Richard Boyd Barrett TD

AIB & BOI SHOW THAT ECONOMIC MADNESS THAT CAUSED CRISIS CONTINUES AT SPEED

In a statement, Richard Boyd Barrett TD for the People Before Profit Alliance and convenor of the ‘Enough’ campaign said a protest took place at 10am outside the EGM of Allied Irish Banks Headquarters in Ballsbridge, where shareholders met to decide on a plan to inject €5 billion from the National pension Reserve Fund into the crisis-ridden bank. Deputy Boyd Barrett, along with Cllr Brid Smith of the People Before Profit Alliance, attended the EGM as proxies for a dissident shareholder to highlight outrage at the plan to raid the NPR to prop-up (re-capitalise) the bank, as demanded by the EU-IMF programme for Ireland. In the statement, Deputy Boyd Barrett said that while the Government and EU-IMF plan for AIB was an obviously outrageous theft of public funds to cover the gambling losses of AIB and its bondholders, the so called “good news story” about private sector investment in Bank of Ireland was equally outrageous.

View full article »

Around 1,000 people took part in the Enough Campaign‘s protest against EU/IMF austerity programme.

The Campaign is supported by People Before Profit Alliance TD’s Richard Boyd Barrett and Joan Collins, Unite Trade Union, Waterford Trades Council, Spectacle of Defiance, Socialist Workers Party, People’s Movement, Afri and a number of Independent TDs. Speakers on the day included Special Needs parents, bus cuts campaigners, trade unionists, community activists, representative of Rachel Peavoy Campaign and more.

Richard Boyd Barrett TD addresses the crowd

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett, an organiser of the march, said the campaign was about mobilising mass opposition to the austerity programme and bringing the spirit of Greek, Spanish and Egyptian-style resistance to Ireland. “This day, it’s not just going to be about speeches – we have had too much of that stuff where it is a few speeches and everybody goes home and that’s the end of it,” he told protesters. “This has to be the beginning of building a movement.” Richard Boyd Barrett encouraged those in attendance to rally support for what he hope will be a much larger demonstration on September 14th, when the Dáil resumes after summer recess.

Adrienne Murphy Enough March 16th July from Nigel Hanlon on Vimeo.