Interview with Alan MacSimoin (1957-2018)

Alan MacSimoin 1957-2018 was a long-time anarchist activist and a founder member of the Workers Solidarity Movement.

MacSimoin joined the Official Republican Movement (Official Sinn Fein) as a young man in the 1970s.  He was involved in the Murray Defence Committee in 1976-77 to stop the state execution of anarchists Noel and Marie Murray for the killing of a member of the police.

He was also involved with the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement’s boycott of South African goods in Ireland and the Irish Anti-Nuclear Movement that stopped the building of nuclear power stations around the coast of Ireland in the 1970s.

Below is an interview my friend Mick Healy did with him a year or two back and has passed on to me . . .

 

Upcoming conference on radical agitation from 1968-2010: a call for papers

“From Civil Rights to the Bailout: Social movements, workers agitation, and left-wing activism in Ireland, 1968-2010”

Irish Centre for Histories of Labour and Class
NUI Galway
19-20 June 2015

From the Civil Rights Movement to contemporary protests against austerity, the years since 1968 have witnessed widespread and varied social movements in communities, workplaces and colleges throughout Ireland, North and South, that have fought for, and resisted, social change. These movements have spurred the growth of numerous organisations ranging from those advocating limited reform, to those advancing revolutionary change in society. However, despite its immediate relevance to an understanding of contemporary Ireland, the lack of historical research conducted in the agents and resisters of social change since 1968 is a noticeable gap in the study of class and politics in Ireland. This interdisciplinary conference hopes to address this.

We welcome scholarly contributions of 20 minutes from established academics to students on any issue that falls under the remit of the conference title. The conference also affords us the opportunity to preserve and generate sources for the benefit of future researchers. We hope to offer workshops on oral history and the preservation, including digitisation, of documentation such as leaflets, posters and periodicals. To this end, we especially want to hear from activists in movements and organisations from the period who may be interested in sharing their experiences and documentation in a friendly and open environment.

Possible topics for papers include but are not limited to:
* Civil Rights in Northern Ireland
* Trade union growth, activism, and change
* Workplace strikes/occupations
* Left Social Democratic groups (e.g. Socialist Labour Party, Liaison of the Left, etc)
* Socialist Republicanism
* Trotskyist, Communist, and other Leninist groups
* Anarchist and other libertarian groups
* Catholic Worker, Christian Socialist groups
* Left-wing periodicals
* Community campaigns (e.g. housing, drugs, hospital closures, water charges)
* Second Wave Feminism and Women’s rights (e.g. equal pay, access to contraception, divorce, abortion rights)
* LGBT rights
* Anti-globalisation movement
* Anti-war movement
* Solidarity campaigns on issues abroad (e.g. Nicaragua, Vietnam, Miners’ Strike, apartheid in South Africa)
* Student activism                                                                                                                         * Media representation of social movements, trade unionism, and left-wing activism

If you wish to present a paper, please send an abstract of no more than 300 words and a short biography including affiliation, if any, by 31 March 2015 to David Convery at david.convery@nuigalway.ie

If you were/are an activist in this area and are interested in attending, please let us know at the same address by the same date. We would be especially grateful if you could inform us if you are willing to share your experiences as part of an oral history interview and/or have documentation which would be of interest. All documentation will remain the possession of the owner.

For more information, please see the conference website at:  http://fromcivilrightstothebailout.wordpress.com

Some reflections on Irish anti-nuclear movement in 1970s

by Eisteach

Aim:

To stop the building of 5 nuclear power stations around the coast of Ireland.

How:

The first task, decided by a collective of activists, was to hold the first anti-nuclear weekend festival in Carnsore Point in 1975 which was to be the site of the first nuclear power station.

The purposes of the festival were:

To build a thirty-two county anti-nuclear movement

To learn of the dangers of nuclear power

To hear of the experiences of invited speakers from around the world

To hear first-class music through the best sound system of the time

To see first-class theatre

To feed the people, food to be vegetarian and to be paid for at cost price.

To provide the children with a dedicated and safe play area.

The social media used to inform the people were posters, leaflets, benefits and meetings.

The festival was free.

A field was donated by a local farmer and two weeks before the festival a