Shoddy Deal Elects Brady As Mayor

dublin | bin tax / household tax / water tax | press release

Wednesday July 09, 2003 12:22

by Zardoz

workingclassaction at eircom dot net

087 6698587

Labour Sell Out Yet Again

Working Class Action today highlighted the opportunistic nature of the vote
sharing deal between Labour and Fianna Fail for "electing" the Lord Mayor
of Dublin and called for direct elections to decide the citys First Citizen.

Working Class Action Press Release

Monday, 7th July 2003

Labour Sell Out Yet Again

Working Class Action today highlighted the opportunistic nature of the vote
sharing deal between Labour and Fianna Fail for "electing" the Lord Mayor
of Dublin and called for direct elections to decide the citys First Citizen.

Hopefully the heckling of the outgoing Lord Mayor Dermot Lacey by Anti-Bin
Tax protesters at his final official function, the opening of the Spire,
is an indication that Labour are fooling no one. Lacey was responsible for
voting through the 30% increase in Bin Tax in another backdoor deal with
Fianna Fail.

Joe Mooney, a community activist and WCA spokesman said:
"While the Labour Party attempt to portray themselves as an opposition to
the Government their actions speak a lot louder than their words. Pat Rabbitte
has called Fianna Fail "the worst Government in the history of the state,"
yet he has no problem doing dirty deals with that very same party to install
yet another "yes man" as Lord Mayor."

Labour, in facilitating the "election" of Royston Brady, have supported
one of the least deserving candidates for the office of Lord Mayor. Brady
is simply one of Bertie Ahern?s "Drumcondra mafia" hacks who needs a high
public profile to get himself elected at the next General Election. After
the fiasco at the last General Election, when the Taoiseach's running mate
Dermot Fitzpatrick came within 74 votes of losing this seat, Ahern is not
willing to suffer that embarrassment again.

During the 2002 election Working Class Action distributed 20,000 leaflets
door to door in the Taoiseach's constituency calling on people not to vote
for Dermot Fitzpatrick as a protest against Fianna Fail.

Mr Mooney continued:
"It should be obvious to working class people everywhere that Labour are
just as much a part of the corrupt, unrepresentative political system in
Ireland as Fianna Fail. Legislation was passed in 1998 allowing for a directly
elected Mayor in Dublin, allowing all city residents to have a voice in
who represents them. Fianna Fail has now overruled this policy, for fear
that a genuinely representative candidate with real policies to benefit
our communities - might be elected. Working Class Action intend to continue
our campaign against those who would claim to represent our communities
but merely ignore public opinion and promote their own parties."

[ENDS]

More Information:

Joe Mooney ? Ph 087 6698587

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Comments (9 of 9)

My Hands are Up

by Magneto

Wed Jul 09, 2003 14:17

It was a disgraceful deal.

There are members of Labour who oppose payment. That should not be forgotten. Some of us are trying to move Labour to the Left. Maybe we are misguided, but we are trying.

Against Coalitions

by Jim Monaghan

Wed Jul 09, 2003 14:51

While Labour should take stick for this it is a tragedy that at least some of their Left wing rivals would and do similar deals themselves.Every party on the Left should declare and stick to it that they will not do deals with FF, FG or PD on anything form dogcatcher up.
It should also be remembered that Burke, Lawlor and co. could not push anything through the councils without support form a lot of other councillors.
Alas, some will sell their mothers for a chance of wearing the guady garbs of mayors which are a relic of Imperialism anyway. They sell out and the price is not very high.
We need an alliance of the Left for the next local elections.
Finian McGrath, Gregory, the Greens, Sinn Fein. SWP, SP and the rest of the alphabet soup should come together and offer an alternative. In Dublin at least this would make an impact maybe even win a majority. Even the Labour party might move from it's traditional role as propper up of the establishment if they saw an alliance like this with some momentum.

What about Sligo Borough Council?

by Ao'B - LP

Wed Jul 09, 2003 15:14

Labour have constantly refused to form an alliance with Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael for the Mayorality.

Unlike SF, the first time they got the chance they jumped straight into a deal with FF.

There si no LP in Sligo!

by Killian

Wed Jul 09, 2003 15:28

They're only a crowd of ex-commies and idealist!

But why fitzpatrick

by Killian Forde

Thu Jul 10, 2003 01:10

Zardoz,

Why were the leaflets dropped into dublin central asking people not to vote for fitzy boy as a protest against FF. Surely a more obvious way to protest against FF would be not to vote for Ahern.

I'm not trying to be funny just trying to understand the logic of targeting fitzy rather than bertie.

Oh and that Killian on the comment above is not me.

thats the nature of democracy

by joe shmoe

Thu Jul 10, 2003 02:11

You vote every five years, thats the way things work out.

Labour did a deal with FF - FF kept their side of it, so Labour naturally wanted to keep their side of the bargain.

Same about all this whining at the moment about FF/the current Govt being corrupt - what did people expect?

If you dont like it, take steps to change it.

Magento You Sad Git

by Mr Ed

Thu Jul 10, 2003 19:14

Wake up and smell the coffee comrade, you can either get stuck into realpolitik to make real improvements in the lives of ordinary people in this country or you can feck off to the SP summer camp in cavan and have a leftie wank-in about your purity of cause and purpose. Politics is about getting things done, making compromises, and sometimes even voting for wankers. So make up your mind, reality or rhetoric, thats your choice.

Reply to Killian

by WCA

Fri Jul 11, 2003 18:17

The WCA targeted Fitzpatrick because he was run solely to get Fianna Fail 'their' second seat in Dublin Central. Marian McGennis, Bertie's previous running mate, had trotted off to another safer constituency.

It became clear to even the simplest in FF that Royston the Boy Wonder would not hold the seat so Fitzpatrick was dragged out of retirement to fill the gap.

It would be pretty pointless calling for Ahern's defeat, seeing as he was always going to top the poll. Ensuring he did not bring in a running mate was the political point. Very embarrassing, but Fitzpatrick scraped in by 74 votes.

Just to clarify the leaflets were not 'dropped into Dublin Central', the WCA activists involved are all based and politically active in Dublin Central.
---------

Regarding the Press Release at top a WCA rep was on the late night talk show on Newstalk 106 the other night debating with Roisin Shortall of Labour and she ended up apologising for voting for Brady in the council vote for Mayor and she did seem genuinely embarassed/angry by the behaviour of Dermot Lacey over the bin charges. But maybe she is just a good actor :(

Sat Jul 12, 2003 20:53

Zardoz/WCA.

Thanks for explaining the reasoning of targetting fitz instead of directly ahern.

As for the "dropped into", this phrase i used in the context of "dropped into the doors".

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Shoddy Deal Elects Brady As Mayor

Comments (9 of 9)