Trucker Protest : Has Ireland’s Winter of Discontent Arrived?

The ‘Irish Truckers & Hauliers Association Against Fuel Prices’ held a short protest at Dublin Port over the weekend and farmers have blocked a road outside Musgraves centre in Kildare over changes to the national herd and the average age of cattle sent for slaughter. 

The hauliers had previously claimed they would not be leaving the city ‘until we get answers.’ Fuel prices have risen in Ireland by nearly thirty percent over the last year. The introduction of carbon taxes in the last budget will not have helped matters, as businesses and farms struggle with the record-high prices. 

The hauliers group also claims to be in the “process of setting up a Professional Organisation that will represent all Truckers not just Hauliers.” The group has announced they will hold a meeting in the coming days.

Likewise the farmers are seeking an escalation of their picket. “If we can get more people together, we’ll try to go to another distribution centre because maybe one isn’t enough to get the government to listen…maybe if it’s two, three, four, five of them blocked and no food on the shop shelves by Wednesday, then they might listen.”

This raises a more interesting question than the simple reporting of a protest which ended after a day – should the nationalist-right be involved in trade unionism? No doubt the simple entering of nationalist energies into existing trade unions would be a dead end – I would not ask any person to become involved in organisations which are more interested in transgenderism and African recruitments than work-place negotiating – but the establishment of our own trade unions may go hand in hand with the establishment of our own counter-cultural movement. 

As we should all be aware by now – protesting without political action is ultimately a useless endeavour. The State will not care if a thousand or ten thousand people stand outside Leinster House for a day – as we saw when thousands gathered to protest against restrictions and vaccination passports. If you wish for change you must become involved in political agitation and you must scorn those who call for ‘non-political protests’, those who smoke joints and play music and go for walks around the city centre. They are leading you down the garden path.
If there is to be a winter of discontent let it be a winter of discontent and not just a day out with the kids in the pissing rain.