Sinn Fein
The Week in Review
11 – 18 June 2015

Martin McGuinness to join London anti-austerity rally:
‘Tory austerity policies responsible for current crisis’
Sinn Féin MLA Martin McGuinness will travel to London on Saturday to join anti-austerity campaigners, politicians, trade unions and community groups at a major demonstration against austerity.
Martin McGuinness repeated assertions that the austerity policies of the British government are `responsible for the current crisis facing the devolved Assembly in the north of Ireland’.
Speaking ahead of addressing the anti-austerity rally in London on Saturday, Mr McGuinness said `the policies being pursued by a cabinet of millionaires at Westminster are an ideological attack on the working class and are having a devastating impact on the most vulnerable in our society and on our public services’.
He said the British government’s austerity policies had `brought our devolved institutions to the brink of collapase. The real crisis for our Assembly and Executive is Tory cuts’, adding `the slashing of £1.5 billion from our block grant by the Tories is severely impacting the Executive’s delivery to deliver public services.
He said Sinn Féin had been `absolutely clear in our opposition to Tory cuts and we are encouraging others to join together to present a united voice against austerity’. Sinn Fein had `blocked their welfare cuts, the bedroom tax and the targeting of people with disabilities.
He concluded `Sinn Fein will continue to resist the anti-working class agenda of the British Tory party.’

Tory cuts `driving people deeper into poverty’
On 17 June Sinn Féin MLA Conor Murphy said the British government’s assault on public services will `drive people deeper into poverty’.
Mr Murphy strongly criticised comments by Chancellor George Osborne as `ludicrous… that welfare reforms being driven by his cabinet of millionaires is releasing people from the poverty trap when the reality is their assault on welfare and public services in driving people deeper into poverty’.
He added, `it is rich for him to talk about limits which have been agreed with the British government when no one in the North agreed to £1.5 billion being raided from the block grant.’
He concluded: `the difficulties currently facing the Executive are not of our making. The responsibility rests solely with the austerity policies of the British government. The real crisis for the Executive is Tory cuts.’

Labour `out of step with growing anti-austerity opinion’
Earlier, Sinn Féin national chairperson Declan Kearney rejected a call from British Labour spokesperson on the North of Ireland, Ivan Lewis, to support the British government’s austerity agenda.
Mr Kearney said Ivan Lewis’ latest public comments on the austerity crisis and increased political instability facing the North were `now virtually indistinguishable from the rhetoric of British Tory spokespersons’.
He added, `he refuses to recognise that the austerity crisis in the North has been created by a net cut to the local block grant of £1.5 billion to date, and another estimated £800 million between now and 2018. That represents a continuous net loss of £2.3 billion to the regional economy, largely between 2014 and 2018’.
He said that contrary to the Labour spokesperson’s assertions, `a viable budget cannot be formed on the basis of his advised acceptance of “savage cuts”’, adding `his singular focus on the welfare impasse chooses to ignore that welfare cuts are a by-product of the austerity crisis, not the cause’.
Declan Kearney also said that this support for the cuts was `out of step with a growing body of academic and economic opinion which rejects austerity as an option’.
He said the North was `a special case with special economic and social circumstances emerging from conflict’ and added `the Executive parties, social partners and all stakeholders in civic society should unite to secure a workable budget and to prevent the austerity crisis triggering an unprecedented political crisis.’
He concluded: `Ivan Lewis should be supporting, not undermining that objective.’

Sinn Fein host London meeting: `Uncomfortable Conversations – an initiative for dialogue towards reconciliation’
On Tuesday 14 July, Sinn Fein MP Pat Doherty will host a London meeting, `Uncomfortable Conversations – an initiative for dialogue towards reconciliation’. Speakers will include Sinn Fein national chairperson Declan Kearney, Lord John Alderdice, Irish in Britain Chief executive Jennie McShannon and others to be confirmed
The event takes place at 7.00pm in the Wilson Room, Portcullis House, Westminster.
Pat Doherty, announcing the meeting said that Sinn Fein `firmly believes that the need for reconciliation across our society, and between these islands, must represent the next phase of the peace process’. He said the recent visit of Princes Charles to Ireland, `and the remarks on that occasion by both himself and the Sinn Fein leadership has, in our view, shown the potential of what could be achieved if everyone across society works collectively towards a shared and agreed future’.
He said that as part of Sinn Fein’s contribution to this process, in March 2012, the Sinn Fein newspaper `An Phoblacht’ carried an article by the party’s national chairperson Declan Kearney, entitled ‘Uncomfortable conversations are key to reconciliation‘, setting out Irish republicans’ view on these issues. This sparked a discussion which has continued with a large and varied range of contributions from key figures in the churches, academia and wider civic society as well as senior republican figures, which have recently been published in book form.
For further details or to attend email jayne.fisher@parliament.uk. All welcome.

Sinn Fein urge action on migrant crisis
On 18 June Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson urged the international community to do more to tackle the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean which has already claimed the lives of thousands.
Speaking from Lampedusa, Sicily, as part of a GUE/NGL delegation to see the impact of the migrant crisis at first hand, Ms Anderson said the scale of the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean `demands immediate humanitarian action from the international community’.
More than 2,000 migrants fleeing violence and poverty have already died making the Mediterranean crossing this year, she said, and many more have been rescued from the sea.
She said `many of those who are rescued are taken to taken to reception centres in Lampedusa, including one for children who have made the crossing alone or lost their parents’.
`No one who has visited those reception centres could fail to be moved by the harrowing experiences of the migrants, both during the crossing and the circumstances that led them to make such a perilous journey’ Ms Anderson said, adding `others have been returned to the horrendous conditions they sought to escape. Detaining migrants in Sicily or returning them to war zones is not the way to deal with this crisis. Any response must be based on humanitarian grounds.’
She concluded: `The international community, and the European Union in particular, must take immediate humanitarian action to prevent further deaths in the Mediterranean.’

Week in Review is circulated by Sinn Fein MPs. Email jayne.fisher@parliament.uk to join the list. For further information visit www.sinnfein.ie or follow us on twitter @sinnfeinireland