TEEU backs civil unrest campaign.

T

thedaras

Registered User
Messages
812
Quoted from the article below.
“If the Government persists in clinging to power we call on the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and other civil society organisations to launch a campaign of civil disobedience to force an election on a regime that has no principles and no objective beyond staying in office for as long as possible”.
Click to expand...

http://news.ie.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=155306489

Civil disobedience?? How would you think this would manifest?
 
Well, what happened to the students recently probably put the fighteners on the Pensioners, the Don't leave-go-a-teacher Brigade and Protest-against-everything ranks.

Now how can we be disobedient? OK, let us all start smoking in no-smoking areas, non-smokers to smoke also in the national interest, of course. Let's not turn off our mobile phones in libraries that is if people who visit our libraries have mobile phones. And let us refuse to pay the tax on the plastic bag in supermarkets.

Then let's all look at ourselves in the mirror - how many of us voted Fianna Fáil and Greens?

One thing that would work though and it was never tried before except 'kind-of' by the Public Service Workers who on a day's strike headed to Northern Ireland to spend big money. I would ask the unions to call one day (just one day) when every shop, supermarket, restaurant, brothel, petrol-station, local authority building etc etc would be boycotted. I know for example we would have to buy petrol the day before or the following day, but I am sure the message would get through.

Let's have a BUY-NOTHING DAY - then wait for the screaming.
 
Last edited:
Leper said:
One thing that would work though and it was never tried before except 'kind-of' by the Public Service Workers who on a day's strike headed to Northern Ireland to spend big money. I would ask the unions to call one day (just one day) when every shop, supermarket, restaurant, brothel, petrol-station, local authority building etc etc would be boycotted. I know for example we would have to buy petrol the day before or the following day, but I am sure the message would get through.

Let's have a BUY-NOTHING DAY - then wait for the screaming.
Click to expand...

Yes, but what would the message be?
 
From what I have read civil unrest seems to mean smashing windows and burning cars.ie ,sabotage,riots.

Is this what the TEEU are calling for?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
If you think that posts breach the posting guidelines then please use the report post facility to bring it to the attention of the mods.

Thanks
aj

Several off topic posts and responses deleted.
 
Perhaps the TEEU would be better occupied doing what the do best by protecting their cosseted members in the ESB who have so far not endured any pain.
 
I'm sure that the TEEU will elaborate in coming days as to what actions they propose should be undertaken in terms of " civil disobedience "

I would imagine that they will draw the line at suggesting riots , burning of cars etc. :)
 
dedaras seems to be on a tangent here. It is civil disobedience that is being called for not civil unrest. The Unionist politicians in Northern Ireland some years ago had a time of civil disobedience i.e they would visit postoffices and present £50 for a stamp. Then the next customer would do the same thing and so on until the postoffice ran out of change. It was pretty unimaginative and succeeded in nothing more than closing post offices and giving the staff some free time off.

I think my "Buy Nothing Day" would be effective.
 
Last edited:
Leper said:
dedaras seems to be on a tangent here. It is civil disobedience that is being called for not civil unrest. I.
Click to expand...

The question I asked was ,How would you think this would manifest?
Where is the tangent?

http://news.ie.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=155306489
The headline on the link is TEEU backs civil unrest campaign..

And here; [broken link removed]
Im not into union speak ,so when it says Civil unrest I thought it meant civil unrest? Which is why ,I asked how would this manifest,as from what I have read it means riots etc..
 
Last edited:
From the Article: General Secretary of the TEEU, Eamon Devoy, said the country was "on the brink of significant civil unrest".

And from the Offaly Express: [broken link removed]
Published Date: 10 November 2009

TEEU General Secretary, Eamon Devoy predicted 'anarchy' and advocated the use of "physical force" to prevent banks repossessing homes if reforms are not made.
 
ajapale said:
From the Article: General Secretary of the TEEU, Eamon Devoy, said the country was "on the brink of significant civil unrest".

And from the Offaly Express: [broken link removed]
Published Date: 10 November 2009

TEEU General Secretary, Eamon Devoy predicted 'anarchy' and advocated the use of "physical force" to prevent banks repossessing homes if reforms are not made.
Click to expand...

It should be pointed out that there is a huge difference between predicting anarchy and advocating same.

The article is also a year old and there is currently more protection for people encountering difficulties with mortgages , maybe Mr. Devoy's words were heeded.
 
OK guys, some of us (me included) are getting into semantics and consequently needlessly arguing about fringe subjects instead of the subject afoot. Certainly, I dont know how the proposed civil disobedience will be manifest, but I know there will be no riots or what is called civil unrest.

I reckon it will be some form of decent peaceful and effective protests. But, marches are useless and are at a dime a dozen and effectively only wears out some shoe leather. A one day strike (God, not another one I hope!) is unoriginal. I'm still running with a One-Day-Buy-Nothing campaign.
 
Re: One-Day-Buy-Nothing campaign...well thats as useful as a Chocolate firegaurd, with due respect.We will be the ones who suffer there as its cripples business.
 
'dedaras' if there were going to be riots they would have taken place by now. The Celtic Tiger years have made us all soft. I would predict that if the Chinese invaded tomorrow we would sit back and no matter what their tyranny, we would soak it all in and be ideal admirers of our Chinese masters.
 
I don't think we need to worry - the average union member seems to me to have very little revolutionary spirit and I doubt they could even stick this plan.
 
Well, personally think any form of civil disobedience is a tad too late now. Not really sure what the civil unrest in Greece actually achieved once the IMF were in other than Sky News footage.

However, as to form it will take: Civil Disobedience is specifically non-violent, so it isn't riots, it isn't vandalism, it isn't rebellion. Not entirely sure how it could manifest beyond sit ins, blockades, protests, etc. It could be a mass non-payment of tax, e.g. property tax or some other such action.
 
The best form of protest IMO would be if nobody voted FF in the next election. Even if die hard FF people could not bring themselves to vote for another party they could abstain from voting. With the IMF and EU running the show for the next few years it does not matter who is in government - the cuts would have to be made. However, imagine the message it would send if FF were returned with no seats i.e. that the gross mismanagement of the economy must never happen again. At least they would be left in no doubt that they are being held accountable by the people.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top