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Organise! -Working Class Resistance

category national | anti-capitalism | news report author Saturday December 06, 2003 11:57author by Al S - Organise!author email organiseireland at yahoo dot ieauthor address PO BOX 505, Belfast, BT12 6BQ Report this post to the editors

Smash the Water Tax!

Please find below, the first article from Working Class Resistance -a new anarchist publication from Organise! -a new anarchist organisation ( a merger of Anarchist Federation Ireland, Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation and Anarchist Prisoner Support)

THE VOTE CHANGES NOTHING - THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES - SMASH THE WATER TAX

We go to print with one of the greatest political non-events taking place across the north - the Stormont Assembly elections. For the past number of weeks we’ve been treated to all the hype and self importance you’d expect from those looking to secure a ‘basic wage’ of £41,321 plus around £50,000 on top of that again in expenses. The Chairs and Deputy Chairs of Assembly committees can treat themselves to an additional £10,290.

Whether the candidate is Unionist or Nationalist, Pro-Agreement or Anti-agreement, Women's Coalition or Alliance, even if they claim to be Socialist, the same attacks will be carried out on our standard of living. Low pay, poverty, increased job insecurity, lack of decent housing, privatisation, profiteering in the NHS and our schools (where PFI’s and PPP’s are introduced and implemented with impunity), cut backs, redundancies, the massive growth in ‘flexible’ working practises (we’re expected to bend over backwards for the boss) and the introduction of water charges.

None of the parties are willing or able to present any economic alternatives to the globally inspired and directed attack on working people. This attack has gone under many names; Thatcherism, Reganism, Neo-liberalism, Globalisation, it is simply aggressive capitalism engaged in the stripping back of the gains working class people have made over the past decades in order to feed market greed.

The peace dividend has been an illusion for the majority in Northern Ireland, over the last 15 years the rich have got richer and the poor poorer. Poverty is consistently higher than in the Republic of Ireland and Britain with over 1/2 million living in poverty including over a 1/3 of our children. 64% of the population have an income below the national average while those in the top four income groups, a tiny percentage of the population, possess 67% of the total household income! Not only do we face greater poverty but the cost of living is higher while wages are 22% lower.

Remember, no matter who you vote for, Government wins. Only by organising, fighting back and practising solidarity where we live and work can we really change things. Despite the opposition to water charges claimed in the run up to the election all the main parties had agreed to water charges prior to the suspension of the Assembly. There can be no doubt that after the election ‘economic reality’ will see them implement the charges no matter their election promises.

Only direct action will defeat the water tax. A campaign based on non-payment of charges must be built in order to smash this charge on a fundamental human right. Let's show the politicians where the real power lies.

Jason Brannigan
Organise!

author by Confusedpublication date Sat Dec 06, 2003 16:18author address author phone Report this post to the editors

So does this mean that the AF and ASF don't have an independent existence now?

author by C Byrnepublication date Sat Dec 06, 2003 18:01author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Looking at the history of anarcho type groups north of the divide, even going by their own sites, all the seem to do is stop start.

This clearly represents their real politics (that they don't have any and can't agree to make things work).

Maybe its time they went back to their middle class homes and ignore the real world.

After all, thats what these giro type heads are any good at. Sad but true!

author by Al S - Organise!publication date Sat Dec 06, 2003 18:46author email organiseireland at yahoo dot ieauthor address author phone Report this post to the editors

Yes, the AF in Ireland and ASF have formally agreed to merge with a new constitition and a new set of aims and principles which will be on the new website as soon as it is up. All members of those prior organisations have agreed to this so there is no question of splits etc...

The new organisation has also members from Anarchist Prisoner Support and other individuals who have more recently joined.

To clarify somewhat some of the rant of the other poster on this thread, both the AF and ASF (as was) had members north and south of the border as does Organise! obviously, and so clearly were not just 'northern' organisations.

Hope this has helped.


Al

Organise!

author by confusedpublication date Sun Dec 07, 2003 17:35author address author phone Report this post to the editors

isnt that an odd idea for anarchrists??

author by whypublication date Sun Dec 07, 2003 19:08author address author phone Report this post to the editors

why???

from dictionary.com
constitution : The state of being; that form of being, or structure and connection of parts, which constitutes and characterizes a system or body; natural condition; structure; texture; conformation. " The physical constitution of the sun. --Sir J. Herschel."

Anarchy is Order

author by C Byrnepublication date Sun Dec 07, 2003 20:49author address author phone Report this post to the editors

This has been taken from a relatives ‘thesis’ that was compiled as part of his university course on politics whilst studying at Manchester Polytechnic some years ago. His study of radical organisations and modern politics consisted mainly of interviews with ex-members of DAM (Direct Action Movement) and you got it, which is now defunct.

"Anarchists just as there politics, mean nothing to working class people north or south of the divide in this country".." p207

"IN England as elsewhere anarchists remain detached from everyday struggle and since the development of the web they continue to remain detached (aloof) from the realities of working class daily struggle." p210

"In Ireland we have anarchists too few to count in any struggle. They decide, like their counterparts in England, Scotland and Wales to get active on the web." p212

...and now as we can see, organised (for working class resistance?) on the web again.

These people full no-one, let alone our class.

C Byrne

author by Ruling class pedantpublication date Sun Dec 07, 2003 21:15author address author phone Report this post to the editors

This has been taken from a relatives ‘thesis’ that was compiled as part of his university course on politics whilst studying at Manchester Polytechnic some years ago. His study of radical organisations and modern politics consisted mainly of interviews with ex-members of DAM (Direct Action Movement) and you got it, which is now defunct.
It's a disgrace that you are wasting your time typing on the internet when you should be sleeping, procreating, praying or working. Your futile attempts to understand politics prove that 'socialism' is doomed to failure. I hope your relative didn't graduate from his course because s/he's an illiterate. I'll point out some of the errors for you. They range from the trivially irritating to the gargantually improbable

POINT 1
--------------------------------------------------------
"Anarchists just as there politics, mean nothing to working class people north or south of the divide in this country".." p207

That sentence should read:
Anarchists [,] just as [their] politics, mean nothing to the working class people North or South of the divide in this country [...]" p207

Now, those corrections were the small (but essential for clarity) quibbles which are but a warning indication of larger problems with your relative's idiot 'thesis'. In this case the larger problem is that s/he has cited no evidence in support of the sweeping general statement. This should be the central lesson that even a careless, sloppy illiterate could learn from a course of higher education: use evidence, one's personal opinions are unconvincing and pointless (to put it in terms that an ordinary working class person like yourself or your relative might understand: opinions are like assholes, everyone has one).
-----------------------------------------------------------

POINT 2:
"IN England as elsewhere anarchists remain detached from everyday struggle and since the development of the web they continue to remain detached (aloof) from the realities of working class daily struggle." p210

Should read:
"I[n] England [,] as elsewhere [,] anarchists remain detached from everyday struggle [.] [S]ince the development of the [world wide web] they continue to remain detached (aloof) from the realities of [W]orking [C]lass [D]aily [S]truggle." p210

Again, your relative's asshole is uninteresting. S/he needs to forgoe Grand Pronouncements about Weighty General Matters until s/he has what we ruling class pedants call "evidence".
----------------------------------------------------------

POINT 3:
"In Ireland we have anarchists too few to count in any struggle. They decide, like their counterparts in England, Scotland and Wales to get active on the web." p212

Should read:
"In Ireland we have [too few anarchists] to count in any [S]truggle. [Those anarchists] decide, like their counterparts in England, Scotland and Wales [,] to [be] active on the [World Wide Web]." p212

Again, your relative's working class background does not prepare him/her for dealing with the tools of the ruling class. S/he handles the implements of logic and oppression clumsily and this results in self-inflicted wounds. An unspecified number of "anarchists" are declared to be too few to influence an unspecified "struggle": surely not in all cases? Wouldn't twenty anarchists be able to overpower an old lady and declare a Victory in their Heroic Struggle?
----------------------------------------------------------

POINT 4:
"These people full no-one, let alone our class."
Should read:
"These people [fool] no one, let alone our class."

I'm afraid I don't have any more time to spend on educating you and it wouldn't do any good anyway. I realise that you're going to be angry having read this but I suggest that you cool down by taking off your cloth cap and going out for a nice walk with the whippet. You could have a nice refreshing pint at the "boozer" and talk about "footie" with the rest of the menfolk while you're at it. Don't worry about the anarchists.

author by Snobby peasantpublication date Sun Dec 07, 2003 21:36author address author phone Report this post to the editors

You're missing the point, Pedant, the errors in spelling and grammer are for the p urpose of deceiving people into thinking the writer is not well educated and therefore "working class". Of itself it is an example of middle class prejudice.

author by Ruling class pedantpublication date Sun Dec 07, 2003 21:41author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I was just being irritating and pretending to take the poster at his/her word.

In all seriousness I hope that the ASF, AF, APS merger goes off well and that there's as much (or more) effective activity coming out of them as there was separately.

Anyway, this is a fairly pointless thread so far and I'm not posting any more on it as I don't have anything informative to contribute.

author by queen mum - tubthumpingpublication date Sun Dec 07, 2003 22:06author address author phone Report this post to the editors

are you not afraid that the real anarchists in the wsm will go north and knock the bollocks out of organise. after all, wsm contain some of the meanest motherfuckers ever to stalk an irish street. not since Dan Breen will we see an ambush like the one organise is facing.
watch your anoracks/

author by undercover anarchistpublication date Sun Dec 07, 2003 23:21author address author phone Report this post to the editors

How to subvert the world, through community infiltration, agitation and instigation.

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