“The people have woken up – at last!” declared local Gilet Jaune rebel Michelle as she watched the vast crowds assembling on the main square of Montpellier in southern France.

She has been involved with the Yellow Vest movement since the very start of the popular revolt against the Macron regime in November 2018.

Two years ago, in April 2019, another Gilet Jaune told me on the same spot, the Place de la Comédie, that France was witnessing “a turning point in history”.

Despite the vast levels of militarised repression used against the Yellow Vests, not to speak of the relentless propaganda in the mass media, the movement never abandoned the struggle.

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As we draw towards the end of the hottest summer on record, the effects of climate change are becoming rapidly more evident. From the uncontrollable fires in the Arctic circle to the devastating floods in Kathmandu, from the rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet to the scorching heat waves being experienced around the world, it is clear that a climate emergency is no longer a future catastrophe to guard against but a reality that must be faced up to right now. ... read full story / add a comment

From fast food workers getting organised to fight for a living wage, to Uber drivers fighting a company infamous for its use of bogus self-employment models, to McDonalds’ workers in the US saying ‘No More’ to sexual harassment, a section of workers traditionally seen as “hard to organise” are proving their willingness to fight. Katia Hancke looks at what this trend represents. ... read full story / add a comment

In this issue:
Rebelling against the industrial capitalist system
“At the heart of this problem lies our sense of separation from nature”
Abolishing dissent
Does work set us free?
Save Whitehawk Hill!
Acorninfo ... read full story / add a comment

The ReBirth of Marxism: Haunting the Future

National University of Ireland Maynooth, 4 – 5 May 2018
Call for papers

In his play Marx in Soho, Howard Zinn has Marx ask “Don’t you wonder why it is necessary to proclaim me dead, again and again?”

May 5, 2018 will be Marx’s 200th anniversary – one among many anniversaries which remind us of Marx and Engels’ long-lasting impact on the modern world. As we send this out, we are sandwiched between the 150th anniversary of Capital and the 100th of what Gramsci called a “Revolution against Capital” in Russia. Our conference includes the May Day bank holiday, celebrated by the traditional labour movement – but it also marks the 50th anniversary of the start of “May 1968” in Paris, while “Ireland’s 1968” is sometimes dated to the violent suppression of a civil rights demonstration in Derry, five months later.
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Reproduced from the editorial of “The Socialist”, newspaper of the Socialist Party in England and Wales

As more details emerge and the death toll rises, it becomes clearer and clearer what a terrible disaster this is. The fire spread with horrifying speed and witnesses describe heart-breaking scenes as people desperately tried to escape.

It is a huge tragedy for the immediate community. Children have died; three generations of the same family have died. But rather than being torn apart, the community has come together in a remarkable display of human solidarity, supporting each other, collecting donations of goods and money, organising emergency accommodation, coordinating relief.

The heroism, the courage, the self-sacrifice of the emergency services and of local residents is incredible. Who can fail to be moved by the scenes of the firefighters being applauded as they drove away from the scene?

And there has naturally been a much wider outpouring of sympathy with the residents and families affected, with overwhelming donations of money, clothes, bedding, toys, nappies, etc. The true face of humanity has been shown in this solidarity. ... read full story / add a comment

Indymedia Ireland wish to pay tribute to the late leader Comrade Fidel Castro who died on Fri 25th Nov 2016, aged 90. He was an iconic figure of the 20th century and perhaps most famous for leading Cuba away from the clutches of a dictator and the mafia which ran the country on behalf of the US prior to that and then to events of the CIA backed failed invasion to overthrow him referred to as the Bay of Pigs and then later to the Cuban missile crisis which brought the world to the brink. This came about because the US had placed nuclear missiles in Turkey which were 15 minutes flight time to Moscow and Castro allowed the Soviet Union to respond in kind by placing Soviet missile in Cuba which were 15 minutes flight time to Washington.

Not only that he and Cuba defied the US for many decades simply by existing despite the US openly being hostile including imposing economic and financial sanctions against Cuba since the revolution and an estimated 600 assassination attempts against him and for daring to give the example that there is another way to exist than naked capitalism. A successful example on their doorstep of a state that provided benefits such as education, health and general well-being for their citizens is what the US most feared. Even to this day, the health system and life expectancy exceeds anything in Latin American and including huge swaths of the USA itself and this lesson is surely being brought home to many not just in the US but elsewhere where many are mired in puntative debt and are prey to vulture capitalists and increasing unstable and uncertain existence in their daily lives. ... read full story / add a comment

Every year hundreds of people attend the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair for a day of inspiring discussions and the opportunity of meeting lots of other radicals, browsing books and meeting campaigns. 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 in the Teachers Club, Parnell Square. ... read full story / add a comment

Weak Irish capitalism makes a deal with Catholic hierarchy in which the hierarchy get control over many areas of Irish life and in return preach and organize in support of capitalism and against socialism and as part of this against women's rights. ... read full story / add a comment

There are a lot of rumblings now about Negative interest rates and the war on cash Lately.

Negative interest rates are when the bank actually charges you interest on the money "resting in your account"

in plainspeak, they will slowly rob your money. ... read full story / add a comment

Every year hundreds of people attend the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair for a day of inspiring discussions and the opportunity of meeting lots of other radicals, browsing books and meeting campaigns. 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 in the Teachers Club, Parnell Square. ... read full story / add a comment

Paul Craig Roberts clearly outlines the systematic way western financial institutions and the IMF have traditionally looted the third world and now, having exhausted that process, have turned to looting other western countries such as Ireland, Greece, Portugal, and more recently, Spain and Italy. ... read full story / add a comment

Irish government wastes over 1 million euro on biased fracking study
in spite of world oil prices rendering fracking itself as nothing
but a major loss making and pointless exercise. ... read full story / add a comment

This article deals with how much left sectarianism has damaged the workers struggle in Ireland. ... read full story / add a comment

The following statement is issued by various progressive individuals and organizations from many parts of the world, but mostly in Asia-Pacific. A copy of the statement has already been sent to Syriza's international department.

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Autumn Sun is a film about the occupy movement in the US set in Oaklands California. Ciutat Morta is a film about police brutality in Spain ... read full story / add a comment

Nathan Stuart with a short piece on the transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Nathan is an RNU student activist from Armagh, currently living and studying in Belfast. He has been heavily involved in numerous campaigns on student, socialist and republican issues. ... read full story / add a comment

During the first part of this day-long Thinkery, which will be led by Silvia Federici and George Caffentzis, you will be invited to listen, think and converse with others about anti-capitalist commoning. Based in New York, they are part of an international movement that asserts ‘commons’ can be the seeds of a society beyond state and market. A long-time feminist and anti-globalization activist, teacher and writer, Silvia Federici’s books include Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction and Feminist Struggle (2012) and Caliban and the Witch. Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation (2004). Founding member of the Midnight Notes Collective, George Caffentzis’ latest book is In Letters of Blood and Fire: Work, Machines and the Crisis of Capitalism (2013). An overview of their perspective on the commons can be found in this article http://cdj.oxfordjournals.org/content/49/suppl_1/i92.fu...+html

Learning together about the commons will continue in the afternoon, but here the focus will be on actual and emergent commoning in Ireland. Discussing her work on the radical concept of ‘enough’ and her practical experience of Community Supported Farming, this will include a contribution from Anne B. Ryan. She is the author of Enough is Plenty: Public and Private Policies for the 21st century (2009).
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It has been 10 years since the European Court of Human Rights fined British courts 57,000 pounds for denying free speech to Steel and Morris in London Greenpeace V McDonald's,
Unionbusting, obesity, strokes, heart attacks, cancer, animal agony, deforestation, rainforest destruction, energy waste, crime, litter, employee burns, unusual ingredients continue to be
associated with the Western wrold's biggest restaurant chain ... read full story / add a comment

Michael Hudson, interviewed on real news network discusses the class war starting in greece and the panic among the Euro rich and powerful that the rich might actually be taxed for a change rather than crippling the labour force and the poor with endless austerity, and how the finance ministers of currently right wing governments of spain, finland, Portugal, Ireland and germany are determined to make an example of greece to avoid contagion of these dangerous ideas which would likely lead to such governments losing upcoming elections to left wing parties ... read full story / add a comment