8 April 2004 Edition

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Debating the Left Alternative

Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald, Mick O'Reilly of the ATGWU and Roger Cole of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance

Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald, Mick O'Reilly of the ATGWU and Roger Cole of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance

The issue of whether or not a Left Alternative to the status quo is possible was addressed at a public meeting in Trinity College, Dublin, on Wednesday 31 March, part of a series of events to commemorate the Easter Rising of 1916. Mick O'Reilly from the ATGWU, Peter Doran from the Green Party, Dermot Lacey from the Labour Party, Roger Cole from the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA), and Mary Lou MacDonald, Sinn Féin candidate in the EU Election, all spoke.

Mary Lou McDonald said the Left Alternative is not restricted to political parties in Leinster House. "The Left Alternative needs to include the voice of all those who are excluded and marginalised in our society — the people who suffer disadvantage at the hands of those who are privileged. We need to build a participative democracy, where the marginalised are no longer excluded, if we are to progress a society of equality.

"We don't have all the answers and republicanism is not the exclusive right of anyone. Republicanism is the property of the people, who must be sovereign in the new Ireland. We hope that others will join with us in that alliance — in building that alternative society, which 'cherishes all the children of the nation', but if they won't, we are journeying on alone."


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