International Week of Solidarity

The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign took part in this year’s International Week of Solidarity called by the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (http://www.stopthewall.org).

An international call to activists was put out to launch a week of global mobilisation against the walls of apartheid in Palestine from November 9th to 16th 2009. The IPSC used this opportunity to highlight the necessity of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, with specific reference to the ongoing role of Irish construction company CRH (formerly Cement Roadstone Holdings) in the building of the Apartheid Wall and illegal colonial settlements in the West Bank.

Stop the Wall:

The Campaign call is to:
1. Stop the Wall
2. Dismantle parts already built
3. Return all lands confiscated for the Wall, and
4. Compensate for all losses.

For more info, visit: StopTheWall.org

Cover of Part 1 of the Report

This is part one of a two part report, based on the Report by The Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin. Part One deals with the generalities of the report – a damning indictment of the church in general for its handling of the reporting of clerical child sexual abuse, its cover up, and the comlicity (or otherwise) of the Gardaí. Part Two will look at the abuse, abuse, and more abuse handed out by individuals. Prepare yourself for some pretty sickening reading.

Related Links:
After the FERNS Report, the RYAN Report and the latest DUBLIN DIOCESE report what questions remain? | After the Ryan Report ... The Next Big Scandal | Closing the Book on Institutional Abuse | Time To End Church Control of Schools, Hospitals and Social Services

Read the Full Report:
Report by Commission of Investigation into Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin

The view of the National Graves Association on the wearing of the poppy.

Related Links: National Graves Association | Royal British Legion website | Indy article (1) | Indy article (2) | Killing fields of WWI (independent article + pics) | The battle of the Somme | A potted history of Ireland during WWI | Another potted history of Ireland during WWI | Royal dublin fusilliers association | Shot at dawn campaign | Waterford county museum articles | G.A.A. site, bloody sunday | Wikipedia on WWI | WWI tourism | Alternative theory for causes of WWI (>10 mins in, watch it for a bit!!) :-) | The FinalCut - pink floyd (wikipedia)

As workers fight Fianna fail and the Green partyy's neoliberal attacks, now is a good time to learn from the fightback against Thatcherism in the 1980s with this video of Arthur Scargill discussing the Miners Strike.
http://www.vimeo.com/7589961

Related Links:
The Art of Scargill - Audio Interview with Scargill before this talk.
An Interview with Arthur Scargill - Text Interview with Scargill before this talk

Chomsky meets fellow Anarchists in Dublin

During Noam Chomsky's recent visit to Ireland five members of the Workers Solidarity Movement met him over breakfast to talk over a range of issues from Palestine to the capitalist crisis to social partnership to Iran to Obama and the US Labour Movement. Notes on the discussion are below.

Audio of Discussion with Noam Chomsky:

Noam Chomsky & the WSM discuss politics over breakfast 23.98 Mb

The conversation is about 52 minutes long and as its recorded over breakfast there is a fair bit of cutlery noise included. The notes below are a very rough outline to the conversation noted down as I edited the audio file, its is not a transcript but a summary and there are substantial gaps in it as the conversation goes back and forth.