Poots is an embarrassment, time to go?

Printed & Published by the Communist Party of Ireland
24.10.20 Vol. 32 No 38 (Print Day Wednesday) Online
Poots is an embarrassment, time to go!
IN the week that the North
went into a series of tougher restrictions
and the South have just
entered the highest possible restrictions
we were exposed to an
outburst from a politician that
would shame the Devil himself.
Edwin Poots the long serving
DUP stalwart couldn’t be restrained
last week by executive
procedures.
We had just been told of new
restrictions on movement and
trade in order to deal with a spike
in coronavirus, a move which
was unanimously endorsed at the
5-party executive meeting, when
Edwin went on a solo run in various
media outlets blaming the
spike on the Catholic/Nationalist
community here.
He said that the prevalence of
Covid -19 was 6:1 higher in nationalist
areas.
He might as well have said it
was a Catholic disease.
His words were spoken with a
venom we have not seen here
since Willie McCrea appeared on
the back of a lorry to show solidarity
with Billy Wright.
His remarks were so shocking
that Steve Aiken the leader of the
UUP has called on Poots to resign
going much further than others
For Peace, Independence and Socialism
By Mel Corry
who would settle for an apology.
Poots was supported on the BBC
politics programme on Sunday by
his mate Peter Weir.
This points to a serious division
in the DUP ranks and the undermining
of Arlene Foster’s leadership.
For her part she admitted that if
the DUP were governing on their
own then they would likely have
not introduced the restrictions.
Commentators have pointed to a
major rift within the party with
some concerns being expressed by
the party’s MPs at Westminster.
There is a greater problem bubbling
under the surface and that is
the viability of the governmental
arrangements when many senior
members of the DUP still hold to
views that demonise the Nationalist/Catholic
community.
How can the executive effectively
manage the arrangements for keeping
people safe and well when it
has among its members people
who do not accept any scientific
rationale and believe that the Pandemic
is some sort of medieval retribution
for the sins of Popery.
Poots defended his remarks by
saying that they weren’t sectarian
as many senior Sinn Fein members
didn’t attend Church on Sunday, I
despair.
Whilst other politicians have made
gaffs and occasionally get themselves
into hot water with their behaviour
not many have displayed
such naked sectarianism and contempt
for a whole community as
Edwin Poots.
As many people become accustomed
to the latest restrictions in an
effort to bring case numbers down
the very ability of the Stormont executive
to deliver on a whole range
of equality issues is seriously in
question.
The failure to deal with sectarianism
since the implementation of the
GFA hangs over society here on a
daily basis.
Ignoring this kind of bigotry is no
longer an option.
When public figures are allowed to
make such outrageous pronouncements,
they should be subject to the
rigours of the law.
If a member of the public had used
the same kind of rhetoric using racist
or homophobic examples it
would be considered a hate crime.
Many will need no convincing that
people like Poots are an impediment
to the well being of people here,
even those he represents, hastening
the day he dreads, the re-unification
of Ireland.

Page 2
Unity 24.10.20
Editorial
Unity is published each week
by the Communist Party of
Ireland.
PO Box 85, Belfast BT1 1SR.
Independence and membership of
the EU are incompatible
A RECENT opinion poll on the issue of Scottish independence
showed that out of 1,045 people surveyed, 58 per cent were in
favour of leaving the United Kingdom. It goes without saying that
some of those polled could have been influenced by the fact that at
this time they are being governed by a Johnson-led Tory
government at Westminster and see independence as a way out of
that situation. These were the thoughts of SNP deputy leader Keith
Brown who talked of a “Westminster system which treats Scotland
as an afterthought.”
As we know similar comments are levelled at the British
government in regard to the situation here.
To many nationalists and republicans here the poll will be music
to their ears as they would see the break up of the UK as not only
enhancing the chances of a united Ireland but also of keeping the
north in the European Union.
This then is where the so-called independence movements are
seen to be walking contradictions as membership of the EU takes
away any idea of independence. That is what the EU is all about
but no matter how many times this is spelled out all of them ignore
it.
In a recent statement Rozanne Foyer, General Secretary of the
Scottish TUC, in response to the Internal Market Bill, claimed it
would “hamper the ability of devolved governments to legislate
independently and set their own policy direction separate from a
Tory Brexit agenda at Westminster.”
However, Communist Party of Britain international secretary,
John Foster, writing in the Morning Star stated that the reason
trade unionists in Scotland campaigned for a Scottish Parliament
was that it would enable them to do something about industrial
decline, promote strategic investment and economic selfdetermination.
Whilst these powers were secured in 1998 Foster writes that they
were quickly overridden by EU state aid rules. He gives the example
of the situation at Rolls Royce in Inchinnan when Nicola Sturgeon
declined to intervene to stop its closure, stating “we have to operate
within state aid rules.”
Independence and membership of the EU are incompatible.
Those who think otherwise are deluding themselves.
WikiLeaks on
Trial
Lies start wars, truth ends
them.’
Julian Assange
ON Monday 19 October an online
drama WikiLeaks on Trial, via Zoom
was hosted by Hot Potato Production,
Ireland.
This was an Interactive Courtroom
drama based on the current extradition
case of the founder of WikiLeaks
Julian Assange.
It was drawing attention to the fact
that the trial is on at the minute in
London, a fact that the capitalist media
are ignoring.
The Morning Star carried an Open
Letter to the Guardian on Assange, on
the 15th of October, stating that “the
Guardian should hang its head in
shame as their readers would not know”
that the case was proceeding.
In addition “the Guardian has benefited
enormously from WikiLeaks front
page headlines and a book.”
It was pointed out that Assange had
revealed war crimes such as the air raid
in Iraq that killed 12 Iraqis and two
Reuters journalists, that was falsely
portrayed as a firefight.”
The letter was signed by many
prominent media people and over 1,000
others.
WikiLeaks on Trial is written by
Jenny Bassett, who is one of the activists
behind the recently formed campaign,
Free Assange Ireland, along
with Independents and Galway
Alliance Against War.
Readers can view Clare Daley
speaking about building a network in
Ireland on the this link. https://
www.youtube.com/watch?
v=puclZTdy_tg
LW

Unity 24.10.20 Page 3
Poverty not religion
THE DUP Agriculture Minister
Edwin Poots was strongly criticised
after suggesting that nationalist
areas of Northern Ireland
have more cases of Covid-
19 than unionist areas by a ratio
of six to one, with Derry and
Strabane in the east, being 10
times higher than Mid and East
Antrim while Lisburn/ Castlereagh
and North Down in the west
were considerably lower.
There is no evidence that Covid-19
differentiates between people’s religion
but there is evidence that shows a
key factor in the spreading of the virus
is that people living in socially
deprived areas are more susceptible to
the virus, than those living in affluent
areas.
The Derry and Strabane constituency
is one of the most affected districts
by the virus, it is also one of the
most deprived places in Northern Ireland.
Counties west of the Bann river
which includes Derry and Strabane,
missed out on the post WW2 eco-
Name
Address
key factor
By Pearse McKenna
nomic boom as the Unionist Government
at Stormont failed to arrest
the decline in the west, which
still effects the region’s economy
today,
This boom was mainly due to an
expansionist programme launched
by the Stormont Government to
encourage the entry of multinational
firms into Northern Ireland;
but official government decisions
had the effect of accelerating the
economic deterioration of the west.
Under this regeneration, seventyseven
firms were established in
Northern Ireland, with 45 per cent
grant, of the cost of plant, machinery
and buildings before the first
factory came to Derry.
The Lockwood report rejected
Derry’s claim for Northern Ireland’s
second university despite
the existence of a University College
in the City.
The Wilson plan which designated
growth areas for Northern
Ireland concentrated them heavily
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Unity sends Solidarity
Greetings to John Foster,
Communist Party of Britain
International Secretary, lifelong
Communist Activist,
Trade Unionist, Historianand
much more, who is
celebrating his 80th Bithday
(21.10.20).
Happy Birthday John,
in the east, these are just few examples
of Stormont’s failures.
No one including Edwin Poots
would claim the rapid rise in Covid-
19 cases in cities across the north of
England and Scotland were due to
religious persuasion, the evidence
points to poverty.
Poverty caused by Margaret
Thatcher’s savage policies which systematically
butchered the manufacturing
and industrial centres of the North
of England and Scotland, has left
these regions open to the ravages of
Coronavirus.
The twin measures of Thatcher’s
government and the Unionists at Stormont
were to destroy or render ineffective
all those opposed to them.
The Tory government deliberately
increased unemployment from just
over one million to four million in 8
years creating a 1930s situation, while
the Unionist’s maintained a 1930s
situation west of the Bann until they
were challenged in 1968/69.

Page 4
Unity 24.10.20
Civil Society Open Letter to
Robin Swann
ON the anniversary of decriminalisation, over 70 organisations
have signed an open letter from Alliance for Choice to Robin
Swann UUP North Antrim Advice Centre calling for the commissioning
of abortion services in line with the regulations, and
the introduction of telemedicine as recommended by the WHO.
The signatories include women’s campaigning and support
groups, trade unions, political parties, including the Communist
Party of Ireland, among others from a wide ranging sphere of
society.
The undersigned* call on the
Northern Ireland Health Minister,
Robin Swann, to implement abortion
care recommendations from
the World Health Organization
(WHO) immediately.
This would make provision for
abortion telemedicine across
Northern Ireland, similar to those
commissioned in Ireland, England,
Wales and Scotland since
March 2020.
Since the beginning of the outbreak
WHO recommended that
services related to reproductive
health are considered part of essential
services during COVID-
19.
In June 2020, WHO recommended
that abortion provision in
the global pandemic should:
Minimise facility visits and provider–client
contacts through the
use of telemedicine and selfmanagement
approaches, when
applicable, ensuring access to a
trained provider if needed. (World
Health Organization (1 June 2020)
2.1.4 Sexual and reproductive
health services, Maintaining essential
health services: operational
guidance for the COVID-19 context,
Interim guidance (pp. 29))
Abortion telemedicine has been
available throughout all of the
UK and Ireland since the onset of
the pandemic yet Northern Ireland
remains the only place
where a safe, cost effective and
practical method of abortion care
has been denied to individuals
seeking abortions.
Additionally, the Department of
Health has been legally mandated
to commission Trust-wide early
medical abortion services up to 12
weeks on request and abortions for
health and mental health reasons
with no conditionality up to 24
weeks gestation from April 1st, yet
nothing has been done.
In the midst of an unprecedented
global pandemic, women and
pregnant people who need abortions
should not be forced to make
unnecessary journeys of any sort,
either within Northern Ireland or
to England.
On Monday 5th October 2020,
the Northern Health Trust reluctantly
advised they are no longer
in a position to provide early
medical abortions due to lack of
resources.
This was as a direct result of a
failure of the Department of
Health to commission or fund
ANY services.
This is just as the confirmed
cases of COVID-19 have surged in
that same Trust, with risk of contagion
amongst the highest across
the UK and Ireland.
The blocking of EMA services
and a complete lack of telemedi-
cine as a result of the DoH inaction,
means those seeking abortions will
have to travel to GB, which directly
contravenes WHO guidance, placing
service users and healthcare
workers at increased risk of COVID
-19 and adding unnecessary cost
and pressure to NHS services.
Since April 2020, over 150 women
and pregnant people from Northern
Ireland have had to use the Central
Booking system of the British Pregnancy
Advisory Service (BPAS)
and have been forced to travel to
GB in order to access the care they
require, more have used Women on
Web and Women Help Women services
when a straightforward pathway
was unavailable to them.
Abortion telemedicine is required
in Northern Ireland as a matter of
urgency to ensure that those women
and pregnant people who require
abortion healthcare are placed at no
additional risk from being unable to
access the services they require or
being forced to travel in order to do
so.
We call for the Department of
Health, led by the Northern Ireland
Health Minister to make this provision
without any further delay and
to stop blocking resources to abortion
services by his refusal to commission
services within the Health
and Social Care Trusts.
* See Alliance for Choice Facebook
for full list of signatories .

Unity 24.10.20 Page 5
Solidarity with the
people of Bolivia
THE exit polls and
early counts in the Bolivian
election indicate a
major victory for the
working and indigenous
peoples, despite the
mass repression, including
the murder of many
activists, workers and
indigenous leaders by
the military and fascist
forces that ousted the government of
Evo Morales in a coup.
But the majority of the oppressed
remained loyal to the Movement Towards
Socialism (MAS), led by the
former president, Evo Morales, who
had been ousted in a military coup
organised and supported by imperialism,
both the United States and the
European Union.
Morales, who now lives in exile in
Argentina, was a thorn in the side of
imperialism and local reaction
within Bolivia.
The big global monopolies wanted
their hands on the rich natural resources
that belong to the people, to
rob the people to enrich a few.
Morales and his mass movement
were staunch allies and friends of
Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua—
the other targets in the “regime
change” strategy of the United States
and the European Union.
It is the duty of all left and progressive
forces here in Ireland to build
solidarity with the people's of Bolivia,
Venezuela, Nicaragua, and,
most importantly, Cuba.
The left in Ireland needs to abandon
its infantile attitude towards the
continuing struggles in Latin America.
We have to take sides. We have
to be partisan on the side of the antiimperialist
forces; otherwise we side
with the forces of local reaction and
imperialism. There is much that we
can learn form the working people of
Latin America: the need to build a
clear class perspective on what is to
be done, the need to build fighting,
independent organisations of the
people - trade unions, women, youth
- capable of defending and advancing
the interests of the people, not to
allow our aspirations to be narrowed
and channelled into purely electoral
struggles and state institutions - all
mechanisms for controlling the
course of how we should struggle
and what we should struggle for, institutions
established and sustained
to try to narrow our vision and control
the outcome of our struggles and
our demands.
As we face into a new wave of
austerity, new debt built upon old
debt that will be placed upon the
backs of working people, our children
and grandchildren, we need to
prepare for the coming struggles. We
need to rebuild a fighting trade union
movement, build people’s organisations.
The future belongs to socialism, to
working people. But it can only be
achieved if we organise ourselves
and take our future into our own
hands.
Communist Party of Ireland,
19 October 2020
Ardern wins
historic landslide
election in New
Zealand
NEW ZEALAND Prime Minister
Jacinda Ardern won a second
term in office last Saturday
in a historic landslide election
victory for the Labour Party.
It became the first party to win
an outright majority in the New
Zealand parliament since proportional
representation was
introduced 24 years ago.
Labour won a stunning 49 per
cent of the vote, compared with
just 27 per cent for its nearest
rival, the conservative National
Party, giving it 64 seats in parliament.
“This has not been an ordinary
election, and it’s not an ordinary
time. It’s been full of uncertainty
and anxiety, and we set
out to be an antidote to that,”
she said to supporters in Auckland.
“We are living in an increasingly
polarised world, a place
where, more and more, people
have lost the ability to see one
another’s point of view,” she
said. “I think in this election,
New Zealanders have shown
that this is not who we are.”
Ms Ardern won plaudits for
her response to the twin mosque
shootings last year in which 51
people were killed.
Her handling of coronavirus
included an early lockdown,
followed by a second in August
and has seen New Zealand effectively
deal with the outbreak.