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S. E. A. Statements

SEA selects Eamonn McCann as Assembly election candidate

Monday 22nd January 2007

The Socialist Environmental Alliance has selected Eamonn McCann to stand in the proposed Assembly elections for the Foyle constituency.

Mr McCann will be calling for non-payment of water charges, defence of public services, and opposition to war and racism. Mr McCann has been a prominent campaigner on environmental issues, in defence of local railways and public transport and against the expansion of Derry airport.

Speaking after the selection meeting in Derry, Mr McCann said: "I am standing to give a voice to the common concerns of working people and the poor and to promote a radical alternative to communal politics.

"The way the Stormont Assembly is organised emphasises the things that divide us and encourages resentment between 'the two communities.' But poverty, poor wages, job insecurity, lack of access to education and health care and the run-down of public services cannot be addressed by people in Nelson Drive or Tullyally competing with people from Creggan or Shantallow. We either advance together in a common struggle, or not at all.

"Water charges are the most immediate and pressing example of this," said Mr McCann. "They will hit the poor hardest. I believe we can stop water charges, but only if we unite in a mass campaign of protest."

Call for all candidates to pledge not to pay water charges

Mr McCann has been prominently involved in the trade union-led campaign for non-payment of water charges. "I am personally pledging to refuse to pay water charges and putting it up to other candidates to pledge to do the same. That alone would give great encouragement to people to refuse to pay the water charges. We should not be paying twice for our water, especially when it is only to provide profit for a private water company. A mass campaign of non-payment defeated Thatcher's poll tax, and I will be doing everything I can to encourage thousands upon thousands of us to refuse to pay, to keep water in public hands."

War corrupts political life

In August last year, Mr McCann, a long-standing anti-war campaigner, was one of nine people arrested as a result of an occupation of the offices of arms multinational Raytheon in Derry. "The protest was about highlighting the obscene role that a company like Raytheon plays in providing the weapons used to murder innocent people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and elsewhere. We say that Derry suffered enough from the impact of war for its people to know we should have no part in Bush and Blair's illegal wars.

"The war is the central issue corrupting politics and society across the world," said Mr McCann. "The Blair government lied to take us into the Iraq war. It is now tearing up civil liberties and turning a blind eye to dictatorships and the Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people. It is spending a colossal amount of public money on war at the expense of public services, and stirring up racism against Muslim people. It affects us here, from the Irish government allowing Shannon airport to be used by the US military, to the silence of local political leaders when they kow-tow to the warmonger Bush in the White House each St Patrick's Day. Silence about this illegal war is complicity. We are for breaking that silence and taking our stand on the side of the ordinary people of the Middle East and the world-wide movement against the war."

A number of recent media reports have suggested a connection between Eamonn McCann's candidacy and moves to stand republican candidates in a number of constituencies on a specific anti-police ticket. The SEA dissociates itself from this suggestion.

Mr McCann said: "The SEA has fundamental differences with the anti-Agreement republican groups, not least in our rejection of paramilitarism. The SEA takes a firm stand for the common interests of working class people of whatever religion, or of none. We are against demonising and criminalising young working class people as 'anti-social elements' - whether by the Blair government, the PSNI, political parties or paramilitary groups. Such problems, where they exist, have social causes and can only be addressed in that context. We do not believe the police are any part of the solution.

"The SEA has always taken a deeply sceptical view of the police, not just the RUC or PSNI, but any police force," said Mr McCann. "We do not believe that the police exist to serve the interests of ordinary people. They are there to protect the status quo, to enforce the wishes of states which we believe by their nature oppress working people This is why you will always find a police presence on a picket line or a demonstration. It's never to protect the picketers or the demonstrators. It's always to ensure that the established order isn't threatened.

"We have publicly challenged instances of police brutality against both young Protestants and young Catholics in the Derry area, and will continue to do so. We believe that the only proper position of elected representatives is to remain at all times independent of the police and hold them to account and subject them to public scrutiny. In a phrase, to police the police.

"I certainly do not see it as my role to endorse the police. I won't be taking any pledge of loyalty to the police and I will not be encouraging young people to join the police."

The SEA will be holding a public meeting to launch the election campaign at 8pm on Wednesday, January 31, in the Junction, Bishop Street.





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