Media Mayday Mayhem Continues

by BANG YOUR DRUMS LOUD Sun Apr 25, 2004 17:43

Page 12
Headline: MAY DAY RIOTERS: “LET DUBLIN BURN”: By Deirdre Tynan

Sub Headline: As thousands of Genoa veterans head over for the EU summit, gardai, armed soldiers and hospitals are placed on full alert.

“May 1st 0 this city burns” – that is the stark threat being sent out around the world by the thousands of anarchists descending on Dublin this week for what is planned as the biggest anti-capitalist protest yet in this country.

It is just one of a series of chilling messages that have appeared on Ireland’s main anarchist website in the run-up to next weekend’s May Day protest and which are being taken extremely seriously by gardai.

Other grim images include a picture of a petrol bomb with the slogan “Arm your desires, take back your life” and a picture of a match surrounded by a heart stating “Embrace your burning desires – burn banks, build playgrounds.”

They are direct conflict with the claims by Dublin Grassroots, the group behind the protests, that the demonstrations being planned strictly peaceful.

The Government has rolled out an unprecedented security operation for the weekend, when Dublin will play host to 25 heads of government and their officials to mark the accession of 10 new member states. Up to 10,000 anti-globalisation protestors from Britain and beyond are expected to descend on Dublin in the coming days.

Armed soldiers hardened by tours of duty in the war torn Balkans will patrol the area around Farmleigh House and the Phoenix Park during crucial political functions.

The elite squad will be armed with semi-automatic and automatic assault rifles capable of firing up to 50 rounds of NATO-issue ammunition at a range of up to 600 metres. The 2,500 military will form essential backup to unarmed gardai, who will be supported by specially trained riot police and undercover detective who will be carrying .38-calibre Smith and Weston handguns.

Gardai say that every possible threat to EU officials attending the Day of Welcomes planned at Farmleigh House has been assessed.

Two major suburban shopping centres, Liffey Valley and Blanchardstown, have been warned that they may be the targets of a diversionary attack designed to push resources to the limit and deflect from the main focus of security at the Phoenix Park.

The high level of security comes after what a Garda spokesman described as “months of intensive preparation with security and police forces across Europe and in the UK”.

However, the biggest threat is violence from organised cells of hard-core anarchists who have been working hand-in-hand with more experienced radically violent groups in Britain and Europe.

These groups were behind disruption at previous summits in Genoa and Thessalonika, and past May Days in London which were marred by street violence orchestrated by the Wombles – a sinister group of anti-capitalist protestors led by the notorious Alessio Lunghi, the son of an Italian wine merchant.

While the official numbers of soldiers on the streets will be “in excess of 2,500”, a Department of Defence source confirmed last night that all 11,500 members of the Army will be available to gardai.

Up to 4,000 gardai, a third of the force, will be stationed around flashpoint areas, including Merrion Square, the Garden of Remembrance and Phoenix Park.

And despite insisting that Irish anarchists had nothing to do with the extremist Wombles, Ireland on Sunday has obtained a copy a of an e-mail sent by Chekov Feeney, a key figure in the local network, to the Wombles in which he pleads with them to assist with a media campaign.

“Hi to the Wombles and other rebels across, the water” he writes and concludes with, “Anyway, I look forward to meeting more of ye in May.”

Feeney has called for donation to be sent directly to him at an address in Upper Gardiner Street in Dublin.

IoS has also obtained minutes of a Womble meeting held on April 13 in London in which Dubli9n May Day was top of the agenda. Points five and six reveal that their focus will be on the evening of Saturday. May 1 when “more confrontational tactics may be utilised. We need helmets and other protective gear. The police are prepared for any confrontation.”

On their website they write, “On May Day, to show resistance is paramount. We are not falling for their glossy PR and trashy pop concerts. We stand with the exploited of no country, all who have fought and continue to fight by any means against the criminality of power.” And they provide an e-mail address to contact “anarchists/anti-authoritarians going to Dublin”.

It would appear that these invitations to be violent have not fallen on deaf ears. In the past week, Irish anarchists have issued a series of threats via the web and through graffiti, urging the use of petrol bombs, and widespread property destruction. In fact, the link has since been removed from the web because of its alarming content.

In response, one activist who identified himself only as “Slayer – Fifth International” wrote, “We’re going to burn down Dublin city centre. There won’t be a building left standing by the time we’ve finished.”

A Garda source has confirmed that the special Branch has been monitoring anarchists and Internet sites. Some sites are known to contain links to instructions on how to make petrol bombs.

Gardai have also arranged to borrow six water cannon from the Belgian Police via the PSNI. All hospitals in the Dublin area have also been placed on full alert and naval vessels will patrol Dublin Bay.

Ireland on Sunday, April 25th, 2004
Page 13
Headline: The anarchist organiser by night who teaches our children by day
By Marie Nolan

On Friday night’s Late Late show, she looked and sounded more like a country schoolteacher than what she openly admitted to being: an anarchist. And to her colleagues at one of the country’s top universities, she is a highly respectable sociology lecturer with a rather frumpy dress sense and a suitably battered old bicycle.

But, Ireland on Sunday can today reveal, Aileen O’Carroll is not only one of the prime movers behind next weekend’s planned May Day protests in Dublin but also a committed and militant street agitator.

Although she was careful to couch her arguments in the language of sweet reason when talking to Pat Kenny, the 34-year old single woman is in reality an unreconstructed left-wing die-hard.

She has been a regular attender at anarchist meetings held in downmarket city-centre pubs where vanguard elements have for months been plotting how to disrupt the upcoming EU summit.

The University College Dublin (UCD), lecturer is a leading member of the Dublin Grassroots Network, which has been in contact with the London based militant anarchist group, the Wombles, about next weekend’s protests.

She is also a member of the Workers Solidarity Movement and the Dublin Abortion Rights Group and regularly contributes to anarchist and feminist websites and magazines.

She has written glowingly about the Genoa protest in Italy 2001, in which one person was killed and hundreds were injured. She also attended the May Day anarchist gathering in Bradford in 1998.

She says: “ I travel to anarchist conferences as often as possible because I find them both source of inspiration and information.

“Rather than picturing oneself as a member of a small group of activists located in a particular part of an island, each anarchist needs to see him or herself as part of a great worldwide movement.”

Ms O’Carroll, who describes herself as an “anarcho-feminist”, is by no means intellectually blinkered. She graduated with a BA from Trinity College, Dublin before gaining a diploma in social research in 1994 from UCD, followed by a Master’s in Social Science in 1995.

In 2000, she won a Government scholarship to allow her to devote herself to her studies fulltime and complete a thesis about the organisation of work in computer companies.

Perhaps not unsurprisingly only a few UCD have signed onto here esoterically titled course, Clocks and Cites through Time and Space.

When not obsessing about the corporate capitalist threat, Aileen also busies herself from her Dublin home with issues in the Irish pro-choice movement and writing theoretical pieces about “why women are still not free”.

On her personal anarcho-feminist web page, she says: “There is no denying things have got better but still freedom is a bit of a way off. Why is this? Despite the fact that the struggle for women’s liberation has been going on for hundreds of years, why are we still not equal? I’m writing from Ireland, which is still a very Catholic country. Happily the church’s power is, bit by bit, being eroded.”

Ms O’Carroll, who was an active campaigner for the right to divorce, goes onto declare. “Better dead than wed, say I.”

by BLOW YOUR WHISTLES Sun Apr 25, 2004 17:46

The Star Sunday, April 25th, 2004
Page 21/22
Headline: Gardai Told 2,000 Key Rioters are on way for May Day Madness
Sub Headline: Anarchists ready for battle on the streets
By: John Mooney

Foreign security services have warned gardai that up to 2,000 known rioters are making their way to Dublin for May Day.

The warnings have come from Scotland Yard, MI5 or the British Security Service, and the French and Italian police.

Officers seconded to the Garda’s intelligence department, codenamed Crime and Security, are working around the clock to gather up-to-date information on the movements of key rioters.

Gardai believe extremists associated with groups including the British anarchists the Wombles and Euroopposizione – an Italian anarchist group suspected of sending four letter bombs to top EU officials – are on their way to Dublin.

They are targeting Dublin because it will be the centre of international attention –hosting no fewer than 25 heads of state attending city celebration to mark the accession of 10 new member countries to the EU.

Gardai have been told that anarchists want to transform the city streets into a battle-ground.

The British Security Service, M15, also known as Box, has provided Garda HQ with information on key anarchists planning trouble.

The service has infiltrated several protest groups using undercover agents and informants who have provided the data. EU security agencies have also collated information on travel arrangement made by potential rioters around May Day. Intelligence shows that many are flying to Britain and then making their way to Dublin, Cork, Belfast and Shannon. Other contingents are travelling to hub airport in Europe where they hope to catch connecting flights into Ireland. Garda say they have particularly concerned about the cancellation of May Day protests in London.

The May Day Collective – the group which organises May Day protests- has declared that its annual protest has been cancelled.

The protest organisation is the central co-ordinator for a range of anti-capitalist groups, some of whom advocate violence and damaging business property.

Gardai believe thousands of demonstrators who attended the annual march will now travel to Ireland. They fear that companies closely associated with Third World exploitation could be attacked. Among the lists of companies now under threat are the fast food chain McDonalds.

London’s May Day protests have traditionally been marred by violence since 2000, when there was widespread looting and the Cenotaph was defaced.

In 2001 police out-manoeuvred protesters, 3,000 of whom they trapped in Oxford Circus behind officers carrying riot shields. Central London was sealed off for hours.

In the past two years police have managed to restrict demonstrator’s intent on targeting the London offices of unethical businesses.

Intelligence indicates that this was s significant factor in the decision to abandon the march.

The Mayday Collective is link with anti-capitalist groups like the Wombles – who dress in protective gear before trying to attack police – and Reclaim The Streets, an environment-driven direct-action group.

It has been involved in protests in the capital since June 1999, when anti-capitalists looted parts of the city and caused more than 3m euro worth of damage.

Despite their bizarre sounding name, the Wombles have clashed with police officers charged with controlling mass demonstrations at international conventions attended by world leaders.

The group caused widespread disturbances at World Summit meetings in Genoa and previously in Seattle. The group is known to have a particular expertise in sparking off violence within peaceful protests.

Members wear white body suits and masks to disguise their identities and confuse police managers charged with monitoring rowdy charged activities within large gatherings.

Euroopposizione also poses a serious threat. Its members have previously attacked EU commission President Romano Prodi and European Central Bank Chief Mr Jean-Claude Trichet.

Activists sent a letter bomb to Mr Prodi last December which exploded in his hands but he was unhurt. It also targeted the EU police agency, Europol, in The Hague, and another EU institution called Eurojust.

The group’s manifesto says it is against “Europe’s masters, their war, their peace, their repression, their control”.

Gardai plan to quell any violent incidents, if they break out, quickly and efficiently.

“We do not want to get into violent confrontation with protestors. People have a right to march and express their views but we will not allow small contingents to cause problems,” said a senior garda.

Force management is laying down a series of measures to reduce the risk of violent riots from breaking out.

Gardai are expecting at least 15,000 foreign protestors in total to arrive in Ireland in the days prior to May Day.

They expect an equal number of Irish people to take to the streets and protest against unfair tirade agreement, human right abuses and Third World debt.

Senior gardai have put in place strategic plans to curtail the likelihood of riots breaking out.

All lands around Farmleigh Estate in the Phoenix Park will be sealed off to prevent protestors from attacking EU politicians.

Officers across the country and immigration garda will mount overt and discreet surveillance on port and airports, hotels and guest houses. The Garda National Immigration Bureau also plans to place garda on trains and buses coming to and from Belfast and Derry. Checkpoints will be mounted at all major cross-border routes to detect the movements of known agitators.

In Dublin, gardai will have access to six water cannons on special loan from the Police Service of Northern Ireland. And a record 7,800 officers – more than half the force – will be on duty in Dublin city to offset any problems.

Young gardai dressed in plain clothes will mingle with protestors to identify trouble makers who try igniting violent clashes.

They will communicate with senior garda through discreet radios enabling perpetrators to be arrested by snatch squads.

Gardai are also monitoring various Internet sites where protestors are now planning rendezvous.

Over 1,000 officers have received special riot training while members of the Defence Forces will be on Stand-by to assist gardai if riot situations develop out of control.

The Garda Dog and Horse Unit will also be deployed to police the streets. Senior garda have confirmed that armed street patrols will begin tomorrow six days before the celebrations on May 1.

by MAKE LOTS OF NOISE Sun Apr 25, 2004 17:50

Page 34/35
Headline: Rangers to guard Europe’s Leaders
Sub Headline: Anarchist threat to ceremony in Dublin
By: Danny Conlon

Crack Ranger commandoes are to pit their wits against violent anarchists in a May Day battle to protect Europe’s bigwigs.

A hardcore of troublemakers is hellbent on wrecking Ireland’s top-level shindig to mark the moment when ten more countries join the EU.

Intelligence chiefs warn that Brit hardnuts the Wombles will join Irish militants in an orchestrated attempt to cause mayhem.

In a chilling website threat, the Wombles snarl: “European union means a dead-end of humanity. It cannot be reformed: it must be destroyed from the bottom up. On May Day, to show resistance is paramount.”

And at a meeting last week of May Day march organisers, the Dublin Grassroots Network, one activist hinted darkly: “The Wombles will break away from the main group to get on with what they want to do.”

But Taosieach Bertie Ahern has promised his fellow Premiers they will be kept safe behind a wall of steel patrolled by our Army elite.

As well as the Rangers, there will be 2,500 ordinary soldiers on standby, including bomb disposal experts and members of the Defence Forces’ chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear unit.

Garda leave has been cancelled with 4,000 officers lining the march route armed with riot gear and water canon.

A steel fence has been put up between Phoenix Park, where the demonstrators will be, and former Guinness mansion Farmleigh, where the heads of State are to meet. Temporary detention centres will house arrested troublemakers. Garda helicopters will patrol the skies and naval vessels will keep a close watch on Dublin Bat.

Security at this level has rarely been seen in Dublin. But the stakes are high, with the guest list reading like a Who’s Who of political greats.

Mr Ahern is hosting the event as part of Ireland’s six –month presidency of the EU. Tony Blair, Gerhard Schroeder and Jacques Chirac will represent Europe’s powerhouses of Britain, Germany and France.

They will be joined by the leader of the 11 other countries already in the EU. Also there will be heads of the 10 ascending countries and the Premiers of EU wannables Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, who hope to join shortly.

From inside Farmleigh, the 28 leaders will be able to hear the pans, bells, and whistles being banged and blown in Phoenix Park by up to 5,000 demonstrators.

The noisy Saturday evening protest is to be the climax of the march, which Dublin Grassroots Network says aims “to highlight opposition to privatisation, EU militarization and social injustice”.

Spokesman Lawrence Cox said: “We aim for this protest to be peaceful. But if marchers are stopped by Garda lines, we plan to find ways around them.”

Dr. Cox confirmed that “several groups” including the Wombles were joining the march from across Europe.

Security chiefs point out they have been left with no choice but to cautious in light of the open threats of violence. There have even been warning of a poison gas attach on Farmleigh.

It is just on of a myriad of possibilities the Ranges have vowed to present, in line with their motto: Clean hearts, strong limbs and commitment to promise.

by SOUNDSCAPES PROMOTER Sun Apr 25, 2004 17:52

Front Page:
Headline: Major disaster plan put in place for Mayday protests
By: Paddy Murray

A Major disaster plan, involving hospital beds set aside for potentially injured gardai and prison cells for arrested protesters, has been put in place in anticipation of next weekend’s Mayday protest in Dublin.

Gardai have already been made aware of plans by anarchists and protesters from around Europe to stage major demonstrations as the accession of 10 new states to the EU is marked in Dublin during Ireland’s presidency of the EU.

While it is acknowledged that there will be protest on Mayday by various groups opposed to the EU and globalisation at the very least, it has not been known until now that a major disaster plan has been put in place by the government. Hospital beds have been set aside in Blanchardstown’s James Connolly Memorial Hospital for the exclusively for members of the security forces expected to be injured in any demonstrations that may take place. It is believed that provision has also been made to reopen facilities at St Brichin’s hospital, the army facility at the Phoenix Park which has been wound own in recent years.

It will also be made possible to keep up tot 100 prisoners in custody in Cloverhill and Mountjoy prison next weekend. Protest groups based both Ireland and abroad have promised to disrupt the meeting of EU heads in Farmleigh House on Saturday evening next.

Nut security sources have suggested that protesters have no chance of getting anywhere near the venue, with thousands of garda and soldiers deployed to guard the prime ministers from the current and candidate countries.

by Sun Apr 25, 2004 17:58

editors please correct above double photo posting with this image.

by Brian Sun Apr 25, 2004 19:44

perhaps these talentless lard assed hacks were a little pissed off when aileen made that star hack on the late late look like a bufoon the other night. holy shit. we should rename this sunday horseshit sunday!

by Neddy Sun Apr 25, 2004 20:06

Buffoon? Undoubtedly.
I think another useful term would be, "He made a hames of it". That term is frequently used to mean that someone made a mess of things. (A 'hames' is a horse's collar).

He could also be said to have "made a dog's dinner of it"
I'm not sure if all the horseshit is due solely to that performance. They were probably under orders to create those stories anyway.
Still, it's amazing that one of our leading journalists did not know the real meaning of the term "Agent provocateur"

by MAKE LOTS OF NOISE Sun Apr 25, 2004 21:09

Page: ‘News 3’
Headline: 5m Euro security fence to encircle Farmleigh for May Day ceremony
Sub Headline: 5,000 gardai and 3,000 soldiers to police accession celebrations
By: Jim Cusack and Lara Bradley

A FENCE costing an estimated 5m Euro is being erected around Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park in Dublin as part of the huge security operation for next Saturday’s May Day EU accession ceremony.

Up to 5,000 gardai and 3,000 soldiers will be on duty, making it the biggest security exercise ever mounted here.

More than 1,000 riot police in flame-proof outfits and helmets have been trained for the event, but will be kept out of sight unless serious trouble breaks out.

Another 250 riot police are being stationed Shannon in case there are attacks by protestors opposed to the use of the airport by US military aircraft.

However, the main concentration of security will be in Dublin, where the Phoenix Park will be sealed off by gardai and soldiers. Security will be highest at the Park Gate entrance, around Farmleigh, the US Ambassador’s residence and Aras an Uachtaran.

An extra 2,000 gardai are being bussed into Dublin from stations all around the country, and put in hotels around the city centre. They will assist in the security operation surrounding the most important EU ceremony in decades as 10 new Eastern European states join the union.

The gardai even have contingency plans to helicopter the heads of state from Dublin Airport to Farmleigh if protestors try to block routes into the city.

Senior Garda sources say they hope there will be no trouble on the day and that protests are likely to be peaceful, but no risks are being taken. Garda management do not want a repeat of the highly embarrassing scenes from two years ago when young gardai were caught on video using their batons to disperse anti-globalisation protestors.

It has been learned that many rank and file gardai have expressed concerns about next Saturday’s operation, particularly about the ordinary uniformed officers who will be the first line of defence in any major disturbances.

The Garda Representative Association is expected to discuss some of these misgivings at its annual conference, which opens in Bundoran, Co. Donegal, tomorrow. There were considerable misgivings among member of the force about the management of the 2002 May Day trouble in Dublin that resulted in six-gardai facing assault charges and possible dismissal.

Dublin GRA executive member Dermot O’Donnell yesterday said the association was insisting on proper briefing sessions for the gardai and the issuing of “detailed responses in dealing with developments that may arise”.

He added: “We have made it clear that we expect senior officers to be deployed alongside our members throughout the event. It is our stated position that any risks identified are eliminated in as far as is possible”.

Mr O’Donnell called for the testing of the high-visibility florescent jackets that gardai would be wearing on duty to ensure that they did not pose a risk if petrol bombs were thrown at officers.

Earlier this week officers began testing water cannons that are on loan from the PSNI. The vehicles were moved into the Phoenix Park on Thursday night.

Garda sources have confirmed the force will be taking a strict approach to crowd control. At the first sign of trouble, gardai will address the crowd with loud hailers giving a 15-minute warning. Water cannons will then be turned on troublemakers. It has also been suggested that yellow dye will be added to the water in the cannons so rioters can be easily identified if they try to escape through the crowds.

Residents in the areas surrounding the Phoenix Park have been told they will not get access to their home on May Day without valid ID and proof of their address. They have also been advised not to accept visitors on May 1.

The “Another Europe is possible” group, which had planned a carnival and protest in the Phoenix Park on May Day, met with gardai last Thursday.

Organiser Rory Hearne said: “Closing the park was first mentioned a week ago and it confirmed on Thursday. We weren’t given any concrete reason why they were closing it.

The group appealed the decision to the Garda Commissioner last Friday and expects a reply this week.

If it is not allowed to the park, the protest will go ahead at the Parkgate Street entrance.

Dublin Zoo will lose more than 50,000 Euro in revenue after being ordered to close for the first time in its 174-year history.

May Day is traditionally one of the zoo’s busiest days, with 5,175 visitors on the day last year and 5,052 through the gates on May Day, 2002.

But this year the zoo has been ordered to close as security forces seal off the Phoenix Park to accommodate a welcoming ceremony for the EU accession states at Farmleigh.

by NOISE MACHINE Sun Apr 25, 2004 21:12

Page: ‘News 2’
Headline: Blanchardstown shopping centre on May Day alert
By: Barry O’Kelly – Crime Correspondent

A small hardcore group of anti-globalisation activists may try to attack a major shopping district during the EU May Day protests, according to garda sources.

“There are intelligence reports that they intend to target a specific shopping area in Dublin, possibly the Blanchardstown centre,” a senior garda told The Sunday Business Post.

The Dublin City Centre Business Association has also been warned about a possible threat to city stores. Its chief executive Tom Coffey said, “We have already been made aware of (this). But we are well prepared for every security contingency”.

Gar5dai disclosed that judges and special courts have been put on stand-by in Cloverhill, Clondalkin; hospital beds have been reserved for possible garda and army causalities in Blanchardstown; and even morgue space has been reserved.

The sources said that most of the 25 EU leaders will be flown directly into the Phoenix Park on May Day for the evening dinner in Farmleigh House. “There is no alternative – we only have seven bullet-proof cars available,” a source said.

“The protesters will be halted at Heuston Station, but intelligence suggest this is one of only a number of potential trouble spots,” he said.

A team of 40 “flying squads” will be on stand-by. “There will be 35 to 40 vans, each with a sergeant and four member of the riot squad. Each garda division will be broken into districts and sub districts, with armed detectives patrolling the main routes,” the source said.

Gardai are contacting hotels and B&Bs in an attempt to identify reservations by know anti-gloalisation activists from abroad.

Garda sources say that up to 2,500 officers will guard the Phoenix Park, while 3,000 uniformed gardai will patrol the streets, supported by around a further 1,200 plain clothes officers.

“The CCTV systems now covering the city centre should be able to identify trouble-makers,” Coffey added. “We are determined make it just another festival holiday, and a lucrative one.

One of the main groups that are organsing protests, Dublin Grassroots, issued a statement rejecting suffestions that protesters were only interested in violence and destruction.

“The allegation are particularly bizarre given that the record of the last five years show that violence at Europeans protests has mostly come from the police, with one demonstrator shot dead and hundreds hospitalised, often due to injuries received after arrest,” a spokesperson said. “This is also true in Ireland, where the lst major “riot” was carried out by police on Dame Street at a Reclaim the Streets party.”

The statement added: “The right to protest is a fundamental part of democracy. It is particularly strange that the defenders of the EU consistently attack “foreign protesters”, as though other EU citizens and residents had no right o protest against EU meetings in Ireland.”

Gardai said that the record of previous protests demonstrated the need for a draconian police presence.

“Every year there’s been an international protest at an EU event, there’s been violence. We’re very concerned about the Wombles (White Overall Movement Building Liberation through Effective Struggle). “ a garda source said.

The Wombles were blamed for attacks on department stores during May Day protests in London. Gardai are believed to be checking the movements of one of its leaders, a former student named in British media reports as being the coordinator of running battles with police during protest two years

by 140 db Sun Apr 25, 2004 22:29

..........

Sunday Indo

Sunday Indo

Sunday Business Post

by Acid Sun Apr 25, 2004 23:31

Deirdre Tynan for journalist of the year!!

by Fintan Lane - Anti-War Ireland Mon Apr 26, 2004 01:21 irishanti-war at excite dot com 087 1258325

I suspect this rubbish is a foretaste of what we can expect in the run-up to the Bush visit.

by i Mon Apr 26, 2004 01:29

The Bush visit IS the main reason for all the hype. It has already begun, and they don't care who gets hurt, as long as it is not their 'POTUS'

by Mon Apr 26, 2004 01:30

"In the past week, Irish anarchists have issued a series of threats via the web and through graffiti, urging the use of petrol bombs, and widespread property destruction. In fact, the link has since been removed from the web because of its alarming content".

Not true.

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=64484

by Niall Fitzgerald Mon Apr 26, 2004 01:37

I was going to join in the ant-global events in Dublin but now I think I'll say away. What a shame, there's always a few bad apples in the bunch.

by ] Mon Apr 26, 2004 01:40

bertie, blair, berlusconi - there's a start

by R. Isible Mon Apr 26, 2004 03:09

1. The Targetting of essential public services for privatisation as expressed by the Lisbon Agenda.

2. The tens of thousands of business lobbyists plying their anti-democratic trade in the corridors of power.

"While the new countries joining the EU were told they had to privatise essential services if they wanted to be welcomed (SchNEWS 287), the Lisbon agenda also specifically targets “gas, electricity, postal services and transport” as ripe for privatisation (although they like to use the friendlier term ‘liberalisation’.) The first step in privatisation is forcing people to pay for public services to make them profitable and attractive to investors. So who cares if privatisation results in worse working conditions, greater inequality of services, lay-offs and wage cuts - people need to make a profit!"

by kokomero Mon Apr 26, 2004 10:09

Ireland on Sunday attempt to undermine Aileen O'Carroll on the basis she is involved in 3rd level education, primarily because of her left-wing views.

They have nothing to say, however about, Aine Ni Chonaill and her extreme racist views who is involved in the education of more impressionable 2nd level students, or Tom Cooney the war-apologist WMD-friendly "law" lecturer also from UCD.

The usual case of one law for the rich ...................

It has to be said for Aileen that she handled herself extremely well on the ever-awful late-late, not for one minuite rising to take the scare-mongering bait dangled by Pat the buffoon!

by until it sleeps Mon Apr 26, 2004 22:42

Yes, because UCD lecturers are notoriously poverty stricken.

by Steve Tue Apr 27, 2004 18:06

The majority of tabloids have distinct right-wing connections, so obviously they're going to push their own agenda like this (I know for a fact that Richard Littlejohn, a regular contributor to The Sun, is a member of the BNP - he said so himself). And as we all know, right-wingers gain support by appealing to gullible people who tend not to reflect much on what they've been told, or just aren't very intelligent in the first place. Hence the short paragraphs and unnecessary abbreviations - "aggro", "pols", give us a break, lads!

by until it sleeps Tue Apr 27, 2004 19:09

Could you please try to distinguish between 'the majority of newspapers have right wing connections' and 'the majority of newspapers support the BNP'. Its really not the same thing. In my experience Tabloids are highly critical of the extreme right. The Express recently came out in support of the Conservatives NOT the BNP. And a recent issue I read spent several pages depicting Hitler as a degenerate.

Also, while you criticise right-wingers (although you did not say what you meant by right- winger) as gullible, I can think of few people as deluded and gullible as the extreme left and anarchist "movement".

And when you accuse Littlejohn of being a self confessed BNP member I would really like some proof (and by proof, I don't mean a link to some ultra left wing website where every moderate conservative is depicted as a raving Nazi lunatic). Such proof to back up accusations is too often lacking on this website.