Pics and Video: Cork City Council meeting suspended (twice) by Property Tax campaigners.

(UPDATES  AT END OF PIECE)

Protest in cork city hall #CorkCC http://t.co/jdAFnoby—
Brian Houlihan (@HoulihanBrian) January 28, 2013

Tonight’s Cork City council meeting has been brought to a halt by people campaigning against the introduction of a new property tax and the proposed water tax. They unfurled a banner reading “Axe the tax or watch your vote collapse” to sustained applause.  People at that staged had packed out the public gallery

Pic from https://twitter.com/Pompey_tegs/statuses/295989023242080256

The scene inside #Cork City Hall this evening as anti household & water tax protestors interrupt a council mtg #corkcc youtube.com/watch?v=SnXSgs…—
Eoin English (@EoinBearla) January 28, 2013

Garda have arrived outside council chamber. #corkcc—
Alan Healy (@alanhealy) January 28, 2013

The guards have arrived outside the council. More as it comes in..

UPDATE 1 20:27

Lord Mayor has suspended the meeting again to loud applause and chants from the public gallery

limewire(english – united states)……hello wheres united kingdom! cheeck buggers—
Emma (@emmalou) September 13, 2006

UPDATE 2 21:18

The meeting is still suspended and at least 15 Guards are in the corridors whilst others have moved in clear the public gallery

Garda have arrived outside council chamber. #corkcc—
Alan Healy (@alanhealy) January 28, 2013

Protesters are refusing to leave – gardai negotiating with campaigners who claim it's a public building #corkcc—
Eoin English (@EoinBearla) January 28, 2013

and the Cork Campaign Against the Household and Water Tax release this press statement. (In full).

Tonight’s meeting of Cork City Council has just been adjourned following an occupation of the council chamber by more than 100 members of the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes. A banner with the words “axe the tax or watch your vote collapse” has been unfurled. Deafening chanting of ‘labour, labour, labour, out out out’ and ‘no way we won’t pay’ are echoing around the chamber

Explaining their reasons for tonight’s action organised in response to the imposition of the property tax local activist John Lonergan said:

“Tonight’s protest at Cork City Council has been organised for two reasons:

· To send out a clear message that there is going to be a fight against the property tax when it is introduced later this year

· To mark the cards for the Government parties that their votes will collapse in 2014 if they drive on with the property tax and austerity policies.

“We are ordinary members of the Cork public who have simply decided not to take it lying down anymore.

“We have been force-fed five years of austerity. Our household budgets have been cut to the bone. We have just had our child benefit cut and our PRSI contributions hiked. We cannot afford to pay a property tax and will do everything in our power to fight it.”

Fellow activist Karen Doyle added:

“The Government are manipulating language – this is not a real property tax, it is a tax on our homes. And there is nothing “progressive” about it. Council services will not improve as a result of it – in fact, they will be cut further in the next few years. Instead, it is a smash and grab raid to pay for the bank bailouts and to give the bondholders their pound of flesh.

“We object to the ‘choice’ about to be ‘offered’ to us by the Government – sign up for the tax or have it deducted from your wages or social welfare. This is blatant robbery and we intend to resist it.

“We will be calling on people to refuse to register for the so-called property tax and will join campaigners across the country in organising civil disobedience and massive protests to force the Government to withdraw the tax and the threat of deductions.

“We are protesting at City Hall because that is the place where we find the greatest number of politicians from the Government parties gathered together in one place.

“And we want to send these politicians and their parties a message that if they drive on with the property tax and with austerity policies that they will be decimated in the elections next year.

“As our slogan says: ‘Axe the Tax – Our Watch Your Vote Collapse.’”

UPDATE 3 00:19

Here’s how it ended.

About these ads