Over 30 years of anarchist writing from Ireland listed under hundreds of topics
Extremists on 'both sides'? Not really.
Date: Thu, 2018-05-03 12:17
If anyone says to you that 'there are extremists on both sides' in the referendum campaign, do be sure to point out that it's only the 'No' side that has the Far Right activists and the people with the big gory pictures that stand outside maternity care centres trying to harass and shame women.
The man in the pictures on the left is Justin Barrett, former leader of Youth Defence, and current leader of the anti-immigrant, homophobic, National Party.
The National Party wants 14 years imprisonment for women who access an abortion and the death penalty for doctors who provide abortions. Justin Barrett has attended neo-Nazi events in Germany and Italy in the past and his Far-Right party have been putting up posters around Ireland calling for a 'No' vote.
The people on the right are the Irish Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, who are currently targeting Irish hospitals as part of a shock campaign aimed at pregnant women. The ICBR are known for using gory, photoshopped imagery of dismembered fetuses in public to try to shame and silence women who have needed to access abortion services.
This group, like the rest of the 'No' campaign, have strong links to US based 'pro-life' groups. The ICBR are part of a network connected to the Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, which is based California and is run by Gregg Cunningham, a Pennsylvania republican and lawyer.
The 'No' campaign may have millions of dollars from fundamentalist groups in the US backing their ongoing propaganda campaign in Ireland but no amount of money can plaster over the underlying nature of their misogynistic crusade.