Posted by admin on March 22, 2013
The revolutionary alternative?
Republican Network for Unity (RNU) has outlined its opposition to the Good Friday Agreement after announcing that it will field candidates in future local elections throughout Ireland.
At a media event in Belfast, the small republican socialist party launched a position paper on the peace process, entitled ‘Standing Outside the Peace Process’. The following is an abridged version of that paper.
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Where hope met history?
The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 was marketed to the Irish people as the Panacea between war and peace. Designed in the hangover of a long, vicious and bitter conflict between Republicanism and the British state, its advocates claimed it was the only alternative to a horrible war which had touched almost every family in the six counties and many beyond that.
The real and bitter suffering endured by so many as a result of that conflict – from actual loss of life and liberty, to the long list of other negative legacies which arise from a long war – made selling the GFA to the people much easier and in particular to the republican and nationalist community, in which there was little or no debate as to the long term political merits of the Agreement itself.
State directed Loyalist death squads such as the LVF and UFF still hovered menacingly over the Catholic community in the years during which the GFA was designed. This spectre of random sectarian murder reminded the Catholic community that a heavy price could be extracted from them, should republicans continue to pursue revolutionary goals in their name.
In practice, the threat from these state sponsored killer gangs along with the continued presence of the British army and RUC provided a deadly coercive influence which made acceptance of the GFA vitally important to the average Catholic/Nationalist voter in 1998.
When packaged as a vote for peace there was little doubt that the nationalist population would tick the box marked Yes , and following strong lobbying from both Sinn Fein and the SDLP, this is precisely what happened.
This same dynamic existed at the time of the Anglo Irish treaty in 1922, when Britain evoked the threat of immediate and terrible war in a bid to coerce the people into voting in a way they saw fit.
There was no option for Irish unity on the ballot papers, and if there had been it would hardly have mattered as the outcome of the northern vote [pre- Determined as it was by partition itself] held supreme, regardless of what the rest of the Island wished for.
In this way, the Good Friday Referenda were in reality a continuation of the old partitionist dynamics of the early 1920s, made possible by the same gerrymandered voting arrangements and the same threat of British/Loyalist violence, as had been practiced many decades earlier.
Irish history had merely came full circle and found itself back at square one, bar a series of reformist and cosmetic gestures designed to smooth the transition of the IRA into a constitutional movement, entirely absorbed into Sinn Fein structures.
Given that the [once revolutionary] Provisional leadership had by this stage, committed itself to constitutional politics alone, there was little to be gained by them from criticising the internal workings of the Agreement itself.
Furthermore, the failure of Republican negotiators to provide basic safeguards for former combatants and prisoners in the GFA raises questions as to just how far they were willing to turn their backs on activists amongst their own ranks, (not to mention future political
prisoners) in the pursuit of political ambition.
Good Friday even provided for the imprisonment of its own supporters, as was later seen in the case of Sinn Fein representative Gerry McGeough, who upon voicing disapproval at his former party s support for the PSNI found himself arrested and imprisoned for actions he undertook decades earlier in a time of war.
Many other former republican prisoners have had their release licences revoked in response to voicing or acting in a fashion critical of the Good Friday Agreement, and in effect hundreds of former POWs are today being held as hostages of their own conscience as a result, fearful of being returned to Gaol should they resume revolutionary politics.
And if Sinn Fein could get things so wrong on the welfare of Republican prisoners, then the question must be asked, did they get it wrong on the constitutional issue also?
The virtual internment of its political opponents today along with the coercion of the wider Nationalist population in 1998 shows just how counter revolutionary a settlement the GFA actually was.
However, it is its many other aspects and dynamics which also dispel utterly, claims that the Good Friday Agreement could be used as a vehicle to deliver credible republican aspirations, and which explain why true revolutionaries, Irish republican socialists can have no truck with it.
Inherently Sectarian, Inherently Partitionist, Inherently Capitalist
Despite being marketed as the key to ending sectarian conflict in Ireland, the GFA is in fact a sectarian settlement, with sectarian values at its heart and a guaranteed sectarian outcome if it remains the only vision for political progress in Ireland.
From its internal clauses regarding parity of esteem to the constitutional out workings and daily running of its Stormont executive, the entire world view of the GFA presumes and supports a view of Irish society in which Sectarian divisions are inevitable and even natural.
RNU, as revolutionary republican socialists, as followers of Tone and McCracken, reject this two communities vision, which the GFA enshrines as the cultural and social model around which we should base our future.
We reject the notion that historical discrimination practiced upon the Catholics of the north, can or should be crudely addressed by simply pointing to the lot of the protestant working class and demanding the same for our side , as is proposed by supporters of the GFA.
This eschewed view of equality creates only mistrust and deliberately lowers working class aspirations; it is exploited by the rich who take comfort in working class division and postpones the day when protestant & catholic workers unite in a true common struggle.
That is in the national and class struggle to secure for the working class of Ireland the ownership of Ireland and all its resources to be used for the common good.
In this sense we are truly anti-sectarian, we don t seek equality between two communities , we seek to destroy sectarian distinctions altogether in the course of struggle to achieve a New Ireland. This places us apart from the pro- GFA parties, whose values accept sectarian division and see them as inevitable, regardless of what they claim to profess.
We seek to create a united Irish working class, united not within a national or communal identity but in common purpose for progressive human gain. Stormont and British politicians, as well as the Capitalist business elite here, recognise the benefits of maintaining sectarian divisions within our communities.
They see that divisions within our ranks serve their financial and political interests, and they therefore place little importance on ending them.
We need only point to the example of the 1932 cross community outdoor relief riots to emphasise the revolutionary potential of protestant and catholic working class communities rising above the identity brackets assigned to them by church and state here.
And when we consider the potent results of this real example of class unity, then we can fully understand why the powers that be have little interest in allowing true unity happen today; why they allow sectarianism to continue, in the form of the Good Friday Agreement.
Politicians understand that it is much easier to implement Anti-Working class cuts, such as the Welfare Reform Bill or merely to deny workers basic rights and conditions, if the working class base sees itself as divided into two hostile factions incapable of uniting in common cause.
This dividing factor was used by the Orange boss class and the Catholic Church for hundreds of years here, and its negative influence continues today via the workings of the GFA.
We should all at this point ask ourselves the serious question, are we really committed to the Revolutionary Republican Socialist path?
Why stand outside the Peace Process ?
Although they are well meaning, some principled Republicans still campaign solely on the issue of Brits Out while being neutral on the economic question; others are unashamed advocates of Capitalism. This position is a non-starter as it is at best doomed to perpetuate failures of the past and at worst, take us to oblivion.
If some are not committed to the revolutionary path – and merely wish to return (solely) to the war politics of the past – then there is no reason to expect that the lure of the economic incentives mentioned above (which did compromise republican leaderships) could not take their toll on them too in future decades.
If that was to be the case, then they would be as well backing the Sinn Fein electoral strategy now instead of later, indeed that is point Sinn Fein spokespeople are making, when they mislead the public by asking RNU to debate with them.
Those of us who do stand Outside the Peace Process do so with good reason, yet we should be aware of those reasons, so as not be lured into similar processes in the future.
The Revolutionary Alternative?
Revolutionary Republicans stand by the belief that the struggle for National Liberation and Socialism should be practiced hand in hand, that the liberators of Ireland will be the working class and that it will be within a duel struggle for control of the National territory and the Means of production that a worthy freedom will eventually be achieved.
Such a process would take place on our terms (not Britain’s) but would require the challenging of both communal sectarian identities (green and
orange) as well as of capitalist economic priorities in Ireland, cross border though they may be.
In conclusion therefore; RNU view the so called Peace Process as in fact inherently sectarian, inherently partitionist and inherently capitalist, promoting ultimately communal division, a continuation of British rule and the dominance of a greedy capitalist class who care little for the economic wellbeing or welfare of the Irish people north or south.
We on the other hand, intend to propose a programme of Revolutionary Republicanism, the encouragement of the Irish working class to pursue a Free Socialist Republic, via all available means of struggle. Not for nationalist or emotional reasons, but for practical and humane reasons and as part of the progressive struggle for control of Irish resources, to be worked for the welfare and future integrity of all our people.
We believe such a path to be the true republican & non-sectarian path, the route towards healing our Nation, and freeing it from Imperial and colonial evils; from corruption, poverty and privilege, instead taking us towards true Irish freedom.
Posted by Jim on
There are renewed hopes for the undocumented Irish in the US after President Barack Obama made positive comments on the issue at the annual St Patrick’s Day shamrock ceremony in Washington.
Amid a new wave of Irish emigration, pressure has grown to allow an estimated 50,000 Irish in the US work and travel normally.
‘Illegal’ Irish emigrants are unable to visit family back in Ireland and live in fear of sudden deportation.
Speaking at Washington’s official St Patrick’s Day shamrock ceremony on Tuesday night, the president said the Irish were an example of why the US required a new immigration system that “works for families and businesses and our economy.”
He said that the achievement of the many Irish in America pointed to the need “to build an immigration system for the 21st century.”
26-County Taoiseach Enda Kenny gave the traditional gift of shamrock in a custom-made crystal bowl to the US president, Mr Obama’s fifth annual St Patrick’s Day reception.
Mr Kenny referred to Ireland’s economic troubles, a frequent theme in his public comments in the US. “We’ve still a long way to go,” said the Taoiseach.
Mr Obama praised the help shown by the Irish to help the residents of Breezy Point in New York, one of the worst areas hit by Hurricane Sandy last year.
“New York has been very good to the Irish; now the Irish are giving back to New York,” he said.
The event was attended by several hundred people, including the Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore, the North’s First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.
A delegation from Sinn Fein earlier met new US Secretary of State John Kerry and senior State Department officials.
The Sinn Fein delegation included party leader Gerry Adams, deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Fein U.S. representative Rita O’Hare, and party press officer Richard McAuley.
“The meeting with Secretary Kerry was very positive and constructive,”
said Adams.
“The US Secretary of State has had a long involvement with the Irish peace process. Next month marks the 15th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
“This morning I raised with Secretary Kerry our concerns around outstanding issues arising from the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements, including a bill of rights for the North; Acht na Gaeilge and a border poll.
“We also discussed a range of other matters including the need for an economic dividend and the continued imprisonment of Marian Price and Martin Corey.
“Our conversation also included the recent violence around the flags issue and the serious problems posed by sectarianism and segregation.”
Posted by Jim on March 18, 2013
By Brian Feeney (for Irish News)
Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson are in Sao Paulo behind a display of George Best memorabilia, all smiles for the photographers. It won’t do. Everyone here and a lot of people in Brazil know they are conducting a charade at vast public expense. They are like a married couple who maintain a facade for the neighbours but live separate lives inside their own house.
Do they imagine for a second that journalists in Brazil are incapable of telling people the truth about the frozen wasteland at Stormont? In these days of internet and instant communication do they not realise that anyone with the least interest in investing here can see on TV or laptop the images of flag-waving unionists rioting and petrol-bombing police, the most recent occurring as the posing pair jetted off?
Besides, the number of Portuguese and Brazilians living and working in the Dungannon district are more than capable of telling their relatives and friends what’s really going on here.
The whole expensive delusion in Brazil is nothing more than an extension of the political fraud that is going on up at Stormont where nothing is going on. There isn’t enough business to keep the assembly occupied for three days a week, though that hasn’t stopped members – apart from the SDLP – awarding themselves a £5,000-a-year pay rise. We’re going to be treated to regular Brazilian updates as the first minister and the deputy first minister swan around fooling no-one as they pretend everything is rosy in the garden.
It’s a lot more serious than the failure to have anything of substance processed through the seized machinery at Stormont. The behaviour of unionists in the past six months has been appalling.
It began publicly last summer with almost every elected unionist in Belfast, including, disgracefully, First Minister Robinson, repudiating the Parades Commission and thereby implicitly endorsing so-called loyal orders who intended to ignore the Parades Commission rulings.
In December unionists called their cannon fodder out on the streets in spurious protests about flags, leading to attempted murder of police, death threats, millions of pounds lost to business and only reluctantly advised people to stop protests long after the damage had been done.
Many unionist elected representatives participated in the protests and some played a very ambivalent role among violent rioters.
At the bottom of these disgraceful performances lies a deceit propounded by unionists – principally that their ‘Britishness’, which they have been unable to define, is being chipped away, that their values, again undefined, are in danger.
It is disgusting that unionist leaders mislead people so brazenly. They know that the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) ratified by Dublin and London and by a referendum, guarantees their rights as British citizens just as it guarantees people’s Irishness or their right to be both if they wish.
They know also there can be no change in the position of the north without consent of a majority. Yet they dishonestly feed the fears of the mobs blocking roads and attacking police.
What is true is that the DUP never subscribed to the Good Friday Agreement and insisted on having its own version, the St Andrews Agreement. However, they know full well that St Andrews is a mere codicil to the Good Friday Agreement and a fig leaf to enable Paisley to become first minister. Again, misleadingly, DUP figures claim St Andrews is all there is and repudiate all the guarantees of rights and diversity contained in the GFA which is the best deal unionists ever got.
Why do they repudiate these rights, duties and obligations? There are two reasons, both unworthy. One is that if they accept them, it means the other side, them’uns, have to get them too. The other reason, and on the DUP’s record the more likely, is that it doesn’t believe it can or should make any agreement with Sinn Fein until Sinn Fein repents and apologises for the past 40 years. Unionism is blameless.
It’s another way of trying to avoid living on equal terms with the rest of the people in the north which is fundamentally what all the flag-waving and rioting is about. McGuinness and Robinson should stay at home until they’ve got that sorted out.
Posted by Jim on March 14, 2013
By Matthew Bunson senior correspondent for Our Sunday Visitor as it appeared in the NY Daily News Mar. 14th, 2013
There were more than 6,000 accredited journalists in Rome watching a narrow smokestack protruding from the roof of the Sistine Chapel for signs of white or black smoke.
And every rooftop was packed with reporters craning for a view.
There was a profound contradiction in all of this, of course. The media that decamped in Rome was the same powerful megaphone that claims the Catholic Church is not relevant in a modern world.
“Do the Popes matter?” English writer Peter Hebblethwaite asked a generation ago — the question is with us anew.
The answer? The Pope matters.
And he matters not just to the 1.2 billion Catholics who will call him the Vicar of Christ.
The head of the Catholic Church — now known to the world as Pope Francis — oversees the world’s largest charitable effort, feeding millions, caring for the homeless and providing medical care for literally hundreds of millions.
Despite the recent travails of the church, the Pope is still viewed almost universally as a voice for peace, justice and human dignity at a time when the planet confronts thundering drumbeats of war and new crises caused by transnational capitalism, fast-moving globalization and profound ethical questions raised by advances in science and medicine.
Francis’ writings and homilies will provoke study and also criticism — but they will be read. And a pilgrim Pope like Paul VI or especially John Paul II will take his presence and his teachings to the corners of the globe.
Francis will have a voice in the great debates of our time, and even those who disagree with him will nevertheless be unable to dismiss him.
The Pope still matters. Anyone who doubts that only needed to look at the rooftops of Rome.
Posted by Jim on March 12, 2013
ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANS
BREHON LAW SOCIETY
IRISH AMERICAN UNITY CONFERENCE
TO: All Concerned and Interested Individuals
FROM: Brendan Moore (AOH President); Thomas J Burke (IAUC President)
Robert Dunne (Brehon Law Society President)
RE: Advocate ending A. G. Holder enforcement of British subpoena of Boston College Irish
records
DATE: March 4, 2013
The struggle against the British misuse of the U. S. Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) is coming to a close. We need you now more than ever to stand up to this injustice. If we don’t win the legal battle or this political battle, America’slaws will have been ignored and citizens will be threatened. The next, and possibly last, legal hurdle will be the acceptance or rejectionof the Writ of Certiorari by the Supreme Court as early as April. We now need a full court press on A. G. Holder, Sec. of State Kerry and Senator Menendez .
PLEASE MAKE PHONE CALLS TO ALL OF THE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS OVER THE NEXT TWO WEEKS UNTIL YOU GET THE LETTER FROM THEM OR THEY DECLINE TO DO SO. CALLS TO SECRETARY KERRY SHOULD REMIND HIM OF LETTER TO CLINTON OBJECTING TO THIS. CALLS TO A. G. HOLDER SHOULD URGE REJECTION OF THE SUBPOENA ENFORCEMENT (SEE 10 Reasons etc).
Phone calls are mandatory to reflect a seriousness of purpose and to identify a contact and e-mail. These leaders were selected not because of a constituency but because of their status as members of Senate Foreign Relations, House Foreign Affairs or Irish-American leaders. All of them have received at least three letters and numerous commentary from us. If you know of a constituent who would also make a phone call that is helpful but it is not necessary. We are making this appeal for their action as members making national policy .
Please remember this is an American issue. The British are corrupting American laws for a political purpose in an attempt to undermine the Irish peace process. The British deceived American officials over this subpoena and over their commitment to the Belfast Agreement. The British would have American’s betray American values of truth and justice to serve their own selfish, arrogant and sinister purposes. Don’t let them get away with it.
If you need anything, please let us know. Action is needed now. For info contact: saoirse64@hotmail.com
KEY SENATE CONTACT PHONE CALLS FOR LETTERS
TO SEC OF STATE , A. G. HOLDER TO STOP BC SUBPOENAS
& TO SEN MENENDEZ FOR HEARING REQUEST ON MLAT
D. C. OFFICE DIST. OFFICE
MASS. SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN d 202-224-4543 617-565-3170
MASS. SENATOR WILLIAM COWAN d 202-224-2742 617-565-8519
NEW YORK SENATOR GILLIBRAND a 202-228-0282 212-688-6262 ELANA BROITMAN
NEW YORK SENATOR CHARLES SCHUMER a 202-228-3027 212-486-4430 MARTIN BRENNAN
CONN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL d 202-224-2823 860-258-6940
CONN. CHRISTOPHER MURPHYc, d 202-224-4041 860-549-8463
MARYLAND BEN CARDIN a 202-224-4524 301-860-0414
NEW HAMPSHIRE JEANNE SHAHEEN c 202-224-2841 603-647-7500 CHAD KREIKEMEIR
NEW JERSEY FRANK LAUTENBERG a 202-224-3224 973- 639-8700
NEW JERSEY ROBERT MENENDEZ a, c 202-224-4744 973-645-3030 JODI HERMAN
DAN O”BRIEN
PA. ROBERT CASEY a, c 202-224-6324 570-941-0930DAMIAN MURPHY
PA. PATRICK TOOMEY a 202-224-4254 215-241-1090
CA. BARBARA BOXER d, c202-224-3553 510-286-8537
ILL. RICHARD DURBIN d, c 202-224-2152 312-353-4952
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
U. S. DEPT. OF STATE SEC. JOHN KERRY 202-647-5291
202-647-2972 DAVID MCKEAN
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER 202-514 -3892 GARY GRINDLER
KEY HOUSE REPRESENTATIVES TO CONTACT
MASS. RICHARD NEAL a 202-225-5601 413-785-0325 BILL TRANGHESE
MASS. JOSEPH KENNEDY III d, b 202-225-5931 617-332-3333
NEW YORK ELIOT ENGEL d,b 202–225-2464 914-699-4100 JASON STEINBAUM
NEW YORK JOE CROWLEY a202- 225-3965 718-779-1400
NEW JERSEY ALBIO SIRESa, b202-225-7919 201-823-2900
NEW JERSEY CHRISTOPHER SMITH d,b 202-225-3765 609-585-7878 MARK MILOSOCH
MARY NOONAN
a= sent ltr to Clinton/Holder SENATE FOREIGN RELATION COMMITTEE—202-224-4651
b= member House Foreign Affairs HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE— 202-225-5021
c= member Senate Foreign Relations
d= no previous ltr to Clinton/Holder