Tuesday, October 18, 2011
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Phil accuse anti-fascist group of sabotage Higgins beats Norris in campus poll
»» “Trinity Against Fascism” urged sponsors to withdraw support »» Future Phil guests urged to cancel appearances Ronan Costello Editor THE PHIL have accused an anti-fascist organisation based in Trinity of attempting to sabotage the society’s finances and scheduled guest appearances. The allegations come in the wake of the cancellation of this Thursday’s debate on immigration at which British National Party leader Nick Griffin was to speak. The University Times has seen an email which the anti-fascist group, Trinity Against Fascism, sent to one of the Phil’s sponsors, KC Peaches. In the email, which carried “KC Peaches Sponsoring Event with Holocaust Denier” as its subject line, the organisation’s founder, Rónán Burtenshaw, explains the mission of the organisation and then goes on to say that anti-racist groups had alerted the members of Trinity Against Fascism to the possibility that Griffin would use the Phil event to meet with and organise violent, far right groups in Ireland. He then goes on to outline some of the statements and crimes of Griffin before saying the following: “We would ask that KC Peaches
not sponsor an organisation that is giving a platform to such hatred. We wanted to make your organisation aware of any potential association between KC Peaches and this kind of hatred. It is possible that pictures from the event might include signs with your brand. Certainly the cards needed to access the event carry your brand.” it is clearly stated at the end of the email that request to cancel sponsorship of the Phil is conditional on the withdrawal of the invitation to Griffin. The Phil regard the above request as an attempt to sabotage their society and have written proof that Trinity Against Fascism sent similar letters to most of their sponsors. Phil Steward, Lydia Rahill, said that some of the sponsors contacted the Phil to let them know of Trinity Against Fascism’s emails. “There was no significant effect on The Phil, primarily due to the hyperbolic nature of the emails and transparent attempts at misrepresentation. We clarified the situation, stating that Mr Griffin was to speak for 10 minutes on immigration in the context of a debate, and was not to be given a political platform for a hate speech or
USI to organise sleepout in Dublin Leanna Byrne News Editor THE UNION of Students in Ireland (USI) is launching a national “Freeze the Fees, Save the Grant” campaign in response to a figure in The Irish Independent that suggested that the registration fee for students may increase to €5,000. The campaign intends to organise a march and sleepout in Dublin next month to fight the speculative figure. The feeling in USI is that more radical action must be taken, therefore a sleep-out would be more effective and would mirror the “Occupy Wall Street” protests. The demonstration is to begin on the afternoon of November 16th, and the USI expects to place a few
thousand tents on either O’Connell St or preferably Kildare St. The demonstration is not expected to be as big as last year’s “Education not Emigration” march as there is limited enthusiasm from constituent organisations for another march. Tralee IT and the western universities and ITs were particularly reluctant to mimic last year’s efforts. Speaking to The College Tribune, President of the USI Gary Redmond explained that if fees rose to €5,000 in December’s budget then “tens of thousands” of students would not be able to afford to attend college next September. In addition, many students have questioned the continued on page 2
UT POLL Leanna Byrne News Editor
A dance troupe for the Bollywood film, “Ek Tha Tiger”, rehearse for the cameras. a ‘paid-up opportunity for him and the BNP to organise with the Irish far-right’. The sponsors who contacted us were ultimately unimpressed by the correspondence from TAF,” said Rahill. While some of the sponsors who contacted the Phil may have been unimpressed by TAF’s correspondence, the proprietor of KC Peaches was persuaded and assured Burtenshaw that no sponsorship for such an event would be forthcoming. In an email response to Burtenshaw, the proprietor said the following: “Thank
you for your message and for bringing this to my attention. KC Peaches is not a political organisation and we take no public political stance. However, personally, I am completely opposed to Fascism and am also personally opposed to Nick Griffin speaking at The Phil. You cannot debate with someone, who in my opinion is completely pigheaded and disillusioned with reality. I will of course inform The Phil of my personal distaste for such activity and really appreciate you informing me as I was not
aware of the debate prior to your message. I will also inform them that no monies from KC Peaches can be allocated to such a venture.” An official statement from Trinity Against Fascism makes no apologies for any approaches made to Phil sponsors. “We stand by our actions in this matter. We broke no rules. Contacting sponsors is an established and legitimate tactic of protesting against an organisation. We have contacted the sponsors over this weekend to let them know that TAF no longer has objections to any
Photo: Ronan Costello sponsorship of The Phil in the wake of the withdrawal of the invitation.” Trinity Against Fascism also made representations to future guests of the Phil, including documentary film maker and political activist, Michael Moore who was scheduled to speak at the Phil yesterday evening. There is no evidence to suggest that Moore’s cancellation of this event had anything to do with emails sent by Trinity Against Fascism. continued on page 4
IN A recent poll by The University Times Michael D Higgins pulled ahead of the other candidates with 31% support from students. The poll was conducted on Thursday, October 6, and 404 students were polled with a 199/205 male to female split. The poll was carried out as part of a nationwide poll in Irish third level institutions, co-ordinated by UCD’s The College Tribune. Higgins’s closest competitior, Trinity Senator David Norris, received 21% of students’ first preferences. This was a surprising defeat for
The numbers: Total polled: 404 Total Males: 199 Total Females: 205 Percentage who said they would be voting: 82% Percentage who said they would not be voting: 16% Percentage who didn’t know if they’d vote: 2%
Norris and was reported on by The Irish Times and Journal.ie. Support for the remaining candidates from students was extremely low. Sean Gallagher only garnered 8%, while Davis received 6 per cent and Mitchell and McGuinness both tie with 2% support. Scallon did not get any support among Trinity students. Support for McGuinness has shown to be higher in national opinion polls, whereas student support for Davis and Scallon seem to be in line with general opinion. Continued on page 2
Percentages based on replies of those who said they would be voting. HIggins: 31% Norris: 21% Gallagher: 8% Davis: 6% McGuinness: 2% Mitchell: 2% Scallon: 0% Don’t know: 30%
Hist treasurer pressured into resigning UT Investigation Leanna Byrne News Editor FOLLOWING FINBARR Begley’s resignation as Treasurer of the Hist, somestudents have questioned the validity of operations within the Hist in relation to spending and its decision making process. Begley took his position as Treasurer at the end of the last academic term following his election. On the September 28 Begley stepped down, but did not attend the announcement of his resignation. This was made during the Hist’s private business meeting. Although Hist Librarian Ian Curran has issued a statement saying “Finbarr underestimated his workload” and
therefore gave up his post, others close to the Hist have claimed that he was asked to step down because targets were not met and that if he didn’t take the decision to resign himself, he would be asked to do so at a committee meeting. Either way, it has become clear that Begley’s decision to step down was not made willingly. A source from the Central Society’s Committee (CSC) denied that the recent resignation was due to targets not being met as deadlines or targets are not set for their accounts. A member of the Hist committee who wishes to remain anonymous suggested that there may be over €1000 lost due to bad management of funds. Auditor Liam Ó’Néill refused to comment on any of these points.
Shortly after Begley’s resignation John Engle filled the Treasurer position uncontested. However, various members of the Hist expressed their disappointment with the committee reshuffle. An email was sent last week to members stating that the auditor would be accepting applications for debates convenor,
all. This practice disregards the CSC regulations that insist that societies hold an EGM whenever a committee member steps down. This year the Hist is attempting to recover from a huge drop in membership. Fresher’s week provides the Hist with a boost in revenue as every year they take in at least 2,000 new mem-
Hist Auditor Liam Ó’Néill would not comment on the resignation of Begley.
whereas the Treasurer post was not mentioned. One member of the Hist committee that wishes to remain unnamed claimed that elections were either held “under the radar” or not held at
bers. Students pay a fee of €5 to join, giving the Hist €10,000 extra to spend. Furthermore, approximately €30,000 is given to the Hist from the CSC. Spending during Fresher’s Week
is also kept to a minimum as goodie bags are generally procured free of charge from sponsors and advertisement covers the majority of the cost of the magazine sent in the Fresher’s mail-out. Despite the boost to the accounts that the Freshers and new members provide, the quality of the events organised have been questionable for a number of years. In 2010 the alternative Freshers’ Ball was held in XXI and promised first years the opportunity to get to know other new members and the committee. Yet, unknown to many students not used to frequenting XXI, the majority of the clientele are not Trinity students. Furthermore, the Hist committee were given wristbands that admitted them to a VIP area, disassociating themselves from any Freshers.
This year the Hist hosted the club night “Histeria” in the Purty Kitchen. Even though it was described as “the best and cheapest Freshers’ night out”, a leading source close to the committee explained that “all the old guard was there, mostly on the bottom floor, mostly sitting down, drinking and talking amongst themselves, while only a handful of Freshers’ were strewn about the empty club, looking fairly disappointed with (for some of them, presumably) their first night out in Dublin.” During the year costs include one-day in-house debating competitions, like Maidens or the Freshers’ Masters. The insider source revealed that
continued on page 3