Protest organisers: Bertie, Guards have "lost the plot"

dublin | summit mobilisations | press release

Tuesday April 27, 2004 11:40

by Dublin Grassroots Network

Dublin Grassroots Network, who are organising a May Day weekend of
events for an alternative Europe, today said that recent comments by
politicians and gardai indicated that they had "lost the plot" completely
and were saying the first thing that came into their heads.

Spokesperson Laurence Cox said that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's
comments that protesters were "misguided hooligans" was an insult to
the thousands of Irish people who are expected to take part in
the weekend's events. "Clearly Bertie is a bit out of touch with his own
constituents, maybe because he's trying so hard to impress mass killers
like Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi."

Recent garda comments that protests may be infiltrated by anarchists
were greeted with derision. "After Aileen O' Carroll's appearance on the
Late Late Show the whole world knows what an anarchist looks like,"
said Cox. "The only people infiltrating us are plain-clothes detectives."

Liz Curry, another spokesperson for the network, commented, "Security
consultants and journalists have recently admitted that there could be as
few as 30 or 50 "Wombles" coming from London. The Wombles are a
peaceful group whose hallmark is wearing padding to protect
themselves from police violence. What is going on that the Government
is calling out 5,000 gardai?"

GRA general secretary PJ Stone recently commented that most of the
protestors from Genoa were expected in Ireland. Pointing out that there
were a quarter of a million protestors at Genoa, the organisers of this
weekend's events have cited his comments as another example of
politicians and gardai saying the first thing that came into their heads
instead of stopping to think about what they were saying.

Curry called for any security presence to be low-key and calm in order
to ensure that there is no tension.

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Comments (5 of 5)

Wombles: Peaceful group?

by WOMBLES - wombles

Tue Apr 27, 2004 12:47

wombles at hushmail dot com

Hi ppl,

A major part of the politics of the wombles is our refusal into categories of peaceful/pacifist/terrorist/violent or whatever. We are a anarchist and refused to be put into a box for the sake of the media. We hope that we can speak with as many people in dublin about our intentions, we are an open public group and we are excited to be in dublin for this resistance.

W

Mayday - Government ‘putting gun back into irish politics’

Tue Apr 27, 2004 13:05

The Government is “putting the gun back into Irish
politics” by deploying armed gardai and soldiers to
deal with May Day protests, according to protest
organisers.
“It is ironic that a government that has spent so much
time talking about taking the gun out of Irish
politics seems so eager and willing to put armed
soldiers and police out on the streets”, said Mark
Malone, a spokesperson for Dublin Grassroots Network
(DGN), which is organising a May Day weekend of events
for an alternative Europe.

“This is a deliberate effort to both discourage the
public from joining a legitimate demonstration, and to
distort the motivations of the organisers by creating
a climate of fear,” Malone said.

Responding to comments made on Monday by Dick Roche TD
that the protesters had no democratic mandate, Malone
said that the use of armed force to police the
weekend's events was “an attempt to suppress the
fastest growing democratic movement across the globe,
of which these protests are an expression.”

“We condemn the deliberate use, or threatened use, of
live ammunition against unarmed civilian protestors,
while simultaneously talking about removing all guns
from politics in the north of Ireland, as hypocritical
doublespeak.”

“At the very least this is a cynical attempt to
intimidate people from coming out and supporting these
events, but it also carries an implicit threat to
those who organise and make vocal their dissent about
the dehumanising neo-liberal agenda that EU leaders
seem intent on imposing upon us,” Malone said.

“Real and meaningful social change only occurs when
people organise and demand it. The abolition of wage
slavery, the struggle of landless peasants across
Latin America, farmers’ collectives in India fighting
to stop GM multinationals patenting their indigenous
crops and those protesting about Irish companies such
as Top Oil making money out of an illegal war in Iraq
are all linked in their opposition to right wing
neo-liberal politics.

“If Dick Roche cares about democracy he should be
working for the abolition of powerful, unelected
bodies such as the World Bank and IMF, not putting
armed gardai and soldiers on the streets of Dublin.”

ENDS

For more information, including Mayday event plans,
see:
www.struggle.ws/eufortress

You shoot our protesters...

by we do the nosey. - and we do the teeth.

Tue Apr 27, 2004 13:13

& we will eat your minds.

You have entered the zone of the phenomonal be most careful how you go.

what was that cool line of 2002 tripped out acid burn iosaf ipsiphi23 style?

oh yes:-

In your Head. Bertie.

This little piggy.....

by Starstruck - UCD Left

Tue Apr 27, 2004 14:03

This little piggy went to Mayday........

More to follow tomorrow in the exciting conclusion of This Little Piggy!!!

eh?

by pc

Wed Apr 28, 2004 11:37

"Dick Roche TD
that the protesters had no democratic mandate"

no mandate ? you only need a mandate if your are few acting for many....

the demostators/ I only represent themselves?

the hundreds thousand out on teh feb 15th were democratically trying to influence
the mandate of the present government and that was ignored

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Protest organisers: Bertie, Guards have "lost the plot"

Comments (5 of 5)