Every year the Socialist Youth summer festival is an opportunity for our members and young people interested in socialist ideas to come together.

This year’s festival in Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow, on 26-28 August was enlivened by Nikei from our sister group in Belgium, four Turkish GAMA workers, Socialist Party Councillor, Mick Barry, as well as invited speakers from other organisations – the Make Poverty History campaign, the National Women’s Council of Ireland and the "Shell to Sea" campaign.

At the opening rally, we heard an account of the GAMA struggle from one of the workers, Nikei from Belgium spoke about the neo-liberal attacks in Europe and the significance of the defeat of the EU constitution and a speaker from Socialist Youth talked about the attacks on young people here.

One of the highlights of the weekend was welcome addition of a speaker from "Shell to Sea" to the environment discussion who talked about the disgraceful imprisonment of the Rossport Five whose only crime is standing up to protect their families and community from Shell putting an unsafe pipe line through their land.

The two debates were also very well attended and informative – SP Councillor Mick Barry argued against Eamon Stack (Make Poverty History campaign) for a strategy of socialist struggle to make poverty history, and Susan Fitzgerald (Socialist Party) debated "Can capitalism deliver equality for women?" with Norin Clancy (National Women’s Council of Ireland).

The final rally discussed the great work done by Socialist Youth in the last year and what issues to take up in the coming year.

I would be deceitful if I said the weekend was totally used for discussion and theory! There was plenty of time to relax, with the GAMA workers providing excellent Turkish traditional music on Friday and Saturday night and there was time between discussions for festival goers to play football, chat or explore the rich history of Rathdrum!

Statoil Picket turns confrontational

To put our ideas into action, on the final day of the summer festival, we decided to place a picket on a Statoil Garage in support of the Rossport Five.

Two cars were filled and we set off to the Statoil station in Rathnew. The picket started very well. By informing people of the connection between Statoil and the pipeline we dissuaded lots from going in. Many people beeped their horns as they passed.

However, the peaceful picket was not to last. The owner of the station arrived, and after trying to knock down one of our members, started furiously shouting obscenities and pushing those taking part in the peaceful protest.

The confrontation went on for some time. We tried to explain what the picket was about, that we weren’t breaking any laws and that we had a democratic right to protest. We failed to reason with him and he maintained that he owned half the road!

When a Garda showed up, again nearly knocking us down in the process, he gave us a lesson on the role of the state. Before any questions were asked to establish what was going on, he began to push and shove us around. After he took our names we asked if the station owner’s name would also be taken. The Garda’s reply was that he already knew his name. The Garda took the side of "big business" even though it was the businessman who had lost his temper, assaulted us and refused to talk or listen to us.

What they said...

Amy Bannon, SY Dublin
"There was good discussion and the weekend opened up our ideas more for new members in a fun, friendly environment."

Roisin Stakelum, SY Cork
"I thought the weekend was very educational, it raised my political awareness and I found it very stimulating to be interacting with people who are motivated by a sense of social justice."

Manus Cross, Enniskillen SY:
"It wasn’t just theory, it had the other two elements too – action and socialising, with the football and statoil picket."

John White, Belfast SY:
"Very informative, great discussion and good fun!"

To date 100,000 people have been killed in Iraq and things are getting worse as the insurgency steps up its attacks.

Bush’s approval rating is now down to 45% and opposition to the war in the US is heating up, spurred on by the courageous protests of Cindy Sheehan, mother of a killed US troop in Iraq. Now is the time for the global anti-war sentiment to be transformed into global anti-war action!

On Saturday 24 September all around the world, anti-war actions are planned. In Ireland, the site of the protest will be Shannon airport, which over 500,000 US troops have been flown through on their way to or from Iraq. This protest is an opportunity for working class and young people to express not only their opposition to the ongoing brutal occupation of Iraq, but in particular the Irish government’s support to the war under the hypocritical guise of "neutrality".

Our "neutral" government spends €10,000 a day subsidising the flights of US warplanes through Shannon on their way to rain death and destruction on the people of Iraq! Our "neutral" government has allowed the US government to use Shannon not only for transporting 500,000 troops to Iraq, but also as a stopover on their way to Guantanamo Bay with prisoners destined to meet brutal torture and conditions! Irish neutrality is a sham used by Bertie and Co. to disguise their support for US operations around the world.

Richard Haas, Bush’s envoy to Ireland, has publicly stated that Shannon is crucial for US military operations and would be difficult to replace. Now is the time for action by all those opposed to the continuing occupation to take advantage of the complete lack of public support for this war and mobilise to try to end the use of Shannon by the US military.

The power of protest of young people has already been shown this year with the successful "Bring Kunle Home" campaign. If the anti-war movement links up this protest power of youth with the organised power of working class people in Trade Unions, we could grind US military operations to a halt in Shannon, hurting their ability to enforce their dictatorship of profit over the Iraqi people. This could be the first step towards building a socialist society where people come before profit, where instead of spending €10,000 a day shoring up a despised US occupation, this money could be spend on people’s needs, like our underfunded health service!

Every young person who is opposed to the occupation and the Irish government’s support for on it should be on the Socialist Youth bus to Shannon on September 24th. Join with us in demanding: Occupying troops out of Iraq now! US military out of Shannon now!

Come to Shannon with Socialist Youth

Socialist Youth are organising a bus to travel to Shannon for the demonstration on Saturday 24 September. If you want to travel down and join the socialist contingent call Paul on 086 1688050.

Over the summer Socialist Youth in Dublin has been involved in a number of activities in support of the jailed men and calling for the pipelines to be built at sea.

We held regular stalls on the issue and have generally gotten a good response. We also organised a contingent of young people for the national demo in support of the men on 23 July.

We held a very successful picket of a Statoil station in Dublin city centre during which we called on drivers not to use the garage. Many passers-by expressed support and some even stopped to join the protest. We also organised a protest outside the Norwegian Embassy highlighting the Norwegian governments role as owner of the majority of Statoil in the jailings.

To advertise the event we hung a huge banner over the Ha’penny Bridge saying "Free the Rossport 5" and handed out leaflets. Overall the activities have been very successful and it has been clear that ordinary people are on behind the imprisoned Mayo men.