I swear, when God was handing out muppets, the SWP must have been at the top of the queue going “Oh! Are these free?”
The quote above is from one of the speakers at Tuesday’s rally. I didn’t get his name but he was from TCD Students’ Union, and he stood on the back of a flat-back truck on Molesworth Street and told an assembled crowd of anarchists and socialist republicans that the government better watch out ‘cos when they get their degrees and start their careers, one day they’ll be the CEOs of this country of ours and THEN the government will have to answer to them… oh yes.
(”We are the CEOs of the future.” Wonder if that was said at any of the demos in Greece. “Look! trainee middle management is with us! WE CAN WIN!!”)
Eventually, out of embarrassment for him than anything else he got a cheer when he said that we all have to stick together and work together (does this mean we’ll have a collective leadership but with CEOs at the top?)
Still, it was a nice sunny evening and we got to ramble up to Dublin Castle where a guy was arrested for drinking on the street. He must have been having a few cans all by himself when suddenly 100 guards and 500 protesters turn up with bullhorns and batons. Not what you want when you’re trying to get your drink on. Last I saw he was being dragged away and was shouting “They’re bleedin arresting me! My civil rights are being attacked here! Bleedin do somethin!” and 500 left-wing liberals and revolutionaries shuffled their feet and went “Hmmm, yeah. Erh, right so.”
The revolution will not be televised, but it will respect the city’s by-laws. Oh yes.
Well, same again next week. Just leave your cans, and your fuckwit TCD heads, at home.
(Have to say, I think the anarchists and Éirigí make a great pairing. I’m not being sarcastic here. I was on Molesworth Street when they arrived and it was kinda impressive in an Irish left/low self-esteem/sure we’ll get the CEO bunnies to speak kind of way. At least the anarchists and Éirigí are organised.)
Hilarious. Last year I was at an anti-NAMA demonstration organised by the usual suspects and they had some fella from something called the Irish People’s Union speaking. And one of the first things he said was ‘A lot of people ask me what the Irish People’s Union is about. And I say: that’s exactly what it’s about: Irish! People’s! Union!’. Then he started to talk about how he employed 7 people and he was proud to be an employer, which didn’t seem to go down too well. Then he said he was sorry someone (Dave?) couldn’t be here, because he was ‘the brainchild of the Irish People’s Union’, at which point I imagined some sort of Frankenstein figure. Then he started going HRROOOAARGHH! into the mic a few times, which went down a bit better. I could have the chronology wrong here.
You sure he didn’t say the ‘ELOs of the future’ Conor - as that certainly looks like Mr. Blue Sky in the background.
Seriously though, are you really surprised that somebody putting their foot on the first rung of the ‘politics’ (left, right, centre or arseways) stepladder would eventually be foreseeing themselves in a position where they can bully, manipulate, abuse their power and generally make other people’s lives a misery ??
I seem to vaguely remember talking to ye fairly often about this cliché back in the day - probably while arguing with ye over who got to use the loudhailer (or whatever they call those yokes)
I also see there’s a rather tall spy from evil multinational corporation Exxon (Texaco) on the right of your first photo.
Sometimes the SWP is like the kid in the school band who has the one note to play on the tuba in the end of the school year concert, and manages to hit it flat. “da da da da da da da PHRRFPTT.” 200 parents all grimace and go “ah, well, at least they gave him the tuba.”
I don’t think surprise is the tone of the post Seán. I do find it hilarious that the SWP - sorry the “right to work campaign” - thought it a good idea to let the muppet speak in the first place. It is pro forma for the SWP, though - students are radicals, 1917 Russia is the only logical blueprint for dissent in the 21st century, the Irish working class needs to be patronised with tabloid explanations of what is going on and gaudy posters, lots of zombie metaphors, etc, etc, etc.
In the workers’ party, Gilmore and Rabbitte were known as the “student princes”, and were never really trusted. Gilmore and Rabbitte, however, had the good sense to mask their CEO ambitions in front of the party faithful. No such cop-on here!
Yep, he was an eejit alright. But we were all young once and sometimes enthusiastic beyond our oral capabilities.
Not all the speakers were eejits though, some of them over the past few weeks have been spot on.
Have to say I’m not a huge fan of the “They say cutbacks, we say fightback” chanting. There were a lot of people amost foaming at the mouth during that part of the thing. It awoke a childhood memory of the robotic mass repetition of prayers during mass.
The strangest thing about the last demo was Kieran Allen striding around in front of the speaker’s platform with his arms behind his back like Stringer Bell, smiling, saying ‘here, here’ and occasionally clapping away to himself. Over on the SWP site he is saying he is surprised by the Garda presence on the marches: funny, there was fuck all of them on the first demo, until 10 toolboxes tried to run into the Dail carpark. Mind you, they’ll be back to single figures in a few weeks because I can’t see these demos getting any bigger unless Cowan and Seanie Fitz are caught robbing the poor box out of a church or something.
I might be missing something, but what’s the deal with the complete lack of the Jiggins and the Socialist Party? Are their members present as the Canal Communities or something?
Really I thought it was a joke, the passage about the “future CEO’s”. Im pretty sure it was.
Oh it was a joke alright.