Perhaps the most significant political campaign I have ever been engaged in was concerned with people and places far away from my local hills of green, derelict sites and all. The boycott of Coca-Cola products in UCD, a campaign twice won by students in 2003 and 2004, has since spread to dozens of colleges and other institutions worldwide.
Many will know the background to union busting by Coke bottling plants in Colombia and the subsequent campaigns for justice. But even if you don't, yesterday's excellent article in the Guardian by British activist-comedian Mark Thomas, who has written a book on the issue, is well worth a read.
In UCD, we were able to take on the biggest corporation in the world, and beat it - twice. Through that kind of solidarity, gains at all levels of politics are possible.
