Workers Solidarity Winter 94/95 Issue 44 Electonic addition Part 1 paper of the Irish anarchist Workers Solidarity Movement That's capitalism Africa's annual debt repayments - mostly to US and European banks - amount to $10 billion. This money, according to UNICEF, would be more than enough to provide primary healthcare, education and sanitation services for every single person in Africa. ***** A major report presented to the Eastern Health & Social Services Board on January 10th confirmed that the six counties are suffering growing inequality and social disadvantage. Despite being "an integral part of the UK" the North consistently has the highest unemployment rates and the lowest average household incomes. The richest 20% of the population have almost eleven times as much wealth as the poorest 20%. ***** Union activists in Indonesia have long suffered repression. Last year repression turned to murder as worker militancy increased. Marsinah, a 23 year old textile worker, was murdered after leading a strike in East Java last May. Police were directly implicated in the murder of 26 year old organiser, Rusli, from Medan in Sumatra. Police were also involved in the death of Titi Sugiarti, a West Javanese textile worker. This case has been taken up by Indonesia's Legal Aid Foundation. Titi was on strike to improve pay and conditions but was later found drowned in a one metre deep pond. Police claimed she had "slipped" in, but later investigation indicated she had been bound and tortured prior to death. Pity Ireland's rich. Always moaning about"high levels of taxation", they can buy a yuppie type apartment and rent it out. They don't have to pay income tax on the rent because they can write off the building costs. This means that an apartment priced at #55,000 will only cost them #8,000 in real money. General Electric is one of the largest corporations in the world. Last year it sacked eleven workers at its plant at Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. This followed an attempt by workers to organise across the US/Mexico border and join the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. Following adverse publicity, GE offered financial compensation to six workers. None, however,has been re-instated. Britain's "water" industry is one of the best examples of capitalism there is. Since privatisation the average household bill has gone up by 69%. Meanwhile average retail prices have risen by only 25%. What about share dividends to the new owners? These have risen by 40% since 1990 alone. *************** For starters THE GROWING interest in anarchism has seen the appearance of a new magazine, Red & Black Revolution. There are only so many pages in Workers Solidarity so we decided to publish a journal that would have room for longer articles. Issue one looks at why the 'left' collapsed, the anarchist alternative, the Mexican EZLN rebels, the origins of the differences between Anarchism and Marxism, the syndicalist revival, the story of the TUUAP campaign in the unions, and more. [available in electronic format from Spunk press, access methods listed at bottom of this message] Find out more The world's wealth is produced by us - the working class. We ought to enjoy the benefits. The Workers Solidarity Movement is an anarchist organisation that fights for a 32 county Workers' Republic. We stand for a socialism that is based on freedom and real democracy, a society based on workplace and community councils. This kind of socialism has nothing to do with the state capitalism that was practiced in Russia, and still is in China, Cuba and other police states. We oppose coercive authority, and hold that the only limit on freedom of the individual should be that they don't encroach on the freedom of others. As part of our fight for anarchism we are involved in the struggles for higher wages, for trade union democracy, for womens rights, for jobs. We oppose all divisions in the working class. We fight against all attempts to set Protestant against Catholic, men against women, skilled against unskilled, old against young, hetrosexual against homosexual. We are opposed to the British state's presence and to partition. We defend peoples' right to fight back. But we are not nationalists, we do not merely want to get rid of the border. We want to unite our class and create a totally new Ireland. ************** Contents (In following parts to be posted over the next week) Part 2 Shorts on Ireland Democratic left's disposable radicalism Competition or con Anti-Traveller thuggary on increase Lies, damned lies and statistics Trusting the politicians No room at the refuge Disconnection threats defeated in Dublin Wexford strike declared illegal Part 3 Features What's happening in the 6 counties A new loyalist party? ..Time to stop beating the Orange drum Child molesters & Churchmen Part 4 World anarchist news This is not SIPTU Into the 21st Century Interview: International organisation Nigeria: Raids on anarchist meetings Moldova: Anarchists allowed to leave UN report Asian unions check out anarchism "Anarchism" in Russian and Arabic The need for an anarchist organisation Solidarity with young and unemployed +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Workers Solidarity Movement can be contacted at PO Box 1528, Dublin 8, Ireland or by anonymous e-mail to an64739@anon.penet.fi Some of our material is available via the Spunk press electronic archive by FTP to etext.archive.umich.edu or 141.211.164.18 or by gopher ("gopher etext.archive.umich.edu") or WWW at http://www.cwi.nl/cwi/people/Jack.Jansen/spunk/Spunk_Home.html in the directory /pub/Politics/Spunk/texts/groups/WSM for an anarchist mailing list send the message subscribe firstname secondname to anarchy-list-request@cwi.nl