Great Turnout - DESTROYED BY SINN FEIN HYPOCRITES.

by Corley Sun Feb 16, 2003 05:22

As someone who lives in the city centre and who attended the anti-war march to-day I have to say that Sinn Fein's antics over the last week have really shown just how manipulative and self-serving they are. Here are two examples related to the demo which I personally have seen of this "nasty" side to Sinn Fein:

1. I walk through Dame Street every morning on my way to college and back through it again on my way home in the evening. For the bulk of this week every lamp-post, traffic light pole etc. had a poster on it from the alliance of groups who had organised today's protest. But, lo and behold, on Wednesday morning when I walked down Dame Street all of those posters had dissapeared only to be replaced by the garish yellow Sinn Fein poster. This wasn't even a case of "We'll put up our posters too" - it was a case of "we'll rip down everyone else's poster" (under the cover of darkness - as the "generic" anti-war posters were there at 9pm the previous evening when I walked through Dame Street) "so that we're the most visible anti-war grouping". It really is galling to see a political party who were so vocal about their right to freedom of expression when censorship laws in this country denied them the opportunity of airing their views on TV & radio ripping down other groups' posters (as I assume they must have - I don't believe that all the staples on the generic anti-war posters rusted and became useless simultaneously).

2. I have to say that I thought today's demo was one of the most friendly and pleasant demonstrations that I've ever been on. The only exception to this was the moment on Dame Street when Sinn Fein realised there were TV cameras on the stage/lorry and they proceeded to rush through the crowd aggressively shoving everyone out of their way so as to achieve the maximum anount of visibility for their - by now overly familiar - yellow posters. Fair enough, everyone wants to get their poster on TV, but is it not possible to do that without using excessive physical force to achieve your aim?

Call me overly sensitive if you like, and maybe people do want to have this kind of "boot-boy" politics in the country, but I'd hate to see every other group who wants to have their voice heard descending to these kinds of tactics.

by Marcher Sun Feb 16, 2003 05:41

Is this rubbish all these two idiots got from today's huge demo?? I'm not a Sinn Feiner in any sense but I was glad to see them there and I reckon the only people who will feel 'alienated' are whingers like yourselves who seem to have nothing better to do. Talk about something more energising please and stop whining. It was a great day!!

by Des Sun Feb 16, 2003 12:53

Congratulations to EVERY PARTY AND INDIVIDUAL on the march yesterday. The number of people who participated was absolutely tremendous, as far as I am concerned, everyone is welcome in the anti war campaign including SF. I will co-operate with any organisation or individual if it assists in preventing further death and suffering been visited on the Iraqi people. WE DON’T NEED THIS SECTARIAN CRAP. Next stop Shannon.

by Joe Sun Feb 16, 2003 20:06

How is it sectarian? Explain. Terrorists are terrorists.

The Sinn Féin scumbags should have stayed at home.

by bull Sun Feb 16, 2003 21:16

Get lost joe you sound like the other moron named Bush who rambles on about terrorists too.

by Joe Mon Feb 17, 2003 01:57

"Get lost joe you sound like the other moron named Bush who rambles on about terrorists too. "

Is that the best you can come up with? That's absolutely pathetic. No really, it is.

I guess you lack the intelligence to appreciate the hard facts: Sinn Fein have definite links to the IRA (including the presence of Sinn Fein members on the IRA army council). Therefore, Sinn Fein should not have been at the anti-war march yesterday. Deal with it, you moron.

by Corley Mon Feb 17, 2003 04:09

Suppose I should have known by now that any attempt to even question on indymedia.ie the methods used by Sinn Fein will resort to instant name-calling.

I fail to see how anything that I said could be branded as "sectarian". For a start I'm a southern Catholic who has also spent a lot of time working in Belfast and understands and emphatises with the position that Nationalists find themselves in at the present time.

Secondly, I'd like to say that I personally feel that the reason why yesterday was such a successful demo was because it was a very inclusive event and didn't have any clear party political agenda. Having said that if I had arrived in Dublin late last week and walked through the main streets of the city the impression would have been given that this was a Sinn Fein event. No-one who has slagged off what I said yesterday has addressed the fact that Sinn Fein removed the inclusive, politcally-neutral posters that were put up on the city's streets and replaced the with their own party political posters.

It doesn't take much cop-on to realise that that kind of activity has the potential to not only annoy potential supporters of the anti-war movement but also runs the risk of alienating potential supporters of this cause. By all means, come along to protest marches and display your banners, but don't attempt to brand it as an event related to a particular political party.

Right, I'm sure I'll be subjected to a tirade of abuse for this posting but then I'd expect nothing less......

by Justin Moran - Sinn Fein Mon Feb 17, 2003 10:52 maigh_nuad at yahoo dot com

1. First of all, no-one has any right to deny us the right to take part in anti-war marches. Sinn Féin is not a pacifist party, we've never pretended to be. We believe there are circumstances where war is justified. We do not believe the war on Iraq is justified and hence we oppose it. I oppose imperialist wars, I do not oppose legitimate armed struggle in pursuit if the liberation of the people. You may not accept that the IRA was engaged in leigitmate armed struggle, but at least accept our beliefs are genuinely held.

2. We did not rip down anyone's posters. The morning of the march I was wandering round still putting up the general anti-war posters. We put up our own, and we put up the number of anti-war posters we were given. At one stage we were approached by another grouping who told us that people were ripping down anti-war posters but at no time did they accuse us of doing it and considering they asked us to continue to help I don't think they believe we did it. We were never asked not to put up party political posters and if we had been we would at least have been open to the issue but no-one ever asked so we went ahead and put up our own. I would suggest however, that our posters were better than the neutral ones. I'm not trying to score points, SF has put up plenty of shitty designed posters and will do so again, but I do believe ours were more effective and eye-catching and hence more visible.

3. Maybe people were pushing to the front at Dame St, I'm not aware of it and certainly from the media pics of Dame St it doesn't appear to have had much of an effect. If it did hapen and they were SF members I can only apologise. What I am aware of is that the entire last portion of the march had to be stewarded into oncoming traffic by Sinn Féin stewards because no-one else was about. I don't know where the IAWM stewards went. We had our stewards, for our bloc in the march but simply because some-one had to do it we ended up moving the march down the west side of Parnell Square. We had the same inclusive, non-sectarian attitude to it that many other people and parties had and which played a part in the success of the event. On that note, as a stewrd myself, the lack of communication and proper stewarding was glaring.

4. Lastly, Corley makes the point that even to question SF on Indymedia leads to name-calling. Possibly, but not from SF. The only name-calling on this thread is from the narrow-minded anti-republican person who started it.

by Republican Mon Feb 17, 2003 16:19

Corley, SF activists put up approximately 3,000 of the general posters across Dublin city and county. I would find it a little odd if they went to all that bother simply to rip them down and replace them with SF posters. I take it from your comments that you have not spent too much time out doing what activists do. Otherwise you would know that posters can indeed be ripped down (usually by drunks or Corpo officials), but more often by the fact that it sometimes rains in Dublin, the posters get soggy and slide off the pole. Simple. No SF plot there.

The march was a huge success, but as usual one or two bitter little indivduals with too much time on their hands have to have a whinge.

by Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Tue Feb 18, 2003 01:05

I was giving away lollypops.

by Trevor MacDonald - not the british newsman Wed Feb 19, 2003 06:25 intheprocessofmakingone at hotmail dot com North East USA

You have the old Sinn Fein and the IRA to thank now - that you live in an Ireland not owned by the Sassonachs. What ever you feel about the contemporary IRA and Sinn Fein - their ideals are noble and not dictatorial - Not dictatorial as the Junta of Officials, Generals and Billionaires that run my country the USA, ARE Dictatorial.

1500 or 15,000 deaths? Every death is a world collapsed.

Yet how many deaths do you think the Plutocracy of MY country, the USA caused in the last 35 years? Forget Vietnam even - What about the freely elected government of Salvadore Allende in Chile? What about the freely elected government of Arbenz in Guatamala? What about the freely elected government of Mohammed Mossadehg in Iran, whom the USA overthrew and putting the Shah in his place? The US CIA Trained with the help of the Israeli Mossad the Shah's 60,000 Secret SAVAK police torturers in electronic torture!! How many is THAT in 35 years -TORTURED to death!

So if I came as a US army man to support your demonstration - because I saw the nobility of it - would you say "How does this American swine have the audacity to presume to know a Just Cause when we do? How dare that hypocrite presume to support Us?"

As Jesus said "Those who are not against us are with us(as least for THIS issue) DON'T REJECT THEM. A warrior too has his goodness and his value - as long as he has virtue. Remember Wang Welin in Tienamen Square who stood before the TANKS. HOW DO YOU KNOW HE WAS A PACIFIST? Perhaps he was just a young and gallant freedom fighter. There are causes worth Defending Violently. The real problem is always - is there virtue and truth in the cause.

Help us Americans - Irish People, to Defy this dictatorship over us of Rumsfield Bush and Blair. And don't judge the warriors who believed truly in another cause - when they come to fight at your side. No Surrender to Bush and Blair.