Workers Solidarity Movement

The northern Ireland parliament, Stormont, is in one of its usual crises.  In this latest instance we’re talking about a massive fuck up by the DUP whereby Arlene Foster introduced a Renewable Heating Initiative scheme in 2012 which would pay businesses £1.60 for every £1 they spent on heating. This lead to companies heating up empty sheds and barns through the scheme which has amounted to almost half a billion pound being squandered by the so-called political elites. This is one of those crises that has gotten out of control and Stormont is struggling to get a grasp back on things so they’ve rolled out a bit of sectarianism in the hope that we get outraged about that and not the £490 million that has gone up in smoke.

Amazingly, after watching almost half a billion quid go up in smoke, and branding calls for her to step down after such a monumental fuck up as misogynistic - insulting women who have felt the very real consequences of her and her's party's misogynistic policies - Arlene Foster has put a meme on her facebook page of a guinea pig wearing pink heart shaped sunglasses with the words "can't see all the haters with my love glasses on".

This woman and all her DUP pals really do not give a fuck that they've squandered £490 million on a cash for ash scheme when pensioners can't even afford to heat their homes. They're not even embarrassed or sorry, and they have so much contempt for us that they're not even worrying about acting like they are.

Subverting your enemy through humour is a well used tactic on the left, and used correctly can be quite effective in getting a message across, like that classic ad of a car that once wrote "If this car were a lady it would get its bottom pinched" which feminists annotated by writing "If this lady was a car she'd run you down". When it's done the other way around however, by those who hold power against those who don't, it is a display of the utmost contempt, disregard and abhorrence. Foster has very crassly tried to "get down with the young ones" by jumping on the meme bandwagon, in a way of trying to downplay what she's done and simultaneously attempting to subvert our very real anger so she and her rich pals can have a good laugh at the peasantry's anger.

She's refusing to step aside while an enquiry takes place, she's playing every card in the deck to try to deflect from the 490 million reasons to step down, she's certainly not feeling the pressure from any of this and instead of caving in she's laughing at us.

Arlene is attempting to sweep all the ways she has perpetuated misogyny under a very lumpy Stormont shaped rug in order to play this card. This insults women, feminism and quite frankly, all of our intelligences.

Let's take a brief - otherwise we'd be here all day - look at how Arlene and her Draconian Uterus Party pals have attacked women throughout the years.

She and her party are firmly opposed to giving women a choice over their own bodies and would much rather lock them up for life or send them over to England - it's a United Kingdom until we get to abortion then it's a case of "let's sever all ties with that crowd across the water, tiocfaidh ár anti-abortion law".

Arlene and her mates have overseen cuts to the Public Sector, of which women make up 2/3 of the workforce meaning these cuts disproportionately affect women. They have also been very keen indeed to cut benefits which will also disproportionately affect women, i.e. those who are more likely to be in part-time or precarious work, and those who make up to 90% of single parents. These cuts will also have a damaging effect on those fleeing abusive relationships who may not be financially stable enough to do so on their own, meaning some may be forced to stay with their abusive partner.

Oh and she doesn't give a damn about treating queer women like second class citizens, with something inherently wrong with them.

Unsurprisingly, from what we can tell online no one is buying her crap. Even by Stormont's standards you can't expect to literally burn £400 million and not expect for people to want your head over it, and victims of the misogyny that Arlene and the DUP have perpetuated are probably strong candidates for being the ones who bring the guillotine down over their heads.

In short, you are a disgrace to women, Arlene, and we welcome the demise of you and your deeply misogynistic, homophobic, right-wing party. 

Whether you've got your glasses on or not, Arlene, we're not gonna stand for this anymore.