A punk rocker for the Dáil?

national | politics / elections | news report

Thursday February 24, 2011 19:46

by Dunk

Dylan Haskins is running as an Independent in Dublin South East. He's young, idealistic and already done many interesting things in his 23 years, from being a DIY punk setting up an all ages punk music gig venue to film making to helping set up Exchange in Dublin. Now he's running for election in tomorrows Irish elections.

Young and naive, perhaps. But a positive breath of fresh air, absolutely. Ireland is fucked at present, maybe Dylan and his bold (anarcho)punk inspired ideas might be exactly whats needed to get things on track?

A punk rocker for the Dáil?

As he has pointed out, his political journey started a long time back:

“I was 15 when I first wrote to a politician. My letter asked that youth centres be built in response to the rapid development of housing estates around the country. I wrote three letters, but never received a reply. So we decided to do it ourselves. We organised gigs in an empty parish hall while speculators waited for planning permission. We met other teenagers and told them how they could do the same and from that we built a mutually supportive network. This taught me an important lesson: there is always a way.”

This was kick started things in the early days, from there Dylan and his mates pooled their resources, started bands and played gigs. Inspired by the DIY (Do It Yourself) punk ethic, with a strong bit of anarchist thinking thrown in to boot, they set up a collective, heres their Mission Statement from April 2006:

BASTA! YOUTH COLLECTIVE MISSION STATEMENT

We're an autonomous, youth-led collective, working to improve the quality of life and facilities for young people and, indeed, the whole community in the areas in which we live and recreate.

Our goal is to inspire, encourage and support individuals and groups wishing to improve our society. We do this through information exchange, discussion and debate, practical example and application, art, films and music to name but a few.

We intend to empower and enable individuals and communities to educate themselves to current and future issues effecting their lives with the ultimate goal of enabling them to govern themselves and make their own informed decisions.

"Basta" is a Spanish word, meaning "Enough is enough" or "Stop". In our context, it means enough is enough; we're going to take action into our own hands and utilise all means possible with the intent of educating communities to better, more sustainable and fulfilling ways of life.

So roll on a few years and a strange things happen, flicking through the Irish times, there is an article about the upcoming elections and within the article is a very very well produced video outlining a new way of doing things. Exactly what is needed to further get Ireland out of the civil war politics that have dogged the country since the 20's...

Heres an example of Dylan trying to bring greater participation from the public in the mechanisms of democracy: Initiative following election 1- Introduce monthly constituency forum to include you in the democratic process beyond your vote.

I will hold a monthly constituency forum in Dublin South East. This will be a priority over one to one clinics and will be started immediately following my election. The forum will be open to constituents and I welcome the involvement of the three other TDs and elected representatives in the area.

A monthly constituency forum would have several consequences; seeing democracy in action by bringing people in the community together to talk about constituency issues, allowing TDs to hear these issues in a public way, not in private, encouraging citizens to have an input into national issues under a TD’s remit. Instead of one to one clinics where problems are heard in isolation let’s get our community talking to each other and working out problems together in all of our interests.

This time tomorrow we should now how things fair for Dylan, and for Ireland.

Fair play to him for his energy, ideas and passion. Ireland needs it.

As the old 68’ers wisely and boldly stated: “be realistic, demand the impossible”. Good luck young man, give them hell.

A few links:

Dublin candidate takes campaign online (That Irish Times article with his vid embedded)
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0203/....html

IT STARTS HERE (that vid)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLdHZ5LNIhs

"Basta!" Teens Prepare For Loss Of Hall (The kids are doing it for themselves) (Earlier indymedia feature)
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/75231

The dude from the Hideaway House (Irish Times - January 9, 2009)
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/ontherecord/2009/01/09/...ouse/

His website for the elections
http://www.dylanhaskins.ie/

Roll Up Your Sleeves: A Documentary About Do-It-Yourself Counterculture (2008)
http://vimeo.com/18295775
trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alOex97EIRY

TEDxLiffey - Dylan Haskins - The Creative City
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUq209Dk_Sc

More Independent voices but a greater struggle to be heard
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0216/1....html

Interview: General Election Candidate Dylan Haskins
http://www.universitytimes.ie/?p=860

twitter - http://twitter.com/diylan

Dylan Haskins, an Independent in Dublin South East? It starts here

The kids are doing it for themselves - DIY kid punk scene

Caption: Video Id: KLdHZ5LNIhs Type: Youtube Video
IT STARTS HERE

Caption: Video Id: alOex97EIRY Type: Youtube Video
Roll Up Your Sleeves: A Documentary About Do-It-Yourself Counterculture (2008- trailer)

Caption: Video Id: gUq209Dk_Sc Type: Youtube Video
TEDxLiffey - Dylan Haskins - The Creative City

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Comments (10 of 10)

Fake

by Natasha

Sun Mar 13, 2011 19:42

It seems that Dylan's punk ethos was really just a popularity competition to get his name to a higher profile. This was helped by his two cohorts (Una Mullally & Fionn Kidney) who were his social medja savvy slaves. From spamming their followers with retweets to exhausting all favors with their mates for more exposure for this cretin.

The next few months will be interesting, will he renige on his promise that he will continue with politics? Or was this all for a hipster documentary on how he ran for the Dail? I'm guessing the latter.

Twitter is not action

by Times reader

Sat Mar 12, 2011 12:55

Article in todays Irish Times written by DYLAN HASKINS

THROUGHOUT LAST MONTH’S general-election campaign, in which I ran in Dublin South East but wasn’t elected, people asked why I wanted to enter the discredited, thankless world of politics. My response was always the same: what’s the alternative? To vote for the same parties and their stale policies?

This, like so many other aspects of the campaign, echoed my experience of starting projects and organising events over the past eight years. I didn’t begin to run non-profit all-ages concerts when I was 15 because I felt charitable: I did it because no one else was going to.

Nothing changes unless people change it. Access to media like Twitter can give a counterproductive sense of satisfaction, a feeling that putting a hashtag before the issue of the day and making a 140-character comment about it is taking action. It’s not. Protesting is action. Voting is action. Running for election is action...
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/0312/1....html

Gerry is right

by Con

Mon Feb 28, 2011 12:28

Yup, a complete lack of any ideogical coherence, vague notions of reform, and no analysis of the capitalist class system that has the majority of the population as pawns of the elite. It it a joke to say he has been in any meaningful way inspired by anything to do with Anarchism. And he sure got the wrong end of the DIY stick - DIY Punk is about groups working together outside of exploitative systems, not taking it on yourself to become one of the political elite! Populist nonsense, I'm glad he didn't get anywhere.

style over substance

by gerry

Fri Feb 25, 2011 13:33

He's probably a decent person and preferable to most of the mainstream party politicians. However, apart from specific polices on the arts, gay marriage, education etc there is no ideological framework here as far as i can see. There is something disturbingly hollow about Mr.Haskins' and his campaign. In one of his campaign videos he says that he stands for 'ideas' and 'not ideology.' He seems to represent basically the same old kind of mindset which sees politics as a career but in a sense a new breed of younger, more glamorous politician, who seem to base their campaigns on style over substance. I don't see any questioning of the economic system on which all of this injustice is based -just the same old myths that we need entrepreneurs to save us etc. Reminds me of a lot of the nonsense talk in the 90s about an end to ideology and divisions between left and right etc. If the last few years has thought us anything it is that ideology is more needed now than ever- cobbled-together policies that accept the underlying assumptions of the capitalist system are no alternative at all

Funny

by Emma

Fri Feb 25, 2011 13:23

That made me giggle. No wonder punks get on my nerves how can the average working class person actually take this seriously or relate. There is enough Punks in the Dail.

by Change!

Fri Feb 25, 2011 02:44

No mention of his support for water charges.

Documentary

by Baskin Robboins

Fri Feb 25, 2011 00:40

He's making a film right?

Dylans flyer and 25 min interview with boards.ie

by dunk

Thu Feb 24, 2011 23:59

Dylan Haskins talks to Boards.ie - part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU9vfUl5lNk

Dylan Haskins talks to Boards.ie - part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgR3QLVbY00

Vote Haskins No. 1 - First Rally 3/2/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTRyzBBZ5WI

flyer from https://irishelectionliterature.wordpress.com/2011/02/0...east/

Dylan Haskins running in the election - on thumped (Irish punk blog)
http://thumped.com/bbs/showthread.php?83089-Dylan-Haski...ction