The disaffected: who were the anti-hunger strike counter demonstrators?

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Sunday May 21, 2006 16:14 by sean

afghan hungerstrike

marginalised anti hunger strike protestors

Having looked at pictures of anti hungerstrike protestors, i recognise a lot of them to be users of local homeless shelters, again as in the case of the love ulster rally most antagonists are marginalised dissaffected victims who use these opportunities to vent their own frustrations, not very constructively i might add.

At least 4 out of every 10 people using homeless services suffer mental health difficulties ranging from depression to severe psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia, substance abuse isssues also prevail & play a significant part in causing them to become homeless as do experiences of the care system, prison, sexual abuse etc.

It is easy to look at these people as facists and simply ignore them as such but in the interest of democracy we need to hear their stories just as much as the afghans before they are indoctrined by more sinister forces within fascist movements in ireland. I might add that while watching the love ulster rally, again a high number of participants were both homless and methadone clinic users venting their frustrations at punitive punishment systems operated in these clinics when dispencing methadone.

I guess these people feel they are being ignored. Homelessness only makes headlines each Christmas, it needs to be an issue all year round and as for drug services, methadone dispencing is merely state sponsored addiction. There are approx. 5000+ people on metadone varying from daily pick ups at clinics to the occasional weekly take aways, yet there are about 30 detox beds and not much more rehabs thus perpetuating this underclass of addicts feeding more and more people to protests like the one witnessed at the church..

I wish the afghan people my support but the saying charity begins at home comes to mind. I know we can't be activists in all issues but i am constantly seeing these homegrown protestors without a voice at these type of demos, i,ve heard of street scene but does anyone know of an alliance advocacy group for methadone users...?