Organising a boycott for protest on Price Hikes.

Typedef

Here is a correspondance I have had with Dermott Jewell the Chief Executive of the Consumer Association of Ireland which I am posting with his premission.

Hello.

I am a Moderator of an internet chat forum on specifically Euro Price Hikes,
it can be found here
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=235 and I can
tell you that there is alot of anger and resentment about what is percieved
to be price increases due to the introduction of the Euro. Recently the
Greeks have carried out a boycott of business to attempt to redress some of
the Euro changeover pricing scams. I was wondering if the Consumer
Association of Ireland had any similar intentions to organising a protest
boycott or if the Consumer Association of Ireland would be open to such an
idea, in light of the Greek action to the same? I really believe that
ordinary people (ie) regular consumers feel that they have been hard done by
in the Euro changeover and that some action should be taken to redress the
same.
I will post this email into the Euro Price Hikes forum for everyone to see
and perhaps participate in some kind of action to redress the inflationary
situation caused by the Euro changeover, unless of course that is not
acceptable to you.


Regards.
Brian O'Donoghue

His response.

Thank you for contacting me.
Indeed we are very much aware of the concern and frustration of consumers
following on from the Changeover.
We have been quite vocal regarding the Greek boycott and commented at length
on the Marion Finucane Show.
The situation in Greece is very different to that of Ireland in that it was
across the board that the massive - as much as 90% - were applied. In
addition, throughout the Summer, tourists were fleeced by many traders and
this has damaged them deeply.
If we are to consider boycotts in Ireland it is our view that , should we
decide to go down that route, then they would need to be focused on specific
traders or industries.
We are meeting with the Tanaiste on October 14 and have indicated our need
to discuss this matter with her and to hear her views as Minister with
responsibility for Consumer Affairs.
We will decide upon the best course of action shortly after that meeting.

Regards
Dermott Jewell
Chief Executive

So that is the state of play, according to Dermot Jewell, no boycott in the Greek genre is planned for the moment, however according to the Consumer Association of Ireland Price Hikes due to the Euro are going to be raised with Mary Harney on October 14th. Lets hope the Minister has something encouraging to say.

sceptre

Certainly looks like he's taking it seriously though.

daveirl

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Gordon

What no march and protests and sitting in the middle of a busy street with the music and the dancing and the hey hey hey?

Cool stuff Typey

goose

What no march and protests and sitting in the middle of a busy street with the music and the dancing and the hey hey hey?

as long as there are no guards about.

Typedef

Here we go the Consumer Association of Ireland met the Tainiste last night http://www.consumerassociation.ie/press6.html , and this morning Dermott Jewell was on Morning Ireland talking about formation of a lobby group to pressurise the government on key issues pertaining to consumers, as opposed to organising boycotts as the Greeks have done in protest over profiteering on the Euro changeover.

daveirl

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WhiteWashMan

is this something to do with the yo-yo?

DANGERA NAJBAR-AJO

Buy Nothing Day is on the 30th of November, however this is more about highlighting consumerism, and I'm not sure if whoever's organising it would want to turn it into an anti-euro thing.

Typedef

I think the point where there is a corollary is more the area of advantageous comsumer exploitation, so in some ways it meshes quite nicely with issues to do with the Euro and in other ways the notion of the Euro is totally at odds with anti-consumerism.

The Euro of course is simply a facet of a pan National Union, which in many ways facilitates Globalisation and the power of multination corporations (which is one reason the World Trade Organisation was so in favour of the Nice Treaty) and certainly in the sense that anti-Consumerism and anti-Globalisation are close socio-political ethoses I think the sentiments if not the intent of the respective movements for want of a better word, do share quite a few convergent areas and ideals, a pathos if you will.

That's how I'd see it anyway.

Keithaburke

How is that taking it seriously?

They are sitting on their bottoms doing nothing only pondering...

Who cares whether the fact that we are being extorted is because of The Euro or not.

We are being ripped off and it's about time that the government got a bit tougher. When the publicans had their price freeze... Did anyone notice the prices staying the same?

I didn't either. Good one Sir Bertington.

keith

Mercury_Tilt

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Cloud

And a new website:

http://www.geocities.com/priceprotest/

G

just got the email too. good idea.