The Anti-Partition CampaignCall for A Vote No to the Referendums on Articles 2 and 3
An echo from the past... In 1914 James Connolly said that Home Rule MP's John Redmond and Joe Devlin (the 1914 equivalents of Bertie Ahern and John Hume), by supporting partition had plumbed "the depths of betrayal". Writing in "The Irish Worker" of March 14 he said "It is the trusted leaders of Ireland that in secret conclave with the enemies of Ireland have agreed to see Ireland as a nation disrupted politically had her children divided under separate political governments ...Such a scheme as that agreed by Redmond and Devlin - the betrayal of the national democracy of industrial Ulster - would mean a carnival of reaction both north and south, would set back the wheels of progress, would destroy the oncoming unity of the Irish Labour Movement and paralyse all advanced movements while it endured. To it Labour should give the bitterest opposition, against it Labour in Ulster should fight even to the death if necessary". Connolly wrote later : "Let your motto be that of James Fintan Lawlor. The motto which the working class Irish Citizen Army has adopted as its aim and object, viz. : "That the entire ownership of Ireland (all Ireland) - moral and material - is vested of right in the entire people of Ireland". And adopting this as your motto let it be heard and understood that labour in Ireland stands for the unity of Ireland - an Ireland united in the name of progress, and who shall separate us?"
Vote No to the Partition of Ireland - Keep 2 and 3; only 32 Will Do! We ask you to read the short platform below. We invite everyone who agrees with our broad thrust to join us in a campaign designed to get out the biggest possible No Vote on May 22. We are very willing to discuss the text with all people who agree with our decision to campaign against the government's amendment. We meet on Thursday April 30 at 8.00pm in The Teachers' Club, 36 Parnell Square Dublin The 1998 Good Friday Agreement endorsed by Tony Blair, David Trimble, Bertie Ahern, John Bruton Proinsias de Rossa and others ask us to amend Articles 2 and 3 of the 1937 Constitution. These changes should be opposed. The changes proposed incorporate the Unionist Veto. That is what the "consent of a majority in both jurisdictions in the island" means. It justifies sectarian discrimination in an unreformable orange state. It is an open invitation to Irish people on the southern side of the border to again abandon the victims of partition. If passed, the new Articles will give a new license to politicians who want us to surrender to Unionist sectarianism. Politicians like Proinsias de Rossa, who want the residents of the Garvaghy Road in Portadown to surrender to Orange marchers like Billy Wright Ian Paisley and David Trimble, will have a field day. Unfortunately, to date, the Articles have made little practical difference - we know of no legislation declared unconstitutional because of these Articles. But, and it is a very big but, they have allowed people living in the 26 Counties to point out the blatant contradiction between the words in these Articles and the day to day pro Unionist policies of successive Dublin Governments. All Irish governments since 1937 have done little to end partition. In practice, they co-operated with the British government to preserve the border. They abandoned the northern nationalist minority, imprisoned in an undemocratic sectarian orange state. Already in the 1960's, when everything seemed quiet, the Dublin establishment put out feelers to get rid of these constitutional provisions - they realised the wording contradicted the day to day practice of maintaining two states on the island. The 1967 all party Dail Committee proposed a wording very like the one now offered to us. Proinsias de Rossa, speaking in the Dail in December 1990, commended the 1967 wording for "doing away with all the self-deception about "re-integration of the national territory" and the right of the Dail to exercise jurisdiction over Northern Ireland". The mass civil rights struggle begun in 1968 suddenly put the border back on the agenda. The Dublin rulers realised they would have to postpone plans to amend of Articles 2 and 3. Instead of helping the nationalist minority they set about suppressing the revolt, with the encouragement of the British Government. The 1970's witnessed censorship police brutality (the Heavy Gang) and callous disregard for nationalist victims of British violence - most notably the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four. Have we learned nothing since 1920, never mind 1968?
The Anti-Partition Campaign Co Deirdre O'Shea |