Press Release- May Day defendants should have been granted bail in clover hill
national |
summit mobilisations |
press release 
Wednesday May 05, 2004 20:00
by rory hearne - another europe is possible
Press Release- Those charged with public order offences from May Day should have been granted bail
Press Release- Those charged with public order offences from May Day should have been granted bail in Clover Hill
Another Europe is Possible (the broad alliance that organised the two-thousand strong march and carnival from Central Bank to Heuston Station on May Day) condemns the refusal of bail by Judge John Coughlan at Cloverhill District Court to the twelve men charged with public order offences arising from incidents during the May Day march to Farmleigh House. The men were then forced to go to the High Court where their application for bail was granted.
Press Release- Those charged with public order offences from May Day should have been granted bail in Clover Hill
Another Europe is Possible (the broad alliance that organised the two-thousand strong march and carnival from Central Bank to Heuston Station on May Day) condemns the refusal of bail by Judge John Coughlan at Cloverhill District Court to the twelve men charged with public order offences arising from incidents during the May Day march to Farmleigh House. The men were then forced to go to the High Court where their application for bail was granted.
Rory Hearne, Convenor Another Europe is Possible, said- “The decision by Judge John Coughlan was a clear contravention of the law which states that you are innocent until proven guilty. All the accused are on minor charges yet the Judge decided that they could not be granted bail because of the seriousness of the charges. Students doing important exams and a father of two kids were being denied their civil rights because they were arrested at a political protest.
This was a blatant attempt to intimidate and criminalise those who attend political protests. We argued that the state put in place a strategy of fear and tension both in the run up to May Day and on the day itself with scare stories of violence and the deployment of thousands of riot police and water cannon. This strategy was aimed to intimidate people from protesting on May Day. Despite that over two thousand marched on the Another Europe is Possible demo and thousands marched with Grassroots Gathering to Farmleigh House. We saw today with the harsh treatment of those arrested that they are continuing that intimidation. We are asking if this is an attempt by the state to harshly punish protestors in the run up to the visit of George Bush and thus hopefully intimidate protestors from taking to the streets when he arrives in June”
Contact Rory Hearne at 086 1523542 or Brian Cuddy at 0877759614 or Mark Grehan at 0877974622
Another Europe is Possible is a broad alliance of political parties, community groups and trade unionists
www.freewebs.com/anothereuropeispossible
Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8The SWP's Another Front is Possible had nothing to do with organising the demo during which these people were arrested. This is like the RTS thing when the SWP went off and organised a 'solidarity' demo without consulting those actually involved. Get off the bandwagon Rory! Don't you find it embarassing the way you follow the media looking for just a little bit of attention pleeezzzeee. Stick to issuing press releases about your own demos and put your clammy brown nose somewhere else. Nobody paid any attention to your retreat 'orders' last Saturday (the nerve!) so maybe you should try getting the message. Go and annoy someone else.
had a good laugh when i saw the list of people arrested by the gardai in the paper. mostly priveleged dubs from the richest suburbs in ireland attending trinity or ucd (our two poshest colleges). Sad people. reckon they are going through a phase of rebelling against their parents, and their protesting has much more to do with their own restlessness than any care for a particular cause. the poor little darlings. I'm sure daddly knows of a good therapist.......
the press release clearly makes the distinction between the two protests:
"and thousands marched with Grassroots Gathering to Farmleigh House"
If the swp/aeip had said nothing then there would be calls of 'why aren't the swp/aeip condeming this action' - am I right?
Solidarity is solidarity, and I know if I was locked up, I'd appreciate all I got.
I don't think its fair to blame the swpers this time - afterall there was no 'we're the RTS, but not really' press conference this time (at least to the best of my knowledge).
There was an attempt by Hearne to portray themselves and their AEIP front as the place to be if you were 'sensible'. The loonies, as they saw it, went to the evening demo. Make no mistake, they think us grassroots types are just gobshites fucking things up for them. They were really pissed off at the lack of publicity their stroll to Heuston received, so now they're trying to make up media ground by tagging onto RTS and the Farmleigh march. The SWP has one central priority - the SWP. Build the party!
You and your trolling throwback yellow stay at home and sneer shower of shitbags can't have it both ways. We're supposedly all pampered middle class students AND smelly crusties.
Which is it then you FF loving gobshite?
The SWP constantly went around slandering the people involved in DA actions in Shannon, condemned all NVDA actions as elitist, slagged off all non-SWP (or Labour bourgeois types) as moralists - yet every time there was a PR moment to be had they were there, milking it and just like RTS 2002 before it.
They are nothing but a bunch of unprincipled, hypocritical goons.
It is not so bad. More organisations (SF,SP, Labour, Greens?) should put in similar releases. What is annoying is the leaflet the SWP were giving out at the RTS on Monday. It included the following attack on the DGN.
"We are not Maggie Thatcher's childre acting like capitalist consumers
who each make individual choice (sic) - while the riot police pick off our
comrades.
Faced with this level of thuggery, we either move forward together -
or we hold the line together"
This is a further indication that the SWP are parasites on the movement not part of it. Diversity of tactics has been at the core of all summit protests since the start. It has been opposed by the SWP since they tried to climb on the bandwagon post Seattle.
It is also deeply ironic. Every one who reached Ashford stayed there until everyone was ready to march back into town. Except that is for the SWP who after trying and failing to get others to come with them took off down the Navan road and vanished out of sight. Not much 'holding the line together' there lads. They even left some of their own members behind to be arrested!
Those who did stay to 'hold the line' included pregnant women and disabled people. All together now 'One solution ... Revolution"
Ashford? Dont know bout you but I thought I was in Ashtown.
Mind you the rest of your rant is about as accurate.
Its possible that you , the disabled and pregnant did go to Ashford.!!
I also thought that alot of people left before the riot cops started their shit.
Lastly, would it be possible to just take a message of support and solidarity from AEIP as just that, and not some fucked up conspiracy theory. You guys should join the "lone gunman club"
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