The long march on Farmleigh

dublin | summit mobilisations | news report

Tuesday May 11, 2004 11:46

by Joe Black

5,000 word article on the march by one of the DGN organisers of it. More of an account of the planning, the media and what happened on the day than an analysis of what it all means.

In terms of the development of a libertarian movement in Ireland the march on the EU summit at Farmleigh will probably be seen as a turning point. For the first time the movement mobilized large number of people from outside its own ranks, in a demonstration that was in direct defiance of the Irish governments attempt to ban such demonstrations.

The march was just one aspect of a weekend of activities that had been planned and prepared for over the 6 or so months before the Mayday weekend by the Dublin Grassroots Network (DGN). I intend to write on or link to stories about each of these in due course, as all were worthwhile. Here I concentrate on the march on Farmleigh.

The idea of marching on Farmleigh came up early on in DGN planning meetings. Not everyone thought this was a great idea. Some thought all our actions should involved direct action and others doubted that we could get enough people to go on a march to make it worthwhile. Nevertheless after some discussion the idea of a 'Bring the noise' march on Farmleigh was agreed as one of a number of events for the weekend. As with all the other events the details were left to be worked out by an autonomous sub group of those interested in the march.

The 'Bring the noise' theme was inspired by demonstrations in Argentina in recent years, which were in turn inspired, by demonstrations against the dictatorship in Chile. The core idea is that everyone brings some noisy implement (e.g. pot lids) to make as much noise a possible. We recognized that there was no way the government would allow a march to get within sight of the EU heads of state but we figured we might get close enough for them to hear us.

The plans for the 'Bring the noise' march were released on the DGN web site and included in the 50,000 leaflets DGN published. Thousands of stickers and posters that also advertised the meeting up point at Parkgate street were also prepared and would be distributed in the weeks before the demonstration.

Article continues at http://struggle.ws/wsm/news/2004/farmleigh1may.html

[editors feel free to paste all the text in if you wish, as its already online I've just put the intro in here]