. The film was like peeking at a different version of reality, much like the films in amazon prime’s TV adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s “The Man in the High Tower”, and that alternate reality inspired hope in those who watched and those they passed the message on to.

The message of “The Spirit of ’45” gives hope, because, like the programme that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour ran on in the June 2017 general election, it touched on aspirations that ‘the many’ held deep down but either believed were unrealistic, or couldn’t even consciously imagine, lost in the dystopian anti-culture that the late Mark Fisher called ‘Capitalist Realism‘, “a pervasive atmosphere, conditioning not only the production of culture but also the regulation of work and education, and acting as a kind of invisible barrier constraining thought and action.” Corbyn’s whirlwind rise to prominence has certainly put a crack in capitalist hegemony and now at least, ‘the many’ believe that another world, or at least another Britain, is possible. But what of “The Spirit of ’45” and what of the party that Jeremy Corbyn leads? His manifesto might be the most radical the party has had in decades, but it is far from the most radical it has ever had, and capitalism is still here."

  1939 was a notable year for quite a few reasons, the most obvious being the outbreak of the second world war. After the solemn vows following the last war in Europe that such a conflict woul…

19/06/2017
Are We There Yet? – Socialism and the British Labour Party (Part 1)

"We’ve been this way before. No, I’m sure. Yes, of course it has changed a bit, it’s been over forty years. It’s definitely been spruced up since then. The people around here aren’t men in blue overalls anymore, but that’s progress for you. And gentrification. Look, there’s Owen Jones, lets stop and ask him. No, wait, he seems a bit lost, best not. We’ve been on this road for so long, I’m beginning to think we’ve been going the wrong way all this time. It’s been over a hundred years. Well over. I’m pretty sure we should have arrived by now.

Undoubtedly all those diversions and road closures didn’t help. Neil Kinnock was more concerned with getting the Trotskyists off the bus than he was was about running the Tories off the road. John Smith, just parked up in the hope the Tories would crash themselves, then Blair took over. Tony Blair, suave and smooth gave up pretending he was on the road to socialism and took the bus to Tory town and for a long time it looked like it would never leave. But after Ed Milliband’s ill advised stop at a motorway service station for a bacon sandwich, Jeremy Corbyn took the wheel and despite the Blairites at the back of the bus screaming that he was going the wrong way, things did start to look better.

Certainly where Labour is now looks a lot more appealing than it did at any time in the last forty years – in my lifetime in fact. They’ve taken up radical policies that are designed to benefit working people; The rhetoric is in the great tradition of British working class politics; Corbyn has energised the workers’ movement, and young people are being politicised and mobilised in numbers the UK hasn’t seen since the 80’s. This is all very positive, but we need to ask where this road goes. Has the labour route been the wrong road for socialism all along? Because, as great as it is to see left wing ideas returning to the mainstream, we have been here before, more than once."

We’ve been this way before. No, I’m sure. Yes, of course it has changed a bit, it’s been over forty years. It’s definitely been spruced up since then. The people around here…

08/06/2017
A Commune of One: Self Reflection and Social Revolution

"Capitalism creates a scarcity of material goods, it can’t survive without that. That creates the conditions where greed, unhealthy competitiveness (not all competition is unhealthy), and violent crime can thrive. Hierarchy on the other hand creates a scarcity of power. This creates the conditions where we desperately grasp for any of it that we can, where we use devious methodology to have our views win out over those of other, where we get into damaging toxic arguments and viciously go at each other to get the upper hand.

We are so deprived of power in our every day lives that we greedily grasp for small morsels whenever we can. Where we have no power, we want to be seen to have power in the hope that perceptions can mold reality. Straight white men are certainly not alone in this, but we are highly susceptible because we were born into a world that promised us power, to be head of the household, to have favourable opportunities finding work and having better pay than immigrants, women and other minorities. The important people on the television were mostly men, or women like Thatcher who had successfully mastered the art of ‘maleness’.

Our inner fascist is the one who holds onto, or tries to gain more power for ourselves or our in-group. The only way to fight it is through self reflection and self awareness, relinquishing power to those with less wherever we hold it. It seems counter-intuitive that relinquishing power can be good for us, but by doing this, we make the community stronger – be that in activism or any other sphere, the chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link, and there is no point in having a chain with a few unbreakable links and a lot of very weak ones. When we really get into an analysis of the self, we find that a lot of the things we cling to are just baggage – of hetero-patriarchy, of white supremacy and imperialism and of capitalism, and they make us miserable anyway because they create desires that can never be fulfilled.

“What I believe is a process rather than a finality. Finalities are for gods and governments, not for the human intellect.” – Emma Goldman You can’t change the world without…

03/04/2017

Workers Solidarity Movement (Ireland)

It's taken a while but the 1st issue of WSM's new magazine is now online to read or download from http://www.wsm.ie/c/common-threads-issue1-2016

Contents:
1. A City in Common: The Radical Potential of Ireland's Eco-Transport Struggles
2. The political and personal landscape of choice in Ireland
3. From apathy to rebellion: the water war in Ireland
4. Border Crisis: Migration and Europe
5. Yes Equality?
6. Domination, Capitalism, and Economic Crises
7. What Is Anarchism?
8. Interview: Belfast Co-operatives
9. Notes on organising meetings

-----

Common Treads replaces the
Irish Anarchist Review, the 11 issues of IAR published from 2010 to 2015 are available at
http://www.wsm.ie/irish-anarchist-review

IAR in turn replaced Red & Black Revolution, 15 issues of RBR were published from 1994 to 2010 and are available at http://www.wsm.ie/red-black-revolution

Between them these 3 publications create a substantial archive of detailed analysis of struggles in Ireland, and Irish and international issues as well as a large collection of articles examining anarchist history and theory in some detail.

28/03/2017

Drogheda Community Resistance

We support the Bus Éireann workers, without reservation. We understand that some of you are angry that services have been disrupted. You are right to be angry, but don't direct that anger at the workers who are defending their pay and conditions, direct it at the state, who are attempting to privatise what is left of our public transport system.

That's how they do it, by turning people against public services, making them seem inefficient, making the workers look greedy. But the truth is, public transport in Ireland is grossly underfunded. We have the lowest public transport subvention in Europe per head of GDP.

At the same time, the state is funding the privately run M50 toll bridge to the tune of €50 million per year. That's €50 million of your taxes taken from the public purse and put in private pockets and its ten times the value of cuts demanded of Bus Éireann.

Workers should not be expected to drop three to four thousand in wages per annum, they rely on those wages to pay mortgages, pay off loans and put kids through college.

We should not be expecting public services to make a profit. That is not their purpose. Their purpose is to provide a service that people need. They should no more be exploited for profit than health, education or social welfare.

So don't turn your anger against public service workers, turn it against the state, because we need our public services, and once they successfully destroy one they'll come for the rest.

An injury to one, is an injury to all.

07/12/2016
The Robots are Coming, Look Busy! – Automation, Work and Class (Communism versus the commanding heights Part 3)

"If the global workforce downed tools and occupied its workplaces tomorrow, in most places it would find itself in control of banks, insurance companies, oil giants, hedge funds, investment companies, government offices, coffee shops, sandwich bars, pubs and restaurants and supermarkets. What would be the point of democratically managing the majority of these industries if you intend to do away with capitalism and build a communal, ecological society? You can’t eat an insurance premium and you can’t live in a bank bond. We need new economic practices and new economic structure, built from scratch to accomodate the needs of the global population. We need to abolish the commanding heights of the economy, along with the state and free up the labour of billions so they can construct libertarian communism, while still having the time to improve their quality of life through leisure and intellectual pursuits.

The capitalist system is going through a phase of transition, lurching from prosperity to crisis and back as is it’s nature. However, the current crisis, while not unsolvable for the capitalist class, presents it’s greatest challenge to date. With the productive economy unhooked from the labour process, it finds itself with billions of what were once known as proletarians, without economic activity to engage in. Finance has created a host of ‘bullsh*t jobs’, but it is unable to completely fill the gaping hole dug by the new robot workforce. Government and private employment agencies try to reduce the affect of this transition by creating militias of labour – constantly retrained, always on standby to be deployed on workfare style programs, or on zero hour contracts.The best educated workforce in history is being shunted from fast food outlets to charity shops to warehouse jobs – this is a ticking time bomb."

We shall do more things for ourselves than is usual with the rich to-day, only too glad to have small duties and tasks and routines. But beyond this, we shall endeavour to spread the bread thin on …

01/12/2016
On the Invisible Hand of Communism

Of course, we're talking Anarchist Communism here.

The term ‘The Invisible Hand’ is most notably associated with Adam Smith, the father of Political Economy. Today it is often padded out with the words ‘of the market’…

16/11/2016
Democracy is not Enough – Rip it up and Start Again

Only last year, a memory that seems of the distant past, much of the radical left of Europe had hope that the democratically elected SYRIZA government in Greece would overturn Troika imposed austerity measures. That was the program they were elected on, but when they tried to implement it they found a solid wall of EU and international finance intransigence blocking their way. Many who had supported them and seen them as the next great hope, cried ‘betrayal’. But it wasn’t that, the problem was that democracy is not enough; Not the type of democracy that we are used to anyway, the one where you vote every four or five years for the people who are going to make the decisions that determine what your life will be like, whose intentions we barely know, the one where senior civil servants hold the purse strings and have massive influence over policy, the one where corporations have more power than even these elected governments.

There’ll soon be a white supremacist in the white house. He’ll be advised by an actual Neo-Nazi, while his Chief of Staff provides a connection with the old conservative establishment. …

05/07/2016
The Political and Personal Landscape of Choice in Ireland | Workers Solidarity Movement

The Political and Personal Landscape of Choice in Ireland | Workers Solidarity Movement

It is all but impossible, both in theory and in practice, to legally obtain an abortion on the island of Ireland, both north and south of the imaginary border that divides this island. It is completely impossible to safely and legally obtain an abortion anywhere in Ireland; the legal framework in t...

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