Workers Solidarity Movement

Six days after last weeks Garda riot in Dublin the state TV channel was finally forced to broadcast the footage of cops beating students that has been circulating on the internet from the time of the assaults. The RTE 1 TV report referenced the fact that thousands of people were viewing this footage at a couple of points in the report including at one point admitting that 86,000 had viewed one clip.

Perhaps to try and make up the ground lost during its 6 days of self imposed silence the commentary from the state broadcaster pointed out the obvious, that the Gardai had been caught on film assaulting people with no visible provocation. The clips broadcast included a women been dragged along the ground by her hair, another being dumped on the ground unconscious, riot police beating students sitting on the ground around the head and closed with footage of two students pushed up against a wall, hands in the air being beaten. This last footage was very similar to that broadcast after the police riot of 2002 when Reclaim the Street participants were battered, leading to an anti-police brutality demonstration some 3,000 strong. View the RTE footage, it starts at 14.45.

The USI leadership, some of whom have connections to the ruling party, has shamefully been trying to marginalize its members who were beaten last Wednesday. Students have had to quickly come together to independently organise a demonstration tomorrow night for 18.00 meeting up at the Wolfe Tone statue on Stephens green. The state TV report ended by mentioning there would be a demonstration but was careful to avoid mentioning the time or place it was to take place.

Words: Andrew

A further comment from Anthony

Until the recent rise of the Internet, the state and corporate-run media have had a virtual monopoly on providing Irish people with information and analysis on news, politics and current affairs and thus shaping their political views. For as long as I've been interested in politics, it's been clear to me that despite claims of objectivity and of having a role in checking the power of the state, they essentially act to maintain the political power of the state and - more importantly - the economic power of the very wealthy. This results in negative coverage of political activity which advocates that real meaningful social change comes about through people acting collectively and in solidarity with each other.

Despite knowing what I know, I was still dismayed and angry at the extent to which the state and corporate-run mainstream media colluded in covering up the vicious brutality of the gardaí given that there was so much video evidence easily viewable by anyone with a decent Internet connection. The Irish Times was particularly woeful in its coverage over the following days. Not only did the corporate media neglect to mention that the violence at the demonstration was from An Garda Síochána, they pushed the line that the violence was from “militant and aggressive” leftists “hijacking” student groups as if students angry about a massive increase in college fees could not take action for themselves.

It’s only after RTE realised that tens of thousands of Irish citizens were viewing online videos showing a different picture than the one they pushed that they thought they had better report the truth rather than the one-sided and misleading disinformation they had previously published.