Stormont elections – a mandate for British rule

Posted by Jim on April 30, 2016

Sean Bresnahan looks at the upcoming elections in the North. Sean
Bresnahan is a member of the Thomas Ashe Society in Omagh and National
PRO of the 1916 Societies.

With yet another election in the Six Counties around the corner it’s
worth stepping back and looking at its purpose in context. The reality
is that all of the goings on around this election are nothing more than
the meaningless outworkings of a game within a game, with ringmaster
Britain pulling the strings from above, as ever in control of us all.
The only game that matters is the one she plays and she plays alone with
the rest of us mere pawns. That is the real context to this election.

It is a simple fact proven over and over, borne out by a record eighteen
years in the making, that none of those standing – whether parties,
Independents or whoever – should they get to Stormont will make the
slightest difference to the lives of people in West Tyrone, Derry City,
Belfast, Mid-Ulster or anywhere else. The system, with Stormont merely
its regional hub, ensures otherwise as the real power lies elsewhere,
with Stormont no more than a well-paid, glorified Council.

The place and its record of delivery are a farce. Yet bizarrely,
everyone still dances to the same tune come election time – which in
reality is the British tune. People would be far better served if they
refused to vote in this election and brought the turnout below 50
percent. That, and the ‘crisis of legitimacy’ it would herald, would
represent a much bigger statement and a far greater challenge to the
status quo than anything that might come from the foolish notion we can
somehow change the system from within.

The truth is that what we need in Ireland at this moment are not more
pantomime elections – that do no more than uphold that same status quo –
but a fresh start, where the people of this country are finally granted
control of their own destiny in a reconstituted All-Ireland Republic.
Stormont and its elections serve to frustrate that end and there is no
root to the Republic through Stormont or its Border Poll. Indeed the
reality is that Stormont is a bulwark to prevent the Republic being
realised.

Its reputation could not be lower and with savage austerity and cuts to
every budget conceivable ahead the likelihood is that this will only
worsen – and considerably. Were the incoming Assembly to have a mandate
from less than half of those on the six-county register that would have
serious repercussions on its ability to push through its attacks on
ordinary people. There would be a clear lack of support from the people
it purports to govern for policies to be implemented on behalf of their
masters in London.

The mind then boggles as to why some republicans believe it worthwhile
to run candidates to Stormont through the backdoor. Worse though is the
pretence it’s not happening or that they’re somehow not involved. Their
dodging aside, can they not see they will help no cause here only the
British cause – which is to entrench British rule in Ireland and bolster
its perceived legitimacy? Whether they know it or not they are already
on the road to doom. We should be careful they don’t take us with them.

Rather than encourage people to ‘play the game’ and participate in this
farce we should embrace instead a revolutionary analysis. Rather than
give legitimacy to this useless and utterly servile institution we
should instead be doing all in our power to undermine and expose it, in
the process empowering our own institutions which proceed from the
people themselves. These alone are what will serve us, as will no doubt
be required, in the looming battle against corporate finance and its
impending assault on us all.

Where republicanism should be, coming into this election, is not with
those set on propping up the failing Stormont Assembly, its crumbling,
undemocratic ‘mandate’ with it, but set on empowering a grassroots
alternative capable of impacting on power and realising meaningful
change in our country. We will never expose the facade of Stormont rule,
which is British rule from behind, by helping prop up its collapsing
mandate. That is what all intent on the Irish Republic should understand
– now and not tomorrow or after this election. By then it will be too
late.