For the last few months (2001) Irish pro-choice activists including members of the WSM have been preparing for the arrival of the Women of the Waves ship in Ireland. This has provided the strongest focus since the X case to resume the struggle for the right of women to control their own bodies, including the right to decide whether or not to continue a pregnancy.
A group of Irish anarchists travelled to the June 2002 demonstrations in Seville Spain against the European summit. This is an account of the demonstration and our journey there. Its based on reports sent to the Ainriail list during the demonstrations but a lot of new material has been added and some corrections made.
The second grassroots gathering was held over the Easter weekend (March 2002) in Cork. It was quite a success with nearly twice as many libertarian activists turning up as had been hoped for. Some seventy people from all over Ireland took part. Areas represented included Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Belfast as well as a scattering of other counties including Kildare, Kerry and Sligo. Some visiting international activists also dropped in, including people from Canada and Norway.
Monday night (September 16th 2001) saw the first real activists meeting of the Dublin Corporation area anti Bin Tax campaign. The council is sending out second demands for payment but the figures indicate that the non-payment rate is very strong, currently around 80%.
On Thursday the 27th (Sept 2001) all the local county councillors were invited to a meeting in the Liberties to explain their position on the bin tax. About 60 residents turned up to hear what they had to say for themselves.
Monday night (Sept 2nd 2002) saw another picket of the Dublin corporation council meeting to protest the continuing attempt to impose bin charges on the cities population. According to the corporations own figures less then 50% of people paid any of their bill last year. With the success of non-payment to date only around 20% have paid something so far this year.
Yesterday (Sept 10 2003) Fingal council attempted to start refusing to collect the bins of those who not paying the bin tax. This morning the campaign in the Dublin city area swung into action. Non-payers bins are still being collected in this area so our first move was a lobby of the depots that the trucks leave from each morning.
The Cabra/Dunard/Navan campaign activists had lobbied the Grangegorman depot Thursday morning and in solidarity with activists in Fingal decided to blockade one of the Cabra routes for one hour this morning (Sept 12 2003).
As Fingal council took a High Court case against bin tax protesters this morning (Sept 17 2003) bin tax campaigners in Cabra blockaded two trucks in solidarity with Fingal campaigners. Our intention is to hold onto at least one of these two trucks all day.
Monday evening (Sept 2003) in Dublin saw a Reclaim the Streets demonstration joining up with an anti-bin tax march demanding the release of two imprisoned activists. At the Garden of Remembrance there were already around 1,000 people, this would rise to 3,000 by the time the march departed.