Bin Tax prisoner romps home while Coke boycott stays

dublin | anti-capitalism | news report Thursday November 20, 2003 05:37 by UCDSU hack

Dave Murphy, the UCD student currently in prison for taking part in peaceful protests against the bin tax has been elected to the UCD Academic Council. Meanwhile the boycott of Coca-Cola products has been endorsed in a second referendum.

Murphy topped the poll by some distance in the elections for student seats on University College Dublin's Academic Council. Dave is a Socialist Youth and Campaign for Free Education activist from Tallaght. The Student Union has already started a campaign to free him.

This vote will help bring further attention to the fight against the bin tax amongst UCD students. The last member of the Council to be imprisoned was Eoin MacNeill.

Simultaneously a second referendum was taking place on the Student Union's boycott of Coca-Cola products. The boycott was initiated in response to a call from Columbian bottling workers who had been subjected to intimidation and even murder by right wing paramilitaries.

The policy was decided in an earlier referendum. Right-wing students collected signatures to force a rerun of the poll.

During the campaign, Anne Speed, Sinn Fein's industrial organiser and a SIPTU offical, led a delegation to Belfield to leaflet in support of Coca-Cola management. Nevertheless, students repeated their vote in favour of a boycott.

56% voted No to overturning the boycott on an increased turnout. Could these two results, following last year's Campaign for Free Education and the ousting of Fianna Fail from control of the Students Union, be signs of a return of student radicalism out by the Stillorgan dual carriageway?