Left Archive: Barricade Bulletin, No 10, Derry Anarchists, c2020/21

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This is the first document in the Archive from the Derry Anarchists (you can find a more comprehensive archive of their publications). As noted on the Archive: ‘Derry Anarchist Collective is an anarchist group in Derry. They have produced Barricade Bulletin since 2016, which takes its name from the 1969 Derry paper.’

There is a short outline on the inside page which notes:

Barricade Bulletin is a free bi-monthly news bulletin issued to help generate anarchist information, interest and knowledge of class struggle anarchism to an increasingly wider audience. Barricade Bulletin takes its name from the radical community news sheet printed and distributed during the period of Free Derry.

The contents is varied from pieces on the then Eason’s strike across Northern Ireland through to a piece on ‘Building an Autonomous Social Centre in Derry’.

A new grassroots project is currently under con­struction in Derry and Barricade Bulletin has spoken to some of those involved to get an in­sight into what’s behind the idea. The project itself has been described as a social centre which is non-aligned and entirely free from any political party direction or entrapment. “It’s true that a lot of those now involved with the idea are from a number of different countries who are now living and working locally. Coun­tries which already have a long tradition of social and cultural spaces. Centres that are totally inde­pendent, self funded and self managed, which would be a first for Derry. There are several ex­amples of similar projects that have taken place in bigger cities like Belfast, Cork and Dublin over the years. All have had some degree of sucess.

There’s  a piece on the Anarchist Black Cross supporting anarchist and class struggle prisoners and how that group has become active again. 

Another piece examines gold mining in Ireland under the heading ‘Resisting the Gold Rush: Support Community Struggle Against Toxic Gold Mining in Ireland’ and notes:

Groups such as Save Our Sperrins, Greencastle People’s Office (GPO), Cooperate Against Mining in Omagh (CAMIO), Communities Against Mining and Love Tyrone have been linking up with each other and tirelessly campaigning since then. As part of ongoing support and solidarity efforts locally, we spoke to one of the groups, the Greencastle People’s Office (GPO), who don’t even describe themselves as activists or a group at all, but as ordinary families, local residents or a community defending their life and their health in the face of pollution and despoliation.

There’s a personal account by a Derry activist of their journey towards anarchism and another article that asks ‘What’s wrong with Working? Why do we have to work?

Work is forced labour and wage slavery. We have been told from our primary school days that this is the only way to organise our societ­ies, but this is a lie that only benefits the people who don’t actually do any work, the bosses. Teach yourself to disobey.

Other articles note the passing of of Stuart Christie and David Graeber and there’s a review of The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin.