Gathering pace

THE BALLYHEA BONDHOLDER BAILOUT PROTEST MARCH

We’re gathering pace, and though the protest hasn’t yet spread nationwide - confined to ourselves, Fermoy and Cork last weekend - the message is certainly getting out there.  Our local newspapers, The Vale Star and the Corkman, have been hugely supportive, as have been C103 and Live 95FM; two national newspapers – The Irish Times and The Daily Mail – have given it good exposure, and this week TV3, on the Morning Show with Cybil and Martin on Thursday last, gave the protest another boost.

With this increase in attention it’s important that here in Ballyhea, where it all started, we give it as much support as we can from now on.  There is a change in time and day this week, moved to this Saturday evening at 8.15pm – please make every effort you can to be there.  The march will take no longer than usual, ten minutes at most; the impact will last much longer.

Our focus hasn’t changed – we say No! to the bondholder bailout.  The ECB came to Dublin last November ostensibly to help bail out a floundering nation, but in reality they came with their own agenda, to bail out their own banks, their own bondholders.  A deal was done but it was a foul deal, a deal of financial enslavement, a yoke fashioned by the ECB and forced across the shoulders of the Irish people – we say no.

Two fundamental questions: Justify to us, the Irish people, why those whose billions fuelled the inferno that engulfed our economy and still rages out of control, have themselves not even been singed; justify to us, the Irish people, why we should have to assume, in full, the private debt accumulated by our banks to those bondholders.  For every reckless borrower there is a reckless lender – where is their pain?

Join us, this Saturday, 8.15pm, in Ballyhea, then again on the following Sunday morning, April 24^th, 10am, on exactly the 95^th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising.  The freedom and national independence for which those men and women shed blood has been usurped, wrenched from us by the ECB; it is surely worth marching for now.

TV3 LINK:
http://www.tv3.ie/shows.php?request=themorningshow&tv3_preview=&video=34704

US economics experts condemn the bailout

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2011/0409/1224294304548.html

The above is a link to an Irish Times article from last week.  I'm not the expert, these guys are, this is what they are saying.  Read what they have to say about the deal done last November - depressing reading.

The Cork march - story of a hijacking

THE CORK MARCH, April 9^th

Went to the Cork march on Saturday last, their first, and no point in trying to sugar-coat this – it was a disaster. 

I had thought the intention was to have a non-political people’s protest, much like our own in Ballyhea, everyone united behind the single issue of separating the bank/bondholder debt from the sovereign debt, then treating that bondholder debt as it should have been treated from the start – a European problem.  What happened, however, was that a single political party, whom I won’t even bother to name, hijacked the parade and used it for their own purposes. 

They had their own broad banner which they attempted to force to the front of the march, bypassing several rows of protesters – I had words with the male banner-bearer, informed him that I wasn’t there to march under any party flag or banner, and he reluctantly dropped back.  Then there was their man on the megaphone, an adolescent leading his party aficionados in juvenile obscene chants – this as we were marching down a packed Patrick Street in mid-afternoon, people of all ages and persuasions looking on.  Eventually my daughter had a word with him and he dropped the obscenities but the damage was done, the impression created that far from being a mature and responsible protest, this was just another noisy and ragged parade.

En-route, and afterwards in the Grand Parade, that same party were on a recruiting drive, handing out their own propaganda pamphlets.  When it was over I had serious words with a few of their number, told them how I felt.  They denied that they had hijacked the parade – I argued otherwise.  No other party had brought its own banners, its own placards, its own flags, no other party was chanting its own slogan, no other party was on its own recruiting drive.  It wasn’t just selfish, it was myopic – this is a national issue, adversely affects us all, but what chance of uniting the nation on it with this attitude?

I repeat, this is a non-political campaign; party political banners are as out of place there as they would be in Thurles on May 29^th for the Cork/Tipperary Munster championship match.  All those who marched on Saturday in Cork should be willing to march with the rest of us in protest at that dastardly deal done last November, shoulder to shoulder, marching as a nation united under just the one banner – NO TO BONDHOLDER BAILOUT.

I put this to the leader of that party unit in Cork but he wasn’t having any of it – this, he complained, would be centralising everyone.  Well, if we can’t unite on a single issue like this, what chance have we?  In fairness to the organisers – and I spoke briefly to Tom Dooley – this was not what they had had in mind; the protest was simply ripped from them by people who have far more experience of taking to the streets.  A pity.  Unless there are radical changes, I won’t be going back.

Regards, Diarmuid O'Flynn.

The sixth march

THE SIXTH MARCH – April 10^TH 2011

We haven't gone away, we’re not going away – despite a number of factors that worked against us, the sixth Ballyhea Bondholder Bailout Protest march took place today.  Our U-14 hurlers were playing in Cork, our intermediates were in league action, one of our farmers had a cow down, another was dehorning and castrating young bulls, while a third was taking advantage of the weather and spreading slurry, etc. etc. (that’s the kind of community this is), and still the numbers turned out, still we marched.

Again, we reiterate our aim – the deal done between our discredited government and the IMF/ECB last November wasn’t just unsustainable, it was plain wrong.  To saddle a nation with the private debts that a few immensely stupid decision-makers with a few immensely stupid banks had negotiated with these bondholders, who themselves were immensely stupid to have made the loans in the first place, is unfair, unjust, immoral.  That private debt MUST be decoupled from the nation’s sovereign debt then treated for what it is, a European problem.

In the RTE Freefall programme shown last week, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern held his hands out to the nation and claimed innocence – sure no-one told him he was setting the nation’s economy on fire; this to a backdrop of a series of respected economists warning of exactly that scenario, year after year, starting as far back as 2003.  Since last November, when that deal was signed, those same economists have been saying – mistake, major mistake, potentially catastrophic mistake.  In two years’ time, when the ECB has shovelled enough billions into our banks to have paid off the bondholders, thus leaving us with what will then be an unsustainable sovereign debt on which we will certainly default, will Enda Kenny and Michael Noonan be holding out their hands and saying – but, no-one warned us?

Let this government know our strength, let Europe know our anger.  Contagion – spread the word.

Regards,

Diarmuid O'Flynn.

The (wild) bondholder

THE (WILD) BONDHOLER – by Diarmuid O'Flynn, the People’s Protest

I’ve been a bondholder for many a year

I’ve spent all me money on whiskey and beer

But now I’ve got troubles and problems galore

And I never will play the bondholder no more

CHORUS - And it’s no, nay, never; no nay never no more

I’ll play the bondholder, no never, no more

2

Ireland was booming, the banks wanted cash

I had billions to spare so I gave it a lash

The property market was growing like hell

My money poured in there, this boom to propel – CHORUS

3

Soon there came problems, the bubble went burst

The banks were in trouble, I feared for the worst

Ah but then came redemption, September Oh-eight

A big warm blanket, guaranteed by the State – CHORUS

          4

We were back in the clover, our bonds looking good

ECB, our big brother, made sure that they would

Another agreement, in two thousand and ten

The Irish Republic, bamboozled again – CHORUS

          5

But now we have problems, there’s movement afoot

Trouble a-brewing, down at the grassroot

Ballyhea started marching, now it’s spreading around

Contain this contagion, or our bonds may get burned - CHORUS

Freefall

http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1095155
http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1095662
Links to a couple of programmes which, if you have an hour or so to spare, will tell you almost everything you need to know about what happened to us over the last decade.

The Ballyhea march format

For our first march, on March 6th 2011, we had 18 people in total, two A4-size sheets stating in not very legible form from a distance of more than about ten feet, BALLYHEA SAYS NO! TO BONDHOLDER BAILOUT; we were more like a motley crew just out for a short stroll than a protest march, but after four more outings, we in Ballyhea have gradually come up with the following format:

1. Just two banners, each about 8’x18”, one for the front of the march, one for the back; the front banner states that BALLYHEA SAYS NO! TO BONDHOLDER BAILOUT; the rear banner says the same, with the addition underneath of JUST A 10-min MARCH, PULL OVER AND JOIN US – this banner is on poles, is held high and faced rearwards so it can be read by several of the trailing cars.

2. No other banners or placards – it’s a single message and the banners front and rear say it all.

3. No chanting, no slogan, rhyming or otherwise.

4. It’s not a silent march (though this would be hugely powerful as a spectacle) but it is quiet, soft conversations going on up and down the march.

5. Lines of three or four, shoulder to shoulder, arms linked across the shoulders in a display of solidarity; if there are kids in the line, hands held.

6. March held at the same time, on the same day every week, from the same starting point along the same route – 11.45am on Sunday morning, from the church car-park to the speed-limit sign on the Cork side of the village and back to the car-park.

All the above evolved over the five weeks of marching so far, and all have a reason:

If we allow other banners/placards, soon we would have various political groupings taking over sections of the march – this is non-political, and in the same way that every man, woman and child in the country is suffering the effects of the extra taxes and extra cuts, we want every man, woman and child to feel they should be part of this protest; that’s employed, unemployed, employee, employer, right, left, centre, old, young and all ages in between, female, male, native, settler; all are welcome, and will be made to feel welcome.

If we have chants it may frighten off those of a quiet disposition, but there’s another reason; every protest march we’ve ever known has been noisy, raucous – as anyone who has ever been in a long-term relationship will surely know, silence too can be a very powerful weapon!

Linking arms across the shoulders is a powerful visual statement of our own bond, a more powerful bond than anything held by the bank creditors.

Same time, same channel – this is an effort at consistency.  If we can get every community marching at the same time on the same day, for that quarter of an hour every week it will bring the whole country together in common cause.  When has that ever happened?

We are totally against major disruption, against any kind of destruction, against confrontation with the Gardaí or anyone else.  As the momentum builds, however, we do plan on extending the campaign, to have mass marches in different areas on different Sundays – significant dates - to pull it all together occasionally.  We hope to kick this off with a central march in Ballyhea on Easter Sunday, the 95^th anniversary of the 1916 Rising, with all the groups from the various areas coming to join us.  Ye bring the sandwiches, we’ll put on the kettle…

The above are guidelines only, with our reasons for same outlined, but we would stress here – we are only amateurs at this protest business, and everyone is free to do their own thing.  If it was made a standard protest, fine, but if you opt to do things differently, why not?  The most critical thing here is to get out and protest, however you choose to do it.

Regards, Diarmuid O'Flynn.

The basic questions

We’re hearing a lot of questions lately about how much we, the Irish people, can afford to pay, about whether we can afford to carry the additional burden of the private bank/bondholder debt imposed on us by the ECB on top of our own sovereign debt.  There’s talk of the ECB tweaking the inflated interest rate they are charging us for their loans, of even perhaps extending the life of the debt, as they look for ways to squeeze every last drop from us.  But what of the more basic questions, the more pertinent questions?

1.  The initial bad investment was made here by the bondholders, which then enabled the banks to make THEIR bad investments, which in turn allowed the developers to make theirs, then in turn again those who bought houses and properties etc. etc.; all the above have now suffered hugely, bar one – those who started it off.  Is it right that those bondholders should now see that bad investment paid off, in full?

2.  Most of those loans, up to 100 billion euro, were taken out by less than 100 decision-makers at the top of the Irish banking system; a) why should all of us, the Irish people, be held accountable for that recklessness by a few, and b) why are those bondholders NOT held accountable for their recklessness, for the fact that they didn’t carry out their own due diligence?

3.  Is it right that these bonds should now be paid off – in full – by us, the Irish people, most of whom had no hand, act or part in any of this, when we are already paying a massive price for the crash of a property boom inflated by the injection of all these billions?  What moral justification is there for that, for demanding that we pay twice – in effect – for the seriously flawed judgement of these bondholders?

These are the most relevant questions of all, and they should be asked by everyone in this country, again and again, until we get credible answers.  In tiny Ballyhea here in North Cork we’re saying ‘No to the bondholder bailout,’ and we’ve been saying it now for five weeks, a protest march at the same time every Sunday, 11.45am; Fermoy have taken up the call, and we now ask every other parish/village/town and city to join us.  Our cause is just, our questions legitimate; we will have answers.

Regards,

Diarmuid O'Flynn.

Ballyhea bondholder bailout protest - the fifth march

April 4th 2011

Dear Sir/Madam;

BALLYHEA SAYS NO! TO BONDHOLDER BAILOUT

The fifth march in the above weekly People’s Protest took place in Ballyhea on Sunday last, again at the regular time of 11.45am.  In what is often presented in deliberately complex and diversionary terms, our protest is based around a few simple and straightforward points:

·        1) Through a combination of factors we have been engulfed in an economic tsunami.

·             2) We, the Irish people, have already suffered hugely; jobs lost, people lost, salaries slashed, levies imposed, tens of thousands in negative equity – on and on.

·          3) The previous government, those who – through their ineptitude – were hugely to blame for getting us into this mess, have paid a massive price, both parties blitzed in the last election.

·      4) Our banking-system is destroyed, no longer functioning as a banking-system should, the price paid for the reckless lending that inflated the nuclear property bubble/bomb.

·        5) Through all this carnage, the bondholders, those who fed the billions to the banks who fed the property bubble, remain untouched and – by orders of the ECB – untouchable.

In Ballyhea, we say ‘no’ to that, and every Sunday at 11.45am until such time as we are heard, we will continue to say ‘no’.  It’s wrong, pure and simple. 

Everyone in this country is already paying a very high price for the recklessness of our bankers, our developers, our government, paying a high price also for our own foolishness in being persuaded by those bankers/developers/politicians.

What price are those bondholders paying for their bad investment, for their poor judgement, for their ineptitude in carrying out due diligence before bankrolling our madcap banks?  The ECB have demanded that we cover the losses of those bondholders – I repeat, in Ballyhea we say no; we’ve suffered our share, let the bondholders suffer theirs.

Contagion; for a variety of reasons the ECB is terrified of it – let’s give them another.  We ask now that parish by parish, village by village, town by town, city by city, the rest of the country join us in our protest, and give our new government our universal backing as they try to get the ECB to see reason.

Regards, Diarmuid O'Flynn.