Workers Solidarity Movement

PART 1 - Last year WSM members participated in a number of pickets, organised by the Anti-Racism Campaign, on the constituency clinic of Dublin Fianna Fail TD Ivor Callely. This was in response to comments made by Callely when he criticised the numbers of asylum seekers coming to Ireland. At the time we said that his comments would lead to an increase in racism, and would provide people who have an openly racist agenda with a cover for their activities.

After the June local elections, an independent member of Dublin Corporation, Finian McGrath, received an unsigned two-page letter which purported to outline the reasons why the letter writer did not vote for him. The letter contained such gems of wisdom as "I for one don't like the idea of multi-cultural, polyglot societies - most of the crime in the greater London area is committed by angry young black men ..a woman from Rwanda is said to be earning £7,000 per week from a brothel in Dublin ..these third world people will be in contention for our jobs and our girls. I don't like the idea of fraternisation across the racial divide. Black men, once they have a full belly and a roof over their heads are only interested in getting their big black cocks into a white woman." etc. etc. The letter concludes with an approving quotation from one Adolf Hitler.

The letter further states that this poor sad fucker "voted for Ivor Callely, as he best represents my point of view." Enough said!

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Ye shall be known by the friends you keep!! PART 2

When the six Fianna Fáil members of the new European Parliament settle into their seats in the plush new parliament building, they will find themselves in good company. The MEPs, whose government colleagues have just forced the Immigration Bill through the Irish parliament in order to speed up deportations from "friendly Ireland", have joined the Union for Europe of the Nations grouping. Other members of the group (which has 31 members in total) include:

12 French right-wingers, led by Charles Pasqua (who has been elected president of the grouping). Pasqua is a former French interior minister who in this role enacted strong immigration control and anti-refugee legislation.A member of the far-right Danish party Dansk Folkeparti (DPP), which campaigned against the Maastricht and Amsterdam treaties on the grounds that they threatened to flood Denmark with "bogus asylum seekers". DPP is widely seen in Denmark as a party of racists and xenophobes.
10 members of the Italian Alleanza Nazionale (AN) party - a formerly openly neo-fascist party which now claims to have put their fascist past behind them! At least they'll have more than their fat salaries in common!
 

This article is from Workers Solidarity No 58 published in Oct 1999