A message from the collective – venue required!

Dear Comrades,

It looks like the Corn Exchange are planning to do away with the kitchen in their renovations, which would make it an unsuitable venue for our bookfair.

We are therefore looking for another site  for next year’s event. We’ve held bookfairs in Christchurch, Boscombe and Dorchester so will consider anywhere in the county if:

• We can hire it for 600 quid or less.
• It’s got space for 20 plus 6′ tables.
• At least one separate meeting room, ideally two.
• Cooking facilities.
• Disabled access.
• Car parking.
• We can hold the afterparty there (outside perhaps) or very close by.

A pretty tall order but let us know if anything comes to mind.

Solid

The DRB Collective.

The police “gathering intelligence” at #KillTheBill protest in Plymouth

Pig bingo

Police Monitoring Group - Devon and Cornwall - Bagas Gorwolyas Kreslu

We all notice the police at protests. What many don’t realise, is that some police are there for surveillance – filming us, taking names, and recording it all in a database of “domestic extremists”. You don’t have to do anything to be on the database, just attending a protest is enough. With the G7 Summit in Cornwall fast approaching, we have seen Devon and Cornwall Police send more of these officers to protests. It’s important we learn to recognise them, not just for the sake of privacy, but because those they surveil can become the target for “harassment policing”. People on their database have found themselves followed at protests, had their car number plate flagged, and been targeted for preemptive arrest. We can stop this. Don’t talk to police, and make sure other protesters know what they’re up to. If noone speaks to them there is nothing they can…

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Jodie Clark: Proud Cork woman and Irish Community Activist

lipstick socialist

IBRG march: Spirit of 1916 in 1991. Photo by T.Shelly

 Jodie Clark’s involvement in the Irish in Britain Representation Group reflected the way in which the organisation drew in Irish working class people who were prepared to get stuck into grassroots organising. Women and men who experienced anti-Irish racism of the everyday variety,  but also the more corrosive institutional racism endemic in British society. It is an inspiring story and an important part of the radical Irish history of this country.

Here is her story.

Jodie was born in Lambeth in 1949,  her parents were from Cork . The family split up  and her father kidnapped the children and took them back to Cork to be looked after by their aunt. The children were told  that their Mum was dead:   Jodie  did not see her again until she was 10 years old.

After returning to England to live with…

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Reflections on the passing of the D of E.

Wessex Solidarity

D of E mid left, her maj the Q sixth from left, King of the jungle (deceased) foreground.

What can one say about an old man that died? Lifelong family man and public* servant, went to war, dedicated to the nation – ah, that old manifestation of class antagonisms. Nothing to speak of, nothing that couldn’t be said of countless unknown Working Class folk, many of whom will have died on the battlefield or perished in prison and poverty inflicted by the British ruling class, unsung and un-celebrated. No cannon fired for these – not yet.

* The word ‘public’ as in -interest, -property, -safety, -ownership, etc, means nothing more than ‘state’; and the state doesn’t represent any people, just a mode of production.

That he was so casually racist he was blissfully unaware of it, that when he used his influence he pushed downwards and backwards, that he was…

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ACTION ALERT – Get Fellow Worker Kevan Out of Segregation

Industrial Workers of the World Dorset

On 7th April Kevan Thakrar was moved to seg without authorisation. Kev has been placed in a dirty punishment cell with no electricity, no toilet seat or lid. Kev also has less access to the phone. He has been falsely accused of threatening officers and placed on “backwall unlock”. This means he has to stand at the back of the cell against the wall whilst 4 officers enter. This is triggering for his PTSD after being subject to racist abuse including being almost murdered last year.

HMP Full Sutton are failing to meet Kev’s basic entitlement and needs. Kev has no mental health support. No care plan in place. Kev’s disability is not being acknowledged.

Take action now to get Kevan moved out of segregation!   Includes sample letter.

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Weathering Pandemics

Outside the Circle

(Originally posted on April 8, 2020, on my Instagram @cindymilstein; photo taken during one of my #FuckCOVID19 walks on repeatedly stolen Ho-Chunk lands)

***

It rained a cold, dreary-gray, at-times-heavy rain all day. The weather feels extra impactful now, when so much else is canceled or locked down or shut indoors; when time forgets the clock and turns back to the seasons.

So when neither sun nor moon wants to come out to play, a fog settles in, further obscuring the already-uncertain terrain, disappearing past and future. All slows, so much so that one notices the sound of each raindrop, as if counting out tears, as if washing away all one holds dear.

The chill mist of this Wednesday enveloped, like a too-tight hug that makes one aware of discomfort, aches and pains, the feeling of wanting to pull away, yet also in a way that makes one want to…

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Barricade Bulletin No.13 OUT NOW!

Derry Anarchists

Barricade Bulletin No. 13 is created by the Derry Anarchist Collective, now available from members locally or directly from the usual local outlets.

For those of you beyond Derry and the North West you can download the online version which now carries news and other information.

Click on the following link

Issue XI – April 2021

Liverpool Anarchist

Contents: Kill the Bill | Porridge Strike | Electricians | Protest Legal Advice

PDFDownload

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My review of “Memoir: My Early Life” by Joe Mullarkey (2021)

lipstick socialist

In his  memoir Joe Mullarkey, one of the key members of the Irish in Britain Representation Group , reflects on what it means to be Irish and his experiences of being an activist in key events that affected the Irish in Britain over twenty years.

He was born in Bolton in 1942,  but his mother died when he was five years old,  and  so Joe returned to Ireland to be brought up by his Aunt Kate and Uncle Tom in Ballybeg, Tullaughane, County Mayo.

His father stayed in Bolton working until Joe  was 15 when he  returned home.”I only knew him for a very brief time. I would have seen him every year for two weeks and he wrote every fortnight and sent me sixpence.”

Brutal treatment by the Franciscan Brothers led to Joe walking out of school when he was 13. “I told the brother that if…

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A RESISTANCE SYMBOL SOWN AND GROWN BY IRISH REPUBLICAN WOMEN

rebelbreeze

(approximate reading time 10 mins.)

Diarmuid Breatnach

Women’s Day and the approach of Easter again might be appropriate times to remind ourselves of the great role women in Ireland have played in the nation’s struggles.  Most Irish people, including sadly some of those who wear it, will be unaware that the idea to create the Easter Lily was that of Republican women and that they were the first to produce and sell them.

          The Easter Lily emblem, although in close relationship to the Easter Rising of 1916, represents to some all of those who have died for Irish freedom.  Traditionally, some people will wear the emblem at Easter, whether in the paper form or enamelled metal, at Easter, while some wear the latter all year around.

THE WOMEN CONCEIVE OF THE EMBLEM IDEA

          In 1926, three years after…

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“Mutual Aid Not Charity in the Philippines March 2021” Supporting Tricycle Drivers and Operators

Etniko Bandido Infoshop

It has been a year now; people are still struggling economically specially the marginalized community. The government has no clear plan and support to those people in needs.

We are experiencing lockdown again in areas of Metro Manila, Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna and Cavite. Every municipalities implemented curfew from 6pm to 5am, checkpoints of police in uniform are everywhere and everyone will be penalized if they violate certain protocols and policy. The same response that they did last year, to tighten the security and control the movement of the people without a clear preparation on how to handle health crisis and how they will support the unemployed masses.

Again, the same as last year many people lost their job, struggling to have food on their table and financially broke. According to Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) there are 4 million unemployed and the number are getting higher because of the strict lockdown…

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