Ógra Shinn Féin on useful visit to European Parliament

On Monday the 4th of January, members of Ógra Shinn Féin from the McDonagh/Farrell cumann, UCD, visited the European Parliament building in Brussels. From an early morning flight over, the Ógra activists made their way to the parliament buildings to meet with the Sinn Féin team working there. They gave us a briefing in their important work in Brussels on issues such as workers' rights and other areas.

The activists were then given the 'official' version of the European Union by a Eurocrat, extolling the virtues of the Union and the dire evils of nation states and the horror of any economic system other than the neo-liberal one promoted by the EU.

Following the less than impartial briefing, the UCD activists then met with Gorka, an activist from the Basque left wing nationalist party Batasuna. To meet their Basque comrade they were required to leave the parliament building as Gorka, as a member of Batasuna, is banned from the building as the EU considers all those organisations that aspire to independence and socialism in the Basque country to be terrorists.

Gorka explained the situation in the Basque country, including Batasuna's peace proposals and the Spanish government's intransigence on the issue of Basque hunger striker Iñaki de Juana Chaos.

The activists flew home later that evening following a long but educational day. It was clear to the activists that the current direction in which the EU is seeking to go would be totally unacceptable to Republicans but that European cooperation on certain issues would be useful to all.

'An Ireland of Equals in a Europe of Equals' is a good goal, but if things keep going the same way there may be a new slogan – 'Britain out of Ireland – Ireland Out of Europe.'