Anti-bin charge campaigners are organising a protest march in Dublin tonight. The march in support of the jailed politicians, Mr Joe Higgins TD and Cllr Clare Daly, is to begin at Parnell Square and culminate in a rally outside Mountjoy Prison.
The event will provide an indication of the level of public support for the campaign against refuse charges in the capital.
Other protests are expected later in the week, while a threat of industrial action was repeated yesterday by the Technical, Engineering & Electrical Union (TEEU).
It has invited representatives of the Association of Combined Residents' Associations and the National Association of Tenants' Organisations to attend a national meeting of its 200 shop stewards on Wednesday night.
In a statement yesterday, the TEEU said industrial action over the jailing of Mr Higgins and Ms Daly would be considered at the meeting. However, Mr Eamon Devoy, TEEU assistant general secretary, said it was unlikely to undertake such action in isolation from other unions. Instead, it would probably ask the Dublin Council of Trade Unions to hold an emergency meeting to consider the issue. A motion to that effect would be put to the meeting, Mr Devoy said.
To date, other unions have shown reluctance to become involved in the campaign. Neither of the two unions representing refuse collection staff in Dublin, SIPTU and IMPACT, plans industrial action.
Ms Ruth Coppinger of the Fingal Anti-Bin Tax Campaign, which is organising tonight's rally, called yesterday on unions to "get off the fence" and support the campaign. Ms Coppinger is a member of Fingal County Council and a Socialist Party colleague of Mr Higgins and Ms Daly.
The two were jailed for a month on Friday for defying a High Court injunction prohibiting them from obstructing refuse collections in Dublin.
Ms Coppinger said people were outraged by the "punitive jailing" of the two, which was "in stark contrast to the treatment of corrupt TDs and councillors".
After visiting Mr Higgins in Mountjoy yesterday, where he is being detained in the training unit, she said he was "relaxed and calm".
She said the campaign against refuse charges would continue, with further events taking place later in the week. Tonight's march is to begin at the Garden of Remembrance at 7.30 p.m.
Ms Coppinger said there would be a number of speakers at the rally outside Mountjoy.
In a statement yesterday, the Fingal Anti-Bin Tax Campaign said rallies would also take place today at Irish embassies "in all of the capitals of Europe, as well as the US, Brazil and Nigeria".
Protests against the charges took place in Dublin on Saturday, at locations including Blanchardstown, Swords, Tallaght and Dundrum. Gardaí said all passed off without incident.
