Ritchie speech at protest against Parades Bill

SDLP South Down MP MLA Margaret Ritchie today delivered a speech at the SDLP protest march against the Parades Bill. Full Text:

Thu 8th July

“The Public Assemblies, Parades and Protests Bill is a most obnoxious piece of legislation resulting from the worst kind of behind-the-scenes deal-making.
 
“The SDLP is a party born out of protest against oppression and we will not stand by and see the hard-won reforms of the Civil Rights Movement set at nought by political opportunism. We believe civil and human rights should be above party politics – they should never be bartered for electoral advantage or diluted just to win access to positions of power. But we will not stand by and see Sinn Fein and the DUP working together to muzzle spontaneous protest in a way that even Bill Craig at his worst never tried.
 
“Sinn Fein and the DUP claim this bill is a new and better way to deal with parading. It is not. It is unnecessary for that purpose. The real issue is that the DUP and the Orange Order wanted the Parades Commission’s head on a plate – and Sinn Fein gave it to them as part of the deal they did at Hillsborough. In the process they agreed that all forms of spontaneous protest should be criminalised. If they had their way every trade union, every community organisation and every parents group concerned about traffic would have to give six weeks notice to a Sinn Fein/DUP quango in order to express their opinion. And all this just to deal with a handful of contentious parades which the Commission is successfully handling.
 
“We all know the DUP record on civil rights. But some people in Sinn Fein like to claim fancifully that they were active in the civil rights campaign. How could anyone who had the first notion about civil rights, never mind a tradition of activism, have anything to do with a law which strangles the right of protest? And make no mistake about it, stringent notice requirements are the weapon of choice of undemocratic regimes against popular protest all around the world.
 
“John O’Dowd of Sinn Fein has claimed that the 37-day notice provision was included at the urging of residents groups faced with contentious parades. He has been flatly contradicted by leaders of residents groups, including those on the Garvaghy Road and Lower Ormeau. This bill has been cooked up by the DUP and Sinn Fein in their secretive Parades Working Group. When residents groups appeared before the Working Group to put their point of view, they found that representatives of the Orange Order were sitting in and deliberating. So nationalists and indeed everyone concerned with the democratic right of protest are entitled to ask what is going on? If the bill is really meant to deal with contentious parades it should say so. But why does it cover all assemblies and protests involving more than 50 people? Yesterday (Wed) John O’Dowd said: “This legislation is solely about the issue of contentious parades and related protests and not about Trade Unions, Churches or other gatherings.” We have to ask – have you read the bill, John? Have you read the bill’s Code of Conduct? Have a look at page 6: “The code applies to …any form of public assembly excluding funeral processions.”
 
“Many recent gatherings would be illegal under this rule. On the 8th of April SDLP representatives addressed a rally of  Quinn Insurance workers on the Diamond in Enniskillen. Michelle Gildernew also spoke. If she did that again she could be subject to a six-month prison sentence and/or a £5000 fine. All sorts of community and trade union actions and even the  ‘eat or heat’ protest by pensioners would have to give 37 days notice. The parents and children from Whitehouse school would not have been able to heckle John O’Dowd at Stormont. And the Bloody Sunday families would have had to give the DUP and Sinn Fein six weeks’ notice of their intention to march from the Bogside to the Guildhall to receive the Saville Report.
 
“This is not just a bad law, it is a very stupid law which bears all the hallmarks of a DUP/Sinn Fein fix for a problem of their own making. The Code of Conduct for parading is self-contradictory and all over the place. What happens the next time Down brings home the Sam Maguire? Will the team manager have to put in his 37 days notice before the quarter-finals?
 
“The consultation period on the bill closes on 14th July even though we first saw the Code of Conduct on Parading a little over a week ago. It is slowly dawning on all sorts of civic organisations that they will simply not be able to protest when a bad decision is quickly forced through by any public body. Now is the time to object. Sinn Fein and the DUP could force it through the Assembly and then it will be too late. We shall overcome – because we must overcome.”

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