Vote4Change this Friday!

Bren­dan Ogle: On Fri­day we go to the polls in local and Euro­pean elec­tions, and Unite mem­bers do so on the back of an excit­ing and rad­i­cal 2019 Irish Pol­i­cy Con­fer­ence last week. In addi­tion to two excit­ing new ini­tia­tives in the areas of men­tal health aware­ness and a com­mu­ni­ty-based sport­ing ini­tia­tive, the Con­fer­ence was packed with motions about work­ers’ issues, equal­i­ty issues and a polit­i­cal alter­na­tive.

It would be dis­hon­est to pre­tend that the non-emer­gence of an elec­table pro­gres­sive Gov­ern­ment in the Repub­lic fol­low­ing a decade of bru­tal aus­ter­i­ty is not beyond dis­ap­point­ing. One would have expect­ed that the nation­al­i­sa­tion of bil­lions of Euro of pri­vate bank­ing debt, run­ning down of our pub­lic ser­vices, the health dis­as­ters and the ide­o­log­i­cal­ly cre­at­ed and main­tained hous­ing emer­gency bat­ter­ing the work­ing class would have led to some ‘class uni­ty’ polit­i­cal­ly, and a com­ing togeth­er of a real ‘left’ at last. And if that isn’t enough to bring us togeth­er, does the onset of far-right intol­er­ance and hate speech not require a uni­fied response?

Unfor­tu­nate­ly how­ev­er, it seems we are as far away from Ireland’s first left gov­ern­ment as we ever were.

In Unite, how­ev­er, small steps are being tak­en, and through Unite in the Com­mu­ni­ty we now have a ded­i­cat­ed branch – the Tom Stokes Branch – aim­ing to con­tin­ue to pur­sue the ten Right2Change pol­i­cy prin­ci­ples. From your Right2Water to your Right2Jobs & Decent Work, or your Right2Sustainable Envi­ron­ment, these pol­i­cy prin­ci­ples hold with­in them the ethos and direc­tion for any pro­gres­sive Gov­ern­ment seek­ing to make Ire­land a bet­ter coun­try for every­one.

And so, next Fri­day, a total of 16 Unite mem­bers, 15 of whom are in this spe­cif­ic Branch, are seek­ing your sup­port in the local elec­tions. These inde­pen­dents are most­ly first-time can­di­dates run­ning and fund­ing their own cam­paigns in your com­mu­ni­ties, with five incum­bent Coun­cil­lors added. They are:

• Bernie Hugh­es – (Bal­ly­mun – Fin­glas)
• Cllr Cier­an Per­ry – (Cabra – Glas­nevin)
• Corey Whyte – (Sli­go – Drum­cliffe)
• Cor­mac Mac­Gowan (Gort – Kin­vara)
• David Moore (Clon­dalkin)
• Dean Mul­li­gan – (Swords – Fin­gal)
• Cllr Declan Bree – (Sli­go – Strand­hill)
• Eoin O’Flaherty – (Clon­mel)
• Karen Doyle – (Cobh)
• Micheal Kel­li­her  – (Cabra – Glas­nevin)
• Nicky Uzell  – (Bal­lyfer­mot ‑Drim­nagh)
• Cllr Pat Dunne (Kim­mage – Rath­mines)
• Cllr Ruth Nolan – (Palmer­stown – Fonthill)
• Sinead Stew­art (South Inishowen Done­gal)
• Cllr Sonya Sta­ple­ton (Dublin South – East Inner City)
• Valerie McNul­ty – (Done­gal Munic­i­pal Dis­trict)

The Tom Stokes Branch of Unite Com­mu­ni­ty was only formed in Jan­u­ary 2019. Tom Stokes him­self was a key founder of the idea, and worked on the con­cept of cre­at­ing a vehi­cle to deliv­er the ten pol­i­cy prin­ci­ples until he became unwell last year. Tom was a repub­li­can in the broad­est mean­ing of that word, and in his life he gave expres­sion to the con­cepts of Equal­i­ty, Democ­ra­cy and Jus­tice in every­thing he said and did. Tom was also an absolute fem­i­nist and advo­cate of gen­der and sex­u­al equal­i­ty, and he was so pleased by the result of the Repeal Ref­er­en­dum a year ago. He want­ed to see a new, con­fi­dent and left alter­na­tive emerg­ing.

This com­ing Fri­day, those of you with votes in these 16 con­stituen­cies have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to vote for peo­ple who are tru­ly and per­son­al­ly com­mit­ted to deliv­er­ing an alter­na­tive to this bro­ken, unequal and gross­ly unfair state. Please do so.

Once this elec­tion is over the Tom Stokes Branch will be con­sid­er­ing the next steps in build­ing the uni­ty need­ed. It’s not good enough to want change. We need to be pre­pared to change our­selves, and how we think polit­i­cal­ly in Ire­land, to deliv­er it. Why not get involved?

Click here to join Unite Com­mu­ni­ty online, and here to down­load a mem­ber­ship form.

Below are your 16 Unite Com­mu­ni­ty can­di­dates.