Please Sign online Petition to Release Socialist MP + Councillor
Date: Thursday, October 02 @ 21:09:30 CDT
Topic: CWI
Join the growing number of Australians signing this important petition...
Comrades
Two weeks ago Irish Socialist Party TD (MP) Joe Higgins and SP Councillor Clare Daly were sentenced to one month jail and big court costs awarded against them for non-payment of the Bin Tax. Currently in the Irish Republic there is a massive campaign of non-payment of the Bin Tax.
Since local Councils stopped picking up the bins of non-payers the campaign began to blockade bin trucks. 60% of people in the Irish Times survey on Monday supported this direct action against the Bin Tax. Higgins and Daly were considered leading figures in the campaign, which is why there were targetted by the State.
The Celtic Tiger boom has ended and growth is 0% this year, so the Dublin government is 'catching up' with the rest of the EU in terms of neo-liberal cuts. The bin tax is part of this. The jailings have led to mass demonstrations and spontaneous strike action in parts of Ireland. Such has been the backlash against the State for this action, the courts have refused to jail others found guilty since. The government obviously underestimated the backlash.
Please sign the letter below via sending your name back using the reply button. The letter will be presented to the Irish Consulate in Melbourne next week.
It is an outrage that community leaders are jailed for standing up for their community at a time when rich tax dodgers and corporate gangsters walk the streets.
Regards
Stephen Jolly, for SP
Australian Solidarity Campaign for Jailed Bin Tax campaigners in Dublin
October 2003
PO Box 1015,
Collingwood 3066
Letter to Irish Consul in Melbourne
Dear Sir,
We the undersigned are appalled at the jailing of Joe Higgins TD and Councillor Clare Daly over the Bin Tax dispute. We believe the jailings show a bias against community activists at a time when tax avoiders from the big end of town walk the streets of Ireland.
We call on you to pass on our views to the Irish Government and reply to our concerns.
Yours sincerely,
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