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dublin |
worker & community struggles and protests |
news report
Saturday April 29, 2006 17:55
by Jim
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anarchist block
boycott killer coke
sam nolan of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions delivers his annual speech
Seems like the bosses won. Everyone back to work now.
...it could be regarded as a pre-emptive strike.
Starting with the banners, (initially).
Workers Party
Sexy See Through Banner
B. And D. T.U.C.
D.C. Of T.U.
T.E.E.U.
And Red again.
Communist Party
Got Enough Flags There?
Larkin's Lads
Cops Play Follow The Sinn Feiner
Cops Play Ignore The Communist
It is our day & we are still in struggle. I reflected at a blog space organised by Redjade (now in Hungary) & where Davy Carlin appears too yesterday on what the beginning of the Workers' weekend in Barcelona, Catalonia is like, (where there are all sorts of actions & demos all weekend culminating in Euromayday on monday) and wondered whether consciousness of being a "worker" is yet to hit home in Ireland.
It appears like the liver, heart and all the offall of Cu Chullain it was eaten out a long time ago. Today I was on the phone to Ireland & asked my "formerly working class now middle class income" friend - what were they doing for worker's day? . A stunned and mildly expensive few moments of silence ensued.... I'm not really a worker. .
"Then what pray tell are you?" I replied, following with a quick list of possibilities, spat out to make up for the expensive lull before. are you a cleric with a manse? are you a squire with acres and roods under cultivation? are you a sitting deputy of the commons, lords or congress? are you a justice of the peace, magistrate, called to the bar? are you perchance a publican, hotelier, vintner? or are you a career criminal?
The reply came curtly and tart : I work for the government & you know that, you're on the phone to the Irish state. . I went out and joined the CNT (only 60 people) loudly protesting the dismissal of car factory workers, came home & tuned into the RTé internet website to see after the splendidly impossible attendance figures of 120,000 for the 1916/2006 "we are a nation gig" {without the final acts of Cu Chullain's proletarian spleen}:
how many "workers" would be counted on O'Connell Street......................300..........yippee, and to think all the people on the pavement gawking were middle class of independent means who have never needed to work a day in their lives !!! oh celtic tiger how you roar!!!
bless 'em! Bless everyone one......................maybe all the Irish workers left and are waiting the all clear to come home?
Throw a surprise party in their memory, better than lighting candles ;-)
http://www.euromayday.org/
last year's "workers papers" http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69645
... got an airing today.
Anti War Types
CWU Band Get Someone Dancing
You Know You Want To
Solidarity With RAR
Spot The Shamrocks
from today
Outside The GPO
It's That Banner Again
Never Play 'Rock Paper Scissors' Alone
Your Ad Here
No, not the attendance - but the presence of the communist flags on the march. I know its an ideal, an ideology and all that... but so many people died and were oppressed under communist rule. Commies say that the eastern bloc wasnt really communism, that it was a warped version of authoritarianism, but it was the only place where a communist revolution took place, and look what it ended up with in practice. Even Cuba now, there is no press freedom there, no freedom of association, even something like indymedia havana would be shut down within five minutes.
I find it depressing to see young people carrying communist flags. I think its an insult to the millions who died under Stalin & Mao (and dont even get me started on that poxy restaurant in Dublin) and its a denial of a very dark period in time. Leftists say that this is a stick that the right uses to beat them with - but the gulags and the purges really happened, all in the name of glorious socialist revolution...
There were about 10 communist party members present each one with a large flag, to make it seem like there are more. All of them were at least over 30 and most of them were over 50, there were no young communists. There were about 6 young anarchists with red and blacks, you might have mistaken them for tankies in the picture.
Joseph Stalin was a killer, they forgot but we remember.
that mao restraunt is now a troika. they have a branch in dundrum sc and one in dun laoire. i dont think the CP are fans of stalin any longer. anyway as YA wrote the red & black block was at least as big a s the cp one.
Anyone notice?
Not a problem. Dublin doesn't hate prods. There's a taken-for-granted difference between a Belfast Trades Council banner and a LOL banner.
Remember. May Day 2006 shock, horror! Northern protestants march down O'Connell Street and speak at rally in Beresford Place!
Ah! 'member when the SWP were the 'workerists' and the 'economists'. They'd a few there anyway. (No one had more than a few there, says you).
And Oi! - 'nudder missing ting: no wimmin speakers!
I seen the Residents against racism banner in the march, in one of the photos above. I'm just wondering what affiliation the R.A.R. have with Mayday?
SWP may not have been there but trust the young anarwcists fill the void with their navel gazing whinging. Why so catty - did someone forget the buckfast so you couldn't split off the march for your own action/pissup?
Thank God the Irish people have no tendency to agree with these fringe parties. Thank God our economy is well run.
Thank God that more people vote for the PDs than in all of the fringe parties represented here combined.
PD's... pah.
Not even going to dignify that comment...
Anyways, anyone know how Cork has gone so far, sounded like the place to be this Mayday, they had loads of stuff planned.
Heard there was some rts-style stuff planned for Cork - but you definitely wont hear about it here. Nobody from Cork city ever posts news on Indymedia. Depressing stuff considering they have their caz and the bookshop down there, surely there's something worth posting up on the wire now and again. Either nothing happens down there or they just have no interest in using indymedia as a resource.
I haven't read any of the previous comments, so forgive me if I repeat points that are made.
What I want to know is, who is responsible for organising this event? Do they have an organising committee and do the organisers not realise that they are insulting the very people that paved the way for celebrations like this, by there half-hearted efforts. The turnout was terrible -again!
The theme of this years commemoration, -with a bit of imagination- could have been a great springboard to boost the unions membership by thousands in a very short space of time. A simple idea like a mobile recruiting bus, highlighted in the media, could have been used as a great launch-pad for the recruiting campaign. It would also have brought thousands onto the march.
But the 'organisers' seem to be lacking in creativity or is it just laziness, lack of will power or all three?
Too long in cushy jobs? Maybe they've lost the hunger?.
from the top: 'there was no visible SWP presence'
why was this?
is it true?
...unfortunately this is true, the only SWP member that I could recognise was R. B.Barrett and there was no SWP banner at all, although they did have a stall at the garden.
The turnout by the Communist Party in relaton to there membership was a high percentage, way above the SP and the SWP.
And the CP flags were very impressive, very striking 'pardon the pun' and they look great in photos.
...just going to throw this into the hat.
How do people feel about left wing parties/groups and individuals discussing the possibility of organising next years May Day commemoration? A cross section from the above would make a far better effort than what has been put on so far by the trade unions. The next and future May Day march could and should be held on the day.
It seems ridiculous to be holding it in April!!
While agreeing that the turnout, organisation and publicity was disappointing, in the aftermath of the Irish Ferries march in December tha fact that turnout was, by my reckoning lower, than last year was even more depressing.
The march is organised by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions and one would expect them to treat it as a big deal but by all accounts most of the unions and parties invited to attend got about a week's notice. There was no effort made to advertise the event or mobilise people.
From a show of strength, May Day in Ireland has become a show of weakness. It should be for socialists and the left what Easter is for republicans with the same level of effort put into it.
Any opinions on the pics? It's always nice to get feedback.
...
liked the pics. especially the RAR banner with the red flags and banners in the background, that one was superb. also liked the aviation branch banner with libert hall in the background.
...Ger O'Leary, Robert Ballagh and the great? grandson of James Connolly. Could someone put a name to this gentleman please.
AtCommemorating those who died. At the laying of flowers outside 16 Moore Street.
Depressing. All assembled have about as much relevance to ordinary Irish workers as one of those "Churches" on Pearse Street. Have ye nothing better to be doing on a Saturday afternoon?
No SWP, except two members. Is it because they couldn't be arsed going to this crappy march? Or are they having political difficulties? Each year this march has become a march of revolutionaries and bureaucrats. Revolutionaries included SP, WSM, (both with good contingents), Workers' Power (2 members), Sparts (3 members), SWP (2 members). The Bureaucrats included the Dublin Trades Council, SIPTU officials, Labour/LY, CPI (their flags made them seem bigger). The speeches were complete crap. One speaker told us that the Irish Citizens' Army was in the Rising to found the state! I certainly don't think so you bureaucratic f**k! Then we had the annual speechifying from that muppet Sam Nolan. He doesn't believe a word he says and doesn't put a single bit of his speechifying into action. I feel embarased for him.
Get a grip man! Walking around spouting some dead Russian doesn't make you a revolutionary. The Provos were the last native variety of the species and they have voted themselves into extinction.
The man in the centre of the photo above - between Robert Ballagh and Ger O'Leary - is James Connolly Heron. He's a grand-nephew, or great grand-nephew, of James Connolly.
"Get a grip man! Walking around spouting some dead Russian doesn't make you a revolutionary. The Provos were the last native variety of the species and they have voted themselves into extinction"
The Provisional IRA and Provisional Sinn Fein are not revolutionaries. They demand an All-Ireland Capitalist State. That's not revolutionary.
'''The Bureaucrats included the Dublin Trades Council, SIPTU officials, Labour/LY,''
Ah sure jayzes isnt it good to come down from me ivory towers and me prawn sandwiches to talk to de common folk once in a while.
word from the unions is that the rebellions in the health service have begun
already.
INO and SIPTU/IMPACT predict it will go through, but the employers are winding up
branches of SIPTU by pushing through re-structuring plans not agreed by the union.
This is HSE staff people. Ms Harney's remit.
75% agreemnet to the PPP pay deal.
It goes through and the race to the top begins-right?
except for the health service problems and teachers- unions composed mainly of women.
SIPTU/Impact hse workers are not happy with employer bullying-now
solidarit is an ideal in this great nation, cos aer lingus privatisation is not resisted
and the women workers are bullied.
enjoy the race. elect women reps.
"SIPTU/Impact hse workers are not happy with employer bullying-now"
So why did they vote in favour of 2016? And by landslide majorities as well. There isc no point in fooling yourself because you certainly are not fooling anyone else. Live in the real world.
yep. they are not happy. though they need good leaders, not the hogwash
that seek to lick the boots of the ibecrs and state.
resist aer lingus privitisation. no- we'll buy shares
the glassworks- money bought off the workers in Ringsend.
The joys of socialist revolution in Ireland-be like the fat cats
the unions don't need breaking- they sold out.
"resist aer lingus privitisation. no- we'll buy shares"
Its the workers who come running for the shares. Just like in Eircom. Ah the proletariat has betrayed the far left again. Pass a motion of no confidence in them.
is it Peace/Progress/Prosperity
or Partnership/partnership/partnership.
the tri-partite structuring of the deals are a one size fits all piece of capitalist shit-weighted to two parts:- in Planning the lobbies and state.
in work_ the employers/ state.
the workers and communities sleep-walk into this bullshit. they are not unions or organisers.
they are a sell out.
"the workers and communities sleep-walk into this bullshit. they are not unions or organisers.
they are a sell out. "
So you have just passed a motion of no confidence in the working class. They are all out of step except you.
Tell me: does Connolly speak to you when no one else is around?
Connolly would be spinning in his grave.
Selfish race to the top politics in an unrecognisable Ireland
which destroys equality.
Dogmatism is not only a religious problem, it is a union problem.
Translating the econmics of equality into a mentality based on bourgeois accquisition
when kids in schools have second hand shoes donated by the ever-expanding SUV
class.
an Ireland of Equals. the unions have torn up the proclomation. eirigi should spend the
printing money, cos its not worth it.
*State Response:-http://www.entemp.ie/press/2006/20060905.htm
a Positive response, yes, from the ex-minister for health who runs the Enterprise ship
now.
*Ibec:-http://www.ibec.ie/ibec/presspublicationsdocib3.nsf/wvT...news/
a Positive response, yes, from , Turlough. as expected the unions committed sensibly to
a ten year alliance with the state and employers.
*Siptu::- This one is a bit confusing, cos there is no press release but a direct link into
the Dept of Trade and Enterprise page.
There has been no media coverage of the ISME response, as yet.
Thus the State is happy, the Unions obviously are as 75% membership voted for the deal,
the employers (whose lawyers help draft our legislations are happy).
The INO is not happy and HSE staff are rebellious.
Progress has been agreed and supported, it is one of the brands of the Government :-
'Peace/Prosperity/Progress- in a two tier society based on a simple capitalist model
that a secondary student could work out.
"'Peace/Prosperity/Progress- in a two tier society based on a simple capitalist model
that a secondary student could work out."
But hundreds of thousands of union members voted for the deal. I guess that makes them all stupid but you are the bright one. The problem is also, only a tiny percentage of the population vote for the parties of the far left. That meanns the electorate must be pretty dim. You had better abolish elections.
Elections are and have been in the process of being abolished in this State
since it's inception. The low turn-out and skewed branding of Parties which
crowd the centre ensure alienation of a sizeable amount of 'voters'
It could be viewed as a failure for the Left or it could be construed as an opportunity
for the left to re-visit the difficulties of a leadership within unions which seem effected
by the structures of equality manufactured by corporate mechanisms.
One of the focal points of leftism is privatisation. the issue of the sell off
of Aer Lingus and previously Eircom , are issues that union leaders
should be resisting. This applies to the sale of the land and re-cycling works
at Ringsend too. The concept of partnership or complicity in the sell offs and or
privatisation of State run companies is a thread that ran through Thatcherism
and other right -wing philosophies.
In practical terms it can be seen in the Partnership agreements, in the planning
process- in this state.
The resultant abuse of community and union evidenced by State privitisation
led to a reactive centre which spat out Blair and the concept of New Labour.
This set of comments is not mistakenly placed in the Labour Press
release on Mayday. Identification of the left with simple concepts of the
use of a globalised Capitalist model and resisting them, identifying them
and not just holding pretty banners in a hollow identification with a dry concept
of revolutionary reform- but actually educating people and identifying the process
of political stagnation requires some degree of commitment- not achieved btw
by making a deal with a right-wing party for the next government, which could be as early as
November in this year.
I don't vote.
Sorry, the third man in the photo, if he is James Connolly-Heron, is actually James Connolly's great-Grandson, not Grand-nephew. How do I know? I have been spending a lot fo my free time researching the Connolly family and trying to build a family tree, as my friend is named Jimmy Connolly, and his dad (also) James Connolly think they might be realted to the great Connolly family, as their family is from Dublin, and well you get the point.... Anyways, Ina Connolly, James Connolly's daughter, has the married form of her name known as Ina Connolly-Heron. Her son is Brian Heron, and his own son must have been named after his illustrious great grandfather. Sorry to ramble on, but I like to keep the facts straight.
The banner in the first photograph should have read: organise now, join a union and be PERSECUTED.
Why have I not heard a word from all these SO -CALLED TRADE UNIONISTS about the corruption in Belfast?
DO THEY AGREE WITH IT.