Anarchist Worker, No. 2
Date:1979
Organisation: Anarchist Workers Alliance
Publication: Anarchist Worker
Issue:Number 2
Late October-November 1979
Type:Publication Issue
View: View Document
Discuss:Comments on this document
Subjects: Housing and Homelessness Carnsore Point Campaign

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Commentary From The Cedar Lounge Revolution

13th July 2009

Here is a very welcome addition to the Archive, our first sample of anarchist material. It is a fascinating piece dating from October/November 1979. This is I believe also available on the Workers Solidarity Movement website .

It expresses a broad range of concerns, from the necessity for a public housing programme given the front page story which details how the Mansion House was squatted (successfully) by families from East Wall unable to get Corporation housing, a strongly secular approach to education, an emphatic pro-union stance (albeit for an independent union run directly by workers free of the official apparatus) – and note the mention of the CNT. There is also a double page spread on Anarchism and Religion which uses as its starting point the then recent visit of the Pope. All this builds into a coherent ideological approach which is simultaneously rooted in workers struggles on the ground. And with that in mind note the piece on the last page which criticises INLA punishment shootings.

I’m indebted to Alan MacSimon for the following observations…

Anarchist Worker published in the late 1970s/early 1980s and can be regarded as one of the forerunners of the Workers Solidarity Movement. It existed in Belfast and Dublin but was always more of an idea than a reality, with membership never going into double figures! If I remember correctly the print run was about 750.

You can find out more about the WSM here.


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  • By: Fergal Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:22:41

    Maddog,
    Don’t mention it!

    Reply on the CLR

  • By: Neues aus den Archiven der radikalen Linken « Entdinglichung Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:36:58

    […] * Anarchist Workers Alliance: Anarchist Worker, Oktober/November 1979 […]

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  • By: Alternative histories « Poumista Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:32:30

    […] for a renewal of socialism. Conor McCabe remembers the 1955 Irish/Yugoslav soccer international. The Irish Left Archive retrieves the Anarchist Worker of 1979. Bataille Socialiste remember Marceau Pivert with Orwell in Spain. Bataille Socialiste rescue the […]

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  • By: From the archive of struggle, no.26 « Poumista Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:49:18

    […] * Anarchist Workers Alliance: Anarchist Worker, Oktober/November 1979 […]

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  • By: Irish Left Review · Glossary of the Left in Ireland, 1960 TO 1983, by John Goodwillie, Gralton, Aug/Sep 1983 Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:00:19

    […] Belfast Anarchist Collective – formed 1978. Disbanded as an organisation in 1983. (Link to copy of their publication, Anarchist Worker, on Cedarlounge here. […]

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  • By: GLOSSARY OF THE LEFT IN IRELAND, 1960 TO 1983, by JOHN GOODWILLIE, GRALTON, AUG/SEP 1983 | Irish Labour and Working Class History Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:07:56

    […] Belfast Anarchist Collective – formed 1978. Disbanded as an organisation in 1983. (Link to copy of their publication, Anarchist Worker, on Cedarlounge here. […]

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  • By: Left Archive: Ainriail – A Belfast Anarchist Bi-Monthly – Jan/Feb 1987 « The Cedar Lounge Revolution Mon, 28 Feb 2011 07:30:20

    […] Archive. We have, unfortunately, very limited samples of Irish Anarchist material – and those documents we do have were very kindly donated by Alan MacSimoin and the Workers Solidarity […]

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