De Rossa urges electorate to give the Government its walking papers

national | eu | press release

Saturday April 17, 2004 16:07

by ger - Labour

head.office at labour dot ie

De Rossa urges electorate to give the Government its walking papers and calls for a society that cherishes every child born into this world including those born on this island, regardless of money, colour, or ethnic background.

EUROPE IS ABOUT PEOPLE.

Europe is about people and the quality of their lives.

It’s not about straight bananas; it’s about straight politics.

It’s about challenging globalisation with a new form of power sharing between states

It’s about the values and hopes that we share of ending centuries old conflicts, poverty wages, child hunger, and trafficking in women.

It’s about creating a society that cherishes every child born into this world including those born on this island, regardless of money, colour, or ethnic background.

We don’t love our Minister for Justice any less because his ancestors were Scottish mercenaries. Micheal Mac Dubhghaill, ‘the son of the black stranger’ is in my eyes as Irish as De Valera or Harney, or McCreevey, Paisley or Adams, and even De Rossa.

They are just as Irish as my kith and kin that bear names such a Khan and Siwale.

And I will defend to my last breath the richness of my heritage against those who would replace the generosity of Wolfe Tone republicanism with the wretchedness of Le Pen republicanism.

I am proud of my heritage, of its immense diversity nourished by the tens of thousands of people who arrived here over thousands of years to make a better life for themselves and who have contributed so much to who we are and what we are, warts and all. Let us have debate about those roots and the new Ireland that is emerging. But to rush that debate in the heat of an election campaign is not about nation building, it is a tawdry election stunt typical of this tawdry government.

When was the last time you heard Charlie McGreevy or Michel McDowell appeal to the better instincts of the Irish people? To their generosity, to their compassion or to their sense of fair play?

But then, this is a wretched government.

It attacks widows, and neglects the sick.

It proposes new prison cells while closing hospital beds. Visit the Mater Hospital any day and see the heroic efforts of doctors and nurses trying to make seriously sick patients comfortable sitting in chairs during the day and on trolleys at night.

The question on everyone’s lips is whether Charlie would tolerate such treatment for his beloved racehorses, and will the real criminals ever see the inside of those new prison cells, the bribe-takers and the bribe-givers.

Now that we have European levels of prosperity why don’t we have European health services or European social services or European public transport services? It’s because we allow ourselves to be hoodwinked by the gombeen politics of this wretched government that has replaced the politics of democracy with the politics of hypocrisy.

Europe has transformed this country economically and enriched it culturally.

And if I may paraphrase someone who let it be said needs a touch of revisionism, we are now not only free, but Irish as well, not only Irish but European as well.

And now it is our turn to help transform Europe, to return the generosity of our European neighbours by extending the hand of friendship and solidarity to the peoples of the ten European countries who are joining with us to shape a peaceful world with mutual respect and democracy at its core.

And increasingly, Irish people recognise as the people of Spain so graphically demonstrated following that awful atrocity in Madrid - when they committed themselves to building a more democratic inclusive Europe by rejecting the Aznar subservience to Bush.

Bush has yet to learn that bigger bombs won’t defeat terrorism, it’s bigger brains, more compassion, more solidarity, more power sharing, in short more common sense that we need.

We have good cause to be alarmed when the sole super power tears up the Charter of the UNO intended to prevent war; the Kyoto Treaty intended to ensure we can hand on a globe that is still habitable to our children; abandons the Middle East peace process which sought to end the humiliation and criminalisation of the Palestinian people.

We must say loud and clear that the Irish Government should do nothing to help the Bush re-election campaign.

I am proud to have represented Dublin in Europe for the past five years and of my record in the Parliament. Proud too of my contribution to the shaping of a new Constitution for Europe which will make it more democratic and socially inclusive.

I am looking forward to the campaign to seek re-election to continue that work.

But often in the last five years I have watched important votes lost by one or two votes because the mostly conservative politicians Ireland sends to Europe, vote against protection of the environment, against women’s rights, and against decent working hours and conditions. We need more than one Irish labour MEP in Europe for Dublin and I am particularly pleased to stand on the same ticket as Ivana Bacik a representative of a new generation of feisty women politicians of integrity and passion.

SO LETS GET STUCK INTO THIS WRETCHED GOVERNMENT AND GIVE IT ITS WALKING PAPERS.

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Comments (12 of 12)

Shouting

by zen

Sat Apr 17, 2004 16:16

Since you have put it in CAPITALS, did he actually SHOUT "So lets get stuck into this wretched government and give it its walking papers" at the end of his speech? Or did he say it in a more moderate tone?
Or did you just add it in for effect?

...

by labour_supporter

Sat Apr 17, 2004 17:42

He pretty much shouted it. It was a good speech, I must say...but Bacik was better.

Shoutiest speech of them all was Michael D and fair play to him :-)

Some of the speeches from local candidates were crap in how they were presented, while others were very clear and concise. They should all have been the latter!

Citizenship referendum?

by Labour=racist???

Sun Apr 18, 2004 02:32

Why does Labour not come out and oppose the referendum?

All they are objecting to at the moment is the timing or the poll not the referendum itself.

Maybe someone could please answer, do Labour support the taking away of citizenship from immigrant's childern or not? Are Labour in support of a racist referendum or not?

BTW
I find it rich that de Rossa is looking for votes off left wingers when he is sitting in a parliamantary group in Strasbourg with Blair's Labour Party (who support war in Iraq, attacks on the public services and Israeli settlements in the West Bank...), Schroeder's SPD (who are rolling back pension rights that have been enjoyed by the German working class since Bismarks time with Agenda 2010), The Spanish PSOE (still have not pulled out their troops!), Dutch PvdA (were prepared to support war in Iraq in return for cabinet positions). Why should Irish working class people support these policies? The 'Party of European Socialists' are not friends of the European worker.

No fair play to him, he's a sell out

by Dee

Sun Apr 18, 2004 02:35

"Shoutiest speech of them all was Michael D and fair play to him "

That's all you'll get out of Michael D nowadays. He sold out completely when he sold his soul to Reynolds for a seat in the cabinet and then promptly went about attacking the conditions of working class people with social welfare cuts and the water tax....

De Rossa has always been good on the race issue in Ireland

by dq

Sun Apr 18, 2004 11:56

enough with the knee-jerk sectarian rants and educate yourself a little.....

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=64261#comment68636

Respect to De Rossa

by Eoin Dubsky

Sun Apr 18, 2004 12:07

Looks like a great speech, and I bet Michael D's and Ivana's were great too. The MEP elections in Dublin are going to be crazy, what with about four candidates running on a left-wing ticket.

4?? left wing candidates??

by Phil

Sun Apr 18, 2004 14:45

"The MEP elections in Dublin are going to be crazy, what with about four candidates running on a left-wing ticket."

Who are these 'left wing' candidates exactly. Labour are not left wing, they support the Nice Treaty and sit in the same parliamentary group as Blair's warmongers and Schroeders pension cutters. As for the Greens, they are more genuine but do not have a clear position against the privitisation agenda in the EU (for example they support bin tax) and like Labour they sit with the right wing European Green Parties like the German Greens who have bombed Belgrade and slashed workers rights while in government. The only real candidate standing on a left wing ticket in my opinion is Joe Higgins.

De Rossa and Labour

by QED

Sun Apr 18, 2004 14:50

"De Rossa has always been good on the race issue in Ireland"

Well why has he not come out in opposition to this referendum then?

Why has his colleague, Eamonn Gilmore, come out and said he supports stopping 'baby tourists'?

another thing, I have just been listening to a report from 'the conference floor' on RTE Radio 1, the reporter noted that he could not find one delegate that expressed any dissent from the leadership. Where is this 'Labour left' that all these Labour hacks spout on about on this site. The fact is that it does not exist. There is no opposition to Rabbittes right wing take over, there are no genuine activists that oppose partnership, bin tax, coalition, racist referenda, privitisation....

Hmmm?

by ? - ?

Sun Apr 18, 2004 20:18

You believe the media?

Remember Finglas?

by Paddy

Mon Apr 19, 2004 12:26

In Finglas, De Rossa's name is a byword for selling out, the epitomy of the former radical politician who has long abandoned his roots. In fact he is a positive liability to the (almost non-existant , membership-wise) Labour Party in the area. People who shout loud about equality etc are often those who have abandoned any concrete commitment to a radical transformation of society.

A question to all De Rossa fans: How can you justify a man who earns the plump salary of MEP and the trail of expenses that go with it, also receiving a substantial ministerial pension? Maybe Frank might like to explain that to a woman living on a non-contributry pension in Finglas West. But then he's not seen very often anywhere in Finglas these days and to judge by the overwhelmingly hostile reception he got outside the Supermarket in Finglas village a few weeks ago when canvassing for the unfortunate local Labour candidate, he won't be coming back soon!

You provide the evidence.

Mon Apr 19, 2004 14:09

Yes I do believe that report on RTE was reasonably accurate, there was no dissent from the floor of the conference. The fact is that if there was any dissent the media would have jumped on it and portrayed it as 'a disunited party' etc.

Even if this was not the case and there was indeed a left opposition at the conference, provide the evidence, where are the left wing publications, leaflets and speeches? You provide the evidence.

The fact is that the Labour Party has completely emptied out of left wing activists, there are no members that are principly opposed to partnership, the capitalist EU, coalition and so on. The Labour Party today is a party of the well heeled middle classes, careerist students and union bureaucrats.

Reply to "Phil" re the left-wing ticket in Dublin European Parliament elections

Mon Apr 19, 2004 16:43

The five people who I believe are running on a left-wing ticket in the Dublin MEP constituency are: Patricia McKenna MEP (Green), Joe Higgins TD (SP), Mary Lou McDonald (SF), Proinsias De Rossa MEP (Labour) and Ivana Bacik (Labour).

You are likely to find non-lefty skeletons in each of their closets, and indeed you might believe that only one or two of them are *really*, *really* left-wing. But I think they'll agree that they're all running on a left-wing ticket. On the political spectrum (right-left) of Irish MEPs and MEP-hopefuls these five are all left of centre. Indeed, on the political spectrum within each of their parties, they are left of centre.

Patricia McKenna has been an outspoken critic of NATO and military aggression as an MEP, so I doubt seriously that she supported the attacks on Yugoslavia. Furthermore she, like her British colleague Caroline Lucas MEP, has 'put her body in the way' in nonviolent resistance to the NATO nuclear weapons at Faslane in Scotland.

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De Rossa urges electorate to give the Government its walking papers

Comments (12 of 12)