A punk rocker for the Dáil?

national | politics / elections | news report

Thursday February 24, 2011 19:46

by Dunk

Dylan Haskins is running as an Independent in Dublin South East. He's young, idealistic and already done many interesting things in his 23 years, from being a DIY punk setting up an all ages punk music gig venue to film making to helping set up Exchange in Dublin. Now he's running for election in tomorrows Irish elections.

Young and naive, perhaps. But a positive breath of fresh air, absolutely. Ireland is fucked at present, maybe Dylan and his bold (anarcho)punk inspired ideas might be exactly whats needed to get things on track?

A punk rocker for the Dáil?

As he has pointed out, his political journey started a long time back:

“I was 15 when I first wrote to a politician. My letter asked that youth centres be built in response to the rapid development of housing estates around the country. I wrote three letters, but never received a reply. So we decided to do it ourselves. We organised gigs in an empty parish hall while speculators waited for planning permission. We met other teenagers and told them how they could do the same and from that we built a mutually supportive network. This taught me an important lesson: there is always a way.”

This was kick started things in the early days, from there Dylan and his mates pooled their resources, started bands and played gigs. Inspired by the DIY (Do It Yourself) punk ethic, with a strong bit of anarchist thinking thrown in to boot, they set up a collective, heres their Mission Statement from April 2006:

BASTA! YOUTH COLLECTIVE MISSION STATEMENT

We're an autonomous, youth-led collective, working to improve the quality of life and facilities for young people and, indeed, the whole community in the areas in which we live and recreate.

Our goal is to inspire, encourage and support individuals and groups wishing to improve our society. We do this through information exchange, discussion and debate, practical example and application, art, films and music to name but a few.

We intend to empower and enable individuals and communities to educate themselves to current and future issues effecting their lives with the ultimate goal of enabling them to govern themselves and make their own informed decisions.

"Basta" is a Spanish word, meaning "Enough is enough" or "Stop". In our context, it means enough is enough; we're going to take action into our own hands and utilise all means possible with the intent of educating communities to better, more sustainable and fulfilling ways of life.

So roll on a few years and a strange things happen, flicking through the Irish times, there is an article about the upcoming elections and within the article is a very very well produced video outlining a new way of doing things. Exactly what is needed to further get Ireland out of the civil war politics that have dogged the country since the 20's...

Heres an example of Dylan trying to bring greater participation from the public in the mechanisms of democracy: Initiative following election 1- Introduce monthly constituency forum to include you in the democratic process beyond your vote.

I will hold a monthly constituency forum in Dublin South East. This will be a priority over one to one clinics and will be started immediately following my election. The forum will be open to constituents and I welcome the involvement of the three other TDs and elected representatives in the area.

A monthly constituency forum would have several consequences; seeing democracy in action by bringing people in the community together to talk about constituency issues, allowing TDs to hear these issues in a public way, not in private, encouraging citizens to have an input into national issues under a TD’s remit. Instead of one to one clinics where problems are heard in isolation let’s get our community talking to each other and working out problems together in all of our interests.

This time tomorrow we should now how things fair for Dylan, and for Ireland.

Fair play to him for his energy, ideas and passion. Ireland needs it.

As the old 68’ers wisely and boldly stated: “be realistic, demand the impossible”. Good luck young man, give them hell.

A few links:

Dublin candidate takes campaign online (That Irish Times article with his vid embedded)
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0203/....html

IT STARTS HERE (that vid)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLdHZ5LNIhs

"Basta!" Teens Prepare For Loss Of Hall (The kids are doing it for themselves) (Earlier indymedia feature)
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/75231

The dude from the Hideaway House (Irish Times - January 9, 2009)
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/ontherecord/2009/01/09/...ouse/

His website for the elections
http://www.dylanhaskins.ie/

Roll Up Your Sleeves: A Documentary About Do-It-Yourself Counterculture (2008)
http://vimeo.com/18295775
trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alOex97EIRY

TEDxLiffey - Dylan Haskins - The Creative City
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUq209Dk_Sc

More Independent voices but a greater struggle to be heard
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0216/1....html

Interview: General Election Candidate Dylan Haskins
http://www.universitytimes.ie/?p=860

twitter - http://twitter.com/diylan