Review: Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

This is an excellent book, crammed full of useful (and disgusting) "McNuggets" of information on the whole process of producing "fast food." From the industrialisation of farming, to the monopolisation of food processing, to the standardisation of food consumption throughout whole sections of North America, Schlosser’s book exposes the horrors of modern corporate capitalism. He documents the impact of the rise of fast food on almost all aspects of North America, from farming to health, from working practices to landscape, and beyond.

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50 per cent is no solution

When Labour announced a 50% tax rate on those earning more than £150,000 there was a whole spate of gnashing of teeth from the right-wing media.

Let us put this in context: less that 2% of the British population earn more than £100,000, a mere 10% over £40,000. Britain is an extremely unequal society, with a few owning the bulk of income and wealth.

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Dublin student activism at the end of the 1980’s

Andrew getting busted

I was a student at Trinity College Dublin in the last four years of the 1980’s. The following account is based entirely on my recollections of student activism in those years, unfortunately I don’t seem to have archived any of the actual leaflets or papers produced back then. At the time we were always disappointed with the level of struggle, it’s only in hindsight that I realize that period was one of relative militancy in terms of student struggles in Ireland.

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Carlo Tresca: Portrait of a Rebel

Carlo Tresca is one of those rebel workers whose memory deserves to be honoured and Pernicone’s excellent biography does just that. Pernicone’s has previously produced an excellent history of the Italian anarchist movement ("Italian Anarchism: 1864-1892", Princeton University Press, 1993) and this work is of equal quality and of interest to anarchists. He obviously understands anarchism and writes with sympathy and knowledge about it. Such historians are rare.

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Government attacks workers through hiring freeze in public sector

In the latest round of attacks on ordinary workers in order to force us to pay for the crisis in capitalism the government had "declared a moratorium on Recruitment and Promotions in the Public Service with effect from 27th March". This is both yet another direct attack on public sector workers and an indirect attack on all workers as it means our access to health, education and other essential services will be further reduced.

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Video: Anarchism in Ireland – 1997 to 2007

The period from 1997 to 2007 saw anarchism in Ireland move from an ultra marginal role to just a marginal one, a similar level of significance to the rest of the far left. This video is a brief history of anarchism during that decade and why there was a massive growth in terms of percentages if rather modest in terms of actual numbers. It includes anarchist involvement in pro-choice, community, anti-war, work place struggles, reclaim the streets and of course the EU summit protests of Mayday 2004.

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March 30th national strike off – Employer’s retreat but ICTU talks are not a victory

WSM protest outside Anglo Irish BankAn initial reaction to the ICTU announcement that March 30 is off
That the very threat of a national strike was enough to force government and IBEC (Irish employers organisation) to change their position demonstrates the power the working class holds when we threaten to withdraw our labor. For all the media attempts to convince us we are powerless and that class struggle is a thing of the past when faced with the reality of the organised working class standing up both bosses and state were keen to avoid any confrontation that could illustrate and encourage our collective power.

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Anarchist globalisation after Prague S26

From J18 City of London, to N30 Seattle, S11 Melborne, S26 Prague; these are all dates that signify a growing movement of international opposition to capitalism. I took part in the S26 demonstrations in Prague which succeeded in disrupting the IMF congress there. The IMF was forced to cancel its evening entertainment’s and so many delegates fled the city or stayed in their hotels that the last day of the congress was cancelled after the embarrassment of speakers addressing empty halls.

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Where did the anti-capitalist movement come from?

The strength of this movement is that it has come from many places, that it is a network without a head or a central committee that has successfully united many issues in a combined opposition to what we have been told was unopposable. If the demonstrations of the last years have achieved anything it is that they seized the neo liberal slogan ‘there is no alternative’ by the throat and dashed it into the ground.
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