Promoting real politics - not gimmicks
On Wed the 20th September Ógra Shinn Féin Co Lú ran a recruitment drive in Dundalk Institute of Technology. The Cumann has been in the college for three years and until this year was the only active political society in the Institute.
The drive went very well receiving a great deal of attention from students and improving on the number of members for last year. A number of senior party members attended, including Louth TD Arthur Morgan, Caitríona Ruane MLA and the next TD for Meath Councillor Joe Reilly.
As another political party was dressing up young women in tight t-shirts with Pimp Me Party. written on them to help them recruit, Ógra was promoting feminism as one of its many political ideologies, while at the same time seeking to recruit women on the same terms as men. This resulted in a good gender balance, with more then 45% of people that sign up being female.
Ógra members handed out copies of the Ógra Revolutionary Handbook, A booklet that contains copies of the 1916 Proclamation, The Democratic Programme of the First Dail along with definitions on what it means to be a socialist, republican etc. As Ógra were distributing this, another political party was handing out a goodie bag containing Teddy Bears, Yoyos, Phone stands, Pens etc to get young people to join.
Eugene Garvey, National College Coordinate and Chair of the Dundalk College Cumann said
While other political parties race to sign up members by any means to make their figures look good Ógra in the Dkit (Dundalk Institute of Technology), like other Ógra college groupings, is not interested in the number of members we can get on paper, we are only interested in the amount of young people we can politicise.
He went on to say
'I have been hearing from other Ógra college cumainn that have already held their freshers days and am happy (while at the same time depressed) to say it looks like I will be filling in new member details on the data base for sometime.'
Concluding he said
'As Ógra Shinn Féin is actively empowering and politicising young people I am disgusted, but not surprised, at the tactics of those other so called political parties to make their recruitment figures look good. By selling their party through sex and free bees and not real politics, however on refection maybe that is there definition of real politics.'
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UCC Sinn Féin held a massively succesful recruiting stall for freshers week on campus. Signing up a total of 70 students. The first meeting of the year was held later that evening and we were pleased to see that more women than men had decided to join the party. All the new activists expressed interest in coming to meetings in the future. Considering the meeting was organised as an introductory one we were pleased to see a turn out of approximately 20 new members.
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