Thousands participate in rally against Garda violence

by Eoin Dubsky Fri May 10, 2002 15:29 eoin at greensoc dot org 087-6941060

[ The comment below is from a friend: ]

Ciaron O'Reilly, of the Dublin Catholic Worker,
collected 246 euro at yesterdays rally in Dublin. The collection is in solidarity with the casualties of Monday's Reclaim the Streets event those arrested and hospitalised.

Inquiries and further donations can be made to:
[email protected]

Hopefully a more formal fund can be set up and further fundraising will kick off with a broader group.

Much peace and solidarity

Ciaron Ph. 087 918 4552

[ Unless formal fundraising is organized for those arrested and attacked by police on Monday, Ciaron will just share out what was collected when people start to show up for court on 20 May and thereafter. ]

by s Fri May 10, 2002 14:32

Everyone is congratulating the SWP/GR for this terrific demo that went off peacefully. I could of course go on a rant about the unsubtle takeover of the entire demo by the electioneers, but I would just like to point out that the demo was at the complete discretion of the pigs because the SWP/GR LIAISED with them, to the point where the filth actually decided where the march should go to, and when and where it should disperse. I thought we were supposed to be protesting at the fascistic nature of the police, or as GR put it "a protest for civil liberties." How was any statement whatsoever made when the bastards were still pandered to?

by Ciaran O hUltachain - Unaligned Egalitarian Fri May 10, 2002 14:12

Niall

Of course u can post what u want, and criticise the SWP freely. Believe me I have no problem criticising them too, when I feel it is appropriate. But why invest such level of vitriol against them, when indeed Fine Gael are so useless.

At this moment I would rather concentrate on the positive aspects of the week and emphasise the contribution of all people and groups. There are plenty of critical comments on this site at the moment, a balance of opinion is only healthy.

by Niall Fri May 10, 2002 13:37

Oh no don't start again, please.
People are free to dislike the SWP and post whatever they want. You can't force us to support the SWP. In today's Star there is an interview to a FG politician who speaks in support of the protest and against the police's behaviour. Would you accuse people of sectarianism if they attacked FG? No, of course.

by Ciaran O hUltachain - Unaligned Egalitarian Fri May 10, 2002 13:27

I am an unaligned egalitarain who has been actively involved in a whole range of progressive social movements in Ireland for more than five years now. I have worked on lesbian & gay, community media, anti-racist, environmental, socialist and anti-capitalist campaigns. As a mature student studying Sociology & Politics, I am developing a solid conceptual framework that underpins my activism.

If we have any hope of achieving a more fair, equal & sustainable world, the level of sectarianism of the left in Ireland, that is all too evident on Indymedia must be addressed. Monday's RTS party was a glorious day, for the most part, until the unsightly violence of the patriachal, capitalist state erupted at the end of it. The RTS party was a example of the fluidity of the Irish left & was a fine indicator of what we can achieve when we attempt to work in unison.

I am not a member of SWP, but I do have a lot of respect for the determination & commitment of most of the people in the party and I regularly support the events that they organise. Marx offered an important critique of capitalism, without holding a monopoly on the truth. I have no intention of joining SWP but I will continue to support their activism when it furthers the egalitarian aims of the broad left.

Globalise Resistance never claimed to have organised RTS, the media misrepresented them as the non-hierarchical nature of RTS was too complex for a 2 minute sound-bite. It is important that as a movement, we seized the opportunity after Monday's appaling police violence. RTS, the anarchists & environmentalists did not feel it was approppriate for them to do so. I freely admit that I have summer exams & I don't have the time to work as a 24 hour a day activist either.

Joe Carolan & Grace Lally of Globalise Resistance should be congratulated for organising such a successful counter demonstration on Thursday against police brutality. They had the sense not to organise a narrow SWP rally that preached to the converted. They included a broad spectrum of mainstream political, civil and academic speakers and ensured the demonstration passed off peacefully.

RTS was an important day of celebration & social interaction. The brutal actions of the gardai radicalised a far greater number of people than RTS could ever have reached. It is unfortunate that many innocent people were injured in the process. Let us make a concerted effort to minimise the begrudery - sectarianism & applaud ourselves for reclaiming the initiative. It has been an empowering week for anyone remotely progressive in Irish society. Please enjoy that space and sense of achievemetn for a moment, before we descend into bickering over future tactics.

by saortinn Fri May 10, 2002 13:21

if one politician or aspirational polititician was allowed speak then its right that they all were. Kaiser Carolan made the first step towards usurping a civil rights issue and tainting it with party politics. Daithi scarcely was any worse than the others. You are however, right last night was unfairly railroaded into sickeneing electioneering.

and to previous post.... do you really have that much faith in Fine Gael et al??

you could hand pick your dail from all proposed candidates and their actions / performance wouldnt be all that different from what we've had. There are so many vested interests in power that a lot of decisions are dictated by the system and the over reliance on external bodies , for example , corporations.do you think low corporation tax is clever policy or anything other than an enforced necessity?

by Conor Fri May 10, 2002 11:54 conor_woods at hotmail dot com

Why were Sinn Fein allowed to hijack the protest on Pearse St last night? Having Dail candidate Daithi Doolin as one of the main speakers was a disgrace. This should have been a non-political event, and as for the hypocrisy of a Shinner talking about beating people up ... does anyone know what the IRA are doing in the inner city?

by democracy.ie Fri May 10, 2002 10:33

It might be a cliche but if we don't vote we can't change anything and things will stay the same - in fact they'll probably get worse. It's frustrating, it's depressing, it's disheartening but if a party isn't in power then it doesn't have any power. If we don't agree with Fianna Fail policy then we have a golden opportunity to take them out. Fianna Fail were reluctant to move to Friday voting. Why? Because they know how powerful our student vote could potentially be. If our mother or father are taxi drivers, nurses, teachers, then we're voting in their interests. If our brothers or sisters are struggling to get a house then we're voting in their interests. If we or our friends have been the victim of Garda harassment or are struggling to pay rent or want to have any hope of a decent quality of life after graduation, then we're voting in our own interests.

Fianna Fail have had 5 years to sort out issues like housing, health, education grants, transport, insurance costs, Garda accountability and corruption but have been satisfied to pander to vested interests. Looking at the photos of Gardai beating up students made me more angry than I've ever been. It's a Fianna Fail administration that has presided over this type of Ireland. This is real - it's happening to our country now. If we even have some hope that someone elso could do better then we should vote for them. It could be Labour, Fine Gael, Sinn Fein, Green Party, Socialist Party, Independent, whoever. Fianna Fail have sat on their hands for 5 years and they'll sit on them for another 5 years if we don't vote them out. Someone else just might actually do something. Vote on May 17th - we've nothing left to lose.

by Daithi Fri May 10, 2002 09:15

Could be it .. anyway, the MP3s can be heard from the UK site for now. Possibly the space here cuts off when a certain level of traffic has been reached.

Thanks GluttonMan, Claire and pjay for your help.

by GluttonMan Fri May 10, 2002 00:46

Ha, I just checked the .wma files, I can get them Ok, its just the mp3s. What difference is there in permissions between the two types of file? Hopefully trinity doesn't have some poxy firewall that blocks mp3s but not wmas?

by GluttonMan Fri May 10, 2002 00:43

Directory containing files should have these permissions when you do a "ls -l"
drwx--xr-x daithi
drwx--xr-x imc

I think that the directories ~daithi/imc probably have this already because I can certainly open up your directory and see the mp3s listed. But when I click on them I consistently get a 403.

-rw-r--r-- ivana.mp3

so user (first triad) has read and write permissions
group has merely read permissions
other has merely read permissions

Does your listing look like that?

by Daithi Fri May 10, 2002 00:41

Links added in the main article above to duplicates of the audio files at the UK Indymedia site, on the main (and overloaded) international IMC server. 12.30 AM.

by Daithi Thu May 09, 2002 23:31

Ok I've changed some of the permission settings and I've uploaded to the UK site, but the files haven't shown up on the overworked newswire *over there* as of yet. Maybe the changed settings will work?

by GluttonMan Thu May 09, 2002 23:23

It looks like its on a solaris2.7 server? Did you check that not just the file itself has rw- permission, but that the directories above it do?
Also, you might need to change the access list on whatever server you're running.

by Claire B - student Thu May 09, 2002 23:07

Daithi, tried all ways man ;) They just don't seem to be working...

by Daithi Thu May 09, 2002 22:56 macsithd at tcd dot ie

The permissions seem to be OK but I'm uploading copies to the UK Indymedia webspace (which can also be a little hit-and-miss). When these come through I'll add the new links to the original article above.

D.

by pjay Thu May 09, 2002 22:47

ya man, ive had problems with your audio stuff. you should check the permissions on your webspace.

it keeps telling me that i cannot access the mp3s because access isnt authorised.

by Daithi Thu May 09, 2002 22:44

Claire,

Both seem to be working fine for me..if you're working off a PC you need to have Windows Media Player installed to listen to the .WMA files. Also, if you click directly on the MP3 link rather than try and download them you should be able to listen as the file is transferred.

Anyone else having trouble?

by Claire B - Student Thu May 09, 2002 22:42

Can't download the links in mp3 format, and they don't work for me in .wav