Organising meeting for national protest linked to "European week of solidarity and protest"

national | anti-capitalism | event notice Saturday May 22, 2010 05:39 by Joe Higgins MEP - Socialist Party info at joehiggins dot eu 01-6795030

Organising meeting for national protest linked to "European week of solidarity and protest"

Saturday, 29th May @1pm
Teachers' Club,
Parnell Square,
Dublin 1

Dear friends,

You may be aware that an appeal for European-wide protests against the attacks on working people across Europe and in solidarity with Greece in the week of 21 – 26 June has been made by Left MEPs from Syriza (Greece), the Left Bloc (Portugal), Die Linke (Germany), the Socialist Party (Netherlands), Parti de Gauche (France), AKEL (Cyprus), the People’s Movement against the EU (Denmark), Parti Communiste (France) and the Socialist Party (Ireland). The Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA) in France has also indicated support for it. This appeal is attached below

On the back of this appeal, there will be demonstrations in countries across Europe, mostly on Saturday 26 June. In some countries, for example Greece and Portugal, the protests being organised by Syriza and Portugal have the potential to be very significant. European-wide action can send a strong message to the European establishment and other workers across Europe.

As an MEP for Dublin, I feel it is critical that we organise something in that week. I am proposing that that we organise a city-centre demonstration in Dublin on Saturday 26 June. I am inviting left political organisations and activists, community activists and trade unionists to discuss how we could build for a national demonstration in Dublin on that date that would form part of this European-wide week of protest.

I would like to invite any interested persons to a meeting next weekend to discuss building for this event in Ireland. This meeting will take place next Saturday 29 May at 1pm in the Teachers Club.

As you will see in the letter below, the basic demands which the protests are being organised around in Europe are:

· Workers, pensioners, the unemployed, students, youth and those socially excluded must not pay for the crisis - Make the super rich and bankers pay
· Solidarity with the working people of Greece and for the unity of working people across Europe.
· No to cutbacks, wage cuts, unemployment and increases in the retirement age
· No to privatisation of public services
· End the dictatorship of the financial markets, credit ratings institutions and the IMF
· Stop the bailouts of the banks - nationalise the banks and financial institutions in the interests of working people

We can discuss at the meeting how to raise these demands in an Irish context, which demands to particularly highlight as well as how to publicise and build for the demonstration.

I hope you can attend the meeting for this important discussion.

Yours in solidarity,
Joe Higgins