About 30 minutes into the meeting a Palestinian speaker was sharing his story about his family’s recent experiences in Gaza. His wife and brothers have been killed by Israeli bombs and his two children wounded. It was while he was trying to talk about this experience that 7 men arrived at the community centre screaming abuse at those who worked there and our own members.
These men want to paint themselves as “concerned members of the community” but this is false. They were far-right agitators who were being abusive and threatening. They tried to force their way in to disrupt our meeting. Inside there were children and migrants, all from the local community, in attendance who found the commotion outside both threatening and upsetting.
Thankfully these fascists were not able to interrupt the meeting. Thanks to those who were stewarding they remained outside and eventually left and our meeting was able to go ahead on our terms in a positive manner.
These men do not represent our community. They tried to make those attending the meeting feel threatened including children, they screamed in the faces of women and workers and tried to force their way in. This is not what people in our community stand for.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident but part of a wider pattern of far-right activists trying to threaten left-wing organisations and events. This follows a string of attacks on People Before Profit meetings and activities in Tallaght, Dublin South Central and in Dun Laoghaire where just last week a brick was thrown through Richard Boyd Barrett TD’s office.
The far right attack socialists because we offer the real alternative to a government that has little interest in supporting ordinary workers through a dire housing shortage, a crisis in the healthcare sector and a cost of living crisis, all a result of government inaction.
The far right doesn’t care about women and children. They use them as a cover for their own racism. They say nothing when Irish men commit violence against their partners or kids but cynically used the tragic events of Thursday to direct anger at migrants despite the fact that migrants stepped in to give first aid and stop the attack.
They failed to disrupt us and they will continue to do so because they do not represent the majority of people in this country who don’t want to see the kind of violence and hate that the far right has to offer.