latest info on strike

Dave!

STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE RIKE!!!!!!!!!!

delta_bravo

Another great slogan written on the ground was: 'I couldve bought a car with the reg fee '

I passed it by there a few minutes ago and theres about 6 people there (2,000 in indymedia numbers), a terrible turnout. There does seem to be less students in lectures so most people simply didnt come in.

Dave!

Think the protest is at 1pm, so it might pick up

I only had 1 lecture (history), and it was pretty much as full as usual... maybe slightly less.

Someone gave a little speech at the end, "there appears to be some confusion -- we are on STRIKE! etc.", met with silence

The same person shouted something into theatre L from the door. Don't think the lecture had started at that point though.

bnt

Dave! wrote: »

Someone gave a little speech at the end, "there appears to be some confusion -- we are on STRIKE! etc.", met with silence

Confusion about the "strike", eh? Probably has something to do with the fact that "strike" is the wrong word for what's going on. Try a dictionary:

strike (n.)
"concentrated cessation of work by a body of employees," 1810, from verb meaning "refuse to work to force an employer to meet demands" (1768), from strike (v.). Perhaps from notion of striking or "downing" one's tools, or from sailors' practice of striking (lowering) a ship's sails as a symbol of refusal to go to sea (1768), which preserves the verb's original sense of "make level, smooth."

strike. Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/strike (accessed: March 30, 2009).

So, "strike" refers to a suspension of work by employees, with the aim of forcing an employer to change something (or not). You don't work for UCD, so UCD is not your employer. If you skip lectures, what does UCD feel? Based on the lectures I've had so far today, the answer seems to be "nothing whatsoever". Call yourselves Arts students, eh? :pac:

passive

No takers on that €5 bet?

So a couple of thousand students vote to strike and attend alternative events around college, and ten turn up on the day to chalk inane slogans all over the place. Hilarious! Maybe there were 20 or 30 more at the lake, I dunno.. I, along with about 95% of the usual number of students, was in my 1pm lecture.

Frank Grimes

Was pretty much business as usual in the lecture and tutorial I had earlier. I heard the drums at 1pm when I was in my lecture but there didn't seem to be much else noise, guess the turnout for that was poor too.

samsamson

Day went as normal... I'd be feeling like a bit of a twat right now if I'd been involved in organising the strike.

hughbrady

Seriously, I haven't had a good chuckle like this since the last episode of 30 Rock. Protest? About as effective as a paper condom. What a damp squib. And for even more giggles, check out this entry in that Newsletter of the Great Unwashed, Indymedia, featuring such highlights as:

• The main task will be to stop students attending lectures [spectacular fail]
• ... followed by decoration of the college in anti-fees chalk graffiti... [no! not the chalk!]
• ... There will then be a film screening at 11... [hope there's room for the 3 people I'd say showed up]
• ...A lakeside rally... [I think about 15 people showed up]
• ... a projected march to Hugh Brady's gaff... [as long as you keep off the grass, I don't give a ****], followed by
• ...a pillow fight...

Really - this is the best this crowd can come up with? A pillow fight and some chalk graffiti. Hold the presses. Still, made me smile for the evening...

graduate

Ah now HughBrady, you are very negative. Who is to say that the proposed event at the student bar won't attract a roaring crowd?

RandolphEsq

A free pizza stand would have generated a greater buzz! Mmmmmm. . . . pizza

Zounds

Well I think today proved once and for all that the UCDSU couldn't organise a piss-up in a bar.

EDIT: Okay, that's probably not fair, I appreciate a lot of the stuff the SU does around campus but seriously their approach to fees and today especially has been WOEFUL.

Tayto2000

In fairness I don't think it was the organisation that was a problem, I think they just ran into the brick wall of apathy when it came to the on campus activities... I'd say a lot of people who voted for the strike just saw it as a day off and didn't bother coming in, especially since it was a Monday... Maybe it'll pick up at the bar tonight.

mloc

I'm shocked, I didn't think there could be anything more pathetic than the idea of the strike.

The strike itself beat the idea of the strike at the post on that one.

Breezer

I take it from these posts that I've been proven right then?

Kind of sorry I missed this, I was in the Mater all day pretending to be a doctor. I did pop into Belfield later and saw the chalk; not all of it was in support of the strike mind you!

Apparently UCC managed to pull off a half-decent attendance for theirs. It got a mention on RTE Radio 1 anyway.

Tayto2000

Yeah, it looked like a lot of the chalk slogans had been hijacked by Lawsoc people for the auditor elections...

Breezer

Tayto2000 wrote: »

Yeah, it looked like a lot of the chalk slogans had been hijacked by Lawsoc people for the auditor elections...

I didn't actually see those, the ones I saw were anti-strike. I did see plenty of LawSoc posters though. Kind of weird seeing the face of someone you went to school with everywhere. Anyway, I digress...

Richie15

Raphael wrote: »

82% of voters, amounting to I believe about 20% of the student body.

That'll teach those 80% to vote then, wont it.

Brimmy

Richie15 wrote: »

That'll teach those 80% to vote then, wont it.

Not really. That 80% just showed their apathy by not going again..

Honestly I must have had my head in the clouds or something because I had no idea there was a vote on this in the Elections. I might have voted otherwise..

anonymous_joe

What a shít strike. Didn't see a single burning oil drum.

Oh and doesn't a strike need strikers?

Richie15

Brimmy wrote: »

Not really. That 80% just showed their apathy by not going again...

Sorry, I meant the part of the 80% that cared enough to give out about it but not enough to vote.

33% God

Tayto2000 wrote: »

Yeah, it looked like a lot of the chalk slogans had been hijacked by Lawsoc people for the auditor elections...

Two that made me chuckle a little on my way to the library this evening were
"No fees" being changed to "no bees" and "Julian Brophy should buy some hair dye"



I reckon they should have found an excuse to postpone this once ICTU postponed their's.

passive

33% God wrote: »

Two that made me chuckle a little on my way to the library this evening were
"No fees" being changed to "no bees"

*bows*

Not my idea, but the chalk was unattended, and I do also have a tshirt to go with the (crucially important) slogan...

Damn bees...

remus808

SAY NO TO BEES SAYS N.B.A*

(No Bees for Anyone)

"Taking the sting out of eductation"





................ I'l get my coat.

Raphael

Richie15 wrote: »

Sorry, I meant the part of the 80% that cared enough to give out about it but not enough to vote.

People who bitch yet didn't vote should, frankly, shut the fuck up. And it'd be fantastic if this got the majority of students to cop on and take the 2-3 minutes needed to vote, but I don't see that happening, unfortunately.

For the record, I have voted in every SU election I've got a chance to, and wouldn't consider whining about something if I threw away my opportunity to effect (affect?) it.

Slash/ED

Pretty funny day all round, think attendances at my third year arts lectures were higher than they have been on a Monday in a while to be honest

bnt

Well, there were drums... people hitting things is a sure sign of an intelligent, high-level debate on a topic, isn't it?

I would not dismiss the poor showing as apathy at all. I would chalk it up (?) to students who read the newspapers, who talk to their parents and other students, and who understand a bit more about the real issues, and the effectiveness of this "action", than the "union" seems to realize.

The government hasn't even formally announced just what it's going to do, in any detail. All the "strike" achieved was repeating the statement "we don't want fees", without offering any way out for the Government. Of course we'd rather have something for nothing: try telling people something they don't already know. I would rather have free fees, of course (duh), but I don't see a way out of the fiscal reality, apart from taking money from somewhere else, such as the Health Service.

My view, if you want to call it that, is for Irish industry to play a part in deciding what kind of graduates they want, and set about funding students to take those degrees. As things stand, free fees means many students come to university without a thought as to what they will do afterward: we need less of that, and more focus on how applicable degrees are. There is also room for a proper student loan system. The end of "free fees" doesn't have to mean coming up with a lot of cash up front, or not going to university at all.

El Siglo

I said it already on some other thread, the strike would achieve nothing and as it turned out, it did achieve nothing! Except arse holes banging drums and chalk everywhere (damn hippys, damn them to hell!) Silly strike, bnt is dead right it reiterated the same tripe, try offering a concession to the govn't. I'm going to go out on the limb here and say that, if monday's 'actions' were the antithesis of the anti-fee movement, then monday's events are sign of this movement dissipating. Something like this, especially a student's movement needs to have popular support and if this monday was a sign of that support, then the anti-fees movement is dead in the water. Two major parties are in support of fees (FF and FG), Labour is lumped in there with the others but given the current state of the public finances, I wouldn't be surprised to see Labour doing a u-turn on the matter if they got into power. Fees are coming back folks, so accept that, try and get some concessions while you can. I don't like this situation personally but that's neither here nor there, this is the situation we're all (i.e. everyone, not just students) faced with and that's my 2 cents!

The_Minister

:DIndymedia is claiming a turn out of c200.

muffinman

The_Minister wrote: »

:DIndymedia is claiming a turn out of c200.

generous :P

delta_bravo

The_Minister wrote: »

:DIndymedia is claiming a turn out of c200.

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/91721

300 now ! My comment that there were 60 wasnt welcomed very much