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Only Sinn Féin can deliver unity and a new republic
N o w i s t h e t i m e f o r R e p u b l i c a n p o l i t i c s , Where now for Sinn Féin? f o r R e p u b l i c a n s o l u t i o n s a n d f o r R e p u b l i c a n a c t i o n
BY MARY LOU McDONALD
After a decade of election growth, the Local and European results in the south were disappointing. I want to pay tribute to all the candidates and activists who put in the long hours and the hard yards. Due to your work Sinn Féin is the third largest party in the 26 Counties, the second largest party across the island and the largest party organised on an allIreland basis. This is some achievement in just a few short decades.
We must learn from this election. The process of change is underway, a process of renewing and refreshing our approach and structures. We will come out of this time as stronger a party. Society is also in the process of change. The people have spoken, we all need to listen and learn. Politics is in a state of flux with the threat of Brexit, the chaos in Westminster undermining the ability to re-establish the Assembly in the north, a changing economic climate as we reach full employment in the 26 counties, and an increased concern for climate change. We need to reflect on this changed political context.
At the same time the 26-County State has the highest levels of inequality and a rising cost of living. Landlords and insurance industries are gouging ordinary working people with impunity. We have a government that refuses to invest adequately in healthcare with an unacceptable level of waiting lists and trolley waits.
We have a generation in low-paid work and losing all hope of owning or ever having a permanent home.
There is also a growing debate and support for Irish Unity, shown most recently in the May RED C election exit poll where 77% of respondents said they would vote in support of Irish unity in a referendum. Sinn Féin is the only political party that will drive the Irish Unity project.
Our opponents attack us for being, they say, opposed to everything and in favour of nothing. But it is clear that Fianna
Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens will continue with more of the same. We already see in councils across the state where they are striking deals and trading council positions. The faces may change but the politics will not.
Now is the time for Republican politics, for Republican solutions and for Republican action. We need to articulate
• FACING THE CHALLENGE: Sinn Féin can and will make the difference. Voters will judge us on our words and deeds
“Sinn Féin must
solutions, to offer hope and deliver at a local, state and national level. We also need to change as a party and to build alliances with other progressive left forces to deliver for communities.
Families are struggling and communities believe that politics and politicians are all the same. If you look at Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that is a reasonable assumption. Sinn Féin must demonstrate by our words and deeds that we are different. Our vision is greater, our solutions will work and that we can make the difference.
We must empower communities to use their vote for real change and a break from the politics that has ruled this state since its inception.
Now is the time to look to the future, to plan and act to win back lost ground and seats.
The solutions are found within our party, our experience and in listening to the community. To getting back to what we do best, working in communities, in the councils and in the Dáil to demonstrate that Republican vision in action.
It will be about campaigning with communities, delivering for communities and building alliances with other progressive and left groups. • HOUSING: Homes can and must be built. Tenants and home owners must be protected from landlords and private investors
TÁ YES 32 TÁ TÁ YES YES
TÁ YES 32
anphoblacht UIMHIR EISIÚNA 3 - 2019 - ISSUE NUMBER 3 5 The inequality that is at the core of problems can and must be tackled. Homes can and must be built. Tenants and home owners must be protected from landlords and private investors. A public health care system, free at the point of delivery can be developed. Fair pay for a fair day’s work is not a slogan but a solution.
Tackling climate change is the challenge of a generation. We all need to change our behaviours and reduce consumption and pollution. However the burden cannot be disproportionately placed on the shoulder of hard-pressed workers with no alternative options. Climate change cannot and must not be divorced from social justice. Government policy refuses to end oil and gas exploration while private companies and polluters reap huge profits. It is workers who are expected to pay to clean up the mess.
The structural destruction of our environment and climate must be tackled. It requires structural change and a republican green agenda.
Sinn Féin is the driving force in the unity project. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have stood over partition for almost one hundred years and would do so for another one hundred if allowed.
These are the reasons why Sinn Féin politics is needed and relevant. The challenge we face is to demonstrate once again that Sinn Féin can and will make the difference. Voters will judge us on our words and deeds.
We know that the support is there and we must reconnect with that vote.
This will also mean changing how we operate as a party. This election demonstrates that we failed to consolidate the gains we made since 2014. That cannot be allowed to happen again. We need to invest in the party at all levels and to empower and support local leaderships and activists to meet the challenge of delivering our vision in communities and councils.
So some commentators might ask, where to now for Sinn Féin? The answer is, forward.
We regroup, reorganise and we get back to the work of building a united Ireland and a republic for every citizen. • CLIMATE CHANGE: It’s workers who are expected to pay to clean up the mess • IRISH UNITY: Sinn Féin is the driving force in the unity project TÁ YES YES 32 32 YES YES YES YES TÁ TÁ 32 • • 32 • 32 32 TÁ TÁ TÁ TÁ YES YES YES 32 32 32 YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES TÁ TÁ TÁ TÁ TÁ TÁ TÁ TÁ 32 32 • 32 • 32 32 32 32 32 YES UNITY YES UNITY YES UNITY YES YES UNITY YES UNITY YES UNITY YES YES INCLUSION YES PEACE
ONLY SINN FÉIN CAN DELIVER IRISH UNITY AND A NEW REPUBLIC
It is impossible to pinpoint any one reason why Sinn Féin had poor European and local elections. With hindsight, we need to admit that we didn’t consolidate the 2014 election bounce, and the intake of newly elected councillors.
The hard work of our MEPs was not effectively communicated back to their constituents, there is no easy solution to this problem. As Karl Marx observed, “Those who control the material forces of production also control the intellectual forces of production.” Matt Cathy’s success in exposing the fact that the Irish Government were vehemently opposing critical infrastructure in rural Ireland, failed to get any traction in the mainstream media. This was in circumstances where 50% matching funding was on the table in Brussels.
In terms of confidence and supply FF were happy to sit on their hands while the government they propped up literally refused to meet the people of rural Ireland half-way. Meanwhile the EU had re-classified the entire North West as ‘a region in transition’, meaning we were regressing back to our old Objective One Status of the 1980s. A big news story by any standards and a damning indictment on successive governments, but this was completely ignored by our national broadcaster. No news is good news.
Despite all of the above, it is still no excuse for our failure not to have made at least modest political gains in what were relatively advantageous circumstances.
Strong and solid local government representation is the bedrock of any political movement, it should not be taken for granted. Winning seats and subsequently consolidating them is no easy task, and for Sinn Féin councillors it entails hard work and high-profile activism between elections.
As local reps we sometimes become
BY GERRY MURRAY
preoccupied with the 15% of our constituents who make representations and interact with their local councillors, we tend to forget about the large segment of voters who never have occasion to do so.
In that context our activism needs to focus on both the local and national, the latter should not be the exclusive remit of our Oirechtas members. To that end increased local activism via leaflets, newsletters, newspapers, local radio and public meetings is imperative.
We need to emphasise the scale of inequality and poverty in Irish society and the Sinn Féin proposals on creating a just society. It is not an equal or fair Ireland where there is a crisis in healthcare with six figure numbers on waiting lists, and hundreds on hospital trolleys every week. It is not a just republic when nearly a fifth of the population is in enforced deprivation, where homelessness has reached over 10,000 people and thousands more families struggle to pay a mortgage or the rent very month.
Locally and nationally we need to be better at getting our message across and counteracting the multiple false narratives that our opponents spin, I know, easier said than done, given the composition of the mainstream media. Which also begs the question as to why some of our national spokespersons don’t engage more often with our relatively benign local radio stations. Communication and language are vital components in all political discourse, to that end we need to be more creative and imaginative in terms of our arguments and how we frame policy into the future.
As activists we need to engage in the debate surrounding the emergence of ‘the democratic economy’, and other pilot models of economic development, not to mention incentivising the emergence of co-operatives and ensuring their sustainability by a various legislative and fiscal mechanisms. In the Basque county over 40,000 people are employed in co-ops. This is a model of economic development particularly suited to rural Ireland and surly deserving of some of the favourable measures that are afforded to FDI
We all need to be a lot more proactive in highlighting the
• We need to emphasise the scale of inequality and poverty in Irish society
scourge of neo liberalism and taking on its custodians. There is no point in just narrowly focusing on its symptoms, it is a global issue that is every bit as important as climate change and deserving of the same attention. But it also contextualises so many of our economic and social policies, as well as offering us an opportunity to politicise the ever-increasing numbers of people who are adversely impacted by it.
Many of us often wondered as to what narratives and strategies would be deployed against the party in the post-Adams era, in our naivety, some of us expected a forensic examination of our economic policies, followed by protracted critique via the usual suspects that would deliver a ‘Sinn Féin will wreck the economy’ verdict.
Instead what we got was a relentless litany of half-truths and gossip, every incident, resignation, and row was exaggerated out of all proportion. As we say in Mayo, if a pound of bacon was stolen in Castlebar it would be a pig by the time it arrived in Dublin.
The recent elections were indeed a set back and there are lessons to be learned. But our successes and failures need to be viewed in the context of what we are actually up against. Sometimes I think our enemies have more faith in us than we have in ourselves. They are convinced that we say what we mean and we mean what we say. Thus their relentless determination to impede our growth and derail our project. They certainly believe that we are capable of delivering Irish Unity and a New Republic. On that particular point I happen to agree with them.
Gerry Murray is a Sinn Féin councillor on Mayo County Council
