1pm Wednesday 14th September,
(for the return of the Dáil)
Leinster House
Kildare Street
End the Rip-Off!
Economic Justice is a Civil Rights issue.
This is more obvious as we witness the attack on living standards and the RIP-OFF of our resources. This crisis is due to the mismanagement of the Irish economy by political parties and a fake opposition.
TDs can have a Pay rise but working people get wage Cuts and higher prices.
We are calling for people to attend this peaceful, inclusive assembly and exercise their democratic right to protest without any party political baggage.
Our taxes do not provide for us the basic social care the people pay for.
Our Health service is run down, our homeless crisis is manufactured to profit private landlords with exorbitant rents, while people with Mortgages are struggling to meet the cost of living in the midst of interest rate hikes.
Our energy generating infrastructure has been scaled back in capacity and hiked up in cost by government policy while energy companies record huge profits.
Our only conclusion is that people do not matter in a neoliberal economy or to the elites inside the Irish Government.
We believe the welfare and living standards of all people in Ireland is the primary responsibility of those in government and we must push back in search of social justice.
We have long lost faith in the potential for change coming from the career politicians (with only a few exceptions) who are the architects of inequality in Ireland. This is why a People's led initiative must be formed.
We stand for economic Justice for all people regardless of background.
We believe in equality for all and reject the divisive tactics which continuously attempt to pit ordinary working people against one another by means of religion, race, gender sexual preference, medical choices or any other means.
We seek the unity of all people and call for people to come and support this initiative. It's vital that ordinary people lead the push back and reject the extremist narratives who seek scapegoats at every turn.
We seek to fill the vacuum which inevitably emerges when hopelessness is felt in the established political system and prevent the growth of sentiment which seeks to blame our issues on minorities further sowing working class division.
⏯Pádraig O Maonaigh is a social justice activist.
ReplyDeleteThe account of a left lockdown sceptic in Ireland.
An interesting afternoon albeit not what I expected.
I turned up at the Dáil today (Wednesday the 14th) to attend a civil rights Rally styled "END the Rip-Off" as an activist with the Independent Campaign for economic justice.
There's been much societal flux ever since covid kicked off and I expected to be taking part in a much more routine, working class revolt, against the political establishment for delivering us a new problem in the form of an economic crisis, much as we had anticipated during lockdowns.
The Covid conundrum gave rise to a very bitter space for dissent from the system, a toxicity I'd never witnessed in this part of the country among people before so I was actually quite relieved to work on an issue which would be much more unifying.
Sadly this wasn't to be today, when I arrived I seen chaos, the streets around the Dáil had been barrier'd off and there were multiple protests taking place. An animal welfare protest was active with activists dressed as Hares and Dinosaurs I believe, a CF support protest and then a loud and animated group with multiple signs, messages and chants.
I felt sorry for the two other campaign groups as they were denied proximity to the Daíl and their causes were of a dignified and serious nature.
I met a fellow activist from my group by arrangement outside Buswells about an hour before the advertised rally time and we surveyed the scene. As we did so Clare TD Michael McNamara emerged from Leinster House and tried to walk up Molesworth Street. As he did so he was chased, harranged and heckled with chants of "get the scum off our streets" along with "freemason" and a mix of expletives.
This was a huge surprise to us because Michael McNamara had been the driving force behind the Oireachtas committee on Covid-19 and had held the government to task more than nearly any other TD on the issue. He had upheld people's rights when it wasn't popular.
So this was the setup and unfortunately there was little option for erecting a speaking platform. We decided to walk round to Merrion Square and assess if a different location would be suitable. As we reached the top of Upper Merrion Street it too was barrier'd off and was manned by Gardai who advised that about 20 further protestors with a similar message were down the far end of Merrion Street on the other side of more barriers protecting the Taoiseachs office entrance.
So we returned to Molesworth Street to meet up with about a further 6 organizers and activists with our group where we discussed the possibilities for proceeding as planned with a Rally.
At this stage we seen further TD harrasment including the mobbing of PBPs Paul Murphy. We had no option but to delay our plans as we stood in fear of being cast as having any association with the tactics or the politics of the mob assembled in front.
As we attempted to understand the objectives of the group assembled along the barriers it became clear that there wasn't really any, a mix batch of "freemasons out" no more paedophiles, calls for a revolution, get the gangsters out of the Dáil, they're taking our houses and so on. Notably nothing about a fuel or economic crisis.
A strategic decision was taken to remain 100 meters away from this and conduct a set of interviews among our group on the economic issue at hand and the substance behind our campaign for communicating out to those who had come out to the rally which was not now possible.
In doing so one of our seasoned campaigners revealed he was wearing a body cam as he had received threats against him and his family by none other than the guy on the loudspeaker outside the Daíl.
ReplyDeleteAs we finished our video the "revolution" at the barriers appeared to be over as the mob were heard to be instructing one another to head for the four courts to support Enoch. As they left opportunities were not explored by those who had made threats and the area returned to normality.
An interesting day and hopefully a watershed where a commonality between both groups of opposing covid restrictions would no longer muddy the waters on who is who and who stands for what any longer.
Where we seen rights infringements, they seen freemasons and eugenics. Where we see a democratic program to empower the People away from vested interests it appears they see potential recruits for division and discrimination.
It wasn't exactly the overrunning of capitol Hill they'd planned but it finally put daylight between us.
God speed them as they march off to the far right of the liffey towards the four courts!
Signed
Left Lockdown Sceptic