Why these protesters must be able to have their say
Wednesday May 08 2002
These protests have a simple but vital message - if transport policy is dominated by the car, cities will become unbearable places to live; urban planners must consider first the people who live in cities, the pedestrians and cyclists; and they must encourage the use of alternative forms of transport to the car.
For years, Reclaim the Streets groups have been trying to change the focus of transport policy in other cities around the world. They are generally cheerful, light-hearted events. I took part in one in Brixton, London, on a bank holiday Monday in 1998. There, local police tolerated the complete closing of a major south London thoroughfare for five or six hours while adults danced and partied around them. There were no arrests; there was no harassment.
The approach taken to policing of the protest in Dublin this Monday was unfortunately very different. Gardai, faced with a peaceful group of young protesters with an international message, using a political strategy adopted in many other countries, appear to have behaved in an unjustifiably violent and abusive manner in this case.
They swooped down upon the young protesters, baton-charged them, and lashed out indiscriminately at anyone in their vicinity, injuring students, journalists and bystanders. There are serious questions to be answered by the gardai about their policing tactics on political protests - the announcement of an investigation into the policing of Monday's event is welcome.
But any inquiry should not stop at the event this week; several anti-globalisation protests in recent months have resulted in equally alarming reports of disproportionate Garda reaction.
The key in proper public event policing is to judge when not to intervene, when to allow crowds to disperse peacefully - rather than to wade in with batons drawn.
But there is also an important message here for politicians, who must take a leadership role in ensuring that such abusive policing does not occur in future. The young people out on the Reclaim the Streets event - many of them friends and colleagues of mine - are our future politicians, deeply committed to their views and beliefs. They are politically active at a time when young people generally are seen as being disaffected, alienated by mainstream politics.
Their activity gives the lie to the empty rhetoric adopted by many politicians, who moan about the lack of youth involvement in politics.
Here are young people who care passionately about the environment - about the city they live in, about improving the quality of life for all urban dwellers. They campaign against the negative effects of globalisation; they raise the issue of debt reduction for developing countries; they raise important questions about the power of multinational corporations, and the role of the World Bank and IMF in perpetuating poverty.
They have something to say - but they must be allowed the space to say it. After all, they stand in the proud democratic tradition of political protest, like the protesters of May 1968 who took over the streets of Prague and Paris; the protesters of 1989 who brought down corrupt and oppressive regimes across Central and Eastern Europe; the young protesters who poured on to the streets of towns and cities all over France last week to bring about the defeat of Le Pen.
Our young protesters are the first generation to grow up in a more prosperous, outward looking and multicultural Ireland. Their views and beliefs will shape this new nation of ours; their politics will be our national politics. So we must listen to what they have to say. To baton charge them without provocation is not just abusive and illegal - it is a fundamental attack on the basis of our democracy.
Ivana Bacik is Reid Professor of Law at Trinity College Dublin.
- Ivana Bacik
