Hello comrades,
Hope you are all having a lovely bank holiday weekend! This week we have three groups running, including our brand! new! online! group! Hopefully see some of you there? This week we are going to be discussing data centres, but we’re really interested to hear what topics people would like the group to focus on.
Also, our Care and Community group is going to be running at 7pm this week, so a little bit earlier than it has been!
This week
TUE 7PM –> Operation Gladio // Connolly Books
WED 7PM –> Data Centres // ONLINE!!
THU 7PM –> Privatisation & Social Care // Marrowbone Books
Next week
WED 7PM -> Ratcatcher @ Film Club // Ballybough CC
P.S. Always and forever, if you have one article read out of a group’s reading list, you’re set to attend! So please don’t be stressing about coming if you haven’t managed to get through the full readings.
———————————————
THIS WEEK!
Militarism and Neutrality #4
Tuesday 5 August 2025 / 7pm-8pm //
Connolly Books, 43 Essex Street East, Dublin 2
Operation Gladio
Core Reading
- Daniel Singer, ‘The Gladiators’ (10 Dec 1990) https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/gladiators/
- Clare Pedrick, ‘CIA Organized Secret Army in Western Europe’ (14 Nov 1990) for the Washington Post available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20230324205950/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/11/14/cia-organized-secret-army-in-western-europe/e0305101-97b9-4494-bc18-d89f42497d85/
- Excerpts from Daniele Ganser, “NATO’s Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe” (2004) https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSl1Am_xJ_qmvACp4yaNLFl79SamI3QBZoIoK7zpKU02YRQ6U6B2-A7Fv84NgloX3CyzagUqCbIan2z/pub
Further Reading (Optional background info!)
- The Cold War channel ‘Operation Gladio: How the West Wanted to Defend against the USSR’ (15mins) https://youtu.be/tIat4tYtG94?si=3yHAQoP_BI2YZRob and part 2 (23mins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbC_t3IBEpI
- BBC 2, ‘Timewatch’ documentary on Gladio (1992) (2hrs 25mins) available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGHXjO8wHsA&t=2307s
- CTH Zurich’s Parallel History Project’s chronology of events https://phpisn.ethz.ch/lory1.ethz.ch/collections/coll_gladio/chronology76c1.html?navinfo=15301
- Philip Willan, ‘Obituary: Paolo Emilio Taviani’ (21 Jun 2001) https://web.archive.org/web/20221222022712/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/jun/21/guardianobituaries.philipwillan
- Philip Willan, ‘US supported anti-left terror in Italy’ (24 Jun 2000) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jun/24/terrorism
- European Parliament resolution on Gladio (22 Nov 1990) https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/European_Parliament_resolution_on_Gladio
———————————————
Online Reading Group #1
Wednesday 6 August July 2025 / 7pm-8pm //
ONLINE @ Zoom
Data Centres
- Not Here, Not Anywhere, Irish Data Centres: An Introduction. Available at: https://listen.dublindigitalradio.com/news-events/irish-data-centres-an-introduction-by-no
- Becca Inglis, We Need Socialist to Fix Our Broken Internet. Available at: https://www.huckmag.com/article/we-need-socialism-to-fix-our-broken-internet
- Evgeny Morozov, Socialize the Data Centres! Available at: https://saintsandscholars.club/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Evgeny-Morozov-Socialize-the-Data-Centres-NLR-91-January-February-2015.pdf
Further Reading
- James Bridle, Power in a Networked World. Available at: https://exposingtheinvisible.org/en/interviews/james-power-in-a-networked-world/
Care and Community #4
Thursday 7 August 2025 / 7pm-8pm //
Marrowbone Books, 78 The Coombe, Dublin 8
Privatisation and Social Care
- Neoliberalism, austerity, and social work. Available at: https://saintsandscholars.club/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/DOC-20250727-WA0003.pdf
- Bob Hudson, Adult Social Care: Is Privatisation Irreversible? Available at: https://sochealth.co.uk/2018/02/15/adult-social-care-privatisation-irreversible/
- James Graham, Socialism Needs Disability Justice. Available at: https://www.midnightsunmag.ca/socialism-needs-disability-justice/
Further Reading
- Jesse Chase, Community Care in the Revolution. Available at: https://hoodcommunist.org/2020/11/12/community-care-in-the-revolution/amp/
———————————————
NEXT WEEK!
Film Club #4
Wednesday 13 August 2025 / 7pm-8pm //
Ballybough Community Centre, 49 Ballybough Rd, Dublin 3
[FYI this is not a screening! Just a chat!]
Ratcatcher (dir. Lynne Ramsey, 1999) [LINK TO WATCH]
James Gillespie is 12 years old. The world he knew is changing. Haunted by a secret, he has become a stranger in his own family. He is
drawn to the canal where he creates a world of his own. He finds an
awkward tenderness with Margaret Anne, a vulnerable 14 year old expressing a need for love in all the wrong ways, and befriends Kenny, who possesses an unusual innocence in spite of the harsh surroundings
Suggested reading: “Ratcatcher: A Flashlight Cinema” by Girish Shambu: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7571-ratcatcher-a-flashlight-cinema
Social Realism, ScreenOnline: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1037898/index.html
Optional further viewing:Kes (dir. Ken Loach, 1969)
This is England (dir. Shane Meadows, 2006)
———————————————
Love and solidarity,
SAINTS AND SCHOLARS ☘️ 🩷