A-Infos (en) Irish Anarchist Review #6 - Winter 2012 of Workers Solidarity Movement WSM

Welcome to the sixth instalment of the Irish Anarchist Review, produced by the Workers 
Solidarity Movement. In this magazine we look to explore ideas about the world around us, 
how these ideas inform practice and how the intersection of the two leads to new theory, 
beginning the process afresh. We believe that ideas can only be tested in the laboratory 
of real life struggle and that this magazine can be a forum for activists who are part of 
the daily struggle that is going on right now. We hope that the articles here can 
stimulate discussion and debate and perhaps even motivate some of our readers to respond 
with articles of their own.

Since the last issue of the IAR, members of the WSM attended the International Anarchist 
Gathering at St. Imier. The event served two purposes; to commemorate the founding of the 
Anarchist International one hundred and forty years ago and to allow activists from the 
current movement the world over to meet and discuss their experience in struggle. There 
were anarchists of many persuasions in attendance and as the week went on it became clear 
that for some, class is a contentious issue. For many of us on the left the terms “class”, 
“working class” and “ruling class” are part of a vocabulary we rarely question, but with 
the advent of the global occupy movement and the emergence of a whole new layer of 
activists, many prefer to focus on inequality and the language of “the 99%”.

Rethinking Class: From Recomposition to Counter-Power’
http://www.wsm.ie/c/class-recomposition-counterpower

Not Waving but Drowning: Precarity and the Working Class’
http://www.wsm.ie/c/waving-drowning-precarity-working-class

Unveiling Capitalism at Occupy
http://www.wsm.ie/c/capitalism-occupy-paulo-freire-theoretical-framework

Authoritarianism and the early Irish State
http://www.wsm.ie/c/authoritarianism-women-early-irish-state-catholic-sex

Sex and Sex Work from and anarcha-feminist perspective
http://www.wsm.ie/c/sex-work-anarcha-feminist-perspective

In Turn off the Red Light – Should We Advocate It?
http://www.wsm.ie/c/red-light-advocate-anti-sex-work

Review: Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class by Owen Jones

Review: Marx’s Economics for Anarchists by Wayne Price

Review: Mentioning the War: Essays and Review by left wing poet, Kevin Higgins.

In Paul Bowman’s article ‘Rethinking Class: From Recomposition to Counter-Power’,
http://www.wsm.ie/c/class-recomposition-counterpower he poses the question “Is class still 
a useful idea?” or “should we instead just dispense with it and go with the raw 
econometrics of inequality?” He draws a line between revolutionary class analysis and 
universalist utopianism and goes on to explore the history of different ideas of class and 
the elusive revolutionary subject. After exploring the intersecting lines of class and 
identity, he poses the challenge that we as libertarians face as we strive to create 
“cultural and organisational forms of class power [that] do not unconsciously recreate 
the... hierarchies of identity and exclusion” that are the hallmark of the present society.

In ‘Not Waving but Drowning: Precarity and the Working Class’, Mark Hoskins
http://www.wsm.ie/c/waving-drowning-precarity-working-class
takes a critical look at the idea put forward by some academics and even parts of the 
anti-capitalist movement that the “precariat” is the revolutionary subject of our epoch. 
After examining the subjective conditions of the precarious subject today and comparing 
its objective conditions to those of the working class of the last century, he goes on to 
explore how these conditions relate to our end goal, a communist society and what lessons 
that can teach us in our attempt to get there.

We need look no further than the north of this island for proof that the politics of 
identity complicates the project of class re- composition. Guest writer Liam O’Rourke 
casts his eye over the neo-liberal project of regeneration in the six counties. He notes 
that the elite sections of both communities have no problem uniting around what he 
describes as the “shared non-sectarian identity of the consumer” which reduces shared 
space to “commercial shared space”. Yet the fact that working class people have seen 
little of the promised “peace dividend” has not lead to heightened class consciousness so 
much as it has to increased sectarian division.

The occupy movement may have come into our lives just over a year ago with a bang but it 
went out months later with a whimper. Cathal Larkin 
http://www.wsm.ie/c/capitalism-occupy-paulo-freire-theoretical-framework uses the benefit 
of hindsight to look at the phenomenon as it manifested itself on these shores and what 
anarchists could have done to make it work better. The difficulties as Cathal argues did 
not lie in making arguments for democracy has been the case in so many other campaigns but 
in that the occupiers “didn’t see this conception extending to the realm of economic 
production” and in developing the 99%/1% analysis into a deeper class analysis. 
Recognising problems with current modes of consciousness raising, he utilises Paulo 
Freire’s pedagogical framework in an attempt to subject “our own political strategies, 
methodologies and theories to critical scrutiny”.

There is an ongoing debate within left wing and feminist circles in general and in the WSM 
in particular on how we see sex work. In two related articles, Leticia Ortega and T.J. 
give the case for decriminalisation. In “Sex and Sex Work from and anarcha-feminist 
perspective”, Leticia looks at the theoretical background to the debate between those who 
argue for decriminalisation and those who “see sex work (or even sex in general) as 
violence against women”. She argues that because sex is commodified, sex workers should be 
treated in the same way as others who engage in exploitative labour. “In Turn off the Red 
Light – Should We Advocate It?”, T.J., explores the problems faced by sex workers in 
gaining recognition by those who normally fight for workers rights and outlines how 
criminalisation of demand has created new problems in countries where that has been 
introduced.

In the second part of an article 
http://www.wsm.ie/c/authoritarianism-women-early-irish-state-catholic-sex that appeared in 
issue five of the IAR, Fin Dwyer looks at the latter years of Ireland’s first post 
independence government, which having successfully suppressed political opposition and the 
workers’ movement, went on to “attack women and enforce their moral and ethical values on 
wider society”. From the clearing of prostitutes from the Monto and the filling of the 
Magdalene laundries to the institutionalisation of child abuse, he describes how the 
state’s close association with the Catholic Church played a decisive role in forming 
attitudes to women and sex that have had a devastating effect on Irish society that can 
still be felt today.

In our reviews section Liam Hough looks at Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class by 
Owen Jones, Dermot Sreenan tackles Marx’s Economics for Anarchists by Wayne Price while 
Kevin Doyle tells us about Mentioning the War: Essays and Review by left wing poet, Kevin 
Higgins.

In a time when much of the left is pre-occupied with building “left unity”, we hope the 
ideas expressed here can help open up a debate on how we approach building class unity. We 
want those who read the magazine to develop on them and perhaps respond with ideas of 
their own.
Words: Mark Hoskins

Editorial Committee
Paul Bowman, Mark Hoskins, Liam Hough & Cathal Larkin. Thanks to all members of the WSM 
for contributions, discussion & feedback.
Big thanks to Brian Fagan for layout.
Artwork: Cover graphic, Moira Murphy; Cover painting, Dan O’Flatharta; Back Cover, Guy Falling

about the wsm/
The Workers Solidarity Movement was founded in Dublin, Ireland in 1984 following 
discussions by a number of local anarchist groups on the need for a national anarchist 
organisation. At that time with unemployment and inequality on the rise, there seemed 
every reason to argue for anarchism and for a revolutionary change in Irish society. This 
has not changed.
Like most socialists we share a fundamental belief that capitalism is the problem. We 
believe that as a system it must be ended, that the wealth of society should be commonly 
owned and that its resources should be used to serve the needs of humanity as a whole and 
not those of a small greedy minority. But, just as importantly, we see this struggle 
against capitalism as also being a struggle for freedom. We believe that socialism and 
freedom must go together, that we cannot have one without the other.

Anarchism has always stood for individual freedom. But it also stands for democracy. We 
believe in democratising the workplace and in workers taking control of all industry. We 
believe that this is the only real alternative to capitalism with its ongoing reliance on 
hierarchy and oppression and its depletion of the world’s resources.
PO Box 1528, Dublin 8
facebook.com/workers.solidarity
acebook.com/IrishAnarchistReview
twitter.com/WSMIreland
www.anarkismo.net
www.wsm.ie

Note:
We have received some feedback regarding a reference to the Anti-Poll Tax Federation in 
the article from our last issue titled “Single Issue Campaigns, Community Syndicalism and 
Direct Democracy”. Unfortunately there isn’t space to add it to this issue, but it has 
been added to the article’s webpage at wsm.ie/c/campaigns-community-syndicalism- 
direct-democracy
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