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Sinn Fein and the introduction of the bin charges in Dublin national |
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news report
 Friday January 17, 2003 17:49 by Brian Cahill - Socialist Party
 The following is an extract from an article which appeared in the January 2001 edition of the "Voice", the newspaper of the Socialist Party. It correctly predicted the absence of two Sinn Fein councillors for the vote which brought the bin tax to the Dublin Corporation area. "Instead of standing up to the bullying minister, cowardly councillors, from the establishment parties, are trying to come up with a way of bringing in the double tax without copping the blame from angry Dubliners. It's not clear exactly what will happen but information at the moment suggests a majority of councillors from most parties will vote the bin charges through while a minority from most parties will oppose them. That way no party can take the moral high ground on the issue. They hope in the confusion to limit the damage to their electoral base." "Dublin workers expect nothing better from the likes of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail. For that matter, the Labour Party has long abandoned any pretence of representing working people. The real surprise for many might be the attitude that the Sinn Fein leadership seem to be taking." "While Sinn Fein activists are overwhelmingly opposed to double taxation, it appears, as we go to press, that the party has offered to assist this cynical process, with some of their councillors voting against but others being purposefully absent. It should be remembered that Sinn Fein councillors in Sligo actually voted for the service charges. If this happens in Dublin, Sinn Fein will have no real credibility on the issue." The extract above is from the "Voice" but I don't mean to give the impression that only the Socialist Party predicted the sell out: the intentions of Labour and Sinn Fein were well known in the campaign at the time. Not very long afterwards the vote came. The bin tax was introduced and the deal was exactly as had been predicted. Labour and Fine Gael councillors split, with some backing the bin tax and other not. 2 Sinn Fein councillors absented themselves. The other 2 Sinn Fein councillors voted against publically recording the votes of councillors on the issue, helping to sow more confusion. |
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Comments (13 of 13)
Jump To Comment: 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1"Sinn Fein has been absorbed into the power structure that rules Ireland. ... How can you expect them to promote the interests of Irish workers? With the help of Sinn Fein, the Stormont agreement solidifies the hold of Anglo-American imperialism on Ireland-North and South."
Who cares if Sinn Féin have been 'assimilated' or not? Before they 'came in from the cold' they were hardly on the front line of radical global politics. They used to have one policy, "Brits Out", which they have now replaced with one other, "Sinn Féin In".
That's right. Anyone who points out that Sinn Fein voted in the bin tax in Sligo or fought against the Term Time workers must be a "British apologist".
At least you have a better chance with people like Aengus, that with a troll like Brian Cahill who is just a british apologist.
I welcome Aengus's statement, it seems fine. I also was under the impression that SF were not doing much to oppose the toxic texan's and tony's warmongering, but I am glad to see that is beginning to change and I welcome it. Now how about doing a bit to oppose globalisation by either helping to build an anti globalisation or an anti capitalist movement?
www.worldsocialist-cwi.org
new section on anti war work cwi is involved in worldwide.
Sinn Féin has pledged its full support to the growing movement against the war on Iraq. International Affairs spokesperson Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD has said the Dáil must be recalled as a matter of urgency and that the government must take their head out of the sand and respond to the Irish public's very real concerns on this grave issue. Deputy Ó Snodaigh will lead a Sinn Féin delegation to the Shannon Peace Camp next week.
Deputy Ó Snodaigh said:
``Irish complicity in the war build-up must end. Brian Cowen s Ministerial authorisation of overflights and landing of both US military aircraft and civilian aircraft chartered to carry US troops and supplies are in violation of Article 2 of the Hague Convention Respecting the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers and Persons in Case of War on Land, which states that belligerents are forbidden to move troops or convoys of either munitions of war or supplies across the territory of a neutral power. Sinn Féin reiterates our demand for the immediate suspension of such authorisation and the recalling of the Dáil to discuss this very grave matter.
``The government must take their head out of the sand and respond to the Irish public's very real concerns on this.
``For months now Sinn Féin has been calling for a debate in the Dáil on this issue of crucial national and international importance. But the government - in its typical arrogance - has refused. Their Nice campaign guarantee that they would defend Irish neutrality was clearly just another in a series of broken promises. We therefore also continue to call for neutrality to be enshrined in the Constitution and in legislation.
``Sinn Féin fully supports the anti-war movement, the peace camp at Shannon Airport, and the national anti-war mobilisation on February 15. We look forward to playing our part, together with the other progressive peoples of the US and Europe - and, indeed the world over - on this most important issue.''
Sinn Fein has been absorbed into the power structure that rules Ireland. It is an active part of the British state in N.I. Its supporters in America come from the middle class, and their political representatives like Peter King, the Long Island congressman,(the leader of his party is Geo. Bush), who is an advocate of war against the people of Iraq. How can you expect them to promote the interests of Irish workers? With the help of Sinn Fein, the Stormont agreement solidifies the hold of Anglo-American imperialism on Ireland-North and South.
As was pointed out by someone on another post today, why dont the SP and SF do something meaningful about the coming bloodbath? I know you send a few people on marches organised by other groups, but that is tokenistic. You can still bore us with who is more revolutionary on bin taxes etc
you have no army.
no shelters.
you are at WAR as an imperialist power with "the third world" and Islam.
It is has now been accepted by most of the Socialist Family those who are affiliated to the Fourth International and others that we are experiencing different stages of Capitalism and thus Socialism in different areas of the global arena.
In the Third World we see communities continue to live in imperialist maintained poverty.
Without basic needs.
Without Rubbish collection.
Without sanitation.
Without TV
(Ghana has one hour of TV a day)
Without health products.
Without clean Water.
Without education.
Without hope.
Without even a shred of human rights.
Socialist Parties offer these people solutions, analysis and solidarity.
In the First World we see communities continue to live in imperialist maintained prosperity.
With basic needs.
With sanitation.
With rubbish collection.
With TV.
With health products available on the street, in pharmacies, through free health care etc., etc.,
With clean water.
With education.
With hope.
With legislated human rights charters.
Socialist Parties offer these people solutions, anaysis and solidarity.
We in the 5th international of anarchists.
known by many names.
are the friends of the poor.
and the enemies
of CAPITAL.
The average workers of Ireland, lovely place i was born there, (fucking irritation and embarassment I am the local jedi lad), earns €22,500 a year.
The average workers of the world lovely place i was born there, (fucking irritating and embarrassing I am one of the global ipsiphi jedi) earn less than €6,500 a year.
We in the 5th international consider the imperialist behaviour of the 1st world working classes whatever their marxist catagorisation a serious cause for global misery.
We in the 5th international do not have any higher regard for the 1st world working classes as to the 1st world middle classes.
They are all imperialists.
You are touched by blood.
by equity.
by mortgage.
by state participation.
by theft.
by disobedience of the declared human rights.
You are a constant irritation.
We threaten you today that when appropriate, we will put you all against the wall.
That is if any of you survive the future global military conflagorations your culture has unaviodable caused.
do we make our point?
you are the parasites.
you are the lazy.
We wonder shall we take power with the doctorate in one hand the balaclave in the other.
We wonder shall we take power with Marx in one hand and Fanon in the other.
We wonder shall we take power during a news bulletin or late night quiz show.
We wonder shall you have noticed when we come out of the woodwork.
We wonder these things because none of you seemed to notice us worm the wood in the first place.
It appears that I've touched something of a nerve with Justin. Why can't you honestly debate your record without the evasions and the ranting?
We take up Sinn Fein on their dishonesty and the slimy deals they do because your antics matter. If you like you can take it as a partial compliment - along with the Labour Party you have some support amongst working people but neither of your parties use that support to challenge the agendas of the rich and powerful.
Your party introduced privatisation to schools and hospitals in the North. Martin McGuiness fought a bitter battle against the Term Time workers when they demanded a living wage. Sinn Fein voted in the bin tax in Sligo and then voted to increase it. And of course we have your disappearing tricks in the Corporation area.
If being hammered about all this forces you to display a bit of backbone, well and good. It's more likely though that you will continue to provide more ammunition. And really when you put out press releases sneering at the missing Labour councillors you really are asking for it.
As for the support of the Socialist Party, we are a smaller organisation and we have never denied that. We have substantial support in the working class areas of Dublin West and Dublin North and some smaller support elsewhere. I thank you for your concern though.
I got mad and ranted at him because this is at least the third thread on the Bin Charges in the last couple of days and whatever about Brian, I have better things to be doing than responding to whatever was cooked up in the Voice two years ago.
I have explained why they did what they did in Sligo in another thread and also stated that I didn't agree with that action in yet another thread on the issue.
The points Brian raises are a hodge-podge of lies, innuendo and desperate, desperate desire to damage us, we being the most appropriate target rather than the people who voted for the Charges in the SP Canon.
As for real informed debate, I've had real, informed debate on this up to my back teeth, I've posted reports of most of the Counci meetings on the issue this year on Indymedia and debated the issue. What I will not do is waste any more time answering questions I've answered several times before on other threads at various times. If you want to take this further email me.
Justin, instead of going mad and ranting at Brian how about some real informed debate. Im not an SP supporter, though I respect the work they do on the ground and the points Brian raise are fair. The one clear response from you on the Sligo isssue, that Ive read so far, has been 'ask the sinners in Sligo' rather than explaining why they behaved as they did.
If you cant respond to the specific points and to be fair Ive only followed the debate (or what passes for a debate)on indymedia, the obvious conclusion for a non-partisan observer is that you are unable to defend your partys actions.
A bit of a rant seems called for...
Brian let's be straight here for a second. Your party has a somewhat disturbing obsession with everything we say or do and a desperate desire to do or say anything that might reflect badly on us.
Your 'news'paper makes predictions about us almost every issue and 99% of them turn out to be wrong. I've mentioned some of them on another thread. They're simply made up off the top of the head. You provide no indication of what we got for this alleged deal, you provide no idea of how many councillors will be absent or how many will vote.
Now if your article had named the two councillors concerned weren't going to be there I'd say fair enough, but this is the usual tired ould shite you people come up with at the drop of the hat. You got lucky and decide to stick it to two men who have done more for Irish workers in their lives than your entire party.
It's fucking sad. If you spent half as much time thinking about the lack of support the Joe Higgins Party has got in working class areas outside of Dublin West and doing what you could to rectify it as you waste trying to get our attention youse might get somewhere.
And done.