Premiere Screening of Indymedia Ireland's latest two video productions documenting Bush's visit to Ireland in June 2004 and the protests against it.

On Friday, June 25th 2004 approximately 20,000 people turned out in Dublin to let George W. Bush know that he was not welcome in Ireland. Thousands also travelled from all over the country to Shannon Airport and the nearby Dromoland Castle (where W holed up while in the country). The Irish State deployed masses of police and military to hide Bush from the protestors while the Media deployed masses of cameras and journalists focused primarily on on grandees and dignitaries in an effort to play down the extent of the protests.

Indymedia Ireland has created two video compilations which focus on the opposition to the Bush visit that was largely ignored at the time by the propaganda machine that has the cheek to call itself the media.

Reclaiming Dignity by Rasta4i and Bush Weekend by indyvidhead include interviews and comments from people involved in the "Bikes Against Bush Critical Mass", the Shannon Peace Camp, the Dublin March, the Anti-War Ireland protest at Shannon, the IAWM protest at Dromoland and, most sensationally, the AmBush protest at Shannon which was confronted by massive ranks of riot police and armoured military vehicles. Despite being completely blanked by the mainstream media this protest managed to delay Bush's departure by two hours.

All of this has been documented by independent camera-people interviewing real people with real opinions, a scarce commodity in the compliant Irish media.

Indymedia Ireland will be holding a screening of these two documentaries about the Bush visit on Friday September 3rd in the Irish Film Institute in Temple Bar, starting at 7:30pm. There will be a 5 euro charge on the door and all funds will go towards sustaining and strengthening the Indymedia project. Come along and support our media - we are all the media.

On Tuesday October the 19th and Wednesday October the 20th a conference on ‘less lethal’ weapons is taking place in the Berkeley Court Hotel in Dublin. Organised by defence industry magazine Janes, the conference features representatives of the police, military, scientific and industrial sectors. This article from a regular Indymedia contributor is a backgrounder on the nature and function of ‘less lethal’ weapons.

Extract: ‘Less Lethal’ weapons allow the state the use of force in ‘public order’ situations, and thus make repression far more likely. This can be particularly seen in the United States where innumerable demonstrations are pepper sprayed, for such things as marching into the wrong street. The issue of state legitimacy is crucial to the development of ‘less lethal’ weapons, openly referred to in planning documents as the ‘CNN factor’ or in the Berkeley Court conference as ‘the social feel good factor’. To illustrate this consider how plastic and rubber baton rounds allowed elements of State forces in the North of Ireland to inflict ‘collective punishment’ on working class Catholic communities. “There was a riot, we fired plastic bullets” is a lot more sellable then the older version of collective punishment – house burnings.

Article continues at 'Feature continued on newswire' link below

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From the Newswire:Three bus driver employees of Bus Atha Cliath / Dublin Bus have been suspended without pay for almost four weeks now, for daring to join and be members of the trade union of their choice, the Independent Workers Union. While peaceably distributing information about their union, on request, in their own time and their own work place they were harassed and victimised by members of Dublin Bus management in clear violation of their constitutional, legal and industrial rights and in clear contravention of current legislation which protects workers in pursuit of their trade union rights.

Suspension without pay is illegal and is a vicious attack not alone on the worker but on his or her family and dependents. Current legislation prohibits the suspension, harassment and victimisation of workers who legally carry out trade union activity in their work place. Other drivers in various depots of Dublin Bus are also facing suspension and possible dismissal, even some who are on sick leave, for being members of the Independent Workers Union, which is a fully licensed and legal trade union.

Despite the best efforts of the employees and this trade union to have the matter settled in a fair, just and equitable manner the response of Dublin Bus management is more like what could be expected from the “Sopranos” rather than from a modern sophisticated management structure. Ironically this is from a company that was recently declared one of the top 50 Irish companies to work for; surely it must have been 50th from the bottom?

Four Basque activists visited Dublin last night for an evening of information & discussion in the Teachers Club, Parnell Square, on the current political climate in the Basque Country; while back in Euskal Herria, the police went about dismantling a Basque autonomous centre, with housing activists and squatters doing their best to defend the building from demolition...

Download the MP3 audio report from radio.indymedia.org

A photo essay and commentary on derelict buildings in Dublin 7 near the LUAS line.

As anyone who has faced the daily banal work torture of the water-cooler/canteen "chat" will know, the two hot topics that people love talking endless guff about are the traffic chaos in Dublin, and how much it costs to buy/rent a house here. But admittedly for once the chattering classes do have a point - in many areas which would previously have been considered accessible for low-income earners to live in, they are now priced out entirely.

In other European cities where a new rail line is completed, and even in Dublin with the construction of the DART, property values usually go up and it becomes desirable to live close to the line for convenience and hassle-free commuting....