Monday, November 29, 2010

March: Galway Unites Against Budget Cutbacks


March: Galway Unites Against Budget Cutbacks

Saturday 4th December 13:00-14:00

Galway City Centre-Marching from the Cathedral to the Spanish Arch

The Galway Says No to Health Cuts campaign is calling on every individual/group/organisation in Galway opposed to budget cutbacks to help for the biggest protest march ever witnessed in Galway city. We are asking everyone affected by cuts to health, education & welfare services to join us on the streets on Saturday 4th December!

Galway 32 County Sovereignty Movement Will be in attendence,We call on all members and supporters to make an effort to attend.

UNITY IS STRENGTH

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

CLARE 32CSM POW PROTEST




Clare 32csm will be holding a pow protest.

Saturday 11th December @3pm

O Connell Monument
Ennis,
Co Clare.

Support The Pows!

Sovereign Nation nov/dec


The new edition of the Sovereign Nation is on sale now!


If you would like a copy please contact your local 32CSM representative or email 32csmgaillimh@gmail.com


2 euro each including postage

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Time to Act.


32 County Sovereignty Movement.

Time to Act.

After usurping the Declaration of Independence the architects of the Twenty Six County State invoked a sovereign legitimacy to use British guns on fellow Irish people. It continued to invoke this legitimacy to strap Irishmen to landmines, to execute Irish prisoners, to allow Irishmen die on hunger strike and to employ an English hangman to eradicate those who believed that Irish sovereignty does not stop at the border and that our national ethos should be modelled on the Proclamation.
Invoking a sovereign legitimacy it set about rewriting the terms of its own existence, not in accordance with those who defended it as a preamble to national reunification, but as a prologue for establishing a partitionist power base serving sectional interests. When it introduced its Constitution in 1937 it predicated that document on a definition of sovereignty as one which encompassed the whole island and its peoples. It spent the next sixty one years failing to restore that sovereignty culminating in its abandonment in 1998. It abandoned their fellow Irish people in the Six Counties, standing idly by whilst a sectarian gerrymander was allowed to masquerade as democracy.
Invoking a sovereign legitimacy it raised an army and called it Oglaigh Na hEireann. It placed this army on the border to reinforce its view that the Twenty Six County State had a sovereign right to exist. It sent this army into the world as a symbol of its sovereignty and generously referenced their peace keeping efforts, and their deaths, as a glowing tribute to this sovereignty.
Invoking a sovereign legitimacy it raised its own tax and allowed its governments to utilise these funds for party political interests. It allowed its Ministers to feather their own nests and encouraged a political ethos which was solely concerned with satisfying the local constituency. In pursuit of power it placed the Catholic Church and Financial Speculators at the heart of its policy making with disastrous consequences. Those that
opposed such economics were adjured to commit suicide and those who argued for complete Church State separation were marginalized and stigmatised.
And now it stares into the abyss created by its own abject failure to understand what Irish sovereignty actually represents. It has now surrendered the fate of its citizens to an institution whose sole concern is the making of money no matter the social cost. As a state it can neither look back nor look forward to redeem itself. Only its citizens retain the ability to rise above the penury the state has forced them into.
The 32 County Sovereignty Movement calls on all the Irish people to take back their sovereignty. We call on all republican organisations and the labour movement to unite and organise the shutting down of the state. This is not a time for righteous rhetoric or for tinkering with the status quo. It is a time to reach out and effect fundamental change for our people. Partition has failed on both sides of the border. The restoration of our national sovereignty is an essential prerequisite to achieving this change. It is time to act.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Francie Mackey Address 32CSM Ard Fheis 2010


Francie Mackey Address 32CSM Ard Fheis 2010
Chairperson’s Address
Ard Fheis 2010

A chairde, delegates and comrades; we are the spearhead of this struggle. Our innovation, political maturity, our activism and leadership has ensured that this struggle is to the fore in the minds of the political establishment. We are a movement that looks forward and moves forward. We have grasped the nettle of reality concerning our struggle and laid bare the fallacies which have mired it in suspicion and factionalism.

All this we have done because we put republicanism first. We put the objective first. We embraced democracy and married it to our republicanism. We have not cocooned ourselves within restrictive rules or dogmatic history. We took the strength of our argument and brought it to the national and international stage. A liberated republicanism is the proper vehicle for change. A unified republicanism is the most potent mechanism to achieve that change.

Republican unity is not going to go away. All that stands in its way is an unwillingness to engage with it. There is no ideological or political argument against it for if there were we would have heard it by now. It is not a case of the sovereignty movement calling for unity but the goals for which we struggle demanding it. We have no right to stand at the graves of our patriot dead and preach factionalism. We have no right to stand at the monuments of our great thinkers and invoke their words to justify isolationism. And we have no right to stand before our people and in their name give less than the sum total of our parts.

For our part we concentrated on the issue of national sovereignty. We did so because there is armed conflict in our country. As republicans we saw it as our duty to address the causes of this conflict in a clear and defined manner. Ending the armed conflict does not end the struggle for republican ideals. Squabbling over what those ideals should be will not end the armed conflict. War demands from us all an immediacy in our strategic thinking to find ways to resolve it.

We again put forward the view that a coming together of Irish republicans to fashion a course to remove the cause of armed conflict is essential if any of our ideals are to flourish in a unitary state. The sovereignty movement remains committed to this task. We have taken the view that republican unity is more than the coming together of republican organisations. The path the so called peace process has taken has left large numbers of disillusioned republicans searching for direction and new ideas. We are committed to providing these ideas by engaging directly with these republicans. Their contribution to this struggle has been immense and has earned them the right to determine where now they wish to continue it. We want their ideas, we want their commitment, we want their contributions; but we have to earn it. We have to demonstrate to them that our activism looks forward and not back: that our ideas are inclusive and adaptable and not insular and reactionary.

I say to all our activists here that the coming year will require you all to reach out and engage with this constituency. As ambassadors for the sovereignty movement you will need to be fully acquainted with our policies and strategy documents. Read them, and read them again. Discuss them regularly at cumann level but above all spread the thinking behind them. Knowledge of our policies must be the cornerstone of our activism.

There is always healthy debate in the sovereignty movement. It is one of our great strengths. Prominent in these discussions is the issue of policy formation on social matters and the various aspects of governance in a future unitary state. The number and depth of motions before us here today reflects this. I wish to address two points concerning policy and policy formation; firstly the context of our policies and secondly the cause of labour. From the outset I want to commend our activists throughout Ireland for their sterling work in their respective communities. Your innovation and commitment are a lesson for all those seeking social change and justice.

Because we are constituted to campaign on the singular issue of our national sovereignty all our policies must be geared toward this end. Sovereignty is not a narrow nationalist agenda but an agenda for real change and a precursor to Irish society taking charge of its own destiny. Sovereignty is not simply a Brits Out slogan but a charter for ownership returning to the people. It is within this context that our policies must be forged. We cannot adopt policy for policy sake or direct our limited resources away from our central goal. Our policies must satisfy a strategic objective. And because we are engaged in a national struggle how we adopt our policies is just as important as the content of those policies. This is why we campaigned vigorously for republicans to forge policy together so that the very act of unity advances their content. I reiterate to our members; when you sit down to think, and rise to act, be at all times focussed on where we need to go. Be pragmatic, be realistic, do not be distracted nor blindly influenced. Bring your ideas to your comrades so that your comrades can prepare those ideas for our struggle.

James Connolly told us; “The Cause of Ireland is the cause of Labour, The cause of Labour is the cause of Ireland.” The current economic crisis both in Ireland and throughout the world has brought the issue of labour to everyone’s door. We are no different. The question for the sovereignty movement is this; not whether labour must wait but in what capacity must labour act? As it stands the cause of the labour movement is not the cause of Ireland. As it stands the cause of labour is to forge an arrangement with capitalism with labour as the junior partner. The fallout from the economic crisis demonstrates this. Is there any point in marching with the labour movement if the cause of Ireland is left behind? Is socialism served by campaigning with the labour movement for better scraps from the capitalist table? Has not this very same approach on the national question led to the grotesque spectacle at Stormont? Is this a road we truly want to go down just so that we can say we are aligned to labour?

The struggle for sovereignty and the struggle for labour must be synonymous. Republican policy and activism must reflect this. A veneer of mutual association is not enough. At the recent Student demonstrations in Dublin both the veneer and the true alliance were evident. Labour is not a pedestrian stroll, politely shouting slogans for change. Labour must be at the coalface fighting for that change. Labour must be indifferent to the howls of establishment condemnations whenever labour chooses to act. I salute our activists present here today who acted in labour’s best interests. I quote the insightful Irish republican socialist Ta Power when he says ‘there is no parliamentary path to socialism’. Equally there is no waiting for the so called ‘right time to strike’. For revolutionaries it is always the right time to act. Partition and capitalism never postpone their activities and neither should we.

To other republicans and socialists we say this: for the cause of labour to be the cause of Ireland we must rebuild the labour movement by making the cause of Ireland the cause of labour. Connolly sought to do this by working with the national and cultural movements in his day. If we wish to move beyond rhetoric then we must come together to put the bones of this movement in place. If you cannot commit to this, if working together is beyond you then both the cause of labour and of Ireland is beyond you also.

On behalf of us all I wish to send solidarity greetings to Irish republican prisoners of war where ever they may be. We salute your courage and commitment. We send greetings to your families and loved ones and pledge to do everything in our power to be of assistance to you. I also wish to thank the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association for their diligent work on behalf of prisoners and their families.

The past year has seen our prisoners to the fore in our struggle. Once again Westminster has chosen this venue to try and undermine the republican struggle. And as before they will fail. The despicable use of degrading strip searches as a means of punishment has hardened our resolve. On this issue we did have republican unity and the benefits of it were clear for all to see. This needs to continue because perfidious albion is beginning to resort to form. The agreement reached between the prisoners and the prison authorities is steadily being undone. There is an undoubted political agenda behind this. It is not a case of rogue prison officers but a deliberate policy being overseen by their political masters.

During the year we marched in great numbers to protest. Our protest could not go unnoticed so they had to engage. And if needs be we must protest again, in greater numbers and with greater regularity. Every county must get the message. The plight of our prisoners must be to the fore in our activism. We must place this issue onto the national agenda and keep it there until such time that it is addressed. We can do no less when the prisoners themselves are doing so much.

The National Army continues to engage the enemy. Our right to national self determination will be protected and fought for. War is an inevitable consequence of the presence of the British government in our country. There are those who say that now is not the right time for armed struggle; that alternative strategies must be pursued. But it must be grasped that armed struggle is an inevitable reality and any strategy hoping to be viable must recognise this. Armed struggle cannot be wished away no more than it can be stored neatly in a box so that a political initiative can be aired in public. Avoiding reality cannot be a precondition for any strategy.


Comrades I wish to conclude with an impassioned plea to you all, at every level in our organisation, to both experienced and novice activists, make the coming year one of sustained activism within your communities. Bring the issue of national liberation with you. Demonstrate that there is an alternative and that they have it within their power to realise change.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Beir Bua Issue 3



Click Here For Full Edition

New Years Day Sponsored Swim.(Galway Bay)


Galway 32csm will be holding a New Years Day sponsored swim,in aid of the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association.

Anyone wishing to participate or sponsor an activist contact directly.
32csmgaillimh@gmail.com


venue and time

12 noon New Years Day

Diving Board,Galway Bay

Salthill,Galway City.

www.irpwa.blogspot.com

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

The ballad of Shell and Rossport


The ballad of Shell and Rossport
Galway Advertiser, November 04, 2010.

By Kevin Higgins

TO SAY that the Shell gas pipeline and terminal in north Mayo has been the subject of controversy would be to understate seriously.

To those not directly involved, the ongoing ‘debate’, which has regularly degenerated into violence with allegations of intimidation on both sides, has often seemed, like Northern Ireland in the seventies, to be one where it’s difficult to give either side unqualified support.

This could be said to mark a failure on the part of the Shell To Sea campaign; another case of the right side losing because it puts its argument histrionically rather than rationally and allows some - ie, those who would be better kept in the background, stapling placards or making sandwiches for visiting protesters - to be spokespersons for the campaign.

The ranting boys and girls of The Sunday Independent have been happy to do their bit to blacken the reputation of Shell To Sea. The ‘documentary’ by Paul Williams, aired on TV3 last year, which tried to paint the campaign as being the plaything of dissident republicans, was the sort of rag journalism one would expect from someone who now writes for The News of The World.

Lorna Siggins is a different kind of journalist and works with facts rather than bar stool opinions of either variety as can be seen from her new book on the subject Once Upon A Time In The West: The Corrib Gas Controversy (Transworld Ireland).

On page 215 she speaks to Sarah Clancy from Galway about the violence Clancy personally witnessed being meted out to protesters by gardaĆ­. Now, while I doubt Sarah and I vote the same way at elections, I believe her when she says she observed a Shell To Sea protester: “being flung to the ground, with first two, then one garda kneeling on his back” as they “pressed his face into the dirt, all the while hitting him with batons”.

There were at least four gardaĆ­ involved in this, Clancy says. This is not to paint the campaign as a bunch of angels. I know from personal experience that there are those of the activist left who are willing to use physical intimidation as a tactic and others who are willing to make excuses for such behaviour. In Once Upon A Time In The West, Siggins makes an angel of no one.

The facts Siggins has gathered lead her to be more sympathetic to the protesters than she is to Shell. That as neutral an observer as Lorna Siggins could come to this view should give middle Ireland pause for thought.

If it is true, as Shell To Sea claims, that a natural resource worth hundreds of billions of Euro has been more or less given away to Shell with very little benefit to the Irish exchequer, then this is a very serious matter.

If the Shell To Sea protesters are even half right, then there certainly could have been, and perhaps still is, an alternative to slashing social welfare and services to the disabled and all the other miseries the Colm McCarthys and Peter Sutherlands are currently prescribing for us. Go out tomorrow and buy this book. You can’t afford not to.

link http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/33023

Play Your Part




Galway 32CSM is currently engaged in a recruitment drive of the greater Connaught area. Anyone interested in joining can contact us at:

32csmgaillimh@gmail.com

or

joinus@32csm.info

Monday, November 8, 2010

Saturday, November 6, 2010

IRA statement


The IRA's position regarding drug dealers is clear and our actions against them are motivated by the need to ensure the safety of the community.
These actions are welcomed by communities who are suffering at the hands of drug dealers.

Recently, a number of newspapers have run stories claiming that the IRA was involved in drugs and prostitution and that members of the Dublin Brigade had been stood down. The stories are lies.

Subsequently, the IRA sent a statement to the Irish Star Newspaper claiming responsibility for the execution of numerous drug dealers. The Star refused to carry the statement but instead carried statements from a Dublin drugs gang styling itself the "Criminal Action Force" which threatened republicans. The Star newspaper was raided by the Free State Special Branch but nothing was reported in any newspaper. We invite people to analyse these facts for themselves and determine who benefits from this policy of censorship and misinformation.

Copy of IRA statement sent to the Star (below):

17/9/2010

In Response to Recent Sensationalist Media Articles:

The leadership of the IRA wish to clarify our position on these claims: The IRA have never taken money from criminals and then allowed them to continue to operate, we have in fact relieved them of their finances and weaponry then closed down their operations.Allegations have been made that the IRA extorted a large amount of money from drug dealers and criminals. Anyone with evidence to support these claims should come forward immediately.

The leadership of the IRA have never sanctioned such actions and anyone using our name to tax drug dealers and criminals will be executed. In fact the only organisations in Ireland that take money from criminals and allows them to operate are state agencies, on both sides of the border, who take their assets and allow them to carry on their poison trade.

The IRA postion on drug dealers is clear, they deal death to our communities. We deal with them. Some examples are: Matthew Burns, Kieran Flynn, Jason Eagan, Colly Owens, Gerard Staunton, Kieran Doherty,and Sean Winters, amongst others.

To those who believe they can escape the reach of the republican movement, we have also executed drug dealers on the continent who believed they were safe, having fled the country. We have crippled, maimed and exiled numerous others.

Anyone caught up in the world of criminality, drug dealing, or issuing threats to republicans should come forward and admit their involvement now. Anyone who does not avail of this opportunity will face the inevitable consequences.
Those who wish to take on the republican movement should realise this. These parasites are members of a gang, the IRA are members of a disciplined army with experience of war.

Education Is A Right, Not A Privilege

The 32 County Sovereignty Movement in Galway wish to express our complete opposition to the proposed cuts to third-level funding. The Free State government is proposing a doubling of the registration fee to €3,000, decreasing the student grant by 10% and increasing the threshold for qualifying for the grant by 10% in the upcoming budget. This is simply unacceptable.

The vast majority of students who receive the grant depend on it to pay for food, rent, books etc. and would be unable to attend college without it. The raising of the registration fee is also completely unacceptable. Students, as well as many other ordinary people, are being forced to carry the can for an economic crisis that they played no part in causing.

It is estimated that there are between 70,000-100,000 graduates aged between 20-25 on the dole, a far higher proportion than in any other demographic. It is time that we tell the rich that we will no longer accept this, and that our basic rights should not be taken away because of their greed.

GALWAY POW PROTEST PHOTOS






GALWAY POW PROTEST PHOTOS (CONTINUED)