The USSR flag was displayed at the stand of the Workers’ Party TCD, and a representative of the Party was seen wearing a t-shirt with the letters ‘USSR’ on it at this year’s Freshers’ Fair. DU Eastern European Society and TCD Ukrainian Society have since released a joint statement “expressing [their] serious concern regarding the continued public display of Soviet symbols at Trinity’s Freshers’ Fair”.
The societies stated that this “painful scene” repeats itself every year, highlighting Trinity’s lack of response to the situation and suggesting that this leads to “enabling destructive and extremist forces to glorify a totalitarian regime”. The statement ended with a call on the College and Central Societies Committee (CSC) to “take moral responsibility, to end this practice once and for all, and to affirm clearly that symbols of oppression have no place on campus”.
The Soviet flag is a symbol of oppression for not only millions of Eastern Europeans (and others) but today is used by Russian soldiers during the war in Ukraine. Such public displays of the symbol hence serve as a painful and even traumatising reminder to a large part of the College community and their loved ones.
The societies also underlined the key difference between the official symbol of the Worker’s Party of Ireland (the Starry Plough) and the Soviet flag waved at the Freshers’ Fair. They highlighted that there should be no confusion whatsoever between “simply political emblems” and “reminders of loss and dehumanisation”.“This is not a question of aesthetics,” they emphasised, “it is a question of values.”
