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THOUSANDS ARE EXPECTED to march in Dublin this afternoon in protest against the EU/IMF bailout and austerity programme in Ireland.
The Enough Campaign has the support of trade unions, TDs, political organisations such as the Socialist Workers Party, and groups seeking to maintain public sector services that have been affected by austerity measures .
One of the TDs involved in the march, People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd-Barrett told the Irish Times:
We are absolutely determined to mobilise mass opposition to this economic madness over the coming weeks and bring the spirit of Greek, Spanish and for that matter Egyptian style resistance to this country.
Protesters will meet at the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square in Dublin at 2pm to march for what it says are jobs, fairness and democracy, a bailing out of people and not bankers, and a scrapping of the EU/IMF deal.
If you are attending the march today submit your pictures for inclusion in a slideshow we will run later today. Email them to tips@thejournal.ie, tweet them @thejournal_ie or if you’re using our iPhone, iPad or Android apps, select the camera icon in the top left of the screen and follow the instructions.
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“What do we want?”
“IMF out!”
“When do we want it?”
“NOW!”
“What happens then?”
“Ummm….”
Dead right. Sinn Féin: the IMF should be told to go home. Big talk that’d have plenty cheering but I’d like to know what their next step would be, invest in research to identify a money-growing tree?
Personally I thunk its a waste of time marching, it lke marching against bad weather.
What has marching achieved for Greece and Spain ?? Nothing…. the countries are still in deep trouble.
Dickie Boyd is a great man for stirring it up, but like his schoolyard playmates Braveheart and Minger, seems to offer little in terms of serious solutions.
If there is anger and people want to March, then they should march to the houses of Bertie Ahern’s and his troupe of clowns who destroyed the country.
Another futile it’s not fair march. Our masters don’t and won’t care until you start killing them.
That’s a great attitude. If everyone had the same there would be no one there at all. People should just get down there instead of just giving out about it all the time. I’ll be on my way in another few minutes.
Killing them? Yes, that’ll help. What a stupid comment. How many do you want to kill???
More looney left-wing fringe groups shouting and screaming about having to take their fair share. When you’ve an €18bn deficit, how can you bridge it without raising taxes and cutting spending. Being anti-austerity is being retarded!
Why should I have austerity forced on me? I didn’t live in the red and they want me to pay for the people who did. No way!
Left wing my shiny metal butt,I am a pensioner so I could give you lessons in austerity.Fair share my a**e, the bondholders gambled and lost,burn them.
Your comment lacks any maturity or common sense, it wasnt the ‘looney left’ that created this mess was it!!?! It was right wing neo-liberalism that created the mess and whats the tact being forced on the people? The exact same means that led us to here in the first place! By burdening a society with unmanagable debt and high interest rates to pay off a debt created by multi millionares using funds of ‘debt’ that existed in digits only is the reason why people are protesting and its about time too!! You know the first sign of insanity is when people try the same procedure repeatedly without changing any of the process and expect different results. This situation is ridiculous and people would want to wake up to whats really going on!
I want to burn bondholders and our debts need to be restructured as most of them are banking losses, I agree with that.
However, EVEN if we had no more debts, we’d still have a deficit of €18bn that needs to be filled by increased taxes and less spending. Those are the only two ways that you can fill a deficit, unless you have a magic wand or a money printing machine!
Between bankers and politicians, there’s only about 100 or so people in Ireland who have had direct decision making powers over this crisis. Are we supposed to give them the annual €18bn bill and expect them to just have the money lying around.
We all have collective responsibility for letting these people have this power in the first place. As the saying goes, we get the government we deserve.
I wish there was an easier way out of this mess but there isn’t. It’s going to involved more taxes and less spending, otherwise you’ll see real pain and suffering as the country literally runs out of money!
Yes David obviously the defecit has to be brought under control but the problem is because of the unmanagable debt all our money disappears leaving the exchequer nothing to work with, also because of this debt hanging over the country people are not spending money which leaves the domestic economy shrinking, we cannot export our way out of this, internal investment is what should be happening on a mass scale and its not. The domestic economy is what we should be concentrating on, its where most have been laid off from and have joined the dole queues but for the past four years it has been completely ignored!! The politicians in Ireland repeat the same cycle every twenty years and dont seem to realise after the fourth collapse it doesnt work. If they spent less time trying to avoid taxes for the elites and more time investing in making this country self sustainable we would finally be on a road to somewhere other than swings and roundabouts! Again the first sign of insanity…. And this situation is insane! People need to stand up against the debt first and foremost!
I hope the march is well supported, this should have been done ages ago. We are all talk and no action! Enough pressure on the a**h***s supposedly running the country, you would be very surprised what might happen. I’m on holidays but with ye in spirit :-)
What would these ‘assholes’ do if enough pressure was put on them? Raise the minimum wage, reopen Roscommon a&e, scrap the USC, reverse cuts to special needs education? Do you realise to do things like that you need MONEY? Something we have bugger all of. So then another multi billion euro loan would have to be taken and loans have to be repaid don’t they.
I dont see this as a left or a right wing issue, it’s about reclaiming national sovereignty. I would be prepared to pay more taxes of they went to build schools and hospitals, not bail out fatcats who bankrupt the country. When are they going to prison?
Well said Niall, its about the people and their country, their future and their childrens to come, its not about what side of the bat some want to label you as!! The people need to stand together on this one, something the Irish, by history, seem to find very difficult!!!
No one is bailing out fat cats. The fat cats have massive debts and not a pot to piss in so those debts simply wouldn’t be repaid and the banks would be left out of pocket. So they’d be unable to loan to anyone else so commerce couldn’t go on so the country couldn’t go on. No money is going to these fat cats and believe you me they have no support in high places in this country anymore, they’ve fallen from grace. It’s far from a case of the government bailing out their mates, they are bailing out the banks who WE own for the most part and WE, as a country, need.
I hope there is riots. Nothing like a good riot to get noticed, that’s what I say.
What about instead of marching, we take all our money out of the banks, or we all refuse to pay our mortgages for a month.
Hit them where it hurts, in the pocket.
Yeah, neuromancer while we’re at it lets hope people are injured or even killed in the riots, yeah nothing like a good riot.
Seriously?
What a fool, you’ve no idea how economies work… Take all your money out of the bank and don’t pay your mortgage… That’ll hit those bastards where is hurts and then they’ll stop destroying the economy and hospitals will reopen and we’ll all be better off… Why not refuse to pay taxes as well, that’ll really show ‘em…..
And who do you think owns the banks at the moment? Go and find out then think about who exactly would be hit where it hurts if no one paid their mortgage and withdrew all their money…
Good idea. And if & when a household\water\septic tank charge comes in or sum other tax just to help pay for the bailed out banks , then we should ALL refuse to pay.
Why he references the Greek demonstrations I’ll never know. Wonder what the damage bill was after all their protesting, they certainly cant afford it. Thats the last type of protest we need.
I’d happily march if someone was able to suggest some sort of alternative, you know, thats like, plausible. Havnt really heard one yet from Boyd-Barrett & Co.
If we are not in need of a second bailout then why are we still being run from Brussels and by the IMF? Are we too immature as a country to run our own affairs? Ireland seems to have a deep psychosis that requires us to have somebody minding us all the time and the carry on of Enda and the other one bears this out.
IMF out, Dail Eireann in even if if they have to actually start running the place, our biggest trading partners are not the EUSSR. Money needs a home and investors will be in here like a shot.Always providing that Enda hasn’t sold off the assets as his new mammy Merkle has told him to.
I would march if it was purely about austerity measures but the whole thing has been hijacked by rent a mob loonies who don’t know what they are marching for just that they are against it! It’s all so negative, everyone keeps saying what they don’t want but they can’t put forward any workable solutions.
I agree that it is being hijacked by the PBP and co. They refuse to court all sides in order to have a significant protest. I was also going to march, but then realized it wasn’t being promoted and is more about the parties than mobilizing people.
To call these lefties “loonies”, is somewhat ironic considering that FF started what FG is continuing – both are totally right wing, even so far as having the IMF here. They are still doggedly following a neo-liberalist agenda of cutting works rights, cutting pay, cutting welfare and are moving toward privatizing public assets, before you know it we’ll have the WTO here too.
I think it’s correct and proper to be negative about these things.
The solution would involve a rejection of the Bretton Wood institutions, something the country is not ready for. I don’t think it’s fair to put the responsibility of the solution onto the people who reject a deepening of the problem.
For instance, if you are against austerity, what’s your solution?
Spot on Lisa
Thousands ????
According to RTE 6pm news …
‘about 400 people’ turned up
Dvonne unfortunately you’re a lone voice in the wilderness of reality
Please explain.
Dvonne,
I agree with you.
It hurts but its necessary in the circumstances
This ‘lets storm the Bastille’ approach, while all very noble is useless and unhelpful. It will only serve the undermine whatever little shred of credibility we have left in the world.
What idiot would hope for riots???
The one that failed to make it to Israel?
Pay all politicians minimum wages and give them bus passes instead of expenses. That will help austerity measures!
Then we’d have no politicians would we? You reckon that’d be better I suppose……
Socialism can work without a shadow of a doubt. Now I know its typical for right-wing cheerleaders to draw the horror stories of Stalinist regimes but lets look for example at Latin America. For years the people of Latin America were treated like nothing and slaves while their country was raped of its national resources by neoliberal policies in the west. Enter Chavez, Morales et al. who have taken moderate wealth redistribution methods and improved lives of the people. Now why cant these measures be implemented in Ireland? or the rest of Europe for that matter. It has been shown to work and can be done
Of course there is an alternative to austerity its just an alternative that doesnt favour capitalism. People say the Euro has failed, and indeed it has but lets go one further CAPITALISM HAS FAILED. The bailout is not to get Ireland fiscally balanced its to pay bondholders and prop up failed banks. The capital exists in this country to create a fair sustainable planned economy. Let us be very clear ALL profits that are generated in this country comes from the labour of the workers and as such profits should be distributed equitably in society for the common good not for capitalists or their lackeys. The answer whether people want to accept it or not, is simple, expropriate the wealth of the few redistribute it fairly, nationalize all financial institutions and big businesses and take the economy into public ownership and democratic management for all peoples need not some peoples greed.
(head in hands) ….O sweet jesus help us all
Ahh yes the alterative ( socialism? Communism?leftism?) has worked sooo well all over rhe world …)
Capitalism hasnt failed, it just hasnt been adhered to. In a pure capitalist system, banks wouldnt be bailed out, they’d fail. The directors in said banks would never get a job in the sector again. If the risk of bank failure was real, then I dont think we’d be in this position on such a wide scale. The fact is theres this casino culture right across the board because theres no fear of real failure for anyone in top level banking.
neither socialism nor capitolism works but what does is anyone’s guess.
i would like to see ourselves build up our country again and work on jobs and home grown industries, we actually have none! also people without work right now should help in anyway they can to help those who are more needy eg, their sick and elderly relatives and lonely and distressed sick, homeless, people in nursing homes or hospitals. People need People acting in a humanitarian way…we could do this if the will is there, but i wont hold my breath on this one.
The 12.5% Corporation tax rate is a crime while incomes are taxed at 40%+. The mantra is that if we raise CT that FDI would collapse and all the US companies would leave. So why not reduce the rate to 0% and entice further investment?
The real reason is that effective CT tax rates are around 8% and any further reduction would be tantamount to bringing the effective tax rate very close to 0%.
So when times are hard, instead of asking multi million corporations (ie their shareholders) to chip in with the costs of services, we vote in a government that raises tax on incomes and households, bailout banks that raising interest rates on loans and mortgages, close hospital a&e and cut SNA’s.
have your say