By a Socialist Party Activist*
A slew of misogynistic harassment and death threats have followed Socialist Party TD Ruth Coppinger’s refusal to engage with Gript, a far-right propaganda organisation, at a recent press conference. An agitator for Gript, Irish Freedom Party election candidate Ben Scallan, had entered the Dáil on visitor credentials as a guest of right-wing populist TDs before slipping into the PBP-Solidarity press conference.
When Ruth refused to engage with Scallan, backed up by her colleague Paul Murphy of PBP, a number of journalists from the Mirror, the Irish Times, and later the Examiner, jumped to Scallan’s defence, citing Gript’s membership in the Press Council. Gript’s reporting on the situation, shared by the likes of Conor McGregor (who called Ruth an “Abhorrent Witch” and made derogatory comments about Paul Murphy’s child) unleashed a wave of social media comments, emails, and phone calls, replete with harassment, abuse, and death threats. Such a wave of harassment is not an anomaly – rather, it is core to Gript’s modus operandi.
Shameless scapegoating
Take for example, the mother of Harvey, a young boy with scoliosis. Gript used his full name and photo against the wishes of his parents to scapegoat immigrants as the cause of the government’s lack of resources for healthcare. When criticised for doing so and asked to remove the article, Gript doubled down, posting an article titled, “Five reasons why [Harvey’s] mum is wrong about immigration.” What followed was a wave of racist and misogynistic abuse against her, all for daring to criticise Gript’s cynical use of her son’s image. In all, they have posted five articles on the subject.
Gript have been to the forefront of whipping up hatred towards people of colour and LGBTQ+ people, making people from those communities less safe and feeding a rise in abuse and violence. Politicians and anyone with any kind of platform not only have a right to refuse to engage with such organisations and feed into them, they have a responsibility to do so. Gript should not be offered any degree of normalisation or legitimisation.
Links to far-right
Gript was set up by Youth Defence, a group described by the National Library of Ireland as having neo-Nazi links. Several of Youth Defence’s members have been involved in setting up fascist organisations in Ireland, such as former press secretary Justin Barrett, an open supporter of Hitler. It is no coincidence that a publication linked with the hard right of the Catholic Church has sought to downplay decades-long institutional abuse. Its editor, John McGuirk, argued in September last year that there was a risk of a “witch-hunt” against the perpetrators of such abuse in schools.
Last year, they donated €18,000 to the European Conservatives and Reformists, the maximum allowed, an organisation including the Polish Law and Justice party, which set up so-called “LGBT-free zones.” Current Italian Prime Minister Girgia Meloni was president of the ECR at the time. Her party traces its roots to followers of Benito Mussolini and various neo-fascist organisations.
Those journalists defending Gript would do well to recall the record of the far-right globally which, like clockwork, targets minority communities and those on the left, but also journalists and freedom of expression. While these members of the media decry Ruth’s refusal to engage with Gript, not one of those who spoke up has said a word about the threats of violence and death levied against her. While there is much pearl clutching about the rights of these vile hate-mongerers, they seem disinterested in the right of people to criticise organisations like Gript, and the very real, chilling effect that the stirring up of this vitriol has on people’s right to do so.
It is those like Gript who are at the heart of the fascistic repression of freedom of expression through intimidation and abuse. When the vitriol stirred up by Gript is reflected in actual violence, if ever these threats become a reality, some of that blood will be on the hands of those who seek to legitimise Gript and their ilk.
Which side are you on?
However, despite everything that real journalists have to lose from a far-right regime coming to power, it’s no surprise that these media figures backed up the Gript activist the way they did. Nor is it a surprise that Tánaiste Simon Harris also criticised the refusal to engage with Gript in an exchange with Paul Murphy. Fundamentally, the scapegoating of migrants suits the capitalist establishment and the government.
It directs attention away from the government’s active policy of under-resourcing essential services and role in promulgating the housing crisis and all the many other crises experienced by ordinary people. On these issues, Gript agrees and supports the government’s policy of reliance on the free market, allowing big companies and landlords to rip people off in the name of making massive profits. Linked with this is the fact that capitalism, a system based on racism, rigid gender roles, LGBTphobia, and misogyny, is unleashing the most noxious ideas as this system and its political representatives face a crisis of legitimacy. This is rotten system based on rotten ideas—we urgently need a radical socialist alternative to its rule.
*The author of this article requested they not be named due to the high likelihood of personalised threats and attacks against them by Gript and their followers
