Sunday 30 December 2007

32 County Sovereignty Movement 2008 New Year Statement

32 County Sovereignty Movement

2008 New Year Statement

In extending New Years greetings to the Irish people at home and abroad let us reflect on the past year to help us move forward in the new. We extend also greetings to all republican prisoners of war (POW’S) who find themselves incarcerated in gaol because of an intransigent British Government who are unwilling to engage with the Irish people unless they are addressing a British agenda. From our perspective the Republican Unity Initiative formed a major plank of our strategic efforts to advance the restoration of our National Sovereignty. The 32CSM approached this vital area in an incremental manner so as to maximize inclusivity amongst other republican organizations. We deliberately chose a private route to engagement with other republicans given the British and media efforts to deliberately misrepresent what the Republican Unity Initiative was trying to achieve. We first circulated a discussion document simply titled Republican Unity to give a degree of focus to a debate which was already well underway within the broad republican base. As interest in the initiative grew and formal meetings were arranged the 32CSM put forward a proposal titled Preparing An Irish Democracy which was intended to act as a mechanism within which all republican organizations could collectively draft a republican blueprint of the independent Ireland we envisaged. Reaction to the initiative was predictably cautious but the mixed to poor result showing in what was ostensibly a referendum on British Policing in Ireland conclusively demonstrated that Irish republicanism needs a political initiative to move it on from its inert state. On the back of an IRSM proposal a Unity Commemoration was held at Bodenstown to honour Wolfe Tone which was widely received as a very positive development.

To augment our existing proposals and to build on this positivity the 32CSM now launch Dismantling Partition, A Unified Republican Approach.. Here we outline where and how we believe this project should develop. We introduce timeframes and achievable goals coupled with a realistic appraisal of our current strengths. But as with our previous proposals the 32CSM strongly urge a parallel response from other republicans so as to make the Republican Unity Initiative truly representative of the broad republican family. 2008 will offer republicans an opportunity to both consolidate and advance our goals and the 32CSM herein publicly declare our intention of working tirelessly to achieve this end.

The 32CSM strongly believes in political engagement with our opponents. We have sought this engagement on a number of fronts but focused squarely around the issue of our national sovereignty. Through this engagement we have sought to advise that national sovereignty is not confined to the national question as that pertains to partition but to all other questions of national concern. Issues such as Shell To Sea and the Save Tara project are all urgent matters of national sovereignty and as such are deserving of intense republican involvement. The impending EU Constitution referendum in the twenty six counties is one such issue that deserves republican attention. Whether it is called Constitution, Treaty or whatever its essential components remain the same. The 32CSM communicated with a variety of republican and nationalist organizations with a view to citing Partition as valid grounds for its rejection. We circulated Six Points of Objection that we believed could form the basis of a strong separatist No Campaign without alienating other valid objections which may also exist. The 32CSM will be pursuing this correspondence in 2008 seeking definitive responses to our circular.

Following on from our AGM in December the incoming National Executive will be tasked with implementing the changes and policies mandated by that AGM. These will include political policies as outlined above, organizational changes and proposals for updating our print and electronic publications as well as the launch of our newly revamped website. We look forward to the challenges we have set ourselves.

Again we have it demonstrated that British Policing in Ireland will never change no matter what titles are invoked and no matter how many token nationalists sit on token Policing Boards. The Hoey debacle laid bare both the unchanging nature of British policing and the facile arguments from those who would plead with us that it can.

Notwithstanding the importance of these issues and their relevance to Irish republicanism the 32CSM is of the firm belief that the most salient issue which will face republicans in the coming year will be the issue of criminalisation. We say this because those in the driving seat of this policy are Provisional Sinn Fein, acting under obligation to the agreements which they entered into with both governments. History, both ancient and modern, has taught us that the occupier will always covet an indigenous political voice to do its dirty work. PSF have stepped into this breech. Following recent acts of armed insurgency there came an almost panicked response from the PSF leadership. They publicly called for informers to be activated against insurgent forces claiming a lack of electoral mandate invalidated their right to rebel. The glaring hypocrisy of this stance was designed to distract republicans from the fact that it was political challenges to the PSF position which forced this outburst and not merely criticism of them.

We have sought engagement with PSF since 2005 wherein the 32CSM were greeted with duplicity, subterfuge and lies. Our persistence however has been rewarded with the political exposure as to exactly what signing the Good Friday Agreement entails for them. Whereas political criticism theorizes, political challenges demonstrate. These challenges must continue, and emanate from broader quarters, because the resources behind the criminalisation policy far exceed the resources of those whom the policy is directed against. As before when the British government were the direct vanguard for this policy manipulation, deceit and murder were the hallmarks of this campaign. Coupled with a media who afford republicans scant exposure to air our views the only resources open to Irish republicanism are those which we already possess and the argument for republican cooperation on this issue is self evident. The policy of criminalisation will pay scant heed to technical differences of position amongst us as it seeks a broad labeling for those opposed to the current political direction.

The emergence of seemingly new armed groups making threats of a kind which give succor to the PSF call for informers is yet another dimension of this dirty war. All of this requires a political response from Irish republicans which removes any semblance of cover or distraction for any group pursuing the criminalisation agenda. There can be no place within republicanism for a civil war mentality. Such a mentality is a British device. The 32CSM response is first and foremost a call on PSF to forward to us their alleged written response to our Submission to them in 2005 and for them to outline the lawful basis upon which they call for informers to be activated against those who struggle against British Parliamentary activity in our country. We respond also by seeking engagement with other republicans on the national issues which are relevant to our struggle. And we respond by stating that we will never allow the republican struggle to be criminalized no matter how treacherous the status of those who would try.

Sunday 2 December 2007

BEIR BUA

The 32 County Sovereignty Movement yesterday released a national issue of our newsletter Beir Bua. It contained the following article:

The 32CSM offers political analysis to the Irish people and to republicans in particular, concerning the strategic development and direction of politics on this island. In discharging this role we would like to draw attention to particular patterns of political manoeuvring aimed at criminalising republicans.

All republicans and most Sinn Fein supporters would agree that during the pre-1994 phase of the war, the IRA had a reputation for telling the truth and shouldering responsibility, even when that meant facing political difficulties. The British, however, were quick to tell lies and cover-up their military and dirty tricks operations. They were experts at conducting misinformation campaigns and legal whitewashes when the weight of evidence became too much.
The key difference between the IRA’s approach to truth-telling and the British Government’s approach was that the IRA had no material interest in the Six County political establishment; they were not concerned about the jobs or reputations of politicians or what the next milk-round of funding might bring.

Since 1994, republicans have been asked to swallow lie after lie as the compromised, corrupt leadership of the Provisional movement busied themselves with the task of administering British rule in Ireland while at the same time feathering their personal nests, be it holiday homes in the Free State or property portfolios abroad. There seems little need to rehearse the list of lies about decommissioning, Stormont, or internal settlements. Most people are also aware of the cover-up lies and spin doctoring that accompanied the killing of, Joe O’Connor, Paul Quinn and others. And who can forget the desperate flurry of lies following the Columbia 3 affair and the Northern Bank robbery. Add to this such dirty tricks as the use of the Red Hand Defender codeword to claim the killing of Ex Pow Barney McDonald in Dungannon and the ongoing process of sending themselves bullets in the post and only one conclusion is possible: the transformation from revolutionary republicans to reactionary British ministers is complete.

For the record, republicans have nothing to gain from threatening or attacking Sinn Fein members, indeed, it would be a counterproductive exercise. Examples of this was the despicable attempts by Gerry Adams to try and blame republicans for the death of Martin Meehan. Weather or not these threats exist is another story, if they did they were wrong and republicans would have nothing to do with them. The mysterious saga of how bullets in the post obligingly turn up every time Sinn Fein needs to divert attention or gain sympathy is best understood by asking yourself the question: Who benefits? It’s certainly not ‘dissidents’ and probably not even loyalists. There is a possibility that MI5 is behind the operation as their interests are best served by a well-bonded Sinn Fein united against (imaginary) external threats. However, if this were true, it would effectively be a matter of one branch of the British Government sending bullets via the Royal Mail to another branch of the British Government. Stranger things have happened.

At present, the 32CSM is concerned that this pattern of devious political behaviour is discernable in attempts to criminalise republicans. The recent use of the cover-name the “Irish Republican Liberation Army” to spuriously claim an IRA operation and to issue threats to Sinn Fein is worrying. Information in the possession of the 32CSM strongly suggests that the IRLA label has been devised by a few loosely linked criminal gangs in the Strabane, E-Tyrone and Belfast areas. The 32csm would like to disassociate ourselves from the following individuals and their activities; Frank Nolan and Joe Clarke (Dublin), Paddy Fox and Kevin Sutton (E-Tyrone), Ben Brady and Ben Stewart (Strabane) these people are in no way connected with the republican movement.
The activity of these individuals serves the combined interests of Sinn Fein and broader British establishment, including MI5. Whatever their agenda is, it is not a republican one and it should be noted that they have done nothing to challenge British rule either militarily or politically. Another gang, claiming to be members of the Official IRA recently attacked an anti-drugs republican activist in Bundoran. These individuals were protecting the interests of loyalist and criminal drugs dealing network that the 32CSM had uncovered along the border.

The obstacles facing republicans are enormous but we are determined to surmount them and to rebuild the strength of the movement. We have tried to show in this article that careful analysis of the techniques of our enemies is crucial to counteracting their attempts to criminalise and ultimately destroy republicanism.