VOTE CROSSAN       X

AT an election convention held in the Falls Road office of Republican Sinn Féin on May 2 it was decided to contest the forthcoming Westminster election in the West Belfast constituency with Maghaberry prisoner Tommy Crossan as candidate.

From Rodney Parade in west Belfast Tommy Crossan (30) has been in jail since January 1999 on firearms charges in connection with a gun attack on a British Crown Forces base at Woodbourne in west Belfast. He was later sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by the non-jury Diplock Court.

In view of the deteriorating prison situation Republican Sinn Féin’s strategy has been to intensify the struggle for political status. One of the ways decided on was to put forward a Republican prisoner who is being denied political status in Maghaberry jail. Support for this strategy has been forthcoming from the prisoners themselves, particularly from Tommy Crossan, and from a wide spectrum of supporters in Belfast, across Ireland and abroad.

The convention appointed Joe O’Neill overall director of elections and Geraldine Taylor election agent and director of elections in Belfast. In addition, directors of canvassing, publicity, finance and transport were appointed.

Speaking at the convention Joe O’Neill said that as part of the campaign Republican Sinn Féin and Tommy Crossan supporters would be challenging the bar on prisoners’ names going forward on the ballot paper, This totally unjust regulation was introduced by the notorious British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1981 to block any repeat of the election of Bobby Sands as the people’s elected represent-ative for Fermanagh/South Tyrone during the historic hunger strikes for political treatment.

Joe O’Neill said: “We will not allow this to prevent Tommy Crossan’s name to go on the ballot paper. We intend to approach human rights organisations in Ireland and internationally to look for support for out stand that prisoners have restored to them the right to go forward as candidates.

“Those who propose and sign the nomination papers and the people who support him are equally being deprived of their rights.”

The primary focus of this electoral intervention is to highlight the campaign for the restoration of political status for Republican prisoners who have been deprived of this treatment since the Stormont Agreement was signed. This British policy to abolish political status was not part of the text of the Stormont Agreement.

However, this policy has been supported by the SDLP, the Provisionals and the Dublin administration, most blatantly by the Provisionals’ Martin Ferris who told a member of the public in Co Kerry four times that there were no political prisoners in Ireland.

This election occurs on the 20th anniversary of the H-Block hunger strikes when Bobby Sands and nine of his comrades laid down their lives in the struggle for recognition as political prisoners.

Is their sacrifice and the sacrifice of many others down the years to be discarded now in exchange for seats in Stormont and British pay-cheques?

Vote Tommy Crossan and send a message to the British government that they cannot criminalise the Irish struggle for national self-determination.

Vote Tommy Crossan and make the British government learn from history so that they do not repeat the mistakes of the Thatcher administration in 1981 which led to so much trauma, suffering and tragedy.

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