Oppression leads to Resistance

Once again we have seen the failure of the GFA with the death of Ronan Kerr a member of the British colonial police force. These failures of normalising British rule have been there to see since the endorsement of the British institutions by former comrades. Black propaganda against Republicans has been in full swing since the succesful operation against Mr Kerr, using words and phrases such as murder and attack on the community.

What Community is these attacks on I ask.

As long as British involvement remains in any part of this island there will be men women and youths resisting it. To say this is an attack on the community is blatant lies and plays to the agenda by the parties sitting in Stormont. The nationalist and Republican people in the occupied six counties have been on the receiving end of intimidation and kept under siege by this unionist militia for long enough.

We in Republican Sinn Fein Dublin commend the volunteers who risked their lives and their liberty while on this operation.

END

Easter 2011

Dublin Republican Sinn Fein will be remembering the Easter rebellion of 1916 at Glasnvevin cemetery Easter Monday. Assembling at Glasnevin gates at 2pm then marching in.

Life springs from death; and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations. The Defenders of this Realm have worked well in secret and in the open. They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools! — they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace

Ard Fheis 19th /February / 2011

On the 19th of february  Republican Sinn Fein held there Ard Fheis where a new leadership was elected. Positions will be listed on this site in Due Course.

RSF Call to oppose visit of Queen

A call has been made on the people of Kerry to unite
in protest against the visit of the Queen of England by
Republican Sinn Fein.

John Sheehy, from Clounmacon, Listowel, the local
RSF chairman said that the Queen of England is the
commander in chief of the British armed forces still
occupying part of Ireland.

The fact is she represents a monarchy that has inflicted
hundreds of years of repression on the Irish people from
the Penal Laws to the famine, from the execution of the 1916
Easter Rising leaders, to the atrocities of the Black and
Tans, right up to the deaths of the 1981 hunger strikers.

The Queen of England should not be treated as just any
head of state on a formal visit here.  Her armed forces still
occupy the Six Counties and while Ireland is partitioned,
and that division is enforced by the British presence she
should not be made welcome here.

The fact that Trustees of Muckross House issued an
invitation to the Queen to Kerry must be condemned.  It
would a far better exercise if they visited some of the Famine
graves in Kerry and gained an appreciation of the role British
royalty played in Irish affairs.

We are calling on the people of Kerry to oppose this visit and
to show their disapproval of the role played by the British
monarchy in the history of Ireland.

(Ends)
Issued on Monday 7th March 2011

BARON ADAMS MAY FACE CONSTITUTIONAL CRUX

The formation of the new 26 County Administration government
in Dublin will have a major constitutional challenge as one of those
elected also holds a British title and this is prohibited, a spokesman
for Republican Sinn Fein said today.

Sean O’Neill from Quinn’s Cottages, Prospect, in Limerick a local
activist representing RSF said that the Provisional TD Gerry Adams
holds a British title he accepted on his resignation from the British
Westminster Parliament.

The fact is an Irish citizen is forbidden from holding a British
title and at the same time to sit in the seat of power of the
Dublin Administration.

It is now time for Baron Adams TD to clarify his position in
relation to the British title. Far from his claim of bringing
a united Ireland closer, his election has simply brought a
British title into Leinster House.

This normalisation of British rule in Ireland must be
opposed by all true Republicans because it is an
outcome of the Stormont Agreement.

The fact is the Stormont Agreement will not bring about
a united Ireland as it makes conflicting promises to
both communities involved.

Baron Adams may lead an increased representation for
his party in the Dublin Administration but there is no
way it is going to advance the ideal of a united Ireland.

(Ends)
Issued on Monday 28th February 2011

1916 Proclamation

 POBLACHT NA H-ÉIREANN
THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT

OF THE

IRISH REPUBLIC
TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND

IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom. Having organised and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and through her open military organisations, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes that moment, and supported by her exiled children in America and by gallant allies in Europe, but relying in the first on her own strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory.
We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations.
The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman. The Irish Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and all of its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien Government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.
Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment of a permanent National Government, representative of the whole people of Ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, the Provisional Government, hereby constituted, will administer the civil and military affairs of the Republic in trust for the people.
We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the Most High God, Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish Nation must, by its valour and discipline and the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called.

Signed on behalf of the Provisional Government

Tomás Ó Cléirigh
Seán Mac Diarmada      Tomás Mac Donncha
Pádraig Mac Piarais      Seosamh Pluincéad
Séamas Ó Conghaile      Eamonn Ceannt

SAOL NUA -- A new way of life

                          

The Real Alternative A New Vision of Ireland

Éire Nua -- A New Democracy is the title of the SINN FÉIN Poblachtach Programme for a New Federal Ireland which would provide for four Provincial Parliaments and the maximum measure of local participatory democracy. This structure would replace the two states created in Ireland in 1922 as part of the English 'settlement of the Irish problem'. Éire Nua would ensure that every citizen of Ireland could participate in a new and genuine democracy.

New structures in a free Ireland would not of themselves bring about a just social and economic order, but they would make it possible to introduce progressive policies which would lead to the social, cultural and economic emancipation of all the Irish people.

Any realistic assessment of the results of partition government in Ireland will show that the arrangement has been a failure. The failure of the Six-County state is perhaps more obvious and certainly more widely acknowledged. The 26-County state has also been a failure, insofar as it has manifestly failed to provide a living, in decent comfort, for all its citizens.

The system of colonial capitalism, which decimated the Irish population under the Act of Union of 1800, still operates in Ireland. For nine decades of the twentieth century, one out of every two persons born in Ireland was forced to emigrate. Those who remained experienced unemployment rates of up to 20% in the 26 Counties and 15% in the Six Counties at various times.

Even during the period of the Celtic Tiger, one in every four households and one in every five people in the 26 Counties were living in poverty. These figures are from Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) data and are based on the ESRI 50% poverty line. This poverty line, which is used in many European studies, is a line which is half average income, adjusted for family size and composition. On this basis, the ESRI figures show a substantial increase in poverty between 1987 and 2000.

The gap between rich and poor continues to widen and the social consequences of this alienation and degradation are tangible and widespread.
The United Nations Human Development Report, launched in Dublin in July 2003, contains some shocking statistics for the 26 Counties:

• 9.3% of those born today are not expected to survive the age of 60;
• 22.6% of adults lack functional literary skills;
• 12.3% live below the poverty line, as defined by the UN.

This means that the 26 County State is second only to the United States as being the most unequal society in what is known as the Developed World, that is second worst out of 17 countries. The ‘United Kingdom’, which includes the Six Counties, is ranked fifteenth. Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands have the lowest levels of poverty.

Membership of the EU since 1973 has served to accelerate the forces of transnational capitalism which leave Ireland in such a debilitated condition. The new closer political union envisaged for the EU will result in the Irish people having even less control of their own affairs and we shall be treated as a mere 'region' by the economic planners who serve the interests of big business and the transnational companies.

The substantial increase in employment opportunities which came with the Celtic Tiger was brought about by the arrival of EU structural funds and the encouragement of foreign, mainly US, capital investment by reducing tax on corporate profits. A lot of the new employment is in low-paid service jobs. A significant price has been and will be paid for this strategy. Irish sea fisheries have already been decimated by the fleets of other EU states and tens of thousands of farmers have been driven off the land. Indigenous industry has been neglected. Housing accommodation is outrageously expensive. The tax base has been narrowed in such a way that our spending on social Protection Expenditure has become the lowest in the EU. This expenditure includes spending on health care, unemployment, disability, old age, family/children and initiatives to deal with social exclusion.

The advent of the Euro currency has deprived us of one of the pillars of national sovereignty, a national currency and the right to set our own interest and exchange rates. All of these developments place us in a precarious position whenever the foreign capitalists begin to pull out and locate elsewhere in the world wherever they can find cheaper labour.

All of this free movement of capital has produced a real danger that the Irish banking system will fall completely into foreign ownership. The collapse of the Soviet system in eastern Europe does not at all signal the triumph of capitalism or market economies. Both systems have been centralising, impersonal, unecological and unethical. They have been disabling for millions of people, by making them dependent and they have been destructive of the earth and its resources. The high-consumption, high-pollution lifestyles of the rich countries are based on the exploitation of the poorer nations and are now also hopelessly unsustainable.

Free-rein transnational capitalism is a denial of true democracy, is outside of any democratic control, is predatory and dehumanising, and has not served the interests of the majority of people. The pursuit of endless economic 'growth', ever more centralised and undemocratic, as within the EU, must be replaced by a completely new decentralised and humane system.

Sinn Féin Poblachtach sees conventional economies as an unsustainable discipline which must be subordinated to social, environmental, ethical and spiritual values.

                               Decentralised and humane system

We need a new system of economies which would put human beings and human development before the interests of finance and maximisation of profits. Major changes are now needed in order to promote the true long-term interests of people and social justice. We need to create a new vision of the Ireland we want, lay our plans accordingly and give our people a sense of direction and purpose.

It is apposite to recall here the prophetic words of the Irish patriot, James Connolly: "If you remove the English army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist Republic your efforts would be in vain.

"England would still rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs.

"England would still rule you to your ruin, even while your lips offered hypocritical homage at the shrine of that Freedom whose cause you had betrayed."

James Connolly and Patrick Pearse died but the system they sought to change continues in existence to this very day. This system has forced 2,000,000 Irish people to emigrate since 1916.

Here in this document Sinn Féin Poblachtach seeks to outline the principal elements of its Social and Economic Programme. We are of a firm belief that a continuation of the present system, whether on the basis of the partition arrangement or in some form of united Ireland, within or without the EU, cannot bring about the human, social and economic development which would promote freedom, equality, justice and the happiness of each community and each individual person in it.

Centuries of colonialism and decades of high emigration and unemployment have produced a psychology of defeatism in Ireland. To accept these problems as inevitable is to lower our standards of national achievement. The politicians who advocate closer integration into the EU see this body as a mere mechanism of escape from their own ineptitude and failures.

Something new, based on a set of human values and on policies designed to promote these values, is needed. These values and policies are outlined below, and indicate the road to a new society in Ireland - Saol Nua.

ORIGIN OF SAOL NUA

The November 1991 Ard-Fheis of SINN FÉIN Poblachtach instructed the incoming Ard-Chomhairle to develop a new Social and Economic Programme for the organization.
The Ard-Chomhairle, at meetings in early 1992 drafted Saol Nua and in July sent it to all Cumainn.
The November, 1992 Ard-Fheis adopted the Programme with some amendments.
Saol Nua – a new way of life, represents a vision of Ireland based on Republican, Socialist, Self-reliance and Ecological principles. The basic values are the foundation on which Saol Nua is built.
At the request of the 2002 Ard-Fheis, the Programme was updated in 2003.

NA BUN-LUACHANNA

The basic values
of a New Society
in Ireland

Power to the people

A concern for people, their welfare, well-being and happiness and a desire to cherish all the children of the nation equally. Every person is entitled to have his or her inherent human dignity respected and every citizen should be able to enjoy freedom from poverty or insecurity and to have access to a fair and adequate share of the nation's wealth. All citizens should be equal before the law and all have the duty and the right to contribute by work to their own welfare and the welfare of society.

We guarantee equality to all citizens regardless of race, colour, religion, ethnic or national origins, sexual orientation or gender.

A sense of the importance of pluralism in Ireland, and respect for the different traditions within the nation and a guarantee of freedom of expression, religion and philosophical opinion. We are committed to complete separation of church and state.

A recognition that human dignity requires the promotion of self-reliance in individuals, families and communities, on the basis of social justice. This involves reducing the extent to which so many people have been made dependent on the state, employers or financial operators.

A belief in a social and economic system which would develop the capability of people to take greater control of their lives. People have a right to shape the decisions which affect them. Both economics and technology should not be regarded as value-free, but should serve people by enabling them to become more productive and lead more satisfying and fulfilling lives. Over-emphasis on material 'needs' or wants has led to many social problems, greed and corruption.

A conviction that a fuller participatory democracy should replace the inadequate and abused system of representative democracy. This democracy would include economic democracy. Local worker/producer-owned cooperatives and community enterprises would be encouraged and developed. Local economic autonomy and self-sufficiency would be promoted and people would be encouraged to organise themselves and run their own affairs without recourse to the big cities or politicians.

A desire to see the nation organised as a community of communities, with Liberty, Equality and Justice for all citizens, and an approach to economic life and thought which would include qualitative values and ethical choice.

An understanding that most of the earth's resources are finite and that they must be used in a manner which is non-wasteful and sustainable. This means that waste and pollution are to be avoided and the environment protected and that resources should be available to all, including future generations.

A belief in the value of cultural and national identity and the need to conserve, promote and develop the Irish language as the distinctive central core of that Irish identity. This will change the present cultural dependency on England and the United States.

A realisation of the need for a comprehensive system of education for all children and continuing education for adults. The quality of people's lives depends greatly on their education, which, for the young should be child-centred and for adults should be community-centred, with an appropriate balance between academic and technical education, and a commitment at all times to equity for women within the education system.

A firm conviction of the necessity of national sovereignty and of the right to strive to achieve and uphold this sovereignty. Democracy can best function in a meaningful way at local and national levels. Within the national community there is sufficient solidarity, mutual identification and mutuality of interest among people to induce minorities to agree freely to majority rule. Thus there is a shared citizenship, allegiance to a common government and a willingness to finance that government's tax and income transfer system. The solidarities which exist within nations do not exist between them. Multinational federations are unstable, artificial and repressive entities. Such federations like the USSR and Yugoslavia have come apart in recent times and many nation-states have come into existence. It behoves all Democrats and Socialists to work to defend the nation-states from transnational capital.

The Republican and Democratic aims and principles of the 1916 Proclamation and of the First Dáil Éireann, 1919 inspire and guide us in our efforts to bring a lasting peace with justice to all the Irish people.
A sense that we all have a common identity as human beings, as members of the great family of peoples. We wish to play our role in this wider world community as internationalists, on the basis of equality and respect for the rights of others. In particular, we would wish to eliminate the kinds of inter-national trade and international debt that impoverish the peoples of the Third World. We advocate neutrality in respect to military alliances and power blocs and we feel a sense of solidarity with all peoples who are struggling for freedom and justice.

Truth, honesty, and justice should be the hallmarks of all our endeavours.

LONG-TERM POLICY

People come first

The welfare and well-being of all, meeting the real needs of human nature . . . not merely satisfying the wants created by the consumer society.

It is a fundamental conviction of Sinn Féin Poblachtach that people come first, that all Social and Economic policy should serve the interests of people. We know that in Ireland today vast fortunes are made and enjoyed by a small, select class of people, mainly from the ranks of politicians, (with their numerous expenses, pensions, etc), financiers, business people, property developers and media gurus. This 'state class' is part of an international set which directs, operates or facilitates capital, both Irish and transnational. Their interests prevail over those of the ordinary people.

Meanwhile, family farms are being eliminated and the rural economy is collapsing. There is a lot of real poverty, inadequate health and education services and increasing unemployment as foreign capitalists pull out of Ireland. This in turn produces grave social problems and personal misery for thousands of individuals and families. Emigration, the safety-valve which let politicians off the hook for generations, could well return.

To work is a natural thing for people. Every person is entitled to an opportunity to use his or her talent in meaningful, satisfying and productive work. A lot of lip-service is paid to the importance of our human resources. But quick-fix solutions, based on a sell-out of national sovereignty, natural resources and national identity is a poor substitute for developing our own resources according to the needs of our own people.
It is surely not beyond the ingenuity of people to organise society in a way which provides for the welfare and well-being of all. Provision of work opportunities should be a primary objective of any radical programme, and radical steps are necessary. One fundamental of such a programme is that there should be a discernible shift of emphasis. We need to develop a lifestyle which puts material things in their proper place, which is secondary, not primary. Such a lifestyle would give first place to the real needs of human nature and would be compatible with the living nature around us and with the finite resources of the earth.

The 'haves' may well be a greater problem than the 'have nots', because in the lifestyle of the acquisitive consumer society they move from one material 'fix' to the next, the second automobile, the second holiday, the yacht, the villa in Spain, etc. Meanwhile, those who have nothing to sell but their labour are in the weakest position of all, marginalised to the fringes of society, with many of them condemned to long-term unemployment. The escalating crime rate is one of the inevitable social problems which result from this national scandal.

Those who operate this system have devised measures of economic success which are quantitative rather than qualitative. This explains how Ireland had for years economic “growth” and rising unemployment at the same time. It is refreshing to note that the UN Development Programme Report for 1990 concluded that 'the link between economic growth and human progress is not automatic.'
The economic growth of recent years has been based on production and consumption, the consumer society, and has been achieved at the expense of many positive values. In financial terms, it has enriched the elite and left the majority relatively worse off. Selfishness and individualism are replacing the old Irish traditions of neighbourliness and social responsibility.

In this regard, two quotations from commentators are significant:
“Ours is a time of patented locks, burglar alarms, barbed-wire fences, neighbourhood watch and vigilantes.” – Zygmunt Banman in “Globalisation: The Human Consequences” (1998).
“A regime which provides human beings no deep reasons to care about one another cannot long preserve its legitimacy.” – Richard Sennett in “The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism: (1998).

In ÉIRE NUA we commented that those who operate the partition system of government in Ireland are hardly likely to change it and that they have now become themselves part of the problem. We can now add that in the social and economic spheres those who pursue careers and survival in politics, finance, administration and business are prisoners of the power structure of today and are most unlikely to have the courage to face the reality that the system they operate is a failure.

Only Sinn Féin Poblachtach, which has consistently advocated a radical approach, and other citizens of independent minds are free to propose and promote an alternative.

Much of the criticism which we have levelled at the capitalist system applies to other countries also. But we in Ireland, because of our long experience of capitalist colonialism, have suffered in a particularly acute way. Further 'fixes' by way of giving more power to the EU technocrats will bring a change from dependency on London to dependency on Brussels and will not solve our problems. Indeed, it will accelerate the very forces which have brought us to the wretched condition in which we are today. A new radical approach is needed, based on a different set of values and criteria.

We are not unaware that there is grave disquiet in other countries also, both developed and developing, arising especially from the terrible waste of resources, pollution of the atmosphere, chemical farming and the dehumanising results of high technology. Many people are coming to realise that the survival of the human race and the planet itself is being put in jeopardy.

The Constitution of Sinn Féin Poblachtach declares that we seek to create a Federal Democratic Socialist Republic in Ireland. The democratic structures outlined in ÉIRE NUA would be supplemented by a social and economic system which would seek to make it possible for every citizen to own an economic unit of production. It is only in small, distinct and comprehensible groups that people can be themselves and achieve self-esteem, dignity and fulfillment. The Irish Comhar na gComharsan is an example of the kind of local or community development in which each worker owns a unit of production.

THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS

Each district, region
and province
as self-sufficient
as possible

SINN FÉIN Poblachtach considers that the following are essential elements of the Democratic Socialist system which we propose: The unresolved national question is a running sore which constitutes an obstacle to the achievement of peace with justice in Ireland. This issue must be confronted and resolved as a matter of urgency. See ÉIRE NUA -- A New Democracy and Towards a Peaceful Ireland. Finance, Banking and all key industries must be brought under public, democratic or social control, and the scope and extent of local community banking, like the Credit Unions, should be extended, so as to serve the needs of local people. Social control of capital is essential, to ensure that capital serves people, rather than people being the slaves of capital; to achieve wider capital ownership; to promote balanced development and an equitable distribution of wealth. Money must be regarded, not as a commodity, but as an accounting system in which all participate.


The enormous politicians' debt, known as the 'national debt' was accumulated by the politicians to finance a succession of 'fixes' and keep the electorate on their side. Borrowing massive sums in order to live on an overdraft was an act of national treachery. Sinn Féin Poblachtach does not consider that the Irish people are morally accountable for repaying this debt. Serious consideration should be given to writing off this millstone around the necks of the Irish people. At the very least, a moratorium should be declared and the debt recycled. Ireland is a country which possesses many natural resources, land, fisheries, minerals, climate, etc. These must be developed in a sustainable, non-polluting manner. Economic development requires motivation, know-how, capital, outlets and markets.

There is a demand at home and markets abroad for natural food with taste. Ireland is ideally positioned to take advantage of this and a whole new agrarian reform, based on both private farms and cooperatives, particularly organic farming, could be based on such a development with many new jobs being created in production, processing and distribution.

Since one of our basic values is to enable people to look after themselves, to be self-reliant, and communities to be as self-sufficient as possible, Sinn Féin Poblachtach would plan for considerable investment in intermediate technology, as being particularly suited to Ireland's needs. Modern high technology serves an efficient system of production and consumption, and in this system labour is just a factor of production. Furthermore, high technology is generally capital-intensive, energy-intensive, adding to urban congestion and pollution and maximising waste. It dehumanises work, creates dependency on a large scale and alienates people because it diminishes their power to influence their economic and social environment. Indeed, this technology seeks more and more to achieve production without people at all.

The industrial revolution took work out of the home workshop into the factory and town; intermediate and alternative technology can bring much of it back again, and give people back their dignity.
The economic and social development model we propose would make each district, region and province in Ireland as self-sufficient as possible. The countryside, towns and villages and the city communities would be revitalised and each area would have its own network of industries and services.
It will be necessary to design new measures of economic success, because the terms 'economic growth', 'GNP' and 'standard of living' are now inadequate as indicators of economic well-being. They ignore, for example, the contribution of voluntary workers, and of thousands of mothers and men and women who choose to work in the home, all of whom make a substantial contribution to the economy, through the informal domestic and local community sector. Some more valid indicator of human need, such as 'quality of life' is needed.
There should be an Incomes Policy which would guarantee all adult citizens a basic minimum income, to be paid to all, including the unemployed and men or women working in the home.

Taxes should be progressive and redistributive and should be levied on wealth, legacies, waste and pollution and should encourage the efficient use and fair distribution and conservation of scarce resources, especially energy. A tax on land, urban as well as rural, would encourage efficient land use; make it easier for more people to own some land; bring home ownership within the reach of more people; help to redistribute wealth; and would encourage the rapid development of urban waste sites.

In general, there should be a shift from taxing labour to taxing land and capital, and from taxing people for what they put into the economy by useful work to taxing what they take out of it by use of resources, especially scarce energy resources.

A comprehensive national health service will be provided for all citizens, with an increased emphasis on education for healthy lifestyles.

The present two-tier health service, with long waiting lists, is an affront to dignity and justice. An enabling and conserving economy will free people from a lot of social and environmental hazards and stresses, such as unemployment and pollution. We shall seek to eliminate poverty and injustice and ensure that all have adequate food, shelter, education and a healthy environment in which to work. We seek to provide unqualified access to a comprehensive system of family planning and childbirth facilities.

Childcare must be shared as an equal responsibility between both parents and as a responsibility of society as a whole. Parents, whether single or in partnership, should not be restricted in their choice of working, either in the home or outside, due to lack of childcare facilities. It shall be the responsibility of the state to provide full-time childcare centres and crèches.

Sinn Féin Poblachtach will institute an education system which will provide for the development of the whole person and all his/her faculties and abilities; will enable people to fulfil their needs for self-esteem and self-fulfilment; and will develop their capacities to manage their own lives and contribute to the well-being of the community. We shall aim to improve the quality of both academic and technical education. the contribution of both women and men should be equally represented in the curriculum. We shall not allow church or any other single control of the education system.


Many of the high-technology enterprises are multinational companies which are the modern equivalent of the absentee landlords, and the modern clearances are ordered from boardrooms in distant lands. The high-exporting multinational corporations which have located in Ireland are neo-colonial in nature. They have not integrated with the rest of the economy and send up to 80 per cent of their profits abroad.

Alternative structures and alternative technologies are needed which will enable people to control their own work, conserve resources and protect the environment. Such alternatives are generally small or medium in scale, decentralised, relatively cheap so as to be generally accessible and compatible with people's need for creativity. Their social benefits are considerable. Local small-scale enterprise will also provide more work than centralised automated industry.

We are not alone in advocating such a change in direction, as many thinkers, both in Europe and further afield are coming to the conclusion that this is the essential step which is necessary to reverse rural decay and the breakdown of social life generally.

This is not a return to the last century or even to the 1930's, but a policy for a positive development of technology such as has already been achieved with success in other countries including communities in the US and Canada. The modern personal computer is an example of advanced, inexpensive equipment for small-scale productive work. Similar material is available for food growing and processing, textiles, and a wide range of maintenance work and in many other areas of work.

The intellectual challenge which faces us after centuries of colonialism is enormous and the education system should help every citizen to develop a mature ability to perceive, to think, to analyse and to set about solving problems in an organised and disciplined way.

A programme to develop a sense of moral responsibility and promote social ethics will be included in the curriculum for all children.

A programme will also be included in the curriculum to promote equality between men and women, thus combatting sexism and stereotyping in children and adults. Continuing education will be made available for adults in all parts of the country.

A system of National Service or Community Service will be established as an extension of the education system. The purpose of this service will be to develop in all young people a sense of personal and social or community identity, and to enable them to become useful and responsible citizens.

The service will be of twelve months' duration and could be done in two or three modules. It will include work at local, provincial and national levels. It would consist of community service, of which many types would be available, or it could be a combination of two or three different elements. It will be obligatory for young adults to have completed their service by the age of 21.

In all instances the youth of Ireland would do useful work as a contribution to improving our society and would derive personal satisfaction and development from it as part of their preparation for an independent and responsible adult life.

We shall establish equality of opportunity as between men and women, particularly by defining policies to give legal expression to women's rights and by changing inherited negative attitudes towards women. The values and assumptions which underpin the capitalist society are over-masculine, materialistic and aggressive. Women and their values have for too long been marginalised as part of a dependency culture. Our view of society is different.

Women and all they can contribute should be brought back into the mainstream of decision-making in society. Positive action will be needed to ensure equality for women in all spheres of Irish life, and society as a whole will benefit enormously from this.

A comprehensive network of public transport will be established in all parts of Ireland. The emphasis will be on access - to work, home, shops, schools, hospitals, rather than on an ever-increasing mobility. The network will seek to provide a reasonable frequency of comfortable transport for people on the basis of value for money and energy conservation.

As much freight as possible will be carried by rail. The encouragement of local self-sufficiency and the development of intermediate technology will reduce the transport element which increases the cost to the consumer of many goods.

We believe that no healthy society can disown the essence of its own identity. Sinn Féin Poblachtach will therefore plan for the development and reinvigoration of our distinctive Irish identity, particularly the Irish language, which is central to that identity. Leadership, good example, improved teaching methods and a full radio and television service in Irish are essential to achieve success and ensure that the language becomes once more the everyday language of the majority of the Irish people.

An independent foreign policy and a policy of neutrality as regards military blocs and alliances will be maintained. Just and fair trading relationships will be established with the EU and other countries world-wide, on a basis of mutual interests.

THE NATION IS A COMMUNITY OF COMMUNITIES

Our vision of a new type of society in Ireland clearly differs from the whole thrust of EU policy which subjects us to the collective interests of the major West European power centres. Despite some recent successes by Green parties in various countries and some EU legislation on the environment, conventional transnational capitalism, more and more centralised, and consuming vast resources, constitutes the basis of the EU and its policies.
It is difficult to avoid the decision that ultimately, in order to develop Ireland in accordance with our Basic Values, it will be necessary to seek a new arrangement, apart from full membership, with the EU. Furthermore, we do not agree with the rigging of the conditions of trade against the developing countries, which is based on domination and creates dependency.
We consider that each generation of the human race, in its turn, is the custodian of the Earth. The human family has a duty to protect, conserve and nurture the earth and to live in a fashion which will provide for further generations. Sinn Féin Poblachtach will welcome any international initiative to construct a new, sustainable and caring world economy which would recognise the rights of all nations and peoples. We feel that Ireland, as a nation which has experienced colonialism within Europe could make a special contribution to this work.
Our democratic socialist viewpoint makes us call into question the role of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other global institutions. Seven rich, high-consumption, high-pollution countries, the USA, France, Britain, Italy, Japan, Germany, Canada and Russia, under the umbrella of G8, have far too much influence over world development and trade. The economics they practice condemn millions of people to poverty and even threaten the extinction of life on the planet. The word 'economics' comes from the Greek and originally meant 'managing the household'. It is time the household of all humankind was managed in an equitable manner, based on democracy and sustainable, non-damaging development.
In the democratic society which we seek to establish the structures of both political and economic life will be of critical importance. The proposed political structures are outlined in ÉIRE NUA, and are based on the principle of subsidiarity. The nation is a community of communities and each local community will have its measure of autonomy and people will be informed and involved in decisions. This will bring out the commitment which is the prerequisite of progress.

We do not seek to abolish private property, but we do reiterate the declaration in the Democratic Programme of the first Dáil Éireann in 1919 that 'all right to private property must be subordinated to the public right and welfare'.
Conventional economics is based on materialistic values, centralisation and economies of scale, and ignores the social and environmental costs involved in both capitalist-style and soviet-style development. A quotation from one of the most influential economists of the twentieth century, Maynard Keynes, is revealing:
'For at least another hundred years we must pretend to ourselves and to everyone that fair is foul and foul is fair, for foul is useful and fair is not. Avarice and usury and precaution must be our gods for a little longer still. For only they can lead us out of the tunnel of economic necessity into daylight.'
Keynes was speaking during the depression of 1930, but his assertion that ethical considerations are a hindrance to economic growth can now be assessed sixty years later.
What society has now reached the daylight? More than half the world has too little, we know. But where are the rich societies who say they have enough? Certainly not the G8. They still want more and try to brainwash the poorer countries into believing that they too can one day have the same lifestyle of 'avarice and usury'.
In achieving their dominance the G8 and others are stripping the world of its endowment of resources from fossil fuels to tropical forests, and through the multinational corporations have created dependency on a large scale.

Nominally independent former colonies throughout the world, some with great resources, contain within them millions of people who live in poverty, like those who inhabit the shanty towns of South America. This is because they, like us, have suffered capitalist colonialism. (We would have the same level of destitution were it not for our emigration). They are still being exploited economically by the colonial masters, though the neo-colonialism by economics is more subtle. The only way out of this is by a bold programme of new style economics such as we advocate for Ireland. We were ourselves colonised within Europe and are a mixture of First and Third World economies.

A REAL AND SANE ALTERNATIVE

Small enterprises,
worker/producer-owned
co-operatives
and regional development

A Self-Reliant Socialism

Our view of economics is different and we have outlined the salient elements of it in this document. For us people come first and we would shift the emphasis from 'growth' to sufficiency, from dependence of people to self-reliance and self-expression. Organisations should exist for people, instead of people being for organisations.
Our society is fast becoming a two-class society. A minority of privileged people exists and they are not necessarily the idle rich. Many managers and professionals work exceedingly hard and often suffer from stress. Side by side with them there is a dependent majority of consumers, many poor and idle, but all lacking power, except where the Trade Unions lobby on their behalf.
Another eminent economist, J.K. Galbraith, referring to the United States of America spoke of 'private affluence and public squalor'. This exists in a country where six per cent of the population of the world consumes 40 per cent of global resources, and where poverty and crime still blight millions of lives. This is the model which we seek to replace with a saner and more humane one.
Greater democracy in economic affairs and personal fulfillment will be achieved through small enterprises, worker/producer-owned cooperatives and regional development. Many social benefits will flow from small-scale organisation. People will feel that they belong, they will behave more responsibly and will contribute their own personal initiative.

The mass of the people must be involved in this social, economic and national reconstruction, based on a different set of values. Already some large, more impersonal enterprises have discovered that where the workforce is organised into small teams with which people can identify, the workers get much more satisfaction from and give more to their work. There is no reason why the local and regional authorities (ÉIRE NUA) cannot become agents of social and economic development throughout Ireland as well as the provincial and national parliaments.
Sinn Féin Poblachtach will ensure that the role of the multinational corporations is limited in Ireland; that the commanding heights of the economy are brought under democratic control; that indigenous industry is promoted; and that democratic legal structures are put in place to promote worker/producer-owned cooperatives. Such enterprises can be organised and made to flourish in agriculture, manufacturing, fishing, distribution, housing and banking.


There are enlightened and progressive forces at work in many other countries which are seeking to bring about this kind of transformation of society and we are not being unduly idealistic or isolationist in proposing such an approach.
Ultimately, we are all our brothers' and sisters' keepers. By promoting self-reliance and community effort we shall be promoting a life-style which will be more simple, but which will also be more satisfying and even sophisticated, with more emphasis on leisure and cultural interests.
Technologies like information processing will increase the human possibilities for development without in any way damaging the environment.
More and more commentators are coming to realise that protection of the environment not only goes hand in hand with economic performance but is also becoming the driving force for the development of new markets. Ireland is, for instance, in a unique position in Europe to take advantage of the market for the produce of organic farming. A whole series of industries could also be built around fishing and forestry.

A PROGRAMME OF IMMEDIATE ACTION

SINN FÉIN Poblachtach is aware that it is a long way from achieving its objectives, yet it feels it has a duty to outline an alternative to the present failed patchwork system.
In order to organise the Irish people in a demand for a new deal Sinn Féin Poblachtach will involve itself forthwith in a programme of action at the very points where the existing system operates most severely to the detriment of the community.
These issues will include:

• Opposing EU/EPU/EMU proposals which conflict with the interests of the Irish people.
• Organising against repression, extradition and restrictions on the broadcasting media, in both the 26 Counties and the Six Counties.
• Contesting 26-County local elections and elections to Údarás na Gaeltachta.
• Involving ourselves in local and community issues. 
• Supporting local autonomy, including local financing.
• Encouraging and promoting cooperative enterprises.
• Working to protect the environment and encouraging the recycling of waste and opposing incineration.
• Informing the people, young people and the unemployed in particular, about our alternative to the existing system.
• Developing and promoting our monthly publication, SAOIRSE.
• Supporting consumer rights and exposing the politicians' system of clientelism.
• Campaigning against unfair banking practices and supporting involvement in local Credit Unions.
• Supporting the campaign to maintain and extend the television service in Irish.
• Supporting a housing campaign and working against evictions.
• Working for and among the unemployed and emigrants.
• Involving ourselves in Trade Union activity in support of workers' rights and seeking to interest organised labour in our alternative programme.
• Campaigning against speculation in land for housing and essential services. Supporting demands that the principle, that the price of building land be based on the price of agricultural land plus 25%, be adopted and implemented. 

“Economic development is something much wider and deeper than economics, let alone econometrics. Its roots lie outside the economic sphere, in education, organisation, discipline, and, beyond that, in political independence and a national consciousness of self-reliance. It cannot be 'produced' by skilful grafting operations carried out by foreign technicians or an indigenous elite that has lost contact with the ordinary people. It can succeed only if it is carried forward as a broad, popular 'movement of reconstruction' with primary emphasis on the full utilisation of the drive, enthusiasm, intelligence, and labour power of everyone. Success cannot be obtained by some form of magic produced by scientists, technicians, or economic planners. It can come only through a process of growth involving the education, organisation, and discipline of the whole population. Anything less than this must end in failure.' 'What is the meaning of democracy, freedom, human dignity, standard of living, self-reliance, fulfillment? Is it a matter of goods, or of people? Of course it is a matter of people. But people can be themselves only in small comprehensible groups. Therefore we must learn to think in terms of an articulated structure that can cope with a multiplicity of small-scale units. If economic thinking cannot grasp this it is useless. If it cannot get beyond its vast abstractions, the national income, the rate of growth, capital/output ratio, input/output analysis, labour mobility, capital accumulation; if it cannot get beyond all this and make contact with the human realities of poverty, frustration, alienation, despair, breakdown, crime, escapism, stress, congestion, ugliness, and spiritual death, then let us scrap economies and start afresh. Are there not indeed enough 'signs of the times' to indicate that a new start is needed?”
-- EF Schumacher in SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL

Dr EF Schumacher, economist and journalist was born in Germany, lived in many countries, studied in Oxford and taught in Columbia University, New York. He is well- known for his appraisal of western economic attitudes, clearly expressed in his best- selling book Small is Beautiful. This was first published in 1973 and has since been reprinted 31 times. He died in 1977.

Fritz Schumacher was greatly interested in the developing third world countries but declared that the developed countries also had major problems. He saw modern society as greedy, inefficient, inhumane and unecological, and he called for a complete reorientation of values.
He saw a looming crisis of oil shortages, environmental destruction, dehumanised organisation of life and work and growing unemployment, all resulting in alienation and massive social problems. He, more than any other person, launched the idea of an intermediate technology.

'Modern technology,' he said, 'has become increasingly violent. Violence is not just a matter of one person hitting another person over the head, it is employing violent means. We have this in agriculture, where we scatter around very violent chemicals, we call them pesticides, which means killer substances.'
He advocated the creation of life-styles and technologies on a human scale which are low-cost, sparing in their use of resources, non-violent towards nature, and, therefore, unsustainable.
There are Intermediate Technology groups and Schumacher Societies in many countries today, promoting this man's ideas. Their emphasis is in smaller working units, communal ownership and regional workplaces utilising local labour and resources. As the man himself said: 'We need economics as if people mattered.'

From Éire Nua -- A New Democracy: DRAFT CHARTER OF RIGHTS
We the people of Ireland are resolved to establish political sovereignty, to secure human justice and social progress in this island, to achieve a better life for all, and henceforth to live in peace with one another. And so we declare our adherence to the following principles:

Article 1. Every citizen is born free and equal and shares the same inherent human dignity. Everyone is entitled to the rights of citizenship without distinction as to race, sex religion, philosophical conviction, language or political outlook.
Article 2. Every citizen has the right to life, liberty, and security of person. No-one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest of detention.
Article 3. Every citizen has the right to freedom of conscience, to free choice and practice of religion, and to the free and open teaching of ethical and political beliefs. This includes the rights to freedom of assembly, the right to peaceable association, the right to petition, and the right to freedom of expression and communication.
Article 4. Every citizen has the right to participate in the government of the country, and to equal access to its public service.
Article 5. The basis of government is the will of the people. This is expressed in direct participatory democracy and free elections by secret ballot. The right of every citizen to follow his or her conscience, and to express his or her personal opinion, stands against any demographically contrived attempt at repression.
Article 6. Every citizen has the right to education according to personal ability, the right to work, and the right to a standard of living worthy of a free human being. This right extends to food, housing and medical care, and to security against unemployment, illness, and disability.
Article 7. Every citizen has the right to marry and found a family. Mothers, children, the aged and infirm deserve the nation's particular care and attention.
Article 8. Every citizen has the right to equal pay for equal work, and the right to join a trade union for the protection of workers' collective interests, and these rights must be acknowledged by all employers.
Article 9. In the exercise of their rights, citizens shall be subject only to such constraints as may be necessary to ensure recognition and respect for the rights of others and the welfare of the larger community.

Eire Nua Document

 

A New Beginning

Ireland in its national experience is unique in western Europe. The country's history as a colony of England has left its mark on Irish political, social, economic and cultural life. 

 

Though the Ireland we have inherited has all kinds of resources and great potential for national achievement, it is far from realising that potential. Ireland is marked by underdevelopment, unemployment, emigration, poverty on a large scale, and a huge national debt. These problems, serious enough in themselves, are magnified by the continuing conflict in the Six Counties, which also has its origins in Ireland's colonial history.

 

A realistic assessment of Ireland's condition in 2000 shows that we have enormous problems, two failed states, and a political system that perpetuates our plight. One great obstacle to changing all that is our lack of hope. Another major obstacle is the slave mentality engendered in many of our people by centuries of conquest. 

Yet the ideal of an independent Irish republic -- the ideal proclaimed by the leaders of the 1916 Rising 80 years ago -- still inspires those who continue the struggle for national unity and freedom. From the wellsprings of that ideal we can draw hope, inspiration and determination to forge a New Ireland -- making a new beginning, based on sound principles and a realistic plan, through the Éire Nua programme. 

This programme can be our instrument to build a sound future for our nation. The programme embraces all the people of Ireland; it provides for a system in which all creeds and traditions can be represented and all citizens can exercise real power, without any group infringing on the rights of others. The alternative to the forging of a New Ireland is to endure the present affliction -- perhaps in the blind hope that our politicians and their EU friends will somehow magically find ways to transform our present debilitated, impoverished and undemocratic society into a nation that is strong, prosperous and democratic. But what makes that a wholly unrealistic expectation is that these politicians, the system they sponsor, and the policies they sustain and operate, are themselves at the core of the problem that confronts us. We know from bitter experience that Ireland has no real future under the direction of such politicians.

The system of partition government in Ireland has been maintained since 1922, and since 1973 under the growing influence of the EU. It is an inescapable fact, on the supreme test of results, that this system has failed. It is time to think of radical change. 

The Éire Nua programme provides for a strong provincial and local government in a federation of the four provinces, designed to ensure that every citizen can participate in genuinely democratic self-government, and to guarantee that no group can dominate or exploit another. Under this programme all traditions in Ireland can make a valuable contribution to the nation. The programme and its structures will make it possible to bring together all the positive forces in the country. Éire Nua will provide the basis for implementing progressive social, economic and cultural policies. 

Like other peoples, the Irish have their virtues as well as their faults. Irish men and women have made their mark throughout the world in many fields of endeavour. They have contributed in great measure to the development of America, Canada, Australia, and other countries. The Rising of 1916 and the Irish War of Independence inspired whole nations, particularly in Africa and Asia, to throw off the yoke of colonial oppression. In the light of these achievements, and of the spectacular recent advances of national rights and democracy in eastern Europe, it is tragic that the shackles still binding Ireland to its colonial past have prevented us from developing our nationhood. 

So we must work to liberate the Irish people and establish a democratic system, based on justice and equal rights -- to build Éire Nua: a New Ireland . In that Ireland, Irish people will begin to experience real power in their own communities, with those communities serving as the foundation for a modern, pluralist Irish republic. 

Introduction

Irish people have demonstrated a native talent for formulating unusually effective policies for government and social administration. We have seen this, for example, in the Brehon Laws, which were in force in Ireland from the eighth to the sixteenth century, and in the dramatic influence exercised by the emigrant Irish on the constitutions and politics of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Burma, and various African states.

 

The creative political genius of the Irish has flourished abroad; sadly the same cannot be said for Ireland itself, especially during the years since 1922.

 

There is an Irish nation which is based on an organised society and distinctive culture, with roots stretching back more than 1,500 years. This Irish nation has long endured invasion and colonisation by a more powerful neighbour. For more than 800 years the Irish people have heroically resisted this aggression and each generation handed on the torch of liberty to the next. Over the centuries the descendants of many of those who came as conquerors were assimilated and were accepted as Irish. Some of the Anglo-Norman families, for instance, became "more Irish than the Irish themselves" and have made an enormous contribution to Irish life, including the struggle for freedom. 

Irish Republicanism has its roots in the desire for separation from England and the right of the Irish people to the ownership and control of their own country.

Since the 1790s it has developed and evolved on the basis, not merely of separatism, but also of democracy and inclusivity based on the Rights of Man.

In the great Rising of 1798 large numbers of Protestants, Catholics and Dissenters fought side by side as United Irishmen to break the connection with England and establish an Irish Republic. That effort to achieve freedom and equality was brutally suppressed and the Act of Union creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was enacted in 1800. Throughout the nineteenth century it was a deliberate policy of English governments to cultivate loyalty to the Crown as well as bigotry and Orangeism among the mass of the Protestant people. They found allies also among some of the emerging Catholic professional and merchant classes. The unionists of Ulster (nine Counties) were allowed to exercise a veto over the demand of the majority of the Irish people for Home Rule and later for an Irish Republic. 

From 1798 on the Republican non-sectarian position was resolutely maintained by men and women of vision and courage. The Irish Republic proclaimed in arms in 1916 was endorsed by a solid majority vote of the Irish people in 1918 and the first Dáil Éireann, embracing all 32 Counties, was established in 1919. England's response was to declare the Irish parliament illegal and to unleash forces of terror on the Irish people and their institutions. 

The Republic guaranteed "religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens . . . cherishing all the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past" (1916 Proclamation).

From 1916 to 1921 the Irish Republic was stoutly defended against English forces and a civil administration was organised. Under threat of "immediate and terrible war" and with the compliance of a section of the Republican Movement, Ireland was partitioned and Ulster was divided in 1921-22. 

The legal instrument used to achieve this was the Westminster Government of Ireland Act 1920. The two States which exist in Ireland today date from that time. The Six-County State was created by arbitrarily dividing the historic province of Ulster, based on a sectarian head-count, designed to produce a permanent unionist majority within the 'United Kingdom' -- now "of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". Thus was the Irish Republic proclaimed in 1916 and democratically endorsed in 1918 overthrown and two Partition States established to supplant it.

As we enter the twenty-first century, Ireland is a divided country. Six counties, containing nearly one-third of the total population of Ireland, are under an English administration whose power in Ireland is maintained by heavily armed forces of occupation. These two Partition States have been marked by emigration, poverty and economic imbalance over the decades since 1922. Normal democracy has been impossible in the artificial Six-County State. Political instability and repressive laws, a paramilitary police force, gerrymandering of electoral boundaries and discrimination in employment and housing have all been used to ensure that this part of Ireland remains within the 'United Kingdom'.

During the many centuries of English rule Ireland was administered as an integral political unit. In 1918, in the last all-Ireland election, the Irish people voted overwhelmingly for the political unity and sovereignty of Ireland. The rejection of unionism by the vast majority of Irish people is again clearly shown in the map, based on the results of the 1997 Six-County local elections.

A failed arrangement

The failure of the Partition arrangement is evident from nearly eighty years of "the nationalist nightmare" in the north-east -- occupation, repression, thought control, economic stagnation and emigration and from the British government's abolition of the Six-County Stormont parliament in 1972. Subsequent solutions, such as the 1973 Sunningdale Agreement and the 1985 Hillsborough Agreement, have underlined the failure of Partition.

 

The current policy, based on the Belfast Agreement signed at Stormont on April 10, 1998, seeks to make the artificial Six-County State work within the 'UK' by an elaborate and convoluted system that has been labelled "power-sharing". Since this agreement did not address the basic problem of English rule in Ireland it was flawed from the start. It was sold to the electorate as a basis for a permanent peace, which it could not deliver. It was dishonest, in that it was sold to unionists as a deal to consolidate the union with England and simultaneously urged on nationalists as something which would weaken the union and lead to a united Ireland. And the unionist veto was endorsed, allowing 18% of the population of Ireland to dictate the political progress of the other 82% and therefore of the nation as a whole. As in the case of the Treaty of Surrender in 1921 this Agreement was put to the people as a question of war or peace. Accordingly it was not a free vote; also, a majority in the Six Counties was stated to be decisive for all Ireland. 

English rule in Ireland is an injustice, an infringement of Irish national sovereignty, which can be ended only by an administration in Westminster which decides to disengage and withdraw from Ireland. Anything less than such a disengagement will only prolong the political instability and lead inevitably to further armed resistance.

The 26-County State has cooperated in the deception of the Belfast Agreement and has thus sought to legitimise foreign rule in Ireland. Some 26-County politicians hanker after a return to membership of the British Commonwealth. In all of this they are aided and abetted by individuals of wealth and influence, and by some people in the media. These same politicians operate a "clientelist" system; public office is achieved and maintained by buying people's allegiance, trading favours for votes. Corruption in finance, politics and physical planning is rife and the resultant public cynicism has led to a decline in the exercise of the franchise by citizens who feel increasingly powerless.

This culture of corruption is a consequence, not merely of personal dishonesty on the part of certain individuals, but also of the highly centralised nature of the 26-County State, whereby decisions affecting the everyday life of communities are placed in the hands of an elite cadre of politicians and bureaucrats.

Enormous sums of money have been borrowed to perpetuate this system and this has created one of the highest per capita debts in the world. There has also been a deterioration in the Irish public services -- health, education and social welfare. Disillusion and frustration with the prevailing conditions have led in some sectors to a near-breakdown of social order, particularly among young people in urban areas. The Irish people deserve better government than this. They deserve leaders who are imbued with sound moral values and who are interested in genuine public service, rather than self-aggrandisement and power for the sake of power. Our long struggle for freedom provides us with endless examples of selfless men and women who dedicated their lives to the welfare of our people.

Cultural and economic consequences

These problems have been compounded by policies of cultural deprivation, with Irish identity and the Irish language deliberately downgraded. The only culture many young Irish people know is a commercialised Anglo-American pop culture, and they are denied access to any real knowledge of Ireland's long history of struggle for freedom. For years now the people of the 26 Counties have been paying more per capita for the maintenance of the Six-County Border than have the people of Britain. Yet the continued British presence in the North, and British influence in the South, have brought only tragedy and a scandalous waste of resources.

 

The Partition of Ireland led to a dissipation of scarce resources north and south. There has been no unified long-term capital investment in areas like energy, education, health and industry; there has been great duplication of expenditure. The impact of Partition on areas of Ireland along the British-imposed Border has been particularly injurious.

 

British systems of government and economic management, inappropriate for a country of our size and economic condition, have been slavishly perpetuated, north and south, since Partition. Other small countries in Europe, some with fewer natural resources than Ireland's, have made great economic strides in modern times, particularly since WWII, and have achieved high standards of living for their people. The unemployment, poverty and emigration the Irish have.

 experienced would be completely unacceptable in Sweden, Switzerland or Finland; they should also be unacceptable here.

EU membership

Our problems were magnified when both states were led into full membership of the so-called "European Community". Such membership was unsuited to a country at our early stage of economic development -- the result of Ireland's being a British colony for centuries. No modern nation has managed to bring itself from underdevelopment to full development in circumstances of unrestricted free trade -- a situation that in Ireland's case is compounded by continued foreign occupation.

 

Under the Act of Union of 1800 Ireland lost half its population and suffered dire poverty and stunted growth. In the early twentieth century Ireland attempted to break entirely with Britain; but under the Partition arrangement the malign influence of British power has persisted for nearly eighty years. This influence persists within the neo-colonial framework of the EU.

 

Since 1972, when we were promised "markets in Europe and jobs at home", native manufacturing industries, never designed to withstand competition from heavily bankrolled multinational European industries, have been shut down. EU agricultural policy has resulted in elimination of family farms, with detrimental social consequences for rural communities. 

Agricultural policy is almost totally dictated by Brussels. It has favoured the wealthier farmers and has even ordered Irish citizens to take some of their land out of production. So many have now left the land that schools and post offices are being closed down and some rural parishes even have difficulty in fielding a sporting team. This has all undermined people's idea of self-sufficiency, and the resultant movement to urban areas has increased the culture of dependency, creating new problems in the towns and cities.

Sinn Féin Poblachtach regards the European Union, as it has developed and continues to develop, as a modern form of imperialism.

It serves the interests, above all, of big business and the super-rich. Corruption is rampant there also as we saw in 1999 when the whole EU Commission had to resign. It is undemocratic in its institutions and it is overcentralising; in this it runs counter to the Republican aims of increasing the democratic power of citizens and decentralising decision-making to manageable units where all citizens can participate in a meaningful way.

It is sometimes remarked that the EU has promoted progressive policies in Ireland, like equal pay for equal work and protection of the environment. These are steps which any Irish administration could have taken at any time. Our standards should be even higher than those imposed by Brussels. 

The Celtic Tiger economy has served to provide more jobs, but those who benefit most from it are those who are already rich. In recent years the gap between rich and poor has widened. There is more social exclusion and rates of real poverty and illiteracy are actually getting worse. A crisis in housing our people is with us.

Whatever economic improvements we have witnessed have been brought about by the transfer of structural and other funds by the EU and by the driving force in economic development which is based on encouraging multinational companies to locate in Ireland. This is not the solid foundation on which to build a national economy. 

Too many people have been left on the margins of society and a sub-culture of poverty has been generated. Economic development based on inward investment by multinational companies means that there is no indigenous input and there are no roots in the communities. The factors which sustain such an economy are totally beyond the control of the Irish people.

Sinn Féin Poblachtach recognises the enormous influence of modern technology, especially mass communications which have made the world smaller. We also recognise the interdependence of peoples and our duty to play a positive role in international affairs. But an over-emphasis on economic development, based on a rapacious exploitation of the world's finite resources and measured by growth in GNP, is inadequate. Recent United Nations Human Development Reports on Ireland have shown just how deficient such an approach is, resulting in social exclusion, poverty and illiteracy, which in turn denies many thousands of people the rights of full citizenship and leads to escalating crime. 

Both states in Ireland boast of increasing the number of police and building new prisons. The suicide rate has been growing at an alarming rate. These are hardly the signs of a healthy community. 

Ireland, with its historic experience of English colonisation and exploitation, has much in common with former European colonies in the Third World. We can best serve the interests of our own people and of humankind by maintaining a principled non-aligned stance in international affairs, avoiding military alliances and promoting the cancellation of Third World debt. Our democratic and egalitarian principles and our own long struggle for national independence should lead us to promote human rights and the liberation of people everywhere.

A new beginning

The following proposals indicate ways to remedy Ireland's weakened and wasted conditions and gradually bring the nation to its full health. These proposals aim to abolish the failed, undemocratic system of Partition rule, and to replace this with a democratic system based on the unity and sovereignty of the Irish people, as well as on their right as free citizens to equal treatment and equal opportunity. After decades of armed conflict and political turmoil -- and given the clear failure of the British-model systems now in operation to provide adequate and improving standards of living -- there is an obligation on all Irish people to work together to find a new, constructive way forward. Our nation is made up of diverse traditions, each of which can make a valuable and positive contribution to the community as a whole.

The structures which we propose are designed to embrace and include all the people of Ireland, on the basis of "cherishing all the children of the nation equally". Dáil Uladh and the regional and local structures in Ulster will ensure that both unionists and nationalists can have access to power -- real power.

A federal structure involves a sharing of sovereignty, and Dáil Uladh would have more power than the old Stormont ever had. Similarly in the other three provinces, all communities and citizens would have access to real power. 

What we seek to establish is a pluralist participative democracy with appropriate structures at every level in society. When the malign influence of Westminster rule is removed at last a New Ireland can be fashioned by the Irish people themselves, of all persuasions. A federal system, with strong regional and local government, will make it possible for unionists and nationalists to co-operate in the common interest, pooling the talents of all and working together to build a new and prosperous Ireland. 

As we enter the twenty-first century it is finally time for the Irish people to apply their undoubted creative genius, and the talent for government that they have so often demonstrated abroad, to the needs of the Irish nation at home. 

Proposed Governmental Structures

The object of Sinn Féin Poblachtach is to establish a new society in Ireland: Éire Nua. To achieve that, the structures of undemocratic partition rule must be abolished; they must be replaced with entirely new structures based on the unity of the Irish people as a whole. The new system would embody two main features:

1. a new constitution;
2. a new government structure.

A new constitution

The new constitution would provide for;

1. a Charter of Rights, to secure for citizens effective control of their conditions of living, subject to the common good;
2. a structure of government designed to provide the maximum distribution of authority at provincial and subsidiary level;
3. the right of Ireland to join international organisations -- eg the United Nations, the World Health Organisation -- so long as such organisations do not subvert Irish sovereignty or neutrality.

Draft Charter of Rights

We the people of Ireland are resolved to establish political sovereignty, to secure human justice and social progress in this island, to achieve a better life for all, and henceforth to live in peace with one another. And so we declare our adherence to the following principles:

• Article 1. Every citizen is born free and equal and shares the same inherent human dignity. Everyone is entitled to the rights of citizenship without distinction as to race, sex religion, philosophical conviction, language or political outlook. 

• Article 2. Every citizen has the right to life, liberty, and security of person. No-one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest of detention. 

• Article 3. Every citizen has the right to freedom of conscience, to free choice and practice of religion, and to the free and open teaching of ethical and political beliefs. This includes the rights to freedom of assembly, the right to peaceable association, the right to petition, and the right to freedom of expression and communication. 

• Article 4. Every citizen has the right to participate in the government of the country, and to equal access to its public service. 

• Article 5. The basis of government is the will of the people. This is expressed in direct participatory democracy and free elections by secret ballot. The right of every citizen to follow his or her conscience, and to express his or her personal opinion, stands against any demographically contrived attempt at repression. 

• Article 6. Every citizen has the right to education according to personal ability, the right to work, and the right to a standard of living worthy of a free human being. This right extends to food, housing and medical care, and to security against unemployment, illness, and disability. 

• Article 7. Every citizen has the right to marry and found a family. Mothers, children, the aged and infirm deserve the nation's particular care and attention. 

• Article 8. Every citizen has the right to equal pay for equal work, and the right to join a trade union for the protection of workers' collective interests, and these rights must be acknowledged by all employers. 

• Article 9. In the exercise of their rights, citizens shall be subject only to such constraints as may be necessary to ensure recognition and respect for the rights of others and the welfare of the larger community. 

Governmental structures

The system outlined here envisions a federation of the four provinces of Ireland under the co-ordination of a national parliament, with powers devolved through regional administrative councils to local bodies, so that at all levels citizens may have an effective voice in their own governance.

Dáil Éireann

The New Ireland will have a national parliament, to which all citizens of the thirty-two counties will give common allegiance, and which will embody the unity and sovereignty of the nation as a whole. This parliament -- a true Dáil Éireann -- will have the responsibility of protecting the nation's interests at home and abroad. All its actions will be governed by a constitution freely adopted by the majority of the people of the country.

Provincial government

Decentralised local government will be fundamental to the new system.

The four traditional provinces -- Ulster, Munster, Leinster, and Connacht -- have emerged as definite regions within the island of Ireland, with distinctive characteristics. Irish people in any region will be found to have a natural affinity -- in culture, sport and economic interest -- with those of their own province and county.

Uniting the historic province of Ulster will help eliminate the sectarian divisions of the past and realise the full potential for development of separated counties -- especially Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan, and Monaghan. The people of the long-neglected province of Connacht will find power to escape from their isolation. The people of the provinces of Leinster and Munster will be able to pursue policies that will secure them a more equitable and balanced form of development.

Regional boards

Regional boards will plan and oversee the economic, social and cultural development of areas within their jurisdiction. They will be served by secretariats employing modern means of administration while ensuring attention to and care for the problems of all the people of the region.

District councils

District councils will give people a direct voice in their own local governance, ensuring that their public representatives are more closely accountable to the electorate.

Community councils

Community councils will give people the opportunity to improve conditions at parish level.

It is proposed that -- to signify the beginning of a new era and the unity of the country around its geographic centre -- Athlone be made the capital city of the New Ireland.

National or federal parliament

The national parliament, Dáil Éireann -- which will also be a federal parliament in that it will be drawn from the federation of Ireland's four constituent provinces -- will consist of a single chamber of about a hundred deputies, elected 50 per cent by direct universal suffrage according to the proportional representation system and 50 per cent in equal numbers from each provincial parliament. Each deputy (TD) would represent about 25,000 voters. The precise figure would be based on the ratio between the density of population of an electoral district and its geographical area. 

Dáil Éireann will be representative of the whole of Ireland and elected by the suffrage of all its citizens. It will be the supreme national authority, acting in trust for the people. Its primary duty would be to uphold the Constitution and Charter of Rights adopted by the Irish people. 

The national parliament, Dáil Éireann, will have the following special responsibilities:

1. defending the nation, physically and politically;
2. upholding the interests of the Irish people, and representing their concern for other people, in any international forum;
3. formulating Irish foreign policy, maintaining Irish neutrality and independence from all power blocs, including the EU, and seeking to secure a nuclear-free world; and
4. protecting and promoting Irish culture, language and literature.

 

Functions of the national parliament:

1. the national parliament will control all powers and functions essential to the good of the nation;
2. the national parliament will elect a President, who will serve as both Prime Minister and head of state;
3. the national parliament will elect a Government, consisting of a limited number of ministers nominated by the President;
4. the national parliament will secure the independence of the Supreme Court and of the judicial system as guardian of the Constitution;
5. the national parliament will initiate national legislation, through any of the following agencies:

• its own deputies,
• the central Government,
• a provincial parliament, or
• an initiative; 

1. The national parliament will adopt national legislation, either
   • directly, through its own deputies, or
   • by initiative in specified cases;
2. the national parliament will oversee collection of the federal revenue. 

Provincial parliaments or assemblies

Assemblies or parliaments will be established for each of the four provinces. The representatives will be elected by the people of each province according to a system of proportional representation.

The functions of the provincial parliament will be:

• to co-ordinate activity and development in the various regions in the province, with particular care for the unique character of the Gaeltacht areas;
• to initiate and promote legislation for the social, economic and cultural development of the people within the region, with the right to initiative; and
• to co-ordinate the development and expansion of third-level education;
• to collect provincial revenue. 

Regional boards

Regional boards will be established to promote and co-ordinate the economic, social and cultural affairs of clearly defined regions. The regional development board would be a single chamber consisting of:

1. representatives of district councils within the region concerned, elected according to a system of proportional representation, and
2. expert representatives appointed by the provincial parliament.

The regional board would have the following responsibilities:

1. to assess and co-ordinate the work of district councils in their regions;
2. to provide for hospitalisation and care of the young, aged and infirm;
3. to supervise regional planning;
4. to plan for economic growth;
5. to provide for cultural development.

The following regions are suggested:

• Connacht -- two regions: North Connacht, consisting of Sligo, Leitrim, Mayo and the Boyle and Ballaghaderreen county electoral areas of Roscommon; and South Connacht, consisting of Galway, the remainder of Roscommon and the Claremorris/Ballinrobe area of Mayo plus the Gaeltacht are of Tuar Mhic Eide in South Mayo. 
• Munster -- four regions: Cork city and environs, South Munster, consisting of Kerry and North and West Cork; East Munster, consisting, consisting of South Tipperary, Waterford and East Cork; and North Munster, consisting of North Tipperary, Limerick and Clare.
• Leinster -- four regions: Midlands, consisting of Longford, Westmeath, Laois and Offaly; East Leinster, consisting of South Louth, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow; Greater Dublin; and South Leinster, consisting of Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny.
• Ulster -- four regions: East Ulster, consisting of Antrim, East Derry, East Tyrone, North Armagh, and North and East Down; South Ulster, consisting of Cavan, Monaghan, part of Fermanagh, South Down, South Armagh and North Louth; Greater Belfast; and West Ulster, consisting of Donegal, Derry City and the Faughan and Limavady districts of County Derry, the Strabane and Omagh districts of County Tyrone, and most of County Fermanagh.
• All Gaeltacht districts would constitute a Gaeltacht Region.

District councils

A district council will consist of a single chamber elected by the people of a clearly defined area covering a population of 10,000 to 40,000 people.

District councils will have the following areas of responsibility:

• the welfare and security of the community and the application of the law in a humane and just manner;
• primary and secondary education;
• job creation, regulations governing employment and standards of work, trading practices, etc;
• local planning and environmental development;
• agriculture, fishing, and small industry;
• health centres, youth and recreational development;
• housing and control of rented accommodation;
• social welfare and social services.

Each district council will have a secretariat, where all services would be provided under the same roof.

Community councils

Community councils will be voluntary bodies, representing close-knit communities based on parishes or other suitable centres, such as a district electoral area. To ensure the welfare of their people and the good of their communities, community councils will have the right of audience at all district council meetings.