War Against the Poor

dublin | miscellaneous | news report Friday February 12, 2010 14:05 by Rita Fagan - Eastern Regional Network of community development projects

The reason we are writing this letter is to continue this campaign, please don’t let the dismantling of the Community Development Programme
go out of your head, keep fighting back!

There was a great sadness at our recent Dublin Eastern Regional Network meeting on Tuesday 09th of February as those projects who contributed so much to the work of the region bade farewell as the doors of their Community Development Projects were set to close. How unjust, unfair and unnecessary? There was a real sense of powerlessness within the room and a sense of guilt among those projects who had survived the cull.

While Community Development Projects close, all others are to be merged with the local Partnership companies. Projects cannot but feel fear for a future that has been imposed by the state and pragmatically accepted by the Partnership companies whose silence has been deafening on the subject and will have many gains by the fruits of our community development grassroots work!

Communities that are marginal, be they urban, rural or traveller stand to be robbed of their autonomy, history, assets and their voluntary management. Disgust and shame are words that come to mind. Centre for Effective Services, how ‘effective’ is it to divide and rule by a top down process? This centre is being funded by Atlantic Philanthropies. In general while the principle of philanthropy is well and good, serious questions have to be asked about the part it has played in a process which has resulted in the closure of 20 projects and imposing a merger which will result in the loss of trust and volunteers who have been at the forefront of the fight against inequality and poverty in Ireland today.

The Community Development Programme was not broken; its way of working could if need be could have been built upon, invested in, resourced and enhanced. This government, Minister John Curran and his officials have punished the most marginal who have had no part in bringing this country to its knees, but they have been asked to pay a hard price. The banks, the developers and the speculators are the ones who should have paid the price for the consequences of their actions, instead a war against the poor was waged!

Rita Fagan
On behalf of the Eastern Regional Community Development Programme core group