SOLIDARITY NEEDED: UCD Students victimised for protesting against Shell and government ministers

 

By Paul Murphy

A member of the Socialist Party, Darren Cogavin, and one other student, Enda Duffy, are due to meet the Vice President for Students at University College Dublin (UCD), Dr. Martin Butler, in the next week. They face punishment for engaging in a peaceful protest against the giant corporation Shell and the Green Party Minister for Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan.

Two protests, organised by the campaign ‘Shell to Sea’, took place on 30 October in UCD, the biggest college in Dublin. They were opposing the giveaway of over 50 billion euro worth of gas for free by the Irish government to Shell, and the building of an unsafe onshore pipeline and refinery by Shell in Rossport, Co. Mayo, on Ireland’s west coast.

The first protest was outside a Shell recruitment fair, highlighting the role of Shell in Mayo and internationally. The second took place outside a lecture theatre where Eamon Ryan was due to speak at a debate. He was confronted by about 50 chanting protestors and he turned on his heels and left.

In the aftermath, the college authorities and some right-wing students tried to paint these as ‘violent protests’, which they were not. Three students have received letters from the college authorities, claiming that the protestors harassed students, intimidated staff and put the safety of others at risk.

One of the students has already met with the authorities and been given a fine of up to 100 euro. The Socialist Party says no student should face any disciplinary action, or have to pay any fine, for engaging in a peaceful protest.

The authorities’ action is clearly an attempt to criminalise protest on campus. Recently, general activity by students in the college has been at a relatively low level, and now the authorities are now attempting to set a precedent of punishing students for protest.

The college authorities can be made to step back, through pressure in the college (the Students’ Union President has supported the students) and from outside, with a campaign of emails and phone call protests.

Please send protest emails to:

Dr. Martin Butler: martin.butler@ucd.ie.
The protest emails should be also sent to

the UCD President president@ucd.ie

and cc’d to: paul@socialistparty.net

Phone calls will have a big impact

Please let the UCD authorities know about your protest by phoning Martin Butler on (01) 716 1280

UCD President, Hugh Brady, can be phoned on (01) 716 1618

Shell gets our gas for free – Protestors get Garda brutality!

By Danny Byrne

On 9 November, over 300 protestors gathered at Shell’s proposed refinery site at Bellanaboy, North Mayo.

The protest brought together the local community, whose health and livelihoods are under attack by the profit-maximising onshore gas pipeline and refinery planned for their area, with protestors from around the country. Many came to fight the government’s criminal giveaway of up to ?600 billion worth of natural resources for free, to satisfy the greed of multinational oil companies, with no benefit to ordinary people.

Protestors were greeted with the now familiar spectacle of at least 300 Gardai who as per usual displayed serious brutality: punching, kicking, choking and throwing protestors into ditches. One protestor narrowly escaped life-threatening injury when a lorry carrying huge boulders was forced through a crowd of protestors, running over his foot causing serious damage. The blatant disregard of Gardai for the well-being of protestors underlines the fact that to the state, Shell’s profits come before the health, safety and wellbeing of local residents, warranting the provision of a virtual army of Gardai as a private security force for Shell.

Protestors successfully slowed down work on the life-threatening refinery on numerous occasions, at one stage holding a lorry up for over an hour, showing the potential that mass action could have in the future. Further days of solidarity are likely to be called in the near future. All who wish to support a besieged community against a multi-national corporation and their hired goons, and who oppose the theft of Ireland’s natural resources should travel up and show their support. Only through mass action by ordinary people from across the country can Shell be stopped.

World Bank inflicts poverty and deprivation

By Stephen Rigney

Around 50 people attended a lively protest against the International Development Agency (IDA), the financial arm of the World Bank at the Grand Hotel in Malahide on 12 October.

The protest was organised to oppose the brutal methods and demands that the World Bank places on developing countries, as pre-conditions for them receiving development aid and loans.  Using “Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs)”, the World Bank forces poor countries to open up their economies by privatising important services, cutting government spending and eliminating protection rights for workers, before they are eligible for loans.  The effect of these SAPs has been to drive the people of Africa and Latin America deeper into poverty as healthcare, food and fuel prices continuously rise as multinational companies seek to maximise their profits.

The relatively large Garda presence, including the Public Order Unit, were left looking over-prepared and over-dressed for the good weather, as protesters painted banners, held a picnic and listened to music provided by Electronic Resistance.  Speeches were made by members of some NGOs, highlighting the role of the World Bank in attacking the rights and conditions of the poor across the world, while some locals dropped by to ask what the protest was about and grab a slice of cake from the picnic.

While the protest was small, it was an important event to show that wherever the representatives of neo-liberal capitalism meet, young people and workers will be there to oppose their brutal policies.

Campaign to scrap €20 health charge established in UCD

By Elisa O’Donovan

UCD ARE planning to introduce a fee of ?20 per visit, each time a student uses the health service on campus. Presently, students are not charged when they see the doctor/nurse, but pay a fee towards the health service annually in their registration fee. The health service is vital for the students of UCD.

It provides year long access to all types of medical treatment, from medical emergencies to a contraception clinic. The centre is paramount to maintaining both the physical and mental well being of all students on campus.

However, for a number of years the student health service has been chronically under-funded, with a minimum waiting time of two weeks to see a doctor. The college’s response to the lack of resourses and medical staff in the centre is to charge students each time they see a doctor/nurse. However, forcing students to pay for their health care is not the answer. A health service fee will only further isolate students from seeing a doctor.

When asked why no university money is being put into a service so central to students’ well being, UCD said there was “no extra money” to put into funding the student health service. Yet last year, UCD authorities spent ?4million on PR firm fees, in order to sell the UCD “brand”. The college is also spending millions of euro in renovating the campus with plush new plants, water features and plasma screens throughout the university.

Is it right that in a college of 20,000 students there’s only one psychiatrist available one afternoon a week, with a two month waiting list? Or that a student struggling to pay their rent with a chronic condition such as epilepsy or depression will have to pay €20 each time they need medical attention?

Students have successfully fought back against the college before. When library cutbacks were threatened hundreds of students took action with a library sit-in resulting in an extended library service. Student protests have also continually prevented the reintroduction of 3rd level fees.  UCD students must get organised to defend their health service and demand that it is properly funded by the college authorities.

Belfast: Domino’s Pizza – Delivering Low Pay

In the last edition of The Socialist we carried an article on migrant workers in Domino’s pizza stores in Wolverhampton and Derby who were earning negative wages after working for a month! Bosses had charged them extortionate amounts for rent and insurance to cheat them out of their wages. It leaves no doubt as to how Domino’s makes their £700 million every year.

To highlight this scandal Socialist Youth in Belfast organised a stall outside a local Domino’s on the Antrim Road on a busy Friday night. We received a warm response from customers to our leaflets. The response of Domino’s however was to ring the police. There is nothing criminal about campaigning for an £8 an hour minimum wage, but the actions of Domino’s in England should be considered criminal.

Many passers-by were shocked to hear of such exploitation and were very happy to sign our petition against low pay. More activity outside Domino’s has been planned in the next few weeks to ensure Domino’s doesn’t get away with treating other workers like slaves.

However Domino’s is not just one bad apple. It is has become the norm for fast food chains to hire migrant and young workers and pay them as little as possible.

There is a lot of anger against this and the many other examples of low pay that we have found. This anger can grow as the pace of attacks from the bosses increases. In order to make more and more profit companies like Domino’s will seek to continually drive down wages.

When Domino’s workers got organised in a union and began to fight for their rights, they were able to hold the bosses back in their attacks. If all workers in the fast food industry united and struggled for higher wages and better conditions employers can be forced to give concessions.

Belfast: SY combats fascist and racist propaganda

By Henry Wilson

Sickening racist stickers and leaflets have begun to appear in Belfast in recent weeks, which are designed to whip up racism and intimidate ethnic minorities, particularly the Chinese community.

The stickers appear to be produced in Britain by small fascist groups who want to develop a base in Northern Ireland. Any attempts by fascist groups, even by a small number of individuals, to build a base here must be actively opposed. The distribution of racist material, which scapegoats immigrants for the social problems capitalism is responsible for, directly leads to physical attacks on ethnic minorities.

The number of racist attacks has increased for the fourth year in a row. Even the PSNI accept that their figures understate the actual number of attacks. Socialist Youth campaigns for all workers and young people to unite to fight the real roots of poverty, lack of housing and services, by building a socialist alternative to capitalism’s failure to provide for people’s needs.

We have also launched a sticker campaign to cover over racist material as an important step to combat attempts by fascists to organise in Northern Ireland. If you see any racist stickers in your area, then contact Socialist Youth on 90232962 or 07876146473 to order some stickers.

Iraq: One million dead, $1.5 trillion wasted – Now Turkey threatens to invade!

By Cillian Gillespie

The imperialist invasion and occupation of Iraq has had devastating consequences for the Iraqi people. Some estimates now put the number of casualties at 1 million dead since the war began in March 2003.

Hundreds of thousands have been displaced from their homes as a result of sectarian civil war – a war that is a by-product of imperialist intervention in the region. A recent investigation by the US Congress found that the total cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, when hidden costs such as the rise in the price of oil were included, came to $1.5 trillion. This waste of resources is almost as criminal as the obscene loss of life that Bush’s wars for power and oil have cost.

Now the conflict in the Middle East is set to intensify with Turkey threaatening to invade Northern Iraq, which has a mainly Kurdish population. Turkey, along with Iran, Syria and Iraq, has long suppressed the rights of the Kurdish people and denied their democratic right to self-determination. Kurds are the poorest and most discriminated section of Turkish society, often facing longterm unemployment and repression by the military.

In the past few weeks the Turkish government has placed an army of 100,000 soldiers on the Iraqi border, and has begun attacking Kurdish targets in northern Iraq with aircraft strikes. It wants to smash the resistance of the fighters of the Kurdish nationalist group, the PKK (Kurdish Workers Party). More generally, they fear that the emergence of an independent Kurdish state with oil wealth could be a catalyst to spark off a new wave of struggles by the Kurdish people across the Middle East for independence. The Kurdish “autonomous” region of northern Iraq encompasses Kirkuk, which has enormous oil reserves.

The action against the PKK by Turkey has received the full support of the current US administration. Turkey is a key ally of the US in the Middle East and is the only member of NATO in the region. The majority of US military supplies for its occupation of Iraq pass through Turkey. The Bush administration will do whatever it can to placate the Turkish regime, as it is dependent on its support to further its strategy of dominance over the oil rich Middle East and possible attacks against Iran. US Secretary of State, Condelezza Rice, has even suggested that the US would be prepared to take military action against the PKK.

The Socialist Party is completely opposed to the Turkish and US government’s threats against the Kurdish people. We stand for the immediate unconditional withdrawal of all US and foreign forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and oppose any attempt to attack Iran.

As this region faces further instability, war and chaos, the necessity of building a powerful movement that unites workers and poor people across national and sectarian divides and fights for a socialist alternative has never been greater.