Militancy Needed To Oppose Unelected EU Bureaucrats And FFG Pals

Dublin, 1st July 2026. The EU presidency begins. Six months of Irish stewardship of the European project kicks off with the usual pomp, ceremony, and a €125 million security operation. Armoured trucks line the streets. Surveillance aircraft circle overhead. The Gardaí have prepared for everything.

Everything, it seems, except a genuine challenge to power.

A few hundred yards from Dublin Castle, on Dame Street, a group of Palestinian solidarity protesters gathered at Central Plaza around 1pm. It transpired quickly they’d arranged the whole thing with the Gardaí. Followed their orders. When told to move to one side of the road, they did. Eventually they lay down on a blanket and blocked traffic.

Meanwhile, up the road, the EU diplomats sailed through. BMW limos and coaches, clear run past Christ Church, right turn into Dublin Castle. The VIPs were comfortably protected from and oblivious to what was happening a few minutes’ walk away. A pro-Ukrainian crowd welcomed them, no bother. Both demos perfectly peaceful. One carefully managed.

But the Dublin Bus passengers travelling on the east side of Dame Street? Stuck. The courier with a delivery? Delayed. The taxi driver losing a fare? Nobody lying on that blanket gave them a second thought.

Look, we’re not writing this to have a pop at the people who lay down on the road. Their hearts are in the right place. They care about what’s happening in Gaza. They see the arms trade, the EU complicity, the slaughter continuing day after day. Those are the right instincts. Absolutely. But we have serious questions about the organisers. And we’re worried about the political education, or lack of, being offered to people who follow their lead.

When you arrange your protest with the Gardaí and you agree to keep the road clear for VIPs and make sure your disruption doesn’t actually disrupt anyone who matters, whose side are you on?

The EU, and their Zionist side-kick, honoury guest speaker, Ziolensky, got exactly what they wanted yesterday. A smooth, uninterrupted arrival. And the Dublin government enjoyed the opportunity to prove that Free State democracy can absorb dissent in Ireland, and make it harmless. Zionist puppets Mehole, McEntee, and Harris got to show their EU masters they can manage opposition, turn it into theatre, present it as proof everything’s grand. The organisers got their media coverage. The crowd went home feeling good. But what actually changed? What was achieved?

We know plenty of people on that blanket. Decent people. People who’ve spent years organising, fundraising, speaking out. They’re not fools. They’re not performative narcissists, no matter what some online commentators sneer. They’re sincere people who’ve been badly let down by a political tradition that’s forgotten how to fight. Here’s the thing about liberal protest. It’s convinced us that being seen equals making a difference. Hold a sign, lie on a blanket, get your photo taken with a pro-Pal celeb, and you’ve struck a blow against empire. That’s the politics of the spectacle, and it’s been fully captured by the very system it claims to oppose.

The organisers of the 1st July action knew exactly what they were doing. They knew a pre-negotiated, police-approved demo wouldn’t interrupt anything. That was the whole point. They delivered something that satisfied their voters, their funders, their social media followers, and probably their own consciences, while leaving power entirely untouched.

So if you were there, and you genuinely believe in justice for Palestine, and you oppose the EU’s militarisation agenda, and the €800 billion ReArm Europe plan scares the shite out of you, ask yourself this. Who’s leading you? Why was this arranged with the Gardaí instead of being a genuine disruption? Why did the diplomats get a clear run while ordinary Dubliners got blocked? Who benefits when protest is managed, contained, made harmless?

Remember the April fuel protests? Blockades on the motorways. Roads shut. Fuel depots surrounded. The Free State scrambled. The Army was even deployed. The Dublin government panicked. Whatever you think of those protesters, they understood one thing and that is the obvious but much avoided reality that power responds to pressure, not performances.

And what did the self-identified left do? Condemned the fuel protestors. Dismissed them all as far right scum. Wrote them off as dangerous, illegitimate, beyond the pale, and sided with the Free State.

You see the pattern, don’t you? A genuine disruption of the ruling class gets condemned. A pre-approved, police-managed performance that only inconveniences ordinary people gets celebrated. Celebrated by the Greens, Labour, People Before Profit, Social Democrats, Sinn Féin. Celebrated by the IPSC. Reported happily by RTÉ and Virgin Media.

As most people know, the EU presidency isn’t some benign bit of ceremony. It’s Ireland tying itself tighter to a militarising bloc. It’s the ending of the Triple Lock, the ending of the last shreds of neutrality in the 26 counties and escalation towards NATO. It’s the arms trade, the funding of war, the barbaric treatment of non-NATO friendly migrants. It’s continued subservience to Zionist power. It’s preparation for war with Russia and China. All of it demands opposition. Real opposition.

So where was the real opposition on 1st July? On Grattan Bridge, where we had a good view of Dublin City Hall, looking down on us. A small group of us stood there for about an hour, talking to people, engaging with the public. Not chanting AT them. Not lying on a blanket while the real business of empire carried on undisturbed.

It was a far from perfect action. It was impromptu. Our comrade had been threatened with arrest for shouting “The EU is a fascist Zionist controlled empire!” from the steps of Dublin City Hall. A historic moment for Ireland for sure! How many others have the balls to proclaim this truth on the day Ireland assumes EU presidency?

Afterwards, he was followed and harassed the whole way down Dame Street. It was pretty stressful, truth be told, but it was necessary to continue. Gaza is burning right now.

We refused to be pushed into some pre-approved space to block our fellow workers. You see, we understood something the Dame Street organisers do not. Real protest doesn’t ask permission. Real protest doesn’t divide the working class. Real protest doesn’t negotiate with the Gardaí over which roads stay open for VIPs. Real protest doesn’t coordinate with the cops who’ve beaten us, arrested us, harassed us daily. Real protest doesn’t clear a path for Zionist diplomats while US military planes come and go, and dual-use weapons for genocide are manufactured in our town.

Real protest makes the ruling class feel the discomfort and inconvenience we working people feel every single day. Real protest confronts the wheels of capital. Real protest threatens the ability of the powerful to function.

That’s why the Gardaí spent €125 million on armoured trucks, anti-drone tech, and towing equipment. That’s why the Commissioner threatened “robust enforcement action” against anyone who actually tried to disrupt the presidency. They’re not afraid of tonne-weight blankets. They’re afraid of direct action at Shannon. At Zionist dominated universities. At Zionist Big Tech and Big Pharma sites. They’re afraid of a unified working class.

So what do we do? When the usual suspect organisers are acting as a pressure valve for the Free State? When protests are managed into harmlessness? When good people’s energy gets channelled away from any real challenge? First, stop acting surprised. This isn’t new. The liberal protest tradition has always been about managing dissent, not ending oppression. It always prioritises the comfort of its participants over the effectiveness of its actions.

Second, stop blaming individuals CAUGHT UP in it. They’re not the enemy. They’re sincere people let down by a political culture that’s swapped struggle for symbolism. They deserve our solidarity, not our contempt. Political education is needed badly, not mockery.

Thirdly, we need to get organising. Real organising. Not the kind that arranges protests with the police. Not the kind that chases media coverage over concrete impact. Not the kind that leaves the ruling class untouched while ordinary workers pay the price.

Real organising builds power in our communities and in our workplaces. Collective strength that can’t be contained, managed, or channelled into harmlessness puts the shits up the bosses and CEOs. And the unions, too!

The organisers of the Dame Street action might have had good intentions. Benefit of the doubt and all that. They might genuinely believe they were striking a blow. But the hard reality is they gave the Free State the perfect example of how to safely channel dissent into harmless theatre. Even opposition to the EU presidency can be folded into the ceremony, neutralised, presented as proof democracy is working.

That’s the awful tragedy. Not that these activists are bad people. Not that they lack commitment. But that their commitment has been misdirected, manipulated, and used by organisers whose agenda is not sincerely anti-EU, or who’ve been so absorbed into the liberal consensus they can’t imagine real resistance anymore. Especially if they’ve got other business requiring EU favours.

The working class. The ordinary Dubs delayed on their way to or from work. The couriers. The taxi drivers. The bus passengers. They all had to endure the cost of this action. They were the ones inconvenienced, and not for the first time inconvenienced in the city centre. And they have already stated that they see this kind of protest as futile, and they are concluding that the left has nothing for them.

That’s the real damage. Not failing to disrupt the presidency. Not failing to stop the EU’s militarisation agenda. The controlled oppisition is failing to build solidarity with the very people they claim to represent. Real protest should not disrupt Dublin Bus passengers. It organises them!

Our working-class, anti-imperialist protests have never, nor never will ask permission. We don’t coordinate with the cops, or do business with them. We are not interested in clearing a pathway for the powerful to carry on undisturbed. We understand the enemy isn’t “Russia” or the migrant, or the addict begging on Dorset Street. Our enemy is the Zionist dominated imperialist, neolibreral capitalist system.

We win by building the capacity to actually disrupt the system. We win when we shut down the arms factories, like Palestine Action do, or close down Shannon warport like Daithí O’Corrain did and other brave heroes like him, who were not in their tens, hundreds or thousands, but who just did it. WITHOUT PERMISSION.

To the activists on Dame Street—we see you. We see your commitment. We see your sincerity. We see your genuine desire for justice. And we’re asking you, with all the respect we have, to sit with something uncomfortable. Next time, ask who’s leading you. Ask whose agenda is being served. Ask why your protest was designed to inconvenience Dublin Bus passengers rather than EU diplomats.

Next time, demand more. Demand real challenge that confronts power, not bus drivers. And if your organisers can’t offer that—find new organisers. Build new organisations. Join us in building a working class anti-impetialist, anti-Zionist movement.

For we won’t ever—ever—ask permission to resist.