Nation-state lays foundation for democratic
advance of humanity
By Des Dalton 10
/30 /2010
Speaking against the motion that: “Nationalism is a hangover
from history” hosted by The University Philosophical Society of
Trinity College. Dublin on Thursday October 28 the President of
Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton said:
“We are being asked tonight to consider nationalism and its
value in the modern world. I think firstly it is necessary to
define what we mean by nationalism and patriotism before we can
answer that question we need to do so because Nationalism is a
concept and a banner under which many diverse and indeed
unsavory forces have rallied historically.
“Edward Said (Champion of Palestinian independence and
anti-colonialist) defined nationalism in the context of the
struggle against imperialism: ‘‘nationalism’ is a word that
still signifies all sorts of undifferentiated things, but it
serves me quite adequately to identify the mobilizing force that
coalesced into resistance against an alien and occupying empire
on the part of peoples processing a common history, religion,
and language.”
“In building a national movement Connolly wrote: ‘It must
demonstrate to the people of Ireland that our nationalism is not
merely a morbid idealizing of the past, but is also capable of
formulating a distinct and definite answer to the problems of
the present and a political and economic creed capable of
adjustment to the wants of the future.
‘This concrete political and social ideal will best be supplied,
I believe, by the frank acceptance on the part of all earnest
nationalists of the Republic as their goal.” Connolly goes on to
define what kind of Republic this would be.
“He discounts the Republic of France as ‘flaunting its apostasy
to the traditions of the Revolution’ (echoes of today) and that
‘great’ Republic of the west in the US ‘where the power of the
purse has established a new tyranny under the forms of freedom,
(Again Connolly still has something to say to the modern world).
‘No the Republic I would wish our fellow-countrymen to set
before them as their ideal should be of such a character that
the mere mention of its name would at all times serve as a
beacon-light to the oppressed of every land’, he continues ‘The
Irish Republic might be made a word to conjure with – a rallying
point for the disaffected, a haven for the oppressed, a point of
departure for the socialist, enthusiastic in the cause of human
freedom.’
“These are lofty ideals but for the revolutionary the goal must
of such a nature as to inspire, and if change is to be attained
it must be fundamental and radical and revolutionary.
“The historian, political activist and biographer of Connolly,
Desmond Greaves regarded the nation state as the ‘locus of
democracy’ arguing that it was only within national communities
that people could exercise democracy in a meaningful way. It was
the largest political unit within which rights of minorities
could be protected.
“The value and need for community of strong nation states has
rarely been as evident as it is today in light of the domestic
and world economic collapse. The 26-Coounty state is a parody of
the All- Republic proclaimed in 1916, willing to sacrificing its
people in order to protect the economic model, which created the
collapse in the first place. In order to meet the demands of
remaining within the eurozone the essential markers of a
civilized society such as access to health services at the point
of need, education for all, care of the young, the disabled and
the elderly and other vulnerable members of society, all will be
sacrificed on the alter of the free market and the euro.
“In the Six Counties cuts of up to £5 Billion in services and
supports for the most vulnerable are set over the next four
years and, which trade unions warn will mean a loss of 40 to
50,000 jobs.
“The choice is stark and comes down to whether you believe an
economy is there to serve people or the other way round. The
political and economic establishments in Leinster House,
Stormont and Westminster have made their choice. They view
people and their rights as being subservient to the demands of
the international money markets, profiteers and speculators who
are setting their economic agenda.
“The false promises and lies told in order to foist the Lisbon
Treaty on the people of the 26 Counties in the second referendum
are coming home to roost now. The rights of individual nations
and with them of the individual citizen are subservient to the
needs of the EU super state. The very definition of a free
nation is one, which controls its resources and decides its
relationship with the rest of the world. Which frames and
implements policy based on the needs and welfare of its
citizens.
“The political Editor of the Sunday Business Post (October 24)
Pat Leahy sets out the reality of the EU: “Any four-year
economic plan contains a fair degree of guesswork and
supposition. Brussels knows this, of course, and it also knows
the danger that too much austerity will dangerously deflate the
economy. But and this is a vital point to grasp the European
priority is Europe, not Ireland.” In other words the effect of
the slash and burn economics on this and future generations of
Irish people is of no consequence when set against the survival
of the euro.
“Again the words of James Connolly are no less valid as we enter
the second decade of the 21st Century: ‘There can be no perfect
Europe in which Ireland is denied even the least of its national
rights; there can be no worthy Ireland whose children brook
tamely such denial. If such denial has been accepted by soulless
slaves of politicians then it must be repudiated by Irish men
and women whose souls are still their own.’
“Irish Republicanism was born out of the ideals and ideas of the
enlightenment. From its very beginnings it has taken a
worldview, which has placed it in the vanguard of
anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism.
“Desmond Greaves believed rightly that one could only claim to
be an internationalist if one stood for the right to
self-determination of the different nations into which humanity
is divided. Connolly believed in building a community of free
nations.
“The struggle for national freedom is part and parcel of the
struggle against imperialism. It is not enough to oppose
imperialism in one country if you do not oppose it
internationally, conversely it is meaningless to oppose it
internationally if you do not recognise and oppose it at home.
Edward Said writes about internal colonialism and external
imperialism. It is not enough to say no to US and British
occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan or Israeli occupation of
Palestine if you ignore England’s occupation of Ireland. It is
not enough to create democracy within nations but it is also
necessary between nations.
“It is the quest for a new and better Ireland for the present
and future generations, which has always inspired and informed
the struggle for a free Ireland. Like Connolly Irish Republicans
believe removing British rule is not enough, this merely creates
the space within which all of the Irish people can set about the
essential task of building the All-Ireland Republic. Fulfilling
the dream of Theobald Wolfe Tone of uniting Protestant, Catholic
and Dissenter as citizens of that Republic.
“The 1998 Stormont Agreement and the St Andrews Agreement of
2006 merely institutionalised sectarianism whilst denying the
exercise of real All-Ireland democracy. Since 1921 there have
been at least six agreements arising from the enforced partition
of Ireland. However none of them have represented a settlement
of the historic ‘Irish question’, merely an attempt to reframe
it.
“The lesson of Irish history is clear and continues to be played
out today, continued occupation of Ireland by England will
always be a source of conflict and a spark for continued
resistance.
“EIRE NUA constitutes a serious and credible attempt to break
that cycle. It offers a framework within which all sections of
the Irish people can make the important decisions for their
communities, their regions and their nation. To the unionists
and others in Stormont who complained last week about the
prospect of the British government reneging on the commitment
to provide £18 Billion over the next decade (not the first time
a British government has reneged on a promise) we juxtapose EIRE
NUA.
“Decisions affecting the people of a nine county Ulster being
made by the people of Ulster within a free and Federal Ireland,
not dependent on the whim of a foreign parliament or government.
Sammy Wilson’s plaintive call “[We] have to simply accept what
has been handed down to us.” In reference to the British
budgets cuts sums up the impotence of the Stormont Assembly.
Surely the path laid out in EIRE NUA leads to a better future
for all of our people.
“EIRE NUA provides for horizontal democracy based on local
majorities, ensuring maximum decentralization of political power
and decision making from national to provincial right down to
regional and community level. Apart from providing a solution to
the Ulster situation, these proposals would bring power nearer
to the people and help to correct east-west economic imbalance
nationally. This is true participatory democracy involving
people in making decisions on important matters like health,
education, regional development and employment. It is real
decentralization based on decentralizing the decision-making
process rather than simply moving civil servants from one part
of the country to another.
“Coupled with our social and economic policy SAOL NUA we believe
they provide the blueprint to make tangible the dream of the
All-Ireland Republic with real political and economic democracy.
“Irish Republicans do not desire a 32-County Free State but
rather the creation of a New Ireland fashioned by the
representatives of all the Irish people.
“We propose in the Towards A Peaceful Ireland document following
a public declaration of intent by the British Government to
withdraw from Ireland, the election of a constituent assembly,
elected by the suffrage of the people of the 32 Counties. This
assembly would be tasked with drafting an All-Ireland
constitution. Republican Sinn Féin if elected would place the
EIRE NUA proposals before the assembly for consideration. The
constitution once agreed would be put before all of the Irish
people in referendum. The internal relations of the Irish people
with one another and their external relations with Europe and
the world at large would be determined through free and open
debate.
“Republican Sinn Féin and its leaders were prepared in
1981-82-83 and again in 1986 to take a principled stand to
preserve the Republican position contained within EIRE NUA,
which would “cherish all of the children of the nation equally”
and stood by the goal of an inclusive Ireland when others within
our movement were prepared to abandon these ideals. They are
ideals, which go right to the heart of Irish Republicanism. We
do not want to back the Unionists on to a cliff-edge politically
where they will oppose us all the more. Neither do we seek to
have them as a permanent and disgruntled political minority in
one corner of Ireland. Besides, the proposals outlined would be
more in keeping with the ideas of Wolfe Tone and Thomas Davis.
“An opportunity beckons to a new generation of Irish people to
come together in fraternity and leave the failed politics of
partition and sectarianism behind. England has little or nothing
to offer at this stage and the time is long since past for them
to bow out and for the Irish people to plan their future
together setting about the work of building the Republic.
“Last Tuesday marked the 90th anniversary of the death on hunger
strike of the Lord Mayor of Cork Terence MacSwiney. In his
political and philosophical writings Principles of Freedom,
MacSwiney defined ideal of an independent Irish nation
‘Accordingly, if we are to justify our own position as
separatists, we must show that it will harmonize, unify and
develop our national life, that it will restore us to a place
among the nations, enable us to fulfill a national destiny, a
destiny which through all our struggles, we ever believe is
great and waiting for us.’ The nation-state lays the foundation
for the democratic advance of humanity.”
Críoch/Ends