The gathering of the far right today at Stephens green is a slap in the face to frontline workers, who have put their own lives on the line to keep us safe. It is also a direct risk to the health of the vulnerable, as we still battle a pandemic.

Make no mistake – the organisers of this so-called protest are not on the side of working people – rather, they seek to divide and capitalise on the growing and legitimate anger building at this government’s disastrous actions throughout the course of the pandemic.

This lockdown has absolutely been extremely difficult for the majority of people in this country. The government has kow-towed to the interests of big business, has failed to crush the virus, and has prolonged the lockdown ordinary people are suffering through.

But the organisers of today’s protest are NOT on your side. They have a far right agenda and they think they can manipulate the growing frustration out there. Don’t fall for it.

Anger at the government must NOT be taken out on the vulnerable in our society, or on the frontline workers who have sacrificed their own safety to protect us all. Today’s ‘rally’ tramples all over those sacrifices.

Instead, we must keep our focus on pressuring the government to implement a Zero Covid strategy. A Zero Covid strategy is the only way to end lockdowns.

Don’t fall for the misconceptions – Zero Covid does not mean a longer lockdown, it means a much shorter one. It means the government has to stop allowing big business to evade the restrictions. It means mandatory hotel quarantine for all incoming travellers. It means serial testing of all frontline workers and sick pay for all workers. It means building our testing and tracing infrastructure to aggressively chase down the virus.

It means our lives can go back to normal much sooner.

Listening to the far right brings us much farther away from getting back to our normal lives.

And it only punishes those who’ve already given up the most.

Fight for #ZeroCovid

WeCanBeZero