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Human rights activist praises Dubliners

Thursday, 27 November 2008

A NORTHSIDE human rights activist has praised the positive response of Dubliners to the newly formed Bloom: Movement for Social Justice, which brings four of Ireland's foremost campaigning organisations together. The alliance of the Africa Centre, Comhlámh, Debt and Development Coalition Ireland and the Latin America Solidarity Centre was officially launched on November 7 by Cathryn O'Reilly, one of the leaders of the Dunnes Stores anti-apartheid strike in the 1980s. Clontarf-based Jose Antonio Gutierrez, who works with the Latin America Solidarity Centre, said the majority of the world's population live in economic slavery and that Bloom: Movement for Social Justice hopes to demonstrate that people in Ireland do not accept this situation. “The idea is for Irish people involved in social justice campaigning to build bridges between their groups and work together,” stated Mr Gutierrez. “We had a Palestinian speaker from Bil’in, along with Bolivian trade unionists, Kenyan anti-poverty activists and local community activists from Dublin all coming together. “There was some very rich discussion and we have high hopes for the future of the group as we face into a global recession.” Bloom have outlined their main goals as challenging the root causes of global inequality; seeking justice in North-South relationships and a radical re-shaping of these relationships; the need for action against the exploitation of the Global South; and acting in solidarity with other movements advocating a better world. The group held a spontaneous demonstration on O’Connell Street, which involved around 150 participants, during their conference to highlight how governments will spend fortunes bailing out banks while the poor seldom receive such favours. Mr Gutierrez added: “I feel it was the bankers that created the crisis but it’s the poor who have to finance them through Government bail-outs. “It’s our health and education that suffer while executives get huge sums of our money for a problem they created. “These issues are much bigger than any one country; it is the same issues affecting people across the world so we think they have to be linked up internationally.” Mr Gutierrez feels that now is the time for people to show each other solidarity in the face of the crisis and to try to introduce more democratic and popular means of addressing the issues. “As the saying goes: you are not free until everyone else is,” he stated. “We must all work for a more just world, our leaders must listen to the people's outrage at global injustice.”