Sacked Shop Steward receives letter of reinstatement after campaign of solidarity pickets

Dunnes Stores have 87 outlets in the Republic of ireland. When they sacked a 22 year old shop steward from their Ashleaf store, the decision of one manager in relation to one worker seemed small beans. But three months after Joanne Delaney was first suspended and then sacked for wearing her union pin the campaign supporting her has placed pickets on more than twenty of these stores to date and grows week by week.

On Friday 24th of February, at the picket of the Ashleaf centre the company gave Joanne a letter saying that she should turn up on Monday morning at 8.45 and she would be rostered on.There was no mention of a uniform policy but Joanne will of course be wearing her union badge and the campaign, support group and wider labour movement is waiting to see if the companies capitulation is complete. In the last week Dunnes outlets as far away as Belfast and Cork as well as North Earl Street, Maynooth, Grafton Street , Donaghmede and the Ashleaf branches have seen pickets. The cross party support has included a Sinn Fein day of action today, Saturday the 25th along with solidarity and actions from a wide range of groups.

Eoghan Contradictions Harris Plays Both An Orange Protestant Card And A Green Catholic Card: A Story In Four Parts

Extract: "In the Sunday Independent Eoghan Harris played both an Orange Protestant card and a Green Catholic Card in an effort to explain away this historical context, in dealing with one of the last acts of the War of Independence. In so doing he sought to arouse sectarian feeling where there is little if any. It was the Republican side that overtly rejected an association of religion and nationality. The empirical evidence thus far uncovered supports this contention. In their courageous determination to keep politics separate from religion, and to sweep away centuries-old divisions, Republicans of the Protestant faith broke with the historical identification of their community, while Catholic Republicans defied the ultimate sanction of excommunication from their church. But in playing with sectarian fire, Eoghan Harris risks undoing 80 intervening years that have tended towards harmony and reconciliation."

An account of apparently sectarian murders by the IRA in Co. Offaly in 1921 was publicised by Eoghan Harris in the Sunday Independent in October 2005. The allegation of the sectarian murder of the apparently unassuming Protestant Pearson family of Coolacrease was made by William Stanley of Carlow in his "I met Murder on the Way - The Story of the Pearsons of Coolacrease" (2005). This account of events that took place during the Irish War of Independence was then promoted by Eoghan Harris and by the Sunday Independent.

In the course of his analysis Eoghan Harris criticised Protestants in the South for not supporting his analysis and that of the Reform Group: "a group which wants to dig up the buried British and Protestant parts of Irish identity", according to Harris.

This article gives readers the other side of the story, the side ignored by Harris and the Reform Group, and by the Sunday Independent.

indymedia correspondent harrassed at ogra fianna fail convention

From the video:I've made, made my comments about that during the, the Dail during the week and I said eh that Tanema Bay ... full humanitarian em rights have have to be given to all of the people in it. That's been the Irish position from the start about Gontanema the gay eh people should be eh go through the, the normal system of eh being eh ... they're entitled to the humanitarian protection and rights and the full international standards of ah Kofi Annan has announced that we all stand up to should be given to the people in Guantanemo Bay.

From the Newswire - 18/02/06: At an ogra fianna fail convention this afternoon at the West County hotel in Ennis, Co. Clare an Indymedia video activist was harrassed by Fianna Fail handlers and locked into the press room by plain clothes gardai before being prevented from further filming by a uniformed garda seargent. But he still shed some light on what our politicians are saying about Shannon, Guantamo, Renditions and all that anti-war stuff. Nothing that makes much sense.

Related Stories:While the slimy politicians hide in the dark corners of their incoherence, the newswire has had details of a candle-lit procession next Thurs, 23 February at 5.30pm and and of peace flags flying on Grafton street. The Indymedia calendar has details of an upcoming Anti War Red 'n Black Bloc but it's only by reading an analysis that we learn the red'n'black bloc won't be alone marching.

Meanwhile, the controversy about those images continues, there are Reflections on Irish Neutrality and indymedia brings you media of Tariq Ali speaking in Dublin. Because on Indymedia you can read what the politicians in their dark and seedy corners fear the most - What we won't read this week in our papers

An ongoing dispute between members of the Building and Allied Trades Union (BATU) and Collen Brothers construction which has led to the jailing of three workers now appears to be escalating into a major dispute between workers and the company. Today (Feb 21st 2006) a picket at one of Collen's sites at University College Dublin (UCD) Belfield managed to halt work despite the presence of 60 hostile Gardai.

Despite the actions of the Gardai, which involved an early arrest of a picketeer and the construction of roadblocks in order to attempt to impede people joining the picket, there was no damage or trouble. A succesful blockade of the site was undertaken with the assistance of UCD Student Union. The Student Union had earlier passed a resolution supporting the 3 jailed bricklayers.

Although instinctive sympathies run high in support of the men, there are some questions over whether the demand for "local labour" as opposed to "union only" is diverting the campaign into a xenophobic dead-end. This could be a significant misstep in maintaining public sympathy and the sympathy of the broader labour movement.

Update: Feb22 Garda/Collen actions condemned. Feb23 picket continues

After a relatively quiet Winter, spent on speaking tours and accumulating resources to re-open the Rossport Solidarity Camp in the Spring, the Shell To Sea Campaign swang dramatically back into action with blockades and protests and a promise that this was only a taster of the direct action to come in Mayo if Shell and their cronies in Dail Eireann continue to trample on local people and force through their on-shore refinement plant.

The Action:
London Shell Station Blockaded
Galway Shell to Sea Action
Nottingham Actions 2
Cork Statoil Protest
(See The Rest Of This Feature For Account Of Dublin Action)

Background From Indymedia Ireland Archives