This is an 18 min introduction by Brian Leeson (Éirigi) and Joe Higgins (Solidarity) who introduced the 'Assembly For Justice' event in Liberty Hall, Dublin on Saturday 1st April 2017.

The event was organised by the #jobstownnotguilty campaign and included various people speaking in support of the Jobstown protesters who are accused of 'false imprisonment' of Joan Burton, (Labour Party) and former Tánaiste, at the Fortunestown Road in Jobstown, Tallaght, on November 15th, 2014.

Five of the accused are due to appear in court on the 24th of this month. Mr Leeson and Higgins spoke on behalf of the 5 defendants who were unable to speak due to a partial gagging order handed out by the courts two days before this event.

Source: #jobstownnotguilty

Below is an extract from the Jobstown Not Guilty pamphlet ‘Protesting Is Not a Crime’. Download full document here #jobstownnotguilty

On October 21 2016 a 17 year oldwas found guilty of false imprisonment in the Children's Court, Dublin. Now seven adult protesters will face trial on April 24 2017 for false imprisonment in the Central Criminal Court of Justice.

Judge John King found a 17 year old student guilty of false imprisonment – a verdict a barrister described as “a recipe for totalitarianism”.

This related to an anti water charges protest in Jobstown, Tallaght in Dublin on 15 November 2014, where then Tánaiste Joan Burton’s car was delayed for 2 ½ hours by a spontaneous community protest.

The 18 adults now awaiting trial from April 2017 face sentences up to life imprisonment. The trials, which will be six to eight weeks long, themselves will place enormous stress and strain on the defendants. If jailed, families would be left in very difficult situations, with jobs lost and parents in prison. If TD Paul Murphy is jailed for more than six months, he will be removed as a TD, denying the democratic choice of people of Dublin South West.

The political establishment and the supportive media are desperate to tarnish the anti water charges movement as a violent, anti-democratic mob. By grossly misrepresenting and using what happened in Jobstown they want to weaken our democratic rights and so make it easier to impose economic inequality.

The laws used to directly seize the Property Tax from wages or benefits as well as the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (RDMPI) legislation used to rob the wages of public servants, show that this attack is real.

The definition of ‘false imprisonment’ is being changed and this affects you. Any temporary delay or obstruction at a protest or picket, which for example inconveniences a politician, could be deemed false imprisonment. This is about intimidating people and criminalising protest.

Please read this information booklet. If you agree that a miscarriage of justice is being prepared, help us because together we can stop this attack on democratic right and change Ireland for the better.

Source: #jobstownnotguilty