Programme of 23 Workshops & 5 Plenaries for 1st Irish Social Forum Oct. 17th-19th 2003

national | public consultation / irish social forum | press release Tuesday October 07, 2003 09:44 by Barry Finnegan - ISF Communications Working Group john.finnegan3 at mail dot dcu dot ie

The Summit of Co-Operation & Solidarity

note to all:
a final version of this Programme of 23 Workshops & 5 Plenaries at the 1st Irish Social Forum (inc. times and room numbers) will be posted next weekend. Please get in touch with any additional info. - B.F.

IRISH SOCIAL FORUM - Plenaries
The Summit Of Co-Operation And Solidarity
Oct. 17th - Oct. 19th 2003

PROGRAMME OF PLENARIES for Fri. 17th Oct., Sat. 18th Oct. & Sun. 19th Oct.
Venues:
Fri. 17th ’03: University College Dublin Students Centre, Bellfield, Dublin 4.
Sat. 18th ’03: University College Dublin Students Centre, Bellfield, Dublin 4.
Sun. 19th ’03: Mother Red Caps, Christ Church, Back Lane, Dublin 8.

Details:
- Price: will be finalised based on costs etc on Thur. 9th Oct. ’03 (provisionally €5 to €15 for weekend Registration)
- What is a Plenary?: Plenaries have up to a 300 person capacity. They consist of a series of speakers on a topic for 5 to 10 minutes each. At least half of the allotted Plenary time will be available for facilitated debate, comment, observations, suggestions, etc from all in attendance. They will be conducted with the World Social Forum Charter of Principles in mind. They will be conducted with the accepted consensus practices of Irish Social Forum meetings and all-island gathering, eg: in the interests of openness and solidarity speakers must state their name, what groups/organisations they are members of, and if any what political party they are members of.
- UCD Students Centre is fully wheelchair accessible


FRIDAY 17TH Oct. 2003, UCD Students Centre.

7.15 - 7.45pm
Welcome Opening Gathering of the 1st ISF: The Summit Of Co-Operation And Solidarity


8.00 - 10.00 pm
YES TO PEACE - NO TO WAR Plenary
[focusing on issues of neoliberalism and war]

Osama Qashoo, an organiser of the International Solidarity Movement's campaign of non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation.

Dermot Nolan, member of the National Executive of PANA (Peace And Neutrality Alliance).

Aoife Ni Fheargail, secretary of the Irish Anti War Movement.

speaker: An Iraqi citizen, living in Ireland.

speaker: NGO Peace Alliance.


SATURDAY 18TH Oct. 2003, UCD Students Centre.

11.00 - 1.00pm
PLANET BEFORE PROFIT Plenary
[focusing on issues of climate change].

Richard Douthwaite, environmentalist; author (inc.: The Growth Illusion: How Economic Growth Has Enriched the Few, Impoverished the Many, and Endangered the Planet; &, Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies in An Unstable World); co-founder of Feasta: The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability).

George Marshall, author; head of Rising Tide UK.

Pat Finnegan, climate change specialist; head of Grían.

Deirdre DeBurca, green activist, member of Feasta; Green Party councillor.


2.00 - 4.00pm
DEFENDING PUBLIC SERVICES - PRIVATISATION AND PUBLIC SPACE Plenary
[focusing on issues of local and global reduction and commodification of public services].

Asha Amirali, People's Rights Movements of Pakistan.

Bill McCamley, SIPTU activist; CIE worker-director (Dublin Bus).

Bríd Smith, PRO Dublin Campaign Against the Bin Tax

Heike Vornhagen, Community Workers Co-Op.


5.00 - 7.00pm
YES TO EQUALITY - NO TO RACISM AND DISCRIMINATION Plenary
[focusing on issues of local and global reduction and commodification of public services].

Joanna McMinn, Director National Women’s Council of Ireland (speaking about the issues facing women).

Jonny Glackin, Kick Off Homelessness; journalist with the Big Issue (speaking about issues facing homeless people).

Ivana Bacik, Faculty Of Law, Trinity College Dublin (speaking about the legislative framework).

speaker, Irish Traveller Movement (speaking about the issues facing Travellers).

speaker (female Nigerian refugee), Residents Against Racism (speaking about issues facing female asylum seekers/refugees).

speaker, (male South African migrant worker), Residents Against Racism (speaking about the issues facing migrant workers).

Ailbhe Smyth, Women's Education, Research and Resource Centre (WERRC, UCD), (speaking about the issues facing gay and lesbian people).


SUNDAY 19TH Oct. 2003, Mother Red Caps.

11.00 - 1.00pm
CLOSING PLENARY OF THE IRISH SOCIAL FORUM: THE SUMMIT OF CO-OPERATION AND SOLIDARITY

More details forthcoming:
Due to the large (and increasing!) number of suggestions as to what to focus on during this final plenary, details will not be decided until the ISF Summit Working Group meeting this Thursday 9th.

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IRISH SOCIAL FORUM - WORKSHOPS
Summit Of Co-Operation And Solidarity
Oct. 17th - Oct. 19th 2003

PROGRAMME OF WORKSHOPS for Saturday 18th Oct. 2003.
Venue:
University College Dublin Students Centre, Bellfield, Dublin.
Times:
Note - In order to facilitate as many workshops as possible, use available space as efficiently as we can and to try to facilitate the hosting requests and requirements of the different groups and organisations, some workshops will take place during the Slot A or B in the Morning, Afternoon or Evening, while others will run during both Slot A and B.

Morning Workshops Slot A: 11.00am - 12.30pm
Morning Workshops Slot B: 12.30 - 1.00pm
Afternoon Workshops Slot A: 2.00 pm - 3.30pm
Afternoon Workshops Slot B: 3.30 - 4.30pm
Evening Workshops Slot A: 5.00pm - 6.30pm
Evening Workshops Slot B: 7.00pm - 8.30pm

Details:
- Price: will be finalised based on costs etc on Thur. 9th Oct. ’03 (provisionally €5 to €15 for weekend Registration)
- Organisations which can afford to, are asked to donate €50 to the Irish Social Forum in order to cover expenses for this ISF Summit Of Co-Operation And Solidarity.
- Approximately six workshops will be running simultaneously during the various workshop slots of Morning A & B, Afternoon A & B and Evening A & B.
- All workshops will take place in the UCD Students Centre on Saturday 18th Oct. 2003.
- Specific time-slots and Room Numbers will be allocated by Friday 10th Oct. 2003.
- UCD Students Centre is fully wheelchair accessible

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Title: DOCUMENTARY MAKING AT THE MARGINS

Host: TRÓCAIRE

Chair:
Donnacha O Briain, Documentary Filmmaker, co-director of ‘Chavez – Inside the Coup’.
Speakers:
E. Deenadayalan, The Other Media, India.
Muireann de Barra, Gaffer Productions
Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details:
Documentary Making at the Margins: this workshop will explore the experiences of documentary makers from India and Ireland in working with marginalised communities to highlight their struggles for social justice and to broaden and deepen the principles and values of democracy, justice and peace.
Deenadayalan works with a Trócaire partner organisation in India – The Other Media. The Other Media was set up due to the mainstream media’s tendency to ignore, distort or misrepresent the struggles and issues that affect the most vulnerable groups in civil society. Deenadayalan has produced and directed documentaries on caste-based violence in Gujarat and throughout India; the struggle of the indigenous Naga people in North East India. He is currently working on a film about women negotiating conflict and violence in their everyday lives and the role of women’s agency for change and transformation in everyday situations.
Muireann de Barra has worked in Ireland with drug-affected communities and with rural communities in Chiapas, Mexico, in a solidarity film and art-based project to recreate a mural on Peace and Freedom which was destroyed by the Mexican military. This project was captured in a Documentary called ‘Muralistas’ which has been screened on national TV networks in Ireland and the US and has also been shown in Chiapas.

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Title: CIVIL RESISTANCE AND STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE & RIGHTS IN PERU
(includes a documentary film on the health and environmental consequences of intense mining activities in the heart of the Peruvian Andes.)

Host: TRÓCAIRE & LATIN AMERICA SOLIDARITY CENTRE

Speakers:
Ernesto Cabellos - Peruvian
Stephanie Boyd - Canadian
Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details:
-This workshop will present a documentary film on the health and environmental consequences of intense mining activities in the heart of the Peruvian Andes. It highlights the struggle of peasant communities to seek justice and their rights following a devastating mercury spill by one of the world’s richest gold-mining corporations (Newmont). The workshop will also look at civil resistance in Peru and how other communities organise and prepare themselves to –participate in decision-making around local development in their area.

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Title: SOLIDARITY ON THE GROUND: THE EXPERIENCE OF ACTIVISTS IN CIVIL PROTECTION / PROTECTIVE ACCOMPANIMENT VOLUNTEERING.

Host: IRELAND PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN & EAST TIMOR IRELAND SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN

Speakers:
Osama Qashoo, International Solidarity Movement, Palestine.
Seán Steele, East Timor Ireland Solidarity Campaign.
Time & Room Number: Evening Workshops Slot A & B.

Details:
Solidarity on the ground: the experience of activists in civil protection / protective accompaniment volunteering. Issues for activists and organisations.

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Tile: PEOPLE'S LIVELIHOOD STRUGGLES IN PAKISTAN

Host: PEOPLE'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT, PAKISTAN.

Speaker:
Asha Amirali, from The Peoples Rights Movement Pakistan.
Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

The Peoples Rights Movement is a confederation of grassroots social movements in Pakistan which includes tenant farmers fighting eviction and privatisation of their land, squatter communities fighting for the right to shelter, students and teachers resisting privatisation of education, fisherfolk communities struggling to protect their livelihood from corporate foreign fishing fleets, indigenous forest dwellers protecting their forests from timber mafia’s, and people displaced by mega “development” projects asserting their right to life. In this workshop Asha will describe some of their struggles, and suggest ways - to be explored more fully in the remainder of the Irish Social Forum - of building solidarity between people in Ireland and Pakistan.

[At the 2pm Plenary Asha will tell the story of the Anjuman Mazarain Punjab (Sharecropper Tenants Association of the Punjab), a grassroots social movement in which 1,000,000 farmers in central Pakistan are engaged in a life and death livelihood struggle against eviction from the lands on which they have been tenants for as long as 100 years. The agenda behind this dispossession is the need of the para-statal companies and institutions who control the land to -realise their assets- before being privatised.
When addressing an audience of tenant farmers in Co. Mayo in 1879, Charles Stewart Parnell might easily have been speaking to their struggle as he said:
--You must not allow yourselves to be dispossessed as your fathers were, you must help yourselves, and the public opinion of the world will stand by, and support you in your struggle to defend your homesteads.--
Yet although no other country in the developed would should be able to identify with the struggle of these communities more effortlessly than Ireland, through demands made on Pakistan in recent trade negotiations at the WTO (specifically GATS), Ireland in fact appears to be complicit in the agenda behind this dispossession. In addition to describing the struggle of these communities, Asha will suggests connections between people's struggles in Pakistan and Ireland.]

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Title: PRIVATE PRISONS AND PUBLIC INTERESTS

Host: IRISH PENAL REFORM TRUST

Speakers:
Rick Lines, Executive Director, Irish Penal Reform Trust.
Ivana Bacik, Faculty Of Law, Trinity College Dublin
Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details:
In recent months, both the Prison Service and the Minister of Justice have identified prison privatisation as being under consideration by the Government. This workshop will examine the implications of the involvement of the corporate sector within the Irish criminal justice system, with a focus on human rights, international experience, and the creation of a progressive and effective justice policy.

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Title: GATS: LINKING THE EROSION OF PUBLIC SERVICES AND DEMOCRATIC ACCOUNTABILITY IN IRELAND AND AROUND THE WORLD.

Host: ASSOCIATION FOR THE TAXATION OF FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS FOR THE AID OF CITIZENS (ATTAC)

Speakers from:
Asad Farooq, Lok Sath (People's Tribunal), Pakistan.
Barry Finnegan, ATTAC; Article 133 Information Group.
speaker, Comhlamh
speaker, Anti Incineration Campaigns
speaker, ATTAC
speaker, Dublin Campaign Against the Bin Tax
speaker, Dublin Bus Workers
Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details: More details forthcoming:
GATS is the General Agreement on Trade in Services. It is an international trade agreement from the WTO which is being adopted by / forced on, governments / peoples around the world. The GATS attack on vital public services is linked to the EU Treaty of Nice, the commodification and privatisation of waste management and transport in Ireland, while for people in poorer countries the battle against GATS is one of survival.

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Title: NEW IRISH SOCIAL MOVEMENTS & DIRECT ACTION

Host: WORKERS SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT

Speaker: Dermot Sreenan
Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details:
Direct Action and its connection and use in modern ‘social movements’. More details and speakers to be confirmed.

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Title: WHERE NOW FOR THE ANTI-CAPITALIST MOVEMENT

Host: GLOBALISE RESISTANCE

Speaker:
Rory Hearne, convenor Globalise Resistance, Ireland.
Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details:
Globalise Resistance is an anti-capitalist network in Ireland. We have groups in Dublin, Cork, Belfast and affiliated groups in Cork and Waterford. We are activists who are trying to build the anti-capitalist movement by organising protests, stunts, pickets and information meetings. We organised mobilisations for the Genoa 2001 protests, for Florence 2002 and to go to Evian at the anti-G8 protests this year. We also organised protests and meetings against racism and deportations, around the WTO meetings and now we are trying to build a mobilisation for the European Social Forum in Paris. We unite human rights activists, trade unionists, environmentalists, socialists, anarchists, students and concerned citizens in a network that believes another world is possible and is fighting now for that world! contact globalise_resistance@yahoo.com, www.freewebs.com/globalise

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Title: PANA A.G.M. & PUBLIC MEETING
Host: PEACE AND NEUTRALITY ALLIANCE (PANA)

Speaker:
Ulla Sandbaek, MEP, and member of the Danish June Movement
Time & Room Number: Afternoon Workshop Slot A & B, Room Number to be allocated.

Details:
Afternoon Workshop 2.00 - 5.00 pm, Room Number to be confirmed.
There will be reports from PANA and elections (restricted obviously to paid up PANA members). However the AGM of PANA is open to the public and the invited keynote speaker is Ulla Sandbaek MEP, a member of the Danish June Movement who campaigned actively against the war in Iraq, so it should be of interest to people attending the Forum.

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Title: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, AN EXAMINATION
Host: INDYMEDIA IRELAND COLLECTIVE

Speakers:
Ciaran Moore - on political and economic issues; he worked in the software industry since before the dotcom bubble, generally under ridiculously restrictive non compete and non disclosure agreements.
Daithi MacSithigh - on a review of current Intellectual Property law; he is a law student in Trinity college Dublin and has just returned from a year in Canada where, in part, he researched the use of copyright in software
JD - on, in favour of copyright; as a photographer, much of JD’s income is affected by copyright, especially the use of images he publishes in other locations without permission or payment.
TBC - Open Source Code, philosophy and impact.
Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details:
From the use of an open source codebase, Oscailt, (purposely built for the Irish site) to covering (the WTO) TRIPS and (the WTO) GATS issues, especially in relation to Article 133 and the Nice referendum, Indymedia reporters, editors and others have found that the current issues around Intellectual Property are seen in the strangest of places. To this end we will be hosting a workshop on Intellectual Property issues as part of the Irish Social Forum to present these issues and relate them to a range of struggles, from anti-privatisation to global development, from biased media to labour rights.
Method: 4 presentations covering legal, technical, political / economic aspects of Intellectual Property. 1 presentation will be a pro-copyright piece from an Indymedia volunteer who works in photography.
Indymedia Ireland is part of the global network of Independent Media centres, which have grown to over 140 groups covering 80 countries since their origins in Seattle in 1999. Based around the slogan ‘Be The Media’ and using an open publishing framework to cover stories that other media ignore, the Irish group has been in existence for over two years and has produced media in the form of films, video compilation CD, audio CD, printed material and a website with over 60,000 news and review postings.
Each of the speakers will present for between 5 and 10 minutes.
Daithi will look at forms of intellectual property, how it is protected and what the current changes are in US, Irish and international law.
Ciaran will look at issues such as TRIPS, GATS and the recent WTO talks in relation to intellectual property. He will also look at the impact of recent digital rights management initiatives. Ciaran
JD will present a devils advocate view of copyright.
A.N. Other (to be confirmed) will discuss the open source software culture, how it works and the impact it is having.
This will be followed by a Q&A session.
Finally each presenter will propose a set of actions to deal with the issues they raise. Time 1hr 30 mins. www.Indymedia.ie

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Title: FARMERS RIGHTS NORTH & SOUTH

Host: CHRISTIAN AID &

Speakers:
Asad Farooq, Lok Sath (People's Tribunal) Pakistan.
Colin Roche, policy officer Oxfam.
Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details:
Asad has been working with the Anjuman Mazarain Punjab, a social movement of tenant farmers fighting eviction in Pakistan (see afternoon plenary), as well the Chashma campaign of people in central Pakistan struggling against the impact of mega water projects on their communities. In this workshop he will discuss his experience with grassroots initiatives in people's democracy and people's law, through the process of a Peoples Tribunal.

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Title: WHAT IS A FEMINIST ORGANISATION?

Host BANÚLACHT

Speaker:
Eilish Dillon

Details: More details forthcoming:

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Title: TRADE, DEBT AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVISM IN IRELAND AND AROUND THE WORLD

Host: TRADE JUSTICE IRELAND & DEBT AND DEVELOPMENT COALITION IRELAND

Speakers:
Jean Somers, Debt and Development Coalition Ireland.
Caroline Maxwell, Action Aid Ireland.
Conall, Trade Justice Ireland.
Aisling Wheeler, World Bank Boycott
Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Purpose of workshop will be to explain the current position on debt cancellation/debt campaigning and identify how individuals can get involved. The workshop will place debt campaigning and resistance to IMF/World Bank imposed programmes in indebted countries in a global and local framework.
Questions looked at will be:
- the impact of people's movements /global campaigning : what has been achieved on debt;
- what are the pressing current debt issues in the South and North of the- globe e.g. illegitimate debt, tackling the globalisation/debt link, cancellation for development;
- where Ireland stands/opportunities during the EU presidency
- Acting against debt
Jean Somers (DDCI) and Caroline Maxwell (Action Aid Ireland)

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Title: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE: THE LONG ROAD FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN IRELAND

Host: ALLIANCE FOR CHOICE

Speaker:
Sinead Kennedy, Alliance For Choice;
Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details:
More details forthcoming.

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Title: GLASTONBURY LEFT FIELD: FAIR TRADE AND INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY (Includes a short film on the Left Field.)

Host: WORKERS BEER COMPANY
Speaker:

Anthony Burbage, Workers Beer Company.
Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details:
The Workers Beer Company (WBC) is a fundraising organisation established by local trades unions in south London in the mid-1980s. The company runs bars and beer tents at large outdoor music events and festivals. The fundraising mechanism is simple. Trades union branches and campaigning organisations send volunteers to work in the bars pouring and serving drinks, and WBC pays the organisation for every hour that their volunteers contribute. Since its inception WBC has raised over two million Euro for the organisations that work with it. The Company has had long links with colleagues in Ireland and has managed bars at the Feile, Fleadh Mor and at Homelands. The WBC have had a long association with the Jim Connell committee in Kells. Jim Connell was the man who wrote the Red Flag, the labour movement anthem, and we supported a memorial in his birthplace in Kells as well as underwriting the Jim Connell Mayday in 2002. There's more on www.workersbeer.co.uk
The Company's heady mix of music, commerce, fundraising and plain fun has captured the imagination of a new generation of trades union and campaigning activists, and brought a labour movement message to hundreds of thousands of young people at festivals and music events. There's more on www.workersbeer.co.uk
At the Glastonbury festival we run the Left Field, a mixture of music and political debates in the heart of the world's largest festival. The themes of the Left Field were fair trade and international solidarity and we have a film of the event that we will show at the ISF. You can find out more about the Left Field on www.leftfield.coop Part of our fair trade campaign is the brand 'Ethical Threads' that we set up in order to drive the sweatshops out of the music merchandising business. www.ethicalthreads.co.uk for more information.

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Title: CHALLENGE FOR THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT: HOW DO WE ORGANISE YOUNG WORKERS?
Host: LABOUR YOUTH

Chair:
Peter Malone, International Officer Labour Youth and member of the board of ECOSY (European Young Socialists)
Speakers:
Rhonda Donaghey, SIPTU Official; former President of Dublin Council of Trade Unions, former Vice President of European Trade Union Confederation Youth.
Bernard Cantillon, Former Equality Officer of the Union of Students in Ireland, Former LGB Rights Officer UCD Students Union, Former director of ICOS (Irish Council for International Students), Former editor of the UCD College Tribune.
Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details:
This workshop will discuss practical ways and ideas for organising young workers in unions and for building the trade union movement. There will be a heavy emphasis on participation and discussion from the floor.

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Title: GAIAN DEMOCRACIES
Host: FEASTA DEMOCRACY GROUP

Speaker:
John Jopling, co-author of latest Schumacher Briefing ‘Gaian Democracies, Redefining Globalisation and People-power’.
Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details:
Feasta's main area of interest is the design of sustainable economic systems. We have many good ideas on this. But the Global Monetocracy which now dominates the world is a single economic and political system. We need to replace this with a global network of Gaian Democracies. This workshop will discuss what these would be like and how we can create them

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Title: LIFE IN THE BALKANS - AFTER WAR AND NATO

Host: June Kelly (WESTMEATH PEACE GROUP)

Speaker: June Kelly
Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details:
More details forthcoming. Around: daily life, depleted uranium, corporate takeover of media, NATO troops, democracy?

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Title:
Host: WEST PAPUA ACTION

Speaker:
Mark Doyle, co-ordinator West Papua Action
Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details:
Internationalising the West Papuan struggle for independence and survival. More details forthcoming.

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Title: BOYCOTT COKE

Host: UCD BOYCOTT COKE CAMPAIGN
Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details: More details forthcoming.
Focusing on the alleged links between Coca Cola company activities in Columbia and the murder of trade union organisers at the hands of paramilitary death squads. Updates on the boycott.

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Title: to be confirmed

Host: SINN FÉIN

Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details:
More details forthcoming.

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Title: to be confirmed

Host: SARI

Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details:
More details forthcoming.

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Title: to be confirmed
Host: CARRICKMINDERS

Time & Room Number: To be allocated.

Details: More details forthcoming:
Examining the issues surrounding the lobbying and direct action campaigns to preserve Irelands architectural heritage.

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