An Spréach - Opening the Floodgates!

national | housing | opinion/analysis Thursday February 19, 2015 14:40 by An Spréach

An opinion piece by Tony N, one of the recently arrested comrades, and resident of Charlemont Street, as he takes a look back at the recent court case.

“No one deserves to live like this”
A poster I came across on a billboard recently, juxtaposed by the wasteland where one of our block of flats used to sit, where working class families used to live happily, side by side, before they were all socially cleansed from the area, and for what? Already a year has passed since they were pulled down to the ground, and all we have to show for it now is a lousy carpark—desperate!

Currently, there are over 80 unused empty units in Tom Kelly Flats, some of which have been empty for over five years or more, 3 and 4 bedroom flats too.

The admission in court by the Dublin City Council Housing Manager that, “people had no right to be there” in a flat which had been empty for over two years, clearly demonstrates the Council’s unwillingness to prioritise the needs of society’s most vulnerable, and serves as a damning indictment of a system that enable these types of situation to flourish.

Amazing as it was sitting there in court listening to the lies being peddled by the cops, it was also highly amusing watching as their faces dropped when the trial collapsed in front of their eyes. One self-styled community cop described how he ‘just happened’ to come across the flat on his ‘routine’ patrol to the top balcony of the 3-rd Block (yeah right), and how he ‘just happened’ to see the door slightly ajar, ‘bravely’ entering and arresting all those inside—ACAB!

Many working class neighbourhoods will testify at the lack of accountable policing within their own communities. So-called ‘community police’ are but a smoke screen to make it appear as if they are in some way ‘involved’ in the community they claim to represent. From my own experience, these type of cops are the worst, they’re the ones who, not knowing anything about you other than your name, pretend as if they’ve known you all their life, and at the drop of a hat, would arrest you to help build his career. They are the most uninvolved section of society who claim to have the best interests of our communities at heart. They are nothing more than functionaries of the state made to serve ruling class interests.

What struck me most while in court these past few months was the sheer amount of working class people being dragged before the system to be ‘judged’ by a bourgeois bastard.

And for all that’s said and done, you can bet your life most of these ‘offenders’ were in for “crimes against property,” or as “victims of circumstance.” Free choice doesn’t exist without the forces of coercion at play. Primarily, deprivation and poverty are the antagonisms used by the state to assault a person, compelling many to contravene against what passes these days for ‘law & order’.

Scene after scene, the characteristics of a pox-ridden system were present; punishment for the poor; protection the rich.

Here we had two diametrically opposed classes face-to-face in a showdown between oppressed, and a self serving rapacious minority protecting its own interests—polar opposites!

And I kept asking myself—how the hell is a bourgeois bastard able to wield so much power, influence, and control over our own-stock, sending our own people (the working class) to be jailed, based on ‘rules & laws’ founded in the upper echelons of society, that protects a system which forces our hand in order to survive, discriminates against us with a vengeance, while churning us out to beat the band as second class citizens?

Why let these Mutherfuckers away with it . . . why do we appear to remain so fucking docile toward a system that has maintained a hegemonic stranglehold over the population for so long?

All too often regressive steps are taking by the state to ensure the vast majority of us are socially excluded from partaking in any of the major decisions made in our lives. Each year we are expected to vote for some party or another, to represent our best interests, only to have those interests undermined and cast aside, time after time again, as soon as those elected rise to power. This we are told, is democracy.

Then we have the propaganda system going into overdrive and labeling us all as ‘dissidents,’ a deceptive and elaborate term manufactured by the pro-establishment camp to confuse, and discredit, any form of dissent while maintaining a perception of docility, and passivity, among the population. Another reason why the overthrow of these power systems are vital to human progress.

By taking direct action, we succeed in highlighting the way in which certain power systems operate in this country. We have shown what reaction is to be expected whenever we challenge the power base of the state, and try to help other fellow human beings into home. And we are all too well aware that we can expect more of the same treatment in the foreseeable future. But, next time, we will be better prepared, and we will achieve in where we have left off, in opening up the flood gates from where a great surge of social justice, and working class insubordination, will flow.