(en) IIrish Anarchist Review #10 - The First Three Years Of The Workers Solidarity Movement - 1988

A statement issued in 1988 after internal disagreements within the WSM had led to its 
partial collapse. Those whom remained and rebuilt the organisation in the following years 
offered this analysis of what had been acheived and what had gone wrong. ---- ANARCHISM 
has no real history or tradition in Ireland. A few Irish emigrants such as Jack White or 
Matt Kavanagh did become anarchists but that had no effect on things at home. In the early 
1970s there was a small group of ex-republicans who associated with the Anarchist Black 
Cross and got involved in small-scale illegal activities until the arrest and conviction 
of Marie and Noel Murray. ---- In the late 1970s the first local anarchist groups appeared 
(Belfast, Dublin and Limerick). Generally these were short lived as no amount of idealism 
could make up for the fact that they stood for nothing in particular this side of the 
creation of an anarchist society. They were incapable of sustaining any public activity 
and were a mash-mash of people who had nothing in common other than a self-description of 
?anarchist?.

Out of this came a few anarchists who saw the need for a national organisation, rooted in 
the working class and holding agreed policies and tactics. After much discussion comrades 
in Cork and Dublin launched the WSM in September 1984.

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In the three years that followed we built branches in Cork and Dublin, gained new embers 
and undertook activities including:

+ publishing 27 issues of WORKERS SOLIDARITY,

+ organising a speaking tour with a Spanish Civil War veteran of the CNT which saw him 
address several hundred people in Dublin, Cork, Wexford and Belfast,

+ engaged in strike support work with many groups of workers including the UCD cleaners, 
Cork ESB, Pat Grace Fried Chicken and others,

+ were involved in building support for the Dunnes Stores strikers, and set up the 
official support group in Cork,

+ produced pamphlets on anarchism, the family and the Spanish Civil War, all of which sold 
very well,

+ established a mail order bookservice for anarchist literature,

+ involvement in ad-hoc campaigns such as those against the Herzog visit and Self-Aid.

This is but a brief selection of what the organisation was doing. It was very much an 
activist organisation.

It is important to state that all this took place within a context where we had written 
policies on the major areas of struggle, a written constitution and participatory decision 
making.

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By the beginning of 1987 we felt we had established ourselves. We were holding regular 
branch meetings and producing a monthly paper. We had generated a small degree of interest 
and respect for the WSM as an anarchist organisation. However, this was achieved in a 
worsening social and economic climate. It was only achieved through a high level of 
personal commitment from he small numbers involved. There was considerable pressure within 
the organisation to recruit new members, which inevitably led to people joining who in 
practice had little real idea of what our politics were.

Problems were exacerbated, not only by the seriousness of the ?downturn?, which 
increasingly left the organisation unable to test its ideas and politics, but also9 by the 
lack of clarity in the WSM about its own role as an organisation. Informally, though 
particularly in Cork, some members saw the main purpose of the WSM as building a 
leadership for the working class. They emphasized ideological ?purity? and zealous 
activity. Not coincidently they sanctioned authoritarian methods to ?weed? out comrades 
they considered to be unsuitable, as they became increasingly more introverted in their 
concerns. Some of these people have since followed the logic of their position and 
declared themselves Trotskyists.

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Emerging from all this:

+ We presumed that because someone joined an anarchist organisation that they understood 
and accepted anarchist ideas and values. This was wrong. We need continual internal 
education on anarchism, its tradition, theory and values. We especially need to be sure 
tat new members have a good understanding of our theoretical basis.

+ We had people joining ?a WSM? and not ?the WSM?. It is not good enough for a potential 
member to accept our end goal or our strategy and tactics. They must understand and agree 
with both. This does not mean that we want everyone to agree on everything, we do not want 
to be an organisation of clones. But neither do we want one that is divided on important 
questions of orientation and direction. Seemingly small differences should be discussed in 
a comradely way as they come up. They should not be let slip as ?minor? and allowed to 
fester. We can never have too much friendly discussion and debate.

+ We have to insist that once a decision is made it must be taken seriously. Otherwise 
there is no pint in making decisions in the first place.

+ Libertarian values have to be upheld. Any manifestation of authoritarian or uncomradely 
behaviour within the organisation should be challenged.

+ Our essential anarchism was not as visible as our specific tactics. In future our 
anarchism should be a lot more upfront.

+ Should anything happen that is felt to be inhibiting free discussion it needs to be 
tackled without delay.

+ Some comrades overestimated the role of the WSM at the expense of seeing the vital role 
of working class self-activity. We need a clear policy on this question.

+ All our activities and developments have to be continually monitored and discussed at 
both branch and national levels.

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The clear break came over the matter of our libertarian principles. Though other matters 
were related it was around this that no further ground could be given. In retrospect we 
can see that the WSM, because there had never before been an organised movement in 
Ireland, put too much stress on organisational matters and not nearly enough on the 
essential libertarian content of our ideas. In accepting that we made mistakes we admit to 
no major demoralization. We accept that anarchists struggle for as long as it takes to 
build the type of organisation that is not afraid to constantly test its ideas, the sort 
of organisation that can see the anarchist idea become a mass revolutionary influence 
capable of creating a better world.

This is a statement issued in 1988