Bank protesters are rebels with a cause

EVERY day, at 1pm and 6pm, they gather for a general assembly.

Somebody takes the loudhailer and lists an agenda. This might include some housekeeping issues such as security, or, as it did last Thursday evening, details of a forthcoming march.

A few feet away from the gathering, the city centre traffic trundles loudly by. Most people are getting on with their lives, but this gathering believes it’s time to pause, and proclaim that this can’t go on.

The protesters began gathering outside the Central Bank on Dublin’s Dame Street last Saturday. They were inspired and moved to act by similar gatherings around the world, most notably in New York. In the last few weeks the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protest has grown and blossomed. Headlines have focused on the clashes with police, but, by and large, it has been a peaceful operation.

In this country, the move towards the OccupyDameStreet protest gathered steam through Facebook, culminating in the occupation commencing a week ago. Since then the size of the gathering outside the Central Bank has steadily increased. The leaflet that protestors hand out to passers-by sets out their stall.

“OccupyDameStreet is a people’s movement, which stands in solidarity with and is inspired by nearly 1,000 sister occupations in the evolving global movement initiated by the people of Iceland, Greece, Spain and Tunisia. We use tactics of non-violence akin to scenes of peaceful resistance in Tahrir Square and Wall Street. This is a diverse people’s initiative, unaffiliated with any political parties. We are the 99%. We stand together against political and economic corruption.”

There are now up to 70 protestors encamped on the doorstep of financial regulation. The paved area is taken up with tents of various colours and sizes. Most of the tents are two-person, but there is one large one which sleeps six. The tents are secured by ropes tied to trees which form part of the streetscape. Care is taken not to trespass onto the property of the Central Bank.

Placards have been fashioned from cardboard and slogans abound thereon and on a slate which has been commandeered as a noticeboard: ‘Ireland Wake Up’; ‘The System Cannot Be Reformed’; ‘Real Democracy Now’.

Most of those encamped are in their teens or 20s, but a few won’t see 30 again. They are adamant that their voices will not be hijacked. Trade unions or political parties will not get a foot in the door at this protest. At the general assembly on Thursday, the woman with the loudhailer reminded everybody, “When we work with other groups they should come to the general assembly first.”

At night, and particularly at weekends, Dublin city centre can be a hostile station. The protestors have organised their own security. Four-hour shifts are undertaken by members in high-visibility jackets or vests. In the small hours — the peak time for potential trouble — security is beefed up to six people. Unlike their kindred spirits in New York, these protestors have good relations with the police. Gardaí in Pearse Street have supplied them with numbers to ring in the event of hassle from drunks or trouble-seekers.

Paul Moore from Laois came on the first day and is still in situ. He is 23 and was prompted to make his way to Dame Street after watching the New York protest online.

“It’s basic stuff,” he says. “Banks are a business like everything else. Businesses fail. But they have so much power they aren’t forced to suffer in the same way.”

Protests like this one are not unique. It happens all the time, as it should in any healthy democracy. Usually, however, the substance of the protest reflects a minority view, and does not attract widespread support. Yet the views being espoused by those in Dame Street are echoed throughout the land.

For months now, people in the North Cork village of Ballyhea have been making a weekly, dignified protest on the same issue. The appearance and character of the protestors there differs from what you might see in Dame Street, but the sentiment is the same. The current global economic crisis has seen the basic tenets of both capitalism and natural justice turned on their respective heads.

Even last week, the continuing madness was evident in two incidents in particular. In Brussels on Thursday, Enda Kenny assured the president of the EU, Jose Manuel Barroso, that Ireland would not impose greater losses on the bondholders in the country’s banks. In effect, he was telling Barroso that the good Irish citizens would continue to pick up the tab for losses made by corporate gamblers, who bet on the Irish property bubble.

No longer is the Government acting to relieve the burden of gamblers’ losses on its own people. Instead, Kenny assures Barroso that the strapped natives will gladly continue to turn out their pockets, apparently in the name of the greater good of the EU project. As far as national and European leaders are concerned, the survival of the big European banks is more important than the welfare of citizens who gambled nothing.

On a micro level, the plight of developer Mick Wallace last week illustrated once more the upheaval of any natural order in the current crisis. On Monday, the High Court granted ACC bank a summary judgement of €19 million against Wallace.

Whatever chance Wallace may have had of restarting his building business was effectively killed with that judgement.

On one level, Wallace can have no complaints about what has befallen him. He was known to be a developer who took care with his projects, unlike others who merely threw up buildings as cheaply and quickly as possible. He was something of a rogue developer in that he didn’t conform to the stereotype. He advocated higher taxes for the wealthy, and he didn’t court political favour.

Away from the business, he ploughed money and time into soccer, culminating in the establishment of the Wexford Youths team in the national league. His popularity and anti-establishment stance propelled him to a seat in the Dáil representing his native county in the last general election. But he gambled and lost, and that’s life.

Except, if his loans had been with domestic banks rather than one foreign owned — ACC’s parent is Dutch outfit Rabobank — he would now be sitting pretty.

The developers who owe the banks covered by NAMA are still in business, being paid a handsome salary of up to €20,000 to complete projects on behalf of the agency. If the economy straightens out, these boys will be back in the game. The future for Wallace is entirely different.

Not only that, but Wallace’s tenure as a member of parliament is entirely in the hands of the bank.

If ACC decide to bankrupt him, as the bank is entitled to do, then he will be obliged to resign his seat. We have now come to the point where a foreign-owned bank can decide whether or not an elected TD shall continue to represent the citizens of his constituency.

The wonder is that the protests have so far been confined to small pockets like Ballyhea and Dame Street.