Workers Solidarity Movement

Last night we received information (screen shot above) that the No campaign intend to engage in Trump style voter suppression methods by trying to get their people appointed as personation officers at polling stations.  They intend to target stations likely to have a high Yes voter the hope that increasing the number of challenges will result in enough Yes voters being unable vote to make a difference if, as is still possible, the result is close. Be sure to bring ID when you go to vote on Friday, the polling card is NOT in itself ID.

This seemingly bizarre tweet from a No campaign leader in their attempt to prevent the repeal of the anti-women 8th amendment gives a few things away about their ideological mind set.

It read "Referendum will repeal our property rights. Ignore the fact the the Goverenment then plans to pass a law nationalising half the housing stock. #8thref #refcom @morningireland"

On Saturday one of our photographers was assaulted and threatened at the ‘No’ campaigns’ anti-choice Rally for Life.  He wasn’t injured and although his camera was punched (see video) no damage was done but this is yet another example of how the No campaign, having failed to make any impact in the polls, are becoming nastier in their desperation.

The ‘Love Both’ anti-choice rally itself was very poorly attended, attracting around 1500 people.  The feeling in the crowd was one of tiredness and demoralisation with a few people even admitting out loud that the turnout was miserable.  Radical Queers Resist were holding a small silent counter protest opposite the entrance to the rally so after counting the crowd we headed over to this.

In a pattern all to common across rural Ireland hundreds of Yes posters were torn down in an organised fashion by what had to be No activists across Country Cork last night.  This anti-democratic rage typifies the No campaign which has has so much wealth that it is printing 10 No posters to every Yes.  All across Ireland the few Yes posters there are to distribute have been torn down, in one case we have heard of in the west they have even been discovered in the houses of No campaigners.  This is ahead of the May 25th referendum to remove the article of the Irish constitution that equates the life of a women with that of a foetus.

In the week before the 1995 divorce referendum the catholic bishops put out a statement commanding their flock to vote No. The WSM reacted to this by putting up posters reading 'The bishops; They hid priests who raped children and now they want to lecture us about morals.." illustrated with a photograph of Father Brendan Smyth who had raped at least 143 children and whose religious order had hid these actions from the police. The enquiry had found that "..despite knowing his history of abusing children, the Norbertine religious order moved Smyth to different dioceses where he abused more children.."

"Oh, you're going to start quoting the pro-choice Irish Times are you?! Why don't you come over here and I'll give you some *real* statistics!".

A few hours ago the referendum campaign in Ireland took an unexpected turn when google announced it was banning all referendum based advertising across all its platforms including Youtube. The howls of outrage from the anti-choice No campaign has been going on ever since.

This reaction across the No campaigns is telling. For the first time spokespeople are posting about No losing the referendum & suggesting the whole vote is rigged. Which makes you wonder what nasty online ads they were intending to run in the last 10 days?

As the referendum to remove the 8th amendment approaches in Ireland the No campaign are turning to increasingly nasty shock tactics.  The 8th amendment passed in 1983 removes healthcare control from pregnant people and puts it in the hands of the courts, it was inserted to ban abortion but in fact impacts every aspect of pregnancy.

There are many strange things about the anti-choice bigots trying to protect the antiquated status quo of the 8th amendment - a piece of text inserted into the constitution at the moment when the power of that old clerical Ireland was about to crumble.

Perhaps out of frustration with their failure on last night's Late Late Show (Apr 27th), the anti-choice No campaigns have stooped to a disgusting new low today.  We've observed that they have been engaged in setting up apparently innocuous Facebook news pages and we presumed it was in connection with the referendum.  Today they changed the cover image of one of these pages to make it look like a Yes campaign page and then posted this disgusting post.