Power to the people, all of the people

Michael Clifford reports

A half-mile-long stream of disgruntlement and ire trailed its way through Dublin city yesterday, as communists and cops, anarchists and soldiers united.

Up to 100,000 people took part in yesterday's march: the procession stretched from O'Connell Street to Merrion Square

A protestor makes his feelings clear

By half past one, the square was heaving. Groups were gathering under their standards. Stacks of placards, lined up along the street, were shrinking. A few yards from the starting line, a samba band was using the occasion for some live practise. The Dublin Fire Brigade pipe band, detailed to lead the march, were cleaning out their pipes.

This was an equal-opportunities protest. The communists were there, but so were the cops. Members of the Public Service Executive Union were lined up beside socialists. The army was in attendance as were the anarchists. Farmers and plasterers shared the street with students. Every fracture of every left-wing split was present and accounted for, having given up their oul' rivalry for a day.

Outside the Rotunda Hospital, Joe Higgins was on his loud hailer, urging the public to sign a petition for a 24-hour strike. Inside the Rotunda Hospital, new life was entering the world to the sound of Joe's impassioned tones, recruits delivered from the cradle to the socialist revolution.

This started out as a protest against the pension levy. Trade union leaders have been anxious to play down that aspect, lest it lead to a split between public and private workers. All week, the big ads in the press left out any mention of the levy. It's all about fairness, and spreading the pain.

The tone was maintained yesterday. Only a few of the thousands of Congress posters made any mention of the pension levy. It's impossible to know the breakdown, but the suspicion is that a large majority of those on the streets yesterday were primarily driven to march by the hit from the levy rather than the shambles in which the country now finds itself.

In any event, there is plenty afoot to propel citizens onto the streets, culminating with the two reports into Anglo Irish published on Friday. Here was a forum to express the anger that is bubbling right across society.

At 1.45pm, it was decided to kick off early in the interests of safety. By then, the line of protesters was trailing all the way around Parnell Square. They marched, past Parnell and the Samba drummers and on down the street. Once upon a time, the shoppers would have gone about their business oblivious to the protest, but there are no more shoppers , so the marchers had full purchase on the street.

They marched past O'Connell, who would have been impressed by the turnout, and on up to Merrion Square. At the route's end, they paused to wait for everybody else. But the line was still running down into O'Connell Street, over half-a-mile away. A line of gardaí stood outside Government Buildings just in case things turned ugly and the peasants decided to storm the seat of power.

One of the first songs to blast out from the speakers was 'Power to the People', a throwback to the fuzzy notions of the 1970s. Until recently, it would have been regarded as quaint. Times change. These days it's a slogan that is gaining ground.

The speeches began before a fraction of the turnout was within hearing distance. But it didn't matter. The turnout spoke for itself.

February 22, 2009

Comments

#1 anthony commented, on February 23, 2009 at 5:46 p.m.:

And not even one comment. See nobody gives a dam . Enough said. Turn out the lights

#2 Sean O hArgain commented, on February 24, 2009 at 12:24 a.m.:

What a load of rubbish Anthony. The number of comments on any site indicates precious little. The 120,000 plus who made their way to Dublin from all over the country speak for themselves but also for their families, colleagues and neighbours. You only needed to watch Cullen's greying face on Q&A tonight to realise that FF are beginning to realise the mess they've sleepwalked into.

#3 Gary commented, on February 24, 2009 at 1:28 p.m.:

120,000 on the streets and "no one gives a dam(n)"! You might want to turn on your own lights before telling others to turn theirs off.

#4 mary commented, on February 24, 2009 at 2:27 p.m.:

i agree sean , i take it anthony was,nt there

#5 May Fayne commented, on February 24, 2009 at 5:10 p.m.:

Keep the clever posts coming Anthony. We're all loving your ' lights are on but no one's home' contributions.

#6 antony commented, on February 25, 2009 at 7:01 a.m.:

Sean and Mary You are both right but so am I. Let me explain. Here is the best and only good news story that has come out of Ireland in a long time. It even made the news here in the U.S.A [thats why I was'nt there Mary sorry about that].But who stole the show as usual FG double claimers. I mean its not even news anymore and wait and see they will get their seats back again. Now consider this, out of that crowd of 120000 there just has to be 200 young people willing to run for office there's got to be, otherwise their is no hope.If you don't believe me, then consider this. 120000 marched pretty impressive yes now if it was 4 times bigger that would be how many people march down to the dole every week against their will striped of their pride and no one to cheer them on and the numbers will double. And yes mabye what I said was rubbish but it got your attention and you never know mabye if people gave time to good news instead of the bad and posted some good ideas ye might find a young Obama type some where in the crowd. From small acorns grew the mighty OAK Obama proved that. As for Gary and his new buddy May Fayne would ye ever go away and turn out the lights, good lads.