"Racist" flyer alledgely distributed by the SWP in Ireland

[RedSquare]

This flyer was allegedly published and distributed by the Irish SWP in the Laoighis/Offaly constituency ahead of the General Election last Friday. It was directed against Rotimi Adebari, a black candidate, standing as an Independent.

http://www.voterotimi.com/Socialist_Workers_Party.pdf

[Ocean Seal]

I wouldn't say that its racist, but that some of the points made are certainly stupid. Like the fact that he denied working as a cab driver illegally and the fact that he tried to get in the country using a loophole. That's kind of a WTF point for a leftist group to be making. The pdf leads me to believe that there were people impersonating the SWP distributing this flyer.

[Tim Finnegan]

According to Wikipedia, Rotimi Adebari is apparently an independent previously backed in local elections by Fine Gael and Sinn Fein (suggesting a more or less centrist position, perhaps slightly socially conservative), standing for a small town seat and who got less than 1% of the vote. Now, petty as Trotskyists may sometimes be, I really doubt that they're likely to invest their limited funding in leaflets attacking a middle-of-the-road provincial nobody.

So, yeah, I agree with RedBrother: this was probably an impersonation. The question is simply whether this was somebody trying to smear the SWP, or whether they were trying to use the SWP as a way of cloaking their own xenophobia.

[Chambered Word]

Looks like bollocks to me, but I can't say much more than that.

The SWP has released a statement via Facebook:



Racist leaflet attempts to discredit black candidate and the SWP

In the run up to the present election a grotesque racist leaflet was distributed in the Portlaoise area. It was filled with slanderous lies designed to tarnish the name of Rotemi Adebari. Rotemi was elected as ireland's first black mayor and has done an amazing amount of work against racism and for integration. It is awful to think that anyone would be targeted in this shocking manner.

What is even more outrageous about this flyer was that the racists used the logo of the Socialist Workers Party. This is an obvious attempt to discredit our organisation which has an impeccable record in terms of antiracist work. The SWP helped to establish the anti racist network (www.arn.ie (http://www.arn.ie/)) and love music hate racism. We are well known antiwar campaigners and have stood shoulder to shoulder with the muslim community to combat islamophobia. We were part of the mobilisations after the death of Toyosi Shittabey and have mobilised on many occasions to battle racist attacks.

The SWP is an internationalist organisation with members and sister parties all over the world. Our organisation in the UK, for example, has been key to the establishment of unite against fascism and moblising against the BNP and the EDL. We are against all immigration controls which we believe to be inherently racist and discriminatory. If capital and the rich can move from place to place without fear or restrictions - then people in general should be free to move without restrictions.

This stand we take is precisely why racists would try to target us and maliciously use our logo on the filth that they distribute.

Who would do such a thing?

It's hard to discern exactly who the culprits are. There are some groups online who have published racist slurs against Rotemi. A nazi website has a discussion about Rotemi where they publish his details in order to encourage people to hassle him and the narrow minded bigots of the Immigration Control Platfrom also have a long series of articles too.

The SWP will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with all victims of discrimination and are proud of our anti racist stance.

If you are yourself know anything about who has distributed this flyer or if you are experiencing racist abuse in any form then please contact us at [email protected]
Or contact the anti racist network at www.arn.ie (http://www.arn.ie/)




http://www.facebook.com/notes/socialist-workers-party/racist-leaflet-attempts-to-discredit-black-candidate-and-the-socialist-workers-p/10150098521439064