Deprived of signs and art materials, the good people of Occupy Galway came into possession of some chalk. Chalk of every colour is used by children in towns and villages across the country every day to draw the likes of hopscotch boards, noughts and crosses or just idly scribble away a sunny afternoon. It is also used by buskers in cities around the world, who draw fabulous pictures for passers-by to enjoy. One of the joys of chalk that is appreciated by Occupiers is that it causes no damage and is efficiently removed by mother nature in our frequent downpours.

It was in this spirit that we began to decorate the grey stone substation that was the back wall of our office before the destruction of the camp. Familiar slogans like “No To Austerity” and “IMF OUT” as well as more pertinent messages like “Constitutional Rights and Due Process R.I.P. Oct. 15-May 16”, began to appear. The grey and featureless substation soon became a monument to freedom of expression, as the many participants joined in the decoration. ... read full story / add a comment

At 4.30am this morning the Occupy Galway camp was forcibly removed by Gardai and Council workers. At 1pm we held a public assembly with around 100 people in attendance. The mood at the assembly was one of determination and optimism and it was agreed by all that the fight is only just getting started! ... read full story / add a comment

The 7th Anarchist Bookfair will take place in Dublin the weekend of 26th May 2012 at Liberty Hall, Eden Quay. ... read full story / add a comment

Occupy Galway took part in a protest march over the weekend along with many other groups at the Labour Party conference held in NUIG Galway. Here are some photos from the event ... read full story / add a comment

Here in Ireland there are many 1916 commemorations that are held annually by various groups and parties, but unfortunately, only a very divided fraction of those celebrate it from a revolutionary point of view. ... read full story / add a comment

“There was a big line of them" ... read full story / add a comment

Yes, it’s kicking off everywhere.

Over the last 18 months we have seen a sea change in resistance and popular consciousness. The Arab Spring has put revolution back on the agenda of global politics.

In Britain, we’ve seen the occupation of Millbank and student revolt, the huge TUC March and now the massive N30 strike.

... read full story / add a comment

During an international meeting in December 2011 in Frankfurt am Main, several left wing organisations and grassroots unions from Greece, Spain, Poland, Austria and Germany decided to launch a joint effort against capitalist reforms under the current crisis. ... read full story / add a comment

The Corporation explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Part film and part movement. The Corporation is transforming audiences and dazzling critics with its insightful and compelling analysis. Taking its status as a legal “person” to the logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist’s couch to ask “What kind of person is it?” ... read full story / add a comment

In response to calls for Occupy Galway to “be removed” from Eyre Square. I write this in response to Cllrs. Crowe and Conneelly who seem to be very upset by the new face of political dialogue that is taking place in Eyre Square and around the country. ... read full story / add a comment

The Spectacle of Hope of Hope and Defiance on December 10th was visually and audibly wonderful but the exclusion of political parties was ultimately in the interests only of the social democrats, who sponsored the event. ... read full story / add a comment

Protest outside Cobh Town Hall from 3:30pm, Monday 12 Dec ... read full story / add a comment

Protest against the Budget Cuts outside the Dail. Why should we pay for the bets of speculators by cutting social services and hit the weakness and those in most need? ... read full story / add a comment

Anne McShane writes about the cutbacks, the DCTU march and the inadequacies of the fughtback campaign to date. On November 26 2,000 demonstrators marched in Dublin against the December 5-6 budget. This budget marks year two of a four-year plan to slash public spending and raise taxes - all part of stringency measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund/European Central Bank 2010 bailout.

The numbers on this year’s demonstration were tiny compared to last November. Then a mass demonstration was organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. An estimated 150,000 braved snow and ice to show their opposition to the strategy of draconian austerity. Militant speeches were given by the president of ICTU, Jack O’Connor, and its secretary, David Begg. Both pledged their active and wholehearted resistance to the IMF/ECB deal and vowed to defeat it. ... read full story / add a comment

Mallojula Koteswara Rao, also known as Kishenji, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), was killed in a forest area of West Bengal on 24 November.

The authorities claimed that comrade Rao was killed in a firefight during an operation involving some 900 paramilitary troops and state police, including the Cobra commandos specially trained to fight the Maoist-led revolutionary movement based in the rural areas of central and eastern India. A party statement issued the next day said that he had been been arrested, tortured and murdered. ... read full story / add a comment

Johannes Stern writes on how the US client Military Junta in Egypt has carried out a murderous attack on protesters. Interestingly: State TV cited US police actions against Occupy Wall Street protests to justify the repression of protests on Tahrir Square. Tellingly, many of the tear gas canisters used against Egyptian protesters were made in the US. Full text at link.

The US views the military as the backbone of the Egyptian bourgeois state, defending capitalist rule and the interests of Western imperialism in the Middle East. Ever since the mass uprising that led to the ouster of Mubarak on February 11, the Obama administration has worked closely with SCAF to try to end strikes and protests by Egyptian workers demanding social equality and democratic rights. It has sought at all costs to prevent a second revolution. ... read full story / add a comment

The Dublin Occupy movement decided not to join the anti-austerity march on Sat 26th November. ... read full story / add a comment

The euphoria has evaporated. While today's raucous political climate is very different than the years before Hosni Mubarak's ouster, when an enforced silence and stillness prevailed, it has also changed markedly since the period immediately preceding and following his 11 February forced resignation. Now, among the millions who participated in or supported that revolt and more broadly, there is a feeling that the situation is becoming increasingly complex, unsettled and dangerous. Marches, strikes, sit-ins and other protests happen every day, but many ordinary people are becoming more passive. There is a chill in the air that comes from more than the approaching winter. ... read full story / add a comment

“Mobilizing against Inequality: Unions, Immigrant Workers and the Crisis of Capitalism”

Thirty-Fifth Countess Markievicz Memorial Lecture by Lowell Turner
Professor of International and Comparative Labor, Cornell University

Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 13.00 – 14.00
National College of Ireland, Mayor Street Upper, Dublin 1. ... read full story / add a comment

Seminar: Eyal Clyne, ‘The Tent Protest Movement in Israel’

Tuesday 15 November, 19:00-21:00

Robert Emmet lecture theatre, Arts Building, TCD

Organised by the MPhil in Race, Ethnicity and Conflict, Department of Sociology Further information: David Landy, dlandy@tcd.ie ... read full story / add a comment