Review of the Year - nominate your "Left of the Year 2003"

national | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Tuesday December 23, 2003 16:34 by Left of the Year Awards

With only a few days left in the year 2003, it's now time to look back over the very eventful year.

This year was dominated by two major issues- the War and the Bin Tax. On the war front the highlight was the 150,000 strong march on February 15th. This was a massive show of opposition to the War that was launched by the Bush administration.

The Grassroots Gathering had it's differences with the Irish Anti War Movement on the March 1st demonstration. With the Labour Party, Green Party and Sinn Féin boycotting Shannon, the GNAW put forward the tactic of tearing down the fences, while the IAWM made an appeal to the Airport Workers. The IAWM organised a successful blockade of the Dáil where the Gardaí attacked the peaceful sit-down protest, with Joe Higgins being famously taken away by 5 riot cops.

The Gardaí attacking protests was a theme of the year even in the anti-fees activities of students. After coutless sit-down protests, road blockades, and occupations Students were the first group to force the FF-PD government into retreat on their cuts agenda when they decided not to bring in fees for the time being.

In September the Bin Tax struggle kicked off with increased intensity when the Councils decided not to collect the bins of non-payers. It started in Fingal and then spread to all other areas in Dublin. SP reps Joe Higgins and Clare Daly were jailed provoking a massive 5,000 strong demo a few days later. Overall 22 protesters went to jail. Another memorable moment in the Anti-Bin Tax campaign was protester Joe Mooney being hit by a scab council worker's van.

This is my brief overview of the year, feel free to add your comment on the last year. I am also looking into who you think are the prominant lefts of 2003. The following are a few I think were prominant.
Richard Boyd Barrett (as chair of IAWM),
Joe Higgins TD (Anti-War and Jailed anti bin tax protester),
Cllr. Clare Daly (Aer Lingus Shop Steward and jailed anti-bin tax protester)
Ciaron O'Reilly (Pitstop Ploughshares anti-war group)