Ruth Coppinger TD and the Socialist Party are calling for a number 1 vote for Catherine Connolly for President on Friday, 24 October. We encourage you to get involved in her campaign and help build a movement for real change in Ireland and beyond.
Catherine would be a left, progressive voice for:
– The Palestine solidarity movement. Saoirse don Phalaistín;
– Housing for need, not profit;
– Defending military neutrality, and opposing imperialist militarisation;
– The rights of disabled people and carers;
– Cearta teanga, cearta daonna.
No to FF/FG status quo
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael want a President who will just nod along with all their cronyism and capitalist policies; who will stay silent about their complicity in the Gaza genocide, and their record of 16,000 people living in emergency accommodation, as a generation is locked out of housing.
They really don’t want a head of state who opposes militarisation and the abolition of the Triple Lock.
Catherine Connolly – candidate for disability rights
Catherine Connolly listened to the voices of disabled people and carers in last year’s care referendum. Heather Humphreys proposed a Tory-inspired Green Paper on disability payments to force disabled people into unsuitable work. This was defeated by a movement of disabled campaigners rising up in protest – supported by Catherine Connolly.
Record of government candidates:
– Since 2011, Heather Humphreys has been a Fine Gael TD and Minister in governments that gutted public services and worked in the interest of landlords and developers, refusing to build public housing.
– Fianna Fáil are banking on the fact that Jim Gavin’s success as Dublin football manager will win him votes. However, in contrast to many GAA clubs and members across Ireland, Gavin has remained silent on the Gaza genocide, except to disgustingly call Israel’s actions a “military operation” whose “objectives were met”.
A victory for Catherine Connolly would be a blow to this government and the right-wing, pro-big business, pro-landlord, pro-developer agenda it represents.
Make the presidential election a referendum on Palestinian freedom
At a time when the Israeli State is stepping up its genocide, it would be a victory for the Palestine solidarity movement to have a President elected who unashamedly stands against Israeli apartheid.
It would put pressure on the government here to take real action against the Israeli regime – US military out of Shannon, implement the Occupied Territories Bill in full, and sanction the Israeli State.
We ask you to vote and campaign for Catherine Connolly. We in the Socialist Party wish to see this campaign be a spur to building a socialist movement that mobilises workers and young people in a broader movement for a genuinely left-wing, anti-capitalist government.
At a time of a rising far-right, racism, misogyny and queerphobia, along with the destruction of our planet, we urge you to join with us in building such a movement.
Socialist change means ending the status quo of fascistic billionaires ruling the world, by taking the key wealth and resources into democratic public ownership, and planning their use to meet the needs of all, not the profits of a few.
