Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
The occupied Connolly Barracks enters its 15th month
Not content living in poverty during one of Europe’s worst housing crises, ALEX HOMITS leads a crew of young communists to seize an abandoned building in Cork, south west Ireland
IN AUGUST 2017, members of the Connolly Youth Movement (CYM) moved into a derelict block in Cork city centre.
We did so as a form of direct action, where we both received what we needed, housing, while demonstrating the issue to the wider public, undermining the “right” of landlords to deny the homeless homes and calling into question private property itself.
Rather than simply protest, our action was explicitly aimed at denying the landlord class some of its power in a small but significant way.
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