As the process of selecting candidates to run in next years local elections gathers pace, the state funded NGOs are cranking up their demand that “elected representatives must reflect the community they serve.” This is the burden of the just-published Toolkit for candidates from a Migrant Background, and today’s related launch of The Migrant Vote.
The content of the ‘toolkit’ is unremarkable. It contains nothing that a short Google search would not reveal other than the token references to the implied “racism” evident in the fact that people newly arrived in Ireland unjustly fail to be selected, or if selected to be elected.
This despite the obviously strenuous efforts by all the establishment parties to promote trophy candidates, particularly those of African background – the document refers specifically to “the lack of black people” – and often by means of co-option rather than having to undergo the indignity of standing in an election and getting enough votes.
The clear intent of this NGO campaign is to pressure the establishment parties to run migrant candidates and it is apparent that which party a migrant joins and runs for is pretty much irrelevant. This rather contradicts the impression sometimes given that migrant communities ought to seamlessly integrate into the native community. Two of the authors of the report would appear to be sympathetic to the left so it is not as though they are agnostic on such matters.
In the politics of left liberal intersectionality, race and ethnicity trump all. Of course, any party which stressed the need for candidates to be white, Jewish, Baptist, German, Hindu, male, business owners and whatever else that is not within the intersectional toolkit are, to say the least, frowned upon. Classification of people by race and ethnicity has a rather poor history, one which the racial left appears strikingly ignorant.
What is more interesting about this campaign is not so much the predictably inane content and that you will be force fed the line by the establishment over the next 12 months, but the fact that it is part of the taxpayer funded NGO sector. The report itself is funded by the Irish Research Council, under its New Foundations programme.
Now, as far as I know, the original intent of the IRC was to fund post graduate research. How then this glossy publication – which if funded under the ‘Enhancing Civic Society’ rubric was entitled to funding of €12,000 – qualifies as anything fit to be adjudged by the sort of standards expected by a post graduate research applicant is surely questionable.
Its other two sponsors are Dublin City University and the Immigrant Council of Ireland. Yet another example of the incestuous cross pollination and mutual wetting of beaks in the bottomless swirling bowl of your money that funds all these adventures. One of the co-authors of the pamphlet is Valesca Lima who just happens to be assistant professor of Political Science at DCU. Another is Proma Ray Choudbury who was awarded a doctorate from DCU.
A third is Teresa Buczkowska who is one of the stars of the migrant sector. While none of them turn up their noses at the opportunities that have arisen from “helping” Ukrainians, Buczkowska is one of those who have tut tutted over the implied “racism” of their preferential treatment.
If there was such a thing as an NGO Queen, then Buczkowska would be one of the royalty for sure. Since arriving in Ireland to help us to become more diverse and tolerant, she has held leading positions in several branches of the migrant sector. These have included the Immigrant Council of Ireland which is part of the current gig.
She has also been appointed to the Arts Council, presumably because she is also an artist. She is also a fellow of the rather mysterious Social Change Initiative which has an impressive “global reach.”
Social Change Initiative is massively funded although it does not appear to be registered a charity in the Republic of Ireland. Among its foundation donors are Atlantic Philanthropies, Unbound, Oak, and the Human Dignity Foundation. Atlantic is the multi billion leftist foundation created by Chuck Feeney. Unbound is associated with the Soros Open Society group and funds Democratic Party campaigns in the United States. Oak is the fruit of former hedge fund operator Alan Parker. Human Dignity was founded by John Climax the founder of clinical trials giant Icon.
These are strange partners of people who clearly identify themselves with the left such as Buczkowska who has tweeted her support for the anti-government left in her native Poland.
The nexus with the American Democratic Party is also evident, as it has been both in the key role of former minister and Democratic Party member Katherine Zappone in sponsoring pro abortion and other leftist activism here, as well as the strong influence which that party has had on the development of Sinn Féin since the 1990s.
Buczkowska was recently part of a course held at the Universities of Chicago and Columbia, New York, as one of a group of “rising leaders” from around the world selected by the Obama Foundation. The objective of the scholarship programme is to teach participants how to “work with governments, organizations, businesses, and communities to create tangible solutions to real-world issues.”
God be with the days when such an association with a former Running Dog of American Imperialism would have been anathema to anyone on the Left, including those like Teresa and Social Change who have tweeted their homage to Saul Alinskey’s “Rules for Radicals.”
It also makes the claim by Buczkowska and others on the Irish NGO left that they “may not have a formal structure of support” look frankly risible.
How many people seriously claiming to be “radicals” of any description are funded by billionaires, given scholarships by American Presidents, and regard “Hillz” as some kind of role model?
