Sunday, November 25, 2012

Anti-Austerity Protest In Dublin (Ireland) - 24 November 2012

Protest organiser Mick O'Reilly president of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions said today's protest was only the beginning of a sustained campaign and urged the crowd to attend a further protest at Leinster house on budget day.

Senior trade unionists have disassociated themselves from the call for a general strike by ICTU President Eugene McGlone at this afternoon's anti-austerity rally. Having spoken to a number of people at the rally I got the distinct impression that union leaders are now considered to be not much different to the politicians, bankers and "fat-cats" in that they are now seen as being part of the problem (in fact many of them were mentioned on individual placards).

The official garda estimate for the attendance at the anti-austerity protest was around 10,000 people. This number which is now being reported in local and international media strikes me as being rather low (and if true, disappointing. If I had to make a guess I would have estimated that there were about 20,000 in attendance.

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