Rebels with a cause

IT started on Wall Street five weeks ago when tens of thousands of people gathered in solidarity to express their anger towards the failed policies which led to a global financial meltdown.

Declaring the “occupation” of New York city, the movement calls itself a leaderless people’s protest and, despite hundreds of arrests and escalating violence between police and seemingly peaceful protesters, thousands remain encamped at the world’s most famous financial centre.

The model “Occupy” is now being replicated in cities across the world, including Ireland.

Needless to say, Cork’s Occupy movement — located on the South Mall in the city centre — isn’t quite as dramatic as Wall Street’s, or even Dame Street’s efforts, but the spirit of those involved is just as resolute.

Liam Mullaney is from Sligo, but has lived in Cork since he was 17. He joined the protest, first in Dublin, and now in Cork, because he sees an opportunity to help rebuild the broken communities of post-Celtic Tiger Ireland.

“I am very proud to be Irish. I am originally from the north-west coast, I love our culture and literature, and this country, but it has been mismanaged,” he says. “I was in business myself and saw the everyday push and pull of it. I got out in 2002 and watched the Celtic Tiger, the breakdown in communities and this culture of money.”

According to Mullaney, who lives in the village of Ballinspittle, we were trying to emulate the TV show Dallas and “built Southforks all over the place”. Now, he believes communities are coming together again. He has studied permaculture, which looks at sustainable ways of living with your environment, and is putting it into practice right in the middle of Cork city.

“I was attracted to this because of the fact that it is a non-violent leaderless movement of the people. We don’t want to go down the route of the Greeks and rioting, that doesn’t work, but I think this is a real chance for people to get together and do something.”

Mullaney has been camping at the site, next to the city’s business centre, since last Saturday, but says that he doesn’t necessarily see himself camping there indefinitely, but will remain involved as long as it is active.

“We now have a media centre and an office. We are going to start showing documentaries and are running workshops and holding talks. Everything here could be cleared away in a day, if we need to do that, but we will stay as long as welcome. If it gets bigger or they want us to move for any reason, we will, we don’t want any hassle.”

St John Ó’Donnobháin from Kilkenny says he was inspired by the Wall Street movement and the idea of people taking the power back.

The 28 year old was working in tourism and as a teacher, before finding himself unable to get work.

“The country feels let down by the political system, there has been no change since the change of government, and what we are doing is trying to take that political power and open up a space for debate so we can take some control back.”

Ó’Donnobháin says he is “very much” against the IMF. “They are providing money to us at a level of interest that will cripple us for a generation. I don’t think we have seen anything yet as regards cuts. The next budget will cut so deep that social services will be crippled. We are pulling money out of the economy, and making a bad situation worse, and IMF is a huge part of that problem,” he says.

“I think for those who are questioning what can we achieve here, well that very fatalism is the thing we need to fight against — this idea that people can’t change things. No movement for change ever started from a position of strength. Change comes from below.”

Ó’Donnobháin says all sorts of people have been turning up to support the cause. “There are students, artists, people who were working but were laid off, all sorts of people, it’s hard to classify, but it’s not just a young movement, middle-aged people are coming with their kids.”

Local businesses are, so far, supportive too, the group says. Located right beside a trendy bar, Electric, it would be understandable if they were unhappy with the encampment on their doorstep.

“There is great sentiment towards us and we have great support from the local businesses. We have more food than we can eat from shops, individuals, cafes, Electric have been very helpful and we are working with them. People have donated blankets and sleeping mats, they have been so generous. Anything we don’t eat ourselves we give to the Simon community.”

Perhaps the youngest of the group, 17-year-old Jack Corbett is on a half-day from school and has chosen to spend it at the camp. A Leaving Cert student, although he is not camping out, he comes down to the site as often as he can.

“I believe in social progression and social change and in 40 years time our grandchildren will be reading about this in their history books. I think the movement has no choice but to grow, because there is such an undercurrent of anger and frustration that people don’t even realise they are feeling,” he said.

“I am a social democrat, I am not one of those people who is saying IMF out, the EU are evil, and I quite supportive of the troika bailout, I think globalisation and free markets are a good thing, but what I disagree with, and the reason I am here, is that I believe our government and a lack of regulation and our own attitude to corporatocracy has gotten us into this situation. This is something domestic as opposed to international and that’s what I am protesting against.”

According to the student, the strength of the movement is that it represents huge variety of people — it is not communist, not hippy, not fascist, not capitalist, but a movement based around people who are all angry at the way the ordinary man is being treated.

For now at the camp there are about 20 tents and growing daily, and with no blueprint for how this might evolve, who knows how big it might grow. One thing is for sure, this is not a bunch of disaffected anarchist trouble-makers, but an intelligent group trying to make sense of what has happened to their country.