Workers Solidarity Movement

Thousands of people marched from Eyre Square in Galway to the Labour Party conference at NUIG on Saturday. People had travelled from all over the country to show their opposition to the household tax and other attacks on people’s living standards. The story that made the evening news however, was one of the several hundred strong breakaway protest that reached the doors of the conference centre.

Two recent surveys have shed a little light on the levels of poverty and financial distress being experienced in Ireland. A survey by the "What's left" found 47% of households (over 1.5million people) with €100 or less in hand monthly after essential bills have paid. The other survey by Social Justice Ireland calculated over 700,000 people now live impoverished lives in the state.  The increasing cost of essentials, declining wages and rising unemployment are all contributing to this.

This technical note was produced by Shell to Sea to counter the misleading implications about file deletions found in the GSOC July 2011 ‘Interim Report’ into the Corrib cops 'rape tape' incident.  It was published as part of a Shell to Sea response into that report.  GSOC had used language to suggest that the recordings of the incident itself had been interfered with, a suggestion that was picked up and incorrectly reported by many sections of the media as fact.  RTE were later forced to issue an apology for their inaccurate reporting.

Seven academics from NUI Maynooth have released this statement revealing the details of how GSOC treated them in the course of its 'investigation' into the Garda who recorded themseves threatening to rape a women in their custody to force her to give them her name and address.  The statement was published as part of response to GSOC's highly misleading interim report.

In this personal account Jerrie Ann reveals the exraordinary pressure she was put under by GSOC after Garda in Corrib accidentally recorded themselves discussing threatening to rape a women she had been arrested with during a protest against Shell's experiemntal raw gas pipeline construction in Erris. "The GSOC ‘Public Interest Investigation’ has to date served only to mislead the media and the public about the facts of the case, which are actually straightforward"  This piece was written as an appendix to the Shell to Sea report on the GSOC interim report.

Below is the text of comments by Gregor Kerr introducing the 'Open mic' session at the Campaign Against Household And Water Taxes protest outside the Fine Gael Ard Fheis on Saturday 31st March.  Approx 25 people spoke - representing campaigns in Dublin West, Dun Laoghaire, Carlow, Ballyfermot, Wicklow, North Inner City Dublin, Finglas/Ballymun, Lucan, South East Inner City Dublin, Wexford, Newbridge, Connemara, Kilkenny, Edenderry, Cork and the East Wall area of Dublin.  

The rally was also addressed by Maura Harrington of Shell to Sea, Mick O'Reilly of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions, Jean Monaghan - one of the GAME Shop workers currently in occupation of their workplaces fighting for proper redundancy payments and Jimmy Kelly of Unite Union.  

The Fine Gael Ard Fheis took place over the course of last weekend (31st March). While hundreds of politicians reinforced an austerity-laden approach to politics in Dublin’s Convention Centre, about 10,000 Anti-Household-Charge protesters took over the docklands in an electrifying show of strength.  This was the final day of the governement trying to force people to register for the tax and by midnight it was clear that the campaigns goal of getting 50% to refuse to register had been met.

The Campaign against the Household Tax is in a prime position to win. Mass non-registration is now a reality, and the Campaign has been established in every part of the country.

Following on from their packed out National Rally the Campaign Against Household And Water Taxes is marching on the Fine Gael Ard Fheis which is being held  on Registration deadline day for the tax.  With well over a million refusing to register Fine Gael are running scared - let them see your anger at their conference.

Meeting at Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin 1 at 1:00pm

Saturday's National Rally against the Household Tax in the National Stadium was literally filled to overflowing. As well as nearly 3,000 people crammed into every possible space in the Stadium another 4 to 500 were in the car park at the side, unable to fit into the building. And the thousands who attended were angry, energized and expectant of victory. The National Stadium normally hosts boxing marches but the atmosphere on Saturday topped that of watching a home fighter coming out on top in a close fought bout.