TWO SOCIALIST Party members in Dublin – Joe Higgins TD (MP) and Dublin North Socialist Party councillor Clare Daly – are currently serving one-month prison sentences in Mountjoy prison, Dublin.
Joe and Clare were sent down after playing a vital role in the campaign against a ‘bin tax’ which hits hard at ordinary working-class people (see pages 6+7 for more details).
The Anti-Bin Tax campaign in Fingal, an area covering much of Dublin, has called another mass protest on 30 September demanding Clare and Joe’s release and the ending of non-collection and the scrapping of the bin tax.
The state is trying to break the campaign against the bin tax not only through threatening jailings but through heavy fines and legal costs, totalling tens of thousands of euros.
The Free Clare and Joe Campaign has been set up to appeal to all trade union branches and community organisations to fight the bin tax and give generously to this appeal.
A TGWU branch in London has sent a message of protest to the Irish authorities supporting the protests against the bin charges and the jailing of those who campaign against it and urging the immediate release of Clare and Joe.
The letter also says: “You might find it worthwhile to study the fate of Margaret Thatcher after she introduced the poll tax in Britain!”
The TGWU branch also sent money to the campaign while London region UNISON has agreed to donate £500.
Send donations to Free Clare and Joe Campaign, Allied Irish Bank, Dame Street, Dublin 2. Sort Code 93-12-09; account number 00208087: Swift code AIB KIE2D.
Worldwide protests
Letters deploring the jailing of Joe and Clare and demanding the Irish government release them immediately have been sent from around the world. The Committee for a Workers’ International (the socialist international organisation which the Socialist Party is affiliated to) have organised protests outside Irish embassies from Australia to Africa, in the US and Brazil, in India and throughout Europe.
These will continue until their release.
Send letters of protest to: An Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Mr Bertie Ahern TD, Department of the Taoiseach, Government Buildings, Upper Merrion Street, Dublin 2.
Tel: + 1 619 4020. Fax: + 1 676 4048.
email:[email protected]
