Wexford yellow vests in ‘peaceful disruption’ protest
THE yellow vest protest that took place in Wexford town at the weekend was one of ‘peaceful disruption’ according to the organisers and was aimed at highlighting concerns those involved have with regard to social issues such as homelessness, unemployment, social inequality and problems within the healthcare system.
The protest on Saturday began at the tourist office on the quay before making its way to the Bullring and then along the quay towards Tesco where a five-minute disruption protest was held at the junction of Distillery Road and King Street.
One of the organisers, Glenn Miller, from Wexford town, said the list of injustices in Irish society that need to be addressed is very long.
When it was put to him that yellow vest protests in France have turned very violent and that people in general were beginning to associate yellow vest groups with anti-social behaviour Mr Miller said the media has focussed purely on what is happening in Paris but not on the other regular protests that take place in a peaceful manner all over France every weekend.
He said the protest in Wexford was the beginning of a series of events that will begin every Saturday outside the tourist office at 2 p.m.
‘This is something that is growing all over the country because a lot of people are just fed up with the trolley crisis - that has been going on for years - and with unemployment and issues in the health system,’ he said.
Mr Miller said that five minutes of disruption out of people’s everyday lives was not a lot to ask in the context of what some people in society are going through. ‘People dying on the streets is just not acceptable, yet that’s the reality,’ he said.
When the protest reached the Bullring one of those involved Susan Levingstone highlighted what the overall movement is about. She outlined a number of key issues which those involved want to focus attention on, including demanding citizens initiated referenda, the immediate halt of all evictions and cameras being allowed into civil court sittings.
Ms Levingstone also listed the abolishment of vulture funds, the return of Ireland’s oil and gas reserves to public ownership and prohibition on TDs from being housing landlords or beneficiaries.
Those involved with the movement also want to abolish the household charge and property tax and raise the minimum wage to ‘actual living costs’.
When asked if he and those involved in the Wexford yellow vest movement had figures for the number of people who are homeless in Wexford Mr Miller said ‘there is no need to say them because everyone knows the problem exists’.
‘These are issues that go back years and they are only getting worse so when people say we have turned a corner that’s just not true,’ he said.
He also said the reason they chose the junction at Tesco was strategic as it would cause a lot of disruption to traffic.
‘It’s a main junction so it would cause the most amount of disruption,’ he said. ‘The traffic was backed up on the streets.’
There was both support and criticism of the event on social media platforms over the weekend. In videos posted online some motorists appeared supportive of the disruption being caused while others were very vocal in their opposition.