The concept of the EU is still a popular one in Ireland as is shown by the detail of the results of a recent poll on the EU. It is a far less popular concept generally in Europe as is shown by the headline results of the self-same poll. This bodes ill for the ongoing negotiations on a draft EU constitution taking place at present in Italy.

The broad popular movement represented by the European Social Forum has advocated a Europe wide civil society rejection of the way in which Neo-Liberalism is consecrated as an official doctrine in the proposed Constitution as it now stands. The Declaration of the Assembly of Social Movements has instead called for a Europe 'based on the recognition of social, economic, cultural and ecological rights'.

Ireland will hold the Presidency of the EU in the buildup to the planned ratification of an EU Constitution in May 2004 and it seems inevitable that Ireland will become a battleground for these opposing conceptions of what Europe is and should be.

Domestic critics of the proposed EU Constitution on both the right (National Platform) and left (Democracy and Public Services in Europe Group) have begun to make their voices heard and it seems that the battle of ideas that raged during the Nice Treaty II debate will most likely be joined again at some point next year when a referendum on the new Constitution is held in Ireland. Watch this space!

Upcoming DAPSE Meeting: Sat 13th Dec
Upcoming 'Another Europe is Possible' Meeting: Sat 13th Dec

- Grassroots

We spilled out and headed straight for the roundabout north of Lidl. Or is it Aldi? I'm not sure. We made a brief detour through the marsh & briars that was perhaps a slight error on our part. Sun Tzu says to defeat your enemy you must know the terrain. If only we had some of the local kids who joined in at the roundabout (and all masked up!) with us earlier on... the natives have good information...

"More Shannanigans" - IAWM

from report by Random Input Then the march continued down until it met a gardai roadblock of layers of barriers and sour pussed coppers. Also I noticed some suss looking dudes lurking at the end of the long lane on the right, who when people went up to the gate with cameras, moved off. Who were these mysterious strangers I wonder?

Get all sides of the story of D6 here....
Photos: 1     2     3 & video     4     5
Video: 1   2
Other Reports:
1   2   3   4   5   6

FROM THE NEWSWIRE:
"The strains of one of the songs from The Prodigy's 'Music for the Jilted Generation' resonates up through the stairs and echoes past the computer banks, WOOs can be heard accompanying the beats. It's now 6am, and maybe the music started too late as when we somehow sussed out a stereo and some CDs most people had already begun to fade.

While essentially tonight is a protest occupation, making it evident to the authorities how seriously we regard this situation and our willingness to engage in confrontations over it, the whole process has been one whereby extra hours in which to study have been reclaimed by students by means of a simple refusal to leave when the college decides it's time to go."

UPDATE: FIRST VICTORY FOR UCD CAMPAIGN AGAINST CUTS

There has been excellent coverage of the elections for the Assembly and criticism of the lack of interest shown by IMC-IE contributors in this topic. This has been attributed variously to "southern myopia" or to "anarchist anti-electoralism." In the essay below, written by newswire contributor "hs - sp", the importance of elections is discussed.

With elections coming in the south and just after the elections in Northern Ireland there have been some comments on indymedia on the idea of standing in elections and voting itself. But there has not been a full debate on the subject alone. This is an important question for activists in all groups and parties, especially as more have taken an electoral strategy. We also expect to see anti-bin charge candidates. Although we should remember that this is not the only reason everyone is standing. Hopefully this can begin a debate on the subject without falling into name calling such as “reformist" or “ultra-left”.

I will begin with the preamble that I am writing from my own personal opinion and experiences and do not represent the views of the socialist party or anybody else (and if anybody feels I have misrepresented their position they are free to correct). And I will add I am also someone who has been living abroad for the last few years so won’t be up to date on every detail of every campaign or comment.

As George Bush was being greeted by hundreds of thousands of protestors in London, his little brother Jeb, governor of Florida, was demonstrating how to deal with dissent, Bush-style. The occasion was the FTAA summit in Miami. Tens of thousands of trade unionists and anti-capitalists came from all over the Americas to protest against this inequitable attempt to establish a 'free' trade area of the Americas. They were met with an unprecedented level of repression. Indymedia established a dedicated FTAA server and infoshop.org also created a special site to cover the protests. They provide a huge number of personal accounts of the violent assault on the right to protest that they encountered in Miami.

Several excellent reports are available elsewhere on the net, including DemocracyNow!'s Jeremy Scahill report on the "embedding" of journalists and assaults on independent journalists and Naomi Klein's description of the new "Miami model" of reportage as the war comes home.

The severity of the repression, including allegations of torture and sexual assaults in prisons, has provoked a backlash from organised labour. The one positive note is the increased solidarity between the more radical unions and the black bloc.