Lenadoon Upper, today in a sample canvass carried out by IRSP activists working on the ‘Yes for Unity’ campaign, 91% of household respondents when asked their position on a potential border poll on Irish unity, confirmed that they wished such a poll to occur, and would vote positively in the event.
This is the second such sample poll to be conducted by the party in the city (Divis declared at 88%) in an attempt to get ordinary working class people talking about the prospect of Irish Unity by this means. Future sample canvasses will occur in other parts of the City and beyond in the coming weeks, months and years.
Ireland is entering an era of profound change. For the first time since partition in 1922 population demographics in the occupied six counties indicate that voters who identify as Unionist there may be in the minority, even now.
So far the debate around an Island wide border poll has been monopolised by mainstream corporate interests seeking to create a united Ireland that works for the 1% currently at the top of society. The IRSP position is that working class peoples interests, the 99%, must be held above all else. We must strive to build an Ireland for the many not the few.
Our YES For Irish Unity campaign for an island wide “Border Poll” is only another phase in our struggle to create a united socialist Ireland free from London, Brussels and Washington rule.
“YES For Irish Unity” is a public talk and debate organised around the themes of Demographic Shifts, Border Polls, Class and the Irish relationship with the EU. The idea is to get people talking about what type of society we want to create and making the case for a united Ireland.
There will be some uncomfortable topics for republican and socialists to discuss and debate. We hope to create an environment in which those thorny issues can be confidently and transparently thrashed out.
As diverse concepts of Irishness begin to emerge, the contradictions between Old Catholic Ireland and a new progressive Ireland are bubbling to the top. Republicans and socialists must find our place on the right side of history and be prepared to meet the challenges that lay ahead.
Accepting that demographic shifts are ultimately changing occupied Ireland we must ensure principled republicanism and progressive socialism are not marginalised as the wider debate on a united Ireland continues.
