There was a muted start to the two parallel referendum campaigns today, as the Bank Holiday forced all sides in the boycott, divest and sanctions and opt-out referendums to launch their online campaigns without any accompanying on-the-ground fanfare.
Campaign pages sprung up on Facebook throughout the day, slowly gathering likes, even if there was little attempt to get much traction online.
The referendums come at a difficult time for the Student Union Opt-Out Project and Students for Justice in Palestine, the two groups that triggered the votes this week. For the former, it’s facing a students’ union that has spent the last week leading a campaign against supplemental exam fees and testing Trinity’s limits with occupations and protests. For Students for Justice in Palestine, the referendum is horribly timed. Speaking to The University Times last week, Conchúir Ó Raidaigh said the campaign would find it difficult to fight a referendum because of the ongoing Take Back Trinity campaign, and promised to try and delay the vote. In this, the campaign has been unsuccessful.
When voting opens on Wednesday, students will be asked “Should TCDSU adopt a long term policy on Palestine and in support of Boycott, Divest and Sanctions?” and “Should TCDSU amend the constitution to allow members to opt out of the union?”.
Late last year, three universities in Ireland saw groups of students – under the national banner of Students for Fair Representation – launch petitions to leave their respective students’ unions. A group of students in University College Dublin (UCD) started their petition in the wake of Katie Ascough’s impeachment, citing “recent failings of the Union to represent all students fairly”. However, no referendum was held as they did not reach the necessary 1,000 signatures to trigger one. The UCD Students For Fair Representation Facebook page has also been dormant since November.
Similarly, a petition was launched in November in Dublin City University (DCU) calling for a referendum on automatic students’ union membership. DCU Students For Fair Representation also launched a petition calling for Dublin City University Students’ Union (DCUSU) to adopt a neutral stance on the repeal the eighth amendment debate. DCUSU is a pro-choice union, but speaking to The University Times, in November, DCU Students For Fair Representation spokesperson and first-year St Patrick’s College student Sarah Connolly said that the mandate predates the merger between St Patrick’s College and DCU.
The third group to launch a petition was from students in NUI Galway (NUIG). However, the petition was online and had only achieved 189 of the 200 signatures sought. NUIG Students For Fair Representation Facebook page is no longer available.
This time last year, students in Trinity voted to support a neutral stance on Irish unity, following an at-times tense campaign.
