wsm.ie: A critical view of the Refugees are Welcome Rally in
Dublin by Dermot Freeman - WSM (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
The Refugees Welcome rally saw a good crowd assembled at the Spire in Dublin. The rally
was a response where people wanted to express their solidarity with the refugees who are
attempting to escape war and death. ---- Thanks to the work of a few volunteers WSM had
some banners to bring to the Refugees are Welcome rally and march at the Spire on Saturday
the 12th of September. The banners were important to link up certain struggles. One linked
the appalling reaction to the social housing crisis by this government with their slow
reaction to the humanitarian crisis on the edges of fortress Europe, which simply stated
Homes for All, Refuge for All, and another which read No Borders No Nations. ---- The
crowd grew steadily as Memet Uludag spoke frequently, often, and introduced each of the
speakers. For the next hour or so a number of people spoke of how bad the situation was
and how inadequate the response of our present government was.
There were chants from the crowd making sure that the leaders of the EU and here in our
present Government heard us say that ‘Refugees are welcome here’. The truth is we put
people into camps that we call ‘Welcome Centre’s’ and we have one of the lowest rates in
Europe in terms of actually granting asylum to people. In 2010, we let 25 people stay as
approved refugees, and in 2013, our success rate was one of the lowest in Europe at 8.6%
whilst the European average was closer to 25.2%.
Now I realise that to some of the irrational racists all these figures are irrelevant,
because it’s all about going with your emotions and not dealing with facts. The truth is
that this is a hostile country to seek asylum in and by no stretch of the imagination do
we welcome people into this country who are seeking asylum. Tell the African shopkeeper in
Cabra who had his car keyed by some young thug last week; tell my co-worker who is
Nigerian (but also now an Irish Citizen) whose is now homeless with her family thanks to
the bank repossessing the house that she was renting. Tell it to any Traveller who has
been born here and raise here, and they’ll tell you about how Welcome we make people feel
who are different to us.
The people gathered here in this crowd might welcome refugees but this State and the
leaders in Government have consistently used asylum seekers as a means to divide and
conquer the masses. That’s why direct provision was set up, to make some people rich with
government contract, and to put people into places all over the Country where they are
isolated, and conspicuous. Then the rumours can be started about people getting something
for nothing and we can all descend into the madness of fighting each other whilst the boys
at the top carry on business as usual.
In fact we now have a system in Direct Provision which is recognised by the Minister
Aodháin O’Riordain, New Communities, Culture and Equality in charge of it as being
“regrettable” but still it carries on. 20% of the people living in direct provision have
been there for over seven years. Sure we welcome refugees. Of course all this information
and knowledge did not prevent senior labour party people showing up on the demonstration.
It’s easier to show up on a demo than it is to dismantle the structure of refugee camps
which your party now presides over.
From all the speeches – that I heard on Saturday, with the exception of Memet and a
Muslim Cleric and perhaps one other speaker, all of the speeches were from white Irish
majority. Brendan Ogle from the Right To Water actually got booed at one stage for
bringing his talk back to that campaign one too many times. There were many good points
raised by various speakers, Bríd Smith spoke of the ease with which money flows in capital
across all borders and its only people this system has issues with, Paul Murphy spoke of
the need to end direct provision, Clare Daly made the links to Irelands support of the
wars that displace people in the first place through the re-fuelling in Shannon. We were
reminded of the role of Israel as arms supplier and tester of those arms on the civilian
population of Palestine.
Another speaker made mention of the fact that Jeremy Corbyn got elected leader of the
(British) Labour party as a sign of people’s will for change. I think that it is positive
and it indicates that people desperately want change. He went from being elected to
addressing a similar type of rally in London welcoming refugees. This is a good change for
the (British) Labour Party who campaigned in the last election around tighter immigration
controls.
Another woman told us about Department officials from the Office of Migrant Integration
confiscating various items which were donated by a local group in Monasterevin as they
expect that some of the refugees will be placed there. One would wonder why public
servants operating under the authority of the Department of Justice and Equality, can see
that taking toys away from migrant children who have yet to get here helps with process of
integration? But from many of the speeches the story, the voice of the asylum seeker, the
person trapped in the system of direct provision, the voice of the refugee, the human
story was missing from all the speeches.
After an hour we moved off and marched to the central bank. There Colm O’Gorman, adding to
the long list of white Irish speakers, from Amnesty spoke about how shameful it was that
people died fleeing conflict whilst leaders and states did nothing. All true.
But my hopes for change reside with the people and not with new old white men in charge of
political parties. It is in the young faces in the crowd who know in their hearts that a
system which allows humans to die on the shores of a land that they hope will give them a
future, is wrong. It is the fact that people know this to be the case. It is the young
people who will not wait be placated with platitudes or satisfied with putting a different
old man in charge. It is in the people that rallied in Dublin, and London, in Frankfurt,
in Vienna and in places all over to world who do welcome refugees in their hearts but know
that this system does not.
My hopes spring from the fact that people have come together to collect goods and send
them in convoys to Calais. In a massive display of collective organising independent of
this government we are witnessing people responding in real solidarity to the needs of
other people. It is interesting that all this is happening at a grassroots level and below
the official system. A system which plainly uses people like a resource and deems all
resources expendable cannot be either reformed or trusted. There is no such thing as
getting the right driver for that system. More and more people are realising this, as the
raw contradictions of capitalism are exposed to detriment of us all.
Words: Dermot Freeman
Reply from rally organiser Memet Uludag
Response to the article titled "A critical view of the Refugees are Welcome Rally in
Dublin" by Dermot Freeman
Just some quick points. I don't see the benefit of a long debate on this. I trust you will
publish my response under the original article in the interest of clarity and solidarity.
1. The rally on Saturday 12 September organised by me was the biggest so far in Ireland.
(I hope there will be even bigger rallies organised and more solidarity campaigns run)
2. It was attended by a broad range of people.
3. 20+ organisations formally supported the rally. Of those, representatives from 9-10
organisations spoke at the rally. The organisations - rightly so - decided on their
speakers. It was up to each organisation to put forward a speaker.
4. The Syrian Community Group - which also has refugees from syria - put forward a
speaker. It was, again, and rightly so, up to the community to decide on their speaker.
Another Syrian women was also to speak but on the day she decided not do so.
5. Asylum Seeker speaker: Wali Ullah Safi, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan was to speak
at the rally and I have announced his name and called on him number of times. Wali is the
Afghan man who was arrested in Naas in July 2015. Unfortunately he wasn't there or he
didn't come forward.
In summary we had 1 Muslim cleric, myself, 2 Syrian (man and women) 1 Asylum seeker
speaker lined up. We also had a speaker from the Irish Traveller Movement - a traveller -
but on the day this didn't materialise.
I think your criticism is misdirected and ignored to mention the above facts.
This rally was organised in the true meaning of a very broad united front approach and it
was a very lively and energetic event.
Upwards and onwards.
Solidarity
Memet Uludag
Related Link: http://www.wsm.ie/asylum
