Making the change

Gerry Adams has appealed to working-class unionists to reflect on the fact that the unionist parties do not represent their economic interests.

WHATEVER the outcomes of the elections Sinn Féin is contesting, they are but steps on the path to achieving power not for the sake of power but for the sake of achieving change.

That is why Sinn Féin is renowned as an effective campaigning organisation building on the ground – an activist party striving to make a change.

The Westminster elections are amongst the most important in recent years.

Whichever party or parties make up the next British Government, all are committed to an intensification of austerity. The Tories have stated their intention to cut £12billion more out of welfare and Labour have also threatened more austerity.

The next British government will seek to impose further cuts to the block grant.

The unionist parties have conservative policies and support the Tories.

Gerry Adams has appealed to working-class unionists to reflect on the fact that the unionist parties do not represent their economic interests.

Sinn Féin is the only party in the North to have taken a clear stand against austerity, is determined to oppose future cuts and has a proven record of building the economy and targeting investment to frontline services and protecting the most vulnerable. Martin McGuinness has achieved more in tough negotiations with British governments than the MPs from the North sitting in Westminster.

In the South, the polls show a continuing appetite for Sinn Féin’s politics of change. In the Carlow/Kilkenny by-election, Kathleen Funchion is the only real challenger to the Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

The challenge is to achieve change, to make the change, to make it Sinn Féin.