“Anyone passing Roxboro in the last 8 weeks will have seen the workers from Curran Aluiminium standing outside on the Picket Line in the worst of weather conditions. “

So starts the blog entry on Cheebah which is entitled “Striking a Blow”. It links to the same video that is embedded here on indymedia which has started to meander through the Irish blogosphere. Running at 4'45'' the Polish language piece with English subtitles has the story told by Grzegorz Romanski, Robert Grabowski, Marek Witomski and Robert Sawlewicz – some of the workers standing on that picket line.

While the Irish Times tells us 33% of Poles may return home - or at least gives recruitment firm CPL an advertorial to say so - we see that Grzegorz anyway intends to stay, as he is "fascinated by this country".The roll call at the end of this well constructed and informative video are our workmates and neighbours, members of our class who are currently being scapegoated and attacked. When Robert Sawlewicz ends the video by bluntly reminding us he is on the dole, he and his comrades are joined by more than 277,000 others. The SIPTU members in Curran Aluminium are standing on a picket line in Dublin fighting for the right to good jobs in Ireland, the right to be represented by their union, the right to decent, legally compliant terms and conditions. We should remember - the video may be in Polish but this struggle is all of ours.

Apparently the workers are back in the Labour Court on Friday - but the company has already ignored one labour court hearing that went against them so this dispute is likely to have a bit yet to run. While Country Tom and the Construction Industry Federation are happy to rip up social partnership agreements nationally - Curran Aluminium won't even accept the right of their workers to be repesented. And their own representatives in IBEC are happy to fight on their behalf to help them deny these workers the right to representation. Remember, in the current economic climate the only partnerships that matter will be those between workers of all types as they form strong unions.

The Harp, January 1908. Consider, oh, my compatriots, what this implies! That Polack, whose advent into the workshop you are taught to view with such disfavor, if you could trace his ancestry back a few hundreds of years perhaps you would find for him an Irish ancestor who charged by the side of Hugh O’Neill on that fateful day when the English flag went down in disaster at the Yellow Ford.
............
But, you ask me, why this thusness? What has all this to do with Socialism? My dear friend, this is a lecture on Internationalism. Didn’t you notice it before? It is a lecture written in characters of blood and fire in Irish history; a lecture on the mingling and merging and therefore on the oneness and unity of all the races of mankind.
Link to Original Lecturing Article

Were your children seen with this sign???

Reporting on Indymedia this evening, Andrew from the Workers Solidarity Movement (disguised as personal capacity) drew lessons from the large crowds who marched to Merrion Square in the bright and crisp December day.

How about a system where production is organised to meet people’s needs, where it would be regarded as insanity to have building workers idle while others go without adequate housing, where the idea of paying farmers not to grow food while hunger is still a daily reality in much of the world would be seen as immoral. This can only work when the means of producing and distributing wealth are owned in common, by all of society. That’s the meaning of socialism.
How about a system that takes socialism and freedom to be of equal value? One where people can do as they wish so long as they don’t interfere with freedom of others? One where you can have a direct say in making the decisions that will affect you? One where control is in the hands of the majority through democratic assemblies and councils? That’s anarchism.

...... will require the participation of many of our work colleagues, neighbours and friends. It is about the majority rejecting control over us by any minority group (whether it be employers or politicians). If we want the interests of the vast majority to be respected, then the vast majority must be in control.

Whatever, the anarchists and republicans were definitely along with the rest of us in learning something from na muinteoirí (teachers for our non-gaeilgeoir readers) today. Despite his intention to try and ignore our first answer and come back within a year with the same treaty for us to ratify the Offaly gentlemen currently holding the seal of Taoiseach (chieftan for the non-gaeilgeoir) will give up easy. You've always been thought to respect the elderly - now they're worth emulating.

Reports below the fold - add your own with the publish button. Add your photos and set your rights unlike most other sites.

Frequently Asked Questions as the mob film takes over the airwaves - ch. 802 UPC digital

Media that doesn't have any other distribution....................
.........................
..........other than the internet, screenings, dvds.........
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a place where these films are broadcast and can be submitted to be put on the television.......

It had to come to this. Somewhere along the way the means of production and distribution of media would fall into the wrong hands and even indymedia would be fully co-opted for the armchair activist. Don't go out on the streets, don't gather at your screenings or media centres, don't pass samizdat video from hand to hand - now you can consume independent media through the goggle box.

Dublin Community Television is launching on 16th July and the launch night schedule gives a clue to the influences - premieres of Route irish and Torture is Us mark the Independent Media Bloc which shows activist videos from Ireland and the world. Below the fold is the guide to the launch in the handy form of a FAQ.

Related Links:
www.dctv.ie | Route Irish | Torture is Us | the scheduler. | PDF File listing some other DCTV programmes | Cameras Filming in New Theatre as part of Launch | Seattle Showdown - the first Indymedia TV series

Hacking Cable - talking to the future of television in Ireland

Spot the scheduler - the new face of Irish TV

On the Idiot Box
Revolt on DCTV , Seattle Showdown - Indymedia Video on DCTV
, Health Meeting on DCTV

Illegal posters

Based on the 1997 litter act, the policy of the Dublin City Council to ban all posters of public meetings has met much resistance over the last two years. The ban, which affected many campaigns was the reason the IAWM changed Stop Bush Posters to election posters in 2005 and spurred a Protest at Dublin City Council over the ban on advertising a Rossport 5 march in sept 2005. In November, Joan Collins first proposed a motion at Dublin City Council to change this policy.

At each subsequent City Council meeting attempts were made to get this motion on the agenda with protests starting back in December. The announcement of the January protest also pointed out DCC was breaking its own ban while the labour youth notice outlined the legal position of the 1997 litter act and queried its use to ban notices of public meetings. Fears over the anti-democratic nature of the ban seemed to be realised in February when DCC attempted to prevent a Finglas Bin Tax meeting by threatening the venue for the meeting on the basis of the ban. In February the Campaign for Free Speech in Dublin was founded to oppose the ban while an article in Phoenix magazine made the same points as the January posts to Indymedia. As resistance stepped up, activists started using stencils instead of posters and more protests were held at each city council meeting and at the mansion house. Finally, seven months after the motion proposed by Joan Collins and seconded by Dessie Ellis was initially tabled and more than two years after the Assistant County Manager, Owen Keegan decided that posters were to be banned, the Dublin City Council seems to have reversed this undemocratic ban