There is a long tradition of personal autobiographies written by ageing activists in the anarchist movement about their experiences and motivations. This is the recently published autobiography of Albert Meltzer, a British anarchist whose life has taken him from the fights against Mosley and support for Spain in the 1930’s through fringe involvement in a […]
Author Archives: andrewnflood
Colombia 3 – wrong people in the dock
The trial of the Colombia 3 has produced a frenzy of speculation in the Irish media about whether they are guilty or not, and how this might effect the ‘peace process’. What is all too lacking, however, is any background to Colombia itself. This is not too surprising. Andrew looks at the situation there and […]
A response to the IWG on the Russian Revolution
Part of a debate on the Russian revolution from 1994. The revolution was one of the most important events of the 20th century until the 1990’s the most important debate on the left was whether or not it had failed. Now with the collapse of the USSR a far more important debate is uncovered, why […]
Reply to John Rees: In defence of the Truth – The Kronstadt Uprising against the Bolsheviks
We have been insisting on the need for the far left to re-appraise the tradition of the Russian revolution and in particular the role the Bolsheviks played in destroying that revolution. One of the most detailed responses to the anarchists critique of Bolshevism was published in the winter issue of International Socialism the journal of […]
Reply to the SWP Open Letter on Nice
This Open Letter was written for indymedia.ie in answer to an open letter from one of the main leninist parties in Ireland that had been published in their newspaper. I’d recently had some bad experiences of their methodology in other struggles which inspired me to write this reply to explain why such a letter was […]
Building Workers against the Black Economy fight sub-contracting in Ireland
In 1998 building workers struggled against the replacement of directly employed workers with contractors through ‘Building Workers against the Black Economy’ an extra union group that was in reality quite close to the unions and set up to avoid the Industrial Relations Act being used against the unions. In the course of the struggle David […]
The 1992 struggle against casualisation in An Post
The An Post (post office) dispute of June 1992 should be seen in the context of a fight against casualisation by a well organised workforce. The origins of the dispute go back to March 1990 when the Communication Workers Union (CWU) National Executive agreed with An Post’s plan to introduce to casual workers. An emergency […]
One law for the rich
At the end of October (2006), Denis Vranich, a millionaire night club owner and property speculator was convicted of a sexual assault on a 22 year old his employee working at his club. The Hamilton Spectator reported that "Vranich grabbed the woman, pulled down her bodice, groped her breasts and penetrated her with his finger", […]
Why do anarchists publish a newspaper?
As anarchists we hope to help build communication between people engaged in struggle and inform a growing proportion of the real facts of such struggles. The other related aspect of an anarchist newspaper will be articles that sketch out what anarchism aims to achieve and what the history and current reality of that struggle
First Nations in Canada – When Property Law Does Not Apply
Normally the settlement of claims to property are something the court system takes very seriously. The very foundation of capitalism after all is that some person can claim ownership of a piece of land, and through that ownership charge others rent to use it.