Labour Youth in support of MayDay protests

Reclaiming Europe – a weekend of peaceful activism

As well as taking part in the “Another Europe is Possible” demonstration on May 1st, members of Labour Youth were prominent at events over the Bank Holiday weekend organised by the Dublin Grassroots Network. Activists ignored the scandalous hysteria in the corporate media and intimidation by the Gardaí to partake in a number of peaceful actions over the weekend for a Europe based on social needs, not big business wants.

The “Reclaim the City” street party on Saturday afternoon attracted crowds of up to 1,500 to a carnival-like atmosphere in the sun-soaked streets and parks of Dublin. Beginning at St Stephen’s Green, the crowd stopped briefly outside the Department of Justice in protest at McDowell’s racist referendum, and again outside a Georgian house on Leeson Street, which had acted as a home to several squatters over the past number of months, to call for “homes, not jails.”

Drums and whistles accompanied the activists as they occupied Fitzwilliam Park, a private square on the southside of Dublin for the exclusive use of wealthy locals, including Tony O’Reilly. The street party continued inside the park for one hour, with the crowd swelling by several hundred. An anti-war action on Amiens Street at Top Oil, who refuel US warplanes bound for Iraq and Afghanistan, and a march to the GPO concluded the afternoon events.

Some 4,000 protestors marched from the GPO through much of the north city in an attempt to reach Farmleigh House, where the EU ambassadors wined and dined in the presence of several thousand Gardaí. Stopped at the Ashtown Gate, the majority of the crowd remained at a safe distance from the Garda lines, their point having been made. Approximately 200 demonstrators attempted to break or confront Garda lines, but despite media hype almost all who attended were peaceful in their protest.

LY members were also visible in other events over the weekend. Friday evening saw a Critical Mass action in Dublin city centre, with some 700 cyclists and walkers taking to the streets, while Monday saw a peaceful Reclaim the Streets action that yet again exposed the media hype of violence as nonsense.

As socialists we are proud of the heritage of Mayday, the Day of International Workers, and as activists seeking a better world we are proud to have taken a part in such actions – the shameful sensationalism spouted by segments of the media, aimed as a missile against the Bush protests in June, will not overcome people power and our desire for equality, fairness and freedom.

(Article published on Labour Youth website at www.labour.ie/youth for general reading, so apologies for summarisation/simplification)