CFE Protest against McDowell

national | miscellaneous | news report

Thursday November 14, 2002 22:33

by Paul Murphy - Socialist Youth

syucd at hotmail dot com

Minister of Justice, McDowell, feels the heat at CFE protest in UCD.

Around 20 students joined a CFE protest at around 7.30pm this evening, at a Lawsoc debate, at which the Minister of Justice, McDowell, was present. We confronted the Minister and tried to blockade his access to our college, just as his government is trying to deny access to third level education to hundreds of thousands of ordinary young people across Ireland.

He managed to enter the debate, but only after two or three minutes of a scrum, whereby 7(!!) members of the Gardai along with three or four members of Services managed to shove us out of the way, and get in. The police tactics were fairly violent with a lot of people being violently shoved out of the way, and dragged out of the Minister's path. There were also allegations of Garda Officers punching protesters.

Members of Global Action were also present protesting against the deportation of Christina Onswanwa.

The fact that 20 students turned up with no building for the demonstration, because we wanted to keep it quiet so that Lawsoc wouldn't get wind of it, proves the depth of anger on the issue. The fact that the Gardai felt it necessary to bring 7 Gardai along for just 20 of us also proves that CFE's militancy has not gone unnoticed by the State. The next stage is to organise militant action of thousands of ordinary students. We have called for a boycott on Wed. 20th November in UCD, from 11am. Everyone opposed to paying €4-5,000 for going to college should not only boycott lectures, assemble in front of the Arts Block at 11am, but should help build for the demo. Get in touch if anyone's interested.

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Comments (2 of 2)

here come the bears , punch punch

by conor mc gowan - ucd socialist alternative

Fri Nov 15, 2002 12:05

conor at ziplip dot com

there were a few more than 7 gardai there (the two fat special branch geezers for a start),and as usual , they showed how to deal with some PEACEFUL protestors.

when iron mike came down the stairs into the main "blob" hall hrea,we all rushed twoard him,armed with leaflets and some pisspoor chants.the gardai and college heavies (although none looked like theyre about to head off to the olympics) pushed us around.i personally (along with 7 or so others) was well within range if i felt stupid enough to hit the minister for "justice" - of course none of us did.

that diddnt stop one tash mouthed garda (number e198 from insicore) whacking me thrice on the back ,and another particulary thick looking punter dragging me away.all in the spirit i guess.

it should be noted that this kind of uniformed thuggery wasnt limited to male protestors.

the lads had numbers,but whats the point in going to the "complaints board" eh??

on a positive note,we managed to heckle michael,get him to slag off my "bell bottom" trousers,and give him a cfe leaflet,and an anti deportation one too.

anyhow,best be off

make complaints

by pat c

Fri Nov 15, 2002 17:53

dont take the theres no point complaining attitude conor.

with the mcbrearty case highlighting complaint board inadequacies they are much more likely to act now.

if you have numbers then make the complaint. all the better if you have photographic evedence.

congrats on a successful protest

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CFE Protest against McDowell

Comments (2 of 2)