SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood said the fight for civil rights belongs to no political party – but it has a “special place” in the SDLP’s history.The event, organised by the SDLP Civil Rights Committee, will feature keynote addresses from SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood and SDLP Deputy Leader Nichola Mallon as well as a panel discussion chaired by Derry woman Leona O’Neill, a newspaper journalist whose father William Breslin was involved in the Civil Rights Movement.
The panel will include Brid Rodgers Chair of SDLP Civil Rights Committee, Mhairi Black SNP MP, Martin Cowley Former Journalist and Kevin Donoghue National Chair Irish Labour Youth.
He said:“Next year will mark 50 years since the first marches for Civil Rights set out from Coalisland to Dungannon and were battered off the streets on Duke Street in Derry.
“These marches marked the first steps in the ongoing movement for equality, rights and respect after year upon year of systematic discrimination in Northern Ireland.
“Ahead of this Civil Rights anniversary, the SDLP Civil Rights Committee will run a broad series of events to commemorate that defining moment of our history as well as highlighting the ongoing civil rights campaigns of the present.
“No one political party owns the history of the Civil Rights Movement but it would be wrong to deny that it has a special place in the history of the SDLP.
“The Civil Rights years gave birth to a movement which took on a government that denied people the most basic civil rights and disregarded the most basic of human decencies – backed up by a British Government in London who deliberately designed a political state giving them free reign to do so.
“A generation of young people burning with young political ideas in the shape of John Hume, Austin Currie, Bernadette Devlin, Ivan Cooper and others shook and shattered that status quo forever.
“They knew that the solution to the Anglo-Irish conflict and all of its hurt lay in the power of politics rather than sending more young men and women to an early grave.
“No deliberate occupation of our history will dilute the truth that the vast majority of the nationalist and republican community always chose civil rights ahead of civil war. Their foresight and wisdom told them that politics was not only the path to peace but it was also the path to change.
“That is what we must remember and what we must never forget- it is why we as a party must commemorate it publically and prominently.
“As Seamus Mallon has recently said, today’s challenge is to be ‘good ancestors as opposed to being just good rememberers’. That means that the civil rights campaigns of today are just as important as those, which were fought for in the past. We must work to end poverty, to address homelessness, to deliver real equality including economic equality, to legislate for equal marriage and to face down the many injustices that plague our society.
“On the 5TH October 1968 the people of Derry marched from all walks of life for civil rights. For an entire year, leading up to that anniversary, the SDLP will commemorate, celebrate and active the spirit of the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement is as relevant now as it was then.”
SDLP Civil Rights Committee Chair, Brid Rodgers commented:
“The 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement is an important reminder of the struggle ordinary people here had for their rights, for real equality and for fairness. It is important to remember that three short years of mass peaceful demonstrations by ordinary people without a partisan political agenda achieved more change and real progress towards equality than the previous decades of political posturing and intermittent violence. The new generation is now faced with new challenges, but many are the same. The struggle for economic equality, fairness in housing, marriage equality, respect for language diversity and on many more issues continues. They are today’s fight.”
SNP MP Mhairi Black who will speak at the event said:
“Everyday in my own constituency I see the social injustices that plague our society. Poverty and inequality is rife – we all have a responsibility to tackle it head on. That means politicians, but it also means civic leaders, young people, and old people, all of us. From my own role in the Scottish Referendum and the campaign for marriage equality in Scotland – I know the value of people power. The legacy of the civil rights movement should be commemorated but it also should be used to inspire – activate all of us to take on the fight for social justice, so that real equality can finally be something that all of us can have not just aspire to.”
Martin Cowley, a journalist who reported the early days of the civil rights struggle in Derry, said:
“The civil rights movement represented a struggle by a wide range of groups and individuals who stood for justice and democracy. Television played a crucial role in garnering support for the struggle by exposing the state’s violent reaction on October 5th.
“Last Sunday’s moment by moment media coverage of the nauseating violence exacted by Spanish national police on people of all ages in Catalunya underlined the crucial importance not just of mainstream broadcasters’ and journalists’ work but also the power of social media in informing and influencing opinion. Media’s role in promoting the protection of human rights in many international arenas is as important as ever.”
Kevin Donohue Chair of Irish Labour Youth said:
“Growing up in Dublin it would be impossible to hide from the social inequalities that exist. Particularly, today the real challenging issue of homelessness and inadequate housing needs tackled head on. I believe that the fight for civil rights – is just as relevant today as it was then. It’s a fight that needs fought right across our island and in every corner of it. All of us have a role to play- and as illustrated by the fight for equal marriage here in the South, collective action can bring change.”
