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I
would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of
the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, to counter the
allegations that we are in someway a right-wing organisation.
In a recent edition of the Fourthwrite magazine
Gerry Ruddy of the IRSP claims that the RIRA-32CSM
are essentially right wing. Firstly, the 32CSM have
no organisational links to the RIRA so it is a mistake
to label their politics in the same breath. While
the 32CSM respect the right of Irish people to bear
arms in defence of Irish sovereignty, it is wrong
to assume that the RIRA have any input into our movement
and vice versa.
Secondly, the 32CSM exist primarily to defend Irish
sovereignty, that is the right of the Irish people
as a unit to determine their own future. We recognise
that the Good Friday Agreement is a step away from
sovereignty built as it is on continued partition
and the unionist veto. The restoration of Irish sovereignty
would require the ending of imperialist rule in Ireland,
surely there are few rightwing anti-imperialist movements
in existence. Our movement is not only opposed to
British interference in Irish affairs but also U.S.
interference. We realise that the GFA is the preferred
solution of the British, American and 26 counties’
administrations and consequently these administrations
are hostile to the demand for national sovereignty.
We are equally hostile to their administrations because
their interest in Ireland is an interest in markets
as opposed to what is beneficial to the Irish people
as a whole.
There is a belief in some quarters that the 32CSM
somehow consider themselves to be the Real Sinn Fein,
nothing could be further from the truth.
It
is true that a 32 County Sovereignty Committee was
formed within Sinn Fein prior to the signing of the
Belfast Agreement. This committee found its members
being harassed and expelled for refusing to compromise
on the sovereignty issue. Those who were expelled
or resigned went on to form the 32 County Sovereignty
Movement together with former members of Republican
Sinn Fein, IRSP, SWP, ex-prisoners, ex-volunteers
and others.
The
movement does not claim to be a government in waiting
nor does it claim to be the legitimate heirs of anything.
We believe that the last legitimate government in
Ireland was voted for by the people in 1918, this
does not mean that it is still the legitimate government,
it simply recognises the fact that any future legitimacy
must come from the Irish people expressing their wishes
as a single unit without any external interference.
The 32CSM is not a political party, there is no party
line that its members have to follow. Debate is welcomed
within the movement, as it is our belief that a lack
of debate has weakened the republican movement in
the past. We also welcome debate with all shades of
republicanism and socialism. We are not elitist and
will work with anyone who is progressive and who understands
the republican and anti-imperialist argument. Indeed
our original constitution stated that the first aim
of the movement was to “seek to achieve broad
unity amongst the republican family on the single
issue of Irish sovereignty”. The constitution
was amended slightly at the 2002 AGM moving from the
single-issue position to the point where the movement
would “promote the revolutionary ideals of
republicanism and to this end involve itself in resisting
all forms of colonialism and imperialism”.
When
speaking of sovereignty we should bear in mind the
words of Padraig Pearse:
“The
nation’s sovereignty extends not only to all
men and women of the nation, but to all its material
possessions; the nation’s soil and all its
resources, all the wealth and the wealth producing
processes within the nation”.
Anyone
who agrees with the above already agrees with the
32 County Sovereignty Movement, anyone who doesn’t
should re-examine what they do believe.
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