FOUR eco-campaigners were arrested at Rossport in Eire this week as work was stopped at Shell's compound in Aughoose for over seven hours.
Says a report on UK Indymedia: "At 7am on May 4, two people from the Rossport Solidarity camp locked their arms together inside a plastic and concrete barrel, which had been placed directly in front of the gates of of the Shell compound.
"This was eventually removed by 1pm by the Garda protest removal team. Following the removal of the lock-on, a tractor bringing borehole drilling rig to the Shell compound was stopped and two people climbed up on the tractor cab and the borehole drilling rig.
"The Gardaí who had been mostly calm during the lock-on, became very aggressive and reckless, immediately climbing on the borehole drilling rig and dragging one of the people down in a dangerous and foreful manner.
"The second person who was on the tractor cab was taken down about 30 minutes later again in a dangerous manner by having her hands handcuffed and her legs cable-tied and then being handed down a ladder by Gardaí. None of the Gardaí involved wore any ropes, harnesses or any safety equipment."
ANTI-GOVERNMENT protesters forced their way into the grounds of Government Buildings in Dublin.
Reports The Irish Times: "Some 50 people, including Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh, protested outside Government Buildings on Merrion Street at lunchtime yesterday, shouting: 'Cowen, Cowen, Cowen. Out, out, out!'
"Television footage showed the Dublin South Central TD caught up in scuffles between the demonstrators and gardaí, as gardaí sought to push back protesters carrying banners during the protest organised by Sinn Féin.
"A number of people pushed their way through the Government Buildings gates as far as the glass-walled reception buildings inside the entrance. A sit-down protest was attempted for about five minutes.
"According to gardaí, protesters attempted to get through, but were 'stopped in their efforts' to get to the Taoiseach’s office.
"The group was then escorted out by gardaí, who maintained a highly visible presence after the incident.
"Police vans and gardaí on motorbikes attended the scene, and at least 15 gardaí stood in a line across the large gates to the grounds. There were no arrests."
The Belfast Telegraph adds that police are now braced for a massive street protest being organised for the centre of Dublin on Saturday.
"The demonstration is expected by some of the organisers to attract at least 80,000 people but the final number could swell further as public anger boils over."
ONE of Ireland's biggest trade unions has called for a campaign of civil disobedience, as the EU/IMF bank bailout is being finalised.
The Workers Solidarity Movement reports that general secretary Eamonn Devoy (pictured) said the trade union movement would not “acquiesce in the ruination of our society”.
It adds: "He also said that we are on the brink of significant civil unrest. The call for mass civil disobedience comes just a week before the ICTU mass mobilisation for November 27th in Dublin.
"The march has been called by ICTU according to David Begg 'to allow ordinary working people to voice their opposition to a policy that could destroy 90,000 more jobs in the short term and the prospect of any long term prosperity'.
"The massive groundswell of anger in the population is pushing the trade union leadership to take an ever more militant public stance.
"Throughout the country people are crying out for opportunity to vent their anger. The Workers Solidarity Movement will be mobilising for this demonstration and the many others occurring now around the country.
"Demands will have to go beyond the resignation of this government and tactics beyond marching if any real change is to come."
MORE evidence has emerged of the brutal state violence used against Irish students who protested against increased fees in Dublin on Wednesday.
Several videos have been posted online showing riot police attacking young protesters, lashing out with batons at peaceful sit-downs and charging at lines of demonstrators with horses.
Said one campaigner: "What we witnessed today was the policing of fear, the deliberate use of state violence to discourage acts of protest and civil disobedience. "
Spineless national student union leader Gary Redmond has chosen to condemn the protesters as extremists and has not commented on violence from the Gardai.
But the WSM (Workers Solidarity Movement) issued a statement condemning in the strongest terms the police violence.
It reported that several members of the organisation were present with almost 1000 others in support of for those who entered and occupied the Department of Finance.
Mark Malone, student and member of the WSM, present at the protests, said: "I witnessed masked men in padded clothing beat a woman around the head with a baton.
"She was so scared she couldn’t move even as they shouted at her to do so. My friends and I helped her away from where the police where hitting people.
"The police refused to listen to our calls for medical attention and instead pushed me on top of this woman using a large plastic shield. This was only one of many instances of brutality.
"I also saw police punch, kick, drag and throw to the ground the people who occupied the Department of Finance. It was clear to everyone that the police decided to intimidate and physically assault us.
"The low number of arrests compared to the very high level of injuries suggest that this was a tactic decided at a high level. It was as if the police wanted to provoke a violent response from us. All we could do was try to defend our selves and each other from these thugs.
"While several WSM members where present in the demo, other members watched from the vantage point of our office window which directly over looked the scene.
"We witnessed many injuries as a result of police violence, mostly unprovoked batoning, but also the use of the edges of riot sheilds to dig into people.We witnessed police horses being run directly into a mass crowd, we saw women and men sitting on the ground, beaten with lumps of stick the police call 'batons'.
"We witnessed polices dogs being reared into the crowd as people shouted 'peaceful protest'. I heard the police swear and verbally threaten students, one saying they would 'knock the fucking shit' out of me if I didn't move.”
Malone continued: "The government chooses to target students, much in the way they target the sick, unemployed and marginalised because they think we are an easy touch.
"This government has lost legitimacy since in reality it is the IMF and ECB, and the faceless rich of the “markets” who now dictate policy. This is not just an economic crisis, it is a crisis democracy as we can clearly see the structures of power at play.”
"What we witnessed today was the policing of fear, the deliberate use of state violence to discourage acts of protest and civil disobedience. "
IRISH students occupied a government building and bravely resisted attacks by riot cop thugs during a Dublin protests against fee hikes.
Reports the BBC: "Gardai forcibly ejected students from the lobby of the Merrion Row building on Wednesday afternoon.
"In violent scenes, at least one person was carried away, possibly unconscious. Others were visibly injured and bleeding.
"The student protesters occupied the Department of Finance in a stand against plans to increase fees for third level education in the Republic of Ireland.
"Several hundred students also staged a sit-down protest outside the building."
DISSIDENT Republicans in Northern Ireland have bombed a bank, less than a month after they warned they would be doing just that.
The car bomb badly damaged the Ulster Bank in Culmore Road, Derry. Nobody was injured but the attack was widely condemned by the British and Irish establishment.
In September the underground group described bankers as criminals and told The Guardian: "We have a track record of attacking high-profile economic targets and financial institutions such as the City of London.
"The role of bankers and the institutions they serve in financing Britain's colonial and capitalist system has not gone unnoticed.
"Let's not forget that the bankers are the next-door neighbours of the politicians.
"Most people can see the picture: the bankers grease the politicians' palms, the politicians bail out the bankers with public funds, the bankers pay themselves fat bonuses and loan the money back to the public with interest.
"It's essentially a crime spree that benefits a social elite at the expense of many millions of victims."
BANKERS are on the target list for dissident Irish republicans in the Real IRA, according to a Guardian interview with the underground group.
The Real IRA described bankers as criminals and told the newspaper: "We have a track record of attacking high-profile economic targets and financial institutions such as the City of London.
"The role of bankers and the institutions they serve in financing Britain's colonial and capitalist system has not gone unnoticed.
"Let's not forget that the bankers are the next-door neighbours of the politicians.
"Most people can see the picture: the bankers grease the politicians' palms, the politicians bail out the bankers with public funds, the bankers pay themselves fat bonuses and loan the money back to the public with interest.
"It's essentially a crime spree that benefits a social elite at the expense of many millions of victims."
The Real IRA also told the Guardian that support for them was building and they had turned away hundreds of young disaffected nationalists because they didn't have the capacity to absorb so many members.
"From the point of view of republican communities, there is still a heavily armed British police force that casually uses plastic baton rounds, CS gas and Tasers, carry out house raids, stop and search operations and general harassment.
"There's still a 5,000-strong British army garrison, a new MI5 HQ in Belfast, and a British secretary of state. Republican communities are still subjected to sectarian parades and the right to protest is being met with intimidation and violence."
ANGRY protesters greeted war criminal Tony Blair in Dublin when he staged the first of a planned series of book signings, with eggs and shoes thrown at him.
And the call has now gone out for more protests when he appears in central London on Wednesday this week.
Reports The Guardian: "Three men were arrested after they broke through a security barrier at around 10.45am today outside Eason's bookshop on O'Connell Street in Dublin, Ireland.
"The demonstrators, ranging from anti-war demonstrators to the Continuity IRA-aligned Republican Sinn Fein are now marching to a garda police station in the city centre demanding the release of the three arrested men.
"Gardai had earlier dragged a number of demonstrators off the street and during the fracas a male protester in a wheelchair was knocked to the ground.
"Protesters shouted 'Whose cops? Blair's cops!' as they taunted the gardai while Blair remained inside the bookshop. They also shouted: 'Hey hey Tony hey, how many kids have you killed today?'
One anti-war campaigner has attempted to make a citizen's arrest on former prime minister Tony Blair over alleged war crimes, reports the Press Association.
Activist Kate O'Sullivan managed to get through tight security to confront Mr Blair as he held a book signing in Dublin. "I went up to him and I said 'Mr Blair, I'm here to make a citizen's arrest for the war crimes that you've committed'," she said.
There are calls for protests in London on Wednesday September 8 when Blair is due at Waterstones Picadilly, 203-206 Picadilly, at 12 noon.
Says Counterfire website: "Join us to demonstrate against Tony Blair's book-signing and bring banners and something which will make a lot of noise!"
ANGRY protesters have blocked the entrance to a court in Derry where an Irish republican faced a bizarre terrorism charge.
Gary Donnelly, 39, is accused of ' having a mobile phone that was used for purposes connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism', reports the Belfast Telegraph.
The police (RUC) allege a phone call to a journalist claiming responsibility for two pipe bomb attacks by the Real IRA had been traced to Mr Donnelly's phone.
His supporters point out that this sort of call would hardly be made on someone's own phone and add that the journalist specifically said it was not Mr Donnelly's voice.
They say the whole case is nothing but a set-up by the British state and blatant political intimidation of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, of which Mr Donnelly is part, and radical republicanism in Northern Ireland as a whole.
The protesters held placards referring to the "Internment by Demand" and chanted "SS RUC" at police outside.
The district judge rejected the police's call for bail to be refuse and released Mr Donnelly to appear again on September 20.
THOUSANDS of Irish people have taken to the streets to protest at the bailout of the banks and at the jobs crisis in Ireland.
There were some scuffles at the Daíl, the parliament builing, where people tried to get in.
Reported Irish Indymedia: "It's worth noting that one of those who was batoned by the cops at the demo last night was a 61 year old retired midwife. She wasn't endangering the cops but she was hit on the head with a baton."
THE IRISH state is preparing to use the army to suppress major civil unrest by spending a third of a million Euros on providing it with new riot gear.
Reported the Irish Independent on November 15: "The order, placed with Daniel Technologies of Dublin, includes protective knee and armpads, helmets and visors, while soldiers also have access to body armour, batons and shields. Enough material has been ordered to equip 500 soldiers.
"The equipment will be kept in barracks near locations where public order disturbances could break out. These are likely to include the Dail, the border and Shannon Airport. The last order for such equipment was in 2000.
"Tender documents show the order was for the 'supply of public order blunt trauma personnel protective equipment for use in public order, crowd and riot control operations at home and abroad'."
A Defence Forces spokesman was quoted as denying the army was being told to prepared for the proposed national strike on November 24.
It said the the country was in “the midst of an unprecedented economic correction” with losses at its banks predicted to swell to €35bn (£30bn) over the next two years.
“The stress exceeds that being faced currently by any other advanced economy and matches episodes of the most severe economic distress in post-World War II history,” the IMF said.
An overwhelming majority of people are happy to be living in this industrial capitalist world. We know this because we are told it constantly.
How could we foresee a near future in which the hypnotic spell is broken, the scales fall from a billion eyes and those who say 'Enough!' are revealed, all of a sudden, to be a gale force wind of revolt, a tidal wave of insurgent delight sweeping all before it, a minority so vast it will change everything?
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