Bank bailouts protest planned

A national demonstration against bank bailouts is to take place at the Dáil on Tuesday May 11th.

A national demonstration against bank bailouts is to take place at the Dáil on Tuesday May 11th.

The protest has been organised by the Right to Work Campaign, a coalition which includes political parties, trade unions and community groups.

Among those expected to address the demo, which will begin at the Gardens of Remembrance before proceeding to Dáil Eireann, are Irish Times journalist and author Fintan O'Toole and Professor of Equality Studies at UCD, Kathleen Lynch.

Announcing the demonstration this morning, Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance said the protest would be the first in a number of rallies to be held against the Government's handling of the economic crisis.

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"Tens of billions of public money is being poured into the institutions that created the current crisis and yet there is no strategy apparent from the Government on creating jobs or protecting the vulnerable in our society," said Mr Boyd Barrett.

"The only way this economic madness can stop is through a people's rebellion on the streets. We need to do what the pensioners did when the Government tried to rob them of their medical card entitlement, we need to do what people in Greece are doing and take to the streets."

We want people bailed out and jobs and services bailed out, not bankers and economic elites and if the Government aren't willing to change track then we want to drive them out of office" he added.

Also speaking today, Socialist Party MEP Joe Higgins said that in the absence of any real alternative within the political establishment, "only sustained people power protest coupled with strike action can derail the Government's agenda."

"I think it is high time that ordinary working people, young people, the poor and pensioners begin to enter the political scene as real actors and activists with mobilisation in opposition to the current polices," he said.

The demonstration against the bank bailouts on May 11th is an example of the type of action the whole trade union movement and community groups should come behind," Mr Higgins added.

Other organisations to have expressed support for the planned demonstration include Sinn Féin and the trade union Unite.

Charlie Taylor

Charlie Taylor

Charlie Taylor is a former Irish Times business journalist