On Tuesday October the 19th and Wednesday October the 20th a conference on ‘less lethal’ weapons is taking place in the Berkeley Court Hotel in Dublin. Organised by defence industry magazine Janes, the conference features representatives of the police, military, scientific and industrial sectors. This article from a regular Indymedia contributor is a backgrounder on the nature and function of ‘less lethal’ weapons.

Extract: ‘Less Lethal’ weapons allow the state the use of force in ‘public order’ situations, and thus make repression far more likely. This can be particularly seen in the United States where innumerable demonstrations are pepper sprayed, for such things as marching into the wrong street. The issue of state legitimacy is crucial to the development of ‘less lethal’ weapons, openly referred to in planning documents as the ‘CNN factor’ or in the Berkeley Court conference as ‘the social feel good factor’. To illustrate this consider how plastic and rubber baton rounds allowed elements of State forces in the North of Ireland to inflict ‘collective punishment’ on working class Catholic communities. “There was a riot, we fired plastic bullets” is a lot more sellable then the older version of collective punishment – house burnings.

Article continues at 'Feature continued on newswire' link below

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From the Newswire:Three bus driver employees of Bus Atha Cliath / Dublin Bus have been suspended without pay for almost four weeks now, for daring to join and be members of the trade union of their choice, the Independent Workers Union. While peaceably distributing information about their union, on request, in their own time and their own work place they were harassed and victimised by members of Dublin Bus management in clear violation of their constitutional, legal and industrial rights and in clear contravention of current legislation which protects workers in pursuit of their trade union rights.

Suspension without pay is illegal and is a vicious attack not alone on the worker but on his or her family and dependents. Current legislation prohibits the suspension, harassment and victimisation of workers who legally carry out trade union activity in their work place. Other drivers in various depots of Dublin Bus are also facing suspension and possible dismissal, even some who are on sick leave, for being members of the Independent Workers Union, which is a fully licensed and legal trade union.

Despite the best efforts of the employees and this trade union to have the matter settled in a fair, just and equitable manner the response of Dublin Bus management is more like what could be expected from the “Sopranos” rather than from a modern sophisticated management structure. Ironically this is from a company that was recently declared one of the top 50 Irish companies to work for; surely it must have been 50th from the bottom?

Four Basque activists visited Dublin last night for an evening of information & discussion in the Teachers Club, Parnell Square, on the current political climate in the Basque Country; while back in Euskal Herria, the police went about dismantling a Basque autonomous centre, with housing activists and squatters doing their best to defend the building from demolition...

Download the MP3 audio report from radio.indymedia.org

A photo essay and commentary on derelict buildings in Dublin 7 near the LUAS line.

As anyone who has faced the daily banal work torture of the water-cooler/canteen "chat" will know, the two hot topics that people love talking endless guff about are the traffic chaos in Dublin, and how much it costs to buy/rent a house here. But admittedly for once the chattering classes do have a point - in many areas which would previously have been considered accessible for low-income earners to live in, they are now priced out entirely.

In other European cities where a new rail line is completed, and even in Dublin with the construction of the DART, property values usually go up and it becomes desirable to live close to the line for convenience and hassle-free commuting....

In August 2002 Indymedia Ireland carried a letter to the EZLN and Mexican civil society entitled "In Ireland Marcos is a Traveller".. The previous month the above poster had appeared campaigning against the trespass laws that had recently been passed. In the two years since that article Ireland passed the Nice treaty and built an Anti-War movement. Indymedia published 75,000 articles or comments and the Public Order Act sprang to prominence used against RTS'ers, Bin Tax campaigners and others. Of course some of those 75,000 articles also mentioned the trespass aspect and it's use against travellers. But since the DoJ decided to cancel the Citizen Traveller campaign, somehow the issue faded from the view of many.

The stories from Cork should surely be told. Last summer, we saw why this county leads the league table of evictions with 138 evictions taking place under the new act in the first 12 months of its operation. An eviction in May 2003 (with more details and loads of debate) and another this summer (more coverage here). Indeed the last two years have seen the TASS initiative and — on Indymedia at least — an attempt to increase traveller visibility by telling the stories, following the cases and discussing the issues.

An Indymedia editor suggested an update to 'Marcos is a Traveller' and contact was made with the Traveller Visibility Group. We got sent a set of pictures with asides and an invitation to tell the big story, do a feature and say what was happening. But when you look at the pictures, see what Ireland demands of her citizens, even those who qualify under the proposed new restrictions, its very hard to improve on the words that were published here two years ago.

This war is happening everywhere including Ireland. The Irish government is at present using draconian new laws to move Indigenous Irish Travellers from anywhere that they attempt to camp. They are the Irish equivalent to the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico and they are being described openly by members of the establishment in Ireland as 'Terrorists'. They, unlike the EZLN, have never taken up arms to fight for Justice, Peace and Dignity. They have done nothing except live their lives as their ancestors have for generations. They are a nomadic people. Just today I read of 30 families who had moved their caravans to an unused portion of land near the city of Dublin (our capital) being driven from this land by the Irish Police.

So why am I telling this to the Zapatistas and Mexican Civil Society? To point out that in the Fourth World War things are becoming the same everywhere. And to point out that the resistance everywhere finally can realise this through channels of authentic speech and authentic tellings of the truth.

And to show the pictures of the welcome that Citizen Traveller receives this summer.