Protesters against bank bailout will march to Dáil on May 11th

A DEMONSTRATION against bank bailouts is to take place at the Dáil on Tuesday, May 11th.

The protest has been organised by the Right to Work Campaign, a coalition of political parties, trade unions and community groups.

Among those expected to address the demonstration, which will begin at the Garden of Remembrance before proceeding to the Dáil, are Kathleen Lynch, professor of equality studies at UCD, and Irish Timesjournalist Fintan O'Toole.

Announcing the demonstration yesterday, Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance said the protest would be the first in a number of rallies against the Government’s handling of the economic crisis.

“Tens of billions of public money is being poured into the institutions that created the current crisis and yet there is no strategy apparent from the Government on creating jobs or protecting the vulnerable in our society,” said Mr Boyd Barrett.

“The only way this economic madness can stop is through a people’s rebellion on the streets. We need to do what the pensioners did when the Government tried to rob them of their medical card entitlement, we need to do what people in Greece are doing and take to the streets.”

He said the group wanted “people bailed out and jobs and services bailed out, not bankers and economic elites”. If the Government was not willing to change track “then we want to drive them out of office”.

Socialist Party MEP Joe Higgins said that in the absence of any real alternative within the political establishment, “only sustained people power protest coupled with strike action can derail the Government’s agenda”.

Sinn Féin and the trade union Unite are also supporting the rally.