I spoke last night as part of the panel for the Dublin launch of We Make Our Own History, I'm going to expand my comments into an end of year 'state of the movement' article if I find time, in the meantime here is then audio of the meeting.

Dublin launch of 'We Make Our Own History' by Andrew Flood on Mixcloud

"Although the EU is not new, and its role in determining the economic and political development of Europe is both substantial and well established, critical analysis of the EU is sorely lacking. Most of what is written on the EU is uncritically liberal and focuses on diplomatic and legislative detail. What little critical literature exists often simply interprets the EU in terms of the function it plays for neoliberal globalization. When analyses of the EU go from what it does to the larger questions of what it is and why it exists, analysis often becomes completely un-rooted."

Europe Forged in Crisis: The Emergence and Development of the EU - discussion with the author Oisin by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud

The Rojava revolution is taking place in three catons of northern Syria that are part of the area known as Kurdistan stretching through Turkey, Iran and Iraq.  In 2012 a revolution occured in the Syrian cantoons, an area of 18,300 square km.  The population of Rojava was estimated in 2014 as 4.6 million, obviously the ongoing war in the region makes precise estimates difficult in particual as refugees move into and out of the region as the fighting ebbs and flows.

It’s a confusing time to be on the revolutionary left as everything that was once certain turns to smoke. Technology has overturned & remade what constitutes effective communication & the construction of networks. Quite how to organise is no longer clear and old reference points of 1917, 1936 or even 1968 no longer provide definitive models.

I recorded this 30 minute talk by Mark Bray, author of Translating Anarchy: The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street followed by an hour of discussion. Translating Anarchy tells the story of the anti-capitalist anti-authoritarians of Occupy Wall Street who strategically communicated their revolutionary politics to the public in a way that was both accessible and revolutionary.

Translating Anarchy: The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street - talk by Author Mark Bray in Dublin by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud

Over the years, Dublin’s working class has organised to fight landlords, developers and politicians in search of decent housing and well-being for all. This audio I edited is the panel at the 9th Dublin anarchist bookfair which considered how some of these earlier campaigns and direct actions can inform today’s struggles.

Dublin Housing Action: Past, Present and Future - Anarchist bookfair 2014 audio by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud

Audio I recroded and edited from DABF 2014 - Selma James lead off a discussion on sex work at the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair alongside, sex worker Jenny O, and Wendy Lyon who blogs at Feminist Ire 

There is then a 30 minute discussion with the audience around anarchism, sex work and feminism.

Sex Work as Work: A Conversation with Selma James at the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud

My recording of the space we provided at this years Dublin Anarchist Bookfair at which people involved in a variety of struggles explained them and sought solidarity. There were three talks, Vegan Information Project , Stop NATO in Cymru and the International Organisation for a Participatory Society (IOPS). 

This was a new experiment this year to try and provide space on a cramped schedule for groups which contacted usso I'm interested to hear how you thought it actually worked out.

Nelly Cuadros a community activist from the central department of Tolima, Colombia shared with the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair her stories of resistance, and lessons on uniting against injustice. Women play a central role in these communities and, in spite of discrimination as both peasants and women, are emerging as important social leaders for this pivotal time.

This talk was part of Latin American Solidarity Week. As a last minute addition to the program Leah also spoke about the struggle against Fracking in Ireland

At this session I edited from the Dublin anarchist bookfair Dave Douglass talked about his experiences of 1984 - the year the British mines almost defeated Thatcher. "That fight in 84-85 involved the whole community, it was not only about unions. It was partly about unions but it was about an industry, it was about a way of life. The miners were almost an ethnicity, with father to son for hundreds and hundreds of years in the same miner family. And we had a very strong revolutionary and radical tradition. So, all of the politics of power, fuel power was about political power and not just about energy. It was about more than that. It was about "Who rules ?""