Pre-Budget Anti Austerity March in Dublin - Sat 24th Nov 2012 - Photos

national | worker & community struggles and protests | photo-essay Sunday November 25, 2012 14:38 by T

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At yesterday's pre-budget anti-austerity march there was a turnout of up to 10,000 people from a diverse range of groups. The march was due to set off at 1pm but finally set off at 2pm led by Austerity on a horse followed by a colour sea of banners and placards. Groups ranged from SIPTU to community groups, pissed-off citizens and quite a large group of supporters from the Campaign Against the Household and Water Taxes.

However organisers had hoped for a large crowd of at least 50,000 similar to the march 2 years ago which brought out in excess of 120,000 so on that basis the turnout was disappointing, although this is not surprising since even the unions gave it lack-luster support and many in unions noting there was very little notice of it or call for members to attend.

The low attendance can probably be put down to two things. 1) is that people deep down know their democratic wishes count for nothing and at some level they must recognise there has been a financial coup d'etat of democracy since it is European bankers, representatives of bond holders and other members of the elite and their technocrats in places like the ECB and the IMF that call the shots and dictate exactly to government what cuts back will be made and where. Enda and the rest are just obeying instructions. Given that people came out in large number two years ago and daily we see massive demonstrations in Greece, yet nothing changes in a positive way for them; their voices are completely ignored and further austerity is imposed, then it is perhaps little wonder that people bother and resign themselves to apathy.

For 2), this state of affairs has not come about entirely on its own and it ought to be realized that the unions whilst appearing to be on the side of workers have long since been co-opted by the state and simply become another tool in which to carefully manage the reactions of working people to the needs of the system and those of late are austerity and the new reality in the world of the global debt crisis. With the concentration of unions over the previous decades into a small group of bigger unions with a hierarchy of high paid officials some of whom earn over €100,000 these people have naturally long since lost their connection with the roots and it therefore makes it easier for the corridors of power to influence them because there is a smaller number to deal with and they perhaps sense they would be isolated and feel all the heat if they were stupid enough to call a general strike. After-all people who are identified as leaders who make serious challenges of the system get mauled relentlessly by the media and in places not so nice go to jail or end up dead. And so not just here but in every country we see this process of assimilation where the unions main purpose is to tone down reaction and calm the restlessness of the workers and when the situation does threaten to slip away out of their hands, they do call a march to vent that pent up emotion and in some other countries where the workers are more militant they let it go as far as a strike for a day or two.