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Anti-austerity candidate Fra Hughes: An exemplary campaign With the exception of a new outbreak of homophobia from the DUP and a claim by Alex Maskey that benefit cuts were a red line (hastily suppressed by Sinn Fein), The Westminster election in the North of Ireland was marked by a mind-numbing silence, all the more noticeable given the previous furore over Sinn Fein's hesitation on welfare reform. The silence is easily explained. The election will be followed by the Stormont parties joining together to enforce the combination of austerity and sectarian division contained in the Stormont House Agreement. They hope their supporters will remain asleep and vote from habit. What is less easily explained is the silence of the small number of anti-austerity candidates, content to “send a message” to the capitalist parties. In part they hope that the less they say the more likely they are to soak up a protest vote, in part they are falling behind the self-imposed trade union truce over the election period. It is against this background that Socialist Democracy supports the campaign of the independent candidate Fra Hughes in North Belfast. Fra opposes absolutely the imposition of austerity in all its forms. He faces up to, and opposes, the sectarian political carve up contained within the Stormont House Agreement. Rather than a front for a particular political current, Fra represents a genuine alliance of trade union, community and socialist groups. His campaign is not a bean counting exercise, but a commitment to mobilization that will continue when the election is long gone. Fra's campaign is an exemplary one. He is beginning the campaign the union leaderships reneged on. That's a task for all socialists. |