I
never cease to marvel at the arrogance of Sinn Fein
spokespersons and apologists.
Despite
an ocean of evidence to the contrary spokespeople
and apologists still attempt to portray themselves
and their movement as radical republican. Bairbre
De Brun’s recent attack on John Kelly fits
into this particular mode. She takes John to task
for daring to question her party’s attitudes,
actions as opposed to stated aims and rhetoric.
I’m
not certain where, in the political spectrum, John
Kelly sits but it is a bit rich for Ms De Brun to
brand anyone as right wing.
The
former Stormont Health Minister, now a Sinn Fein
representative in the European Parliament, oversaw
the cutback in health provision in different parts
of the North and with great zeal embraced neo-liberal
the socio-economic policies, Private Finance Initiatives,
and Public Private Partnerships within her department.
It is significant, given the treatment to which
he was later subjected, that John Kelly, alone amongst
a host of erstwhile revolutionaries, was the only
one to oppose the use of these Thatcherite policies.
Sinn
Fein has long since given up on any real attempts
to convince anyone, outside of the party faithful
and wilful blind, of its socialist or revolutionary
bona fides. Its relationships with Coca Cola, other
moguls of corporate US and neo-cons on Capital Hill
is, it would seem, a figment of the collective and
fertile imagination of a group of “gainsayers,
armchair generals and enemies of the peace process”.
As
to Baibre de Brun’s claim that Sinn Fein are
for ‘an Ireland of Equals within a Europe of
Equals’, could they make a start by offering
some equality to those within the ranks still relying
upon the Provo £20-a-week ‘subsity’?
Some
of their politicians, now supping at the Stormont
trough, are claiming travelling expenses that
are about three times the average household income
in West Belfast.
In
the early days our struggle was depicted as an odyssey
of sorts and that, along the way we would come to
and pass various milestones and road signs keeping
us on track and giving us a clear vision of progress
made toward the socialist republic.
In
their eagerness to once again shore up a coalition
of the unwilling to administer bad British rule
in Ireland Sinn Fein has allowed IRA equipment and
the integrity of the centuries old struggle to be
mere bargaining chips in their unseemly rush to
gain political respectability and acceptability
in the eyes US / British imperialism and unreconstructed
Empire Loyalists.
There
is no precedent in the history of warfare of any
army unilaterally dispensing with its armoury prior
to having their aims achieved or at least being
in a position that will lead inexorably to an equitable
resolution. By their actions Sinn Fein have retrospectively
criminalized the struggle for national and social
emancipation. It is one thing to call for an end
to conflict, as I and other ‘dissidents’
did long before any ceasefire but it is something
else entirely to jettison all of those tents on
which we went to war and at the same time criminalize
the weaponry that we used.
Soon
we shall witness the final demise of the IRA as
Sinn Fein drops the last veil in its dance of deceit.
The
biggest winner in this political swap-shop is the
British Government as their authority has literally
doubled in that they now have a GREEN card to use
along side the ORANGE card in their efforts to control
the working class from both communities.
As
another republican once asked, “If I bumped
into defeat at the corner of Sevastepol Street
some dark evening just how would it differ from
what Sinn Fein’s ‘winning team’ proudly
proclaim as a great step forward?”
