Late Late Show Sidelines Anti Bin Tax Campaigners

by dg Sat Oct 18, 2003 13:52

he told the woman from Waterford that her view doesn't qualify as an "outside Dublin" view ... because she's against the tax!

by anti bin tax Sat Oct 18, 2003 13:33

Very good composition from our side. Liked the bit where Pat asked for people from Dublin and 'failed' to notice John Jefferies (Cork) who was right in front of his nose.

by sp member (personal capacity) Sat Oct 18, 2003 01:18

The government and the media have indeed tried to make this a fight with the big bad socialist party and did target Joe and claire in the mistaken belief that this would behead the movement and further create the impression that the anti bin tax campaign is just a SP front.

By now that argument is full of holes, the campaign did not fall appart with the jailing of Joe and Claire, other activists have proved that they are ready to go to jail and thousands of people have shown that they are organised and prepared to take to the streets.

From the point of view of the SP we have always believed that this campaign must have broad based support, activist participation and strong local organisation as possible. It is a straight forward fact that it can not be won otherwise.

by conor (wsm personal capacity) Fri Oct 17, 2003 16:42

Anti bin tax: Last night I asked a member of the city steering committee if he knew who was putting out these press releases in the name of all four campaigns. He did not. Now the PRO of the city campaign is in Mountjoy so I can see that things are confused but there is still a problem here. The above press release seems to imply that only Joe or Clare could be adequate spokespeople on the Late Late. I've no memory of that decision being made at any level of the campaign. There are lots of other people in the campaign that could do this. And they are not the only campaigners in prison, so are 13 others………


Anti bintax makes some important points (tho I wish people would use their real names!!!).
Who IS in charge here?
I was under the (clearly) mistaken impression that activist groups made decisions in the different areas and then communicated with each other
Certainly motions to that effect were passed at any conferences I was at in Dun Loaghaire (Come to think of it hasn’t been one of those for a while).
Activists run the campaign and the committees implemented decisions (in theory)
In this case it seems NOT EVEN any of the existing committees in any council area were consulted let alone say any sort of activist forums that I know off.

The Blockades worked but we were damned lucky

who decided to have them?
Even more important who decided to call em off? I’m not saying whether this was good or bad just that I'd like to have an input !

Similarly for the late late show appearances

(suggestion who ever is “selected” by “whoever” is making the decisions – get a www.stopthebintax.com shirt – the page is worth advertising)

Why do decisions all seemed to arrive “ready made from no where” ?

why are they communicated to the media before activists ?

THIS IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

We need planning
We need democracy.
We need accountability.
If we want big blockades that work we need time to build them, notice, discussion, planning, full involvement of as many active campaigners as possible.
We can win but only if we involve people and not if we treat the campaign as the property of any particular political tendency……….

Conor

by Anti bin tax Fri Oct 17, 2003 11:51

Last night I asked a member of the city steering committee if he knew who was putting out these press releases in the name of all four campaigns. He did not. Now the PRO of the city campaign is in Mountjoy so I can see that things are confused but there is still a problem here. The above press release seems to imply that only Joe or Clare could be adequate spokespeople on the Late Late. I've no memory of that decision being made at any level of the campaign. There are lots of other people in the campaign that could do this. And they are not the only campaigners in prison, so are 13 others.

Some within the campaign seem to think it is a good idea if it is presented as the 'Joe and Clare show'. This has done us a lot of damage in the already hostile media as it adds to the impression that the campaign is a front for the Socialist Party. We should start putting up more spokespeople who are not Socialist Party members to counter this. In particular the Fingal campaign should do this. We should underline that most of the 15 in prison are not members of any political party and of those that are a majority are members of parties other then the Socialist Party.

Now the suggestion. If we are going on the Late, Late we should try and get someone from a campaign outside Dublin on the show. Cork or Drogheda both have small but active campaigns. This would be a good answer to the anti-Dublin sentiment the media is trying to stir up. But why am I posting this here? There are no contact details on the press releases posted here so this seems to be the only channel open to me.

by PK Fri Oct 17, 2003 11:13

The Star says that more security is being hired tonight because RTE has fears of members of the campaign rushing the stage.
You have to laugh!!

by fukem Fri Oct 17, 2003 00:00

Well fuck them. Joe Higgins and Clare Daly are gona be good guests for next week (that's if they are still at liberty!) Fuck RTÉ Joe and Clare should do the Dunphy show instead.

by orpheus - req. broad. Thu Oct 16, 2003 20:23

the late late is live, storm the stage or something like what happened on Questions and Answers a few years ago.

by Gaz - libertarian Thu Oct 16, 2003 20:21

RTE is an arm of the state, it relies on the government for its license to broadcast and funding...what do you expect?

by Johnny Thu Oct 16, 2003 16:33

There is no point in whinging about the format of the show. The Late Late is our big chance to get our points across as to why we are against the bin tax.

A lot of the reasons have not been aired properly on the mainstream media, such as:
1. Once the tax is accepted, it will shoot up every year, to about €1000, to be followed by water rates and whatever else.
2. Privatisation will follow as elsewhere and waivers will disappear. With privatisation, the incentive for the private companies will be to make more waste, not less, to make more profits.
3. There is no incentive to recycle in most areas, as it is a fixed annual charge.

If we can get these points, and others, across
forcefully, we may swing public opinion back in our favour.

Who is appearing on the show from the Anti-Bin Tax side?

by Katie Thu Oct 16, 2003 14:41

that's a tactic of the government, shout louder than anyone who objects to what you are doing. The Anti bin-tax campaigners just want a fair hearing.

by action. Thu Oct 16, 2003 14:37

why not storm the studio and occupy it until they listen to your side aswell?

or rush the stage from within the audience.

by SDR Thu Oct 16, 2003 14:08

I think if Michael D is available he would be excellent. Heard him laying into the PDs on Morning Ireland - absolutely brilliant.

by F Thu Oct 16, 2003 14:05

Aren't you being a bit previous, condemning the programme before its broadcast? Dont you remember McCreevy being booed by the audience not so long ago? I think this format is setting the minister up for a fall. It's the Big Important Politician vs. The Little People, who do you think is going to win that one? Is the default setting of this campaign to whinge and see conspiracies everywhere? Catch yourselves on and turn this format to your advantage.

by Simon the pieman Thu Oct 16, 2003 14:04

Sure why would RTE set up a fair debate. It would be their buddies against someone who knows what they're talking about. The Media almost sponsor Fianna Fail.