9 September 1999 Edition

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Hack attack

By Michael Pierse

     
Demonising working-class people is nothing new in the establishment media, but Drennan and Allen have plumbed new depths in their efforts to score points at Sinn Féin's expense. The renaissance of working-class communities and the victory of the people over the drug barons is the best answer for their poisoned pens
Liz Allen's article in last week's Sunday Independent infuriated many community workers and added to the recent spate of anti-republican rantings emanating from the cosy little offices of the Irish Times and Irish Independent.

``Ordinary people, who first joined a community anti-drugs movement several years ago, now find themselves under the control of a political movement,'' asserted Allen. ``They are forced to contribute money towards the group's costs and forced to take part in marches and other public demonstrations. Vulnerable members of the community, such as single mothers and elderly people, cannot refuse to give financial or other support. They are told they must attend meetings or other public demonstrations organised by the group or else the group cannot guarantee their continued safety.''

So, if Liz is to be believed, the thousands of people who have attended public meetings, marches and demonstrations in working-class areas have done so not out of a sense of communal responsibility nor because they want to save another generation from drug addiction and death. They have reluctantly complied, she claims, because of the fear that ``the group'', who are invariably ``controlled by Sinn Féin'', ``cannot guarantee their safety''.

Did Allen, who seems to be incapable of contemplating that Dublin's working-class people can be motivated by anything other than fear or frenzy, actually consult with any of these ``vulnerable people''? If she had, it would have been apparent that the drug dealers towards whom anti-drug activism is targeted are the real people threatening single mothers and elderly people.

Allen continued with an explanation of the mechanics of working-class politics, for those who only pass through poorer areas rather hastily and usually by absolute necessity. ``By the mid 1990s, Dublin city suddenly had a series of no-go areas,'' she informed us. Yes, ``suddenly'' there were these deprived areas and ``suddenly'' drugs popped-up out of nowhere. Like the abominable snowmen, or the many sightings of little green men from Mars. No mention of the decades of establishment neglect of entire communities which has fueled the drugs crisis. But that would require a measure of journalistic analysis.

Allen's Sindo comrade and fellow proliferator of Walter Mitty journalism, John Drennan, was there to add more power to her elbow. Up north in Dungannon, ``an Ulster version of Pleasantville'', ``no-one is keen to talk about expulsions. If anything there's more indignation about the absence of Gaelic games on TV3''. In areas such as Dungannon, Twinbrook and indeed, the whole of nationalist West Belfast, he declared, there exists a similar atmosphere to that of the Dublin estates Allen knows so well. ``These vast dehumanised estates with their steel fences and derelict houses come from the same lode as those places in Edinburgh or Dublin where heroin ran riot,'' he wrote. `` One death is a small sacrifice if a people are salvaged.''

Dehumanised undoubtedly by journalists like Drennan, whose myopic vision of the world fails to see beyond those same steel fences and derelict houses. Indeed, Drennan drools, ``they like to hear the bones being crushed... Blowing out the joint does the crippling job better... There are whispers going around about paramilitary gang rapes. Tiocfaidh ár lá?'' Yes, yet another whisper wafting around polite coffee tables at the Sindo offices.

But I digress - there is a deeper level of social analysis to Drennan's drivel. Of nationalist West Belfast, he nailed his colours firmly to the mast: ``Once known for their independence of character, 30 years of war have reduced them to a race of mendicants sponging off the housing executive, the social welfare, the NHS - demanding state sponsorship of every tin pot activist.'' Yes, the sponging working-class, pretending to be deprived and impoverished.

Conor Brady, the editor of The Irish Times, has been attempting to outdo his Sindo rivals at ``the blame game''. The RUC came in for some laudatory comments last week: ``By any objective measure it is a highly professional and effective police force. Its members have shown the most remarkable courage and resilience... it has striven to be a police force for all sections of the community,'' the editorial page announced. No mention of the `objective measure' of Amnesty International, or are they just a global conspiracy network for the spongers? In another editorial, `objectively' titled ``Republican Fascist Tactics'', Brady preached of the levels to which republicans have been ``appeased, cajoled, sweetened, courted and accorded a range of privileges''. More sponging, no doubt.

The question remains - to what agenda are these journalists working? They have contributed negativity to the peace process and have spread scurrilous rumours and blatant lies about those doing positive work in working-class communities north and south.

Demonising working-class people is nothing new in the establishment media, but Drennan and Allen have plumbed new depths in their efforts to score points at Sinn Féin's expense. The renaissance of working-class communities and the victory of the people over the drug barons is the best answer for their poisoned pens. And if people throughout Ireland choose to put their faith in Sinn Féin at the ballot box because of the work local republicans are doing in their areas on the issues that matter to them, the displeasure of certain sections of the media will be its own reward.

An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland