Mary Lou McDonald is to be congratulated for assuming the leadership of Sinn Fein. She has been an articulate voice against austerity and has been able to convey an anti-establishment in clear terms.
Such congratulations are in order, particularly as the Southern establishment and their pet media spokespersons have re-launched an all-out war on the party in recent months.
There have been constant references to the IRA’s war during the troubles – without ever giving the same publicity to the dirty war waged by the British state.
It has now become the norm that when any Sinn Fein spokesperson appears on RTE , interviewers adopt the role of inquisitors, challenging any statement from the ‘defence’.
The contrast with interviewers’ treatment of Fianna Fail’s legacy of corruption could not be more stark.
However, while the Southern establishment may fear any increase in popular support that Mary Lour McDonald may bring to Sinn Fein, the radical left have deeper concerns.
Our first concerns the issue of abortion.
Sinn Fein has indicated that they will campaign for Repeal of the 8th Amendment and that is to be welcomed. But the crucial battle will come when the Dail is given the freedom to make laws on the subject.
At present, Sinn Fein stands to the right of the Citizens Assembly in opposing its recommendation of allowing women to have abortions up to 12 weeks. Instead the party has claimed that women must first show that they have been raped, or are suicidal, or have a fatal foetal abnormality before access abortion.
This is not a pro-choice position and expresses an adaption to conservative forms of thinking in Irish society.
At their special Ard Fheis in April, we hope that this position will be changed. But we also think that this should not be seen as simply as matter of ‘individual conscience’.
There are already two Sinn Fein TDs who have aligned themselves with the anti-choice forces and no genuinely left party should tolerate this.
As a party, Sinn Fein should come out as a whole, at the very least, in supporting the Citizens Assembly recommendation of abortion on request up to 12 weeks.
Our second concern is the growing pressure on Sinn Fein to re-join government with the DUP.
However, it was absolutely right to withdraw from a government that fostered corruption through the RHI scandal and which refused to accept an Irish language act or marriage equality.
Today the situation has become even worse as the DUP are propping up a Tory government in Britain.
We hope that Sinn Fein will stay firm on its original stance and demand the resignation of Arlene Foster and insist on an Irish language act and marriage equality. We go further and say that they should also – if they take equality seriously – be calling for the full extension of the 1967 abortion act to the North.
Finally, Mary Lou McDonald has stated that Sinn Fein is willing to join a government led by either FF or FG as a minority partner. The assumption is that being in government North and South will help advance the cause of Irish unity.
We think not. Any association with FF or FG will only ensure that the muck sticks. Far from showing that Irish unity rests on fundamental change North and South, it will only confirm that yet another party that used a left rhetoric bows to the demands of a corrupt corporate elite.
We say: don’t go there.