“What The Proclamation
Means To Me”
By George Kerr (Anarchist and trade union activist, member of Workers Solidarity Movement,
Dublin)
”A free society?”
The 1916 proclamation was supposed to herald Irish freedom. The majority of
contributors to this site would probably concur with the contention that the
reality of what has happened in the 90 years since fell far short of the
ideal.
But what is actually meant by the concept of freedom? We're told we live in
a free society. We have freedom of speech, we can work where we like, travel
where we like, and can vote in elections. But how free are we? Speech isn't
'free' opportunities for ordinary people to put forward their ideas in fora
such as this are extremely limited. For the most part, for your voice to be
heard you need the money to print newspapers or hire billboards, or the
power to have your opinions reported. How often do we hear real political
alternatives being discussed on our national airwaves or in our national
papers? By virtue of their greater wealth, a small number of people – the
owners of newspapers - control what passes for political discussion. The
political establishment can use seemingly innocuous legislation such as
litter laws to prevent the erection of posters in the city centre, thus
making the dissemination of alternative ideas all the more difficult.
We can work where we like, but in every job there is a boss making his
profit from your work - the only alternative is to try living on the
miserable pittance that social welfare recipients must survive on. And for
many in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland the only freedom to work there is the
freedom to work 40 or more hours a week for minimum wage. Even many people
who have what might be considered a well-paid job find themselves having to
work longer and longer hours simply to earn enough money to meet the
ever-spiralling cost of accommodation.
We can travel where we like in theory if we have enough money to afford it.
But people with a different colour skin are likely to be stopped and
harassed by immigration officials, the excuse of the so-called war on
terrorism is used to place more and more restrictions on people’s rights to
travel freely.
And we have the freedom to vote. In Ireland we can choose anyone from Joe
Higgins to Ian Paisley, and all shades of political opinion in between, to
sit in the
Assembly or the Dáil. But, it’s basically a choice between Tweedledum and
Tweedledumber. Our only choice is to hand over control over practically all
of the important decisions which effect us to a small number of people. We
can’t vote to get rid of all of them, and run society in a truly democratic
and free manner. Some freedom. But what's the alternative? A 'socialist'
state like what the USSR used to be, like China, or Cuba? A Party running
the state and ruling
our workplaces, telling us to take pride in our poverty while they enjoy the
trappings of power? Executions and psychiatric wards for political
dissidents, and glorified slavery for the rest of us? Some alternative.
But there is a real alternative - anarchism. Anarchism means a society run
from the bottom up, a society without rulers, a society where all are equal.
A society based on the equal freedom of all people, without a boss in the
workplace or a politician in the Dáil telling us what to do but doing
nothing useful themselves, a society where we decide ourselves how we are
going to live and work together. That's anarchism, the only alternative
worth fighting for.
To find out more about anarchism and the Workers Solidarity Movement, visit
our website: http://www.wsm.ie or E-mail: wsm_Ireland@yahoo.com or write to
us at P.O. Box 1528, Dublin 8
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