UCD PROTESTS SET TO CONTINUE TODAY!

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday October 16, 2002 11:02 by CFE - CFE irishcfe at yahoo dot co dot uk

Yesterday, in what was the largest on-campus demonstration in UCD in years, over 300 students marched through various faculties on-campus in a protest organised by the Campaign for Free Education (CFE) chanting 'What do we want? Free Education! How Do We Get it Occupation!'. After the crowd attempted to occupy O'Reilly Hall, only to be stopped at the last minute, the protest moved to a symbolic occupation of the dual carriageway, where traffic was held up for over half an hour. Despite fears of an adverse reaction from motorists. Those on the protest were surprised by the positive reactions of cheers and beeps from those driving by.

Today in UCD the Campaign for Free Education (CFE) will be opposing the presence of Minister Noel Dempsey on-campus. The protest will be starting outside the Arts Block at 12.30am. Similar to the protest which upset Brian Lenihan at the opening ceremony of the Institute for Social Change in UCD, the campaign will be using tactics of mass direct action to block the ministers access to the campus.

Spokesperson for the campaign James Redmond said

'If Dempsey and his co-horts in Fianna Fail and the PD's are going to continue to maintain and erect ever more financial impediments which block access to third level for ordinary people, then it is about time that we blocked his access to our campus. We must remind him that discrimination on the basis of social and economic background is not something that Irish students are willing to accept. And we will take any action neccesary to end such discrimination'