Labour & SDLP Ignore the North

national | rights, freedoms and repression | press release

Thursday September 24, 2009 12:24

by PRO - éirígí

éirígí spokesperson Daithí Mac An Mhaistír has said that the Labour Party and the SDLP are ignoring a large elephant in the room in the course of their self-congratulatory statements on the Lisbon Treaty.

Outgoing SDLP leader Mark Durkan and other senior members of the party were in Dublin yesterday [Wednesday] to campaign for a Yes vote on October 2. Their presence was welcomed by Labour Party TD Joe Costello.

Mac An Mhaistír said: “Putting aside the absurd fact that two parties who claim to represent the interest of workers are campaigning on behalf of an anti-worker treaty, Labour and the SDLP are ignoring another major elephant in the room.

“The Irish citizens the SDLP represents are being denied a say on this Treaty by virtue of the fact that they live in British occupied Ireland. In their rush to lavish praise on each other and the Lisbon Treaty, neither the SDLP nor Labour found the time to mention this unpalatable fact yesterday.

“Does the SDLP not care that its electorate and every other Irish citizen in the Six Counties is being denied a vote on an issue of national importance? Is the Twenty-Six County Labour Party happy to take support from northern politicians yet ignore the people who elect them?”

Mac An Mhaistír continued: “The Labour Party and the SDLP are two partitionist parties with partitionist policies who are conniving at the disenfranchisement of a significant section of the Irish people.

“The disbarment of the population in the Six Counties from participating in the October 2 referendum is yet another reason why those who can do so should vote No. Perhaps the opinions of citizens in the Six Counties on the Treaty is the reason why the SDLP and Labour are running scared from standing up for their rights.”
ENDS