ITS NO

national | miscellaneous | news report

Thursday March 07, 2002 17:48

by Ciara O Connor

ciaraoc_ at hotmail dot com

Still waiting for a recount in Galway, the Taoiseach has conceded that the referendum on abortion has been rejected. There should be a formal announcement before five o'clock this evening.

The result of the abortion referendum is a tentative NO.
With 1.8 million voters not taking the opportunity to voice their opinion, the Government has egg on its face.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has just announced that he has always had a commitment to the people having their say in any referendum. He admitted disappointment at the result. He said the result of the election will not change his own personal opinion.
With huge floods of criticisms regarding the organisation of the referendum, the opening times of the booths, and the confusion surrounding the wording of the referendum, huge numbers refused to vote, and many spoiled their votes, writing their disgust on the ballot papers. Some even went so far as to create a new box saying 'maybe'.
Bad weather was also cited as a reason for the low turnout, however, the Government can hardly be held responsible for that.
It has been speculated that the division would not be quite so thin if students had been given the day off to travel home to avail of their right to vote.
The disappointing turnout can be skewed by a number of factors but at the end of the day, Irish people's apathy cannot be excused. With six out of ten citizens not using their vote, the end result is a reflection of only 43% of our country's wishes.
There are many reasons why people didn't turnout. It has been suggested that the fact complex referendum is no adequate solution to the social problems that abortion and the debate surrounding it propose.
The lack of voting can be seen as a protest against the Governments inadequacy in this debate, whereby the referendum became an election tool for the good of the political parties.
It has been commented that the NO vote can be seen as a pro-life NO vote, from the efforts of generally conservative and right wing lobby groups and prominent spokespeople such as Dana.
However, many pro-choice lobby groups had a strong following after their protests and publicity in Dublin city centre.

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Comments (8 of 8)

It's the working class wot did it!

by Pro Life my arse - Victory is ours

Thu Mar 07, 2002 18:49

The floodgates have opened

Yet again the urban centres of Ireland-
Dublin, Cork and all returned the highest percentage of No votes. Who the fuck is Dana?
VICTORY! Now let's legislate for a woman's right to choose. And fuck Fianna Fail for their moral cowardice and political oppurtunism. Let's get these losers thrown out once and for all.

VICTORY!

It wasn't the working class at all

by Real Worker

Thu Mar 07, 2002 21:38

Look it up - rich bastards voted NO, poor people voted YES

Question is... Why?

Victory for the no's!

by CycoCool

Thu Mar 07, 2002 21:41

info at fubar-film dot cjb dot net

I think that everyone in ANV should be pretty pleased with themselves (especially the SWP) for a job well done! And the best part is that Fianna Fail have done our work for us in the upcoming elections e.g: they confused and angered the people of ireland and left an opening for the anti-capitalist movement to steer them in the right direction - Socialist Revolution!

Once again, Victory is ours!

P.S All filmmakers check out www.fubar-film.cjb.net and organise against the capitialst media!

Course the working classes have to be misled

by unreal worker

Fri Mar 08, 2002 01:56

They couldn't be right could they?

Real Worker asks why poorer people voted yes. Could it be that their experience of injustice lets them know when the powerless are being victimised?

There's some mad hallucination out there if the SWP think that a political party most Irish people haven't even heard of had some major role in this. By the way do they believe in abortion up to birth or what?

As for the idea that FF have opened a way to a socialist revolution, you might want to consider that FF managed to get 49.6% of the people to back their proposal, a figure which would be enough to get them an overall majority in the Dail if repeated, and that part of the other 50% are Dana-heads who are hardly going to vote for you shower of campaign hijackers either.

Keep selling the papers.

working class

by jc - anv

Fri Mar 08, 2002 09:20

thebouldjohno at hotmail dot com

"real worker", did you vote yes then?
i believe if it wasn't for the many pro-choice groups in the no campaign things would have been a lot different.
the fact that people could see us on the street calling for a no vote and in talking to people saying that the reason for voting no was pro-choice gave confidence to a lot of people who because of catholic guilt or whatever were frightened to be seen taking a stance against the governments proposal.
and that is down to EVERYONE involved in the anv not just one group.
as to who voted what and why it is ridiculous to say that only rich bastards voted no - it was urban areas no and rural yes - can "real worker" give me a breakdown of the economic divide in this instance?

SWP got more Yes votes!!

by -

Fri Mar 08, 2002 12:53

The SWP did very little to get a NO vote, in fact they probably got more Yes votes. Those posters, of Bertie Aherne pregnant were terrible. They did not deal with the issues of the referendum ie right to choose and the X case. They came from a ultra feminist angle not a marxist/socialist one. They presented pregnancy as a problem, pregnancy is not a problem for a majority of women, this referendum was about those with unwanted pregnancies. Of course at the results announcement they were up to their old antics of trying to recreate the atmosphere around the X case in 1992, really they should grow up, they are an example of opportunism at its worst. As soon as the SWP have their split in Ireland the better, I am sick of them.

Which wot class done it?

by rich virtual worker

Fri Mar 08, 2002 13:31

I think 'Real Worker' may have a point.

The rich areas of Dublin had by far the highest No vote...
Dun Laoghaire 68% NO, Dublin South East 68, and Dublin South 64.

By contrast the poorer areas had a much smaller No vote, though still very high compared to the rural areas...
Dublin North West (Finglas etc) 58% No, Dublin North Central 58, and Dublin Central 59.

On the Northside the No vote was generally much lower than the Southside except in the one area that's wealthy - Dublin North East (Clontarf, Sutton, Howth) which had 64% No.

In the country as a whole again you see that the poorest areas had the lowest No vote...
Donegal North East 29%, Longford-Roscommon 36%.

Whether it means anything I don't know but it would be hard to back up the claim that "It's the working class wot did it!" using these results.

Re: SWP got more Yes votes!

by Karl Marx

Fri Mar 08, 2002 13:37

That's crap - I don't like the SWP much but they were out there knocking on doors and leafletting while you were up your arse refining your 'Marxism' - as I once said "if that's what Marxism is then I'm not a Marxist"

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Comments (8 of 8)