Ronan Costello
Editor
Editor
The Phil have accused an anti-fascist organisation based in Trinity of attempting to sabotage the society’s finances and scheduled guest appearances. The allegations come in the wake of the cancellation of this Thursday’s debate on immigration at which British National Party leader Nick Griffin was to speak.
The University Times has seen an email which the anti-fascist group, Trinity Against Fascism, sent to one of the Phil’s sponsors, KC Peaches. In the email, which carried “KC Peaches Sponsoring Event with Holocaust Denier” as its subject line, the organisation’s founder, Rónán Burtenshaw, explains the mission of the organisation and then goes on to say that anti-racist groups had alerted the members of Trinity Against Fascism to the possibility that Griffin would use the Phil event to meet with and organise violent, far right groups in Ireland.
He then goes on to outline some of the statements and crimes of Griffin before saying the following: “We would ask that KC Peaches not sponsor an organisation that is giving a platform to such hatred. We wanted to make your organisation aware of any potential association between KC Peaches and this kind of hatred. It is possible that pictures from the event might include signs with your brand. Certainly the cards needed to access the event carry your brand.” It is clearly stated at the end of the email that the request to cancel sponsorship of the Phil is conditional on the withdrawal of the invitation to Griffin.
The Phil regard the above request as an attempt to sabotage their society and have written proof that Trinity Against Fascism sent similar letters to most of their sponsors. Phil Steward, Lydia Rahill, said that some of the sponsors contacted the Phil to let them know of Trinity Against Fascism’s emails.
“There was no significant effect on The Phil, primarily due to the hyperbolic nature of the emails and transparent attempts at misrepresentation. We clarified the situation, stating that Mr Griffin was to speak for 10 minutes on immigration in the context of a debate, and was not to be given a political platform for a hate speech or a ‘paid-up opportunity for him and the BNP to organise with the Irish far-right’. The sponsors who contacted us were ultimately unimpressed by the correspondence from TAF,” said Rahill.
While some of the sponsors who contacted the Phil may have been unimpressed by TAF’s correspondence, the proprietor of KC Peaches was persuaded and assured Burtenshaw that no sponsorship for such an event would be forthcoming.
In an email response to Burtenshaw, the proprietor said the following:
Thank you for your message and for bringing this to my attention. KC Peaches is not a political organisation and we take no public political stance. However, personally, I am completely opposed to Fascism and am also personally opposed to Nick Griffin speaking at The Phil. You cannot debate with someone, who in my opinion is completely pig-headed and disillusioned with reality. I will of course inform The Phil of my personal distaste for such activity and really appreciate you informing me as I was not aware of the debate prior to your message. I will also inform them that no monies from KC Peaches can be allocated to such a venture.
An official statement from Trinity Against Fascism makes no apologies for any approaches made to Phil sponsors:
We stand by our actions in this matter. We broke no rules. Contacting sponsors is an established and legitimate tactic of protesting against an organisation. We have contacted the sponsors over this weekend to let them know that TAF no longer has objections to any sponsorship of The Phil in the wake of the withdrawal of the invitation.
Trinity Against Fascism also made representations to future guests of the Phil, including documentary film maker and political activist, Michael Moore who was scheduled to speak at the Phil yesterday evening. There is no evidence to suggest that Moore’s cancellation of this event had anything to do with emails sent by Trinity Against Fascism.
The Phil regards these tactics as not only underhanded but also detrimental to TAF’s credibility:
The Phil respects the right to peaceful protest within college. However, we feel that TAF’s tactics were at times irresponsible and sometimes without regard for the principles behind their own movement. Their misrepresentations along with their attempts to sabotage future events entirely unrelated to the immigration debate crossed a line that has, we feel, undermined their legitimacy to some extent. Moreover, it is our view that there was by no means a conclusive resolution by the student body at large against this debate. We feel that instead of sourcing a legitimate mandate amongst the student body to gauge support, members of TAF self-appointed themselves as moral representatives of the student body. In attacking the Phil and undermining its ability to act autonomously and with funding obtained through hard work on the part of council, we feel TAF may have acted without regard for the paid membership of the Phil (a large portion of the student body) and their right to access of Phil events not just related to the issue in question, but year-round.
Following the withdrawal of the invitation to Griffin, BNP spokesperson said the following said that the cancellation of the event was due to “an insignificant, unelected mob” that has “now established that it can control exactly what and who fellow students are allowed to listen to. They are banned from hearing any argument that is contrary to those held by the newly appointed ministry of truth.”
“I know a lot of Irish people, some of them good friends, I cannot think of one of them who would stand for being told what they can and cannot hear. On that basis I must say that I am surprised that unlike Oxford University, the students at Trinity College rolled over so easily.”
Nick Griffin, with whom The University Times had scheduled a video interview, said that the he was disappointed:
“I was looking forward to giving reasoned argument to show that immigration has not been to the benefit of the Irish (and indeed British) people. I wanted to convince people, through debate, that economically and culturally any benefit from immigration was far outweighed by negative impacts. I will not now have that opportunity. More importantly, those attending will no longer have the opportunity of considering the other side of the argument to that presented in the establishment media.”
However, The Sunday Times, a mainstream broadsheet newspaper, was evidently disgusted that the invitation to Griffin was withdrawn so hastily. In a particularly pointed attack on the Phil, The Sunday Times implied that the society was betraying its prestigious heritage by inviting the scandal that Griffin was inevitably going to bring. It went on to say that this tendency towards headline-grabbing guests had become a trait of the Phil’s in recent years to the detriment of real debate.
The piece finished as follows: “The controversy about Mr Griffin was as tediously predictable as the withdrawal of his invitation. If the Phil needs to plug a schedule gap, we recommend the following motion: That this society has become a shameless attention-seeker”.
