Carry on up the Gorman: Dublin City Council depot successfully blocked by anti bin tax activists
dublin |
bin tax / household tax / water tax |
news report 
Friday October 03, 2003 14:45
by Indymedia Kevin - IMC Éire
Report and photos.
The Dublin City Council depot in Grangegorman was successfully blockaded yesterday by a group of approximately 60 anti bin tax activists.
A High Court order barring two individuals from interfering with the collection of refuse was posted on the wall outside the depot.
The gates to the depot opened at 5pm for the evening run - primarily for collection of commercial waste (shops and businesses only) around the city. The demonstrators blocked the entrance, chanting "the bin tax is a double tax", "no way, we wont pay", and "all bins or no bins!". The truck stopped when there was no clear passage out onto the road.
The Garda arrived on the scene, and the demonstrators explained why they were blockading the truck. A DCC official flanked by the Garda read out an order over a megaphone to the crowd warning them they were committing an arrestable offence, but was drowned out with chanting.
The Garda then attempted to escort the small van through with the truck in tow, but again were blockaded by the crowd who were walking in a circle.
The Garda then gave up and the truck reversed back into the depot.
Pizza was brought to the crowd, and several younger members of the blockade took a turn on the megaphone to keep up the spirits of the demonstrators.
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Just a comment on numbers. At the height of the protest (just after 6) there were over 80 people counted on the picket. There were also a dozen or so observing and resting in groups nearby. There was also some turnover of protestors as people kept on arriving until the end, just after 8pm at which stage there were still over 40 people on the picket. Altogether about 120 people took part. Of the 120 maybe 30 were in political organisations, the vast majority of the rest were local Stoneybatter and Cabra residents.
This was by far the best of the dublin city blockades that I have been on to date. With these numbers nobody was intimidated by the police or the injunction. No arrests were made, no names were taken and even though the council claims that there was no disruption to their service, we can be confident that this was a lie. At least 2 trucks were inside the depot throughout the protest and one of them made several attempts to get out.
Highlights were when two young girls got their hands on the megaphone and led the crowd in chants; the council officials attempt to read a certain document through a tiny megaphone which was completely drowned out by the 'no way - we won't pay' chants; and the sharing of two large pizzas among the picket. Fair play to everyone involved.
A great turnout and a great success but where were the SWP? Brid Smith is supposed to be PRO of the campaign but she did nothing to build for this blockade. She didnt even get the SWP to turn up on the demo.
They organised a "lobby" of the depots for the same morning as the blockade, without the sanction of the steering committee. The SWP know full well that if people are at the depot at 7 am, they are unlikely to turn up again the same evening. They also gave much greater emphasis to the announcement of the lobby than the blockade at the Dail on Monday night, which was mentionned as an afterthought although it had been unanimously supported by the steering committee. So not only did they not manage to get people to the picket, they actively tried to sabotage it in advance.
Two solidarity actions took place in Dun Laoghaire / Rathdown today.
Ballyogan residents blocked the entrance to the dump for around half an hour, refusing to let any trucks pass. They then moved back into their estate and blockaded a bin truck. It was being held at around 11:30, I think that it has since been release. 30 or more local residents took part.
In Sandyford, a truck was briefly held in the Wedgewood estate and the same truck was then blockaded again in Moreen.
Really, I thought all this stuff about the SWP not advocating blockades and choosing loobying over such actions was just the usual indymedia bullshit, quotes taken out of context and the like. But I am appalled by this. Especially calling the lobby in the morning. If they didn't want to go on the blockade, they they didn't have to. Instead it appears that they organised a (almost) counter-demonstration/action. Sickening.
Also, I was up in Dublin the other day and was talking to a friend of mine from the Dun L/Rathdown campaign. Now, I dunno how true this is (this person doesn't like the SWP at the best of times) but allegedy while R-Boyd-Barrett is the Chair (?) of the Dun L/RD campaign, he was no-where to be seen for many months, and in effect some SP woman - Lisa Mahon(?) - was in effect chairing the campaign. Until of course it became a media issue and now Richard is back to bask in the glory (of lobbies).
Outside of all that, well done on the blockade. Looks very impressive.
It would seem that all the people named in this evenings paper are involved in the Finglas Anti-Bin tax campaign and were involved in the blockade on Wednesday.
The Grangegorman blockade turn out might be related to the time of day. It was an opportunity to participate in a blockade at a convenient time, i.e, outside working hours. More evening protests/blockades ...?
For a first try, announced only 2 days in advance, with minimal publicity, it was great. Since it was made public it does look like the council was able to get a couple of their trucks out early and hide them somewhere. If we could pull together the co-ordination to do this again, with more advance time and without a public announcement, we could really have a huge impact. We have hit on a very promising tactic for areas where non-collection has not yet been implemented.
The Dun Laoghaire / Rathdown campaign has two main officers. Lisa Maher (SP) is the Secretary and Richard Boyd Barrett (SWP) is the Chair.
It is true that Boyd Barrett has gone missing from the campaign for long periods of time. He is prominent when the issue is prominent. When he has something more glamorous to do (like chairing the IAWM) he disappears.
That isn't an anti-SWP sentiment. Their only other prominent anti-bin tax activist, Brid Smith, hasn't been prone to the lengthy absences. It's an anti-RBB sentiment.
Anyone local would know their names, so no need to give info to cops! So careful before you throw stones
There was one SWP activist there. This person recently joined the SWP after having been a local activist in the bin charges campaign for over a year. Unusually for an SWP member, this person abides by the decisions of the local campaign rather than the orders of the little Lenins. Fair play to this member, shame on the SWP.
The SWP in DLR have consistantly opposed blockades and continue to do so to this day. At all the public meetings in DLR they are usually the only people to vote against blocking trucks in solidarity with the rest of the city and to send a message to the council. This is FACT. If any SWPer denies this they are lying. Initially they claimed there is no mood in the county for blockades, when this was shown to be wrong they back tracked and are now saying that the workers are opposed to blockades again this is untrue. At the end of the day the SWP are soft and on this issue are very close to parties such as SF and Labour.
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