LEFT-WING POLITICAL parties and other groupings are planning a series of public protests to coincide with the Dáil debate on legislation to establish the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).
The United Alliance Against Cuts, described as a broad coalition, is organising a march in Dublin on Saturday, September 19th, to highlight the contrast between what Nama will spend on buying assets from banks and the cuts in public spending recommended by the McCarthy report.
Another group has been set up through the social networking site Facebook and had attracted 4,450 members as of yesterday. The site, entitled Grand Theft Nama, aims to attract 50,000 supporters before the Dáil debate on the Nama legislation begins.
A related group, the Irish People’s Union, intends to hold a similar protest on Saturday, September 12th, and a second street protest outside the Dáil on September 16th, the day the House convenes to debate the legislation. However, its online petition had, as of yesterday, attracted less than 50 signatures.
The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) also said yesterday that it intends to stage a protest outside the venue of the Green Party’s special conference on Nama, which may take place in early October.
There are indications from other web-based campaigns that Green Party members also will be targeted by e-mail to apply pressure on them to vote against setting up Nama at that meeting.
The alliance organising the September 19th march includes Sinn Féin, the People Before Profit alliance, Unite, the SWP and a number of community organisations.
According to Kieran Allen of the SWP, a member of the alliance, the aim of the protest is to use “people power” to stop the cuts, to put pressure on the Government to “bail out jobs and services and not the banks” and to address “need not greed”.
Mr Allen said that Nama demonstrated the contrast between the bailout of the banks and the cuts recommended by An Bord Snip Nua.
“The point we are making is that by putting so much money into the banks – €25 billion according to the IMF – and applying the McCarthy report then there is no money for social provision,” said Mr Allen.
