Sinn Féin supporters protest 'criminalisation' accusation - Mar 19'05

by Barry Sun Mar 20, 2005 16:38

Theres about 50 in those photos, and half of them seem to be either politicians or wannabes.
They have a bloody nerve holding up hungerstrikers photos to try and deflect the shite theyve gotten themselves into out of sheer greed and utter arrogance.

. Those 10 men sacrificed everything for political status, only for sinn fein to sign it away when they accepted British rule.

The fact is if those men were to take up arms against British rule today, Sinn Fein would loudly denounce them as not only criminals , but British securocrat puppets.

If those men were in jail today and were to protest against British criminalisation policies, Sinn Fein would turn their backs on them. Any Sinn Fein member speaking out on their behalf would immediately be expelled by their stalinist leadership.

Fecking pile of hypocrites.

10 hungerstrikers didnt die to get Gerry Adams votes. They laid down their lives to defeat British counter insurgency strategy, of which criminalisation was only one strand.

As for Sean Crowe stating the republican struggle has never been stronger ???
What tablets is he on. ??

Ive nothing personal against the man but how can he state such nonsense.

Britain has had its presence accepted and legitimised with the GFA. The gear has been decommisioned almost in its entirety, all of it being compromised. Sinn Fein has accepted partition. Political status has been signed away by Adams McGuinness et al. The British Army still control the 6 counties, and as soon as the elections are over Sinn Fein will be signing up to the British police and telling young nationalists its their patriotic duty to join up to the PSNI.

Martin McGuinness has already stated he looks forward to the day when a young nationalist PSNI recruit can wear his uniform with pride.

The struggle isnt just weak, its utterly wrecked and the corrupt leadership which wrecked it has an absolute nerve using the images of Bobby Sands and Francis Hughes to cover up their slimy corruption and outright facism.

Shame on them.

by redjade Sun Mar 20, 2005 17:20

'Theres about 50 in those photos'

Never believe photography ;-)

I'd say that there was at least 200, actually, i'm no good at guessing numbers - i was in a hurry to get to the Inflatable Hammer Bloc and didn't get shoot a good establishing shot, apologies.

http://www.releasing.net/filmmaker/long_medium_close-up_shots.html

by mise Sun Mar 20, 2005 18:09

barry, rte said on 6 o clock last nite that "nearly" 500 people attended the anti war rally, another bulletin said "some" 500 people and yet another said "as many as" 500.

by Barry Sun Mar 20, 2005 18:23

of those who actually were. Just going by the photographs.

Petty personal abuse and insults removed--IMC Editorial

by Jonah Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:11

We had 342 of those tee-shirts, one for every thousand votes the party has received and all of them were taken so I'd say there were around 300 people there.

I'd respond to the other posts but I genuinely don't care enough to get into debates with trolls on Indymedia.

by Irish Patriot Mon Mar 21, 2005 12:38

This demonstration is an attempt to change the debate.

The issue is not whether the hunger strikers of 2 decades ago were criminals. The issue is whether people who rob banks and casually murder people over a remark in a bar are criminals - and they are.

The fact is, the criminality of elements of the IRA is the greatest barrier to progress towards a united Ireland today.

HOW DARE the IRA and Sinn Fein let bank robbers and murders stand in the way of a united Ireland.

by Jonah Mon Mar 21, 2005 16:54

The laughably named Irish Patriot continues to regurgitate the worst nonsense of the gutter press, ignoring that Sinn Fein has condemned the bank robbery of the Northern bank and the murder of Robert McCartney as criminal acts.

Indymedia is a place for alternative media views, not the idle chattering of the gullible and easily manipulated.

by taliban-d Tue Mar 22, 2005 01:55

was that kevin o'neill with sean crowe when he spoke out against criminality and bad propoganda. kevin is always there when you KNEEd him.

by bus 'em in Tue Mar 22, 2005 02:03

i hope all the demonstrators had a nice visit to dublin and i trust their journey back to the north didn't take too long. dublin people are always glad to see visitors and their crown money is always welcome.

by Bus Driver Tue Mar 22, 2005 10:39

Yeah we bus them in by the thousand, thats how we got such a good vote in Meath. You lot are really scraping the bottom of the barrel now. How are you going to explain it when the rest of the SDLP Westminister seats go to SF?

by barry Tue Mar 22, 2005 11:57

how about since sinn fein have adopted most of the sdlps policies (acceptance of British rule, Stormont etc) most of the SDLPs voters will vote for them now ?
pretty obvious id have thought.

Plus theyll be taking their seats in Westminster shortly. Not much for any republican to feel proud about.

Desperate days.

And theyll still use Hungerstrikers photos without an ounce of shame or irony.

by Jonah Tue Mar 22, 2005 12:35

*yawn*

Whiney Dissident Bogus Claim #143:

Sinn Féin are set to take their seats in Westminster.

No evidence of this, no indication of it, and not even an issue discussed within the party but some armchair republican who sits on his backside and pontificates thinks he can express a political opinion without evidence.

by Barry Tue Mar 22, 2005 14:09

.

Sounds like that just came out of the Sinn Feins "dont be getting into a political argument with a republican when you can just smear him" handbook (# 21 subsection b.)

For a start boyo, you dont know who I am, or even whether I own an armchair or not.

You just labelled me as a tout, without any evidence. You labelled me as a "dissident" when my views are the same today as when I joined the republican movement in the mid 80s, except Im now a bit more wise about the great leaders who sold the entire struggle down the river.

You labelling ANYONE a tout is rich coming from a party who have been publicly thanked by both the Brits and the free state for passing on information to the authorities about "dissident" republicans.

It may not have dawned on you yet but this issue does not need to be discussed within your party. Your new constitution, drafted by none other than Berties good mate Phil Flynn, will be put to yourselves for rubberstamping later this year. It will be hailed as a "radical new departure" for Sinn Fein. Do you reckon youll get an actual chance to debate it ?

As for there being no evidence of sinn fein taking seats in Westminster, I attended an Ard Feis in 1986 where a motion (leadership sponsored) was withdrawn from the clar. The motion had proposed taking seats in Leinster House, Stormont and Westminster.

Since then sinn fein have indeed taken their seats in the free state and stormont. Sinn Fein have offices in the palace of westminster. Stormont is itself a British parliament, so there is no ideological bar whatsoever on sinn fein taking their westminster seats. Sinn Fein have nowhere left to go, but into westminster.

And if you think they wont id remind you that we were told theyd never go into stormont or decommission a single round,. in fact we were told this repeatedly, until they did do it. And then we were told afterwards by them theyd been planning to do this all along.

Id be interested to know whether or not you have a view on taking seats in Westminster, or are you just going to wait and see what Gerry says, and then follow suit ?

By the way, you shouldnt be labelling people you dont know as touts or armchair generals and then be complaining about smear campaigns as well. sounds a touch hypocitical, old bean.

Toodle pip.

by Pádraig Ó Ruairc - Mé Féin Thu Mar 24, 2005 13:17

It dosent matter how many were there because only a handfull made their way up to the anti war march after. I found the same thing when I was in the Mc Donough-Farrell Cumann of Sinn Féin in U.C.D. some republicans are happy to wear t-shirts, sing rebel songs and raise a pint to republican martyrs but when it came to anti war activities, fighting student fees or tackling racisim Sinn Féin simply werent interested.
Apparently if its not organised by the party its not worth attending. I know there are some brilliant grassroots activists in the party who do their best to help out other meetings, marches and protests but sadly they seem to be in a minority. Republicanisim is more than just wanting to end the military occupation of the six counties and its time Sinn Féin got involved if they are really serious about the peoples rights.

by yannick Thu Mar 24, 2005 13:25

Anyone with half a brain knows that the IRA have used criminal activities to support their armed struggle.

Are criminal activities still occurring? Of course.
One might argue that criminal activities were justified by the armed struggle, but are they justified now?

by fido - a cur from the Crumb Thu Mar 24, 2005 13:32

Sounds like that just came out of the Sinn Feins "dont be getting into a political argument with a republican when you can just smear him" handbook (# 21 subsection b.)

I believe this book replaces the 'Green Book'
and is called the yellow book