Workers Solidarity Movement

The Workers Solidarity Movement was founded at a meeting in Cork in 1984 [1] as the culmination of discussions in Belfast, Cork and Dublin by a number of unaligned anarchists and anarchist groups from Ballymena, Belfast, Cork and Dublin on the need for a national anarchist organisation. After an initial period of very modest growth it split in the late 1980s, with some Cork members joining or rejoining the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party. At the time of the 1991 Gulf War it was relaunched but saw only a little growth in the early 1990s.

The WSM has been involved in a wide range of struggles in Ireland: its members are involved in trade unions, have fought for abortion rights and against the growth of racism (especially state racism) in Ireland, and have also been involved in campaigns in support of workers from countries such as Nepal, Peru, Mexico and South Africa.

In November 2001, along with the Irish Mexico Group, Gluaiseacht, the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation, and the Alliance of Cork Anarchists, the WSM organised the first Grassroots Gathering in Dublin. The impetus behind this emerged from members involvement in struggles around globalisation and in particular the summit protest movement. WSM members took part in summit protests in Seattle, Prague, Brussels, Genoa and Seville and helped organise some of the related Reclaim the Streets events in Dublin.

In this period, the WSM was involved in political actions around issues such as US war planes in Shannon, the 2003 Anti-Bin Tax Campaign in Dublin, as well as campaigning against the Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland in 2004. In 2006, Noam Chomsky held a talk with the WSM in the Teacher's Club, Dublin.[2]

WSM on May Day demo, Dublin, 2007

WSM members were involved in the Terence Wheelock Campaign, the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes, the Rossport Solidarity Camp as part of the Shell to Sea campaign, Cork Autonomous Zone, Indymedia Ireland, and Unlock NAMA. Members are still involved in the Cork and Dublin Shell to Sea groups. Members are active with the Independent Workers Union of Ireland, the Abortion Rights Campaign, and the anti-Raytheon campaign in Derry.

The organisation publishes Irish Anarchist Review, which has a circulation of 3,000 and comes out twice a year, in April and October.

The WSM has also published numerous pamphlets including 'Towards a Cure' on health,[3] 'Parliament or Democracy?' [4] and the Irish Rebellion of 1798 [4]

Several members of the WSM as well as anarchists from the squatting community in Dublin were instrumental in organising and spearheading The Barricade Inn, Squatted Anarchist Social Centre on at 77 Parnell Street. The Irish Housing Network formed in the building, using the main meeting room to hold discussions and talks about its structures and policies.