It’s often remarked how little Irish people are protesting, despite the cruelty of the cutbacks and the blatant injustice of much of the debt foisted upon us. You could come up with a variety of deep psychological explanations for this, but in doing so you might be overlooking one major factor: The lousy coverage that public resistance gets in the mainstream media.
Case in point, the brave folk of the Ballyhea Bondholder Bailout Protest have been marching every Sunday for two years now. But even when they brought their protest to the ECB in Frankfurt (you’ll remember, I went with them) they hardly won a mention from the press or TV.
Until last Sunday! Finally, they got on RTÉ main evening news. Why now all of a sudden? I think I know: Al Jazeera got wind of it. Would’ve been more than a little embarrassing for the national broadcaster if a story from their own country went big internationally and they didn’t even have footage.
You can see me there in the first few seconds. I’m on international TV! Don’t we look all brave in the January weather? In the Middle East they must think we’re downright superhuman.
But there are ways you can protest without risking pneumonia, with help of Contact.it. Yesterday a judge rejected a challenge to the legality of the government piping money directly from poor to rich, on the grounds that a private citizen does not (somehow) have the standing to take such a case. In his findings though, the judge did mention that a TD would.
So we’re looking for one brave TD. Contact.ie provide an email that will be sent to all of them, it’s just up to you to sign it. A suggested text is provided, but of course you can use your own.
Or you can use the one I wrote, which puts the case a little more starkly:
Dear TD,
We need someone to take a stand. The lending bubble, and subsequent channelling of the nation’s remaining wealth to the very institutions responsible for it, has sent one message and one message only to the people of this country: That we exist, that we live and work, not for ourselves or for the ones we love but purely for the further enrichment of these institutions and their owners; that they now effectively control our lives – and control you, our supposed representatives – as surely as if we were goods or livestock. We are being owned.
We need to reassert the purpose – indeed the existence – of democratic government. For once, a single TD could make all the difference.
Yours sincerely,
Help to stop the madness before the last of this country’s life is sucked away. You can send the letter here.
Related articles
- Irish Town Resists Bailout Conditions (aljazeera.com)
- Over 300 Take Part In March Against Bailout (rte.ie)
- Anglo: Not Our Debt (notourdebt.ie)
- Fine Gael chief whip to “give a talking” to Peter Mathews for this speech (namawinelake.wordpress.com)
- “A milestone we never thought we’d see” – Week 100 in Ballyhea (namawinelake.wordpress.com)
- Deal or No Deal on Promissory Notes looks like No Deal (namawinelake.wordpress.com)
- Email Campaign: Dear Irish Government, stop defending the #Anglo Promissory Note – #NotOurDebt (contact.ie)
