*** Due to unforeseen circumstances the Dublin meeting on water privatisation has been postponed until Sunday Nov 27th. It will take place in the Teachers Club, Parnell Sq. at 5pm. ***

In January 2005 Bolivia’s second water war was launched in the city of El Alto. Armed with sticks, traditional indigenous Aymara flags and the words - ‘Fuera Aguas del Illimani! Aguas del Illimani must go!’ - the people of El Alto challenged Bolivia’s President and the World Bank to expel Suez - one of the world’s largest water corporations - and return water to public control. In a city of 800,000 poor indigenous rural migrants -the privatisation of water left 200,000 people without access to a water service and imposed a $500 connection fee on people living on less than $1 a day. Inspired by the success of Bolivia’s first water war in Cochabamba (2000) - which saw the termination of a 30-year private water contract with US engineering giant, Bechtel Corporation - the people of El Alto were determined to fight for their right to water.

After an initial victory, the government rolled back on its’ promise of a publicly controlled company when Suez threatened to bring a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the Bolivian state. Over the last year, El Alto’s community interest group, el Fejuve has struggled to negotiate a fair and just water service for the people of El Alto.

As a representative of El Fejuve, Julian Perez will speak in Dublin and Derry on the 25th and 26th November respectively about the citizen led campaign to reverse the privatisation of water service as demanded by World Bank lending conditions. In both venues he will be joined by local campaigners involved in resisting water privatisation on the Island of Ireland.

A to Z of the Irish Times

By Dave Lordan

(From collection titled 'Clonakilty Red Pudding'. The collection is dedicated to ‘Tom Barry’s Missing Statue’)

All strikes are wrong, particularly the ones that go on.
Bombs are good in Baghdad and Belgrade, bad in Belfast
Cheerlead every imperialist war.
Dissidents need not apply.
Editorial line, editorial line, editorial line.
Famines are caused by a shortage of food.
Good for business, good for all.
Hallelujah social partnership!!!
Ignore anti-capitalist and anti-racist events not organized by our friends.
Jail the poor.
Keep repeating the establishment line.
Letters from the organized left not printed. Letters from far right God-spouting nutters pride of place.
Middle class audience, middle class values.
NATO is a peacemaker and moral authority.
Orange marches are an expression of Protestant culture.
Prague didn’t happen, Genoa didn’t happen, Florence isn’t happening.
Queue’s in public services the fault of the staff.
Releases from PR agencies quoted verbatim as truth.
Sanctions which murder hundreds and thousands of children are ‘an understandable reaction to the threat of terrorism’.
Tell lies about the Nice Treaty.
UVF same as IRA.
Vanity mirror for the rich and politicians.
World Bank Good Good Good.
Xtreme left Bad Bad Bad.
Yes Yes men and Yes Yes women.
Zero coverage of Working Class Issues.

Some of the more recent poetry from the collection "The Boy in the Ring" which won the prize for Dave is available here as is a poem on the subject of Shannon Airport.

The Kavanagh Award has been awarded yearly since 1971 and previous winners have included Pat Boran, Celia de Freine, Paul Durcan, Sinead Morrissey, Peter Sirr and Joseph Woods. Lilliput Press published an anthology of the recipients of the award since 1971 in 2004 titled Dancing With Kitty Stobling.

Most Indymedia readers will know Dave Lordan as an unabashed socialist activist and this is often reflected head on in his writing. Here for example is Dave's Tribute To Joe Strummer and also his response to the events in Genoa in 2001.

Around 75 community and housing activists from across the city gathered in the Macro Community Resource Centre on North King St last night, for the launching of a new Tenants First booklet, entitled "The Real Guide to Regeneration for Communities: Making The Right Decision About Urban Regeneration". The booklet has been in production for several months, and five thousand copies have been printed up for distribution around local authority flat complexes and housing estates right across Dublin City.

The booklet was produced not as a leaflet to be shoved through letterboxes, but rather as a tool that local communities can use in facilitating workshops and discussions when faced with regeneration (which based on the contributions from the floor last night, seems to be widespread and increasing). "12 steps to making the right decision about regeneration" are mapped out, and take tenants from the initial stages of finding out information and understanding what is happening, to organising your own agenda, getting resources and fighting for what you want.

Three speakers, Joe Donohue from Fatima Groups United, John Bissett from St Michael's Estate, and Lena Jordan from O'Devaney Gardens gave a brief outline of their experiences to date of the regeneration process. They talked of how each of their communities had experienced difficulties with Dublin City Council, at all stages of the planning and organisation. Also prevalent was the continuing presence of PPPs (Public Private Partnerships) in redevelopments. The results of PPPs were varied, but inevitably lead to the reduction in the number or physical space afforded to social housing, and an increase in housing densities coupled with a loss of open space areas.

I met up with Maria MhicMheanmain in a small redbrick terraced house in the shadow of Croke Park in Summerhill. She's involved in the campaign against the opening of a new strip club and "adult entertainment" venue on Parnell Street, run by English businessman Peter Stringfellow. The club has already began to advertise in the Irish media and recruitment websites for positions (no pun intended) in the club.

The campaign against Stringfellows was started by a woman called Vera Brady, who lives on Parnell Street. Her family have been there for a hundred years, over several generations. Maria and Vera have known each other a long time, with connections through their families. Maria says, "We dont have a name on our group yet, its just a group of concerned residents who dont want to see this club open in this location. Vera organised Matt Talbot hall for our first public meeting, and also did extensive leaflet drops in the area in order to get local people along.

"The first I heard of the proposed strip club on Parnell Street was on TV on a Friday night, the Late Late Show, a number of weeks ago. My initial reaction was, Christ, where they're planning on building a lapdancing club is less than a minute's walk away from my old secondary school (Mount Carmel). I was aware of a lapdancing club in Galway which opens at midday, and I was enraged that the possibility existed of men queueing up to get into a club like this, while young teenage girls were in the immediate vicinity on their lunch break."

In 1990 the Industrial Relations Act was passed in this country which brough many of the Thatcherite reforms of trade unions onto our shores. Along with Social Partnership, this has been described by many as a major loss by the trade union movement. The IWU classified it as one of those laws : "designed in democratic bourgeois societies like ours to keep the working class in their place". So when Trade Unionists discuss via political articles how to fight Irish Ferries type attacks on workers, the question of the law must come into it.

Of course, we have to remember that other people have been fighting our battles for us already this year.

Our unions have the power to shut down Irish Ferries until they agree to employ all of their staff on trade union rates of pay. However, doing this would bring our unions into conflict with the law. The Industrial Relations Act makes solidarity action unlawful.

This is a big step to take but the choice is simple: break the law or allow the bosses to break our unions. If we let Irish Ferries get away with it, other bosses will, naturally, copy them. Many more jobs will be in danger.

On the other hand, if our unions give Irish Ferries management a bloody nose, other bosses will learn a lesson and back off.

UPDATE: Nov 24thworkers barricade themselves into engine room as company thugs attempt to bring in strike-breaking replacement crew.