In this exclusive interview for Indymedia.ie Alec Empire discusses the origins of Atari Teenage Riot in a climate of rising Nazi attacks in the early 1990's, experimentalism and conservatism in music, his future projects and much more besides.

With the would be 'Sir' Bonos of the world doing such a wonderful job as the soft, recuperating face of global governance, its easy to be cynical about the space where politics and music combine. Still, few artists spring to mind that can rival the continued enthusiasm of Alec Empire for pushing the boundaries of contemporary music to incorporate radical politics. As a techno innovator responsible for the emergence of the digital hardcore genre, Empire was a figurehead to a generation of German experimental artists emerging in the wake of the Berlin Wall's collapse through the creation of his Digital Hardcore Records label.

Starting off within the punk scene fronting bands like Die Kinder, Empire eventually grew disillusioned and moved towards the growing rave scene. During the turmoil of re-unifaction the bubbling techno scene was seizing ware houses in the east of Berlin for massive parties, linking it to a long standing autonome squatting scene that was spreading eastwards from its traditional bastions in areas like Kreuzburg.

Related links: Atari Teenage Riot Arrested Playing At Anti-fa March | Praxis on Breakcore In The Spectacle | Digital Hardcore Record Label | Kaboogie Myspace | Alec Empire Myspace | Oxegen, Poxegen: The Modern Rock and Roll Experience | Pimping the Music Industry and an Interview With A Vampire |

"If Padraig Nally had been convicted and received a suspended sentence at least that would have been some acknowledgement of the hurt inflicted on the extended Ward family, and indeed the Traveller community. But Padraig Nally's acquittal means that no wrong or hurt has been done and that is just not acceptable. We are angry and we have every right to be."

"The Nally/Ward Case and the negative media coverage reminded one of events in Mississippi Alabama in the thirties and forties. At times we as a community were on trial and not Padraig Nally. The message which is being received by travellers from this verdict is that our life is worthless and of no value...

"I do not accept for one moment that John Ward being a traveller was of no relevance to this case; it had everything to do with it from the beginning, middle and end. At times more value was placed on who would take care of Nally's live stock- his cattle and sheep, rather than the life of a human being."
Martin Collins, Pavee Point

Related links: Go - Move – Shift: Anti-Traveller Racism in Ireland | Protest against Traveller eviction in Cork | Out of site, Out of mind -Travellers in Ballymun | Ireland gives a summer welcome to Citizen Traveller - yet again | VIDEO: "Myth Busters" - Deconstructing Myths About The Travelling Community | Travellers Fear Vigilante Tactics in Bundoran | Pavee Point

“The important thing is that since the first day that we broke the barricade and secured the entrance, the workers have been going in and out. We haven’t altered any time schedules or anything else because the message that I want to send out is that I am in charge now. They are not. For the want of better words they have been ‘stood down’.” - Superintendent Joe Gannon, Belmullet Station.

Neil Ward’s front page feature article in Garda Review, the magazine of the Garda Representative Association, draws heavily on an interview with Superintendent Joe Gannon to outline the Garda view on the protests at Ballinaboy. In the article, entitled Reclaiming the Streets, Gannon defines the problem as: “The entrance to the site was blocked for a year and a half. Local people had a veto on who went in and out of the site: it was out of this situation that the current operation was born.”

Related Links: MarShell Law at Bellanaboy | Eyewitness account from Rossport | Corporate Media’s Sunday Shell Smear | October 3rd Protests | Start of Autumn Confrontation | Rossport Solidarity Camp | Shell to Sea Campaign | Indymedia Mayo Archive

The Site of Another Drugs
Related Death in the Blanch last year

Anthony Campbell, a 20-year-old apprentice plumber who lived in block F of the flats, at St Michan's House flats complex, near the Four Courts in Dublin was gunned down as he went about his work in a house at Scribblestown Park, Finglas, north Dublin yesterday morning.

Such was the swift, indiscriminate and chilling nature of the attack that he probably never realised why he was being killed. The cruel twist of circumstance that led to his death saw him shot in the house of a relative of a major crime boss because he would have been a witness to the killing of that criminal. Gardaí said he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Dealing with the nightmare: how inner city communities organised in the 90's to stop drug dealing | Rethinking the War on Drugs - A Public Forum | | Dolphins Barn And Drugs: The State Of Play Today? | A look at life, work, drugs and death in Blanchardstown | Police harassment of COCAD members in 2002

Solidarity is Strength

Contract workers in UCD have made major gains in their working conditions by simply threatening to go on strike at a key time of year for the University. With their fellow SIPTU workers, they forced concessions from management relating to pension rights and the creation of permanent, pensionable posts.

It was no surprise when over 80% voted for strike action. When management seemingly backed down SIPTU agreed to suspend the strike action – though workers reserved the right to strike again if they renege on the agreement. This was a huge victory for the most insecure workers in the university, and showed how a union can and should fight for its members’ interests.

SIPTU - Trade Union | September UCD Report | Polish Workers Wildcat at Tescos | Indymedia Workers Archive