Republican Unity Initiative
Coalisland June 2009
A chairde on behalf of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement I’d like to welcome you all here tonight. I look forward to your ideas and engagement on the issue of republican unity. As the Republican Unity Initiative evolved from an idea, through to exploratory engagement and on to joint political actions our contributions to the public meetings have evolved also. Each public meeting has proved to be an important factor in defining the meeting which followed it so in order not to be seen as repetitive in our submission tonight I wish to give a brief history of the unity initiative, what it has achieved to date and then explore ideas for its future development.
The Republican Unity Initiative was born out of cold hard political realities. It wasn’t a quest for ideological purity or theoretical refinement but a practical plan to give Irish republicanism a vehicle by which it hopefully can steer itself out of the quagmire it found itself in. The reasons for this quagmire are known to us all and though it was vitally important that we analysed the causes of this at the time we have moved beyond recrimination and onto the need to rebuild our republican and socialist base. No one else is going to do this for us least of all those who we criticised most.
In adopting a pragmatic approach we found our ideas more receptive to other groups, and vice versa, as the reality of our shared predicament broke down initial fears and scepticisms. From the outset we agreed that the initiative could only work if it was democratic and inclusive, in other words it wasn’t the failed approach of elite leaderships dictating its direction. What comes out of this initiative is what’s put into it. If we can reach an agreement to work on a given issue we do so. If we can’t that issue remains an issue for each individual organisation to address as they deem fit. It does not represent a stumbling block for future cooperation.
In truth republican cooperation is probably a more accurate description of what we are trying to achieve. There are many common issues which transcend ideology and cry out for republicans to work together on. Clearly the issue of republican prisoners and the use of internment by remand stands out as one such project. Likewise the commemoration of our dead and our historical events, which are constantly under attack from revisionists, requires our joint efforts. All of this is within our collective gift to deliver. And if we can demonstrate an ability to do so we can lay the foundations for future political campaigns.
Over the last couple of years the Unity Initiative has organised a series of joint events in these areas. Successful pickets and white line protests have been staged in relation to republican prisoners and national commemorations of both 1916 and Wolf Tone have proved highly effective. And though these will doubtless continue we are reaching a point where our collective ideas must now enter the political arena. Prior to the formalising of the Unity Initiative republicans in Derry worked together on the Peggy O’Hara Election Campaign. It was an isolated but significant event. It secured almost two thousand votes whilst most other republican candidates foundered in the low hundreds. . It was also limited by the fact that the time to plan and prepare for it was extremely tight. It proved that the combining of limited resources can make a difference.
Think of what we can achieve if we sit down now and plan out future political projects with defined political objectives? Rather than reacting to political agendas we can now set them. But the key point is that we construct these projects from start to finish democratically amongst ourselves. That is the task of everyone here in the hall, be they representing an organisation or are here as individuals or collective independents. We must put republicanism first.
Political events are turning. The electoral strategy of Provisional Sinn Fein has reached its glass ceiling. Here in the Six Counties the sectarian headcount has reached its inevitable conclusion; topping the poll is as politically relevant as Celtic beating Rangers, something to cheer about but will change nothing. Unionism has moved to a position where dominance within it is determined by how far nationalism can be politically isolated. This could well lead to the collapse of the Assembly because hard-line unionism knows that Sinn Fein has no other vehicle to convince its dwindling supporters that change can be secured.
In the South, as recently demonstrated, the much lauded breakthrough has not materialised nor will it. Speaking at the annual Conference of the Institute of British-Irish Studies, Free State Special Advisor on the North Martin Mansergh said; “The Republic, is engaged in a major struggle to maintain, within the EU and indeed the euro zone, its economic viability and sovereignty,”
“It is hardly the moment to press claims to the North which we have renounced, and it has to be said, the advantages and flexibility of joining up with a small sovereign state in the present global turmoil are for the moment a lot less compelling today than they were two or three years ago.”
There is no All Ireland agenda within the Free State nor is there any political organization forcing one into existence. This means that a political void is opening north and south and republicans need to prepare now to fill it. The 32CSM has put forward a number of Strategy Documents to fulfill this task. They are open to everyone here to comment upon, criticize or add to as they represent our contribution to the Unity Initiative. But we need to see your strategies and ideas. We need to compare these ideas and forge from them a unified way forward. In our first document, Preparing An Irish Democracy, we argue that republicans should come together and draft a blueprint of the United Ireland we envisage. We should put before our people in a clear draft outline exactly what it is we are struggling for and how it is relevant to them. We need to take the unity of our country away from the aspirational and into the attainable.
Our second document, Dismantling Partition, set out means by which we can pursue our All Ireland Blueprint as a political reality. It cited seven areas that republicans need to work on.
1.A Republican Constituency to be developed.
2.Republican Unity is necessary.
3.The centrality of the Constitutional Question to be broadened into other areas of national relevance.
4.A Schedule of Political Campaigns to be drawn up for a coordinated, All Ireland approach by republicans in pursuit of stated policies.
5.2016, the Centenary of the 1916 Rising, to be a target date for agreed achievements and a launch date for new initiatives based on those achievements.
6.Media Development
7. A Data-base for contacts in Political, Social, Religious, Media, Cultural, Economic and International spheres.
There is nothing here which is beyond our capabilities. We are in a position to create a new republican mandate which all republicans can claim as theirs so long as they recognize that such a mandate is based upon its democratic integrity and not its numerical size. We are constantly charged with having no mandate and we need to meet that charge head on. Anyone favoring a United Ireland who votes for a pro Good Friday Agreement party automatically relegates their vote to a second class status because a unionist vote takes precedence over it. The two thousand people who voted for Peggy O’Hara represents a superior mandate because it rejects a political arrangement which robs it of its democratic integrity. This is the mandate that republicans need to build.
We have nothing to fear from democracy, elections, negotiations, engagement with governments or international bodies. What we should fear is elitist positions, leadership cults and anti democratic structures to determine policy and direction. It was this practice which inevitably divided a vibrant movement. I appeal to everyone here to become involved in the unity project and to do so on an open an equal basis. We in the 32 County Sovereignty Movement have placed our ideas before you we now look forward to studying your ideas to us.
Beir Bua.