[Peace-discuss] Right to water protests in Republic of Ireland - member of the parliament Joan Collins arrested

[David Johnson]

Of course the term " republican " has a total different meaning in Europe -

 

 

Encouraging report from Dermot. Trots plus dissident republicans could form
a potent force.

 

Tim

 

On Wed, Apr 22, 2015 at 7:12 AM, Dermot Connolly
<mailto:connollyd3 at gmail.com> connollyd3 at gmail.com [socialistdiscussion] <
<mailto:socialistdiscussion at yahoogroups.com>
socialistdiscussion at yahoogroups.com> wrote:

  

Hi all, Joan is fine and delighted with high level of media coverage and
messages of support on social media.Over 30,000 hits on her facebook page.
The 'other' Joan Collins, the one with the OBE, has put out a statement on
tweeter denying she was arrested in Dublin!

So as to what happened yesterday. Protests against the installation of water
meters have been taking place in working class areas since last autumn. In
Dublin Sth Central, Joan's constituency, not a single meter has been
installed in the working class areas due to these protests. 

These protests have been peaceful but effective, with residents standing in
the area where the contractors wish to work. The local |Gardai or
Guards(police) had a policy of not intervering as long as the protests were
peaceful.

Yesterday morning local residents rang our office to say two people had been
arrested and the Guards were being very aggresive.Joan And Pat Dunne, local
UL cllr, went down immediately to the protest. There they found a new
Sargeant, an Inspector from a differant area and guards from 4 different
stations.

People complained that one protester had been punched, another pepper
sprayed, and guards were using armlock and pressure point techniques on
protesters.Joan and Pat were arrested for refusing to follow a garda order
to move.Thirteen others were also arrested. They were released without
charge after an hour or so.and returned to the protest. No meters were
installed.

Over the last 6 months the state and the government have been faced with the
biggest mass movement in over 30 years.They have been forced into
significant retreats in order to try and diffuse the movement. Along with
concessions, there has been a campaign to claim the movement is controlled
on the one hand by dissident republicans and on the other by 'trots'. There
is also a policy of trying to crimonalise protesters. All of this is aimed
at either buying off or scaring off what the state/government believes is a
softer element. It thas not worked.

The R2W campaign (Right to Water) is holding a major event in Dublin on
Mayday. R2W is made up of 5 trade unions, including Unite, the small left
parties and left independants, Sinn Fein and well over 100 local campaign
groups. The mayday rally will be attended by reps from Syriza and Podemos
and will be followed by a policy conferance in June. This is part of a
campaign to build a 'Platform of renewal' as a broad based anti austerity
political movement. These are very significant developments.I hope to get
time to write in more detail on these issues but things keep happening!

 

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