Last year, Kunle, a Nigerian student in Palmerstown Community School, was issued with a notice for his deportation. This was all in a day’s work for Minister for Injustice, Michael Mc Dowell, Kunle being only one of many in a spate of deportations.

What made Kunle’s case special was the courageous and inspirational stand that Kunle’s school friends made. After Kunle was snatched and deported while still in his school uniform, the young people of Palmerstown Community School, with the help of the Socialist Party and Socialist Youth, organised angry demonstrations and protests that forced Mc Dowell to back down. Kunle was allowed to return home to sit his Leaving Cert.

Yet again, Kunle is faced with a deportation order. Mc Dowell realises that a dangerous precedent was set by the Palmerstown school students’ refusal to accept their friend’s deportation without a fight. Socialist Youth is calling for a mass campaign to prevent a nightmarish deja vu for Kunle.

No justice is to be found through the court system, as shown in the case of Pamela Izbekhai, who has been treated as a criminal and has spent time in Mountjoy Prison. Her crime is her seeking of a life for her two young daughters free from female genital mutilation, a horrific practice that caused the death of her first baby daughter in Nigeria.

The government is shamefully attempting to shift the blame for their own screw-ups, such as the dire state of the health service and the housing crisis, onto asylum seekers and non-nationals. To demonstrate that the government and their fat-cat friends are really to blame, we need a militant, campaigning approach to fight against deportations.

Socialist Youth calls for mass school-student protests and walkouts, that will encourage a mobilisation of teachers, parents and local communities to block anymore vicious deportations. The lesson is clear as day – no capitalist politician or court is to be trusted. As Kunle’s case has demonstrated – only mass-action and struggle can win.

In recent weeks, students from Ardscoil Ris, Limerick have fought for the right to protest and we won. On the day of the protest against Irish Ferries slave labour plans there were 20 to 30 students ready to walkout to defend our futures. Unfortunately the school scared some but ten of us joined the huge protest.

Then a month later, three of us were singled out for punishment, presumably for leading the walkout. We refused to accept the punishment and decided to fight back.

We quickly got support from Socialist Youth, and Socialist Party public representatives wrote and phoned to complain. We used Indymedia and local and national media to get our story out there, we even managed to get on the front page of the regional paper.

We also contacted trade unionists and public representatives and convinced them to help us out. The school was bombarded with phone calls, letters, faxes and emails – so many that they refused to take any more of the calls! With this stream of complaints, media attention, union demands and possibly staff pressure, the principal was left with no option but to give in.

In Ardscoil we have seen this kind of treatment before back in September over the right to leaflet (see October issue of the Socialist online). The reality is schools are scared by the growing anger of some young people and our political ideas. It’s not only in school that we are under attack: companies are driving down our wages and the government are criminalising us with ASBOs. Our victory shows that we can beat attacks on our rights through organisation and struggle.

What we need is to organise throughout the country, spreading the ideas of struggle and socialism but also setting up school student action groups and by getting involved in Socialist Youth.

One of the main talking points of last month was the visit of the author and activist Noam Chomsky to Dublin.

Over 4,000 people came to hear him speak at various meetings. Chomsky has been an outspoken critic of US Imperialism and the capitalist rule of profit since the outbreak of the Vietnam war and has writen countless books and pamphlets on these subjects.

The success of his visit shows that many people, mainly young people are searching for a political alternative in the aftermath of events such as the war in Iraq. The visit also highlighted the role of the Irish government in its slavish support for Bush’s war in Iraq by allowing US military and CIA planes (being used to carry prisoners for torture) to refuel in Shannon Airport, as this became a topic for discussion at many of the meetings.

While Chomsky correctly attacked the Irish government for this and the role of US Imperialism he was found wanting when it came to providing an alternative to war and the capitalist system that creates it. For example at a meeting in UCD he put forward a seven point programme as to what would form the basis for an “ethical” US foreign policy. These demands included reform of the United Nations and that the US government should sign up to the International Criminal Court. Socialist Youth believes such institutions are beyond reform by virtue of the fact that they also represent the interests of capitalism.

This is yet another example of people like Chomsky looking for “lesser evils” within the capitalist system. For example Chomsky supported the pro-big business, pro-war Democratic candidate John Kerry against Bush in the last presidential elections. It is good that people like Chomsky have helped expose the role of US Imperialism but sadly he has no real answers when it comes to what the alternative is to capitalism

I met the Socialist Party on the Irish Ferries demonstration. I went because the union reps. wanted us there - they wanted us to give a dig out to the Irish Ferries workers.

I bought a copy of the Socialist, because I had read up about communism, about Che Guevara and all and I’d looked into it. It struck me that his life was left open - he never finished what he started, and everyone has to take part to complete it.

Behind our backs, decisions by politicians are made to increase not just their own position, but that of the people that command their loyalty - not us, but the corporations that feed them.

It’s time for socialists everywhere not just to wage and win a battle, but to secure a future for the next generation as well as ourselves.